Chapter 1284 Battle Against Skeleton Dragon
As the tall, imposing wall stood in front of him, he tried to make sense of what was going on. This wall was, without a doubt, created using the powers of the breaker. It nullified any attacks, mana, and maybe even humans from entering. Arthur never thought he would face something like this in Sourna.
"Is this about the Netherborne Clan?" muttered Arthur in confusion, ready to barge right through. At that moment, a rune of his activated again, but this time from Hikma. It was Diana seeking to contact him.
A wave of his hand opened a communication channel between the two. Diana had remained in Hikma to monitor the situation with the sand thieves, just in case they got themselves killed. That was the reason they had split up before he went to Levan Island.
"Did something happen, Diana?" asked Arthur with worry. The sand thieves might be a bit hotheaded, but they were not bad people. He didn't wish for them to be killed just yet. At least, he needed to understand the basic structure of this place, and who controlled what.
"Nothing of note yet," she assured him, but her voice was worried. "I saw a flash of black lightning passing Hikma. I could also feel your troubled heart. Is something wrong?"
"Rain activated the rune I used on her, and she is in the Uncharted Lands," answered Arthur truthfully, but he didn't wish for Diana to be worried. "I'm standing in front of what seems to be a wall of wrath. This might be the residence of the Netherborne Family."
"Are you going to face them? Can you wait until I get there?" she asked without hesitation, making Arthur imagine her already flying his way.
Arthur chuckled first, then told her not to come. "I can handle it. Just keep an eye on Hikma and the sand thieves. They should make their move now before the army marches back."
"…I don't really care about this city," she admitted, which made Arthur laugh even harder. Diana was brutally honest about that, for sure. "Whatever happens is none of our concern."
"Just keep the promise for me. I don't want to break my word just because I'm in the Uncharted Lands," he asked her, to which she reluctantly agreed. But she also asked that he summon her if something happens with the Netherborne Clan, like them pissing him off, to which Arthur laughed again.
After their communication channel closed, Arthur focused once more on saving Rain. It had already been over an hour since she sent the request. He couldn't delay any longer as he raised his hand to strike the wall with his black lightning. Before he could do that, he was surprised to see that the wrath in the wall was responding to his wrath.
"Can it be that this wrath is the same as mine?" Arthur was confused as he decided to test it out. His wrath was best controlled using the weapon of Ragnar, Nightmare. The moment it appeared in the wall, Nightmare screamed and made the wall ripple.
Arthur stood in the sky with a smile on his face. He raised his dagger high, letting it howl toward the universe before bringing it down to slash the wall apart. A giant arch of black exploded from his blade as it traveled through the desert and slammed into the wall.
There was no explosion of mana being devoured or his wrath breaking elements. His slash merely carried the intent for the wall to split open, and it did. Arthur smiled as he flew through the gap that had appeared, marveling at the giant thickness of this barrier.
As he reached the other side, the barrier was already healing. Arthur passed through before it closed on him, making him realize that it had the intent of someone else imbued into it. But for some reason, Arthur's intent was capable of overriding that.
"Let's forget about the weird barrier for a bit and focus on this… mountain of fog?" muttered Arthur in confusion as he looked around. "Just a single mountain surrounded by fog? Is this where the Netherborne Family lives?"
After he looked around and tried to find which direction the summoning came from, he found that it was impossible. Mainly because he had a general sense of direction before entering the barrier, but now it was gone. Not even Arthur could feel beyond the wrath surrounding this place.
"In that case, the destination is preset." Arthur turned toward the black mountain, which had some white cliffs. As he flew just a little closer, those white cliffs suddenly began to move, prompting him to stop. Arthur then watched as a creature unwrapped itself from the mountain like a rope, rising above it and glaring at him.
A skeleton dragon.
A huge one.
This dragon was at least as big as the mountain itself when it stood atop it. From what Arthur could see, the skeleton dragon was very much alive with eerie flames in its eye sockets, which glared at Arthur.
"I doubt you are a doorman," muttered Arthur with a sigh, and the dragon's roar came moments later to shake the entire mountain range. The fog rose higher as the roar seemed to upturn it. Facing Arthur, the dragon did not give time for introductions as it fired a blast of black flames.
"This settles it," muttered Arthur with a sigh. "This place is indeed the home of the Netherborne Family. And this dragon must be their gatekeeper."
Arthur was not fazed by the black flames that covered the sky before him. Although they rushed at him with great zeal to destroy everything in their path, they were bound to be disappointed as he raised his hand. The moment that he realized the wrath in this place, he became at ease.
The black flames rushed toward him before strangely gathering in front of his hand. Arthur had commanded the wrath in them to listen to him and beat it into submission using no more than his intent to do so, as the king of wrath. However, he was indeed a little pissed now at the dragon.
"Do you not recognize your king?" he asked, his scarred eyes glowing golden while black lightning flashed from his body. "You might be the pet, but even a feral animal knows when it meets a predator."
As his deep voice echoed through the fog, the flames were conjured before him no matter how much the dragon spewed. They condensed, gathered, and became the size of a basketball in front of Arthur, who glared at the dragon.
"You can have it back." Arthur muttered as he directed the flames back toward the mountain. They exploded into a torrent of flames that swallowed everything in their path. The dragon was confused why this human could wield its own flames, but had no answer.
Although the dragon was swallowed by the flames, the same could not be said for the mountain. Arthur noticed a barrier blocking the flames of wrath from entering the mountain or harming the fortress beneath the dragon. As for the dragon, it shrieked as the flames did little damage to it.
"You are immune too, huh?" asked Arthur with a smirk. "How about this?"
Golden mana erupted from Arthur's body, becoming the sole light atop the valley. The sun was hidden by the dark clouds in the sky, letting Arthur take its place as the source of light. As he raised his hand, he turned the golden mana into a spear.
"I know what works the best against wrath," said Arthur with a smirk as he grabbed the spear and retracted his arm. "Let's see how you fare."
Arthur launched the spear at the monster, watching it turn into a flash of light followed by a sonic boom that reverberated through the mountain. The dragon roared as the golden mana rushed at it, also seeking to spew more flames to disable it. However, the mana was pure and unforgiving, tearing through the flames before slamming into the dragon's jaw.
After another howl, the dragon fell to the ground, crashing into the mountain it had once resided atop. Arthur stood there feeling the earthquake that followed his attack. After a sigh, he looked around once more.
"I doubt that I just made it easier for myself to find Rain."
The fog mountain was immense, spanning hundreds of kilometers. If he lost himself in the fog, he doubted he would ever leave. However, he already had a destination in mind: the black mountain in the distance.
Arthur flew forward as he watched the dragon trying to rise again, but failing. It wasn't weird for his golden mana to be so destructive against a creature of wrath for one simple reason: the purest mana required the purest wrath. Arthur was the only one he had ever met that had both of those things, letting him be the bane of gods and wrath at the same time.
The black mountain had a trail leading toward the fortress at the summit. Instead of breaking through the barrier that surrounded the fortress, which Arthur doubted would be as easy as the wall since it withstood the black flames, he decided to do this the civilized way.