Chapter 1015 - 238: Long Dou (Continued)

Chapter 1015: Chapter 238: Long Dou (Continued)

The scorching dragon blood poured down Mazdak’s throat, like a red-hot iron brand plunging directly into his stomach, followed by the agony of countless needles simultaneously piercing his veins.

Even under such excruciating pain, Mazdak’s consciousness remained clear. His powerful spiritual power guided the potion’s strength, like sweet rain revitalizing cracked earth, rejuvenating his broken, withered body with boundless vitality.

Apart from his deep study of theology, Mazdak’s research on the caster level focused on "dominating the mighty power of demons with human nature."

Through studying ancient texts, Mazdak discovered that, in reality, the strength of many medium dragon species was not much inferior to that of higher ones; what they lacked was wisdom. Wise beings’ utilization of energy and the strength they could wield in battle far surpassed those of beasts relying solely on instinct.

Almost no caster could hunt a higher dragon species.

Thus, the concept of using a human soul to dominate the mighty power of a demon dragon was born.

This wasn’t exactly a rare topic; transformation techniques, dragon descendants, fusion monsters... all these were similar attempts.

But Mazdak, along with the faction of Fire Worship casters he represented, had undoubtedly ventured far down this path.

His facial muscles rapidly stretched, his entire body like it was being torn and ravaged by the invisible hand of a creator.

He stumbled and fell to his knees, his knuckles visibly thickening by the eye, retractable half-foot arc blades extending from his fingertips, gouging deep indentations into the ground. The flying demons in the sky seemed to go mad, throwing themselves towards the black dragon spewing dragon flame without any regard for cost.

Crack-crack—

Mazdak could hear the rapid proliferation of his bones and muscles, as if countless insects were gnawing at his flesh.

On his scapula, two massive tumors bulged, the skin stretched transparent and shiny, with faintly visible coiled blood vessels inside.

"Holy fire..."

"Eternal burn."

He wanted to chant the scripture he had recited countless times, but it only turned into a helpless low howl.

At this moment, even his oral cavity had completely metamorphosed, becoming a monster full of sinister fangs.

He could feel his own rationality quickly waning; with time, he would soon become a conglomerate possessing the strength of dozens of medium and low dragon species, an indiscriminate demon of destruction.

Clearly not the result he desired, he opened his hand, and a blank sheet of paper slowly emerged.

Using the last of his rationality, he wrote down everything he needed to do. As the paper spontaneously combusted, the savagery and chaos in his eyes grew more intense, yet a last strand of clarity remained, unwavering.

Crack—

As a segment of blood-streaked white bone extended from the base of his spine, the tumors on his scapula burst open with a bang, from which a folded-together massive dragon wing emerged, the previously gaunt old man swelling in size multiple times over as if inflated.

The surrounding guards exclaimed in disbelief, "Master Mazdak has turned into a demon dragon!"

Among them, a captain of the guard seemed to have long anticipated this outcome and silently performed the rite of the order: "This is Master Mazdak’s final will. Since the Franks use demon dragons to wreak havoc, we Sassan must have our own demon dragon!"

"Send a message to General Ali, tell our soldiers that our demon dragon will defeat and devour the enemy’s demon dragon; victory ultimately belongs to every devout believer."

Roar—

A maw like a bloody gullet rose from below, swallowing the swiftly flying white dragon Viserion in one gulp. The demon dragon transformed by Mazdak now measured over a hundred meters large.

It chewed on this white dragon’s body, fangs, its mouth spilling a large amount of dark ink.

Realizing something was off with the taste in its mouth, it violently shook its head, spitting out the white dragon that had become a mass of ink. In its enormous dragon eyes, a furious blaze burned.

Drogon’s claws tore through the air, splattering searing iron shards, while the semi-liquid dragon flame from its mouth poured like a waterfall over the artificial demon dragon’s back, engulfing Mazdak’s hundred-meter-long massive form.

In the distance, Losa, watching this scene, displayed a look of astonishment.

Like a mayfly, born in the morning and dead by night, life but a mere day; in its perception, a day—or rather, its lifetime—was indeed just a day’s length.

Similarly, no matter how much a human soul tried, it was difficult to fathom the mysteries inside a giant dragon, let alone control it.

Even he had once been troubled by spirit contamination from dragon blood, yet this Fire Worship monk actually managed to take this step, maintaining his final rationality without transforming into an indiscriminate beast of madness, was indeed some feat.

Boom—

Mazdak pierced through the dragon flame, incredibly withstanding Drogon’s dragon flame of ancient dragon-level might, lunging fiercely at the black dragon above.

Observing its scale armor closely, it appeared unscathed from start to finish, bathing in dragon flame like warm water.

Excluding sea dragons dwelling in the deep sea and existing seemingly on a parallel line to the human world, the largest dragon species undoubtedly were the fire dragons, with almost ninety percent of all giant dragons spewing dragon breath as dragon flame.

The only difference was perhaps like Ladon, where the dragon flame mixed with curses, highly poisonous, or other attribute energies.

Thus, this "assembled dragon" forged from nearly a hundred demon dragon blood undeniably possessed near fire-immunity-grade resistant skin, a weapon born specifically for battling giant dragons. Even if Ladon descended, facing this monstrosity would cause major headaches.

Crack—

Mazdak’s sharp claws pierced through Drogon’s chest, hurling this relatively hen-sized black dragon harshly to the ground.

Then opened its maw that could even swallow a demon dragon, dragon flame brewing at its throat.

Regal pounced from the side, attempting to intervene, but was effortlessly swatted away, soon being swarmed by several flying demons, biting onto its body, dragging it down to the ground in a mutual perish.

Boom—

Dragon flame, equally intense as Drogon’s, descended from the sky, like a punishing heavenly pillar striking this black dragon, enwrapping Regal carried down by the flying demons. Their flame-resistant scales, albeit robust, eventually melted into ink within the fearsome dragon flame’s assault after only a brief moment.

When the dragon flame subsided, what remained of Drogon’s fallen place was only a vast crater.

In just a short while, the three once-rampant demon dragons met their end.

Only Mazdak and one dragon were left, and he let out a resounding dragon roar toward the sky.

Upon receiving the message from Mazdak’s Captain of the Guard that there was "no need to worry about the enemy’s Demon Dragon," Ali no longer had the time to observe the extraordinary battle overhead, as he was horrified to find his side’s front line being penetrated!

These Franks were simply like a group of tireless monsters, they upheld only one creed from start to finish, charge, charge, and charge again!

The reserve troops initially assigned to the rear had been re-deployed by Ali.

But the speed at which the situation deteriorated far exceeded Ali’s expectations; he was not ignorant of military affairs. The Sassan books of warfare had a military strategy inheritance even more perfect than their old rival, the Eastern Empire.

Yet even if he scoured the military books, he couldn’t find a cavalry unit with such terrifying impact.

So, at this critical moment, he could only choose to stake everything, leading with his war elephant as the spearhead, he took all his personal guards onto the battlefield, trying to turn the tide and delay until the reserves returned.

Upon engaging, Ali finally understood the reason for their continued disadvantage despite their numbers; any random Frankish cavalry soldier pulled out had strength in no way inferior to his own, enhanced by magic potion.

After a bout of fighting, more and more of his personal guards fell, even the war elephant beneath him was killed on the spot by a golden javelin from the enemy.

"We’ve lost, we are about to lose, quickly, protect me as we retreat!"

Ali shouted desperately to order withdrawal.

His personal guards suddenly shouted: "General, we haven’t lost, we still have a chance, look up!"

The Demon Dragon, spreading wings like those descending from the heavens, had by now flown over the heads of both sides engaged in battle, surrounded by a group of flying demons, resembling a Dragon King invincible on earth.

"A Demon Dragon?"

"Yes, it’s our Demon Dragon, our Demon Dragon won in the dragon struggle!"

Ali repeated in disbelief: "Our Demon Dragon? Oh, yes, it’s Mazdak master’s Demon Dragon!"

His face lit up with excitement like a last ray of light: "Hahaha, now it’s our turn to have a Demon Dragon, quick, order that Demon Dragon to immediately burn those Franks to ashes!"

His personal guards said helplessly: "General, how could we order a Demon Dragon, it must be under Mazdak master’s control."

Ali was stunned for a moment: "Why hasn’t the Demon Dragon attacked yet?"

"Probably because our men are intertwined with the enemy."

Ali without hesitation: "Foolish! If the enemy keeps following us, does this mean the Demon Dragon can never attack? Pick up your shields and protect me as I return to the elephant’s corpse!"

He ran toward the corpse of the dead war elephant and climbed on top of its head, shouting with raised arms.

"Burn them, enemy or ally, burn them all!"

As Ali shouted upwards, he suddenly saw a golden streak of light flash by.

Right then, the Demon Dragon above them let out a mournful roar.

He vaguely saw two dazzling sword auras flash by, and then the enormous head of the Demon Dragon fell with a crash, and tons of dragon blood splattered the sky like sparks from ironwork.

On the city wall, Losa waved to catch the returning Emperor’s New Spear.

In the distance, Cherina descended from the sky and slowly sheathed her double blades.

The enormous dragon corpse fell to the ground, the location being behind the main formation of the Sassan infantry, causing the militia summoned from various places to scatter madly, trampling each other to death in countless numbers.

Ali, standing atop the war elephant’s carcass, looked on at this scene with a petrified expression, as if struck by a Petrification Spell.

Arrow rain from afar crashed onto the shield walls held up by his personal guards, yet he stood frozen in place, as if his soul was lost.

"General, we can’t hold on much longer!"

After a long time, Ali returned as if he had survived drowning, gasping heavily.

A strange smile appeared on his face: "Ha."

"Haha."

"So Mustafa the villain was right."

"From the beginning, we never had a chance of winning."

"No, no that’s not right, Mustafa is not a villain, I am!"

One after another, his personal guards were falling.

The arrow power of the Frankish armored archers was terrifyingly strong, often driving arrows most of the way through the shields, as if they were using longbows taller than a human.

Someone shouted in grief and indignation: "General, if we don’t run now, there won’t be another chance."

Ali chuckled bitterly: "Is there any point in fleeing?"

He looked around, watching the fleeing Sassan soldiers, and slowly placed his sword at his neck: "Surrender, I permit you to lay down your weapons! Sassan is doomed; teaming up with the Franks is better than mixing with the Tatars."

Then, without hesitation, he drew the blade down.

With Ali’s death, the leaderless Sassan army began to flee en masse, trampling each other to death in numbers exceeding those killed by the Frankish cavalry.

In this battle, the Sassan main force was completely annihilated.

The road for the Overseas Empire to advance to Tarsus was now unobstructed.