Chapter 580: [A Society of Secrets] [27] [Four Seasons]

Himmel pushed himself away from El and floated slightly in the air.

His gaze shifted back to the woman who resembled both Nymeria and Christina.

The Goddess didn’t try to reason with him this time. She just slowly turned around and took herself out of the battlefield.

As Himmel felt his broken body regenerate, his gaze shifted back to Morningstar, who was grinning like a wild animal.

One of Himmel’s broken thumbs remained lodged inside the dragon’s ruined eye, even as the flesh continued regenerating around it.

The unrestrained anger once again took over Himmel, the wish to shred him apart stronger than ever.

But before he could move, Ismael spoke in a deep voice like an elder teaching a junior.

"Don’t let your anger decide your way of fighting." He let his words linger. "Anger will only lead you to death and nothing more."

Himmel drew in a deep breath and slowly nodded his head, suppressing every irrational thought in his mind.

But the desire to kill the dragon hadn’t vanished in the slightest.

"Ah. There you are." Morningstar spoke in delight. "The calm and collected beast with brains."

Ismael didn’t let Himmel react to his words. His voice echoed once again.

"You do not fight absolute power with lesser power." He gestured for him to heal. "You fight them with reason and logic that they don’t possess."

Morningstar’s smile diminished somewhat as those were the exact words Azreal used to say.

"You haven’t walked out of his shadow." He growled, taking his battle stance. "A lesser is always a lesser."

Ismael didn’t respond. All he did was open his eyes, which were an ethereal purple.

His body shifted forward as four wings appeared behind him that resembled the four seasons.

One was spring, a beautiful green; one was summer, red with fire; one was autumn, golden and pale; and one was winter, cold and endless.

"I will show you how one truly fights using time; ever-present and ever-growing."

Morningstar’s face morphed into hatred when he saw this. His body began to deform and grow.

"NEVER USE HIS ABILITIES, YOU WORM!!"

The hatred in his voice was so overwhelming that the clouds themselves split apart.

The sight of those four wings, each embodying a different season, had awakened memories buried deep within him.

Memories of defeat and humiliation; memories he had spent an eternity trying to erase.

The earth beneath him shattered into countless fragments.

His enormous body blurred before exploding toward Ismael with enough force to tear open space itself.

He intended to erase him before another word could be spoken.

However, in the eyes of Ismael, the towering monster looked no better than a child throwing a tantrum.

In the presence of absolute power, all four of his wings expanded until they covered half the sky.

Then, without even looking away from Morningstar, he spoke.

"Himmel." His voice remained gentle as he pushed the young man away. "Watch carefully."

The First Dragon’s fist descended like a meteor chasing the moon with enough force to reduce an ordinary Eternal to dust.

The wing that reflected summer expanded and covered them in a translucent red sphere.

Summer is time at its brightest, a season that reminds that every peak is temporary, and it is precisely that impermanence that makes the present worth cherishing.

The flow of time inside the sphere reflected it. Morningstar’s strength reached its absolute peak.

And because it had reached its peak... it could only decline.

The blazing fist that had been capable of shattering continents suddenly began slowing.

By the time it reached Ismael, it had lost all its brilliance and strength.

"Huh?"

Struck with the same move after thousands of years, Morningstar froze in place.

At the same time, the color of the translucent sphere changed to the eternal white of cold.

The flow of time reflected that. Morningstar lost his strength. He lost his sense of sight. The winter made him alone and isolated.

Morningstar instinctively swung his other arm.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!

The punch tore through the frozen air with enough force to split the horizon itself.

Yet it struck nothing. Within the endless white, direction had lost all meaning.

His body exploded with crimson aura as he tried to force his way out through sheer strength.

CRAAAAAAASH!!!

The frozen world trembled violently.

Countless cracks spread across the endless white, yet every crack froze over again before it could widen.

Far outside the sphere, Himmel watched everything without blinking. He could no longer sense Morningstar’s overwhelming presence.

It was as though the First Dragon had vanished from existence. Only Ismael remained standing calmly with his four wings spread behind him.

The winter wing slowly folded, and at the same moment, the golden wing of autumn unfurled.

Countless golden leaves drifted across the battlefield.

Each leaf carried the passage of time with it and represented something that had reached its end.

When those leaves touched the First Dragon, his body began to age as though it had always been old.

Countless leaves touched his body, and countless times he became older and older.

His endless stamina, strength, power; everything was being eaten away by the passage of time.

But the First Dragon had already been inflicted with these conditions before.

Even though Azreal spared his life back then, it didn’t stop him from finding a way to overpower the seasons of time.

"AHHHGGHHHH!!"

With a deep, beastly roar, he changed back into his dragon form.

Ismael tried to change the season back to winter, but it was already too late.

The endless expansion of his body touched the translucent sphere, and immediately cracks began to appear all over it.

CRAAAAAAACK!!!

The translucent sphere shattered like fragile glass.

Countless fragments of red, white, and gold scattered across the heavens before dissolving into particles of light.

The instant the barrier collapsed, a pressure unlike anything before descended upon the world.

The First Dragon no longer resembled a living creature.

His body had expanded until it rivaled mountains.

Black scales overlapped the purple ones like continents, each one carrying countless ancient runes that pulsed with crimson light.

Four enormous horns curved backward from his skull, while rivers of molten fire flowed through the gaps between his scales.

His body shrank down once again, but the hatred in his eyes was greater than ever.

Ismael slowly floated back and reached Himmel’s side. Even though his body looked fine, he was totally spent.

"You are a fool to think you can defeat me." Morningstar spoke in a distorted voice. "Did you forget? I am the Omnipotence."

"I did not." Ismael replied with a small smile on his face.

Just as those words escaped his mouth, the sky above them split open, and a countless starry night sky took over.

Among the countless stars was a woman with floating blonde hair and eyes that resembled crimson orbs.

Beside her was a boat-like bow that was fully drawn back. Attached to the string was an arrow known to all.

Venus Eclipse, an arrow that never missed and struck the fate of its enemy.

Morningstar’s face immediately changed when he looked up at her.

Innana waited for no one. She let go of the string, and the Venus Eclipse shot toward the First Dragon.

The moment the string slipped from her fingers, the heavens fell silent.

The arrow vanished because it had already reached the destination fate had chosen for it.

Morningstar’s instincts screamed.

His wings exploded open as every scale on his body stood upright.

Instinctively, he roared loudly. "Brother!!"

An explosion that resembled a supernova erupted where the First Dragon had stood.

Golden and crimson light expanded in every direction, swallowing mountains, rivers, forests, and clouds beneath an endless sea of radiance.

The world itself seemed to disappear, even Himmel instinctively raised his arm to shield his eyes.

The pressure forced everyone backward despite being countless kilometers away.

No one could look directly at the center of the explosion.

The light kept expanding before it stopped and then vanished.

"Shit."

Himmel heard Ismael speak by his side in a voice that was both distressed and fearful.

From the vanished explosion, Morningstar shot out like a meteor.

With a speed countless times faster than before, he reached Himmel in mere seconds.

The First Dragon was done playing around. Right now, he wanted nothing but Himmel’s death.

But before he could reach him, a sword of radiant silver shot toward him like a meteor.

It embedded itself in his arm like an arrow, changing his tragedy.

At the same time, a person with black hair came sweeping in and grabbed Himmel.

The space around them twisted before the two of them vanished.

"Ahrghh!!!"

The First Dragon roared and looked at the sword and recognized it.

The sword of the Primordial God Elohim.

As though it had a mind of its own, the sword pulled back and flew into the hands of a woman who calmly walked onto the battlefield.

Her long platinum hair flowed silently while her lifeless gray eyes stared at the dragon with a deadpan look.

"YOU BITCH!!"

Morningstar roared and reached her in an instant.

Using his hand like a chopping blade, he pushed it around her neck, dismantling her head from her body.

Esmeray’s head flew into the air like that of a lifeless doll.

But her eyes moved in a way that even unnerved the First Dragon.

She raised her hand, grabbed her rolling head, and fitted it back onto her neck while creating distance from the dragon.

At the same time, as though they were in sync, all three of those present; Ismael, Esmeray, and Innana, crossed their fingers.

"Come forth..."

All three of them spoke simultaneously.

"...My Kingdom."