Chapter 839: Awakening of the True Dragon

Chapter 839: Chapter 839: Awakening of the True Dragon

The three emperors unleashed their domains simultaneously, painting the sky with a storm of mana. Garrick raised his solar blade, summoning a pillar of fire that descended from the clouds, while his Golden Eagle beat its wings to launch light lances. Beside him, Kellan spread his arms, and a wave of spectral miasma erupted from the three-headed Black Crow, corrupting the earth. Finally, Theron sliced through the air with jade fans, sending wind cyclones while his Green Crane let out screeches that fractured space itself.

The three combined strikes, backed by the Guardian Beasts, slammed onto the center of the crater in an impact capable of pulverizing provinces.

At the core of the detonation, a golden light began to expand with suffocating pressure.

Aurelius inhaled deeply. The air around him vibrated with an ancestral frequency as his body underwent a transformation. Gleaming golden scales covered his skin in a hybrid form. His eyes morphed into pupils of liquid gold, and from his back, the spectral silhouette of a Nine-Clawed Imperial Dragon surged toward the heavens, roaring with authority that shook the laws of the universe.

The enemy strikes and cyclones shattered to pieces upon colliding with the golden aura surrounding the Emperor.

Feeling that power fluctuation, the three Guardian Beasts recoiled by instinct, letting out uneasy screeches. The faces of Garrick, Kellan, and Theron turned pale.

"Impossible...", stammered Garrick, tightening his grip on his mount’s reins. "It seems you have transcended beyond... You have touched the ultimate threshold."

"However...", chimed in Kellan, his voice trembling as he watched the clouds above the pass begin to swirl, drawn by the mana anomaly. "How long can you maintain that form without the Dao subjecting you and destroying you for violating the laws of this world?"

The sky above the Pass of the Four Empires darkened, filling with tribulation clouds heavy with celestial lightning.

Aurelius raised his gaze toward his enemies, his eyes burning with golden flames as his voice echoed like the rumbling of the earth.

"Enough to make you feel miserable," said Emperor Aurelius.

Aurelius did not waste a moment. Fully aware that the tribulation clouds above his head were thickening, the Golden Dragon Emperor propelled himself forward in a blur of golden light. Space shattered in his wake.

Before Garrick could react, Aurelius materialized before him. His dragon claw thrust through the Golden Eagle’s chest, tearing out its divine heart in a swift motion as the Guardian Beast disintegrated in a screech. Without pausing, Aurelius spun on his axis and delivered a kick infused with ancestral energy that slammed squarely into Garrick and Kellan’s torsos, sending them crashing against the rocks with a force that shattered their imperial armor and broke half their bones.

Theron attempted to retreat atop the Green Crane, but Aurelius reappeared above him. With a sweep of his claws, he severed the bird’s wings and unleashed a mana pulse that pierced straight through Theron’s abdomen, leaving him near death upon the earth.

In a matter of seconds, the three Guardian Beasts had been slaughtered, and the three emperors lay wounded, coughing up blood across the crater.

Yet, despite being on the verge of death, Garrick began to laugh between violent coughs. Kellan and Theron joined in his laughter, staring up at the firmament with delight.

A crushing pressure descended from the sky. An unfathomable aura covered the valley as the cloud layer parted, revealing dragons made of celestial lightning and purifying flame. The maws and eyes of those divine punishment creatures locked directly onto Aurelius, ready to erase his existence from the realm for defying the laws of the world.

"We won...", wheezed Garrick through gritted teeth, his face soaked in blood. "The Dao’s judgment is upon you... there is no way you survive this..."

Aurelius slowly deactivated his hybrid form, allowing the golden scales to recede into his skin as he gazed up at the lightning dragons with calm.

"It seems time is up," whispered Aurelius XI. "You got lucky..."

The three emperors cut their laughter short, baffled by the absence of panic on their enemy’s face. Heaven’s judgment was raining down upon him, and no mortal could escape divine retribution... or could he?

Thousands of kilometers away, Ethan’s fleet emerged from the cloud layer, reaching its crucial strategic objective.

Ethan stood near the viewing window on the flagship’s bridge, gazing at the horizon with a calculating expression. As the veil of mist parted, the scene unfolding before his eyes left several surrounding officers speechless.

It was an imposing sight, far more majestic than tactical reports and holographic projections had suggested.

The terrain was dominated by two mountains that seemed to brush the stars, their black stone faces rising like insurmountable walls. Built directly inside the mountain roots, two military-alloy fortresses gleamed with a cold sheen, packed with thousands of heavy artillery turrets and magical defense nests. Bridging both strongholds above the Pass of the Two Gorges, a massive translucent dome of runic energy ascended into the heavens, rising like an immortal guardian shielding the sole pathway into the heart of the Divine Wind Empire.

"Magnificent...", whispered Vaelen, stepping forward with his hand resting on his sword hilt as he marveled at the defense network. "General Vane has spared no expense. That dome’s defensive array is directly linked to the mana veins of both mountains."

Ethan contemplated the dome and the twin strongholds carved into the rock face with a subtle smirk, feeling the Black Chaos Sword at his waist and the Orb of Death against his chest resonate with excitement for the battle ahead.

"It is a beautiful sight," Ethan said. "Pity that all of this is about to become our next stronghold."

Vaelen took a step forward, adjusting the straps of his armor while keeping his eyes fixed on the translucent dome.

"Sir, do you think they’ve already figured out something is wrong?" asked Vaelen with concern.

"They haven’t been able to send distress signals thanks to the jammer we set at the last base, so I hope not," replied Ethan, maintaining his composure as he observed the barrier’s mana flow patterns. "But we can’t be careless. Have everyone prepare for immediate deployment."

[Master, something is not right], warned Crul directly within his consciousness. [They have opened one of the left mountain’s hangars, but the process stopped in the middle. The energy signature inside suggests bait. If it is a trap, the crossfire intensity inside the canyon is so high that we will not survive if we charge in blindly.]

Ethan narrowed his eyes as the Black Chaos Sword began to emit a purplish glow, readied for the ambush.

"So Vane wants to play mind games...", whispered Ethan, a cold, ruthless smirk carving across his face. "Tell the frontline battleships to hold position. If he opened that door for us... then we will be the ones to tear his mountain down from the inside."