NOVEL NEXT Chapter 223: Kill them all
He scanned the battlefield and found a candidate, a recently slain high-tier dragon, still steaming from its fall. Damien thrust his hand outward, yanked the soul from its body, and dragged it screaming through the death-field.
"You'll do," Damien growled.
He forced the struggling spirit into the ancient dragon's brittle shell and began the incantation, but the air changed instantly.
It turned thick. Sacred. Unforgiving.
The battlefield around him faded. The roars, the screams, even the heat of war drifted into silence. In its place rose an overwhelming presence, as though the very world resisted what Damien was trying to do.
Two souls, one brittle, one freshly slain, collided in a vessel that neither belonged to. And Damien was the only thing holding them together.
The glyph pulsed once.
Then it screamed.
His fingers trembled as he traced the last lines of the rune. This was no longer a clean spell. This was a spiritual surgery, or if one was to be technical about it, spiritual butchery, a violent binding of will and memory.
The dead soul thrashed.
"Blasphemy! Blasphemy!" It howled and shrieked.
In life, it had been a glorious Red Dragon General.
But now, Damien had decreed that its soul was to become… Soul Food.
"Give me my deserved rest into death! Release me at once, you demon!" It howled with great anguish.
It fought him with everything it had, roaring across the soul tether in rage and confusion. Damien grit his teeth, jaw clenched so tight his neck strained. Blood trickled from his nose, the price of tethering two unwilling essences.
The ancient dragon's own remnant soul pulsed weakly, more a memory than a will, but it responded. It flared in recognition as the Soulbrand etched itself onto both spirits.
Damien's body shook violently as he imposed his will upon the glyph he had created.
It ignited, this time not with fire or death, but with something older.
A symbol of binding, woven from oath, will, and entropy.
Soulbrand.
The sigil surged downward, fusing into the ancient dragon's core like a molten seal. Damien screamed as the recoil hit him. His death core pulsed wildly, mana channels flaring with sudden backlash.
A thousand visions flooded his mind, the branded dragon's final memories, its regrets, its fury, its pain. Its desire for vengeance.
He saw the last sight of a mate devoured.
The betrayal of comrades.
The fall.
And then he saw the ancient one's final dream, to fly one last time, even in ruin.
Their pain merged.
In a blinding surge of blasphemous light, the two souls merged as well.
Not perfectly, but a merger none the less.
The ancient dragon's soul had taken the lead as per his will, and was barely under his control.
At the same time, he could also see the fused soul already starting to fray.
Soulbrand would only hold for five minutes before the branded soul ripped itself apart inside the ancient shell, collapsing in a rending, agonizing death that would shatter the reanimated body.
Five minutes. That's all they had.
Damien lifted his hand, commanding with absolute authority, "Temporal Revive!"
Instantly, the battlefield quaked.
Every fallen warrior Damien had marked surged upright, their bodies reconstructing themselves mid-air, wounds sealing shut, eyes blazing with spectral fury. Warriors, mages, beastmen, each revived in their peak forms, surged forth like an unstoppable torrent.
But the true horror rose at the center.
The branded soul fused into the ancient one like fire bonding with steel.
With a soul-chilling roar, the colossal ancient dragon corpse shuddered, reassembled itself piece by piece, bones snapping audibly into place. Ghostly flesh flowed over bone, rippling with powerful muscles and scales. Massive wings, translucent with all sorts of energy combined together, spread wide.
Its eyes ignited, two pools of chilling azure fire, focused solely on Damien, resentfully awaiting his command.
With cold finality, Damien pointed at the raging dragons in the distance, his voice echoing across the battlefield like judgment incarnate. "Destroy them all."
The revived army surged forth like a tidal wave of vengeance and fury. The ancient dragon turned its fearsome skyward, roaring its unholy challenge.
Suddenly, the dragon battle transformed into utter pandemonium. The revived warriors hit the warring dragon clans like a spear thrust deep into their flanks, sowing confusion and panic.
Dragons roared in shock and anger as undead warriors scaled their massive forms, plunging spectral blades and weapons deep into their scales.
Damien swallowed hard, his voice hoarse but resolute. "Fly now, beast of ruin. Your vengeance is mine to give."
The dragon took to the sky, wreathed in ancient fire and borrowed wrath.
The ancient dragon, radiating overwhelming death energy, descended upon its former kin like a force of annihilation.
With every swipe of its immense claws, massive dragons fell screaming from the sky. Its breath weapon, now transformed into corrosive death flames, melted scales and bones into horrific puddles of searing sludge.
"Impossible!" shrieked a crimson dragon desperately dodging the ancient corpse's assault. "Someone resurrected an Ancient One! Flee!"
"A Necromancer is here?! How could it be! All of the Sovereign of Death's Apostles were killed!"
"It must be a rogue Necromancer!"
"Rogue Necromancer or not, he is strong enough to revive and Ancient Dragon! Flee you fool!"
But escape wasn't possible; Damien's vengeance allowed no room for mercy.
From a distance, Damien watched grimly. Blackie and Rage Monkey stood beside him, quiet, tense, witnessing the sheer carnage unleashed by their master's wrath. The dragons, once proud and seemingly invincible, fell into utter chaos, their arrogance reduced to panicked desperation.
Damien's eyes lingered momentarily on Li Qingshan, still holding his fallen love, mourning silently even amid chaos. A painful pang resonated deeply within Damien's chest, reinforcing the purpose fueling his brutal judgment.
"Kill them all." Damien whispered, voice firm yet heavy. "This world will soon know… betraying humanity carries a price too steep to pay."
Behind him, the devastating roars of the undead army echoed in confirmation, drowning the pitiful cries of dragons as justice was exacted, cold and merciless.