Primordial Awakening: Rise of the Legendary Dragon God

By the time the blade fell—which was less than a second—its size had increased, now reaching around ten meters, so big that even a dragon could be cleaved by it.

But the instant its aura-expanded edge should have cleaved Kael in half, something went wrong.

Kael's body lost weight.

Not figuratively but actually.

Because Kael had used Weightless Grace, one of the first skills that he created.

He hadn't used it to the limit until today, as all he did was make himself light enough to avoid causing the earth to tremble with every step he took.

But today, he made it so that he would be light as a feather, which would make it impossible to be cut down.

The sword connected—not with flesh, but with a mass that no longer resisted gravity, momentum, or force in the way reality expected.

As expected, the impact did not cut.

It launched.

Kael was hurled backward like a meteor struck by a god's bat, his massive body tearing through the ruined ground. Stone detonated beneath him, dust and debris erupting in a violent plume as he skidded, rolled, and finally vanished into the smoke.

The man landed where Kael had been a heartbeat earlier, boots touching down with absolute precision.

He stared into the dust cloud—and sneered.

"Hmph. Your mistake," he said coldly. "If you thought you could avoid it."

He turned his sword slightly, aura still roaring, intent radiating like pressure on the soul itself.

"At my level," he continued, voice calm and certain, "no one below EX can block my attacks. It doesn't matter how you dodge. It doesn't matter how clever your technique is."

His eyes sharpened.

"Because my strikes carry intent. And intent cannot be blocked or dodged by those who haven't awakened it."

Well, there were ways to avoid it, as you could wear absurdly high-ranked equipment.

Or you weren't where the attack thought you were.

Still, the man didn't deem that information necessary to be delivered. After all, this was a fight, not a teaching session.

The dust, however, did not answer him.

No groan.

No movement.

No impact aftermath.

The man frowned.

"…Tch."

"Clear it," he said without turning.

The woman in the sky waved her hand lazily.

A violent gale tore through the battlefield, ripping the dust cloud apart—

But before it could whoosh all the dust away, both of their gazes snapped upward.

Because they felt it.

Unmistakable.

Kael's presence.

Unlike the SSS-rankers, he could not hide from them.

And the next second, through the clouds, a black beam ignited.

The breath attack descended like divine punishment.

A pillar of black fire tore through the sky, aimed directly at the woman.

She scoffed, shaking her head. "Seriously?"

"If I could block it while unprepared," she said calmly, lifting her hand, "why would it be any different now?"

Even the man snorted. "Predictable."

The woman dismissed her natural barrier entirely because she knew it would shatter if Kael's attack hit.

She formed a true one.

Layered. Reinforced. Dense.

A barrier forged not by instinct but by will.

The beam crashed into her.

BOOOOMMMMM!!!!

The impact shook the world.

Her entire body trembled as the force slammed into her defenses, shockwaves tearing outward, the ground below combusting as black fire washed across the land.

The pressure was immense.

Violent.

Apocalyptic.

But—

That was all.

No penetration.

No burn.

No pain.

Her eyes widened slightly.

Then she laughed.

"…That's it?" She mocked, glancing down through the flame. "That was weaker than the last one."

She looked straight at Kael's silhouette in the clouds.

"You're running out of tricks, dragon."

The man nodded his head in agreement, while the black flames crashed on the ground around him, making him pierce the sword in the ground, causing its aura to make a wall around him.

That wall stopped anything from reaching him.

But suddenly, his expression froze.

Because he realized something.

His eyes snapped wide.

"—WAIT—!"

But before his voice could even form, Kael's breath moved.

Not dispersed.

Not weakened.

It shifted.

The black beam slid sideways like a water spray being pointed away from the woman, its power increasing to the point that the woman couldn't even believe it was possible.

After all, the force at which it was coming down made it seem like Kael had burned all of his mana for a second of superpowered breath attack.

And that attack was aimed at the portal.

The woman's pupils shrank.

"…What?"

The portal—now directly next to her—flared violently as the beam closed in.

The man reacted instantly.

He took his sword out of the ground and waved it upward, its edge slicing through the air.

A crescent of dense grey energy erupted outward, screaming as it tore toward Kael's breath, intent sharpened to sever anything it touched.

But it was already too late.

The black fire struck the portal.

And the world broke.

The portal screamed.

Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface, space itself fracturing as the structure—never meant to endure direct attack—failed catastrophically.

It was transportation.

Not defense.

Not containment.

Reality tore itself apart.

The portal shattered into shards of warped space, collapsing inward before detonating into nothingness.

After all, the portal was never supposed to take an attack.

Despite being an overpowered artifact that lets you teleport anywhere from Astraea without needing to chant or cast a magic circle, it wasn't endurable.

Now, with the portal gone, silence followed.

Not the heavy silence of shockwaves.

Not the quiet ringing of the aftermath.

Just—

Stillness.

The woman stared at the empty sky where the portal had been.

The man lowered his hand slowly.

"…He aimed from the start," he said quietly.

Above them, the clouds parted.

Kael hovered there—suspended unnaturally in the sky, wings half-spread, breath uneven.

Pain etched itself openly across his features.

A deep gash split his chest from collarbone to lower scale line, blackened at the edges, the wound jagged and wrong.

Golden blood streamed freely from it, drifting downward in slow, shimmering droplets like molten starlight.

Kael clenched his jaw.

'…So that's an intent-infused aura,' he thought grimly.

He focused inward, instinctively drawing mana to the wound. Emerald light flared around the gash—healing energy surging—

—And instantly collapsed.

The green glow sputtered, then vanished entirely, as if strangled mid-birth.

Kael hissed through his teeth.

'It's blocking regeneration,' he realized. 'Not damaging—anchoring itself inside me.'

The man's last strike hadn't just cut him.

It had infected the wound with hostile mana.

Below, the two humans stared up at him.

And then—

They smiled.

Not relieved.

Not cautious.

Angry.

The woman's eyes burned as she clenched her fist. "Do you have any idea," she said coldly, "how much paperwork this will cost us?"

The man exhaled sharply, irritation radiating from him. "Minutes. That's how long it'll take to reestablish the portal." His gaze sharpened. "And guess who'll be blamed for failing to protect it."

Both of their auras surged.

The air screamed.

They looked at Kael—not as prey, not as a threat—

—But as an outlet.

"You should prepare yourself," the woman said, her voice dropping into something cruel. "Because now comes the part where we take it out on you."

The man nodded. "We can't kill you."

A thin smile curved his lips.

"But a broken dragon," he continued, "is still a dragon."

Kael, on the other hand, tried to heal the wound again because it was making it hard for him to move around, as it felt like a thousand needles were piercing his chest.

Mana surged—green light bloomed—

—And died.

The man laughed when he saw that.

A sharp, delighted sound.

"Oh, don't bother," he said mockingly. "Unless you have more maximum mana than me—or I die, which is impossible in this situation—that wound will never heal."

That was when the woman tilted her head. "And don't think that's the last wound you get today."

Before Kael could respond—

The air above him collapsed inward.

A colossal magic circle unfolded overhead, layers upon layers of runes rotating violently, pressure crashing down like an invisible ocean.

The woman snarled, her mana roaring. "Here's another one."

Kael's eyes widened.

He vanished.

Space folded.

He reappeared kilometers away—

—And immediately saw it.

A pillar of compressed wind, dense enough to distort light, screamed toward him.

Kael teleported again.

Another pillar.

Again.

Another.

Again.

Each one was already moving—already hunting.

Laughter echoed through the sky.

"Did you really think you could run?" the woman's voice rang out. "Supreme archmage spells don't need guidance."

Her tone turned proud.

"Like a high grandmaster's techniques… our spells have life."

Kael gritted his teeth.

Too fast.

Too many.

Then—

One hit.

The pillar slammed into his back with catastrophic force.

Kael's vision shattered white as his body was driven downward like a meteor.

The world rushed up.

BOOOOOOM—!!

The Earth exploded.

A massive crater bloomed outward, dust and debris blasting skyward as shockwaves rippled across the land. The ground trembled violently, and debris flew hundreds of meters in all directions.

Kael lay at the center of it, body embedded deep into fractured stone.

For the first time—

As dust rained down around him—

Kael wondered, cold and heavy—

'…Can I actually win this?'

If it were only one of them, either close range or long range, he could take care of them, or at least try to do it, but now, no matter what he did, he was countered.

For the first time, Kael found himself wondering what would happen next.