NOVEL NEXT Chapter 81: Overpowered Parents!
Her crimson eyes burned like twin suns, cutting through the gathered forces who now found themselves instinctively stepping back, their instincts warning them of the calamity before them.
Aephyra's voice was calm—too calm. And that calm was more terrifying than a scream. "You dare target my son... my mate... my family?"
The words weren't a threat. They were a death sentence.
The Dragon race's forces clenched their jaws, some trembling slightly. Even those of proud lineages, veterans of wars long past, felt their hearts shudder.
"She's the one..." someone whispered, barely audible. "The Eternal Pyre Sovereign... She shouldn't be here. Not yet..."
They thought she'll be left inside, protecting Kaeryx, But Aephyra was here. And her timing couldn't be anymore was perfect.
Draeven's eyes narrowed as he looked at her across the battlefield. Relief flickered in the depth of his eyes. Her undying flames were one of the crucial part of his plans.
His gaze turned cold. "Do you think me and my wife are pushovers?" Draeven said, his voice like molten steel. "You were never a threat. The real threat... is the Dragon Emperor himself."
Those words struck deeper than any weapon. The gathered powerhouses, some already uneasy, visibly shivered.
At that moment, Draeven's eyes moved to his wife, her face was cold and stoic, eyes burning with a mother's wrath.
Even if you feared nothing, you should fear the wrath of a cornered mother—a powerful one at that.
"We don't have long," Draeven said. "Follow the plan..."
Aephyra nodded. "Ten minutes is all I need."
Their plan was simple: obliterate the gathered enemies before the Dragon Emperor could act directly. He must have underestimated them, sending only a split soul. But now, with their true strength laid bare, that fragment knew it's no match for them and must have already called for its main body. The faster they eliminated these pests, the better.
As Aephyra's foot touched the charred void, fire bloomed—an ethereal lotus that twisted and spiraled, consuming the blood rain above. Her Eternal Pyre didn't burn like normal flames. It erased. It purified. It transcended.
The karmic blood rain, divine in origin, withered in her presence.
A golden-scaled dragon, massive and arrogant, charged forward, divine pressure and killing intent flaring.
"Don't be deceived! She's only one woman—"
But before he could finish, Draeven's hand rose, cutting down domineeringly...
Fsshhhh—!
"How dare such a witless beast charge at my wife," Draeven thought coldly, pride surging in his veins. "While she doesn't need my protection, such move is blatant disrespect to me the Flame Devourer!"
The golden dragon's wings blistered mid-flight, essence screaming as soul flames licked through his body.
He howled, a wail that split the void. "MY SOUL—!"
Aephyra finished the attack she had been preparing. A lump of Eternal Pyre flickered like a heart and then—a shard of it, small yet monstrous in power, shot forward at impossible speed.
"Noisy," she said in a cold, dismissive tone.
The shard struck the golden dragon.
He let out a choked roar and began thrashing madly through the void, a creature born of fire now terrified of flame. The Eternal Pyre clung to him, impossible to extinguish.
His wings beat erratically. He dove, rolled, twisted. Still the flame clung.
A dragon—a being forged in the crucible of heat—now helpless before a flame hotter than existence itself. His flesh melted in chunks. His scales, forged over centuries, peeled like rotten bark. His screams choked off into silence as his body disintegrated into pure ash.
The watching races swallowed hard, faces pale, some trembling.
"They were given ten minutes," Aephyra whispered. "And I plan to make every second count."
Draeven stepped beside her. Their auras melded like twin suns rising. Their unity was effortless, their wrath absolute.
What had once been an invasion had become a reckoning.
The group of powerhouses were terrified beyond words. Draeven and Aephyra's strength was beyond anything they had prepared for.
Retreat? Impossible. They had already made a pact with the Dragon Emperor. Their souls were bound.
A Cthulhu, thick-tentacled and immense, growled beneath his breath. "Don't fret yet. They're just two. There's only so much two people can do."
Their morale flickered back, and in desperation, they all launched their attacks.
But the moment those attacks reached the couple, a barrier of condensed flame essence shimmered into view, wrapping Draeven and Aephyra like an unbreakable cocoon.
Aephyra scoffed, cold and regal. Their attacks dissipated against Draeven's expertly-crafted defense.
"You missed your only chance to kill us," she said.
Then, with a single wave of her hand, countless flame lotuses bloomed and launched with the speed of light, each one imbued with the undying Eternal Pyre.
Panic erupted. The enemies scattered like roaches before a storm.
But the lotuses followed.
Perfectly.
Intelligently.
The hidden split soul frowned.
"She's reached such control... she can guide all of them... Tch. If these fools can't even last until my true body arrives, then so be it."
Each method used to repel the flames only fueled them—making them grow, becoming fiercer.
A feathered man, eyes sharp and body agile, darted through the air, flame lotus hot on his heels. He gritted his beak-like teeth.
He twisted, spinning midair, feathers shedding blades of wind and ice. Spells wrapped around him, barriers of crystal and temporal distortion bent the void.
All in vain.
The lotus burned through every layer like butter.
His heart pounded.
I'm faster. I can outrun it.
He burned his lifespan, igniting forbidden essence. His speed tripled—quadrupled. He moved faster than sound, faster than light.
But the lotus kept pace.
His feathers—normally blades sharper than divine steel—began to curl. The scent of burnt plumage filled the air.
No... this can't be happening before it even touches me...
His eyes widened with regret. If he had known they would be this monstrous, he would never have joined the coalition.
He was out of options.
Out of time.
The lotus kissed his back. A flash. A scream.
Gone.
Not a bone. Not a soul.
Ash and silence.
All across the battlefield, similar scenes unfolded. Flame lotuses chased and erased. Screams echoed. Then fell silent.