“No! Darkflame Domain—open!”
The instant Hill loosed her dragonbreath, Shahun flared his magic domain like a dark flower in a storm.
Boom!
His half-formed domain smashed into the breath like glass into a tidal wave.
At the clash, Shahun’s domain shattered in a rain of shards, and the dragonbreath guttered out like a torch in wind.
“Pft!”
He spat blood like rust on snow, his face pale as winter moonlight, sweat beading on his brow like dew.
“Hey, hey, Shahun, you okay? Don’t keel over on me.” Shadow caught his swaying body like a tree catching falling snow.
“It’s fine,” Shahun waved weakly, his hand like a leaf in a gale. “Just backlash from the domain breaking. We should go. That dragon may be stronger than Master.”
“Yeah. We run.”
“Hmph. Still think you can run? Stay.” Hill’s snort cut like ice, and her vast claw fell like a mountain.
“Space—shatter!”
“What!”
Shahun and Shadow stared as the air around them crumpled like paper and splintered like brittle glass.
“Looks like we can’t get away.” Shadow’s bitter smile was a cracked mask, yet he lifted a gorgeous wand that caught the light like frost.
“Undead who signed a pact with me, reveal yourselves.” His voice rang like a bell in fog.
“Demons who signed a pact with me, reveal yourselves.” The words braided like smoke.
“Monsters who signed a pact with me, reveal yourselves.” The plea beat like a drum.
Circles bloomed around them like night-blooming flowers, and from every circle poured undead, demons, and monsters like a black tide.
In moments, their number swelled to tens of thousands, packing the void like stormclouds, and the blue sky dimmed like a lamp under ash.
Those undead, demons, and monsters hung in the air like a forest of spears, cold and grim as a graveyard wind.
“Ugh, disgusting. You little ant dared to vomit out so many filthy things? Unforgivable. Dragonfire!” Hill’s voice cracked like thunder over a swamp.
Feeling death-qi coil like mist around a bog, Hill flared in anger like a bonfire in dry grass, and she spat a tongue of violet-red flame.
“Darkflame Domain—open!” Shahun steadied himself like a reed in rain and reopened his domain.
When his domain settled, the void darkened like ink in water, and black flames crawled everywhere like hungry vines.
“Attack!”
Shahun cut his wand, and nearby black flames surged like a river to meet Hill’s dragonfire.
Boom!
Dragonfire met darkflame, and the collision roared like a volcano splitting the sea.
“Shadow, now! Have your summons strike!” Shahun’s shout was an arrow.
“Got it. Attack!” Shadow’s command cracked like a whip.
The packed undead, demons, and monsters surged at Hill like locusts on a field and unleashed their strikes like hail on slate.
“Xinuo, with so many undead, demons, and monsters, can Hill handle it?” My chest tightened like a knot, and I glanced at Xinuo, worry beating like wings.
“Servant, rest easy.” Xinuo’s voice was warm as tea, her gaze lazy as a cat in sun. “Two high-tier Sacred Realm foes are nothing to Hill. Besides, she’s about to show her real strength.”
Xinuo kept her head pillowed on my thigh like a silken cushion, nibbling pastries like a sparrow at crumbs.
“Oh.”
…
A long, ringing dragon’s cry split the sky like a blade through silk. Hill’s anger rolled like thunder. “You let such revolting things approach me? Die.”
She opened her colossal jaws, yet no flame came—only a multicolored magic array blossomed in her maw like a rainbow wheel, weaving light like loom-threads.
Three heartbeats later.
As the swarm’s attacks neared her scales like rain to a cliff—
“Dragonlight of Annihilation!”
A prismatic beam lanced from the array like a comet, spearing the horde ahead. Its pressure rolled out like a tsunami, clearly beyond the Sacred Realm.
…
When the beam faded like dawn after lightning, the teeming undead, demons, and monsters were gone like smoke, and Shahun’s domain shattered again, this time to dust like sand in wind.
All color drained from Shahun’s face like ink from paper, and his aura thinned like a dying candle.
“Hey, hey, Shadow, you okay? Don’t scare me!” Shadow hugged him tight like a brother in a storm and shouted, panic sharp as ice.
“Mm… cough.” Shahun hacked blood like petals, then patted Shadow’s shoulder like a final vow. “I’ll use that move to buy you time. You run. Tell Master—don’t provoke the Mizumi Clan.”
“But if you use that, your life will—” Shadow’s voice frayed like a torn banner.
“It’s fine—”
“No.” Shadow cut him off like a knife. “I’m staying. I still have cards left.” His eyes hardened like steel.
He drew a small blade and slit his wrist like a red ribbon, letting blood splash over the wand like rain on wood.
“I offer my soul and life as tribute. Descend here!” His oath tolled like iron.
“Summon—Undead Monarch, Demon Lord, Overlord of the Fiends!”
Crack! Boom!
A gigantic spatial rift tore open before him like a wound in the sky.
“Who summons us? It’s been millennia since we walked the human world,” a voice hummed like wind through bones.
“Yeah. The human world beats that abyssal pit,” another voice laughed like embers.
“Mm, this king isn’t even awake yet,” a third yawned like a cave.
Three overwhelming figures stepped from the rift like mountains crossing a river.
First came a skeleton in blood-red armor, runes carved over it like coals, each rune pulsing with power. This was the Demon Lord.
Second was a beautiful woman in a violet evening gown, her body half-real like mist, her lower half a swirl of gray smoke like storm-fog. This was the Undead Monarch.
Last was a man of the fiend race in golden armor, a golden spear in hand like a sunbeam, nobility rolling off him like incense. This was the Overlord of the Fiends.
Different as they looked, their pressure crashed like waves, none of them weaker than Hill’s storm.
“Shadow, you—” Shahun stared, stunned silent like a struck bell.
“It’s fine. Just shaving off some years,” Shadow murmured, limp in Shahun’s arms like a wilted leaf. Wrinkles creased his face like dry earth, and his hair turned ash-white like frost—more than “some years,” by the look.
“Oh? How curious.” The Undead Monarch’s eyes slid to us like a cold blade. “A dragon at the Holy Peak of the Sacred Realm serving as a mount to a human?”
“And it seems she’s of the imperial line among the Dragon Kin,” the Overlord of the Fiends added, his tone smooth as oil on water.
“Enough talk.” The Demon Lord’s voice snapped like a trap. “A life paid to summon us deserves return. Speak, what do you want?”
“Nothing grand,” Shadow said, each word thin as smoke. “Just stall that dragon so we can leave.”
“So simple?” The Undead Monarch smiled like a crescent moon and licked a red tongue like a flame. “Then go. We’ll play with the dragon for a while.”
