Chaos' Heir Chapter 990: Repulsive

Chapter 990: Repulsive

The sea of flames transformed into an array of dragon's heads. The fire condensed but shone brightly and more violently, quickening the floor's melting.

The stage caved in in multiple spots, slowly creating a cascade of molten metal. Brigadier General kept burning and shriveling, too, until his entire figure lost any trace of vitality. Only his resolute eyes betrayed the life still screaming in his heart, but that fire dwindled with each pa.s.sing second.

Khan's interest in that unorthodox ability remained strong, but a different emotion

outcla.s.sed it. He had a mortal enmity toward Brigadier General Meadrey due to his unique values, but the opposite shouldn't be true.

Brigadier General Meadrey's beliefs and stern personality made him take the military planet's issue seriously, but the man was killing himself to pursue his goal. Khan could understand having a selfless sense of duty, but the General's actions felt personal, and he couldn't figure out why.

It made sense for the Brigadier General to see Khan as a threat. Khan could also accept that the man was willing to sacrifice his life to protect humankind, but that suicidal spell required something more profound than duty.

Simple xenophobia couldn't justify that development. After all, Khan had witnessed the Bise and Izraz, so he knew that bias' limits. However, he didn't do anything to earn such a strong reaction. He had barely heard about the General at all before returning to Baoway.

'Am I that repulsive?' Khan wondered. 'Is this how humankind sees me?'

Being an outsider was fine. Being feared was acceptable, too, but that was just overboard. From Khan's perspective, he had done nothing but secure his interests like everyone else. If anything, he had given back more than the others, but that had been enough to trigger such strong and heartfelt reactions.

Brigadier General Meadrey paid Khan's pensive state no heed. It took all his mental capacity to control the spell while enduring the unbearable pain, so he didn't have time or energy to check his opponent.

The dragon's heads condensed even more, almost turning solid while absorbing all the lingering flames in their surroundings. The stage finally completely melted at that point, and Brigadier General Meadrey's withered body fell, but not before pointing his weak arm at Khan.

The dragon's heads shot forward, opening their maws while converging toward Khan. Their dense and intense mana filled Khan's senses, preventing him from studying anything else. That feat alone spoke for the spell's power. It seemed Brigadier General Meadrey had summoned something at a quasi-evolved level by sacrificing his body, which even Khan had to take seriously.

The basic Divine Reaper could sever a few dragon's heads, but Khan faced almost thirty. He could use his speed, but that wouldn't be much of a demonstration. Besides, the Brigadier General had staked his life on that attack, so Khan found it respectful to vanquish it with an equally strong ability.

Khan thought about his kicks before dismissing the idea. The dragon's heads probably were dense enough to enforce a stalemate, so his hand went on the cursed knife's handle while he opened the floodgates of his mana.

An immense, invisible suction force appeared inside Khan's body while a foreign bloodl.u.s.t roared in his mind. The cursed knife was almost excited to finally join the battlefield and absorbed as much mana as it could get its hand on.

The quant.i.ty of mana wasn't a problem for Khan. His issue mainly was with the time before the impact. The dragons were oddly fast, converging on his position at high speed. Khan couldn't feed as much energy as he wanted to the cursed knife, but what it managed to absorb had to do.

Khan slashed horizontally, his left hand a mere blur as the cursed knife cut the air. A semicircular red wave of sharp energy shot forward, cras.h.i.+ng on the converging dragon's heads.

The current dragon's heads were incomparable to the previous. Brigadier General Meadrey had sacrificed his body to push their numbers and density to a superior level, but the red slash pierced them as if they were b.u.t.ter.

The Divine Reaper had unmatched sharpness, and the cursed knife only enhanced its lethality. It also compensated for its glaring weakness. The technique didn't have great range, and Khan's mastery level didn't completely overcome that flaw. Yet, the weapon's acc.u.mulated energy allowed the slash to fly further than ever.

Tens of dragon's heads split in half as the red slash pierced them. Their bright energy continued to advance, but Khan's attack wasn't a mindless ma.s.s of sharp energy.

The red slash cut through the yellow energy past the dragon's heads before performing a sharp turn, changing direction to attack the other spells. The attack looked hungry for that dense energy and chased after it while it continued to approach Khan.

The heads were fast, but the slash was faster, and nothing could slow it down. The enemy spells were soon split in half, then in four pieces, until they eventually became dense chunks of formless energy that flew through the air. The latter kept charging at Khan, propelled by an invisible force, but the same couldn't be said for his attack.

As powerful as the cursed knife was, Khan didn't have much time to charge it. Moreover, the Divine Reaper had yet to benefit from Khan's evolved status, making it slightly weaker than his other abilities. Of course, that only applied to the single slash.

Brigadier General Meadrey seemed to have won one exchange, but the surviving lumps of scorching energy suddenly underwent a change. A sharp force still lingered on their severed edges and cut through their fabric, splitting them even further.

What remained of the dragon's heads crumbled into yellow clouds before they could detonate or reach their target, but Khan's attack didn't end there. The invisible sharp force had yet to disappear and followed the trail of energy from the yellow spells to sever it out of existence. Brigadier General Meadrey had fallen on the lower floor during the exchange. He lay on a partially melted metal staircase while flames still lingered on his feet and most withered parts of his body. He looked exhausted, but his eyes abruptly widened as soon as his survival instincts screamed in fear.

A strangely tall tongue of yellow fire burned on the Brigadier General's right shoulder, but its fabric split in half, paving the way for the withered skin below. A long cut opened there, and a spiderweb of wounds expanded from its edges.