Chapter 147: Endgame (1/2)
Vainqueur had always disdained wyrms letting their minions riding them as cattletarian, unworthy of calling themselves true dragons.
But as he carried Victor through the skies, their army unable to keep up with his sheer speed, Vainqueur realized he had been mistaken. His loyal friend didn’t feel like a false master on his back, but as an extension of the dragon emperor himself.
Now having fully recovered from his previous wounds, Vainqueur had used his ring to [Hasten] himself and aimed for the sun, the shadow of Crom Cruach rising towards the heavens. The fortress was quick, but the dragon was faster, quickly closing the gap.
“Here they come,” Victor said, readying his scythe.
Tiny holes opened in the magical shield protecting the castle, like a cheese. An army of flying mice flew through, eager to die at Vainqueur's hands.
Some were golems, but the bulk of the army were fomors. Having hidden behind all their minions until they had exhausted them all, the fairy lords finally deigned to show up. They were a chaotic menagerie of horrors and nightmares; ghostly riders carried by skeletal, fiery horses; wicked, child-eating hags; tiger-headed Rakshasa ancestors; giants and twisted fairies, screaming for blood, their body heavy with ill-gotten magic.
The Wild Hunt.
Hundreds, thousands of fomors were arrayed against V&V, diving down on them like a swarm of doves trying to overwhelm a hawk. Each was a match for a single adult wyrm, and a bane to minions everywhere.
Vainqueur only had one word to qualify the opposition.
“Mediocre!” The dragon shouted as his war cry. “Minion, support me while I carve a path paved with fairy blood!”
His minion immediately started to spellcast. “[Pact with the Archfiends]!”
As Victor transformed into a demon, his [Chaos Rider] class extended the transformation to Vainqueur himself. His [Hoard Armor] stretched to accommodate the transformation, as his size doubled, his scales turned to molten lava, and the tip of his tail grew a smaller dragon head.
Your minion rider’s buffs will extend to you!
You have been imbued with demonic strength. Your type has temporarily changed to [Dragon/Demon], and your [Fire] attacks will inflict additional [Unholy] damage!
“[Fire Crown],” Vainqueur activated, his body burning with hellfire.
“[Hail-bringer: Fire Hail]!” Manling Victor shouted as he changed the weather, overwhelming even the castle’s special effect. Fiery clouds formed all around the duo, raining flames and molten projectiles.
To outsiders, Vainqueur must have appeared in all his burning majesty, a meteor blazing through a firestorm. And like a meteor, the dragon didn’t stop, even as the screaming warriors of the wild hunt came within reach of his claws. A star didn’t deviate from its course.
Instead, Vainqueur smashed through his foes.
The vanguard of the Wild Hunt folded like paper, or water crashing against a mountain. Their golems exploded into scraps as Vainqueur hit them, their swords breaking upon his [Hoard Armor]. His mere contact burnt the flesh of a mighty dullahan, the headless rider and his soldiers falling to their death into the firestorm following V&V.
They didn’t even slow him down.
Obeying his partner’s command, Friend Victor cast buffing spells on himself, his class spreading the effects to Vainqueur.
[Fire] damage increased by fifty percent! [Physical] attacks will ignore Resistance! You gained immunity to [Frost], [Fairy], [Nuclear]—
This. This was what V&V’s respective class builds had led them to. Two invincible forces becoming one.
Vainqueur quickly lost count of all the improvements, for he required no higher thoughts. He trusted his dragon instincts, empowered by the System meant to serve him.
After demolishing the vanguard, Vainqueur continued his relentless ascension, the fomors retaliating by tapping into their own classes. “[Fire Immunity]!” hags cast upon their allies, while close-combat fighters braved the firestorm to engage Vainqueur in melee. A giant Rakhasa flew straight at him, the tigerlike humanoid raising a runic blade to pierce the dragon’s hide.
Vainqueur responded by opening his mouth and unleashing a torrent of hellfire. The fomor lost his focus, unable to see through the flames, and couldn’t dodge the fist aiming for his face. The dragon's punch tore the Rakshasa in half in a single strike, both halves falling to the ocean beneath them. Beyond the sea, he could hear the sound of approaching thunder...
As more creatures kept trying to slow down V&V’s ascent, Vainqueur pulverized them all, through claws and fangs; thanks to [Master’s Shield] and his enhancements, the wyrm healed faster than they could hurt him. They might have been a threat before he gained levels, but right now, they proved no more troublesome than powerful manling knights.
Soon, the dried blood of a dozen fomors splattered his golden armor, both Vainqueur and Victor were drenched in the warm fluid.
“I AM THE LEAD THAT HAUNTS YOUR NIGHTMARES!” Vainqueur boasted.
Terrified by this primal vision of horror, a wiser group of fairies retreated and started casting offensive spells. In answer to his own fire, they rained down stones the size of castles, sharp fairy winds, rays of golden light, and raw elemental forces.
Although most attacks bounced off the duo, some did scratch them. This time, the fomors forced Vainqueur to deviate from his course, the dragon retaliating with fireballs as he tried to find a way through the opposition.
“[Za Warudo]!”
As time briefly froze, Vainqueur thought it had been Victor’s work.
But then, he saw two of the fomors turned into lead statues, creating a hole in the enemy’s defense. An explosion detonated behind the enemy lines, meteors raining from nowhere and hitting fomors in the face, as a ghostly shape teleported multiple times in short succession among their ranks.
Vainqueur realized who had come to assist, teleporting halfway across the world to ambush the fomors from behind; as he had sadistically murdered a dragon’s hoard once.
A flying lich, transformed into a ghostly shadow by a spell, had opened a second front behind the fairies.
Exploiting the situation, Vainqueur forced the fairies to disperse with his breath, returning to his ascension. This time, the castle, and its crimson shield would soon be within reach.
“Furi!” Victor shouted while the lich flew at their side; and for once, Vainqueur was happy to see his skeletal nemesis. “You came!”
“Because you wouldn’t shut up telepathically!” the Forgotten One replied crankily, lazily counterspelling some hag’s attack.
“Of course he came, but not out of goodwill,” Vainqueur warned Friend Victor. “He cannot transform the world to lead if it is destroyed!”