“You don’t get to speak here.”
Mira’s voice broke into Lance's mind, shattering the sharp and thin sound.
They had known from the beginning that Nathaniel wasn’t their only enemy.
The arrogant black dragon would never seek human help. But demons were different. Demons tended to exploit the inherent evil in intelligent beings, corrupting their morals and goodness that were acquired later in life.
This satisfied their desire for destruction.
However, Lance and Mira weren’t sure how strong the demon inside Nathaniel was.
Maria had once encountered the Demon Dragon in another world, but by then, Nathaniel had completely lost his consciousness as a black dragon and had become a pure demon.
Lance judged that Nathaniel had not deteriorated to that point yet.
Because he was still provoking Lance with matters related to Cecilia. The demon clearly wouldn’t behave like that, but would instead try to get close to Lance to control him.
Mira used the knock-knock magic that they had used before. Lance said it was a trick used by mages to appease the Blue Dragon Queen with new little tricks.
But he soon realized that this was not just a small trick about expressing love; it was only used here because of the situation.
When fighting demons, one could easily fall into a quagmire, getting trapped in a demon's carefully designed mental traps, being led astray step by step. But if, at such a time, someone could clearly convey the thought that something was wrong, it might have miraculous effects.
This magic had been created in such an environment.
There were two battlefields.
One was the battle of consciousness against the minor demon, and the other was the clash between the dragons.
The sharp and thin voice had no intention of giving up. Once the object of consciousness invasion was two, its power naturally split into two parts, attacking Lance and Mira respectively.
Mira possessed thought and spiritual power, so she wasn’t afraid of this kind of mental contamination. Lance, on the other hand, had to be careful not to let the minor demon’s whisper affect his mind, which minimized the risks.
Mages' spiritual strength was inherently higher than others.
However, this also affected the battle above the clouds.
Nathaniel revealed his true form, but Lance had to divide his energy to deal with the contamination from the minor demon.
A thought flashed through his mind.
Mira was surprised, but still clearly caught onto his current thoughts.
She exhaled, casting a teleportation spell. Mira appeared on Lance’s back.
She steadied herself, and the scenery around them changed drastically. It was no longer the familiar sky outside the tower but a blackened land of red and black.
It was the Demon Scar!
“It’s fake.”
Lance’s consciousness clearly reached Mira’s mind. This demon couldn’t change their thoughts, so it had to use other means to create difficulties for Mira and Lance.
At such a time, he had to give his all to ensure Nathaniel’s host wouldn’t die.
Mira steadied herself on Lance’s back.
In these days, she had soared the skies with him more than once, but this was the first real battle.
“Mira, remember his weakness?”
Mira, empowered by the Stone of Thought and Spirit, would not be deceived by the demon. Lance wasn’t sure that he wouldn’t be misled himself. He was still in the dragon’s mating season, and his innate desires were also a source of instability.
Lance decided to hand over full control of their thoughts to Mira. During the battle, his thoughts would fully resist the minor demon’s invasion, while Mira would take control of their physical movements.
Their consciousness fused as one. Mira leaned forward, pressing her upper body as closely as possible to Lance’s back. This movement reduced the wind resistance during flight.
Her mind shared all the magic that Lance had mastered.
“I remember.”
“We’ll deal with him,” Lance’s voice was firm and confident. His magic and Mira’s consciousness.
Sensing the magic Lance contained, Mira believed in them.
The rain gradually stopped, and that was Lance’s magic.
Now, he needed to focus on resisting the demon’s contamination, and Mira had to deal with Nathaniel.
The black dragon’s eyes were his weakness.
Nathaniel’s body froze for a moment, not just due to the minor demon’s influence, but also because of a magic coming from behind him.
Karl.
Nathaniel’s mind recalled a name. That damned human, teaming up with the blue dragon...
Right. Different species.
Nathaniel laughed madly. Then let’s deal with them.
A powerful oppressive force erupted from the magic dragon’s body in front of them. Lance’s back tightened and relaxed, the giant dragon swung its tail horizontally, destroying the restriction placed by Karl.
The human mage had worked with Lance to put on a show and buy enough time for the princess and hero in the small town.
They had left no reservations to fool Nathaniel.
Physically, Nathaniel still had the advantage.
Nathaniel knew his own strength. After shaking off the human mage, he almost immediately flew toward Lance.
The dragon was naturally resistant to high temperatures, but there was a human on his back who would melt with the slightest heat.
Mira instantly saw through Nathaniel’s intentions.
He wanted to close the distance and then use dragon flame.
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If she was eliminated, Lance would face both mental and physical pressure.
Mira recalled the key to fighting Nathaniel.
Agility and speed had always been her advantage, and it was the same now. The blue dragon’s body wasn’t as robust as the black dragon’s, meaning they were generally more nimble.
But when her intent was passed to Lance through their mental connection, Mira felt the blue dragon’s body under her was rising at an unimaginable speed.
She needed to increase the distance.
Acceleration magic. As Mira’s thought formed in her mind, the spell’s effect was transmitted to Lance.
The same spell, when cast by the master of magic, had a completely different effect. Mira could clearly feel that when she cast the spell, she was using her mental strength to invoke the surrounding magical energy, but now, magic energy from the natural environment was continuously flowing toward this direction.
This was what Lance had described as the feeling of nature’s gift.
When she fought against the young black dragon in the environment before, she had used floating and acceleration magic to simulate a flying state. The blue dragon could fly by nature, and with the acceleration spell, its speed was pushed to the limit.
In a daze, Mira saw the surrounding illusions of black and red torn apart, and the minor demon’s simulation magic couldn’t keep up with Lance’s speed.
Dragon flame consumed the area where they had just been.
Seeing that Mira wasn’t burned to death, Nathaniel let out an angry roar and spread his wings to chase after them.
Mira and Lance’s minds merged. At that moment, a lightning spell, formed by condensed magic, attacked the connection between Nathaniel’s wings and body during the brief moment he opened his wings.
The paralysis caused by the lightning made Nathaniel’s body stagger and fall toward the ground. The powerful black dragon quickly broke free from the magic’s effects.
He had to restrain Lance.
The human girl who helped him was afraid of fire.
Nathaniel raised his head and spat dragon flames. Mira quickly tried to dodge but found that the flames weren’t aimed at her.
She was stunned and quickly controlled Lance to keep ascending. The circle of fire created a barrier that limited Mira’s speed.
If it was just Lance, he could pass through without hesitation, but with Mira on his back, it was difficult to break through the fire ring in one go.
Nathaniel’s eyes narrowed.
The power from the mind protected Lance from being contaminated by the demon, but she wasn’t just his guide; she was also his death token.
If Lance couldn’t be controlled by the demon’s contamination, then he would be dealt with in the real world.
He instantly closed the distance. With the push of his meat wings, he closed the gap between himself and Lance. Mira tried to dodge, but this was a powerful strike from the black dragon.
When Lance had faced Nathaniel in his prime alone, he had been injured by a tail swipe that sent him flying into a mountain ridge.
In the virtual world’s trials, Mira had also been killed by the dragon’s tail swipe, shattering into countless pieces.
Nathaniel despised magic, for to the black dragon, any external power was useless. He could piece his own body together and disregard the existence of everything in the world.
Even a demon could only control his spiritual power. To fully harness the power within the black dragon’s body, one would have to completely erase his consciousness.
Boom—
Lance let out a painful dragon's roar.
Mira, on his back, was dazed and nearly lost consciousness.
However, they hadn't lost yet.
The black dragon drew closer to Lance and Mira. Even without the dragon's eye's long-range vision, Mira could clearly see the gleam of determination in his eyes.
Time seemed to slow down in that moment; even Nathaniel's blinking appeared sluggish.
It was the forbidden spell Lance had recited earlier. He hadn't cast it until now, waiting for the right moment.
The command for casting came from Mira.
Then, within the fiery encirclement of dragon flames, something appeared that should not have been there.
Rainwater!
He had manipulated the rain. Lance, the blue dragon who drew magic from nature, had known that the black dragon liked rain. He should have evaporated the water on his body earlier with fire.
By the time Nathaniel realized this, it was too late.
A long sword, entirely made of frost, pierced straight into his eye. It was a weapon formed from the moisture falling on him.
It was the dragon-slaying sword Mira had seen before.
If Nathaniel had been a little faster, the rainwater would have evaporated.
The black dragon let out a long, furious roar.
He was enraged. Crushing, swinging his tail, the giant dragon lost its sight, the world before him a blur of blood-red. He wildly exhaled fire, attempting to burn Mira and Lance to death.
But the teleportation array activated, whisking the blue dragon and the girl to a safe location at the first moment.
The flames grew fiercer, and the black dragon howled in fury, trying to burn everything down!
Mira, who had witnessed the black dragon's destructive power, knew that Nathaniel would become even more violent after losing his eye.
Through Lance's power, she reached out to the stars in the tower. Under Mira's direction, the little paper people unlocked the tower's protective shield, casting the transparent barrier around the black dragon who was venting his rage in midair.
This barrier, even a group of high-level mages from the magic hubs, could not break. For the black dragon to escape quickly was no easy task.
But the real fatal blow waiting for him had always been his own dragon flame.
Lance flew toward the mountain below, and as he landed, he shifted from a giant dragon into a handsome young human.
He ignored the muddy ground and sat down to meditate, trying to absorb the magical energy in the natural environment to regulate himself. Mira, massaging her aching back, stood guard beside him.
The door connecting their minds was suddenly closed. Mira paused for a moment.
She could feel that Lance was dealing with the malicious little demon constantly emanating from his mind.
Soon after, he opened his eyes. His face was still pale, and when his gaze met Mira's, he instinctively looked away, but his expression had already relaxed.
Mira once again smelled the strange fragrance.
She suddenly realized why Lance had hurriedly closed the door connecting their thoughts.
He stood up, gazing at the fireball in the sky, brighter than the sun.
Lance's expression darkened as he waved his hand, and the tower's protective shield descended.
The black dragon shrank in size and fell to the base of the mountain.
Lance stepped forward and pulled the little demon's essence out of Nathaniel's mind.
"Let your friend come," Lance said, as magical chains bound the powerless Nathaniel.
Then, he vanished back into the tower. The little demon had to be dealt with quickly.
Mira understood his meaning.
Only Maria could kill the demon dragon, cutting the connection between the princess and the dragon.
Only then would the kingdom return to normal.
She signaled to Maria with magic, and the teleportation array appeared, bringing the princess here.
"How is it?" Maria squinted when she saw Nathaniel lying on the ground.
The demon dragon.
"The black dragon's judgment should be yours," Mira said.
Maria was silent for a moment.
"Take him back to the kingdom. Let the people judge him."
Even though the black dragon wasn't subject to human law, as a princess, Maria knew what the right course of action was.
No one could forgive the killer on behalf of the deceased; what she could do was send him to face the judgment.
"Let the army come," Mira said to Maria.
"Lance says there are things in the tower that need to be returned to humanity."
"Did you send the little demon back?" Mira floated high in the air, watching the soldiers busy at the mountain's peak.
"It's too weak," Lance said. "Once separated from Nathaniel, it was cleared out by the lightning storm the moment it entered the lightning chamber."
Mira showed a surprised expression. This tiny thing had caused quite a bit of trouble by controlling the dark side.
"We need to move," Lance flapped his wings, observing the busy human soldiers.
Lance had opened several rooms in the tower. The soldiers carried away the treasures, mediums, and some of Nathaniel's collections.
Lance had also asked Maria to return the swords he had collected to the heroes.
The demon dragon was no longer in this world, and the demon dragon's tower would not remain here either.
Without the demon dragon's tower, the fear would fade, and greed and oppression would lose their significant reasons.
Maria, as the princess of the kingdom, now had a new challenge to face.
"No problem," Mira smiled, her face pressed against Lance's back.
After the soldiers took the treasures away, Maria would order the tower to be burned. Mira and Lance would be waiting for her to give the order to set the fire, and then they would use magic to transport the tower to another place.
"Can the tower change its appearance freely?" Mira asked, watching the soldiers below carrying gold, like ants gathering food for the winter.
"As long as there's the right magic, it can take any form," Lance answered.
"That's great," Mira said.
In the capital, there was the manor the king had given her. For now, they could transform the tower into the appearance of the manor and slowly decide where they would live in the future.
Lance loved studying nature magic, while Mira wanted to travel everywhere. She had never had the chance to do that before.
"Mm?" Lance was puzzled.
"It's a secret. I'll tell you when we go to the capital."
Having a house that could travel with them was wonderful—no need to worry about roughing it.
Lance smiled slightly.
At the mountain peak, flames ignited. Magic carried the tower away, leaving only an illusion burning in the fire.
The giant dragon changed direction, its dark blue scales hidden beneath the thick clouds.
There would be no more demon dragons and brides in this world.
Mira and Lance would be explorers of magic.
Oh, and dragon-riding mages with their dragons.
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Author's Final Words：
This story has come to an end. Thank you to all the friends who have supported me. My next novel will be released in a month, and it tells the story of the son of a baron becoming a legend. This will be a long story, and I hope everyone will enjoy it.