An immense golden dragon stood above the Holy See, waving his wings. His breath burned Zek’s minions and spared Gina and the architecture of the city.
"Wise Golden Dragon, thank you for aiding us." Gina felt relief looking at the magnanimous dragon.
He was the leader of the Draconic Empire and the most powerful dragon on the continent. Just being close to him gave you the feeling that you were close to a godly entity. From behind him, three people came down. They were the generals sent by the Kingdom.
"We apologize for the delay; the undead army stopped us. If it wasn’t for the Wise Dragon, we wouldn’t have made it in time."
The Generals present it themselves. Felix, Gotthold, and Thane.
"I’m the High Priestess, Gina Adler. I count on you to defeat this evil."
Zek watched as his worst enemy came to him. "HAHAHAHAHA, I was saving you for the final course, but since you appeared, I can destroy you now!" His voice became agitated and his red dots began to shine with hate.
"From all the ones who wronged me, you’re the only one still alive. I’ll make this place your grave!"
As he spoke, the skeletons and zombies inside and outside the city changed targets. They began to run toward the Golden Dragon. Like insects climbing on top of one another, they advanced to the Holy See.
"This is bad. We won’t be able to deal with so many undead and fight the necromancer at the same time." Felix raised his concern, but the Dragon had a solution.
"Don’t worry, I’ll take care of the ones inside the city. The army outside will be handled by them." He took flight and began to breathe his golden fire throughout the city.
"RRRRRRRROOOOOOGGGGGHHHHH"
At the same time, the roars of other dragons were heard. Blue, Green, Red, Purple, and Black. The dragons had different colors, but they breathed their fires over the undead legion, decimating it.
"You bring all your companions from the Dracon council? Fine, I won’t back down. They can destroy as many zombies as they want, but once I resurrect a couple of them, the losses will balance out. I can’t wait to see how an undead dragon fares in battle!"
Zek lost any semblance of calm. He wanted to bring the dragon down, but first he had to deal with Gina and the insects. After a moment, he regained his senses and prepared to continue the battle.
The generals raised their weapons, but Gina stood in front.
"High Priestess, you must have used a lot of mana. Can you still fight?" Felix asked.
"I was waiting for this moment, a time when the tables turned on him. He didn’t expect the arrival of the Golden Dragon. We must push him more. I was the last one alive, so I could bring him down!"
Gina put her hands together and grabbed her scepter. The true power of the scepter lay in his ability to use [Summon Throne] a very powerful angel, but Gina could take it further. Using all her remaining mana and expending some of her life, she called one of the 7 angels at the top.
"[Summon Seraphim]!" Her golden hair turned gray, and a portal of light came from the scepter. A holy figure with a burning white sword and a metallic silver shield stepped from the portal. It had two magnificent wings on its back, and its body and face were covered with platinum armor.
"That is... Penitence, the punisher." She used her life force to summon the Seraphim, but she couldn’t choose which one of the seven to summon. Still, this was pretty lucky.
Penitence wielded a fire sword that dealt holy damage and burned the target according to his evilness. If he could strike directly, he would burn Zek into nothingness.
"Generals I must ask you to sacrifice yourself and find an opening for Penitence to attack directly against Zek. Can you do it?"
"YES!" None of them had the confidence to do it, but there wasn’t any other choice. A soldier's duty is to protect the people, and sometimes that means sacrificing your life in battle.
They jumped at Zek. As soon as the necromancer noticed the insects moving, the battle began.
"[Summon Flesh Giant] [Summon Dark Assassin] [Summon Execution Lord]"
Seeing the power of those three creatures was enough to instill fear in the general’s hearts. Years of experience made it easy to tell the strength of an opponent. The giant and the assassin were as strong as they were, but the last one, the undead wearing a hood and wielding a halberd, was stronger than the three of them combined.
Ignoring the fear inside their souls, they advanced toward their deaths. The Seraphim followed closely behind as he was being controlled by Gina.
"[Necrotic wave]" Zek attacked with a wave of dark power, but before it reached the generals, Penitence raised his shield and a holy aura protected them.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
"Tchh... What strength to repel my spell like nothing. The Seraphims are truly godly creatures. How about this, [Ice Storm]"
A tornado of ice and wind covered the street, putting itself between Zek and the rest of them. Giant pieces of ice flew in all directions.
Gotthold grabbed his flail and the ball hanging on it grew to be equal to the icebergs flying toward them.
"I’ll destroy them all!" He crushed everything in his path.
Even if they avoided the icebergs passing through, the storm chilled their limbs and bones to the core. They could feel their eyelids freezing. If it weren’t for the holy aura of Penitence, they would be ice statues.
They crossed the storm and emerged in front of Zek. At that moment, Gotthold felt a warm sensation. The Dark Assassin appeared from his shadow and stabbed him.
"UGH!" He fell dead to the ground.
Before the assassin could disappear, Penitence struck him with his sword, turning him into ashes.
The Execution Lord raised his halberd and sent a horizontal cut that covered the whole street and the buildings at the side.
"Jump Thane!" Felix screamed at his colleague.
Penitence only had to get up with his wings and the generals jumped with all they had. Before they could touch the ground, the Flesh Giant tried to squish them with his enormous hands.
"[Pierce]"
"[Whirlwind]"
Felix pierced the hand with his foil, and Thane spun in a circle, cutting the other hand with his sword. The giant regenerated at an unbelievable speed and was about to crush them again.
"[Change]" Thane used his other ability to change his sword for a shield. That decision saved his life.
Felix managed to doge the giant’s hand, but an ice spear pierced his lungs. Thane’s shield broke under the ice spear, but he was only stabbed in the arm.
"Two down!" Zek sent the Execution Lord to face Penitence. The two creatures clashed, and the wave of power caused the street and buildings around it to crumble.
***
The Golden Dragon flew around the city, burning everything in his sight. Thanks to his golden breath, he could choose the targets of his flames, killing the undead and sparing the people and buildings. The golden flames purified the city of Zek's deadly servants.
His companions in the inner circle of the Dragon council were dealing with the ones outside. Even if they were powerful and mighty creatures, the legion of undead had high-level undead among them. A single wrong move could spell death if they weren’t careful. To prevent more undead from coming inside, he flew toward the open gate.
Like most dragons, he was born with the gift of magic, but he wielded the most powerful magic among his peers. Although gold was considered a situational magic affinity, he learned the secrets of his blood and reached a new level among dragons.
"[Gold wall]" The gate was covered in a gold metal that sealed it. It was also protected with magic, so only a powerful attack could break it down.
The people are safe now. I need to go back to support Gina and the generals.
He soared through the sky and reached the Holy See. The first thing he saw was Penitence and the Execution Lord dueling. They were in a stalemate.
The Wise Dragon cast a spell in his claws and pounced on top of Zek. He managed to pin him down.
"Now, Gina!"
She moved Penitence and made him dash at Zek. The flaming sword was about to hit...
"[Teleport]" Zek vanished. He teleported several hundred meters above the ground. He cast [Fly] and watched his adversaries below.
He was short on mana and the Wise Dragon attack had caused quite a bit of damage, but it didn’t matter. One of the dragons outside had already fallen to his army. He only needed to consume the people in the city to refill his mana reserve. The next few spells were going to be critical.
He thought about all the possibilities. Dozens of scenarios played in his mind until he reached the one with the highest success percentage. The only two people who could stop his vengeance were below.
"This is the end. [Void of negative energy]"
***
Gina, Thane, and the Wise Dragon watched as the ball of negative energy descended on them. Penitence was fighting against the Execution Lord and the Flesh Giant. The ball grew in size and suddenly began to absorb everything in its path with a devastating gravitational force. A miniature black hole.
Buildings, bodies, and even the earth itself began to be drawn into the void. Everything that got trapped was crushed into less than a hundredth of the size of a small particle.
Thane's arm ripped from his body and soon would have followed the rest of him, if it wasn’t for the Wise Dragon.
"[Null: Negative energy]" The golden aura stopped the void before everything got compressed to death.
"Exactly as planned." Zek said to himself, seeing how his spell was denied.
At that moment, the Wise Dragon left himself open, and the Executioner Lord attacked him. The cut from the halberd was deep and the gold blood spilled everywhere. The necrotic energy from the halberd was like a terrifying poison that stole the strength of his target.
The Flesh Giant also piled on the Wise Dragon, but he raised his claws reinforced with magic and crushed them.
The Executioner Lord's special ability activated. When he was killed, the one responsible suffered a massive unblockable attack. The spectral halberd aimed at the dragon and cut one of his wings in half.
"GGGRRRRRAAAA!" He roared from the pain, but he was still alive.
Zek watched as Penitence was flying toward him from below. He raised his right hand.
"[Paralysis]" the necrotic power coursed through Penitence's body, but he was still able to move. "As expected, but can you defend against this [Swamp trap]"
A sticky black goo came from his skeletal hand and fell on top of Penitence. It immobilized his arms, legs, and wings. He was trapped; the [Paralysis] took his strength and he couldn’t free himself.
"It is not over yet!" The Wise Dragon, with a single wing, flew toward Zek. It was more like a jump. He grabbed him with his claws and cast [Null: Teleportation]
"A pain until the very end."
He smashed Zek against the earth as hard as he could.
"Was that your best plan?" The red shiny dots inside the skull were still gleaming with confidence.
"[Drain]" he put his hand on the claws and began to suck the life force of the Golden Dragon.
The battle was over. His plan worked perfectly. He could hear Gina running toward him, screaming something, but without mana, she was not a threat anymore. After draining the dragon, she was next, along with the Seraphim. He heard the voice of the beast.
"N-NOW!"
"Now Thane!"
"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Gina and the Wise Dragon called to him as he emerged from below the ruble. The dragon had brought Zek closer to the ground for this chance. Thane grabbed his sword and screamed. "[Change]!" His weapon changed into a fiery sword.
"You can change weapons with allies too?" He raised his arm to block. He assumed the general was too weak to hurt him. But he was now wilding Penitence's sword.
The three of them did the same as Zek and planned a last attack. Putting everyone's hope in this young, weak man.
"Why? WHY?" He noticed the reason as soon as he spoke. He was chosen to deliver the final blow because he was so weak.
Zek wouldn’t expect the most important part to be in the hands of the weakest person.
"This is for all the creatures you have killed!" Thane cried tears of rage and slashed the necromancer in half.
For the first time in decades, Zek felt a scorching pain burning through his soul.