Chapter 712 - 712: Pendragon’s Glory

"Why did the screen go black?"

The magical water mirror had gone completely dark, immediately making Karameel and Lucy anxious.

Selene remained perfectly calm.

"Don't worry. The explosion was simply too violent. There's nothing visible through all the smoke right now."

"It's back!"

"We've got an image again!"

Lucy and Karameel both released relieved breaths when Mercphobia and Natsu finally reappeared.

They looked battered and filthy, but at least neither of them was in immediate danger.

It had taken Selene's magical water mirror quite some time to reconnect properly.

The previous explosion had struck all three combatants with a shockwave powerful enough to rattle their internal organs.

When Ignia's wild laughter echoed through the valley, Natsu and Mercphobia raised their heads.

Neither spoke.

They simply stared at him.

For some reason, Ignia suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

Natsu and Mercphobia were both badly injured as well.

So why were they still so calm?

Then Natsu showed his teeth in a grin.

"He's here."

A terrifying surge of Lightning Magic erupted behind Ignia.

"LIGHTNING DRAGON KING'S ROAR!!!"

A massive beam formed entirely from golden lightning crossed the distance almost instantly.

Ignia's pupils contracted.

The blast struck him squarely in the back and drove his entire body forward, sending him crashing into the valley once again.

Golden lightning continued hammering the area.

Explosion after explosion erupted below as Ignia roared in pain.

Laxus had rushed over immediately after defeating Aldoron.

He looked at the filthy Natsu and equally battered Mercphobia and gave them a faint grin.

"Raizel's fighting too high up for me to help him, so I came here instead."

Natsu raised a thumb.

Mercphobia nodded.

"Excellent timing."

Standing amid rubble and flames below, Ignia looked completely enraged.

He threw back his head and roared.

"I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!!!"

Laxus blinked.

"This guy's seriously that tough?"

That had been a full-powered Lightning Dragon King's Roar, followed by a chain of explosions.

Yet Ignia barely looked any worse.

Mercphobia shook his head.

"I think rage has simply taken control of him."

Laxus grabbed his coat and threw it aside, exposing his muscular upper body.

Bandages still wrapped his chest from the wound Aldoron's spike had left earlier, and fresh blood had already stained through them.

"Then... let's hit him again."

He raised one hand.

"Raging Thunderstorm!!!"

A massive golden magic circle spread across the entire valley.

Then lightning fell like torrential rain.

Ignia might have been the proud Fire Dragon God, but unlike Acnologia, he did not possess immunity to every magical attribute.

He had no choice but to evade.

"Laxus! That's hitting everything!"

Mercphobia swerved through the falling bolts with Natsu still riding on his back.

Natsu immediately started yelling.

"You idiot! We're down here too!"

...

High above them, Raizel's battle against Helios was progressing exactly as Selene had predicted.

He needed no assistance.

Even after Helios recovered to his supposed peak condition, the fight remained overwhelmingly one-sided.

Raizel was still chasing him across the sky.

Helios had initially tried to force the battle into close range.

That had gone badly.

Raizel's defenses were already absurdly tough, and Ambrosius gave him vastly superior reach.

Instead of gaining an advantage, Helios had ended up with several new holes punched into his body by the lance.

Worse, the wounds carried a numbing sensation.

Raizel beat Examon X's wings and climbed rapidly, circling high through the sky before leveling Ambrosius toward Helios.

The spearhead erupted with a barrage of violent crimson beams.

Helios desperately tried to create distance, but his accumulated injuries had already slowed his movements.

One of the red beams came crashing down.

BOOM!

It struck the top of Helios's head.

The Sun Dragon God roared in fury and retaliated by firing one white sphere after another from his jaws.

Caledfwlch moved forward again.

The enormous wings transformed into a shield and blocked every one of them.

"DAMN YOU!!!"

Helios felt the same helplessness he had experienced against Acnologia centuries ago.

The resemblance was infuriating.

But surrender was out of the question.

He had slept for four hundred years and emerged stronger than ever.

He had not endured all of that just to admit defeat.

The black sun marking across Helios's chest suddenly ignited.

His chest expanded.

Crimson particles surged around his body as flames erupted across his scales.

BOOM!

Helios unleashed another torrent of blazing fire.

The heat rolled outward in waves and dyed the heavens red once again.

Raizel did not evade.

He pointed Ambrosius directly toward Helios and accelerated straight into the flames.

'ARROGANT!!!'

A vicious light flashed in Helios's eyes as he continued breathing fire.

Examon X plunged directly into the inferno.

Flames completely swallowed his body.

Then—they abruptly stopped.

Avalon's Gate!

Ambrosius tore across Helios's abdomen.

A vicious wound split open, spilling blood across his white scales as black smoke rose from the injury.

Helios stared down in disbelief.

"Poison..."

The toxin spreading through the wound began numbing his nerves.

His expression twisted painfully.

Raizel sighed.

"Too bad."

He had deliberately chosen to trade blows.

At the final moment, however, Helios had realized his flames were not going to stop Raizel and abandoned the attack to climb away.

If Ambrosius had pierced straight through his chest, the penetrating wound combined with the special rounds detonating inside his body would have caused far more serious damage.

Helios's face turned livid.

He spat fire again.

Raizel beat his wings, evaded, and immediately accelerated back into close range.

He dove toward Helios.

Helios tried to escape.

His body could no longer keep up with his thoughts.

Ambrosius stabbed into his abdomen again.

Helios coughed blood.

Yet through sheer determination, he managed to grab the shaft of the lance.

Both feet slammed into Raizel's body.

With a desperate kick, Helios forced Examon X backward.

He remained airborne, one claw pressed against the gaping wound in his abdomen.

Helios could feel it.

He did not have much time left.

His presence was weakening.

Then he suddenly realized something.

Raizel had disappeared.

After being kicked away, Raizel had simply used the momentum to climb.

Higher.

Faster.

All the way beyond the atmosphere.

There, Examon X turned back toward Helios's position far below.

Ambrosius began to transform.

The spearhead retracted.

Its structure shifted until the enormous lance became a colossal heavy cannon, its metallic surface gleaming coldly against the darkness of space.

Target acquired.

Locked.

Fire.

[PENDRAGON'S GLORY!!!]

BOOOOOOM!

A brilliant multicolored laser erupted from the cannon.

The beam illuminated the heavens as it tore downward.

Pendragon's Glory crossed the atmosphere in an instant.

Straight toward Helios.

Wendy was the first to notice.

She pointed toward the enormous rainbow-colored pillar descending from the sky.

"Look! What is that?!"

Irene looked up.

A crimson cross-shaped pattern appeared in her eyes as her vision rapidly extended higher and higher.

Past the clouds.

Through the atmosphere.

Until she finally saw Raizel beyond it—

Examon X hovering in space, firing Pendragon's Glory from Ambrosius.