Chapter 275: Carnage
"Screech—"
With Cassius's furious roar, black blood splattered in mid-air. Half of the shadow dragon's wing was torn off, and its translucent membrane dissipated.
"Aargh!"
Mortifer let out a cry of extreme agony, his ember-black body twisting and writhing in pain.
But under the absolute power of the Bloodscaled Fury, and with the disruptive presence of Chaos Fire, his struggle was utterly futile.
"I will tear you to pieces!"
Cassius let out a maniacal laugh, his pale golden eyes now fully bloodshot. He looked like a predator toying with its prey, licking the taste of blood, relishing in the pleasure of dismembering his target step by step.
"No, no, I am the Voice of Night!"
"Seven hundred years of buildup, consuming millions of lives—how could I lose to you!"
In a desperate will to survive, the shadow dragon finally managed to cast a spell.
[Shadow Escape]
With a ripple in space, Mortifer's body dissolved into several masses of black mist, slipping through Cassius's grasp.
Moments later, dozens of shadow dragons appeared in the air, their wings almost all tattered, absorbing energy from the shadow domain, visibly recovering.
The shadow dragons howled again, a sound akin to wailing ghosts.
[Infernal Legion]
Hundreds of terrifying hellish fiends appeared in the sky.
Wielding weapons, they charged from all directions toward the raging red dragon.
This was magic simulated through [Shadow Conjuration] using shadow matter.
These spells had about eighty percent of the reality of the original; ordinary beings could hardly discern the difference. Worse yet, if one realized it was a shadow spell, they would suffer a psychic backlash from the shadow energy.
However, the Bloodscaled Fury didn't care whether the enemies were real or fake; he just wanted to shred them all to pieces.
"Roar—"
Cassius let out another furious roar.
His massive, muscular body rampaged through the air.
He bit down with his maw, clawed with sharp talons, and swept with his long, thick tail.
In mere breaths, flashes of blood filled the air. The red dragon rampaged amidst the Infernal Legion, slaughtering every demon simulated by shadow matter, leaving none alive.
Mortifer never intended these fiends to defeat the red dragon—only to buy time for the beast.
Meanwhile, his true body had already teleported miles away to Dragons Shadow City, where he was struggling to form a spell model amidst the chaotic shadow weave, preparing to create an interdimensional gate to leave this plane.
"Just need to hold on a bit longer... just a bit longer."
"Wait, Cassius, I will return. The Voice of Night knows how to endure."
"The night will engulf you completely. Then, your body, your secrets—everything you have—will belong to me."
His low muttering echoed in the sky.
The shadow dragon continuously spewed black mist, forming a swirling black vortex in mid-air, his dull gray eyes full of malice.
But at that moment, a terrible shriek echoed from behind him.
"What?!"
Mortifer turned around abruptly.
He saw the red dragon roaring towards him like a meteor, with a terrifying speed that left a dark-red blaze trailing behind his wings.
The shadow dragon's face turned panicked as he hastened the construction of the interdimensional gate, but Cassius had already closed the distance, roaring again with fury.
He had been caught.
"No—"
Mortifer's scream filled the air.
In the next moment, Cassius seized the shadow dragon's frail form, and the two dragons plummeted from the sky, with the massive weight of the red dragon crashing into the ground.
"Boom—"
With the earth trembling, dust flew everywhere, and many buildings crumbled into ruins. The thunderous crash was heard by everyone in Dragons Shadow City.
Upon impact, a massive shockwave spread out from the struggling dragons, shattering windows across nearby buildings.
The shadow dragon, pinned beneath Cassius, was rendered completely immobile.
Mortifer's ethereal body of shadow struggled to resist physical damage, but the supernatural attributes of Blood of Scales and Chaos Fire bypassed his defenses, leaving his body grievously wounded.
Immersed within his shadow domain, endless black mist continued to pour from the sky, restoring his ravaged form at a visible pace.
Usually, such a formidable domain would render him invincible.
But being caught up in close combat, this only made the raging red dragon more gleeful, giving him an endless opportunity to vent his pent-up rage, turning the shadow dragon into an indestructible punching bag.
"Aargh!"
Mortifer twisted and struggled, spitting out black streams of shadow breath.
But in the next moment, Cassius tore his neck with his claws, pinning the mist-shrouded head beneath his feet and pressing down hard.
"Boom!"
A crater appeared in the ground, the head torn off, crushed into a black, gooey mass.
Mist continued to pour from the sky, replenishing the shadow dragon's broken form, the head growing back rapidly, though his dull gray eyes were now filled with terror.
Mortifer had never been this helpless.
He wanted to struggle, to flee, but the chaotic energy was everywhere.
Cassius grabbed Mortifer by the neck, lifting him with a single arm before violently slamming him forward, crashing him into buildings, which crumbled under the shadow dragon's weight.
"No, no, if I could just escape—"
Mortifer struggled to rise, desperately flapping his wings to lift himself skyward, wanting to flee this hellish place.
But just as the shadow dragon was about to leave the ground, Cassius grinned viciously, grabbing his tail and wrenching him back down, smashing his head once more.
"Boom!"
Another resounding crash.
Again and again, the raging red dragon killed the shadow dragon.
At this moment, Mortifer seemed no more than a mere toy.
As the battle raged on, nearly half of Dragons Shadow City was destroyed. Former shops and taverns were reduced to rubble, countless city dwellers perished in the aftermath of the relentless combat, yet Cassius did not care about any of it.
Finally, the Bloodscaled Fury seemed to grow bored.
"Crack!"
Cassius grasped the shadow dragon's wings, forcefully breaking them. He then tore the body apart from the shoulders, revealing shadowy internal organs.
Muck-like, translucent blood gushed out of Mortifer's form.
"Roar—"
The red dragon let out a roar, chaotic patterns of light rippling from the crystal in his chest. Dark red Chaos Breath surged from his maw.
The Chaos Fire poured into the shadow dragon's torn-open body, destroying the shadowy heart that had long ceased to beat, obliterating the evil essence and soul of the shadow dragon, reducing it to the most basic, disordered particles of shadow matter.