When everything in the world breaks—even the Light itself shatters.
One by one, starlights formed above, dim yet brilliant, strange yet divine, until the heavens were drowned in their glow.
The dragon's prayer rolled on, low and ancient. A creeping sense of despair spread through Jerna's body, every nerve screaming crisis.
"Goddess above! Light, protect us!"
Without hesitation, Jerna raised her knight's spear. Holy radiance burst forth, expanding into a circular barrier that enveloped both herself and the sacred griffin.
But how to dodge when the entire sky itself was falling?
The dim stars plummeted like a rain of light.
Dragon-Language Magic—Destruction of Holy Light!
BOOM!
High above, Mammon's divine-dragon form hovered with wings unfurled, watching coldly as Jerna and her mount were battered under the storm of starlight.
"How long can you endure?"
His crimson dragon eyes glimmered, seeing the holy shield tremble. No matter how much power Jerna poured in, it couldn't withstand the endless bombardment.
"Jerna!"
Ecbert's voice carried urgency. He wanted to rush to her aid—but the Death Scythe Demon and the Deadland Storm Worm pressed him mercilessly. He blasted them with powerful magic, wounding them gravely… yet each time, their flesh knitted back together almost instantly.
Such monstrous regeneration! Where had they obtained this ability?
CRACK!
With a sharp shatter, Jerna's shield finally collapsed.
The sacred griffin flung its wings wide, covering her body. Starlight rained down like divine punishment, hammering the beast instead.
"Tweet—!"
The griffin's agonized cry tore through the battlefield as its colossal body plummeted, crushing a building beneath its weight.
"Brother Xun is amazing!" Li Yuqin's eyes shone, her face lit with admiration. "So domineering and strong! He's so handsome!"
Mammon descended from the skies, his white-gold dragon form radiating majesty as he landed heavily upon the broken earth.
"Sacred griffin, are you alright?"
Jerna rose from the ruins, panic flashing as she rushed to heal her blood-soaked mount with holy light. Were it not for the griffin shielding her, she would already have been dead.
"Better worry for yourself."
A deep voice rumbled. Shadows blotted the light as Mammon's massive dragon body loomed overhead. With a sweep of his clawed foot, he smashed the sacred griffin again, sending it crashing through another building.
"How dare you! Angel Tailor—!"
Jerna roared, fury blazing in her eyes, holy spear leveled at the dragon.
But before she could strike, a cold glint flashed before her.
A silver-haired woman appeared soundlessly, blade already at Jerna's throat.
Instinct jolted her mind awake—she staggered back just as the knife sliced through air, sparing her life by a hair's breadth.
"You again!"
Rage trembled in Jerna's voice as she faced Shen Ji, the expressionless assassin whose blade gleamed with four-colored light.
Again and again, this woman haunted her steps like a shadow.
"Redeemer of Light—die."
Shen Ji raised her blade. No mercy, no hesitation. The strike fell like judgment itself.
Mammon only spared them a glance. Without her griffin, Jerna was no match for Shen Ji.
His focus fell instead on the griffin itself.
The once-proud beast lay broken, too injured even to stand.
"A fine tonic."
Mammon's claw pressed its body down. Flesh warped grotesquely along his arm, twisting into a monstrous maw. From it jutted a needle of flesh, which plunged straight into the griffin's skull.
"Tweet—!"
The beast shrieked in agony, thrashing weakly as its essence was drained.
"Sacred griffin!" Jerna's heart clenched. In the middle of fending off Shen Ji's merciless blade, her gaze flickered toward her companion—only to see it writhing helplessly beneath Mammon's claw, its life being sucked away.
"Filthy… evil thing!"
Her face twisted with fury. Whatever this creature was, it could never be the holy dragon Fabnir.
"No time to look away."
Shen Ji's whisper brushed her ear like ice. Jerna's pupils contracted—too late.
Steel flashed. Blood sprayed.
A deep wound tore across her back, her grip loosening. The knight's spear clattered to the ground as she collapsed, gasping.
"Invaders like you… deserve only death."
Shen Ji reversed her grip, blade poised over Jerna's heart. Her voice was cold as winter.
"Thank me. I will personally send you to your goddess."
The blade began to fall.
"Don't kill her."
A commanding voice boomed.
Shen Ji froze, brows knitting as her gaze turned toward the dragon.
In golden light, Mammon's vast body shrank, wings and scales dissolving. In moments, he stood once more in human form, red eyes gleaming.
"She will be my tonic."
He stepped closer, laying a hand upon Jerna's fading body. Her life force flowed into him as effortlessly as water through a sieve.
The griffin's essence was already drained, its form twitching as ghost blood seeped through its veins, reshaping it. And now, Jerna herself was next.
Shen Ji's eyes narrowed, her expression dark. She stared at Mammon's warped arm, watching as he absorbed the Redeemer's life essence.
So… he had this ability as well. And he could become a dragon.
If not for the absence of any dimensional creature's aura, she might have mistaken him for something born of Sea Blue Star itself.
But evolutionaries are strange. Unknown doesn't mean impossible.
So, she let it pass.
For now, they stood on the same front. And with Redeemers still at large, the stronger Mammon was… the better.