CHAPTER 356: CHAPTER 355 - LOYAL AS FUCK.

The black mist tore apart as Raven and Graye shot forward, twin streaks of crimson and violet ripping through the collapsing haze.

The ground split beneath their speed, molten cracks trailing in their wake.

"Graye!" Raven’s voice cut through the thunder of their charge, sharp and commanding. "Be ready to defend—this isn’t something we can take lightly. Go all out, or we—"

Before he could complete his warning, the world was swallowed by a deafening BOOOOM!

Something faster than thought cleaved through the air.

A colossal black claw slammed into Raven with the force of a meteor.

The world detonated.

The impact shattered the sound barrier in an instant, a brutal sonic boom scattering the black mist like frightened birds.

Raven’s scaled body vanished in a streak of crimson, hurled like a ragdoll across the ashen wasteland.

"RAVEN!" Graye’s panicked scream cracked the air, her sword gripped tighter in her hand as rage settled, but before she could even turn her head, the same claw blurred from the darkness—

WHAAAAM!

—And hit her.

The pressure wave hit her like a falling continent, launching her skyward before gravity snatched her and flung her across the ruined plain.

Stone shattered under her armored frame as she crashed, skidding and tearing a kilometer-long scar through the fractured earth before slamming spine-first into a boulder.

The mist peeled back completely as the nightmare finally stepped into view.

A black dragon—colossal and alive with killing intent. Every inch of its body was a study in hunger and ruin.

Jagged horns curled from a head crowned in shadow. Wings stretched wide enough to drown mountains in darkness.

Its eyes—two pits of molten black—burned with a patient, predatory malice. (Reference in comments.)

It lowered its head, staring at the two battered figures among the rubble a kilometer away.

"...Insects," it rumbled, its voice like a continent-shaking growl. "How dare you crawl before me?"

However, that was all the time it gave them before it turned around, searching for the colossus, as that creature was needed for it to regain its body.

It sniffed once, then turned, its gigantic wings stretching as if ready to fly off.

"That way," it muttered, each syllable a quake. "The path to what I seek."

But before its wings could flap, the air screamed.

A streak of black-and-red fire cut through the haze and struck its skull with a thunderous CRACK!

Flames splashed across an invisible barrier of compressed mana, sparks scattering like dying stars.

The dragon paused. Slowly, its golden eyes narrowed.

"You’re not insects." Its massive head turned toward the source of the attack. "Is that what you are trying to show?"

It could see that Graye and Raven—two beings it thought to be insects—were standing up despite taking a fully powered hit from it.

Above all, both were glowing faintly—flesh knitting, burns sealing, and bones snapping back into place with unnerving speed.

Their healing was inhuman, almost defiant.

Raven stood at his full two and a half meters, crimson scales shimmering under the bleeding sky. Omni, now three and a half meters of black, hungry steel, rested on his shoulder, humming with a low, murderous purr.

Beside him, Graye—tall, lethal, 1.8 meters of divine strength—tightened her grip on her massive 1.5-meter broadsword, violet flames licking along its edge.

They exchanged a glance, but neither spoke because words were useless now.

The dragon’s pupils narrowed to slits.

"Show me, then. Show me why you think you matter."

Raven and Graye moved.

The air screamed as both launched forward—this time arcing wide apart, splitting like twin comets to avoid the same fatal sweep.

Graye went first.

She leapt straight toward the towering shadow, her laughter sharp and fearless.

"COME ON, YOU UGLY LIZARD! IS THAT CLAW ALL YOU’VE GOT?!"

The dragon’s eyes sharpened as its clawed hand moved again.

It didn’t attack because she taunted it, but because it recognized the light in her gaze.

The defiance. The unyielding hunger to fight death itself.

It was as if she wasn’t scared of death and believed that she was immune to it.

The black dragon, who was also known as the dragon of death, despised those people the most.

Despite not knowing even a little about death, they underestimated it.

That was why it moved—to teach Graye a lesson that would be the last she would ever learn.

A massive claw rose, blotting out the burning sky.

Then, it fell like a descending mountain.

But Graye, unaware of what the dragon could be thinking about, was already moving.

She slammed her sword into the ground, violet flames erupting in a roaring jet.

The blast rocketed her sideways, her body slicing past the shadow of doom.

Before the claw could retract, she landed on it, boots skidding across midnight scales.

Her blade ignited in purple fire.

"TRY THIS!"

The sword drove deep into the dragon’s palm.

Black blood hissed and spat.

It shouldn’t have been possible, but it happened, as Graye’s flames were not something a mere barrier of mana could block.

Taken by surprise, the beast groaned—a guttural, grudging sound—as molten cracks spread from the wound.

With a violent flick, the dragon whipped its arm, hurling her away like a loose spark.

Graye spun through the air, catching herself mid-flight with a blast of flame, and skidding to a crouched landing across the fractured plain.

The dragon lowered its gaze to the bleeding gash in its own hand.

Its eyes narrowed at the sluggish pace of the healing.

"...Damaged. Imperfect. My body is... still incomplete. I have not yet devoured the bone part."

Its growl deepened, a vibration that cracked the earth.

But before it could make another move on Graye—

Whooooooosh.

—The whistle of a world-splitting blade.

The dragon’s head snapped upward.

Through the mist of black fire and molten light, a sword the size of a mountain descended.

It was Omni’s largest size Raven could create, wrapped in voidfire, cutting through the sky like the judgment of a god.

Time itself seemed to stutter as the dragon’s eyes narrowed in alarm.

"...This sword... is dangerous—" the creature rumbled, its voice low as shifting tectonic plates.

Then it shook its skull, finishing with a contemptuous growl, "—that is, if it hits me."

Before the blade could strike, the dragon’s colossal claw blurred upward. With a thunderous KRAAASH, it hammered against the sword’s flank, a shockwave ripping the air apart.

Dust blasted outward in a perfect ring, molten rocks shot skyward like cannonballs, but—

—The impossible happened.

The great blade barely budged.

From far below, holding the sword like an ant with a stick, Raven’s voice cracked across the battlefield, raw and defiant.

"Don’t even try it! Nobody moves Omni except me!"

Omni’s deep, metallic purr erupted into a cocky roar that echoed in every direction. "LOYAL AS FUCK, BABY! Ride or die—that’s the contract!"

The dragon’s molten pupils constricted. It pushed harder, muscles like mountains straining—but the sword remained, a slab of void-forged judgment anchored by a single crimson figure braced against the fractured ground like an ant holding a thunderbolt.

The dragon realized that brute force was useless, so without a second’s delay, it lunged sideways—

—But it was already too late.

With a shattering SKRRRRAAANG, Omni crashed downward.

The colossal blade sheared through air and shadow, cleaving clean through one of the dragon’s vast wings.

A howl of pure agony ripped from the monster’s throat, a sound that split sky and soul alike.

Black blood rained in molten sheets as the severed wing plummeted, carving a canyon into the earth.

Then came the impact—a mountain-weight of void steel smashing into the plain.

The world convulsed.

The Ashen Expanse buckled and screamed, entire ridges collapsing as a mushroom of dust and fire erupted high enough to stain the heavens.

For kilometers in every direction, the ground quaked as though the planet itself recoiled.

Raven’s crimson eyes burned through the rising ash as he barked, "NOW!"

This was the best moment to attack, as a beast as strong and mighty as the black dragon would rarely feel pain, so its pain tolerance must be low.

Right now was the best moment to attack the beast when it would be writhing in pain.

Graye, hearing his words, didn’t hesitate. Her boots scraped across the molten rock as she raised her broadsword to the heavens.

Mana surged, raw and wild—lightning hissed, flames roared, water spiraled, earth rumbled, and wind howled.

All five elements converged into a single, illusionary greatsword behind her, as tall as a tower.

Its edge shimmered in every color of creation before igniting in her signature violet fire.

Raven mirrored her, crimson scales gleaming as he lifted Omni once more, voidfire flaring along its impossible length.

This time, he aimed to carve more than a wing.

This time, he wanted to cut the beast in half.

But before either could unleash their strikes, a roar split the choking dust.

The sound wasn’t just heard—it vibrated inside their bones.

Every instinct in Raven’s body screamed move, but only for a second before that feeling disappeared.

That only meant one thing—

He twisted mid-swing, eyes flashing toward Graye.

A spear of black radiance erupted from the smoke, thick as a fortress tower—a breath of death, the dragon’s true attack—ripping outward like a collapsing star.

However, it wasn’t aimed at Raven.

It was locked on Graye.

Their gazes met for a heartbeat, a silent exchange sparking between them.

This was the opening they had wanted: draw the dragon’s killing move onto the one who carried a divine tale that granted her death immunity.

She would endure—Raven would cut.

He nodded once.

Seeing that, she smiled fiercely and drove her massive elemental sword downward, meeting the oncoming inferno.

Everything seemed fine and according to plan until Omni’s voice slammed into Raven’s skull, urgent and uncharacteristically sharp.

"RAVEN—STOP! THAT BREATH... IT’S CHARGED WITH A HIGH DIVINE TALE!"

Raven’s blood turned to ice.

His grip faltered, crimson eyes snapping to Graye just as her glowing blade collided with the torrent.

Her illusionary greatsword—her strongest attack—shattered right after it met the pillar of black flame, but the breath attack didn’t slow down.

It screamed forward—faster than thought, faster than sound—and Graye, still braced and fearless, had no idea this was not merely pain.

That attack was her death once it hit.