CHAPTER 69: I’M HERE

Skytianeus extended his hand and slightly curled his fingers, his palm aimed at the clear, pristine sky above his head. The only reason no cloud drifted overhead was that he had dragged the Dragon Empress far above them himself. And now, he had fought her long enough to realize that only a single ultimate move could truly finally end this battle.

"Behold the power of the Sky Dragons—the power even your ancestors once feared, Your Majesty!" Skytianeus shouted as mana swirled around his hand, which hardened into a porcelain claw. "Skies Collide!"

Something akin to an earthquake rumbled across the skies. Looking up, the Dragon Empress couldn’t see anything. Yet only a few seconds later she realized what was happening, and the various warnings she’d heard about the Sky Dragons resurfaced in her mind. Just then, a force she couldn’t resist gripped her and outright punched her aside. Then it repeated, pummeling the Dragon Empress from side to side, both horizontally and diagonally. She looked like a doll smashed into the ground by an ungrateful child, except the gravitational force of Skies Collide was that child. The Dragon Empress coated herself in her scales, yet even those sank back into her flesh and cracked under the crushing pressure, their glittering debris drifting around her while she kept getting ruthlessly thrashed again and again without mercy.

Atop the Dragon Mountain’s Spire, Jett’s maids watched the ultimate technique unfold, eyes wide as a chill raced down their spines.

Eleonora remarked, "It’s only the gravity force for now. The crack above them, opened by Skytianeus’s move, has just appeared. The air’s coming—truly, it’s coming in wild and fast."

Just as Eleonora said, the sphere above the dragons’ heads had cracked open, and Skytianeus angled it against the Dragon Empress. Soon the wild air rushed in like an avalanche, drowning her beneath razor winds that sliced from head to toe. Countless lacerations split her skin, yet the blood didn’t fall; it spiraled upward in crimson ribbons. Hair disheveled, she gritted her teeth, focusing on regeneration and shielding her vital points, a horror‑movie monster come alive. The merciless gale tried to flay her, batter her, and shatter her pride. Most impressive, however, was that she maintained her defenses even while being hurled around like a ragdoll.

Skytianeus clenched his claw, and the Dragon Empress froze in place. The gravitational force no longer tossed her about. Instead, she hung motionless, a captive reminiscent of how the seventeenth Warden had once chained Holdrake midair.

"Your Majesty, I knew this much wouldn’t be enough to bring you down, but for my next move I can pray for your well‑being," Skytianeus said, raising his claw high into the air.

At the same moment, the Dragon Empress was blasted upward toward the cracked sky, Skytianeus’s intent crystal‑clear—he intended to hurl her into the sky’s violent void of madness!

Unable to draw even a sliver of oxygen, the Dragon Empress’s lungs burned, yet her eyes still blazed. She parted her lips and screamed into the shattering sky.

"SKYTIANEUS!"

"You’re getting used to my name, Your Majesty. I’m honored."

"YOU ARE FORGETTING SOMETHING!" she shouted, slipping into the crack just overhead in the sky. "THAT WE ARE THE DRAGON EMPRESS!"

Her human form blazed with a violet ribbon that rapidly expanded into a colossal dragon of the same hue, its horns darker than midnight. Around her, violet fissures snapped open, yawning like the gluttonous mouths of demons.

"WHAT OUR SUBJECTS CAN DO, WE CAN DO BETTER," the Dragon Empress screamed, her void power ripping holes through the sky, mirroring Skytianeus’s ultimate. The problem, however, was utter lack of control over those yawning chasms. Natural horrors began brewing as the heavens wept: lightning converged, hail congealed out of nothing, and the wind went mad, collapsing into a lethal waterfall of blades set to shred all life.

Skytianeus’s eyebrow twitched. "Surely you can summon a far superior Skies Collide... but your control still leaves much to be desired."

With chaos unfolding overhead, Skytianeus’s life was equally in danger. The clash turned into a contest of sheer endurance. Worse, the phenomenon itself threatened the balance—and even the existence—of the Dragon Realms. If it continued unchecked, additional, unimaginable catastrophes would inevitably follow for every realm that clung to the skies.

To remedy the disaster, Skytianeus would have to invoke his privileges as Dragon Guardian. The realm itself trembled in anticipation. Yet if he did, the Dragon Empress would seize the opening to land a devastating blow, perhaps knocking him cold and stripping him of everything he held. The decision was brutal, but Skytianeus knew where his priorities lay.

At that moment, someone else finally spoke.

"You’re forgetting something else, Dragon Empress," Jett called from deep within the palace, his footsteps echoing amid the chaos. "I’m right here."

High above the kneeling maids atop Dragon Mountain, the white clouds stirred and billowed, spreading like fluffy carpets unrolled by a Sky God, rolling toward the palace with ominous grace and gathering tension. Their milky hues darkened to pitch as something inside roared like a caged beast. No—like hundreds. Countless beasts thundered within the clouds, their overlapping howls dyeing them black. Crimson arcs suddenly sparked, sketching the silhouettes of those creatures swimming through vapor as though they owned it. When Jett reached the Dragon Guardian Palace’s balcony, every sound vanished, as though the world itself held its breath. Only one man could break that silence, and he did it in his own unmistakable style.

"Cerven," he said.

Every Crimson Dragon erupted from the black clouds, scrubbing all color from the heavens and repainting it scarlet as they streaked toward the gaping chasms, their collective roar shaking the realm to its core. Once inside Skies Collide, Cerven crashed into the Dragon Empress’s Void Cracks, shattering their equilibrium, nullifying their mandate, and erasing them outright. The shockwave echoed for miles. Amid booming thunder, Skytianeus descended beneath Jett to the threshold of his Dragon Guardian Palace, folded his legs, and slipped into a lotus stance, closing his eyes. The instant he did, the fractures in the sky began to mend. That was the crucial moment when a Dragon Guardian’s authority came, gloriously, in clutch.

Meanwhile, within the widest chasm, the Dragon Empress—still a dragon—fixed her trembling emerald eyes on Jett. The tips of her horns darkened to sapphire, the hue of sudden, utter, true fear. She feared Jett, and, more deeply, she feared for her own life.

He grinned. "Relax—your existence matters if dragons and humans are going to share a world. Your twin’s set to be my maid, and I’d hate to kill a gorgeous woman like you. So, Dragon Empress, next time we meet, introduce yourself properly. Seriously, I mean every word I say. For now, catch some Zs."

A single crimson lightning bolt roared through the black clouds—the one Jett had saved for the Dragon Empress herself. He commanded it to strike. At first it appeared as ordinary lightning, then condensed into a dragon of electricity, confirming once again the suspicions of both the Dragon Empress and Skytianeus: the Warden possessed a lost dragon bloodline.

As the lightning dragon barreled into her, the Dragon Empress’s memories of the past resurfaced in her mind.

Since you’re going to be the maid of the next Warden, I’ll aim to become the next Dragon Empress! I love how emperors talk—they speak in plural to represent their whole kin, but I’ll wield that pattern to represent you and me first, Pamellia. I hope that... I never feel alone, together forever in this vast, echoing universe of ours!

Then Cerven smashed straight into her hard center.

BANG!

The Dragon Empress’s draconic form doubled over, drowning in crimson sparks that raked her scales. The pain slammed into her so fiercely that she briefly blacked out, and the loss of consciousness forced her back into human shape. Then she plummeted earthward.

NovelBin

Jett stepped onto the balcony rail and vaulted skyward. Beneath his foot a cloud manifested, racing to the Dragon Empress’s side. He swept her into his arms, and at that moment she opened her eyes and found him staring down at her.

"Didn’t I tell you to nap? Don’t be a bad girl right now," Jett sneered, his Warden’s Will forcing the Dragon Empress’s eyes shut.

"I... hate... you," she whispered, and her eyes finally slammed shut.

NovelBin

Above them, the skies returned to their original hue—purple and mysterious. A few crimson patches lingered, then merged like flowing rivers, forming a singular vista that future dragons would immortalize forever in legend as the Warden’s Sunset of Union.

—

"Lord Warden!" Skytianeus knelt before Jett the instant he landed. "It’s an honor to truly see you wield a dragon bloodline!"

"Knock it off," Jett said with a tired grin. "Drop the honorifics and enjoy the win for a moment. I’m wiped, and she still needs healing."

"Yes," Skytianeus replied with a smile, his eyes settling on the Dragon Empress.

Despite grievous wounds and several minutes spent in the broken sky, she had still shielded herself from both the Dragon Guardian’s and the Warden’s assaults. The Dragon Empress was utterly, undeniably fearsome, without question, a monster.

[The Dragon Guardian’s Predicament Quest has been completed.]

[Your Warden Mansion is now able to move between Fayralia and Earth.]

Hell yeah!