Chapter 119: The Phoenix Dragon God

The water had turned dark and now smelled foul.

All around us, tentacles shot from the water and dragged our ships down into the depths of the pitch-black ocean...

We could only sit and watch in horror...

Leiso was almost in tears as her troops cried out in vain to escape their doom.

The carnage continued to spread further into the ocean behind us and soon, the shadow dragon reappeared.

She flew straight out of the water and faced Johann.

"INTERESTING... A DRAGON GOD... I WILL ENJOY DEVOURING YOU AND ABSORBING YOUR POWER!" The shadow dragon said.

"YOU WILL NOT HAVE ME, VILE ABOMINATION! I AM JOHANN, THE PHOENIX DRAGON GOD!"

"I AM THE SHADOW DRAGON. FORMERLY KNOWN AS KELVASTIOL, THE AVERNIAN WORLD DRAGON OF WATER!"

"YOU ARE A VILE COWARD FOR ALLOWING YOURSELF TO FALL SO FAR!!! YOU WILL FACE MY WRATH!"

"MY MASTER CAN OFFER YOU SO MUCH MORE THAN THOSE PITIFUL WEAKLINGS YOU CARRY... I RECOGNIZE THE TWO THAT FLED FROM ME. THEIR LOVED ONES CALL TO THEM!!!"

"Johann, please kill that abominable dragon for us, if possible," Isabella said calmly.

"I WILL DO MY BEST, BUT MY DIVINE POWER MIGHT NOT BE PURE ENOUGH FOR SUCH A CREATURE."

Johann flapped his mighty wings and fire swirled all around us.

At the same time, the shadow dragon shot straight towards us with her mouth open wide.

Johann dodged and brought his claw down on her neck, sending her straight into the water below.

He flapped his wings again, and the dark water began to glow.

Suddenly, massive explosions of steam shot out as molten lava burst from the ocean.

The lava quickly turned dark as a result of the Ooze and the shadow dragon burst from the water behind us.

There was no way in hell that I was the only person thinking that this is the worst possible place to fight the shadow dragon...

Johann flew further up and away from the shadow dragon as the water below exploded into water spouts and powerful jets.

"Damn it all...I feel so useless here..." I said.

"Don't worry, Mizik. Let Johann handle it," Isabella said as she gently took my hand.

She was shaking in fear and I could see it in her eyes...

The shadow dragon incident was just as traumatizing for her as it was for me.

Meanwhile, Johann turned around and fired several streams of molten lava at the shadow dragon. They impacted and melted her scales off... Then she dropped into the water below.

"HAHAHAHAHA!!! FINALLY, AN OPPONENT THAT CAN HARM ME! BUT ARE YOUR ATTACKS STRONG ENOUGH TO KILL THAT WHICH IS TRULY IMMORTAL!?"

The shadow dragon came up below us and slammed hard into Johann.

He did his best to recover and we all held on for dear life.

Falling into the ocean meant...

...becoming one with the Black Ooze.

The shadow dragon swung her claws at Johann and sunk her teeth into his neck.

She injected him with the Ooze and fire exploded into her mouth. As she recoiled, Johann slashed her with his mighty claws and pushed her back.

Isabella immediately got to work cleansing the Ooze from Johann's body.

The spread was incredibly slow thanks to him being a god, but it was still dangerous.

Johann worked to get more distance from the shadow dragon as she continued trying to attack from close range.

As he flew, streams of fire and lava shot out from all around him as well as the ocean itself.

Eventually, Isabella managed to cleanse Johann completely and he began furiously attacking while moving away from the shadow dragon.

It seems like his strategy was to protect us while fighting the enemy...

Unfortunately, if he couldn't go all out, he didn't stand a chance.

It was hard to believe that the shadow dragon had power comparable to a god. Terrifying, even. But we couldn't give up.

The Source was stronger than her, and we still had to kill him.

I looked back at the shadow dragon and gritted my teeth in rage.

I wanted to make that thing pay. I needed to be the one to kill it for what it did to me and Isabella...

It made Isabella cry...it tormented her with night terrors...

I wanted to kill that thing!

I stood up shakily and changed Vengeance into a sniper rifle.

"Isabella, lend me your power!" I said.

She grabbed my legs to hold me down and fed her energy into me. At the same time, I felt a pulse of power from her. My confidence shot up and I felt my abilities increase drastically.

"FLAMES OF RAGE!!! SNIPER BURST!!!" I shouted.

Between Johann's firey assault and my emerald-green sniper rounds, the shadow dragon was pushed back.

I was aiming for her eyes.

"FUSILLADE!!! BLAST BARRAGE!!!"

I activated my unknown skill and connected the threads to my sniper rifle as I fired a rapid barrage of exploding bullets.

Then Leiso stood up and began firing a hail of iron thorns into the monster.

Soon after, everyone else followed and all of us were blasting the shadow dragon with our Aspects.

"GAH!!! PREY THAT FIGHTS BACK TASTES THE BEST!!! COME TO ME!!!" The shadow dragon said.

She smiled widely and many tentacles shot from her wings and other body parts to grab us.

Isabella blocked them and Johann burned the tentacles off.

"THIS ISN'T A GOOD PLACE TO FIGHT, EVERYONE!!! WE NEED TO GET BACK TO THE MAINLAND!" Johann said.

"NO! YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE ME AGAIN, MIZIK AND ISABELLA! COME TO ME AND BE WITH YOUR BELOVED AVERNIA AGAIN!"

I turned to the shadow dragon again in indignant rage.

"SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU ABOMINATION!!! EXTERMINATUS!!!"

I aimed my sniper rifle at the dragon and fired a rapid burst of extremely high-powered shots that punctured the dragon's eyes and blinded her momentarily.

My attacks...worked!?

"GRRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"

The shadow dragon screamed in rage as Johann swiftly changed direction.

Isabella pulled me straight down and held me tightly in her arms as a gigantic wall of flame appeared in between us and the shadow dragon.

Johann flew as swiftly as he could out of the darkness and away from the polluted ocean.

* * *

We landed back on the coast and Johann assumed his human form. His wings disappeared as well.

"Thank you, Johann. You were a great help to us back there," Isabella said with a smile.

"I'm happy to help, but...I'm sorry about the other ships. And also about not being much help in killing that thing," Johann said.

"It's okay, Johann. It wasn't your fault. We're alive now and that's enough," Isabella said.

"You were extremely helpful, man. Cheer up!" Jallah said cheerfully.

Rune hugged Jallah tightly.

"I'm just glad that we all survived. If any of us fell in the water, it would have been death for sure..." Rune said.

"Aside from being alive, this is looking like an increasingly dire situation. Is this how you two felt in Avernia?" Jallah said.

We both nodded.

"We had no hope left after encountering the shadow dragon for the first time. To see her wounded by my attacks brings some measure of confidence," I said.

"It wasn't just you, you know, Mizik? The rest of us did some damage, too!" Michael said proudly.

"You're right. But if we can't actually kill that dragon, we have no hope of fighting the Source," I said.

"He's kind of a cocky bastard, isn't he? He acts like he knows you from somewhere. What was that about seeing you use different tactics?" Michael said.

"Supposedly, this isn't my first time fighting this war. The Oracle mentioned something about alternate timelines, but...I have no memories of any of that. As far as I know, I was born in Lorelei and grew up there. Then one day, all of these crazy things started happening," I said.

"It's not likely that we'll get answers from this Source guy. But he probably knows you from those timelines," Johann said.

"That is most likely the case. It seems like he hasn't dealt with me before, doesn't it?" Leiso said.

"What!? I can't imagine a world without our adorable little military commander!" Michael said.

"I'M TALLER THAN YOU, DAMMIT! I'M NOT ADORABLE EITHER!" Leiso yelled.

Michael smiled at Leiso as she glared at him and then she relaxed.

She placed her hand on her forehead and laughed.

"Thank you for that, Michael... Sorry, it's just..."

"Don't sweat it, Leiso. You're honestly like a big sister to me. We should probably get moving, though. We need to deal with the civilians," Michael said.

"Umm...I really don't want to be the guy that says this... But isn't it a bit pointless to worry about them now?" Carlos said.

We all looked down at our feet...

No one wanted to admit it at this point because it sounded heartless, but... We were having enough trouble keeping ourselves alive in this war.

Dealing with millions of people wasn't an option anymore.

"Let's just...get a transport ready... We can discuss the details of our future activities while we're moving," Leiso said.

After that, she called a transport and we were picked up.

As we boarded, I decided to contact Leiso with telepathy.

"Leiso, can we talk?"

She glanced at me and then nodded as we all sat down.

"What is it, Mizik? Something on your mind?"

"I may have unintentionally kept something from you... But I felt that you deserved to know. Ten years ago after the battle of Port Davis, the Oracle spoke to me."

"About what?"

"You. She said...certain things about your feelings for me in previous timelines. I won't get into it. But I assumed based on her speech that you inevitably died somehow. And after Draiko missed his attack in Central thanks to Isabella, I figured it out. You died in previous timelines."

"I...see... Well, I understand why that would be difficult to say to someone. Especially a dear friend. But even so, he hasn't fought me before, has he? Perhaps this gives us an edge..."

"I hope so. There's something different about this timeline. The Source mentioned never having fought you in the past. That might give us a slight edge. I just hope things work out..."

"As do I, Mizik. But...I am having doubts that we can win this. Can you tell me something? Honestly?"

"What is it?"

"Are we doomed? Has Ignitus fallen?"

"That's hard to say. But if things continue as they are, then probably. I'm sorry, Leiso."

"Don't be. I'm the one who asked. I wanted an honest answer and I got one. It almost doesn't feel real... I'm scared. I'm certain everyone is. But no matter what happens, we will not surrender."

"Of course. Ignitus won't fall without a fight."

"Indeed. Now then, you should get some sleep. We have a long road ahead and you need to recover. I want you at your best, Mizik."

"Thanks, Leiso. And...make sure you sleep as well, okay?"

"I will. Sleep well, Mizik."

I terminated the communication and held Isabella in my arms. Then I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.