A hero's sacrifice

BOOM!

The wind Axe collided with his Five water dragon seal, and the seal shattered immediately, sending down waves of water. The wind of the axe dispersed, and the fire dragon inside the seal began to unleash its wrath again.

It lunged itself at Zhang Lee, and the latter defended against its attack, but it left him open to an attack from the behemoth. Of course, the latter didn't lag behind, and they simultaneously began to attack Zhang Lee.

The latter tried to hold them off, but he wouldn't be able to last long. Those two beasts in this state were basically at the peak of the elemental realm. Having to fight two of them at the same time proved to be very difficult for Zhang Lee.

After a few minutes of fighting, the terrain was completely disfigured due to the battle. The initially beautiful terrain now turned into something like hell. The huge number of craters and trenches created almost made the place turn into a mini valley. A few trees around were burning, as were the grass and other flora.

Zhang Lee was at his limit, and he knelt with one knee. He could feel that he was nearing his limit, and burning his essence was still not something he could do yet. Not that he couldn't do it, but he wasn't confident that he would be able to beat them even if he took such a drastic measure.

His limbs were getting heavier, and he struggled to get on his feet. He was wounded, and his face and body were filled with cuts and bruises. He gritted his teeth as he glanced at the two entities in front of him.

The Behemoth stood in place while the dragon hovered around him. Just as Zhang Lee was about to get on his feet and fight them, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, father… give me the rest of your spiritual energy and leave the rest to me," he mentioned. He seemed to have so much confidence in his voice, and Zhang Lee was astonished.

"What do you mean? You think you can face them all on your own?" He blurted with an annoyed voice, but Zhang Feng smiled.

"I can, but of course, it comes at a price," he mentioned. Hearing this, Zhang Lee's eyes widened with shock as soon as he heard his son mention the price.

"Don't tell me you want to…" He blurted, but all Zhang Feng did was give a relieved smile.

"I have lived to see my daughter being born, and I have no regrets. Although I wish I could watch her grow, I have to fulfill my responsibility as both a father and a protector," he blurted before giving a resolute look at the duo in front of him.

"Ridiculous. If someone has to sacrifice themself, it's me. I'm nearing my age limit, and I'm already an old man; just let me do it..." He stated, but Zhang Lee faced him with determined eyes.

"Please, let me handle this," he requested. Seeing the look on his face, Zhang Lee couldn't bring himself to refuse him. However, this was just too absurd a request. Even if Zhang Feng was already a man, he was still first and foremost his son.

The old man deactivated his ability and transferred his spiritual energy to his son. He did so by circulating his energy around his body, and Zhang Feng tapped into that energy, making himself able to extract it.

Once he was done, Zhang Feng left his father's shoulder and walked to the front of the two powerful entities. His aura was beginning to rise, and he was starting to feel different from before. He glanced back at his father before smirking.

"Tell Zhang Xiu that I love her," he muttered before his eyes suddenly turned serious. He faced the wind behemoth and the fire dragon. Both beasts suddenly began to release an awful lot of spiritual energy, and the aura they exuded had entered the next level. They had practically entered a new realm.

With this, both beasts gradually combined to form just one extremely powerful beast. It had the head of a dragon but had the initial two trunks on its snout. The rest of its body was basically like the behemoth, only that it was covered in thick fire now. It also had a long tail and claws. One would say it resembled a four-legged basilisk but with some features that didn't belong to one.

Zhang Lee's eyes widened, and his heart palpitated. He could feel the chilliness in the air, and he could feel an intense amount of pressure coming from both the behemoth and the dragon.

"Im-Impossible! They are combining their power, and they have taken that step," he blurted with a gulp. Even though he was an existence at the peak of the elemental realm, before an existence of the higher realm, he was nothing but a fly. And right now, that existence was right before him.

"They… they have become Transcendent!" He blurted. However, Zhang Feng wasn't at the least shaken. The two beasts before him combined into one, forming an extremely huge monster, five times the original size of the fire dragon, and even more ferocious than the former beast.

This monster looked at Zhang Feng with ferocious eyes, like it was about to devour a delicious prey. The latter smiled and raised his hand to the air.

"As the one who commands the storms and the bearer of the energy that destroys all things, I call upon the lightning. For lightning is my blood, coursing through my veins. I am… lightning! I am..." Zhang Feng chanted, and his eyes began to glow. His body formed cracks, and lightning began to hit him from the sky. He slowly took flight until he was floating right before the dragon. "…The element of destruction!"

With a yell, he gathered all his spiritual energy and began to use a forbidden technique. Zhang Lee could barely see his son anymore, but the spiritual energy he was sensing from him was enormous.

His long hair swayed in the wind, and his eyes emitted webs of lightning, making him look like a lightning god. Zhang Lee knew that staying here would lead to his death, so he quickly ran away as fast as he could. However, before he took to his heels, he took a last look at his son.

"Take care of Zhang Xiu for me!" Those were Zhang Feng's last words before gathering enough spiritual energy that could rival the monster before him, and with those words, both parties collided. The explosion destroyed everything within a kilometre radius, turning everything into nothing but ash.

Zhang Lee was already out of sight, and he looked at the mushroom cloud of fire before sighing. His son had just sacrificed himself to save the family. He had the urge to cry, but he cheered himself up.

'I promise to keep Zhang Xiu safe no matter the cost,' he blurted before turning away.

*******

Meanwhile, in a certain galactic fortress, the control room was filled with a lot of dragonoids. They were wearing tight-fitted combat suits, and while some were walking about, doing one thing or the other, some were busy with the computers before them.

"We've got an distress signal from Planet Earth, commander," one of the dragonoids mentioned with a feminine voice. A burly Dragonoid with brown skin stood in the middle of the fortress's bridge. He was wearing an officer uniform, and he seemed to be the one in charge.

It was no one other than Zenral, the transcendent commander in charge of this star system. His expression remained firm, and he had his hands joined behind him.

"What is it?" He asked, and the lady looked at the holographic screen again.

"It seems the energy signatures of the Arian brothers have completely disappeared," she mentioned, alerting everyone else. The commander's face turned solemn as he grieved for them in his heart. However, he didn't forget the main aim of this mission.

"What about the chosen one?" He asked, and the lady typed a few things on her computer, and the screen displayed some results. The lady shook her head.

"It's disappeared too. Seems like they died completing their mission," she mentioned, but Zenral didn't buy it.

"Give me visual on the location," he claimed, and the lady pressed a few buttons, and the screen changed. This time, it revealed the planet that looked like Earth, and she located the last place that the Adrian brothers' spiritual signature disappeared. Once she found it, she zoomed in, but what they all saw shocked them all.

"This is…" the lady exclaimed, clearly shuddering. Zenral sighed deeply.

"That explosion can only be caused by an enormous amount of a transcendent. This can only mean that there's an opposing party involved. What he was sure of was that the chosen one must've been destroyed. Only a marquise could survive under that explosion, nothing else.