Chapter 720

“What the heck is that? Wings…?”

Ferne muttered blankly as she looked up at the sky. Damian, fluttering his pure white feathers, soared into the air. It was a sight that left her speechless.

‘First, he’s jumping around like crazy, and now he’s got wings? What is he, a pigeon or something?’

She understood what was happening. It was the supernatural phenomenon manifested by human swordsmen who had surpassed the limits—something beyond common sense. It was what they called the “Heroic Tale,” the pinnacle of a warrior’s will.

Otherwise, there was no way wings would suddenly sprout from a person’s back. And even if they did, flying with them would be physically impossible given human anatomy.

The ability to defy the laws of the world and make the impossible possible—this was the unique power of humans. Though its scope was extremely limited, it was essentially no different from the miracles performed by gods.

‘And all he’s doing with that power is growing wings? Unbelievable.’

Ferne wondered if Damian had been an ostrich or a penguin in his past life. To her, it seemed like he must have had some unresolved grudge about not being able to fly to be this serious about jumping and flying.

Of course, that was just her opinion.

“What’s that…?!”

“An angel! Elpinel has sent an angel to aid us!”

To the humans looking up from below, Damian appeared no different from an angel descending from Elpinel. A human-shaped mass of light, flapping pure white wings and wielding a sword—it was exactly like the depictions of angels in the cathedral paintings.

Even Leopold momentarily mistook it for the descent of an angel, so to the ordinary soldiers, it was nothing short of divine. Their morale skyrocketed.

Though Damian’s wings emitted a pure white light that contained not a trace of holy power, the sight of a winged swordsman battling a dragon was more than enough to evoke ancient myths and fill the soldiers with awe.

Meanwhile, Damian himself was frowning deeply.

‘This is way harder than I thought…’

The Power of Feats had granted him wings. Just by imagining the movements in his mind, he could fly freely, tracing complex trajectories even birds couldn’t manage.

Perfect flight, unaffected by inertia or friction—this was the ability of the Heroic Tale he had acquired.

Thanks to this, his evasion skills were unmatched. He could dodge Nidhogg’s attacks without a scratch.

But the cost was more than Damian could handle at his current level.

The Heroic Tale was indeed a powerful technique, but until one mastered it, its efficiency was notoriously poor. Just as Hashalleur had warned him before.

Though Damian could dodge all of Nidhogg’s attacks and inflict deep wounds, his stamina was rapidly depleting with each move.

How much longer could he keep this up? Damian estimated he had less than three minutes before he’d run out of energy and plummet.

‘Then I’ll just have to finish it within three minutes!’

He poured all his remaining strength into the fight, continuing the battle with the intensity of a thunderclap.

【 Krraaaaaaarr! 】

“Haaaaah!”

The scorching breath of dark magic evaporated the clouds, while Damian’s greatsword, accelerated by his flight, pierced the dragon’s bones. Soon, only the two of them remained in the sky.

Floheta, having exhausted herself blocking the explosion of dark magic, slumped against a spire. Ferne, having used up all her low-level spirits, landed on the ground and focused on controlling and recovering her high-level spirits.

“Don’t waste your energy, get on and fight!”

“Thank you, Senior!”

Thanks to that, Damian was able to fight beyond the three minutes he had declared.

He no longer needed to maintain his pure white wings constantly. Riding on the wind spirit, he only manifested his wings when an unavoidable attack came.

About four minutes passed. Just as one of the dragon’s tattered forelegs finally broke off and crashed to the ground,

– Kwaoooooo!

An arrow imbued with a whirlwind shot into the sky with a fierce roar.

No, it wasn’t an arrow.

– Kwaaaaang!

What had been an arrow when it split the air transformed into a massive stone spear upon hitting the dragon’s body, shattering its exoskeleton and embedding itself deep.

【 Kyaaarh-! 】

The dragon, its wing pierced, let out a confused roar.

Damian’s greatsword had already shattered part of its body, and this new attack tore off one of its wings, which embedded itself in the city wall of Exra-shapel.

‘What’s this…?’

Thinking Ferne had fired the spirit arrow, Damian turned his head, only to see not the exhausted fairy, but…

A green-haired woman, drenched as if she’d been caught in a waterfall.

‘Milia…!’

Damian was slightly surprised. His lover, who had disappeared in Nidhogg’s breath, was now aiming the Bow of the Divine Tree at an angle, looking up at him.

He wasn’t surprised she was alive—he had believed she wouldn’t die.

But the power she had just displayed was something he had never seen before.

‘What was that just now?’

He wanted to rush over and ask her, but unfortunately, this wasn’t the time.

So, he had no choice but to continue the aerial battle against the enraged dragon, now missing a wing.

“Good heavens, you’re alive?”

Ferne, her ears perked up, ran toward Milia as if taking Damian’s place.

“Thanks to Ophelia.”

Milia pointed to the ground and gave a brief explanation. Convinced that Lacey’s Holy Barrier alone couldn’t stop Nidhogg’s breath, Ophelia had used all her mana to dig a deep hole underground, allowing everyone to escape.

“The underground waterway saved us.”

It was nothing short of a miracle. If this had happened in any other city, they wouldn’t have been able to escape like that.

The vast, hollow cavern beneath the surface, with its cold, fast-flowing underground waterway, was the perfect environment to evade the dragon’s breath.

Those gathered under the Holy Barrier grabbed Lacey, who was foaming at the mouth, and threw themselves into the underground waterway Ophelia had created.

The cold underground water flowed abundantly, and diving into it allowed them to escape the scorching heat of the dragon’s breath without being burned alive.

Though Persval, weighed down by his armor, almost got boiled alive in the rising underground water.

“But why are you alone? Where are the others?”

“Senior Lacey couldn’t fight anymore and was taken to the cathedral basement. Ophelia went back to the mansion, saying she had something to take care of.”

Milia didn’t know what Ophelia had gone to retrieve. They weren’t close enough for her to pry into Ophelia’s secrets.

“Sir Persval is being treated for burns… Sir Bels said he wouldn’t be of any help now that the dragon’s flying, so he went to support the paladins fighting the specters.”

“…They’re probably all dead.”

Ferne pointed to the city center, where rivers of lava flowed. The streets where the specters, paladins, and knights had clashed were now empty. Everything had melted in the dragon’s breath.

“It looks that way… Then he’ll probably come back here.”

Even to Milia, it seemed pointless to go support the paladins now.

While underground, they couldn’t see the situation above, so Bels might have thought supporting the paladins was the right call. But seeing the lava, he’d likely return soon.

Though, even if he did, he wouldn’t be much help against the dragon.

In the first place, the only ones capable of intercepting a flying dragon were Milia herself and the high-level magicians.

The problem was… Ophelia had gone back to the mansion, and the other high-level magicians had all melted before they could even reach the Holy Barrier.

In other words, the only remaining forces were Damian, fighting like an angel, and Milia herself.

“Seeing Senior Ferne like this, it seems she can’t fight anymore… It’s up to me and Damian to hold out.”

“Ah, right. What was that arrow? I didn’t sense any spirit energy. No, wait, can humans even use spirit arrows—?”

“It’s a new power.”

Milia smiled faintly and stretched out her right arm.

– Thud.

The moment her fingertips touched the debris of a nearby building—

– Kwaaaak!

As if an invisible giant had clenched its fist, a massive boulder compressed with a deafening roar.

The debris, four times her height and twice as thick, crumpled in an instant, transforming into a long, thin arrow in her hand.

Milia nocked the arrow made of compressed rock and fired it.

– Kwaoooo!

The arrow, imbued with a whirlwind, roared through the air toward the dragon.

Nidhogg, while battling Damian, summoned dark magic to create a shield-like barrier against the arrow.

And then.

Milia’s arrow collided with the dark magic barrier and exploded, reverting to its original form.

– Kwaaaaang!

The massive boulder, carrying the speed of lightning, shattered the dark magic barrier into pieces.

Nidhogg, anticipating the possibility of being unable to block it, dodged to the side. But had it hit, it would have blown a massive hole through the dragon’s body.

“You, that’s…”

Ferne’s ears twitched as she spoke. It was a scene that could only be explained as the Heroic Tale.

‘Damian, sure, but Milia too?’

The fairy, who had lived for over four hundred years, couldn’t help but feel bewildered by the humans who had reached her level in just a few decades.

—

A few minutes earlier.

As she threw herself into the underground waterway, watching the Holy Barrier crumble under the dragon’s breath, Milia’s thoughts were consumed by worry for Damian and the determination not to die.

‘I can’t die!’

She couldn’t die yet.

She hadn’t even married Damian, and her dream of having a child who looked just like him and raising them together hadn’t even begun.

‘Marry Damian, love Damian, have Damian’s child, protect Damian, Damian, Damian, Damian, Damian!’

Her obsession, bordering on madness, was enough to make even Hashalleur cringe.

Perhaps even the Hero’s Wall was terrified by her deep, dark resolve.

The moment she fell into the cold underground waterway, she felt something blocking her heart shatter.

And then she realized what had been granted to her.

The Heroic Tale.

Now, she could turn anything into an arrow and shoot it.

—

[Hashalleur]

“…So it ended in a half-destruction? Because Damian and Milia, who reached the Realm of Heroes, defeated the dragon?”

No way.

I tapped the ash from my cigarette into the ashtray on my desk and tilted my head.

According to the messenger’s report, the dragon wasn’t in perfect condition either… But even so, it was hard to believe the two of them had taken it down.

At the stage of just surpassing the wall, the Heroic Tale was so inefficient that using it a few times would drain all one’s feats.

At best, they could manage a counterattack.

“No, that’s not it. From what I heard…”

The messenger shook his head and continued the report.

As I had expected, the two had fought remarkably well, but they couldn’t have defeated the dragon alone.

“Then what?”

“Well…”

—

[Exra-shapel]

Damian and Milia, having acquired the Heroic Tale, continued their miraculous battle.

But their feats were rapidly depleting due to the excessive use of the unfamiliar technique.

The dragon, too, had lost both wings and three legs, with its body torn and crushed beyond recognition…

【 Krrrrrrr…. 】

Yet, it still had enough strength to crush the two exhausted heroes.

“Dammit, my body won’t move…!”

Damian, his strength spent, used his greatsword as a crutch to stand, glaring at the dragon.

His legs and arms wouldn’t move. His mind screamed to keep fighting, but his body had reached its limit. Milia was in the same state.

【 Krkrkrkr…. 】

Perhaps confident of victory, the dragon let out a laugh-like roar as it looked down at them.

Nidhogg was also severely injured and nearing the end of its strength, but it still had enough power to crush a few exhausted humans.

The dragon’s mouth opened wide, and the remaining dark magic began to gather at its center.

“Damian…!”

Its final breath. Milia reflexively hugged Damian tightly, curling up.

Then.

—

“You——damn——bug——! What about my workshop——!”

With a roar filled with rage that echoed through the city, a massive iron lump burst through the debris of a collapsed building.

Asha, a dwarf clad in black iron mechanical armor, stood there.

Furious at the complete destruction of her workshop, she had hastily assembled a massive anti-aircraft cannon from the remaining debris, attaching it to her right arm.

As if mourning the loss of her entire fortune, she pulled the trigger with sorrow and rage.

– Kwaaaaaang!

An 88mm armor-piercing shell, with a deafening roar, pierced the dragon’s abdomen.