Free Web NovelChapter 24: The Void Bone-Wing Dragon
Right behind Laira and Ethan, the purple-black fireball shot toward them at a terrifying speed.
Laira had readied herself to accelerate.
The dragon wings behind her back spread open to their limit. Dark red flame coiled around the edges of her wings, distorting the surrounding air with heat. With just one more beat of her wings, she could pull Ethan off the fatal trajectory that [The Eye of Truth] had just pointed out.
But at that very moment, the space around the two of them suddenly shattered.
No warning sign at all.
Black cracks appeared in midair, interweaving into layers like a spiderweb. Laira’s body froze in midair, like she was being pulled tight by countless invisible threads from all directions. Her dragon wings were still spread open, the flame was still burning, but her flight trajectory was forcibly locked within the unstable region of space.
Laira’s expression immediately changed.
"The space is locked!"
Ethan sensed it too.
The feeling was like the entire world around them had turned into a thick layer of glass, with Laira and him trapped inside. The purple-black fireball was still charging toward them. The distance kept shrinking. The terrifying heat and the Void’s eroding force ahead made the skin on Ethan’s face burn, even though he was still held tight in Laira’s arms.
Four meters.
Three meters.
Two meters.
Ethan understood clearly that if that fireball struck home, the result wouldn’t just be injury.
Even though Laira was a rank SS Crimson Dragon, she was still sealed right now. Even though [The Sun-Fire Divine Seal] could enhance her flame, it couldn’t make her immune to Void energy this heavily corrupted. If the fireball exploded right before them, both of them might be incinerated to ash within the locked region of space.
There was no time to hesitate or retreat.
In that brief moment, Ethan immediately made a decision.
[The Eye of Truth] activated.
Boom!
The pain shot straight through Ethan’s eyes, so intense he felt his eyeballs were about to burst. Hot blood poured out of the corners of his eyes, running down his cheeks. But Ethan didn’t shut his eyes. He clenched his teeth, forcibly keeping his vision expanded to the limit.
The world immediately changed.
Sound vanished. freewёbnoνel.com
Color vanished.
Even the red flame around Laira’s wings and the purple-black glow of the fireball were drawn into two faint, blurry patches of light.
The space around Ethan was left with only two colors: black and white.
Each fragment of shattered space stood still in midair. The dust particles swept up by the shockwave also stopped. The purple-black fireball charging toward them was frozen in that instant, hanging suspended less than half a meter from the two of them.
In that black-and-white world, Ethan saw a red point.
Very small.
Only the size of a needle tip.
It lay deep inside the core of the fireball, covered by hundreds of layers of swirling corrupted energy. Without [The Eye of Truth], Ethan absolutely couldn’t have seen it. But in his current vision, that red point was so dazzling it was like the only flame still existing in a dead world.
A death point.
Not of a creature.
But the death point of this attack.
Ethan didn’t think any further.
His body was still held in Laira’s arms, but he used all his strength to lean forward. His left hand lifted, crossing the distance of less than half a meter, stabbing straight into the red point suspended inside the fireball.
The instant his fingertip touched the outer layer of energy, the pain immediately erupted.
"AGH!!!"
Ethan’s scream rang out across the torn-apart sky.
Time seemed to return.
Sound, heat, and pressure all came crashing down at once.
Laira jerked her head down in alarm.
In her field of view, Ethan had just thrust his left hand straight into the purple-black fireball.
Laira couldn’t see the death point Ethan was seeing. She only saw his hand being swallowed by that terrifying energy, while the fireball was less than fifty centimeters from her and Ethan’s faces.
"Ethan!"
Laira’s voice nearly broke.
She wanted to pull him back.
But Ethan had gripped her shoulder tight with his right hand, stopping her from moving recklessly.
"Don’t move!"
Ethan roared through gritted teeth.
The fireball was held fixed in midair by his hand.
The purple-black energy spun frantically, but couldn’t keep charging forward. From the spot where Ethan’s hand had stabbed in, thin red cracks began to spread across the surface of the fireball. Those cracks were like a blazing spiderweb, quickly covering the entire colossal mass of energy.
But the price appeared immediately as well.
The skin on Ethan’s left hand turned black in the blink of an eye.
Then his wrist.
Then his forearm.
The skin from his fingertips to near his elbow cracked like dry charcoal. Patches of burned flesh peeled off, turning into gray dust scattering through the air. The Void energy seeped into the wound, eroding every fiber of muscle and bone, making horrific purple-black cracks appear across his entire left arm.
Ethan was in so much pain his vision nearly went white.
But he didn’t let go.
He couldn’t let go.
If he let go, both of them would die.
Laira held Ethan tight, her body trembling with rage and fear. The red flame around her blazed up violently, but the locked region of space still hadn’t fully shattered. She couldn’t pull Ethan away from the fireball. Even less could she directly destroy it from outside, because any errant energy fluctuation could make the fireball explode instantly.
Ethan looked at the spreading cracks.
A little more.
Just a little more.
He bit down so hard his lip split and bled.
Then, Ethan used all his remaining strength to crush the red point in his palm.
"Break for me!"
Bam!
The purple-black fireball blew apart.
Not a complete explosion.
But like the energy core inside had been crushed from its weakest point, making the entire structure collapse before it could unleash its greatest power. A violent shockwave swept across the air, slamming straight into the locked region of space around Laira and Ethan.
Crack!
The black cracks around the two of them all shattered at once.
Laira immediately seized the opportunity.
She held Ethan tight against her chest, the dragon wings behind her blazing up violently. In that moment, her two wings seemed to turn into actual flame, dragging the two of them charging straight out of the collapsing region of space.
Whoosh!
A streak of red light stretched across the gray sky.
Laira didn’t turn her head.
Didn’t counterattack.
Didn’t hesitate.
She used her fastest speed to charge into the distance, piercing through the ruined buildings, crossing the streets covered in vines, then quickly vanishing behind the layer of rippling spatial mist.
Behind them, the Void Bone-Wing Dragon stood atop the snapped bell tower.
The flame in its eye sockets remained purple for a few seconds.
Then, the patches of red-purple crystal covering its skeletal frame gradually lost their light. The Void corruption resonating with it seemed to have its connection severed, slowly withdrawing beneath the surface of the bone. The flame in the monster’s eye sockets also turned from purple back to green.
It tilted its head.
The motion stiff and bewildered.
Like it didn’t understand why it was standing here.
Nor why the prey from a moment ago had vanished.
After a few seconds, the Void Bone-Wing Dragon lightly shook its tattered bone wings, giving off a dry grinding sound. It turned its head, slowly crawled down off the bell tower, then vanished into the desolate city-forest.
In an area very far away, inside a ruined building half-obscured by its caved-in roof, Laira landed with Ethan in her arms.
This place was quiet for now.
The space around them no longer fluctuated as strongly as the area just before. Cracked concrete walls surrounded three sides, and part of the ceiling had collapsed, creating natural shade. Vines grew thick outside the broken windows, obscuring the aura and light from within.
But Laira paid no attention to the environment at all.
She knelt down with Ethan in her arms on the dust-covered floor.
Her amber-red eyes looked at his left arm.
Ethan’s hand had nearly vanished.
What remained from wrist to elbow was burned black as charcoal, its surface covered in countless small cracks. A few patches of skin and bone had been burned brittle, seeming like they might dissolve into dust with even a light touch. Streaks of purple-black energy still wove through the wound, like small worms trying to eat deeper into his body.
Ethan leaned against Laira’s chest, his face deathly pale.
Cold sweat ran down his temples.
His breathing was very heavy, but he was still conscious.
Laira looked at Ethan’s arm.
Then, tears immediately spilled out.
One drop.
Then a second drop.
The hot tears fell onto Ethan’s face, making him open his eyes slightly.
Laira bit her lip hard. Her tall body trembled, and the dragon wings behind her drew in slightly too. The usual strength, free-spiritedness, and dominance completely vanished. In this moment, she only held Ethan tight, as if afraid he would crumble to pieces right in her hands.
Laira said in a choked voice: "I’m sorry, Master."
Ethan was silent for a brief moment.
This was the first time Laira had called him that.
Not "Ethan."
Not "my man."
But "Master."
Her voice trembled so much it almost no longer sounded like her.
Laira lowered her head further, her forehead nearly touching Ethan’s. The tears still kept falling. "I’m sorry. I said I would protect you. I said I wouldn’t let you get hurt. But I let you use your hand to block that thing. I... I wasn’t strong enough." ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
Ethan tried to draw in a breath.
The pain from his left arm made his head spin. But he still lifted his right hand and slowly placed it on Laira’s red hair.
The motion was very gentle.
Almost without any strength.
But Laira immediately froze.
Ethan said hoarsely: "Laira, listen to me."
Laira raised her head to look at him.
Ethan looked at her amber-red eyes brimming with tears, then slowly said: "You saved me. Without you, I would have died the moment that house blew apart. Without you, I couldn’t have left that region of space either. Just now wasn’t your fault."
Laira shook her head.
"But your hand..."
Ethan looked at his nearly incinerated left arm.
The intense pain made him pause for a few seconds.
Then, he said: "Being alive is enough."
Laira held Ethan tighter.
But she didn’t dare touch his injured arm.
Afraid that with even a light touch, the rest would dissolve into ash too.
Ethan tried to stay clear-headed, his gaze gradually growing colder. "That thing just now wasn’t entirely the Bone-Wing Dragon’s own consciousness. It was controlled by something for a moment. When we escaped, its state returned to normal."
Laira immediately understood his meaning.
Her amber-red eyes still held tears, but the killing intent had begun to return.
"Something is using it to kill you."
Ethan nodded faintly.
"Perhaps."
He didn’t say more.
But a speculation had already formed in Ethan’s heart.
The Eye of the Void.
The thing he had once seen on the ninth floor of the Abyss Tower.
The thing that had made [The Eye of Truth] display the words "natural nemesis."
Perhaps from that moment, he had been marked.
The Anomalous Coordinates weren’t just an accident.
This place was very possibly a trap.
Ethan wanted to keep thinking, but the pain from his left arm suddenly flared up again. The purple-black streaks on the wound began to spread up toward his upper arm, slowly eroding the skin that hadn’t been burned yet.
Laira immediately noticed.
She reached out near the wound but didn’t dare touch it. Her voice turned urgent: "The Void energy is still eroding you."
Ethan lowered his eyes to look.
His vision was a little blurry.
But he still kept his composure.
"Use your fire."
Laira froze. "No. Your arm has already—"
Ethan cut her off in a hoarse but clear voice: "Laira, listen to me. Burn the corrupted part. No need to heal it. Just stop it from spreading."
Laira looked at him.
Her lips trembled.
But in the end, she still gritted her teeth and nodded.
"I won’t cause you any more pain."
Ethan curved the corner of his mouth slightly, but the smile was very weak. "That line doesn’t sound very trustworthy."
Laira looked at him for a brief moment.
Then, she lowered her head, gently pressing her forehead against his.
"Then you’ll have to endure it."
A very small red flame appeared at Laira’s fingertip.
Unlike the dominant flame that had once incinerated the Undead, this flame was extremely thin and stable. It was like a red thread, slowly gliding across the purple-black streaks on Ethan’s arm. Everywhere the flame passed, the Void energy immediately gave off a very faint hiss, then was burned into a thin wisp of black smoke.
Ethan clenched his teeth.
His whole body trembled.
But he didn’t scream again.
Laira watched his reaction, tears falling again.
She controlled the flame while saying very softly: "I’m sorry, Master."
Ethan closed his eyes.
His voice was so low it was almost only breath.
"From now on... just call me Ethan."
Laira froze.
She looked at him.
Ethan didn’t open his eyes, but still continued: "I don’t need you bowing your head over this. We’re Partners. Remember?"
Laira was silent for a long while.
Then, she lowered her head and gently held Ethan closer to her chest.
Her voice turned hoarse.
"I remember."
Outside the ruined building, the Anomalous Coordinates kept shifting without end.
In the distance, a vague roar rang out across the city-forest.
The space at the end of the street began to warp again.
