I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 715: Continue your ascent, Master

The emperor-class dragon moved with the kind of speed that he had abandoned all pretense of tactics and strategy.

His massive form left a trail of destruction behind him as he accelerated across the borderlands. Dust and debris exploded outward from his position, creating a cloud that obscured everything within a hundred-foot radius.

Jack disappeared.

He activated [Dark Flash] without hesitation, transitioning from his position directly into the space that one of the dark nodes had established miles away. The skill allowed him to blink across distances that would have taken minutes to traverse using conventional movement.

The Herald’s trajectory brought him crashing down into the space where Jack had been standing moments before.

The dragon descended with the kind of force that made the ground beneath him crack and splinter. His massive claws dug into the bedrock, leaving gouges several feet deep.

His wings spread wide, casting shadows across the entire primary battleground. His scales flared with an intensity that made the light around him bend and distort.

Behind the Herald, at the primary battleground, Jack’s army stood ready with their weapons drawn and getting ready to fight.

They were all waiting for a signal. The moment when their master’s will would be communicated to them through Mira’s command.

The Herald’s jaw opened impossibly wide, his massive teeth preparing to consume the human who had dared to insult him. The aperture was large enough that the Herald was planning to swallow multiple creatures whole, to crush them with the pressure of his bite.

But Jack was gone.

The Herald’s consciousness registered the absence of flesh in his mouth. His bite closed on empty air. His golden eyes snapped toward the army that stood motionless before him.

The army was ready, but making absolutely no move to engage.

Something shifted in the Herald’s consciousness. The fear that Jack had perceived through the [Phobia] ability, the fundamental terror of anything stronger, had been temporarily overridden by rage.

But now, with the engagement beginning, Jack having disappeared, and the army having failed to engage, the Herald was beginning to process the tactical framework unfolding.

The Herald’s massive jaw closed on the nearest cluster of minotaurs.

His bite was enormous in scale. His teeth were large enough that he could fit multiple creatures into the aperture of his mouth simultaneously.

He bit down with the force of thousands of tons of pressure, crushing bone, muscle, and sinew into a paste of blood and organs.

Fifty-seven minotaurs were consumed in that single bite.

They didn’t even have time to scream. Their forms ceased to exist, reduced to nothing more than a snack consumed by a creature whose power transcended their ability to resist.

Blood sprayed outward from the Herald’s mouth in a fountain of red, coating his scales and the surrounding landscape.

Chunks of flesh hung from his teeth like decorations. Bone fragments were crushed between jaws that had been engineered to tear through continental bedrock.

Organs exploded against the roof of his mouth, spreading their contents across his throat.

The Herald raised his massive head and began to laugh.

The sound of his laughter was manic, triumphant, and absolutely convinced that he had just proven the weakness of Jack’s army.

The creatures that the human had summoned were pathetically weak. They could be destroyed with a single bite. They could be annihilated without requiring anything more than a flick of the jaw.

The Herald’s golden eyes scanned the landscape, tracking past the remaining minotaurs, panthers, and the Ice Drake, looking for the human who had disappeared at the moment the engagement began.

There he was, standing in an open space, miles away, awaiting the Herald to come closer.

The Herald launched himself into the air, his massive wings propelling him upward with a force that left massive furrows in the ground beneath him.

Dust and debris exploded outward from his position, creating a cloud that rose hundreds of feet into the air. His trajectory pointed directly at Jack’s distant position.

The Herald had forgotten about his army. He had forgotten about all the creatures Jack had summoned. His entire consciousness was compressed into a single objective: to reach the human and destroy him.

Behind the Herald, at the primary battleground, Mira watched the dragon launch himself into the distance. Her amber eyes tracked his trajectory, confirming that he was moving away from the main convergence and fully committed to the one-on-one engagement Jack had orchestrated.

She raised her hand.

Her voice cut across the landscape with absolute clarity, spoken in a tone that she understood exactly what was about to happen.

There was no hesitation in her words. There was no uncertainty. There was only the absolute conviction of a creature who had accepted her role and was ready to execute it perfectly.

“Attack.”

The minotaurs surged forward, their massive forms moving with coordinated precision.

They had trained together for decades together before being bound to Jack.

Their weapons rose in unison, forming a wall of sharpened steel and hardened iron. The Panthers accelerated across the open space with the fluid grace of predators who had scented blood in the water.

The Ice Drake began to channel power that crystallized the air around it, transforming moisture and heat into sharp, deadly formations. The Stormfang wyvern launched itself upward, its wings spreading to encompass the sky, its crackling electricity forming patterns that burned the air itself.

The Hydra began to advance, each of its heads moving with independent purpose, each one capable of independent attack and strategy.

The Voidweaver spider accelerated across the ground, its legs carrying it forward with the kind of speed that made it appear far more dangerous than its appearance suggested.

Corvin, the carrion raven, launched himself upward and began to circle the main draconic convergence, his presence alone enough to trigger the dragons to look in different directions at all the different forces.

The 3,185 remaining dragons of the Herald’s primary formations, scattered and disorganized though they were, suddenly found themselves facing an assault from creatures whose capabilities transcended their ability to comprehend.

However, they were unaware of their inability to fully grasp the nature of these entities, as Jack’s army possessed an enduring quality. This force was perpetual, sustained by Jack’s vitality, and the dragons were consequently poised to confront an inexhaustible adversary from two directions.

——-

‘Exquisite,’ S thought, tracking the violent density of Jack’s black lightning from his position behind the primary battlefield.

He was burning with impatience to watch the chaos unfold.

The Prophet had spoken of a creature who would rise to challenge the very foundations of the world. A creature whose power would transcend the categories that had governed existence since the beginning of time. A creature who would reshape reality through the sheer force of will.

S had recognized that creature the moment he had encountered Jack Kaiser.

The prophecy was no longer a distant horizon. It would be met soon enough. The ascendant was rising. The transformation was accelerating. The Abyssal Overlord, the ancient one who had slept beneath the world for eons, was waiting for that being to rise to power.

‘Continue your ascent, Master. I am burning with impatience to watch you butcher the Abyssal Overlord. I want these shackles gone so I can bathe in his blood.’

S said to himself, brimming with confidence. He placed a hand over his face, with one eye visible; he could barely keep his composure together. He was about to burst from all the anger and emotions swirling through him at this moment.