Wandering Knight-Chapter 400: Trinity, the Incarnation of Lightning

Crimson lightning surged through the heavens the instant the Dragon King, Wendel Myx, seized two stormforged spears. Scarlet arcs split the sky, spreading through the thunderclouds like veins, flashing again and again in ceaseless fury.

As the spears of lightning plummeted from the firmament, the storm above the Isle of Dragons obeyed their command. Bolt upon bolt roared down, shattering air and stone alike. The thunderclouds quaked, the very dust and rubble of the battlefield rising as if drawn upward by the crushing pressure.

The crimson flood became a river of thunder, cascading over the two colossal beasts hurled from the ruptured mountain. The storm concealed them entirely, cloaking the battlefield in deafening detonations and the searing scent of molten earth. Hillsides were shorn away, mountains gouged to bedrock—yet what they saw was but the faintest fragment of the Dragon King's true power.

"Who is that?!"

"A dragon of such strength... Where has it been hiding? Why has it only appeared now? Why haven't we heard of its overwhelming might before?"

"What matters is whether it's an enemy or ally. If it turns its strength against Skyborne City, the consequences will be catastrophic..."

Skyborne City's command deck erupted in confusion. The monstrous threat of the advancing abominations had been obliterated in a single stroke by this golden behemoth none of them had known existed. Fear and awe clashed in every heart.

That radiant golden body exuded a sovereign pressure so immense it paralyzed the spirit. Even the abyssal fiend had not wielded such primal terror. This was the fear born of standing before a lifeform at the pinnacle of creation.

"Calm yourselves," came the voice of Astartes. "This is no enemy. This is the Dragon King, Wendel Myx. Why he has not shown himself until now remains unclear, but he is surely a stalwart ally."

The words of Skyborne City's machine spirit stilled the uproar. The crew returned to their posts, knowing that Astartes's knowledge surpassed that of any living being aboard.

"Continue the bombardment. Do not target the Dragon King. Focus on the surrounding altered dragons. Keep the Heavenfire cannon at half charge at all times. We cannot afford another lapse in vigilance. If one such abomination appeared, another may yet follow. Remain sharp!"

Icarus issued new commands swiftly. Though the war still tilted against them, the presence of such a titanic ally breathed new life into the assault. Properly coordinated, they could yet salvage the battle.

"Wendel Myx..." murmured one voice at the core of Skyborne City. "Did the silver dragon lie? Was his vessel was not wholly claimed by the abyssal parasite? No... that cannot be. He appears strong, yes—but a fragment of his former self remains, at most. A third, perhaps even an eighth. Is this... your contingency?"

In Skyborne City's core chamber, Astartes and Malfurion watched the radiant golden dragon unleash his stored fury. Neither had foreseen this turn of events.

"At least it averted disaster," Astart muttered. "Heavenfire would not have stopped those two monsters. If they had reached us, we would have had no choice but to put our final card into play."

Malfurion said nothing, though her hand hovered over a translucent, faintly glowing card, its glyphs indistinct. She had been a breath away from unleashing it.

"It is too soon to speak of this," Astart continued, his tone heavy. "This abyssal creature is no ordinary foe. It has not yet revealed its full arsenal of powers. If it comes to it, we cannot hesitate to make a move."

Though Astartes had been able to come up with an estimate of the abyssal creature's strength, much of it still remained hidden.

"Naturally," Malfurion agreed.

The crimson torrent abated, leaving two ravines carved deep into the earth, their hearts still glowing with rivers of molten stone.

The twin monstrosities had been utterly annihilated, their broken remains denied even the void's promise of rebirth.

The next instant, the Dragon King's vast form vanished smoothly. He reappeared amidst the densest cluster of altered dragons.

A roar shook the skies. Wendel Myx widened his colossal jaws, golden radiance blazing in his throat. As the light burst forth, it split into two searing beams that scythed across the heavens.

This dragonbreath defied description: it was a mist of golden brilliance, with the penetrating might of a high-energy laser beam and the range and persistence of smoke. Where it struck, the world itself unraveled.

The devastation lasted mere seconds, yet every altered dragon caught within plummeted lifeless from the sky.

Their bodies smoldered, flesh twisted and charred, hide flensed away to reveal mangled remnants unfit for life.

High above, a golden-red banner unfurled. The Banner of Triumph absorbed the life force released by the fallen dragons and channeled it into the broken body hidden within the Dragon King's form.

Naturally, the one guiding this golden titan was not Wendel Myx himself. Wang Yu, having driven his power of the Chariot to its limit, had combined his will with the blood that still flowed through the Dragon King's veins.

Nor was he alone. With him were Avia and the Lady of the Night.

Wang Yu wielded the body's raw might, turning its colossal blows against their enemies. Avia, through him, reached into the dragon's magical circuits and bent its spellcraft to her command.

And in the liminal space between void and reality, the Lady of the Night cloaking the Dragon King's body in the shroud of her starlit mantle.

As though piloting a living war-engine, the trinity of wills forced the Dragon King's husk to rise again, to stride forth and strike with all its ancient fury.

This was the solution Wang Yu had come up with for fighting in a battle of this scale.

Earlier, when the alchemical fleet had neared the Isle of Dragons, Wang Yu had leapt into the sea with Avia on his back and swum alone toward the shore. He already knew what he sought: the corpse of Wendel Myx.

He was certain that the body still existed. To Milos, it had never been a resource but rather a prison—a loathsome cage in which it had been bound for ages untold. Milos despised it utterly.

And though Milos might have tried to wield the corpse's power, Wendel Myx, former king of dragons, would never have allowed it.

Even as his body was stolen inch by inch, the Dragon King's indomitable will would have twisted his own flesh into a vessel unusable by his enemy.

Aurelian herself had testified that, if Milos truly commanded this vessel, she would not even have survived her first encounter with it. She could hardly have escaped.

Thus, Wang Yu's goal was to find Wendel Myx's corpse. Though Milos couldn't use it, he didn't know just what Milos had done with it. He had to find it first to act on the next part of his plan.

The method was simple. These were precisely the circumstances that the Crimson Mark was meant for. All dragon blood bore the Dragon King's resonance. By gathering enough of it, one could trace every stream to its source, revealing the resting place of his corpse.

And with their destination in hand, there was only one problem remaining: reaching it without Milos's knowledge.

For that, they relied on the Lady of the Night. The Lady of the Night was quite eccentric as deities went. She was of little use in direct conflict. Her dominion was over night and concealment—not slaughter or warfare. Apart from the Sword of Darkness, which could inflict a kind of metaphysical harm, she had few destructive powers.

Yet, as she once told Wang Yu, within the bounds of her divine authority, her influence could be overwhelming. The Chronostasis Hourglass multiplied that influence many times over.

Wang Yu had prevented the Lady of the Night from directly attacking Milos. Her powers could certainly cripple enemy perception, but he couldn't be sure whether the abyssal being might strike back at her—or corrupt her in ways he dared not imagine. That was a risk he refused to take.

Furthermore, how effective her shrouding power would be against abyssal creatures was unknown, hence the safeguard of the Chronostasis Hourglass.

The artifact granted a total of twenty minutes to be spent however the wielder desired, as quickly as the wielder's body was capable of.

The more the wielder compressed that time, the faster the wielder could accelerate. In theory, with sufficient speed, one could freeze the world for twenty minutes. Yet the strain was a burden few could withstand.

For most, four- or five-fold acceleration was the limit. Avia, under the boost of potions, had once made it all the way to sixteenfold to save Wang Yu from Rudolf, but her body nearly collapsed after a single heartbeat.

But what if such a device were entrusted to a being like the Lady of the Night? What strain could a god possibly suffer? Could she truly accelerate without limit? No. The burden remained and the limit still existed—but she could endure far more strain than mortals. She had managed a shocking sixteen-hundredfold acceleration.

At such amplification, combined with her natural speed, she could scour the entire island within twenty minutes without pause. In conjunction with her power of concealment, the amplification rendered her nearly undetectable. Who would even know that she had slipped past?

Thus, what seemed an impossible scheme unfolded almost too smoothly.

The Lady of the Night found the Dragon King, Wendel Myx's body, buried deep beneath the earth. Wang Yu and Avia slipped into the void, and the Lady ferried them across. There, Wang Yu entered the Dragon King's corpse, while Avia remained within the void domain established by Wang Yu's door.

The power of such a colossal being would not fade easily even after countless ages. The living demon armor Sieg once wore was forged from the remains of the primordial beast Behemoth that continued to retain formidable might even in the present day. All the more so a dragon's corpse, whole and scarcely aged.

They had drained Wang Yu's bloodpool and combined it with the vast reserves of blood Avia had prepared in her storage space. A sea of blood engulfed Wang Yu as it seeped into the hollows of the Dragon King's form.

Slowly, his body was filled to its brim with Wang Yu's blood. Through it, the power of the Chariot spread, vein by vein, into every corner of the draconic body. Its soul was gone, its master departed—yet Wendel Myx's body was reborn anew, bound to Wang Yu's will.

"Wang Yu, can you endure this? Your body is breaking apart. It's being destroyed faster than it can regenerate. If you persist..."

Avia's voice trembled with concern. This was Wang Yu's first time commanding such a vast, potent vessel through the Chariot's power, and the monstrous strain that bled back from the dragon's body weighed heavily upon his own.

The blood that filled the dragon's shell lessened the pressure somewhat, but the burden remained beyond him. His flesh was unraveling: his muscles tearing, his bones splintering, and his skin fracturing.

"Don't worry. I won't die so quickly. As long as the Banner of Triumph is active, each kill will buy me more time. I'll be able to adapt before my body is beyond repair."

For once, Wang Yu was exhilarated. Usually cool, calm, and composed, he now burned with wild fervor. His veins sang, blood boiling, body crying out in destruction yet exalting in his triumph.

After all, at this moment, he was the Dragon King, Wendel Myx, born again. The dragon's might was his by ruin and rebirth. What would he become when this was over? Who could say? He would stake everything to find out.

"Well, at the very least, you can leave the magical circuits to me."

Avia exhaled, steadying herself. She had followed Wang Yu long enough that even her scholar's composure wavered, her heart stirred by Wang Yu's jubilation. The Dragon King was the very source of draconic magic. How profound, how labyrinthine, would the arcane circuits of his body be?

As a magician, a scholar, and a warrior, Avia had every reason to be elated. What's more, Wang Yu would be right by her side.

Her hand touched Wang Yu's doorframe in the void. At once, what the Chariot sensed within the dragon's body was laid bare before her: a sprawling constellation of arcane circuits, dazzling and innumerable.

"These... these are the Dragon King's circuits? They're vast beyond reckoning..."

She whispered in awe. These were the greatest, most intricate, most exquisite circuits she had ever seen. Could she command it? The calculations alone would be monumental.

Her doubt lasted but a heartbeat. She drew a deep breath, fixed the Perfect Fractal lens to her right eye, and pressed herself against the door. Her mind plunged wholly into the starry expanse of the Dragon King's magical circuitry. Possible or not, she would give it her best shot.

Wang Yu's door, like the Lady of the Night's veil, could be operated by those given appropriate permissions. Given Avia's relationship to Wang Yu, she needed no conscious permission—she bore full access to his domain by default.

As long as she was in contact with Wang Yu's door, the Chariot's power would flow into her as well. Wang Yu commanded Wendel Myx's body; Avia, his magical heart.

With the Lens in full force, her mind immersed itself completely in the calculations required. Only then did she comprehend the scale of the circuits' complexity.

They were vast and dazzling, yet not wholly beyond reach. Layer by layer, starting from the simplest of principles, she could start to understand and manipulate the power at Wendel Myx's disposal. It wasn't mastery, far from it, but it was a start.

"Ten percent... eighteen... twenty-four... thirty. Wang Yu, thirty percent of the magical circuits is the most I can stably control for now for now."

Her voice was strained. Thirty percent of the circuitry was hers. That alone would make a significant impact in battle. Joined by Wang Yu's blood and door, their coordination extended beyond the physical—it felt as if they could share their very thoughts with each other.

"That's already incredible. Alright, let's show ourselves!

Wang Yu strained the power of the Chariot to its limit. The Dragon King's eyes burst open. Yet his gaze no longer belonged to a dragon, nor an abyssal creature, but to none other than Wang Yu himself.

"Lady Darkness, we're leaving their ability to resurrect to you! Their link with the void is nothing compared to your power!""

His voice thundered as the dragon rose. Its titanic force shattered the cavern above, collapsing its every ward.

"Leave it to me."

Even the usually composed Lady now seemed excited. Cloaked in the star-speckled night sky, her mantle fell across the dragon's body. Darkness itself became like a second armor.

The dragon surged upward, sundering the earth. Through its vast senses, Wang Yu locked onto the two abyssal behemoths above. He lifted up the mountain and hurled it down where they were.

As Wendel Myx made an appearance, the mutated dragons swarmed toward him from every corner of the Isle of Dragons, blotting out the sky. Wang Yu's lips curved into a fierce grin. Let them come. They would be nothing more than fuel for the Banner of Triumph.

"Avia!"

Avia and Wang Yu knew each other's mind. Avia began setting up the magical circuitry as Wang Yu charged up power in the dragon's heart.

Scarlet lightning and ashen vapor cloaked the dragon's form, its flesh transfiguring into a body of elemental force, one unlike any elemental ever seen.

"Fall back!"

Milos's command shot through the minds of its abominations. It knew this technique. If unleashed—

A pillar of red flame seared through Milos's body, followed by blades of silver radiance. Just as it had told Sieg and Aurelian, they couldn't afford to be distracted in battle.

Even as Milos reeled, the Dragon King's husk vanished, swallowed by the Lady's darkness. None could sense it now. None knew when or where the next strike would fall.

Lightning rent the sky. The world shook.