Dragon King's Harem Chapter 590. Roots and Dragon IV
Dragon King's Harem Chapter 590. Roots and Dragon IV
Elowen pulled her entire root network inward.
[Warning! Enemy’s Ultimate Skill detected! Defensive Formation: Heartwood Fortress]
The roots around the core hardened into layered bark armor, thick and glossy, veined with gold stolen from Durharn’s throne and green stolen from Seranaya. So this was her last shell.
“We need to crack it open!” Marissa shouted.
“No kidding!”
Sela rushed beside me, earth armor crawling up her arms. “Your Majesty, I can rupture the floor beneath it, but only if someone holds her main body still.”
Seraphel landed on my other side. “I can burn her upper roots.”
The Fairy Queen floated down, breathing hard. “I will suppress the pollen.”
Al adjusted his monocle, face pale but voice calm. “I can bind her for two seconds.”
I looked at him. “Only two?”
“She is large and emotionally unpleasant.”
Fair.
Evelina stepped behind me and pressed her hand between my shoulders.
“Healing Light.”
Warmth flooded me.
The pain dulled. My shoulder repaired fully. My wings steadied. Her fingers lingered there one second longer than necessary, and even in the middle of this nightmare, that touch grounded me. Soft. Fierce. Mine.
“Don’t get reckless,” she whispered.
I glanced back with a smile. “Too late.”
Then we moved.
All of us.
Al’s shadows struck first, wrapping around Elowen’s central trunk in thick black bands. Seraphel flew upward and carved fire across the upper roots, preventing them from smashing down. The Fairy Queen spun her staff, silver wind forming a vortex that pulled poison pollen away from us and blasted it out through the ceiling hole. Marissa’s flowers surged in waves, blue mist weakening the bark armor. Sela slammed both fists into the floor.
The ground beneath the heartwood core cracked open wider.
Elowen roared, trying to pull back.
“Not today,” I growled.
I dashed forward.
One step.
The floor shattered behind me.
Second step.
A root spear came for my throat. I ducked under it, wings folding tight, Nightmare slicing upward to cut it in half.
Third step.
Poison thorns burst from the ground. I jumped, twisted sideways, planted one boot on a frozen root, and used it to spring forward.
Fourth step.
Elowen’s face descended from above, mouth open in a scream, wooden jaws forming around poison light.
[Warning! Enemy Skill Activated: Matriarch’s Devouring Bloom]
A huge flower opened behind her head, aiming straight at me.
Evelina shouted, “Argod!”
Golden light wrapped around my body. Evelina’s Barrier.
Seraphel’s fire crashed into the bloom from the side. Fairy wind struck from the other. The attack still fired, a thick beam of poison-green mana tearing toward me.
I didn’t dodge.
I raised Nightmare.
[Spell Breaker Activated]
The beam hit my blade and split around me, ripping apart the floor, walls, and remaining decorations. My boots dragged back an inch. Then another. My arms shook.
For real this time.
“Your Majesty!” Al shouted.
I pushed forward.
Step by step.
Against the beam.
Nightmare screamed.
The poison-green mana pressed harder, roaring against my blade like a river of death trying to swallow me whole. The floor beneath my boots cracked deeper with every inch I forced myself forward. My arms shook. My shoulders burned. The barrier Evelina wrapped around me flickered violently under the pressure, golden light peeling away in thin broken sparks.
Her remaining roots twisted together above me, forming a giant spear of poisoned heartwood. Not wide. Not messy. Focused. All of it aimed straight at me.
My chest.
My throat.
My core.
The beam in front.
The spear above.
No clean dodge.
No space.
No time.
So I waited.
One heartbeat.
The spear fell.
Another heartbeat.
The beam surged.
At the last second, I smiled.
“Cronos,” I muttered.
[Cronos Activated]
Time stopped.
I moved.
My wings spread.
Fire and ice crawled along the blade.
My muscles burned. My teeth clenched so hard my jaw hurt.
Then I smiled. “Mine.”
I twisted Nightmare.
The beam shattered.
Mana exploded outward in a burst of green sparks.
And I reached the core.
Time moved again.
Elowen’s eyes went wide.
“No—”
Too late.
Sela’s rupture exposed the lower shell. Marissa’s antidote softened the poison layer. Al’s shadows held the trunk. Seraphel’s fire kept the upper roots away. Evelina’s light held me together.
So I gave the final cut.
I drove Nightmare straight into the heartwood core.
For one second, everything stopped.
Then fire erupted.
Not wild fire.
Focused.
Buried inside the core, contained by ice around the outer layer so the evidence didn’t burn away with the rest of the hall. The heartwood cracked from within, black-red flames running through its veins while ice locked the explosion inward.
Elowen screamed.
Her giant body arched backward, roots tearing themselves apart as the core collapsed. Poison mana burst out in violent waves, but Marissa’s flowers bloomed brighter, swallowing it. Evelina expanded her barrier over everyone left inside the hall.
[Core Integrity: Failing]
[Enemy Regeneration: Disabled]
[Enemy Territory Expansion: Terminated]
I ripped Nightmare upward.
The core split in half.
A shockwave blasted across the hall.
Elowen’s monstrous body cracked from root to crown, bark splitting, poison flowers withering, stolen gold authority fading into dust. Her scream became smaller. Human again. Terrified again.
Her massive form collapsed inward.
Not dead yet.
But defeated.
She crashed to the ruined floor in a broken humanoid shape, bark peeling from her skin, crown gone, poison roots shriveled around her.
I stood over her, breathing hard, Nightmare still burning in my hand.
No true dragon form.
No city destroyed. Well, kind of.
No palace saved either, unfortunately.
But hey.
Couldn’t win everything.
My system gave me an announcement. But my attention went to Evelina who ran to my side, hands glowing as she healed the fresh cuts across my arms.
Sela and Marissa stood behind me, exhausted but upright. Al fixed his sleeve like he hadn’t nearly passed out. Seraphel landed nearby, flame spear lowered, eyes still burning.
I looked down at Elowen.
Then exhaled.
“Told you,” I muttered.
Nightmare’s flame pulsed once.
“Dragons don’t make good prisoners.”