Chapter 352: Chapter 351 - The Plan.
The silence after the colossus’s revelation stretched like a blade across the air—long, heavy, and sharp enough to cut thought itself.
Ash drifted in lazy spirals through the cracked wasteland, the only movement in a world that suddenly felt too still.
Raven stood with Omni still resting on his shoulder, his crimson eyes narrowing as his mind worked faster than his heartbeat.
Then his frown deepened, sharp enough to slice through the quiet.
"...Wait," he said, voice low but carrying. "If the corrupt beasts are your father’s blood... and killing them lets him absorb their power—" He paused, the next words carrying realization mixed with suspicion. "—then what about you? The part-dragons. Wouldn’t the same rule apply?"
Every head snapped toward him.
Selena’s blue eyes sharpened, Clara stiffened mid-breath, and Siris’s grip tightened on her frost-dripping daggers. Even Nibbles froze mid-tail flick.
They realized what he was trying to point at.
He wanted to ask, ’If the normal corrupt beasts could hasten the revival, then what about beings who had developed the dragonic parts?’
Jake didn’t even wait for Raven to turn toward him.
His shadow stretched and swallowed him whole, his body sinking into blackness.
The colossus, on the other hand, tilted its massive head, confusion flickering through its eyes.
’Would father really want to kill us?’
But then, as if recalling something, its molten eyes widened in sudden, primal fear.
Raven caught it instantly. His own gaze hardened. "Spit it out."
The beast’s jaw trembled, molten cracks glowing hotter. "...When Father first stirred, we felt his call. He said that he was hungry and he wanted to eat—"
It hesitated, the next words scraping out like broken stone.
"Now I realize that it was us he wanted, and not the corrupt beasts we sent to him."
The beast could never have thought that the one they thought of as their father wanted to eat them.
Jessy broke it with a lazy but bitter sigh, brushing ash from her sleeve. "A father who wants his kids to throw themselves into the blender for his next power-up. Real touching family reunion."
The colossus lowered its head, silent. For a creature of shadow and scale, shock looked almost human—an emptiness where worship had lived.
Soon, a ripple of darkness slid back across the scorched plain.
Jake emerged from his shadow, his face grim, and every word lowered the temperature by a degree. "All the bodies of the part-dragons we killed... they’re gone. Drag marks. All of them lead to the crater."
The air itself seemed to flinch.
Even the colossus recoiled, molten eyes flaring wide. "He... he ate them..."
Raven’s frown sharpened into a command. "Everyone—move. Now. Get as far from the crater as you can."
He didn’t even want to know what was happening in the crater because the creature inside wasn’t something any of them were prepared to face.
It was the black dragon, a being who was known to be strong enough to slay gods, and they, who didn’t even know how strong gods were, could never hope to win against that dragon.
However, he wasn’t sending everyone away.
He turned to Graye. "You stay with me."
If he were to take on a being who had been on the level of a god, then he needed another being like that, and Graye was the one.
Her armor clinked as she practically bounced in place, eyes sparkling. "Finally! I knew today was my lucky day!"
But before anyone could groan at her excitement, the earth convulsed.
A deep, grinding rumble swelled beneath their feet—then the crater erupted like a volcanic cannon.
A column of black flame and ash tore into the sky.
From within, a roar erupted—ancient, guttural, and endless.
The sound alone pressed against bone and soul, a weight that screamed run.
The pressure alone was enough to make the most seasoned warriors give out, but the group held on.
Selena’s shadow flinched, as if even the beasts that were in her shadow were scared, Clara’s breath came slow and tight, and Siris’s grin—usually bloodthirsty—faltered for the first time.
The panther hissed, fur bristling, while its mother crouched low with a warning snarl.
"GO!" Raven barked. "This isn’t a fight we win. Not today."
But no one moved.
Selena’s calm voice cut through the chaos. "You don’t have extra lives, Raven. We do. We stay."
Clara nodded once, firm as steel. Siris gave a sharp grin. "Not leaving. The last time we did, you died."
Jessy just stretched, muttering, "Yeah, good luck making me run."
The colossus rumbled, terror creeping into its words. "You fools don’t understand. At the level Father awakens... your attacks won’t even touch him."
Everyone turned toward the beast with a frown, but the beast didn’t flinch. "When one reaches the Imperial Realm, mana itself becomes armor. Unless you are Imperial... your blades will never reach his flesh."
"Imperial rank," Raven muttered. "That must be the level after the tenth."
"So you know about it," the colossus growled.
"Not really," Raven replied. "Before you spoke of it, I didn’t even know the name of that level. But I do know someone who has reached that level."
The beast’s eyes went wide as he heard those words. "Call that person!" It barked in urgency. "Only they can stop father!"
Raven, however, cracked his knuckles as he stared toward the crater, now throwing out smoke.
"I don’t think he can come here," he said, his partial dragonic form twitching. "Above all, you haven’t even seen my true powers."
The colossus frowned. "Your arrogance will be your doom."
Then, after glancing at the crater once, it turned away.
"I thought I was born to worship him..." the colossus muttered. "But I won’t die feeding his hunger. Not today."
With that, it started walking away.
The ground quaked with every step the colossus took, each rumble echoing like a funeral drumbeat across the wasteland.
Raven did not move to stop it.
His crimson eyes followed the beast’s retreating bulk, the faint shimmer of molten cracks glowing against the blackened horizon.
For him, it was better if the beast left because then, he’d have the perfect reason to send the others away.
"Let it walk," Raven finally said, his voice low but carrying through the scorched air.
The group turned to him, confusion flashing in their eyes.
Siris tilted her head, frost dripping from her daggers. "You’re...just letting it leave? That thing could actually help."
Graye puffed up in her armor, her eyes bright. "Yeah! Big scary lava dragon equals big scary punching bag!"
Raven’s gaze swept over them, sharp and unyielding. "That thing isn’t just leaving. It’s bait."
The word dropped like a stone.
"If the black dragon feeds on part-dragons, then that creature’s life is worth more than any attack we could throw. If it dies, that dragon grows stronger. And it staying here would only make it easier for the dragon to kill it. So, I want you guys to follow it and protect it."
For a heartbeat, no one spoke. Only the hiss of settling ash and the far-off rumble of the crater filled the silence.
Then Selena’s cool voice cut through the weight. "You want us to guard the very thing we were ready to fight?"
"Yes." Raven met her icy gaze without a flicker. "Because if it dies, I lose my only chance of holding the dragon here. Maybe killing it."
Clara’s eyes softened, her quiet understanding reaching him even across the choking tension. "You’re asking us to leave you behind."
Raven gave a single, sharp nod. "And I need you to say yes."
Siris’s grin faltered, her voice unusually small. "...I hate this plan."
Graye didn’t say anything as she was staying. Raven himself had asked her to stay, and so she was happy.
The others didn’t like the plan, as Siris said, but they knew that this was the only way to survive whatever was coming.
So, they sighed.
Jessy stretched, the lazy flick of her wrist belying the tightness in her eyes. "Fine. I hate playing hero, but I hate watching idiots die more."
Rufus exhaled sharply, his eyes narrowing. "Then I’m heading for the capital. If Crisaius is done with his fight, I’ll drag him back here myself."
Raven gave a curt nod. "Do it. Every second counts."
One by one, they agreed—Selena with a quiet nod, Clara with a steady breath, and Siris with a grudging growl, while Jake silently clenched his fists.
Even Alex, usually a fountain of dumb jokes, only muttered a shaky "Don’t die, man," before Nibbles flicked his tail and leaped to his shoulder.
The colossus paused at the edge of the cracked plain, molten eyes narrowing in something like disbelief.
"I will never understand you humans," it rumbled, its voice deep and weary. "You run toward death as if it’s a lover."
Selena, standing beside the giant, turned her cold blue gaze up at it. "Of course you don’t. You can’t understand why we fight for people we love. But Raven does. That’s why he stays."
Her voice sharpened like frost on steel. "If this dragon leaves the expanse, the first place it would go to would be the Vaise territory, and the people many of us care for live there."
Clara, whose mother, like Jake’s, Alex’s, Rufus’s, and Jessy’s, was in the cradle, stepped forward, her calm words carrying more weight than any battle cry.
"He pretends he doesn’t care, but he does. About Vaise. About every soul he can save. This is who he is."
The colossus stared down at them, silent.
Raven, on the other hand, said nothing.
He only watched as his team—his family—turned away, their figures disappearing into the drifting ash.
The crater behind him roared again, a black flame tearing at the sky.
Ash fell like dark snow, the roar of the crater clawing at their bones.
Raven tightened his grip on Omni, crimson eyes fixed on the firestorm ahead.
Beside him, Graye laughed, her armor gleaming. "Finally, my battle date."
Meanwhile, Omni purred, "Heh, a god slaying sword against a god slaying dragon. It’s obvious that I, the god slaying sword, would win."
His words almost eased the tension.
Almost.