Chapter 738: Spire Ascension (VIII)
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Cedric rested, for the first time, after clearing the 30th floor.
He wasn’t tired nor exhausted. He’s just shaking off the nostalgia he was feeling. He had to remind himself that the dragons he’s facing right now aren’t the Wise Dragons of his home.
This took five minutes at most. Then, he moved onto the 31st floor.
Once again, he arrived in a world rich and teeming with primordial life. Everything around him was huge and had an archaic air. It’s like he’s been transported back in time when the Primordials still walked the lands freely.
He wasn’t in a nest this time. He’s in a vast clearing with gigantic trees and mountains at a distance.
As he was feeling small amidst all of this, the enemies he must face announced their presence in a unique way.
Roar!!!
They fell from the sky like a falling meteor. Two giant dragons tangled upon each other.
One was white, the other was black.
The white dragon looked elegant, pure, and majestic. From a single glance, Cedric could tell that it’s a female dragon. Her scales were pure white and reflected a rainbow under the glare of light. Her horns were like wonders of ivory naturally forming on her head. Her pale wings scattered silver glitter with each beat, and her body was on the slender side.
Her image was of purity. Even as she just existed there, she made Cedric feel like a blasphemer for daring to gaze upon her beauty. This isn’t some empty praise; it’s a real side effect of the white dragon’s power, and it’s somewhat affecting Cedric.
Alas, her pure and innocent beauty was disturbed by a similarly large and shadowy figure of a black dragon, a male one.
The black dragon emanated roughness, violence, and recklessness. He was wrapping his large body around the white dragon, trying to pin her down in an attempt to subdue her and possibly corrupt her while he’s at it.
Both dragons were equal in strength. They are trying to subdue each other like yin and yang trying to merge to no avail.
This might look bad, but from what Cedric learned from Primordial Beast, this isn’t really that weird.
These two may very well be a couple, and they’re probably in their mating season.
It’s just that the pride of a dragon won’t simply allow her to lie down there and allow her mate to have his way with her. She must test his might and make him forcibly subdue her to prove that he’s worthy of being her mate. Furthermore, this process was known to increase their chances of conceiving children.
"Black and white baby dragons...sounds like a headache," Cedric mused to himself out loud.
These two dragons represented two extreme elements in opposing spectra: purity and darkness. It would be very difficult for them to conceive children due to their nature. This is probably why they’re really going at it.
At some point, though, much to the white dragon’s visible confusion, the black dragon paused and sniffed the air. Curiously, she did too. That’s when they were alarmed by the presence of another living creature nearby, one that had been watching their frolicking.
The black dragon glared in Cedric’s direction after he located him; the white dragon did the same. Hostility emanated off them in waves, so much so that Cedric was beginning to feel pressured.
Then, without any prior warnings of winding up, the black dragon spat out a ray of pitch-black beam to where Cedric stood, attempting to swallow him into nihility.
The attack came too quickly. There were no warnings, no build-up, just immediate escalation to extermination.
It’s obvious that the black dragon didn’t want their activities to be interrupted for too long.
Boom!
A small explosion occurred at where Cedric previously stood. The attack didn’t make too much noise, and that’s because that wasn’t the point. The beam of pitch-black light turned into a shadowy dome that swallowed everything within a mile radius. It was pure darkness, alive and hungry. It erodes everything it touches, breaking them down to nihility.
Normally, that would’ve been it, but the scent of the intruder remains. Both dragons could still smell his living pulse.
He stood amidst the darkness, surrounded by flashing swords emitting light that made the darkness recoil in fear due to their sharpness. Cedric was perfectly fine within their protection; he didn’t even look remotely bothered.
The predatory eyes of both dragons turned sharp as they both realized that this creature wasn’t a simple one. They detangled each other, and both stood in alertness to face the enemy.
This time, it was the white dragon who made a move.
She unfolded her pale wings, roaring to the skies as her entire body released a bright light.
Then, the skies started raining down spears of light where Cedric stood. They moved at five times the speed of light, and though they looked weightless and ethereal, they carried a surprising amount of penetrating power.
Cedric had to parry each one that came his way. And as he did this, he felt the effect of purity laws affecting him.
The white dragon’s purity was melting his origin energy away and sapping his energy. This effect was persistent, and it was also trying to melt his ’existence.’ The white dragon’s purity was ’rejecting’ his existence, which was worse than killing him.
This pair was dangerous. One can use shadows to swallow someone into the abyssal maw of darkness, never to be seen again, and the other can simply reject someone’s very existence, and the world will listen.
"Yeah, if you two ever succeed in mating, your babies will either be ill or extremely troublesome."
But despite the apparent danger that he’s in, Cedric didn’t look concerned. If anything, some could even say that his thoughts are at the wrong place right now.
Though, he wasn’t wrong. The children of these two were either destined to die or fated to be apex predators when they grew up. Even if their children were to inherit an unbalanced mix of their parents’ powers, that would be more than enough for them to dominate others very easily.
And if there’s one who perfectly inherits both of their extreme elements without any side effects? Then this world will witness the birth of a true monster.
The dragons didn’t understand what he was saying, and they didn’t care. They just didn’t like the idea that the intruder was proving to be a real problem for them.
Furthermore, this intruder had ruined their good atmosphere. They were so close to getting it on. Heaven knows that they’ve been looking forward to this for a while now, and yet all their preparation and foreplay was ruined because he appeared.
This was more than just frustration at this point. It was straight-up maddening.
Seeing as the intruder refuses to die, both dragons combined their strength to deal with him as soon as possible. Maybe, if they could kill him fast enough, they could still continue with what they were doing before; maybe it’s not too late.
And so, the black and white dragon teamed up to kill him at the soonest time possible.
But again, Cedric proved to be tougher than they expected. He once again displayed his excellence with the sword, neutralizing all the harmful elements around him with a single swing of his sword.
"You know what? I don’t blame you for being irate. I know what it feels like to be sexually frustrated too. It’s totally my bad," Cedric jeered.
He didn’t care whether they understood him or not; he just wanted to talk and maybe provoke them even more.
Cedric was at the point of his ascent where the enemies he’s facing were starting to pose a challenge to him. Both of these dragons are equivalent to fighting Immortal Kings who wielded the power of Extreme Light and Extreme Darkness, both at the Great Law level.
Furthermore, these are dragons, creatures with a rich primordial beast bloodline. Even if they were to face a human who had the same attainments and realm as they do, the dragons will still have the upper hand simply because they’re dragons.
To others, they are a severe threat. One that could end their lives if they slipped up. To Cedric, though, they’re the action he’s been missing out on.
Finally, worthy opponents.
The fact that he’s being forced to show more and more of his strength as he climbs is the best thing about this. Cedric could feel his blood pumping, eager to discover more that this spire can offer and how far he could go.
And as if responding to his battle intent, the dragons roared furiously and began unleashing more of their power.
A pool of darkness appeared beneath the black dragon and swallowed his entire figure. Meanwhile, the white dragon took to the skies, her incredibly majestic figure turning into a streak of light that blitzed all over the place.
Above and below, the dragon couple was overwhelming Cedric, pushing him to the brink of despair.
However, in response to all this, all Cedric did was summon more swords and prepare for a really fun fight.