The Behemoth had resurfaced once again. On top of that, in the distance, the wyvern fortress was also in clear view. Icarus sighed.
'This is not how I wanted to reach this place.'
The behemoth roared, and several pillars of earth shot out toward the fortress and Icarus, as well as Alazea, who he was riding on.
Icarus channelled his mana into several spears of ice, launching each with superheated air.
They smashed through the approaching Pillars, but were also destroyed by the impact.
Similar to fire magic, which requires exponentially higher amounts of mana the more you want to heat it, the colder or harder the ice is, the more mana it requires.
Icarus had still been able to destroy the pillars, however, and Alazea prepared blast a massive ball of white fire towards the behemoth.
Far off in the distance, several lights flashed on the fortress. In the blink of an eye, several bolts of lightning blasted out and smashed through the pillars that had been sent toward them.
They didn't stop there and slammed into the behemoth, tearing off more of its earthen shell.
However, some other bolts of lightning were shot at Icarus and Alazea. Icarus just managed to block with 3 layers of magic shielding, but Alazea was struck in the wing.
She let out a screech and was knocked off balance. Her fireball rocketed past the side of the behemoth and slammed into the ground.
Wyvern lord Saarnax received reports that all targets had been hit. He growled as he observed the white Dragon, who hadn't been particularly damaged in any notable way.
He had built the fortress in a way that he assumed he could defend from an army of dragons; the cannons were built to specifically kill them.
However, this seemed nothing more than a pipe dream.
He grew angry at his race; he felt that he was the only useful one among them, and even if he strove hard to unite them, they would still be practically useless.
He shook it off, no matter. As long as he lived, he had chosen one way of life, the one that prioritised him over all others.
He held out his hand, and his spear formed with a crack of lightning.
An artefact he had stolen from the tomb of an ancient dragon, the spear was enchanted with dark lightning, ancient magic from a forgotten time.
He smiled and, with a flash, shot out of the window.
His servant was left to watch on in awe.
An instinct told Icarus to leap back. Suddenly, one of Alazeas' wings appeared in front of him, and a massive crack like the explosion of a tree after it is hit by lightning sounded out.
Icarus was knocked back by a shockwave, flying through the air for a few seconds before figuring out how to orientate himself with the wind magic, which allowed him to hover temporarily.
When he looked back, he saw Alazea clutching at her wing as it healed from a massive gash.
Beside her, looking at him, hovered a black-scaled man, his arms had small wings attached to them, similar to the wyverns from before; there had been more wing then arm, where the opposite was the case for this young man.
He seemed about Icarus' age, but knowing dragons, he must be far older.
His body was small, but heavily muscled throughout, clearly well-rounded from years of training.
His hair was jet black, his left eye was crimson, and his right eye was a glowing green like a piece of fine jade.
Icarus frowned and stayed on guard. He had been able to react due to being used to fighting ridiculously fast opponents, but this man's speed far surpassed Ingel's. The distance he had covered was well over a kilometre, and Icarus had still barely backed up and would have been killed if not for Alazea.
He was mildly concerned as the time he could hover in the air was fairly limited, but suspected that this confrontation would not last very long.
The Wyvern smiled, "oh wow, a human! Would you tell me your name, and perhaps how you got here?"
Icarus found the greeting strange after the man had attempted to kill him. He responded since they had come here to meet the wyverns, and he had a hunch who this man was.
"I am Icarus. I have no clue how I got here, but we are not your enemy. Please stop attacking."
His smile widened, "Oh? And what would you do if I did attack?"
His eyes glimmered mischievously, and Icarus clenched his staff.
The wyvern's face changed slightly, and with a laugh, he continued, "Haha, oh well. I suppose an introduction would be fitting for my position at this point."
His narrow eyes widened and shone "I am Saarnax, the Lord of the Wyverns, he who claimed lightning and shredder of chains."
Icarus was thrown off by the lengthy list of titles, although He was not surprised by the man's identity.
The man paused and looked back down at Icarus, his spear sparking with lightning.
"Now! You have brought this creature into my lands. This is a clear declaration of war. I sentence you to Death!"
Icarus waved his hand frantically, "Wait! The creature was running from us and ended up here! We have no part in this!"
Saarnax glowered at him, "Huh?! If he were running, why bother following? Are you trying to trick me?"
Icarus shook his head, "no it's the truth, my friend got swallowed by that thing, we were just trying to get him back."
Saarnax looked from Icarus to Alazea and shrugged.
"Swallowed, huh? Well, I guess there is one way to check your story."
He inverted the spear, the Behemoth was directly below where he hovered, and it looked up, it roared, and the earth shot up from the ground to attack him.
Icarus paused, observing the situation 'hes not just going to drop it... is he?'
The spear glinted with electricity and shot down toward the creature with astounding force.
The air around it was blown apart, and the sheer force of its speed was enough to shatter the earthen pillars just by passing by them.
Faster than anyone could have seen, the spear hit and travelled cleanly through the behemoth's skull, killing it instantly before embedding itself in the ground below.
A massive pillar of lightning rose out on contact, and the shockwave was so powerful it nearly knocked Icarus out of the air.
Alazea, who had healed her wing at this point. sensed the battle was over and transformed back into her humanoid form.
Icarus just stared in a mix of shock and horror, the attack had been so powerful, if it had hit Ingel...
The three of them descended, Saarnax retrieved his spear from the ground, and the dust surrounding them started to settle.
The creature's body was immense, its head had been destroyed; however, its torso and rear remained. Icarus just hoped Ingel had found a way to survive.
Saarnax turned, "Well, let's check if your friend is-"
"ERUPT, AZLAT!"
A pillar of fire ripped through the creature's corpse. Ingel flew into the sky, covered in stomach acid and blood, and crashed into the ground in a heap before them.
They all stared at him in bewilderment, his eyes half-opened, and he gave Icarus a weak Thumbs up.
"I reached a new realm in my mastery of Azlat... You'll never beat me now..."
He seemed to pass out after this, and Icarus looked from him to the dead body of the creature.
From inside, he heard loud grunts, and one of the wyverns emerged; he was pulling the other one by the wings, obviously struggling.
Saarnax stared. Icarus looked to him, "Hey! Aren't you going to help them?! They ended up like that because of you y'know?"
Saarnax frowned "Shut up! If they are strong, they will survive; if they are weak, they will die. They have hope now because the light is right in front of their eyes; they will not fall now."
The two didn't seem to share their leader's philosophy and collapsed. Alazea quickly flew up, grabbed them and brought them down.
Saarnax looked annoyed and averted his gaze.
The ground began shaking violently.
They all looked around, "What the?! It's completely dead, isn't it?"
Saarnax sighed, "All monsters have a core, including Wyverns, you dragons and humans wouldn't know about this, but when we die, our core will violently enact our dying will."
Icarus frowned, "So this thing gets one final shot at us?!"
Saarnax nodded, "and not a smart one, I would like to add, we can all fly, so this earthquake isn't going to do anything."
Saying this, he flew into the air, and Icarus followed. He levitated Ingel as well. Alazea looked at Saarnax with an annoyed expression as she transformed and picked up the two Wyvern men in her talons."
As they rose, Saarnax turned bug-eyed and his gaze locked on a certain point in the distance.
Icarus followed his gaze and saw.
In the air, they could hardly feel the tremors.
However, the Wyvern fortress, which was hastily built in just a decade, was shattering and crumbling to the earth before their very eyes.
Icarus suppressed a laugh at Saarnax's instant Karma and turned to him once again.
His expression was just plain, and he looked too stunned to speak, not in a caring or worried way, just silenced by his own stupidity.
The three of them watched as the last tower of the fortress fell into dust, each silent for different reasons.