“Don't touch her!”
The shadows beneath Leopold's feet surged violently once more. No longer forming claws or shields like before, they flowed across the ground like a tide of pitch-black water, incredibly fast and completely silent.
Whoosh!
The shadow surged up from the ground in a sudden strike, grazing Ophelia's cheek. Crimson blood slowly trickled down her exquisite face.
“Oh dear,” Ophelia said, immediately stepping aside and cupping her cheek. The wound healed at an extremely rapid pace.
There was no anger in her voice, nor even surprise. There was only a sort of... novel amusement.
“That... actually hurt a little.”
Ophelia wiped the blood from her face and looked down at the red smear on her fingertips. When she raised her head, a hint of seriousness finally appeared in her emerald-green eyes.
“Three against one. That's hardly fair, is it?”
Before her voice could fade, Leopold's shadows had already rushed along the ground to her feet. Blake's ice spikes closed off her retreat from the left, while Isabella's white swords pressed in from the front. The three attacks arrived almost simultaneously.
Ophelia gave her two pairs of wings a violent flap, unleashing an invisible shockwave that erupted with her at the center. Blake's ice spikes shattered into fine powder in midair, and Isabella's white swords were knocked off course, grazing past Ophelia's ears.
But Leopold's shadows quickly reformed into dozens of sharp spikes, thrusting out simultaneously from the ground, the walls, and the ceiling, sealing off her every escape route.
“Phasma Lucis!”
Ophelia's figure shattered into countless points of light before Leopold's eyes. The shadow spikes had pierced only an afterimage, and her form coalesced once more a short distance away.
“Hah!” Blake had already lunged to her side. Foregoing magic this time, he transformed his hands into dragon claws, his razor-sharp talons aiming straight for her left wing!
Ophelia turned sideways and swiftly folded her left wing. Blake's claws grazed the edge of her feathers, slicing off a few white plumes.
Spinning with the momentum, she pressed her right fingers together like a blade, slashing a blade of light from her fingertips. Blake's pupils contracted sharply. He forced his body to twist, but the light blade still grazed his shoulder, spraying blue dragon blood into the air.
“Blake!” Isabella's seven white swords pivoted simultaneously, thrusting down fiercely toward Ophelia from behind.
Without looking back, Ophelia flung open her second pair of wings. The white swords slammed against the surface of her wings, triggering a series of explosions that kicked up a cloud of dust, obscuring her vision.
Leopold seized this split second. His shadows transformed into three long spears that shot diagonally from the ground, aiming straight for her!
Boom! A blinding light erupted from the center of the dust cloud. Ophelia unfurled her wings and soared out of the glare. Holding a golden sword of light in her hand, she lunged straight for Leopold's heart.
Shadows welled up from beneath Leopold's feet, condensing into a shield before his chest. The light sword pierced the shadow with a searing hiss. Although the light blade tore through the darkness, the thrust was forced half an inch off course, grazing past Leopold's left shoulder.
“Tch,” Ophelia twisted her wrist to pull her sword back, the blade of light tracing an arc through the air as she slashed toward Leopold's neck.
“Argh!” Blake charged in from the side like a ferocious cannonball, slamming hard into Ophelia's waist. The impact forced her half a step aside, throwing her slash off target and shearing through several stone pillars behind Leopold.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Leopold seized the opportunity to counterattack. The surrounding shadows churned as countless spears shot toward Ophelia, who was momentarily stalled in midair.
Ophelia was forced to flap her wings to dodge, but she was a fraction of a second too slow and was hit by Leopold's attack.
She looked down at her left wing. A shadow spear had impaled the edge of her wing, and dark red droplets of blood were dripping down her white feathers.
“...Tch.”
Leopold gave her no room to breathe. Before the shadow spear had even fully dissipated, he threw his entire weight forward, his right fist wrapped in swirling shadows as he aimed straight for Ophelia's chest.
Ophelia was forced to flap her wings again, but the wound on her left wing made her movements half a beat slower. She lunged aside to dodge Leopold's fist, only for Blake's sharp claws to be waiting right in her path. Three deep claw marks tore across her right arm.
Her brow finally furrowed. For the first time in the entire battle, she showed a clear, unfeigned expression of pain.
“Lux Aeterna—”
“Don't you dare!”
Isabella dove from above, her white dragon claws clamping hard onto Ophelia's left wing and dragging her entire body down to the ground. Ophelia's chant was cut short as the two tumbled together, smashing through two rows of wooden racks and sending stone fragments and wood splinters flying in all directions.
“Gelus Pennis!”
Blake followed closely behind, casting an instant-release spell. Frost spread across Ophelia's wings, freezing a portion of them.
Ophelia was finally enraged.
“You—!” A golden ring of light erupted from her body. Blake was sent flying, crashing straight through the stone wall behind him, while Isabella was also blown back.
Ophelia stood up unsteadily. When she raised her head, the playful, careless smile in her emerald eyes had completely vanished, replaced by a cold, lifeless tranquility.
She raised her right hand, spreading her fingers with her palm facing upward. A golden light rose from her palm, condensing, spinning, and expanding in midair until it formed a holy spear nearly three meters long.
The moment the words fell, Leopold only had time to catch a golden blur in his vision. In the next split second, Blake was impaled through the shoulder by the light spear, pinned to the stone wall behind him half a meter off the ground.
“Blake!”
But Ophelia was no longer there. Her voice drifted from behind Leopold, carrying an almost polite warning:
“Mr. Leopold, your shadow is in disarray.”
Leopold spun around, his shadows surging violently at his side, but he was indeed too slow. Ophelia's fist, wrapped in golden light, slammed squarely into his chest.
He heard the sound of his ribs snapping before he flew backward, crashing through a stone wall and becoming buried under a heap of rubble.
Isabella's roar echoed from above. The white dragon spread her wings, pouring down a pillar of pure white light. Ophelia unfurled her two pairs of wings to meet it head-on. The pillar of light slammed against the barrier formed by her interwoven wings, exploding into a shower of light fragments.
“I told you, Holy Light magic is useless against me.”
Twisting her body, she slipped through the gaps in the light pillar. Pressing her fingers together, she aimed a blade of light straight at the side of Isabella's neck.
Clang!
An ice spike shot in from the side, throwing the light blade off course. Blake stood in the breach of the stone wall, panting heavily. The wound on his left shoulder was still bleeding, blue dragon blood dripping down his arm and onto the ground.
“...You motherfucker... don't touch her!”
“...How utterly foolish,” Ophelia said softly.
In the next instant, she appeared right in front of Blake, her golden fist moving too fast to see. Blake took a solid blow to the abdomen and doubled over, the ice spikes dissolving from his fingertips.
Boom!
Ophelia kicked him, sending Blake crashing back into the wall, where he lost consciousness.
“Blake!” Isabella dove from above, her white dragon claws wrapped in Holy Light as she clawed at Ophelia. Without even looking back, Ophelia snapped her right wing open, conjuring a barrier of light between them.
“Vincula Lucis—”
Several golden chains of light erupted from the ground, wrapping precisely around the diving Isabella's limbs and wings. The light ropes tightened, forcefully dragging the white dragon's massive body down and pinning her firmly to the rubble-strewn ground.
Roar!
Isabella roared in anger, prompting Ophelia to sigh in exasperation.
“I see. So as long as I destroy the Royal Capital, you will obediently go up, right?” Ophelia stood in the center of the hall, her two pairs of wings slightly spread as ripples of golden light radiated outward from her body.
Ignoring everyone's reactions, Ophelia folded her wings and flew up into the sky above the Royal Capital. Her indifferent emerald eyes looked down upon the entire tribe.
The golden halo around her grew increasingly radiant. She slowly raised her arms, and a cold, solemn chant echoed across the entire Royal Capital, the flowing syllables sounding like a singer's most beautiful melody.
“Dies Iudicii, Lux Perdet Omnia! Terra hujus urbis, solve fundamenta! Day of Judgment, light shall destroy all! Dissolve the foundations of this city, shatter every base!”
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