Eruhaben flinched on his way toward the White Star.
'Still need to live a lot longer.'
That made Eruhaben scoff in disbelief.
One thousand years.
He had thought that he had already lived too long. That was why he was tired. He was bored. Of course, he was not bored because nothing dangerous ever happened anymore.
'I questioned it every so often.'
Eruhaben had questioned his life similarly to how the White Star had questioned his life.
'Why do Dragons live for close to 1,000 years?
For what reason?
What is the point of living this long on your own?'
One of the things that Eruhaben saw the most in his 1,000 years of life was death.
All living things died at some point. That was an obvious law of nature. He had no desire to go against it, but it was difficult watching others pass away.
Eruhaben believed that was why the world created Dragons to be independent, arrogant, and prefer to be alone.
They would experience less death by not being involved with others.
There might have been a reason Eruhaben looked after the World Tree and the Elves. The World Tree was a tree that never died while Elves were creatures with one of the longest lifespans.
"I didn't expect it to be like this in my last years."
Eruhaben stopped the corners of his lips from slowly going up as he closed his eyes for a moment before he opened them back. He could see the White Star in front of him.
The ancient Dragon's cold gaze recalled Cale, who had flown toward the black clouds, and thought only about one thing.
'I need to keep them alive.'
He needed to keep all of these punks alive.
That was the most important thing.
Eruhaben threw a long spear toward the White Star's hand that was reaching up to the sky.
"Aigoo, are you trying to cut off my arm?"
The White Star chuckled as he created a water wall with his other hand.
Baaaaang!
The white gold spear and the water wall clashed with a loud explosion. The white gold light exploded, covering everyone's vision in white.
The White Star's eyes opened a bit wider the moment that the white gold light disappeared.
"Yes, that's the plan, my long-living friend."
Eruhaben had appeared right in front of his water wall. His left hand smashed into the water wall.
As the hand that was covered in white gold light touched the blue water...
Pss-
No sound was made.
The water had turned into dust without any noise. Eruhaben's hand that had pierced through the water wall reached out toward the White Star.
A new white gold spear had appeared in his hand as well.
The White Star's bright brown eyes looked into the eyes of the Dragon that was piercing through the water. These gold eyes had pupils that were long, unlike human eyes.
"...You damn ancient Dragon."
The White Star moved his left hand again as Eruhaben's spear was flung toward his right hand in the air.
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!
Another loud explosion shook the Empire's capital.
"Ugh!"
"Ugh! Just, just what is going on right now?"
Outside the capital's walls.
The people gathered there could not hide their fear as they watched the black clouds cover the capital along with the two people fighting by the Alchemists' Bell Tower.
Their minds were far past chaotic.
The explosions in front of them only left fear and despair in their hearts.
They had already escaped as far as possible from the capital in fear, however, these people for whom their home was everything could only curl up outside the walls and watch.
"...Sir Bernard ... Was a Lich..."
They never wanted to see that scary black skeleton again. However, someone else had appeared once the Lich had died. And that person had his hand in the air as if he was about to do something.
The ancient Dragon Eruhaben was stabbing at the White Star's right hand with his spear in order to figure out what the White Star was trying to do. However, his attack was blocked by the White Star's left hand that was surrounded by water.
"What is it?"
The White Star casually asked the ancient Dragon as he held onto the spear.
"Are you curious about what my ancient power is?"
Eruhaben started to speak.
"The sky is crying."
All of his senses were tracking the movement of the things in the sky.
Wind.
Rain.
Thunderbolt.
Things that existed in the sky as well as things that the sky could create were gathering together in the black clouds. The forces in the sky were so strong that they were giving the ancient Dragon chills and making his hair stand up.
Eruhaben had a decent idea about what this ancient power could do and asked.
"Is this a sky-attribute ancient power?"
"Yes. You've probably never heard of it."
The spear and the left hand continued to fight. Eruhaben still managed to easily answer the White Star's question.
"Yes, I have never heard about it before."
An ancient power with the power of the sky. He had truly never heard of it.
However, that was not the issue right now. Eruhaben felt that there was more to it.
"You're only going to use a portion of it?"
Wind, rain, and thunderbolts. Eruhaben's intuition was telling him that this was not the limit of this sky ancient power.
The sky.
There was no way something with the word, 'sky,' in its name would only be this strong. His instincts were telling him that, although he already had chills because of the strength of the power, it was still not at full strength.
His 1,000 years of experiences were warning him.
The White Star started to smile.
"Correct. I don't plan on going all out. Just this much is enough."
The white gold spear and water-covered hand seemed to be equally strong. Neither side was being pushed back.
However, the White Star was able to look at Eruhaben with a relaxed expression while Eruhaben's expression stiffened a bit.
The reason that the White Star was not using his full strength.
Eruhaben did not believe what the White Star had just said. That was why he could confidently ask this next question.
"Because of the burden on your body?"
The smile instantly disappeared from the White Star's face.
Eruhaben continued on as if it was nothing.
"You seem to have a lot of ancient powers in your body like Cale. So, I wonder if those are burdensome to you as well."
The different attributes placed a burden on a person's body.
Of course, it depended on the size of the person's plate, however, the pain from using ancient powers was always delivered to the body.
"You could always gather all of the elements in order to put your body in balance."
Water, fire, wind, earth, and wood.
Cale Henituse now had all of the elements so that he could not suffer as much from the clashing of ancient powers.
A smile slowly appeared on Eruhaben's face. He recalled how the White Star had bled after slamming against his spear earlier.
"It doesn't look like you have all of them yet. You aren't balanced right now, are you?"
Eruhaben continued to smile at the no longer smiling White Star and continued on.
"You're not the only one to have lived for 1,000 years. I may only have had one life, but I've lived for 1,000 years as well."
A large wave rumbled behind Eruhaben's back.
That wave was white gold in color as well. Eruhaben had no intention of holding back.
"You'll probably need to use your full strength."
The ancient Dragon motioned to the wave behind him.
"Go."
The large white wave rushed toward the White Star. The White Star quietly observed the strong wave rushing toward him.
He then started to smile.
"Eruhaben, it looks like you wanted to tie me down for a bit."
The fire sword reappeared.
That sword faced the gold wave before turning.
"Ah!"
Saint Jack who was watching from below let out a gasp.
He had thought that the sword would cut through the gold wave. However, the fire coming from that fire was not heading toward the gold wave.
"...Young master Cale!"
The fire coming out of the sword charged toward Cale in the shape of a boomerang. The White Star then smiled and swung his sword toward the white gold wave.
"Cale Henituse's ancient powers cannot win against mine. They are incomplete."
Regardless of which ancient power Cale brought out, he could not defeat any of the White Star's ancient powers right now. That was why no matter what Cale did right now, he could not destroy the White Star's sky-attribute attack.
"Isn't this bad? Don't you need to go help him? I'm sure you want to protect Cale Henituse."
The fatigue was gone from the White Star's eyes and he now seemed quite amused. He could see Eruhaben let out a sigh.
It happened as this unexpected response made the White Star flinch.
Baaaaaang!
The White Star's fire crashed into something and exploded.
A silver shield was breaking apart along with the fire. Cale frowned as he was heading up into the sky.
"...Haaaa."
He then nonchalantly added on.
"Why are you coming here?"
A three-layer silver shield was surrounding him. A chubby black Dragon soon arrived by Cale's side. The Dragon fluttered his wings as he proudly shouted back.
"I do what I want!"
Cale couldn't help but scoff. He could see the Dragon's front paws holding onto his jacket as if he was saying that he would never let go.
Cale's frowning face then turned to the other side.
"And why are you coming here?"
The sword master Hannah. She had a grumpy expression on her face as if she had never had the blank expression she did earlier.
"Are you an idiot?"
"What?"
'Is this the time to be asking me if I'm an idiot?'
Hannah who was on the White Bone Dragon reached her hand toward Cale, who seemed shocked. She then took the white sword away from him.
"Do you even know how to use a sword?"
"......"
"Do you know how to use this?"
"......"
Raon responded for Cale.
"The human has nothing to say!"
He was right.
Cale did have nothing to say.
– I didn't say the method was an item nor that it was the white sword. It includes your friends around you.
The cheapskate spoke into Cale's mind.
"...Haaaa."
Cale lowered his head after seeing Hannah smile and Raon flutter his wings as he sighed.
He could see something once he lowered his head.
"What do you plan to do with a weak wave like this?"
He could see the White Star cut the white gold wave with a slow slash of his fire sword. There was blood at the corners of his lips, however, the strength he showed to easily cut through the mana wave was amazing.
However, Cale was focused on something other than the wave that was being cut in half.
He was not looking at the fighting Eruhaben and White Star.
He was looking farther down.
He was looking at the ground.
"...Why-!"
'Why are they not running away?!'
Cale started to frown even more.
He was looking at the Alchemists' Bell Tower plaza down below.
Choi Han, Mary, Jack, and Sir Rex were all gathered together down there. He also wondered where the airship was located, as Rosalyn was down there with them while using flight magic on them.
"My goodness."
Cale let out a scoff.
"I told all of you to run-"
"Then human, you run away too! Why aren't you running away?!"
Cale was at a loss for words at the six-years-old's retort that came in like a hook. However, he had to quickly return to his senses.
Screeeech-
The screeching noise coming from the black clouds stopped. Cale increased his speed.
"Hurry."
He had an ominous feeling.
The White Star still looked occupied fighting against Eruhaben.
Eruhaben seemed to be defending quite well against the White Star's fire sword while launching his own attacks as well.
It was at that moment.
Cale made eye contact with the White Star who raised his head.
He could see their eyes through the mask.
The corners of their eyes were curled up.
He heard Eruhaben's voice at that moment.
"Everybody run!"
It was a desperate shout.
White gold light also started to come out of Eruhaben's body like watercolor spreading on paper. However, Cale could not pay attention to that spreading light.
Ooooooong-
The black clouds were making noises again.
Cale turned his head.
"Ugh, ugh!"
Hannah was trying to stop the rumbling white sword that was making her hands shake. Hannah started to smile as she made eye contact with Cale.
Her voice was shaking.
"...Something is weird. M, my hands are shaking?"
Cale started to frown.
Hannah was sweating a lot. It had started the moment that the black clouds started to roar differently than before.
"Human! I feel something weird inside the black clouds!"
Raon looked toward Cale and continued to speak.
"Despair! There is despair in there!"
Cale could see some kind of shining light within the clouds. No, it was not a light.
Something black was shining.
It was a black thunderbolt.
This black thunderbolt that looked ready to strike down at the ground at any moment was shining.
Ooooooong-
Cale looked down at his feet while listening to the rumblings of the sky.
The white gold light had reached his feet at some point. It then moved past his feet and legs.
This white gold light was a barrier.
It was a large white gold barrier that was protecting everything underneath the black clouds. Cale could see Eruhaben along with the white gold barrier that was heading up past his waist.
Eruhaben's two hands were stretched up as if he was trying to fend off the black clouds with his white gold barrier, no, as if he was trying to fend off the weight of the sky.
Choi Han, Mary, and Rosalyn were surrounding Eruhaben.
In front of them was the White Star.
Cale could see that the White Star was smiling. He was smiling as if he was trying to say that neither Eruhaben nor Cale had the strength to fend off the sky.
Cale bluntly commented after seeing the White Star's smile.
"That fucking bastard."
'I don't care if he's lived a thousand years or not, that shithead is a fucking bastard from now on.'
– Cale.
The Fire of Destruction cheapskate called out to Cale.
– We are not destroying that thunderbolt. We are destroying that black colored light.
'I know.'
"Hannah, Raon."
"What is it? I'm going with you!"
"I'm going as well!"
Hannah was standing there with her hands shaking while Raon was focused on Eruhaben's white gold barrier. Cale responded sternly to the two of them.
"Hide underneath Eruhaben-nim's barrier."
"I told you no."
"Human, I don't want to!"
Crack, crack.
Raon and Hannah turned their heads.
The noise was not coming from that black thunderbolt that looked ready to strike at any moment.
It was a different thunderbolt.
It was a rose gold thunderbolt.
It was shining in a rose gold colored light and also looked ready to shoot up toward the sky at any moment.
Cale flew up past the white gold barrier that had reached his chest and stood parallel to the black clouds before responding back to them.
"I'm going to burn it all."
That was why he was telling them to hide.
– Maximum power?
The cheapskate asked and Cale responded back.
"Yes."
Cale felt the power filling his body as he started to smile.