Chapter 148: Dragon's Wrath

Citizens ran in panic as the gigantic balefire daemon came crashing into the ground, crushing buildings whilst conflagration burst from its body.

Those only at the First and Second Step had no chance of surviving this and immediately burned to death, the dirty flames sticking to their bodies like glue and refusing the extinguish.

Dragon knew of Styx's apprehensions of a battle occurring in the middle of the city and charged head first into the demon. He was handicapped as releasing his full power would kill an enormous number of the residents. He personally couldn't care less about their lives, but he did not want to owe Styx more once again.

He had to admit though that the ancient devil from the abyssal realm was powerful. Even he felt a constriction in his chest when its gaze landed on him, meaning it is at least as powerful as he is.

**ROARRRRRRRR**

Dragon released an enormous draconic bellow as he crashed into the behemoth. The devil raised its burning hands and wrapped them around Dragon's neck. His scales glowed pink under the heat of the balefire that attempted to break through his defence, but he adjusted his enormous body and threw it off him.

More houses were crushed and lives lost as it crashed into the ground, flames bursting from its body bursting as if expressing its rage.

**GRAGGGHHHHH**

The balefire daemon glowed brighter and brighter as it built up a frightening amount of heat within its body, the ground and building around it melting into magma and ash. If there were any citizens in the buildings before, there weren't even corpses left.

Dragon wasn't about to let it attack as it pleased though, his chest and neck already swollen up from fire compressed into a pure ball of fire that was as hot as the core of the sun.

The humongous Monster Lord braced his body and released this fire that shot like a beam of light towards the balefire daemon. It couldn't react nor dodge even with its Fifth Step strength and was hit in the center of its chest.

The ancient devil was blown away by the attack that reached to the horizon. The ground was carved out and turned into boiling magma that ejected giant plumes of grey and black smoke. The trench carved through the entire city, the distant city wall, and through a mountain too.

A lot of lives were lost from this attack, but Dragon considered it to be a small sacrifice in comparison to what would have happened if the devil had unleashed its attack which was a unidirectional blast of molten rage. Based on the amount of mana and fire built up in its body, he had estimated at least half the city and most of the residents would have been annihilated.

Dragon took to the skies and shot towards the distant mountains like a meteor. The balefire daemon was waiting too as it jumped into the sky and intercepted him, slamming his body through the peak of another mountain.

The devil roared in anger and its power exploded, a giant shockwave emanated from its body that turned everything it passed into ashes. Even the mountains begun to turn into magma and slowly melt like ice cream cones under the sun.

The air was so hot everything was twisted and distorted, but Dragon could see mana whilst the devil had thermal sight, being a being of fire itself.

The clouds in the sky caught fire too, as impossible as that should be, creating a curtain of fire that was directly powered by the devil.

Dragon roared again and stood back on his feet, his sizzling and breath further heating the atmosphere due to his rage.

The Monster Lord charged at the devil and ripped and arm off with his fangs, the devil was unfazed and simply regrew another one as it struck back. The two were fighting in the most primitive form, but what was shocking was that the devil was winning. As it swung its fists, this skyfire would lash out like bolts of lightning, striking the ground and Dragon, while the devil was instead empowered by it.

When it came to brute strength, Dragon simply couldn't keep up and was beaten back again and again.

"Haaahhh…" Dragon collected his thoughts and gazed at the devil with ice cold rage. "I have to admit, I cannot compete with you in strength, but that is all you are good at. I will show you why I am the strongest."

His words were quiet, yet they pervaded through the sounds of the battlefield.

Aura had once accused Dragon of being a salamander, which was not without reason. He was indeed born as a salamander type monster, the furthest and lowest relative to a dragon.

His fate filled him with endless rage, which he turned into power. It wasn't until several centuries ago, when he evolved into a Monster Lord, that he became something similar to a dragon.

As a newly evolved Monster Lord, he immediately fought and defeated the original Monster Lord that ruled over the Abyssal Forest and claimed the territory for himself.

He adopted the pride of dragons, even though he technically wasn't a true dragon. His power that made him the strongest did not come from pride or his Fifth Step existence, it was his wrath.

Wrath that he was born a weak salamander.

Wrath that he could not breath fire.

Wrath that he could not fly.

Wrath that he would never be a true dragon.

Many would instead suffer from envy, but he cursed at the world.

What he breathed out was not dragonfire, it was wrath.

The fire around Dragon abruptly stopped and even vanished from inside his body, as if it never existed. From below his feet, the magma instantly solidified and adopted a thick layer of frost. Even the inferno in the sky was extinguished as all heat disappeared.

This ice spread out across the mountains at a rapid pace, whilst the sky turned white and ice shards began to rain.

The balefire demon roared in pain as the flames on its body also began to die down.

The first sight that something was strange was despite everything turning subzero, the ground beneath Dragon's feet still smouldered and released smoke. The ice shards also burned as they touched the devil and the ground.

Dragon eyed the devil and spoke in a soft voice that contained endless rage.

"Feel my wrath."

The entire world turned silent, everything white.

The balefire daemon touched the ice on the ground, but it burned instead. A being made of fire was being burned by something that was hotter than fire. It tried to scream in rage, but the sound waves would freeze and be incinerated before they could reach even its own ears.

A pure white dragon stood alone in this world of ice like a sculpture, its majesty awing even gods. The balefire daemon no longer having the strength to make a sound, its body and soul both frozen solid and rapidly being incinerated at the same time.

~~~~~

⠀

Dragon received a huge influx of experience, so much that he finally broke through to <Lv. 97> and received another giant power boost.

He calmed his raging heart down and created stillness within. The ice, that burned hotter than fire, also melted at this point and the world regained its color. The mountains had been completely ravaged though and likely would not be able to grow so much as grass for several millennia, remembered as the location where two Fifth Step powerhouses clashed.

He secretly thought to himself that it was possible Styx would find a way to grow some mutated crops or overly mana rich food on them though. The fire and wrath mana of the balefire daemon and himself had truly permeated the ground after all.

When Styx looked at the damage to the city and distant mountain, his dungeon heart truly ached in pain. He swore he would take that pain out on the succubus, branding it into her once he had recovered enough to push her down again.

It wasn't like she wouldn't enjoy it, and even Styx had developed a liking for such forceful play too.