Chapter 95 Midnight Saga: Khordrath Vs. Zaldidraax (2)

Instantly a wave of Abyssal Aura shot out from the Khordrath's body towards Zaldidraax as the Red Dragon Cardinal dodged to the side but watched with a curious expression looking at the High Priest Khordrath.

While this wasn't the first time Zaldidraax saw somebody using the Abyssal Aura to boost up his power, it was one of the few occasions that he was able to witness someone powerful like Khordrath use it to change his very own being.

'So he obtained the ability to use the Abyssal Aura of the Fiends from the Abyss... but he is already showing the signs of the corruption.'

Zaldidraax analyzed in his mind as he looked at the High Priest Khordrath because playing with the Abyssal Aura was rather a dangerous thing to do. That was because the Abyssal Aura is very corruptive energy, similar to Void, which was, even though more destructive with its corroding powers.

Yet the Abyssal Aura had the ability to corrupt anything. It was very similar to the Void in this aspect because the Void had the ability to corrupt anything. Still, in contrary to the corruption of the Void, the things corrupted by the Abyssal Aura remained in existence. In contrast, what was corrupted by the Void would become part of it, lingering between the state of existence and part of the Void.

If one was using it, then his very own soul would be soon corrupted to such an extent that he won't be able to survive outside of the Abyss, essentially tying the person to the Abyss itself. This was one of the ways how the Transcendents of the Abyss were able to turn entire worlds into their own image.

Clearly, not even the High Priest of the Calamity Church was resistant to the corrosive effects of the Abyssal Aura, as that was something that only Transcendents themselves, or Legendaries of a Transcendental lineage could resist fully.

Originally Zaldidraax was Level 97 Legendary and Khordrath was Level 95 Legendary, so the disparity between the two of them seemed abysmal, in truth, tremendous. In the Legendary Level, even a single Level could decide the outcome of the fight, and every single Level signified a tremendous increase of raw power.

Not only that, but each Level Up represented further crystallization and cumulation of Mana, which was becoming denser, purer and stronger, thus creating a disparity between each Level in the Legendary Level.

But with the addition of the Abyssal Aura, now Khordrath could compete against Zaldidraaax on the same ground, which now turned the table around, especially since he had one advantage, which was putting Red Dragon Cardinal on mostly defensive, and that was the existence of the Abyssal Aura.

That was because he was wary not to be touched by the Abyssal Aura, which was just flowing out from the High Priest Khordrath or what amalgamation he had become. While Zaldidraax was someone who bore the blood of the Fire Dragon Monarch, even then, he didn't want to risk anything by depending on the lineage of Transcendental.

Instantly Khordrath appeared before the Red Dragon Cardinal, hacking at him with his purple-black spear made from the miasmatic energy that seethed in the Abyssal Aura; Zaldidraax barely managed to dodge, not wanting to be injured.

Not even a second later, with his flame-enveloped fist, he punched the High Priest Khordrath into his stomach, sending the creature flying several tens of meters, as he stopped before coughing a mouthful of black-colored blood.

High Priest Khordrath looked at the Cardinal of the Hall of Kadath as he prepared to activate the abilities that always allowed him to escape, only to find that it didn't work. He wanted to teleport somewhere away from the Zaldidraax so he could recuperate a bit and summon more power from the Abyss, but nothing had happened.

"Have you finally noticed?"

Question Zaldidraax who sent a huge wave of scorching flames towards him, burning everything in its path, as the High Priest Khordrath conjured a wall of purplish energy, which created a small dome around him, protecting him from the dragon's fire.

"During our few confrontations, I noticed how your teleportation ability works. Especially if it is Ultimate Ability, the restrictions should be quite severe, and probably the most notable should be the usage of the Mana in the enviroment, especially if you want to teleport out of the world. So, right now and right here, you are stuck here."

Zaldidraax stated calmly, as he sent several flame attacks in the form of fireballs towards the High Priest Khordrath, who grew more enraged hearing this because now he felt tricked by the lizard, and he cursed himself, that he forgot about that where they were.

While the Red Dragon Cardinal Zaldidraax looked like a simpletonish abomination of barbarian and brute, he was, in fact an incredibly cunning old dragon. In my culture and places across the Cosmos, dragons were revered not only for their overwhelming power but also for their intelligence and wisdom.

Khordrath had an Ultimate Ability that allowed him instantaneous teleportation, which was something very rare across the Cosmos, not the act of teleportation, but rather the instantaneous aspect which allowed Khordrath to instantly teleport wherever he wished.

But the huge restriction on that Ability was the fact that the Ability utilized its environment and Mana in the surroundings instead of the Mana one had in itself primarily, meaning if the user was in the Mana-Less World, then the Ability would become essentially useless, and one cannot use it to teleport out of the world.

That restriction existed for a reason because if the person didn't understand the Space and was not Space oriented Magician, he could still teleport and use the Ability. Yet, in that case, the person would need a tremendous amount of Mana, and in certain cases, such an amount of Mana was a great deal even for peak Legendaries, especially considering the world's Laws.

Seeing that there was not an opportunity to run away and due to being in the Mana-Less World, the fight was heavy to Khordrath's disadvantage because he was burning his Mana far faster than the Red Dragon.

Dragons were species with the densest and purest Mana, not to mention the fact that Dragons always had a tremendous amount of Mana, far eclipsing those at the same Level. So in any fight, it was best to end the fight as fast as possible because there was a high possibility that Dragons would preserve far longer.

Not to mention, their Mana Regeneration was tremendously fast, though right now, Zaldidraax's Mana was regenerating at the tempo of a snail due to being in the Mana-Less World; even that was something.

Contrary to that, Zaldidraax could see that Khordrath's Mana Regeneration was close to zero. Such was the problem for the people in the Mana-Less Word, unless they came prepared and had some countermeasure against this, like converting any other energy to Mana or bringing with them "Mana Batteries".

After several exchanges between the two peak Legendaries, more and more injuries started to appear on their bodies, be it the Khordrath or Zalidraax, but it was clear that the High Priest of the Calamity Church was way worse on it.

He had burns around the entire body, which were not healing and was causing him enormous pain and several deep cuts from the dragon claws that Red Dragon Cardinal managed to inflict on him, not talking about the side of corruption from the Abyssal Aura, which started spreading even faster due to the continuous injuries that the High Priest was suffering.

Zaldidraax could see how the Abyssal Aura was corrupting the High Priest Khordrath at tremendous speed, especially due to various injuries that the High Priest suffered from him; the corruption from the Abyssal Aura was spreading fast, and it was highly possible that the High Priest Khordrath would never revert back.

"Or maybe that was the intention of whoever gave him the chimera fusion method."

Zaldidraax stated, seeing how the High Priest's appearance started turning more hideous and monstrous under the effect of the Abyssal Aura. The speed of the Abyssal corruption skyrocketed and reached totally new heights, finishing the process in a split of several seconds.

"Whatever... it would be best to kill him as fast as possible..."

Zaldidraax muttered, not wanting for the Abyss to gain a new Transcendental in a few millennia because he could see that Khordrat fell into that category. Yet, it was indisputable that some Daemons were once again scheming against the Evil Gods right now.

Common occurrences in the Abyss.

Daemons could be pretty cunning at times, and Zaldidraax predicted that some very powerful Daemon was pretending to be one of the Evil Gods in an attempt to obtain another peak Legendary Level slave, which could achieve Transcendence, then the forces of the said Daemon would be strengthened significantly, and he would have an advantage against his enemies.

And while most of the Daemons were not cunning, there were still some, especially the founders of the Pillars, who were no less cunning and treacherous as the Devils of the Nine Hells of the Baator. The heavy majority of other Daemons and the rest of their kind were plainly stupid, but the founders of the Pillars were atop of their frightening strength, also very calculating and intelligent.

Zaldidraax didn't hesitate another second as he transformed his humanoid hands into a pair of dragon claws, rushing at the High Priest Khordrath, who finished another wave of the transformation by the corruption of the Abyssal Aura.

Khordrath, entirely enveloped by the Abyssal Aura, saw that Zaldidraax was already before he raised his energy spear to block the incoming blows, only to find himself being pushed back, and back, and back, due to each subsequent blow containing more and more power behind it.

Zaldidraax was not only using his overwhelming physical might coupled with boosts from his Mana for the attacks, but he also used his flames to boost up the explosiveness and power behind each blow, especially after achieving several combos; his explosive prowess reached a tremendous degree.

It was clear that the High Priest Khordrath was the loser in the exchange because even though he managed to block the incoming attacks relatively successfully, he still suffered a great degree of various injuries from the aftershocks or he was just burned by the dragon flames that were all around him.

While normally, he would be fighting such a strong enemy in his dragon form, but that was impractical for him in this situation because Khordrath was rather an agile enemy, good at dodging incoming attacks, which made him a major pain in the ass.

'I need to end this fast, or the person who has been playing with this idiot will teleport him back to the Abyss.'

Zaldidraax thought in his head because the Abyssal Aura was corrupting the more his opponent, the stronger connection between him and The Abyss was, meaning the Daemon who was fiddling with him would be able to effortlessly teleport him to his domain if the things went too bad.

Because of that, he needed to end this fight as soon as possible. The more time passed, the more power Khordrath would obtain from the Abyss and probably from the Daemon that was plotting here. The Daemon wanted to obtain a new slave, not dead corpse; thus he would be using a lot to keep Khordrath alive so he could collect him.

The Red Dragon Cardinal of the Hall of Kadath stretched his wings before he flew above the air, as suddenly the space itself started cracking, and the freezing cold energy of the Void itself started penetrating the air and the world itself.

The entire continent started shaking as a tremendous earthquake erupted in the Ihor Continent. Each second, some of the older or unstable buildings collapsed due to increasing pressure from Cardinal Zaldidraax, who called upon the powers of the Outer Gods to the Midnight World.

'Boom, boom, boom.'

A series of explosions enveloped the figure of the High Priest from the Calamity Church. In its more primal form, the Void destroyed everything in its path, and when it was wielded by the master, such as almost Holy Level Professional, its effect was tremendous.

In a split of a second, several hundreds of kilometers were turned into living hell, and not that of the Baator, but rather an apocalyptic scene, as thunder roared, lightning bolts hit the ground with untold ferocity, and hurricanes appeared one after another, causing the citizens of the United Nations of Prayn Terish to call for the help of their Gods.

It seemed like the judgment day had descended down.

When Zaldidraax looked at the Khordrath, he noticed that half of his body was missing; his left part was absolutely obliterated by the power of the Void that the Cardinal of the Hall of Kadath in the name of the Crawling Chaos himself.

Appearing in front of the Khordrath, he tore through his stomach with his right claw, which was falling with the Void Flame, destroying the bodies of the High Priest Khordrath from this inside, as the Void instantly overwhelmed the Abyssal Aura in a split of a second.

With one swift movement of his hand back, he tore out the beating heart of the High Priest Khordrath; looking at it, he crushed it in his hand and let the Void turn it into absolute nothingness.

"Let you in the Void turn."

Zaldidraax chanted silently as the corpse of the High Priest of the Calamity Church dropped death, as the Void itself was devouring not only the body of the Khordrath, but even his soul, which was frozen by the Void, and slowly being devoured by it. And what the Void one took, it would never return back.

"Shame that not even his corpse remained... could be made useful material for something."

Zaldidraax muttered while looking at the former remains of the High Priest Khordrath of the Calamity Church, whose body was slowly being devoured by the Void, and right now, approximately half of his corpse was already turned into nothingness.

"I should probably return back... our fight has caused a lot of damage to the Continent."

The Red Dragon Cardinal looked around and sensed the tremendous damage to the continent of the Ihor, which resulted in the deaths of billions of its citizens, especially in the northern area of the United Nations of Prayn Terish, which was turned into a wasteland.

The earthquakes, thunderstorms and hurricanes, and even the tsunamis that were created by the earthquakes made hell on the world, and right now, Zaldidraax could sense about 7 billion souls lingering in the world of the living.

After looking at the sky, which started showing signs of calming down, Zaldidraax outstretched his hand as an enormous magic circle appeared high in the sky, shining with the ominous red color that of a red dragon's scales, started sucking all the souls lingering in the world of living towards it.

This was his first harvest since he arrived at the Midnight World, and it was a pretty good one. Not to mention, he was gleaming with happiness because he managed to kill his foe, who had already escaped from him several times. So, for the Red Dragon Cardinal, this was a good day as he observed the entire Ihor continent.

The one thing which Zaldidraax noticed was the continuous spread of the Void in the area of their part as that part of the Midnight World started crumbling away to the Void. Hopefully, this won't lure here something like Void Behemoth, or that would be catastrophic.