Above Academy City.
The floating fortress trailed billowing black smoke and soaring flames like a mountain, plunging straight toward the bustling Academy City below.
The countdown to destruction had already begun.
The massive shadow completely blanketed the center of the city, placing hundreds of thousands of lives under a cold death sentence.
Sharp screams and wails of despair rose from every corner of the city, converging into a heartbreaking symphony of misery.
Su Nian hovered in midair, the Star-Moon Dragon Wings behind her back flapping slowly.
The resulting wind pressure caused her gorgeous dress to dance wildly.
Her gaze pierced through the smoke and fire, falling on the ground below.
With her ability to fly, she didn’t need to worry about her own life.
But…
The girl’s beautiful azure eyes looked at those many pairs of eyes gazing up at the sky, seeing the faces filled with terror and despair.
She hadn’t lived in this city for very long.
In fact, it was here that she had suffered the greatest humiliation of her life.
Being captured by that Horned Demon Bastard, forced to wear a shameful collar, and having to let that pervert do whatever he wanted at Shadowmoon Manor every day…
But in the end, she did not want such a tragedy to happen to this city.
In her mind, she saw the auntie at the roadside stall who always added extra meat to the meat pies she bought.
She saw the maids in Shadowmoon Manor who were respectful to her but also loved to gather and gossip.
She saw the students at the Magic Academy who looked at her with eyes full of admiration, regarding her as their idol and goal.
She saw the fans beneath the stage of Magic Feather Fantasy who screamed wildly for her while waving light sticks, her colleagues who performed alongside her, the cold-looking but soft-hearted Lise, and the noisy, passionate Amy.
These vibrant lives, these faces that were either clear or blurry, should not be turned into cold rubble like this.
Su Nian took a deep breath.
The cold air, mixed with the scent of sulfur and charred wood, stung her lungs.
In those azure eyes, all hesitation and exhaustion were swept away in an instant, leaving only iron-like determination.
She clenched her fists tightly, her nails digging deep into her palms.
She sent a cry from the depths of her soul toward the wings integrated into her back.
‘Little Green! Please!’
‘Change back to your true form! Let’s stop it together!’
“Skree — !!!”
The next moment.
An unprecedentedly high-pitched and resonant dragon roar, filled with endless fighting spirit and extreme joy, suddenly resounded through the clouds!
The sound pierced through the roar of the descending fortress, exploding directly in the depths of everyone’s soul.
Responding to her, the gorgeous Star-Moon Dragon Wings on her back suddenly erupted with an endless green light more dazzling than the sun!
The green light rose to the sky like a sword of divine punishment piercing the heavens.
Under countless stunned, shocked, and disbelieving gazes, it rapidly expanded and transformed high in the sky!
Those wings made of energy did not dissipate; instead, they dissolved and reorganized within the light.
Sacred scales like green jade rapidly condensed and extended within the light, covering every inch of the newborn body and shimmering with an indestructible metallic luster.
A pair of majestic dragon horns tore through the curtain of light, pointing toward the firmament, filled with a primal and ancient sense of power.
Finally a pair of giant wings that blotted out the sun suddenly snapped open, creating a gale so strong that the people on the ground could barely stand.
With a body length of dozens of meters and a wingspan of over 100 meters, the Wind Elemental Holy Dragon finally revealed its true, majestic, and divine form to the entire world at this moment!
In that instant, time seemed to stand still.
Whether it was the citizens of Academy City or the warriors who had survived on the floating fortress, everyone looked up at the sky in a daze.
Their souls trembled as they watched the handsome Giant Dragon, its body covered in sacred green scales and surrounded by a raging storm.
A Giant Dragon…
The creature from legends actually existed.
Fear had just begun to sprout in their hearts, nearly swallowing them whole.
But in the next moment.
The people’s gazes were firmly locked onto the beautiful girl dressed in a star-moon gown, her golden hair flying as she stood proudly atop the fierce dragon’s head.
That was Su Nian!
That was the Lady Saintess who had fought the demons, closed the portal, and saved them from the Demon Race.
“Lady Saintess… This is… She’s riding a Giant Dragon… She’s come to save us!”
Someone shouted these words in a hoarse voice.
“Lady Saintess!”
“The Lady Saintess can actually make a legendary Giant Dragon submit!”
“It’s a miracle! This must be a miracle!”
A second later, fanatical cheers completely ignited the entire city.
A glimmer of hope flashed in the eyes of the previously despairing crowd.
“ROAR — !!!”
Little Green let out a soul-shaking roar, and an incomparable draconic pressure spread out like a tsunami.
It violently flapped its massive wings, which were powerful enough to kick up a storm.
Under its control, visible green air currents gathered crazily, forming a terrifying wind vortex beneath the floating fortress that was large beyond imagination!
The descending fortress let out an overburdened metallic wail.
Its catastrophic falling speed was actually slowed down by several degrees by this force originating from myth!
Su Nian stood tall on Little Green’s head, the gale making her long dress and golden hair rustle loudly.
She mobilized the vast Saint Level Magic within her body without reservation, fighting side by side with her Contract Beast.
Her Master-tier water and fire magic were pushed to their limits.
Massive curtains of water unfolded beneath the fortress, attempting to act as a soft buffer.
Violent spheres of fire erupted from her palms, exploding at the bottom of the fortress to create a massive counter-thrust.
Together with Little Green, she fought against the crushing weight of the descent that seemed ready to pull the entire world into the abyss.
However, it was still not enough to stop the floating fortress’s continuous descent.
“Boom — “
The massive edge of the floating fortress had already begun to graze a towering magic tower on the outskirts of the city.
The sturdy brick structure wailed and shattered under the unimaginable friction, turning into countless fragments and dust that fell like a hail of death.
On the ground, the citizens who had just regained hope because of the “Saintess’s descent” fell into despair once more.
Could even the Lady Saintess not save them?
Just then.
Several sharp Sword Qi strikes, as brilliant as a descending galaxy, tore through the air one after another.
Chu Tian’s tall figure stood firmly atop the high walls of Academy City.
The Starlight Ruling Sword in his hand lashed out repeatedly at an unprecedented speed.
In his dark, deep eyes that seemed able to pierce through everything, the incredibly complex internal structural map of the fortress was clearly reflected.
Every strike of Sword Qi was not a random attack.
They struck with absolute precision at the weakest yet most critical load-bearing nodes of the fortress’s structure.
By destroying its internal balance, he was using his own method to assist the Giant Dragon in the sky, forcibly changing the trajectory of the fortress’s destructive fall.
At the critical moment!
Seeing that the massive shadow covering the entire sky was about to crash into the most densely populated core commercial district of Academy City.
A final, most thorough look of determination flashed through Su Nian’s beautiful azure eyes!
She no longer held anything back.
She began to issue the most direct and maddening command to the Giant Dragon beneath her, with whom her mind was connected.
At the same time, she channeled the last slivers of Saint Level Magic remaining in her body like a bursting flood, releasing it all into this final and strongest spell.
“LINGYUAN FLAME BARRIER, DRAGON VERSION!”
Her clear and steady voice traveled through the deafening roar and directly into the depths of Little Green’s soul.
The moment she finished speaking.
The two extreme magical energies of water and fire surged out of her slender body on an unprecedented scale.
The boundless energy instantly enveloped Little Green’s massive, sun-blotting draconic body.
On the inside was blazing fire containing violent destructive energy, dyeing the dragon’s body like a falling sun.
On the outside was a deep blue water membrane, extremely soft yet tough and difficult to penetrate, shimmering with starlight.
Su Nian’s command was incredibly simple and equally insane.
Collision!
Since they couldn’t stop the floating fortress from falling, they would knock it out of the city!
And she would use her strongest defensive magic to provide the best protection for her most loyal Contract Beast.
The next moment.
“ROAR — !!!”
Little Green let out an earth-shattering roar, its voice filled with absolute trust in its Master and supreme fighting spirit.
Its incomparable draconic body, carrying the destruction halo of interwoven water and fire that looked as brilliant as a cosmic nebula, slammed into the descending floating fortress from the side in the most primitive, savage, and desperate manner.
“BOOM — !!!”
This time, there was no blinding explosion of flame.
There was only an extremely muffled, massive sound that was enough to make the world lose its hearing and souls stop in their tracks.
The moment the massive dragon body covered by the LINGYUAN FLAME BARRIER hit the floating fortress, the sturdy water and fire barrier produced unimaginable elasticity and impact!
Under this desperate, all-or-nothing strike, the massive body of the grand floating fortress jolted violently.
Its originally vertical descent began to shift.
The fortress drew a heart-wrenching arc of death in the sky, whistling past the edge of Academy City’s tall, sturdy walls.
Finally, it plunged into the vast, open farmland outside the city that was lying fallow for the winter.
Plumes of mud and steam rose into the air, mixed with a deafening roar that seemed ready to tear the sky apart.
Academy City… was saved.
Su Nian’s vision suddenly went black as the last trace of Magic in her body was completely drained.
Even her soul felt waves of sharp, tearing pain.
Her body went soft, and her slender legs, which had always stood proud, could no longer support her.
She slipped helplessly from the high dragon’s head like a kite with a broken string.
At the same time.
Little Green was also completely exhausted from the massive collision and was unable to catch up to its rapidly falling Master.
However, a black figure, as fast as a ghost, pulled a blurry afterimage through the air and appeared instantly beneath her trajectory.
A pair of strong, powerful arms caught the girl’s soft, fragrant body firmly.
The city was celebrating.
The people were spreading the legend of the Saintess and the mysterious Hero.
No one knew…
That at this moment of her greatest glory, the beautiful Lady Saintess who had saved hundreds of thousands of lives and was revered as a goddess had once again fallen into the hands of that Horned Demon Bastard who regarded her as his private property.