Kareks' Body (I)

Another towering peak, thousands of meters high, rises abruptly from the ground, piercing the sky as if connecting the sky and the earth. The snow on the mountaintop glitters with a cold, silvery light under the sunlight.

And this is the highest peak of the Anstica Mountains — Tieri Peak, which is revered by the Scania People as the "King of Snow Mountains".

"Call--"

The cold wind swept through the valley, making a piercing whistling sound.

In those rolling, snow-covered mountains, the wind howls and snow flies everywhere, as if to bury the whole world in pure white and cold.

Suddenly, scalding steam billowed out, and black and red flames raged in the air, tearing a hideous Space Rift at the foot of the mountain.

The snow covering the mountain melted under the sudden high temperature, first turning into flowing snowmelt, and then into white smoke.

Amidst the billowing smoke, the massive, battered body of the Balrog emerged from the void—it was Leo Bosk.

"Huff, huff"

"Finally, finally we escaped."

At this moment, the Balor Demon was panting heavily, its voice filled with excitement and tension.

He looked north with lingering fear, towards the direction he had fled from.

"Keosius"

Leo couldn't help but utter the name that had long been his nightmare, and fear reappeared on his crimson face.

But soon, he gritted his teeth and broke them, making a "crunching" sound.

Its fleshy wings trembled violently, and the veins on its thick arm, which was gripping the Storm Greatsword, bulged. The Balor's expression became increasingly ferocious and furious.

"Keosius, that damned reptile, he killed me eleven times in front of millions of people! Eleven times!"

"I will cut off his head, strip him of his scales, sever his wings, and tear his tail apart—"

Balor spread its wings, roared to the sky, and blazing Flame of Vengeance spewed from its eyes.

The demon's wrath caused terrible phenomena in the surrounding area: streams of scorching magma and blazing fire surged through the mountains, and countless plumes of steam rose into the air.

"No, no, I just need to wait. The Red Dragon will come to me on its own."

At that time, all I need to do is watch my enemy be dragged into the Abyss, heh heh.

Leo was breathing heavily, and an unspeakable, eerie smile appeared on his face, stretching from his mouth to his ears, with billowing Gunsmoke rising from his lips.

Suddenly, Balor noticed something amiss, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.

"Wait, this is—"

He arrived so quickly?

A powerful heatwave swept in, and an invisible pressure covering a radius of thousands of miles descended, making Leo feel a sinking feeling in his heart.

The mountains swayed slightly, as if they were bowing in worship to the presence in the sky.

"Sizzle—"

Balor suddenly raised his head, only to see flames raging across the sky, and several giant claws piercing through space, clinging to the sides of the blazing cracks, before easily tearing the sky apart.

First came the enormous and majestic head, then the thick neck, followed by broad Dragon Wing, powerful Limbs, and a spine that undulated like a mountain range. "Roar—"

Finally, with a loud dragon roar, the Red Dragon, which was over forty meters long, flapped its wings and stirred up a scorching wind, appearing in the sky above the mountains.

Keosius surveyed the mountains with his pale golden vertical pupils, then looked down at the Balor at his feet with an exceptionally indifferent gaze.

"Leo Bosk, is this the death trap you've chosen for yourself?"

Leo looked up at the Red Dragon in the sky, his demonic body trembling violently from extreme fear and excitement.

The Balor struggled to suppress its fear and said in a hoarse voice, "Hahahaha! Excellent, excellent! Arrogant Red Dragon, just as I expected, you have indeed come! As proud as you are, you never even thought that I would defeat you—or even kill you, right?"

Keosius stared at him coldly without saying a word, seemingly acquiescing to this statement.

Leo's tone grew increasingly resentful, his cloudy eyes filled with hatred. "Keosius, I know that for years you've never considered me an equal opponent—but it was this arrogance that destroyed you, leading you to your doomed fate! You fell for my trap!"

Balor spread its arms and unfurled its ugly fleshy wings, roaring wildly at the sky as if it had already tasted the sweetness of revenge.

Complex and evil magic circles appeared on the demon's chest and back, emitting a deep, eerie light, while the whispers of the Abyss surrounded it.

"Amidst blood and flames, a voice of despair cries out."

"They cut off their own heads, held them high, and tears of blood flowed from their empty eyes."

"And He brings the flames of vengeance, the final verses, and all things."

Behind Balor, the sky suddenly darkened, dark clouds obscured the sun, and raging hurricanes swept through the mountains.

"So, Keosius, please allow me to introduce you to the Devil Lord of the 567th floor of the Abyss, the great Revenge Devil— "

"Ah!"

Before Leo could finish speaking, the enormous red figure appeared before him, its sharp claws slashing down and cleanly piercing through his chest.

In an instant, purplish-black blood and bits of flesh flew everywhere, and the hot, beating heart was squeezed in the Red Dragon's claws, while Leo's face still held an expression of extreme excitement.

With his last breath, he laughed and said, "Kai, Keosius is useless. I will not die. I want to witness all of this, to see you die before my eyes. This is my revenge."

But this time, the energy of the Abyss did not rush towards him to revive him; instead, it ruthlessly abandoned him, converging towards the sky to form a terrifying vortex.

Leo's face contorted in disbelief and extreme fear. "No, no, how could this be?" Keosius sneered, stepping on the dying Balrog with his claws and looking down at him with merciless mockery. "Leo Bosk, it seems you've lost your usefulness."

Look, even your Abyss master has abandoned you, his loyal dog.

Suddenly, Balor unleashed a surge of power. He struggled, roared, and argued, his face flushed, "No! Lord Jierlazarax said that I represent His will, that I am immortal!"

The heart, clutched in Keosius's claws, pounded violently, pumping out filthy, purplish-black blood, from which flickering flames shone.

The heart is the core of every Balor, containing endless Abyss fire that keeps the Balrog's body burning forever.

But now, this heart, clutched in the Red Dragon's claws, seems so fragile.

"No, you can't kill me, I am a noble person."

"Bang!!"

Keosius crushed the heart with a clean and decisive motion, and the Balor's demonic body instantly turned into scattered ashes.

Normally, when Balor dies, its heart explodes immediately in a dazzling flash, devouring everything within a radius of hundreds of meters.

"Boom!"

With a dull thud, Keosius gripped the explosion in his claws, forcefully suppressing it, and blinding Beams of light pierced through his fingers.

Leo Bosk, the former Northern Grand Duke and later the Abyss Commander, died in the claws of the Red Dragon without causing a ripple.

"Tsk, pathetic Northern Nobles, still so overestimating themselves."

The Northern Nobles always believed the world revolved around them, but in reality—they were merely cannon fodder in someone else's game.

Keosius stared at the ashes and dust flowing through his fingers and clicked his tongue in amazement.

"Next, it's your turn, Jierlazarax."

The Red Dragon flapped its wings, raised its head solemnly, and its pale golden pupils were filled with tension and anticipation.

The distant snow-capped mountains still stood tall and majestic, but the energy of the Abyss gathered into clusters of turbulent currents, forming a huge vortex with a diameter of several thousand meters, and the dark sky almost shrouded the mountains.

"Roar--"

A series of loud, chaotic roars came from the Abyss abyss, echoing among the mountains and sending a chill down the spines of all things.

This is the power of the Abyss, the origin of the universe, the most chaotic and disordered existence that obliterates everything.

Keosius narrowed his eyes, his expression growing increasingly serious, even revealing a hint of suspicion, because he sensed something unusual.

"Is this... the oppressive aura of the Progenitor Dragon?"

Yes, that's Dragon's Might.

This aura was constantly emanating from Keosius; every drop of hot blood flowing in his Base Blood Vessels generated this oppressive force.

Now, the pressure that the Red Dragon felt seemed to originate from the same source as him, and was even stronger than his own dragon might, giving him a vague feeling of "bloodline suppression".

This was something Keosius had never experienced before; given his current status, very few dragons could evoke such feelings in him.

"Could it be—"

Keosius's pupils contracted sharply, as if he had remembered something, and a terrible guess suddenly arose in his mind.

"Roar--"

The mountains shook, the heavens and earth trembled, and another long howl came from the Abyss. An avalanche broke out in the Anstica Mountains, and countless snowflakes formed a powerful torrent that rushed down the mountainside.

This roar penetrated even deeper into the soul, causing the Red Dragon to snort and exhale a breath of Sulfur Scent smoke.

Under Keosius's tense gaze, a giant claw covered in dark red scales emerged from the Abyss vortex and clung to the snow-capped mountain.

Then, a huge dragon head slowly emerged from it, topped with massive, swept-back horns, with sharp fangs in its gaping maw, and deep, dark eyes—this form was even more familiar to Keosius; it was actually the head of a Red Dragon!

The head alone was nearly twenty meters long, which was larger than the entire body of most dragons!

"Whoosh—"

Immediately afterwards, wings that Sky-Shading appeared in the Red Dragon's field of vision. They were as tattered as ragged cloth, with howling winds surging through the gaps.

Further on, there was a mountain-like, winding body, withered flesh tightly supporting dark red scales, with black, red, and olive-green scales forming a striped pattern.

The terrifying "Red Dragon" coiled itself on the snow-capped mountain, facing Keosius across the distance. Its dark eyes gleamed with an eerie green light, and its expression was chilling, like a sneer.

It spread its tattered, Sky-Shading wings, and endless Abyss gales swept across the mountains, its powerful dragon might filling the earth.

This dark red dragon was over 150 meters long from head to tail, which far exceeded the physiological limits of Red Dragon in the Prime Material Plane!

Looking back through history, only those powerful Progenitor Dragon created by the Nine-Faced Dragon God, who traversed the Astral Plane, could achieve this size.

Keosius couldn't help but gasp, confirming his suspicions.

This is Kareks's body! In that accident ten years ago, he removed Kareks's heart, but left the rest of his body to Jierlazarax.

And this Revenge Devil probably used the remains of his body as materials to create this behemoth!

The crimson dragon, or rather, Jierlazarax, stared at Keosius, opened its massive maw, and uttered a low, hoarse voice. "Long time no see, Keosius. You have become even more powerful. However, it means nothing to me."

Keosius sneered, meeting the gaze of the dragon coiled on the snow-capped mountain without fear, and said, "As expected of the Abyss Lord, Jierlazarax, to have occupied such a body."

Jierlazarax grinned, revealing a mocking smile, "I have you to thank for this, my dear 'ally,' Keosius."

Tens of thousands of years ago, the gods sealed me with the true form of Kareks, and threw me and Kareks to the edge of the Astral Plane, so that our powers would counterbalance and devour each other, maintaining an entangled state from which we could never escape.

"It was you, Red Dragon, it was your insatiable greed that unleashed me."

Jierlazarax raised his claws, and instantly countless snowflakes and pebbles fell from the mountaintop. The towering peak tilted to one side and collapsed with a roar due to the force of the impact.

The crimson dragon let out a long, triumphant roar, spewing out scorching, Chaos Fire.

"Keosius, do you see this? I possessed the remains of Kareks, absorbed all his remaining power, and finally created this body—a body that should not have appeared in the Third Era."

Keosius gazed at the enormous dragon body, which was over a hundred meters long, his pale golden pupils gleaming.

Indeed, in the normal course of history, the gods would not allow such a colossal dragon to appear on the Prime Material Plane.

It's likely that in the previous storyline, after the original Keosius was defeated by the player, his body was taken over by Jierlazarax and he lay dormant in the Astral Plane, awaiting the end.

Jierlazarax lowered his head again, staring intently at Keosius, as if trying to see through his body to something hidden behind it.

The enormous, dark red dragon roared at the Red Dragon, and under its control, the chaos in the sky surged like a torrent, causing the mountains to plunge into Abyss.

"Keosius, this was originally your destiny, and you could have possessed such power. Unfortunately, you refused to cooperate with me and refused the call of the Abyss."

"Then I have no choice but to utterly destroy you, absorb Kareks's last remaining power, and transform myself into a true World-Destroying Dragon!"

The Red Dragon suddenly flapped its wings, soaring into the air and spewing scorching dragonfire to confront the Abyssal Dragon -air. "Roar! Jierlazarax, you talk too much nonsense! Do you really think—you can defeat me by seizing a broken corpse? I will personally shatter your so-called destiny!"

Jierlazarax raised his head and roared, spreading his wings, which spanned hundreds of meters, and once again let out a roar that made everything tremble.

"Roar--"

In the standoff between these two colossal giants, amidst the earth-shattering roars, the Anstica Mountains cowered and trembled like tender children.

The mountains groaned in agony, and with a deafening roar, the snow poured down like a torrent, and the terrible avalanches continued one after another.