The Nether Dragon, a hundred miles long, floated in the air like a mass of black clouds. Its first strike had left a circular crater on the ground, two miles across and shaped like the bottom of a pot. The pit was spotless and mirror-smooth, even carrying a strange gleam. Everything within it, earth and rock included, had been completely dissolved by nether energy.
A shrill, furious voice rang out beside Arthur. "Without the power of the Saint Realm, do not approach this evil existence!"
Dozens of Punishment Knights burst into golden-red divine flames, charging at the Nether Dragon like meteors flying in reverse. Calling out the name of the God of Retribution, they swung pale golden longswords and slashed at the Nether Dragon's faintly visible head.
Only those at the Saint Realm or above could withstand the destructive force of that previous Nether Dragon shockwave. The Punishment Knights now rushing into the sky were at least mid-stage Saints. Divine power of punishment burned around them, enough to shatter and kill any evil force the God of Retribution deemed heretical.
A deep boom sounded through the void. A huge sacred-patterned cross, wreathed in steadily burning golden-red divine flames, appeared in the air. With that sacred-patterned cross as its core, three layers of intricate thorn-wreath magic arrays abruptly flashed into being. The Punishment Knights who had attacked joined forces, using their own divine power to unleash the Temple of Punishment's most commonly used Punish Evil Divine Array.
Hundreds of thorn-shaped golden-red bolts of lightning, trailing great masses of flame, erupted from the divine array and struck heavily upon the Nether Dragon's head. The Nether Dragon let out a low, drawn-out chant as thin sheets of gray mist sprayed from its body, firmly shielding it. Every bolt of lightning could shatter dozens