Chapter 535: Sudden Attack on Anbord. Jerry’s Outrage

Dragons weren’t the strongest and most feared race in the world just because they were destructive. Destruction was part of their strength. In fact, it was their main strength. But there were other factors, and one of them was infiltration.

Yes! Dragons were so powerful that infiltrating any kingdom was a walk in the park for them. And with their ability to control lesser dragon types, they were the scariest race when it came to infiltration, too. The funny part was that they didn’t even need to hide. After all, no one ever survived.

...

The sky above Anbord shattered without warning. There had been no signal, no fluctuation, no gradual rise in danger.

Just silence, then...

Annihilation.

A beam of draconic breath tore across the heavens like a divine judgment, descending from beyond sight itself. It wasn’t fire. It was something older and more powerful.

A compressed torrent of raw draconic authority, elemental forces fused into a single, devastating exhale that warped everything it touched.

The moment it struck...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Anbord’s outer defense grid lit up in a cascade of golden barriers, layers upon layers of protection woven by Ethan himself and reinforced by the empire’s greatest mages.

For a fraction of a second, they held. Then they screamed. Cracks spread across the barrier like veins, light bending, twisting, failing, and then, they shattered.

The blast punched through the defensive systems like they were made of glass, detonating across the outer districts of Anbord. Entire sectors were consumed in a storm of collapsing structures, burning energy, and displaced earth.

Shockwaves rolled inward, flattening buildings, tearing through streets, and throwing soldiers and civilians alike into the air like ragdolls.

Sirens screamed instantly.

"EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED!"

"ALL UNITS RESPOND!"

"DRAGON THREAT DETECTED!"

Smoke and dust rose in thick, choking waves, blotting out sections of the sky.

And then, they came. Thousands.

The clouds twisted open as lesser dragons poured through, winged beasts of varying sizes, their scales ranging from obsidian black to molten red, from storm-grey to sickly green.

Drakes followed, smaller, faster, moving in coordinated packs like living weapons.

Wyrms erupted from the ground itself, tunneling through the earth before bursting upward beneath structures, swallowing entire sections of land in violent upheaval.

And yet, the one who had unleashed that breath was nowhere to be seen.

...

"CONTACT! MULTIPLE HOSTILES!"

"FORM RANKS!"

"PROTECT THE INNER DISTRICTS!"

Knights of the Imperial Army and Anbord’s military forces mobilized instantly, black and blue uniforms flashing across the battlefield as formations were established in seconds.

Energy weapons ignited. Magic circles flared. The air became a battlefield of light and destruction. A drake dove from above, its jaws wide, only to be split clean in half mid-air by a blade of condensed mana.

"LEFT FLANK! HOLD IT!"

A squad of soldiers raised their arms as a combined barrier formed, just in time to block a barrage of flaming breath from three descending wyrms.

The impact sent them skidding back, boots carving trenches into the ground.

"Too many!"

"They’re coordinating... Watch the skies!"

A massive lesser dragon crashed into the outer wall, its claws digging deep as it tore into the structure with brutal force. Its roar shook the air until a barrage of kinetic rounds tore through its skull, dropping it instantly.

Turo stood atop a collapsed tower, his cybernetic arms glowing as his sniper rifle hummed with residual energy.

"Next!"

But there was no pause, no breathing room as another wave descended.

...

Elsewhere, it was chaos. Pure chaos.

A residential sector had been hit directly by the initial blast. Buildings were gone... Erased.

Cries filled the air as survivors stumbled through the debris, some injured, some carrying others, some simply frozen in shock.

"Help! Someone!"

A wyrm burst from beneath the ground, its massive jaws snapping shut around fleeing civilians, only for its head to explode in a burst of golden light.

Delphina stood there, her arm extended, a radiant sword forming in her grip. Her expression was not playful this time.

"Get to safety," she said quietly.

Then she moved, becoming a blur of light. Swords manifested around her in rapid succession, launching forward like a storm of divine weapons, piercing through incoming drakes and tearing through the sky itself.

Each swing and each step was death for the enemy.

...

At the central defense line, Xander landed hard, wings flaring behind him as his eyes scanned the battlefield.

"This isn’t random."

His voice was low and focused. Ivy appeared beside him instantly.

"They’re not targeting the core directly," she added.

"They’re testing."

Xander’s jaw tightened.

"No."

His gaze lifted to the sky.

"They’re distracting."

BOOM!

Another explosion tore through the eastern sector. Screams followed, and his expression darkened.

"Find the source of that breath attack," he ordered sharply. "Now."

Ivy nodded and vanished. Xander stepped forward and unleashed hell.

Destruction erupted from his body in violent waves, destroying and massacring entire clusters of dragons mid-flight, shattering them into nothing.

But even as he fought, more came, endless and relentless.

...

Above it all, hidden beyond sight. A massive silhouette shifted behind layers of distorted space, watching and waiting.

Golden eyes burned faintly through the veil. The true attacker.

...

Back below, the casualties mounted. Despite their strength and their preparation, the sheer number was overwhelming. A unit was crushed under the weight of a descending dragon. Another was wiped out by a coordinated aerial strike. Even the strongest among them were being pushed hard.

...

And then, the ground shook, not from impact nor from battle, but from something else. Something deeper, something familiar.

Because within Anbord, a presence stirred. One that had just touched something far beyond its limits, and as the war raged at its gates, that presence was about to respond.

...

The battlefield didn’t end. It... stopped mid-motion. A faint pulse rippled through existence, powerful and absolute.

It spread outward from Anbord like a silent decree, distorting space as it moved. The air bent unnaturally, the ground seeming to sink and stretch at the same time, while the very laws governing motion hesitated.

For a fraction of a second, everything froze. Then the void-born faltered. The lesser dragons convulsed mid-flight, drakes dropped from the sky like broken puppets, and wyrms burst apart beneath the ground, their massive bodies collapsing into lifeless masses before they could even fully emerge.

They couldn’t even resist or struggle. It was just death, instant, and total. Across the battlefield, soldiers staggered as the pressure swept through them. It was not harmful to them. It was not targeted at them, but overwhelming in its presence.

"What... was that...?" someone whispered.

No one answered, because the sky changed. The already darkened heavens deepened further, not with clouds, but with something thicker, as if reality itself had been layered over, suffocating the light.

A vast shadow spread above Anbord, and within that darkness, two eyes opened; one silver, one red.

They burned through the void like twin stars, vast and emotionless, yet carrying a weight so immense that every living being below felt it press against their very existence. The surviving beasts, those few that had not died instantly, began to tremble; their instincts screamed.

Some collapsed outright, their bodies giving up before their minds could even process what they were seeing. Others tried to move, only to crumble mid-step, their forms unable to withstand the pressure of that gaze.

The battlefield fell silent, utterly, and completely.

Then, the darkness parted slowly as a figure descended, step by step, though there was no ground beneath him.

Long, braided silvery-white hair swayed behind him, each strand faintly glowing, moving as though guided by something beyond wind.

Black clothes draped over his tall frame, simple in design, but the space around them warped subtly, unable to fully define their edges.

His presence didn’t explode outward... It sank in, like something inevitable. As his feet touched the air just above the battlefield, reality steadied, but only around him.

Everywhere else remained... strained. His mismatched eyes, silver and red, swept across the ruined landscape, emotionless and cold, seeing everything and understanding everything.

"Pathetic," he muttered.

His voice wasn’t loud, yet it carried across the entire battlefield, reaching every ear as if spoken directly beside them. Even the veterans, even the strongest, felt it.

That presence.

"Uncle Jerry..." Ivy whispered, her voice barely audible.

But this, this wasn’t the same Jerry they knew, not entirely, because the moment he stepped forward, the ground beneath him didn’t crack. It simply... ceased to exist.

A surviving lesser dragon, massive and furious, roared as it forced itself to move, wings tearing through the pressure as it lunged toward him in desperation, but it never reached him.

Jerry didn’t move. The dragon’s body twisted mid-air, compressed, folded inward like crushed paper, and vanished. Erased without a trace.

Silence returned, deeper than before. Jerry’s gaze lifted slowly toward the sky.

His red eye glowed slightly brighter.

"I know you’re watching."

The space above trembled faintly as his silver eye followed, calm and cold.

"Next time..." There was a shift in pressure that made even the air recoil.

"Come yourself."

The words didn’t challenge.