Chapter 90: The Sword That Slays Dragons

"Greys!"

I grab Greys’ hand and rip open the rift to the subdimension. Security guards pour in from the doorway—before they even notice us, we leap into the space between.

Breaking in, stealing this thing... sorry, Salman. I’ll apologize later. Maybe they’ll forgive me.

Greys and I teleport instantly to England. Please... everyone, stay alive!

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Circling around the Hydra with Freyja on the flying dragon. We’re still too far—can’t disrupt its flight with atmospheric control yet.

"Freyja, can you get closer!?!"

"Trying!!"

Dodging the three beams of light the Hydra fires is tough enough. To make matters worse, this damn dragon can manipulate the air nearly as well as I can.

When it swoops above us, it flares its wings wide, unleashing a gale.

"Yeeeeeek!!"

"Damn it!"

We both yank on Freyja’s reins, barely stabilizing the flying dragon. Strong... really strong. Not gonna be easy.

Just as the Hydra lunges, three shadows flash past us—headed straight for it. Gargoyles summoned by Carlo.

The gargoyles dart around the Hydra, drawing its attention.

We barely dodge another burst of light, inching closer—yet every single wingbeat from the dragon sends a blast of wind our way. Getting near is impossible.

From the ground, Luca fires arrows. Alexander and Anna unleash magic. They know it won’t hurt the beast—but they’re trying to shift its focus from us to them.

One of the Hydra’s heads turns toward the ground and fires a beam of light.

In that instant, Wang sweeps the three of us aside with his staff. We’re flung backward—but thanks to that, we escape the beam of light.

Brutal method… but there’s no other way to dodge the Hydra’s roar.

Wang’s mastering his extendable staff. He plunges it into the ground, then suddenly stretches it out to move—then just as suddenly retracts it again.

Not as smooth as Gojo, but the ability to vanish from one spot to another in an instant is impressive. In fact, the Hydra hasn’t landed a single hit on Wang.

The three flung by Wang are being healed by Liu and Elias with Healing Magic.

Coordination’s solid—but it’s just buying time. We won’t last much longer… everyone’s hanging on by a thread.

The three beams the Hydra fired obliterated the gargoyles and sent me and Freyja flying on our dragon. No way we’re getting back up now! Just as I thought that—

“Are you okay!? Sir!”

Grease is right in front of me. The others are gathered too—everyone’s on the ground. I scan the area—the Hydra’s far away now.

“You’re back, Grease! What about Gojo?”

“He’s over there. Leo’s sir!”

Grease points toward a black dragon in the distance.

“You got the sword!?!”

“Yeah, sir. I’ve got it… but I don’t know if it’ll work. All we can do now is trust Gojo.”

“Gojo…?”

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Before me stands a divine dragon, silently staring. “Divine” is written right there—no exaggeration, it’s impossibly strong.

I won’t know if this sword really works until I try it… but if it doesn’t, humanity might be wiped out by this single beast.

One of the dragon’s heads blasts light without warning! I dodge instantly—but I’d already opened a rift to the sub-space behind me. Tried to redirect the beam through the rift straight into the Hydra… but—

The light passes through. The rift vanishes. Can’t be helped. It was unstable to begin with, and only holds if I’m not near it.

I grip the sword tight, leap into the air, teleport straight at the Hydra. Position myself right above one head. Freeze time.

Bring the sword down with gravity’s force!

The blade screams—bounced right back.

“Doesn’t work!?!”

Despair flashes through my mind—then I remember. Time’s frozen. The attack didn’t even take effect. This sword’s a magic blade, too.

I unfreeze time. This time, I slash at the Hydra’s neck.

The glowing blade scores a tiny cut on the dragon’s “absolute defense” scales. But—damn, it’s hard! Just a scratch, and it’s already furious. The Hydra spews light breaths in every direction.

I step back—create distance.

I *did* manage to wound it. But it’ll take more than this to kill it. Pour all my magic into the blade.

Channel the “Infinite Mana” and the “Dragon King’s Coffin”—force the sword beyond its limits.

The blade vibrates—low, thunderous hum. Then it blazes with light. A blade of pure radiance shoots up into the sky. The sword writhes violently in my grip, like it’s about to explode.

I force it down. The Hydra’s watching me now—definitely wary. It puts distance between us, then starts attacking from afar with beams of light.

I teleport right up to the Hydra’s side. The dragon roars when it sees me. I charge forward anyway—then the black dragon’s body flashes, and the Hydra becomes a glowing white orb.

“What the—!?”

The dragon form vanishes. The glowing sphere compresses tighter and tighter. My body screams danger. Shit! I teleport back—

the ball explodes. A spherical annihilation field spreads out instantly around me.

Light converges. The black Hydra reappears in midair. The ground below it is cleanly gone, a perfect circle. So it can do this too…?

I shudder just thinking about getting hit. But the Hydra looks drained—probably exhausted from that massive magic use. Can’t pull that off again.

I teleport to the front of the Hydra, just above and to the right.

I raise my sword overhead. The magical blade flares, struggling against my grip. I wrestle it down—then swing it straight down.

The arc of light, launched from high above, slices cleanly through the Hydra’s left neck and torso—splitting it in two!!

The long, glowing blade keeps going, cutting through London’s earth beyond the Hydra—carried by momentum. The severed body still tries to fire a light breath from its remaining two heads.

I teleport behind the Hydra.

Baldr’s sword still glows, blazing like it’s overflowing with power—its light stretching all the way to the horizon. I swing sideways—cleaving through both dragon heads.

“TEEM!!”

A magic circle blooms around the severed Hydra body. But something’s off. Different from usual.

The magic circle wobbles, flickering like a dying light. Is it really that hard, even for a Hydra?!

Just as I think that, the Hydra’s body dissolves into black smoke—sucked into a ball the size of a soccer ball at the center of the circle.

Could that be… the “soul core”?

Both the massive sphere and the magic circle vanish at once. I check the Tame List Board—there it is. *Divine Dragon Hydra*.

I step directly below where the Hydra vanished. As always, there’s the familiar So(・)Re(・) rolling there. I’ve been wrong this whole time.

Now it’s crystal clear.

“This… isn’t a soul core… at all…!”