Chapter 206: The Judgment of the Gods

The two dragon heads, swaying back and forth, stood on opposite sides, forming a perfect triangle with the Knight Val. The two pairs of vertical pupils inside the triangular eye sockets stared straight at the Knight Val on the edge of the square.

The gaping giant mouths revealed sharp, thin teeth like those of venomous snakes. The purple tongues moved inside with flexibility and strength, curling in circles to protect their throats.

At the same time, the piercing screeches and the foul stench made the surrounding environment seem even more eerie. Most of the houses on the edge of the square were built from light brown granite. The passage of time had left its marks on them. The ivy covering the side walls and the moss in the corners were among these marks.

But now, that ivy looked like wheat that had been without rain for a long time, with their heads drooping in every direction. The originally moist moss was even more like used toilet paper, curling up into many wrinkles.

Suddenly, a slight bulge appeared at the throat under one of the dragon heads. Knight Val, familiar with dragon habits, immediately understood what the opponent was about to do next.

With his steps, which started with his heels and gradually moved to his whole feet, moving slowly but actually fast, Knight Val shifted diagonally to the right by exactly 50 feet. He successfully avoided the indigo-blue electric current spewing from the dragon head with its huge head shield.

Unfortunately, the bronze lamppost in the square was not so lucky. It was melted into red-hot copper liquid like soft clay during the contact with this linear energy stream, which was 5 feet in diameter and reached a maximum distance of 120 feet. Most of it splashed out, causing the surrounding marble floor tiles to turn black and smoke. The rest slowly flowed outward as it descended.

Before Knight Val could rush to the opponent’s side, the second breath attack appeared right in his path, shadowing him. Knight Val slid to the side, leaned his body backward, twisted his waist, and successfully controlled his center of gravity. He made another unbelievable move to avoid the opponent’s double attack.

The orange-red conical flame spread out from the dragon’s mouth. This hot breath, with a cone base diameter of 60 feet and a distance of 60 feet, not only severely burned the ground but also caused the surrounding air to distort due to the intense heat.

“Breath Weapon” is a term different from other dragon breaths. Each head of the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons can breathe the breath of any colored dragon. More importantly, unlike other dragons, the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons can breathe without any pause.

In fact, “Dragon Breath” is a misnomer. Because those fire, poison, acid, or other substances are released from the upper stomach, not the lungs. More accurately, those energy streams are actually vomit, not exhalation. So, using “breath” to describe it was first a subjective judgment by the ignorant.

The stomach of a colored dragon consists of two parts: a smaller “upper stomach” and the gizzard. Elemental energy brought by the heart through the basal vessels is stored in the upper stomach until it is needed. This energy can be used to help digestion—in this case, it flows into the gizzard when food from the esophagus reaches it—or it can be used to form the dragon’s breath weapon .

A small amount of this energy seeps from the dragon’s upper stomach into the esophagus, mouth, and nose. It might emanate from these places in the form of wisps of light smoke or toxic fog. Of course, this is another reason why humans believe the breath weapon is part of the respiratory system. When most dragons use biting attacks, this seeping energy also causes damage.

Therefore, the dragon’s breath ability stems from the fact that the energy that activates the breath weapon is the same energy that drives the digestive process of this beast. When a dragon is severely injured, its body releases a large amount of adrenaline directly into the bloodstream, and the blood then sends a surge of elemental energy to the creature’s organs.

To prepare for the incoming energy flow, the dragon’s digestive tract clears out the energy already stored inside it. Essentially, the dragon’s breath is vomited from the gizzard, not the upper stomach where energy is usually stored.

Each time the gizzard needs to “refill,” it takes anywhere from a few dozen seconds to a few minutes, because almost all the energy delivered by the heart during combat is used for the breath weapon.

This means that the dragon cannot use its breath weapon until the upper stomach starts refilling the gizzard with energy again. This is why a dragon can only use its breath again after a short rest.

But the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons is different. As a naturally uncreated life form, its purpose from birth is combat and slaughter. Its unique physiological structure and powerful heart-lung ability make its breath continuous like a flowing river. The random discharge mechanism means that before each breath appears, even the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons itself does not know the specific effect.

This type of attack, which even the user cannot fully control, may seem somewhat inflexible to many people. However, it also causes those who can detect thoughts, suggestions, or similar magical abilities to lose their way to a certain extent.

Successive breath attacks kept appearing at the spots where Knight Val had stopped. It seemed that if he moved even a half-beat too slowly, he would have to accept the baptism of this vomit.

Knight Val had not tasted the feeling of frustrated offense for a long time. Conical attacks: like the coldest breath of the most transparent gauze, dense pale green corrosive clouds, orange-red tongues of fire accompanied by heat waves and thick smoke; linear attacks: the silent lightning and yellow-green acidic liquid. The breaths from these five dragons were like bullets fired from a submachine gun. Although they had not caused any damage to Knight Val so far, they severely restricted his freedom of movement.

What made him frown even more was the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons’ unique breath: the black Hellfire. It is an evil magical energy, not fire, so no kind of fire protection will be effective. According to research, only protection against evil or magic can work against it.

But attacks that cannot hit will not harm a single hair on Knight Val, no matter how powerful they are. However, he was worried about another matter, because the parts of the square burned by the Hellfire had been desecrated by the energy of the Lower Plane. Such an environment was like the Evil Abode spell of a 5th-level Priest, not only having a bad effect on those living nearby but also potentially giving rise to various mutated evil creatures.

This is because the mysterious elemental essence of dragons is one of the most strange and unknown mysteries. The energy flowing through a dragon’s heart and blood will scatter into the surroundings upon death, creating a chaotic area. The surrounding area will be flooded with the dragon’s internal energy, causing permanent or at least very long-lasting environmental changes. Was the same effect caused when the breath was sprayed? Knight Val had not only never seen it but had never even heard of it before.

At the same time, Knight Val also saw the overwhelming advantage of the Green Dragon over the ground knights in the distance. He kept warning himself in his heart: “Now is not the time to be cautious. Even if I get hurt, I must send this guy in front of me back to Hell.”

While maintaining high-speed movement, Knight Val took a silver bottle from his chest. The beautiful bottle was decorated with blooming roses. Without any sense of dignity, he used his teeth to bite open the cork at the bottle’s mouth and waved his hand to sprinkle the entire bottle of liquid into the air.

The liquid, as clear as the purest mountain spring water, was sprinkled in the air. Under the bright sunlight, it refracted into a colorful spectrum almost like a rainbow. At the same time, golden particles rotated and surrounded the artificial “rainbow,” shining brilliantly.

This was a bottle of Water of Disorder. By pouring iron filings and silver filings into a bottle of clear water and chanting ancient and smooth words, then casting the spell to dissolve all the powder in the water and spinning out the golden particles from the bottle, this special magical liquid was completed.

This magical process can infuse chaotic energy into the water in the bottle, turning it into Water of Disorder. Water of Disorder can damage Lawful Extraplanar Creatures just as Holy Water damages Undead and Evil Extraplanar Creatures. Whether splashed or thrown in a fragile container, it can produce good results.

However, Knight Val would naturally not use such a low-tech combat method. With his subsequent sword-chanting, the solemn words resonated with the surrounding environment.

Suddenly, dark clouds filled the sky. The sky looked like a black pot overturned on the ground, heavy and suffocating.

A strong wind blew, and colorful lightning raced through the clouds. The thunder was deafening, but the lightning failed to tear apart the thick dark clouds. After the great thunder rolled through the low clouds, a torrential rain poured down from the sky.

Like a waterfall, the large, colorful raindrops fell directly on the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons, causing a stream of green smoke to rise. When it flowed to the ground, the ground instantly formed many cheerful little streams, washing away and neutralizing the original desecrating power one by one.

Looking around, the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons in the middle seemed to be isolated by a huge curtain of pearls. The colorful pearl curtain made the opponent’s image blurry.

This was a downpour formed by Knight Val using the Water of Disorder as a medium to summon the power of Chaos. Whether it was the seven-colored glimmer in the raindrops or the colorful lightning racing above, they were all incarnations of the power of Chaos. For the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons, a Lawful Evil Extraplanar Creature, this was indeed very effective.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Knight Val slightly slowed his pace and began to chant a ballad born from the Heavenly Mountain at the beginning of creation.

The storm would hinder vision and hearing, affecting the perception of the creatures placed by the gods. But unfortunately, the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons, as a natural weapon of war, had not considered this point?

No, the wisdom of a Deity would not make such a big mistake. The Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons’ vision in low-light conditions is four times that of a Human, and twice that of a Human in normal light. He also has 1100 feet of Darkvision.

Moreover, even if blinded, this dragon can sense the presence of other creatures within 330 feet by non-visual means. This includes hearing and smell, as well as paying attention to vibrations and other environmental changes.

So, this small storm could not affect the normal perception of the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons. Enduring the pain like a Human being doused with hot oil, the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons opened its beak-like mouth, preparing to attack the prey it thought had become numb and careless.

Suddenly, the thunder in the sky roared loudly. A huge rainbow lightning bolt, like a sharp sword, pierced straight between the two necks of the two-headed dragon. The pain caused by the severe damage made this attack of the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons come to nothing.

“Disorder Storm,” a 3rd-level Divine Art from Priests, showed amazing effects when dealing with the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons.

At the same time, dazzling colors kept flashing on Knight Val’s body. A crown made of divine energy appeared on his head, revealing the Holy Symbol of Pelor, Sun God—the Face of the Sun—on the front.

This is the Crown of Divine Smite. It allows the user to deal holy damage to certain specific creatures in the next attack. However, although its long duration and once-per-minute activation mechanism are suitable for prolonged battles, it is not the best choice for the current situation Knight Val faces.

Immediately after, the crown automatically dissipated, turning into tiny starry dust that floated around Knight Val. This is another use of this Divine Art: to dispel its continuous effect and greatly strengthen his single attack damage with divine power. This intensity is about four times the previous continuous form.

Next came Divine Grace, like a halo surrounding him. It calls upon the power and wisdom of the gods, making it easier for you to hit and deal more fatal damage. This enhancement is not very large, but the most critical point is that it is not an enhancement of personal qualities, but rather an interference with fate close to the law of causality. It gives people a feeling of having nowhere to hide.

That spiritual divine energy was the power of Pelor, Sun God, whom Knight Val believed in, calling upon it to inject a fighting force and skill into himself. Although the help in combat skills for Knight Val was like a drop of rain after a long drought, so awkward.

However, the enhancement of three levels of power and the abundance of vitality and endurance not only allowed Knight Val to deal stronger damage in battle but also made him more calm when dealing with the enemy’s counterattacks.

Suddenly, Knight Val seemed to have taken hormones, and his entire body size increased. Not only did his height and size double, but the increased weight also caused the stone slabs under his feet to crack.

Surprisingly, the equipment Knight Val wore and held was also enlarged by this spell. This meant that the longsword in his hand had a larger attack range and damage. This is because defense and attack change with body size.

The effect of the 6th-level Divine Art “Righteousness Like a Rainbow” was not limited to this. While changing the body shape, it would give the user a two-level size bonus to Strength and a one-level size bonus to Constitution. Most importantly, this could stack with the enhancement bonus of divine power.

There was also a natural armor class improvement similar to the enhancement bonus of leather armor and unique damage reduction. This allowed anyone who used it to undergo a complete transformation in melee combat.

Someone once said that when Divine Grace, Divine Power, and Righteousness Like a Rainbow are all applied to a person at the same time, even the most experienced warrior, when facing a hammer swung by a Priest, can only dodge the sharp edge.

As if he had finished buffing himself, Knight Val held his longsword and rushed quickly toward the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons, who was still in the Disorder Storm.

However, before he ran half the distance, the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons recovered from the continuous lightning strikes just now. It stretched out its head and breathed again at Knight Val.

But this time, Knight Val did not choose to retreat or dodge. His speed, originally hard to see with the naked eye, suddenly increased, and all his muscles seemed to bulge. His originally proportionate body, like a Greek statue, suddenly became like Hiren’s muscular body.

This is the very rare Courageous Frenzy in Divine Arts. It not only gives Knight Val a two-level morale bonus to Strength and Constitution but also speeds up Knight Val’s speed, just like the Mage’s Haste spell. As for strengthening willpower to deal with fear, it had no effect on Knight Val.

The golden longsword, “Divine Executioner,” was still incredibly sharp even after being enlarged. It sliced through the air and raindrops in Knight Val’s hand like they didn’t exist at all, without causing the slightest ripple.

No fatal blade light or sword shadow appeared. It seemed like everything was so silent. The first clash caused the head shield of one of the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons’ heads, along with the hard bone spikes on it, to detach from the body. The golden flames attached to the wound, using its flesh and blood as fuel, continued to flicker.

Knight Val, who achieved results with one sword, continued his attack. He narrowly avoided the sharp claws swung by the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons and left a deep, bone-exposing mark on its left rib. The scales flying out from that blow easily cut off the branches of distant trees.

At the same time, Knight Val spat out the word “Sanction” in the Heavenly Realm language. Instantly, a bright light appeared out of nowhere, penetrating the evil aura protection around the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons and directly imprinting a Holy Symbol of the Face of the Sun on its forehead.

This was the same as the Word Spirit “Sanction Evil” that Hiren used against the Bear Goblin Priest in Greywood Town before. Of course, in Knight Val’s hands, the effects of the two were incomparable. Most importantly, the advanced attribute: if the target is an Extraplanar Creature with an Evil subtype, a dragon of the Evil Camp, or an Undead, the damage bonus for the first successful hit increases to twice the original.

Knight Val dodged the two-headed dragon’s bite again and attacked its defensive blind spot once more. Everything was so natural, so smooth. There were no fancy martial skills or brilliant battle tactics. It seemed like everything was supposed to happen this way. He controlled the rhythm of the battle. The Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons was like a pianist under his baton, forever only able to follow his melody.

In the blink of an eye, the rain stopped, and the sky cleared. The sun could not wait to drill out of the clouds and pour its light onto this battlefield. In just a few short minutes, the huge two-headed dragon was now covered in scars. Just then, a blood-red light appeared on the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons’ body. It seemed as if it was about to disappear before Knight Val’s eyes.

This was the divine power from Tiamat, the Evil Dragon Queen. Whenever the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons was severely injured in other Planes, it would be sent back to Hell. This was the power of a Deity, far beyond what mortals could resist. Spells like Dimension Anchor, which usually prevent teleportation, had almost no effect here.

If it were anyone else, they would have given up after reaching this point. But Knight Val did not. He gritted his teeth and said, “You guy, do you think Bolerum Territory is a place where you can come and go as you please? You evil and filthy thing should never have descended…”

A desolate and ethereal aria once again came from Knight Val’s mouth. He was calling and calling for the attention of his Deity. Through the traces of divinity rooted in his bloodline, it began to become lively; they were tracing back to their source.

This was the final Judgment Mark that Knight Val launched against the evil creature before him through his firm prayer to the gods. It made it the target of holy judgment.

The ground shook, the air condensed, and even the moles under the ground stopped moving. These animals suddenly went quiet and felt fear due to the judgment sent by the gods on the target.

The Face of the Sun on the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons emitted dazzling colors. This power marked the target with the mark of Pelor, Sun God, whom Knight Val believed in: the target became an existence that must pay the price for its crimes. As long as the target continues to survive, it must bear the punishment brought by the divine power of the gods. Of course, if this Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons could escape back to Tiamat’s Divine Realm, it might stop the judgment. But now it seemed that everything was too late.

Pelor is the creator of many beautiful things in the world, the supporter who keeps these beautiful things going, and the enemy of all evil. He is the most widely worshipped object among mortals, the faith from Commoners to the royal family. His Clergy are treated well all over the world.

Although he is often considered a peaceful and elegant Deity who is good at alleviating rather than causing pain, Pelor still has many unknown sides. He uses his anger to intimidate darkness and evil, and he encourages and helps those who do good.

Pelor taught people that the source of life is the Sun. It is the light of the Sun that brings strength and health to the weak and the injured, and at the same time, it can destroy all darkness and evil.

Facing the judgment of such a Deity, the fire of the Sun rushed out from within the Prince of the Five-Colored Dragons, burning the divine power barrier of Tiamat. It ended the sinful life of the opponent.