Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel-Chapter 153: The Clash of Princes [3]

The War for The North [41]

Chapter 153: Unbreakable Heart

As the shockwave created by the explosion made the sky tremble, Aethrax was hurled into the air with uncontrolled force.

The flames wrapping his body rippled in the wind, his red hair melting.

Cassian didn’t stop. He extended his hand towards the soil and curled his fingers.

"Crush."

The ground below yielded to Cassian’s will and split open.

Stone fists extended from the soil.

The stone hands reached towards the sky to crush Aethrax, who was being tossed in the air.

Aethrax somersaulted in the air and regained his balance. His eyes shone with pure hatred.

"Are you going to stop me with soil, brat?!"

He spread his arms wide and flames erupted from his body like a supernova.

The moment the approaching massive stone fists made contact with Aethrax’s divine fire, they turned into sand, then glass, and finally steam.

But this attack was just a distraction.

At the same time, the sky darkened. A jet-black lightning barrage formed of [Bolts of Destruction] thundered towards Aethrax’s defenseless back.

Aethrax, gritting his teeth without even looking back, extended his hand and stopped the lightning.

The electric currents sizzled and vanished in his flame barrier.

But Cassian was already there. With the speed granted by [Storm Heart], he had appeared in Aethrax’s blind spot, at the nape of his neck.

The sword of chaos flames in his hand drew a deadly arc to separate Aethrax’s neck from his torso.

Aethrax, turning back with superhuman reflexes, caught the sword with his bare hand, inside his palm.

Chaos flames were cauterizing his hand, burning his skin, but there was no trace of pain on Aethrax’s face; only pure anger.

"Gotcha!"

With his clenched palm, he shattered the sword into pieces and swung a punch aimed at Cassian’s face with his other hand.

Just as the fist was about to touch Cassian’s nose, Cassian’s form distorted once again.

The solid body turned into a dense, black mist. Aethrax’s fist entered the void, into the smoke.

From within the mist, a clawed, armored hand shot out unexpectedly.

WHAM!

Cassian’s fist exploded in the middle of Aethrax’s face. Aethrax’s head snapped back, blood gushed from his nose.

In that brief moment when Aethrax stumbled, Cassian didn’t miss the opportunity.

He grabbed Aethrax’s long red hair from the roots.

Flapping his wings with all his might, he dragged Aethrax like a rag doll into the sky, beyond the clouds.

The atmosphere was thinning, the cold increasing, but neither felt it.

When they ascended high enough, Cassian threw Aethrax upwards with all his strength.

Then, he threw his head back. His rib cage swelled with the chaotic energy inside.

He opened his mouth wide as if preparing for a dragon’s roar.

From the depths of his throat, a pitch-black light rose.

Dense chaos flames erupted from his mouth like a volcanic eruption. Black flames painted the sky like ink, covered the stars, and swallowed Aethrax floating in the air.

While Cassian continued to spew fire, a crimson glint was born from the heart of the darkness.

First a small dot, then a dazzling star.

And that star shot towards Cassian.

From within the flames, Aethrax shot out, his skin charred in places but the fire in his eyes unextinguished.

Tearing through the air like a missile, he crashed into Cassian without giving him a chance to react.

His flaming fist landed on Cassian’s open mouth, on his jaw.

CRACK!

The sound of the jawbone breaking mixed with the howling of the wind.

Cassian’s breath was cut short, flames choked in his throat. He was stunned as his head snapped back.

Aethrax didn’t stop.

With ambition, he reached for the majestic black wings on Cassian’s back.

His fingers dug into the dragon wings.

"YOU DON’T NEED THESE FLY WINGS!" roared Aethrax.

He braced his foot against Cassian’s chest and pulled with all his might.

RIP! CRUNCH!

The sound of tearing flesh, snapping bones, and cartilage mixed with Cassian’s muffled groan.

Black blood began to rain from the sky. Cassian’s wings were torn from their roots and scattered into the sky.

The pair began to fall from the sky like meteors surrendered to gravity.

Even while falling, they didn’t stop. They were punching, kicking, tearing each other apart in the air.

Aethrax seized the upper hand in the final seconds of the fall.

He grabbed Cassian’s throat with his hand. Spinning him around, he gained momentum and turned his face towards the ground.

BOOM!

When they hit the ground, the mountains shook. A massive crater opened at the impact point, dust and rock fragments were hurled hundreds of meters away.

Aethrax was about to fall onto Cassian, who was flattened on the ground in the center of the crater.

He brought down his flame-covered fist for a final finishing blow.

However, his fist hit stone and soil.

Cassian had turned into the damn black mist again amidst the dust and smoke of the impact and disappeared.

Aethrax straightened up in anger, looking around. "AGAIN?!"

Cassian’s body had begun to solidify and regain form in the air, a little beyond the crater. But this process wasn’t as fast as before.

WHAM!

Aethrax didn’t wait for Cassian to completely regain his form.

He lunged forward and slammed his fist, descending like a battering ram, into the not-yet-fully materialized chest.

With this blow, Cassian was hurled backward into the mountainside.

His body crashed into hard rocks and was buried inside the mountain. Rocks collapsed onto him.

Aethrax didn’t stop. Adrenaline and anger flowed like lava in his veins.

He lunged forward, targeting the point where Cassian was buried in the mountain.

"COME OUT!"

He slammed his fist onto the mountain’s surface. The mountain couldn’t withstand this blow. Massive cracks formed and the rock mass shattered.

Cassian burst out from the other end of the mountain along with shattered stones.

His body was devastated; his ribs broken, one arm twisted backward.

The armor of his Sovereign form was shattered, the flesh underneath visible.

The [Unique Regeneration] skill was struggling, but the damage he took was so great that the healing speed couldn’t catch up.

While Cassian was hurled in the air, Aethrax lifted a piece of rock the size of a house from the ground with one hand.

Snarling, he hurled the rock like a cannonball at Cassian.

Cassian found his balance by spinning in the air.

He extended his only remaining intact arm and shattered the rock in the air with the chaos energy concentrated at his fingertips.

From amidst the dust cloud of the shattered rocks, Aethrax burst out like a crimson demon.

His fist buried itself over Cassian’s heart.

Cassian’s breath was completely cut short, his vision went black. Aethrax didn’t stop.

He grabbed Cassian’s shoulders. Braced his foot against Cassian’s chest and...

CRUNCH!

He pulled and tore off both his arms from the shoulders at once.

Cassian’s arms remained in Aethrax’s hands. Fountains of blood gushed from his shoulders.

Aethrax threw the severed arms aside and tried to prevent healing by cauterizing the wounds on Cassian’s shoulders with intense flames coming from his palms.

"What are you going to do now?!" he shouted with the intoxication of victory.

However, at that moment, he felt a cold breath on the nape of his neck.

A sword made of chaos flames was swung towards his neck.

Aethrax tilted his head to the side with a reflex at the last moment.

The sword, instead of completely cutting his neck, grazed his skin deeply and passed right next to his carotid artery. Blood trickled down his neck.

Aethrax jumped back in shock.

He looked at the armless body lying on the ground. That body was still there, bloody and seemingly alive.

But when he turned his head, he saw Cassian standing behind him, completely intact, arms in place, with that disgusting calm expression on his face.

The armless body on the ground turned into a black liquid and melted.

That damn skill again.

"How many tricks do you have, coward rat!" snarled Aethrax.

Cassian didn’t answer. He raised his hand to the sky.

"Fall."

The sky split open and hundreds of pitch-black lightning bolts descended upon Aethrax.

Aethrax crossed his arms and tried to protect himself, but the power of the lightning forced him to his knees.

His scorched body was damaged.

But still... Still, with his stubborn, undying fire, he showed no weakness.

The light in his eyes didn’t diminish even for a moment.

Cassian, on the other hand, was still in his best form thanks to [Unique Regeneration].

He was tired, his mana was depleting, but physically he looked flawless. As long as he didn’t die, he always remained at the peak.

Cassian lunged forward.

When Cassian’s chaos and Aethrax’s flames collided once again, the earth moved.

Aethrax dodged backward, and the moment he opened the distance between them...

Cassian stabbed his sword into the ground. He combined the [Child of Nature] skill with his chaotic energy.

"Grave of the Earth!"

Two massive hands formed of granite rose from the soil and grabbed Aethrax from both sides like catching a fly.

Aethrax tried to melt the hands with his flames, but Cassian transferred the chaos flames flowing from his sword underground, directly into the veins of the soil.

The hands turned black, hardened, and pulled Aethrax deep into the soil, burying him.

There was silence for a few seconds.

Then, hundreds of black spikes, sharp as spears, rose from the soil towards the sky and riddled the area where Aethrax was buried.

But instead of relaxing, Cassian’s eyes widened. Cassian flew into the air, flapping his regenerated wings.

His instincts were screaming. Something was coming... Something very dangerous, very angry.

He flew hundreds of meters away, opening the distance.

And suddenly...

BOOOOM!

The soil exploded like a volcanic eruption. Black spikes, soil, rock... everything flew into the air.

And from within that destruction, that rain of lava and soil, a figure shot towards Cassian.

Several holes had opened in his body, one eye was closed, his skin was burnt, but his aura... His aura was burning even brighter, wilder than before.

Aethrax!

"WHY DON’T YOU DIE!" roared the dwarf as he reached Cassian in the air.

Cassian switched to immediate defense. Chaos flames, lightning... He sent them all at him. He formed layers of shields in front of him.

But Aethrax tore through all attacks. He met the spells with his chest, shattered the shields with his fist, and reached Cassian.

With the flame sword in his hand, he sliced Cassian in two from the waist in the air.

As Cassian’s body separated into two pieces, Aethrax didn’t stop.

He caught Cassian’s upper body in the air, grabbed his face, and burned his head with intense flames spewing from his hand.

Cassian’s body once again turned into black smoke and slipped through Aethrax’s fingers.

But Aethrax didn’t allow it this time.

He stubbornly followed the black smoke. His mana had permeated the smoke, he could smell it.

"You can’t escape!"

Cassian moved away quickly. He passed the area surrounded by mountains, left the valley completely.

They covered kilometers within seconds. Snowy mountains, forests passed by like blurs beneath them.

Finally, while Cassian was trying to solidify on a glacier, Aethrax caught him.

Aethrax grabbed Cassian’s newly formed, not-yet-hardened horns.

"Got you!"

He slammed Cassian’s face hard onto his own knee. The sound of a nose breaking was heard.

Then, grabbing Cassian by the leg, he began to slam him onto the icy ground from side to side like a sack.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

With every hit, an earthquake occurred, glaciers cracked. Cassian’s dragon bones were already broken, pulverized.

But [Unique Regeneration] stubbornly reformed them, albeit crookedly.

This was torture for Cassian. He couldn’t die, but he felt every bit of the pain.

Aethrax slammed Cassian onto the ground hard one last time and let go. He was out of breath.

With his hand, he formed a massive sledgehammer from floating flames. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"DIE ALREADY!"

He brought the sledgehammer down.

And hit. And hit. And hit.

So much so that, in the end, there was no body of Cassian left on the ground.

There was only a pool of black blood scattered around and in the middle of that pool, a heart continuing to beat stubbornly with a strong rhythm.

Dragon Heart.

Aethrax stood panting. Blood flowing from his forehead fell into his eye, blurring his vision.

His body was cramping, he felt something strange flowing in his veins.

He stepped forward and looked at the heart on the ground. The heart... That damn organ was still beating.

"This..." he said with a wheezing voice. "What kind of curse is this?"

He raised his hand, formed a spear of fire, and stabbed it hard into the defenseless heart.

HISS!

The moment the spear touched the heart, as if water extinguishing fire, his flames dispersed and disappeared.

The invisible, divine aura around the heart rejected Aethrax’s weakened flames.

Aethrax’s eyes darkened. "Why... Why doesn’t it disappear?"

He bent down to take the heart, to rip it out, to crush it. He extended his hand.

But at that moment, his vision blurred completely.

Strength drained from his legs and he collapsed on one knee.

Poison... Or no, [Void Decay]. That insidious curse Cassian had infected him with since the beginning of the battle had finally taken over Aethrax’s body, which was standing on adrenaline.

Before his eyes, the heart trembled. Veins extended, muscles wove, bones formed.

Within seconds, the heart took on Cassian’s form again.

That Sovereign form again. Those black scales, those horns again.

But this time, there wasn’t even a single scratch on him. His mana was replenished, his body refreshed.

Cassian stood before the kneeling, exhausted Aethrax. He tilted his head slightly to the side calmly, as if looking at an insignificant insect.

His crimson eyes fixed on Aethrax’s fading eyes.

"What’s the matter, Dwarf?" his voice was cold and emotionless.

"We were just getting started."