Chapter 5681

When the glare and soot finally thinned, those still alive risked a glance toward the ruined heart of the battlefield-and choked on despair.

The colossal hand that blotted out the heavens still hovered above the crater.

Jared’s peerless strike had carved a deep fissure through the palm. Dark vapors hissed from the wound, yet the hand— blurred, translucent, wounded-remained intact, radiating slaughter.

At the bottom of the newly-born crater, Jared knelt on one knee, exactly where he had once stood tall.

His robes were nothing but rags. Crosshatched wounds crisscrossed his frame so deeply bone flashed white beneath blood. He looked like shattered porcelain glued together by sheer will.

The Dragonslayer Sword, once ablaze with draconic light, now stood planted beside him like a grave marker. Its glow had dimmed to a dying ember, its dragon-song a rasp one could barely hear.

With every ragged cough, Jared expelled fresh blood-and pieces of his own organs. His breath came thin, flickering, precarious, as though the lamp of his life had run out of oil.