I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 1246: Hunted From Every Sides

Zerathul now felt even more fear about his own fate. It crept through him like a fracture spreading through crystal, subtle at first, then impossible to ignore.

That fear disrupted his focus and the imbalance showed immediately.

The black necrotic radiance he commanded began to recoil, its advance faltering as Khepra Ankh's white light surged forward.

The contrast sharpened brutally. Where darkness had once devoured space it was now being pushed back, peeled away layer by layer, erased rather than resisted.

Zerathul staggered in the air and his control started to slip even further.

Confusion ripped through his thoughts. This should not have been possible. Krono should have been gone. Absorbed, and consumed already. He should already be reduced to power and memory within him. And yet, the presence remained.

It moved inside him like a shadow without shape, never attacking him, never revealing itself fully, but always there. Watching, pressing, and waiting for the right moment.

Zerathul felt it coil around his consciousness, tightening whenever he focused his power outward. The uncertainty was worse than pain.

He did not know when Krono would act, or how, only that its existence weakened him from within.

Anxiety gnawed at him, fracturing his will further.

Then Zerathul felt the air below giving pressure to him.

Two presences surged upward through the storm of light and warped space, cutting through the chaos with violent intent.

Zerathul's attention snapped downward just as Eccar and Aesa reached him.

Their bodies exploded outward in an instant transformation.

Eccar became a towering Earth Dragon, his massive body plated in cracked stone scales veined with glowing fault lines.

Aesa changed beside him into the same colossal Ice Dragon, her crystalline body fractured in places, slash marks still etched across her scales.

Sections of both their wings bore the scars of the severance they had experienced before. It was still imperfectly healed but strong enough to beat against the air and pushed them to fly.

They did not slow.

Earth and ice power struck together.

Eccar drove a wave of crushing stone force into Zerathul's body while Aesa unleashed a torrent of ice power that locked him in biting frost.

The impact hit him, knocking his body backward as the white light pressed harder from the front.

Surrounded by opposing forces, hunted from within by Krono's lingering shadow, and assaulted by the Dragons without mercy, Zerathul felt overwhelmed.

His certainty began to break. Something inside Zerathul finally snapped.

The rings of fractured seals around his body shuddered violently, the ancient seals forged by the four Archmages screaming as cracks raced through them.

One by one they shattered and collapsing into shards of fading light. The restraint on his sealed time power broke completely.

Time answered him again.

The moment the seal fell, the world lurched. Space twisted in on itself, and a suffocating pressure spread outward like a tide moving backward.

Eccar and Aesa felt it instantly. Their massive bodies stiffened midair as a wrongness crawled across their senses, a cold realization settling in them both.

The time power had awakened again.

"HAHAHA!!!"

Zerathul threw his head back and laughed with the sharp and unhinged sound echoing through the fractured sky.

Power surged through him. With a single motion of his will, the flow of moments bent.

Khepra Ankh's white light stopped. The calm radiance that had been erasing necrotic power began to reverse, its expansion dragging backward as if pulled by unseen hands.

What had already spread rewound upon itself, collapsing into nothing, its cleansing authority stripped away as time itself denied its existence.

Zerathul turned that same power outward.

The crushing stone force from Eccar unraveled in the middle of the impact, its momentum peeling away second by second until it had never reached him at all.

Aesa's ice also shattered soundlessly, frost retreating back into the raw sparkle of Magic before dissolving into emptiness.

Their combined assault vanished as if it had never been unleashed.

For a moment, Zerathul felt triumph burned through him.

However, in the moment, pain comes.

A violent presence surged within him. It was no longer passive, no longer watching. Krono's soul flared awake, its essence resonating directly against the stolen time power.

The time power inside Zerathul shuddered, the flow stalling as resistance erupted from within Zerathul's own core.

Time froze.

Zerathul screamed.

The roar tore from him in raw pain as his body convulsed, his necrotic light flickering wildly.

The time power collapsed inward, snapping shut as Krono's awakened presence lashed against him from the inside, tearing at the dominion he tried to wield.

Eccar, Aesa, and Khepra Ankh felt it at the same moment.

The pressure inside the warped sky changed, no longer dominated solely by Zerathul's necrotic presence.

A second rhythm pulsed beneath it, ancient and familiar. Krono itself had resisted him from within.

Krono's soul was still there. He was not dead yet.

It was not unleashed outward but its presence was undeniable. A steady defiant force pushing back against the stolen dominion that tried to command it.

The flow of moments stuttered and fractured around Zerathul, no longer obeying him cleanly.

Eccar felt it surge through the air and into his bones.

"Come on!" he sent through telepathy, his will sharp and urgent.

"Yeah," Aesa answered instantly, her focus locking in.

They did not hesitate.

From below, the new presences also rose.

One by one, they ascended into the sky. Their Magic, carrying them upward through distorted air and falling light.

King Gulben led them, his presence resolute despite the overwhelming forces ahead.

Aerchon followed close behind, Magic flaring steadily. Saeldir moved with controlled precision, his power woven tight and focused. Adrius and Lysander climbed together.

Billy and Adrien surged upward beside them, battered but still determined, pushing past fear with clenched determination.

Arty flew with them, eyes locked on the suffering monstrosity ahead.

They converged rapidly, forming a widening arc around the battlefield.

"That thing is in pain right now," King Gulben shouted through the rushing air. "We must push!"

Zerathul heard it all.

The sound of their arrival, the pressure of converging wills, and the way the sky seemed to close in on him.

Pain tore through his being as Krono's awakened presence continued to lash against him from the inside, disrupting every attempt to reassert control.

Necrotic light flared erratically around his body, unstable and violent.

"Arrrghhh!!!"

His scream ripped through the skies again, carrying agony.

The sound shook the air, rippled through the clouds, and thundered down into the world below.

He was being hunted from every side.

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