Chapter Twenty


    A beam of concentrated lightning shot toward him. Calling upon [Infernal Aegis], he wreathed himself in a shield of fire. Lightning crashed into him, and the fire and lightning went to war with one another. Ambrose was pushed back, his eye widening in alarm as mana drained from his core.


    Whatever Akaroth had hit him with, it was powerful. He couldn’t just tank the attack like he normally would. Even his spiritual pressure that he brought down like a divine hammer did nothing to the dragon. She just flexed her own spirit because, of course, she was a proper D-Grade being, and his vanished.


    Gritting his teeth, he opened a portal beneath himself, dropped into it, and exited some ways away. Lightning bore into the stone where he had been standing, blasting it into chunks. He forged hellfire into a mighty axe, swinging it at the dragon.


    Zane laughed and held up a hand. A lime green shield of mana spiraled outward in front of him. His axe collided with it in a detonation of power that rocked throughout the cavern. The pure force caused treasure to fly in every direction.


    “Weak! I shall cast your bones across this lair, hunter!”


    Noelle fluttered behind him, sending him supportive determination.


    “Okay, let’s see how you handle this,” Ambrose muttered to himself.


    His mana surging within him, he formed as many needles of hellfire in the air as he could. With a thought, he sent them flying toward the dragon, intending on shredding it with a thousand fiery burns.


    Akaroth had other plans. She lifted a mighty claw, roaring, and tore lightning from the air, clouds above her booming in time as the needles of hell flame were brushed aside.


    Zane laughed, shooting a lance of grin energy at him. It did nothing to him.


    Akaroth grew tired of hovering there; her wings decrepitated with lightning, and she shot toward him faster than she had any right to be, claw slashing. Zane’s mad laughter accompanied her in her wake.


    Knowing he couldn’t take a direct hit like that, he fell through another portal he opened beneath himself just in time. Claws raked the wall he had been standing by, flashing teeth gnashing. Akaroth roared in anger, whirling her massive body around.


    The storm that hung in the cavern air swirled, rotating, with more lightning and thunder shaking the space around them. Ambrose couldn’t keep his jaw from dropping as an honest-to-God tornado dropped from the sky, picking up treasure in its powerful winds.


    Akaroth opened her maw, and lightning traveled up her throat, glistening with iridescent blue light. She thrust her head forward, and the lightning spilled out in another beam.


    He did not just sit there waiting for all of this power to hit him; he thought fast and then acted. Using his spirit, he did something with [Infernal Aegis] he had never done before; he spun it around himself. Faster, then faster still, he spun it. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    A vortex of sanguine and eldritch green fire spun around him like a mini cyclone.


    Akaroth’s tornado, powerful winds born from the dragon’s wrathful power, hit him. At the same time, her lightning fell upon him like a hungry, living thing.


    All of it, every ounce of power directed at Ambrose Severen burned away. Like a flaming siphon, the air was lit aflame, and as suddenly as it had come, it was gone. Her lightning could not find purchase, no matter its howling as if it were an angry beast.


    Akaroth cut off the beam with a snap of her jaws.


    “Not bad, hunter. Not bad at all. This will be fun! If power does not work, we shall tear you apart with tooth and claw!”


    Akaroth flew toward him, her great claws ready to rend his flesh.


    I have no intention of becoming a chew toy for this beast. He summoned another axe of hellfire, slashing at Akaroth with it. She was mid-leap, and he knew Zane would form a shield to block it.


    Sure enough, the lime green shield reappeared. Knowing it was coming, Ambrose had formed another axe of fire from behind the blue dragon, bringing it down like a crashing tide of fire. Akaroth was cut out of the air, sent crashing to the treasure below as it sprayed into the air, glittering gold shrapnel, flickering like fireflies.


    Zane let out a string of curses as he was sent flying from the saddle.


    Quickly, he enacted the next part of his time. Opening a portal, he stepped through the doorway he had burned into reality. He was in front of Zane Dalewind, who sputtered, and close up, Ambrose could make out his features more clearly.


    He was a rat-faced man; even his eyes were beady, filled with insanity. He tried to shoot Ambrose with a green orb of energy, but his shield held firm.


    Ambrose’s spirit wouldn’t do much good against Akaroth, but he was willing to bet it would work on Zane just fine. To his surprise, Zane had a spirit of his own. He laughed, his spirit repelling Ambrose’s.


    “You think I am some newly integrated trash with no spiritual skill? Pathetic!” Zane spat at him.


    The globule of spittle burned away against his shield.


    Even with that setback, Ambrose could see that Zane had to concentrate to maintain his spirit. He hadn’t had much practice maintaining it while remaining focused. While Ambrose had spent his whole life learning how to focus in combat situations where his life was on the line.


    He reached down, lifting Zane up by his robes. Zane snarled,


    “Let me go, fucker! You goat fucker! You shit fuck, bastard!”


    He trailed off into expletives, a bead of sweat falling from his brow, his spirit wavering.


    Ambrose ignored it, activating [Retributions Gaze] not to see his information but its other effect.


    As Vivienne put it, every spirit carried guilt within it. All of their selfish deeds, petty anger, and evil acts reside within a person. Even if they couldn’t feel it, it was there. It stained you, and no one was immune from that, as far as Ambrose could tell.


    His skill took all of that and made it into kindling. Kindling that would burn, a transcendent flame that forced the being to experience all of that pain they had caused, all of it a thousandfold.


    Zane Dalewind screamed, and Ambrose could see his throat tearing. Blood poured from his eyes as his capitularies burst. His body writhed, his spirit utterly vanishing. With his skill, Ambrose was making him relive everything he had done to others, but this time, it was being done to him.


    Do unto others as you would wish done unto yourself, after all. Zane experienced all of the rape, all of the murder, all of the torture, all of the wounds, everything, all at once. His madness had been a controlled emotion before, a source of power from the man.


    Now it became madness in truth, as his mind fell upon itself like a ravenous monster, shredding itself into pieces. His mouth was foaming, his eyes rolled into the back of his head.


    And then he was limp. Ambrose tossed him aside.


    Slowly, he turned around to regard the dragon that was getting up. The collar around her neck pulsed, and she reared up, roaring as a bolt of lightning descended towards Ambrose’s head.