But she couldn’t retreat.
If she did, everyone who had barely survived behind her would die.
Dolores didn’t look back.
She simply knelt on one knee, using the scythe handle to support her body, her back to the members of the Church Crusade Army, and spoke a single sentence coldly.
Her voice wasn’t loud, but it clearly reached everyone’s ears.
“You retreat.”
“Milady, you…”
The brigade commander had just taken a step forward.
“Retreat.”
Dolores’s voice rose a few notches, carrying an unquestionable commanding tone.
She intended to fight to the death.
She thought that if she sacrificed her life, she could still hold this dragon back for a little while.
Just a little while.
That would buy these people a slim chance of survival.
But just then.
In the distance, the Ice Snow Dragon suddenly opened its wings.
As it spread its wings.
A terrifying magical power, impossible to describe in words, erupted from within its body in a thunderous roar.
All the soldiers of the Church Crusade Army felt as if a thousand-pound boulder was pressing down on their chests.
Even breathing became extremely difficult.
That pressure was simply too terrifying.
So terrifying that one couldn’t even catch a breath.
Many fell to their knees with a “thud,” their faces flushed red, their lungs about to explode.
Then.
Countless ice-blue magic circles suddenly lit up around the Ice Snow Dragon’s outstretched wings.
These magic circles densely hovered in midair, completely surrounding the dragon’s massive body.
Every single magic circle was as huge as a mountain peak.
The patterns were extremely complex, radiating a hopeless brilliance.
As these magic circles appeared.
An extremely violent shockwave erupted, spreading wildly outward with the Ice Snow Dragon at its center.
This shockwave had no killing power.
But it instantly blew away all the falling snow and clouds within a dozen kilometers.
The sky became clear and bright in an instant.
Without the blizzard blocking their view.
The Church Crusade Army finally saw the true appearance of the Ice Snow Dragon.
It was enormous.
Earlier, in the blizzard.
All they could see was a massive silhouette.
Now they realized.
That was no small hill at all.
But an entire real mountain range.
Its ice-blue scales reflected a cold, gleaming light in the sunlight.
Each dragon scale was naturally engraved with extremely complex defensive magic runes.
Those ice-blue vertical pupils were utterly indifferent.
There was no emotion inside them.
Only the most thorough disdain for life.
Augustus knelt on the snowy ground, using his staff to barely support his body.
He looked at the sky-covering blue magic circles.
Then at the Ice Snow Dragon that had fully revealed its overwhelming pressure.
Despair filled his heart.
He even felt that the faint hope lingering in his heart just now was laughable.
Earlier.
He had still thought.
If he could fully charge the Symphony of Resonant Poems to its limit.
Maybe he could wound this dragon.
Maybe…
He could even win.
But now it seemed.
That was nothing but a foolish dream.
Before the Church Nation set out on the expedition, they had already overestimated the Ice Snow Dragon’s strength multiple times.
They had even sent him, an elder, along with such a massive elite force.
But they were still horribly wrong.
The power the Ice Snow Dragon was displaying now.
Had far exceeded everyone’s comprehension.
Even if all seven elders of the Council of Elders were summoned.
Even if the Archbishop and the Pope came in person.
There was absolutely no way to contend with it.
But…
Was this truly the Ice Snow Dragon’s full power?
Augustus knew very well inside.
No.
This probably…
Was still not its true strength.
It had actively dispelled the blizzard that blocked everyone’s view.
Revealing those mountain-sized magic circles.
Letting everyone see its true form with their own eyes.
It wasn’t about counterattacking at all.
It simply wanted to show these insects on the ground.
What…
Absolute crushing power looked like.
All of them.
From beginning to end.
Were nothing but toys held in the palm of this world-destroying level monster.
Pure despair.
Spread through the entire Church Crusade Army like a plague.
Even Dolores, who had been ready to fight to the death.
Now slowly widened her eyes.
Her golden pupils, marked with cross patterns, trembled slightly.
Her fingers, gripping the scythe handle, had long gone stiff.
She stared at the terrifying magic power continuously gathering within those mountain-sized magic circles.
She knew better than anyone.
Let alone buying time.
Against an attack of this level.
She couldn’t last even a single second.
Faced with an absolute numerical crush.
They were like a child who had just learned to walk.
Throwing a punch at a fully armored giant.
Completely meaningless.
Many slowly closed their eyes.
And began to pray to the Goddess.
Now.
Only faith could sustain them to keep going.
They looked at that Ice Snow Dragon, as invincible as a deity.
At those sky-obscuring blue magic circles.
Their minds, blank.
Dolores slowly released her hands.
The huge dark-golden scythe turned into specks of light and faded into the air.
She wouldn’t fight anymore.
And she couldn’t…
Fight anymore.
She slowly straightened up.
Quietly stared at the Ice Snow Dragon in the distance.
At least.
She hoped she could face death standing.
The Ice Snow Dragon looked at those insects on the ground who had completely given up resistance.
A hint of boredom flickered in its ice-blue vertical pupils.
It had played enough.
The Ice Snow Dragon slowly opened its massive maw.
Let out a deep, low dragon roar.
The next moment.
The countless mountain-sized ice-blue magic circles around its body simultaneously began to spin and combine wildly.
The ice-element mana in the surrounding air was violently drained.
All gathering toward those magic circles.
The Ice Snow Dragon had activated its skill.
This was its method for…
Cleaning up trash.
Supreme Magic: Dragon Bloom Spin Strike.
For humans.
Upper-class magic was already the limit of their power.
But supreme-class magic.
That existed only in the realm of legends and ancient texts.
The emotion of utter despair weighed heavily on everyone’s heart.
They even forgot to breathe.
Simply waited quietly for annihilation to come.
Around the Ice Snow Dragon, those countless huge magic circles spun faster and faster.
Suddenly.
All magic circles simultaneously burst out with dazzling light.
BOOM—!
Countless extremely thick ice-blue light pillars shot out from the center of those mountain-sized magic circles.
These light pillars didn’t directly fire at the Crusade Army.
Instead, they converged at high speed in front of the Ice Snow Dragon.
Finally.
They condensed into an enormous ice-blue magic light orb.
That orb was so massive it was suffocating.
It almost covered the entire sky.
On the surface of the orb, layer upon layer of petal-like ice-blue patterns coiled around it.
Beautiful to the extreme.
And dangerous to the extreme.
The moment the orb fully formed.
The surrounding space itself began to warp visibly.
BOOM—!
The next second.
That enormous ice-blue magic light orb suddenly transformed into a devastating ice-blue beam.
Carrying an unstoppable momentum.
In an instant.
It shot straight toward Dolores on the ground.
And the entire Church Crusade Army behind her.
Piercing through everything with a thunderous roar.
The speed of the light beam was despairingly fast.
The Church soldiers only felt that the entire sky abruptly turned into a blinding ice-blue.
The next instant.
That aura of total annihilation was already descending upon them.
They couldn’t even let out a scream.
They could only watch helplessly as that world-destroying beam hurtled toward them.