"Guys! Can you use your teleportation scrolls to Urburg?" Dave asked, almost shouting through the voice-chat.

A reply came immediately afterward, Flanker, speaking in a hurried tone, "No man, shit ain’t working, I tried."

"Damn, be careful, the big baddy is coming to Urburg," Dave said.

"What are you talking about?" Dante asked.

"Remember when we got surrounded by the Wild’s big bosses?" Dave said his voice strained.

"Yeah, you kids said that some dragon was missing, you don’t mean that—"

"Exactly," Dave cut in, "Seems that the Qin kingdom somehow managed to capture it, and now, one of the Ash-King’s strongest soldiers is riding that very dragon and going hot toward Urburg, we gotta stop it!" Dave said.

"There’s no way for us to do that man, the distance is too great to cross on feet, what’s worse, the dammed Wilds is seething with Boss Monsters that won’t be too happy to see us crossing their territory," Perfect said.

"Shit, I know, damn it," Dave shouted again and urged Tiny to move even faster.

The Grave Lord screeched, a sound too similar to wyvern’s screams, then flapped its wings once, surging upward then his speed increased considerably.

Dave understood what Tiny just did, he took advantage of air currents to propel itself forward. Consuming the Wyvern didn’t only give Tiny its shape, but also, its understanding of air currents and the Grave Lord was doing its best to mimic it.

Dave judged by the speed he was going, he will be able to catch up to the dragon, simply because the great lizard wouldn’t be able to use these currents due to its enormous size, the dragon would rely on the brute strength of its wings to move through the air.

"David, I’ve finished, I don’t think I can do another raid," Mercy said.

"Why, what’s wrong?" Dave asked.

"The Qin kingdom realized what you’re trying to do, they have heavily fortified the food supplies of the city I was in, I barely managed to get out alive. I don’t think I can do it again."

"No worries, how many cities did we get?" Dave asked.

"Seven cities, bar the Capital."

"Damn, that’s much more than I expected," Dave said.

"What do you mean?" Mercy asked.

"I was only hoping to take out three, four if we are lucky and five cities by a miracle. The destruction of Seven Cities worth of food supplies will cripple the nation for years. Not to mention, I already sent Bud and a group of Undead Ninjas to take care of more cities and towns." Dave said.

"Then there’s a chance that they might be able to destroy the supplies in the rest of the cities. The Qin army will not like that one bit," Samuel spoke.

"Yeah, without food, they can’t wage war, you need food to sustain an army. This is good, but without Urburg, all of this will be for naught. Alright, guys stay put, by morning, the next step of the mission will start."

"What are you going to do about the dragon, man?" Flanker asked.

"Whatever it takes! I’m taking that son of a bitch down, this time for good." Dave tightened his fist. It was a huge proclamation, he didn’t even know he had it in him to defeat what is currently known as the strongest, most dangerous and deadliest entity of the world of Conquest.

Dave cut off the conversation and focused ahead. There were two threats in front of him. The dragon, and its rider, he needed to stop them somehow.

Dave gazed at his skills, he still had many heavy-hitting skills in his arsenal, and his Legacy skill was off cooldown. Using them, he could deal a great blow to the dragon, but that would barely be enough to slay it. He needed a powerful attack something to force the dragon off of his territory, he needed to make the dragon understand to not fuck with him.

But the rider is the problem, the dragon was tamed and now, the Chosen One of the Ash King controlled it, it was a nightmare. And what made Dave most confused was how in God’s name did they tame it.

That thing was a mass murderer, a killer, and a predator by birth and instinct. Nothing short of a god could bend it to its will.

Then it struck him, could it be that simple? Dave thought.

He gathered the few clues in his head and made a theory, something that he thought too improbable but nevertheless the most likely theory that would explain what went on.

Dave muttered under his breath, "Pandora’s Box, it all fit. The demand Qin army did all they could to raid the monetary in the Mountains of Glory and steal the box from the Sea Goddess Temple. The Sea Goddess must have been using that thing to control the creatures of the sea, for example, the Kraken, a Deity in its own right, not as strong as the dragon but still a god of the sea. How could it tolerate being ordered around by another mighty being unless something made it do it? Pandora’s box, it must be it."

Dave convinced himself that the dragon was being forcefully controlled, if he could break the control perhaps the dragon would leave and dump the dammed chosen one, or perhaps the damned thing could turn against Dave and eat him just out of spite.

But knowing the cause was not the solution, Dave still needed to confirm his suspicions and even if he did it, what could he do to break the control?

Dave gritted his teeth and thought, "We cross that bridge once we get there, Tiny, keep up!"

Tiny Screeched louder and kept moving ahead.

On the horizon, Dave noticed a small dot, "That’s it, Tiny, great job that’s the dragon!" Dave shouted.

He then looked below him and saw the massive lands blurring under him while he flew. They were going at an incredible speed.

He then received a message from Perfect, "Skelly, the dragon just went over us! It’s still moving toward Urburg!"

"I know, I saw it, I’m coming in hot!"

Almost immediately, Dave spotted the undead under him, even from high up in the sky, Dave could see the congregation of undead tightly packed into square formations and moving in unison ahead.

He flew over them and kept his pace. At this rate, he would reach Urburg in less than ten minutes. He had to think up a plan, in ten minutes, he needed a plan to break the dragon’s assault. Time! He needed time.

The gears in Dave’s mind spun fast enough he could almost feel them overheating.

"What the hell can I do?!" Dave shouted to himself in frustration. "There is nothing that could stop that dammed lizard," He grunted, he knew it was hopeless, he knew that he was like a praying mantis trying to stop a carriage.

Doom was coming to his city, and only he was in a position to stop it, but he was powerless, the creature was never something that could be killed or stopped by low-level players. The only time the being was ever hampered was when the White Ghost used his "Banishment Forbidden Chapter", to banish the creature to another world.

If he had one of them, he could have used it and in the time the dragon was caught in another dimension, he would fortify Urburg, buy time for his army to return and then have a slight fighting chance. But the Forbidden Chapters were unique, there could never be two of the same one...

Then it struck him, he too had a Forbidden Chapter, "Balance Breaker."

Dave almost chuckled, the name of this chapter would have sent a well-known AI into a fit of rage. But he didn’t know what the chapter did, he looked it up in the third Raid Zone, the Pharaoh’s Tomb but didn’t find any useful information about this particular chapter.

Dave gritted his teeth and pulled the chapter out of his inventory.

It was a white paper, where an enormous amount of scribbling and incomprehensible words were written all over it. He didn’t know what this thing could do, but he had to try, what’s the worst that could happen?

But he needed a target, he needed to be in range to use this chapter or it might as well be for naught.

Tiny closed in on the dragon, the two flying creatures were moving at incredible speed over the wilderness of the Wilds. Dave began to recognize familiar features of the land, they were getting closer and closer to Urburg. He had to act soon.

The demon riding on the dragon apparently hadn’t noticed Dave’s approach. But that didn’t mean that the Black Dragon didn’t.

The giant drake roared and began tilting to the side, away from Urburg, but the demon forced it to move ahead by pulling on the reins when the dragon refused, the demon pulled a small glistening box.

When Dave saw the box in the demon’s hand, his heart leaped. He was right! The dammed demon was controlling the dragon via the box!

Dave’s grin became even wider. There was hope! However small it was, there was still hope.

The box shone bright and the dragon groaned and corrected its course back to Urburg, Dave had to be thankful for the idiocy that the demon rider showed. If he had tried to figure out the reason why the dragon had decided to move, he would have recognized the flying threat behind it.

The dragon was forced to keep its course and Dave flew behind it, once he was in range to use the Chapter, Dave thought about jumping on the dragon’s back and stealthily blasting the rider off the dragon, this plan would undoubtedly liberate the dragon.

But as he was pondering on his course of action, the demon snapped his neck toward Dave, a wide grin plastered on its face.

"Fuck! He knew!" Dave mumbled, he just realized that the rider had already noticed him coming and was just baiting Dave into getting closer. Dave even doubted that the demon had shown him the box as a bait, to make Dave think that there was still hope.

He didn’t even see the attack. An enormous spear had pierced through Dave’s shoulder and threw him off of Tiny.

Due to the strength behind the spear, Dave had torn the chapter in his hand and immediately, the world stopped.

***

Balance Breaker!

The laws of the world have been broken!

The following effects will last for 60 seconds.

All of your ability cooldowns have been reset, you can use all of your abilities (Besides Legacy Skill Abilities) as much as you want during 60 seconds.

The laws of the world Have been broken!

The seals on your Godly Item: Cursed sword of Durandal have been removed for 60 seconds.

The seals on your Godly Item: Cursed Shield of Ajax have been removed for 60 seconds.

The area where [Balance Breaker] Forbidden chapter has been used will become a chaos zone...

Beware of what might come out of chaos!

***

Dave noticed an enormous purple dome expanding from his person and engulfing several miles in radius of where he was falling.

He didn’t have time to waste and think of what the dome would do, he was still free-falling toward the ground.

Dave, however, was slightly surprised, he never thought that one of the Forbidden Chapters would not affect the enemy, but himself. A Forbidden Chapter that could empower the user, though, for just 60 seconds, it was more than enough for him as he thought.

Dave used [Demonic Ascension] his body turned red, horns rose from his head and his back sprouted raven wings that supported him in mid-air.

Dave looked forward, the dragon was moving fast toward Urburg. But he could catch up, now he knew he could make a difference.

Dave read through his sword and shield’s description once again, now that Balance Breaker had removed their limits. He was surprised by the newfound abilities, now at his current level, the Forbidden Chapter had shown him what his weapons could do in the future. And he was more than thrilled for a test drive.

"I’m coming!" Dave roared.

He flapped his wings once and he flew ahead.

His right ear shone bright, he had activated [Zealot] increasing his basic damage by 300% but receiving twice the damage.

He disabled the [Azure Water Rune] on his torso and the Chaos Runes roared, his dark doom knight armor pulsed in power as magmatic cracks appeared on it. The power of chaos seethed through him. Coursing through every muscle and fiber, eating away at his vitality but giving Dave enormous power.

Dave kept flapping his wings as he enabled more power-ups.

Dortha’s [Herculean] Strength came next, it doubled his base strength, but promised a weakness after the effects were gone, but he didn’t care. He needed power as much power to deliver a single blow.

Then he struck at the pendant on his neck, a gift from the Abyssal Knight Dagla. The amulet shone bright and activated the skill, [Doubler] further doubling his already doubled strength base.

Dave was flying with more than 4,000 points of strength, empowered by, Demonic Ascension, Zealot, and the Chaos Runes.

Dave unequipped his shield and grabbed at the Cursed Sword of Durandal with both hands as he activated [Stampede].

He blurred out of his position, anyone looking at the sky would notice that the bright sunny day had turned dark, there was another star in the sky that sucked in the light. A red ominous star that moved at a speed far too fast for the human eye, only leaving a trail of blazing red in its wake.

Dave was this star, he moved with the sword in both his hands, then he swung it.

historical

Dave had one chance and he had to make it count. His enormous speed was enough for him to reach the dragon in a matter of seconds, but he knew that unless his attack struck true all would be for naught, he had one shot! And he was going to take it.

Dave grunted, then shouted as he approached the dragon in a heap of fire. "Weight of the Universe!"

Dave completed his swing, the dragon was still a few hundred meters away from Dave and moving, while the demon was looking at Dave like an idiot, he was swinging his sword vertically at empty air.

But what happened next proved a new experience for the chosen one of the Ash King.

Dave’s sword grew and kept growing as he was in the motion of chopping down. The sword grew from a few meters to an enormous slab of steel that was simply too large to see its ends.

The Dragon of Terrors, for the first time in its life, had probably known what true terror is. It was an enormous sword, hundreds of thousands of tons of weight coming down on it like a guillotine.

The sword came down, then there was an explosion.

Dave’s hands broke apart the moment the sword dug into the ground, he groaned from the pain surging up his hands and his entire body. His muscles burst, ichor of undead blood exploded from between the joints of his armor. Then he fell.

***

You Died!

***

Dave received a notification the moment he met the ground. Yet right afterward, more notifications followed.

"Shit, I can’t believe that worked..." Dave grinned as the darkness welcomed him into Limbo.