The Dragon King's Hated Bride
Chapter 73: Destroy The Enemy

Chapter 73: Destroy The Enemy

>>Aelin

There was this undeniable pull inside me—an instinct, a desperate urge to pour my magic into that golden string. It felt like it was calling to me, begging to be used, like an unlit candle yearning for a flame.

I had no idea what it was, but I knew it could do something.

Before I could act, Draegon moved.

With a sharp, powerful lash of his tail, he slammed into Ruoxy and sent her hurtling backward. Her body twisted midair before she crashed into the ground, rolling against the dirt and snapping tree roots beneath her weight.

At that exact moment—

The shadow gripping me froze.

I gasped.

Its arms, which had been curling around my waist like an unshakable vice, stilled completely, as if some unseen force had just cut the strings controlling it.

And at the same time the golden thread connecting me to Ruoxy flickered once—

And vanished.

The second it disappeared, the pull inside me vanished too. I felt empty, like something had been ripped away from me before I could fully understand it.

But this was something useful.

I knew it.

I just didn’t know how to use it yet.

I forced myself to think, to process what just happened. That golden thread—it had appeared when I reached out toward Draegon, when my heart was screaming to help him. But why had it disappeared when Ruoxy was thrown away?

The shadow still wasn’t moving. I didn’t know if it was because of me or if it was something else entirely, but I had to take advantage of it.

I struggled against its hold, twisting and shoving, but it was like pushing against a solid wall. It didn’t budge.

But then—

Ruoxy moved.

She groaned, lifting herself from the ground, shaking out the dust and debris clinging to her broken form. And the moment she turned in my direction, coming in the view of my palm, that golden string shot out again.

!!

My eyes widened.

It connected from my palm to her once more, shimmering with faint pulses of light.

A pattern. There was a pattern.

I tested it—tilting my hand away from Ruoxy, and sure enough, the thread wavered before slowly disappearing.

But when I moved my hand back in alignment with Ruoxy—

It returned.

A golden link, an undeniable connection—something was binding us together.

And there were rules to it.

Draegon and Ruoxy began to fight again. Their battle was a relentless storm—brutal, fast, merciless. Each strike was a collision of raw power, each movement calculated yet filled with a primal rage that made my breath catch in my throat.

Draegon’s claws slashed through the air, meeting Ruoxy’s sharpened nails with a screeching sound that made my skin crawl. They twisted and lunged, their attacks so quick it was hard to track them with my eyes. Draegon’s tail lashed out, Ruoxy barely evading as he swung it with enough force to shatter the ground where she had just been standing.

The earth cracked beneath them. Leaves were ripped from branches. The trees groaned from the sheer force of their blows.

And yet—

Despite how wounded he was, despite the blood trickling down his arm and the cuts across his torso—Draegon didn’t falter.

His movements remained steady, powerful—filled with an unshakable confidence that made my heart tremble.

How could he still move like this? How could he still fight so fiercely after all that damage?

But of course—

He was Draegon.

A war hero. A warrior who had faced countless battles, who had carved his way through war with fire and steel.

And yet—he was also my husband.

A man who fought not just because he was capable, but because he refused to let harm come my way. And that realization made a deep warmth spread in my chest, an emotion I couldn’t quite name.

I felt safe.

Even when the air crackled with violence, even as Ruoxy hissed and slashed at him like a cornered beast, I knew Draegon wouldn’t let her near me.

He was strong.

And I finally understood just how strong he was.

But Ruoxy wasn’t done.

She lunged at him again, her nails aiming for his throat—but Draegon twisted, avoiding her claws before slamming his fist into her abdomen. The force of the blow sent her flying, her body smashing into a thick tree. The bark splintered on impact, cracking under the sheer strength of it.

This was my chance.

I couldn’t move, but my hand was still free. I raised my palm, my breathing ragged, and turned it toward Ruoxy.

And the moment I did, a thin golden string shot forth, stretching from my palm toward Ruoxy. More specifically towards her left leg. The thin golden string went and attached to her thigh.

I sucked in a sharp breath, my heart pounding.

I felt it.

And then, I poured my magic into it along with the incantation I read in the book.

Condemn the dark ones back to where there is no light

Burn the bones to ashes, flesh to dust, ashes to ashes, dust to dust—

Let their shadows be scattered, devoured by the maw of the abyss.

With fire unyielding and stars as my witness, I unmake their claim to this world.

By blood and by oath, I sever their tether to all that breathes.

Let the ground reject their touch, the heavens blind to their plight.

By the ancient seals and the whispers of forgotten god, I call upon the eternal flame—

Consume, purge, and erase.

What once was shall now be no more.

A brilliant white light, like a light flame, rushed down the string, fast—unstoppable—before slamming into Ruoxy.

The moment it touched her—

Boom!

An explosion of pure white energy erupted from where she lay, bursting into white and golden flames.

Ruoxy screamed—a guttural, inhuman sound as the magic engulfed her, forcing her body to convulse violently. Her limbs jerked as if she was being ripped apart from the inside.

My eyes widened in shock.

I had felt this before.

In the dungeon. The first time I’d killed an Abyss monster. The same golden thread had formed then, when I had been desperate to defend myself. And when I had poured my magic into it—

The monster had died instantly.

My breath hitched as the realization struck me like a thunderbolt.

This wasn’t just a connection. It was a weapon. As soon as Ruoxy’s core exploded, the shadow binding me vanished.

I stumbled forward, gasping as the weight restraining me was suddenly gone. I looked back as the shadow simply dissipated in the air. My limbs felt weak, as if they had been under pressure for too long, but I could move. I was free.

I blinked in surprise, then turned my gaze toward Ruoxy.

She lay motionless on the ground, her body still twitching from the blast. Her once-intact form was now mangled—but the most shocking part was her leg.

Or rather, the absence of it.

Her left thigh had been completely obliterated. Where her leg should have been, there was nothing but burned flesh, black blood seeping into the dirt.

Draegon took a step forward, his keen eyes scanning the area. His gaze locked onto the scorched ground where Ruoxy’s thigh should have been, and there—amongst the darkened debris—were the remnants of something.

A shattered, blackened mass.

A muscle in Draegon’s jaw twitched. "So that’s where your core was." His voice was calm, but there was a sharp edge to it.

Oh! I felt my stomach turn.

The golden string...

It had led there.

Which meant—

My breath hitched.

That was where her core had been.

Then, slowly, he turned his gaze toward me. His purple eyes burned with something unreadable.

"I’m starting to understand why you’re after her," he said, his voice lower this time.

Draegon strode toward me without hesitation. His wings folded against his back, his steps unwavering despite the damage he had taken. The second he reached me, he pulled me into his arms.

!?!

I barely had time to react before I was enveloped in his warmth, his strength. His hand pressed gently against the back of my head, holding me close to his chest, as if to reassure himself that I was still there.

That I was safe.

My heart pounded against my ribs.

I had spent the entire fight terrified, fearing that something would happen to him. That he would take another hit, that Ruoxy’s unnatural resilience would overcome him, that I would be left helpless as he fell. But he—he had never hesitated. He had been fighting not just for himself, but for me.

I opened my mouth to speak—to say something, anything—but I wasn’t sure how to word it. So all I did was wrap my arms around him as well and hugged him back

"I’m glad you’re safe," I whispered and as if he was astonished by my words, his embrace tightened around me

"Me too," Hearing those words from him made me calm down for some reason and we spent a few moments in that position,

Simply taking in each other’s warmth

***

"You’ve drained your mana," Draegon said as we sat in the bedroom in an inn in the next town.

I lay on the bed while he sat beside me, "I see..." I fainted all of the sudden when I was still in his arms and when I opened my eyes I was on this bed, "Sorry," I apologized, "I keep causing trouble."

Draegon looked at me in surprise, then shook his head, "If anything, you have only helped me." He put his big hand on my cheek, "We won because of you." He had a tender look in his eyes, "It seems your abilities far exceed what we originally thought." He passed me a smile, making my heart skip a beat.

I couldn’t help it in that moment and I softly placed both my hands on his that covered my cheek, "I’m glad," I closed my eyes, tears welling up in them, "That I wasn’t useless,"

"You should rest," He whispered as he leaned in, "We’ll leave in the morning."

***

>>Unknown

I stepped into the clearing, my eyes looking down at the pathetic demon, Ruoxy, who was now dead.

"Tch!" I shook my head at her, ""All that milk I gave you, all that power, only for you to waste it."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.