I Reincarnated as a Max Level Dragon Princess in the Strongest Family

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Valthorak, the Devourer of Realms

-----

"I am the Devourer of Realms and Sovereign of the Nightmare Nest, Valthorak. Your little ’primordial divinity’ means nothing to me."

"Ghhk—!" Nifl’s sapphire eyes blazed with fury. She channeled every ounce of her ancient divinity into her claws, desperately trying to pry the massive hand away from her throat. Yet the more she froze it, the more the obsidian seemed to drink in her power, growing darker and even more solid. Cracks spiderwebbed across her majestic neck as pristine azure dragon blood trickled down her shimmering scales.

"Grandma!!!" Elizabeth screamed, struggling desperately against Yudrak’s protective barrier. Her body still throbbed with pain from her earlier wounds, but the sight of the Primordial Dragon Mother being overpowered ignited a fierce, burning resolve inside her. "Let me out! I can still fight! I—"

"No," Yudrak said firmly, though his voice trembled with rare fear. "This is no longer a battle we can handle. If even our primordial mother cannot win, then... That hand is a conceptual power, something from another dimension that does not follow our laws. It is a piece of a higher-dimensional nightmare given form. Even touching it risks corrupting your very soul!"

"But...!" Elizabeth tried to protest, yet Yudrak refused to yield.

"Even so, we must fight!" Yudrak roared.

All around them, the Ice Dragons unleashed wave after wave of their strongest spells. However, their frost shattered uselessly against the obsidian fingers. The sky itself trembled as more nightmare veins spread through the fabric of space like cancerous roots.

"Hahaha... HAHAHAHAHA!"

Valthorak’s mocking laughter echoed through every scale and bone, shaking the dragons to their core.

"You dragons have grown arrogant, believing yourselves the strongest in this world. You forgot that nightmares are born from the cold and the dark just as easily as your precious ice. This realm, coated in eternal frost and endless souls, contains everything I need! I thank the little whelp for weakening the boundary between worlds. Her desperate struggle was the perfect key."

The giant eye on the palm of the hand opened wider. Its blood-red iris swirled with countless screaming faces. A pulse of pure nightmare energy erupted outward.

"Now begone, insects."

BOOOOOOOM!

Hundreds of Ice Dragons were blasted backward. Black flames instantly wrapped around their bodies, burning not only their flesh and souls but also their minds and deepest emotions. Some began clawing frantically at their own eyes, trapped in their worst nightmares while writhing in agony.

"Y-YOU BASTARD! LEAVE THEM ALONE!!!"

Nifl roared in defiance and unleashed her ultimate technique once more.

"Primordial Winter Eternity!"

The temperature across the skies plummeted to absolute zero in an instant. Time itself seemed to slow as a flawless, mirror-like layer of crystalline frost covered everything. Even the air froze into glittering, razor-sharp shards.

"?!"

For a brief moment, the obsidian hand stopped moving. Nifl exhaled in relief and prepared to free herself. But then it crushed her neck even harder. The ice shattered apart as the hand suddenly grew twice as large and gripped her even tighter.

"Pathetic," Valthorak sneered. "Your concept of ’cold’ is nothing but a child’s toy to me."

CRACK!

With a sickening crunch, the hand twisted violently. Nifl’s neck bones shattered. The Primordial Dragon Mother let out a pained cry that shook the heavens as she was slammed into the frozen ground, carving out a crater the size of a small mountain.

BOOOMMM!!!

Nifl lay nearly dead. Her neck was broken, yet her immense power as a primordial dragoness kept her alive. She could no longer move. Her head hung limply as her eyes twitched in disbelief and her breathing came in heavy, labored gasps.

She was one of the few dragons who had survived the Ancient Ragnarok. While so many of her sisters had fallen, she had endured. Now, facing such overwhelming power, she remembered what it felt like to be truly overpowered. The feeling of having her neck crushed by a being that treated her supposed invincibility like nothing stung deeply.

"Now," the Nightmare King spoke as he gripped her neck tightly, "I shall feast on your flesh and soul. This will give me enough energy to fully manifest a Nightmare Gate! And with that, your pitiful realm, your world, and your entire universe will fall!!!" He laughed maniacally as his hands split into giant jaws that began gnawing at Nifl’s flesh.

"No!" Elizabeth’s eyes blazed with golden-blue light. Something ancient and furious awakened deep within her bloodline.

CRASH!

Driven by pure instinct, she shattered Yudrak’s barrier through sheer willpower. Her small humanoid body streaked forward like a comet wrapped in frost and starlight, racing toward her great-great-grandmother.

"Elizabeth, stop—!" Yudrak shouted, chasing after her.

But it was already too late.

She landed on Nifl’s massive shoulder, tiny in comparison, and pressed both hands against the obsidian fingers choking her ancestor. Her voice rang out, trembling yet resolute.

"You... will not... touch my family!!"

A brilliant azure light exploded from her palms. It was not ordinary ice. After resting, healing, and recovering her energy, Elizabeth had grown far stronger. She had even developed new techniques. By using Harmonious Chaos Reversal on Origin Flames, she had reached its opposite — Origin Frost, the conceptual root of all winter that even Nifl had only partially inherited.

The obsidian hand hissed upon contact. Small fractures appeared along its surface as its jaws loosened and the entire limb began to retreat, making the ground tremble.

"Hoh?" Valthorak sounded genuinely surprised for the first time. "The blood runs strong in this one. But there is so much more to it, huh? Just who exactly are you, little one?"

"I’m the one who’s going to kill you!!!" Elizabeth roared. She channeled her dragon form, only to realize it had changed dramatically. "?!"

Under the authority of Origin Frost, which she had awakened for the first time in millions of years, her dragon form mutated. It became closer to that of the Ice Dragons themselves, dramatically empowering both her frost and harmony elements.

Using this new power, she pushed Valthorak back as giant icicles clashed violently against his hand. Yet he did not simply endure the assault. He swiftly regenerated all damage and punctured space itself, twisting it into a crushing vacuum that slammed Elizabeth into the ground, breaking every bone and tearing her muscles apart.

"Gaaaaahhhh?!"

"You might have made an excellent vessel... but you are still a child playing with forces you do not understand," Valthorak laughed. "Did you really think you could oppose me? Let alone a single hand? HAHAHAHA! Now I must thank you. I have two premium meals right here! Good thing there is another one as well."

Crack... Crack...!

CRASH!

A second obsidian hand tore through reality and smashed toward Elizabeth with apocalyptic force.

"ELIZABETH!"

BOOOMMM!!!

Yudrak moved like lightning, intercepting the strike with his own body. The impact sent him crashing through several ice peaks, leaving him badly wounded.

"Kuaagh?!"

Nifl, gasping for air as the grip loosened slightly thanks to Elizabeth’s interference, looked at her great-granddaughter with a mixture of pride and deep sorrow.

"Little one... you must run. Take the others and—"

"I’m not leaving you!" Elizabeth cried. Tears froze on her cheeks as she spoke. "We’re dragons! We fight together! I just fucking met you! Why does this shit keep happening?!"

"Huhuh, what a noble sacrifice. You truly reach my heart like nobody else. The most emotional lifeforms are always the tastiest."

Valthorak’s crackling laughter echoed. The two massive obsidian hands began converging, preparing to crush both the primordial dragoness and her descendant together. Nifl clenched her teeth, preparing to sacrifice herself to save everyone, her dragon heart beginning to glow brightly. "Maybe if I can destroy my own dragon heart, that’ll be enough damage to-"

"Indeed. We fight together."

Then, a new voice, calm, ancient, and wise, echoed across the battlefield.

From the torn sky, a third colossal figure descended. Her scales shone with pure starlight and ice that shimmered like distant galaxies. Six majestic wings spread wide, each feather resembling a frozen comet.

It was Hrymdra, at full power and unleashing her true divinity. The sight shocked both Elizabeth and Nifl.

"Hrymdra..." Nifl looked at her with awe and surprise. "You’re here...?"

"Sorry for being late," Hrymdra declared, her voice loud and clear with no trace of her former curse, "This time, we end this nightmare for good."

"Huhuh, another one? And one who has cultivated not only divinity but cosmic power?" Valthorak laughed. "I see. Is she your hero? The current strongest of the Ice Dragon clan? How pathetic. That will not change anything!"

"Yeah, that’s why I brought two other people. Much stronger than I could ever be."

RUMBLE!

Two figures pierced the sky and entered the Ice Dragon realm in a way no ordinary dragon could. They arrived with both their true bodies and souls, using their innate abilities to traverse dimensions and spatial walls with ease.

"Elizabeth!"

A pained cry rang out as they reached their daughter. The girl’s eyes widened as a healing, pale light washed over her body in an instant, fully restoring her broken form.

"T-This is...?"

She turned, and they were there. In a heartbeat, her mother pulled her into a tight, protective embrace and gently patted her head with a warm smile full of pride and love.

"Mom...! Dad!"

Elizabeth burst into tears. All her bravado crumbled as she hugged her parents tightly, finally releasing the flood of emotions she had been holding back.

"I’m sorry...! I should’ve called you earlier. This is all my fault! I wanted to take responsibility, but I’m still too weak..."

As she cried in her mother’s arms, her father spoke with a gentle, reassuring voice. "You did well. You make us proud."

"Eh?"

"We were so worried about you," her mother said softly. "You weren’t waking up."

"But then we received a message from your aunt Hrymdra, the first time she ever spoke to us directly," her father added. "We rushed here as fast as we could..."

"Auntie..." Elizabeth whispered. "Thank you...!"

-----