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Chapter 178
"Now!"
Boom!
Luna and I kicked off the ground at the same time, shooting into the sky like rockets.
Diablo’s opening would last only three seconds.
But three seconds were more than enough to reach our destination.
As I streaked upward, leaving behind a crimson afterimage like a flash of light, the dragon Baril locked its gaze onto me.
— Foolish brat!
Dodging in midair wasn't easy.
That was why he was planning to erase me instantly with his breath attack.
But that was underestimating me.
I took a short breath and gripped my sword tightly.
A little more aura than usual.
The faster I moved, the greater the burden on my body, but for some reason, I felt completely confident.
Then, like an afterburner igniting, I accelerated dozens of times over in an instant, creating a massive sonic boom.
The shockwave was so intense that it even caused ripples in the enormous barrier.
— What?!
BOOM!
The breath attack that spewed from his mouth was shattered, scattering in all directions.
I plowed through, slashing deeply into his body.
I knew that he was nearly immortal and wouldn’t die easily, but the fact that he shrugged off this much damage was a little insulting.
The moment I passed through, the barrier surrounding Laphel, the Holy Kingdom's capital, regained its original form, sealing off entry and exit.
There was no follow-up attack from Luna.
That wasn’t her job.
Her task was something else entirely.
My role was simply to keep Baril’s attention away from her.
— Kuhak! You damn…!!!
Staggering from unexpected damage, Baril took to the air once more, his presence crushing everything around him.
The power of an demon dragon was beyond imagination—but I was prepared for this fight.
Determined to erase me completely, he fired another breath attack—this time, a black mist.
The dark breath streaked toward me like a high-speed laser, chasing me relentlessly.
From what I recalled from Labyrinthos, an demon dragon’s breath was extremely dangerous.
Unlike other dragon races, a dragon of calamity’s breath was a form of poison.
The mere act of touching it was enough to inflict devastation.
And yet, I took the attack head-on.
Normally, my body should have been warped or corrupted by now.
But nothing happened.
I had faced countless battles against demon dragons in Labyrinthos.
Through that endless combat, I had studied their breath attacks exhaustively.
Compared to the one I fought back then, Baril’s breath was nothing.
"I've fought your kind more times than I can count."
I cut through his breath attack, disrupting its force.
At the decisive moment, I drove my sword into his wing, slicing it clean off.
"KAAAAARGH!!!"
He might be nearly immortal, but that didn’t mean he was immune to pain.
And unlike the dragon I fought in Labyrinthos, his regeneration was slower.
Back then, I wasn't as strong as I am now.
But at this moment, I had an advantage.
Losing one wing, he began to plummet.
Desperately, he tried to cast a levitation spell.
"Oh no, you don’t."
I didn't cut off his wing for nothing.
BOOM!
I kicked him back down, forcing him to crash into the ground.
His expression twisted into confusion.
I had taken him down far too easily.
— You… how are you still standing after taking my breath attack?!
Even if it was poisonous, it still carried immense energy.
A dragon’s breath wasn’t just a poison—it was a concentrated mass of destructive force.
And yet, I remained unscathed.
That was something he couldn’t comprehend.
Of course, I had no intention of explaining it to him.
His eyes gleamed dangerously.
Black mist spread around him, forming dozens of spears aimed directly at me.
Without hesitation, I charged forward, activating elemental mana to analyze and disrupt his magic.
The pattern was familiar.
Just like the Sullivan I encountered in the deeper layers.
Just like the Kraken I fought in the coastal village.
Labyrinthos had taught me everything I needed to know about handling enemies like him.
Although the dragon I met there and this one cannot be considered the same entity, the unique, inherent power of the dragon remains.
And since I have grown accustomed to the attack patterns of the Labyrinth Dragon, who was even stronger than Baril, Baril himself feels like an easy mode with many of his patterns removed.
In other words...
This guy is tricky to kill, but he isn't that much of a threat.
Fortunately, he is utterly enraged with me, focusing all his attention on me.
Even without considering his anger, he mistakenly believes I’m the only one capable of truly threatening him.
Each of his minor attacks contains hidden traps, but as I evade or counter them as if I were familiar with them, doubt flickers in his eyes.
The black stone pillars rising around him begin to resonate.
A precursor to large-scale decay magic.
I could see a faint decay spreading around the pillars.
That attack would push through most defenses without issue.
Blocking it would put a significant strain on my Aura Heart.
A typical opponent wouldn’t know what it is or how to counter it.
But I reacted instantly, deploying quadruple casting.
[Ignistution Ray]
Multiple streams of gaseous flames engulfed the pillars in an instant, burning them all to ashes.
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His face twisted in shock.
— Gaseous flames?!
How does it feel, burning from the inside?
Seeing the pillars rapidly consumed by fire, as if they were particularly weak to flame magic, he gritted his teeth.
At this point, only a fool wouldn't realize the truth.
— You… You’ve encountered a dragon before. There’s no way you’d respond like this otherwise.
I didn’t bother answering.
Instead, I readied my sword, Elekstra, making him flinch before he conjured an avalanche of black mist.
This time, it was the mist of the dead. If I were caught in it, my soul would be forcibly ejected from my body.
And once ejected, he would devour those souls to rapidly regenerate.
Each hall of knowledge holds its own countermeasures, but I selected the most efficient and effective response I remembered.
To counter that mist, I drew upon the knowledge of the Hall of Necromancy.
Wooooom...
[Soul Binding]
I forced my body to be recognized as undead, binding my soul to it.
This wouldn’t protect the plants and life around me, but it was enough.
I intended to embed a similar “gift” into his regeneration as well.
I weaved through his sweeping strike like an acrobat, closing the distance.
I was now deep inside the trajectory of his attack, an unavoidable zone.
— Foolish wretch!
He must have realized it too, as he swung his massive front limb, a mix of black mist and flames, toward me.
But, of course, I wasn’t recklessly charging in without a plan.
I had already noticed that his wings were about halfway regenerated.
His regeneration was certainly formidable.
Which is why I needed to disrupt it first.
[Thanatos]
A vast, frigid force stirred within me.
The deathly authority of Thanatos, imbued into my sword Elekstra, granted his amorphous body a most dreadful gift.
— GRAAAAHHH!!!
His agonized scream filled the air as he froze mid-attack, caught off guard by the unexpected wound.
Even Thanatos wasn’t enough to finish him off so easily.
It wasn’t a fully realized authority yet, so killing an immortal entity like him wouldn’t be simple.
He writhed in unimaginable pain, rolling across the ground, his glowing eyes burning with fury.
— Damn it... Damn it, what is this?!
Reeling from the unexpected lethal blow, he flailed wildly before retreating from me.
Even with Thanatos afflicting him, his regeneration hadn’t entirely stopped.
Even if I killed him here, he would find a way to survive.
But I had already achieved my real goal.
"You were so full of yourself, calling me a mere insect. Look at you now—pathetic."
— Shut up!
“If you had been playing the mastermind behind the scenes for so long, you should have fled the moment things went south.”
His mistake was letting his pride get the better of him in the end.
— You are gravely mistaken. Do you truly believe a mere insect like you can defeat me? Look! Even the wounds you inflicted with your life on the line are already healing.
Just as he said, even under the effects of Thanatos, his regeneration had slowed drastically but hadn’t completely stopped.
But at that rate, I had already accomplished what I needed.
“I know. I never thought that would be enough to kill you. And I wasn’t planning to let you just die, either.”
If he simply died here, he would resurrect and escape me once more.
I needed to ensure he couldn't run.
Baril, the dragon, was an entity of the demonic attribute.
And the attribute most lethal to such beings was divinity.
However, since it was difficult to wield divine power in this situation, I recalled the method I had used in the Labyrinth to tear him apart.
While studying magic in the Hall of Truth, I had discovered a different element that was just as effective—lightning.
Fortunately, lightning was also my most proficient element.
"Dragons hate lightning, don’t they?"
I gathered elemental mana into my left hand, the one not holding my sword.
As an immense concentration of seventh-circle lightning magic formed, blue currents crackled, swirling into the shape of a spear.
Like static electricity drawing in loose strands of hair, electric arcs danced and surged, causing him to tense up at the sight of the gathering power.
[Seventh-Circle Lightning Magic]
[Astrape (Spear of the Thunder God)]
— Such a brutish spell. But if a mere human like you has cast that, then surely your mana is nearly depleted.
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