Chapter 340: Demon Lord (3)

I opened my eyes.

Countless pieces of rock were falling from the sky. With most of its boundless mana gone, it was descending to the groundless world without strength.

[Shin, the dragon!]

I succeeded. For a moment, that was the only thing in my mind. But as the dragon charged towards me the moment the meteor was destroyed, I didn't have time to drown in a sense of achievement.

Because I released most of the energy I had just now, I quickly gathered nearby mana and created a barrier around me. The slowly rising mana of Enigma added to its strength, yet the dragon opened its huge mouth seemingly unperturbed by the barrier.

"You crazy bastard! Really?"

[Don't look down on dragons!]

Like I expected from when he started approaching, he shot out a fire breath! Right in front of me! Not to mention, because his pressure magic was pushing me down, I could barely move an inch even with Divine Speed. With my mana not recovered yet, I couldn't utilize Steel's power either.

"I am Dortu. I will protect Master."

Someone jumped in front of me. It was Dortu! Now I knew for certain that he had materialized. He looked exactly like a knight, his entire body covered in a thick armor and holding a large shield with his hands.

[Shin, mana, give me mana!]

[Master, I'll help too! I need mana!]

Ruyue and Sharana also flew in, doing what they can to help. Just like the two of them, Dortu had little to no mana. It was hard to say how long they could last.

Because of the close proximity of the dragon breath, it took even more mana to combat it. There was just no way to know how much mana we would need in total. Gritting my teeth, I shouted.

"Guys, dematerialize!"

With my unyielding command, the elementals canceled their materialization and flew into my embrace. The dragon shouted while increasing the force of his breath to break the remaining barrier.

[You don't want to sacrifice your elementals? At least you're kind!]

"Bullshit."

I gave him a middle finger. In any case, as long as the elementals weren't materialized, they wouldn't be injured by the breath. After letting out a breath of relief, I waited until the barrier shattered before using Shadow Blink and teleporting behind the dragon's neck.

[What!?]

"You attacked me at a good time. I'll give you that."

I placed my spear on his thick neck and tapped on it as though I was praising him.

"Don't you have a weak point or something?"

[Kuoooooo!]

It seemed he didn't. He twisted his neck as if he wanted to continue his breath, but because I was stuck to his neck, he would end up frying his body if he did so. Wait, he was still doing it!

[Didn't I tell you? Let's die together!]

"You crazy...!"

Using Divine Speed, I ran down along his neck. Changing my position along with where the breath was coming from, I meticulously ran circles around the dragon's neck. However funny it might look, I was dead serious. If his breath hit me, I knew I would die!

Things were more serious than I imagined. His breath changed directions with impossible angles, as though it was a guided missile.

[Kuoooooooooo!]

"Argh, too hot!"

A dragon breath was nothing to scoff at. I could tell he was giving his all, as his neck and abdominal regions were burning from his own breath. There could be no hotter flames anywhere in the myriad worlds!

In any case, what was important was that the dragon was also getting burned while I ran down his neck. Drawing Steel's power to the limit, I absorbed even the mana in the heat, but it was still excruciatingly hot.

"If you're going to die, can't you just die peacefully...?"

I gritted my teeth and held up my spear. Then, I squeezed out what little mana I had available and squashed in onto the spear tip. Even though I was using Enigma, a transparent aura was faintly undulating on the spear tip!

Thinking I was getting the hang of this, I let out a small smile. Immediately afterward, I stabbed the spear into the dragon's neck. I slowed down abruptly, but knowing that the dragon breath would incinerate me if I stopped completely, I clenched my teeth and ran forward while keeping my spear cutting across his neck.

[Kuk!]

"Let's see if you can continue that breath with your neck cut! Dortu, I'll leave it to you!"

[I am Dortu. Spreading seeds.]

The dragon's body was truly enormous. Not only was he the biggest enemy I've faced, he also had the greatest amount of mana.

Simply making a circle around his neck took me 12 seconds. Considering my speed, this was an extremely long time. Regardless, a clear red line was drawn around his neck. However, his breath hadn't stopped.

[That's not enough.]

"It is."

I jumped up high. Without missing this opportunity, he turned towards me and shot his dragon breath straight towards me. However, I shouted first before the breath could reach me.

"Dortu!"

[I am Dortu.]

Along with Dortu's calm voice, a thunderous sound boomed out. Dortu had detonated the metal he planted in the dragon's neck. The shock from the explosion then caused the dragon breath to miss me.

[Kahak!]

I heard his scream once more. At that moment, the empty air suddenly exploded and injured my cheek. With that as the starting point, as though unseen bombs were planted in the air, series of explosions began to occur.

A great flow of explosion that Steel couldn't do anything about! While I frantically gathered nearby mana in shock, Sharana shouted in a hurry.

[Mana itself changed into an explosive! Be careful, Master!]

"What!?"

The mana I absorbed into my body then exploded. After coughing out a mouthful of blood, I gritted my teeth.

"He really is full of all sorts of tricks!"

But as long as I knew about it, I wouldn't fall for it a second time. The dragon couldn't wield Enigma, but I could convert mana into Enigma. I reached out with my hands and began to convert mana into Enigma. Consequently, the nearby mana stopped exploding. I could safely absorb them and recover my mana.

[Kuoooooooooo!]

However, the dragon was continuing. Was he trying to copy what I did? A terrifying amount of mana gathered together and formed giant blades. Several tens of them! I looked at the closet blade slashing down towards me and reached towards it with my hands.

"Haaaaaaap!"

The moment I touched the blade, I activated Extort with all my strength. The blade flung back into the air as though it hit a hard wall, and before it completely left my field of view, I grabbed the center of the blade with my injured hand and swung it horizontally, destroying all the other blades.

Then, I aimed the sword at the dragon.

Dortu's explosives seemed to have worked, as blood was pouring down from his neck. Of course, as I knew the absurd regenerative power of a dragon, it didn't surprise me when I saw his deep wounds recovering. However, it wasn't too late.

[How persistent!]

"That's what I want to say!"

The blade made of half-transparent mana was dyed in grey. The entirety of the huge blade was being converted into Enigma.

If I couldn't wield Enigma properly, I would have died to the dragon long ago. I couldn't be more thankful for the halo spinning on my horn. Without it, I wouldn't have realized I could wield Enigma with my own power.

"Huuuuuu...!"

The tattoos engraved in my body all began to glow. My mana filled up, and my arms and legs grew stronger.

The tattoos slowly melted into my body. In the end, they were mana refined by Sherafina. Now that I learned how to control them, they were returning to their original form.

I could feel myself emitting a brilliant light. The mana blade grew larger as it sucked in more and more mana. Even some of the magic the dragon used was sucked into it.

[I am Dortu. Starting reinforcement.]

It seemed not even Dortu could transform this giant mana blade into a metal. His power only drew a thin line of metal along the blade's edge. At that moment, the dragon shouted.

[A spear user wants to finish me with a sword?]

"Who cares?"

Without a moment of hesitation, I swung the blade down. The blade fell as though to sever the world in half, and although the dragon let out a final dragon breath against it, the blade absorbed even the dragon's breath.

It was only then that I realized what Dortu meant by reinforcement. The metal he added to the blade was what he created from absorbing the dragon breath's heat. That's why it could cut through the dragon breath!

Until the end, the dragon used all sorts of magic in disbelief of what was happening, but the blade absorbed them all and finally severed the dragon's neck.

Seeing the dragon's head separate from its body, I snorted.

"What matters is that you won, not how you won!"

Then, the dragon's body began to shine.

[I'm satisfied.]

"... God damn it."

I cursed softly.

"Is not dying some new fad? Aren't you a living being? How are you alive with a severed head?"

[If it's you, you can do it. I will entrust myself to you.]

"Entrust what? I don't want it, go away."

[I'm going to start. I can keep us hidden for six months. Do what you can to obtain my everything.]

The dragon's voice rang out. I then realized that this was a magic. It was prepared the moment I entered the 95th floor, set to trigger when I killed him!

It was an extremely simple magic.

[A dragon's power, will you be able to contain it, human?]

"Shut it. I'm not even a human anymore."

Grumbling in a low voice, I closed my eyes seeing the dragon's body flying towards me as particles of light.

One month later, when I finally left the dungeon...

A single dungeon had appeared on Earth.