Chapter 41. Dragon Rage Explosion
Kai’s deep blue eyes.
They pursued the fleeing monsters.
The monsters trembled, overwhelmed by fear. Perhaps because of that, their steps were unsteady.
Without slowing down, Kai chased after them even faster. He could never allow them to escape like this.
There was no telling when they might return and threaten the County again.
Of course, nearly half of them had already been annihilated by Adrian’s absurd display of power.
It was an achievement so incredible that it was difficult to believe it had been accomplished by a single man.
On the other hand, however, it also meant that nearly half of them remained.
Normally, monsters did not form a “legion”.
They might gather into groups to survive, but they did not organize themselves into legions.
This was a bizarre phenomenon that Kai had never encountered even once during his time in White Wolf County.
In fact, it was a phenomenon that could not be found anywhere on the entire continent.
He did not know how it was possible, but….
‘Someone is controlling the monsters.’
They were commanding the monsters with a clear purpose and remarkable precision.
Creatures that would normally compete against one another for survival in the wild were moving in submission to a Hive Mind.
That meant their reproduction would be extraordinarily rapid.
After all, the one commanding the legion could simply order them to reproduce by force.
The monster legion before his eyes was proof enough.
This many monsters could not naturally exist in the Snowy Mountains.
Their population would ordinarily be regulated naturally as they devoured and were devoured within the food chain.
In other words, this was the result of someone forcibly breeding them.
Therefore, the monsters allowed to escape today would multiply explosively, and it was obvious that another attack by a legion like this one would eventually occur.
That was why he could not let them live. He had to kill every last one of them.
In only a few months, the fleeing monsters would multiply into an enormous force and trample and destroy the entire County.
Kai’s sword, infused with vivid blue Aura, tore through the back of a fleeing Dermexus.
Fwoosh—!
The Dermexus collapsed with a scream of agony.
Kai did not stop.
He charged toward another monster and swung his sword without restraint.
There was no mercy in his attacks. Nor was there any hesitation.
The more desperately the monsters tried to flee, the more relentlessly Kai pursued and slaughtered them.
Some of the monsters turned their claws and fangs toward Kai.
Kai lightly twisted his body and evaded them.
He swiftly swung his sword, ripping apart one monster’s heart and crushing another’s head.
His silver armor was repeatedly stained with blood, only for the swirling snow to wipe it clean again.
Chaotic sounds reverberated in his ears.
Adrian’s strength was unbelievable, but ultimately, he had only managed to annihilate roughly half of the monster legion.
No matter how strong someone was, no one could contend against an entire monster legion alone.
Only one person could make such an absurd feat possible.
Seraphia.
She alone could do it.
At least, among everyone Kai knew, Seraphia was the only one capable of it.
The reason she could accomplish such a thing was the frigid energy of the Monarch of Frost that resided within her body.
It was a curse, but at the same time, it was also an ability. However, a curse was still a curse, so she must not use it.
It was not that she could not use it.
She must not use it.
This time, they had barely managed to survive thanks to Adrian.
However, they could not assume that things would turn out the same way next time.
Therefore….
‘I’ll kill them all here.’
Kai’s sword grew fiercer and faster as it destroyed the monsters’ hearts.
It was just as his sword destroyed the heart of yet another monster.
A sudden thought crossed Kai’s mind.
Something was wrong.
Clunk.
His body abruptly stopped obeying him.
His entire body stiffened as though it had turned into a stone statue.
The Aura circulating throughout his body was instantly blocked.
It would not move.
And it was not only Kai.
Every member of the fleeing monster legion had gone rigid like an ice statue.
Only then did Kai perceive the “something” that had invaded the minds of both himself and the monsters.
‘This is….’
Dragon Fear.
It was the same sensation he had felt when confronting the Gelu-Drake.
No.
That was not it.
This felt as though….
A dragon, the supreme being that reigned over all creation.
……
It felt as though he were facing a true dragon.
Kai had never actually encountered a dragon, but he unmistakably felt such overwhelming pressure.
Naturally, there was no dragon here. Nor was there a Gelu-Drake.
Kai slowly turned his head.
Standing there was none other than Adrian.
Adrian remained motionless in the same place as before. He looked no different from when Kai had last seen him.
Yet, for some inexplicable reason, Adrian no longer felt human to Kai.
His visible form and appearance were unquestionably human, but Kai could see the image of a dragon within Adrian.
A savage dragon that had been suppressed to its absolute limit.
And at last….
It met its dreadful release.
“No, wait—!”
Just as Kai cried out in alarm—
Fwoooooooooosh—!!!
An enormous inferno erupted from Adrian.
The bitter cold suddenly became scorching hot.
The bone-chilling air vanished in an instant.
The searing heat entering Kai’s lungs felt as though it would burn his entire body to ashes.
Kai hurriedly unleashed his Aura.
He formed an Aura barrier even stronger than the one he had used to stop the avalanche in the Snowy Mountains.
Then, narrowing his eyes, he stared ahead.
He could see it.
Roooooooar—!!
The erupting Dragon Rage Explosion.
An enormous and ferocious dragon awakened from Adrian’s arms. The dragon raised its gigantic body and swept across everything ahead.
Its enormous, savage maw opened wide as it devoured every living creature upon the earth—
And first….
Sound itself burned away.
Next, the snow and ice accumulated throughout the County were scorched by the dragon’s heat and completely evaporated.
Clouds of pale steam spread in every direction.
The melted water immediately became vapor and dispersed into the air.
Deprived of all moisture, the snowfield cracked apart like rice paddies dried by an early drought, engraving web-like fissures in every direction.
It was as though the scenery of the Snowy Mountains itself were collapsing.
An inferno of eternity.
A blazing landscape of bitter cold.
It was an inhuman power.
That could never be considered human.
How could anyone call something that burned away not merely the cold, but the very season of bitter winter itself, human?
It would hardly be an exaggeration to call that thing a dragon.
Fwoooooooooooooooooosh—!!!!
All Kai could do was be swallowed alongside the monster legion by the fury of that savage dragon.
The eternal inferno that had burned through the frozen landscape gradually subsided with the passage of time, revealing the enormous crimson scar it had left behind.
The snowfield that had once been covered in white was now blanketed in ash.
The frozen valleys of the Snowy Mountains had melted, and hazy steam rose from them.
The snow that had melted in an instant flowed down like lava, fully exposing the scars left by the flames.
The fleeing monster legion had been burned black.
Reduced to charred ash, they scattered upon the wind.
Fissures had been carved into the snowfield’s earth as though it had dried beneath an early drought.
Crimson light flickered between those cracks, continuing to radiate intense heat.
The air of the Snowy Mountains, which had once been cold enough to freeze one’s lungs, had become hot enough to burn them.
The thick steam not only obstructed vision but also made it difficult to breathe.
“!!!!!”
“!!!!!”
Cries of astonishment erupted from the soldiers and knights throughout the County.
The soldiers descending from the walls, the knights commanding them, the soldiers opening the gates….
There was not a single person who was not shocked.
The scorched wasteland seemed to reject the very existence of living, breathing creatures.
“D-Did I really just see that...?”
“Uuugh...!!!”
Everyone who had witnessed the Dragon Rage Explosion was too overwhelmed with shock to move.
It created the illusion that even time itself had burned away.
It was at that moment.
“Cough...!!”
A groan filled with terrible pain suddenly rang out.
There stood Kai, the golden wolf who had pursued the monster legion.
Kai had driven his sword into the ground and was kneeling on one knee.
“Gaaah...!”
A torrent of crimson blood poured from Kai’s mouth.
His golden hair, which resembled sunlight, had been scorched black. His once-silver armor had likewise been burned black.
“Guh...!”
Anyone could see that Kai was in terrible condition.
Naturally so.
Kai had endured the Dragon Rage Explosion head-on. Because of that, the soldiers were even more stunned.
“H-He’s alive....”
“He survived after taking that head-on...?!”
Kai was still alive despite confronting the Dragon Rage Explosion.
Of course, he was far from unharmed.
However, the fact that he had endured it with nothing more than vomiting blood was astonishing enough to inspire awe.
And yet, there was someone else who inspired even greater shock and wonder among the soldiers.
There was one other man still alive in the wasteland alongside Kai.
The black wolf who had run rampant among the flock of sheep.
The man who had transformed the Snowy Mountains into a wasteland and had appeared almost like a dragon....
Adrian.
Adrian still stood firmly in the same place as before. However, Adrian’s condition was even worse than Kai’s.
His entire body was battered beyond recognition, and he staggered unsteadily.
But his arms were nowhere to be seen, as though he had somehow misplaced them.
Thud.
Adrian’s staggering body collapsed to the ground.
He did not move afterward.
It was at that moment that Seraphia suddenly came to her senses.
“Brother!!!”
Seraphia sprinted frantically toward Adrian.
The closer she drew to him, the paler her face became.
Adrian had been reduced to a blackened mass of ash, as though he had just emerged from a blazing furnace.
Worst of all, both arms were missing all the way up to his shoulders, leaving deep hollows that created a truly grotesque sight.
No matter how she looked at him….
He did not appear to be alive.
Seraphia’s red eyes widened in profound shock.
Her lips trembled.
She wanted to say something, but no words would come out.
“Ah, aah...!”
Her throat tightened, and it felt as though her heart were being torn apart.
The pain made it impossible for her to breathe properly.
Adrian had sacrificed himself to save the residents of the County….
To save the people.
Had she known this would happen—had she known he would end up like this—Seraphia would never have hesitated to use her ability.
She would rather have sacrificed herself.
The strength left her legs, and she sank helplessly to the ground.
Her entire body trembled as her shoulders finally collapsed beneath the weight of her grief.
Then, just as large tears began falling from her eyes….
“Over there….”
An extremely faint voice reached her ears.
Seraphia abruptly raised her head.
Her tear-streaked face turned toward the source of the voice.
And then….
The corpse spoke.
A corpse without arms was wildly squirming on the ground.
What a grotesque sight it was.
Thump.
Seraphia fainted on the spot.
* * *
I could see her.
“Try shoving any monster you can find into my mouth.”
The attack had been far more powerful than I expected.
I had extracted a dragon’s Genetic Factor and manifested a dragon’s authority, but I still had not expected it to be this powerful.
‘This is just insane.’
It was beyond insane.
There was a reason it was called an authority.
Of course, because it had merely been “extracted”, it could not compare to Dragon Breath, a dragon’s true authority.
But if I compared it with the Ice Breath used by the Gelu-Drake?
Dragon Rage Explosion [E] was far superior.
And the backlash I suffered was no joke.
The arms that had discharged Dragon Rage Explosion [E] had not merely exploded—they had ceased to exist.
The recoil had ruptured practically every organ in my body.
Fortunately, the flames had cauterized the wounds, so I was not bleeding.
My Regeneration had evolved to rank [B+] this time.
As long as my heart and brain remained intact, I could regenerate anything.
Still, it seemed I needed to regenerate rather quickly.
But my calories were completely depleted.
My arms had vanished, so I could not do anything.
My inventory was completely empty.
“Over there…. Try shoving any monster you can find into my mouth.”
There was nothing I could do by myself.
At least my vocal cords had not burned away, so I could still speak.
In truth, however, I did not have time to lie around like this. I needed to find the creature commanding the monster legion.
The being that might possibly be….
The Monarch of Beasts.
And I had just gained certainty about two things.
‘The quest hasn’t been cleared.’
The Sudden Quest had not been cleared. That meant more of the monster legion remained.
It meant that what had just happened was merely the first wave, while simultaneously proving that an entity was commanding the legion.
The entity that might possibly be the Monarch of Beasts.
The other thing I had become certain of was that I could confront the Monarch of Beasts by utilizing Combination Skills.
Even if it was the Monarch of Beasts, an attack as powerful as the Dragon Rage Explosion [E] I had just unleashed would certainly work against it.
Therefore, I needed to regenerate and track down the Monarch of Beasts as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, Seraphia came running over.
But then, to my surprise….
Thump.
She suddenly collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut and showed no sign of getting back up.
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