Chapter 334

Chapter 334

The one who reacted to Zeon’s appearance was a man who looked to be in his mid-forties.

He was a muscular giant well over five meters tall, with an angular face covered in a thick beard, fierce eyes like a monster’s, and a blunt nose.

An enormous mass of black hair spread out in every direction like a lion’s mane.

The man wore a one-piece suit of armor covered in scales as black as pitch, and an overwhelming presence radiated from him.

His aura was so overpowering that Zeon’s face twisted. But what truly surprised Zeon was not the man’s five-meter-tall body or his presence.

It was the being sprawled in front of the man, limbs spread wide as if he had been dissected.

The man had bloodlessly pale skin and wore a blue-green crown on his head, and a dreadful energy of death flowed from him.

Even though he was clearly dead.

The dead man’s eyes were full of disbelief.

His gaze seemed to say that he could not believe his own death until the very end.

Zeon instinctively realized that this was the one he had been looking for.

“The Necromancer?”

“Yes! The Necromancer. His name in Kurayan was Pilgram.”

The one who answered was the giant over five meters tall.

Zeon looked at the giant.

The giant, too, looked with interest at the human who had barged into Pilgram’s dwelling as he pleased.

According to his calculations, it should have taken at least ten more hours for a human to enter this place. And that was after losing more than two thousand people. Yet a human had appeared after shortening his estimate by more than ten hours, so he could not help but be interested.

The man said,

“Wait a moment. I need to finish dealing with this guy first. Otherwise, he’ll keep coming back to life like a cockroach.”

Crack!

He thrust his forearm into Pilgram’s chest and rummaged around.

Each time he did, Pilgram’s body flopped like a fish.

After searching inside Pilgram’s chest for quite some time, the man finally smiled.

“Found it!”

What he pulled from Pilgram’s chest was a purple jewel fragment no bigger than a pinky nail.

The moment Zeon saw the jewel, he felt his heart drop with a thud.

The ominous waves flowing from the unidentified jewel had stimulated Zeon’s heart.

Not even a top-grade Mana Stone or an item had ever given Zeon this kind of feeling.

It felt as though he was looking at an object that should not exist in this world.

Feeling the blood in his entire body turn cold, Zeon asked,

“What is that?”

“It is better not to be curious. It is an object humans cannot handle.”

“So what is it?”

“Do you want to know?”

“Yes!”

“Sorry, but humans are not even permitted the right to know.”

“That means you’re admitting you aren’t human.”

“Yes! I am not human. As you have already guessed.”

The man straightened his back.

As his muscular body, over five meters tall, moved, a tremendous energy filled the underground space.

It was as if the owner of this space, which originally should have belonged to the Necromancer Pilgram, had changed to the man.

Pilgram had been a Necromancer who could summon zombies, ghost hounds, Specters, Dullahans, and the like without limit by himself.

On top of that, his Necromancer abilities had been so tremendous that he could even create monsters such as Bone Drakes and a Bone Hydra.

This was the place such a man had made into his domain.

By nature, a domain had the effect of multiplying its master’s abilities.

That was because everything within it was arranged according to the master’s nature and abilities. Such an atmosphere did not change easily.

Even after the master died.

For that reason, this place should have carried Pilgram’s scent unmistakably. But the moment the man straightened his back, everything in the domain came under his control.

He had stolen another’s domain in an instant and made it his own.

Pilgram, who had become a corpse, vanished completely at some point without leaving even ashes behind.

With this, even a Necromancer who rejected death would never be able to revive.

No monster Zeon had ever seen had displayed such an absurd miracle.

Not even Leviathan.

In other words, the opponent before Zeon’s eyes was a being stronger than Leviathan.

Zeon stared fixedly at the man.

“Are you…… a dragon?”

“I…… was a dragon.”

The man neither admitted nor denied it.

Zeon’s gaze sank deeply.

No one understood the weight and pressure carried by the word dragon better than Zeon.

That was because Zeon was the one who had fought a dragon with Deioden until the very end.

The main force in that battle had been Deioden, and Zeon had played only a supporting role, but even so, he knew exactly how strong a dragon was.

The man before Zeon’s eyes now was an existence equal to that dragon, perhaps even greater.

The goosebumps that had risen on Zeon’s skin since earlier and refused to subside proved that fact.

‘At this level, he’s stronger than Haieltun.’

The dragon Deioden had hunted at the cost of his life was Haieltun.

The man in front of Zeon was far stronger than that.

If this man decided to run wild, the Awakened who had come here would all be annihilated.

While tense, Zeon quietly raised his control.

The man must have noticed, because he gave a small laugh.

“It seems you find it burdensome that I am here, Sandmancer.”

“You know me?”

“How could I not? This is not a suitable place for conversation, so let us change locations first.”

Snap!

The man snapped his fingers.

In that instant, Zeon felt a dizzying sensation of floating.

At the same time, the scenery around him changed rapidly, like photographs being shuffled at high speed.

Zeon knew what that sensation meant.

‘He uses spatial movement this easily?’

When he came to his senses, Zeon was high up in the sky.

Far below his feet, he could see the distant scenery of the ground.

If Zeon had not possessed the ability to control sand and float in the air, he would have been badly flustered.

—Pii?

At that moment, Gaia’s voice echoed in his mind.

Sensing Zeon’s crisis, Gaia was trying to come out.

‘Stay still, Gaia!’

Zeon restrained Gaia.

His opponent was a monster whose true limits were unknown. If he carelessly brought Gaia out in front of such a monster, he did not know what would happen.

In the worst case, that monster might covet Gaia.

Gaia was an existence with that much rarity value.

Zeon knew very well how greedy beings called dragons were.

The moment that monster saw Gaia, he would surely reach out his claws.

‘Did he cast aside the body of a dragon?’

A moment ago, the man had said he had been a dragon, in the past tense.

His words were probably not a lie.

Dragons did not like speaking falsehoods.

Clatter!

Each time the man moved his body, the armor of black scales shifted as though it were alive.

‘Are those not armor, but his own scales?’

Otherwise, that sense of unity could not be explained.

The man said,

“In a place like this, you should be able to converse comfortably without worrying about the safety of other humans.”

“I think so.”

Zeon nodded.

Even Zeon did not know exactly where the coordinates of this place were. But he could tell that they were very far away from the Mana Stone Mine.

At the very least, the man’s attacks would not affect the humans near the Mana Stone Mine.

In that case, Zeon could converse with him somewhat more comfortably.

After organizing his thoughts, Zeon opened his mouth.

“This is surprising.”

“What is surprising? That I was a dragon? Or that I killed Pilgram?”

“The fact that you moved.”

“Is that so? It seems you have seen a dragon besides me. Well, our race is somewhat lazy. I am a bit special.”

“That jewel must have made you move.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because otherwise, you would have no reason to personally hunt a Necromancer like Pilgram.”

No matter how strong a Necromancer was, in the end, he was only a Necromancer.

Even if he created Grade S monsters such as Bone Drakes or a Bone Hydra, they were still only monsters.

From a dragon’s perspective, a Necromancer and the monsters he created were beings worth less than a claw.

And a dragon would personally step forward to kill such a being?

It made no sense.

At least, not according to Zeon’s common sense.

It had to be something valuable enough to make a dragon move personally.

The jewel Pilgram had possessed.

There was a high possibility that the jewel had made the dragon move.

The problem was the identity of the jewel that had made a heavy-hipped dragon move in person.

The man smiled.

“As expected, you are special.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you know how to see through to the essence. You are as special as that alien ability of yours.”

“My ability is alien?”

“At the very least, it is not ordinary. There were no Sandmancers even in Kurayan.”

“Were there no deserts there?”

“There were. But no one cared. Kurayan was a fertile place, and there was no need to care about an ability to control sand.”

“It must have been a good place.”

“Yes! No one could have predicted that an ability no one paid attention to would become this useful. Not even he…….”

“He?”

Zeon’s eyebrow twitched.

The man, a dragon, had expressed reverence for a moment while mentioning him.

There was only one being a dragon would show reverence to.

“You mean Crasias.”

“As expected, you knew.”

“How could I not?”

“Interesting! Truly interesting! A human who remains calm even knowing I was a dragon, and who dares not be crushed by the name Crasias. Kuhahahaha!”

The man burst into loud laughter.

At the sound of his laughter, the clouds in the area were pushed away and scattered as if swept by waves.

It was truly terrifying power.

Even in the face of his laughter, Zeon remained calm.

“Crasias is already dead, isn’t he? Is there any reason for me to fear a dead being?”

“Do you truly think so?”

“What do you mean?”

“I am asking whether you truly believe Crasias is dead.”

“Did he not disintegrate and die on the particle level as the price for terraforming Earth?”

“He did indeed disappear that way.”

“That sounds as though it may not be the whole truth.”

“Think whatever you like.”

At the man’s answer, Zeon’s expression hardened.

If his guess was true, the result would surely be far too terrible.

Looking down at the ground beneath his feet, the man said,

“Our conversation has gone on too long. Before I leave, I should test your power.”

“Before that, I would like to know your name.”

“Hmph! Arrogant bastard. My name is Nigel.”

Crack!

At that moment, the scales covering Nigel’s entire body spread wide open and revealed their true form.

They were wings.

A pair of wings so vast they seemed capable of covering the world.

The body covered in scales hidden within them was revealed.

Now Zeon could tell for certain.

Nigel was not human.

Nor was he a dragon.

He was something between a dragon and a human.

A half-demon dragon.

The strongest being, born of himself by taking only the strengths of dragons and humans.

He said to Zeon,

“Try to survive, Sandmancer!”