Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Zeon wrinkled his nose.

“So this is a Chimera?”

He had not noticed it much while it was alive, but the dead Chimera gave off a strange smell. It was similar to the faint fishy stench that came from dead insects.

Zeon crouched and examined the Chimera closely.

Its muscle fibers were definitely different from those of an ordinary human.

The outer layer was made of chitin like an insect, and the tendons inside had tremendous elasticity and strength, as if made from twisted wire.

Most foreign of all were its internal organs.

They were not complex like human organs, and their shapes were simple.

He could feel that they had been arranged to produce maximum efficiency from the same amount of energy.

Zeon rummaged through the organs with his hand and inspected the inside.

If it had been before, he would have shuddered from the horrific sensation. But on the way here, he had experienced things far more gruesome than this, so he could remain calm.

“Did he transplant a monster’s internal organs too? That’s disgusting!”

Zeon shook his head slightly with a sickened expression.

At this level, it would be more correct to say an entirely new lifeform had been created.

Zeon’s gaze suddenly turned toward the Chimera’s heart.

Embedded in the heart was a stone from which strong mana could be felt.

“A Mana Stone? Then he used a Mana Stone as fuel?”

He once again felt just how tremendous a dragon’s abilities were.

Even in Neo Seoul, active research on Mana Stones was being carried out, but no one had dared think of using them as fuel for a living creature.

“That’s insane.”

Zeon shook his head and stood.

Deioden said,

“The nonhuman races said this. Dragons are the progenitors of Magic. They said that for those bastards, using Magic is as natural as breathing. They said that if the Magic of dragons is a storm, the Magic humans use is nothing more than a breeze.”

“Mm!”

“Do you understand now? The bastard we have to face from now on is that terrifying. The chance of dying will be several dozen times higher than the chance of surviving.”

“Don’t say anything like, ‘go back if you’re scared.’ My mind is already made up.”

Zeon cut Deioden off first. At that, Deioden snorted and opened his subspace.

“Take this.”

He took a small bottle out of his subspace and threw it to Zeon.

“What is this?”

“Drink it if you really think you’re about to die. It will heal most wounds in an instant.”

“Then is this something like an Elixir?”

Zeon’s eyes widened.

The Elixir was a legendary miraculous medicine that anyone in the field of alchemy among the Awakened dreamed of making.

It could instantly remove any status abnormality and even grant eternal youth and immortality.

In fact, the alchemists of Neo Seoul were researching how to make an Elixir.

Deioden snorted.

“Hmph! There is no way an Elixir truly exists. It is a stimulant made by a mad alchemist. I heard it was manufactured using the blood of monsters with outstanding regenerative and restorative power.”

“Monster blood? Is it really okay to drink?”

“That is why I told you to drink it only if you think you are going to die. If you are going to die anyway, you might as well gamble. Because of its stimulant properties, it will be better than a Healing Potion for enduring pain.”

“Understood.”

With an uneasy expression, Zeon put the bottle into his subspace.

It felt real now that the decisive battle with the dragon was not far away.

The fact that the powerful Deioden was looking after him to this degree was proof that he was that tense.

Deioden was gripping Crayon tightly as he glared at the night sky where darkness had settled.

As if the dragon were there.

---

Zeon and Deioden stayed until the oasis vanished and ate every last piece of the Sand Angler’s meat.

The Sand Angler’s meat was an excellent source of nutrition.

It was enough to bring their bodies to peak condition before the decisive battle of their lives.

Deioden said,

“Let’s go now.”

“Yes!”

Zeon answered while pulling the hood of his robe low over his head.

Because he had rested well and eaten his fill in the meantime, his physical condition was at its best.

His senses were sharp, and vitality overflowed through his whole body.

He had never felt this good before.

Deioden strode forward, facing the sand-laden wind head-on. His hair was whipping about like a lion’s mane.

Zeon used Sand Walk and followed behind Deioden.

The blazing sun had heated the sand, and intense heat was radiating from it. But it could not stop Zeon and Deioden from advancing.

After walking for several days and nights, what greeted them were pillars rising in the middle of the desert.

Dozens of hexagonal pillars standing alone in the middle of the desert looked suspicious no matter who saw them.

Zeon stepped forward and raised his control.

His senses stretched in every direction along the fine grains of sand.

Nothing in the surroundings caught his senses.

‘Then it must be underground.’

Zeon focused his senses underground.

One hundred meters, two hundred meters......

His senses burrowed endlessly beneath the ground.

The range Zeon’s senses could reach extended to five hundred meters underground. But even by then, nothing had caught.

Zeon released his control and said,

“It looks like it’s deeper than five hundred meters underground.”

“Of course. Like the lizard bastard he is, he must have dug a deep hole and hidden there. Those bastards are cowards.”

“Cowards? I don’t think so.”

“If they truly had courage, they should have moved themselves instead of inciting the nonhuman races to move Crasias. They cannot say a word before the strong, and only pretend to be strong before the weak. If that is not cowardice, what is it?”

It was strangely persuasive.

Zeon nodded, thinking that might be true.

The two arrived before the pillars.

Each pillar was as thick as several people combined.

The hexagonal pillars were covered with characters whose meaning he could not understand.

Zeon stroked a pillar and murmured,

“I can’t tell what in the world is written here......”

FLASH!

At that instant, the pillar Zeon had touched emitted an intense light.

“What the hell?”

Startled, Zeon pulled his hand away, but the cluster of light swallowed him completely.

A moment later, when the light vanished, Zeon could no longer be seen.

Without showing even the slightest sign of surprise, Deioden murmured,

“It seems the pillar is a kind of transfer array.”

He placed his hand on the pillar Zeon had touched. But the cluster of light he had expected did not burst out.

“So each pillar can transfer only one living creature?”

Deioden placed his hand on another pillar.

At that instant, a bright cluster of light burst out and swallowed his body.

---

When Zeon opened the eyes he had closed, the environment had completely changed.

He was inside a cave so unbelievably vast that even a gigantic monster could walk through it.

The walls made of rock glittered as if gold veins were running through them.

As expected of a Gold Dragon, Haieltun had clearly prepared his lair inside bedrock where gold veins passed.

“What’s the point of all this?”

Even after seeing such an enormous amount of gold, no great greed stirred in him.

In the present world, gold did not have that much value.

“Was Deioden transferred somewhere else?”

Zeon looked around, but he could not see Deioden anywhere.

Deioden must have touched a pillar as well. Yet since he was nowhere to be seen, there was a high chance he had been transferred somewhere else.

“I’ll have to move alone until I find him.”

When he thought that he had been separated from Deioden and had entered alone what was presumed to be a dragon’s lair, he did feel afraid.

He had faced countless monsters until now, but a dragon was an existence on an entirely different level from them. It was only natural to be afraid when he might have to face such a dragon alone.

Zeon forced his expression to remain calm.

He could not stand still forever simply because he was afraid.

Even if a dragon waited at the end of this cave, he had to go. Only then could he meet Deioden.

Zeon moved carefully.

This was an unfavorable environment for him.

Because he was inside an ore vein, there was almost no sand.

At least he was fortunate to have Exion.

Zeon moved forward fully prepared to release Exion at any moment.

He seemed to have gone fairly deep inside, but nothing had happened yet. Even so, Zeon did not let down his guard.

From experience, he knew that something always happened right around the time one’s mind started to relax.

His prediction was not wrong.

Ssssss!

From the cave opposite him came some faint sound.

It was an unpleasant noise that made all the fine hairs on his body stand on end and sent a chill down his spine just by hearing it.

“What is it?”

Zeon released Exion and glared ahead.

At that instant, the owners of the sound broke through the darkness and appeared.

They were snakes.

There were two-headed snakes, and even some with four heads.

Some had wings on their backs, while others had two or four legs.

Except for the common point that their heads were snakes, everything about them was different.

Their forms, textures, colors, and sizes were all different.

“They’re Chimeras.”

They were clearly not ordinary monsters, but Chimeras created by Haieltun.

KROOOAR!

When the Chimeras saw Zeon, they let out monstrous cries and charged even more savagely.

Watching the Chimeras rush toward him like mad, Zeon released Exion.

SHAAAA!

His entire body was wrapped in Exion.

In that state, Zeon charged toward the Chimeras.

There was no fear on his face.

GRRRAAASH!

Exion rotated fiercely around him and ground apart the Chimeras rushing at him.

KIEEEEEK!

KIEK!

The screams of the Chimeras being ground away by Exion echoed through the cave.

Flesh burst apart, and blood sprayed in every direction.

HISSSS!

As if the Chimera blood contained acidic venom, the ground melted.

Chimera blood fell over Zeon’s entire body as well, but thanks to the robe and armor Deioden had given him, he suffered almost no damage.

GRRRAAASH!

Even at that moment, the Chimeras were being ground away by Exion.

In an instant, the enormous cave was filled with dismembered Chimera corpses. Even so, the Chimeras kept crawling out from somewhere and attacking Zeon.

Zeon crushed every last one of those Chimeras and advanced.

That was when it happened.

FLASH!

Suddenly, the cave was dyed in bright light, and a streak of lightning struck Zeon.

CRASH—!

“Grrgh!”

With an explosive roar, Zeon’s body was pushed backward.

White smoke was rising in wisps from Zeon’s whole body.

He had avoided serious damage only because Exion had protected him. If he had taken it directly, his body might have burst apart on the spot.

Ssssss!

Then, pushing through the Chimeras, an especially large snake appeared.

There was a horn on the large snake’s head.

Sparks were crackling from the horn.

The lightning had been fired by that creature.

‘A special individual?’

Even among monsters, there were occasionally ones that used Skills.

It seemed the large snake that had appeared now also knew how to use a Skill related to lightning.

FLASH!

At that instant, lightning burst from the large snake’s horn once again.

Zeon launched himself away to avoid the lightning.

CRASH—!

The place where he had been standing exploded, gouging out the ground.

Although he avoided the lightning, Exion briefly lost control and scattered because of it.

The Chimeras did not miss that opening and rushed at Zeon.

Zeon struck the lead Chimera with his gauntleted fist.

CRASH—!

With an explosive roar, the Chimera’s head burst apart.

Zeon attacked the Chimeras like a madman and shouted,

“Don’t look down on me, you snake bastards!”