Chapter 474: Abyssal Sin Hound

Chapter 474: Sinful Hound of the Abyss

Kevin’s paws clawed at the beach a few times, creating a dramatic effect of flying sand and rolling pebbles. Once the atmosphere was sufficiently built, he charged straight toward the three-headed hound ahead.

The three-headed hound snarled and lunged at Kevin, fireballs instantly condensing within the jaws of its flanking heads, which it spat directly at him.

Puruo swung the small fiery sword in her paw, first deflecting one fireball with a deft parry, then following up with a swift backhand flick to send the second fireball flying.

The two fireballs exploded only after being deflected far into the distance, bearing absolutely no impact on the battlefield.

This involved not just swordsmanship, but more crucially, the perception and mastery of fire-attributed power; in this regard, Puruo was a true master. Though her lifespan was not particularly long compared to those genuine ancient monsters, geniuses existed precisely to shatter the reference points of time. As the two sides were about to collide, Puruo’s left claw, gripping the fur on the back of Kevin’s neck, yanked to the left. Sensing her intent, Kevin did not crash head-on; instead, his hind legs dug into the ground, altering his direction at the last moment to brush past the flank of the three-headed hound.

Puruo raised the small fiery sword in her right claw and slashed it directly across the three-headed hound’s body.

"Puff!"

The two sides crossed paths.

Kevin immediately turned his head to face the three-headed hound again, his paws continuing to dig into the ground.

"Alright, stupid dog, sand got into my eyes, meow!"

Only then did Kevin stop, turning around to offer Puruo an apologetic smile, under the impression that she enjoyed this sort of flair.

The three-headed hound turned around immediately as well, but instantly looked down at its own flank, where a blood-red wound had been carved open. In the previous clash, it had failed to inflict any damage whatsoever, yet had taken a severe wound in return.

Puruo raised the small fiery sword vertically before her face, and after executing a brilliant flourish, pointed the flaming blade diagonally downward.

"The blazing fire shines bright, burning away all sin;

Out of mercy, I grant you one final chance. Kneel, and accept judgment from the flames, meow!"

The three-headed hound let out a furious roar, its emotional fluctuations seeming to grow more violent because of Puruo's words.

In the next instant, spikes began to sprout across its body, each one exceptionally sharp.

"I promise you will pay the price for your stubbornness!"

Puruo pointed the small fiery sword at the three-headed hound, while lowering her head to whisper to Kevin, "Stupid dog, circle around it. Don't get close to this porcupine."

Kevin nodded to show he understood. As the three-headed hound rushed over, Kevin instinctively maintained his distance; no matter how frantically the hound lunged time and again, Kevin could always anticipate and evade beforehand.

Seated on Kevin's back, Puruo continuously swung the fiery sword in her claws, thrusting and slashing at the three-headed hound. Though it was difficult to land a long, clean horizontal cut like in the first exchange, the sheer frequency made up for it, allowing minor injuries to gradually accumulate into a substantial effect.

Furthermore, because Puruo usually enjoyed sitting on Kevin's back, the equestrian-like coordination between the cat and dog had long since become seamless. Once sparked by actual combat, the result was only magnified.

Right now, they did not look like knights in battle, but rather like matadors bullfighting.

That three-headed hound was merely the target of attrition, venting its incompetent rage over and over.

Finally, the three-headed hound came to a halt, all three of its heads panting heavily, its body already covered in wounds.

Kevin stopped as well, facing it with a mocking, doggish smirk in his eyes.

Puruo took a deep breath, dissipated the fiery sword, and began rubbing her right claw back and forth on Kevin's head; maintaining the condensed sword for so long had caused this fleshy paw to cramp slightly.

The three pairs of eyes on the three-headed hound simultaneously released a red glow, which converged and struck the ground in front of it, instantly manifesting a red astral crest upon which it stepped.

The head on the left immediately materialized a shield, the head on the right materialized a sword, while the central head shrank inward, becoming quite small, though its eyeballs remained normal size as dense arcane power brewed within them.

"Crack!"

In the next moment, the three-headed hound stood upright on its hind legs, giving off the impression of a warrior wielding a shield and a short sword.

"Oh, stupid dog, does it have a problem with its brain?"

Seeing this, Puruo did not display the slightest concern, but chose to mock it instead.

The two sides had already completed two rounds of engagement, and their respective strengths were thoroughly understood. In terms of pure physical power, Kevin and Puruo were inferior to the three-headed hound, but its advantage in strength was not enough to overwhelm them, which caused its tactical disadvantages to be infinitely magnified.

Presently, this transformation by the three-headed hound seemed to Puruo like it was simply trying to mimic what it saw from their side; but the problem was, while many dogs could manage to stand up and walk on two legs, had anyone ever seen a dog walk faster on two legs than on four?

Switching her right hand to grip the reins of fur, Puruo condensed the small fiery sword in her left claw and said to Kevin:

"Charge, stupid dog, crush it!"

"Woof!"

Kevin nodded vigorously and dashed forward at full speed.

The post-transformation three-headed hound also prepared itself with proper form, fully on guard.

But very quickly, it was dazed by Kevin, who kept running circles around it, and the movement frequency of the two legs beneath it fell into disarray.

Every time Kevin spotted such an opportunity, he would suddenly close the distance, and Puruo would deliver a swift thrust with her sword.

Unable to parry or counter in time, the three-headed hound served as a target for several consecutive stabs. It then went mad, dropping back onto all fours to give chase, but its already uncoordinated state only grew more chaotic.

Kevin leaped clean over the three-headed hound, while Puruo used

Kevin slowed his pace, cautiously drawing near to the three-headed demonic hound, but remained fully prepared to brace himself should the creature suddenly fly into a violent rage.

"Hey, do you admit defeat or not?" The three-headed demonic hound just kept on crying, offering no response.

"Hey, if you still want to keep fighting, then keep on crying; if you don't want to keep fighting, then just wag your tail a bit." The three-headed demonic hound stopped its sobbing immediately and began to wag its tail.

"Then let me ask you, are you subdued? If you are, keep wagging your tail."

The three-headed demonic hound stopped wagging its tail, clearly still unyielding. "Sigh, this child, even in defeat its mouth remains stubborn, so how about I stop beating you, alright?" The three-headed demonic hound lifted its head out of the sand, looked at Purr, and nodded.

It was not subdued, but it did not wish to continue fighting anymore, because in this kind of combat, it stood no chance.

"Roar, roar, roar!"

"You think it's unfair to you that it's a two-on-one fight? Why don't you look at how many heads you have, one, two, three—you have three heads, while you should count how many heads we have, one, two—we only have two!

You are truly a disgrace to all hounds, failing to win even when it's three against two!"

The three-headed demonic hound widened its eyes, as if it were actually counting, and then its eyes widened a bit more instantly; clearly, it felt that what Purr said made perfect sense.

To be suppressed to such an extent when it had the advantage of numbers, it truly was utterly useless!

For a moment, tears welled up once more, and all three hound heads looked overwhelmed with grief; this cat was simply far too powerful.

"Woof, woof, woof!"

"Exactly, you are no match for us even when it's two against three, and this is even without us calling Karen over to fight you together; Karen is our King of Hounds.

Hiss, hiss, hiss, what King of Hounds, stupid dog, what nonsense are you spouting!"

Even within a dream, Purr was very protective of Karen's image.

The three-headed demonic hound stared at Purr.

"Sigh."

Purr jumped down from Kevin's body and approached the three-headed demonic hound; seeing this, Kevin followed nervously by Purr's side.

Looking at the wounds that covered the three-headed demonic hound's body, Purr rubbed her paws together, and a ball of Essence of Fire Healing Magic coalesced and merged into the hound's body. An expression of pure enjoyment immediately washed over the three hound heads of Jiragon, but very soon, this warm sensation vanished, and Jiragon looked at Purr with some confusion, all three faces filled with an unquenched desire for more. Purr was still rubbing her paws together, but it was like a lighter running out of gas, unable to spark any fire.

"Oh dear, my power is almost depleted, I have no way to heal you further, what on earth is this place anyway, if it's a dream, it shouldn't need to be this realistic, couldn't it let me savor the addiction of my peak form a bit longer?" "Woof, woof."

"What, this is a conscious intent projected by it actively? So we are inside a space of consciousness right now? Oh, so that's how it is, then it's not surprising, it's not a dream.

But you stupid dog, how did you even think of looking for it to pick a fight?"

"Woof."

"It looked for you? I say, Three-Heads, Jiragon, are you called Jiragon?" Jiragon nodded.

"You are so weak, how can you still actively look for people to fight?"

"Roar!"

"You say without me, you wouldn't necessarily lose? But that's impossible, I cannot just watch my family's stupid dog get bullied, my family's stupid dog can only be bullied by me, others have no such right, humph-meow!" Hearing this, Kevin immediately nodded with an earnest expression.

"Roar?"

"You are asking who I am?"

Purr blinked her eyes; she felt that if this three-headed useless dog in front of her really was Jiragon, expressing her identity in a conventional narrative certainly wouldn't command its respect.

However, Purr did not want to lie either, so she could only speak up, saying, "I am the Boss!" Jiragon's eyes revealed a look of bewilderment. Seeing this, Kevin immediately bared his teeth at it!

Jiragon looked at Kevin, then looked back at Purr; it could perceive the level of Kevin's aura, so looking at this cat again, as well as the fire-attributed aura radiating from her body that made it feel a sense of closeness, it nodded its head.

"What are you nodding for? I am the Boss, I don't need your validation, meow!" Jiragon shrunk its head back slightly.

Right at this moment, the space here began to fracture; clearly, the contact of consciousness was coming to an end.

A chasm appeared between Purr, Kevin, and Jiragon, pulling wider and wider, driving both sides further and further apart. "Roar, roar, roar!"

"Stupid dog, what is it shouting?"

"Woof."

"You didn't hear it clearly either?"

Purr raised her paw, gave a polite wave toward the opposite side, and shouted, "Goodbye—eh, should I also give it a nickname?" Having a rare chance to sleep in a normal bedroom on land, Karen slept exceptionally well, and it was already eleven o'clock in the morning when he woke up.

After washing up, he prepared to find Philomena to go have lunch together.

To his surprise, as soon as he opened the door, Karen saw Philomena sitting on a chair right outside his room.

"Are you standing guard for me?" Karen teased.

Philomena shook her head and said, "I had nothing else to do."

"Oh, so that's how it is, now I know why you would be interested in Richard." "Interested?"

"Not that kind of liking, at least not for now; to you, losing focus and losing a sense of purpose leaves you very bewildered, you really dislike walking alone on the street facing a crowd, don't you?" "Yes." Philomena nodded.

"So a person like Richard is quite practical."

"Yes, I hope he didn't die in the Mipos Archipelago."

"He is fine."

Because Mr. Memphis's emotions had remained perfectly stable throughout.

If Richard really had met with an accident, it was likely that his maternal uncle, having just crawled out of the pit of his own mother, would have to fall right into the pit of his son, which would truly cause him to withdraw into absolute despondency.

"Let's go have our meal, that restaurant from yesterday was quite good."

"Alright, but—"

"But what? Matters regarding work can be spoken of directly."

"Are we simply going to just wait like this?"

"I feel that being able to eat and sleep peacefully while waiting is a kind of happiness in itself, must we find something to do? Let's wait for one more day today, send them a message tonight, and let them come ashore tomorrow evening." "Yes, Captain."

Karen and Philomena walked down the stairs together; arriving at the corner of the staircase, Karen's figure suddenly froze, because he felt an incredibly distant yet incredibly close ripple of consciousness sweep across him, a sensation somewhat akin to someone conducting a probe of his location, yet curiously altogether too careless.

A similar sensation had been experienced by him while sleeping last night, but last night it seemed he could have made contact, only to be rejected by his own instinct; this time, this ripple of consciousness seemed to bypass him entirely, having no desire to make contact with him at all, so that even though he took the initiative now, he was unable to interface with it.

This was a very strange sensation.

Karen suspected this ought to be related to the uniqueness of his own soul.

The reality was indeed so; Karen's soul, combined with the body modified by Ragnall and the absorption of the God's Bone, caused Karen's body to bear a component of "divinity," which allowed him to perceive this ripple of consciousness expanding outward from the bottom of the extinct volcano.

"Captain, what's wrong with you?"

"Did you not feel it, something sweeping past?"

Hearing this, Philomena immediately assumed a vigilant expression: "I didn't." "Oh, then it's nothing, what do you want to eat for lunch?" Philomena frowned in thought.

"Oh, my apologies, just eat whatever I order, no wasting allowed." "Alright, Captain."

Philomena's brow smoothed out.

Inside the captain's cabin of the small pirate ship, Alfred looked at Purr and Kevin, who had still not awakened late into the noon, and shook his head with a touch of helplessness.

He was actually quite accustomed to this, because Purr frequently dragged Kevin off to experiment with her newly recovered abilities, often leaving themselves utterly exhausted at home, yet Kevin was always willing to accompany her in her wild antics without ever growing tired of it.

Alfred did not disturb them as they continued to sleep, but he still took out two bottles of nutritional potion and two bottles of stamina potion from his backpack, feeding them to this cat and dog.

After finishing this, Alfred picked up his drawing board, walked out of the captain's cabin onto the deck, and began to sketch from nature; he felt the scenery here was wonderful, the resulting painting evoking an uncontrollable impulse in one to tear it apart and trample it underfoot.

An invisible ripple undulated across the space, and Kevin smacked his canine jaws a couple of times, looking rather impatient.

The familiar sandy beach made it feel as though they had only just parted and immediately met again, though in reality, half a day had already passed since they last said goodbye.

Purr sat perched upon Kevin’s back, stretching her body as she wondered aloud, "Oh dear, how have we ended up here again? My mouth still tastes sweet; that radio goblin must have fed us some potion." "Roar, roar, roar!"

Just then, a three-headed hound rushed toward them from the distance in sheer excitement, looking for all the world like a young child eager to meet up and play again the very next day.

Purr raised a paw in greeting and called out, "Well hello there, you useless mutt!"