Chapter 630: Taming the Rebellious Dragon

Chapter 630: Taming the Rebel Dragon

Lord Augie, prostrate upon the ground, lifted her head in a daze, looking at Karen who stood before her with bewildered eyes.

"What happened to me?"

Karen walked up to her, staring down at her without speaking a single word.

Lord Augie turned her head to look at the scattered icebergs and the piled snow around her, asking again in a confused tone:

"I don't remember what just happened. Did I just do something?"

Karen bent down, extending both hands to pluck two unmelted ice crystals from the outer sides of Lord Augie's ears, their size and shape closely resembling earmuffs.

They were capable of obstructing auditory communication, meaning that after transforming into a dragon, Lord Augie had consciously guarded against Karen's attempt to use memories to call her back and trigger a lightning strike.

This was clearly not something that little bone dragon could have achieved.

"Clatter."

Karen dropped the pair of ice-crystal earmuffs right in front of Lord Augie.

Lord Augie's breathing visibly hitched.

Karen spoke: "I believe you were controlled by her, and she must possess her own uniqueness, but I do not believe that you, as an adult dragon of noble blood, could not manage even a single bit of resistance after being controlled."

Lord Augie fell silent.

Karen continued: "Those who are deceived often inherently possess a willingness to be deceived; you, who were controlled, must have also harbored a psychological inclination to be controlled."

Then, Karen turned his head, looking at the little bone dragon that was still frozen inside the block of ice.

"When she launched that special offensive against you—one that probably only targets your dragon race—you must have already sensed something, hadn't you?"

Lord Augie remained silent.

"It doesn't matter if you don't speak, I can guess. What you sensed was that even if you went mad under her control and crushed me to death, you could still use that very reason to evade punishment from the Church of Order.

Her uniqueness could not only explain away your madness in killing me, but it would also be worthy enough for the Church of Order to lightly brush this matter aside.

Intentionally getting drunk, throwing a drunken tantrum, and causing destruction; then after sobering up, pointing at the person you drank with, whose identity happens to allow the outside world to ignore everything that happened at the wine table.

It seems this little bone dragon is truly extraordinary.

But I want to ask you a question. This question might be a bit embarrassing and might bring humiliation upon myself, but I still want to ask it anyway,

And that is:

Lord Augie,

Do I truly inspire such hatred in you that you absolutely had to kill me?"

The bewildered expression on Lord Augie's face had completely vanished, replaced by a mocking smile at the corners of her mouth as she said:

"Perhaps you truly do not know just how detestable you are."

"Alas, I knew it would be such an awkward answer."

"Do you know? I can feel your transformation, the change in your attitude toward me."

"Oh?"

"The way you treat the dragon race, the way you treat this bone dragon, is bound to be just like the next Whiplash. I cannot find the words to describe my disgust and aversion toward you, and Dena must feel the same way.

Beneath your propriety hides a top-down reservation and disdain toward other races, toward other lives.

That feeling makes one wish they could instantly crush you into dregs!"

"Alas." Karen sighed, "If you hate me and want to crush me to death because I am becoming more and more like the Whiplash, then why don't you direct your actions at the Whiplash himself?"

"I..."

"Because you are afraid; you fear him. I would even bet that you don't actually harbor much hatred for the Whiplash in your heart, because a sufficient amount of dread can negate all hatred.

You say I habitually carry reservation and disdain, and I admit it. I am someone who always possesses a confidence that cannot be specifically described in words.

I also always think I am very smart, feel that I am stronger than others, and feel that I ought to shoulder certain missions to do things others cannot achieve, to ponder truths others cannot conceive.

In truth, humans are all like this. Even if their lives in reality are not entirely satisfying, when they lie in bed to rest at night, they will habitually indulge in some fantasies.

Ordinarily, one needs to rely on this to perform some psychological self-regulation; people who do not know how to make such adjustments are often prone to depression.

Every year, Vienna receives many people who either migrate or sneak in from colonial regions. Even if their original lives in their respective countries were considered middle-class, upon arriving in Vienna, they can only engage in the lowest levels of manual labor and suffer racial discrimination and oppression from the Viennese. Yet, in the letters they write to their relatives back home, they always describe Vienna as a true paradise on earth, as if milk flows through the streets, honey secretes from the utility poles, and even Viennese soybean paste emits a fresh and charming fragrance.

You see, this is a basic need of being human.

As for you, you said I am hiding this emotion, but what about you?

Just because I am not as powerful as the Whiplash, you wanted to cooperate with this accident to crush me to death simply because I resemble him. You didn't even bother to cover it up, did you? Is that not just fearing the strong and bullying the weak?"

Karen straightened his posture.

"In fact, I originally held a sense of awe toward the dragon race. Awe stems from sacredness, but when I realized that the dragon race... is nothing more than ordinary people with a slightly larger volume, I felt it was nothing more than this.

Furthermore, because you do not yet possess the comfortable image of ordinary humans, perhaps in the eyes of someone like me, you don't even qualify to have the skin and appearance of a fellow creature.

Do you know? I would revere an Inquisitor who runs a funeral parlor, but I would never revere you, because you do not possess that qualification, even if you are vastly more powerful than him.

Oh no, if we analyze the details further, could it be because I wasn't like this at the beginning, and after I realized it and my attitude began to shift, it instead dealt you a greater blow?

If I had looked at you from the very beginning the way the Whiplash treats you, perhaps you wouldn't have felt this sense of disparity instead.

However, I am a rather petty person, and I will see to it that you are punished."

Lord Augie spoke up: "Because of this matter? I was controlled. Furthermore, the matter of my father's death has concluded, and my mother has already informed me of the decision from above; she will become the new leader of the dragon lineage."

"Why are you telling me this? Do you believe I no longer possess the capability to threaten you?"

"What I am talking about... is evidence." Lord Augie looked down toward the ground, where those two translucent pieces were melting away.

"No evidence is needed."

"Heh, you are too confident."

"Who exactly is too confident?" Karen pointed at Lord Augie's face, "Look at yourself right now, what kind of posture are you in? The restriction on your body must have been activated. The only one who can activate this restriction is the Whiplash. He must have perceived that you manifested your true form, and he can probably also perceive the violent fluctuations in your emotions.

He is not here right now; he is far, far away at the Dingge District Headquarters, and he does not know the specific situation that occurred here, but he does not care.

The moment he felt you might be causing trouble, he directly threw you into a cage, without worrying in the slightest whether this decision would cause irreversible consequences for you.

I always habitually project my own behavioral patterns onto others, because I keep pets myself, but I realize I was wrong. Your status with the Whiplash is inferior even to that of a pet.

Most importantly, when I said no evidence is needed... do you think that when the Whiplash learns of this, he will need evidence to corroborate his own judgment?

As a dragon of the Whiplash of Order, do you actually not know that our Whiplash of Order only thinks of looking for evidence to perfunctorily stall or shut people's mouths when facing external interference and pressure?

When there is no external interference or attention, our judgments can often be carried out incredibly fast. As for dealing with our own internal personnel, that is even simpler."

Terror began to surface in Lord Augie's eyes, because she recalled the "two pieces" of chicken-flavored snacks she had consumed not long ago.

Karen raised the Sword of Diamans, swung it twice, and thrust it directly into Lord Augie's chest.

"Puff!"

The blade pierced in, leaving most of the sword's body on the outside.

It was not because Karen had held back, but because even though the draconic physique weakened significantly when taking human form, the base attributes were simply too high. Even after being weakened, this strike still could not cleanly pierce all the way through.

Lord Augie lowered her head in utter dismay, saying in disbelief:

"How dare you..."

Karen began to exert his strength, gaining the upper hand inch by inch like a game of tug-of-war, until finally, with great effort, the blade drove ever deeper and pierced through Lord Augie's back.

"Hiss... ah..." Lord Augie let out a cry of agony, before asking viciously, "You dare kill me?"

"I don't like the word 'dare.' You should ask: 'You actually mean to kill me?'"

"Hum!"

Karen wrenched the sword free, then, shifting his placement, plunged it back in.

"Squelch!"

Learning from his previous attempt, he drove the blade much deeper this time, yet to push it all the way through, he still had to apply slow, sustained force.

"Are you insane?"

"I have always preferred to be reasonable and act according to the rules, but inexplicable people always seem to appear, weeping and screaming as they force me to retaliate in the most outrageous and extreme manner.

It is not I who have gone mad; you were the one who lost your mind first."

"I had my reasons. Do you have an excuse?"

"You want to kill me, so I strike back in self-defense—is that not the perfect excuse? As for whether it sounds plausible or causes massive repercussions, I cannot be bothered to care. I know your life is highly valued, but I believe my own is truly priceless."

Next came the third strike.

Karen left three gaping puncture wounds across Lord Augie's body, from which dragon blood poured continuously.

What brought Lord Augie the greatest despair was her current inability to struggle or resist, forced to let Karen inflict injuries upon her at will; then, she saw him raise his sword once more, its point aimed directly between her brows.

"Are you truly going to kill me?"

"Do you think I am merely trying to frighten you? My apologies; the only reason my movements are so slow is not out of a desire to prolong your torture, but because your flesh is so incredibly tough. Killing you is exhausting work."

The tip of the blade pressed against Augie's brow as Karen gripped the hilt with both hands, constantly adjusting the final angle of descent.

Augie spoke up, "I was wrong!"

"After I kill you, I shall bow three times to your corpse to express a more sincere apology."

"I did not intend to kill you at first; I merely wanted to cooperate with her to toy with you, because I knew that when I reverted to my true form, the Whiplash Master would sense it, and I knew that if my soul were controlled, he would discover it and bring everything to a swift end!

But I have no idea why the Whiplash Master left me to my fate for so long this time; he must be preoccupied with other matters, and as the control over me deepened, I truly became powerless to resist."

"I did not intend to kill you at first either. You will not die from sword wounds, but from excessive blood loss, which has very little to do with my blade; I had assumed my subordinates would arrive shortly to staunch your bleeding and treat you, but for some reason they have yet to show themselves."

Karen began to exert pressure gradually, the tip of the blade already slicing through the flesh between Augie's brows.

"She bears the aura of the Dragon God. The reason I fell under her control is that the aura of the Dragon God within her exerts a natural bloodline suppression over me."

"The Dragon God?"

"The Rebel Dragon God, the ancestor of the dragon lineage within our Crypt Order."

"Ah, no wonder." Karen nodded. "That explains why she possesses such a temperament."

Yet Karen showed no intention whatsoever of staying his hand; the blade continued its downward pressure, and blood had already drenched the entirety of Augie's face.

"If you kill me now, the ice will melt, and she will regain her freedom. It is true that you could capture her once more, and she would have no way to escape from your grasp, but she knows this as well, so to avoid being enslaved by you, she will choose self-destruction the moment the ice thaws!"

"If she wished to destroy herself, why didn't she do so long ago?"

"That, I do not know!"

A sudden realization struck Karen, and having posed the question, a possibility occurred to him. The timing of this little bone dragon's escape almost perfectly coincided with when he had forced the skeleton to commit suicide at the Wien Restaurant. In other words, because of the skeleton's suicide, the restriction placed upon the bone dragon had been dissolved?

Augie spoke again, "You still have a chance right now to attempt using soul pressure to force her into submission, though the difficulty is immense. But if you kill me this instant, you will permanently forfeit any opportunity to possess this bone dragon!

Can you truly bear to part with her, especially when I can guarantee that she indeed possesses the aura of the Dragon God? No, I have already demonstrated it to you!"

Karen withdrew the Sword of Diamance; the flesh at the center of Lord Augie's brow had long since split open, rendering the underlying skull clearly visible, complete with a distinct indentation.

"You are right, I cannot bear to part with her."

Lord Augie closed her eyes, letting out a long sigh of relief.

But,

"Smack!"

A burning pain flared across her face.

She opened her eyes, looking at Karen, who had just delivered a fierce slap to her face with the flat of his blade.

Immediately following came a second slap.

"Smack!"

The reason he refrained from using his hand was that Karen knew well enough that striking her with his bare flesh would probably hurt him far more than it did her.

Having finished, Karen returned the Sword of Diamance to his back, gave his wrist a light shake, and offered an apologetic smile. "I originally intended only a single slap, but with one side flushed and the other normal, it lacked symmetry. You look much better now."

Augie: "..."

Karen walked toward the massive block of ice within which the little bone dragon lay frozen, though the creature's gaze was still perfectly capable of conveying her emotions.

When Lord Augie had reverted to human form and been bound, the little bone dragon had appeared somewhat dazed, but when Karen plunged his sword into Lord Augie's body, a surge of excitement and approval had rippled through the little bone dragon's eyes.

She did not consider Augie, an adult frost giant dragon, to be of her own kind; in her eyes, Augie was mere "livestock."

Karen came to a halt before the ice, gazing at her.

She returned his stare with a look of utter disdain; if she were capable of movement, she would likely have held her neck high and proud at this moment.

"I quite admire you," Karen said, placing his hand flat against the ice block. "This unyielding, rebellious spirit of yours."

Karen closed his eyes and began to filter his soul force into the ice.

In truth, having pursued his quarry to this location, his previous efforts to trace the skeleton's true form had already left him far from his peak condition, and the subsequent struggle with Lord Augie had drained him immensely.

Yet there was no alternative; if he still wished to attempt to tame this bone dragon, this brief window of time was his only opportunity.

As the soul force poured in continuously, the bone dragon closed her eyes as well, actively welcoming the influx of Karen's soul consciousness.

A faint smile touched the corner of Karen's mouth; he did not mistake this for a favorable beginning, but rather understood that while the little creature's physical body was immobilized, she had agreed to transfer the battlefield elsewhere just to sink her teeth into him.

It was only that... compared to a physical clash in reality, Karen was far more adept at contests of the soul, and the little bone dragon's voluntary acceptance was precisely what Karen desired, an outcome he had anticipated based on her temperament.

...

"Hum!"

An illusory realm materialized, filled with jagged, skeletal remains and steeped in the chilling aura of the undead.

The form conjured by Karen's soul consciousness manifested within this space, and he immediately leaped backward.

"Boom!"

A bone dragon crashed heavily into the exact spot where Karen had stood a moment prior; though her strike missed its mark, she instantly raised her head to glare fixedly at Karen, while the space directly behind him began to compress rapidly as barriers bristling with sharp bone spikes closed in on him.

She intended to exploit her home-field advantage to shred this fragment of Karen's soul consciousness that had dared to enter.

"Gates of Order."

Karen remained motionless, yet the silhouettes of the Gates of Samsara materialized in every direction around him like newly erected walls, forcefully halting the compression of the dense, surrounding bone spikes.

"I wish to have a proper conversation with you. I admire your rebelliousness; I do not view it as mere mischief. On the contrary, I see it as a form of devotion akin to faith, and I am willing to permit you to retain it—indeed, I shall even help you cultivate and develop it."

"This is my promise to you."

"Roar!"

Evidently, the bone dragon placed no faith in Cullen's words. She lunged forward aggressively, accompanied by bursts of soul-shaking rumbles, flinging her very spiritual manifestation repeatedly against the Gate of Reincarnation.

Watching this scene, Cullen felt a mixture of amusement and a touch of heartache; she was too young, utterly devoid of combat tactics, blindly bringing her physical instincts into a duel of souls.

She was a diamond in the rough; if he could tame her, Purr would gain a new little follower, and Kevin might acquire a new little sister—and since she was a bone dragon with no flesh upon her, Kevin could hardly contemplate devouring her.

After yet another futile collision against the Gate of Reincarnation, the bone dragon paused briefly, continuously drawing in the ambient undead aura to stabilize her spiritual form, which was beginning to fray from the relentless impacts.

Cullen spoke once more: "You possess great potential. Within you, there is a high probability that you have inherited the legacy of the Rebel Dragon God..."

The bone dragon raised her head, glaring fiercely at Cullen; though his words should have been a compliment to the dragon race, she reacted as if subjected to a monumental insult, roaring haltingly with absolute fury:

"That was... a Rebel Dragon God... raised... like livestock..."