Chapter 323: Dragon Hunter, Who is More Dragon?

"Puga!"

The dragon, into which Zig had transformed, clamped its powerful forelimbs onto the arms of the eight-armed giant sculpted from necromantic mana, tearing them apart with a violence that Varma could never hope to resist.

The giant, which had effortlessly suppressed Wang Yu and Ivy, was instantly rent asunder by the enraged dragon. Beneath the black armor at the creature's heart, a dim, crimson light pulsed—dragon breath, unleashed.

A crimson rail of light erupted from the dragon's maw, striking the jagged rift in the giant's torso. The searing, lethal energy poured into the opening without restraint before detonating.

This breath was more powerful than any Zig had unleashed before, its potency amplified by the magic-conductive circuits inscribed within the living dragon armor. The additional fire element infusion and concentrated energy flow created a breathtaking art of destruction.

A mushroom-like cloud rose before Zig, swirling with dust, gases, embers, and the shattered remains of the eight-armed giant. A single full-power release had utterly demolished the construct Varma had forged with an enhanced sixth-tier spell.

Howling noise and rolling tides of energy swept across the surroundings, washing over Wang Yu—who had recovered thanks to Ivy’s healing and his own frantic regenerative abilities—and the girl beside him. Both pairs of eyes fixed upon the spot where the dragon had annihilated the giant.

"Spit! It’s not that simple. Their goal wasn't just to drag us in; they intended to trap the Professor and his sister from the start. This creature is confident she can handle the Professor here. We cannot let our guard down."

He spat out a glob of viscous green liquid—a magic-blocking potion. It had little effect on Wang Yu, but it was still a toxin that hindered his recovery.

He downed another clear potion that emitted a faint red glow, further accelerating his body's restoration as his nearly depleted blood pool began to refill at a steady pace.

Ivy’s secret arts could normally restore Wang Yu instantly, but as his strength and physical durability soared, the portion of his body that her arts could heal was becoming increasingly limited.

"I am preparing. Our enemy is a lich; I’ve confirmed it by comparing the information from the Perfect Fractal Lens with the Finger of Death spell she used. Just coordinate with the Professor. Whatever she has prepared, we will end her."

Ivy replied, understanding what Wang Yu was thinking. She began pulling magic crystals from the Eden Seed space, laying them out on the ground to construct an attack formation with immense single-target destructive power.

"This unfinished weapon should come in handy now."

Activating the Power of the Chariot, Wang Yu followed the layout the girl projected onto the Perfect Fractal Lens to complete the prototype formation. He turned and took the weapon she offered, glancing at it before speaking.

It was an alchemical firearm similar to the Furnace’s Wrath—a revolver—but its materials were vastly superior, with every aspect of its performance optimized.

However, like the name engraved on the bottom left of the grip—*Conqueror: Unfinished Weapon*—it was a work in progress. The ambition Ivy and Zig had poured into this creation was no small thing.

He took a silver bullet from the spare magazine, loaded it into the cylinder, and rotated it into the firing position. Solidified battle qi accumulated within, reaching the level of a Great Knight, where it could replace the alchemical fuel typically used for propulsion.

"Hum, hum, hum..."

The gun trembled slightly. Intricate patterns, invisible when dormant, began to glow from the muzzle backward. Mana transformed into phantom tweezers, meticulously constructing the unique power for the silver bullet that served as the base.

As a semi-finished product, the Conqueror’s power was already staggering, but its flaw lay in its excessively long charge time. Compared to the charged rounds of the Furnace’s Wrath, the preparation time made this alchemical firearm almost useless in actual combat.

It was much like the battle between mages and knights; the "instant" spells of a mage at the same stage always had a perceptible preparation time to a knight who could truly unleash their full power in an instant. This was one of the advantages of a knight.

"A dragon? Zig Welsbach, I presume. To think you’d deliver yourself to my doorstep. This is a genuine, pleasant surprise. I thought the mission might fail, and that I would have to wait much longer to take the step toward becoming a dragon myself."

The eight-armed giant had been destroyed by Zig’s breath, but the lich’s phylactery had not perished with it. After knocking Wang Yu away, Varma had seized the opportunity to hide the object that was both her source of power and her fatal weakness.

Beneath the earth, inside a spherical space encased in reinforced bone, the dracolich’s phylactery lay hidden. Her combat will never wavered for an instant; even with victory appearing certain, Varma continued to consolidate her advantage.

Using a surveillance network woven from necromantic mana, Varma watched the dragon, which had paused to observe its surroundings after unleashing its breath. The necromantic mana saturating the Void Spirit Realm was her perfect camouflage; hidden within this mist, her presence was masked to the point of imperceptibility as long as she did not strike.

This was one of the reasons she was confident in facing a legendary dragon. As the second-in-command of the Dragon Cult, Varma had not come to die, even with her strength suppressed to that of a high-level archmage.

Communicating with the void through her mental power, a strange, phantom blade emerged. It was simple in design—a standard longsword—but its blade was covered in dragon scales, and the hilt featured a miniature dragon skull as a crossguard. Fine trickles of blood flowed down the blade, vanishing into nothingness.

The Dragon Cult, a group that worshipped and followed dragons, were also those who understood them best. It was ironic that these devotees of the draconic race possessed the power to slay them in the simplest way—the power derived from "Him," the Dragon Hunter.

"The inherent flaws in dragon blood... they are the reason for their extraordinary power, and also their eternal curse and shackle."

She mused to herself, a sneer gracing her invisible face. It seemed this high-ranking member of the Dragon Cult was not quite as pious as she appeared.

Ceasing her communication with the void and the power used to shape the blade known as the Dragon Hunter, Varma gave the weapon its freedom. It would now strike Zig until he was incapacitated.

"Roar!"

With a thunderous bellow, the magic-conductive arrays on the living dragon armor shifted and reactivated. A massive repulsive force erupted from the dragon’s body, radiating outward.

Pure, non-elemental mana crushed the surrounding necromantic energy, temporarily carving out a sanctuary for Zig in this space. His goal was to erase Varma’s hiding space and force her into the open, a move that simultaneously disrupted Varma’s perception.

The dragon’s head scanned the environment, detection spells activating repeatedly to locate Varma. As he increased his mana output, he finally found the hard bone sphere beneath the earth, along with Varma’s hidden phylactery.

But at that same moment, a chilling sensation crept into Zig’s heart. Sensing something, he whipped his head toward the ground beside him. There, something that triggered an instinctive, ancestral terror was approaching. It was the aura of "Him"!

The next instant, the Dragon Hunter pierced through the ground. The aura it radiated was all too familiar—it was the same aura as that giant claw that had descended from the sky. But how could "He" appear here? Was He not restricted to manifesting only in the main plane?

Wait. Zig’s dragon eyes widened. He felt it—the void. Could it be that if guided, "He" could use the void, which existed equally across all planes, as a springboard to spread His power?

Flapping his wings, bolstered by the living dragon armor, the magic circuits whipped up a storm. Zig dashed in the opposite direction; he had to get away from this sword that filled him with panic. Zig had a premonition: if struck by this thing, all the power derived from his dragon blood would be annihilated!

Yet, the object was too fast—so fast that Zig’s flight was meaningless. The moment the air currents stirred, the thing was already upon him, ready to pierce his body.

His dragon eyes trembled, his heart scorched with anxiety. Zig did not abandon his resistance, attempting to shift into human form to dodge the blade, but that required time, and the sword had already struck.

"?"

The expected disintegration of his power did not occur. Zig turned his head sharply to look behind him. The sword had passed straight through his dragon body and departed. Its target was not him. That direction... it was Wang Yu?!

His thoughts cleared in an instant. Zig seemed to understand. He was a dragon born with flaws, his very True Name incomplete, and now, with his flesh fused with the ancient beast Behemoth, his status as a dragon was somewhat lacking.

But Wang Yu had absorbed both his blood and the blood of the silver dragon Arelian. Though he did not know how Wang Yu had achieved this, judging by his ability to unleash "dragon breath," in some sense, Wang Yu was more of a dragon than he, this broken-winged drake, was. Thus, the sword had chosen Wang Yu as its target.

"Truly, surprises and shocks that never cease."

Zig muttered helplessly to himself. The crisis had been resolved in a bizarre fashion. He began to accumulate dragon breath once more, the magic circuits on the living dragon armor lighting up completely, channeling endless fire elements to Zig. It was time to finish this hidden enemy once and for all.

The flight speed of the Dragon Hunter was indeed absurdly fast. Before Wang Yu and Ivy could even react, the object had already struck Wang Yu in the chest. A strange power poured into his body, accompanied by a vision transmitted into his mental space.

"What?"

Wang Yu was stunned. The Power of the Chariot had captured a strange, sword-shaped void energy pouring into him, only for it to circle around and vanish without doing anything. What was going on?

"Forget it."

What appeared on the Perfect Fractal Lens made Wang Yu stop dwelling on what had happened. He aimed the Conqueror alchemical revolver at a distant coordinate. Zig had provided Varma’s location, and the weapon was fully charged.

"Bang!"

The bullet left the chamber, vanishing in a flash of brilliance halfway to its target, transforming into a special energy stream that surged into the sky—Special Ammunition: Star of Mourning.

The special energy stream converged in the sky above Varma’s position, forming a mana-saturated formation. Then, it transformed into a thick, destructive pillar of white light that descended from the heavens, slamming into the earth.

Joining it in the bombardment was Zig’s fully charged dragon breath, wreathed in crimson flames that melted all things. The red and white pillars of light merged, their dual destructive forces overlapping into an even more tyrannical form.

"Boom!"

The earth was torn asunder, countless fissures spreading as vast tracts of land turned to dust in the light-blast, utterly annihilated. A massive crater appeared at the site of the explosion; the bone sphere that had persisted beneath was long since destroyed by the force.

"What happened? Why is that dragon unharmed!?"

Varma’s phylactery suddenly manifested at a great distance from Zig. Had she not sensed the frantic gathering of fire elements and nimbly performed a Soul Jump, she would have been obliterated the moment she lost her vision.

She could not understand why the Dragon Hunter had failed, but she knew she had to leave. Without the Dragon Hunter, she was no match for Zig. If she dragged this out, not only would the mission fail, but everyone would die here.

Tearing open a spatial rift, Varma began to use the similarities between the Void Spirit Realm and the Undead Plane to rapidly carve out a planar passage, preparing to flee to the Undead Plane.

Yet, there were those who had long been waiting for the fabric of space to stir, and the moment the rift took form, a thread of impossible fineness swept across the shimmering disturbance. Varma had no time to react; as the filament passed, his phylactery was severed in two.

A spell from Ivy, the Severing Line of Dislocated Space.