Chapter 512

Chapter 512

Kuuuuuuu!

The desert was trembling.

The vast expanse of endless sand heaved, and the air above it shuddered violently.

The sky, clear without a single cloud just moments ago, was suddenly swallowed by thick storm clouds.

Though it was midday, the sunlight was blocked, and darkness like night descended.

It looked as though the end of the world had arrived.

This was the phenomenon caused by Zeon and Tesserina’s battle.

Each time Tesserina cast a spell, the mana of the entire region surged and twisted, prompting dramatic changes in the atmosphere.

The sudden atmospheric disturbance triggered abnormal weather, and finally, the desert began to rain.

Sssshhhh!

An enormous downpour fell upon land that hadn’t received so much as a drop in decades, causing a flood across the region.

In an instant, a massive river formed in the middle of the desert.

Splash, splash!

A figure was crossing the river, pushing through the raging current.

A man riding an enormous black horse.

Even the horse alone was far from ordinary.

Larger than most beasts and with a mane that whipped about like a raging flame, the massive horse crossed the torrent without wavering.

Its eyes held a savage glare and a weight of pressure hard to believe belonged to a horse.

Atop the great black steed rode a man of equally imposing size.

An old man whose snow-white hair and beard covered his nose and jaw, giving him a striking appearance.

He wore a full suit of black armor that wrapped his entire body.

The armor was etched with countless scars—proof of how many battles it had endured.

Each time the horse moved, the old man’s armor clattered faintly.

Rain streamed down his head and armor.

Even when raindrops occasionally struck their eyes, neither the old man nor the black horse blinked even once.

After finally crossing the river, the old man gazed at the violently trembling desert and muttered:

“How noisily they fight.”

Hrrrph!

The black horse snorted as if agreeing with him.

It was then—

KWA-AAANG!

The center of the desert erupted as if a volcano had exploded, and something colossal burst up toward the heavens.

The being that soared through the air with wings spread wide was Tesserina’s main body.

And right after her, Zeon shot up through the sand.

Boom!

Zeon and Tesserina clashed.

The sight of a tiny human throwing himself against a massive dragon was striking in every way.

“Impressive! A mere human daring to charge a dragon.”

A cold smile spread across the old man’s lips.

Kwakwa-BOOM!

Explosions thundered continuously as Zeon and Tesserina clashed.

It was hard to believe such sounds were coming from a battle between one human and one dragon.

Overall, the situation was unfavorable for Zeon.

The torrential rain had soaked the sand across the entire region.

Wet sand didn’t become unusable—but controlling it required far more mana and mental focus.

And even when he forced the techniques to work, their power dropped sharply.

In every way, Zeon was fighting at a disadvantage.

But Zeon had the Inferno Gauntlet.

Fwoooosh!

Instead of sand, Zeon unleashed fire-element skills to attack Tesserina.

“Flame Cannon!”

Boom!

A beam of flame slammed directly into Tesserina’s torso.

—Krrraaaah!

But her scales didn’t bear so much as a scratch.

Her defense was truly terrifying.

This was the perfect demonstration of why dragons were considered the strongest beings on earth.

The situation overwhelmingly favored Tesserina.

But Zeon did not consider himself the weaker one.

He wasn’t using skills thoughtlessly.

Every skill he had cast so far was meant to observe Tesserina’s reaction.

And she had responded properly to each attack. But her main body’s reaction was slightly slower than he had predicted.

Haieltun, whom Deoeden faced, and Akide, whom Zeon faced, both had unbelievable reaction speed.

Compared to them, Tesserina’s reaction and attack speed were slower than Zeon expected.

Ordinary people or most Awakeners wouldn’t have noticed the difference—but for someone at Zeon’s level, it meant enough time to land several more attacks.

‘Either the parasite is moving her instead of her own will, slowing her reactions… or Tesserina herself is deliberately holding back.’

Even if she was being controlled, she was still a dragon.

The will and mental strength of a dragon could not be measured by common sense. So Zeon believed the latter.

‘She hasn’t been completely overwhelmed yet.’

She couldn’t move her body by her own will, but she was surely watching everything unfold through her eyes.

‘Just hold on a little longer, Tesserina!’

Zeon’s eyes gleamed.

His gaze fixed on the back of Tesserina’s neck.

Only that spot had broken scales.

Before coming to Earth, Tesserina had fought the Red Dragon, Claturas.

She had taken a severe wound in that battle—right where the scales were broken now.

Through the shattered scales, a large scar remained.

All her other wounds had regenerated, but the one on her neck remained unrecovered and grotesque.

‘That’s the most likely entry point of the parasite.’

Everywhere else was protected by scales, but the scar from Claturas was the sole exposed spot.

Zeon fired a powerful fire skill to divert Tesserina’s attention and then hurled himself toward the wound.

Only too late did Tesserina’s main body realize she had been deceived and turn her head—but by then, Zeon was already atop her torso.

Tap-tap-tap!

Zeon sprinted along her spine at terrifying speed.

—Krrraaaah!

Tesserina tried to bite him with her enormous jaws. But Zeon flattened himself against her neck, evading the attack.

Her massive teeth passed just a hair above his back.

If even his clothing had caught on a fang, he would have been crushed instantly.

Just imagining it sent chills down his spine. But Zeon shook off the fear and raced along her neck once more.

In an instant, he reached the wound.

Tesserina shook her neck violently to throw him off.

Zeon grabbed the broken scale and pressed himself tightly against the wound.

His body shook wildly, looking as if he might be flung away at any moment. But Zeon did not budge.

At that moment, a subspace opened behind him.

Though the ground was covered in sand, it was too wet to use properly. So he opened the subspace containing dry sand.

“Sand Wire!”

Zeon compressed the sand from the subspace into a wire as thin as steel and thrust it into Tesserina’s wound.

—KRRRAAAH!

Tesserina roared in agony.

Zeon pushed the Sand Wire in deeper.

He was threading it through the parasite’s exact point of entry.

His intent was simple.

Insert the Sand Wire through the parasite’s route—drag it out or destroy it.

A reckless gamble.

If he wasn’t careful, he could strike Tesserina’s brain and destroy it—or leave her blank.

But Zeon had no choice.

If he didn’t kill the parasite, he would have to kill Tesserina.

If the end was already set, then gambling wasn’t a bad choice.

Inserting Sand Wire into a dragon’s body required far more precision than casting Sand Mixer or Sand Storm, which possessed far greater destructive force.

He had to thin the sand enough to enter a dragon’s blood vessels, yet keep it flexible and unbroken.

And Tesserina was rampaging wildly to throw him off.

She flew across the sky in wild arcs, flipped her body, and shook her head violently. Maintaining balance while controlling the Sand Wire in such conditions was incredibly difficult.

But Zeon endured, forcing the Sand Wire deeper and deeper into Tesserina’s body.

Her monstrous size meant her blood vessels were unimaginably long.

The Sand Wire entered endlessly.

Zeon frowned.

Suddenly, the wire’s progress slowed.

He could feel strong resistance inside the vessel.

The dragon’s internal defense system had clearly activated.

He needed several times more concentration to push forward even a meter.

Zeon’s entire body was drenched in sweat.

After a grueling ten minutes—

Pop!

An alien sensation brushed the tip of the Sand Wire.

Zeon instinctively realized he had made contact with the parasite.

Crunch-crunch-crunch!

The front of the Sand Wire was being attacked by something.

The parasite was violently resisting the moment it touched the wire.

Zeon attempted to pull it out using the Sand Wire. But the parasite was fully fused with the vessel.

No matter how delicately he manipulated the sand, he couldn’t pry it off. And attacking recklessly could rupture the blood vessel entirely.

He had no way of knowing how extensive the fusion was.

Considering Tesserina’s massive body, the parasite might be fused along tens—hundreds of meters of vessel.

“…There’s no choice.”

Zeon’s eyes sank into a deep resolve.

If ordinary methods wouldn’t work, he would use something special.

Fsssss—

A pitch-black particle seeped from his pores.

The Exion he had been holding inside his body.

Exion—the finest sand particle in existence.

Zeon revealed his strongest trump card.

The Exion hovered around him briefly, then slipped along the Sand Wire into Tesserina’s body.

Racing forward with terrifying speed along the wire—

Zeon’s mind drew a vivid map of Tesserina’s vascular system.

At last, Exion reached the tip of the Sand Wire where it met the parasite.

Exion soaked into the Sand Wire.

The wire, now fused with Exion, gained strength and precision incomparable to before.

Shhk!

The reinforced Sand Wire pierced through the parasite without resistance.

—KRRWAAAAH!!

Tesserina shrieked in agony.

Zeon had attacked only the parasite, but because of the deep fusion, she felt its pain as her own.

Knowing her suffering, Zeon still did not stop.

To a dragon, the parasite was tiny—but from a human perspective, it was an enormous monster.

Its diameter was narrow enough to enter a dragon’s blood vessels, but its length was beyond belief.

Even after penetrating several meters of its body, he hadn’t reached the core.

Judging from that, it must have grown to tens—no, hundreds of meters.

Compared to when it first entered Tesserina, it had grown hundreds, thousands of times—feeding on dragon nutrients.

At such a size, it could coil around a large beast several times over.

Only because Tesserina was a dragon did she survive this long.

A human infected by such a creature would have its bodily fluids drained in moments and become a mummy.

Crunch-crunch-crunch!

Zeon spun the Sand Wire.

The wire bored into the parasite’s body, crushing it as it resisted.

It writhed violently, but it couldn’t stop the wire.

Exion-enhanced Sand Wire was unstoppable.

Like performing surgery, Zeon used it to pierce and slice the parasite.

He burned each severed piece to prevent regeneration.

This process inflicted unbearable pain upon Tesserina.

—KRRRAAAH!!

She screamed and writhed in the sky.

‘Just a little more. Hold on.’

Zeon prayed she would endure.

But unable to withstand the agony, Tesserina suddenly shot upward into the sky.

She rose to dizzying heights above the clouds—then abruptly flipped her body and plummeted toward the ground.

Zeon understood the parasite’s intent.

It meant to slam Tesserina into the earth and crush him—or shake him off.

The ground approached in an instant.

KWA-AAAAANG!

A massive shockwave slammed into the earth.