Chapter 517

Chapter 517

A single grain of sand is light.

So light you can’t even feel its weight. But when that sand gathers into a clump the size of a fist, it becomes as heavy as a stone of the same size.

If you’re struck by a mass of sand this big, your head will crack or something will definitely break.

The problem is that sand has no cohesion at all.

The moment it collides, it shatters before it can deal damage to the opponent—that is the nature of sand.

There’s a reason even Sand Soldiers, before being reinforced, were used as nothing more than disposable meat shields.

Of course, once reinforced, they could produce more than enough combat value, but that only showed how difficult it was to preserve destructive power by binding sand together.

Right now, Zeon was accomplishing that difficult feat as if it were nothing.

Sand melted by extreme heat possessed tremendous mass. And those sand serpents, preserving that mass, also carried terrifying heat.

They had evolved into lava serpents.

With overwhelming mass combined with fearsome speed, the destructive power of the lava serpents increased dozens of times over.

Dozens of such lava serpents plunged down on Dantal all at once.

Pueong! Pang! Pang!

With explosive booms, the surrounding sand churned as if an earthquake had struck.

“Kgh!”

Dantal bit down on his lip.

The hand gripping his greatsword was trembling.

Even with the authority of corrosion nearly exhausted, he cleaved apart every lava serpent with his greatsword.

But he could not laugh.

The immense shock made his right arm and torso feel numb.

On top of that, the tremendous heat carried by the lava serpents did not dissipate, seeping through the gaps in his armor and cooking his flesh.

Chwahahaha!

Around Zeon, who was floating in midair atop the sand, dozens more lava serpents writhed as they rose again.

Each of the lava serpents, over ten meters long, writhed like real snakes as they fixed their gaze on Dantal.

At the same time, the fiery purgatory spread beneath Dantal’s feet boiled even more violently.

The bubbling looked as though it might explode at any moment.

Feeling as if he were standing in the heart of a real volcano, Dantal wet his dry lips and spoke.

“You?”

Gaaaang!

At that moment, the lava began to spin violently.

It was an application of Sand Mixer.

Terrifying pressure was generated by the lava rotating at frightening speed.

It felt as though he were being crushed under millions of tons of sand, unable to move an inch.

It was so horrific it made him wonder if this was what it felt like at the bottom of the deep sea.

It had been a very long time since he’d felt this way.

The first time he’d picked up a sword in Kurayan, when he trained under the greatest elven warrior of the time, he’d felt this sensation. But through relentless effort, he had grown at a frightening pace and never experienced it again. Yet today, facing Zeon, the memory of that day surfaced for the first time.

“What kind of monster are you?”

Instead of answering, Zeon sent the lava serpents flying.

“Kraaa!”

Dantal let out a roar and swung his greatsword.

Black aura poured from his blade, slaughtering all the lava serpents.

But Zeon’s assault did not end there.

Pueobeobeong!

Sand pillars flew in from all directions, mercilessly pummeling Dantal.

Sand pillars, along with lava serpents.

It was as if the entire desert itself bore hostility toward him.

That was no illusion.

It truly was so.

At that moment, Zeon’s influence extended to everything his eyes could see.

The dragon’s mana had multiplied his authority severalfold.

Kwaaaa!

Behind Zeon, a massive sandstorm rose up.

A sandstorm larger than any he had ever summoned before surged like a colossal cliff and crashed toward Dantal.

If it were just an ordinary sandstorm, Dantal would have scoffed and endured it.

The defensive power of the armor he wore was absolute, and even if he were swept up naked in a sandstorm, he was confident he would survive.

But the sandstorm Zeon had unleashed this time was different.

It was imbued with terrifying heat.

Each grain of sand, each and every one, carried flame as it brutally battered his entire body.

“Kgh!”

A pain-filled groan escaped his lips. Yet Dantal’s gaze never wavered.

He had broken through situations far worse than this countless times by finding a sliver of life within death.

Dantal was a warrior, and a lion.

There was a reason he bore the title Lion King.

“Kraaa!”

With his Aura Shield deployed, Dantal charged straight at Zeon.

He squeezed out every last drop of his depleted authority of corrosion and concentrated it into his greatsword.

‘One cut is all it takes. Just one strike.’

So he ignored all pain.

Clang! Kaang!

Holes were punched all over the armor that boasted absolute defense.

Even as exposed flesh was ground down and burned by flame-laden sand, he ignored it.

Wounds and pain at this level could not stop him.

He was the embodiment of destruction.

Chwahak!

From Dantal’s greatsword, aura imbued with the authority of corrosion shot forth.

Zeon stood directly in the path of the aura as it flew while cleaving through the incoming firestorm.

Dantal believed Zeon could never block this attack. No—blocking it didn’t matter.

The authority of corrosion ignored all defenses.

At that moment, something unbelievable happened.

Suddenly, dense black dust erupted around Zeon’s entire body and began to spin violently.

Dantal didn’t realize it, but it was Exion that had been hiding within Zeon’s pores.

Zeon released Exion all at once to block the Aura Blade imbued with the authority of corrosion.

Pakakang!

With a burst of sparks, the Aura Blade shattered. Still, the authority of corrosion remained and surged toward Zeon like a tidal wave.

Kwaaa!

At that moment, Exion spun violently and ground away the authority of corrosion.

The authority of corrosion did not work on Exion.

“What is that?”

Dantal’s eyes went wide.

It was the first time he had seen something unaffected by the authority of corrosion.

Instead of answering, Zeon sent Exion flying.

Kwaaa!

Exion drew in the surrounding flame-laden sand particles, swelling in size.

By the time Exion nearly reached Dantal, it had transformed into a massive spear of black body wrapped in flame.

The spear slammed straight into Dantal’s chest.

Bang!

“Keok!”

Dantal spat blood and was flung backward.

The black armor that had protected him until now shattered like glass, fragments scattering in all directions, and a hole the size of a child’s fist was blown straight through his chest.

And yet, Dantal did not die.

The authority of Krasias that he had absorbed protected him from death.

Though not to the extent of Zeon, he too possessed a degree of regenerative power. But at this moment, his wounds were not regenerating.

Exion was the problem.

Regeneration was significantly suppressed at the areas Exion had touched.

Only then did Dantal realize it.

The bizarre black sand Zeon possessed was the natural nemesis of the authority of Krasias he carried.

“Keuk!”

Dantal coughed up blood.

His face had already turned pitch-black.

If he stayed any longer, his life would be in danger.

He shouted.

“Storm!”

Puhihiing!

No sooner had the word left his mouth than a black horse came charging in.

The massive black horse bit down on the back of Dantal’s neck, hurled him into the air, then rushed to his landing point and safely caught him on its back.

With Dantal mounted, the black horse vanished across the desert in an instant.

True to its name, Storm ran like a tempest.

Everything happened so quickly that Zeon didn’t even have time to think about chasing Storm or pursuing Dantal.

At this point, his body was badly damaged as well.

Though his wounds had healed thanks to Tesserina’s dragon heart and ultra-regeneration, his body itself was severely injured.

In this condition, he wouldn’t be able to pursue Dantal—and even if he somehow caught up, completely subduing him would be impossible.

Dantal was that formidable an opponent.

He possessed power more overwhelming and terrifying than any being Zeon had ever faced.

To fight him again, Zeon would need to fully recover as well.

“Hoo…”

Zeon let out a breath and withdrew Exion.

Exion reverted to fine particles and returned to Zeon.

Riding the wind as it came back, Exion looked like a cloud.

Exion was absorbed once more into Zeon’s pores.

“If I’d known it would be like this, I should’ve used Exion sooner.”

To be honest, he hadn’t been confident that Exion could withstand the authority of corrosion. Yet even after taking it head-on, he hadn’t sensed the slightest abnormality.

Simply learning Exion’s durability was another gain.

After fully retrieving Exion, Zeon turned around.

The dragon’s corpse, utterly ruined, came into view.

Though the scales and bones retained their shape, large portions were pitch-black with contamination, and the muscles and organs were melting away.

“But how did you talk to me? Don’t tell me…?”

A thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

Zeon hurried toward Tesserina’s lair.

The mountain of sand that had covered the lair had completely collapsed. But that posed no problem for Zeon.

Pashsss!

A massive amount of sand was pushed aside, revealing the underground cavern of the lair that had caved in.

There lay Tesserina’s chimera avatar.

The avatar, which had looked like a puppet with its strings cut after the link to the main body was severed, opened its mouth.

“You’re here?”

“You succeeded in transferring your consciousness completely?”

Tesserina had been attacked by Dantal at the moment she was transferring her consciousness and died. Zeon had naturally assumed the transfer had failed.

“I barely succeeded. If I’d been even a little later, I would’ve been completely erased.”

“That’s why you could talk to me.”

“Yeah. I wasn’t in a complete state, so I didn’t have the strength to speak more.”

“You were the one who modified the dragon heart’s mana to suit me, weren’t you?”

“Yeah. I wish I could’ve given it to you whole, but if I had, you would’ve exploded.”

Tesserina nodded.

In that brief moment, she had accomplished many things here.

She had transferred the main body’s consciousness into the avatar, and through the faintly maintained link, she had transformed the mana remaining in the main body’s dragon heart to suit Zeon’s nature and made him absorb it.

It was a gamble she would never have attempted under normal circumstances.

It was that dangerous a trial.

But with no other choice, she had taken the risk—and succeeded. As a result, the avatar that had overseen the entire process was completely exhausted.

‘So this one is the main body now.’

He never imagined she would successfully transfer her main consciousness into a chimera.

It had been an attempt with a success probability close to zero.

He truly hadn’t expected such a dangerous attempt to succeed.

By probability, it felt like breaking through a chance of almost 0.0001 percent.

Still, it was fortunate that it had worked.

Tesserina spoke to Zeon.

“Will you take me to my main body?”

“Of course.”

Zeon answered without even asking why.

He picked Tesserina up and carried her to the main body.

Muttering with a devastated expression, Tesserina said,

“So it’s come to this in the end.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, Zeon. Put me down.”

“Will you be okay?”

Tesserina’s condition was extremely poor.

She could barely stand on her own.

“I’ll be fine.”

“Alright.”

Zeon carefully set Tesserina down in front of the main body.

Struggling to stand, Tesserina placed her hand on the main body.

“A lot of it is contaminated, but there’s still quite a bit that’s intact.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll absorb it into this body.”

“Is that possible?”

“I managed to transfer my consciousness. Why wouldn’t this be possible too? No matter what happens from here, don’t be surprised, and don’t interfere.”

“Okay.”

Nodding, Zeon stepped back from Tesserina.

With her hand on the main body, Tesserina murmured,

“Conversion! Transfer!”

Hwachem!

Brilliant light erupted from her and the main body.

Watching from afar, Zeon sat down on the ground.

He needed time to recover as well.

Suddenly, Levin and Brielle came to mind.

‘They’re both safe, right?’