The Death Demon Dragon’s proud Death Breath was devastatingly effective against any normal living being or elf.
However, as the Crow God’s most powerful Retainer and the top combatant of the Eternal Mineshaft, the Awakened One was never in that category.
Flowing with the Divine Blood bestowed by the Crow God and wielding unfathomable dark powers, the Awakened One, even if not a demigod, was not far off.
“Boom!”
The black dragon flames exploded in the sky, but only destroyed the Awakened One’s afterimage. Its body flashed past like black lightning, grazing the Death Demon Dragon’s relatively softer underbelly…
Amidst the demon dragon’s roar, clearly laced with pain, steaming hot Demon Dragon blood poured down from the sky like a rainstorm.
The Awakened One, reappearing hundreds of meters behind Ralgas, slowly turned back. Its crimson beak still held a large chunk of bloody dragon abdomen skin.
“GROOOOAAAR!… A mere mutated crow dares wound my dragon form! Unforgivable… Death Domain!!”
A vast amount of black death energy instantly exploded from the demon dragon, surging outward in all directions like a tide.
The Awakened One spat out the dragon skin in disgust, arched its back slightly to gather strength, and in the next instant, its body snapped taut like a bowstring. Its head reared high, and the blinding white light in its eyes instantly transformed into a nightmarish, profound darkness.
“KAkaaaaaaa————————!!!!”
‘Dark Echo’!
A black halo, different from the death energy, swept out in rings from the Awakened One as its center. As the two forces collided, the Dark Echo disintegrated the Death Domain with overwhelming force. The unstoppable black halo broke down into countless tiny, pitch-black blades mid-flight, slashing across the Death Demon Dragon’s body. Dragon scales shattered piece by piece as blood sprayed out.
The pitch-black blades folded back like a true echo, adding to the demon dragon’s wounds once more.
Demon Dragon Ralgas writhed in agony, its eyes bloodshot red, yet within its fury… there was an unconcealable terror.
Despite its immense vitality and attack power, against an Awakened One that was twice as fast, all its attacks struggled to land… Even the death energy it relied on most, which could continuously drain life force, was almost completely ineffective against the Awakened One!
Terrifying sonic booms echoed throughout the entire mineshaft world.
The Awakened One ceased its attack, its pair of translucent, chip-like wings enabling it to hover in the air without even flapping.
The fact that the Awakened One didn’t press its advantage was undoubtedly a sign of disdain and provocation towards the demon dragon.
“Don’t get cocky, you just… happen to counter me! Let me retreat and recuperate; we shall fight another day!”
The panicked demon dragon, finally sensing the dire situation, spat out harsh words while hurriedly producing several precious Magic Stones.
The Magic Stones burned rapidly in black flames.
The demon dragon was actually planning to abandon its Troll underlings and flee alone.
But the Awakened One would not let it have its way.
Riiip—!
Its body transformed into a flash of black lightning, darting forward.
The demon dragon had anticipated the Awakened One interrupting its teleport, so it sneered coldly, mobilizing the immense Mana within its bloodline, intending to condense its strongest defensive magic—the Demon Dragon Shield—in front of it to buy time…
Until it realized with horror that its Mana circulation speed was being affected by a powerful force.
“…My… Mana…?!!”
Or rather, its Mana was draining away at a terrifying, massive rate with every passing second…
It looked down in alarm.
It turned out that on the abdomen torn open by the Awakened One, and in the dozens of large and small wounds across its body, fungal organisms like mushrooms and tuckahoe were growing at a terrifying speed, drawing on the Mana within its bloodline…
When… did this happen?!
Just as shock filled its mind, the black lightning, already before its eyes, erupted with terrifying force, piercing through the massive demon dragon body. A scarlet downpour fell from the sky as the heavy dragon body was blasted far away…
The physical pain was not the worst of it. When the blasted-away demon dragon cast a glance at a certain fungal creature and saw the mocking, sinister glint in the eyes of the petite Mushroom Empress… its very soul felt like it was plummeting into an abyss of fear.
“Lord Demon Dragon! Can you hear me? The lord of the mine is very weak. If you can control that young girl, you can definitely force everyone to submit and turn the tables!”
The Troll Shaman’s ‘Mind Transmission’ suddenly rang out in the demon dragon’s mind.
The demon dragon nearly coughed up blood in rage: To hell with believing you! If it weren’t for you, would I have come here to be thrashed by them?!
But… that look in the Mushroom Empress’s eyes, even more chaotic and evil than its own, meant that even if it begged for mercy, there were only two outcomes: death, or a fate worse than death!
Thinking this over, a desperate gamble seemed better. So, even knowing it was a pit dug by the Troll Shaman, it had no choice but to jump in…
Conveniently, Ralgas, after being sent flying far away, was headed precisely in Weilin’s direction.
At the point closest to Weilin, the demon dragon forcibly halted its momentum mid-air and abruptly turned its body. The dragon head’s pair of mysterious, pitch-black horns simultaneously flashed with an intense, profound dark light. A desperate, burning hatred blazed in its sinister dragon eyes…!
Boom!
Under the boost of the Fang Charge Secret Art, the demon dragon burst forth with a speed that momentarily surpassed even the Awakened One’s.
“Eh?… Ehh!”
Weilin watched as the demon dragon, which had been blasted far away, abruptly changed course without warning and charged straight at her. She was completely dumbfounded for a moment…
The next second.
Countless vertically intersecting Mana Clocks rapidly formed a large blockade zone in front of Weilin.
Some clocks had their hour hands spinning wildly, while others had even their second hands frozen still. Countless Mana Clocks of varying sizes and states formed a forbidden zone of time.
…The forbidden zone had barely formed for an instant before the demon dragon plunged headfirst into it.
In that single moment, all clocks stopped ticking, and the air ceased to flow, as if the time order of this world had been fitted with a remote control switch.
And the one holding the switch was undoubtedly the Time Devourer at Weilin’s side.
…H-How… can I… not… move…?!
This…
What kind of power is this?!!!!!
The demon dragon couldn’t comprehend it, for within the time-stopped space, even its thoughts were a heavy, thick sludge.
Shi Luo frowned slightly. In her raised little hand, she tightly held an exquisite Pocket Watch. She looked indifferently at the demon dragon’s eyes, filled with confusion, terror, and even dread, and gave a cold, soft laugh: “Foolish… How utterly foolish!”
“Hmph, why target Master when she’s so cute… How utterly foolish!” The Illusion Mimic also added a resentful remark.
“Menghuan, send it to the Crow God.”
Shi Luo lowered her hand holding what looked like a pocket watch but was actually the Time Wheel Divine Crystal, turned her head to look at the empty winged treasure chest, and said.
“Blegh! This concubine absolutely refuses to swallow it!!”
“The Demon Dragon is not weak. Time Stop can maintain this for twenty seconds at most.” Shi Luo snorted coldly. “And besides, it just tried to kidnap Master.”
“…No! No no no, unforgivable! I’ll be right back!”
Menghuan flew in front of the demon dragon, unfolded a Mana vortex over ten meters in diameter, and forcibly sucked the Time-Stopped Death Demon Dragon into her Small World.
Then, a beam of white light shot up from the spot, engulfing the empty treasure chest with its angel wings outstretched.
With a single Space Magic spell, Menghuan went directly to the Fourth Layer of the Eternal Mineshaft.
Fifteen seconds later, roughly the time it took for the demon dragon to break free from the Time Stop, a small earthquake occurred in the Eternal Mineshaft—the kind of tremor caused by a tiger and a rabbit trapped in the same cage, one chasing, one fleeing for its life.
The minor earthquake lasted only about ten seconds before the Eternal Mineshaft quietly returned to calm, as if nothing had ever happened.
