The Hunt (4)
The Hunt (4)
Nidhogg was disappointed in you all.
You said you had a Dragon's Heart, so I thought it was a whole one, but what is this?
It's barely half the size, and it's a second-hand piece full of defects from being used here and there?
No, I was the fool for thinking it would be intact in the first place.
If it were a complete Dragon's Heart, there's no way I wouldn't have sensed it.
And there's no way a mere Koschei could have hidden it perfectly.
"Sigh. So, what do I do now?"
Until a moment ago, we used telepathy to talk so the plan wouldn't be discovered, but since I've snatched the staff, is there any need for that now?
I asked the Bone Dragon, who had stopped attacking.
-Extract that heart and push out Koschei's mana. Then, infuse it with the mana of the dead that you possess, and you will be able to seize control.
"What, that's simple."
I thought he'd use some complex method, but it was much simpler than I expected, so I immediately broke the staff and pulled out the heart fragment.
Then, I pushed a massive amount of mana into it.
From the moment I grabbed the heart, Niflheim's mana, which had been reacting as if in resonance, surged violently and flowed into the heart fragment.
Niflheim's mana pushed out Koschei's mana in one go, as if to show the difference in status, and filled the heart fragment with my own mana.
"Is this it?"
-Yes. The orders of the guy who was binding me have all disappeared.
Zmei's consciousness moved the Bone Dragon's body freely, proving that the orders were gone.
And after confirming that it could move as it pleased, it immediately turned around and glared at Koschei, who was looking this way with a shocked face.
Even though it was just bones and nothing could be discerned except for the glowing eyes, it wasn't difficult to tell that Zmei's consciousness was furious.
Because the glowing eyes were burning brighter than ever, and killing intent was radiating out.
-I can take care of that guy, right?
"Do as you please. Just don't kill him."
-Yes. I shall do so.
Kung- kung-
The giant Bone Dragon's body stepped heavily on the ground as it approached Koschei.
Meanwhile, I tested this and that with the control I had seized.
The countless bone undead that Koschei had summoned.
Unlike Zmei's consciousness, they had no will of their own, so I moved them as I pleased, as if they were my own will.
Went left- went right- rolled once- jump-
After finishing the experiment to see how far I could go, I smiled coldly at the Severniye Teni members standing behind Koschei.
Flinch!
"You guys get a taste of the same thing."
At my will, all the undead turned their bodies at the same time.
The direction was where the Severniye Teni members were.
"Charge."
Ttak-ttak-ttak-!!
Tta-da-da-dak!
Perhaps because they had no vocal cords.
Instead, the undead ran forward, clicking their bones together.
As thousands, no, tens of thousands of undead rushed at them simultaneously, some Severniye Teni members drew their weapons, but others turned and began to run away.
"Kuaaaagh!!"
"Koschei-nim! Koschei-niiim! Please, spare us!"
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorr... Kyaaagh!!"
In an instant, the Severniye Teni members surrounded by the undead were torn to death by their sharp claws and talons.
Honestly, it was only possible for Shin Su-ah or Baek Yeon to block that many undead; for ordinary Awakened, this is the reality.
Because they don't have Valkyrie armor or dragon scales.
Furthermore, Koschei, whom they were begging so hard to save them, was in no position to help them as he was busy fighting his own masterpiece in real-time.
"What happened?"
"Suddenly the undead monsters are on our side. Did you do this, Nidhogg-nim?"
"Yeah. The staff Koschei was using had a medium that controlled the undead."
As the undead stopped attacking, the two who had put away their weapons approached me.
I answered their questions and showed them the heart fragment I was holding with my front paw.
It was a heart fragment with only a part remaining, but it was still generating massive mana imbued with Niflheim's unique cold.
'And every bit it generates is being used for the maintenance costs of the undead and the Bone Dragon.'
If it goes on like this, it'll spoil before I can even eat it, right?
That's right.
Right now, this Dragon's Heart fragment is in a state no different from meat left out at room temperature due to the mana being forcibly extracted.
To eat it while it's still fresh, I'll have to quickly eliminate Koschei and his gang.
I quickly assessed the battle situation.
The Severniye Teni members were still struggling hard.
But compared to when the fight first started, most of the regular members had been taken down by the undead swarming from all sides, and the ones still resisting were all a small number of personnel who could be called executives.
Like Alexei, whom I saw at the auction house, the executives who boasted extraordinary physical abilities—perhaps having received the power of vitality from Koschei—were doing their best to deal with the undead swarming from all sides, but the undead that resurrected in real-time were grabbing their limbs and dragging them down, and wounds were increasing all over their bodies.
'Those ones won't last long.'
I turned my head away from the Severniye Teni, who were sure to fall soon, and checked the situation between Koschei and the Bone Dragon.
The Bone Dragon, moving according to Zmei's consciousness, was pushing Koschei in earnest, unlike when it fought me.
Although he used magic, Koschei, whose physical ability was not to be underestimated as he dealt with vitality, was being unilaterally pushed back in terms of weight class.
And perhaps thanks to pushing out Koschei's mana and inserting Niflheim's mana, he was even handling cold.
It was truly Zmei's Bone Dragon overwhelmingly suppressing Koschei.
Kwa-ang!!
Just in time, Koschei, who had collided with the Bone Dragon's skull that had rushed at him from the front, flew through several buildings and was slammed into a wall.
[Kuaagh! Get a grip! I am the master and father who gave birth to you!!]
-That bullshit again! You dare to perform dirty experiments with my heart and bones, and now you claim to be my father!
[This can't be! How on earth did you seize control of my masterpiece!]
Zmei was furious, as if having a seizure at the word "father."
But it seemed Koschei couldn't hear the words of Zmei's consciousness.
He was just questioning how I had seized control, while hesitating, unable to bring himself to attack his masterpiece, the Bone Dragon.
Surely he doesn't think he can seize control again at this point, does he?
Even if he takes the heart fragment back now, Niflheim's mana has a much higher purity than Koschei's mana, so there's no chance of losing control, but...
It's annoying, isn't it?
"Let's see if you can just block and endure even after seeing this."
I extracted only Niflheim's mana and pushed it into the inside of the heart fragment.
As massive mana surged in at once, the heart began to throb as if it were alive.
And the undead connected to this heart fragment.
That mana flowed into the countless skeletons and the Bone Dragon as well.
-This power is!!
Ttak-ttak-ttak-
Tta-da-da-dak!
Cold, blue mana flowed out, wrapping around the bones of all the undead in this place.
As the manifested mana completely enveloped their bodies, the undead were able to act as if that were their physical bodies.
The undead now pushed the Severniye Teni members, who were already being pushed back roughly, without even giving them a moment to breathe, and Zmei's consciousness, having briefly confirmed the body made of translucent blue mana, manipulated the cold freely as if it had been its own power from the beginning.
"Oh, was that possible too?"
Watching Zmei's fight, using the Niflheim mana I gave him in various ways as if using a technique, there were unexpectedly things to learn.
As full-scale support came in, Koschei, who was already being pushed to the edge of a cliff, was truly on the verge of death.
And perhaps having made up his mind, he began to use his proper power against the Bone Dragon Zmei.
[Damn dragon! To think you'd make me destroy my own masterpiece! I will definitely have my revenge!]
"Yeah. If you survive, that is."
[Kuaaaaaagh!!]
Along with the shout containing the anger of the enraged Koschei, red veins bulged from his body.
And his body began to twist, and his body, which had been as dry as an old tree, changed into a muscular body that would put a bodybuilder to shame.
He threw a punch at the Bone Dragon's body rushing at him, and unlike being bounced back until now, this time he blocked the charge head-on.
Heup!!
Not stopping there, Koschei, who put strength into his arms and pushed the Bone Dragon's body back.
As soon as he created distance, he spread both hands, and the purple mana that bloomed like haze above his hands drew two magic circles in the air.
[Unbreakable Armor]
As the first magic circle activated, bone armor appeared over Koschei's body.
The armor made of pure white bones emitted an ominous aura.
[Predatory Possession]
As the second magic circle activated, this time, the sound of ghosts crying rang out from all sides.
-Kyaaaaaagh!
-Kieeeeek!
Along with the crying sounds imbued with the grudges of the dead, some of the undead around Koschei that I was controlling turned to powder and disappeared, and the souls of the dead pulled out from the undead's corpses and the ground gathered in a circle above Koschei's magic circle.
Koschei immediately brought it to his chest, and the pure white bone armor turned purple, emitting an even more ominous aura.
[It's been a while since I've shown my full power.]
The power of Koschei, who used two types of magic, was at least twice as strong as just a moment ago.
Just as Koschei, having shown his full power, was about to start a full-scale counterattack.
Kung!
-It took quite a while to prepare, but I'll blame you for not using your full power from the beginning.
Zmei, who spat out words that only I could understand, stepped heavily on the ground, and massive mana swirled around the Bone Dragon as the center.
Zmei, who seemed to have drawn even more mana, perhaps because the mana I injected wasn't enough.
A giant magic circle appeared beneath him.
The moment the glowing blue magic circle activated, Zmei spat out the name of the technique.
-Permafrost
And the world froze.