These Bastards Put Me in a Gas Chamber
The dead Dragon Heart began to beat.
Thump—!
A vibration like the strike of a colossal drum slammed into Leon inside the Dragon Heart Chamber.
At the same instant, the entire Dragon Heart Palace roared to life.
Gwooooooom!
Leon felt an overwhelming torrent of mana whipping through every direction. It was as if he had stepped into the eye of a storm made of pure mana itself.
Thump—!
Mana erupted from the core, circulating through the whole of the Dragon Heart Palace, refined as it passed through mechanisms and magic circles. The purified dragon mana followed its circuits upward into the thick pipes above the Dragon Heart Chamber.
Those pipes poured the mana straight down onto Leon's head as he sat in meditation.
The density was so extreme that the luminous cascade of mana falling through empty air was visible to the naked eye.
Kwaaaaaaaaah—!
Leon's mana and the dragon's mana touched for the first time.
"…!"
His tightly shut eyelids twitched. He swallowed the gasp that nearly escaped his throat.
It was mana so vast and exalted it made him dizzy — pure beyond anything any elixir or miracle drug could ever match.
"Hsssss…"
He forced down the rush of excitement and drew the mana in with a deep, deliberate breath.
Holy shit.
It hit him like ice-cold soda slammed down a throat scorched dry. Every cell in his body screamed in triumph.
Endless power lived inside that mana. The raw force surging and overflowing filled Leon with a boundless, soaring exhilaration.
He began devouring the energy in a frantic rush. Greed boiled up inside him. He refused to let even a single particle of this mana slip away.
With every inhale, the mana filling the Dragon Heart Chamber was sucked into him. The absorbed energy circulated along fixed pathways according to the Crusif family's mana cultivation method.
Kuuuuuuuuu—!
The mana formed a great river and poured through Leon's mana circuits.
"Hhk…!"
A short groan tore from his throat.
It was enormous. So vast and violent that control was nearly impossible — like a massive beast thrashing mad inside his body.
Which was exactly why—
Focus.
Opening Instant. Leon plunged into the state of Extreme Instant.
Time fractured into fine shards. His thoughts accelerated.
Comes in handy at times like this, too.
Controlling the mana became far easier. In that slowed stretch of time, Leon adjusted the energy strand by careful strand, coaxing and guiding it along the proper path.
Kuuuuuuuu—!
The mana raced down the circuits he had opened for it and shot straight into his dantian. Dense energy began accumulating there at a blistering pace.
The Crusif family's mana cultivation method — designed to hold the very sky itself — captured every drop of the dragon's mana without waste.
More. More. More.
Leon greedily devoured the mana around him. Once he found the rhythm, he no longer needed to maintain Extreme Instant to keep the energy under control.
He dropped out of the state and focused entirely on filling his dantian.
Kwaaaaaaaaah—!
A waterfall of mana fell from the pipes overhead, feeding into the great river of Leon's mana circuits — and that river emptied into the vast ocean of his dantian, pouring mana without end.
Leon lost all sense of time, taking in the energy in a wild, unbroken rush.
How long had it been?
Kududududud!
His dantian began expanding its vessel — no different from forcibly stretching it by hammering energy into it without restraint. And even that was not enough. Energy overflowed from the dantian itself.
You lot go this way.
Just as he had planned in advance, Leon guided the excess into his fine meridians — using every scrap rather than letting it spill away. The process brought another wave of extreme difficulty, and for a stretch he dove back into Extreme Instant before surfacing again.
Dragon mana raced through every fine meridian in his body.
Kururururururu—!
It swept away even the tiniest impurities nestled in those vessels. The difference between a broom and a vacuum cleaner — scrubbing clean the dust a broom could never catch. Turbid energy he would never have discovered otherwise was driven out completely.
Trickle—.
Because of that, dark, murky fluid began seeping from Leon's skin in small amounts. A sticky sensation, and a foul stench stabbed into his nostrils.
Even so, Leon felt no disgust at all. He paid it no mind. He was lost entirely in the pleasure of his body being purified.
Then the mana racing through his meridians turned its attention to muscle and bone.
Crack— crick-crack!
Leon's flesh began to change. It was nothing less than a complete physical metamorphosis.
The density of his ligaments, bones, and muscle fibers rose and hardened. Skin, tendons, and heart muscle grew tougher. Dragon mana melted into him, saturating every part of his body and weaving a new physique that transcended the human.
Crunch! Crack!
Here… like this.
Leon even took direct control of the mana to reshape his own body. Only dragon mana, with its boundless potential, made such a thing possible.
Develop this muscle group further…
If this were just a little longer, it'd feel better.
A bit leaner. Faster…
There was no hesitation. He was an expert martial artist who understood his own body with perfect precision. He knew every flaw and every improvement, and he corrected them with absolute confidence.
Crrrack! Crick-crack—!
He carved away and refined the parts that had always felt lacking when he wielded a sword — remodeling his body to his own exact taste. The process brought staggering pain, but Leon did not so much as blink. What was a little pain now? This chance would never come again.
The air inside the Dragon Heart Chamber was cold enough to be frigid, yet beads of sweat formed on Leon's brow. The corners of his eyes twitched; his brow furrowed and smoothed again and again.
Nearly lost in a trance, Leon guided the energy, stacked it in his dantian, and remade his body. Time that forgot even food and sleep raced past.
"Hoooo…"
Having completed another full cycle of energy circulation, Leon cracked his eyes open.
Almost a full day, maybe.
Roughly twenty hours had passed since he entered the Dragon Heart Chamber. More than a day still remained.
The remodeling of his body was finished. Around him, the fluids that had seeped from his flesh had formed small puddles. At this point the mess was thoroughly unpleasant — but leaving to wash would be a waste of precious time.
All right. Let's start again.
Leon had spent about twelve hours absorbing the dragon's mana, then used the remaining time circulating energy to fully dissolve what he had taken in and make it his own. Now he planned to spend the entire remaining day drawing in as much energy as he possibly could.
He closed his eyes once more.
Kwaaaaaaaaah—!
The waterfall of mana pouring from the pipes had not diminished. Abundant energy crashed down onto the crown of his head.
And then—
Shiiiiiiiiii—!
Black powder mixed into the cascading, multicolored waterfall of mana.
"…?!"
A sudden foreign sensation from above. Leon's eyes snapped open and he jerked his head up.
Black dust was falling like a blizzard. A curse burst from his mouth on pure instinct.
"What the fuck?"
It looked ominous and suspicious at a single glance. Anything he couldn't identify was something to treat as a threat.
Leon stopped breathing and released a wave of energy.
Woooooom—!
A hazy shimmer rose around his body. An invisible pulse of mana spread outward, shoving the powder back. In moments the black dust swept through the entire room. Everywhere except the space where Leon stood, the air turned solid black.
Careful not to let the unknown powder touch him, Leon slowly backed toward the door.
Clank. Clank!
"…"
Leon scowled. The door was locked. Staff never locked these doors — trainees needed to leave mid-session for basic necessities. Something was clearly wrong.
— Aaaaagh!
— What is this?!
The other chambers seemed to be in the same state. Startled, panicked voices of students erupted one after another.
Leon shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Aria!"
The answer came at once.
— I can't use magic! There's an interference formula active!
"Damn it."
Leon's face twisted further. He had planned to Blink out.
Holding out with energy waves had its limits, too. It was not an easy technique, and it burned through mana at a monstrous rate every second. The only reason he had any room to spare was that he had just finished packing his dantian full.
Leon pulled out his subspace pouch and rummaged inside. His hand came up with a small white pill, which he tossed into his mouth. It was a detoxification pill he kept on hand against poison arts — not a cure-all. It might not even work against whatever this was. Still better than nothing.
He moved fast.
Woooooom—!!
Pushing out an even stronger energy wave, he crossed to the center of the room and grabbed two daggers.
Pazzzzzzt!
Sword energy erupted from both blades. He poured so much power into them that the length of the rising aura reached twice the length of the dagger blades themselves.
"Oh, so that's how it is…"
Leon trudged toward the door. The corner of his mouth twisted upward.
"These bastards put me in a gas chamber?"
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaang!!
Blade strikes packed with pure fury began hammering into the sealed iron door.