Chapter 315
I Became the Successor of the Martial God
Chapter 315.
"Kyaaaaah!"
The Thunder Dragon was unleashed.
A massive dragon wreathed in thunder and lightning shot forward in a straight line, piercing the dragon's heart before it could even react.
"Guh...!"
The dragon's body stiffened instantly.
Scales that could withstand any attack were torn through like paper, and the heart—the source of all the dragon's power—was being skewered.
"Ugh, ooooh!"
The dragon instantly deployed a defensive spell in front of its heart.
The Thunder Dragon, piercing its heart, collided with an incredibly small barrier.
Grind!
With a sound like steel scraping, the Thunder Dragon's advance halted momentarily.
"Kuh, ugh... Aaaah!"
The dragon, barely holding back the Dragon Slayer’s spear, let out a roar filled with terror.
"Jin Seo-yeon!"
At that moment, Yoo Baek-jun, standing atop the airship, kicked off the ground and soared into the air.
As he stretched out his hand, the Thunder Dragon spun violently and returned to him.
"Graaaah!"
Yoo Baek-jun charged at the dragon, spear in hand, while the dragon unleashed a furious breath attack at him.
But he paid it no mind.
He didn’t need to.
Crack!
The barrier deployed by Jin Seo-yeon and the mages blocked the breath.
Feeling the searing heat, Yoo Baek-jun drove forward toward the dragon.
He could see its face now.
A face twisted in fear.
"Hup!"
Swoosh!
Dragon Fang Strike unfolded from his fingertips.
A relentless barrage of slashes severed the dragon's neck, and finally, a powerful thrust pierced through it.
"Grrrk...!"
With an upward swing of his spear, he completely severed the dragon's head.
The head, now unsupported, fell to the ground.
Soon after, the body, now flying alone, crashed to the earth.
Kwaaaang!
"Waaaah!"
As the colossal dragon's body collapsed, the Black Shadow members beneath it were crushed to death.
The still-living dragon's body twitched violently.
"A human... beating a dragon...?"
Belus, witnessing the scene, was stunned.
A dragon—an absolute being stronger than any other creature—had been brought down by a single human.
And so effortlessly at that.
As if it were mere prey.
'How is this possible?'
Dragons were monsters beyond human comprehension.
Their scales were impervious to any attack, their knowledge vast after millennia of life.
The immense magic derived from that knowledge.
Their near-infinite regenerative magical power allowed dragons to cast transcendent spells without rest.
'And yet.'
That dragon had been slaughtered so pitifully.
Unable to mount a proper resistance, it had been unilaterally "hunted."
It was a sight beyond imagination.
'To begin with, the dragons resurrected now aren’t in their normal state.'
There were several reasons.
The souls of the dragons that had once inhabited this land had wandered for far too long.
Stripped of their bodies, only their spirits remained, lost for eons.
That span of time was enough to break even the strongest of dragon minds.
'So...'
In other words.
The dragons resurrected now were not in their right minds.
And they had only just been revived.
These two factors combined meant they couldn’t exert their full power.
"There’s an opening to exploit."
Under normal circumstances, even in this state, they would have unleashed tremendous power.
But Yoo Baek-jun was here.
And he wielded the power of dragon-slaying.
'Good, this should be enough...'
Yoo Baek-jun extended the necklace toward the dying dragon’s corpse.
The souls of the dragons he had slain up to now, including this one.
The Dragon Slayer’s Destiny, having absorbed the mighty dragon’s soul, grew rapidly.
[The Dragon Slayer’s Destiny has absorbed sufficient power. A new power, the Dragon Slayer’s Destiny, is now unlocked.]
Dragon Slayer’s Destiny: Unleashes power to its maximum, creating an area that weakens nearby dragonkind.
The very function Yoo Baek-jun had desired most.
This was why he had sought the artifact known as the Dragon Slayer’s Destiny.
He glanced behind him.
A dragon that had appeared over Busan’s coastline was flying through the sky.
"Aim for its wings! Bring it down!"
"Deploy the barrier!"
"Kyaaaah!"
The airships surrounding it were already engaged in battle with the dragon.
The airships fired Magic cannons relentlessly, but the dragon endured and counterattacked.
Whoosh!
"Brace for impact... Ugh!"
The dragon’s breath engulfed the airships, shaking their hulls violently.
The barrier developed massive cracks.
It wouldn’t be surprising if it shattered at any moment.
'Given enough time, the airships alone could handle the dragon.'
But there was no time to spare.
If left unchecked, more dragons would continue to revive.
They had to be dealt with before that.
"Then I’ll use it."
—...!
Yoo Baek-jun clenched the necklace.
Sensing the ominousness of his action, Belus shouted frantically.
"Stop him!"
But it was too late.
Before they could move, Yoo Baek-jun unleashed the Dragon Slayer’s Destiny.
A golden aura condensed around his necklace to its limit before exploding outward in all directions.
"Guh...! W-what is this...?!"
The golden aura enveloped the dragon’s territory in the shape of a massive dome.
Then, countless golden lights began raining down from above.
To the humans watching, it was a beautiful sight.
But to the dragonkin—
"Aaaah!"
"W-what is this evil energy?! Stay away! Don’t come near me!"
—it was nothing short of horrifying.
An overwhelming force of dragon-slaying pressed down on their shoulders. Their bodies felt heavy, their strength draining away.
The dragons were no exception.
"Now! Focus fire!"
Ryu Il-woo, who had been briefed by Yoo Baek-jun beforehand, shouted loudly.
The airships surrounding the dragon gathered magic power once more.
Boom!
"Grk... Graaah!"
The cannons fired.
Though the dragon had withstood the Magic cannons earlier, this time was different.
"Kyaaaah!"
The relentless barrage of Magic cannons tore through the dragon’s wings.
Losing one wing, the dragon staggered, and the remaining wing holding up its massive body was blown apart by the bombardment.
"It’s falling!"
"Anchor!"
Anchors shot out from the airships’ undersides, pinning the dragon in place.
And then, the bombardment resumed.
"Kyaaaah!"
The dragon couldn’t endure it.
Its colossal body was crushed by the Magic shells, utterly destroyed in the explosions.
—T-this can’t be...!
Two dragons had fallen.
One by Yoo Baek-jun’s hand, the other by the airships.
But in truth, both deaths were his doing.
—...
The Evil Dragon, engaged in battle high above, belatedly realized the situation.
Its gaze turned toward the ground.
—Graaaah!
The Evil Dragon let out a scream of agony.
Its kin, whom it believed had been resurrected, now lay in pieces—their necks and hearts torn out, their bodies sprawled across the ground.
—How dare... How dare you! Grrrk!—
—Tiamat...!
—Ugh, aaaah!
The Evil Dragon tried to descend, but it couldn’t.
Thanatos stood in its way.
The battle had been so fierce that Thanatos’s body was now heavily damaged compared to when he first appeared.
The same was true for Yamata-no-Orochi and the Evil Dragon.
—I look forward...! To seeing your corpse serve me as an undead!
—Grrrk!
At first, Thanatos had tried to avoid fighting the Evil Dragon.
But now, it was too late.
Neither could retreat even if they wanted to.
"Fighting well."
Yoo Baek-jun glanced up at the sky.
Yamata-no-Orochi, far weaker than those two, was already on the verge of death.
He didn’t need to worry about that one.
'Thanatos...'
By now, the Thunder God was likely waiting for an opportunity.
No need to concern himself with that either.
Which left only one task.
"Family head! Another dragon is—!"
"Work with the Magic Tower to stop it."
Eliminate the dragonkin blocking the way and disrupt the ritual.
Then, deal with the Evil Dragon.
"In the meantime..."
Yoo Baek-jun looked ahead.
Countless Black Shadow members, along with dragonkin including their executives, guarded the ancient site where the ritual was taking place.
The site itself was also teeming with enemies.
"I’ll take care of them."
Yoo Baek-jun raised his hand high.
Just as his brother, Yoo Tae-rang, had once done.
A sword formed in his grasp.
'What was it he said back then?'
An intangible blade forged from sword energy as blue as the clear sky.
Yoo Tae-rang had asked him then:
"Do you know the meaning of 'Heaven-Destruction’?"
—The ritual must be completed! Don’t let him interfere! Attack!
Belus, the Black Shadow executive, shouted.
His subordinates immediately charged at Yoo Baek-jun.
Yoo Baek-jun swung his sword upward as if cleaving the heavens themselves.
—He is over here!
—He’s preparing something!
A sword strike with no apparent meaning.
Just slashing empty air. There was no purpose to it.
Or so it seemed.
Kwa-duduk!
With a sound like shattering, the sky itself began to change.
The lofty heavens split apart.
Yoo Baek-jun’s sword strike had split the sky. And like broken glass, the fragments—
—...!
—transformed into countless swords.
All of them pointed toward the ground, like a meteor shower.
And then, they fell.
—Wait...!
An overwhelming number of swords rained down from the sky.
The scale was so vast that they reached not only the dragonkin blocking the way but also the site of the ritual beyond.
—Ugh...!
There was no dodging.
Belus instinctively realized this and mustered all his Magical power.
A massive pillar of fire erupted skyward, spreading like a curtain.
'Can’t evade. Must block!'
That was his judgment.
But it was a miscalculation.
Kwaaaaang!
—Grk...!
The swords collided with the fiery curtain and exploded.
But there were far too many.
Like raindrops, countless swords poured down.
The curtain couldn’t withstand them.
—No...!
The barrier collapsed instantly.
The swords, having broken through, struck the ground in unison, and a tremendous explosion engulfed the Black Shadow members.
—Gyaaaah!
—S-save me...!
It was as if meteors had fallen.
The deafening roar of the earth being torn apart filled the air, and enemies caught in the blasts screamed as they died.
Belus was no exception.
—H-how... Kyaaah!
Unable to even utter a proper last word, his body was erased.
Watching this, Yoo Baek-jun clicked his tongue inwardly.
'How did I survive that?'
In the past, Yoo Tae-rang had borrowed the Sword Demon’s power to execute the ultimate technique of the Heavenly Destruction Sword Technique.
A technique only those who had mastered the style to its limits could wield—one reserved solely for the family head.
The Heaven-Destruction.
'No, I didn’t survive it.'
Thinking back, Yoo Baek-jun hadn’t withstood Yoo Tae-rang’s Heaven-Destruction.
He had barely managed to deflect it using Grandal’s Option, Distortion.
"......"
The meteor shower ceased.
After surveying the completely devastated surroundings, Yoo Baek-jun walked toward the ritual site.
"Ugh... ghh..."
"Evil Dragon... my lord..."
The Black Shadow members conducting the ritual were also dying.
Yoo Baek-jun finished them off and stood before the magic circle.
Then, he tilted his head in confusion.
'This... isn’t a dragon resurrection circle.'
There were two magic circles activating the ritual, neither of which resembled a dragon resurrection circle.
One was likely meant to amplify the Evil Dragon’s corruption authority.
'What’s this other one?'
The second was a type of magic circle even Yoo Baek-jun had never seen before.
He frowned.
Something felt off, but there was no time to ponder.
"Only one option left."
Without hesitation, Yoo Baek-jun slashed at the magic circles before him.
One shattered under his blade.
But—
Kaaang!
"...!"
The other repelled his strike as if shielded.
He immediately prepared to follow up with another attack, but—
"I won’t let you! Human...!"
From high above.
The Evil Dragon, its body riddled with wounds, was descending.
Its eyes saw nothing but Yoo Baek-jun.
"Things just got complicated."
Yoo Baek-jun sighed.