Thunder Purification
Sunghyun drove a bolt of lightning into the Blue Dragon beneath his feet.
HP:[510,000]
The most irritating one from the start.
Turning the ground underfoot into a mud pit to kill his speed. Wielding water that electricity couldn't pass through.
Kill me. But the moment you do, every dragon around us will pour their breath attacks down on you. Taking that kind of assault right after an attack would be hard even for you.
So kill me.
At those words, Sunghyun sighed.
"Ha… You're right, you're right. But I've got one minute left. After that, it's your turn."
With that, a faint crackle of lightning reached the Blue Dragon's ears.
Crackle—.
Silent Thunder.
Like mist, Sunghyun's form vanished.
And where he reappeared was beside the weakest of them — the Ice Dragon.
CRACK!
"KRAAAAAAH!"
One dragon lost its life to Sunghyun's death.
At this rate—!
They would end up being led around by that human until it was over.
Cain spoke to every dragon around him.
I'll stake my life. I'll hold him somehow. Kill him in the meantime.
At those words, every dragon swallowed a groan.
When he was putting his own life on the line, who could argue?
And so Cain began burning the mana throughout his entire body.
Bubble, bubble.
As his whole form became pure, blue-glowing water, the surrounding dragons reeled in shock.
Naturalization! He's already reached that realm!
Pure, utterly pure water that lightning could not pass through. Transforming his body into that.
Sunghyun's expression shifted.
"That one's going to be a bit of a pain."
But only a pain.
The moment the Blue Dragon launched himself to seize Sunghyun, every dragon prepared their breath.
Their thoughts locked into one.
We must. We must make this succeed.
A Blue Dragon — and one that had achieved Naturalization — had thrown his life away.
If this failed, it was over. There would be no hope left.
Cain and Sunghyun finally clashed.
Naturally, they expected Cain's victory now that he had achieved Naturalization.
But as Sunghyun himself began to become that lightning, the thought started to change.
What?! A human achieving Naturalization?! What on earth is this…
The dragons readying their breath attacks floundered at the unexpected turn.
But Cain's eyes did not die. Rather, he roared at the dragons whose gazes held despair.
Get a grip! This has to succeed!
Cain thought of that earlier technique — the one that created an unidentifiable space.
He just had to avoid that. He had become water. Couldn't he slip out through the gaps?
With that thought, Cain charged at Sunghyun.
No matter if you've achieved Thunder God Transformation! Lightning loses its power before pure water!
Naturalization. This was the method that reversed the tide between Gold Dragons and Blue Dragons. Through Naturalization, no matter how fast and strong a Gold Dragon's attacks became, they did not work on a Blue Dragon transformed into pure water.
But—
"If you thought I'd use ordinary lightning, I'm a little disappointed."
Sunghyun's lightning was not ordinary lightning. It was something new, mixed with his own mental image.
The lightning composing Sunghyun's body began to turn blue.
Embracing Thunder.
Lightning that embraced everything raced through Sunghyun's entire body.
The moment he saw Cain throwing his whole form to grab him, this was what Sunghyun immediately thought.
When I do Lightning Transformation as well — can't I mix in mental images?
Meanwhile, the Naturalization Cain was using caught his eye.
Should I try using that once.
Sunghyun's senses took only the hint from Naturalization and slammed it into his brain. And so he was able to achieve it — a new form.
At this, Cain felt like he would go mad.
He'd planned to trap the man inside his body, take the breath attacks, and detonate him all at once. But grabbing him had become impossible from the start.
How? Then how was he supposed to do this?
Cain's mind grew tangled.
At that moment—
Crack—.
Crackle crackle—.
The color of the lightning composing Sunghyun's body began to change again.
He absolutely could not leave that alone. Cain immediately shouted at the dragons.
Shoot now! Don't let that guy transform! Kill him no matter what!!!!
At that moment, golden chains once again began carving a massive cavity out of empty air.
No.
He couldn't waste this opportunity like this!
What came next was pure instinct. Cain gritted his teeth and seized control of the breath attacks the other dragons were firing.
Merge! Merge!
A desperate act staking his life. The attempt succeeded.
All the breath attacks fused into one and struck the Sacred Duel Chain that had not yet fully formed its cavity.
CRASHHHHH—.
It pierced through.
Having combined every breath to smash the golden chain, the chain was broken. But having expended all their power attacking it, the breath lost its force.
One more time!
Cain adjusted the breaths into one and gained a tremendous enlightenment.
Once. Just one more time, and he could glimpse the next realm.
That premonition struck with crushing force. He had even destroyed the golden chain that was that human's last resort.
He could do it. He could pull it off. He could win.
The moment that hopeful thought wrapped around Cain's brain, he briefly took his eyes off Sunghyun.
Then death reached Cain's ears.
Crackle crackle—.
"Hey. Weren't you firing breaths so you wouldn't give me time? Why are you so excited over breaking through one trait? The real thing isn't that."
Oh no!
When Cain hurriedly turned his head, before his eyes stood Sunghyun — his entire body turned pitch black.
Death. A form that seemed to embody death itself.
Only one thought floated through Cain's mind.
I am already dead.
Just as those words said. Sunghyun, who had become death's lightning itself, freely took Cain's life.
No matter if he had transformed his entire body into water — when the brain sends signals, electricity flows. Sunghyun touched that signal.
The result: brain death.
The light gradually faded from Cain's eyes.
Ah… Hermes, why…
Cain's body changed from water back into an ordinary Blue Dragon's form, and that massive body fell powerlessly from sky to ground.
At that sight, the other dragons recalled the moment a god from another dimension had briefly visited. The dead-eyed man who had come with Hermes had seemed like death itself. Hermes had called that man his uncle.
That spine-chilling aura and the aura the man before them was emitting were far too similar.
And so everyone lost their will to fight.
R-run! That's a being we can't defeat!
Every dragon began flying at full power.
At that moment, nothing else was needed. Just the mana required for movement — utilization for that alone. That was all it took.
The dragons' forms were torn into multiple branches. At the spectacle, like Dragon Balls splitting apart, Sunghyun thought:
He couldn't catch all of them. But since they had threatened his life, shouldn't he turn half of them into coins? That would settle the grudge.
Sunghyun began operating all his mana. A heart focused solely on killing.
Killing Intent.
Processing all of them was impossible. But even half of them was difficult to handle with a single mental image.
Then the answer was set.
Combine the mental images.
One Heart, One Body.
Sunghyun's Silent Thunder and Cloud Thunder began mixing together through the Taiji. Then those two greedily devoured Sunghyun's mana.
"Urgh!"
As if declaring this much mana wasn't enough, Sunghyun's power plummeted at a mad speed.
Then—
Body and Mana have reached Level 120.
Account Balance: 841,836C
Body and Mana have reached Level 130.
Account Balance: 637,036C
He poured every drop of the newly surging, violent flood of mana into it.
Crackle crackle crackle—. Crack—. Crackle crackle—.
Originally, he had thought the next piece of the puzzle would be found in the martial world. But Sunghyun's current senses said otherwise.
This should do it.
Gulp—.
Trait is evolving.
Trait: Thunder King [A] — branch determined.
Enlightenment level is high. A higher rank is granted.
The mental images woven into Sunghyun's lightning began devouring mana and growing.
One strand. Two strands.
Crackle crackle crackle—.
Every strand wove together into a single bolt of lightning.
He could hold it no longer. Sunghyun released the bolt.
The lightning shot skyward.
BOOOOOOM!
The clouds in the atmosphere gathered around the lightning. In the end, a single massive cumulonimbus took form.
Looking up at that cloud, Sunghyun clenched his fist.
"Strike."
In a world already turned pitch dark, black-and-blue lightning began to fall.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
With every strike of lightning, one dragon's life was decided as a bad ending.
In the end, it was a race between Sunghyun's mana running dry and the dragons being wiped out.
Along the way he also identified the Gold and Red Dragons hiding in human form, but decided to leave them alone for now.
Armin would be out soon. Once she arrived, he could rest — that was the thought. Just a gut feeling, but she was more reliable than anything else. So he didn't worry about what came after, and freely spent his mana.
BOOM! BOOM!
One. Two.
"All of them… is too much."
But the primary objective was complete.
Lightning bolts he could still fire: two. Dragons remaining: three.
BOOM!
Two.
BOOM!
One.
Thud—.
Every last drop of mana was spent.
And at the same time—
"Talk about perfect timing…"
Ziiing—.
Seeing Armin appear before his eyes, Sunghyun could close them in relief.
She seemed to rush over and say something, but he couldn't hear it. He needed to separate his consciousness to recover his body as fast as possible.
Still — he had to say this much.
"I told you I'd clear the traffic."
Thud—.