Chapter 294
Chapter 294
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 294
Chapter Title: 91. With Spear and Shield, Into the Eye of the Typhoon (5)
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The disaster was only just beginning. The Black Dragon's breath had the property of devouring mana and causing destruction. It dealt a massive blow to civilizations built on magitech science.
Even with its reason paralyzed by rage, Mu was intelligent.
There was purpose in the direction it unleashed its breath. Australia's two largest mana power plants had been destroyed in a straight line.
Australia's mana reactors would be shut down for the foreseeable future.
When the power plants stopped, electricity would cut out. Base stations would fail, limiting communications. Mass production systems, including factories, would grind to a halt. Without the electricity needed to neutralize pollutants, sewage systems would break down, and potable water would become scarce.
That was what Mu was aiming for.
But while the creature staggered from firing its breath, Yoo Ji-tae closed the distance.
He extended the range of his Formless Sword to its maximum.
He had to sever its wings.
Formless Sword (SS) - Form 3
Forked Lightning Form
Like tree branches spreading out.
Like lightning splitting to cover an area.
Following Yoo Ji-tae's will to tear the wings to shreds, the killing intent branched and splintered, extending in all directions.
It compressed the dragon's movements in real time like a spiderweb. Clang! The divine protection guarding the dragon's body shattered. Crack! The killing intent burrowed into the massive wing.
Dragon blood sprayed up like a fountain. The thin wing tore apart like ragged cloth.
Wing Severed
Dragon blood erupts
A scream echoed even amid its lost reason.
The moment raw power clashed head-on, Mu realized Yoo Ji-tae's strength and faltered.
"How can a human possess such..."
In that instant, spheres of mana enveloped Yoo Ji-tae. Spheres focused on Compression and Crushing. He swung his Formless Sword to deflect some, but there were far too many. Almost like dust. Hundreds of mana spheres blanketed him like a sandstorm. Kaboom! The explosion rocked him, sending him staggering.
The dragon didn't plummet even with its wings torn. Its unprecedented mana kept the massive body afloat and moving. Yoo Ji-tae pursued its back, relentlessly shredding the wings with Forked Lightning Form and shattering the back scales.
Meanwhile, dozens of spells assaulted him. Some were fireballs, others ice blades. Lightning bolts from the sky struck him. Tzzt! His muscles cramped.
Spells that would instantly kill any superhuman. Yoo Ji-tae endured them silently with his body.
His divine protection blocked half, but the rest got through.
Dodging would slow him down. He had to save as many humans as possible.
He couldn't even block the grand magics Mu sporadically fired at the world.
Myriad spells spawned in the air and shot out.
Compressed intensely, they could travel long distances. In some places, like volcanic ashfall. In others, like a hailstorm of fist-sized chunks. Or as wind blades sweeping the land.
When breath followed, massive explosions rocked East Asia.
Krunch!
Meanwhile, Yoo Ji-tae shattered part of the dragon's back scales and spine. The 2.5-meter-thick colossal bone pulverized.
The dragon flapped in agony, unable to control its massive frame, and began a slow descent.
But dragons were a magical species.
It didn't just take it lying down.
Annihilation (S)
Black flames consume all: blessings, mana, authorities, existence
Jet-black flames that burned everything indiscriminately surged up.
Fueled by mana doped from its wings, they lunged at Yoo Ji-tae like a beast's maw. He didn't dodge. He blocked with his arms head-on. Part of his upper clothing burned away.
The sensation of raw flesh burning whole.
"Ngh..."
He endured.
Immediately after, cubic magic circles etched around the falling Black Dragon.
Teleport Bulk Exchange (SS)
Swaps space, not existence
A grand magic that swapped positions by substituting space itself, not beings.
He hurriedly mobilized his killing intent to interfere.
No good. This time, it was prepped via Memorize (S). An S-rank spell preempting an SS-rank authority. Unthinkable by common sense.
Shrinking Earth (S)
Folds short-range space
Thus, Yoo Ji-tae folded space over a short distance and thrust himself into the violet space about to be swapped.
Unauthorized, he was treated as a foreign object in that space. Mana turned into tens of thousands of needles, ripping through his body.
Intense shock rattled his insides. His head felt like it would burst. His guts churned to mush. Blood trickled from his mouth and ears. He endured.
"..."
Soon, the Black Dragon and Yoo Ji-tae emerged intertwined over East Asia.
At an altitude of 100 km, no less.
Earth's curve was visible. The blue atmosphere stretched below. Looking down, continents and oceans appeared like on a globe.
Yoo Ji-tae charged, using Hoop Chain Form to shatter scales and sever the neck. The 4-meter Formless Sword sawed half through like an electric chainsaw, mangling flesh.
A mental scream rang out. Mu writhed in pain.
But the dragon didn't stop.
Yoo Ji-tae swung again, targeting the heart this time. Splurch! Scales shattered, flesh and bone crumbling. Just as killing intent neared the heart.
A massive explosion from its heart repelled him.
Immediately, the Black Dragon invoked Teleport Bulk Exchange (SS) again.
The range was off this time. It aimed to excise the space containing Yoo Ji-tae. He poured everything into widening the gap.
The Black Dragon seemed to be misunderstanding.
Yoo Ji-tae didn't respond.
Intent flooded in like a tidal wave.
Yoo Ji-tae moved like lightning to finish it.
At the same time, a resolute mental voice resounded.
The dragon began plummeting toward the ground.
Filling its heart with breath mana.
Oh no.
It was trying to self-destruct.
Sacrificing its entire Dragon Heart to turn East Asia into a wasteland!
Yoo Ji-tae hurriedly followed, diving toward the ground.
Mana forcibly grabbed from the mage tower intertwined with the Black Dragon's Dragon Heart, explosively boosting output.
No matter how much he accelerated, he realized it was insufficient.
Even at full power, he might barely reach it, but he couldn't stop the Black Dragon from hitting the ground.
Regression's condition: 95% of Earth's population dead.
Like his 'stamina bar.' East Asia devastated, mana-devouring Dragon Heart properties spreading to erase years' worth of progress. The world would plunge into depression. Humans would inevitably steal and kill from each other.
At minimum, 20% of humanity dead.
The great night hadn't arrived yet.
If this flow started, humanity wouldn't unite.
One adult dragon was doing this. Three? Catastrophe.
Thus, Yoo Ji-tae had to stop this.
Altitude still high. Distance ample.
He had one way.
Yoo Ji-tae looked down at the world. About a dozen massive rifts over 40m remained open.
If he could redirect the fall.
Shove the Black Dragon into one.
If he had the output to make it possible...
Concept Comprehension (SS)
Replaces incomprehensible elements with understandable ones
He invoked the authority stolen from killing the Black clan's leader, 'Rugiatan.'
An authority that substituted incomprehensible elements of existence with comprehensible ones: Concept Comprehension.
Soon, his killing intent transformed into a concept, floating before his gaze. Dense like stars in the night sky, over a thousand numerically.
'Wills of slaughter' he had personally collected.
Yoo Ji-tae ruthlessly consumed 150 of them.
Someday. Somewhere. Someone's tear-streaked desperation to kill him twinkled like stars. He gathered them in one hand.
Via Concept Comprehension, they manifested as a long spear.
Rumble...
While falling.
The atmosphere resonated with his mana.
Formless Sword (SS) - Form 5 Secret Technique
Punishment Form
He hurled the spear.
His imagery's maximum-output killing intent shot as a spear form.
It flickered dozens of times per second. Suppressed before space, bursting forth, suppressed again. Each burst covered kilometers instantly.
It finally pierced the dragon's back, skewering through and twisting its fall.
Back Pierced
Trajectory altered
A piercing scream shook his mind as the Black Dragon's path wavered.
Its massive body got sucked into a rift near the South China Sea.
Yoo Ji-tae followed into the rift.
Inside was 'Rock Mountain.' Already cleared. There, he found the Black Dragon crashed into rubble.
The 40m-tall behemoth sprawled across an area the size of three basketball courts.
No matter that it was an adult dragon, a mutant doped with mage tower supers.
Yoo Ji-tae's self-damaging strike was fatal.
It was over. Just end its life.
Gurgle... Gurgle...
Mu gasped for breath.
Yoo Ji-tae, feeling considerable fatigue, planted a foot on its belly.
Stepping over shattered scales, he headed for the heart.
"..."
But.
Something odd caught his eye.
"..."
Yoo Ji-tae doubted his eyes for a moment.
Impossible. It was embedded in the Black Dragon's pierced heart.
"What..."
He froze in shock, body rigid.
The regressor had never been this stunned, even in his 7th cycle.
A massive hole pierced the Black Dragon from back to chest. Yet its Dragon Heart had withstood the blow, lying exposed.
Shattered heart bore an Origin Fragment. Natural for dragons. Even Black clan wasn't exempt.
But Mu's Origin Fragment looked off.
Normally, Origin Fragments resembled crystal gems.
Around the gem orbited a gray sphere, blocking external info like the moon around Earth, protecting the fragment's data.
That was Ancient Dragon's Authority, unbreakable no matter what Yoo Ji-tae tried.
Authority from the mythic Ancient One, origin existence.
Just needed to experiment.
He'd analyzed drive principles and data inscription through repeated study. But Ancient Dragon's Authority blocked actual tests.
Data was ample. If he could experiment, tweak the fragment and activate Emergency Summon of the Sovereign immediately instead of 20 years later.
But no experiments possible.
Infuriating.
Tried thousands of ways to remove it. Wouldn't budge. Even Apocalyptic Clock couldn't touch it.
So close. Yet impossible.
When he abandoned decades of research.
The agony...
And now...
"..."
Yoo Ji-tae leaned in to inspect the Black Dragon's heart.
Mu's Origin Fragment had its Ancient Dragon's Authority broken.
Like dunking his head in ice water.
His heart raced madly.
Lips parched. He wet them with his tongue, peering again.
"..."
The 'experimentable Origin Fragment' he'd longed for lay before him.
Unreal. Vision shook. Tongue tasted bitter.
Then, snap. He focused.
Gurgle... Gurgle...
In the dark rift, as the Black Dragon breathed. Yoo Ji-tae panicked, opening Shallowest Abyss (S). He frantically pulled out 'Elixir' and poured it on the heart.
This specimen couldn't die. Absolutely.
Never. Absolutely not.
As he treated the dying Mu.
Chaotic mana stirred outside the rift.
Yoo Ji-tae gritted his teeth.
The battle's scale was too vast. Mu's global impact enormous. Nations' top supers wouldn't sit idle.
He closed his eyes, extending his senses far.
Auras of the world's elite supers approached.
They were coming to kill the Black Dragon.