It was as if a speck of dust had struck a massive meteorite, yet the result was both being flung apart in opposite directions.
Amid the rolling shockwaves, a deafening dragon's roar echoed. Ronan landed heavily, unable to stop himself from retreating, his feet carving two deep grooves into the stone plaza.
"Tch!"
Ronan spat out a mouthful of blood, his internal blood surging like a tidal wave. Thick black mist rolled around him as he shook the hand he had used to punch, his fingers flexing before clenching again. His eyes shone like blue fire diamonds.
"Again."
Ronan stomped his foot, his body shooting forward like a cannonball, the black mist and his long hair trailing behind him like the tail of a black meteor streaking through the sky.
"Boom!"
"Boom! Boom!"
The figures of the man and the dragon collided repeatedly, separated, then collided again, the void trembling and the sound waves rolling. If one ignored the vast difference in their sizes, the scene resembled two legendary beasts engaged in a ferocious battle.
"Bang!"
After another collision, Ronan was sent flying back.
He took a deep breath, his arms hanging naturally, blood dripping from them. The wounds caused by the recoil force had burst open, but dark red flesh buds quickly grew from them, intertwining like living things and rapidly healing under the continuous flow of vitality.
He had to admit, even with the [First Spiral Palace] and the mastery of "advanced" [Ancient Power], there was still a certain gap between him and the legendary dragon in terms of pure physical strength.
Yet, Ronan's mood was unprecedentedly exhilarated. Even without entering the state of [Lake of Extreme Boiling], the primal combat instinct awakened deep within his bloodline still set his entire body ablaze with fighting spirit.
"In the recent era, how many wizards in the entire wizard world could fight a dragon barehanded like me?!"
The life energy guidance system of the [First Spiral Palace] was infinitely more sophisticated than his previous crude and brutal compression method.
At this moment, Ronan's body was like an ancient and precise instrument, with countless dark blue tubes connecting throughout. Every breath he took could summon the vast and mighty power of life, like an ocean.
Ronan's eyes burned with intensity as he took a deep breath, slowly raising his already healed arms.
Every inch of his skin, every muscle, seemed like forged iron tempered through countless trials, exuding a mysterious and formidable aura under the light.
The runic patterns belonging to the [Ancient Power] continued to grow on his body, emitting more black mist.
He pressed his palms together, aligning the two runic roots at the center of his palms in front of his chest. The swirling black mist around him immediately surged, gradually condensing into a massive, ancient, and uniquely shaped black battle axe above his head.
On the surface of the axe, a runic pattern of the [Ancient Power] was slowly taking form.
This was a new offensive technique Ronan had unlocked after perfectly mastering the "advanced" [Ancient Power] through his [Ancient Mara Body].
The mysterious black mist that composed this technique was a power Ronan had never encountered before.
It was generated from within him, seemingly a blend of life energy, blood, marrow, and a portion of his soul force.
Ronan named it—"Aura."
Perhaps it wasn't entirely accurate, but it was a simple way to define things.
The black battle axe fully took shape, absorbing all the black mist. The blade was entwined with fine black arcs and flames, with wisps of black smoke trailing down, connecting to Ronan's body.
An ancient and terrifying pressure slowly emanated from the black battle axe.
The distant dragon roar abruptly ceased.
Ronan looked up and saw a pair of dragon eyes filled with shock and agitation.
Ronan exhaled, feeling a strange fusion with the black battle axe above his head, as if it were an extension of his own body, without any resistance or hesitation.
"It's been a long time since I used this part of my abilities."
His gaze swept over his character panel, briefly lingering on the Master-level [Basic Swordsmanship].
During his apprenticeship, this had been one of his mainstays. However, as his spellcasting abilities continued to improve, the proficiency of this skill had not increased for a long time.
He never expected to use it again.
Although it was [Basic Swordsmanship], after advancing to the Master level, it provided Ronan with more control over his body and cold weapons, which was equally applicable to the battle axe.
Ronan's eyes locked onto the distant dark silver tailless dragon. His long black hair danced wildly behind him, while patterns of flames and vines grew on his body, exuding an intangible aura. With a calm expression, he took a step forward, his figure leaving a blurry trail in the void. The black battle axe followed closely, instantly closing the distance to the dragon. Then, he raised his hand and made a downward slashing motion.
"Whoosh—"
The battle axe descended, black arcs and flames leaping, causing ripples in the void, silent yet like black thunder falling.
Time seemed to slow down at this moment.
The dark silver tailless dragon roared, flapping its wings and raising its claws, directly grabbing at the descending thunderous axe light.
"Crack—"
Accompanied by a sound as if something had shattered, an ear-splitting dragon roar erupted.
The massive dragon figure soared, stirring up a violent turbulence. Ronan, carrying the axe, flew back, squinting his eyes. He immediately saw that the front of one of the dark silver tailless dragon's claws was smooth, clearly severed by his earlier axe strike!
However, there was no blood or broken claw left on the ground. The wound on the dark silver dragon's severed claw was a deep black, with points of light gathering on it, as if trying to reform a new claw.
"As expected... it's a soul entity!"
Ronan's eyes narrowed. He had long suspected that this dragon, which had appeared out of nowhere, might be some ancient spirit, especially since this was the Spirit Realm.
Earlier, to protect Evaque's soul disk from damage, he had withstood a strike from its dragon claw. Hearing it converse with the numerous Wizard statues in the square, he recognized it as the voice he had inadvertently overheard in the dream of the Dragon Wizard Bahafus's inheritance, the one speaking with Bahafus.
Its attack on him seemed to be aimed at seizing his body to escape this place.
Ronan was unclear about its identity. If Evaque were here, perhaps he could recognize its origins. However, existing in the fifth layer's statue square and being able to directly converse with the Spirit Wizard leaders suggested that even if it wasn't a Wizard leader, it was someone of significant status in the Hall of Spirits.
The pitch-black battle axe, transformed from the Ancient Power, consumed a tremendous amount of life energy with each attack.
Ronan silently calculated that, while ensuring he remained unaffected, he could only launch two more attacks of the same magnitude as before.
"Two more... that should be enough."
Ronan stared at the dark silver dragon in the distance, which was roaring in fury after losing a claw. A glimmer of ambition suddenly sparked in his eyes.
"Perhaps today I have a chance to slay a dragon!"
"Even if it's just the soul of a dragon that has survived for who knows how many years, its power weakened by time."
A knight slaying a dragon—how many people dreamed of such a feat in their youth!
A surge of fervor welled up in Ronan's heart. He took a light breath, controlled the battle axe, and once again charged forward.
The rushing blood within him converged into the sound of surging tides, accompanied by the mournful cry of a blue conch. Ronan, like an ancient demon emerging from the depths of the ocean, streaked through the void with a dark trajectory, closing the distance to the dark silver dragon in an instant.
With his hands clasped together in a gesture of worship, he wielded the giant axe. A cascade of arcane flames fell, releasing an ancient and terrifying pressure.
This time, he aimed for the dragon's neck. As the battle axe traced a mysterious arc and descended, the dragon, which had just lost a claw, roared in fury.
Immediately, the massive dragon's body shook violently. Along its mountainous spine, thick silver-white spikes rapidly grew.
"Boom!"
The collision this time unleashed an unprecedented force. Ronan felt as though he had struck an indestructible mountain peak. A terrifying recoil swept over him, instantly causing the flesh on his arms and chest to explode. He was sent flying backward at high speed, finally crashing with a loud "boom" into a massive stone statue.
"Cough—"
Ronan struggled to rise from the depression in the statue, surprised to find that it was the same humanoid statue that had blocked him again. The cracks on the statue seemed more numerous now, on the verge of collapse.
The blade of the ancient battle axe, formed from black "aura," had a large chunk missing and was slowly repairing itself.
Ronan's eyes widened in shock. Looking into the distance, he saw that the tailless dark silver dragon seemed to have entered an extreme state of frenzy. Its entire body had swollen significantly, its wings spread wide, and countless currents of air surged around it.
He had overestimated himself.
Or rather, he had underestimated his opponent.
How could a dragon that had survived in the long-lost Hall of Spirits, and was once a legendary species in life, be anything but formidable?
The enraged tailless dragon's scales now gleamed with a brighter luster, but the aura it emitted had become even more sinister. When those dark yellow dragon eyes locked onto him, Ronan felt an inexplicable, intense sense of dread.
It was as if time had rewound to when he was being chased by the dragon.
"Roar!"
When the spiked tailless dragon flapped its wings and flew toward Ronan, a single word flashed through his mind—"Run!" The ancient battle axe, derived from the Ancient Power, disintegrated, and the rolling aura reabsorbed into Ronan's body. He no longer wanted to attempt a final strike. Preserving his strength to escape and delay was the wiser choice now.
"Boom!"
A massive silver meteorite slammed into the humanoid stone statue behind Ronan, forcing him to scramble out from the shower of shattered rocks and debris.
There was no time to look back as he immediately felt himself locked onto by an intense, murderous intent.
His scalp tingled, and with a grit of his teeth, he dashed straight toward the stone statue of Bahafus, the Wolf Witch Head.
Judging from the creature's somewhat "ingratiating" attitude toward Bahafus, it was likely that it wouldn't dare to directly collide with Bahafus's spirit statue.
After all, Bahafus was merely in a deep slumber, unlike the ancient humanoid statue whose name was unknown and was already on the verge of decay and death.
Ronan's decision proved effective. Even in its enraged state, the tailless dragon still harbored a certain wariness toward Bahafus's statue. It didn't dare to charge directly at Bahafus's statue as it had done with the humanoid statue, giving Ronan some much-needed breathing room. He circled around Bahafus's statue, dodging and weaving, and for the moment, the tailless dragon couldn't lay a hand on him.
But dragging this out indefinitely wasn't a solution. Ronan kept a close eye on Evaque's soul disk in the shadows.
He was waiting for Evaque to emerge from his trial, regardless of success or failure, so he could drag him out of this cursed place as soon as possible.
After a round of evasive maneuvers, the tailless dragon seemed to gradually calm down from its fury and suddenly stopped chasing Ronan.
Instead of feeling relieved, Ronan's heart was filled with a sense of foreboding.
The next second, the tailless dragon, which was separated from him by half of Bahafus's statue, suddenly turned its body and swiftly darted in a certain direction.
Ronan's expression instantly turned grim.
The tailless dragon was heading straight for Evaque's soul disk.
The cunning creature had finally remembered how Ronan had "risked his life" to protect that soul disk earlier.
"Damn it!" Ronan cursed inwardly, but his body didn't stop for a moment. Black mist surged around him as he pushed the power of his Ancient Mara Body to its limits, charging straight toward Evaque's soul disk.
The blue spiral within him hummed, and countless fine tubes connected throughout his body shone brightly.
Under the terrifying strain of his potential, Ronan actually managed to catch up to the tailless dragon—or perhaps the dragon had deliberately slowed down, waiting for him to walk right into its trap.
And just at that moment, the soul disk began to rise and float on its own. Beneath the massive stone statue of the Wolf Witch Head, a vortex-like light gate quietly appeared. Faintly, one could see Evaque's figure, unable to contain his excitement and joy.
"Evaque!!" Ronan shouted at the figure about to emerge, but a massive dragon-shaped shadow silently blocked his path.
Ronan's pupils contracted sharply. Rolling black mist surged from his body, but before it could even condense into the shape of a battle axe, he had already thrown a punch, driving it forward with all his might!
"Boom!"
A deafening explosion rang out, and crimson blood mixed with black mist burst forth.
Clutching his shattered and broken arm, Ronan's body was flung backward like a bird through the air.
In the low, cold roar of the dragon, a massive dragon shadow swiftly followed, like a suffocating silver wave, silently and inexorably closing in on Ronan.
Gritting his teeth, Ronan stared fixedly at the pair of dark yellow dragon eyes that were growing larger and larger. The disdain and coldness in them sent chills down his spine.
Ronan reached out and grabbed an ancient finger bone—the one Evaque had given him.
Within the consciousness space, Ronan was also preparing to knock on the "Taboo Gate" that Hekalto had left within him.
He remained calm.
He had faced similar dire situations many times before, and no one understood the art of surviving against all odds better than he did.
Just as Ronan was about to deploy his trump cards, "Crack, crack—"
A strange sound abruptly came from behind him, as if something was rapidly collapsing and shattering.
Ronan wanted to turn around, but in the next second, he saw everything happening behind him reflected in the eyes of the tailless dragon before him.
——
The oldest, nearly decayed stone statue of the Wizard's head was rapidly crumbling.
A blinding golden light burst forth from within, a pure, indescribable surge of soul energy.
Amidst this light, a particularly radiant golden speck slowly emerged.
In an instant, it darted right in front of Ronan.
Ronan could see clearly what was inside the speck—a stunningly beautiful golden ladybug.
It wobbled as it flew past Ronan, then gently landed on the tip of the tailless dragon's nose, which had already opened its mouth, ready to devour him.
Yet, this single action caused an indescribable look of immense fear to appear on the tailless dragon's face.
It frantically scrambled backward, almost tumbling over itself, and immediately abandoned Ronan, the "duck" it was about to devour.
The golden ladybug did not pursue it but instead flew back in front of Ronan, its wings spreading and giving a slight tremble.
Beneath its nearly transparent wings, a faint golden membrane was released, quickly enveloping Ronan's entire body.
In an instant, a torrent of overwhelming information flooded Ronan's mind, and he almost immediately lost consciousness.
Just before his awareness completely faded, he seemed to hear the tailless dragon's furious roar.
"Alazan Dillinfaskola Carkinston!"
"I curse you for eternity!!"
(End of Chapter)