Boom, boom, boom!

Puff Four constantly shifted position, attacking from every possible angle, but every strike hit nothing.

Divine Artifact: Void Realm had created a sealed spatial loop around the battlefield. It seemed close enough to touch, yet remained forever out of reach. All Puff Four could do was repeatedly shout, “Damn it!” through the Mycelial Network.

Calling the space a cage was somewhat misleading. It covered more than a hundred square miles, stretching from deep underground to high above the clouds. There was plenty of room to move inside.

Through Evan’s mycelial mat, however, the entire region had become a vast blind spot. Every form of perception was completely blocked.

Large numbers of Puffcaps crowded around the outside of the cage.

Spore Cannons, Resonance Cannons, lightning arcs, Detonation…

Evan could feel faint ripples whenever the attacks struck the spatial barrier, but they were nowhere near enough.

Inside the cage, the Great Dragon had already spread his wings and flown toward Sable.

“Puff Four, Detonation.”

“Huh?” Puff Four was still feeling along the invisible wall with a mycelial tendril. Its enormous cap tilted as it repeated in confusion, “Detonation?”

“Detonation, now! Blow this spatial barrier open!” Evan ordered again.

It was the only method currently capable of breaking the spatial barrier, though Evan knew perfectly well that the blast might kill Sable too.

But Sable was already trapped in a hopeless situation. One last desperate gamble could hardly make things worse.

“All right!” Puff Four straightened its colossal fungal body, vast enough to blot out the sky, then deliberately shuffled closer until it was almost pressed against the spatial barrier.

The energy inside its fungal body immediately descended into chaos.

Crack!

The fungal body split open, revealing a blazing white radiance within.

“Puff. Four. Mega. Detonation!”

Light consumed everything.

A second sun appeared upon the earth.

Even the Great Dragon inside the spatial cage stopped in midair and turned to look.

The sun continued to expand. Ridges were flattened like paper, while trees were torn out by the roots and pulverized in midair.

The spatial barrier continuously transferred the explosive energy to other sections of the cage. Yet the power far exceeded what it could withstand, causing the entire barrier to warp and tremble with increasing instability.

Crack!

At the very end of the explosion, the spatial barrier could no longer endure the strain of redirecting so much energy. A sliver of the blast finally tore through and forced its way inside.

The ground within the cage was ripped up wholesale, sweeping both Sable and the Great Dragon away!

Even the radiance of Divine Artifact: Void Realm dimmed considerably.

In the distance, the Great Dragon emerged covered in dirt. Once he realized what had happened, he exerted control over the now-dimmed Void Realm and erected the spatial cage again, though its range was much smaller than before.

This time, however, Evan did not lose sight of what was happening inside.

A Puffcap crawled out of a Mycelial Tunnel beside Sable.

With [Thrall Command] combined with the Kyth’s [Mental Expansion], this Puffcap effectively served as Evan’s Kyth Eyebeast.

More Puffcaps emerged from the Mycelial Tunnel one after another.

By the time they drained the Mana from the surrounding mycelial mat, several hundred Puffcaps had entered the cage.

A few of the first arrivals immediately curled into balls and rolled toward the Great Dragon.

The Mana available within the cage’s mycelial mat was limited, so these Puffcaps ranged only from cannon fodder to elites. To a Dragon, the meager Mana within their fungal bodies did not even raise them to the level of vermin.

Even so, after witnessing Puff Four’s colossal Detonation, which had shaken him to his draconic core, the Great Dragon had no intention of letting them approach.

His left wing spread wide and swept around him like a scythe. More than a dozen charging Puffcaps were shredded at once. Most were not even killed by the bone spikes on the wing’s edge, but torn apart by the gale it produced.

Two Puffcaps, however, died upon the wing’s bone spikes.

And they touched the Great Dragon.

One of the Great Dragon’s hind legs abruptly went limp and lost all sensation, forcing him to support himself with his wings.

[Soul Touch LV9]

A Dragon whose soul shattered upon death could not provide progress toward [Ancient Dragon Path]. By using this skill, Evan had abandoned any hope of claiming that progress.

All he wanted now was to kill this adult Black Dragon and save Sable.

The Great Dragon tried several times, but sensation refused to return to his hind leg.

“An ability that damages the soul through physical contact?” The Great Dragon surveyed the Puffcaps lurking at various distances around him. “Are you truly so determined to interfere with the honor of Dragons?”

A voicebox Puffcap with tiny wings slowly rose into the air.

“I don’t care about your honor.”

More Puffcaps swarmed forward, only to meet a surging wave of Corrosive Dragonbreath.

Black mist flooded outward. Every Puffcap it touched instantly dissolved, leaving only puddles of black fluid on the ground.

Yet the Great Dragon failed to scour the entire cage with dragon breath. The supply stored within his body ran dry, and no more was produced.

“What is this…?”

[Sin of Envy: Seals the abilities of one individual.]

Praying that no crucial skill would lose a Level, Evan poured everything he had into sealing the Great Dragon’s Status Panel.

“Hahahaha! You’re out of skills, aren’t you? Now die!”

The remaining Puffcaps launched a Charge from every direction.

The Great Dragon knew he could not allow them to touch him again. He opened his jaws.

“ROOOOOAR!”

It was no sonic-attack skill, merely a raw and unadorned dragon roar.

The roar reverberated through the smaller spatial cage, echoing and overlapping until even Sable clutched her ears and rolled through the rubble in the distance.

As for the Puffcaps…

One Puffcap had already flown directly in front of the Great Dragon. It extended a mycelial tendril, attempting to touch his wing, only to fall limply from the air.

The dragon roar split several hideous gashes through the cannon-fodder Puffcap’s fungal body. It struck the ground and collapsed into a mass of mycelium.

With a single roar, the Great Dragon nearly wiped out every Puffcap.

He did not stop there. Driving his claws into the earth, he ripped up a patch of ground along with the shadow that had been creeping toward him.

With [Melt into Shadow] deprived of its foothold, a Puffcap was forced out of the darkness in midair.

The Great Dragon beat his wings. Before the Puffcap could even land, the resulting gale tore it to pieces.

“Now there are finally no more nuisances.”

The Great Dragon slowly turned toward Sable, who had tucked her tail between her legs.

Only one Puffcap remained within the cage, the one serving as Evan’s Kyth Eyebeast.

Distance alone was not what had allowed it to survive.

[Life Essence]

Evan had sent it in as a healer Puffcap. But now that it was the only one left, even it seemed incapable of changing the outcome.

Outside the cage, Evan was producing Puffcaps at full speed. Once he had enough to fuse into a colossal Puffcap, he could launch another Detonation.

It could not possibly match Puff Four’s power in its Leviathan state, but Void Realm was clearly no longer intact. There was at least a chance.

The problem was that Sable probably would not survive that long.

Evan had already done everything he could. He had even blown up a Leviathan, but a Divine Artifact was simply too unfair.

He wondered whether that idiot might have a chance of reincarnating as a Sable Puffcap after she died.

If not, he would just have to kill the adult Black Dragon afterward, then carve “Avenged” into the lower-right corner of Sable’s gravestone.

Huh?

Why wasn’t Sable dead yet?

* * *

Inside the cage, Sable darted around like an enormous black fly.

The Great Dragon swept his tail sideways, striking Sable in the middle of her high-speed flight and hurling her into the dirt once more.

Sable struggled out of the crater with blood running from the corner of her mouth and a gash torn through one wing. As soon as she rose, she flew away again, only for the distorted spatial barrier to transfer her to the Great Dragon’s opposite side. No matter what she did, she could not escape.

“Is fleeing all you can do?” The Great Dragon stood at the center of the cage, his golden eyes fixed coldly upon her. “Whether you entered because someone controlled you or because of some accident, you are now part of the Dragon Contest. Your only path forward is to fight with everything you have.”

“What are you doing now? Running away? Even if you escape this cage, can you escape the Dragon Contest?”

“Come out and face me!”

The Great Dragon stamped a claw, splitting the earth and blasting Sable out of the ground just as she tried to burrow beneath it. While she was still airborne, he struck her with another sweep of his tail and smashed her into a distant crater.

Sable was barely alive, yet Evan was no longer as anxious as he had been at the beginning.

The reason was simple. With the adult Black Dragon’s attributes, killing Sable should never have taken this long.

Did he enjoy playing with his prey, just as Evan did?

That made no sense. He had already taken a [Soul Touch], and Evan was still preparing more exploding Puffcaps outside. He had no reason to act so leisurely.

Then what was he trying to do?

Sensing the sole healer Puffcap left inside the cage, Evan had an idea.

* * *

“Norris, Sable is in grave danger. You’re the only one who can save her!”

Norris immediately sprang to his feet, concern spreading across his face. “Sable’s in danger? What happened to her? How can I help?”

“You’re willing?”

“Boss, what are you talking about? Of course I’m going to save Sable!”

A Puffcap patted Norris’s shoulder approvingly.

The next instant…

Shlk!

A mycelial tendril stabbed through Norris’s abdomen from behind. Norris stared in bewilderment, then coughed up a mouthful of blood.

The Puffcap also called to Louisa, who was watching from nearby with an equally baffled expression.

“Don’t just stand there. You’re coming too.”

* * *

Sable whimpered.

Sable curled up inside the crater, aching all over and too frightened to face the enormous figure approaching one step at a time.

“Sable… Sable!”

A familiar yet somehow different voice rang inside Sable’s mind. She wiped at the corners of her eyes and looked up.

Norris staggered toward her, drenched in blood, his scales stained crimson. One hand clutched his abdomen, but blood continued pouring between his fingers.

“Nor… hurt!”

“You’re hurt too, Sable!”

Norris raised a length of mycelial tendril and pushed it into Sable’s mouth.

Water of Life poured into her. Her broken scales did not regrow, but the rest of her wounds healed rapidly.

“Nor, hurt!” Sable repeated once her body had recovered.

Norris gave her a faint, sorrowful smile.

Then an enormous shadow fell over them both.

The Great Dragon looked at Sable and the Puffcap beside her. He spread his wings, preparing to summon a gale and tear the Puffcap apart, only for an unexpected growl to rise from below.

“Grrrraah!”

Sable dropped onto all fours and spread her wings, shielding the Puffcap behind her.

The Great Dragon paused.

He folded his wings and raised a foreclaw instead, bringing it down upon the Puffcap.

Boom!

For the first time, Sable charged directly into the Great Dragon’s claw. The collision shattered a dragon scale in the center of his palm, while Sable was smashed back into the ground.

This time, however, she scrambled out of the crater almost immediately. She lunged at the Great Dragon’s claw again and forced it aside, then dragged her newly battered body in front of the Puffcap once more.

In her eyes, Norris stepped forward again to heal her wounds.

The Great Dragon’s gaze shifted between the healer Puffcap and the other Puffcaps that had formed a complete ring outside the cage.

“Why have you found your courage?” the Great Dragon asked.

“Great Dragon, no bully Nor!”

“Hmph.”

The Great Dragon could tell that Sable was not fighting because she coveted the miraculous healing. She truly wanted to protect the Puffcap. He could not understand what made this particular Puffcap different from the others, but that was enough.

He changed his approach.

Whenever Sable attacked him, he fought her and knocked her away again and again.

Whenever Sable refused to attack, he made as if to strike the Puffcap, forcing her to return and fight.

The cycle repeated. As the two Black Dragons collided time after time, Sable’s attacks grew fiercer and more savage.

Claws, fangs, tail, horns…

She used every weapon she possessed.

Across what seemed like an endless series of exchanges, the Great Dragon accumulated more and more wounds. Yet the light in his eyes only grew brighter.

The battle continued for so long that Puffcaps had piled up across the ground outside.

Evan now had enough to summon a colossal Puffcap, but he chose not to.

Within the cage, the Great Dragon knocked Sable away once more.

Almost the instant she hit the ground, Sable twisted her body and shed most of the impact. She rolled through a complete revolution, transformed into a black streak, and slammed into the Great Dragon’s claw, where nearly every scale had already been shattered.

This time, she pierced straight through.

Sable no longer looked anything like a Dragonkin. Her black scales had been broken away over countless clashes, leaving only a few scattered pieces clinging to her slightly pudgy flesh.

Yet her golden eyes remained fixed on the Great Dragon. She watched his every movement, ready to counter at any moment, without the slightest hint of retreat.

The Great Dragon studied the bloody hole in his palm and revealed a somewhat ferocious smile.

“Good. No matter how much power a coward possesses, it is useless in their hands. But you… now you finally resemble a dragon.”

Sable panted before answering, “Great Dragon, go. Sable, no fight.”

“Sable, is it?” The Great Dragon regarded her. “Sable, if you want me to leave, you’ll have to defeat me!”

Another dragon roar shook the cage.

This time, even the last healer Puffcap could not endure it. Cracks split across its fungal body, and it collapsed to the ground.

In Sable’s eyes, however, it was no longer Norris alone who screamed and fell. Piglet, Starfire, Hunt, and nearly everyone who regularly spent time with her were huddled together, weak and helpless, waiting for Sable to save them.

“No roar!”

Sable shot into the sky, but she was not fleeing.

She circled overhead, moving faster with every revolution until she became a black meteor plunging toward the ground.

The Great Dragon recognized a skill he often used himself, and the corner of his mouth lifted.

“Yes. That’s how it should be.”

He drew his Mana inward. Deprived of the mana stream flowing through them, his black scales dimmed one after another.

Then he thrust out his chest and faced the falling meteor head-on.

Boom!

The unrestrained impact unleashed an enormous shock wave in every direction. A cloud of dust surged up and swallowed everything.

* * *

Sable had struck too hard and left herself dazed. A dragon claw nudged her until she rolled over.

Blood poured from the Great Dragon’s chest, yet he paid the wound no attention.

He removed a many-colored radiance from among his scales. Holding Divine Artifact: Void Realm aloft, he let it hover above Sable.

“Great… Dragon…” Sable mumbled groggily.

The Great Dragon gazed down at her, and for the first time, a trace of tenderness entered his eyes.

“Mother said I was her child as well. But I know you were always the one she loved most.”

“Mother said I should kill you for the sake of the Ancient Dragon Path.”

His claw slowly descended until it rested against Sable’s neck.

Suddenly, a mana fluctuation drew his attention. A colossal Puffcap emerged from a mana vortex beyond the spatial barrier, poised to Detonate at any moment.

The Great Dragon merely smiled when he saw it.

“Those mushrooms truly do care about you.”

His claw plunged into Sable’s chest. At the same moment, the Puffcap outside the cage Detonated with a thunderous blast.

But the Great Dragon did not kill Sable.

Instead, he pressed Void Realm into the wound he had opened in her chest.

“I don’t know what you have experienced with these mushrooms. But an Ancient Dragon… should choose of her own free will!”

The instant the Divine Artifact touched Sable, multicolored light erupted. Every strand of mycelium inside her vanished within the radiance.

For one terrible moment, Evan thought Sable had died.

The Puffcaps charged through the fading blast and rushed into the shattered spatial cage, intent on avenging her. Instead, they saw the Great Dragon sink into a patch of distorted space and disappear.

Only Sable remained, floating unconscious in midair.

Her Status Panel was still there.

The Puffcaps hurriedly crowded around her.

* * *

Dragoncliff Dungeon.

The sky above the cliff twisted, and the Great Dragon descended with gentle beats of his wings, landing just as he always had.

Some of the Kobolds who had remained behind heard the disturbance and gathered around.

They grew excited the moment they saw the Great Dragon, but their excitement turned to alarm when they noticed the wound in his chest.

“ROAR!”

A single dragon roar drove back every Kobold who tried to approach and heal him.

The Great Dragon slowly lay down before Sylvia’s dragon remains.

As he remembered the mother he had seen within the illusion, his gaze softened.

“I have refused your final wish once again.”

“If I am also your child, then how could an older brother kill his younger sister?”

“So… let me sleep beside you instead.”

“The little one… has a new name now. Sable. A foolish name… but one that suits her.”

“She… also has some mushroom monster companions. One of them…”

Atop Dragoncliff, the Great Dragon murmured on as he slowly drifted into sleep. A gentle breeze passed over the cliff and carried his story into the distance.

* * *

Elsewhere, Sable finally awoke in a daze.

The first thing she saw was a group of Puffcaps studying the smaller spatial barrier that completely enclosed her.

“Boss…” Sable instinctively called inside her mind.

This time, there was no answer.

She drew in on herself. Everything around her suddenly felt unfamiliar. Being severed from the Mycelial Network filled her with panic.

A voicebox Puffcap fluttered toward her on tiny wings.

“Sable, can you open this shell? I can’t reconnect you to the Mycelial Network otherwise.”

The voicebox Puffcap spoke in a revoltingly wet, slurping voice, but hearing the Boss speak lifted Sable’s spirits.

The polyhedron embedded in her chest began to rotate. It flashed faintly, and the barrier disappeared, dropping Sable directly into the crowd of Puffcaps.

As soon as she was free, Sable craned her neck and looked around.

“Nor, Hunt!”

Evan was using a mycelial tendril to prod at Void Realm in Sable’s chest. Only then did he remember the heroes of the hour.

“They’re fine. I already sent them for treatment. You did well, Sable!”

Sable relaxed. Only then did her delayed emotions catch up with her. She sniffled, looking uncharacteristically guilty.

“Boss, Sable… stupid.”

“It’s all right.”

Evan comforted her while reconnecting the already badly injured Sable to the Mycelial Network.

“All… right?”

“Yes. It’s all right,” Evan answered through the Mycelial Network.

* * *

Pop!

A mycelial tendril slipped into the mouth of Norris, who had lost so much blood that he had nearly joined the ranks of the Reborn Puffcaps.

Water of Life poured in.

“Rise again, Sable’s shiny!”

Pop!

The mycelial cocoon hanging upside down from the vaulted ceiling split open, and a Puffcap dropped out. It even bounced twice when it hit the ground.

“Why did they move it into the air?” Puff Four grumbled as it climbed upright. It immediately began shouting through the Mycelial Network. “Mycelial Sovereign! Mycelial Sovereign!”

“Oh, Puff Four. You’re alive again.”

“Mycelial Sovereign, how was it? Did I look incredible? My. Super. Mega. Detonation!” Puff Four propped itself up on a mycelial tendril and struck the heroic pose it had used during the Detonation. “I couldn’t feel anything after I Detonated, but it must have looked incredible, right?”

“It did. A true work of art,” Evan admitted objectively.

“Heh-heh!”

Delighted by the praise, Puff Four stretched and contracted, its entire fungal body wobbling like a piece of elastic candy. It looked ready to start hopping.

After reveling in the compliment for a while, Puff Four continued, “Mycelial Sovereign, where’s the recording crystal? I want to see!”

“There isn’t one.”

Those three simple words made Puff Four freeze. The color drained from its trembling cap until it turned grayish white, as if struck by Petrifying Ray.

“Whyyyy? Did… did you forget, Mycelial Sovereign?”

“I didn’t forget. I was recording it, but…” Evan projected an image directly into Puff Four’s consciousness.

A colossal semicircular crater filled the center of the image.

The uncratered half had been spared because the spatial barrier transferred the Detonation’s energy elsewhere. Even there, however, the entire surface had been stripped away, exposing grayish-white bedrock riddled with cracks.

As for the crater itself, there were no remains of trees or anything else. Even the distant mountain ridge had been mostly obliterated.

The Detonation had not merely reshaped the terrain. It had also caused lasting damage to the local Mana environment. Mana bursts of varying sizes erupted throughout the air from time to time, turning the region into a thoroughly dangerous zone.

Puff Four tilted its cap. “That’s… what my Detonation left behind?”

“Yes. Think about it. Could a recording crystal survive an explosion that powerful?”

“No…”

Puff Four’s cap collapsed. Its entire fungal body slumped across the ground like a puddle of slime that had lost all its dreams and was about to melt.

Curled up in the Mycelial Garden, it thought of the sacrifice it had made for [Leviathan] and wallowed in misery.

Evan let it languish in self-pity for quite some time before speaking again.

“Not all the recording crystals were destroyed.”

Puff Four snapped upright.

Its mycelial tendrils twisted together in front of it as it waited for Evan to continue, clinging to one final shred of hope.

“Only the crystal recording your Detonation was destroyed. The crystals that recorded your earlier battle with the Dragon had already been moved underground to a safe position behind the front. Fortunately, the explosion didn’t reach them.”

“That’s wonderful!” Puff Four happily rubbed itself against the mycelial mat, displaying none of the dignity of an honored warrior.

“Don’t worry. All your heroic moments were recorded. We’re busy right now, but I’ll send the recording crystals to you once things settle down.”

“Okay!” Puff Four nodded its cap vigorously, already imagining itself showing the recordings to the pink Puffcap and its other Puffcap Kindred.

“By the way, about that Leviathan…” Evan suddenly added.

Puff Four’s cap trembled, and it fidgeted awkwardly. “Mycelial Sovereign, could that… maybe wait a little longer?”

“Suit yourself.” Evan did not particularly care.

In truth, even if he installed another Leviathan body for Puff Four now, he had little spare Mana available to fill it out.

The Mist’s advance onto land had destroyed vast areas of the mycelial mat. Every region where the network remained intact was working without pause to produce all kinds of Puffcaps. These were continually deployed across the various fronts, becoming the seemingly inexhaustible Puffcap army in the enemy’s eyes.

After dealing with Puff Four, Evan returned his attention to Sable.

He now faced a very serious problem.

Evan’s Void Realm was embedded in Sable’s chest, and he could not remove it!

Calling it “embedded” was not entirely accurate. The polyhedron appeared to be lodged between Sable’s flesh and scales, but Evan could not actually touch it.

An extremely small spatial cage enclosed Void Realm. Whenever Evan extended a mycelial tendril toward it, the tendril passed straight through the surface of Void Realm and touched Sable’s skin instead.

Breaking the Void Realm barrier would be simple. All he needed was a colossal Puffcap to perform a point-blank Detonation.

Unfortunately, that would also blow Sable to pieces.

Evan considered it for only ten seconds before abandoning the idea.

There was another solution. Sable was now the owner of Void Realm, so once she learned how to control it, removing it should be easy.

That solution, however, depended on Sable’s dim little brain being capable of learning how.

Judging from the way she had opened the Void Realm barrier surrounding her earlier, Sable could only operate it by instinct for now. She would require extensive training before she truly mastered it.

At the moment, neither Evan nor Sable had time for such training.

[Ancient Dragon Path 100%]

With the Ancient Dragon Path complete, Sable’s body began to transform.

Nearly all her black dragon scales had shattered during the battle. Now they regrew at a speed far beyond anything Evan had seen before.

They did more than simply grow back. The dragon scales continued lengthening until they resembled the sweeping tail feathers of a phoenix.

Eventually, the elongated scales completely enveloped Sable’s body. When her wings folded shut, the scales interlocked and sealed together, forming an egg of dragon scales that floated in midair.

Evan did not interfere. It certainly looked as if she was about to evolve.

He wondered whether the “egg” would continue to grow. After all, Ancient Dragons were larger than ordinary Dragons.

What would an Ancient Dragon evolved from a Dragonkin like Sable even look like?

Would she revert to her ancestral form and become a true Ancient Dragon?

Would she simply become an enormous Dragonkin?

Or would she take on some other form entirely?

More importantly, would the evolution finally complete her intelligence?

They would have to wait for the results.

Evan also examined a small section of the elongated scales near the egg’s edge.

They were extremely hard.

He estimated that damaging them would require at least a Puffmech’s Ultimate Resonance Cannon or a point-blank Detonation from a colossal Puffcap.

That was reasonable. This was most likely an egg or cocoon incubating an Ancient Dragon, so exceptional durability was only natural.

There might even be additional defensive mechanisms beneath the hard exterior. Evan simply had no safe way to test for them.

Since the Ancient Dragon Egg was extremely difficult to move, Evan had to produce many additional Puffcaps to guard it where it floated. Its defenses were already astonishing, but he refused to risk an accident through carelessness.

Breaking the spatial barrier had already consumed a large force of Puffcaps. Now the newly produced Puffcaps were being assigned to protect the Ancient Dragon Egg, draining most of the Mana from the surrounding mycelial mat.

As a result, Piglet’s First Mycelial Corps could not replenish the Puffcaps it had previously lost on any meaningful scale. The entire army was forced to halt its advance.

It was not until a week later, after recovering nearly half its combat strength, that the First Mycelial Corps finally joined the Second Mycelial Corps, which had since parted ways with Puff Four.

Together, the two armies reached Duskfall Keep, capital of the Veiled Empire, and assembled beneath its walls.

The only question was whether that Slime was home.

At Duskfall Keep, the voicebox Puffcap’s words echoed beneath the sky through a voice-amplification spell.

“Demon King! Slime! You evil old bastard! Are you home?”

“If you are, come out and die! Don’t think you can hide and launch a surprise attack. You’ll only drag an entire city of innocent Demonkind into this!”

“You wouldn’t want your cowardice and treachery to reduce this magnificent imperial capital, with its centuries of history, to ashes in the flames of war, would you?”

“Come out and face us, you wicked Slime!”

Numerous black specks moved through the sky. These were scout Puffcaps circling Duskfall Keep, which Evan was using to determine whether the Demon King was actually there.

They did not venture too close. As the imperial capital, Duskfall Keep naturally possessed the finest defenses in the empire. Even Mycel Keep could not compare in that respect. Every Puffcap that misjudged the safe distance had already been reduced to a handful of ash.

That was also one of the main reasons Evan suspected the Demon King was hiding inside Duskfall Keep.

With only ten thousand or so elite soldiers and one or two powerful champions, a fortress city like Duskfall Keep could hold back Mycel Keep’s Puffcap army for a very long time, at least as long as Evan did not deploy Puffmechs or Leviathan Puffcaps.

The Demon King clearly had no reason to abandon it.

Through his vision in Oathbound City, Evan knew that the Veiled Empire had transferred every available high-level combatant there for the offensive. The Demon King alone had yet to appear.

Either the Demon King was hiding within Duskfall Keep, or Prince Vesalius, whose whereabouts remained unknown, had sworn allegiance to him again and was defending the city in his stead.

Unfortunately, neither had been discovered yet.

At the top of a tower within Duskfall Keep, Quentin leaned against a window and gazed at the restless Puffcap army spread across the wilderness outside. He plugged his ears.

The voice itself was practically a mental attack. Even from this far away, it sent wave after wave of goosebumps across his skin. He had no idea how the Demonkind soldiers on the city wall endured it.

The revolting voice was growing increasingly impatient. Guessing that the first assault would begin soon, Quentin stepped away from the window.

He descended the spiral staircase. At a turn in the stairs, a Lizardkin maid collided with him, scattering the contents of her arms across the floor.

They were all golden vessels and jewelry.

The gold items were things like candlesticks and plates. The gemstones had probably been pried out of paintings hanging in the fortress or taken from something similar.

Whatever their exact origins, they were clearly not possessions that should have belonged to the maid.

After the collision, the Lizardkin stared at Quentin in panic, like a thief caught in the act.

Then she noticed that he was human rather than Demonkind and visibly relaxed right in front of him.

She hurriedly gathered the scattered valuables. Before leaving, she even shot Quentin a vicious glare.

“Who decided Lizardkin made good maids…?”

He had encountered plenty of them by now, but Quentin simply could not appreciate a species covered from head to toe in scales.

The maid had clearly stolen from the fortress and intended to flee.

Nor was she the first person to run away over the past few days.

Quentin was hardly surprised. Duskfall Keep was currently without any real leadership.

The Demon King was absent. Duchess Velarys, who had originally been responsible for the city’s defense, had supposedly left to intercept the Puffcap army, only to vanish shortly after departing Duskfall Keep.

Now that the Puffcap army had reached the walls, it was not difficult to guess what had happened to Velarys.

Without anyone holding things together, panic had spread throughout Duskfall Keep.

Several days ago, Quentin had overheard servants claiming that the Demon King intended to abandon the Veiled Empire’s territory, seize the human lands instead, and use Highfort Keep as a new base from which to resist Mycel Keep.

The idea was idiotic, but it revealed just how bleak the Demonkind within the fortress believed their prospects to be.

Under such circumstances, there was nothing strange about people choosing to flee.

If anything, the Duskfall Keep garrison lived up to its reputation as the Veiled Empire’s elite. Even with morale this low, they remained on the city wall, ready to confront Mycel Keep’s army. Their loyalty was remarkable.

Still, unless the Demon King returned to take command, even elite soldiers would probably collapse within a few days.

Quentin had no intention of going down with Duskfall Keep.

He reached the bottom of the tower and pushed open a door.

Kiro, the Foxkin who had awakened several days ago, was reclining against the headboard and gazing at the gray sky beyond the window.

Ever since waking, he had often sat there in a daze. He seemed like a completely different Foxkin from the one he had been before losing consciousness.

Quentin secured his weapon across his back, filled his pack with tools and provisions, then tightened its drawstring. He looked at the Foxkin, who was still staring absently through the window.

“Kiro, aren’t you going to run? The mushrooms you fear most are about to spread in here. Don’t tell me you think Duskfall Keep can hold.”

Only after hearing his name did Kiro turn away from the window.

He slowly drew both hands out from beneath the blankets and held them out for Quentin to see.

The once-lustrous white fur was almost completely gone. All that remained were bare pink arms, wrinkled and withered like dead branches.

“You should leave without me. There’s no point in my going anywhere now,” Kiro said weakly. “Though I don’t think there’s much point in you running either.”

“Stay here and wait for mushrooms to grow out of me?” Quentin frowned. “Didn’t you say the Mycelial Sovereign would never spare us?”

Kiro regarded Quentin, who had been forced to help him for years, with a trace of pity.

He hesitated, then finally stopped being cryptic.

“It isn’t only the Mycelial Sovereign. Even if the Demon King wins, your fate will be the same. Everything was decided the moment you obtained [Sin of Sloth].”

“I knew it!” Faced with the sudden revelation that he was doomed, Quentin’s eye twitched. “But this is because of [Sin of Sloth]? Wait, that doesn’t make sense! If my [Sin of Sloth] and your [Virtue of Temperance] are so important, why would the Demon King leave us in Duskfall Keep and completely ignore us?”

“Because we’re only keys. We need do nothing more than exist.” The Foxkin glanced at him. “That’s all I know. Even in the simulations, I never had the chance to see the door we were meant to open.”

“I still don’t understand, but I’m not going to sit here and wait for death.”

Kiro merely looked at Quentin with even greater pity after hearing his declaration of defiance.

“Enough about me.” Quentin’s expression turned serious again. “Kiro, has your plan to save the world already failed?”

Kiro neither confirmed nor denied it. He only shrugged.

“I’m not sure.”

“You’re not sure?”

“I don’t have long to live. How could I possibly see that far anymore?” Kiro raised his withered hands and turned them over, then back again, as though examining objects that belonged to someone else. “The end of the world was originally supposed to come in a month. But now something has changed. Not in the way I intended, but through a possibility I never foresaw.”

He paused.

“Unfortunately, I won’t live to see how it ends.”

For the first time, a hint of regret appeared on the face of the Foxkin who had remained so composed until now.

Quentin nodded, only half understanding. He went to the doorway and rested a hand on the handle before asking one final question.

“Come to think of it, Kiro, what exactly does this end of the world look like? As far as I know, aside from being under Parasitized status, the people in Mycel Keep are living perfectly normal lives. Even if the Mycelial Sovereign wins, everyone will simply become a mycelial host. You can hardly call that the destruction of the world.”

“Of course that isn’t what I mean by destruction. The destruction I foresaw is…”

Kiro looked at him.

In the Foxkin’s eyes, Quentin saw fear.

“When the spores bloom, all creation will return to fungal loam, and not one living soul will remain.”

At one corner of the battlefield in Oathbound City, a massive breach had been torn through the outer city wall.

More than a dozen Troll corpses lay beyond the opening, each clad in heavy armor. Inside, the ground was covered with dead humans and soldiers of the Veiled Empire.

A road paved with corpses stretched deeper into the city, ending at a collapsed magic tower.

The tower had been severed through the middle, its upper section embedded at an angle in the ruins. The battle still raged nearby.

A Veiled Empire commander pointed his sword toward another magic tower in the distance.

“Pick up the pace and keep moving! Tear down that tower before the human reinforcements arrive!”

Before he finished speaking, an elderly voice began chanting from the street opposite him.

“Arrow of the Firmament.”

An arrow of golden light traced a curving path through the air, piercing both the Demonkind commander’s shield and helmet.

His body swayed before falling onto its back.

As the other Demonkind soldiers instinctively looked toward their commander, an agile figure dropped into their midst.

[Spinning Slash LV8]

A ring of silver light swept past, sending three heads flying. Blood gushed from the severed necks while the three headless bodies remained upright for a heartbeat before collapsing together.

Bathed in blood, Bella kicked aside a severed arm obstructing her path. She straightened and pointed her sword at the wavering Demonkind soldiers ahead.

“Charge with me! Drive them back!”

Bella led the way, launching the first charge. A large force of human soldiers and a small number of Puffcaps surged forward behind her.

Clashing blades, whistling crossbow bolts, dying screams, and furious battle cries blended into a muddy tide, steadily forcing the invading Demonkind back.

Once they had reclaimed the area, Priest Samuel approached the fallen magic tower and ran a hand across the runes on its exterior.

After examining them for a long while, he shook his head regretfully.

“It was thoroughly destroyed. Every critical rune node has been damaged, rendering the tower completely useless. The Veiled Empire has clearly deciphered the internal rune structure of these node towers. They may even understand the entire defensive framework of Oathbound City.”

“That makes two…”

Bella looked back toward the city, her face creased with concern.

Oathbound City possessed two city walls, one inner and one outer, as well as twenty-three magic towers. Seven were node towers essential to the operation of the New Defense Line. The other sixteen were ordinary magic towers intended to conceal which towers were truly important.

The Veiled Empire had now captured two of those node towers.

If Oathbound City lost another two, its connection to the New Defense Line would be severed.

The city would then lose both its continuous supply of Mana and the powerful resonance defense system provided by the New Defense Line.

Boom!

Bella turned toward the sound.

In another corner of Oathbound City, blood churned across the horizon, attempting to shield the nearly unkillable Abyssal Beast as it charged the city wall.

From inside the city, Hero Sophia’s Mana arrows and Puff Ten’s magic poured into the bloody curtain, locked in an unending struggle against it.

That was the true main battlefield. The Demonkind in Bella’s sector were merely a detached force that had slipped into the city through a surprise attack.

Bella flicked the blood from her longsword.

“Things look difficult over there. Let’s finish off the Demonkind who broke into the city, then go help Lady Sophia.”

“Don’t let your guard down,” Samuel warned. “Anyone capable of destroying the tower and killing the Paragon-rank mage inside must have a powerful combatant among them.”

“I know, but with these Puffcaps around, using my True Sight is simply…”

Before Bella could finish, Samuel suddenly stepped forward and raised his staff, conjuring a wall of light.

The next instant, the light shattered with a crack.

A fist wreathed in extraordinary flames smashed toward them, radiating immense heat.

Bella raised her sword to block, but the punch still hurled her backward, carrying Samuel with her into a building beside the street.

Having taken the blow head-on, Bella escaped relatively unharmed. Only her hands were burned, and she quickly climbed back to her feet.

The elderly priest was not nearly as resilient. When Bella pulled him from the wreckage, his spine was broken. He coughed up blood and could no longer stand.

In the distance, the Demonborn who had ambushed them was under attack by Bella’s soldiers. At that moment, the Veiled Empire’s Demonkind launched a counterattack, plunging the area into even greater chaos.

After killing two soldiers who had sacrificed their lives to delay him, the Demonborn advanced toward Bella.

Bella placed Samuel somewhere relatively safe, then turned back alone to confront the Demonborn.

Blue flames blazed across both of his arms. Even from dozens of yards away, Bella could feel the heat rolling off him.

“A Demonborn…” she muttered warily. “What monster did you steal this ability from? What a nightmare.”

“Demonborn warrior Graeme! Remember the name of the one who kills you.”

Without caring whether Bella understood the Demon Tongue, Graeme swung his fist again.

The flames flew from his knuckles without any need for physical contact. Everything they touched was instantly reduced to ash.

[Flame Dragonbreath LV10]

With the Demon King’s help, Graeme had inherited this power from the late Clan Chief Dion.

The terrifying heat turned the space around Graeme into an inferno. Bella could not even approach him, much less fight normally. All she could do was retreat in disarray, dodging the terrifying fists of flame hurtling toward her.

She could not keep evading forever.

Bella tightened her grip on her longsword as silver light began flowing through her eyes.

[True Sight LV9]

In an instant, her vision was replaced by masses of color.

Most of the Puffcaps inside the city had already been expended in the earlier fighting. That was the only reason Bella dared use the skill now.

Even so, nauseating patches of chaotic color occasionally swept through her vision.

She turned her gaze back to Graeme. With almost no effort, she read every detail of his body from the varying shades of color.

There was a second Demon Core beneath the right side of his chest.

Bella did not know why Graeme possessed two Demon Cores, but the power contained within the second was clearly far greater than that of the one in the center of his chest.

More importantly, the second Demon Core’s color was distinctly different from the rest of Graeme’s body. It was not truly part of him.

That meant it was a weakness.

Seeing the weakness did not mean Bella could easily kill him.

Those terrifying blue flames…

Bella knew she would have only one chance to strike.

Even if her sword found its mark, the heat would most likely kill her along with her enemy.

But Bella had prepared herself to die in battle long ago.

She had accompanied Hero Sophia throughout her journey and watched countless people sacrifice themselves along the way.

Today, it was simply her turn.

“Father, grant me success! At the very least, let me wound this Demonborn!”

Bella abruptly stopped retreating and spun around.

At that moment, two arcs of sword energy descended from the sky.

Graeme halted and dodged, but not quite fast enough. His left little finger and ring finger fell to the ground in a spray of blood, then rapidly charred beneath the heat of the blue flames.

Graeme stopped and studied the newcomer cautiously.

“Quick reflexes. Even an ambush wasn’t enough to take your head.”

Wearing a mask and wielding two swords, Fifteen landed beside Bella and greeted her casually.

“Hero’s retainer, I’m not too late, am I?”

A lid opened on the metal pack strapped to Fifteen’s back. Puff Nine pushed half its cap outside, then very politely extended a mycelial tendril and waved at Bella.

“N-not… urgh… too late…”

The silver light rapidly faded from Bella’s eyes. Covering her mouth, she barely managed to answer.

[Gale Slash LV10]

[Flame Dragonbreath LV10]

Sword energy collided with a flaming fist, bursting apart in a shower of sparks.

Fifteen had to evade the blue embers, while Graeme used the opportunity to close the distance again, trying to sear him with the intense heat.

“What a nuisance…”

Fifteen unleashed more sword energy while retreating with [Flowing Step LV10].

Unlike Bella, he was not so thoroughly suppressed that he could not even attempt a counterattack.

However, flinging sword energy from a distance was clearly not enough to threaten Graeme. Even Bella’s supporting fire from her crossbow made little difference.

That did not mean Fifteen was at a disadvantage. Quite the opposite. If the stalemate continued, Graeme would inevitably be the one who died.

The terrifying blue flames were immensely powerful, but maintaining them had to consume a great deal of energy.

By comparison, [Gale Slash] cost Fifteen very little, and he had more than enough stamina. If necessary, he could even have Puff Nine feed him a mouthful of spores to stimulate his potential.

Graeme had clearly realized this as well.

Instead of retreating, he deliberately moved toward another node tower deeper within the city. His intention was obvious. Either Fifteen would be forced into a decisive confrontation, or he would stand by and watch Graeme destroy the node tower before killing him once his strength was exhausted.

Fifteen could not allow Graeme to damage another node tower.

“If only I’d learned Master’s Moonstep…”

Back then, Fifteen had been offered two supreme movement skills, [Moonstep] and [Blinkstep]. The former was faster and covered more distance, while the latter made its user’s movements more erratic and difficult to anticipate.

He had chosen the latter.

The shorter range of [Blinkstep] meant he could not use it to escape the blue flames’ burning radius completely.

Still, he had no other choice.

Before that, however…

Fifteen removed Puff Nine from his back and set it down.

Puff Nine immediately sensed something was wrong. “Fifteen, what are you planning?”

Fifteen jerked his head toward Graeme.

“Charge in and finish him.”

Puff Nine shook its cap frantically, pleading with Fifteen not to take the risk.

“We have to. We can’t let another node tower be destroyed.” Fifteen turned toward Bella. “Lady Bella, if something happens to me and I fail to kill him, I’ll have to trouble you to deliver the final blow.”

Bella nodded without hesitation, even though doing so would mean her death.

Puff Nine alone wrapped its tendrils around Fifteen’s leg.

“Wait! Let me think. Let me think…”

“I’ve got it!”

“Keep him busy for now, Fifteen. I’ll be right back!”

“Whatever you do, don’t die while I’m gone!”

Puff Nine ran into the distance, weaving back and forth to avoid the pools of accumulated blood.

Bella looked first at the node tower, then at Graeme’s current position.

“He’s almost there. We don’t have much time.”

Her meaning was clear. She would rather sacrifice herself than risk the destruction of the node tower.

Fifteen shook his head.

“Lady Bella, I’m not clinging to my life out of fear. I trust my partner!”

With that, he pursued Graeme using Flowing Step and resumed hurling sword energy to slow his advance.

Bella had no other choice. She followed with her Blast Crossbow, repeatedly demolishing buildings along Graeme’s path to obstruct him.

Elsewhere, Puff Nine’s short fungal legs moved as fast as they could. Blood stained the undersides of its feet, but Puff Nine forced itself to ignore it.

It raced toward an intact section of mycelial mat and dropped onto it.

Its fungal body connected to the mycelium.

Then it screamed through the network.

“Mycelial Sovereign!”

Although Fifteen and Bella did everything they could to delay him, Graeme continued drawing closer to the magic tower that served as one of the city’s critical nodes.

The mages within the tower had noticed the battle. Several spells empowered by the tower shot toward Graeme.

Graeme abruptly intensified his blue flames. The fire that had previously covered only his arms spread across his entire body.

The temperature around him soared again.

He could no longer remain in one place for long, as the ground beneath him was constantly melting.

Graeme clasped both hands together and aimed them at the top of the tower.

With a furious shout, the blue flames transformed into a massive dragon head. It vaporized the enormous ice lance fired from the tower, then roared upward.

Boom!

Half the tower’s spire melted in the flames. A figure protected by a shield flew out in disarray and fled into the distance.

The attack had only deprived the tower of its ability to retaliate. The node runes within its structure were still functioning.

Even so, Bella could wait no longer.

She activated an item at her waist to increase her speed, then moved directly into Graeme’s path.

“You overestimate yourself. You’ll burn to ash before you can even touch me!”

Graeme did not slow down. He gathered strength in both fists and continued charging toward the nearby tower.

“You’re too slow, Puff Nine.” Fifteen sighed and assumed the stance for Blinkstep again.

He could not allow Bella to charge while he cowered behind her, even if he trusted Puff Nine.

Bella and Fifteen moved almost simultaneously.

Bella was agile and extraordinarily fast, but no matter how fast she was, she could not surpass Fifteen’s Blinkstep.

Fifteen became a ghostly afterimage and appeared in front of Graeme almost instantly.

Graeme had no time to react to such speed.

But he did not need to.

The instant Fifteen appeared before him, his equipment and skin caught fire. In another moment, his entire body would be engulfed in flames.

At that instant, a streak of moonlight flashed in from the distance and inserted itself between them.

When Fifteen saw the round fungal silhouette, he spoke instinctively.

“Master?”

He quickly realized that the newcomer was not Master.

It was Puff Nine.

“I told you to wait for me!”

As Puff Nine grumbled to itself through the Mycelial Network, a wave of extreme cold erupted from its cap and clashed directly with the blue flames.

[Frost Dragonbreath LV8]

Puff Nine’s freezing power was at a disadvantage, but it still lowered the surrounding temperature considerably. At the very least, Fifteen was no longer about to become a living torch.

“Below the right side of his chest! That’s his weak point!” Bella shouted as she charged toward them without slowing.

“Damn it!”

The sudden appearance of a Puffcap had blocked his flames, and now the weakness he thought he had concealed had been exposed.

In his panic, Graeme pushed the flames around his arms to their limit and moved to protect the Demon Core belonging to his clan chief.

Two cold flashes crossed through the air.

Graeme stopped in place, staring at Fifteen and Puff Nine before him, man and mushroom moving as one.

“You…”

A cross-shaped line of blood appeared down the center of his face.

Fifteen slowly sheathed his swords.

“You were too focused on protecting that weakness.”

“Clan Chief… Your Majesty…”

Graeme crashed to the ground, the four sections of his head scattering around him.

Bella arrived without slowing. She drove her sword down and cut until she had dug out both Demon Cores. Only after confirming that the powerful Demonborn was thoroughly dead did she f