novelSeal
| ← Ch.590 | Ch.592 → |
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
If dragons had to describe their own power level progression, they would say that dragon power level progression was an improvement on their own natural talents and choices. Mages would say that dragon power level progression was a unique type of evolution determined by dragon genes... But, perhaps a more direct and vulgar description would be the most accurate.
"Go back to the womb and reforge yourself."
This was a choice that allowed for power level progression. Naturally, there would also be devolution attached to this choice that allowed for evolution.
For most dragons that fought after progressing in power level, the dragon would be like a completely different dragon. However, most dragons would take already predetermined paths for progressing in power level.
"What type of evolution will Little Red choose for herself?"
Even without having to ask her, I could faintly guess that it would be related to her personal talents.
Dragons' ability in melee and magic would naturally improve as they grew older. This was a special racial advantage for dragons. However, this also made dragons lazy and overall lack the motivation to cultivate their own power levels.
"Rather than spending two hundred years working hard and studying magical knowledge every day, I might as well instead take a nap for two hundred years, which will also greatly improve my magical power. Why work so hard?"
The world was forever unfair. Some species had individuals that were naturally weak and short-lived. These species would need knowledge passed down through the generations, along with cultivation in order to become stronger. Meanwhile, other species were born at the very top of the food chain. However, these top-level species naturally lacked the motivation to progress.
However, Little Red was different from most other dragons.
Ein Mezus, Belon's Catastrophe, Immemorial Red Dragon, Dragon Queen, grandmaster of both fire and wind magic. Little Red seemed to be equally adept in physical and magical skills, but actually, she had her own obvious preferences.
Dragons' martial arts techniques... were simply wing sweeps, tail sweeps, and their sharp fangs and claws. At most, they would also pounce or maybe roll to dodge attacks. Calling such techniques "martial arts techniques" would probably make martial artists from other species want to cry.
However, dragons were born with an innate physical advantage, having tremendously powerful and durable bodies. It was unlikely for even other species' Sword Saints to defeat them in physical combat. In the end, martial arts techniques were foundationally about how to more efficiently use your physical body. However, if the difference in physical body between dragons and other species was so overwhelming, then any amount of martial arts techniques would still be useless.
Techniques would require passed down knowledge along with actual experience gained in practical combat. Dragons' so-called martial arts techniques were almost completely reliant on their natural talents. However, this would naturally never satisfy Little Red, who greatly desired greater power for the sake of revenge.
Little Red had been able to defeat her mother Molly in melee even when the latter was far more experienced. This was because Little Red had great equipment advantages, as well as being young and energetic. But, when analyzing this from the angle of a melee expert, Little Red still wasn't foundationally different from other dragons that only relied on natural instincts for melee. Even though red dragons had outstanding melee combat instincts compared to other dragons, there was still no foundational difference. It was simply that red dragons had faster reaction, sharper fangs and claws, and thicker skin than other dragons rather than having actual martial arts techniques.
This was why giants of the same power level would forever be able to easily defeat dragons. Since giants and dragons were two species that had similar physical advantages and strength, the giants had far too much of an obvious advantage as the latter would use tools, techniques, and their brains in combat, which was vastly different compared to dragons that only relied on bestial instincts.
Of course, these minor issues would no longer be issues as dragons grew older. Dragons' power level progression would also allow their already ridiculous physical bodies to become even more ridiculous, forcefully making up for their minor lack in martial arts techniques.
Little Red was no dragon who had the habit of lazily sleeping and waiting to become stronger. She focused all her time and efforts on fire and wind magic.
Fire magic was the red dragons' natural elemental magic. Red dragons were naturally born as Eich's strongest fire element creature in all dimensions. Like all dragons, red dragons would see their magic power improve even as they slept. However, not only would red dragons be at disadvantage when learning wind magic, their powerful fire magic abilities would negatively impact their control over wind magic. Red dragons would have to put in multiple times the effort compared to others in order to reach a wind magic level equivalent to other species'.
Very few people knew that Little Red's fire magic had already achieved the standard of human Myth rank mages. Not only that, her abilities in wind magic even exceeded her abilities in fire magic. If she was at the Mage Country, her magic level in two fields would equal any mage from the Truth Overseers. Also, as Little Red had a mana pool that exceeded any average human mage by more than ten times since she was a dragon, it was quite possible for her to be powerful enough to join the Truth Symposium.
When combining the four elements, using them well in complementary fashion could achieve effects that were greater than 1 + 1 > 3. The wind element was an excellent complement to the fire element, fueling flames. And if the wind and fire elements were combined for a forbidden spell, that would basically be a super forbidden spell with a fire that was impossible to stop.
Previously, Little Red had few opportunities to ever cast such powerful magic. That was because combining her two elements would bring about far too much attack power. She would need to be careful not to burn the entirety of Sulfur Mountain City. Back when we were still adventuring, we had often needed to run away due to the major fires that she caused.
Back in our adventuring team, her AOE attack power had far surpassed that of anyone else in our team. It was unmistakable that she was a bona fide slaughtering machine... And she also helped Adam and I to improve our fire resistance. There was no helping it, as we were the tanks. In real life, there was no such thing as "no friendly fire" like in video games. Being on the front lines as the tanks meant that we would have to suffer attacks from both enemies and allies.
The seemingly young tiny fire dragon opened its small mouth, spitting out a tiny fireball that was dark red with gold in the middle. This round fireball seemed almost solid, and it traveled in a straight line as if it was a rolling red marble.
This tiny fireball appeared cute and elegant, but the energy it contained had surpassed even nine circle magic spells from human mages.
*Crackle!*
Some distorted cursed creatures blocked the fireball as consumable sacrifices for Lasnina's sake. However, the fireball penetrated through them all with only a tiny sizzle. Those powerful distorted cursed creatures didn't even get a chance to scream in pain as they were all instantly burned to death.
This seemingly cute and harmless tiny fireball continued unimpeded as it approached Lasnina with its seemingly slow speed.
Blood dripped from Lasnina's eyes as she opened her eye sockets that were now completely empty. She opened her mouth to scream soundlessly.
The next instant, the entire earth and sky began to shake as if countless banshees were loudly singing death shrieks next to us.
Even more countless cursed creatures dropped out from dimensional cracks. These disgusting creatures piled up into an even more disgusting mountain of flesh.
"If a few can't block it, then I'll simply use even more."
Although this was an extremely simple strategy, it would also be extremely effective in most cases. It was standard strategy to use cannon fodder to block powerful magic attack spells. As long as there was sufficient cannon fodder, even the most powerful curse or magic spell would be used up against the cannon fodder.
And as expected, this tiny round fireball penetrated through another one, two... and finally shattered when it penetrated through the seventh cursed creature. After that...
*BOOM!*
A thunderous explosion gave us the scene of a volcano's eruption.
Flames shot up for several hundred meters in a blinding explosion. However, the thunder and chain lightning contained within would be even more fatally dangerous.
Large swathes of cursed creatures were either incinerated or electrified. They died in countless numbers.
This seemingly simple tiny fireball was actually the repeated compression of multiple forbidden spells. Judging from the power of this one attack, Little Red had succeeded in progressing to the next power level!
However, Lasnina revealed a vicious smile. No matter how powerful this attack was, and even though she had sacrificed more than half of her summoned cursed creatures, Lasnina had still successfully blocked the attack.
But, Lasnina's smile froze over in the very next instant...
The tiny red dragon opened her mouth again, and spat out an identical tiny fireball once more...
Before Lasnina could even summon more sacrificial cursed creatures to tank for her, Little Red took another deep breath, and spat out another fireball, then two more, three more... ten more... one hundred more...
When the tiny red fire dragon finally stopped breathing fire, the sky was already densely packed with several thousand tiny fireballs! They seemed just like a bee swarm as they approached Lasnina with seemingly slow speed that was actually pretty quick.
And then... there was no more "and then"... Harloys had previously used dimensional anchoring spells on Lasnina to prevent her from using instant teleportation magic to escape. The swarm of fireballs reached their target, filling everything before us with countless explosions as Lasnina had an expression of despair.
Lasnina's earlier curses seemed like they were shaking the world, but Little Red's chain fireball explosions seemed like they were destroying the world. Some time later, when the smoke and thunder finally dissipated, all that remained was a large pitch-black dimensional crack, revealing nothing but the endless dark void outside.
Even though the Chaos Abyss was a dimension that was renowned for being one of the sturdiest among all dimensions, the Chaos Abyss was still unable to withstand such a furious barrage of explosions.
Even the best-made scheme would still never match heaven's schemes. Although Conservation leaked information about me to Lasnina, it was impossible for Conservation to know about Harloys and the powered up Little Red.
"Where's Lasnina? Has she been forced into a state of waiting for reincarnation?"
However, the snake form sword that reached out from the dimensional crack answered my question.
*Clang!*
Trying to ambush me would be meaningless. After an exchange of sword blows, I found to my delight that Lasnina was incredibly weak.
I freed my right hand while I used my armored left hand to grab and pull on Lasnina's sword. As I tugged, I was able to pull out something black. The Devil Lord hidden in the darkness was tugged out of the dimensional crack as if she was being fished out.
Her current appearance was quite wretched and ugly. Only half of her body was left. A majority of her head was still intact. Both her hands were gone, and her snake sword was now twirled around her arms.
But even so, her empty eye sockets glared directly at me. The hatred and grudge she had against me would be forever endless.
'Even if you kill me, I'll still come back and take revenge upon you... ' This was an adamant will that wouldn't need any doubt. This was also what made devils and demons most disgusting to deal with.
"Hey, stop looking at me like that! If you keep looking at me like that, I'll, I'll, I'll eat you!"
But of course, I would never give such a difficult opponent a second chance to come after me like that.
Perhaps I was only a third-rate mage with my foundational knowledge. However, I knew an extremely high-level magic spell that was probably at the very top of this world. And, this magic spell was the perfect counter to all indestructible existences.
"The Seal of the Four Elements..."
My right hand provided pure ice magic mana. I then adjusted my mana slightly, changing it to water magic mana.
Little Red opened her mouth, providing a red spell formation and a green spell formation that provided fire and wind magic mana, respectively.
As for the remaining element of earth, Harloys, the master of all magic types, would provide that for me.
Naturally, it was far easier to take down a boss as a team rather than individually.
"... Go ahead and sleep eternally for me for eons ever after."
The four elements combined as thousands of magical lines interconnected. The elements achieved a perfect balance among these magical wavelengths.
Lasnina had an expression of disbelief as the four elements devoured her. The dimensional crack began to close.
My version of the Seal of the Four Elements, which had been repeatedly modified by us, had likely even surpassed the original version from Creator Goddess Eich. It was likely that even in the next millennia down the road, this Devil Lord position would continue to remain empty.
The next instant, all the Devil Lords were astonished or terrified. They could instinctively sense that the position of Lord of Curses was likely to remain empty for a long period of time.
"What happened to Lasnina? She disappeared?"
| ← Ch. 590 | Ch. 592 → |