Chapter 1178
'What...?'
Raon froze in place just as his Divine Sword was about to sever the Dragon Lord’s neck, right where the Dragon Heart lay concealed.
'What is this?'
His muscles refused to obey. The tips of his right fingers, which had been driving the Divine Sword toward the Dragon Lord’s throat, suddenly locked up. The paralysis spread instantly through his wrist, his arm, and then his entire torso.
'Is this the Dragon Lord’s doing?'
Raon bit his lip hard. He had been so consumed by his offensive that he hadn't seen it coming; it appeared the Dragon Lord had unleashed a cryptic countermeasure.
'I need to pull back and evaluate...'
When he attempted to use his footwork to retreat from the Dragon Lord’s influence, his legs remained immobile. His whole frame, from top to bottom, was no longer under his command.
'Does a spell like this actually exist?'
It bore a resemblance to petrification, yet it clearly wasn't that. Such basic magic wouldn't affect him, meaning this was a novel sorcery he had never faced before.
'Fitting for the Dragon Lord.'
Raon ground his teeth, staring into the Dragon Lord’s frigid, glowing eyes.
'I suppose finishing this won't be easy.'
He had predicted that utilizing the demon kings' authority would conclude the battle, but this level of retaliation was unexpected. Escaping this bind was going to be an uphill struggle.
'Where do I even begin...'
-Raon Zieghart!
Wrath’s blue eyes flared with intensity as he looked his way.
-Snap out of it this instant...
The demon seemed to be shouting something, but Raon’s hearing was fading. It felt as though even his ears were being sealed off.
'Ah!'
Raon felt the last vestiges of strength leave his hands as he watched Wrath’s frantic movements.
'The blades...'
The Divine Sword and the Demonic Sword, which he had been gripping with all his might, slipped from his fingers and tumbled into the abyss of the dark dimension.
'I have to strike one more time.'
He desperately tried to employ Sword Control to guide at least one blade toward the Dragon Lord, but his mind had become rigid, severing his connection to the swords. His body felt as heavy as a statue. A low thundering sound vibrated through the air!
Strangely, despite Raon being completely vulnerable, the Dragon Lord did not attack. It simply watched with a detached, icy gaze. It seemed the Dragon Lord was also caught in a state of paralysis.
Haaa... Raon felt a bizarre sensation of his physical form and his spirit turning to stone as he drifted deeper into the void. With a sharp whooshing noise, his vision cleared to reveal a vast desert of shimmering gold, mirroring the scales of the Dragon Lord.
'This place...'
He found himself in a wasteland he had never seen—a mysterious realm consisting of nothing but fine, golden sand.
'Is this a projection of the mind? How odd... Wait.'
Raon’s brow furrowed as he tried to take a step.
'My feet are stuck.'
His lower limbs were anchored in the sand, refusing to budge.
'No, it isn't just that they're stuck...'
The sensation was gone! He could feel absolutely nothing from the parts of himself buried in the dunes. There was no pain or irritation; it was as if his feet had simply ceased to exist.
'Is this a mental intrusion?'
His powerful body wouldn't be harmed by mere sand, so this had to be the result of the Dragon Lord’s psychological warfare.
'What kind of mental trap is this...?'
Raon looked down in alarm as the Dragon Lord’s earlier expression flashed in his mind.
'It isn't just my feet anymore...'
The numbness was traveling up his legs. As the sand rose past his ankles, everything beneath it vanished from his perception. There was still no agony, only the haunting feeling that he had never possessed those limbs at all.
'What is happening?'
Raon bit his lip, observing the sand as it continued its steady ascent.
'My very being is being erased.'
As the golden tide climbed higher, the parts of his soul beneath the surface seemed to dissolve into nothingness.
'Damn it!'
Raon grimaced, trying to wrench his thighs and hips from the grain. A dry, hissing sound filled the air as the sand surged forward, burying him even faster.
'No. I was mistaken. This isn't about my physical body...'
His soul was being liquidated. This wasn't the physical world, but a mental prison. What was being deleted wasn't his flesh, but the core of his existence.
'Can magic actually achieve this?'
Raon tried to clench his fist, though his hand was losing its vitality.
'To annihilate my soul without even a direct spiritual clash should be impossible, even for the Lord of Dragons... Ah!'
Recalling the Dragon Lord, he remembered the final words it had uttered.
'It spoke my name and gave the order to die.'
The Dragon Lord had called out his name, commanding his demise right before the Divine and Demonic Swords could strike. He had dismissed it as a final, desperate cry, but it had been a spell.
'Dragon Language!'
Raon’s jaw shook as perspiration ran down his neck.
'It used Dragon's Speech to wish for my end!'
The pieces fell into place. The Dragon Lord had passed a death sentence using the Dragon Language—the ultimate magic of absolute command.
'But even the Dragon Language has its limits.'
Even for a being as ancient as the Dragon Lord, this power carries a heavy price and cannot be used carelessly. Given that Raon had already proven himself superior in combat, a direct death sentence shouldn't have been possible.
'Did it seek help from an outside source?'
He thought back to the Dragon Lord’s eyes, which had glimmered with an alien hue rather than their natural gold.
'After all that talk about humans being corrupt, this "mediator" went and borrowed power from something else.'
Raon tilted his head back, his expression one of pure derision.
'I want to end that creature right now...'
He looked down at the sand, which had now reached his knees.
'How do I fight this?'
The sensation of his identity eroding and his existence fading was a terror that chilled his very spirit.
'Death, is it...'
Raon forced his breathing to stabilize as he felt his spirit melting into the golden grains.
'This magic is truly formidable. Anyone else would be consumed by the sheer terror of this feeling. They would have panicked, only to sink faster. However...'
He was no stranger to the end. A small, defiant smile touched his lips as he imagined the Dragon Lord’s disappointment.
'This won't go the way you expected.'
"What...?"
Bartius swallowed hard as he witnessed both Raon and the Dragon Lord stop mid-motion, as if frozen in time.
"He used the Dragon Language to sentence him to death?"
He pressed his hands against his ears, as if trying to block out the impossible truth.
[That cannot be!]
The Black Dragon Dariauran shook his head in disbelief.
[Raon Zieghart was dominating the Lord! With that kind of gap in power, the Lord shouldn't be able to exercise such authority!]
He swung his tail at a Gold Dragon, shouting that the situation defied all logic.
[Raon Zieghart!]
The Red Dragon Valasiur screamed Raon’s name in desperation.
[Do not let that filthy sorcery take you!]
He roared his denial, insisting that the Dragon Lord’s own power was insufficient for such a feat.
[A sentence of death...]
The Blue Dragon Sirtiren unleashed a freezing breath to repel two opponents before glancing back.
[Cowardly and deceptive until the very end.]
She glared at the Dragon Lord, her teeth gnashing in fury.
"H-he commanded his death with Dragon Language?"
Dorian’s mouth hung open, trembling.
"But you said it was impossible!"
He turned toward Bartius, demanding to know how the impossible was happening.
"It appears the Lord has sought power from another entity," Bartius replied, his voice heavy with a sigh.
"The Lord is a parasite to another being?"
Martha bit her lip as she parried a dragon’s spell with her blade.
"Disgusting doesn't cover it. He calls us vermin, yet he's the one relying on others!"
She hacked at the neck of a dragon passing overhead, venting her simmering rage.
"Don't lose your focus."
Burren shook his head, knocking away a dragon's tail that had been targeting Martha’s blind spot.
"Keep your trust in Raon!"
Despite his own nerves, he stayed concentrated on the fray, showing unwavering faith in his comrade.
[This is a dire situation.]
The White Dragon Bursiarabi narrowed his eyes while shielding the group with his massive frame.
[Perhaps we should stop defending and strike the Dragon Lord directly.]
He drew a sharp breath, his gaze fixed on the frozen forms of Raon and the Lord.
"That's not an option."
"It won't work."
Evelyn and Bartius spoke in unison, then briefly met each other's eyes.
"W-why wouldn't it work?" Dorian asked, struggling for breath as he ducked beneath a dragon’s fire.
"Their spirits are currently intertwined," Evelyn explained, her brow furrowed.
"If we attack the Dragon Lord, we risk killing Raon as well."
In the face of Raon’s peril, she forced herself to remain clinical and observant.
"She's right," Bartius agreed with a solemn nod.
"Neither can be touched right now."
"T-then what can we do..."
Dorian bit his lip, looking for any way out.
"There is only one path."
Bartius focused intently on the frozen Raon, who was still poised with his sword.
"Raon Zieghart has to shatter that absolute magic with his own strength, without any outside help."
'Hmm...'
Raon stroked his chin, watching the sand as it reached his waist.
'When you think about it, Dragon Language is just another form of martial arts powered by draconic will.'
It wasn't just a spell; it was the manifestation of the dragon's spirit through the medium of words.
'So this desert, this death sentence, is nothing more than a blade of the soul sharpened by the Dragon Lord’s willpower.'
He had been disoriented because the Dragon Lord was absent, but as the sand tried to erase him, he could sense the creature’s essence within the desert itself.
'If that's the case, the solution is obvious.'
Raon let out a small laugh and activated the Ring of Fire. The blazing rings manifested behind him, their resonance amplifying the power of his spiritual realm. The golden sand that had been threatening his chest suddenly pulled back like a retreating tide, as if recoiling in fear.
'And on top of that...'
Raon bit his lip and reached deep into his soul to summon the authority of the demon kings. He didn't just borrow their energy this time; he pulled their raw emotions to the surface. A massive tremor shook the space!
Wrath, Sloth, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, and Greed. The collective weight of the six demon kings’ emotions exploded at once, making the mental plane buckle and crack. As the sand fell away from his waist, the feeling returned to his body.
'I knew it. This is the way.'
Raon could feel the Dragon Lord’s construct beginning to crumble as he poured every ounce of his soul's strength into the world. A deep, resonant hum filled the air!
The Ring of Fire, acting as a vessel for everything, magnified the demon kings' feelings and began to consume the golden desert. It was as if the Demon King of Gluttony herself had arrived to feed on the world.
As his soul devoured the golden sand, jagged black fractures split the sky, and the mental realm shattered into eight distinct fragments.
"Haah..."
Raon’s eyes snapped open. The desert was gone, and he was back in the dark cosmos facing the Dragon Lord.
[I-impossible!]
The Dragon Lord stared in shock, clearly having failed to foresee such an outcome.
[How can a mere human resist absolute magic... Kraaaaaaah!]
The creature’s body convulsed violently as the backlash of the failed Dragon Language spell tore through it, and it let out a pained shriek.
-Y-you're back!
Wrath hurried toward him, his eyes shimmering with emotion.
-I was worried—no, I always knew you'd make it!
The demon puffed out his chest as if he’d never doubted him for a second.
'Of course I'm back. I had a good teacher, didn't I?'
Raon gave a small smile to Wrath, his partner in countless spiritual struggles. He reached out with both hands, summoning the Heavenly Drive and the Wooden Ring Sword from the floor of the dimension. With the Divine-Demonic Harmony concluded, the blades had lost their elemental glow and returned to their natural state.
"My thanks."
Raon gave a short nod to the Dragon Lord as he returned the Heavenly Drive and Wooden Ring Sword to their sheaths.
"Because of you, I've remembered what I had put aside."
He held an experience that was unique in all the world. The experience of death. To live a second life after crossing that threshold was a journey neither Glenn nor Derus had ever taken. He forged a sharper Soul Sword by weaving that singular memory into his internal vision.
Raon Zieghart-style Swordsmanship. The 9th Form: Life Beyond Death.
The Soul Sword, forged from the twin wills of expiration and existence, sliced through the fabric of space-time and buried itself deep within the Dragon Lord’s spirit.
