Chapter 79: The Red Dragon and the Dragon Orb (8)
Despite everything, the elder thought, it was unusual for a dragon to care so much for a human. Many dragons had toyed with humans for amusement in the past, but Rurin’s case was different. It wasn’t a game. From the very beginning, her meeting with El had nothing to do with entertainment.
To dragons, humans were like insects, a species with whom they couldn’t form a proper relationship.
Of course, El wasn’t an ordinary human, so the elder could understand the exception. If someone was as strong as El, even a human could be recognized.
That was why the elder hoped that once the lair was built, El and Rurin could live there peacefully.
As the elder was deep in thought, Nies anxiously watched him pause.
El had turned his back, unaware and vulnerable—this was the opportunity. Nies, deciding that he could delay no longer, made up his mind and slowly walked toward El and Rurin.
As Nies approached, he secured a clear shot at El’s back.
It was an ambush. Quick and decisive.
He planned to end it in one blow. His power was far beyond Gard’s.
At such a close range, if his breath attack hit, even someone with the Lord’s Heart wouldn’t have time to defend.
That’s what Nies believed.
In the next moment, Nies released his breath.
A powerful blast.
“Nooo!” Rurin screamed in shock as the breath struck El’s back, sending him crashing to the ground under the immense force.
Everyone was stunned and watched the situation unfold. But El had already sensed Nies approaching.
El had been watching Nies the whole time, knowing he wouldn’t let him go easily.
He had been closely observing, even predicting that Nies would use his breath attack.
This allowed El to push Rurin away just before the breath struck.
But he didn’t dodge. There was a reason for that—he needed justification.
El had suspected that Veint and Nies were in cahoots, but that was as far as he could confirm. There was no clear way to uncover more in the current situation. He lacked the necessary information.
Letting it go didn’t sit well with him either.
Nies had caused Rurin so much trauma that even just seeing him made her hands tremble. That alone was beyond forgivable.
Nies was clearly one of the accomplices conspiring with Veint to frame and kill El. If Nies were left unchecked, he would walk away scot-free, while Veint was already being dealt with by the Red Dragons.
But El had no solid evidence.
Without information, he couldn’t simply attack without cause. So El devised a plan, allowing Nies to make the first move.
El purposely took the attack to gain justification. Of course, there was a heavy price for not dodging. The breath that struck his back burned like it would consume his entire body.
El felt his blood boiling and nearly lost consciousness but gritted his teeth and endured.
All of this was part of his larger plan.
Recently, El had felt his mana rise to a new level thanks to the Dragon Orb. He knew very well the power now coursing through him.
Though he hadn’t fully absorbed the Orb’s power yet, his body had enough mana surrounding it to withstand the breath attack.
He just needed to endure the hit, and with Elena’s healing magic, he could recover, just like with Serena.
That was El’s plan.
“Nooo!”
Rurin was shaking El, her face pale with shock. She was so stunned that her expression was almost blank.
Rurin couldn’t focus or think straight. Even Elena rushed over to El in panic.
But El was feeling something strange.
‘They say that when pain is too intense, you stop feeling anything.’
No, the pain was there—so much so that his brain couldn’t fully process it. His body felt like it was burning, but dying here would make all his efforts worthless.
El looked at Elena with a bitter smile.
It wasn’t a reckless gamble. Not with Elena present.
Even the pain was part of the plan.
“Nies! What have you done?!”
The elder rebuked Nies, looking stunned, but Nies didn’t bother to look back at the elder.
The elder’s questioning could wait. Right now, killing El was the most important task.
However, the fact that El hadn’t died in one hit was surprising. Nies had put all his strength into that blow.
At such a close range, his calculations had assured him El should have died.
Nies clicked his tongue in frustration as he scanned for an opportunity to launch another attack, but the elder stepped in front of El, causing Nies to frown.
Rurin was in a severe state.
Her lips had turned pale, and her body was trembling uncontrollably.
She looked like a fish out of water, her hands and feet shaking violently.
She was practically in a state of shock.
Smoke rose from El’s back, and blood was seeping out.
This was too much for her.
She hated it.
She hated this more than anything.
Rurin bit her lip so hard that it started to bleed.
To her, El was more precious than anything. Nothing compared to him. He meant more to her than her own life.
He was the one who had guided her to live her life as herself. If El died, she had already decided she would die with him.
Sometimes they argued,
Sometimes he scolded her,
But he was always kind and smiling.
If she lost him, the world would lose all meaning.
Fear overwhelmed her, more so than the anger she felt toward Nies. She forgot about revenge as she stared at El’s back, trembling.
The only one who remained calm was Elena.
She rushed to El’s side and quickly began casting Grand Heal.
*Cough!*
At that moment, El realized he needed to transfer his mana to Elena so she could replicate the powerful healing magic that had saved Serena.
But strangely, the pain disappeared on its own without him doing anything. He felt something warm flowing from his chest, leaving him perplexed.
Elena’s Grand Heal should have only begun to heal the surface wounds, not resolve the deeper burns ravaging his body.
By his plan, he should have transferred his mana to Elena and reconstructed his body. Yet the warmth from his chest seemed to be healing him without that step.
El placed his hand on his chest, realizing what was happening.
The Dragon Orb he carried, the one that hadn’t yet been fully absorbed, was now pouring mana into him.
The other Orb, the one meant to help find the culprit who had harmed Rurin’s mother, was kept in the lair. But this Orb, which he used to absorb mana, was now flooding him with energy.
His body felt lighter, more at peace.
The burning sensation was gone, and his life force had fused with the Orb’s mana, reacting powerfully.
In the next instant, El absorbed the full power of the Dragon Orb.
The Lord’s Heart that beat within him, the heart that once belonged to a dragon, interacted with the Orb’s power, filling El with an overwhelming surge of mana.
It was as if he had absorbed another Dragon Heart.
But if El had absorbed another Dragon Heart, his human heart wouldn’t have been able to withstand it and would have exploded. That wasn’t the case here.
Amazingly, the Dragon Orb had the same effect, without the deadly consequences.
In seeking justification to deal with Nies, El had stumbled into a fortunate situation—what was once a crisis had turned into an opportunity.
El stood up, but Rurin didn’t notice, still trembling with shock. Her eyes were fixed on El’s wounds, but her mind was trapped in fear.
Rurin was too paralyzed with terror to think clearly.
She couldn’t even process that El had healed. All she knew was that he had taken a direct hit from the breath, and she couldn’t accept it.
El had been hit more directly than Serena had been.
It was so severe that she couldn’t comprehend that El had recovered, leaving her shivering in denial.
Elena was the first to notice the change.
She realized that the fire in El’s body had been extinguished without her doing anything.
Nies, too, realized what had happened and was shocked.
He had been considering killing Elena to prevent her from using healing magic, but now he stood dumbfounded, witnessing the impossible.
A body on the brink of death, healing itself—such a feat was beyond even the mightiest of dragons.
Nies realized that his entire plan was falling apart. Fury surged within him.
A human with such power.
He could never forgive that.
As Nies, consumed by rage, prepared to launch another breath attack, ignoring the elder beside him, El approached the still-stunned Rurin.
“Hey?”
Dealing with Nies was important, but Rurin’s state was far too concerning.
El waved his hand in front of her eyes, but she didn’t respond.
Alarmed, El grabbed her face.
Still, nothing.
“Hey! Rurin!”
He shouted, but she remained in her dazed state, as if her soul had been sealed away.
Yet her body continued to tremble.
‘Is this because of me? Did she end up like this because of me?’
El felt a deep pang of sorrow.
It pained him to see her like this.
Without thinking, El pulled Rurin into a tight embrace.
Did the warmth reach her?
Tears began to flow from Rurin’s once-stiff eyes.
As El held her waist, her frozen body seemed to thaw. The tears she had been unable to cry earlier now flowed freely, and her lips began to move.
“Y-You… y-you were lying there…”
Still hugging him, Rurin touched El’s back with trembling hands, her tears falling uncontrollably.
Even after realizing El was okay, she couldn’t stop crying.
El wanted to comfort her.
So, he gently kissed her tear-soaked eyelids.
“It’s alright. I’m fine now, so try to pull yourself together.”
Rurin’s ears turned bright red as she registered his kiss.
“Y-You… just now!”
Rurin, who was usually bold, was suddenly flustered in this situation, hiding her face.
Nies, watching this, clicked his tongue in disgust at the sight but then realized it presented another opportunity. With El embracing Rurin, his back was completely exposed.
“Die, you wretch! This cannot be!”
With a roar, Nies unleashed a powerful dragon breath directly at El’s back. But El no longer had any reason to take the hit.
The dragon’s breath,
Felt light—so light, as if it was nothing.
*Boom!*
El, still holding Rurin, easily deflected the breath using **Blaze**.
“Rurin, stay here for a moment. I’ll be back. By then, you need to have pulled yourself together.”
El lightly patted Rurin’s back, then turned around.
Rurin’s hands clung to him as if she didn’t want to let go, but eventually, she released her grip.
El took a deep breath as he faced Nies. He could feel the immense mana surging within him, the complete absorption of the Dragon Orb.
Then he summoned **Meteor** to the sky. The most powerful spell.
Soon, the sky was filled with meteors.
El’s attack magic, now enhanced by the fully absorbed Dragon Orb, had transcended its limits. The sky was soon covered with a rain of meteors.
This was a **Multi-Meteor** spell.
The dragons looked on in horror at the impossible sight.
“T-This is… impossible!”
Nies froze in place, overwhelmed by the mana storm.
In that moment, his mind went blank. He couldn’t comprehend what was happening.
El, without hesitation, directed the meteors at Nies.
There was no mercy.
If it were up to him, El would have dropped 799 meteors—one for each year of Rurin’s life, representing the pain she had endured. But that would destroy the world.
So, he settled for just six meteors.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
“Aaaaargh!”
In an instant, Nies’ body was consumed by the meteors.
*Boom!*
The ground shook as the meteors struck.
A **Meteor** was essentially an asteroid collision.
If summoned from space, a single meteor could wipe out humanity.
However, the **Meteor** used by a 9th-class mage was much smaller and fell from the sky, not space.
But El’s **Meteor**, bolstered by the Dragon Orb, filled the sky.
Each meteor burned brightly, their sheer number beyond counting.
At that sight, Dihegma, Nies’ uncle, who had been silent until now, gasped in disbelief. It was his first words since arriving with the elder, and they were words of denial.
“T-This… This is impossible…! How can a mere human—! A mere human!”
“Did you say a mere human?”
The magic that reduced Nies to dust spoke for itself.
El simply stared at Dihegma.
The fastest way to silence someone in this world was through overwhelming power.
For dragons, creatures of supreme pride, this was an unthinkable event.
And yet, it had happened.
This was probably the first time in dragon history.
Nies’ death was deserved. And with the **Meteor** now hovering above, there was no need to argue further.
No dragon could survive the barrage of meteors in the sky.
Dihegma was no different.
Lowering his gaze, Dihegma couldn’t respond.
It was, effectively, a silent declaration of the Black Dragons’ defeat.
This was a warning.
If anyone else, like Nies, tried to disrupt the peace again, El would face the entire dragon race without hesitation.
And in this moment, that warning was being fully understood.
