Chapter 334
The one who reacted to Zeon’s appearance was a man who looked to be in his mid-forties.
A massive, muscular giant well over five meters tall, with a square face covered in thick beard. Fierce, beast-like eyes and a blunt nose.
An enormous mane of black hair spread wildly in every direction like a lion’s mane.
An overwhelming aura radiated from the man clad in a one-piece suit of armor covered in pitch-black scales.
His presence was so oppressive that Zeon’s face twisted involuntarily. But what truly shocked Zeon wasn’t the man’s immense size or terrifying aura.
It was the figure sprawled out before him with all four limbs spread wide, as if it had been dissected.
The man wore a turquoise crown atop deathly pale skin devoid of any color, and an overwhelming aura of death emanated from him.
Even though he was clearly dead.
The dead man’s eyes were filled with disbelief.
Eyes that seemed unwilling to accept his own death until the very end.
Instinctively, Zeon realized that this was the one he had been searching for.
“Necromancer?”
“That’s right! A necromancer. In Kurayan, his name was Pilgram.”
The one who answered was the giant over five meters tall.
Zeon looked at the giant.
The giant, too, stared at the human who had barged into Pilgram’s residence as if he found him interesting.
According to his calculations, it should have taken a human at least ten more hours to reach this place. And that was after sacrificing over two thousand people. Yet somehow, a human had appeared here more than ten hours earlier than expected. There was no way he wouldn’t be intrigued.
The man spoke.
“Wait a moment. I need to make sure this bastard is completely dealt with first. Otherwise, he keeps coming back like a cockroach.”
Crunch!
He plunged his arm into Pilgram’s chest and rummaged around.
Each time he did, Pilgram’s body flopped violently like a fish.
After digging around inside Pilgram’s chest for quite some time, the man finally smiled.
“Found it!”
What he pulled out from inside Pilgram’s chest was a purple gemstone fragment no bigger than a fingernail.
The moment Zeon saw the gem, it felt as if his heart dropped.
The ominous waves emanating from the unidentified gemstone stimulated his heart.
Not even top-grade magic stones or items had ever given Zeon such a sensation.
It felt like he was staring at an object that should never exist in this world.
Feeling the blood in his entire body turn cold, Zeon asked,
“What is that?”
“You’d be better off not being curious. It’s something humans could never handle.”
“So what is it?”
“Do you want to know?”
“Yes!”
“Sorry, but it’s an object that humans aren’t even qualified to know about.”
“Then that means you’re admitting you’re not human.”
“That’s right! I’m not human. Just as you’ve already guessed.”
The man straightened his back.
The moment the muscular giant over five meters tall moved, an enormous pressure filled the underground space.
Originally, this had been the domain of the necromancer named Pilgram, but now it felt as though the owner of the space had changed.
Pilgram was a necromancer capable of endlessly summoning zombies, ghost hounds, specters, and dullahans by himself.
On top of that, he possessed enough power to create monsters like Bone Drakes and Bone Hydras.
This was the territory of such a being.
By nature, a domain amplified the abilities of its owner.
Everything within it was arranged according to the owner’s disposition and powers. Such an atmosphere did not change easily.
Not even after the owner died.
Which meant this place should have been saturated with Pilgram’s presence. Yet the moment the man straightened up, everything within the domain fell under his control.
He had instantly stolen another’s territory and made it his own.
At some point, Pilgram’s corpse vanished completely without leaving behind even a trace of ash.
At this point, no matter how much a necromancer rejected death, resurrection would be impossible.
None of the magical beasts Zeon had ever seen could perform such an absurd miracle.
Not even Leviathan.
Which meant the being standing before Zeon right now was even stronger than Leviathan.
Zeon stared intently at the man.
“You… are you a dragon?”
“I was… a dragon.”
The man neither confirmed nor denied it completely.
Zeon’s gaze sank deeply.
There was no one who understood the weight and oppressive force carried by the name dragon better than he did.
Because Zeon had fought dragons alongside Deioden until the very end.
Back then, Deioden had been the main force while Zeon merely played a supporting role, but even so, he clearly understood just how powerful dragons were.
The man before him now was comparable to that dragon from back then—perhaps even stronger.
The goosebumps rising endlessly across Zeon’s skin since earlier proved it.
‘At this level, he’s stronger than Hieltun.’
The dragon Deioden had sacrificed his life to slay was Hieltun.
But the man before Zeon now was far stronger.
If this man truly decided to rampage, every awakened one who came here would be annihilated.
Tense, Zeon secretly gathered his Dominance.
The man seemed to notice and smirked.
“It seems my presence here burdens you, Sand Mage!”
“You know who I am?”
“How could I not? This isn’t a suitable place for conversation, so let’s move first.”
The man flicked his finger.
In that instant, Zeon felt a dizzying sensation of floating.
At the same time, the surrounding scenery changed rapidly, blending together like scattered photographs.
Zeon knew exactly what this sensation meant.
‘Spatial movement… this easily?’
When he regained his senses, Zeon found himself high up in the sky.
Far below, the scenery of the distant ground spread out beneath him.
If Zeon hadn’t possessed the ability to float in midair by manipulating sand, he would have panicked greatly.
—Bey?
At that moment, Gaia’s voice echoed in his mind.
Sensing Zeon’s danger, Gaia was trying to emerge.
‘Stay still, Gaia!’
Zeon restrained Gaia.
The opponent was a monster whose limits of power could not be measured. If Gaia were recklessly exposed before such a monster, there was no telling what might happen.
In the worst-case scenario, that monster might covet Gaia.
Gaia was that valuable an existence.
Zeon knew better than anyone how greedy dragons were.
The moment that monster saw Gaia, it would surely reach out with greedy hands.
‘Did he abandon his dragon body?’
A moment ago, the man had referred to himself as a dragon in the past tense.
His words were probably not lies.
Dragons did not like speaking falsehoods.
Shrrk!
Every time the man moved, the black-scaled armor shifted as if it were alive.
‘That’s not armor… are those his actual scales?’
Otherwise, there was no way to explain such perfect unity.
The man spoke.
“Here, you can talk comfortably without worrying about the safety of the other humans.”
“I suppose so.”
Zeon nodded.
Even Zeon did not know the exact coordinates of this place. But he could tell that they were extremely far away from the magic stone mine.
At the very least, the man’s attacks would not affect the humans near the mine.
If that was the case, then Zeon could speak with him a little more at ease.
After organizing his thoughts, Zeon opened his mouth.
“This is surprising.”
“What exactly is surprising? That I was a dragon? Or that I killed Pilgram?”
“The fact that you moved personally.”
“Is that so? Then it seems you’ve seen dragons before. Well, our race is rather lazy. I’m a bit special.”
“So that gem is what made you move.”
“And why do you think that?”
“Because otherwise, there’s no reason someone like you would personally hunt a necromancer like Pilgram.”
No matter how powerful a necromancer was, in the end, he was still just a necromancer.
No matter how many S-rank magical beasts like Bone Drakes or Bone Hydras he created, they were still merely magical beasts.
From a dragon’s perspective, a necromancer and the monsters he created were beings less significant than the tip of a claw.
And yet a dragon personally moving to kill such a being?
Impossible.
At least according to Zeon’s common sense.
For a dragon to move personally, it had to be for something truly valuable.
The gem Pilgram possessed.
There was a high chance that gem was what had moved the dragon.
The problem was identifying the gem that had managed to make a dragon—creatures notorious for never budging—act personally.
The man smiled.
“As expected, you truly are special.”
“What do you mean?”
“You can see through to the essence of things. Just like that unusual power of yours.”
“My power is unusual?”
“At the very least, it isn’t ordinary. Even in Kurayan, there was no such thing as a Sand Mage.”
“There were no deserts there?”
“There were. But nobody cared. Kurayan was a prosperous land, and there was no need to pay attention to some ability that controlled sand.”
“Sounds like a nice place.”
“It was. No one could have imagined that a power nobody cared about would become this useful. Not even him…”
“Him?”
Zeon’s eyebrow twitched.
The dragon-man had shown a trace of respect when referring to that person.
There was only one being a dragon would show respect toward.
“You mean Krasias.”
“As expected, you already knew.”
“How could I not?”
“Interesting! Truly interesting! A human who remains calm even after learning I was a dragon, and who isn’t crushed by the mere name of Krasias. Kuhahaha!”
The man burst into loud laughter.
At the sound of his laughter, the clouds across the sky were swept away and scattered like waves crashing apart.
It was truly terrifying power.
Yet even amid his laughter, Zeon remained calm.
“No matter who Krasias was, he’s already dead, isn’t he? Why would I fear someone who’s dead?”
“Do you truly believe that?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you truly think Krasias is dead?”
“Didn’t he disintegrate down to the particle level as the price for terraforming Earth?”
“He certainly vanished that way.”
“That sounds like you’re saying he might not actually be dead.”
“Interpret it however you like.”
At the man’s answer, Zeon’s expression stiffened.
Because if his suspicion was true, the consequences would certainly be horrifying.
Looking down below, the man spoke.
“This conversation has gone on too long. Before I leave, I think I’ll test your strength.”
“Before that, I’d like to know your name.”
“Hah! Arrogant little thing. My name is Nigel.”
KRAAAK!
At that moment, the scales covering Nigel’s entire body spread wide and revealed their true form.
They were wings.
A pair of wings so massive they looked capable of covering the world itself.
The body hidden within them was revealed—covered entirely in scales.
Now Zeon could see clearly.
Nigel was not human.
Nor was he a dragon.
He stood somewhere between dragon and human.
A half-dragon.
The ultimate being born by taking only the strengths of both dragons and humans.
He spoke to Zeon.
“Now then, try to survive, Sand Mage!”