Chapter 334 : The Villain’s POV in the Academy
Chapter 334: The Villain’s POV in the Academy
[What? ‘Hunting Ground’? You said ‘Hunting Ground’……?]
Kahahahahahaha!
At Aaron’s words, the Sky Dragon couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter. After laughing for quite some time, he looked around as though he found the whole thing ridiculous and spoke.
[Judging by the vegetation and the flow of ‘The River,’ they are completely different. Is this an entirely different world? I don’t know what method you used, but it wasn’t a bad decision. Thanks to this, the magic I had poured so much mana into collapsed without even being cast.]
“Is that all you have to say?”
[What else is there to say? Do you expect me to praise you for being impressive for a mortal? Or do you perhaps think that here, you can fight me and win? Truly?]
“There’s a saying that you won’t know which is longer or shorter until you measure them.”
[How about you start learning your place?]
Apparently beginning to grow irritated, the Sky Dragon narrowed his eyes and glared at Aaron.
[What exactly changes just because you brought me here? I’m asking what changes merely because you dragged me outside my nest!]
“A lot will change.”
Aaron answered without backing down.
“There’s a world of difference between having a 0% chance of winning and having a chance greater than 0%. Though I doubt that lizard brain of yours can understand much.”
[Provoking me will only hasten your end. As long as you were born a mere mortal, even if you died and came back to life, you could never defeat me-.]
“You sure have a long tongue, Dragon. Are you finally showing signs of exhaustion? Or are you starting to get scared now that you’ve come somewhere unfamiliar?”
[…….]
Realizing there was no point in arguing with words, the Sky Dragon shut his mouth.
Yes, nothing would change simply because the location had changed. Even if leaving his nest meant he could no longer draw out 100% of his original strength, crushing a single insect was nothing.
Moreover, that bastard must have expended considerable power to drag him here as well. Not only that, but Aaron couldn’t expect assistance from the other humans here, so even if the Sky Dragon had become somewhat weaker, he wasn’t particularly more disadvantaged.
[I’m sick and tired of this now.]
Now, let’s end this.
Having made up his mind, he once again gathered his mana. As a result, the surrounding terrain began undergoing Otherworld Transformation once more, and Aaron likewise drew his sword again.
A gigantic Dragon and a lone human.
Just as the battle between the two beings was about to begin.
Aaron spoke in a joking tone.
“Do you know this, Dragon?”
[…….]
“They say a reptile’s brain is the most primitive and undeveloped form of brain. That Dragon race you’re so proud of…… aren’t you actually reptiles?”
[You rotten bastaaaaaaard!!]
This provocation landed perfectly.
As though Aaron had touched the Sky Dragon’s Reverse Scale, the anger that had subsided surged past its critical point.
Once again, the Sky Dragon poured out an enormous amount of mana, filling the sky with millions, tens of millions of magic circles.
[I will make absolutely certain that you do not die peacefully!]
He indiscriminately unleashed the highest-order magic that even the greatest Wizard in history could never have reached, as though they were nothing more than extremely basic spells.
Kwaaaang! Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaa-!
Everything turned to ash. The terrain changed, and the atmosphere overturned.
Even Aaron couldn’t evade that many spells, so he immediately took a defensive stance. He repeatedly layered the threads of [Cloud Spider] thousands, tens of thousands of times, creating a gigantic shield to protect himself.
[How long do you think you can endure!]
Realizing that minor magic wouldn’t be enough to deal with Aaron, the Sky Dragon prepared his Breath.
His throat swelled abnormally before blue flames poured from between his jaws like a waterfall.
“[Dimension Jump]!”
Judging that blocking the Dragon Breath head-on was impossible, Aaron immediately used spatial teleportation to move directly in front of the Sky Dragon’s chest.
He rapidly scanned the monster’s body, beginning to search for the ‘Reverse Scale,’ said to be a Dragon’s sole weakness.
But naturally, the Sky Dragon also knew that in a one-on-one situation, the only strategy Aaron could aim for was taking the ‘Reverse Scale.’ Having already predicted where Aaron would jump, he had hidden trap magic there in advance.
[Ultimus Traphunas!]
Two magic circles suddenly appeared in front of Aaron. Violet chains poured from one and bound Aaron’s limbs, while a magic projectile woven from the elements of the four great attributes erupted from the other.
Aaron tried to raise the output of his armor module to defend himself, but it was an absurd attempt.
Crunch! Crrruunch!
Massive chunks of ice and carbon mercilessly tore Aaron’s body apart. Even his special-alloy Skin Armor, made by mixing tungsten with the essences of various Mystics, was pierced in an instant.
“Kh……!”
In the end, a gigantic ice spear grazed his shoulder, taking one arm and one leg with it. A magic projectile that barely grazed his cheek carved a massive ravine into it, while his skin was horribly stripped away, exposing carbon-fiber artificial muscles and a Depleted Uranium skeletal frame.
Aaron’s body was left half-shredded by a single attack. Having lost far too many parts, even maintaining [Tech Blade] became difficult.
But Aaron didn’t give up.
He extended his threads and severed his entire body where it was entangled in the chains, freeing himself from the restraints with only his upper torso and one arm remaining.
[Self-mutilation, you fool!]
“……!”
The Sky Dragon attempted to attack while Aaron was incapacitated, but Aaron used [Dimension Jump] to create distance once again.
At the same time, a swarm of Nanomachines extending from around his heart rapidly began restoring his tissues.
Approximately 1 second.
That was how long it took to restore every tissue.
Once that time passed, Aaron returned to normal as though nothing had happened, drew his sword once again, and charged.
[No matter how many times you repeat this, it’s useless!]
While Aaron restored his body, the Sky Dragon had constructed another sequence of spell formulas. Ancient magic that had never even been given names flew toward Aaron from behind him.
[You would do well to run! Simply approaching them will make you rot!]
Kahahahaha!
Along with the Sky Dragon’s laughter, gigantic skeletal soldiers reached their hands toward Aaron.
Around them, the ground began rotting away and turning into a swamp. The poisonous energy they emitted spread directly into the surrounding area, causing the range of rotting land to expand further and further.
Even so, Aaron didn’t hesitate and cut down the skeletons. As a result, he came into contact with air filled with all manner of toxins.
[Poison Immunity Module Auto-Activation!]
Fortunately, the module’s power purified the poison.
After swinging his sword and cutting down the gigantic skeletons, he charged toward the Sky Dragon. Having failed to anticipate that Aaron would break through so easily, the Sky Dragon ended up allowing him to approach.
Slash!
Another enormous slash shot out.
[Kraaaagh!]
Aaron succeeded in carving a deep wound into the Sky Dragon’s shoulder blade area.
The trap magic activated belatedly and targeted Aaron again, but he wasn’t stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice. At the same moment he slashed the bastard, he cleanly avoided the trap with spatial teleportation.
After putting enough distance between them, he once again provoked the Sky Dragon.
“Is that all you’ve got? You’re definitely weaker than before, lizard.”
[Shut up!]
The instant he shouted, the space surrounding Aaron rippled.
Aaron quickly detected the abnormality and attempted another spatial jump, but he was slightly too late.
Booooom-!
Along with a sudden explosion, half of his body, including his face, completely vanished. Losing his balance, he dropped to one knee on the ground for a moment. Aaron frowned as he glared at the Sky Dragon.
“This…… hurts…… a little……!”
[Even that didn’t kill you!? You truly are irritating……!]
Just as Aaron’s body was about to regenerate once again, the Sky Dragon began moving personally.
His massive body appeared in front of Aaron in an instant, and before the ruptured air could even produce an explosive sound, he slammed down with his foreleg.
Aaron extended his only remaining hand and caught the foreleg. The impact drove his body deep beneath the ground.
[I’ll bury you alive!]
With a single roar from the Sky Dragon, the earth surged like an ocean and began crushing Aaron where he was buried underground. Ominous creaking noises began coming from his body as it was entombed in rock.
Aaron tried somehow to push it away with brute force or teleport through space, but with his Internal Energy Level already on the verge of depletion merely from regenerating, it wasn’t easy.
And the Sky Dragon didn’t miss that opening either.
[I’ll finish you properly.]
Once again, an immeasurable number of spells came crashing down toward the ground where Aaron was buried.
The multicolored magic penetrated the earth, creating explosions and clouds of dust as it ravaged Aaron’s helpless body.
Kwaang! Kwagagagaga! Kwaaaang!
Just how many spells had been fired?
Just how much time had passed?
[Haaah…… haaah……!]
The Sky Dragon gasped heavily.
Born with the body of a Dragon, he had lived without ever knowing the very concept of ‘fatigue,’ but this time, he sensed that he desperately needed rest.
It was only natural.
He had consumed close to 60% of his mana in this battle alone. He still had enough mana remaining to use magic, but he had never unleashed his full strength this many times before.
Like suffering muscle pain after using muscles that hadn’t been exercised for a long time, for the first time in his life, he had to contend with a throbbing headache.
[Now…… it’s over…….]
Perhaps he had gotten too worked up, because his head hurt.
Had he fought more calmly, he could have crushed Aaron without pushing himself this far. Among all the years he had lived, there had probably only been a handful of times when he had become this enraged.
[Well, it doesn’t matter…….]
If he rested for a single day, a headache like this would disappear easily enough. Thinking so, he slightly tilted his head, and the earth split apart accordingly, allowing the corpse of the ‘insect’ that had caused him so much trouble to slowly rise.
[…….]
Only Aaron’s head emerged.
More precisely, it was a half-shattered head with the inside of the skull exposed, along with a small portion down to the upper shoulders. Beneath it, an artificial spine and wires serving as nerve replacements protruded slightly like fine roots.
His mechanical eyes had broken and fallen out of their sockets, and his once-handsome face had been ruined so badly that its original shape was almost impossible to recognize.
[……Impressive.]
Having regained his composure, the Sky Dragon expressed genuine admiration. After all, Aaron had been unable to evade and had taken magic close to the Sky Dragon’s full power head-on, yet some semblance of his form still remained.
Moreover, his Cybernetics Devices and brain were still linked and sending signals. Presumably, even in this state, his bodily restoration system was trying to activate.
Of course, that would never happen.
The energy generator that replaced Aaron’s heart, which had served as his power source, had been destroyed, so the Nanomachines would no longer be able to restore his body. They would probably remain in power-saving mode, endlessly waiting for new energy to be supplied until they eventually ceased functioning altogether.
[It truly…… is over…….]
The Sky Dragon quietly observed what had once been Aaron, or perhaps what should now be called a pile of scrap metal, before slowly turning his gigantic body away.
[……I should return.]
He had to go back and finish things.
However, he didn’t know exactly how this world was connected to the world containing his nest. Finding the dimensional path back would take some time…….
[Wait.]
The Sky Dragon slowly stopped moving.
He turned and looked down at the ground.
Only Aaron’s head was still lying there.
But his eyes could see it.
[Come out.]
Someone was there.
Right beside Aaron’s head.
[If you do not reveal yourself, I will kill you.]
“[…….]”
At his warning, a young man wearing an LED Mask appeared as though he had no other choice, releasing his Optical Camouflage.
[Who are you? How are you here?]
“[…….]”
[If you do not answer, I will kill you.
“[M-My name is…… Silence. I-I only…… followed Mr. Chairman Aaron…… here…….]”
[…….]
The Sky Dragon silently stared at Silence.
He was an extremely young man, but considering that, his Replacement Rate appeared remarkably high. For a moment, the Sky Dragon wondered whether he was some sort of hidden secret weapon belonging to Aaron, before soon realizing who he was.
[……Right. You were that bastard’s disciple.]
“[Y-You know me……?]”
[Hmm.]
The Sky Dragon gave a small snort.
The only reason he knew Silence was because he had happened to learn of him while observing the person of interest known as ‘Aaron.’ He had no particular interest in Silence himself.
There was no reason to take interest in some small fry who hadn’t even fully developed yet.
‘However…….’
He was somewhat curious about what the bastard had been doing here. And also about what he was unnaturally hiding inside his clothes.
The Sky Dragon lightly scanned Silence using X-ray magic and realized that the hidden objects were a large number of modules. And they had belonged to ‘Aaron.’
After confirming that, he understood Silence’s purpose even less.
Narrowing his eyes, the Sky Dragon asked.
[What were you trying to do?]
“[Th-That……!]”
Silence answered while panting, looking so terrified that he might faint at any moment.
“[H-H-His belongings…… I-I was…… going to take them…….]”
[How very human of you.]
Well, if that was all, he could do whatever he wanted.
He wouldn’t be able to use those modules himself anyway, and even if he could, there was no possibility of obtaining power comparable to Aaron’s.
And since this was another world, he wouldn’t be able to return on his own either. If the Sky Dragon simply left him alone, he would eventually die by himself.
Instantly losing interest, the Sky Dragon snorted once and attempted to turn away again.
But then he felt a sense of incongruity.
Something was strange.
He had overlooked something.
What was it?
Right. That.
What was that massive number of modules the bastard was holding?
All of those belonged to Aaron? He had been trying to take that many modules as keepsakes? No, that couldn’t be right. Silence was clearly lying.
Just in case, the Sky Dragon hurriedly turned his gaze toward Aaron.
Sure enough, an energy reaction different from the one immediately after he had defeated him was emanating from that location.
And it was an absolutely tremendous amount of energy.
[You bastard!!]
At the Sky Dragon’s roar, Silence dropped straight to his knees without even being able to resist. Under the tremendous pressure, he couldn’t even raise his head and could only writhe helplessly.
“[K-Keugh……!]”
[Answer me! What did you do to ‘that’?]
But at that moment.
The one who answered was someone else entirely.
“I swapped out a few modules.”