Chapter 200 - 199 : Pride
Barbatos stared at Arthur through the haze of clashing auras, his amethyst eyes burning with irritation and curiosity.
"Looks like you’re not an ordinary insect, boy," Barbatos said. "But it doesn’t matter. You can struggle all you like—"
Arthur cut him off.
"Can you stop the blabbering and come at me?" Arthur said. "Honestly, I just want to get out of here, so let’s finish this quickly."
Barbatos’s bloodlust spiked.
"A lower species is commanding me?" Barbatos snarled. "Me, the great Barbatos, son of the mighty Kaizerex?"
His aura exploded.
In the next heartbeat, he moved.
Blinding speed.
For a split second, even Arthur’s sharpened senses couldn’t track him—just a blurred shadow in his vision. Then Barbatos was suddenly right in front of him, his fist already mid-swing.
BAM.
The impact came like a meteor.
The air itself cracked under the force of the blow, shockwaves tearing through the lab. Metal consoles buckled. Pods rattled violently. The ground beneath Arthur’s feet fractured.
Infinity activated just in time.
Barbatos’s massive clawed fist stopped mere inches from Arthur’s face, as if an invisible wall had caught it.
Arthur’s hair was blown back by the pressure.
Seeing his chance, Arthur swung his demonic arm with all his might, his claws slicing through the air.
His attack landed on Barbatos’s chest.
It felt like hitting a mountain.
Instead of smashing through, the blow only pushed Barbatos back a few meters, his boots skidding across the ground.
Arthur gritted his teeth.
He could feel his mana draining at a rapid pace, as if someone had opened a floodgate inside him.
Then, suddenly, something changed.
His body began absorbing mana from the atmosphere.
Like a sponge dropped into an ocean.
A notification rang in his mind.
════════════════════════════
DING!
════════════════════════════
[ Mana Heart ]
A Mana Heart has been forged within your body, vastly improving your control over mana and regeneration.
Effects:
• Mana Regeneration ×10
• Mana Efficiency ×10
Mana recovery and circulation have been significantly enhanced, allowing greater power to be drawn from every drop of mana consumed and absorbed from the surroundings.
════════════════════════════
Another notification followed.
════════════════════════════
DING!
════════════════════════════
■ Maximum Mana Storage Limit: 1,000,000
■ Mana Recovery: +100/sec ×10
[ Remaining Amount: 900,000 ]
[ Remaining Amount: 901,000 ]
[ Remaining Amount: 902,000 ]
[ Remaining Amount: 903,000 ]
════════════════════════════
The number kept climbing every second.
Arthur smiled.
He felt his mana recovering almost instantly, the emptiness inside him refilling with terrifying speed.
’Looks like leveling up really did you some good, System,’ Arthur thought. ’And now I can even see how much mana I possess.’
The System’s voice chimed back.
[ Forget that. Focus on the fight. That bastard has monstrous strength. ]
"Yeah," Arthur muttered. "If I didn’t have so many abilities, he would’ve crushed me with a single strike."
His Mana Heart hummed with power, each pulse sending more energy through his veins.
’So this is the true power of a Mana Heart, huh...’ Arthur thought. ’It’s mind-blowing.’
But he also realized something unpleasant.
It had taken 100,000 mana to block a single strike from Barbatos with Infinity.
An astonishing amount.
At full capacity, he could block only seven or eight full-power attacks before completely exhausting his mana reserves. Even with his boosted regeneration, Infinity had hard limits.
And Barbatos’s strength was off the charts.
If even one direct hit landed...
It would be fatal. He wasn’t even sure he’d survive it.
Barbatos’s expression shifted almost instantly.
His eyes widened as he watched Arthur continue absorbing mana at an absurd rate. The surrounding mana rushed toward the boy like a raging storm, swirling around him in visible waves.
"Impossible..." Barbatos muttered.
No human should’ve been capable of this.
Normally, a human’s mana core was incredibly fragile. Absorbing mana too quickly could crack it. Forcing this much mana into it at once would shatter it, leaving the wielder crippled, unconscious, or dead, unable to handle such overwhelming power.
That’s why humans had to reach the SS-Rank or even the SSS-Rank before their mana cores became sturdy enough to handle such enormous amounts of mana without constantly running dry.
For dragons, this limitation didn’t exist.
They were blessed by mana itself from the moment they were born. Ranks meant little to them.
But even for dragons...
This was absurd.
Yet Arthur continued drawing in mana without the slightest sign of strain.
His body didn’t reject it.
His core didn’t crack.
It accepted every drop effortlessly, as though it had no limit.
A sudden realization dawned on Barbatos.
"A Mana Heart..." Barbatos whispered. "The boy must possess a Mana Heart."
But how?
The chances of successfully transplanting a Mana Heart taken from a dragon into another race were less than five percent, regardless of the species. The number of successful cases could be counted on one hand.
Barbatos glared at Arthur.
"You bastard," Barbatos said. "Just how many secrets do you have?"
He narrowed his eyes even further.
"This is the first time in my life I’ve seen a hybrid possessing the abilities of a vampire, a demon... and even a dragon’s Mana Heart."
Arthur shrugged lightly.
"Well then," Arthur said, the corners of his lips curling upward, "that makes me a superior race compared to you, doesn’t it?"
He raised his chin.
"Why don’t you kneel before me? Who knows... I might spare your life."
It was pure taunting.
Barbatos’s jaw clenched.
His pride flared like wildfire.
───────────────
Arthur raised his right hand.
In the next second, a hundred blood spears materialized behind him, each one long, razor-sharp, and humming with condensed killing intent. They hovered for a brief moment before launching forward.
They streaked through the air toward Barbatos like crimson missiles.
Instead of dodging, black scales materialized across Barbatos’s body, coating him in thick armor. His skin gleamed with a dark metallic sheen, every scale overlapping like an impenetrable fortress.
The spears struck.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Explosions rocked the lab.
Pods shattered, machines toppled, cables snapped, and shockwaves tore through the chamber, pulverizing equipment and sending shards of glass flying in every direction.
Dust and smoke filled the air.
Arthur narrowed his eyes and waited.
When the dust settled...
Barbatos was still standing.
Completely unscathed.
He slowly lowered his arms, his black scales unmarred.
He smiled.
"Is that the best you can do?" Barbatos asked.
A notification flickered in Arthur’s mind.
[ Primordial Daemon Form deactivated — time limit exceeded. ]
Arthur’s demonic arm faded, his flesh returning to normal. His claws shrank, and the aura surrounding that limb dimmed slightly.
"Let’s try this, then..." Arthur muttered.
He reached into his inventory and pulled out a Desert Eagle pistol—sleek, matte black, and weighted perfectly in his hand.
[ Crown of Sorcery has been activated. ]
Mana gathered within the gun’s barrel, compressing into dense anti-mana bullets. Arthur pushed the compression further than usual, condensing the energy until the bullets practically vibrated with destructive potential.
[ Sharpshooter has been activated. ]
His vision sharpened.
Angles, distances, timing—everything snapped into perfect clarity.
Arthur aimed.
He fired four bullets in rapid succession.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
All four shots were fired with pinpoint precision, their trajectories calculated down to fractions of a degree.
Barbatos smirked.
"Dodging them is a piece of cake," Barbatos said.
He moved—
But just as he shifted his body to evade them, the bullets changed trajectory mid-flight.
Guided by Arthur’s will and distorted space, they curved sharply, homing toward where Barbatos had moved instead of where he had been.
The bullets slammed into his armor.
BOOOOM!
This impact was different.
Barbatos screamed.
Several of his black scales fractured, thin violet cracks spreading across them as residual anti-mana energy seeped into the armor. One bullet blasted into his shoulder, partially piercing through the scales and drawing blood that streamed down his arm.
But Barbatos didn’t stop.
His body blurred once again.
He vanished from Arthur’s immediate sight.
Arthur’s gaze flicked around the ruined lab, his senses straining as he searched for where the next attack would come from—
He found it.
To his right.
Qi gathered in his left arm as he swung his fist to meet Barbatos’s charge.
BAM!
Pain exploded through Arthur’s arm.
Every bone in his left hand shattered on impact, the overwhelming force pulverizing them before he could react. The attack had been too sudden for him to fully track and activate Infinity in time.
His body was launched backward, crashing through a broken console.
His breath hitched.
But even while flying through the air, Arthur acted.
He raised his right hand, the Desert Eagle still firmly in his grip, and fired one more bullet.
Bang!
The shot grazed Barbatos’s head as he instinctively tried to dodge, tearing through flesh and cartilage before ripping cleanly through his ear, nearly taking a portion of it off.
Barbatos staggered.
He slowly reached up and touched his ear.
His fingers came away stained with fresh blood.
His face darkened.
His anger surged.
"Enough playing around," Barbatos growled.
He raised both arms.
His body began to expand.
Bones shifted and stretched. Muscles bulged beneath his skin as black scales spread like wildfire. Massive wings burst from his back with a deafening rip. His tail thickened, spikes growing longer and sharper. Jagged horns erupted from his skull, curving backward like black blades.
In the next moment—
Barbatos assumed his true dragon form.
The colossal black dragon burst through the cavern ceiling in an explosion of rock and dust, its immense body forcing its way into the open sky.
Its roar shook the heavens.
The beast’s body was colossal, stretching dozens of meters in length. Its matte-black scales were laced with faint violet lines that glowed like cracks of living energy. Its enormous wings spread wide enough to eclipse the sun, each membrane stretched between massive bony fingers.
Its amethyst eyes still burned with the same murderous intelligence, now shining like twin stars within a monstrous face.
Rows of long, curved fangs gleamed inside its jaws, each one dripping with residual mana.
Every breath it exhaled released a scorching wave of heat that distorted the surrounding air.
Arthur, still standing within the shattered remains of the laboratory, looked up at the towering dragon.
Awe and annoyance mixed within him.
’Of course... full dragon form...’ Arthur thought.
───────────────
Far above, standing upon one of the massive branches of the World Tree, Astarte watched everything.
The sky above Elvania had grown restless as Barbatos’s roar echoed across the land, sending birds scattering into the sky and causing smaller beasts to flee in terror.
From her vantage point, Astarte could clearly see the cavern where the dragon had emerged, along with the faint flashes of magic erupting from within.
She smiled.
She could see Arthur—tiny compared to the colossal dragon, yet still standing.
"You really are something else," Astarte said softly.
Her pitch-black eyes shone with unconcealed excitement as she watched him stand against a Dragon of Evil and Destruction with a shattered arm, a Mana Heart humming like a second sun within his chest, and an Egg of Destiny safely hidden inside his inventory.
She leaned forward ever so slightly, unwilling to miss even a single moment.
"Don’t disappoint me, boy," Astarte whispered.
"Show me just how far you can go."