◈ Episode 344. In My World (3)

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[Urgent Update].

New boss monsters are added.

‘Elder Dragon Eunaxus, Who Swallowed the Evil Fruit’ : Lv.2,500

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A whopping six days.

I thought it wouldn’t be strange if something happened.

Yes, I was prepared to be scolded by Wensu.

But the moment I checked the update history, I felt a tingle in the back of my head. I hadn’t forgotten. I’d been working on it, too.

To heal the dragon that swallowed the evil fruit.

‘…… Damn.’

As proof, he was appointed to the Healing School.

Bellier studied so hard that the shadows around his eyes never left his face.

Next to Marcelo, they looked like brother and sister.

-“You have no shame, Chief Lee.”

But evil had always come from the Arcana continent.

Finding a solution in the real world, a completely different world.

It was no different from searching for a needle in the desert whose presence or absence was unknown.

So I had it in mind.

I hadn’t decided early on, but I thought it would be right to include Bellier in the starting group of twenty. But now, at a time like this.

‘If I hadn’t been away…….’

Wouldn’t it be possible to find a way to resolve the evil in a week or so……. That’s what I thought.

But I can’t be sure, and I can’t turn back time. So I shook it off.

There’s no point in holding on to regrets.

The scene in front of me.

It was horrible.

All mages of Magic Tower.

An all-out assault by the Holy War Alliance.

A tiger, not a cat, fights hard at the top.

And at this moment, a group of harkons clinging to a dragon.

One would say.

For their deeds.

They minimized the damage while Eunaxus rampaged.

They wouldn’t be wrong.

So.

“I’ll begin my review.”

My stern snout spat out a favorable assessment, and I graciously removed the Dawn’s jacket from the Tower Master, unperturbed by the blood and gore.

But there was another reason.

There was only one reason that reality had been spared so far.

The old dragon being controlled by evil.

It was because Eunaxus was desperately suppressing it.

It was because he had persevered.

“You have not changed, Eunaxus.”

It sounds puzzled.

You’ve reduced the Zero Mountains to rubble.

What have you persevered for?

But I’ve fought Ice Dragon, Frostnax, and I know.

I know that a dragon’s power is only a fraction of this. If Eunaxus truly wanted to destroy reality, he wouldn’t have fought a hand-to-hand combat in the first place.

The only thing that was certain was that the dragon was an [『Anomaly』].

In other words, it was impossible to inflict any meaningful damage on the dragon without the existence of the Anomaly.

“Mr. Hoyeol……. No, Commander……?”

Not only did Nam Taemin’s, Harkon’s, Hisagi’s, and Leonie’s sword strikes work, but the senior mages’ combined attacks worked because that’s what Eunaxus wanted.

It wanted to fall, it wanted to be staggered by magic, it wanted to be cut by swords.

Whether it was rationality or instinct that made it give up as long as it remained an evil dragon, I could not tell.

“There is no need to howl so desperately.”

It’s okay from now on.

[Skill, ‘Natural Enemy’ triggers].

You have me, Eunaxus.

‘……I’m not all that confident myself.’

[Natural Enemy] triggered thanks to Eunaxus’ ingestion of the Evil Fruit. But even that might not be enough if he starts to go on a real rampage.

Still, there’s a part of me that believes.

[Exorcism ritual].

Eunaxus’s condition was virtually the same as being possessed by a demon known as evil fruit.

For a moment, I thought that if I could remove the cause through the Exorcism, Eunaxus could return to normal.

But.

‘Not possessed.’

The moment I chose the sacrifice, I knew.

Eunaxus is not possessed by evil.

He is indeed a demon, an evil dragon, the very thing.

As if to prove it, a message pops up.

[Elder Dragon Eunaxus, who has swallowed the Evil Fruit, refuses to ‘calm’].

Dark Dragon.

And I, as Claudi’s patriarch, am in command of Eunaxus. I was not just a setting or a word, but a system authorized person who did not lie.

My orders were being denied.

“Crawl─!”

Eunaxus howled ferociously at me, his cries filled with murderous intent.

I rolled my eyes in desperation.

To understand the change in the prey from the hunter’s perspective.

And I realized.

“Primodial Evil, ugly as ever.”

Evil fruit.

The fruit of that damned World Tree didn’t just possess its victim……? It was a fruit that had the malevolent effect of destroying the balance of good and evil within the victim, turning the victim’s essence into something completely evil.

It began to make sense.

‘Even dragons are direct descendants of the World Tree.’

The potential evil inherent in them must be vast.

Eunaxus must have been more aware of his condition than anyone else.

That was why he was on a rampage.

It wanted to die.

Because he knows that he has crossed a river from which he cannot return.

Goooooo─

Eunaxus fires a blast of Breath at me.

A Breath that cannot be canceled out by anything less than a anomaly of the same kind.

I don’t hesitate to pull out Gwicheol from my belt.

-It looks like the situation is not favorable, master.

Hmph!

I added sword force to the sword, enveloped it in my magic power, and deflected the blast of Breath. With a light swing of his sword, the Breath splits in half and scatters.

A voice is heard.

“This way, I don’t have to do anything……!”

Skal shouts from his wyvern.

I can guess what he’s planning.

He may not have ridden a dragon yet, but he’s a dragon knight.

I’m sure he’s taking on this responsibility.

If not.

Maybe he just wanted to ride Eunaxus for the sheer joy of it.

I don’t know about you, Skal, but when it comes to dragons, you mean business.

Either way, I’m sorry for your loss.

I guess it wasn’t going to happen.

“Eunaxus.”

I know.

All demons are destined for Hell. The rules of Hell are strict, and there are no considerations for whether a demon was once a swordsman or a demon hunter.

Even Eunaxus can’t escape the rules of Hell.

I know of no way to change Eunaxus back to his original self, not through possession, but from within.

Because I am a demon hunter who hunts demons, not a saint who looks down on even the demons.

Moreover.

『The pride of Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo is, paradoxically, most exalted in the presence of the devil』

No mercy when it comes to the demon.

You can’t overlook Grandfell’s temper.

But I did not speak coldly.

“I knew what you meant.”

Even if he was corrupted by the demon. I knew that Eunaxus was desperate, that he knew there was no turning back, that he was on a rampage, hoping to die.

I could have treated Eunaxus the same as any other demon.

I couldn’t simply cast him into the fires of hell.

Gathering my emotions, I spoke.

“I will send you off more grandly than anyone else.”

So this was the best I could do.

In my world, Eunaxus would be recorded as an evil dragon and would not die.It will not be recorded as an old dragon that had its wings torn off, rolled down a mountain range, and met a miserable end.

For I am the one who will fulfill my words.

“From now on, you may rampage like the King of All, Eunaxus, and your rampage will be recorded as more powerful than any demon, demon king, or great evil I have ever faced.”

I chanted.

“That is my final disposition of you.”

My grip tightened.

“I will bear everything for you.”

I wondered if he understood.

“Kr……!!!”

The suddenly changing momentum of Eunaxus.

Eunaxus unleashed the power he had been desperately suppressing.

chijijijig!

His massive body heated up with steam.

Harkon’s group, who had been attacking together, fell apart from the heat.

“……Crazy, what’s going on?”

“It’s too hot.”

“Shit. It’s not like I’m bleeding out……?”

Skal’s relay comes in.

“D, Dragon’s Body, it’s changing color!!!”

I wasn’t surprised.

I was expecting it.

I had once asked Eunaxus.

-“Ice Dragon, Frostnax. Earth dragon, Kudhanax. Thunder Dragon, Zeudenax……. Yes, this old dragon had a name in the past, just like them.”

I wondered if there was a reason why Eunaxus was the only one called an old dragon. But then Eunaxus got all excited and told me his name.

-“Polar Flame Dragon (Extreme Flame Dragon). That’s my tinnitus.”

Extreme heat.

The dragon’s skin burns beyond red to black.

Dragon scales turning to flame.

The power of Eunaxus is the first to reach the skin.

As I watch, I am reminded of Karimzeva, who called himself the Fire Dragon. Indeed, for a demon worshipper, he hasn’t the slightest idea of what he’s talking about.

‘There is no comparison.’

Once again, I’m reminded.

I admire your self-control, Eunaxus. How did you manage to suppress such power even as a demon, and how did I end up face to face with you……!

Of course, his tone remains nonchalant throughout.

“You finally live up to the king of all things, Eunaxus”

One might ask.

Are you not deeply fucked up with slang?

It is. There’s not a single aspect of the game where I can say I’m clearly ahead of Eunaxus, not in terms of weight classes, not in terms of levels, not in terms of the realm of anomaly.

However, in saying ‘it was like that’ rather than ‘it is so’.

There is a reason for everything.

I had just found a hole in my flesh.

Our Grandfell values ​​the passage of time, comparing it to afternoon tea time. How to not feel regretful even after wasting as many as 6 days of time.

It’s for a good reason.

I looked at Eunaxus and continued.

“In that case, I will also join in with all my ‘power’.”

.

.

.

Shwoosh-

Mary flew through the Zero Mountains on her broomstick.

She needed time to gather her thoughts. She wasn’t too worried. She knew that Jesse hadn’t been chosen as the Archmage’s vessel for nothing.

‘Actually, now more than Jesse…….’

I was concerned about Claudi, Hoyeol.

“!”

Suddenly, the battlefield came into view.

Mary recognized Eunaxus at once.

It was a dragon she had encountered in the past on the Arcana continent.

Eunaxus.

A group of elves led by Agentress.

Gluttony of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Urs, the Transcendent.

It was Mary, the Witch of the Southern Sea, who had summarized the situation in Claudi’s name, so she recognized the gravity of the situation at once.

” …… is not the time for this.”

She thought to herself.

Claudi can’t handle that dragon alone.

In the past, she would have blamed herself.

A great house, doubting Claudi’s abilities. She knew there was nothing more pointless to worry about in the world. But not now.

There were unanswered questions.

Why is Claudi referred to as an adventurer?

Claudi’s patriarch, Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo.

Adventurer, Lee Hoyeol.

There was no greater contradiction than their existence.

Completely different worlds.

They couldn’t possibly exist in the same time line.

But she didn’t question it.

With her clan saved by Hoyeol.

Any more questions would be disrespectful.

She was only concerned.

I don’t know what contradictions you’ve become entangled in, but……. but she knew that Claudi was not performing as well as she had in the past. She knew that.

She knew it would be impossible for him to take on the Elder Dragon in his current state, single-handedly, so she urgently accelerated her broom.

And then.

“……!”

It was unfortunate.

……What the hell had happened in the last six days?

Those days.

Because Claudi in his prime was right there in front of her.

Holding a closed-eyed Tower Master in his arms.

Jesse following Mary, late to the game.

Jesse gently wipes the corners of her eyes and opens her mouth.

It was a different kind of question.

“Excuse me……. Can hair grow like that in a week?”