Chapter 320

“Dammit,” Dopper mumbled, staring at the two enraged individuals above him with his light blue eyes.

Carcharocles and Natantes sent death glares at Dopper, who had taken the form of the deceased Squama.

“How dare you mimic my dear blood brother?!” Carcharocles shouted.

“That man is our pride and sorrow. He is not one the likes of you can defile!” Natantes added.

“What is with this hatred? You should be welcoming me with open arms. I, Squama, have returned,” Dopper remarked.

“What a load of bullshit!”

“That is enough of your jokes.”

Dopper outstretched his arms, unable to understand their reactions.

“Look at these whole scales, symbolizing the ultimate merfolk! This Stream Force! This mana! I have even mimicked his memories!” He smiled confidently, the way Squama used to, and continued, “With all this, can you truly say that I am not Squama?”

Carcharocles and Natantes stared at Dopper in silence, unable to deny that they felt like the real Squama was before them.

“Answer me! My blood brother, Carcharocles! My successor, Natantes!” Dopper shouted.

Carcharocles glared at him in silence. As if to sever all hope, he said firmly, “You are dead. The days that we had spent conquering the seas are far behind us.”

Natantes placed his hand in his pocket and said, “You cannot be Lord Squama. As proof...”

He pulled out a blue stone that looked like a frozen wave.

[Ocean Stone

Description: A stone that holds the past, present, and future of the race Merfolk.]

“That’s—” Dopper shouted, his light blue eyes being dyed pure black.

The os in the center of his chest emitted the Cosmos as it trembled.

Seeing that, Natantes remarked with disgust, “Those eyes, filled with greed, are why you can never become Lord Squama.”

“Kekek, indeed. Squama treated the Ocean Stone the same as any ordinary rock. He kept dropping it, so it was always up to me to pick it up,” Carcharocles said with a chuckle, shaking his head to chase away the apparition of the past before him.

Squama, the free Ocean King, did not particularly like the Ocean Stone. He had always laughed at the Ocean Stone as his charming, light blue eyes shone.

“Oi, Car. This stone is apparently the essence of the merfolk. Can you accept that? I for sure can’t. I am a free wave, never staying in one place! I refuse to be tied down by that stone’s curse!”

“The only thing Squama ever wanted was freedom, not the likes of this stone,” Carcharocles said sentimentally.

“Hand that over!” Dopper shouted.

[Activating Os Skill: Ruina.]

He fired Ruina from his os at the Ocean Stone to corrupt it.

“Not a chance!” Carcharocles shouted, swinging his fist at Ruina as he erected his dark blue skin teeth.

Ruina was torn apart, unable to corrupt Carcharocles’s hard scales.

“You are not Squama!” he shouted.

“You are just a lowly Chaos!” Natantes shouted.

Pennifer, the dark blue dorsal fin, and Spuma, the white foam, shone above the Ocean Prison, exuding their unique caliber.

“Dammit! Why did things turn out this way?!” Dopper gritted his teeth, sensing the power of destiny pressuring him.

If only Dollores were here! he thought.

If he knew this would happen, he would not have let Dollores go about her own business.

“Two upper Recorders,” he mumbled.

Not even he, who had mimicked Squama’s powers, could easily face those two simultaneously. However, the anxiety gradually vanished from his expression, and he smiled confidently.

“There is no way I will lose. I am certain my victory is written in that person’shistory!”

***

[00:02:32]

[00:02:31]

[00:02:30]

...

Two minutes left! Seong-Hwi shouted inwardly.

The underfish army took the shape of a giant black hand, grabbing Rahab.

“Burst!” Rahab shouted using Dragon Tongue, instilled with the power of history from his Crown of Pride.

His will was actualized; the os of over ten thousand Underfish shattered, and their corpses sank to the bottom. However, the Underfish knew no fear and simply gathered to attack Rahab endlessly.

“For the King!”

“Charge!”

“Kill him!”

They were of no threat individually, but their numbers were the real issue. Rahab realized he needed thicker ink to write history into the Akashic Records.

“You lowly creatures!” he shouted.

[Activating Star Power: Deification.]

The red gems embedded in Crown of Pride shone blindingly, activating Rahab’s star power, the ultimate form of a proud man who had accomplished everything he had set out to do in life. This power trampled on those inferior to him and supported his superiority.

“Hahahah! You dare challenge God, ingrates?” Rahab shouted, his sense of elitism overflowing from his mind.

His superiority, which supported his thoughts that he could do anything, had activated his Deification. Beliefs powerful enough to trick even oneself could sometimes become reality.

[Activating Race Skill: Dragon Tongue.]

“Burst!”

He used the same skill as earlier, but the result was different. Hundreds of thousands of Underfish had exploded. Rahab’s surroundings were empty, and flesh was bursting like fireworks around him.

“Ahahahaha! Poor things!” shouted the arrogant Rahab, basking in his superiority as he pitied the weak creatures that proved his might. “Destiny is decided from the moment of your birth!”

He was born as the son of God, and everyone else was born to worship him. That was the ironclad rule. Just then, Seong-Hwi appeared from the wave of flesh, approaching Rahab like a tiger pouncing from the bushes.

“What a joke,” Seong-Hwi remarked, clenching Gram in the form of Fierce Tiger Hides in the Forest, as he activated Siegfried’s exclusive skill.

[Activating Exclusive Skill: Dragon Scale Slash.]

Gram was dyed red as it trembled, and a blood-red aura wrapped its blade.

“Chaaahh!” Seong-Hwi roared, swinging down Gram using Step Forth and Kill.

“It’s pointless,” Rahab said, staring at the red blade approaching him with an arrogant smile.

He couldn’t imagine the attack of an inferior race even leaving a scratch on his dragon scales, but simply letting such an attack touch him was a disgrace to him.

“Break!” he shouted, using the power of Dragon Tongue.

He believed such a pathetic sword would break in an instant, but the Dragon Scale Slash, infused with the history of the dragon slayer, tore his extravagant, red robe and left a deep wound on his right shoulder.

“GAAAHH!” he screamed.

“Like father, like son. You’re both so arrogant and stupid,” Seong-Hwi mocked as he activated another skill.

[Activating Exclusive Skill: Dragonblood Armor.]

The blood coming out of Rahab’s shoulder flowed toward Seong-Hwi, wrapping his torso and becoming a breastplate.

“That robe saved your life, lizard,” he remarked.

“What is... that sword?!” Rahab shouted.

“Oh, this?” Seong-Hwi said, staring lovingly at Gram as if it were a bouquet. “This is a sword that penetrated your father’s scales, even back when I was far weaker than my current self.”

“Ahaha! Record your exploits! Sing your saga! Become a dragon slayer who surpasses me, Siegfried, the greatest hero of the Eddas and the Volsung!”

Seong-Hwi listened to Siegfried’s cheers as he erected Gram again and asked, “Have you ever met your natural enemy, lizard?”

“You... impertinent creature!” Rahab screamed.

His skin wrinkled, and six red eyes opened from those wrinkles.

[00:00:10]

[00:00:09]

[00:00:08]

...

This is my final attack! Seong-Hwi thought as he saw that the Chaos Mana conversion was almost over, deciding to finish things with one attack.

“Desire!” Seong-Hwi shouted.

The radiant silver star, Desire, responded to his call by shining a golden spotlight on him. He received the immense power of the Fruit of the World Tree directly.

“HAAAAAHHH!”

[Cheon Seong-Hwi

Health: S(40+15) Strength: S(41+15)

Dexterity: S(29+15) Sense: S(33)

Magic: S(89) Destiny Force: S(59)]

His stats skyrocketed in proportion to the immense burden on his body, and the Dragon Scale Slash extended in response.

“Master Elementum! Please cover me!” he shouted.

“Okay!” Elementum shouted, activating various skills as Aequalitas flashed..

[Activating Race Skill: Archane’s Embrace.]

[Activating Race Skill: Gnoass’s Skin.]

[Activating Race Skill: Raker’s Cheer.]

[Activating Race Skill: Erised’s Certainty.]

...

Archane’s Embrace, with powerful magical resistance, and Gnoass’s Skin, with powerful physical resistance, wrapped Seong-Hwi to protect him. The cheer and certainty from Raker, the courage spirit monarch, and Erised, the hope spirit monarch, granted him phenomenal mental fortitude.

“Charge!” Seong-Hwi commanded the Underfish.

The Underfish executed their final charge as ordered, instantly wrapping Rahab.

[Converting Destiny Force to Titanic Force.]

[Converting Destiny Force to Draconic Mana.]

[Converting Destiny Force to Demon Force.]

[Converting Destiny Force to Holy Force.]

...

He put every single secondary force he had into this one attack. Seong-Hwi thrust the Dragon Scale Slash, having become one giant pillar erected from Gram, at Rahab. As the attack continued to advance as it penetrated the Underfish in its path, Seong-Hwi noticed an anomaly on Rahab’s Crown of Pride. The star in the sky shone with a blinding red light like a supernova, engulfing the light from Desire and Aequalitas.

[Activating Race Skill: Dragon Breath.]

A crimson Dragon Breath formed a red line in the blue ocean, so massive that it made the Dragon Scale Slash look like a toothpick.

“NOOO! SEONG-HWI—!” Elementum shouted, wide-eyed as she looked for Seong-Hwi, engulfed by the Storm Dragon’s breath.

The unfathomably dense unique caliber seemed as if to declare Seong-Hwi’s death.

[Recording the story of The Proud Dragon in the Akashic Records.]

[Crown of Pride absorbed the causality stored within the Harmony Stone Piece, its pride being replaced by humility.]

***

Dragon King Regnator, wearing an extravagant red robe, was looking down at his hand with shining ruby-red eyes deep in his golden lair, located in the eighth zone.

“Pourbus... Explain,” Regnator mumbled.

“Yes, my lord. As Judicium, the One-Eyed Judge, has mentioned, Patala and Aquilo have been temporarily expelled from the Sēmen by the inspector, Cheon Seong-Hwi—”

“Not that,” he interrupted Pourbus, his chilling voice echoing throughout the lair.

He was holding a golden box that could be called the epitome of extravagance, but the object that should be resting in the box, lined with a red rug, was absent.

“I assume... that Young Master Rahab has taken the Harmony Stone Piece—”

“POURBUS!” Regnator shouted, wrinkles forming on his face, from which ten red eyes opened.

Pourbus groaned, looking into Regnator’s eyes that carried an unfathomable caliber. It felt as if the world was tilting.

“ANSWER CLEARLY!”

“Young Master Rahab... has taken... the Harmony Stone Piece.”

“I believe I had ordered him to return immediately.”

“He... didn’t listen—”

“Where the hell is he?! What has he done to the point that he would be expelled from the Sēmen?!”

“He said... that he would kill Natantes... in Gurzes.”

“And how is Patala involved?!”

“Master... Vipera Anguis... appears to be... assisting... Young Master... Rahab... Gurgh!”

Pourbus passed out in the middle of his report.

“Vipera Anguis! Rahab! How dare you act without my permission?!” Regnator shouted.

He crushed the golden box in his hand and threw it aside. Something unbelievable had happened while he had been focused on reclaiming the ninth zone. The most dumbfounding of the matter was that his son had stolen the Harmony Stone Piece, which he had been reserving for the future.

“I AM GOING TO GURZES!” he screamed so loudly that his voice shook his entire lair.

Just then, a dragon in the form of a blonde young woman with silver eyes ran to Regnator and prostrated herself before him. She was Melsine, one of the twelve consuls of the Sēmen.

“L-Lord Regnator!” she shouted.

“Melsine? What are you doing here? What of your duties as a consul?” Regnator asked.

Instead of answering Regnator’s question, she shouted, “T-this is an emergency!”

“An emergency?”

“We have detected movements from the Celsus Mountain Range!”

Regnator narrowed his eyes. “Tsk, have those bastards at Redeo begun to move? Makes sense, since it is not long until we reach the Master Stone.”

News of Redeo’s movements was displeasing, but nothing special. After all, he had expected it to happen sooner or later.

He walked toward the lair’s exit as he remarked, “That’s no emergency. You may give me the details once my business at Gurzes is—”

“Una himself has made his move!” Melsine interrupted.

“What?” Regnator asked, frozen in his tracks as he was about to pass Melsine.

“Una, that dementia dragon, has come out from the Celsus Mountain Range! He is heading to the eighth zone!”

“The eighth zone?”

Una had been cooped up in the seventh zone for decades. Redeo had been lying low in the seventh zone to avoid clashing against Echion, residing in the eighth zone. However, Una had broken his seclusion and was blatantly heading here.

“Could this... be?” Regnator mumbled, putting together the fragmented information in his head.

The inspector, Cheon Seong-Hwi, a member of Underground, expelled Patala, who were allied with Echion, and Aquilo, a clan under Echion’s banner, from the Sēmen. Then, Una suddenly made his move as if he had been waiting for it. There was only one answer Regnator could come to.

“These bastards have joined forces in secret!” he shouted.

His neck felt unsettled by the hostility and ill intent he could feel from the flow of circumstances.

This is no time to head to Gurzes! he thought.