Chapter 1169: 156. Monster

Half the land, one third of the ocean. Just how vast a range was that?

It was difficult to imagine.

But if that number were converted according to his previous life, it would probably be equivalent to the entire Eurasian-African landmass on Earth, plus more than half of the Pacific Ocean, all covered by this kind of dense fog.

Just thinking about it made one’s hair stand on end.

“Then for such a vast region, where exactly did this fog come from? This does not look like any normal celestial phenomenon. It cannot be magic from some great figure again, can it? If that really is the case, then it would be too terrifying.” Muen shrank his neck. Magic capable of covering such an enormous range was extremely inconceivable no matter from which angle he thought about it.

“Relax. It is not magic from anyone. No one would create such boring magic.”

Hamreign’s tone paused slightly. “The fog formed naturally. It comes from a certain rule of this world... although the reason that caused it to appear can hardly be called ‘natural.’”

“So in the end, the creation of this fog was still man-made?”

“Hold on tight!”

Muen still wanted to continue asking, but Miss Dragon’s low shout cut off his words.

Immediately afterward, the entire dragon body suddenly tilted. With a wild posture, it shifted through the sky. Muen was thrown around inside the “claw cage” until everything spun, but fortunately, his ability to control his body was powerful. He quickly regained his balance and tightly hugged Miss Dragon’s dragon claw.

“What happened?”

His death premonition had no reaction at all. This meant the situation was still within Miss Dragon’s control. But the sudden change still made Muen grow tense.

Especially when he lowered his head and looked down, his heart subconsciously gave a heavy thump... because within the dense fog, a huge shadow was gradually approaching.

The shadow grew clearer and clearer. The feeling it gave Muen was like a sea monster gradually rising from the deep ocean. Before its main body had even appeared, enormous tentacles had already reached out, sweeping toward Miss Dragon.

“Holy shit!”

Muen was incomparably shocked and spat out filthy words:

“Cthulhu!”

The shadow within the dense fog was unbelievably huge.

Just one tentacle alone was so thick that Muen found it difficult to describe.

Hamreign herself was a giant dragon with an enormous body. When her wings spread open, she could give people the feeling of blotting out the sky and covering the sun. But before that tentacle, she was as small as a fruit that could be casually plucked.

That enormous figure seemed as if it was going to directly pierce through the dense fog and arrive beneath the sky. Through the shadow, Muen could roughly make out a strange outline woven together from countless tentacles. A solemn yet terrifying feeling rushed toward him head-on, making one’s breathing freeze.

“What is Cthulhu?” Miss Dragon asked.

“Nothing. I just shouted randomly.” Of course, there could not be any Cthulhu in this world. It was only that the monster’s bizarre appearance made it very difficult not to think in that direction.

“Is that so? Something similar to a human tone expression when afraid? Then I specially permit you to shout it a few more times.”

“Huh?”

Muen was still in the middle of being dumbfounded, but Hamreign abruptly tightened the claw that had originally been in the shape of a “cage,” gripping him tightly inside it.

“Fuck.”

Muen’s face instantly swelled into the color of pig liver. The sudden “binding” play gave him no chance to react at all, almost squeezing something out of him. He used his hands to slap at the claw, but there was no reaction whatsoever. In the blink of an eye, his identity seemed to have changed again from a “little cat or dog” that would be properly kept inside a cage into a ragged doll that could be casually carried around and played with in the hand.

However, this time, he really did not have any reason to complain, because Miss Dragon doing this clearly had her reasons.

“Are you holding on tightly?” She even thoughtfully reminded him again.

“Mm-hm.”

Muen nodded hard with tears in his eyes. He felt that right now, even if he did not hold on, he was already tied up as tightly as a hairy crab in a supermarket.

The dense fog churned again, and even more tentacles extended out.

There was not the slightest aura of magic on these tentacles, nor were there any mystical fluctuations. It was as if the monster in the fog was relying only on pure physical strength to drag the most powerful creature in this world down from high in the sky.

But if one looked carefully, one would discover that on the surface of those tentacles, unimaginable deformity and rotting flesh had piled up. They carried faint mist as they charged into the high sky. Highly toxic pus continuously flowed from nauseating sores, and every extension and swing of the tentacles caused unimaginable pitch-black filth to spray everywhere.

Hamreign did not want to be stained by that disgusting filth she loathed, and quickly dodged. Her enormous body moved between the tentacles, so nimble it was unbelievable.

“What exactly is this?” Muen felt that he no longer had the leisure to care about the binding sensation on his body. The shock this thing brought him was far greater than his own value of existence suddenly becoming equal to a supermarket hairy crab.

“Some kind of... monster bred from Pollution, that is all.”

The ferocious yet still beautiful dragon head lowered. The golden pupils burned so brightly they seemed capable of suppressing the radiance of the sun, coldly staring at the shadow in the fog:

“A troublesome thing. That is why when I normally travel, I would rather consume a little more power and walk through the void than pass through places like this.”

“Do not tell me the fog is full of things like this!”

Muen remembered that Marcie had also said before that there were indeed monsters in the dense fog, and among them, quite a few were things even Pioneers did not dare casually provoke and could only dodge and take a long detour around.

But he had never imagined that the so-called monsters would be such terrifying existences. Let alone anything else, just this size... A single one of them could easily destroy Annabawei...

The things they talked about and the thing he was seeing... were they really the same species?

“Relax. This kind of thing will probably only appear in areas where the Pollution is most severe. Their numbers are pitifully few, and they are not everywhere. I have not seen one this large in several decades either... And they cannot move in the dense fog for long periods.”

“So... does this count as us winning the lottery?” Muen slandered inwardly. What kind of shitty luck was this?

“In a certain sense... it does.”

The golden pupils glanced back at him. “Your luck is not bad.”

“...Even if you praise me, I will not be the slightest bit happy.” Muen put on a stern face.

“I was not praising you. I only suddenly felt that the fact that you have managed to live until now, from a human perspective, is indeed not simple.”

“...Then will you treat me a little better in the future?”

“No.”

Hamreign thought about it. “But if things truly reach the point where I have to kill you in the future, I will do it cleanly.”

“...” Then thank you very much, old lady.

“I am going to deal with it.”

After its round of attacks, the tentacles had not even touched the black dragon’s tail. From within the dense fog came some kind of strange roar that made one’s eardrums ache. Muen frowned and covered his ears.

Hamreign, however, was not affected in the slightest. Her enormous wings that blotted out the sky and covered the sun beat once. The wild wind lifted the dragon body, and she continued to climb higher!

Boom!

The roar was shattered. Muen saw scarlet thunder descend from the sky!

Hamreign’s figure turned over. When that enormous dragon body moved, there was not the slightest sense of bloated obstruction. Instead, she was elegant like a black dancer. One dragon claw tightly gripped Muen, holding him slightly closer to her chest, while the other dragon claw reached into the thunder...

And grasped the air.

That scarlet thunder was seized by her in her dragon claw just like that.

“Hiss...”

Muen sucked in a breath of cold air. Although he temporarily could not understand this move, that did not prevent him from recognizing how damn awesome it was.

In his memory, when King Indra fought at full firepower, he also seemed this fierce. His signature move was opening the nine-layered ring while catching thunder bare-handed.

But Hamreign at this moment was clearly different from him. King Indra relied on his own powerful body to forcibly receive it, but Hamreign was... controlling it!

That was right. Controlling it.

That thing clearly was not ordinary scarlet-colored thunder. And yet it fell between those dragon claws, obedient like a ball of cotton, allowing itself to be kneaded.

But that was not cotton.

That was heavenly might.

Boom!

The scarlet thunder rapidly condensed between the dragon claws, as if becoming an extension of that claw, and then, beneath Muen’s horrified gaze, it crashed down!

The dense fog was silent.

Only thunder roared and shook.

That boundless dense fog, as if it wanted to cover the entire world, was so easily blasted open into a hollow. A depth of over a thousand meters was not worth mentioning before the scarlet lightning.

The enormous monster was completely exposed before Muen.