Merely taking a single step toward the sword, Xia De clearly felt the gravity acting on his body increase.
But there was something else that caught his attention even more: the flow of mana within his body had become slightly sluggish. Though the sensation was faint, Xia De was absolutely certain it was there.
To verify his hypothesis, Xia De took another tentative step forward.
After walking about ten meters, Xia De suddenly felt the pressure on his body double once more, and the sluggishness in his mana circulation became slightly more pronounced.
A flash of understanding crossed his eyes. He turned his gaze toward the silently standing greatsword. Recalling Plutosas's status on his panel, he praised softly,
“No wonder Plutosas had only a handful of tricks up his sleeve when dealing with me, despite clearly possessing so many abilities. As expected of the legendary Holy Sword, to actually be able to manipulate gravity and obstruct the flow of mana.”
“Well then, I shall accept this spoil of war with gratitude.”
With an excited smile on his face, Xia De braved the multiplying gravity and dashed toward the greatsword in a flash.
He was still ninety meters away from the sword, and the gravity on him was currently threefold. If he remembered correctly, it doubled every ten meters.
Every ten meters, Xia De felt the gravity on his body increase by another fold. His body grew slightly heavier, but this did not hinder his speed in the slightest.
Fivefold
Sevenfold
Ninefold
Elevenfold!
The closer he got, the stronger the pressure on his body became. In the end, even he had to slow down, his speed cut in half.
The moment he stepped into the final ten meters, the pressure spiked violently. He stumbled, letting out an involuntary groan as a trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth, forcing him to halt.
Wiping the blood from his mouth, Xia De gritted his teeth and glared at the close greatsword. “I underestimated you. To think the gravity would suddenly leap to fiftyfold in these last ten meters!”
Closing his eyes, he took a few deep breaths to compose himself.
His mana circulation speed had dropped to a third of its usual rate, and the immense pressure bearing down on his internal organs made his breathing slightly labored.
But it didn't matter!
After just a brief moment, he opened his eyes and walked forward with steady steps.
“If I hadn't rushed in so quickly earlier, catching me off guard, I wouldn't have been shaken up like that. Fortunately, I had anticipated such scenarios in the past and trained by using magic to construct something similar to a hydraulic press. Otherwise, that sudden pressure might have literally ruptured my internal organs!”
Ruptured internal organs?
Xia De finally understood. He recalled the mysterious deaths of the villagers, whose internal organs had been completely crushed when they died.
Gritting his teeth, he took step after step toward the black greatsword. Looking at the nearly two-meter-long blade, Xia De grabbed its hilt.
“Honestly, I wonder what kind of face the Village Chief will make when he finds out the culprit behind everything was actually the Holy Sword that was supposed to protect them.”
With a sudden surge of strength in his arm, accompanied by a tearing sound of ripping flesh, he forcefully yanked the black greatsword out. Perhaps because it had been embedded for too long, chunks of Plutosas's flesh clung to the blade as it emerged.
“Ant!”
A sudden, sharp pain shot through its back, and Plutosas let out a weak, exhausted roar at Xia De.
“Alright, alright, 'ant' it is. You keep repeating those same two words. Are all demons uncultured blockheads like you?
Whatever. You don't have long to live anyway, so I won't hold it against you. If you ever get reincarnated, you should go play some game about sprouting potatoes to get a proper education.”
Hearing Plutosas's cliché insults, Xia De simply waved his hand in boredom, lacking even the slightest desire to argue.
Looking at the bloody hole left by the removal of the black greatsword, with bloodshot flesh peeking out from within, Xia De extended his hand toward the wound. A black magic circle materialized as he spoke:
“Do you know why I didn't just use the sword to impale you directly, and instead chose to leave an open wound?”
Seemingly sensing Xia De's intentions, Plutosas spoke in a panicked voice, “Ant! Wh-What are you doing?! How dare you!”
But just like how he hadn't let a police officer pointing a gun at him interrupt his words in the beginning, Xia De ignored Plutosas's outcry and continued to speak to himself:
“Your physical defense is too powerful; my current self can't pierce it. Even my black flames only deal damage because of their soul-devouring nature. Since I can't destroy you from the outside, I have no choice but to create a wound and destroy you from within.”
“Wait, wait! Ant—no, human, don't kill me!
I can give you immense treasure, power, and countless women! No, not just humans—I can even provide you with females of other races!
Didn't you call me a dog? I admit it, I am!
Woof, woof, woof! Don't kill me! I'm willing to be your dog!”
Plutosas had finally hit a point of absolute desperation. It scrambled to stop Xia De, trying to tempt him with wealth, power, and lust, desperately hoping to spare its own life.
It went so far as to cast aside its dignity as the Demon King's mount and a member of the dragon race, begging to become Xia De's dog. This pathetic display of pleading for mercy actually made Xia De want to laugh.
But Plutosas felt only deep terror. Its intuition as a peak Tier Eight told it that it would truly die with the next strike!
To survive, what was dignity anyway?”
Even though Plutosas's pleas for mercy echoed throughout the sealed space, Xia De pretended not to hear, calmly continuing his movements.
Black Prison—Execution of Life and Death.
“No!”
Sensing that its end had truly come, Plutosas threw its head back and let out a roar of unwilling despair.
But the moment the sound left its throat, countless black spikes burst through its flesh, erupting from within its body in dense clusters.
Its consciousness snapped instantly. The light of life faded from its eyes, and its mountain-like body was left looking exactly like a giant sea urchin!
After a long while, once he was absolutely certain Plutosas had drawn its last breath, Xia De finally stopped manipulating the shadows to devour the dragon.
He breathed a sigh of relief, collapsing onto the ground, and gently wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.
Despite how effortlessly he had made it seem, he hadn't let his guard down for even a fraction of a second during the battle, keeping his nerves wound tight the entire time.
After all, Plutosas was still fundamentally a peak Tier Eight entity. It was only because many of its abilities had been suppressed that Xia De had managed to pull off a victory.
If nothing else, had the battle taken place outside rather than in this underground sealed space, dealing with the extreme mobility granted by its massive wings would not have been nearly as easy.
The shadow spikes had not yet dissipated. Xia De sat cross-legged atop the sea-urchin-like dragon corpse, patting its still rock-hard hide as he sighed with regret.
“Sigh. Why did you have to beg for mercy at the very end? You didn't show any dignity of a powerhouse at all. And here I thought I'd finally met someone stronger than me whom I could actually beat in a proper fight!”
“Well, as the first sacrifice for my leap in strength, I don't think I'll ever forget you, Plutosas!”
“It really was an enjoyable battle!”
“And now, for you. Fiftyfold gravity really isn't something an ordinary person can withstand. If it weren't for me, I honestly don't know how whatever poor soul ended up in this space to fight the boss would have ever defeated Plutosas.”
Xia De patted the nearly two-meter-long blade of the greatsword. The ink-black metal felt cool to the touch as it lay quietly beside him.
Just then, a tiny black line rapidly slithered up to Xia De, wriggling and twisting in front of him as it quickly traced something in the air.
Rate on N.U.
