Chapter 1178
‘Huh…?’
Raon paused in mid-air, about to strike the hidden dragon heart of Lord with his divine sword at the end of his neck, but stopped abruptly.
‘What is this?’
His hand wouldn’t move.
The fingertips of his right hand, which had been swinging the divine sword to cut Lord’s neck, suddenly stiffened, and then his entire body from the wrist and arm up to his upper torso began to freeze up.
‘Did Dragon Lord do something to me?’
Raon bit his lips deeply. He hadn’t felt it due to his focus on the attack, but it seemed like Dragon Lord had countered with some strange magic.
‘Then I need to retreat and assess the situation… Huh?’
As he tried to take a step back to understand Dragon Lord’s magic, his legs wouldn’t obey him. His entire body, from his upper to lower limbs, was now out of his control.
‘Has such magic ever existed?’
It seemed similar to petrification magic, but it was definitely not that kind. Petrification magic would never work on him, so it was clear that this was some new magic he had never seen before.
‘As expected, Dragon Lord is something else.’
Raon ground his teeth, glaring at Dragon Lord with cold eyes.
‘You won’t die easily, huh?’
He thought he could end the fight using the power of the demon kings, but he never expected to be countered like this. Breaking out of the current situation didn’t seem easy.
‘Where should I…’
– Raon Ziegardt!
Ras’s piercing blue eyes glinted as they shot toward him.
– Break it now…
It seemed like he was trying to say something, but Raon could barely hear him. It felt like his ears had been blocked as well.
‘Ah!’
Raon felt the strength completely leave his hands as he watched the struggling Ras.
‘The sword…’
The divine sword and magic sword that he had been forcing himself to hold onto began to slip from his hands, falling into the depths of the black dimension.
‘I need to make one last attack.’
Trying to lift one of the swords with his cursed sword, Raon intended to strike Dragon Lord, but now even his head had stiffened, preventing him from moving the swords. It felt like his whole body had turned to stone.
Gooooooo!
Strangely, Dragon Lord didn’t attack Raon, who had become defenseless. Instead, he just watched with cold, distant eyes, as if he too couldn’t move.
Haaaa…
Raon slowly sank into the darkness, feeling a strange sensation as his body and soul stiffened.
Fwoooooo!
When he opened his eyes again, he saw a golden desert, sparkling like Dragon Lord’s scales.
‘Where is this…’
It was a desert he had never seen before, a strange place where only the beautiful golden sand existed.
‘Is this some kind of inner world? This is so strange… Huh?’
Raon frowned as he tried to lift his foot.
‘My feet won’t move.’
His feet were stuck in the desert sand, unable to move.
‘No, it’s not that I can’t move them…’
I can’t feel them at all!
There was no sensation in his feet buried in the sand. There was no pain, no itch—nothing. It felt as though his feet had never existed from the moment he was born.
‘Is this mental magic?’
His physical body couldn’t possibly be damaged by the sand, so it seemed like Dragon Lord’s mental magic had put him into this state.
‘What kind of mental magic is this… Huh?’
Raon recalled Dragon Lord’s gaze, then quickly dropped his own.
‘Not just my feet…’
The sensation in his legs had also disappeared.
As the sand, which had only covered his feet, climbed up to his ankles, the sensation beneath it also disappeared. There was still no pain, no discomfort—it felt like his feet and ankles had never existed at all.
‘What is this…’
Raon bit his lips slowly as he watched the rising sand.
‘The sensation is being erased…’
As the sand rose, the sensations in his body melted away, as if they were being erased.
‘Damn it!’
Raon furrowed his brow and tried to lift his thighs and waist to escape the sand.
Sssssss!
But as he moved, the surrounding sand shifted and began to bury him even faster.
‘No. I was wrong. It’s not my body…’
My soul is being erased.
This place wasn’t reality—it was a temporary inner world. What was disappearing wasn’t his body, but his soul.
‘Can such magic even exist?’
Raon clenched his fists with the last of his strength.
‘It’s impossible for Dragon Lord to destroy my soul without any clash of souls… Ah!’
As he thought about Dragon Lord, Raon remembered the words he had spoken at the end.
‘He told me to die while calling my name.’
Dragon Lord had shouted for Raon to die while saying his name, just before the divine and magic swords were about to explode. At the time, Raon had thought he was just lashing out, but now he realized that was magic.
‘A dragon’s language!’
Raon trembled, sweat dripping down his chin.
‘He used the dragon’s language to wish for my death!’
Now it made sense. Dragon Lord had used the dragon’s language to pronounce his death. It was literally a magic of absolute power.
‘But the dragon’s language isn’t omnipotent.’
Even Dragon Lord couldn’t use the dragon’s language freely—it was a special power. Especially since Raon had demonstrated overwhelming strength over Dragon Lord, it didn’t make sense for him to pronounce death.
‘Could he have borrowed the power of another being?’
Raon suddenly remembered the strange, unfamiliar color that had flashed in Dragon Lord’s eyes.
‘He said all humans were rotten, but it looks like this mediator guy was borrowing the power of others.’
Raon scoffed as he lifted his chin.
‘I want to kill you right now…’
He bit his lips as he watched the sand rise up to his knees.
‘What should I do?’
The sensation fading from his body and the blurring of his existence felt chilling, like something wrong.
‘Death…’
Raon slowly took a deep breath, feeling his soul melt away in the golden sand.
‘This is certainly a terrifying magic. A normal person would have been too terrified to move from just this sensation. They would have struggled and fallen deeper into the sand. But…’
I’ve already experienced death.
Thinking about Dragon Lord, who was probably watching him, Raon smiled faintly.
‘It won’t go your way.’