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Chapter 321: Last Minute Changes
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WHOOOSSSHHHH~~!!!
It was a wave of healing Mana.
Again, the wounds he created healed but the pain still gave the dragon more agonizing reasons to cry and howl because it could feel Siva’s path with its own body.
How morbidly harrowing the experience was; to know and feel it with your flesh, a parasite that you can crush with a simple gesture, yet now, it is the very same thing that the dragon was howling in great pain from.
The damage it could deal was little in all respect, but there was nothing it could do for this little thing is a monstrous parasite with tangibly visible destructive capabilities.
After 30 seconds, another series of explosion can be heard on its (mental) ear and the explosions all happened inside its body, making the dragon further kneel on the ground and vomit blood from the experience.
Yet again, the dragon howled in pain.
By now, all external wounds have already healed, but all of that was irrelevant. Its current agony was greater than a thousand times before.
If it was smart enough, if it could only wish to, it would rather choose to commit suicide here and now to escape from this excruciating punishment.
Hell?
This is this dragon’s hell. It was like a mouse stuck in between a large boulder up front and a hacking bolo aimed at its neck coming from behind.
Fear wasn’t in this summoned creature’s glossary but right now, it wished that it knew how to feel it.
He could only follow its basic instincts to trample and use all of its available abilities, and size, to kill the “target” spoken to by the [will] that crated it.
GRAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
The dragon cried towards the sky.
“Finally!”
PSHT!!!
With a final thrust, Siva pierced through the wall of flesh that made its lungs and other parts of its body, and came into a different textured lump of fleshly parts… with a very thin layer of sack… that protected a beating 40m-large organ.
Every beat of its blood echoed like thunder on his ears and it was beating so fast, Siva could feel the rhythm on his skin crawling like an insect.
Mana swirled around the organ and the gooey sac itself was the materialization of its Draconic Mana.
“What every Wizard in the world would pay for just to obtain this thing…”
«Dragon Heart»
An item of magical wonder!
If preserved the right way, it can be used to make a few of the strongest magical weapons in the entire Terran History.
If used alive, which is impossible, and was only from imaginary legends, it can pump infinite Mana for the user.
Thus, when Siva saw this organ, he couldn’t help but ask that very question itself for this item is a magical item that has immense value for Wizards.
“If it was an Elemental Dragon…”
Cortana cut him off, “Boss, too much greed will kill you, you know? According to the articles in the Net I spied on just now, with your current abilities, you wouldn’t even get near enough at that dragon before you’re either fried or frozen. But if it’s a Lightning Dragon —AH! That’s right. You do know where to find a Lightning Elemental Dragon!”
Siva only smiled. Cortana had read his mind again.
It may be hypocritical of him but although he had his aspirations and plans to gain strength, Cortana had proven to be a much greater help than he had anticipated that he can’t help but revise each and every one of them.
Like how he invented the BMA, from revising his plans with the BlackTech as the foundation—
Like how he revised his ideas for the evolution of his Master Puppets because of Cortana’s sudden level up—
Or just like now, at how he was suddenly inspired by seeing this [item] in front of him… how his mind immediately “wished” he could preserve this item and use it alive!
As such, he embraced the fact that versatility in his thinking is the key in adapting and winning against and all obstacles.
“Cortana…” Siva whispered but it was voice filled with his intent, resolve, and hope.
In turn, Cortana replied with a voice of conviction.
“Downloading necessary data! Done! I’m patching up a Blueprint… done! Generating resources estimate… done! Referencing blueprint data on The Record… done! Boss, you are a genius…!!”
As soon as he heard this, Siva felt his hairs rising.
He couldn’t believe his ears. “Is it really possible?”
“Yes boss… we only need around 800 cubic tons of Plasma Smoke to put it into a semi-cryo state.”
“Semi… and what about the device needed?”
“Four hundred thousand NanoCubes, 1/4 Mega-Crate of Black Ironwood Alloy, a few boxes of S-ranked monster resources; and for power, it only need a thousand Stun E-Grenades to hold it fresh for an entire day… but with the BMA here, using all we have, you only need to create the container and we can handle all the rest.”
Cortana fed the information to him via their mental link and Siva felt the shivers of excitement crawl on his skin.
“Ah! The BlackTech’s [OverDrive] can be used that way, yes! This will work.”
“Then please let me deal with dealing damage to the dragon while you work with the construction of the container.”
“Give me space and please patch me through to the Miranda and the base! Let’s start now.”
“Starting!”
*****
A Real@D call connected and a conference was made with a seated Rafaela and the standing pack of the ones in the castle.
Not even a word was uttered but they all gasped at the sight of what was behind Siva.
“Siva! Is that…” Rafaela was utterly surprised by it.
Even Eleanor who rarely showed surprise, had her heavenly beauty looking at the sight of the dragon heart behind him.
[Everyone, there’s a change of plans.]
Rafaela raised a hand and interrupted with a pretty smile beaming on her face, she says, “Can you do it?”
Of course, she had always put her trust with Siva and so never doubted that he could pull it off. She believe that he was the kind that will not fall on the most important of tasks in regards to his plans and his own survival.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
There was pause, a very short pause.
[I can.]
Thorn picked up a few things and then looked at him, a beaming smile on his lips, “We’ve always been preparing for a third volley.”
Akhenaton materialized beside Thorn and made his report, “Fifty seconds before transfer.”
[Delay for at least ten more minutes. Also, I need you guys from Miranda and the castle to focus fire on the Dragon’s head. At least make it stumble.]
“Stumble? Why?”
“Will this work?” the next to pick up on things was Samara and she voiced her concern beside the still confused newly returned FlowerLord.
[It has a calculated 25% chance of succeeding.]
Against a True Dragon… 25% chance was already the Everest of estimates. That’s already a good number, even if it’s just optimistically glancing at it.
“Then what do you want us to do?” asked Rafaela.
[Expect the worst… as well as the best outcomes.]
The call ended.
Rafaela and Thorn blinked and with the blowing of a cold wind, they laughed and exchanged glances, then excitement drew on their faces before they nodded and ended the conference call.
“Everyone… prepare for a Game Over!”
*****
The call ended and Siva turned around to see the Dragon Heart still beating on its place.
On the other hand, just outside, he could also hear explosions, sending tremors that resounded in his surroundings, shaking it all the way to his feet as if there was an earthquake.
But his feet wasn’t on ground but on a dragon and his feet, even, was placed firmly where he stood; then on his back extended a 2m long impaler that siphoned fresh blood from the dragon’s veins to douse his body on it.
With the help of BMA’s [Omni Form] capability, aside from his ears, nose, mouth, and eyes, every inch of his body is being burned —tempered— by the fresh blood of the dragon. It was painful, but it was manageable.
Siva had experienced more painful things than this, not to mention that of all those pains, this is a pain that he will welcome with open arms and a wholeheartedly wiling heart.
He was just standing there while on the Real@D call earlier but he was multitasking on important jobs that needed to be done.
Time was wasting.
His hands were moving, assigning the tasks to the Portable NanoFurnace installed on his Inventory to complete the necessary apparatus to support the cryonification of the Heart.
“My Lord, twenty seconds until jump.”
When Akhenaton spoke on his mind, Siva did not stop his actions but answered, “If something else happens within these moments, continue with the jump on the designated coordinates. Otherwise, just wait for my signal.”
“What about you My Lord?”
“I can’t leave this thing here. I will follow behind.”
Akhenaton didn’t answer back. It’s not that he did not want to but his focus right now is being used to its limits.
The pain of the body tempering was still there and the [feed] of the now disassembled tailed spear into sections that surrounded the dragon heart is also needing of his attention.
Within this 200m diameter sphere around him, all sorts of information on everything around him is being fed directly to his brain in a lump of useful information and that as well needs focus simply because he has yet to master this ‘all-knowing’ sensation.
If his body wasn’t being tempered by the dragon’s blood right now, then he’d be sweating non-stop.
Cortana was also multitasking; outside of assisting him on her newly developed [active scan] ability, she was also actively watching the Net regarding the details of the attack on the dragon; while she also helped Siva ‘lock’ on the main arteries of the dragon’s heart, preparing the item for the taking.
All seven of the Master Puppets had already been deployed and scattered into smaller compact ‘hands’ that used bladed weapons to deal damage to the dragon’s internal muscles, aside from the important blood arteries.
In total, there were 70 of such small bladed items flying around the dragon’s body, tearing minor blood arteries, muscles, and organs apart without mercy.
*****
Outside, the dragon continued to howl with great pain and agony that some members of PETA even began to file complaints on the members of the Miranda and The Company.
There are even extremists who began to rally for the rights of the poor dragon who continued to vomit blood and how in pain as it clutched its chest with its draconic hand.
Its wings flapped but it couldn’t fly. The bombers came back and forth, maintaining their respectful distances while never relenting even a second on their bombing runs.
Below were sneaking individuals who crawled, flew, jumped, and run to take pleasure on bathing with the dragon’s blood that it was vomiting.
Daredevils even went on so far as to stay there more than five seconds, gaining ten points to their stats, and even choosing and planning to stay a bit longer to hoard more additional effects.
Some of these fellows were lucky that they were not squashed by the dragon’s large paw; while a few lucky ones were divided to death-defiers and conservative ones, with the latter choosing to be satisfied to what they had received.
In the city, even, people are still continuing to pop out with shining lights one after another, pouring on the frenzied feast that is the dragon’s blood.
City Lord Billion was also tempted, as well as the other City Lords in all of Terroa who are able to get a hold of this news.
President Ethan is, as usual, burning with furious fire because this is yet another [event] that they, Panorama Corp., had to explain to their fan base; and him, as the company’s president, to the board of directors.
Event he NPCs of the entire planet of Terroa is drawn once again to The North, to Alexandria, where Siva had done it yet again.
He never tires to create one legendary feat after another and almost all his actions draw in all eyes and ears… no, all the souls of the two worlds, on his location’s very spot itself.
In fact, to have lasted this long —deep in the Central Headquarters of the Wall of Jeremiah, the biggest faction in the entire [Kingdom Knights] order of the country known as Jeremiah; on the sofa in front of a wall displaying the news, from Terroa’s NPC media agents, were two people; the first is a deeply frowning Zelga; the other is a blue armored 50-year old looking man, Blue Draco, an Elder of the Council of Elders that presides over the continued function of Jeremiah as a country; and as well as one of the Three Grand Knights that lead their faction.
Zelga was fuming while Blue Draco seemed to be unperturbed by these events.
He had long since had his own fill of dragon blood and besides, only dragon resource taken just ten seconds away from a living dragon are useful; all else, after its death, even the bone marrow, is just item materials and could not be used to increase one’s stats.
Draco knew it well so he didn’t care about this event in Alexandria. If everything went well, he’d get even more of it with the help of this kid beside him.
Still, his eyes were side-eyeing Zelga and he could see the very rage on his fists, burning brighter than the morning skies of Terroa.
Draco secretly smiled.
He may have lost the advantage in controlling the sub-rosa exchange between them, but this little chink on this arrogant prick’s armor is something that can be used in the future.
Of all the qualities that Draco had in him, what he is proud of the most is his ability to bid his time.
Someday, he mused, someday, I will lead your arrogant nose with the finger I used to wipe my ass. You can motherfacking bet on it.
He was humiliatingly insulted so he will take his revenge.
*****
By staying longer inside the dragon’s body, Siva is taking a great risk. The Transcendence State had been disabled for a minute now but unlike what he had expected, the pressure of the Mana inside the dragon’s body was not that frightening… but still in existence nonetheless.
“It’s because of the body tempering, boss.”
“Right.”
Siva wanted to confirm the reason why tis True Dragon is not killing him and so the answer came right away.
“Boss, the dragon’s internal organs’ constitution are barely 10% of the muscles that made up its entire frame. The muscles around the main limbs and the chests, the neck, the back, and the rear parts are all developed sturdily for battle. That’s why they’re firm and tough to deal damage to.”
“Akhenaton, are True Dragons really this weak?”
[Not generally, My Lord, no, since the difference between an Immortal and a Chaos God is just a matter of having the ability to attune their souls to one of the Eternal Elements… Immortals and Chaos Gods, by definition, are masters of their own paths. Elder Gods and those who had been born with the blood of the Primordial Gods, were rare to begin with. During my time, I’ve only heard of Elder Gods at most but the latter ones are rare to the point that they are even considered as just mere legends.]
Immortals, Chaos, Elder, Primordials…
Lesser Dragon, True Dragon, Elemental Dragon, then Elder Dragon…
Demon Pawns, Leader, Commanders, Generals…
The confusing rankings of these gods, devils, and beasts annoy him greatly for some reason. No. In fact, he could tell that what annoys him more than anything else is the fact that they exist above his head… that they are more powerful than him!
The fact that all of these titles sounded strong, the fact that they are all potential enemies that he had to face; these things… annoy him greatly.
“More potential enemies!” he clicked his tongue.
Unknown to him though, rather —inadvertently— without him knowing the truth of these matters, he himself was the last of these ‘Gods’ that he hates with gritted teeth right now.
Potential enemies?
No.
And whether he had accepted it or not, or had just forgotten about it, the last few threats to him and his mission to find and save Baron were just the Devil God, Mefisto —the First Born; and perhaps The Union as a whole because of Jack Stone and his important role in the organization’s plans.
—not weak but its already dying?
When he heard the answer on his mind, Siva bid Cortana a glance. Of course, what he was thinking and all his guesses are already read by her.
A question arose in the midst of them: just how fucking grand is the difference between all of them gods and immortals anyways?
“There are insufficient information regarding the answer to that question in your mind, boss. But all I can say is that based on Akhenaton’s words, this True Dragon, despite having the name of ‘True’ in it, is not a complete dragon. If it has a mind that is aware of you being inside its body, it would have long hurt itself, sacrifice pain to flush you out of its body and just heal itself with its healing magic afterwards. I daresay, boss, that this creature is just as Akhenaton said… a mere summoning that doesn’t have a will of its own so it couldn’t think of a countermeasure to your parasitic invasion.”
In the end, when Siva decided to buy himself time until it was the time for the jump when he made himself eaten by the dragon; when he suddenly slipped from the dragons uvula and was ingested instead; all of it… were made up of chanced luck.
“It’s luck again!” he hated this feeling.
.
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Desperation and LUCK sometimes are twins…
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