Chapter 156: The Hollow Crown [9]
Klein continued climbing without pause.
After the phoenix finally fell for the second time on the 35th floor, the exit gate opened immediately.
Floors 36 through 39 passed in a blur as he cleared the monsters there with ease.
He kept both his mana cores open and cycled between Calamity Serpent Style and the Dark Moon forms.
Then the world shifted once more.
40th Floor.
The chamber was vast beyond scale with an endless cavern of black stone whose ceiling disappeared into darkness far above.
In the center of that enormous space, a giant Black Dragon hung suspended in the air, surrounded by chains of dark metal.
The chains pierced through its wings, wrapped around its neck and limbs, and anchored deep into the floor and distant walls.
Even restrained, the pressure it radiated made the earlier phoenix feel almost manageable by comparison.
The air trembled faintly with every slow breath the chained beast took.
Dust and small fragments of stone drifted down from the ceiling whenever its chest rose and fell.
Klein stopped several dozen meters away as he looked up at the imprisoned dragon.
A faint grin appeared on his lips ’Oh... a dragon, I wonder if they are the same as the ones in my last world.’
The giant black dragon’s chains rattled softly as the beast shifted in its sleep... or its prison.
And then, slowly, one enormous eye began to open.
A vertical slit of pure red eye looked at Klein.
The chains that were around it for who knew how long groaned under sudden pressure.
One by one the restraints shattered, and explosions of solidified mana and flying shards of black iron filled the cavern as the chains tore free from the walls and floor.
*THUD* The dragon dropped heavily onto the stone, the impact sending a shockwave racing outward that cracked the ground in every direction.
It unfurled its vast wings, and they blotted out the upper reaches of the chamber.
Klein stared up at the fully freed beast.
’Well, as much as I am excited to fight a dragon... with my current level, it is certain I will die.’
’Good for me... because I won’t die.’
Despite its size, the dragon moved with terrifying speed.
*swoosh*
One moment it was towering above him, but the next moment its claw swept down in a black arc that split the air.
Klein dashed aside at the last possible moment, and the wind of the passing claws tore the air where he was standing.
He was already countering before his boots fully settled.
Mana flooded both of his cores, and the spear became a dark streak as he activated the first form of the Dark Moon Technique mid-motion.
Dark Moon: First Form - Crescent Slash
A wide crescent of crimson-black energy carved upward and slammed into the dragon’s foreleg.
*sleesh*
His spear struck the black scales and tore off a piece of its skin, letting blood splash out.
The dragon snarled in surprise and brought its massive tail around like a siege weapon.
Klein leapt over the sweeping tail, used telekinesis to accelerate himself higher, and drove the spear toward the dragon’s eye in a plunging thrust.
The beast jerked its head aside, and the tip scored a deep line across the scales beneath its eye instead.
The dragon reared back, inhaled, and unleashed a torrent of energy breath as black-violet energy mixed with crackling lightning that carved a glowing trench through the floor.
*swooooshhh*
Klein quickly created a multilayer dome around him.
𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶
*thoom* The breath attack hammered against the shield with enough force to drive him backward several meters.
Cracks spread across the barrier, but it held long enough for him to dismiss it and roll clear as the residual energy melted the ground where he stood.
’If I take one of those, I am dead.’
The dragon didn’t give him time to think further.
Its massive body shifted forward, snapping its wings, and the force alone sent a blast of air tearing across the platform, forcing Klein to adjust his footing as the pressure hit him head-on.
The dragon came down again, and one of its claws crashed down toward him while the other claw swept across the ground in a wide arc.
Klein slipped his body into the gap between the two attacks and dodged the claw strikes.
’Dragon’s scales are not that powerful. If I could just...’
He was already inside the dragon’s reach, and he stuck his spear again.
The tip slid along the surface of the black scales, feeling for the slight irregularities he knew every dragon has, the places where the natural overlap of scales created momentary weaknesses.
The moment he found one, he drove the spear in at an angle that allowed it to slip between the layers.
This time, it went deeper.
*kleech*
Dark blood spilled out and the wound widened as Klein twisted the spear before pulling it free in one smooth motion.
The dragon reacted instantly.
Its head snapped downward and opened its jaws as it tried to crush him outright.
Klein pivoted sharply, and the massive maw slammed into the ground, the impact shards of stone flying in every direction.
The dragon didn’t give him another opening.
Klein had just reset his stance after slipping past the last attack, and his mind was already mapping the next angle
’Huh... What the -’
But then his eyes shrank, feeling the pressure emanating from the dragon.
Klein felt it before he saw it, his instincts screaming at him as his body reacted on reflex and he tried to slip out of the center of that pressure.
His foot twisted against the cracked stone, but the dragon was already there.
The sheer size of it should have made movement like that impossible, but it didn’t matter.
’Damn it, I am still weak to face this dragon. Next time, I am going all out from the start, you bastard.’
His eyes reflected the enormous claw slashing toward him.
Klein moved at the last possible instant, and his body shifted just enough to avoid being struck head-on, but it wasn’t enough to escape the attack entirely.
The claw dropped, like a collapsing mountain, and the edge of it caught him.
The barrier he tried to raise didn’t even fully form before it was crushed.
*THOOOOOMMMM*
The impact slammed into his body and drove him straight into the ground, the stone beneath him exploding outward as cracks raced in every direction.
For a fraction of a second, Klein remained conscious.
Time didn’t slow, but his awareness sharpened in that brief instant, every sensation hitting him all at once.
He felt the bones in his arm snap under the pressure, the collapse of his ribs as the weight bore down on his chest, and the air forced violently out of his lungs as his body refused to respond no matter how hard he tried to move.
It wasn’t pain in the way he usually experienced it.
It was failure.
Total, immediate, unavoidable failure of the body.
The dragon lifted its claw slightly.
Darkness filled his vision, and a single, detached thought slipped through what remained of his awareness.
’Yeah... that’s my limit. Time to meet an old friend.’
---
There was no ground and no sky.
No light except for a faint, formless glow that seemed to come from nowhere.
The darkness stretched endlessly in every direction.
Klein opened his eyes.
He was standing or perhaps floating in the middle of that void.
A soft ripple passed through the darkness.
*swoosh* Azara appeared in front of him and looked at him with a slight frown.
"Did you die again...?"
Klein rolled his wrist once, testing the strange, weightless sensation of his astral form before letting his arm fall back to his side.
"Yeah, I was fighting a dragon. It’s more powerful than me."
Azara exhaled quietly and crossed her arms in annoyance "You are starting to treat death like a door you can walk through whenever you feel like it."
Klein tilted his head slightly, unconcerned.
"Well... it works, doesn’t it?"
"...Do not get used to it," she said flatly. "One day, you will walk through that door and I will not be here to open it again."
Klein met her gaze for a second, then gave a small nod "Yeah, yeah, just help me on this one."
Hearing this, Azara’s gaze narrowed "Like as if I have any other choice. If I didn’t revive you... hell will break."
"You pushed too far this time," she muttered as she saw how he died.
"That dragon is not something you can defeat at your current level by brute persistence alone."
Klein tilted his head slightly, "The gap’s bigger than I expected."
"At least you are capable of recognizing it," she said.
Klein gave a small shrug, "Doesn’t mean I’m going to stop."
"...Of course not because you are an idiot." she muttered under her breath.
She stepped closer.
"You are returning. And when you do, you will not throw your life away again within the next few seconds."
Klein’s lips curved slightly at that "I can’t be sure about that."
Azara’s eyes narrowed "Do not test my patience."
The darkness behind him deepened, folding inward as the boundary between this space and the living world began to form.
Klein looked at her, and his gaze softened slightly "...Thanks,"
Azara’s expression flickered in annoyance.
Then she turned her head slightly, "...Do not make a habit of that. It is unpleasant."
Klein let out a chuckle "Yeah, you said that before."
His form began to blur at the edges, the connection to his body reasserting itself as the void slowly started to release him.
Azara watched him for a moment longer, then spoke again, "The next time you face that dragon, do not meet it head-on like an idiot. You already saw the difference. Use that information."
Klein nodded his head "I will."
As he disappeared from the space, Azara looked down at her palm "He is gaining... Death Aura from every death."
"Maybe... he truly has the capabilities to become my apostle."