Dominion Bond System: The Only Man Left Has A Yandere Girlfriend

Chapter 73: Just One Touch...

VEL’S POV

Ever since coming to this strange world, I have felt a subtle pressure. It makes me sleepy. I don’t know if it’s my new body or something else, but it’s there and I don’t like it.

’It’s been four days and some hours now, and there’s still no sign of His Majesty?’ I muttered to myself as I stared at the TV playing in front of me.

’Though I can stay for a long time without eating food, I need my fish!’

Not that I haven’t tried, but every attempt has ended in failure. I climbed on top of the fridge, as His Majesty calls it, but these damn paws can’t open the damn fridge.

’Please come back home...’

If this were a month ago, I wouldn’t have believed that I’d ever leave that forsaken hole. Thinking about the number of skeletons I made and saw really makes me never want to see another one again.

At first, when I met him at the rock, I thought he was the Undead King because of that presence of death surrounding him.

I had thought he was weak, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. His fight with the Undead King still burned in my memory.

How can someone defeat the person who, with a small army, wiped out all the continents’ soldiers?

It’s truly baffling. But another thing I can’t understand is why the Undead King became weak. Did the battle have something to do with it?

’All these questions without answers are really driving me nuts... I want fish!!!’

~Ding! ~Dong!

’His Majesty?’ I thought, but I couldn’t sense his presence. Even my cat nose told me it wasn’t him.

’What did His Majesty say to do when something like this happens...?’

Recalling the training, I quickly went upstairs, opened the bedroom door, and hid under the bed.

~Ding! ~Dong!

The sound of the doorbell continued, but I remained hidden beneath the bed.

After a few minutes, it stopped, but I stayed under the bed. An hour passed before I finally emerged.

To be honest, I really wanted to see what this new world looked like and find out if there were other people like His Majesty. But I know that if I left on my own, His Majesty, wherever he is, would immediately put me to an early eternal rest.

Somebody capable of slaying the Undead King, standing up as if nothing had happened, and even growing stronger is definitely going to sense me stepping out of that gate.

’There’s no point in going against His Majesty. After all, he has been treating me less like a servant and more like a friend.’

Thinking that, I decided to wait for His Majesty a little longer.

’Please come back soon...’

I lay on the couch as the movie had already ended and slowly drifted off to sleep.

***

Reiji stepped into the forbidden territory without making a sound.

The moment he crossed the invisible boundary, the atmosphere changed.

The forest became eerily silent.

No insects. No rustling leaves.

Even the wind seemed to avoid this place.

Reiji instinctively slowed his breathing.

His gaze swept across the ancient trees surrounding him. Every trunk was several times thicker than the ones outside the territory. Their branches intertwined high above, blocking out most of the sunlight and casting the forest into an endless twilight.

"...So this is its territory."

He muttered quietly.

Unlike the rest of the Backlake Realm, this place carried an invisible pressure.

It wasn’t something physical.

It was instinct.

Every fiber of his body screamed that he was trespassing.

Reiji activated Detect Presence.

Nothing.

His brows furrowed. "...Nothing?"

That was impossible.

A C+++ monster shouldn’t disappear from his perception entirely.

Either Detect Presence couldn’t sense creatures far stronger than himself,

Or it already knew he was here.

" It knows I’m here."

That thought alone made his muscles tense.

Reiji immediately abandoned the narrow animal trail and climbed onto one of the massive tree branches using Shadow Step.

From above, he moved much slower, carefully jumping from branch to branch.

Every movement was calculated.

No unnecessary noise. No unnecessary mana.

Minutes passed, yet nothing appeared.

His eyes suddenly landed on something beneath the trees.

"...What?"

Reiji crouched on a thick branch.

Scattered across the ground were enormous white bones.

Broken ribs. A crushed skull.

A spine nearly twenty meters long. He immediately recognized it.

"The Apex Ape..."

His eyes widened slightly.

Only four days ago that monster had nearly beaten him to death.

Now nothing remained except bones. Not a single piece of flesh.

Not even dried blood.

It looked as though something had thoroughly cleaned the skeleton before abandoning it.

Reiji slowly climbed down.

The closer he got, the clearer the size became.

Standing beside the giant skull made him look no bigger than an insect.

"...What kind of monster..."

He quietly examined the bones. Deep claw marks covered several ribs. Large sections of the spine had been bitten clean through.

The skull itself had a perfectly round hole running straight through it.

One hit. Just one. Reiji swallowed.

That thing had killed the Apex Ape so effortlessly.

"...No wonder everything outside this place stays away."

He quietly backed away from the carcass. The deeper he ventured, the more remains he found.

A giant snake. Several wolves.

Creatures he had never even encountered before. Every single one reduced to bones.

The forest felt less like a monster’s territory and more like a graveyard.

Minutes later, a faint opening appeared between the trees.

Reiji immediately stopped.

At the center of the clearing stood an enormous ancient tree.

Its trunk was wider than a small house.

Blue vines wrapped around it while glowing flowers bloomed across its roots.

The mana here was so dense it almost looked visible.

Then he saw it.

Perched comfortably on one of the gigantic branches was a creature unlike anything he had ever seen.

Its body resembled a gigantic eagle.

Yet dark crimson scales covered parts of its neck and chest. Long feathers shimmered with faint silver patterns.

Its folded wings alone looked capable of blotting out the sky.

A serpent-like tail lazily swayed behind it.

Even while sleeping, its mere presence dominated the entire clearing.

Above its head floated a familiar green screen.

[Tyrant Serpent Brid (C+++)]

"...So that’s your name."

Reiji whispered.

The creature remained completely motionless. Its breathing was slow ad steady.

Almost peaceful.

Reiji stared at it for several seconds. "...It’s asleep."

His heartbeat accelerated. This was his chance.

If Rupture landed directly on its flesh, the battle might end before it even started.

Slowly, very slowly, Reiji activated Shadow Step.

His figure disappeared and appeared on another branch.

There was no reaction.

Another Shadow Step brought him closer.

The creature was still sleeping.

Another Shadow Step closed the distance until he was ten meters away.

Then five. Then three.

The massive creature remained perfectly still.

Reiji carefully extended one finger.

"...Just one touch."

Mana quietly gathered around his fingertip.

[Rupture.]

He was only inches away.

One more movement and his finger slowly reached toward the creature’s exposed neck.

Then a single golden eye opened.

Reiji froze.

The eye calmly stared straight into his own. Neither of them moved.

For one long second, the entire forest fell silent.