A golden trajectory cut through the sky, striking the head of the dragon.
-Sssssss!
The moment it hit, the golden light spread around like spilled paint.
Shockwaves and thunderous blasts erupted in all directions. The poisonous fog that surrounded the Two-Headed Venom Dragon rippled violently.
The dragon’s head tilted, scales shattering and splintering, a tortured roar escaping its gaping jaws.
‘Sturdy.’
Landing momentarily on the dragon’s head, I grimaced.
The result wasn’t satisfying.
I had used spatial leap to place myself in the optimal position and hit it with Daybreak, my single most powerful attack.
Yet, it had only managed to chip away a bit of the outer scales. I hadn’t expected to kill it in one blow, but I had hoped to do more damage.
"Aaaaaah─!"
At that moment, a high-pitched scream rang out from above.
It was Ji-yeon, falling toward me.
Though screaming from the sudden flight, she had assessed the situation and was descending with a stone axe raised high, grasping the long handle with both hands, a fierce aura swirling around the blade.
I immediately kicked off the dragon’s head.
Simultaneously, Ji-yeon’s massive axe, brimming with the power of Taesan, cleaved down.
-BOOOM!
-Sssssssssss!
The Two-Headed Venom Dragon’s head, which had been floundering, shuddered violently.
Far more scales broke off this time, scattering like shattered glass.
From where the scales were torn away, a thick, dark green fluid spewed out.
Even that fluid was poisonous—a lethal blood poison so toxic that even brief contact would endanger one’s life.
The dragon’s head thrashed violently.
Ji-yeon, who had landed on its head, was flung into the air.
"Ah."
Wide-eyed, Ji-yeon looked down.
The ground below was nothing but poisonous sludge, dissolving not only trees and rocks but the earth itself.
"Aaaaagh!"
She let out a scream.
"...Huh?"
Her scream abruptly stopped.
Pushed by the wind spirit, she drifted to my side, blinking in confusion.
"What was that, junior! How can you just throw someone like that without warning?!"
She raised her voice in protest.
"Suddenly being hurled into the sky! I almost fell straight into that poison sludge and died!"
[I apologize.] [I didn’t have time to explain.]
Hearing my apology, she glanced away.
In the direction of the Two-Headed Venom Dragon’s path lay a Free City, where evacuation was still underway.
The area, barely qualifying as a city, was already falling under the toxic influence.
‘...’
Ji-yeon’s expression softened as she took this in.
“Urgh... I guess there was no choice, but... Wait, how did you use spatial magic?”
She seemed to realize something and asked, wondering how I had crossed such a distance so quickly.
[I learned it from the Vice Chancellor.]
I replied calmly.
-Ssssss...
Our brief respite ended.
Ji-yeon, too, turned her head back with a tense expression.
The poison beneath us was bubbling ominously.
The sludge, dark green to the point of black, frothed, emitting a menacing toxic gas.
Meanwhile, the Two-Headed Venom Dragon raised its head again.
Two heads.
But it currently had only one remaining.
Originally, it would have two heads.
The remaining head spewed deadly poison, while the other, now missing, would have emitted a toxic gas capable of causing rampant diseases.
A small mercy, perhaps.
If both heads had been intact, their combined toxicity would have killed anyone entering its range.
In the original, the Two-Headed Venom Dragon had fully resurrected with both heads restored, rampaging in the midst of the great monster surge from the abyss.
The devastation was so severe that China was on the verge of becoming a wasteland.
Compared to that, the current Two-Headed Venom Dragon was incomplete, almost pathetic.
‘...Still, it's troublesome.’
With the Observation Power, I confirmed this.
As a specter, the dragon was weaker than it had been in life.
Its resurrection was hasty and unstable, further weakening it.
-Crack
A cracked scale fell from the spot where Ji-yeon and I had struck.
‘If it were intact, there wouldn’t even be a scratch.’
As a specter specializing in poison and disease, the dragon’s physical strength barely ranked in the third tier.
Its dull eyes, lifeless, turned toward me.
-Ssssss!
With a guttural roar, it charged at us, dripping poison.
I called forth the wind spirits, creating a whirlwind to guide the dragon away from the city.
It ignored the city, focusing solely on us.
‘It’s fast.’
For a snake, its speed was incredible. At this rate, it would catch up.
Moreover...
Rip! Its jaws split open, and magic flared within, with poison gleaming in its throat.
A breath of poison.
Just as I was preparing to counter it—
-Ku-goom!
A wall of rock suddenly rose in its path.
The poison spewed from its mouth, dissolving the wall in seconds.
Ji-yeon furrowed her brow, extending her hand.
Following her gesture, more walls of stone erupted.
The breath of poison stopped after breaking through several layers.
The dragon closed its mouth and rammed its head into the wall.
Boom! The wall shattered instantly.
-Ku-goo-goo-goom!
The walls didn’t stop.
New walls of rock rose in real-time, blocking the dragon’s path and holding back the poison.
Meanwhile, massive hands of earth rose, grabbing onto the dragon’s body, while stone projectiles pummeled its remaining head.
The walls broke easily under its body slams, and the earth’s grasp failed to hold it, dissolving upon contact with the toxic scales.
However, it was enough to maintain some distance.
Long-range attacks from the dragon were consistently blocked by Ji-yeon.
Thanks to her efforts, I could focus solely on flying.
“...Junior, just hold on a little longer. Given the severity, they must have sent an emergency signal. The extermination squad will be here soon.”
Gritting her teeth as she slowed the dragon’s advance, Ji-yeon said.
“And, by any chance, can you locate the summoner?”
Swallowing nervously as she glanced at the dragon, Ji-yeon continued.
“If we kill the summoner... that monster snake and all the specters will collapse.”
One common weakness of summoned entities, like specters, was that killing the summoner would collapse them like a house of cards.
The hybrid summoner of the 12th iteration fell similarly.
If he had summoned all his hybrids, he could’ve repelled the allied forces instead of dying.
“...If we can just deal with the summoner.”
Though she said it, Ji-yeon didn’t seem optimistic.
The vulnerability of summoned entities was well-known, so summoners typically hid behind thorough defenses.
Finding them, even with sensing abilities, was difficult and time-consuming.
[I’ve found it.]
“Really?!”
Perhaps due to the hopeful answer, Ji-yeon’s face lit up.
I nodded, pointing in the direction of the summoner.
Her gaze followed my finger.
“...The summoner?”
My finger pointed directly at the Two-Headed Venom Dragon.
Updated from freewёbnoνel.com.
Observation Power confirmed it was the summoner.
Just as a summoner binds with their summoned spirit, a necromancer and their specter are similarly bound.
That connection exists in theory but isn’t visible.
Observation Power, however, could track it.
It took mental energy, but it could be done.
In the information I collected through Observation, a thread extended from the specter—looping back to itself.
‘...I see.’
A piece of the mystery solved itself.
Despite the necromancer’s limited skill and resources, he managed to resurrect the Two-Headed Venom Dragon as a specter, albeit imperfectly.
‘He used himself as the sacrifice.’
Insane. Even if he wasn’t completely fused with it, there was no way to separate them now.
Ji-yeon’s eyes trembled.
She was hoping for a different answer, but I had to give her the truth.
[The summoner.] [It’s that.]
“...Damn it.”
[Sorry?]
“Slip of the tongue.”
She didn’t respond with disbelief.
Instead, she fell silent, her eyes fixed on the Two-Headed Venom Dragon.
“...?”
The dragon was staring back.
But it wasn’t looking at Ji-yeon.
She followed the dragon’s gaze.
At the end of that gaze was me.
‘It’s targeting me.’
I didn’t know why, but it was openly glaring at me.
Even though Ji-yeon, who had struck its head twice, stood right beside me, it seemed to ignore her entirely.
It only seemed intent on killing me.
‘...’
I furrowed my brow, contemplating briefly, then spoke.
[Senior.] [I’ll lure it alone.]
“Absolutely not!”
Ji-yeon shouted, leaving no room for argument.
“You never know when it’ll catch up! It’s best if we hold it off together until support arrives. We just have to hold on...”
[Instead, help the civilians.]
Her urgent protests abruptly ceased.
Ji-yeon closed her mouth, looking at me with a distant gaze.
[There are still many people who haven’t evacuated.] [There are also many dungeons going wild due to the specter’s influence.] [You can save so many people.]
I turned my head slightly.
Not looking directly at her, but close enough to meet her gaze.
[I’ll be fine.]
“...You’ll die.”
[Don’t worry.] [I won’t die.] [Trust me.]
I shook my head.
[I’m doing this because I don’t want to die.]
.
.
.
The wind spirit carried Ji-yeon farther away.
Once I confirmed her distance, I looked back.
The Two-Headed Venom Dragon was still focused solely on me, ignoring Ji-yeon entirely as it pursued.
The distance between us was closing. Magic surged in its mouth, rippling ominously.
At first, it had chased Ji-yeon like a maniac, so why was it now dead set on me?
I sighed deeply and removed my cloak.
Grabbing it, I stuffed it roughly into the air, where it disappeared into the subspace.
At the same time, the dragon’s maw opened fully, releasing a beam of poisoned mana like a laser.
Not pure poison but a concentrated mana blast tinged with venom.
-BOOOOM!
The green-black mana beam closed in, accompanied by shockwaves. Even the partially untainted vegetation and ground were uprooted by the force.
A direct hit would leave no trace of my body.
I stretched out my right hand toward the beam.
Clenching my fist.
-KRRRRRACK!
Right before impact, the mana beam split in two.
An invisible force divided the green-black line, veering it to either side of me and tearing into the ground instead.
BOOM! The delayed mana explosion sent debris flying.
Amid the dying vegetation, a jagged V-shaped mark scarred the earth.
-Ssssss...!
The Two-Headed Venom Dragon paused, seemingly taken aback.
It coiled as if to protect something, with its green-black scales scraping and grinding against each other.
It raised its head high, its two pairs of eyes swiveling toward me.
‘...’
It was just a game illustration, yet the memory now merged with the reality before me.
The massive body that could encircle a high-rise tower with ease.
A dragon’s wings awkwardly protruding from its midsection.
Hundreds of roving eyes sprouting from a head adorned with three pairs of thick horns.
Rows of countless teeth visible through its gaping jaws and its forked, splitting tongue.
A dragon of the earth that had failed to become a celestial being.
‘The Tower of Specters.’
Differences aside, the image lingered in my mind.
I’d heard about it from the head of the Guhwa Family.
Hong Yeonhwa’s father, the head of Guhwa, had been stationed in the heart of the abyss.
He would have participated in the annual gathering, yet he couldn’t leave due to certain reasons.
In the original, I knew those reasons.
‘He’d discovered the Tower.’
The Tower of Specters.
This was reality, not a game, so it could be an unexplored tower.
Which one?
I didn’t know precisely.
But it was probably the Tower of Specters.
And regardless, nothing would change.
‘I’ll have to fight it someday.’
The snake here, likely ranking below the fourth tier.
Other naturally occurring monsters of the second tier.
The tower’s overlords and their forces, who might someday invade.
I didn’t know if I’d win.
To survive on my own, I could simply run away.
But to live happily with those who care for me, running away wasn’t an option.
Running would only lead to a future where I’d face a daunting precipice.
So I stopped.
I turned to face it.
And met its gaze.
‘Summon spirits.’
-Crack- A rift opened behind me.
Beyond the wind spirits hovering around me, my contracted spirits emerged in droves.
In an instant, countless points of light filled the air around us.
-Hwaaa!
The ethereal wings that had draped over me like a cloak transformed.
Infused with the mana from the Lake of Mana, the Sky Wings gleamed with a brighter, bolder radiance.
I, too, was brimming with pure mana.
The mana’s density, purity, and volume had greatly increased, all of it stored within the Sky Wings.
The wings unfurled like a scroll.
The six split sections spread like wings.
-Swoosh! The white and blue wings extended as spirits flocked to them.
They converged into the wings, merging as if water soaking into a towel.
The wings, now filled with mana and spirits, expanded.
The light intensified to a blinding level.
The wings stretched farther and wider, tinted with colors other than white.
-Flap!
With a single beat of the wings, a spray of colors erupted.
Red, blue, green, yellow, and brown.
A cascade of colors blanketed the dying ground.
[Player Adjustment System: Favorability] Lee Hayul → Ji-yeon Lee ●●●●○○○○○○ (31→40/100) “Successor of Taesan” “Good Person”
...
[The artifact “Sky Wings” reveals its true potential.]
...
[Mental state “?정” is changing.]
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[Savior Adjustment System: Evil Extermination Mode] [System expresses intense rejection of specters!] [Main Quest “Tower of Specters” linked] [Quest “Two-Headed Venom Dragon” linked] [Quest “Transformation of China’s Abyss” linked] [Supporting the Savior!]
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[Savior Adjustment System: Salvation Mode] [Mental state “Salvation” “Goodness” “Sacrifice” confirmed] [Supporting the Savior!]