Ch.316Chapter 316: The Great Confrontation (5)

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The Desire before my eyes was still alive despite having her heart pierced by the dragon sword.

…The key point was that she remained alive in a state where it wouldn’t have been strange if she turned to ashes at any moment.

Every time she forcibly raised her devastated body—so mangled that no description other than “horrific” would suffice—

CRACK-!!

Her skin split with a violent sound.

And from the cracks in her torn skin seeped an energy so dark it resembled blood.

This clearly told me she was plotting something sinister.

Without hesitation, I swung the dragon sword in my tightly gripped right hand toward Desire with all my might.

But the powerful strike, delivered with every ounce of my strength, failed to cleave through Desire’s body, even though she made no attempt to block it.

The sword hadn’t missed by cutting through empty air; it had followed a precise path to slice Desire but had simply bounced off.

CLANG-!!

The metallic sound accompanied by strong recoil in my hand, like striking meaningless blows against iron.

“Ugh…!!”

The scream that escaped my lips as my body absorbed the full impact of the recoil.

All of this signaled my failure.

But this was too crucial a moment, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance, to give up just because I had failed.

Ignoring the numbing sensation plaguing my right hand, I began to wrap battle energy around the dragon sword again, preparing for another strike.

【Stop.】

My preparation was halted by a warning from Desire’s lips—a warning filled with such ferocity it was hard to believe it came from someone whose body was splitting apart.

I didn’t stop because I was startled by the warning.

And I certainly didn’t stop because I wanted to.

The cause was that the savage warning didn’t end with just words—it exerted some invisible physical force that controlled my actions.

In the past, before the regression, I had often seen Desire overwhelm opponents with the power and dignity she had accumulated throughout her life, restricting their movements.

But the force she was now exerting on me was of a completely different caliber than what I remembered.

It was so intense that it rendered futile all my desperate attempts to swing my sword.

Tremble-tremble-

The meaningless trembling in my right arm was proof that trying to move forcibly was useless.

I was on the verge of sighing involuntarily at my inability to do what I intended.

But the very person who had bound me like this seemed to find even my current state somewhat different from what she had expected.

From Desire’s lips—whose body, despite its dying appearance, was gradually filling with vitality—came:

【Hmm…? You can still show movement? Impressive.】

An assessment delivered in her distinctive tone, filled with an ambiguity that made it difficult to distinguish between admiration and mockery.

In the past, I would have flown into a rage at Desire’s characteristic way of speaking.

But now, I had no desire to react to the nuances in her words, so I remained silent.

What did it matter if it was admiration or mockery?

If getting angry at her ambiguous words and engaging in verbal sparring could kill Desire or stop her, I would gladly lose myself in rage and use my tongue relentlessly.

But to stop her, I needed to employ my sword and physical force, not my tongue. I had already determined that wasting energy by getting angry was not the right approach.

So regardless of whether Desire was talking or not, I concentrated all my strength to try to regain movement.

Tremble-tremble-

Just like before, the faint trembling of my body, completely betraying my expectations, informed me that this was the limit of my range of motion in the current situation.

I was about to be overcome with anger at the reality of being bound like a statue by an unexpected force in an unexpected situation.

[Sigh….]

But thanks to the sigh that escaped from Paphnir’s mouth—a sigh revealing complex emotions that ranked among the most profound I had ever heard from him upon seeing me stopped—

My anger didn’t linger but was completely consumed on the spot.

The emotion in that sigh was too intense to dismiss as ordinary; I almost wanted to ask what was wrong. That was probably the main reason I forgot even to be angry.

The atmosphere was so heavy that I forgot not only to speak but even to address him mentally, so I couldn’t ask why Paphnir was sighing.

[So with a body already ruined, your choice to survive was to return to being a dragon….]

The words Paphnir uttered in lamentation served as an answer to my unasked question, which was satisfying enough.

【Yes…. No matter how unsightly and degraded one becomes, it’s still far better to live.】

Desire somehow heard Paphnir’s lamentation in my mind and answered with a voice still filled with ferocity.

CRACK-!!

Simultaneously with her answer, the murderous cracking sound that had been filling this hall finally reached its peak.

【I’ll show you! The true form that you all forced me to abandon!!】

From the cracks etched into Desire’s body, who had just let out a cry filled with anger, hatred, killing intent, and all manner of negative emotions:

SHUUUU-!!

With a loud sound like steam escaping:

The same blood-colored energy she had been emitting earlier burst forth like evaporating steam.

Whatever it was, it was clear that allowing it to disperse freely would lead to something terrible.

WOOONG-!!

Once again wrapping battle energy around the dragon sword:

“HYAAAAH!!”

I swung the dragon sword toward Desire with all my might, letting out a battle cry to dispel the pain tormenting my body as I circulated battle energy.

I was able to move like this because I had somewhat broken free from the physical force that had been constraining my body due to Desire’s recent actions.

The moment my body moved properly, the pain that still lingered spread throughout my body like a bursting dam unable to contain overflowing water.

Perhaps it was thanks to my desperate will to succeed?

The swung sword flew toward Desire’s body—which was bursting with blood-colored energy—with the momentum to cut her in two, tracing a clean, swift path without a trace of distracting thoughts.

Please… let this end it…

I prayed desperately, with no time to admire the beauty of the sword’s path.

SLASH-!!

As if responding to my desperate plea, the dragon sword wrapped in battle energy succeeded in cutting through Desire’s body this time.

The sensation in my fingertips clearly transmitted the feeling of cutting through flesh and blood; there was no doubt about it.

I had accomplished something that filled my body and mind with a calm elation—a feeling I hadn’t experienced even when stabbing her heart.

But the phenomenon and fact that my sharpened senses perceived next pulled me away from that elation.

The scream that should have followed from Desire’s lips after the satisfying cut was not heard.

【SHUWAAAAAAAAA-!!】

Instead, what I heard was a long, deep roar like that of a beast, ultimately signaling my failure.

[Tsk… Retrieve your sword and move far away.]

Paphnir, sensing that something had gone wrong, clicked his tongue and advised me to retreat.

I too judged that it wasn’t wise to maintain my position, so as I quickly moved away, I realized one thing.

I dare to assert:

What would appear after this long, drawn-out roar ended would not be the form of some great being who had stepped into transcendence, albeit twisted.

Rather, it would be a fallen beast whose power was more than enough to step into transcendence, but whose character and soul to properly contain that power had been partially damaged.

With that thought in mind, I hurriedly distanced myself from Desire to a suitable interval.

The deep, intense red light that had been coloring my vision completely dissipated within the hall.

And what filled the hall as the light disappeared was:

CRUNCH-! BOOM-!!

The thunderous sound of something with an indescribably massive bulk crushing the obsidian mercilessly.

What entered my eyes as I focused my gaze on the spot where the dust had risen, piercing through the dust created by the crumbling obsidian, was a dragon.

Dragon scales with a deep light that made the blood-colored flash that had filled this hall earlier seem pale in comparison.

A massive body that didn’t fall short in comparison to Paphnir during his days as the Red Tyrant, when legends say he covered entire mountain ranges.

And the battle energy rising from its body, symbolizing pure power itself, making even the presence of such a massive body seem insignificant.

【You’ve grown strong. You who have grown powerful enough to force me into this choice after a long and winding road deserve this praise from my lips.】

Judging by Desire’s voice, now filled with gravity after completely overcoming the pain she had felt from the backflow of divinity:

There was no doubt that this dragon was Desire’s original form before she obtained divinity and ascended as a great being.

[…It’s a stretch to call it her original form, but explaining would only make this story longer, so I’ll skip it.]

Even though Paphnir, seeing this, let out a lament filled with complex emotions while saying it wasn’t her original form:

Whether it was her original form or not wasn’t that important to me right now.

The demon god that needed to be defeated, having revealed her primal body by abandoning everything she had built up while strongly projecting her will to survive despite being stabbed in the heart:

In some ways, I felt this would be incomparably more difficult than the battle that had driven her to the point of being stabbed in the heart.

If she were still a demon god raising the banner of domination and desire, she would have fought while carefully maintaining the precarious existence of this world even at full power.

【But, I’ll have to destroy you along with this world before that power, which has grown enough to earn such praise, grows even greater.】

Now, Desire in dragon form had reached a state where she would lightly regard even this world she had intended to rule, in order to eliminate me who needed to be killed.

This was the same principle that made facing a demonic dragon intent on destroying the world more difficult than facing a demon god who sought to rule the world with twisted values.

Of course, even in this seemingly hopeless situation, there was a hopeful element.

Her rank had been lowered one level, and she could no longer take extreme self-preserving measures like rewinding time.

If I could just kill her, there would be more than enough hope in the fact that there would be no more rewinding of time until she created her ideal situation.

But it was essential to consider whether it was actually possible to kill Desire, who had fallen to become a demonic dragon.

If I were in proper physical condition, it would be difficult but possible to kill her even at the cost of my own life.

But my body, weakened by fatigue from repeated fierce battles and injuries sustained while being toyed with by Desire, was telling me that this would be difficult even if I employed every method I could think of.

“…Huff.”

Well, whether I kill her or not, does it really matter?

【So, that’s enough now… DIE!!】

If I couldn’t stop Desire, who was now unleashing her killing intent toward me without hiding it and letting out a mighty roar befitting her enlarged dragon body, this world would end.

Even if I failed to stop her and met a miserable end like the repeatedly looping time, it wouldn’t matter.

Even if I die, I’m confident that my other companions, who will soon arrive here, can subjugate a demonic dragon, if not a demon god who has stepped into transcendence.

“If I died when told to die, I wouldn’t have set foot here in the first place.”

That’s why, while coldly retorting to Desire’s roar that embodied killing intent:

WOOONG-!!

I felt no resistance to struggling to buy time while facing the demonic dragon, pouring everything I had, beyond mere battle energy, into the dragon sword.

And so I entered what could be the final battle of my oft-repeated life.

Despite the obsidian collapsing to reveal the sky, only darkness exists in this accursed demonic realm, without a single ray of sunlight.

Whether this darkness will lose its presence and disappear,

Or whether it will spread beyond this demonic realm to the entire world, I cannot yet guarantee.

But I could clearly hold the conviction that even if not me, someone would clear away all this darkness.