"No need to chase after him?"
Bartius furrowed his brows as if he couldn't understand what Raon meant.
"Don't tell me you know where the leader of the Black Clan went?"
His voice trembled faintly as he asked, as if he couldn't believe it.
"Really?"
"How is that possible?"
Blue Dragon Sirtiren and Red Dragon Valasiur stared at Raon with equally bewildered expressions.
"Dragons possess the ability to sense the presence of other dragons."
White Dragon Bursiarabi emerged from the dimensional gate and stood beside Raon.
"It's an instinct to avoid other dragons nearby when making a new lair. Yet you managed to find the leader of the Black Clan who eludes even our senses..."
He let out a hollow laugh, saying that the more he saw of Raon, the more he seemed beyond comprehension for a human.
"R-Raon Zieghart. Do you really know where Trosowr is? Please tell us!"
Black Dragon Dariauran pleaded for the location of Trosowr, the leader of the Black Clan, as he called out his name. Unlike the other clan leaders, he seemed flustered as if something had gone wrong.
"Like I said earlier, my intuition is particularly sharp right now."
Raon smiled faintly while rubbing the back of his neck.
"And it's natural that you can't sense him. The leader of the Black Clan, Trosowr, isn't on this continent anymore."
He shook his head, explaining that the dragon's abilities wouldn't work since Trosowr was in another world.
"What?"
Bartius's jaw trembled slightly.
"Then could it be..."
"That's right."
Raon raised his finger and pointed at Bartius, who was protecting the dimensional key.
"The leader of the Black Clan, Trosowr, has hidden himself in another dimension. It seems our movements have been discovered."
Judging from the traces of mana still lingering in the forest, Trosowr hadn't moved to another dimension long ago. He must have fled just moments ago after sensing the deaths of Igni Serpang, the leader of the Red Clan, and Azgoros, the leader of the Blue Clan.
"Damn! That cunning bastard!"
Dariauran, also of the Black Clan, slammed his fist down and gritted his teeth.
"Dariauran."
White Dragon Bursiarabi frowned as he looked at Dariauran.
"Weren't you supposed to keep a proper watch on Trosowr?"
He let out a growl like a beast, asking why Dariauran had released his presence detection.
"I didn't slack off! He just escaped skillfully!"
Dariauran shook his head vigorously, insisting it wasn't his fault.
"I even set up magic while flattering him against my will!"
He gritted his teeth as if he hadn't anticipated this situation at all.
"Sigh, it's obvious you couldn't act properly."
Sirtiren heaved a deep sigh.
"I knew this would happen! I told you he couldn't be trusted."
Red Dragon Valasiur clicked his tongue loudly, saying they were doomed.
"Hmm, I don't think we're doomed yet."
Unlike the excited dragons, Burren maintained a calm expression as he tended to his sword.
"That's right. That guy seems relaxed."
Martha curled her lips as she observed Raon's composed gaze.
"Actually, I've hardly ever seen that person flustered."
Dorian shrugged, saying that if Raon fell, the world would fall with him.
"Ah, Raon. My Raon..."
Evelyn bit her nails with a flushed face, as if falling for Raon once more while he remained calm amidst the flustered dragons.
"Trosowr is notorious for his vileness even among the Black Clan, yet we underestimated him."
Bartius placed his hand on his forehead as if admitting his mistake.
"Raon Zieghart. I beg you. Tell us how to find Trosowr."
He lowered his blue eyes toward Raon as if placing his last hope in him.
"Trosowr has only one dimensional key, so the news probably hasn't reached the Lord yet."
Bartius pressed his lips together, insisting they needed to move immediately.
"I don't know the method."
Raon shook his head with his eyes lowered.
"What? Then why..."
Bartius swallowed dryly, looking bewildered.
"I don't know the method, but I can open that dimension."
Raon slowly opened his eyes as he drew the Heavenly Drive.
"I can feel the same flow as the dimensional key sealed in your soul from the residual mana here."
From the moment he entered this forest and felt the disturbance in mana, he was certain that Trosowr, the leader of the Black Clan, had fled to another dimension. With the mana and dimensional distortion still lingering, he thought he could open the space where Trosowr was hiding. With a swish, Raon raised the Heavenly Drive above his head.
'I need to cut through space.'
Others might not know, but he could tell. Judging from the foreign mana flowing differently from the forest's, Trosowr hadn't completely closed the dimension he'd escaped to.
'Only the space while maintaining the flow.'
Raon took a deep breath and swung the Heavenly Drive.
Raon Zieghart Style Swordsmanship. Seventh Form, Void Slash.
A single point, wrapped in red mana, shot forward and sliced through the dimensional gap hidden behind the disturbed mana. With a deafening sound, the space caught at the tip of the Heavenly Drive split apart, and a pitch-black, distorted dimension opened up as if shrouded in shadows.
Yet despite the terrifying sword strike powerful enough to tear dimensions, not a single leaf fell in the forest. This meant Raon had perfect control over his power.
"Insane..."
Bartius gaped in disbelief.
"He-he opened a dimension with a sword?"
He trembled, unable to believe what he had just witnessed.
"This isn't swordsmanship, it's magic..."
Red Dragon Valasiur gulped nervously as he peered into the dimension.
"That's crazy! He's a real monster!"
Blue Dragon Sirtiren raised her hand with a grin, as if delighted by the fascinating sight.
"Th-thank goodness!"
Black Dragon Dariauran breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that things hadn't gone wrong.
[Wha-what is this!]
A shocked cry came from inside the pitch-black dimension. The poisonous energy flowing from the dimension subsided, revealing Trosowr, the leader of the Black Clan, hiding behind it.
He was creating a blue spear while wrapped in poisonous energy. It seemed like communication magic to alert the Dragon Lord about the attackers.
"That won't do."
Evelyn smiled as she brought her hands together, cutting off Trosowr's communication magic just before completion. Like a magician skilled in stalking, she seemed equally adept at blocking others' communication magic.
[H-how did you find this dimension!]
Trosowr tried to reconnect the communication magic, but Evelyn prevented it. With his massive eyes trembling, he attempted to close the opened dimension.
"Sirtiren! Valasiur!"
At Bartius's call, Sirtiren and Valasiur used natural mana to stabilize the dimension that Raon had opened with the Heavenly Drive.
[Close!]
Trosowr exerted his dragon language to close the torn dimension, but Bursiarabi and Dariauran intervened and blocked his magic.
[Dariauran! What do you think you're doing!]
He gritted his teeth as he glared at Dariauran, who was holding the dimensional crack open.
"What do you think? We're driving out the senile old fools who are ruining the middle realm!" (E/N: middle realm is the 'human world', with heaven at the top and hell at the bottom)
Dariauran held onto the closing dimension with all his might, seeming relieved to have found Trosowr.
"You are Trosowr, the leader of the Black Clan."
Raon crossed through the dimension held open by the dragons and faced Trosowr, leader of the Black Clan.
[Raon Zieghart! So it was you!]
Trosowr raised his chin, dripping with poisonous energy.
[The human who killed Igni Serpang and Azgoros!]
Trosowr, as befitting the leader of the Black Clan, boasted a size larger than a castle, but now he didn't seem impressive at all. Just as Wrath had always assessed dragons, Trosowr looked like a lizard running across the desert.
[I sense unprecedented martial prowess. But you've made a grave mistake.]
Trosowr gritted his teeth as he wrapped his entire body in pitch-black poisonous energy.
[This dimension is a realm created from my poison. Any human would melt away!]
He took a deep breath as if intending to erase Raon's very existence.
[Die as poisonous matter... Gahk!]
Trosowr froze just as he was about to release his deadly poison breath.
[Wh-when did the sword!]
His entire body trembled as he saw the leaf-shaped sword embedded in his neck before he could even realize it.
[N-not yet! This level won't be enough to...]
Just as Trosowr was pulling out the Wooden Ring Sword and trying to release his deadly poison breath again, the sword's tip sprouted blue frost that instantly froze his head and neck where the Dragon Heart was located. The frost spread with a whooshing sound!
As frigid cold energy burst outward, the poisonous energy Trosowr had prepared sank into darkness before it could even rise.
-Th-this is...!
Wrath's eyes widened as he stared at the frozen Trosowr.
'That's right.'
Raon nodded as he shook off the Wooden Ring Sword.
'I shot the Wooden Ring Sword with Whispering Wind, then used the Silver Aurora. Now that I've properly entered the realm of the Soul Sword, the power of all martial arts increases exponentially.'
Unlike Wrath's, his Silver Aurora didn't have the ability to freeze everything before him. However, now that he could read people's emotions and his Soul Sword achievement had increased, he created enough power to completely freeze a dragon without specifically training in the Silver Aurora. The power was so astonishing that even he was surprised.
-Silver Aurora...
Wrath swallowed dryly as he stared at Trosowr's snow-white frozen head.
'Pretty good, right?'
-G-good my ass! Don't call this meager frost Silver Aurora! It's still far from adequate!
Wrath shook his head vigorously, expressing his disappointment.
'But I froze the dragon like you wanted, didn't I?'
Since he couldn't freeze the entire dragon like Wrath, he'd embedded the Wooden Ring Sword where the Dragon Heart was located and used the Silver Aurora, so he couldn't understand why Wrath was angry.
-You're disgustingly good... No, just shut up!
Wrath gritted his teeth, telling Raon to just be quiet.
'Fine, whatever.'
Raon chuckled as he sheathed both the Heavenly Drive and the Wooden Ring Sword. Since Wrath had always been peculiar, he decided to accept him as he was.
"You j-just froze the leader of the Black Clan with cold energy? You're better than me!"
Blue Dragon Sirtiren let out a hollow laugh, saying Raon seemed more skilled at using cold energy than herself.
"You're a human who becomes more surprising the more I look at you. No, not a human, more like some demon king."
Red Dragon Valasiur clenched his fist as if filled with intense fighting spirit.
"We survived...!"
Black Dragon Dariauran slumped to the ground, wiping his forehead as if he'd broken into a cold sweat.
"You should know your neck is still attached thanks to Raon Zieghart."
White Dragon Bursiarabi snorted as he looked at Dariauran.
"As long as it ended well, that's what matters."
Bartius patted Dariauran's shoulder, then approached the frozen Trosowr and stretched out his hand. With a humming sound, a golden dimensional key rose from the frozen body of Trosowr.
"The third and final key."
Bartius pressed his lips firmly, saying that he could finally open the dimension to reach the Dragon Lord.
"How long will it take?"
Raon looked at Bartius, asking how much time it would take to open the dimension to the Lord.
"It seems it will take some time to stabilize using the dimensional key, as Trosowr used it to create this space."
Bartius narrowed his eyes as he looked at the final dimensional key.
"Still, I should be able to open the dimensional gate by dawn tomorrow."
He clenched his fist, saying he would open the dimensional gate before sunrise tomorrow even if it meant using up all his abilities.
"Until then, you should rest as well."
Bartius nodded, saying that they would need everyone here combining their strength to defeat the Dragon Lord.
"No."
Raon shook his head firmly.
"I want to fight alone."
He placed his hand on the Heavenly Drive while looking at the dimensional key floating in front of Bartius's chest.
"The Lord is on a different level from the clan leaders! He doesn't use them as errand boys for nothing!"
Bartius frowned as if telling Raon to come to his senses.
"Bartius is right. I acknowledge your martial prowess, but the Lord is somewhat... no, very different."
Sirtiren shook her head, saying they should fight together.
"If I'm pushed back by the Dragon Lord, I'll accept your help. But until then..."
Raon slowly closed his eyes and then opened them.
"Let me fight alone."
His red eyes reflected not arrogance, but confidence as he curled his lips.
"Because right now, I don't think I'd lose to anyone."
Raon emanated a chilling killing intent as he recalled his bitter history with the Dragon Lord that had built up for a long time.
"Before the sun rises, I'll show you the corpse of the largest lizard on the continent."