novelnext Chapter 258 : The Dragon's Objective
Chapter 258 : The Dragon's Objective
Several days earlier.It was a conversation between Aaron and Kim Cheolsu.
“We're going to drag the Dragon out.”
“W-What do you mean by that, sir?”
“We have to make sure it can no longer stay hidden. It seems that bastard wants to remain concealed so he doesn't attract the attention of the corporations or the government... In that case, the only thing left to do is fill its cave with smoke until it comes out.”
“So what you're saying is......?”
“The Four Great Organizations Alliance is planning to come after us, isn't it? We'll use that to throw all of Sector E into chaos.”
That was Aaron's plan.
He had no way of knowing exactly what objective the Dragon hiding within the underworld had.
However, one thing was clear.
Its primary targets were the lowest-ranking members of each organization—
In other words, the city's lowest class.
Just as the ones who die the most in war are not the generals but the foot soldiers, the greatest casualties in this gang war would be the low-ranking members of each organization.
“If those low-ranking members are essentially its ‘prey,’ then surely the Dragon will react when its prey starts dying left and right because of the war?”
Thus, the war itself was merely an excuse.
Aaron could have prevented it before it ever began if he had wanted to.
Instead, he deliberately allowed the spark of war to be lit.
Everything had been a provocation designed to draw out the Dragon.
And the results had not been bad.
The Dragon had actually appeared before Aaron in a rage, shouting that he could never forgive anyone for interfering with his plans.
Of course, Aaron still had not discovered what those plans actually were.
But he figured that was something they could gradually uncover through a conversation conducted with their fists.
However, an unexpected problem arose.
A ninja unit had appeared.
‘Things are taking an interesting turn......’
Now that Code Red had been declared throughout Sector E, there was no way the Stingray Chairman could remain unaware.
Naturally, news of the Dragon lurking in the underworld would also reach his ears.
Since the Stingray Chairman clearly had some sort of connection with the Dragon, it required little thought to predict that he would intervene somehow.
The problem, however, was—
‘They're too fast......!’
Not even five minutes had passed since Code Red was declared.
Before the Meteorological Administration had even deployed Anti-Rain, a ninja unit—presumably belonging to the Stingray Group—had suddenly appeared.
‘Was I being too complacent?’
I had expected it would take longer than this for the Chairman to receive the report, make a decision, and finally mobilize his forces.
Judging by the Dragon's subtly bewildered expression, it seemed he had thought the same thing.
‘Considering when they appeared... perhaps they had known about that guy's existence all along.’
Which would mean they had already prepared to deploy the ninja unit long before today.
Yet although they had appeared—
They did not move.
‘They're not planning to interfere?’
The ninjas revealed themselves atop rooftops far from the battlefield, radiating an intimidating presence.
But they showed no signs of joining the fight.
‘What are they after?’
I considered the possibilities, but found no answer.
No...
To be honest, I didn't particularly care about the ninjas.
If they stayed out of this, that was actually better for me.
It would be preferable to finish everything before they decided to interfere.
“Hah!”
With a sharp shout, Aaron temporarily deactivated the Techblade.
The humming blade that had been slicing through the air vanished for an instant, and the perfectly balanced stalemate between both sides momentarily collapsed.
“……!?”
Of course, it lasted only 0.1 seconds.
Perhaps even less.
It was barely enough to qualify as an opening.
The Dragon's foreleg, which had been pushing against the blade with all its might, merely shifted forward a few centimeters.
But that was more than enough for Aaron.
‘Module Online, [Techblade]!’
The Techblade activated once more in an instant.
At the same time, Aaron subtly adjusted the position of his hand, changing the point where the blade would materialize.
Rather than slashing with the sword—
He intended to attack using the very moment the blade came into existence.
But the Dragon was no easy opponent.
Its reflexes naturally far surpassed those of any human.
Aaron's intention was instantly seen through.
Claaang!
The fully restored Techblade failed to pierce the Dragon's torso, instead scattering sparks.
Rather, Aaron himself was blown backward by the recoil.
His attack had done nothing more than punch a small hole through the Dragon's clothing.
Visible through the opening were thick scales resembling those of a serpent.
‘Incredible speed.’
The Dragon had likely predicted the exact position where the blade would appear and reinforced that location with scales.
Its reaction speed alone was astounding.
Even more impressive was the durability to casually block a Techblade capable of slicing through tungsten alloys.
In every respect, the title of supreme species suited it perfectly.
But Aaron was not disappointed.
To begin with, he had never expected a Dragon to fall to an attack like that.
Gripping the sword with both hands, he raised it high above his forehead.
Half-turning his body, he aimed the tip toward the Dragon and muttered,
“Release.”
At that moment, the blade naturally detached from the hilt.
The blade that fell toward the floor dissolved into the air before it could touch the ground.
The result made it appear as though Aaron was holding a broken sword.
Then—
A dark, wavering aura began flickering from the tip of the hilt.
True Techblade.
By abandoning even the blade's physical form, it became the sharpest sword in existence.
A monoblade that could theoretically exist only as a single-molecule edge—
The undisputed strongest sword ever created.
But it did not end there.
“Command Input, [Flame Threads].”
Aaron wrapped Cloud Spider's threads around the invisible blade.
At that instant, the Techblade began vibrating violently.
The friction of slicing through the air caused the tip to glow bright crimson.
At the same time, an enormous amount of energy was consumed from Aaron's body.
Using the Mana Battery Module, he continuously absorbed the Dragon's mana in real time and converted it into energy.
An immense amount of heat vented from his shoulders.
Sensing that something was wrong, the Dragon instinctively stepped back half a pace.
The surrounding air had already become so hot that an ordinary creature's lungs would have been cooked simply by breathing.
Yet such an extreme environment posed no problem for Aaron, who possessed mechanical lungs—
Nor for the Dragon, who was not human.
Still, the Dragon could not ignore the fact that Aaron was converting his mana into energy in real time.
Then, suddenly—
Fwoooosh-!
Blue flames erupted from the tip of the blade and spread in every direction.
No—
To call them flames hardly seemed appropriate.
They shone with a brilliance and purity unlike ordinary fire.
Even the movement of the flames was strange.
Normally, fire rose upward.
These flames did not.
Instead, they drifted aimlessly toward nearby buildings, cars, vending machines, and everything else around them.
The Dragon had expected Aaron to manipulate the flames toward him.
But even that did not happen.
Seeing such an absurd attack for the first time, the Dragon inwardly scoffed.
Then—
Sssss...
Everything touched by the flames melted.
Literally everything.
The ground.
The air.
Metal.
Plastic.
Without discrimination, the blue flames melted everything around them.
The Dragon instinctively hesitated.
Aaron merely frowned in dissatisfaction.
“Still difficult to control.”
The moment he muttered those words, the flames that had spread like serpents condensed back around the sword.
The blade, which had possessed no physical form, now gained one made entirely of blue fire.
The instant the Dragon saw it—
For the first time...
He felt danger.
‘...I have to stop that!’
Flames equal to—
Perhaps even hotter than—
Dragon Breath.
The Dragon immediately attempted to create an ice shield by modifying and reconstructing the highest-tier ice spell, Blizzard.
However—
“That won't be enough.”
The next instant, Aaron was already standing directly before him.
The flaming blade flickered only inches away—
Close enough to pierce his throat.
The hastily cast Blizzard tried to blast Aaron away.
Instead, the heat radiating from Aaron's sword completely melted the spell itself.
Damn it.
The instant the Dragon realized his magic was useless, he reinforced his skin with scales.
But Aaron's blade effortlessly melted through the Dragon's scales—said to be harder than adamantium—and pierced straight through.
“……!?”
The Dragon's eyes widened in shock.
Even so, a slight wound to the throat meant almost nothing to a Dragon's overwhelming vitality.
It surprised him.
But it neither hurt nor posed any real threat.
Any ordinary being would have died instantly.
To him, it was no more than a scratch.
Instead, he swung his Dragon Claw, intending to snap the blade lodged in his neck.
But something unexpected happened.
The instant his claws touched the blade—
They began melting instead.
For the first time in his life, the Dragon experienced the sensation known as heat.
Startled, he jerked his foreleg away.
Aaron looked at him and asked,
“Ever heard of ‘plasma’?”
Plasma.
The fourth state of matter.
A state in which gas is heated by an intense electric field or thermal source until it surpasses the gaseous phase, separating into electrons, ions, neutral particles, and other charged matter.
“Lv.6... the so-called ‘Domain of God’ makes quite a few things possible. For example, I managed to reproduce something that had existed only in theory—‘cutting away’ electrons from atoms and molecules.”
By forcibly stripping electrons from molecules, matter became ionized.
In other words—
It entered a plasma state.
Through that process, Aaron's Techblade had evolved beyond being merely the sharpest sword.
It had become a blade capable of burning anything.
The problem was that plasma was affected by electromagnetic fields.
Because of that, controlling plasma flames inside a city overflowing with electromagnetic interference was extremely difficult.
Aaron attempted to solve the problem by generating an artificial magnetic field around both his own body and the blade.
It was an incredibly dangerous method.
If anything went wrong, the flames might consume him instead.
Naturally, he had no obligation to explain that to his enemy.
Keeping the blade buried in the Dragon's neck, Aaron continued.
“So, what do you think of human technology, monster?”
【You certainly talk big.】
The Dragon answered calmly.
【I admit it is an astonishing weapon. To think a mere human could wound me... But human technology? Don't make me laugh. Where do you think every bit of your so-called technology originated?】
He chuckled quietly.
【You humans know nothing. Ignorance is a sin. Aaron Stingray... you are no different. Like every other human, you are ignorant and ugly. What makes you especially repulsive is your delusion that you know more than everyone else.】
“Then why don't you enlighten me?”
【About what? My objective? Or the truth of this world? What difference would it make? If an insect happened to discover the truth of the universe, would it suddenly surpass humanity and reshape existence itself?】
“You're awfully arrogant for a Dragon.”
【The same could be said of you, human. You are inferior. I can say that with absolute certainty, because I myself was once human.】
The Dragon swung his foreleg once again.
Aaron attempted to drive the blade in even deeper.
This time—
He failed.
Ignoring the fact that his foreleg was burning away, the Dragon forcibly pulled the blade out of his neck.
As expected of a Dragon, the wound healed within mere seconds.
Smiling as though it were nothing at all, he spoke.
【Very well. Since you wish to know so badly... It seems you've already discovered that another Dragon besides myself exists. So, if you ask what my objective is... then there is only one answer.】
Unexpected words left the Dragon's mouth.
【I am going to kill the Creator God (Kristarian).】
Aaron could not help but ask in shock.
“......Were you a Transmigrator?”