Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert-Chapter 511

Chapter 511

Boom!

A thunderous blast erupted behind them. Even so, Zeon did not look back.

He trusted Levin and Brielle.

Because he trusted them, he didn’t turn his head—he simply kept his eyes forward and continued to run.

Had he not believed in them, he would already have gone back to face the Specter King himself. But because he trusted the two of them, Zeon did not hesitate for even a single heartbeat and sprinted onward without looking back.

If he didn’t want Levin and Brielle’s efforts to go to waste, then he had no choice but to eliminate the parasite as quickly as possible—or destroy the main body altogether.

The more time they gave the parasite, the bigger this entire incident would grow, and the harder it would be to clean up the aftermath.

The Specter King was Levin and Brielle’s responsibility; he and Tesserina had to focus entirely on the parasite and the main body.

Tesserina, running alongside Zeon, shouted.

“Open.”

At her halfhearted command, a dazzling magic circle appeared ahead of them.

It flared into existence, instantly pushing back the darkness—Tesserina threw herself into it without hesitation.

Zeon followed right behind her.

Pwaaah!

For a moment, he felt some resistance—then Zeon’s body was abruptly sucked into somewhere else.

The environment shifted in an instant.

Just moments ago they had been in that dark passageway, yet now they stood inside an enormous subterranean cavern.

“Mm.”

A low sound escaped Zeon.

At the very center of the massive cavern, an unbelievably gigantic creature lifted its head and stood towering before them.

Two horns rising from its head, a long neck and a massive torso, a pair of wings folded along its back, four thick legs planted firmly on the ground.

And above all, the silver scales covering its body—everything about the colossal creature screamed one thing.

A dragon.

Zeon understood instinctively that the dragon before him was Tesserina’s main body.

The main body held its head high, gazing down upon Zeon and Tesserina.

Just the sight of it was enough to make one’s knees tremble.

The creature’s enormous eyes turned slowly, glancing from Tesserina to Zeon.

The sight of those pupils—larger than a human torso—moving was almost unreal.

Zeon turned his head slightly to look at Tesserina.

She was staring blankly up at her main body.

He suddenly wondered what that sight must look like through her eyes.

Tesserina was a chimera replica created using the main body’s blood, muscle, and bone.

Another body governed by the same consciousness—that was Tesserina.

How the main body and the replica felt while facing one another, Zeon could not know. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

After coming face to face with the main body, the replica didn’t move a single finger.

Not even her pupils stirred—it was as if she had frozen completely.

Then—

—Zeon?

A whisper pierced directly into Zeon’s mind.

Not through his ears, but straight into his head.

Zeon immediately understood it was the main body’s voice.

“Tesserina?”

—Yes, it’s me.

“Are you alright?”

—My consciousness suddenly shifted completely into the main body.

“What about your replica?”

—I can’t move it. The link seems to have been severed.

“Was that your intention?”

—No! I didn’t do this.

Confusion was heavy in Tesserina’s voice.

She hadn’t expected the link to snap so abruptly.

“The parasite’s doing.”

—It seems like it.

“Can you move?”

—Hold on.

Tesserina tried to move her limbs.

But no matter how hard she tried, nothing responded.

—Damn it!

“What’s wrong?”

—It won’t move. I can’t control it.

“The parasite has taken full control.”

—Th…that… might be…

Her voice crackled suddenly, like static interrupting a transmission.

Then came a brief silence.

Zeon held his breath and looked up at the dragon’s head.

Drrrk!

The main body’s eyes twitched grotesquely.

Both pupils rotated in different directions.

When they finished a full turn and returned to alignment, their color had changed.

The silver-blue hue unique to Tesserina had turned into a deep violet.

The moment he saw those purple eyes, Zeon’s mind jumped to the worst possible conclusion.

“Krasias?”

—Zeon!

A voice rang out—and it was nothing like Tesserina’s earlier tone.

“Is that you, Krasias?”

—Mos… sand magician Zeon! Inter…fere.

Tesserina’s voice sounded like that of a three-year-old child.

Slurred, broken, unsteady—just like that.

—Cur…sed one… eliminate…

The childlike tone vanished, and Tesserina suddenly opened her jaws wide.

Sensing danger, Zeon instinctively hurled himself upward into the air.

KWAaaaah!

A torrent of breath ripped through the spot where Zeon had stood.

Tesserina had fired a breath attack without the slightest warning.

The area struck by the breath melted instantly.

“Damn it!”

Kwoooooh!

She fired another breath.

Suspended midair, he had no way to dodge.

“Chahahat!”

Zeon threw up a Fire Shield around himself and launched dozens of Fire Spears, but blocking a dragon’s breath with Fire Spears was impossible to begin with.

The breath shattered every single Fire Spear without slowing in the slightest and slammed into Zeon.

Boom!

“Kh…!”

The blast sent Zeon flying backward, slamming him into the wall.

Had he not put up his Fire Shield, he would have been vaporized without leaving even dust behind.

Zeon pushed himself out of the crater his body had made, wiping his lips with a sleeve.

Blood stained the edge of his robe.

It had been just one attack.

And it hadn’t even hit him cleanly—he had shielded himself and used Fire Spears to weaken the breath’s power as much as possible. Yet the shock alone had rattled his organs and sent a tingling ache through every part of him.

The destructive power was terrifying.

He already knew from fighting Arcade—but dragons truly were the strongest beings on land.

Kwooooooh!

Tesserina fired another breath.

“Kh!”

This time Zeon didn’t counter; he simply hurled himself aside to avoid it.

KWAaaang!

The spot he’d been in detonated spectacularly.

A massive hole was blown open in the wall. Through it, he could see the outside of the lair clearly.

Breath strong enough to bore straight through hundreds of meters of earth—Zeon was left momentarily speechless.

And then Tesserina readied another breath.

He could feel the surge of mana gathering in her jaws.

‘I need to stop her from breathing first.’

Zeon launched a Fire Cannon toward Tesserina’s mouth.

The destructive beam of flame struck her jaw the instant she was about to release the breath.

Boom! BOOM!

Two explosions rang out.

The first was Zeon’s Fire Cannon striking Tesserina’s jaw.

The second was the breath detonating inside her mouth from the shock.

—Krrrgh!

The internal explosion seemed to hit hard. Tesserina thrashed her long neck from side to side, disoriented.

It was the perfect opening.

Zeon pushed his Dominion to its limit.

Tssssss—

Through the hole created by the earlier breath, sand from the outside rushed into the lair like a waterfall.

In an instant, the massive chamber was filled with sand.

By the time Tesserina regained her senses, the lair was already overflowing with it.

“Sand Mixer!”

KAAAANG!

The sand inside the lair spun violently.

The Sand Mixer—an attack that had ground countless beasts and awakened ones into nothingness—closed in around Tesserina’s main body.

Kwakwakwa!

Millions of microscopic grains tore through the air, battering the dragon’s scales.

Sparks burst everywhere as sand clashed against scale. But Tesserina was completely unharmed.

A dragon’s scales were harder than any mineral known to exist.

They didn’t even need an active force field to withstand overwhelming force.

Against a body fully clad in scales like that, Sand Mixer did nothing.

Zeon’s attack didn’t harm Tesserina in the slightest—and only stoked her rage.

—KRAAAAAH!

Tesserina roared and spread her wings wide.

A force field burst outward, blasting the swirling sand away and clearing a massive space around her.

Zeon, too, was thrown violently backward and slammed into a wall.

At him, Tesserina cast a spell.

—Icy Spear.

Kwakwakwakwa!

Dozens of ice spears materialized around her and rained toward Zeon.

“Damn it!”

Zeon bit his lip and unleashed Sand Spear.

KWA-kwa-kwa-BOOM!

Explosions burst in midair directly in front of him.

Sand Spear intercepted Ice Spear, and the collision triggered a chain of blasts.

Shards of ice and sprays of sand exploded outward in every direction—an impressive spectacle.

But neither Zeon nor Tesserina had time to admire it.

Tesserina was already preparing her next strike, and Zeon was already shifting into a stance for his counterattack.

Kuuu…

Suddenly, the air inside the lair wavered ominously.

Sensing something dangerous, Zeon looked up.

A brilliant magic circle had appeared above his head.

Fwoooosh!

Countless ice spears rained down from it.

Tesserina had cast a magic circle overhead to unleash Ice Spear like rainfall.

“Tch!”

Zeon sprang back and fired a barrage of Fire Missiles.

They lacked the power of Ice Spear, but they were enough to intercept every single one.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Ice and fire collided, blasting frost and heat across the lair.

Zeon kicked off the ground and launched himself skyward.

In an instant he had risen tens of meters—his gaze locking squarely with Tesserina’s.

His figure reflected in her massive eyes.

The two stared at each other, a brief and heavy silence settling.

Tesserina’s pupils glowed violet.

And in that moment, Zeon saw something writhing inside her eyes.

A long, threadlike shape—like a snake uncoiling.

The parasite that had taken over Tesserina’s body—without doubt.

It was impossibly long for something one might call a mere parasite.

Srrrk—

The creature’s head flickered into view as it slithered across Tesserina’s retina.

Its eyes glowed the same violet hue as hers.

“As I thought.”

The certainty hit Zeon.

The parasite controlling Tesserina was carrying the gem infused with Krasia’s remnant consciousness.

Whether the gem had chosen the parasite, or the parasite had obtained the gem by chance, he didn’t know—but that thing was more dangerous than any beast.

As if annoyed by Zeon’s gaze, the parasite slipped out of sight.

Tesserina instead opened her jaws.

—KRAAAAAH!

She was preparing another breath.

“Hu…”

Zeon exhaled deeply, drawing his mana upward.

He could no longer afford to go easy on her.

To face a Tesserina completely overtaken by the parasite, he would have to unleash everything.

Kuuuuuuu—

Sand poured into the lair once again, flooding around the dragon.