Kevin scraped his paws across the sand a few times, kicking up a dramatic flurry of dust and grit. Once the mood was properly set, he charged straight at the three-headed hound before them.
The three-headed hound roared and lunged toward Kevin as well, fireballs instantly condensing in the maws of its two flank heads before being spat right at him.
Pu'er swung the little flame sword in her paw. With a deft parry, she deflected the first fireball, then followed up with a backhanded flick to swat away the second.
Both fireballs exploded only after being batted far into the distance, having virtually zero impact on the battle.
This wasn't just a matter of "swordsmanship"; it was far more about her perception and mastery of fire-attribute power. In this regard, Pu'er was a true expert. Though her lifespan was hardly long compared to those genuine "old monsters," geniuses existed precisely to shatter any reference frames of time.
Just as the two sides were about to collide, Pu'er tugged the scruff of Kevin's neck to the left with her paw. Understanding her intent at once, Kevin didn't clash head-on; instead, he pushed off the ground with his hind legs, shifting direction at the last second to brush right past the three-headed hound's flank.
Pu'er raised the little flame sword in her right paw and slashed it cleanly across the three-headed hound's body.
*Pfft!*
The two passed each other.
Kevin immediately whipped his head around to face the three-headed hound again, his paws resuming their hole-digging routine.
"Enough, stupid dog, sand got in my eyes, meow!"
Only then did Kevin stop, turning his head to offer Pu'er an apologetic smile. He had thought she liked this kind of flair.
The three-headed hound turned around just as quickly, but immediately glanced at its flank. A crimson wound had been sliced open there. In that head-on pass, it hadn't dealt a single speck of damage, only to suffer a severe wound in return.
Pu'er held up the little flame sword vertically before her face, spun it into a flurry of flourishing arcs, and then angled it downward.
"Blazing fire shining bright, burn away all sins in light! In my mercy, I grant you one final chance: kneel, and receive judgment from the flame, meow!"
The three-headed hound let out a furious roar, its emotional turbulence seemingly provoked even further by Pu'er's words.
The next moment, barb-like quills began sprouting from its body, each one exceptionally sharp.
"I swear you will pay for your obstinacy!"
Pu'er pointed her little flame sword at the three-headed hound, while leaning down to whisper to Kevin, "Stupid dog, kite it from a distance. Don't get near that hedgehog."
Kevin nodded, showing he understood.
The three-headed hound charged. Kevin instinctively kept his distance. No matter how frantically the three-headed hound pounced time and again, Kevin was always able to anticipate the moves and dodge.
Perched on Kevin's back, Pu'er kept slashing and thrusting with the flame sword in her paw. Although it was hard to deliver another long, deep gash like on their first pass, volume made up for it; minor wounds gradually accumulated into significant damage.
Moreover, because Pu'er routinely enjoyed riding on Kevin's back, the cat-and-dog duo's equestrian teamwork was already second nature. Under the spur of real combat, the synergy only shone brighter.
Right now, they didn't look like knightly duelists so much as matadors.
The three-headed hound was merely being worn down, erupting into bouts of impotent rage time and again.
Finally, the three-headed hound halted. All three heads were panting heavily, and its body was riddled with wounds.
Kevin stopped as well, facing it with a mocking doggy grin in his eyes.
Pu'er took a deep breath, dismissed the flame sword, and began kneading Kevin's head with her right paw. Keeping the flame sword condensed for so long had left the fleshy paw slightly cramped.
The three pairs of eyes on the three-headed hound flared red simultaneously. The beams converged and struck the ground before it, immediately etching a crimson starburst pattern upon which it stepped.
The left head conjured a shield, while the right head materialized a sword. The central head shrank inward, growing diminutive, yet its eyeballs remained their normal size, dense spellpower brewing within them.
*Crack!*
The next moment, the three-headed hound stood upright on two legs. It looked for all the world like a "warrior" wielding a shield and short sword.
"Oh, stupid dog, is there something wrong with its head?"
Pu'er wasn't the least bit worried; instead, she began mocking it.
Having clashed twice already, both sides had a clear grasp of each other's strength. In raw power, Kevin and Pu'er were inferior to the three-headed hound, but its advantage in brute force wasn't enough to crush them, which magnified its tactical blunders to an absurd degree.
In Pu'er's eyes, this transformation was just the hound trying to copy them after seeing how they fought. But the trouble was, while plenty of dogs could stand upright and walk on two legs, had anyone ever seen a dog run faster on two legs than on four?
Pu'er switched her right paw to grip the "rein fur" and formed another little flame sword in her left paw, shouting to Kevin:
"Charge, stupid dog! Take it down!"
"Woof!"
Kevin gave a firm nod and bounded forward at full tilt.
The "transformed" three-headed hound got into an earnest stance, completely on guard.
Yet before long, it was spun dizzy by Kevin circling incessantly around it, its footwork stumbling as the rhythm of its two legs fell out of sync.
Every time an opening appeared, Kevin would dart in close, and Pu'er would thrust her sword forward.
Unable to block in time and unable to retaliate, the three-headed hound served as a pincushion for several consecutive strikes. Driven wild, it dropped back to all fours to give chase, but already off-balance, this only threw its coordination into worse disarray.
Kevin leaped directly over the three-headed hound. Pu'er hung on with one paw grasping the long fur dangling beneath Kevin's body, while driving her flame sword into the nape of the hound's neck with the other.
Upon landing, Kevin immediately executed a sideways dash. Before Pu'er could even climb back onto his back, she remained hanging from his flank, sword in paw, carving another slash across the three-headed hound.
"Awoooo!!!"
The three-headed hound collapsed limply to the ground. After a piteous howl, all four limbs began thrashing against the sand, and all three heads broke down into weeping and sobbing.
"Wuu-wuu-wuu..."
It had been beaten into utter despair and breakdown, thoroughly bullied.
About to rush in and deliver the finishing blow, Kevin could only halt in his tracks. Pu'er was baffled as well, wondering aloud:
"Why is it crying?!"
The three-headed hound kept bawling, burying all three heads in the sand, its battered, bruised body twitching and heaving.
"Hey, don't be a sore loser! Get up, let's keep fighting, meow!"
The hound shook all three heads, burying them even deeper while thrusting its hindquarters higher into the air.
"Where'd you learn to be such a rascal? The villains in novels are supposed to keep their chins up right until they're killed! Otherwise how is the protagonist supposed to finish you off, you jerk, meow?!"
The hound ignored her completely, its sobs continuing unabated.
In an argument, three heads held a natural advantage; when crying, three heads were thrice as pathetic.
"What on earth is this thing?"
With the fight over, Pu'er finally had the chance to ask Kevin, having realized by now that this wasn't Kevin's "dream."
"Woof, woof, woof!"
"The Abyssal Sin Three-Headed Hound—Giragon?
The mythical beast from the Abyss mythos that dared offend the God of the Abyss and was suppressed by him?
A thing like this... actually dared to offend the God of the Abyss?"
The God of the Abyss was an exceptionally powerful main god. Toward the end of the last era, if one were to list the few mighty deities qualified to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the God of Order, the God of the Abyss would undoubtedly be among them.
However, the God of the Abyss had never clashed with the God of Order. Throughout the endless ages, the God of the Abyss had been preoccupied with his own monumental task: excavating hell and carving out heaven.
Just as anyone recorded in human history books—even if only mentioned in a single sentence or name—was an extraordinary figure, any ferocious beast named in the mythos was almost always a terrifying existence.
Yet the creature before them, weeping its eyes out after a beating, utterly dismantled Pu'er's perception of beings of that caliber.
"This thing offended the God of the Abyss? Wouldn't it collapse in terror just from the God of the Abyss sweeping a glance over it?"
"Woof, woof, woof!"
"Stupid dog, I wasn't talking about you."
"Wuu-wuu-wuu..."
The three-headed hound was still sobbing, looking terribly wronged.
"Aiya, what do we do with this? Stupid dog, let's get a bit closer."
"Woof!"
"I know, I'll be careful."
Kevin took slow steps toward the three-headed hound, staying on guard against any sudden ambush.
"Hey, do you concede?"
The hound kept crying without answering.
"Hey, if you want to keep fighting, keep crying. If you don't want to fight anymore, wag your tail."
The three-headed hound immediately ceased its sobs and wagged its tail.
"Then let me ask you: are you convinced? If you are, keep wagging."
The tail stopped wagging. Clearly, it wasn't convinced.
"Heh, look at this kid, stubborn even after losing. How about I stop hitting you, all right?"
The hound lifted its heads from the sand, looked at Pu'er, and nodded.
It wasn't convinced, but it didn't want to keep fighting either, because in a duel like this, it had zero hope.
"Roar, roar, roar!"
"You think two against one is unfair to you? Why don't you look at how many heads you have? One, two, three—you've got three heads! Now count how many heads we have: one, two—we only have two!
You're a disgrace to dogs everywhere! You couldn't even win three on two!"
The three-headed hound's eyes widened, as if actually doing the math. Then they widened even further. Evidently, it felt Pu'er made a lot of sense.
It had the numbers advantage, yet it was still suppressed like this! It truly was utterly useless!
In an instant, tears welled up once more, all three heads growing teary-eyed as boundless grief washed over it.
"Woof, woof, woof!"
"Exactly! You're no match for us even two against three, and that's without us calling Karen over to beat you up together. Karen is our Dog King.
Pah, pah, pah! Dog King my foot! Stupid dog, what kind of nonsense are you barking?!"
Even in a dreamscape, Pu'er was fiercely protective of Karen's image.
The hound stared at Pu'er.
"Sigh."
Pu'er hopped down from Kevin's back and approached the three-headed hound. Seeing this, Kevin tensely shadowed her flank.
Looking at the wounds covering the hound's body, Pu'er rubbed her paws together. A ball of Fire Essence healing spell condensed and sank into the hound's body. An expression of sheer bliss immediately washed over Giragon's three heads. But all too soon, the warmth faded away. Giragon looked at Pu'er in confusion, all three faces longing for more.
Pu'er kept rubbing her paws, but it was like a lighter running out of butane; no spark would catch.
"Aiya, my power's almost spent, I can't heal you anymore. What kind of place is this anyway? Even if it's a dream, does it have to be so realistic? Couldn't it let me relive the high of my peak for a bit longer?"
"Woof, woof."
"What? This was a conscious projection sent out by it? So we're in a mental plane right now? Oh, so that's how it is. No wonder then—it isn't a dream.
But stupid dog, why did you decide to pick a fight with it?"
"Woof."
"It came looking for you? Hey, three-heads, Giragon, is your name Giragon?"
Giragon nodded.
"You're so weak, so why are you going around picking fights?"
"Roar!"
"You say you wouldn't necessarily have lost if not for me? But that's impossible! There's no way I'd watch my stupid dog get bullied. My stupid dog can only be bullied by me—nobody else has the right, hmph, meow!"
Hearing this, Kevin nodded solemnly at once.
"Roar?"
"You're asking who I am?"
Pu'er blinked. She felt that if this useless three-headed mutt really was Giragon, stating her identity in normal terms would never earn its respect.
Yet Pu'er didn't want to lie either, so she could only state: "I'm the boss!"
Confusion flickered in Giragon's eyes.
Seeing this, Kevin immediately bared his teeth at it!
Giragon looked at Kevin, then back at Pu'er. It could sense the tier of Kevin's aura; looking again at this cat and the familiar, comforting fire-attribute aura radiating from her, it nodded.
"What are you nodding for? I am the boss, I don't need your approval, meow!"
Giragon shrank its heads back.
Right at that moment, the space here began fracturing. Evidently, the conscious contact was drawing to a close.
A chasm opened between Pu'er and Kevin on one side and Giragon on the other, widening rapidly as the two parties drifted farther and farther apart.
"Roar, roar, roar!"
"Stupid dog, what is it yelling?"
"Woof."
"You couldn't hear clearly either?"
Pu'er lifted a paw and waved politely across the divide, shouting, "Goodbye—wait, shouldn't I give it a nickname too?"
Having a rare sleep in a normal bedroom on land, Karen had slept exceptionally well, waking up at eleven in the morning.
After washing up, he prepared to find Philomena to have lunch together.
Unexpectedly, the moment he opened the door, Karen saw Philomena sitting on a chair right outside his room.
"Are you standing guard for me?" Karen teased.
Philomena shook her head and said, "I had nothing else to do."
"Oh, I see. That explains why you're interested in Richard."
"Interested?"
"Not the romantic kind, at least not for now. For you, losing focus and purpose leaves you feeling lost. You really hate walking down the street alone facing crowds, don't you?"
"Mm." Philomena nodded.
"So someone like Richard is quite handy."
"Yes. I hope he didn't die in the Miperse Islands."
"He's fine."
Because Mr. Memphis's emotions had remained steady the entire time.
If anything truly had happened to Richard, Karen's uncle—having barely climbed out of the pit concerning his own mother—would have plunged right into the pit concerning his son, which would have driven him into complete withdrawal.
"Let's go eat. Yesterday's restaurant was quite good."
"All right, but..."
"But what? If it's about work, speak freely."
"Are we just waiting like this?"
"I think being able to eat, sleep, and wait in peace is a blessing in itself. Must we look for trouble? We'll wait one more day today, send them a message tonight, and have them come ashore tomorrow evening."
"Yes, Captain."
Karen walked down the stairs with Philomena. As he reached the landing, he suddenly paused. He felt a wave of consciousness—both exceedingly distant yet intimately close—sweep over him. The sensation felt somewhat like someone probing his location, yet oddly absent-minded.
He had experienced a similar feeling while sleeping last night. But last night, he had felt capable of making contact, only to reflexively reject it. This time, the wave of consciousness seemed to skip right past him, showing no interest in making contact at all; even when he took the initiative, he couldn't connect with it.
It was a very peculiar sensation.
Karen suspected this was linked to the unique nature of his soul.
And indeed it was. Karen's soul, combined with the body modified by Raniedal and the assimilation of the divine bone, imparted an element of "divinity" to him, which was what allowed him to perceive this consciousness wave radiating from the bottom of the extinct volcano.
"Captain, is something wrong?"
"Didn't you feel it? Something swept by."
Hearing this, Philomena instantly adopted an alert posture. "I didn't."
"Oh, never mind then. What do you want to eat for lunch?"
Philomena frowned in thought.
"Oh, my bad. You'll eat whatever I order. No wasting food."
"Yes, Captain."
Philomena's brow relaxed.
Inside the captain's cabin of the small pirate ship, Alfred looked at Pu'er and Kevin, who still hadn't awakened even though it was already midday, and shook his head with mild helplessness.
He was well accustomed to this sort of thing. Pu'er often dragged Kevin along to test out her newly restored abilities, frequently exhausting themselves back home as well, and Kevin was always willing to humor her antics without ever tiring of them.
Alfred didn't disturb their sleep, though he did retrieve two bottles of nutrient potion and two bottles of energy potion from his backpack to feed to the cat and dog.
Having done that, Alfred took his sketchpad, stepped out of the cabin, and walked onto the deck to paint from life. He felt the scenery here was wonderful—the resulting painting would surely inspire an irresistible urge to rip it apart and trample it underfoot.
An invisible ripple washed over this place.
Kevin smacked his lips a couple of times, looking somewhat annoyed.
The familiar beach felt as though they had just parted and met again an instant later, though half a day had actually elapsed in the waking world.
Perched on Kevin's back, Pu'er stretched her body and muttered in puzzlement, "Aiya, why are we back here again? There's a sweet taste in my mouth; the Radio Fairy must have fed us potions."
"Roar, roar, roar!"
Just then, a three-headed hound came bounding eagerly toward them from the distance, looking for all the world like a little kid who had agreed to meet up and play the very next day.
Pu'er raised a paw in greeting: "Well hello there, trash mutt!"
Chapter 475