Self-Detonation

Just as Mantou was about to crash into him, Vagnerd showed no sign of panic. Instead, a sinister cackle escaped his lips. "Hahahaha, hahaha!" "At last, I have found it—the perfect specimen!" The nearly inhuman face covered in white scales slipped from beneath the cowl of his robe, looking extraordinarily ghastly. Vagnerd raised a hand with a gentle motion. A faint reddish magical aura flickered in his cloudy eyes, and that unseen power shot forth along his fingertips into his target. *Telekinesis.* Controlled by that immense psychic force, Mantou's wyrmling form jerked to a dead halt in midair. Though he temporarily possessed the power of a red dragon, he was still merely a wyrmling in the end—hardly larger than a horse. Lacking the strength to resist such an overwhelming spell, he could only writhe and thrash helplessly in midair, his throat constantly spewing flames alongside a torrent of filthy curses. "You old bastard, just wait till I get out! I'm gonna stitch your mouth straight onto your ass!" "I'll *******!" Vagnerd gave no response whatsoever. It was as if he hadn't heard a word—or rather, didn't care in the slightest. He merely stared entranced at the dragon's body. His fixation was not on Mantou himself, but on the vessel that had seamlessly absorbed the true dragon bloodline. It intoxicated him beyond measure. "From the moment of my awakening until now, more than a century has passed, through thirty-six thousand seven hundred and fourteen experiments." "Yet never has there been such a flawless creation." "This is the will of the world! He... he shall grant me the greatest evolution!" Vagnerd's voice trembled like a fanatic beholding a miracle. His gaze upon Mantou turned increasingly ravenous, as if he intended to suck the marrow from his bones and swallow him alive. "Come, child, fight back!" "Look at it—this mesmerizing power, just like that of a true dragon." "I will uncover your secrets and turn you into the nourishment for my grand evolution." Seeing the look in Vagnerd's eyes made Mantou's hairs stand on end. In that moment, he finally understood how Langlibaitiao had felt—the sheer horror of being "fancied" by an unadulterated old pervert. From the distance, Singo shouted a reminder: "Mantou! Don't forget what I gave you!" Only then did Mantou remember that he still had the rune gunpowder bombs! And right at this moment, Vagnerd, convinced that victory was already in his grasp, stood entirely unguarded right before him. How could he possibly pass up such a golden opportunity! Gritting his teeth, Mantou fished out the rune gunpowder bombs in midair and roared hysterically: "Damn it, I've had enough! I'm taking you down with me, you bastard!" "*Rua!* Activate the reserve hidden power!" "No—" A sudden jolt of alarm struck Vagnerd, but before he could do anything to stop it, Mantou triggered the bombs, detonating himself on the spot. Several oddly shaped metal spheres were activated in an instant, the runes engraved across their surfaces blazing with blinding brilliance. With an ear-splitting roar, a colossal fireball expanded in midair. The violent blast engulfed Mantou, Vagnerd, and the barghests all at once. The searing flames mercilessly swallowed them whole, kicking up a tidal wave of smoke and dust that blanketed more than half the laboratory. The smoke drifted away slowly. A massive crater had been blasted into the floor. Had the dragon-binding floor not been forged exceptionally thick, the explosion might well have punched straight through the tower, collapsing the floor and sending everything crashing down into the level below. The wyrmling Mantou had been reduced to a mangled mess, lying collapsed amid the rubble. Behind him, the barghest had likewise been turned into a charred mound of minced flesh by the tremendously potent bombs. Yet the black-robed figure still stood where he was, hovering in midair. A spherical shield flickering with magical light enveloped his entire body. It was a classic staple combination for high-tier archmages: *Contingency* keyed to *Otiluke's Resilient Sphere*. It was virtually equivalent to having an extra life, making it nearly impossible for ordinary ambushes to harm them. "As expected of a wizard boss... It really wasn't going to be that easy..." Singo muttered to himself as he watched the unscathed wizard. Yet at that moment, not a shred of relief from having survived the ambush showed on Vagnerd's hideously twisted face. Instead, it was warped with rage. His eyes were bloodshot, veins bulged on his forehead, and he looked on the verge of losing his mind entirely. "Curse you, curse you all!" "Why did you resist?! I needed a living specimen!" "I will find his secrets!" "No, no, there's still a chance. He still has companions! As long as I take them alive—" Vagnerd whipped around in a hurry, intending to cast a spell to drag the remaining two over. Yet what met his eyes were the two players, each clutching an activated rune gunpowder bomb that was already emitting rapid *beep-beep* timer noises. Singo bared his teeth in a savage grin at Vagnerd, not missing the chance to mock him: "Doesn't feel too good getting blown up, does it, you old beast?!" "We're treating you to a fireworks show!" Vagnerd pointed a finger and unleashed a green ray, roaring in frantic desperation: "Stop right now!" It was the sixth-tier spell *Disintegrate*, capable of reducing even inanimate matter to dust. If that beam touched the rune gunpowder bombs, it would instantly disintegrate them into mundane dust. Yet his spell came a fraction of a second too late. The very moment the emerald ray lanced out, the two players were already engulfed in blinding fireballs, obliterated into ashes along with the exploding rune gunpowder bombs. They left Vagnerd without the slightest opening, and the blast even wrecked the surrounding experimental equipment. "You... you miserable curs..." "I... I will find an even more perfect specimen!" Vagnerd slumped onto the ground, his black-robed frame trembling all over as though he had fallen into outright madness. *Roar—* Just then, a roar echoed from the distance. The white dragon was thrashing violently, and the chains coiled around its body had actually loosened slightly. It turned out that the three players' successive self-detonations had destroyed a portion of Vagnerd's Dragon-Binding Circle on the floor, giving the white dragon a slim chance of breaking free. Imprisoned for over a century, how could it bear to wait another second? It seized this precious opportunity at once, struggling with every ounce of its might to shake the terrifying circle apart. Vagnerd's face turned livid, his expression turning thoroughly monstrous. He slammed his fists maniacally against the ground, producing dull, heavy thuds. "Tinia... even you... you dare defy me as well?!" "Why? Why is none of you willing to devote yourselves to my grand evolution?!" "Catherine was like this! Valena was like this! Those intruders were like this! And now even you are the same!" After venting his fury without restraint, Vagnerd's expression gradually smoothed over into cold apathy. He slowly climbed up from the floor, his chilling gaze settling upon the cornered white dragon. "It seems... you require a little punishment." The black-robed wizard gently raised his hand, and countless grotesque, mangled limbs bearing scales and horns rose up from the ground. *Awoo—* Amid the Khalkha Mountains, a biting wind howled as snowflakes drifted down. White snow blanketed the rolling, undulating mountain ranges. Deep within the heart of those peaks, from the black tower known as the "Tower of Polar Night," bloodcurdling roars echoed once more, unbroken and lingering for a long time. Were any hurried traveler to take notice, there was no telling how many terrifying legends it would give rise to.