Manuel the Wild Boar stiffened as he sensed a presence behind him and lifted his head. It was then he realized that the second occupant of the room was no longer in their previous position.
In their place was a snuffed-out candle, strange markings on the wooden floor, and remnants of a green flame.
Where had the young man gone?
Was the young man behind him?
But how had he appeared behind him in the blink of an eye?
Even if the young man had been lightning fast, such a feat seemed impossible!
Eerily, Manuel the Wild Boar turned around. Gazing back at him was a blood-red eye. Within the light of that crimson glow, a golden vertical pupil mirrored his face, indicating an imminent death.
Beneath the eye, terrifying fangs and chilling dragon scales were visible.
Behind him was not a human at all!
It was a dragon!
Then what was resting on his left shoulder was...
Manuel the Wild Boar stole a glance at it. His heart seemed to be in his throat. The thing on his shoulder was a claw from the dragon's paw.
Simply resting on his shoulder.
However, his shoulder was covered in a steel armor, forged from volcano's magma by a dwarven master. But it was sliced open by the dragon claw as easily as cutting through tofu.
The dragon's claw had easily cut through the armor, the padding beneath it, his shirt, and his skin.
Without a doubt, Manuel the Wild Boar knew that if the dragon behind him applied even a bit more force, his arm would be violently torn off.
Swallowing, Manuel the Wild Boar struggled to maintain his position, dreading provoking the dragon. "Hearthstone Witch, why is there a dragon in your room?"
"He's not something that you can control!"
"Who is he…"
The Hearthstone Witch glanced disdainfully at him. "The dragon behind you, no, the young man you dismissed as insignificant before, that's him."
"Ah!" Some noise came from behind Manuel the Wild Boar, startling him so much that he dropped his sword hilt, allowing it to clang on the floor.
This was a dragon.
A mere knight couldn't possibly fight against such an existence.
Realizing that a dragon was standing behind him, Manuel gave up any will to fight.
All he could think was that he was the unluckiest knight in the world – to be stuck with a dragon standing behind him.
The chivalry, the rule of not turning one's back on the enemy, seemed insignificant now. It was not a question of whether to fight or not, it was more like he was doomed.
One moment he was readying to rise to glory, the next he had fallen into a pit of despair.
The Hearthstone Witch watched in terror as Ivita turned into a dragon with six purple-red dragon wings on his back.
As a witch, her powerful spiritual power allowed her to sense Ivita's terror more acutely.
In her spiritual knowledge, Ivita was even more terrifying.
Centred around Ivita, a sitnatural pressure more powerful than [Aura of Fear]had formed. Like a whirlpool, or a black hole, it was drawing everyone's attention.
In other words, Manuel hadn't willingly turned to look behind him, but was forcibly drawn to it.
Just like a ship near a deep-sea whirlpool, being drawn towards the abyss of the ocean, as if step by step into certain death.
The Hearthstone Witch also noticed an enormous monster with overturned purple-red wings looming behind Ivita, indicating a more terrifying existence within Ivita's dragon body.
This dragon's body was merely a vessel, a veil, to carry this horrific entity.
How could a Magic Awakening Ritual that was only half finished spawn such a terrifying entity?
Was it because he wrote the names of six gods?
The witch felt scared to death. She wanted to strangle the stupid Manuel the Wild Boar; he had let the Demon God go out of control to this degree.
She's going to get crushed in the collateral damage.
The Old Witch, her face rigid, turned to look at the six extinguished candles. She was brainstorming, calculating, figuring out how to escape.
But how could she possibly run from such a terrifying dragon?
What should she do now?
Suddenly, the dragon picked up Manuel the Dark Boar. His once glistening armour melted from the dragon's claw's heat, dripping onto the wooden floor.
"Mortal…"
Manuel the Wild Boar was terrified to his very core. His survival instinct pushed him to keep begging, "I...spare me, I won't be a warrior anymore."
"Please, spare me."
"I will farm and fish, I won't hold a sword again…"
"Mortal~" 'Ivita' looked at him, seeming to grow infinitely larger, turning into a sky-high dragon. Manuel the Wild Boar, on the other hand, seemed as tiny as an ant.
"Mortal, tell me your name..."
Mortal, tell me your name!
Mortal, utter your name!
This sentence echoed incessantly in Manuel's ears, and he suddenly realized that things might be more complex than he had imagined. This was no giant dragon, it might not be a dragon at all but an evil god!
Could it be possible that the Hearthstone Witch was performing a ritual to summon the evil god in this room!
And now, the evil god had successfully descended!
But he couldn't think much right now, under the coercion of these words, he was forced to say: "My name is Manuel."
As he uttered these words, he found himself extremely uncomfortable and began coughing up blood frantically.
Initially, his blood was red, but it turned blue, and after a while, it turned green.
In reality, his internal organs went through an upheaval, he had reached the knight's limit with three extraordinary organs.
But, these extraordinary organs were wilting rapidly, wildly mutating. His liver and kidneys had quickly become unrecognizable.
Next, his extraordinary heart that contained the seed of life began to grow deformities resembling a dragon's arm, wings, tail, and even started sprouting scales.
Manuel reached out in horror to the scales growing on his arm. He had no idea what was happening, but it was a complete disaster.
His whole body was breaking down, his blood was being replaced.
The dragon clinging onto him was turning him into a different creature, like a subordinate species to a higher entity.
The old witch had fallen silent in the face of this terrifying transformation.
Suddenly, as the dragon grabbed Manuel's arm, a bolt of lightning shot out from his shoulder.
The dragon's frightening eyes expressed regret, as if lamenting something.
Then with a slight exertion of force, Manuel was crushed into a pulp.
Meanwhile, the door of the room slammed shut automatically, and the extinguished candles, one by one, ignited again. The remaining green flames rose magnificently, turning into purple ghost fire.
The old witch exclaimed in surprise, "The ritual… It was reversed, it failed initially, but the outcome was changed."
The dragon walked to the center of the ritual, picked up the magic potion on the ground, and drank it.
Then, the scales on his body fell off in large patches, his wings disappeared, and his body gradually regressed from a real dragon to a human, but still retained dragon features.
The Tree of Life Spirit Energy on the ground, severely distorted, had inexplicably flipped – its head was on its original tail-end, and its tail at its former top.
But after flipping, the Tree of Life Spirit Energy maintained a balance and returned to its original tree shape.
Moreover, its color changed from blood-red to pure purple.
Ivita was half kneeling on the ground, clutching her head. "What happened just now? An overwhelming desire for destruction is welling up from the bottom of my heart."
"Where's the enemy? Where's the enemy?"
The witch hurried over and flatteringly said, "Your Highness, you've performed a significant feat…"
"The over-ambitious fool is dead at your hands…"
Ivita looked at the witch in confusion, no, she couldn't recall anything just now.
She felt as though she had fallen into a deep sleep, and someone had been shouting at her constantly, telling her not to sleep because if she fell asleep, she would never wake up again.
As she was about to wake up, the voice slowly faded.
Until she was fully awake, the voice disappeared.
She looked at the remnants of Manuel's body.
Did she kill this guy just now?
No.
That's wrong.
She was definitely unconscious earlier.
Then who was fighting just now?
Did she hire a stand-in?
Ivita gazed at the six names of the Divine Kings on the Tree of Life Spirit Energy, the first time these names have appeared in this world.
The mutation from earlier must be related to these six names.
Luckily, her Magic Awakening Ritual was finally successful.
The witch remembered, several knights had come in succession too, but she had no idea where they were now.
So, she went to open the door and witnessed a terrifying scene.
Indeed, there were three official knights outside, but they were all dead.
Their horses were nowhere to be seen, but these three knights maintained a crawling position on the stairs, reaching out their right hands like pilgrims, trying to touch the wooden door on the fourth floor.
Their bodies had turned into charred corpses, the expressions on their dead bodies were filled with fear.
Only a bit of the Last Dragon Flame remained on their bodies.
In an instant, the old witch felt a deeper sense of fear towards the Demon God standing by her side.