Chapter 651: Intermission

Bang!

The Earthen Dragon was caught by Kara’s starry night tendrils, but his head still managed to touch one of the castle’s four-directional towers, transferring enough momentum for the top of the tower to collapse!

’No no no no-’

Overwhelmed with deep guilt and regret, Kara’s mind entered a spiral of endless denial, all while her starry night tendrils kept enveloping the Earthen Dragon more and more, eventually covering it completely like tight candy wrap.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

The force she applied through the tendrils was so tremendous that the Earthen Dragon’s bones started creaking, seeming as if they would shatter under the constant tension. However...

"Calm down. Remember what you told me, don’t burn yourself out too soon."

Leo was just about to speak when Aurora voiced his thoughts exactly.

On the surface, it looked like Kara was on the brink of destroying the second Earthen Dragon, but the reality of the matter was that she was incessantly wasting Enigma.

Leo might have made it look easy by killing three Dragons so far, one on the Arena and two in the Trial, but Dragons weren’t exactly as squishable as bugs.

They were literally the peak of all peak species in this verse and the ones connected to it. Literally, the only other ’monster’ that surpassed them was the dreadful Final Boss!

Even for Aurora, the most powerful Hero, and Leo, the strongest Villain, defeating a Dragon took effort and several orderly steps.

Unless it was the Final Boss himself making a move, attempting to defeat a Dragon using brute force was nigh impossible!

The creaking of human bones was indeed a sign of approaching destruction, but the sound emitted from the Dragon’s bones was more like a testament to its toughness, no different from pillars of steel capable of absorbing and releasing that tension!

"Uh-"

Having met and defeated an Earthen Dragon herself, Kara wasn’t a stranger to these facts. It was just that she had been so overtaken by her emotions that all her actions had been driven by them, temporarily losing control.

"She is right, you know."

Hearing Leo’s gentle voice, the storm in Kara’s heart calmed down a bit as she gradually released the pressure she had been applying, transforming the tendrils into another starry night cage.

However, feeling the self-loathing writhing in her heart for making such a big blunder, Kara didn’t dare to look Leo in the eyes.

"It’s okay, you did your best. We are still in control."

On the contrary to Kara’s fears, Leo was already quite satisfied with how small the damage to the castle was.

As long as their control of the playing field was restored, the final outcome could still be quite satisfactory.

’It’s not like we could change anything.’

No matter how much Leo was into fantasy, his line of thought was always realistic. The current outcome was already the best that he could ask for.

As the possessor of the source of Kara’s Abilities, he was naturally capable of replicating the feat she just did, with even more precision and swiftness.

In fact, considering he was the first to see through the Earthen Dragons’ intentions, he could have stopped them before they could get this close to the castle.

However, ironically enough, the one thing that stopped Leo was still the same thing that had been chaining him down since the very start of this Trial... Enigma Consumption!

’Different restrictions, same shackles.’

While Kara could afford to pour all her Enigma to grab hold of one Dragon, Leo simply couldn’t.

He had been abusing his Refined Enigma since the start of his brawl with the Dragons; any little bit of extra Enigma consumption would leave him completely powerless.

At that point, even if he survived this unharmed, he would have to watch the castle crumble in front of his eyes without being able to do anything!

In the same fashion, the power of his Shadow Mastery or Kara’s replica of it was indeed sufficient to crush a Dragon using brute force alone.

However, the Enigma required to keep up this highest level of output for as long as it was needed to outlast a Dragon’s physical durability... That wasn’t something that even Aurora could muster.

’Well, she should be able to do it in her final battle form.’

Considering that entering such a state was equal to a death sentence, it was safe to say that things were already playing in their favor. Leo simply couldn’t ask for more.

’Right!’

Being consoled again and again by none other than Leo, Kara almost immediately forgot all the negative feelings that had been vexing her.

"Got it!"

Just like Leo had said, she just had to keep up the good work!

’Good, back to you.’

With the situation finally back in control, Leo was given the chance to invest his full focus into the task that he had been doing half-mindedly.

Thrashing the second Abyssal Dragon!

’First, your brother targets me, and then you start targeting my student?’

The first Black Dragon might have had ulterior motives, but the second one was obviously acting based on a second-phase directive.

In this case, it must have been to remove the biggest obstacle standing between them and the Defenders’ Castle.

However...

’I might not exactly have a temper, but I do get mad.’

Whether the Abyssal Dragons were a plant or not, these kinds of details didn’t really matter to Leo at the moment.

He was quite ready to vent out all of the frustrations he had accumulated ever since entering the City of Villains on this Abyssal Dragon.

’If any reading-accumulated rage wants to come up now, you are welcome.’

At this point, Leo wouldn’t even mind if his affliction further fueled his fury; controlling it when he was prepared for it was actually quite easy.

As such, nothing ended up popping up. Leo was really starting to think that someone was setting up those timely attacks...

’It doesn’t matter.’

As long as he maintained his vigilance, being worried about such things all the time was useless.

The culmination of life was to discard meaningless worry and only bother with the source of that worry when something could be done to change its status. Otherwise...

Crunch!

Priority flowed towards things that were meant to be done in the current moment, and right now, claiming these Dragons’ lives was Leo’s number one task!