Chapter 1472.1

The soul construct of the lich Nyx, bound from head to toe, hung limply. He slowly raised his head and locked his gaze straight on Davey.

Hero Aris and Saint Shuneria Recken whispered to each other.

“Whoaaaa. Now that I see him, he’s actually huge.”

“Tell me about it... The power he gives off seems intense, too. Yet, he’s totally helpless in front of Davey.”

[Gargantia... Netzach.]

He slowly talked about him in a mysterious tone.

[He’s a Dragon.]

“No shit. Who doesn’t know that?”

[And he’s the only one of his kind with a uniquely twisted power.]

Davey didn’t know what kind of change Nyx was going through to suddenly be responding so much. “You didn’t seem like you were going to cooperate. Or did you change your mind?”

[Shut up.]

“You greedy, worthless bag of bones that threw the world into chaos. Are you seriously trying to claim you're innocent or something?” He stared, but Nyx still didn’t deny it. “Seriously? What a buzzkill, you cursed pile of bones.”

[I told you to shut up!]

“Hey, Davey? Maybe... that’s going a little too far...” When Aris cautiously tried to dissuade him, he sighed and briefly but clearly told her what kind of scum Nyx was. Once he finished, she passionately shouted, “Nevermind! Punish him! Punish him hard!!!”

It didn’t take Aris long to completely flip. “He’s a really bad bag of bones!”

[Kukukuku... To be insulted by a Horne still wet behind the ears even after death. How ridiculous.]

“Let’s finish this talk. If you give it to me straight, I’ll let your soul reincarnate. But if you keep clamming up, I give no promises as to what I’ll do next.”

Gargantia was the dragon Nyx had sealed. The Nyx in front of Davey was still a chaotic avatar of destruction, but he seemed to react differently whenever Gargantia was brought up.

Thinking about it, it wasn't so weird. Nyx was more of a strategist who prioritized his own ambition and desires, rather than pure evil. Davey figured he must have a story of his own.

Of course, he didn’t care one bit about Nyx’s personal situation.

[Gargantia’s power is psychic-type, or to be precise, a twisted psychic power.]

“Psychic-type?”

‘Like Evangeline...?’

Caught off guard, Davey quickly forced his expression to harden.

[As a hatchling, he couldn't control his innate power. He naturally scattered fragments of his consciousness across the continent without thinking. He grew by coming into contact and resonating with countless living beings through those fragments.]

The young dragon ended up resonating with too many living things in a short time, and went crazy. His scales oxidized to black, his mind collapsed, and his senses disappeared. Pain, sorrow, joy, the fear of death, and the primal fear of annihilation that every living being should naturally possess—he never fully developed any of them.

Davey, however, was a little confused.

Psychic dragons were exceptionally rare, even among ancient dragons. Evangeline was one herself, but she'd never shown any signs of deviation like Gargantia.

[It seems like... you know something.]

“Just keep talking.”

[Like water flowing into an empty space, the emptiness within him instinctively sought to be filled.]

Gargantia had unknowingly drawn countless things toward himself through the fragments of his consciousness that were scattered across the continent. His mind, unable to fully control his rampaging power, had collapsed in an instant.

Once he became a full-fledged dragon, his consciousness fragments stopped scattering, but too many of them had already spread throughout the world and become part of it. Not only did they fuse with living beings and then resonate and absorb their power, but whenever their host died, they would simply resonate with another living being nearby.

That made those subjects the source of his power. In other words, he would remain immortal unless every single fragment of his consciousness scattered across the continent was wiped out.

That was the source of his unfathomable abyss-like power. The method of overcoming it was simple.

“Don’t tell me what I’m thinking is right?”

[Annihilate every living being resonating with his consciousness and then destroy every last fragment. That's the only way to end his immortality.]

Davey smiled chillingly. “Ha! You’re trying to pull a fast one on me.”

[,,,]

“Now I see why you suddenly became so cooperative. Just to make sure, Nyx, which race has the most fragments of Gargantia's consciousness within them?”

[The horne.]

“Just as I thought.”

His behavior was questionable in many ways. Davey wondered if he simply wanted to control the Demon King and rule the Demon World, yet some of his actions couldn't be explained by that alone.

If everything that crazy bag of bones had done was ultimately meant to eliminate Gargantia's twisted nature, then all his inexplicable behavior before made perfect sense.

“In the parallel world, you didn't just destroy everything. You wiped things out as if you were searching for something. You didn't spare the demon race, humanoid races, animals, or even monsters.”

In fact, under the pretense of advising Demon King Perserque, he had provided certain routes to wipe out everything in it, and sometimes even deliberately went around an enemy that was right in front of him.

[I don’t know what you’re talking about.]

In addition to the fragments of his consciousness, Gargantia had left his traces all over the continent.

Davey had already destroyed all of them, but that wasn't the fundamental way to deal with him.

[Ke... Kekekeke. We fought to the death back then, yet in the end, the path you and I walk is the same. How pathetic and ridiculous.]

Hearing his ridicule, Davey simply lifted his foot and stomped on his soul.

[Why are you looking at me like that? Are you having second thoughts now?]

“Nah. Just confirming again that you’re a total lunatic.” Davey didn't hesitate to pick up the soul stone. It wasn’t long before Nyx's soul began to be drawn into it.

[Kukukuku... Hahahahaha!! Serves you right! How utterly pathetic! In the end, you have no choice but to act according to my plan! Even as nothing more than a dead soul, I'll watch your ridiculous little clown show from the depths of hell and laugh my—]

All of a sudden, the stone stopped sucking in his soul.

“You’re starting to piss me off.” Davey grabbed his soul and began to pull it out.

[Ugh... HUH?!]

“Did you think you could truly run away after provoking me like that?”

[What?! No way! There’s no method to hold my soul anymore!!]

“Why wouldn’t there be? I can just keep your soul in a holy mother stone.” Davey pointed to the stone that imprisoned his soul. Then he pointed to himself. “It’s not hard to do when using my divine authority to interfere with the River of Souls.”

[Lies! A mere horne shouldn’t be able to do something so absurd!]

“Well, that horne is standing right here in front of you.”

A mystical light enveloped Davey, and his form began to materialize. Nyx’s eyes trembled wildly.

Davey had once been human, but, unfortunately for Nyx, he had since become a godlike existence.

Nyx couldn't help but tremble at his chilling smile.

“I was going to let you go quietly if you'd just kept your mouth shut.”

An inexplicable sense of dread washed over him, and he let out a frantic scream in panic.

[S-stop! You have no basic respect for the dead!!!]

“You’re the last one who should be saying that, you dirty lich bastard. Thanks for the info, loser.”

Thanks to the lich’s explanation, Davey had finally found a way to rapidly weaken Gargantia's twisted power and immortality.

[GAAAHHH!!!]

Even as Nyx screamed in pain, Davey wore a chilling smile and crushed him even further. He then called, “Hey. Aris?”

“Yeah?”

“Is there something I didn’t understand about the explanation just now? Did I miss something?”

She wasn’t sure what he was trying to say. “What do you mean?”

“Well... if that bag of bones was telling the truth, psychic dragons are absolute beings, aren’t they? If Gargantia is one of them, can we even kill him?”

He walked into the distance, lost in thought. They couldn't just turn the entire continent into a sea of fire just to catch one dragon, though it seemed like Davey didn’t care.

Aris’s head curiously tilted. “Hmm? I’m not sure about that.”

Shuneria walked up next to her and quietly asked, “How are you so relaxed?”

“Hehe. When Davey smiles like that, it always means he has a scheme up his sleeve.”

Indeed, she was right.

* * *

After reducing Nyx to such a pitiful state that he was barely recognizable, Davey gave him one last kick before sealing his soul back inside the holy mother stone.

“Are we going now?” Shuneria wondered aloud.

“He beat him up so mercilessly... though I don’t feel sorry for him.”

Nyx had committed so many evil deeds that he couldn't even earn proper pity.

“Hey, Davey. I’ve been thinking.” Aris asked with a cheerful voice, “Do you have a plan? Isn’t this too dangerous? You should go and help out...”

“No, we’re sticking to the allied forces’ strategy.”

“And that’s supposed to work against a dragon that can’t die?”

In a very matter-of-fact tone of voice, he responded, “I’ll just make it so he can’t use his power.”

Finding his long hair annoying, he pulled a band from his Pocket Plane and tied his hair back into a single ponytail.

“I can’t even cut it off, seriously...” Davey grumbled in annoyance.

Seeing his profile, Aris stared blankly and murmured, “Wow... he’s so pretty...”

Shuneria lightly hit her shoulder. “Shush it.”

Regrettably, when he went through divine manifestation, his physical form had no gender, just like in the past.

He held one hand to his ear and called, “What’s the situation, Rinne?”

Bzzt!!!

- Rinne confirms hundreds of enhanced undead and about forty intermediate liches. Currently engaging. Rinne requests Master Davey keep the call brief.

“Engaging? What’s the situation?”

- Rinneevaluates that an all-out battle is imminent. Currently eliminating enemies encountered during the hostage rescue. Rinne analyzes that a full-scale battle would result in significant casualties and damage. Rinne requests immediate countermeasures.

“Alright. Just hold out for another thirty minutes. I’ll make a way to finish him off by then.”

- Rinne evaluates Master Davey’s sneaky scheme highly.

Gargantia hated the fact that he couldn’t die, yet he used it to his best advantage.

Davey wondered what expression he’d make when he realized he was no longer immortal. He lightly stretched his body before calling out, “Aris, Shuneria.”

“Yes?”

“Huh?”

“The fragments of his consciousness scattered across the world are all connected to him. Right?”

Looking confused as to why he was bringing up something they'd just heard, Shuneria muttered, “Yes, that’s right.”

“Then tell me, what would happen if we found just one of those fragments and injected poison into it somehow? What do you think will happen to him?”

The fragments all seemed separate yet were connected together. They made a single interconnected net, like a giant spider web. Trying to find every single one individually would be incredibly foolish.

“But if that was possible, wouldn’t that bag of bones have done something about it before?”

Davey smiled faintly and pulled Nyx's soul out again. His battered soul immediately had a seizure the moment he saw Davey again.

[Go away, you demon bastard!!]

“Come on, let’s make it a win-win for both of us, Nyx.”

[You bastard!!]

Davey dropped his smile, solemnly declaring, “I’m going to kill Gargantia. You know how to find Gargantia’s consciousness fragments, right?”