Dragon Lord Neo, looking like a pale old man…

Chatter started as soon as others saw him like that.

The disturbed looks on the faces of the Dragons that followed Neo were especially clear.

“Ha.”

Eruhaben let out a despondent laugh.

He always looked young despite living over 1,000 years.

That was the case even when death was just around the corner.

This was also true of his true appearance as an adult Dragon.

There was just one exception.

“I guess he really was on the verge of death.”

As a Dragon’s natural life was truly coming to a close…

The true form of an adult Dragon would age.

Furthermore, the Dragon’s polymorphed form would age as well.

Of course, they could use magic to maintain their youthful appearance as Neo had done.

However-

“It looks like your heart is starting to lose its abilities.”

The Dragon Heart…

As that existence naturally reached its end…

A Dragon would age exponentially.

“Even I’ve never seen an appearance like this before.”

Eruhaben looked at Neo, who was tied down by the chains he and Mila had created, with an odd look on his face.

When a Dragon arrived at its natural death…

Their bodies would disappear into nature.

There were many theories about the reason that happened, but…

‘It is because the Dragon Heart, which contains a significant amount of mana, disappears.’

The aura of the stopped heart scatters into nature and the large Dragon’s body disappears as well.

That was how important a Dragon Heart was to a Dragon.

‘He said one good strike on the heart would end him?’

Dragon Lord Neo.

The weakness to attack an existence that may become a god…

That weakness was so…underwhelming.

Just a heart.

It would be easy to say that.

But seeing this appearance, Eruhaben felt despondent.

“In the end-”

‘He wanted to become a god but could not go beyond the limits of his lifespan?’

Eruhaben looked around.

“…Ha.”

“Ho.”

He could see the enemy Dragons looking at Neo with looks of disbelief.

They knew as well.

“He will die if this continues.”

Yes, just as Mila said…

Neo was dying without them needing to do anything.

This bastard would just die on his own.

Cale could now understand why Neo did everything he did.

“I can understand after seeing him like this.”

Cale stopped in front of Neo.

They made eye contact.

“You needed to hurry into Virtual Reality.”

Only that would guarantee his life.

“Huff. Huff.”

Neo was breathing heavily.

– 97%.

Cale’s aura was still focused only on him.

“Haaaaa, haaaaa-”

His tired and fatigued face was still unable to look right at Cale.

Cale calmly spoke to him.

“I’ll finish this quickly.”

Cale looked toward where Neo’s heart should be.

Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-

Water gathered at his hand.

The end of the water slowly started to turn sharp as it formed into a spear.

He heard the Dominating Aura’s voice.

– If it is a Dragon in this terrible state, you don’t even need a strong attack. Just a good hit on the heart will make him naturally break down.

– The heart is the organ in the most critical condition right before death.

But since his heart is weak, you need to be careful about the mana agglomerated inside it.

As expected of a punk that knew a lot about hunting Dragons, this was quite useful information.

– The Dragon Heart is precious because of the mana agglomerated inside it, but, for the same reason, it is more dangerous than most magic bombs if you mess with it the wrong way.

This was why Cale was only using an appropriate level of his water power.

But he still did not put his guard down.

Cale’s actions had no hesitation but also no room for error.

Everything happened as efficiently as water flowing.

Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-

Cale grasped the short spear made of water.

It was at that moment.

“Fuck—!”

Someone let out an angry shout.

Cale tried to not pay any attention to the voice.

The others would take care of those trivial noises.

However, the noises did not stop.

“I bet everything on an old guy like that?”

The enemy Dragons started to open their mouths.

It wasn’t just one of them.

“Damn it! What can an old Dragon that may die any day do?! Fuck!”

“Ha! It was just the flailing of an old guy that wanted to become a god? I gave up everything for something like that?”

The Dragons were shouting in anger.

“Fuck! Everything is ruined, everything!”

The Red Dragon with the gluttony attribute was especially loud.

“I was scammed!”

He was enraged.

No, he felt wronged.

“I thought he was a real god or that he could become a god! A god who can freely control time!”

He scowled.

“But what?”

He was able to instantly figure out Neo’s condition as he was also a Dragon.

“He’s just a damn old Dragon that used time as he pleased and ended up a damn geriatric has-been! He’s no god! Fuck! I had no idea! I thought a great and mighty Dragon had appeared! He’s no fucking Dragon now that he’s so weak!”

“Me too! This was full deceit! I was deceived!”

They thought Neo was an existence at another level, using this omnipotent attribute of time.

“What is this? In the end, just like us, no, even shabbier than us-”

This shabby old thing…

“How is that a god?!”

The Red Dragon could not hold back his anger.

“Motherfucker! If I knew it was like this-”

“If you knew it was like this?”

He looked toward the person repeating his words and flinched.

Rasheel was standing crooked while glaring at the Red Dragon.

No, he was looking at the Red Dragon as if he was stupid.

“Why stop mid-sentence? Go on.

Pfft.”

Rasheel did not hide his sneering.

“Why? Were you going to say that if you knew it was going to be like this, you would have just chilled here being treated like a god and ruling over the humans?”

He was flabbergasted.

“Look at these funny little dumbasses.”

Neo was handled easier than expec-

‘No, it wasn’t easy.’

It was easy because Cale was here, but it would have been very difficult if he had not been here.

‘Anyways, they can change their attitudes so easily because Neo was captured like this?

These Dragons, really-’

“Hey, do you fuckers not even remember what you have done?!

Look at these fuckers with no sense of pride as Dragons.’

As Rasheel’s face filled with deep loathing…

“So now what?”

The Red shrugged his shoulders.

“What?”

Rasheel asked back and the Dragon laughed.

His laugh sounded hopeless as well.

“No, seriously, now what?”

The Red Dragon looked around before speaking.

“It looks like Axion has sided with you guys, but… Dealing with Neo and taking care of the cataclysmic period… Are you going to kill all of the Dragons except Axion and a few others?”

He pointed at himself.

“Is it really okay to get rid of all of the Dragons like me that sided with the Dragon Lord? Will this world be fully maintained if you did that?”

As Rasheel was about to open his mouth in disbelief…

“What bullshi-”

Rasheel had an odd experience.

No.

Could this really be called an experience?

Did he understand it properly>

Baaaaaang!

There was a loud explosion just as he started to speak.

“Such bullshit-”

He still continued to speak despite the explosion.

Yes, it was only for an instant.

“!”

It wasn’t there.

Slash.

The Red Dragon that had been talking to him no longer had a head.

It had been cut off and was falling to the ground.

‘What is going on?

I didn’t even see anything.’

Rasheel felt chills all over his body.

He turned his head.

Yes. That was only an instant as well.

He turned his head as soon as he saw it.

Baaaaaang!

“Ugh!”

Another Dragon groaned before his body exploded.

What was left behind was-

‘Purple-’

On top of the Red Dragon’s neck where the head had been cut off…

And on the side of the exploding Dragon, purple mana could be seen.

“!”

He finally thought of someone.

‘Cale!’

What happened to Cale who was about to attack Neo?

Rasheel turned his head and was at a loss for words.

Chhhhh-

As Neo floated in the air while chained…

There was a spear stabbed into his heart.

Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-

The water spear was aimed right at Neo’s heart.

Cale was flabbergasted.

“Ha!”

He had clearly not paid any attention to the other conversations and immediately stabbed Neo’s chest with his spear.

Neo’s plans had been so dreadful that he felt no pity toward the old looking Dragon.

Craaack-

Neo’s chest was pierced, and…

– I reached it.

The tip of the spear had touched the heart as the Sky Eating Water said.

Cale saw Neo look him in the eyes for the first time.

“!”

He then realized it.

‘Something is wrong.’

No.

This was not Cale making a mistake.

It also wasn’t that Neo had something prepared.

“Hehe-”

Neo started to laugh.

The moment Neo started to laugh…

– Human, he’s using his attribute!

He heard Raon shout.

What Cale saw was-

Slash.

Baaaaaang-

It was the death of the two Dragons talking shit about Neo.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

He could hear a beating heart.

Cale looked at Neo and opened his mouth.

“You, you-”

This was Cale’s first time asking this question.

“You, what the hell are you?”

What kind of existence are you?

“Kehehe-”

And…

“Cough. Hehe, he-”

The old man could not stop laughing despite coughing up blood.

He looked down at his chest.

His chest that was split open after being pierced by a spear…

The heart that was visible through the gap…

– H, human!

Cale gulped after hearing Raon’s stuttering voice.

_ Why, why is the heart like, like that?

Neo’s heart was not red.

All Dragons had red hearts, but…

Neo’s heart was purple.

Furthermore, it was large.

It was twice the size of normal hearts as if it had consumed other organs.

Furthermore-

– It’s getting even bigger!

The heart was starting to get even bigger.

It looked as if it had consumed multiple hearts.

“I, you asked who I am?”

Neo’s whole body was shaking.

He was still feeling fear from Cale’s aura.

That dreadful greed to hunt Dragons and consume them especially made Neo feel suffocated.

“Who knows?”

Neo wasn’t the only one who was reacting to that fear.

The time bomb inside his body…

No, his heart…

The heart that had been passed down to him from numerous Dragons…

The heart that had not just one life but multiple lives succeeded down to it…

The numerous Dragons in this heart were scared of that aura.

It forced Neo to feel the fear of multiple Dragons as well.

That was the reason he found it difficult to resist Cale’s aura on his own.

If Cale knew about that, he would have been amazed at Neo’s mental fortitude to persist through it enough to speak and stand up.

He would also have been even warier.

However, who would know about that without seeing Neo’s heart?

Neo looked up at the air and commented.

“Who knows-

Who am I?”

A piece of memory popped into his mind.

‘We figured out a way to connect attributes together.’

‘Have a Dragon from the next generation with the same attribute absorb the former generation Dragon’s heart.’

There had been a reason the Five Colors Bloods had looked for Neo.

Only a Dragon with the same attribute could succeed the former generation’s Dragon Heart.

No, absorb it into their own heart.

‘Ah, of course, you can reject this offer. To be honest with you, not all Dragons with the time attribute have accepted this offer.’

Neo had sneered at that comment at the time.

Why would anybody reject the chance to become much stronger so easily?

‘Then will you accept the succession?’

That was how Neo ended up absorbing the heart that contained the attribute of numerous past Dragons.

‘It doesn’t matter what you do while using this power to lord over the other Dragons.’

‘However, your role is succession.’

‘That means that your heart must be fully passed onto the next generation .’

“Kehe.”

Neo started to laugh.

He then asked Cale.

“How many do you think I am made of?”

Ten thousand years.

This ‘time’ power had been passed down for even longer than that.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Neo could hear his heart beating.

It was starting to beat louder and louder.

‘Okay.’

“Let me tell you something.”

He wanted to inform Cale.

“Because there is one thing I am thankful to you about.”

Your role is succession.

Your heart must be fully passed onto the next generation.

The words those bastards had said to him…

“Even if my heart dies, the numerous hearts in here will still be alive. It is my heart that is suppressing the power of those numerous hearts. That is my role.”

To be more accurate, his heart was also intermixed into this gathering of hearts to grow the power of succession even more, but…

“But that has now failed?”

The suppression had failed.

Cale opened his mouth with a stiff look on his face.

What was now left was the collection of numerous powers.

“…Overload.”

What was left was for the numerous Dragon powers in the heart to overload as there was nothing left to suppress them.

“Yes. Thank you.”

That was why Neo was laughing.

‘Even though my heart is dying…

This collection of powers in my heart remains.’

“Even if I cannot become a god, thanks to you, despite it being right before my own death, I’ll get to use all of the powers I wanted to use once I became a god.”

Chhhhhhh-

The chains shook weakly as if they were leaves fluttering in the wind.

“Human.”

The moment Cale looked at Raon who flew over to him and pulled at his sleeves…

Craaaaaaack-

The chains broke.

“Ugh!”

Eruhaben groaned but Cale could not turn his head.

Ssssss—

It sounded like a snake slithering by.

No, It was a mysterious sense of déjà vu and coldness that made him wonder if such a sound was actually present and gave him the chills.

Ssssssssss-

Cale could not look away from the purple like surrounding Neo’s whole body.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

He could hear a heartbeat.

‘This is not my heart.’

It was Neo.

It was the other heart inside Neo’s heart.

The weird purple heart was thumping.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

That thumping of the heart pierced even through the weird climate of the cataclysmic period and echoed all around.

It almost felt like the birth of a god.

Boom!

And once that heart thumped loudly…

‘Fuck!’

Cale barely managed to see it.

Neo was moving in the stopped time.

He truly resembled a god.

The God of Time.

The power held by the ‘time’ of Dragons over tens of thousands of years that failed to become gods…

That power was like a god.

And at that moment…

In that short instant of stopped time…

Boom. Boom.

Cale heard his own heart beating.

Very slowly.

Ever so slowly…

Almost like a dying heart…

Almost like a heart that was about to stop…

It was at that moment.

– Ha.

The Super Rock let out a despondent laugh.

– Your abilities are truly scary. Cale Henituse, no, Kim Rok Soo’s power has a high potential for growth.

Boom.

Cale realized it while listening to his own heart beating.

This was not a dying heart.

In fact, it was the opposite.

His heart was beating while time was stopped.

Just like Neo.

Instant.

He was certain that his instant power was growing stronger.

—

Translator’s Comments

Instant getting stronger… is that good or bad?

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