If Ausloes were still standing like before, Lann would be facing his chest at his current height.

But Ausloes had abandoned the human way of standing and transformed into a dragon on all fours.

Thus, Lann’s current height was level with the top of his head.

Ausloes frantically swung his claws two more times before suddenly realizing his target had vanished from sight.

But by this time, it was already too late for him to react.

With a click, the mechanical transmission released the hook gripping the palace’s upper structure.

The Demon Hunter, hanging and swaying mid-air, retracted the hook lock into the projector on his arm guard.

And as he bent backward, his robust body transformed into a fully drawn bow... A massive, dark, and domineering Greatsword! It was drawn from the alchemy pouch at his waist!

Wild and brutal energy erupted throughout the palace with the appearance of the Greatsword.

"Boom!"

Pale red Fighting Spirit burst out on his body and the Greatsword, emitting a sound like explosive flames.

As Lann fell, the Fighting Spirit around him streaked through the air like pale red particles of light.

"Clang!!!"

A sound long and full of identity erupted!

Solemn and majestic like a church bell, but it was just the enormous sword blade crushing and tearing the skin and flesh of the Scaleless White Dragon, colliding into bones and body.

"Howl!"

Ausloes’s elongated neck suddenly tightened uncontrollably, howling in agony from the intense pain.

The giant sword with a bone-white blade and deep black body hacked into the bizarre white dragon’s shoulder from above.

Accompanied by the ’slash’ sound of flesh being crushed and torn, and the cracking of bones, the wide sword blade as broad as Lann’s chest was fully embedded in Ausloes’s body!

The sword remained stuck inside, lodged within. Belonging to the Extinct Dragon, body tissues began greedily absorbing nutrients that they came into contact with, releasing Dragon Attribute Energy like black mist and red lightning.

Thick blood was meant to spurt out from the large terrifying fissure, but even before it could gush out, it was ’devoured’ by the ravenous Greatsword.

Only sparse droplets slid out from the wounds.

"Howl!"

The unprecedented injury and pain made the white dragon unable to stop its neck from shaking violently and convulsing, emitting a scream.

He tried to use his claws to pull out the Greatsword, which had hacked into his shoulder and entered his chest cavity.

But Lann and Mentos already understood his body structure well enough.

Just twisting the hilt of Muddy Stream·Destruction slightly, under the agony, Ausloes’s arms were completely unable to lift.

The front segment of the sword blade embedded in the white dragon’s body, while Lann held the hilt, Ausloes’s distorted dragon head continuously attempted to stretch forward, trying to bite the person hurting him.

Facing the grotesque dragon head not far away, relentlessly snapping and clawing, Lann’s approach was more direct.

"Boom!"

The pale red Fighting Spirit Light Flame ignited once more!

Lann held the hilt with one hand, and with the other arm, he slammed down on his Greatsword!

The Valerian steel arm guard pressed the sword blade downward, at the same time driving the sword even deeper into Ausloes’s body!

Causing the white dragon to howl in even more frenzied pain.

But it wasn’t over; after his arm struck the sword blade down, he swiftly formed a Magic Seal.

"[Alder]! Boom!"

The impact of the Magic Seal converged on the sword blade.

Muddy Stream·Destruction, initially stuck between Ausloes’s shoulder and chest, was struck with two explosive waves of force, making the halted sword blade move once again!

The sound of tearing flesh, and the cracking of bones, rang out repeatedly.

The bone-white sword blade and deep black sword body sliced diagonally from Ausloes’s shoulder position to the opposite rib cage, with the blade exiting the body of the White Dragon Demon King.

However, the distorted body was left with a massive gaping wound traversing from side to side, exposing shattered bones and internal organs!

The white dragon’s enormous body, compelled by the sword’s rotation, painfully twisted sideways.

Even as he fell sideways, his mouth erupted with a long and piercing scream.

But this pain would soon end.

"Click!"

The gigantic sword blade, having hacked out a body-wide opening in the white dragon, sprang out.

In the sound of armor leather rubbing caused by Lann tensing his arm muscles, he once again firmly controlled it.

Using just the power of his two arms, he forcefully controlled Muddy Stream·Destruction into an advancing thrust stance.

With a lively Fighting Spirit Light Flame covering it, it etched a slender and fierce sword blade trajectory through the air.

[Greatsword·Qi Blade Thrust]!

Initially a technique for the New Continent Hunter’s Tachi, now adaptable on an oversized Greatsword!

By implanting the [Holy Chant Gland], Lann’s developing bones and muscles could handle it!

"Swoosh!"

Following the opening sliced just now, the overall length of the 3.2-meter Greatsword, like a lance, pinned the fallen Scaleless White Dragon against the wall!

By this point, Ausloes was utterly powerless to resist due to the severe injuries.

As his body slammed backward into the wall, his elongated neck hung limply, the grotesque dragon head swaying weakly.

Meanwhile, Lann released Muddy Stream·Destruction, which impaled the white dragon and pinned it against the wall.

He stepped forward, grabbing the powerless swaying grotesque dragon head, pulling it toward his chest.

With his other hand, he drew the Lady of the Lake’s Sword from the sheath at his waist.

Execution!

"Slash!"

The Long Blade pierced from the grotesque dragon head’s lower jaw upward, protruding from the forehead.

Straightforward and decisive, without a hint of hesitation or uncertainty.

The White Dragon’s body, which had been twitching and reacting slightly, suddenly went rigid.

But immediately, Lann’s expression changed, and he didn’t even have time to pull out the Lady of the Lake’s Sword. The [Acceleration Technique] instantly made him jump back over three meters.

Almost brushing against the departing shadow of Lann, a wisp of white mist spilled out of the Scaleless White Dragon’s deformed dragon mouth.

It seemed that this mist had long been in its throat, but due to Lann’s swift and precise technique, it only now overflowed as the body had completely lost its life.

The white mist was not cold and had no corrosive properties.

Upon appearing, it immediately started growing many clusters of crystals with a ’crackling’ sound.

Were it not for the scaleless and deformed body of the White Dragon, it would possess an eerie, pure beauty.

However, even as Lann came to a stop three meters away, his eyes remained narrowed to a slit.

Just as the white mist began to emerge from Ausloes’ mouth, his nerves tensed up abruptly.

A tension never felt before, not even when facing the Golden Lion did he feel that way.

It was as if...

The pure crystals were like ’pure death’ itself.

"An instant death spell? A death curse?"

Lann muttered with uncertainty and suspicion.

The spells mastered by Ausloes were all extremely advanced, and even after becoming a deranged beast, the body resulting from the Dragon Transformation Experiment inherently retained these powerful magical abilities.

If it hadn’t been for Lann’s unusually tight control over the rhythm of the battle, forcing out that breath of crystallized white mist, the consequences would have been unpredictable.

Fortunately, those crystals that made Lann’s heart palpitate did not persist for long.

They soon self-dissolved and shattered with a crackling sound, disappearing completely.

Not until all the crystals vanished did Lann cautiously approach and withdraw his Lady of the Lake’s Sword from under Ausloes’ jaw.

With a tearing sound, the process of unsheathing the sword brought out a spray of blood.

And that Saint King of Losric, a member of the Fire Divine Race who oversaw the world’s Fire Transmission Ceremony for over ten thousand years, also ceased any movement in the guise of a deformed White Dragon.

After confirming with [Spiritual Vision] that there were no residual powers of those crystals left on the sword, Lann put away the Lady of the Lake’s Sword.

As for [Muddy Stream·Destruction]... this sword had dug too deeply into Ausloes’s body.

Even after his death, the part of the body impaled by the Greatsword still twitched involuntarily, as if a ravenous monster inside the corpse was chewing and gnawing.

Lann withdrew [Muddy Stream·Destruction].

It had ’eaten’ its fill, as Ausloes’s body seemed to be richly nutritious.

Even so, the originally straight and neat blade had now a slightly irregular and menacing protuberance, much like the thorns that grew on the Extinct Dragon.

However, the Greatsword’s design, meticulously crafted by a blacksmith, seemed overdone with these fierce thorns.

Lann planned to find time to grind them off, possibly as an offering of Ancient Dragon materials to Belengar.

On the scaleless White Dragon’s corpse of Ausloes, a bright blue flame-like object flickered.

Lann picked it up.

Perhaps this was the soul of a strong entity in this world?

The Demon Hunter pondered while holding this small flame in his hand.

Souls in this world only began to appear after the First Flame, and the greater the individual’s might, the larger their soul.

Ausloes should have been one of the strongest among them, and his soul must have been incredibly vast.

But regrettably, due to the Dragon Transformation Experiment, his soul had been reduced to this.

This soul also reflected his decline in strength.

"For the sake of a chance to survive in the world without fire, he gave up his power and everything."

Lann clutched the flame representing the soul in his hand and placed it into his pouch.

Lann understood Ausloes’s choice.

The power accumulated from the Fire Age held no significance in a world without fire, no matter how great it was.

Because if one does not adapt to the environment, they will ultimately perish.

As long as one survives, there is a chance to regain strength.

But Ausloes had gone mad; he didn’t even conduct any experiments to validate, or perhaps didn’t have time to, instead spreading his crude Dragon Transformation research throughout Losric.

Resulting in the current state where barely any living being could be found in the entire city.

"Meow?! Boss!"

The startled cry of the Elu Cat came from the side.

In its arms, a baby, identical to what Lann saw with [Spiritual Vision], became visible.

The Elu Cat, bewildered, cradled the baby, waddling on its short legs toward Lann.

Honestly, the baby was almost the size of Rong Buqiu.

When it was in an invisible state earlier, it seemed Rong Buqiu couldn’t see him, so its weight and size were not felt by the Elu Cat. Rong Buqiu could easily carry him around.

And now that Rong Buqiu could see him, it could only laboriously lift him over its head and run to Lann.

Lann observed the baby, the youngest Prince of the Losric Kingdom, Othello.

His entire skin tone was abnormal, much like the Demon King. Moreover, his hands and fingers were as thin and bony as the Scaleless White Dragon.

It was evident that the insane Ausloes, after experimenting on himself, had bestowed this ’gift’ upon his child first.

Although Othello was a baby, he was a baby of the Divine Race.

Having been harmed by the Dragon Transformation Experiment, he instinctively hid himself from ’sight.’

And now... is it because Ausloes is dead? Is that why he’s revealed himself?

Lann held the baby, furrowing his brows in speculation.

But why... did he just reach his hand out to me?