With a great amount of struggle, Marcus hefted his scythe over his back and prepared to throw it.

He gripped it tightly with both hands and summoned up every ounce of strength left in him.

"There’s a delicious meal just waiting for you over there. Go, and devour."

As Marcus gave a command to his weapon, he threw his arms forward and tossed the scythe into the air.

It was honestly a pathetic throw considering how powerful he usually was.

The scythe arced in the air for a couple of dozen meters before it began to lose altitude.

From any outside observer’s perspective, it was never going to reach Gronex who was several kilometers away.

Yet as the scythe began to fall, it suddenly started rotating more quickly and cut through the air unnaturally.

Its speed continued to build up, and it barreled towards the enormous dragon clinging to life in the distance.

Soon the weapon that was acting on its own had reached its prey.

Marcus typically kept a tight lid on it, but now he had released his scythe to let it finish Gronex off.

The ruler of the molten sea was in no condition to dodge the incoming attack, and barely noticed it as all of his attention was devoted to putting himself back together.

Without any resistance, the blade of the scythe dug into the dragon’s chest where his scales had been sheered away and his softer flesh was exposed.

Having no mana left to reinforce his body, Gronex was unable to stop the weapon from lodging itself all the way into him.

Certainly, this was unpleasant, but with as large as Gronex was, even the full length of Marcus’ scythe stabbing into him was simply a slight prick.

This changed quickly, however.

The large core that had once belonged to the Dread Burrower, a Doomsday monster that had once threatened to destroy all of Borealia and perhaps even the entire continent, began to stir.

Thin green tendrils began to protrude out of the magic core and worm their way inside of Gronex’s body. Draining what energy he had left as they forced their way towards his own core.

Naturally, the ancient Lava Dragon noticed what was happening, and an expression of surprise and distress greater than anything he had shown during the entire battle appeared on his face.

"GRRRRRR!"

A panic roared escaped Gronex’s mouth as he tried to dislodge the scythe from his chest.

At first, he attempted to use his muscles to force it out, but this only dug the weapon in deeper.

Hastily, Gronex forced one of his arms to tear out chucks of his own flesh to remove the scythe. Except, it only unleashed more tendrils that wrapped around Gronex and kept him locked in place.

Had the ancient dragon been in a better condition, it would have been easy enough to resist the encroaching internal assault.

However, his blood and organs were currently spilling out of his body from Quillon’s attack, and his reserves of mana and stamina were bottomed out.

Even in his current state, as death encroached on him, Gronex’s thrashing about was still cataclysmic. Sending up giant plumes of dust and chunks of the earth up into the air.

The Lava Dragon felt his life in danger and completely disregarded his current state to do whatever it took to remove Marcus’ scythe.

This left his blood and organs spilling out of him at an accelerated rate, and what little strength he had left was quickly drained.

Eventually, the once mighty ruler of the molten sea of the Darklands fell to the ground, unmoving.

He was not quite dead yet, but he no longer had the energy to resist. All that was left for the centuries old dragon to do was wait for a slow and agonizing death.

’I’ll curse you for eternity. Even in death my animosity will not wane. This is not the end; I’ll see that you fall to ruin for this.’ Gronex transmitted to Marcus through telepathy.

"Good luck with that. I’m already a ghost. Try and haunt me, and I’ll just eat your soul as well. Just forget your grudge and pass on to your next life." Marcus responded, uncertain if Gronex could even hear him.

Time seemed to pass slow as Marcus’ scythe ate way at Gronex from the inside.

It took several minutes, and during the process the ancient dragon let out several pained roars.

Until in the end, there was only silence.

Finally, Marcus was assured of the Lava Dragon’s death as a familiar noise entered his mind.

’You have leveled up to level seventy-six.’

’You have leveled up to level seventy-seven.’

’You have leveled up to level seventy-eighty.’

Marcus was surprised by the three consecutive level ups. It had been quite some time since he had gone up more than one level, and three was honestly completely unexpected.

’I was already close to level seventy-six, so maybe I could have gotten two from the EXP. But how did I get the third?’

When he checked the log that came as part of his Personal Status unique skill, he found the answer that he was looking for.

It had been pretty uncommon as of late, but he had earned an achievement worthy of leveling up. This one being for defeating a mythic grade beast that was more than fifteen levels higher than him. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

While Marcus was busy disrupting his newly acquired stats, his scythe came flying back to him.

He had been slightly worried that the influence of the Doomsday Worm’s core might cause it to rebel against him now that it had absorbed the power of an over level ninety dragon, but the scythe seemed even less unruly than usual.

The big meal it had just consumed had left it feeling satisfied. Something that Marcus could tell thanks to the piece of his soul that he had implanted into his personal weapon.

Without any problems it incorporated itself back into Marcus’ form, and he could feel a warm energy coursing through him from it.