I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 853

Whether Dolos’s shout served as the trigger, or the lightning had jolted straight into my brain—

Static suddenly seemed to buzz inside my head, and memories I didn’t recognize in the slightest began to replay.

Me, lying on something like an operating table.

Harsh light, stinging like the sun, shone directly into my eyes, and faint yet strangely clear voices echoed in my ears.

’Prome... theus?’

I clutched my throbbing head and forced myself to stay focused.

The flashbacks buzzing like static scattered to pieces at some point, clearing my vision.

Only then could I finally take in the sight of Dolos.

"Got time to look away, do you?"

Perhaps noticing something was off with me, Dolos hurled his lightning axe.

Laced with lightning, the axe streaked right up to my face, trailing the acrid stench of ozone.

Whoosh!

I whipped my head aside in a panic to dodge, but I couldn’t escape the tingling sting of the lightning.

Ignoring it, I charged straight at Dolos.

I had no idea what those memories were, but memories didn’t matter right now.

All that mattered was taking down the enemy before me and going home to my warm shelter.

Just as I slashed diagonally with the Sword of the Heavenly Demon in my hand—

Boom!

"Urgh...?!"

A heavy impact slammed into my back, pitching my balance violently forward.

The force was so massive it forced me down to one knee.

Judging by the sharp, tingling pain of lightning, something must have flown in from behind.

"Got you!"

At the same time, Dolos’s belligerent roar pierced my ears from the front.

I lifted my head to find Dolos already holding the lightning axe again, having recalled it somehow.

Gripping it with both hands, he was about to split my skull.

Claaaang!!!

I hurriedly raised the Sword of the Heavenly Demon to parry, but blocking his colossal downward strength proved difficult.

Not only that, the constant jolts of electricity kept cramping my muscles, giving me more headaches than one.

"Come on, show me the majesty of that great slaughterer! There’s no time to dawdle!"

"From the sound of it... do you know a past of mine that even I don’t?"

Dolos pressed on, rattling off complaints.

His voice was naturally loud enough to wake the dead, and him screaming like this made it feel like my eardrums would burst.

"You mean the Sovereign? I know about him until my ears bleed."

"Well, you’re bound to be sorely... disappointed!"

Thwack!

Locked in a contest of strength, I glanced down and kicked him hard in the knee.

I saw Dolos flinch hard from the sharp pain shooting up his shin.

Taking advantage of the opening, I angled the Sword of the Heavenly Demon to deflect the lightning axe,

Slash!

and exploited his off-balance upper body to cut him with the blade.

Yet thanks to his dragon physique, I couldn’t even deal significant damage, let alone cleave him in two.

Even if he bled, his formidable regeneration would render it meaningless.

’Even if I aim for his neck, that collar acts as solid armor.’

In the end, only one target remained.

Targeting the Dragon Heart—the core and inverse scale of a dragon.

The question was whether I could break through that pesky lightning to reach his heart.

’I’ll have to beat him into near-incapacitation first.’

At this rate, a prolonged battle was all but certain.

Based on my fight with Ash, I was confident in a war of attrition, but this guy was a dragon.

A Dragon Heart holds a reserve of mana that could practically be called infinite.

It was no different from having nuclear fusion occurring in real time inside his body.

"I can hear the gears turning in your head from all the way over here!"

Before I could even finish the thought, he flapped his massive wings and pounced.

A dragon’s natural weight class was already monstrous, and the axe he swung was no ordinary weapon either.

It was fortunate I had infused the Sword of the Heavenly Demon with my Unity of Self and Object; an ordinary blade would have shattered long ago.

Crackle—

I didn’t stop at Unity of Self and Object, releasing my chill as well—

Boom!

Our weapons collided violently, spraying lightning and shards of ice in every direction.

Rumble!

The Theme Park, which should have been brimming with dreams and hopes, turned into a living hell in an instant.

Lightning that seemed to split the sky. A chill that froze the very ground.

"Why attack when we could just talk this out? Can’t we use our words?"

"Oh, how should I know? I just came here to fight!"

Though our elements were different, Dolos and I shared one thing in common.

Both of us possessed the ’power’ to shatter mountains and cleave the earth.

Crash!

Unable to endure our might, the Theme Park gradually began to lose its shape.

Not just the ruins of the already collapsed Ferris wheel, but all sorts of rides.

"Haha! So there was stuff like this! It’ll be fun to smash!"

Mechanical dragons that had once moved as if alive, now shut down after running out of power.

And even the Mechanical Knights, each bearing their own name.

Whoosh!

I scooped up the collapsed Ferris wheel and hurled it right at him.

Perhaps because my strength had grown so much greater than before,

the wreckage of the Ferris wheel flew as fast as a softball and crashed squarely onto Dolos.

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As if to say that wasn’t nearly enough, he swung his axe and casually split it in two.

I didn’t stop there, hurling more debris in succession to keep him harassed.

"Petty tricks!"

As expected, Dolos swatted aside the Ferris wheel pieces in annoyance and charged.

Gripping his axe tightly, he radiated a murderous aura that looked ready to split me open on the spot.

Fierce bolts of lightning crackled off him, dazzling enough to make me wince just looking at it.

Bzzzzzt!

A squall laced with lightning scraped past my eyes by a hair, ruthlessly wiping out every structure in its path.

Feeling as though my whole body were about to be scorched by lightning, I backed away a couple of steps.

"Where do you think you’re scurrying off to, you rat...!"

Slip!

Just as Dolos roared and took a step forward—

His frame pitched forward heavily. Naturally.

Because that was the ice I had laid out in advance for this very moment.

With a body that massive, his line of sight was bound to be high, meaning there was a good chance he wouldn’t check his footing.

’Footwork is the foundation of all martial arts.’

And a minor blunder like this has a way of completely overturning the tide of battle.

Even if the opponent was a dragon.

Swoosh!

Imbued with a potent Aura Blade, the Sword of the Heavenly Demon shot straight for his heart.

I had gone through all that trouble just for this moment.

Even if it didn’t land a direct hit on the Dragon Heart, it didn’t matter.

Flap!

Right before the Sword of the Heavenly Demon pierced his chest, the panicked bastard hastily wrapped his wings around himself.

An ordinary wing would have been punctured effortlessly, but because it was a dragon’s wing,

Thunk!

the sensation of forcing a blade through tough hide traveled up my hands.

Judging by the lack of feedback from stabbing the chest beyond, that thick wing must have blocked it.

No matter. I twisted the sword right then and there—

Riiiiip!

and ripped straight through the thick, leathery wing membrane.

Not only tearing it, but freezing it solid with cold.

Drastically crippling his mobility was already quite an achievement.

"How about growing a bit now?"

"Nonsense! The more places there are to hit, the better it is for you!"

He caught on.

I felt a pang of regret as Dolos roared and swung his axe.

As everyone knew, I was weaker against opponents who made facile use of ’technique’ rather than sheer size.

Wasn’t her peerless technique the very reason I struggled so much in my fight with Ash?

If Dolos rampaged in his true form instead of a humanoid one, it would become a battle of sheer weight classes.

Using human techniques in a dragon form was out of the question, after all.

’Is he quick on the uptake? Or was it an order from whoever sent him here?’

Whatever it was, one thing was certain: whoever sent him knew me very well.

Crack— crackle—

In the meantime, I saw the damaged membrane slowly regenerating.

Striking while his mobility was heavily reduced was the only way to tilt the battle further in my favor.

Without pausing, I pressed hard on Dolos.

His wing was injured, but his full power hadn’t dropped by much, leaving us neck and neck.

Slip!

"?!"

As the battle dragged on, I realized something.

Dolos was surprisingly vulnerable to unexpected variables.

To be more specific, he handled things he had learned or experienced before just fine, but that was as far as it went.

Even now, knowing full well there was ice on the ground, he slipped again.

"Damn it...!"

Zap!

Sensing he was in deep trouble, Dolos pointed a finger at me and shot a bolt of lightning.

It was such a small bolt, and not wanting to miss a clear chance to strike, I decided to ignore it.

The lightning struck my head, but aside from a tingling jolt, it wasn’t enough to stop me from bringing my sword down.

However.

Bzzzt—

[Is Daejeon... safe?]

[What kind of... bastards are...]

[...tology? ...cult? Are you kidding me?]

Fragments of memories suddenly began pouring into my head.

I grit my teeth to ignore them, but the fragments rushed in one after another.

[...glad to meet you. You are...]

[What is your... name? Then my name...]

The voice of a woman I had heard a few times before.

Static cut through it, but a smile touched her lips.

And finally...

[Don’t go... Dad...]

[...won’t. I...]

[Praise... tology...]

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"Urrgh...!"

Nausea surged as the memories ruthlessly dredged through my brain.

I clamped a hand over my mouth and endured, but Dolos wasn’t one to miss an opportunity like this.

Bzzzzzt!

Perhaps because I had left such a massive opening, he gathered the most powerful lightning I had ever seen from him.

I saw it and tried to react, but my head spun, making it impossible.

In the end, that handed Dolos a massive opportunity,

Kzzzzzt!

and a dragon spout of lightning surging from the ground engulfed me.

The aftermath hurled my body far into the sky, reaching the dark clouds that blanketed the heavens.

Bzzzt! Crackle! Crash!

The instant I touched the dark clouds, countless bolts of lightning swarmed around me, unleashing a violent storm of thunder.

An ordinary person would have been electrocuted to death several times over, but I clung to consciousness with all my might.

And so time passed as I took the lightning filling the dark clouds with my entire body—

"...Cough."

Before I knew it, my body crashed onto the ground.

Yet something felt off.

The time I had spent floating into the sky had felt quite long, but the time it took to land was absurdly short.

Zzzt! Zzzt!

I slowly pushed myself up, barely shaking off the electricity crackling across my body.

Looking around, I could immediately tell where I was.

’This place is...’

A floating island. The floating island where the Sky Whale had been neglected.

Sky islands tethered by colossal iron chains drifted into view.

"..."

A good idea came to mind.

A way to scatter the dark clouds choking the sky while forcing Dolos to transform.

The Thunder Dragon, Dolos, looked up at the storm-choked sky.

The place where Grylls, the head of the gods whom he had just blasted away, had disappeared.

Honestly speaking, the battle against Grylls had been more disappointing than expected.

Hadn’t he heard it until his ears bled from that woman who revered the Sovereign so deeply?

She had showered him with every praise imaginable, saying a single swing of his blade split mountains and seas, and that no arrow could ever pierce him.

Of course, their surroundings had been pulverized to dust during his clash with Grylls, but compared to those legendary exploits, he fell far short.

’Is that bastard truly the one who personally slaughtered half our kin?’

Clink—

With a look of disbelief, Dolos touched the restraint collar around his neck.

He had faced a few close calls while fighting Grylls, but strangely, Grylls had failed to finish him off.

The lightning interfering with his muscles was one thing, but more often than not, he had stopped on his own.

Rumble! Rrrrumble!

The dark clouds where Grylls had vanished still unleashed violent cracks of thunder.

Dolos was a dragon who commanded thunder and lightning at will.

Having struck Grylls with his most devastating bolt, the human was surely scorched black to the bone.

With that thought, he slowly rose to his feet.

’It will take time for the wing membrane to recover...’

Whistle—

Just as he was about to check his thoroughly battered body—

the sound of rushing wind caught Dolos’s ears.

A dragon’s senses weren’t just sharp; they were beyond compare.

Even the slightest shift could stoke unease.

’What is that noise? What’s that sound from above...?’

Dolos raised his head toward the unfamiliar noise from above.

The Forest of the Four Seasons was home to all manner of bizarre weather, but this couldn’t be called weather.

Especially when it pierced through the roar of thunder, it was impossible to ignore.

And so, squinting his eyes, he peered up into the storm-choked sky—

BOOOOOM—!

The sky split open.

The dark, crimson-tinged storm clouds that had swallowed the sun tore apart to the left and right with a shriek.

The moment rushing lightning slashed through the pitch-black void, it revealed its form from behind the veil of dark clouds.

It was no meteor. Nor was it one of the colossal beasts unique to the Forest of the Four Seasons.

It was an entire ’land.’

A floating island, as if forcibly torn away, was plummeting from the midst of the sky, unable to defy the heavy pull of gravity.

WHOOOOOOSH—!!

The underside of the island grated against the air, unleashing intense wind pressure.

The clusters of dangling iron chains flailed wildly in the ferocious gale.

Had there been only one, Dolos wouldn’t have been so appalled.

It might be flustering, but he could easily deal with it by transforming.

However.

RUMBLEEEE!

The problem was that there wasn’t just ’one.’

The dark clouds cloaking the heavens parted, and yet another floating island plunged downward.

Nor was the angle a straight drop; it fell diagonally, as if someone had ’thrown’ it.

"...Ha."

Watching the spectacle, Dolos let out a hollow laugh.

"Hahahaha!"

The sky, and the earth.

They were collapsing over Dolos’s head.