Chapter 331: Calamity

“What... is that...”

In the woods, Muen’s voice, stiff as a wooden puppet, already carried an uncontrollable tremor.

That dazzling golden eye made him think of the first time he saw the Withering King upon that crimson earth—both like a giant sun hanging in the sky, mercilessly looking down on all things.

But they were entirely different.

The Withering King did indeed take the form of a colossal eye, yet it was filled with savagery, ferocity, despair, and a world-ending aura that seemed ready to burn everything to ash.

Whereas this golden eye was pure—extremely pure—bearing only the nobility and majesty that drifted out with those golden rays, like a golden throne standing atop a mountain peak.

The gaze extended from the golden pupil swept across the whole forest, like an emperor inspecting his domain.

But suddenly, the golden eye vanished.

Only darkness remained beyond the fissure.

Yet Muen could clearly feel some colossal thing moving in that deep darkness; the shadows of mountain peaks suddenly collapsed, and a hazy silhouette—like the night that blankets the world after the sun has set—pressed across with a suffocating despair.

The crack expanded rapidly with the momentum to cleave the sky itself in two, black mist billowing out from within.

Soon, a new sun rose.

The golden vertical pupil appeared again—this time... there were two.

A solemn outline probed forth from the dark.

A vast head, exuding a hideous beauty; a long, arched neck like the world-devouring serpent of legend; cold scales covering it like interwoven steel; wings breaking free of space’s constraints, as if about to tear open heaven and earth.

It was...

A dragon.

A majestic, terrifying, ferocious, baleful black dragon!

By merely spreading its wings, uncountable gales answered its call, lifting it up like humble vassals bearing their lord.

At some point the clear sky had filled with dense storm clouds; this was not the local weather shift the priest had wrought with Divine Favor earlier, but across every corner of Muen’s sight the entire firmament had become a cold iron curtain.

Black mist flooded the grim forest, drowning the two’s tiny figures; even the giant trees not far away grew hard to see. Yet no matter how heavy that mist, it could not veil the dragon’s dreadful form.

“Th-this... this is... a dragon... the Dragon of Death’s Doom.”

Liya’s trembling, disbelieving voice echoed at Muen’s ear; from the small hand he held tight, he could feel the girl’s inner turmoil and fear at this moment:

“This is... that Calamity.”

“...Gulp.”

Amid an inexplicable silence, the sound of swallowing was so clear. Unaware that his own voice was shaking, Muen clung to a sliver of wishful thinking and asked:

“A-are you sure? Could it be just an ordinary dragon passing by?”

“What ordinary dragon could be this terrifying?”

Liya, face ashen, shook her head:

“Besides, this forest is that Calamity’s territory. Other dragons—don’t even talk about passing through—they wouldn’t dare come close.”

Hope shattered.

No—that hope had never existed to begin with.

He’d only been deceiving himself.

However...

“Why... wasn’t that Calamity quiet for hundreds of years?” Muen muttered, unable to understand.

Crowned are forbidden to enter the forest because it would be seen as provocation.

Naturally—no beast would allow another predator into its domain.

But even the most brutal beast—would it care about ants that accidentally stepped onto its turf?

Of course not.

And his battle with the priest earlier, to a Calamity—one of this world’s combat power ceilings—was nothing more than a squabble between ants.

Though the Love God did swing by mid-way, the Love God hadn’t used any power at the time.

That display—one that hadn’t even managed to frighten Muen himself—surely wouldn’t be enough to rouse a long-slumbering Calamity.

“Unless...”

Muen’s eyes brightened as he muttered.

The Calamity was just passing through?

Like waking from too long a sleep and taking a stroll in its own courtyard—without noticing little bugs like them at all—their showing up here purely an accident?

But... that naive thought was quickly crushed.

Because above the boundless black fog, the black dragon’s colossal head lifted slightly—as if a man who had just woken were stretching—and then slowly lowered. On the “Renren Shuku” APP you can read the latest ad-free updates of “The Yellow-Haired Villain in Soaring Phoenix’s Novels Also Desires Happiness,” over a million books all free to read. renrenshuku.com—just type the full spelling of Renren Shuku dot com ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) to access the APP’s official site.

Its golden, lamp-like pupils—like ancient brass lanterns—pierced the dense black fog and fell... upon Muen.

In an instant, every scrap of wishful thinking dispersed. Muen’s blood congealed; his body went cold.

Under that cold and majestic gaze, Muen felt a tremor from the soul.

He had been watched by many terrible gazes.

The Love God.

The Withering King.

The Silent Moon.

Yet none of those had made him so afraid, so shaken, as now.

Not because the Evil Gods were inferior to the Calamity before him, but because no matter how terrible the Evil Gods were, their true bodies could never truly descend.

But now—

A being crowned “Calamity,” whose mere leaked aura could force the entire ecology of a forest to evolve in an utterly different direction; a being that, in some unimaginably distant past, had destroyed an ancient civilization—

The Dragon of Death’s Doom, Hamrein, was watching him.

At arm’s length.

“Go. Now.”

Muen let go of Liya’s hand.

“I think I’m its target.”

The majestic golden eyes clearly settled on this ant named Muen; it seemed to pay no attention at all to the other tiny ant at his side.

“If I go... what about you, Muen?”

“I have a way.”

“...Liar.”

Biting her lip, Liya didn’t dare look straight at the Calamity. She could only, with the upper edge of her lowered lashes, steal a cautious glimpse at those ferocious scales.

Even so, she could barely stand; she was almost about to kneel on the spot.

That was a Calamity...

What way could Muen possibly have?

“I really do have a way.”

Muen repeated himself, doing his best to project confidence as he pushed Liya away.

“Go!”

“...”

Silence lingered at his side. Muen didn’t look back, but he seemed to feel the girl’s presence drawing farther away.

The dragon did not react.

Muen let out a breath.

Then, a vicious glint flashed in his eyes. At a moment of crisis where his own strength was useless, he didn’t hesitate to use his final trump card.

You forced me!

Take this!

—[Black Book, save me!]

An utterly sincere cry resounded in Muen’s heart, yearning for Dora Black-Dream to reach out once more and, at this critical moment, rescue him from despair.

But...

This time, there was still no response.

“Still,” because this scene seemed to have happened more than once.

No matter how Muen called, the Black Book gave no answer.

Even the dim ghostly glow around it had shrunk; its body hid itself deeper into Muen’s consciousness.

A deft, practiced dead-act.

As if afraid of being noticed by the Calamity before them.

“No way. You’re this unreliable?”

Seeing this, Muen’s heart sank; the corner of his mouth twitched.

This reminded him of its reaction when he’d run into Teacher Mela before—nearly identical.

But back then Teacher Mela had only been probing. What, then, did this Calamity come with?

“Wait.”

As if something had struck him, Muen’s face suddenly went paper-white.

Speaking of Teacher Mela...

When she carved the mana circuit into his back earlier—what was that most important material again?

Something like—

Ancient... something... dragon... something... heart... something... blood...