Chapter 23: Evil Forces

In the midst of these clawing, gnashing black mists, Garon sensed an extreme sense of evil, eeriness, chaos, and madness.

He felt a chill in his heart and did not dare to be negligent, activating his time manipulation at triple speed. His body instantly turned into a white shadow, and he still had the strength to grab Uga Skullbreaker, dodging the spreading black mist.

As for the time-plundering thread he had just exhaled, there was no feedback sensation of hitting the target.

This breath had a strange power, but it required the addition of age. Garon, a young dragon less than two years old, found it difficult to unleash the true power of the time-plundering thread.

"This doesn't seem like any legitimate spell."

Garon looked at the black mist covering a space of about ten meters in diameter, a trace of wariness flashing in his dragon pupils.

He keenly felt that this thing was extremely dangerous, definitely not a product of any ordinary spell.

Because, in Garon's elemental perception typical to dragons, the moment the black mist appeared, the various elements in the air seemed to recoil as if from a venomous snake, not willing to touch it at all.

Any elements that failed to dodge in time were absorbed by the black mist, becoming part of it.

Could a two-headed ogre have this kind of ability? Why does it feel so evil, like a chaotic power from the abyss or hell?

Garon was shaken.

The Abyss and the Nine Hells are each ruled by demons and devils, respectively, two outer planes. The countless worlds of the prime material plane all have legends of these beings dedicated to destruction and ruin, of course, with almost entirely negative warnings and reminders.

Even the dragons, in their pride, have left warnings in their heritage not to recklessly provoke demons and devils.

After sensing the ominous and evil aura in the black mist, Garon grew deeply suspicious, turning to look at Uga Skullbreaker.

Uga Skullbreaker stared blankly at the transformation before him, completely clueless about the two-headed ogre's capability with the black mist. Coming to his senses, he bolted away from Garon and the two-headed ogre, even taking the ogre's dark mace with him.

Thud!

A dull sound suddenly came from within the black mist, like the powerful heartbeat of a giant beast.

The black mist then contracted slightly.

Thud, thud, thud!

After the first heartbeat, strong continuous heartbeats filled the air, and the black mist rhythmically contracted, ready to coalesce into a mass.

Garon was not willing to just watch the opponent transform; he once again expelled a breath of frost dragon breath, but the black mist dodged like a living creature, sidestepping the frost breath and contracting again.

Trying to use the time-plundering thread again, it too was sensed by the opponent and evaded in advance.

Seeing this, Garon became even more cautious.

He spread his dragon wings, already thinking of flying away if the situation turned dire.

But the two-headed ogre inside the black mist seemed to see through Garon's intentions.

Boom!

A white columnar burst of magical light pierced through the black mist, soaring into the sky and quickly spreading in all directions, soon enveloping a large area of the sky.

At the same time, Garon felt a heaviness in his body, as if restrained.

He sensed something ominous and tried to flap his wings to fly, but aside from stirring up a fierce wind, his heavy dragon body showed no signs of taking off.

[Sky Lock], a spell capable of suppressing the flying abilities of creatures.

One of the most popular dragon-slaying spells.

Garon, who had not learned systematic spell knowledge and did not possess a means to dispel the magic, was somewhat passive, but he did not panic, as his strength was not reliant on flying.

"The creator of all things, the great and exalted Sun God, your humble follower Cela Skullbreaker, offers the heart of a dragon as a tribute."

"Please grant your follower the power of the Sun God, assist your follower in the blood-soaked slaying of dragons, and spread your immortal fame to the world."

A low, devout prayer tinged with the smell of blood came from the black mist, and when the last syllable fell, the black mist, contracting several times, finally completely disappeared, or more accurately, entered into the body of the two-headed ogre.

Since the two-headed ogre spoke in a common tongue, Garon understood its words.

He was shocked, never expecting that this creature would use divine magic.

Divine magic, the art wielded by devout followers of the gods, established through day and night prayers with gods in the outer planes, gifted with unique and powerful effects.

A two-headed ogre proficient in divine magic was unrecorded even in the dragon heritage.

"But how can

 the divine magic bestowed by the Sun God feel so evil and chaotic?"

Speaking of the Sun God, nearly ninety-nine percent of intelligent beings first think of vitality, heat, light, life—Garon was no exception. But no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't associate the divine magic wielded by the two-headed ogre with the Sun God.

There was something eerily off about this whole affair, but Garon no longer had time to ponder.

Because in his field of vision, the two-headed ogre, kneeling on both knees with black vein-like patterns moving across its skin, slowly stood up, its four eyes on two heads fervently and bloodthirstily sizing up Garon.

On its skin, those black veins, which upon closer inspection seemed to be patterns formed by condensed black mist, moved as if alive.

The injuries Garon had caused with his frost breath had already healed under this eerie black mist power.

Besides, behind the two-headed ogre, four thick black tentacles stretched out, clawing menacingly, densely covered with ominous-looking eyeballs, swirling around in every direction.

It was a chilling sight.

"What in the world is this?"

Garon was certain the deity worshipped by the two-headed ogre was not any reputable existence.

He took a deep breath and expelled a torrent of icy blue frost breath.

While spewing the frost breath, Garon activated the highest level of time acceleration he could achieve, three times speed.

Consuming a significant amount of time power, he extended the three-times speed effect to his frost breath, making its velocity unbelievably fast, just like his previous surprise attack on the two-headed ogre, making it nearly impossible to dodge.

But the two-headed ogre, nearly killed in a previous sneak attack, obviously anticipated the dragon's most famous assault method this time.

It waved its staff, one big head uttering incomprehensible spells, while the other smaller head opened a foul-smelling mouth, with a complexly inscribed fiery red pentagram emerging in front of it.

Whoosh!

A surge of fire element, like homing birds, was drawn into the small head's mouth, turning into a magma-like red glow, even igniting flames within the mouth, significantly raising the temperature around the two-headed ogre.

[Dragon Breath Mimicry: Red Dragon Breath]

In an instant, a fire breath as formidable as Garon's icy blue frost burst forth from the small head's mouth, quickly magnified by the pentagram, and collided directly with Garon's frost breath.

PS: It's the author's birthday today, send some good wishes, guys.