Chapter 38: Essence Dragon

Giza - Egypt

After a few hours of flight Russia, Philip and company have arrived on the location of the giant Runestone. It was literally at the back of the Great Pyramids of Giza.

Philip and company landed at the tallest pyramid to observe the giant Runestone from afar. It was almost the same as the previous ones, but,

「 This Runestone is approximately 3,500 kilometers in height and 350 kilometer in width. 」

Philip nodded at Emily's words. He then turned around to the others and offered them.

"You guys stay here, I will go ahead and deal with this."

"But Philip, we wanna help!"

Smith protested about Philip's offer but Philip only shrugged and jumped towards the direction of the Runestone.

Smith was about to follow Philip only to be stopped by John and Erica.

"What are you guys doing? Let's go and help Philip!"

"You don't need to, just watch and you'll understand."

John assured Smith and Smith turned his head towards Erica.

"Just stay and watch."

Erica shook her head. Then suddenly, their world became orange and they heard a loud roar of a creature.

*ROOOOOOAAAAAR*

~~~

After Philip jumped towards the giant Runestone, Emily asked him in his head.

「 Are you sure you want them to just stay and watch? 」

"I'm pretty sure, as far as I can gauge, they wouldn't be able to hold a candle against these dragon. I even don't know what kind of dragon we'll be facing now."

「 Let's bet on what dragon we'll face! 」

"Fufu, have it your way. What will we be betting on?"

「 The loser has to say a secret to the winner! 」

"Wow, that's a daring consequence. I accept."

「 It should be a big secret and not a secret like you stole money from someone, got it?! 」

"Fufu, alright. Since we already got an Eastern Dragon and a Mountain Dragon, I would guess..."

「 Wait! Me first!! I guess it will be a Three Headed Dragon! 」

"Fufu, that's no fair, I was about to guess that."

「 Well, I was first! 」

"Fine, then I'll guess a Four Headed Dragon!"

「 ... 」

"What? Why are you quiet?"

「 Really? You just added a head on my guess? 」

"There's nothing wrong with that, it's only a guess."

「 Fine! Let me scan this already! 」

"Alright, be careful, Emily"

「 I will, Philip. 」

By the time they finished bickering, they have arrived at the surface of the Runestone. Philip slowly extended his hand and touched the surface. He closed his eyes to focus the scanning process and to see what kind dragon would show up.

[Scanning...]

Later on Philip could see a figure or a silhouette of a dragon flying straight to him. It had a large body, large wings, three long tails, and three heads. The indication that its a Three Headed Dragon, or a Hydra.

'Looks like Emily won, fufu...'

As the Hydra flew closer, Philip was about to pull his hand back, but he restrained himself because he remembered that when he scanned the Russian Runestone, when the Immovable Dragon went closer, the Breaker Dragon went out and held the other dragon back. Philip contemplated if it will happen again.

To Philip's expectation, it happened. The Breaker Dragon went out first and battled it out against the Hydra and surrounded it with its long body. The hydra bit and chomp of parts of the Breaker Dragon's body but to no avail.

But then, the Hydra grew another head and bit another part of the body.

'Huh?'

Philip was confused, a Hydra shouldn't grow a head before the other heads were cut off. Then, a fifth head grew and a sixth head. Both were somewhat shooting an energy ball towards the Breaker Dragon.

The Breaker Dragon seemed to be struggling, but when Philip looked up, he could see the Immovable Dragon show up and stomping half of the Hydra's body down to restrain it with only one foot.

The Hydra couldn't do anything against the absurb size and weight of the Immovable Dragon and struggled as the Breaker Dragon restrained it further.

[Scanned!]

====================================

「 Breaker Essence (Runestone) 」

「 Egyptian Runestone 」

「 Rank: 4th 」

====================================

The scanning has been completed and Philip then pulled his hand away from the Runestone and opened his eyes.

Before he pulled his hand away, he could see the silhouette of the Hydra had grew more than 45 heads and it kept multiplying as it struggled against the other two dragons.

Philip had a chill as he saw that. He didn't know if the multiplication of the Hydra's head has a limit and he couldn't imagine battling against a Thousand Headed Dragon.

Then, like the other giant Runestones, this Egyptian Runestone released a surge of energy that engulfed their worlds and dyed it with orange.

[You have entered the Essence Realm]

*ROOOOOOAAAAAAR*

[Dragon Language has been activated]

"How dare you!"

*ROOOOOOAAAAAAR*

Another roar was heard.

"Use my brothers!"

*ROOOOOOAAAAAAR*

A third roar echoed.

"To beat me!!"

"I will avenge them and beat you!"

Emily then shouted in Philip's head.

「 Hear that?! Three roars! It means it's a Three Headed Dragon! I win! 」

Philip only giggled quietly at Emily and observed the giant Runestone in front of him.

The giant Runestone hovered in the air and broke into a few big pieces and several millions of tiny pieces.

[Scanned!]

「 Essence Realm. Essence Dragon. Defeat it to leave. 」

Philip could only smile wryly at Emily's lazy talk. Philip understood her as it was basically repeating.

「 Essence Dragon. The dragon that is responsible for sealing the very nature of a something. 」

Philip nodded at Emily's explanation and prepared to battle. Then, the Essence Dragon, the Hydra, lifted its head from the crater then the second head came next and finally the third head. Its entrance was grand and menacing that it made Smith, who was watching from afar, drop his jaw to the ground, while John and Erica still shivered by the sight of the massive Three Headed Dragon in front of them.

The Hydra then lifted it large wings and hovered out of the crater and it huge body came out along its three tails. The Hydra then charged an energy ball from its three mouths.

Philip then smirked at the sight of this before turning his head towards Smith, who is still in a stupor in front of a giant dragon.

"Hey Weapon Saint!"

Smith was snapped out from his stupor from Philip's voice.

"I hope you can do this much if you're truly a Weapon Saint!"

Philip then turned his head away from Smith and faced the Hydra that had almost finished charging its energy blast. The wind has been very chaotic around the Hydra during its charging phase but Philip was not disturbed by this one bit.

He then raised his right arm above his head with closed fingers and open palm seemingly imitating a sword that would chop down anytime.

"「 Omega Sword 」"

Then suddenly, Philip's right arm turned into a sword that looked like long tusk of an elephant but with a sharper side and smooth surface.

Suddenly, Smith was somewhat blasted by an unknown force from the arm of Philip that turned into a sword. He could only feel kneeling from the presence of it and wanting to touch it, but he can't move anywhere and he began to kneel. John and Erica tried to help him but to no avail, they can't lift Smith no matter what they do.

"「 Sword Concept Manifest 」"

The ivory 「 Omega Sword 」 then shone when the Sword Concept manifested on the sword. It looked like that the sword became a being like a Sword God and was about to launch a divine punishment towards the Hydra.

Smith, however, had a blood dripping from his mouth upon seeing Philip.

Philip then closed his eyes and concentrated on his arm, which is his sword. The Hydra was agitated upon the release of power from the mortal in front of him and it released the three energy blast from its three mouths. The three energy blasts then converged into a one big flame colored energy beam.

Philip opened his eyes and shouted,

"Basic Slash... Oops!"

Philip slahed down towards the incoming beam and he skewed it to the right for some reason.

Even if he did that, the energy beam was sliced and it diverged into two, to the sides of Philip. Then the slash seemingly travelled through the beam and slashed the Hydra into two. The Hydra then roared loudly before its three head fell to the ground along with its spliy body. But the slash didn't end there.

The slash also travelled to the border of the Essence Realm and slashed it into two and completely shattering the whole realm, this returning back to the original world.

After that whole ordeal, the 「 Omega Sword 」 that is Philip's right arm was broken and shattered revealing his original ivory armored arm. He then walked towards the Hydra and touched it. He hoped that he could still add the Hydra to his Pet Companions.

The reason for his doubt is because, he went overboard and wanted to kill the Hydra with one swing. He skewed it to the right so that he won't be able to hit the vitals of the Hydra and bringing it to the brink of death. If the Hydra is still alive, he could still add it to his collection.

To Philip's surprise, the split body of the Hydra turned into light particles, indicating that the Hydra has been added to his collection.

[Time until Hydra is healed: 23:59:45]

Philip then took a deep breath and looked at the sky. He really went overboard and deep inside him, he regretted that he used the 「 Omega Sword 」.

He knew that the 「 Omega Sword 」 was a once in a lifetime use. Literally. He use it in his fight with Trail thus expending its use. Then when he resurrected, the number of use was reset because it was technically starting a new life.

As for the reason why he used the 「 Omega Sword 」 was because he wanted to finsih it immediately. As he observed the fight between the silhouette Hydra against the Breaker Dragon and the Immovable Dragon, the Hydra seemed to take a fair amount of damage and thus creating more heads. He didn't want to prolong the fight and fight a literal Thousand Headed Dragon. That's why he finished it early.

He contemplated if he did the right thing because what if there's a more powerful opponent among the rest of the dragons or outside of Earth, in the Infinite Abyss. He couldn't use one of his trump cards.

"Fufu, so stupid."

Philip could only laugh at his own idiocy but he then recovered as the big chunks and debris of the giant Runestone fell back on the giant crater and created a new dessert. Then he saw an obvious circular platform in the middle of the former crater. He went towards it and entered the middle of the platform.

Erica and company also went and arrived at the side of the circular platform and asked Philip.

"Is it over, Philip?"

"Yes, pretty much, although there is this circular platform, I still need to find my reward."

Philip answered Erica from the center of the circular platform. The platform was 10 meters in radius.

"Reward?"

Erica can only ask in confusion as Smith recovered from his situation earlier. He saw Philip in a new light and regarded him as a powerful user of the sword, only a sword though, he claimed as he could use all kinds of weapons as a Weapon Saint. Little did he know, Philip could use 「 Swordless Techniques 」.

Then, Erica, John, and Smith looked up the sky as it became dark and gloomy. Philip also looked at the sky and squinted.

"Emily?"

「 Wait a minute. 」

[Scanning...]

The sky was covered in very dark clouds and made the surroundings look like it was night time. It then swirled slowly on the sky above the circular platform where Philip was in.

If viewed above the atmosphere, there was a giant cyclone of black cloud covering the half of northeast Africa and west of Asia like a storm. The only difference is that it was black and it had no eye.

Philip then smirked as he exactly knew what was supposed to happen. Erica and company also knew what was going to happen and they decided to jump back several meters or kilometers away because, knowing Philip, this event is nothing like an ordinary event.

"Come!"

Philip then powered up as he declared that. Golden energy surged from him as spikes and thorns formed on his limbs.

[Scanned!]

The sky then rumbled and cracked as occasional flashes of lights was seen in the dark clouds.

「 Lightning Tribulation. 」