Chapter 383 – The Awakening of the Sleeping Giant

How immense was the power of the Sleeping Dragon Volcano’s eruption? No one knew. The era of its last eruption was too distant for rescue, and all relevant historical records had been lost in the chaos of war. Even the renowned geologists of the Hoth Mountains could only speculate, based on elemental reaction data, about the terrifying force of this dreadful “Sleeping Dragon.”

But now, due to Punk’s insane plan, every creature in the Hoth Mountains had the chance to witness an apocalypse with their own eyes… though they certainly wouldn’t be happy about it.

On the fifteenth day of this harsh winter, farmers were still tending to their frostbitten crops in the fields, miners with pickaxes on their backs shivered as they headed toward the mines, and portly Nobles sipped wine at banquets. Yet, none of them likely realized that the tallest and most majestic volcano in the entire Hoth Mountains—the “Sleeping Dragon”—had erupted without any warning.

The moment the Fire Element Crystal Orb dropped into the Lava Conduit began to fission, accompanied by Ovakain’s hoarse, mad shouts, Punk fled the Volcano at nearly his top speed. Since becoming a Master-Level powerhouse, this was the first time Punk felt his speed was insufficient. There was no helping it—the Volcano’s eruption was simply too terrifying.

In Punk’s perception, fire elements of staggering energy were being massively ignited by his crystal orb within the Lava Conduit. Now, these explosive fire elements refused to endure further suppression; they began desperately releasing long-pent-up extreme heat. Every elemental ion, under the impact of the energy torrent, repeatedly underwent “fusion” and “fission” processes. In less than a ten-thousandth of a second, these once-docile fire elements within the magma grew so violent that even the vast Sleeping Dragon Volcano could no longer contain them.

Now, fully detonated, the fire elements sought an outlet to unleash disaster. The raging high temperatures were no longer satisfied with merely vaporizing a bit of magma.

Thus, as Punk desperately distanced himself from the crater, he witnessed a spectacular scene.

At the instant of the eruption, the entire crater of the Sleeping Dragon Volcano was instantly pulverized by the elemental torrent. Massive rocks, crystals, and even space itself were incinerated by the intense heat. The crater almost immediately transformed into a pitch-black hole, impervious even to light. And at the very center of that hole, a blinding white pillar of fire shot straight into the sky like a laser!

With the layered bursts of shockwaves, the upper half of the Sleeping Dragon Volcano began to rapidly disintegrate amid violent tremors. Vast quantities of fire elements, burning through the mountain, turned all rock and minerals into volcanic ash scattering through the air.

Because the shockwaves erupted too swiftly and with too great a force, these scorching black ashes formed a massive mushroom cloud that rose steadily. The dust thrown into the Hoth Mountains’ upper atmosphere turned a clear daytime sky into a pitch-black night where one couldn’t see their own hand.However, up to this point, the true catastrophe had only just begun. It must be understood that the volcanic ash spewed by the Sleeping Dragon Volcano was not the “gentle” remnants of combustion. Due to the immense pressure within the mountain during the eruption, vast amounts of fire elements had been compressed into these ashes. Now, every speck of dust drifting through the sky carried temperatures of at least several hundred degrees. As these scorching particles rapidly spread, the temperature across the Hoth Mountains would soon begin to climb relentlessly!

Perhaps such temperatures meant little to professionals, but for all creatures below the Apprentice-Level, the sustained, blistering heat of five to six hundred degrees was undeniably a terrifying disaster. Under this dreadful scorching, every region touched by the volcanic ash would see all life incinerated in flames.

Most horrifyingly, judging by the speed at which the volcanic ash was spreading, in less than a day, the entire Hoth Mountains—including the Dragon Roar Kingdom, the Maple Leaf Kingdom, and even most of the Mobywise Kingdom—would be engulfed. By then, the tragic scene of the Hoth Mountains ravaged by infernos would be all too clear!

However… Punk couldn’t care less about the fate of the creatures in the Hoth Mountains. Even while evading the high-pressure elemental surges, his attention remained fixed on Ovakain, who was still trapped within the flames. From start to finish, Punk’s sole objective was to kill Ovakain. Perhaps his own spells couldn’t breach the black dragon’s seventeen layers of magical defenses, but with the continuous elemental storm fueled by the volcanic eruption… no amount of Master-Level protections could hold out for long.

Moreover, the black dragon, bound in place by Punk’s magic array, had no time to escape. Now, Ovakain must have taken the full force of the volcanic eruption head-on.

Precisely because of this, even though the “Fire Elemental Protection Wall” on his own body was teetering on the brink under the elemental onslaught, and even though he could feel his mana draining at an alarming rate, Punk’s heart was still filled with joy—even from such a great distance, he could sense the terrifying, all-consuming fury of the Sleeping Dragon Volcano. So… what kind of horrifying destruction must Ovakain, so close to the crater, be enduring?

——————Break——————

Punk’s conjecture was correct. At the final moment, Ovakain had failed to break free from his restraints and flee the crater. Under the violent assault of fire elements, the protective spells on the black dragon began to shatter one after another in an extremely short time. Massive amounts of fire elements breached the dragon scales and invaded Ovakain’s body, while the scorching elemental torrents assailed the dragon’s soul from all directions.

Pain!

Painpainpainpainpainpainpain deathedeatheatheatheath…

Burning in the flames, Ovakain felt as though his entire soul was wailing and screaming in agony. The excruciating pain instantly shattered the dragon’s capacity for thought. At this moment, nothing but pain and death could exist in the black dragon’s mind.However… at this moment, Ovakain failed to notice that the pale blue Legendary Necklace on his chest had begun emitting a soft glow. These gentle rays gradually enveloped the black dragon’s massive form like a watery curtain. Under the soothing radiance, the fire elements that had been raging across the dragon’s body like demons slowly calmed. Within this soft luminescence, the elemental turbulence that should only cease after the fire elements burned out actually subsided gradually!

But the current Ovakain had no capacity to observe external changes. The devastation wrought by fire elements flooding his soul rendered his consciousness and thoughts completely paralyzed. The agony of his soul being scorched was too overwhelming – driven by instinct to prevent soul fragmentation, Ovakain’s consciousness had already submerged into memory’s vortex!

Scenes from the black dragon’s most profound memories began resurfacing one after another… those were… Ovakain’s childhood recollections, memories he could never forget…

(End of Chapter)