Chapter 44

Thunder Calling.

Theo chose the magic that had defeated the Sandworm in one blow as his first spell.

Lightning falling from the sky without warning was impossible to anticipate or prepare for in advance.

‘The first strike must be fast and intense, enough to terrify them. After that, I’ll surround them so they can’t escape…’

Theo had already decided the entire sequence of magic he would use.

Holding the artifact in his left hand, he slowly closed his eyes.

The moment the Hatchling Synchronization aligned with the artifact, various thoughts flashed through his mind.

– Lightning is strong…

– Falling from the sky…

– Thunderbolt. ..

– Firebolt…

Within the artifact, the image of an old man, who appeared to be its creator, came into view.

A magic circle being painstakingly engraved inside the artifact.

Perhaps because he had already summoned Thunder Calling once, he could clumsily ‘understand’ the image embedded in the magic circle.

‘Maybe if I study it a little more, I might actually be able to use real magic.’

Slightly surprised by this unexpected realization, Theo slowly opened his eyes.

At the same time, he aimed his other hand, shaped like a gun, in the direction of Axion’s group.

“Unleash it.”

Bang!

With a motion as if pulling the trigger,

Boom!

Lightning shot vertically down from the sky.

* * *

The lightning strike happened in an instant.

Boom!

“Aaaah!”

“What the hell is this?!”

“It’s an ambush, an ambush!”

A deep crater formed.

Clouds of dust scattered in all directions.

The shocked candidates screamed, and some tried to come up with a defense.

Boom!

Rumble!

But the successive strikes of lightning were not something that could be defended against.

In the end, the candidates panicked and attempted to scatter in all directions.

Morgan and Felix, pale with fear, sprang up from their seats.

The smell of burning filled the air, and fire sparks had turned the surroundings into a sea of flames.

“This is…”

“It seems like either Theo or Wellington caught wind of something.”

“We have to get out of here and regroup for a counterattack…!”

However, their thoughts were cut short.

Lightning fell precisely on top of them.

“Ugh!”

Boom!

Morgan, who had tried to block the lightning by swinging his sword infused with magic power, took a direct hit and was thrown back.

“Drop your swords! You idiots! Let go of your swords, now!”

Felix, who had narrowly avoided harm because he had gripped his sword a moment later than Morgan, screamed at the top of his lungs.

The candidates had determined that their metal equipment posed the greatest danger.

In response, they began hurriedly throwing away their swords, armor, and any other metal gear they had been carrying. This included the candidates from the Plum Blossom Palace, the Elder Council factions, and even those from the Gathering of the Hidden Dragons.

“You idiots…! What are you planning to do if you drop that?!”

Axion tried to control the panicked candidates, but his voice didn’t reach those who were already gripped by fear.

At that very moment, lightning, ice arrows, and fireballs continued to rain down on them one after another.

Axion realized that this attack was a tactic by their assailants to force them to disarm. However, it was already too late.

Whoosh!

“No, no!”

“The path is blocked!”

“Damn it, where should we go…?!”

As expected, the flames had already drawn a large circle, blocking all escape routes for the fleeing candidates.

The fire was so intense that no one even dared to think about trying to break through it.

“What should we do…?!”

Everyone was panicking and shifting anxiously in place when it happened.

Rumble…!

The ground began to tremble faintly.

What is this?

Felix and the other candidates instinctively looked down at their feet, and at that moment, a scorching hot wind surged up from the ground.

And then—

It exploded.

“……!”

“……!”

“……!”

Boom!

Like a volcanic eruption, pillars of fire shot into the sky, followed by a series of explosive spells.

Cascade of Flames, Chain Explosion, Sea of Fire, Firestorm, Demon of Flames, and more.

Artifacts that Theo had never used before… all detonated at once.

And this time, they were significantly more powerful due to the amplification from Hatchling Synchronization!

Screams and shrieks of agony echoed from everywhere, but the deafening noise of the explosions drowned them all out.

Moreover, the location itself was too disadvantageous for any escape. The damage could only continue to worsen.

From the sky came lightning, and from the ground, fire.

It was hard to believe this was the same wintry mountain range, where snowstorms usually raged throughout the year. The intense heat and flames were overwhelming.

Hell on earth. That phrase perfectly described the scene.

And then—

Tap!

Theo quietly descended onto the chaotic battlefield, landing softly among the debris.

Standing in front of him, drenched in blood, was Axion.

He had barely managed to survive the explosions and bombardments, but one of his arms and a leg were twisted in unnatural, grotesque directions.

“You… you!”

Tremble!

Axion’s fists quivered violently. His face, half-covered in burns, was horribly disfigured.

“If you try to target me, you should know that you’ll be targeted as well.”

Theo calmly brushed off Axion’s rage.

“You think… you’ll get away with this…?”

“Why don’t you check your own situation first before you speak?”

“…!”

The Cripple of the Rose Palace dares to mock me?

Axion’s face contorted in anger as he tried to shout something back. But—

Swoosh!

Before he could, Drake’s blade slashed fiercely across his neck.

Splurt!

Blood gushed high into the air.

“As expected of one of the Four Lords of the North. Your dodging is impressive.”

Theo sneered at him.

Axion had acted like he was going to block Theo’s sword head-on but then suddenly retreated in panic.

He must have realized instinctively that clashing head-on wouldn’t end well for him. His reflexes were certainly sharp.

Because of that, he only ended up with a shallow wound on his shoulder.

Still, Axion’s face flushed with humiliation. He had narrowly ‘dodged’ an attack from the Cripple of the Rose Palace, a fact that wounded his pride deeply.

‘It’s over.’

Theo knew that Axion was no longer a match for him.

It was best to finish him off quickly.

Just as he took a step forward to do so—

Whoosh!

Suddenly, the cloud of dust surrounding them scattered, and six candidates burst out from within.

“Theo Ragnarrrrr!”

“You think you can do this to us?”

“Dieeeeee!”

“I’ll kill youuuuuu!”

They were members of the Gathering of the Hidden Dragons, all bearing various injuries.

It seemed they had come to rescue Axion.

[Skill: Hatchling Synchronization activated.]

Theo unleashed his telekinesis.

His targets: the scattered pebbles and stones lying at his feet.

The sharp fragments whirled in a large vortex before shooting out like daggers.

“Ugh…!”

“Argh!”

Thud!

The candidates, completely unprepared for the flying debris, were struck down before they could properly defend themselves.

Even those who managed to block the stones were helpless against Theo’s swift follow-up sword strikes.

Swoosh!

To make matters worse, Ray had now joined the battlefield.

In an instant, the combined forces of the Gathering of the Hidden Dragons, the Elder Council, and the Plum Blossom Palace were rendered incapable of fighting.

‘Did he run?’

Theo let out a scoffing laugh as he glanced at the spot where Axion had been. He had escaped in the chaos while Theo was distracted.

He sacrificed all of his subordinates just to save his own skin.

It seemed the Gathering of the Hidden Dragons wasn’t built to last after all.

Tap-tap.

Theo activated Lark’s Wing, speeding after Axion.

Given how badly injured he was, Axion wouldn’t have gotten far.

* * *

‘Theo Ragnar…! I’ll kill you! Somehow, I’ll kill you!’

As he fled the scene, Axion ground his teeth over and over in frustration.

When had things gone so wrong?

Everything had been prepared perfectly.

But once the situation started spiraling out of control, it snowballed to the point where he couldn’t stop it.

“Felix, Morgan…! Yeah, it’s their fault. If those idiots had just done their jobs properly…!”

No, it wasn’t just them.

The fools from the Gathering of the Hidden Dragons and even Orien had held him back as well.

In the end, it was all because everything around him—everyone except him—was too stupid to perform their roles.

‘Once I get out of this exam site, I’ll fix everything. I’ll restart the Gathering of the Hidden Dragons from scratch, and Theo Ragnar…! Whether I hire an assassin or whatever it takes, I’ll make sure he’s dead.’

Ed’s orders?

The Ancient Dragon’s artifact he hadn’t retrieved yet?

What did any of that matter?

His pride came first, before anything else.

At that moment, Axion jerked his head up.

He spotted a small ridge ahead.

Beyond it was the boundary between the exam site and the outside world.

It was also the place where the Central Intelligence Bureau examiners were stationed.

It was the meeting point where he was supposed to receive Ed’s orders.

If he could just reach that spot, there would be no more danger.

‘I’m almost there…!’

But Axion’s hopes didn’t last long.

“So this is where you ran off to?”

“…How did you—?”

A calm voice.

But it sent chills down Axion’s spine.

He stiffened and quickly spun around.

There, standing with his long hair blowing in the mountain breeze, was Theo.

“You don’t have many places to go, do you? Like a kangaroo that can’t leave its mother’s pouch. That’s exactly who you are, isn’t it?”

Axion’s face twisted in humiliation.

Grit!

“Fine. Let’s see how long you can keep mocking me.”

Axion pulled out all the totems he had stashed inside the pockets of his winter coat and smashed them one by one.

Rumble!

As the ground shook, various types of beasts and monsters erupted from the area around Theo and Axion.

“These were originally meant to trap you… but what difference does it make whether I use them here or there?”

Groooowl—

Among the summoned creatures was a fifth-grade monster with a purple demonic aura.

A Minotaur, three meters tall with the head of a bull.

“People who can save me are close by, but what about you? Cripple of the Rose Palace, curse the mother who gave birth to you in that pathetic state.”

What Axion had kept on him, just in case, turned out to be quite useful at this moment.

He was certain Theo would die here.

When chaos erupted, the examiners stationed nearby would soon arrive and rescue him, so he had little to worry about.

But—

“It seems like being pushed to this point has made you stop thinking, Axion.”

Theo, even as he stood surrounded by the monsters, showed no signs of tension.

Instead, he stabbed Drake’s blade into the ground and reached for the Moon-White Sword at his waist.

“What?”

“You never wondered why I didn’t use the single-use artifacts while attacking you all this time? Why I saved them up?”

“…!”

For a split second, the worst possible scenario flashed through Axion’s mind.

But it was already too late.

Click—

With the sound of the Moon-White Sword being unsheathed—

Flash!

From the bottom right to the top left, the sword drew a diagonal slash through the air.

Roar!

Theo awakened the sentience within the Moon-White Sword through Hatchling Synchronization.

The deep, dormant nature of the griffin residing within it was stirred.

Hunger. Thirst. Gluttony. Ferocity.

The beast, always craving more, roared as it awoke, never satisfied.

The sword trembled more violently than ever before.

This was the reason Theo had been able to hunt countless summoned monsters without using single-use artifacts.

No matter what type of monster they were, they all ended up being mere prey in front of the griffin.

The very griffin that had once traumatized Theo beside the Black Dragon was now his most loyal weapon.

And that wasn’t all.

Thunder Breathing Technique.

Because Theo had gathered five fragments, he was now able to imbue his sword with a faint trace of lightning.

Lightning was intense, fast, and brutal.

It perfectly complemented the griffin’s ferocity.

And finally, the Three Fangs of the Dragon—

The Full Blooming Plum Blossom technique of the Lord of the Plum Blossom Palace, and Ray’s Ice-White Stream.

These powers converged, forming the terrifying core of Theo’s strike.

The two opposing attributes mixed, creating a reinforced beam of light.

Slash!

The first claw, drawn in a diagonal slash, wiped out the majority of the monsters.

The second claw, striking down vertically, targeted the Minotaur’s crown.

Roar!

The Minotaur barely deflected the beam of light with the club in its hand, but in doing so, it lost one of its arms.

And then—

The third claw, sweeping horizontally, brutally tore through the Minotaur’s skull and continued its path toward Axion, who stood behind with a horrified expression.

“You… you’ve already awakened the artifact…?”

That—the thing even his uncle hadn’t been able to obtain?

But Axion’s thoughts didn’t last long.

A blinding wave of light filled his vision.

Terror-stricken, his pupils turned white as the light overwhelmed him.