Chapter 61: Confident Turn
Unlike humans, Black's thought process was very simple. Although it had no idea where the voice came from, nor who was behind it, since it was asked a question, it would answer.
—Yes.
There was no hesitation. The distant, massive Thunder Mountain was trembling slightly. Compared to before, when it occasionally shot out energy blasts that scattered the surrounding clouds, it had now fallen completely silent, presumably focusing on dealing with the warrior inside its body.
If someone could help Joshua at this moment, that would be truly wonderful.
"Then, accept this inheritance."
Without further words, the mysterious voice vanished after Black agreed, but the half-dragon suddenly felt its head grow heavy, filled with countless pieces of information and knowledge it couldn't comprehend.
Not far away, Loranda was leading the rock giants in circles. To prevent these behemoths from affecting the warrior within Thunder Mountain, Black was also tasked with distracting one rock giant. Because of the sudden heaviness in its head, its pace slowed for a moment, and the rock giant behind it quickly caught up, pressing down with a massive palm.
But the half-dragon spun around abruptly. Though its mind was dizzy, it inexplicably gained a wealth of combat experience. It nimbly sidestepped, dodging the giant's slap, then instinctively lunged forward, its claws latching onto the rock giant's arm. It scrambled up the arm toward the giant's body, reaching its shoulder in just a few seconds.
The rock giant noticed and immediately twisted its body and swung its arm, trying to shake Black off. But the dragon claws dug deep into the rock, making it nearly impossible to dislodge no matter how much it twisted. As the giant turned, the half-dragon searched for its weak point and soon found it.
Each rock giant had a different weak point—its energy core—depending on the number and rank of the stone demons fused within it. Some were in the chest, some in the head, and some in the spine behind the neck. For the one before Black, based on the flow of magical energy throughout its body, the weak point was on its forehead.
Countless pieces of information surged through its mind. Amid the violent shaking, Black adjusted its body, aiming the core on its chest at the giant's head. Though it had no idea why, it instinctively made these predictions and movements. The next instant, a blindingly intense light gathered at the core, and a golden line arced through the air, striking the forehead with a violent tremor.
With a massive explosion, the enormous rock giant slowly crumbled into a pile of rubble. Before that, Black had agilely leaped down and returned to the ground.
It turned its head in surprise, examining its own body. Black's mind continued to pour out combat knowledge and inherited abilities—various uses of dragon breath, innate powers from its bloodline, and many unique dragon transcendent abilities... Soon, it turned to face Thunder Mountain and let out an excited roar.
—With this kind of power, maybe I really can help Master!
Inside Thunder Mountain.
Having shattered the outer barrier of the energy core, Joshua entered a massive cylindrical space. Within it, a tidal roar filled the air as pure, immense magical energy surged rapidly. It flowed through countless channels to every part of the mountain, enabling this unprecedented colossal construct to move and attack.
At the very center of the cylindrical space was a dazzling sphere of light, over twenty meters in diameter, crackling with lightning. It was constrained by several concentric rings, channeling enough magical energy to supply a city for months. In Joshua's eyes, he could see the sphere's true form—a silver-blue liquid metal orb. Under the stimulation of magical energy, it constantly shifted shape, while the rings kept it in a relatively stable form. Cyan-white lightning continuously radiated from its changes.
Seeing this, the warrior gasped.
A Titan's Heart—this big!
Even Joshua's will wavered for a moment. He stared in awe at the liquid metal orb over twenty meters across, a sudden surge of desire flooding his heart!
This was a Titan's Heart! The best core for any construct, a supreme magical crystal that could absorb energy on its own, achieving near-perpetual motion! In his past life, to get a Titan giant his guild had unexpectedly obtained to move, he had led a team to raid three lich towers just to get enough Titan's Heart material. And here, the core was enough to fill a house!
But this was just a fleeting thought. The next moment, Joshua raised his greatsword. Black-red battle qi spread relentlessly, and powerful life energy even repelled the surrounding magical energy, carving out a red space within the energy furnace of Thunder Mountain.
Though somewhat regrettable, battle was battle. Joshua had no time now to decipher the locks on the core and claim this Titan's Heart, tinged with chaotic energy. His task was simple destruction.
With a single glance, countless pieces of information flooded the warrior's mind—the energy level, shape, weight, density, overflowing lightning, and energy flow of the object before him. In the instant before swinging his sword, he quickly found the weakest point of the energy core.
Then, he struck!
The air seemed to solidify in that moment, resisting the rapid swing of the silver greatsword. The armor on Joshua's body was heavily damaged by the recoil of this blow, especially the arm guards, which shattered completely, revealing the steel-like arms beneath.
One swing, and battle qi left the blade. The wind pressure from this strike cleaved through the rapidly cycling lightning magic within the energy furnace, even pulling out a semicircular arc of light.
After delivering the strike from a distance, Joshua cleanly sheathed his sword, turned, and quickly retreated toward the outside. He didn't even look back to see the result of his attack. The warrior was confident his strike had hit without deviation, and precisely because of that, he needed to leave quickly.
Even he didn't want to face the power of Thunder Mountain's core self-destructing.
The arc of light flew at a steady, unhurried pace. Seconds later, this condensed beam accurately struck the weak point of the Titan's Heart.
Time seemed to freeze.
Then, in the next moment, amid a thunderous roar as if a thousand bolts of lightning had exploded simultaneously, the wild magical energy erupted into chaos. In an instant, a terrifying energy like a volcanic eruption burst from the Titan's Heart. Cyan-white shockwaves surged back and forth within the furnace, then exploded. They swept up the already chaotic magical energy, forming a tsunami-like wave that began to destroy everything in its path from the inside out.
Joshua slipped through the gap he had first blasted open, passing the lightning elementals still madly destroying everything around them. Taking advantage of their stunned hesitation as they stared at his figure without attacking, the warrior rushed along the path he had entered. The all-destroying shockwave followed close behind him, swallowing the lightning elementals cleanly, with Joshua as its next target.
Outside.
Black and Loranda were still fighting.
After prolonged engagement, they had roughly figured out the movement patterns of these rock giants. Using their rich combat experience and agile physical advantages, they had taken down many rock giants. But because the earlier Heaven's Descent Array had rained down countless meteor stone demons, new rock giants kept rising from the ground, as if intending to wear them down with sheer numbers.
They were fully engaged in dealing with the stone demons' attacks when a muffled explosion in the distance caught their attention.
The enormous metal mountain was slowly collapsing. Countless cracks spread across its surface, and beams of blinding cyan-white lightning shot out from within, dyeing the sky that color. The mountain's originally fierce light eyes had now completely dimmed, no longer firing terrifying beams that blotted out the sky.
"Joshua succeeded!"
—Master succeeded!
Black and Loranda's hearts surged with excitement at the same time. But this joy didn't last long, because as the lightning continued to pour out, the metal mountain erupted in a violent explosion.
How powerful was the self-destruction of a several-hundred-meter-tall, mountain-like construct?
No one knew, because such a scene had never occurred before.
In that instant, both the paladin and Black felt they had lost their sight. A blinding light pierced through the sky, the earth, and everything in between. Then, when their eyes could see again, a rumbling thunderclap arrived, and a massive cloud of violent dust shot into the sky, forming a huge mushroom cloud. A visible ring-shaped shockwave spread in all directions.
Instantly, unease surged in both their hearts.
—At the center of such an explosion, is Joshua still alive?!