Chapter 61 — Breath of the Undead Dragon
The battlefield lay drowned in silence.
Thick purple fumes rolled across the ruined valley, swallowing stone, earth and sky into a single suffocating haze. The only sound was the faint crackle of necrotic energy lingering in the air.
The dragon hovered low, its skeletal wings scraping against the wind with a slow, unnerving rhythm. Each beat sounded like bones grinding on bones. The creature—an undead dragon long stripped of flesh and blessed with no soul—searched blindly through the clouded battlefield. It moved not by sight. The glowing purple runes carved along its ribcage pulsed faintly.
Something was missing, though.
Something it expected to find lying lifeless among the poisoned land.
Zodac.
But Zodac was motionless—collapsed somewhere in the haze, lungs scarred by poison, mana depleted, body shaking at the edge of death. The fog obscured everything — even his own sight, his sense of direction — but something within him still refused to die. Even as darkness tried to claim him, something flickered inside his body. A faint spark. A stubborn pulse.
Mana.
**His mana.**
Buried under the poison was a faint glow in Zodac's arm — his orb responding to his will even as his consciousness slipped.
*Not yet… can't die here…*
A whisper of defiance rose from him. His hands trembled as he forced his fingers to twitch, to move, to curl. His pulse was slow, but burning.
His body was broken, lungs bleeding, vision fading.
But his resolve still lived.
The purple fog churned violently — something changed within. A green light flickered faintly from inside the haze, small at first, then brighter, swelling like embers under heavy wind.
The undead dragon halted mid-air.
Its hollow skull turned sharply.
It felt something.
Mana. A surge. A threat.
The fog bulged outward like a bubble — then **burst open** in a blast of swirling green light.
*VVVMMMMM!*
A pillar of emerald energy shot up past the dragon — a beacon tearing through the sky like a lance. The dragon shrieked, wings recoiling, the runes on its bones flaring in fury.
The pillar's glow dimmed, shape shifting, fading — until a silhouette emerged suspended high above the dragon.
Zodac.
No longer crawling. No longer suffocating.
Alive.
His cloak fluttered like battered wings, stained with dust, poison and blood. His chest rose with the first breath of clean air he'd been allowed since sinking into the fog. His eyes opened slowly — tired, swollen, burning red — but filled with focus.
For the first time since the battle began…
**He was breathing freely again.**
He hovered in the light for a brief moment, like a star refusing to die — before gravity reclaimed him.
He began to fall.
*RRRROOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!*
The dragon screamed, jaw unhinged as it spewed a torrent of dark poisonous breath up toward him like a waterfall of death. The smoke thickened instantly, threatening to swallow him whole.
But Zodac did not run.
He raised Kogestu with both hands, grip steady despite trembling arms.
"SHELTER!"
Mana burst from him like a shockwave. A dome of hecotorgon-patterned dark green energy formed around his falling body. The poison smashed against the barrier — hissing, corroding, sizzling — yet the dome held strong as he plunged through the thick fog.
He burst out the other side and met the dragon face-to-face in mid-air.
He could smell it — rot, death.
He could hear it — bones creaking, tendons snapping, wings flapping like brittle parchment in a storm.
Shelter shattered the moment he left the mist, dissolving to particles.
Zodac didn't hesitate.
"Dark Source."
The orb on his arm flashed violet-black, tendrils of darkness crawling up his arm like living ink. Kogestu responded instantly — the crimson blade swallowed by a violent purple glow, its edge humming with lethal hunger.
The dragon lunged to bite him out of pure instinct—
But he was faster.
"**WHIRLWIND!!**"
He swung.
A large slash wave— spiraling violently, ripping through the air with a high-pitched shriek. It carved a clean path from Kogestu straight through the dragon's rotting neck.
A blinding flash.
A pulse of force.
*SHIINNNG—WHOOSH!*
The head flew.
Silhouette detached from silhouette, bone separated from bone.
Then gravity claimed both.
The severed skull fell first — tumbling, cracking, slamming into the ground so hard the mountains boomed.
*BOOM!!!*
Dust exploded outward in a ring, scattering gravel like shrapnel. A heartbeat later the massive corpse crashed down, shaking the earth. The wing bones snapped under the weight and spread like spears across the battlefield.
The fog blew away in the shockwave.
Revealing everything.
Silence returned… slowly… heavily.
Zodac lay crumpled nearby, body half-buried under loose dirt, cloak torn, Kogestu dissipated into light from his weakening grip. His heart hammered violently against his ribs — too fast, too loud — then slowed, heavy, painful.
He forced his eyes open.
The dragon's severed head was inches away — hollow sockets staring at him like empty pits to hell.
"Ugh—! Damn…!"
He stumbled back instinctively, palm pressing against the ground to lift himself. His entire body ached like every bone had cracked,
He dropped to one knee.
His arms felt numb — like two dead weights hanging beside him.
"I… can't feel my arms."
He let out a bitter breath, half-laugh, half-groan.
His surrounding was quiet enough that he heard his own heartbeat echo in his skull.
Then—
Something pulsed with light.
A soft purple shimmer radiated from the opened gash in the dragon's corpse.
Zodac blinked, eyes narrowing.
Something inside the beast was glowing.
He summoned Kogestu into his hand with effort, the crimson blade appearing in crackles of green mana. Using it for support, he walked toward the corpse.
The smell was vile — rot and poison mixed into a sickly, humid stench. Not even Flies gathered on the corpse.
Zodac grit his teeth and sliced into the decayed flesh. A wet, nauseating sound followed — like cutting into rotten wood soaked in toxic slime. He reached in, ignoring the burn of acidic rot on his glove, and pulled something free.
A stone.
But not ordinary.
A jagged, rough shard of condensed mana — dark violet, pulsing like a beating heart.
A **Mana Essence. Dragon Type. Dark Attribute.**
He scanned it.
**Mana essence**
Type: **Dragon**
Attribute: **Dark**
His eyes widened slightly.
"So that's what kept you alive. Something fed you even in death."
He rolled the essence in his palm. It was warm — disturbingly warm — like living flesh. A faint hum vibrated through his arm.
He smirked faintly.
He glanced at the orb embedded in his arm… then at the mana crystal… and the idea sparked instantly.
This was risky.
But rewarding.
He pressed the crystal into the orb.
The orb pulsed and absorbed it greedily, tendrils of green mana wrapping the stone like vines consuming prey.
A notification rippled across his vision.
Then—
[Dragon Type Mana discovered]
[INITIATING Storage…]
"Interesting…"
"If one held this much power, then I'd like to believe that alot this could be enough to bring it back to life as an undead I presume"
He swung Kogestu again cutting through the dragon and two more of the crystal from the dragon corpse fell to the ground. He smiles as he placed more into the orb, in less than minutes his dark Mana was full but due to the excessive energy, it caused a surge through the system.
Then the orb flickered — glitching, colors swapping between purple and green rapidly like unstable energy trying to surge out.
Then the interface broke.
Letters scrambled.
E E M N T A L W O O D LV 27
Af fi ni ty: F I E
Sk i ll s:
[Dragon Type Mana: STORAGE EXCEEDED CAPACITY]
[Secondary core function unlocked]
An icon formed — a dragon crest with wings unfurled.
**Power Boost — Dragon Series**
" Dragon Series, is that how the system wants to control the excessive energy "
His chest rose sharply as realization dawned.
"Why dont I have abilities related to my elements?"
He stared at his trembling hand, at the orb still flickering erratically.
He wanted answers.
And he intended to get them.
But first — he turned toward the dragon's body again — eyes gleaming with obsession.
There were more crystals.
Dozens embedded along bone, spine and ribs.
"If one did this much…"
He raised Kogestu once more.
His blade came down like judgment.
Rotten flesh split, bones cracked, toxic mist hissed as he carved into the corpse. One by one, he harvested essence shards — each humming with dark mana — storing until the orb swelled full.
And when it overflowed, power vibrated through his veins like thunder.
His body trembled.
Not in weakness.
But awakening.
He didn't know if he was evolving.
Or corrupting.
He didn't care.
Right now—
He only wanted more power.