Just the precision shown in those drawings, in terms of control over Magic and elements, was enough to terrify most apprentices. The mysterious Draconic Magic was barely recorded in her archives, as it was essentially an extremely complex encrypted language. Its syllables could not even be spoken by human vocal organs.
A single syllable could hold only one unit of information, yet contain extremely complex content tied to bloodline resonance. That was the truth behind the power and mystery of Draconic Magic. However, what Belial showed next with his Magic made Lilith's eye twitch.
"What kind of Magic is this supposed to be?!"
She watched with her own eyes as the dragon unfolded a massive Mana Domain filled with an overwhelming and domineering mental will. He forcibly used an exaggerated amount of Magic to dominate every single particle of element, beating them into submission with mental force if they resisted.
After shaping them into what he wanted, he kicked the result straight into a heavily modified Magic Array. Those Magic Array still had a barely recognizable framework, but most had been altered into something as complex as a tangled circuit board, then stuffed with mixed Magic and elements and blasted out in a crude manner.
What was this even supposed to be? First of all, the prerequisite for casting Magic included elemental affinity, whether one could sense an element and mobilize it smoothly. This dragon was absolutely top tier in perception, but his usage was completely reckless.
He beat the elements into gathering, ignored whether the channels matched, and forced them in anyway. Then there was mental force support, which was even more unbelievable. Normally, casting Magic required a Magic Array framework, and no mage calculated every path manually or their brain would burn out.
Instead, it relied on habit and subconscious reactions built through long study, imprinting the flow of Magic with mental force and copying it when needed. This dragon, however, calculated every detail directly through sheer computational power, which let him ignore framework limits and use all kinds of Magic with extreme flexibility.
Simply put, the gap was like pre-rendered scenes versus real-time computation. And the dragon did this as casually as eating or drinking, which made Lilith's scalp itch just thinking about the scale involved. In her view, most frameworks wasted huge amounts of power.
The exaggerated effect came only from absurd output, massive flow, shocking recovery, and that terrifying calculation ability. It was like using a supercomputer to solve elementary math problems. On top of all that, there was the thing that made her eye twitch the most, the crystalline structures on his back.
"This is really ridiculous. Why is it only you…"
Lilith subconsciously touched her eyepatch, beneath which lay crystals growing directly from her flesh. Excess Magic congestion congenital defect syndrome. It could be shortened to crystal sickness.
It was both a blessing and a curse. From childhood, she possessed an enormous amount of Magic and extremely high elemental affinity, talent so great that anyone would call her a future archmage. That part was true.
Unfortunately, it was only due to a tiny difference in her constitution. External Magic and elements would be drawn into her body due to pressure-like effects and strong affinity, but the problem lay in channeling them. The accumulated Magic and elements solidified into crystal-like masses, rooted themselves inside her body, and even eroded her flesh.
The most direct effect was severe nerve pain, and removal was impossible because the crystals fused with her blood and meridians. Around the age of twelve, crystals began growing on one side of her head, and from then on she wore loose hats most of the time. At eighteen, one eye crystallized completely, so she grew her hair long and wore an eyepatch.
As the condition worsened, she moved into the isolated Sky Island protected by a Spatial Barrier, using the balanced environment there to slightly suppress the symptoms. The crystals rooted in her flesh even granted her the ability to expand a domain in terms of Magic. Because of her obsession, even the Laws she attained upon entering Ascendant Hall were closely tied to the release of Magic.
She researched related Magic because of her condition and earned the title of crystal Witch. Even so, the situation never stopped worsening. Without staying in a balanced environment or wearing Magic isolation devices, she would be in constant pain.
Who knew when her fragile, crystal-like body would collapse completely? That was why she was so interested when she saw a Black Dragon with what looked like a similar condition. Seeing that he had no side effects at all and was absurdly strong even gave her a sense of hope.
"Still, the principles are probably completely different. What kind of creature are you? Just a dragon? I do not believe that."
Lilith looked at the massive Black Dragon as she flew around him, imprinting images with Magic to record his physical features. "This body length is almost twice that of ancient dragons, and this constitution…"
From afar, Belial's size was already intimidating, but up close the oppressive presence was impossible to ignore. As mentioned before, his build was excessively robust compared to the Great Dragon race, with a shorter neck and a more ferocious, exaggerated shape. While recording, Lilith felt many structures should not exist on a normal creature, such as a mouth full of sharp teeth that looked impossible for chewing or cutting food.
If she did not compare him to ordinary Great Dragon, he almost looked like a completely different style. Traditional Great Dragon in her understanding, with slender necks and balanced builds, felt like they came straight out of a classic fantasy setting. As for Belial, he looked like he had escaped from some divine or sci‑fi battlefield.
After recording the images, Lilith took out a sharp knife for harvesting materials and tried to knock a scale off Belial for sampling. Only after nearly all usable sharp tools were ruined did she, with a dark expression, switch to a cutting-type Magic. Wind blades like spinning discs cut repeatedly, even throwing sparks as the spell structures nearly collapsed, yet not a single scale was shaved off.
Was this defense not a bit too absurd? This was already a high-level wind Magic. "How about I do it myself," Belial said, seeing her awkward state, and casually pried off a small scale.
She stared blankly. With the basic material secured, Lilith took out a syringe and tried to insert it through the gaps between the scales. However, the scales were sharp, tightly arranged, and layered beneath the surface, so it failed and snapped several needles.
Absurd things seemed so common by now that she was no longer shocked and changed methods instead. That only pushed her sense of disbelief even further. "I can accept not piercing the scales, but even the gums are like this? Is that not too much?"
Lilith still stared blankly at the special blood-drawing needle made of high-strength steel now stuck between two massive teeth. Even the unprotected, blood-vessel-rich gums had enough defense to wreck the needle, which felt completely unreasonable. She suspected some special trait of this Black Dragon was responsible.
The truth was that after fusing with Wraith Constitution, one of the changes Belial gained was perfectly even defense across his body. Every theoretically weak spot was reinforced to the same level as his hardest scales. Whether it was scales, gums, or even eyes, all shared the same extreme durability.
The stubborn Lilith refused to give up, but in the end Belial himself forcibly squeezed out two drops of blood. Looking at the dark dragon blood, Lilith felt a sudden unease, as if those drops were still alive rather than dead. With the basic samples obtained, she hurried back to the laboratory in her mage tower, leaving the back spines she was most interested in untouched.
She first moved the oversized figurine that was in the way. "Alright, now let me see what race you really are." She restarted the alchemical apparatus that had gathered dust, stacked layers of lenses, and lit the crucible, tools that could observe fine structures in blood and trigger reactions to reveal properties.
With her extensive knowledge and perception, Lilith could already tell that Belial's bloodline essence was that of a brute dragon beast. Still, that was the whole point of bringing back samples for analysis. Just look at that size, that strength, that appearance, it was believable even to call him a higher existence than the Great Dragon race.
In fact, that was exactly what she suspected. After a series of tests, and after personally verifying the data as a veteran Witch, she exclaimed, "You are really just a dragon beast?!"
Lilith threw aside the data and could not help leaning on the window, looking outside at the massive Black Dragon playing with a Mud Golem. Her eyes were filled with disbelief.
Recently, near Lilith's Sky Island, people could often see a massive Black Dragon moving about. Belial had been here for a long time, and at last he had someone who could barely be called a normal human to communicate with. Naturally, he wanted to talk more and learn a few things as well.
Yes, learning things, such as Magic and the language and writing of Otherworld. He had almost forgotten all of this before. Now that he had the chance, he realized how much he was missing.