As Patches watched Lucian lost in thought, a chill suddenly ran down his spine.
'Why do I get the feeling he's thinking about something dangerous...?'
'Ah, whatever. I'm quitting after this anyway.'
'I'll get them up to Altus Plateau, then head back to Volcano Manor.'
While Lucian and Patches were each occupied with their own thoughts, the man resting atop a nearby boulder, Great Horned Tragoth, also noticed the group approaching.
The moment he recognized Lucian, the warrior who had fought alongside him during the Festival of Combat, Tragoth immediately stood up.
But once he was on his feet...
...he had no idea what to say.
Whenever he tried to speak, things somehow went wrong.
And what if he greeted Lucian, only to discover Lucian didn't even remember him?
That would be unbearably awkward.
So the taciturn Great Horned Tragoth simply nodded at Lucian as a greeting.
Seeing that he remained as silent as ever, Lucian didn't try to start a conversation.
Knowing Tragoth's personality, he merely nodded back in acknowledgment.
Standing outside the cavern, Lucian turned to Patches.
"So it seems you really haven't dealt with the Magma Wyrm."
Patches clicked his tongue, clearly reluctant to admit it.
"Can't be helped. That thing's tough as nails."
"Compared to ordinary dragons, its body's even sturdier."
"Even Tragoth's massive hammer barely leaves a mark."
Hearing that, Tragoth lowered his head slightly.
The Magma Wyrm truly wasn't an opponent he could defeat.
If only he were stronger...
Then perhaps he could eliminate it once and for all.
That would leave this road permanently open for Tarnished traveling to Altus Plateau.
Rubbing his chin, Lucian asked curiously,
"Then how do you normally get people through?"
"Does the Magma Wyrm fall asleep or hibernate?"
Tragoth shook his head and spoke first.
"...Not asleep."
Patches picked up where he left off.
"That thing never sleeps deeply."
"You've heard the stories, right? Magma Wyrms were once human heroes who hunted dragons and performed Dragon Communion."
"But after consuming too many dragon hearts, those heroes gradually lost themselves to the dragons' power."
"Since they transformed from humans, Magma Wyrms do sleep frequently while adapting to their altered bodies."
"But maybe because they used to be human warriors..."
"...they're incredibly cautious."
"They've never truly fallen into a deep sleep."
"So don't even think about quietly sneaking past its nest."
Both Alexander and Millicent looked visibly surprised upon hearing that Magma Wyrms had once been human heroes.
Alexander couldn't understand why a hero would willingly choose such a path.
To him, becoming a hero was the highest honor imaginable.
It was something that should never be abandoned.
Millicent, however, was struck by something entirely different.
Heroes who once hunted dragons...
...choosing to become inhuman themselves.
She simply couldn't understand it.
If Scarlet Rot could no longer be suppressed, she herself would eventually bloom into a flower.
But that was a fate she would rather die than accept.
To become something that was no longer herself...
She would rather choose death.
"As for getting people through..."
Patches grinned broadly and slapped the leather armor on his chest.
"That's where Uncle Patches comes in."
"That thing's cautious, sure."
"But at the end of the day, it's just a beast."
"With the right bait, it's easy enough to lure it out."
"The cavern's huge. I just run a few laps around inside and lose it."
"While it's busy chasing me, Tragoth's already escorted everyone to the lift leading up to Altus Plateau."
Lucian nodded, genuinely surprised.
He hadn't expected Patches to willingly serve as bait and draw the Magma Wyrm's attention.
That kind of high-risk, low-reward job didn't seem like Patches' style at all...
Then Lucian glanced at Tragoth, whose heavy armor practically screamed walking fortress, and suddenly understood.
If they wanted to earn Runes by guiding people...
Patches really was the only one suited for the job.
If Tragoth tried running instead, he'd be much slower.
Besides, Patches was practically a master of escaping danger.
Combined with his overwhelming instinct for self-preservation, distracting the Wyrm probably wasn't all that dangerous for him.
Licking his lips, Patches grinned.
"Speaking of which..."
"With your strength..."
"...you're not actually planning to make me lure that thing away again, are you?"
"So."
"What are you planning to do about the Magma Wyrm?"
Lucian chuckled and walked straight toward the cavern where the Magma Wyrm dwelled.
"Heh."
"You already know the answer."
Watching Lucian head into the cave, Millicent couldn't help growing nervous.
Alexander noticed and patted her shoulder.
"HAHAHA."
"You're worried about Lucian, aren't you?"
"He's already one of the strongest people in the Lands Between."
"No..."
"You could probably even leave out the 'one of.'"
"After all, even General Radahn was defeated by him."
Patches leaned over with a look of disbelief.
"No way."
"He brought you all the way here, and you still don't know how strong he is?"
"He's stronger than dozens of Magma Wyrms put together. A real mon—"
"Ahem..."
"...king."
Remembering Lucian's overwhelming presence during the Festival of Combat, Tragoth silently nodded in agreement.
Hearing everyone speak so confidently, Millicent looked a little lost.
'Wait...'
'Am I really the only one here who has no clear idea how strong Lucian actually is?'
Even after hearing them, the anxiety in her heart refused to disappear.
After all...
She had barely ever seen Lucian fight.
He had only fought twice in front of her.
The first time was when he escorted her across Caelid to Gowry's Shack.
Along the way, he'd effortlessly slaughtered countless creatures corrupted by Scarlet Rot.
The second time...
...was against the Royal Revenant not long ago.
But neither of those enemies could compare to the terrifying Magma Wyrm everyone was talking about now.
As a result, she had never truly grasped the extent of Lucian's strength.
She knew he was powerful.
Powerful enough that defeating the Magma Wyrm shouldn't be a problem.
But...
'How powerful?'
That, she didn't know.
And if he were to get hurt during the battle...
That would be terrible.
—
The instant Lucian stepped into the Magma Wyrm's territory...
...a violent, oppressive aura erupted from deep within the cavern.
The cavern, once an ancient mine, was littered with the remnants of man-made structures.
Most striking of all were the countless massive stone pillars that had once supported the cavern.
Now, however, more than half of those thick columns had been smashed to pieces by the beast's relentless rampages. Judging by the destruction, this was undoubtedly Patches' handiwork.
Each thunderous footstep of the monster sent tremors rippling through the surrounding rock.
Just hearing the earth-shaking rumble was enough to imagine what kind of colossal creature lurked within.
Then, from behind the forest of broken pillars, an enormous head covered in jagged, overlapping scales slowly emerged before Lucian.
It leaned in until it was nearly face-to-face with him.
A single vertical pupil, as large as a grown man and glowing with an icy golden light, fixed itself upon him.
Looking calmly into those eyes overflowing with rage and murderous intent, Lucian merely tilted his head.
Then, before the Magma Wyrm could make a move—
He threw a punch straight into its enormous eye.
Dragons were nothing like ordinary creatures. Even their eyes possessed a toughness beyond comparison.
Lucian clearly felt the difference. The eye was far harder than any ordinary eyeball.
But in front of him...
It might as well have been paper.
In an instant, his fist punched clean through the Magma Wyrm's eye.
The monster convulsed violently, letting out a heart-rending roar of agony as torrents of molten magma sprayed in every direction.
It thrashed its head wildly, desperately trying to fling the steel spike embedded in its eye away.
Lucian simply withdrew his hand with the motion, landing lightly several steps away.
He had wanted to try this for a long time.
He'd seen scenes like this countless times in novels and movies.
Every time he'd thought—
'If something shoves its eye right in front of you during a fight...'
'How can you resist punching it?'
Getting that close during battle was simply asking for it.
Inside the ruined eye, structures resembling the lens and vitreous body shattered instantly.
The liquefied contents burst from the wound in a gruesome spray.
There was no doubt about it.
That eye was completely destroyed.
Wracked by unbearable pain, the Magma Wyrm rolled frantically across the cavern, crushing large sections of the ancient ruins beneath its enormous body.
Only now did Lucian finally get a proper look at its appearance.
Its massive body was so heavy it could only crawl along the ground using all four limbs.
Its pair of wings looked absurdly out of place, little more than undersized chicken wings attached to an oversized lizard.
Its body was covered in thick scales.
The scales of the Ancient Dragons were elegant and nearly indestructible. Their stone scales symbolized eternity itself.
Their descendants, the Flying Dragons, had lost those stone scales, yet still possessed durable dragon scales covering their entire bodies.
The Magma Wyrm, however, was different.
There was none of that elegance.
None of that timeless majesty.
Unlike true dragons, its scales didn't even cover its whole body.
Its flanks were almost entirely bare, protected only by thick hide.
Instead, all of its scales clustered chaotically across its head and back, layer upon layer, overlapping into grotesque ridges.
The piled-up scales bulged unevenly across its spine.
Calling such a creature a dragon felt generous.
It was nothing more than a gigantic winged lizard.
Only the enormous Magma Wyrm's Scalesword clutched in its hands remained as proof that it had once been human.
Driven mad by the agony, the Magma Wyrm became even more ferocious.
Gripping its colossal sword, it swung wildly at Lucian.
Lucian casually sidestepped the clumsy strike.
Then he flicked his hand.
Heavy masses of stone instantly coated the Scalesword.
Layer after layer of rock enveloped the blade until even the Magma Wyrm's immense strength could barely lift it.
The moment the weapon it had wielded like an extension of its own body became impossibly heavy.
The last trace of reason vanished from its remaining eye.
Abandoning the sword altogether, the crazed beast lowered its body and charged at Lucian on all fours.
Molten lava poured endlessly from its mouth as it barreled forward.
Faced with the torrent of magma and the charging monster...
Lucian didn't even bother to move.
Watching him stand there without dodging, Millicent's heart, which had only just begun to settle after his earlier success, immediately leapt into her throat again.
From where she stood, she could see everything clearly.
The Magma Wyrm looked large enough to swallow Lucian whole in a single bite.
But Lucian merely raised one hand before him.
The next moment...
Millicent's eyes widened in disbelief.
The charging Magma Wyrm slammed into him as though it had crashed into an immovable fortress.
Its massive body stopped dead in its tracks.
Then, completely ignoring the scorching lava pouring over him, Lucian simply...
Lifted the entire Magma Wyrm into the air.
A tiny human body...
Holding aloft a monster weighing countless tons.
The instant its charge was halted and its feet left the ground—
The Magma Wyrm's intelligence finally returned.
At last...
It realized something.
This human...
Was nothing like anything it had ever faced before.
And at that moment, an emotion it had long abandoned along with its humanity resurfaced.
Fear.
Panic.
The overwhelming urge to flee by any means necessary.
But it was already too late.
Lucian hurled the Magma Wyrm away.
Its colossal body smashed into a field of shattered boulders.
The beast flailed desperately, trying to roll over and escape.
But before it could...
An enormous spectral dragon's head materialized before Lucian.
Opening a bottomless maw lined with razor-sharp fangs, it lunged forward.
Dragonmaw.
The abyssal jaws clamped tightly around the Magma Wyrm's neck.
As the dragon's bite tightened, the Magma Wyrm's armor-like scales shattered one after another beneath its crushing fangs.
Seeing the beast continue to struggle, Lucian manipulated the giant dragon head, lifting the Magma Wyrm into the air before smashing it violently back into the ground.
The relentless biting and repeated impacts nearly tore the creature's thick neck completely apart.
Even after suffering such catastrophic injuries...
It still refused to die.
After transforming into dragons, their vitality had become monstrously tenacious.
Seeing that it still clung to its final breath, Lucian summoned the power of gravity once more.
The surrounding rocks trembled.
In an instant, countless stone blades erupted from the earth.
They pierced straight through the Magma Wyrm's body, finally ending its life.
It was one of the gravity techniques Radahn had once used against Lucian.
Now, Lucian wielded it with mastery no less impressive than its original creator.
The corpse hung suspended in midair only briefly.
Then, under the pull of its own immense weight, its body slid apart along the razor-sharp stone blades, breaking into countless pieces.
Millicent stood frozen.
Her eyes remained wide open as she stared blankly at Lucian.
She had always known he was strong.
She simply...
Had never imagined he was this strong.
If that was the case...
Then everything she'd said about becoming his blade...
Perhaps Lucian had never needed her at all.
Perhaps she had only been moving herself with her own gratitude.
For the first time since meeting him...
Millicent felt genuinely lost.