The obsidian fangs shattered upon impact, erupting into a torrential spray of black draconic blood that painted Regulus's vision in dark crimson.
Looking at the shattered jaw of the apex predator, Regulus couldn't help but scoff.
'Immunity to magic damage, absolute immunity to physical damage, and conceptual reflection against anything that touches me,' Regulus thought with a cold smirk. 'Trying to chew on an absolute law of the world... how does it feel?'
Of course, wasting his breath explaining the conceptual mechanics of the Authority of Greed to an ancient beast was pointless. Even if the three-headed calamity possessed rudimentary sentience, it certainly lacked the cognitive framework to grasp temporal stasis.
The moment Valgren registered the catastrophic damage to its jaws, its primal instincts screamed in panic, and the beast violently recoiled to take flight.
Regulus had zero intention of letting such a prime opening slip away.
Stepping forward on the cracked earth, Regulus swung his open palm in a horizontal arc. An invisible spatial vacuum sliced through the air like a guillotine.
Sensing the lethal trajectory, Valgren twisted its colossal frame with an agility that defied its massive size. Through sheer instinct, it barely pulled its vital organs out of the firing line, avoiding instant bisection.
However, escaping death did not come without a brutal toll.
The center head—the very one that had attempted to swallow Regulus—was severed cleanly at the base of its serpentine neck in a geyser of smoking blood!
Before Regulus could step forward to deliver the finishing strike, Valgren's remaining two heads opened simultaneously, vomiting a torrential sea of Dragon Breath straight into the ground between them.
The thermal explosion blasted the soil into molten slag, triggering a massive shockwave that pulverized the canyon floor. Dense plumes of smoke, ash, and incandescent flames instantly blocked Regulus's line of sight.
Through the roaring inferno, Regulus swung his hand once more, sending a sharp blade of compressed air tearing through the smoke screen.
THUD!
A heavy, earth-shaking impact echoed through the clearing.
'Did it connect?' Regulus muttered.
With a dismissive sweep of his arm, a localized gale cleared the surrounding flames and black smoke.
Regulus's brow furrowed.
Resting on the scorched ground before him was not the complete carcass of the beast, but rather a severed dragon head and a massive, writhing tail over twenty feet long.
He tilted his head toward the heavens.
High above the clouds, Valgren—now missing a head and its entire tail—was ascending into the upper stratosphere at desperate speed, rapidly shrinking into a tiny black speck on the horizon.
Regulus clicked his tongue in mild annoyance. As expected of an ancient calamity that once required the combined efforts of the Kingdom's finest to seal, its survival instincts and vitality were formidable.
'Well, look at all this meat,' Regulus mused, rubbing his chin as he looked down at the smoking tail and severed head.
He was genuinely curious about the taste profile of an authentic dragon. Would dragon meat be tender like prime wagyu, or tough and gamey?
He shook his head with a wry smile. If the blood of a corrupted dragon contained lethal miasma, taking a bite might turn into an unnecessary biological hazard.
Still, leaving such high-tier mythical materials behind in the dirt was an unforgivable waste. This was an authentic dragon—a creature whose scales, bones, and sinew possessed astronomical economic and magical value.
Between the grotesque, bleeding head and the thick, muscular tail, Regulus chose the tail. It contained the highest concentration of dense meat, and the obsidian scales coating its surface were intact, unaffected by the flames.
'These scales would make exquisite fireproof cloaks for the girls,' he noted.
Regulus grabbed the narrow tip of the tail with one hand, easily hauling the multi-ton slab of dragon meat over his shoulder. As he turned to leave, his foot kicked against something hard in the ash—a jagged, ivory tooth nearly the size of a human torso, sheared cleanly from Valgren's jaw.
"A decent souvenir," Regulus chuckled, scooping up the massive fang with his free hand.
Carrying a giant dragon tooth in one hand and dragging a mountain of dragon meat in the other, his short detour had yielded quite the harvest.
Shortly after Regulus departed the canyon, a heavily armored squad of Royal Knights from the border garrison arrived at the cratered battlefield.
Taking in the apocalyptic devastation—the pulverized cliffs, the rivers of molten glass, and the colossal, severed dragon head resting in the center—the young knights froze in sheer terror.
"Captain... what in Od Laguna's name happened here?!"
"An apex clash..." the veteran knight captain breathed, his voice trembling as he inspected the severed neck. "A legendary master must have intercepted this calamity right before it breached the town perimeter."
"A monster? Captain, look at these horns and scales... this isn't a mere Mabeast. This is a true Dragon!"
"Silence!" the captain barked, though cold sweat soaked his tunic. "Secure the perimeter immediately. The master who butchered this creature might return to claim the rest of the corpse."
"And if they do not return, sir?"
"Then we transport the head under heavy guard directly to the Council of Sages in the Capital," the captain ordered grimly. "Now, clear the ash!"
The captain walked over to the edge of the crater, his eyes locking onto a deep, smooth drag mark leading into the western forests.
Tracing the sheer depth of the furrow left in the bedrock, a chill ran down his spine. The physical strength required to casually drag a multi-ton dragon tail across stone was beyond mortal comprehension.
Leaving the severed head behind felt less like an oversight and more like a deliberate, terrifying warning: Do not follow.
"Fall back to the perimeter," the captain commanded softly. "We do not disturb such entities."
Meanwhile, having coordinated coordinates via the communication mirror, Regulus entered a dense, ancient forest carrying his massive spoils.
Tucking the convoy deep within the thick woodland canopy had been a sound tactical decision by Beatrice. The dense foliage completely obscured ground movement from high-altitude predators, and no dragon in its right mind would waste mana torching an entire mountain forest on a whim.
When Regulus stepped into the clearing, the gathered wives breathed a collective sigh of relief. But the moment their eyes landed on the colossal objects he was hauling, their jaws dropped.
"Wow! It's so huge!"
"It really is massive... this is my first time seeing one this big."
"The tooth is impressive, but look at that tail—it's so thick and heavy. It looks absolutely delightful."
"Mmhmm~ With something this thick, it's definitely more than enough to satisfy all of us tonight."
"Dear, you truly are the greatest~"
Regulus stood in the clearing, utterly speechless as he stared at the giggling group of beauties.
The suggestive phrasing, the blushing cheeks, the teasing glances...
'Why does everything they say sound so absurdly dirty when they're just talking about dragon meat?' Regulus thought, his eyebrow twitching.
Then again, he only had himself to blame. During their private evening banquets, he frequently cracked shameless modern jokes and teased them relentlessly. Over the weeks, the girls had thoroughly absorbed his vocabulary, mastering the art of playful double entendres to make his heart itch.
Regulus tossed the massive dragon tail onto the grass, a dangerous, alluring smile curling on his lips.
'It seems my dear wives have grown quite bold,' he mused, cracking his knuckles. 'I will definitely have to give these little temptresses a thorough private lesson once night falls.'