Chapter 1312: 70. Open the Door

Muen was completely stunned.

A powerful sense of absurdity and humiliation surged into his heart.

It was as if he had drawn the Holy Sword and obtained the absolute power to defeat the evil dragon, only to be defeated by some nameless guard standing at the dragon’s front gate just as his heroic spirit was soaring and his blood was boiling.

That was right. Victory was already right before his eyes. He could have made even the legendary Calamity submit because of this...

But he could not get through the door.

“Isn’t this way too ridiculous?”

The corner of Muen’s mouth twitched as he lowered his head.

At this very moment, the legendary Calamity was still in a sorry state, her face flushed red and her lips luscious and dewy.

She was completely restrained right now, like a prisoner, a criminal. She possessed none of her tremendous power and was incapable of putting up even the slightest resistance against Muen.

This was an utterly humiliating posture, one completely incompatible with a Calamity, completely incompatible with a dragon.

But even so, within Hamreign’s golden eyes, which had once again regained their clarity, there actually appeared a trace of contempt... and disdain."

Looking down from above as though standing atop a mountain—this was her confidence as a Calamity, the Dragon of Death and Doom, the strongest creature beneath the heavens. It would not waver in the slightest no matter how difficult her circumstances became!

“Heh.”

She even still had enough composure left to let out a contemptuous laugh!

“What are you acting so smug for!”

Muen suddenly flew into a rage.

Being mocked at a moment like this was probably something no man could accept.

Much less him. He had already thrown everything away. After completely losing to this trial, he was being driven by some blazing fury deep within his heart, launching an attack without caring about any consequences.

How could he possibly submit because of such a minor setback?

The exhilaration of having just reached the summit was once again replaced by the desire to conquer. Muen threw caution completely aside and directly launched another attack against this prisoner, this criminal. He showed no mercy, caring only about making the other party realize the difference in strength between them at this moment!

Their positions had already been completely reversed!

“Open the door!”

Muen roared. In order to completely defeat the final evil dragon, he held absolutely nothing back from the very beginning this time.

“Mm...”

Hamreign almost immediately let out a cry that sounded nothing like her.

But it lasted only an instant before being suppressed by the blazing brilliance in those golden eyes.

“Impossible!” The evil dragon remained high above, still looking down upon him.

“There’s no such thing as impossible. Do you really think you can keep holding out?”

Muen continued:

“Open the door!”

“Mm... no.”

“Stop putting up pointless resistance! All your power is sealed right now. You can only rely on the toughness of your own body to withstand this, and you barely even have any strength left. Do you really think you can keep holding out like this?”

Muen came again: “Open the door!”

“Absolutely not...”

Hamreign gritted her teeth. “I can still... hold out.”

“You’re only forcing yourself to endure. Open the door!”

“Never...”

“Open!”

“No...”

“I can already feel you wavering!”

“I’m not...”

“You’re still pretending? What’s the point of holding out after things have already gone this far? Besides...”

Muen suddenly leaned down beside her ear, his whisper like the murmur of a demon:

“Do you really want... to keep me outside the door that badly?”

“...”

For the first time, a trace of panic appeared within those majestic, blazing golden eyes.

Hamreign’s heart instantly fell into disorder.

Of course she could still hold out. After all, one of them was a Calamity with the strongest physical body in this world, while the other was merely a little shrimp who had only just reached Crowned-level strength. Even with her power sealed, relying solely on the strength of her physical body, she could still endure for a little while.

Although she knew this absolutely could not continue forever, at the very least, she could use it to demonstrate her resolve.

But what made her panic at this moment was that even her resolve itself was beginning to crumble.

—That sensation born from instinct, from her body, from the very aspect she despised most... was growing stronger again.

Although Muen had not truly broken through, each attack, each knock upon the door, was itself constantly strengthening that sensation.

If before it had merely been a stream, then now it was a surging great river!

The dam she had erected within her heart was on the verge of no longer being able to hold!

“No!”

Hamreign took a deep breath, guarded her mind tightly, and relied on her formidable self-control to forcibly suppress that desire once again.

She could not admit defeat.

She absolutely could not admit defeat.

At this very moment, this battle of attack and defense had already become part of the trial, part of the wager.

If she lost just like this... not only would she lose the wager, even the pride she had upheld for a thousand years would become impossible to maintain!

How could her dignity allow her to lose in this way?

Especially with a certain someone around. She could already imagine that person using this matter to mock her for the rest of her life.

More importantly...

“We... are companions. True companions. Pure companions. Innocent companions... so we absolutely can’t...”

...

...

“Oh my, oh my, you’re still holding out?”

In the sea of flowers, someone swung her little feet while eating popcorn, leisurely enjoying the scene before her.

The unexpectedly intense development had her completely absorbed.

After all, a mighty Calamity being pinned beneath a human and ruthlessly bullied like this was something rarely seen even in those trashy roadside novels outside.

“But how much longer can you keep holding out?”

Watching the certain Calamity in the image gradually fall into a disadvantage, a trace of amusement flashed through Mela’s eyes.

The wager she had proposed was, in terms of method, absolutely correct.

She had not lied about that.

It could even be called precisely targeted treatment.

After all, dragons were creatures with extremely strong desires by nature.

Otherwise, even after dragons themselves had nearly vanished from the continent for thousands of years, there would not still be such a huge number of subspecies around.

And yet this particular Calamity happened to be an anomaly among dragons. She had grown up in human society from childhood, had almost never interacted with her own kind, and did not understand her own nature.

At the same time, just like Mela herself, she had experienced the abnormality from a thousand years ago from almost the closest possible distance, and both of them had lost the most important things in their lives during that catastrophe.

Then, over the course of the following thousand years, they had continued growing until they became what the world called “Calamities.”

It could be said that this woman now possessed the strongest self-control in the entire world. Even Mela herself had to admit inferiority in that regard.

That was precisely why she had been able to clear away that Pollution.

Because of this, unless the cause came from the depths of her own heart, no matter how powerful the instinct or how overwhelming the external force, neither would be able to shake her.

Unless... someone could create a tiny crack in her heart.

Like... an ant hole in a dam.

For example, that which she despised most, yet which was also most capable of shaking her heart...

Love.

Therefore, although this trial appeared somewhat absurd, it truly could test whether what she felt toward him was actually love.

This was a trial that extended from the body into the heart...

A trial of the heart.

And now, the outcome of this wager was already obvious.

“You still haven’t noticed it yourself? How special that brat is in your eyes. If it were any ordinary human, would you let them treat you like this? Yet you’ve indulged that brat to the point of letting him do this much to you... That alone has already gone far beyond the level of mere companions.”

“Your affection has already reached this level, yet you’re still trying to deceive yourself. How could you possibly win?”

Mela shook her head and sighed, deeply moved that the only being of her generation still alive in this world had actually fallen so far as to be humiliated by a mere little yellow-haired brat.

A faint mixture of complicated emotions also surfaced in the depths of her heart.

But the moment she thought about that yellow-haired brat’s identity, she became cheerful again.

She was already imagining the wonderful future in which she could use seniority to keep that woman under control.

Her disciple’s little wife washing her feet and massaging her shoulders for her in the future would be perfectly normal, right!

“However...”

With a sweep of Mela’s small hand, the image before her changed, and her expression also became meaningful:

“It seems the interesting part... isn’t over yet...”