The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - LLD Chapter 41: Dragon Rage Explosion (Part 2)

The snowy ground, stripped of moisture, cracked like drought-stricken farmland—
Spiderweb-like fractures spread in all directions.

As though the landscape of the Snowy Mountains was collapsing.

An inferno that transcended ages.
A blazing winter apocalypse.

………A power beyond human.

That—could not be called human.

It didn’t simply burn cold.
It incinerated the very season of frost itself.

Who could still call that human?

No.
Even calling it a dragon would not be enough.

KWAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!!!

All Kai could do—

Was be swallowed up, along with the monster legion, by that monstrous dragon’s wrath.

The eternal inferno that scorched the frozen landscape had finally died down with time, revealing a vast, crimson scar beneath.

What was once a snow-covered plain was now blanketed in ash.
The icy ravines of the Snowy Mountains had melted into hazy steam that rose into the air.
The snow had liquefied in an instant, flowing like molten lava and exposing the trail of devastation left behind by the flames.

The fleeing monster legion had been utterly incinerated, reduced to charred ash that scattered in the wind.

Cracks had formed between the land like a drought-stricken field.
A flickering red glow pulsed from within the fractures, still radiating searing heat.

The once lung-freezing air of the Snowy Mountains had grown hot enough to scorch lungs.
Thick steam rose in the aftermath, obscuring vision and making it hard to even breathe.

“!!!!!”
“!!!!!”
“!!!!!”

Gasps of horror burst out across the entire County.
Soldiers descending the castle walls, knights leading their troops, guards opening the gates—no one was spared from the shock.

It was a scorched wasteland, rejecting the very notion of living things.

“W-What… what did I just see…?”
“Urgh…!!!”

Everyone who had witnessed the Dragon Rage Explosion was paralyzed in disbelief.
It was as though even time itself had caught fire.

And then—

“Cough…!!”

A pained groan suddenly echoed out.

There stood Kai, the golden wolf who had been pursuing the fleeing monsters.

He was kneeling, his sword stabbed into the ground for support.

“Gahk…!”

Bright red blood gushed like a fountain from his mouth.
His golden hair, once radiant like the sun, had been scorched pitch-black.
Even his silver armor had been blackened by the flames.

“Khak…!”

Anyone could see that Kai was in terrible condition.
Of course he was—he had taken the Dragon Rage Explosion head-on.

And that made the soldiers’ shock all the more intense.

“H-He’s alive…”
“He took that head-on and still…?!”

The fact that Kai was still alive after facing the full brunt of the Dragon Rage Explosion.
He wasn’t unscathed, of course.
But the very fact that he had survived it with just some internal bleeding was enough to inspire awe and disbelief.

And yet—
The person who left the soldiers the most shocked and awestruck was someone else entirely.

The other survivor standing amidst the scorched wasteland with Kai.

The black wolf who once roamed among sheep.
The man who turned the Snowy Mountains into a barren hellscape.

Adrian.
He had been standing tall in place at first.
But unlike Kai, his condition was far worse.

Adrian was barely standing, his entire body battered beyond recognition.
And as for his arms—well, wherever he had left them, they were nowhere to be seen.

Thud.

Adrian staggered and collapsed to the ground.
Then—nothing. No movement at all.

That was when Serapia snapped back to her senses.

“Brother!!!”

She rushed toward Adrian in a frenzy.
And the closer she got, the paler her face became.

He looked like someone who had walked straight through a firestorm—his body blackened and covered in ash.

But what struck her most…
Were the missing arms.
Both shoulders were grotesquely hollowed out, creating a scene too horrific to describe.

No matter how she looked at it…
He didn’t look like someone who was still alive.

Serapia’s crimson eyes widened in sheer horror.
Her lips trembled.

She wanted to say something—but no words came out.

“Ah… Aaah…!”

Her throat tightened.
It felt like her heart was being torn apart.
She couldn’t even breathe from the pain.

Adrian had sacrificed himself to save the territorial citizens… to save the people.

If she had known it would come to this, if only she hadn’t hesitated to use her power…

She would’ve offered herself up in his place.

Her legs gave out, and she collapsed on the spot.
Her whole body trembling, her shoulders finally slumped in defeat.

And just then, as heavy teardrops began to fall—

“Over here…”

A faint voice reached her ears.

Her head shot up instantly.
Tear-blurred eyes turned toward the source of the voice.

And there—

She saw him.

“Shove a monster into my mouth, will you?”

…The corpse was talking.
A corpse without arms, flailing about like mad.

It was so grotesque it could hardly be believed.

Thud.

Serapia fainted on the spot.

…I underestimated the power.

Even if it was just an imitation drawn from the dragon’s genetic code, I never imagined it would be this overwhelming.

‘That’s just crazy.’

It was truly insane.
No wonder it was called a Power of Authority.

Granted, it had only been “extracted,” so it couldn’t compare to a true Dragon Breath.

But if you compared it to the Ice Breath used by Ice Drake, then?

Dragon Rage Explosion [E] was far superior.
The backlash alone had done massive damage to my body.

The arms that unleashed Dragon Rage Explosion [E] didn’t just burst—they were completely annihilated.
Every single one of my internal organs had ruptured from the recoil.

Luckily, the flames had cauterized my wounds, so I wasn’t bleeding out.
And with my newly evolved Regeneration [B+], as long as my heart and brain remained intact, anything else could be recovered.

But I really needed to start regenerating fast.

The problem was:

I was out of calories.
My arms were gone, so I couldn’t move.
And my inventory? Completely empty.

“Someone… shove a monster into my mouth.”

I couldn’t do anything on my own.
Thankfully, my vocal cords weren’t scorched, so I could still speak.
But I really didn’t have the luxury to lie around like this.

I had to go find the entity commanding the monster legion.

It might even be…

…the Monarch of Beasts.

And right now, I had two clear realizations:

‘The quest hasn’t cleared yet.’

The emergency quest was still active.
That meant the monster legion hadn’t been completely defeated.

This wave was just the first.
There was still a commander behind it all.

Maybe even the Monarch of Beasts himself.

And the second realization—
If I combine my skills properly, I can take him down.

No matter how terrifying the Monarch of Beasts might be, the sheer power of Dragon Rage Explosion [E] could still work against him.

So I had to regenerate—now—and go after him.

Thankfully, Serapia had rushed to my side.

But then—

Thud.

She suddenly collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut and showed no signs of getting back up.

Translatin_Otaku

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