Wandering Knight-Chapter 321: A Corrupted Draconian

Though the twisted bodies of the researchers had been utterly destroyed by Noelle and Wang Yu, their deaths did not mark their end. They now persisted as phantoms, sustained by necromantic power.

That same necromantic energy connected them in an arcane array formed from their drifting souls. It began to gather within the area, thickening the air with the taint of death.

And when Varma activated her artifact to open the Void Realm, the descending black nimbus devoured the necromantic energy that saturated the region in its entirety.

Wang Yu glanced up. A pitch-black halo had manifested overhead. Reaching out with the force of the Chariot, he probed the chaotic ripples in space emanating from the ring. It was trying to slice him and Noelle apart, to crush them in a tidal surge of spatial annihilation.

He bent low, gathering power in his legs, and seized Noelle. He was ready to make one last, desperate dash beyond the boundary of the collapsing space. But just as he prepared to leap, the Perfect Fractal lens embedded in his right eye scanned the ring and relayed critical information—enough to halt him mid-motion.

Without hesitation, he pulled Noelle in front of the lens, allowing its spellcasting array to envelop her. He spoke quickly: "Get your brother. We'll open the path for him."

In the next instant, the black ring plunged downward, devouring everything in its path. It moved so swiftly that if Wang Yu had attempted to escape, he would have failed. The necromantic fog that had filled the battlefield vanished, along with all who had fought within it.

All save Noelle.

Instead, her form flickered as she materialized atop a low rooftop adjacent to where the ring had descended. She blinked in disbelief, still bearing traces of spatial and void magic upon her—evidence of Avia's displacement spell. The two of them had exchanged places at the last second.

Recovering quickly, Noelle pulled out her identity card. It was no longer jammed. She contacted Sieg immediately. No matter what happened, they had to help Wang Yu and Avia.

"Spatial transfer... Where are we? The undead plane?"

Wang Yu landed on solid, dusty ground as he surveyed the barren, lifeless terrain. The undead magic in the air was familiar and eerily reminiscent of the undead plane.

"No," Avia replied calmly. "This is a temporary demiplane, the Void Realm. It's an unstable pocket of space that forms based on the dominant energy in the atmosphere at the moment of activation. They were trying to drag Sieg or Noelle in."

Her tone was steady and unshaken. She had studied interplanar theory for months to help Wang Yu return home. By now, she was a true master of spatial magic.

Using the Perfect Fractal lens, Avia had instantly identified the nature of the descending halo and switched places with Noelle in the blink of an eye. It was the only method fast enough for her to intervene.

She couldn't allow the enemy's plan to succeed, and nor could she let Wang Yu face this trial alone.

"You filth," came a voice filled with venom and loathing. "My sacred mission—thwarted by wretched mongrel heretics. I'll kill you both, and then I'll find a new chance to slay your damned dragons."

The voice tore through the undead haze like a dagger. Each step sent tremors through the ash-caked ground.

Within the Void Realm, free from the suppression of the material plane, Varma was finally able to unleash her true might.

Though possessing a weaker body had caused her legendary might to fall to the level of a high-rank mage, that was more than enough to crush the two before her.

Originally, she had intended to drag the young red dragon into this pocket realm and slaughter her within. Then, taking advantage of the similarities between the demiplane and the undead plane, she would have escaped back to the undead plane via planar transference.

But Avia's interference had ruined everything. Now, she was trapped with the knight and the mage—an utter failure, despite the cost of hundreds of cultists and a rare planar artifact. Rage filled her to the brim.

She would turn these two into her next undead puppets.

A wild gale roared to life. Avia summoned a tempest that blew away the shrouding fog and the oppressive necromantic energy. For a moment, the battlefield became clear.

And there it was: a hulking, grotesque silhouette. A corrupted dragon stood revealed, its form massive and bestial. It had jagged fangs and brutal claws, but its body was riddled with festering wounds. Pus-ridden sores oozed foul ichor down its sides, and a stench of decay rolled off it in waves.

"A dragon?" Wang Yu's armored face twisted in grim realization. "No... a draconian."

Wang Yu grimaced as he sucked in air through his teeth. Their foe this time wouldn't be easy to handle. An undead dragon was a terrifying nightmare.

But having lived with Sieg and Noelle for so long, he saw through Varma's guise. Though formidable, her body wasn't that of a full dragon. Valmar had become a corrupted undead draconian, not a true dragon.

"All right," he said to Avia, drawing a deep breath. "You break the spatial lock. Once the Professor arrives, this thing's dead. Until then, I'll hold it off, though we're both at a severe disadvantage here."

His blood surged. His life force, drawn from his blood pool, had already recovered by a third. He needed to delay this high-rank mage for as long as he could.

Avia nodded, already starting to weave arcane threads together and layering enhancement spells over Wang Yu even as she prepared her own assault on the plane's dimensional structure.

Then, Varma's attack began. A vile bellow rang out. The corrupted draconian opened its maw, belching forth a cloud of sickly green breath—part mist, part flame. Everything it touched withered and rotted. Even the air itself dissolved.

Wang Yu met the onslaught head-on. He inhaled deeply, gathered his strength, and answered with dragonfire of his own.

Lightning cracked. A cone of thunderous flame tore the land apart, shattering earth and scattering stones. The corrosive breath faltered, shredded by a more primal force, its very nature countered and obliterated.

Varma's malformed draconian lips curled slightly. Was that a smile on her face?

Three vials popped from the pouches on Wang Yu's metal-clad belt. Without missing a beat, he swallowed them, glass and all.

His body ignited with life force. Flames roared inside his veins. Strength surged into his limbs. He needed a tougher body—to become a fortress.

The corrupted draconian raised its withered arms and began summoning necrotic mana, filling the air with it. The ambient mana would reduce her mana expenditure while disrupting Avia's own mana manipulation.

Varma conjured a sea of gleaming bone spears. They glowed with deep necrotic hues and carried weakening curses. Then, from above, a rain of green-flamed meteors hurtled down to strike the charging knight.

Wang Yu roared. He didn't flinch. He didn't dodge. He pushed his blood and fighting spirit to his very limit. His physical body was the core of his strength. To this bombardment, he had only one answer: charge forward without holding anything back.

The bone wave surged to meet him. The impact echoed like a cannon. Bone shattered and debris flew skyward—and Wang Yu tore through it all like a siege ram through a rotted wall. He was a man-shaped battering ram splitting the undead sea.

Flames of Cursed Fire burst from him at intervals, burning away the weakening curses layered on the bone spears.

As Wang Yu violently tore through the bone sea, the deathly meteors began to fall. They struck the ground with apocalyptic force, releasing surging bursts of corrosive green flames and explosive fire mana in their wake.

Yet Wang Yu paid no heed to the falling meteors. The momentum from his charge had been spent after plowing through two-thirds of the battlefield; he'd have to take on what remained by brute force alone. He trusted others—trusted Avia—to intercept what he could not.

Varma's draconic eyes narrowed as she sensed an anomalous surge of fire mana. That should not have been possible. How could fire take root in a domain steeped in necromantic power?

At Avia's position, a rift split the air, opening a passage to the Seed of Eden, a pocket dimension permanently linked to her.

Alchemical materials rich in fire mana instantly flushed out the surrounding necromantic aura.

Unreadable streams of data raced past the Perfect Fractal lens over her right eye. A miniature magic circle had already formed in her palm and was drawing in fire mana from what lay around her. A formidable fiery area spell surged with growing intensity, ready to be unleashed.

Avia had been preparing the enhanced fifth-tier Stellar Sea of Flames. Blazing flames ignited beneath the falling meteors, incinerating all that lay in their path. The searing glow gathered into orbs wreathed in fireworks-like bursts, which launched skyward to meet the descending rain of meteors.

Like a river of burning stars flowing in reverse, crimson light clashed with the meteors overhead. The impact birthed a cataclysmic shockwave, shattering everything nearby. Yet in the midst of it all, Wang Yu charged forward without pause.

His left fist was clenched tight, suffused with fighting spirit; his right hand reached into the void. He punched forward. Dense, concentrated fighting spirit burst from his body, forming into solid columns that surged ahead, blasting away the remaining bone obstacles in one decisive strike.

Above, the meteors and fiery orbs clashed in midair. The dual impact canceled each other out, leaving behind only drifting scarlet embers and ghostly green flames. These stray remnants, unclaimed by any will, were suddenly seized by an invisible force and drawn toward a single point.

Red and green flames entwined, clashing chaotically yet compressed into a single seething mass. These opposing forces rendered the coalescing orb unstable. It could detonate at any moment.

Wang Yu had used the Chariot to gather the lingering flames in the air together into a shimmering, volatile sphere of energy, radiant and dangerous.

Meanwhile, Varma's assault continued. Even as the meteors fell, its simultaneous attacks targeted both Wang Yu and Avia.

Above Avia's head, a deluge of blackened ash descended from the void, dense with compressed necrotic energy.

This was the fifth-tier undead spell Rain of Malice. Once the ash particles closed in on Avia, necrotic tendrils would lash out, instantly killing any being with insufficient vitality.

Varma had realized that, compared to Wang Yu, Avia posed the greater threat. She had to be forced into defending herself, unable to aid him. And so...

The earth cracked open. A giant hand of rock burst from below, shielding the girl. Though the stone hand was swiftly eroded by the Rain of Malice, it succeeded in stopping the attack. Still, Avia now had no capacity to help Wang Yu. The rest would fall to him alone.

Wang Yu's goal was merely to stall Varma, but that didn't mean he would forfeit all opportunity to attack. His plan was simple: he would break through her necromantic defenses, bait out Varma's attacks, and strike decisively when the moment came.

Necrotic energy surged. A massive scythe of bone and death materialized from thin air in Varma's hand. A single sweep loosed a crescent blade of grayish-black energy that shot toward Wang Yu, its sheer force enough to annihilate him entirely.

Wang Yu hurled the blazing sphere of flames in the air toward the incoming scythe, as if expecting the attacks to collide and neutralize each other.

But just before the two forces met, the orb suddenly veered, skimming past the scythe and hurtling straight toward Varmar's draconic form.

Five mithril needles followed in its wake. Guided by the Perfect Fractal lens in his right eye, Wang Yu pinpointed five of the dozens of magical nodes embedded in the scythe. With precision, he flung the antimagic projectiles at each one.

The nodes vanished. The scythe didn't shatter, but its power visibly dimmed. Wang Yu didn't dodge—instead, clad in heavy armor, he charged straight into it.

The shriek of twisting metal filled the air. A long, deep gash tore across his alchemical armor. If the scythe had been at full power, he would've been cleaved in two.

Instead, the sphere of flames flew past the scythe and closed in on Varma's dragon form, seconds from detonation. Wang Yu, not far behind, was ready to follow up—not to kill, but to wound, and wound hard.

Then, in the final moment before the orb exploded, Varma's draconic body dissolved into pure necrotic energy and dispersed into the air.

Wang Yu's heart sank. He had been deceived. Indeed, Valmar was a dragon-lich—but her true form remained in the undead plane, bound to another body entirely. This dragon's form was merely a construct of necromantic power.

She had orchestrated everything to mislead Wang Yu and Avia into believing this was her true body. And now...

The dracolich moved at startling speed within the fog of death. Varma reappeared behind Wang Yu in a cloud of condensed smoke. In her hand was dense black energy. As part of a lich's innate gifts, she could instantly cast the seventh-tier single-target Finger of Death every so often.

At the same time, invisible, corrosive gas closed in from all directions around Wang Yu, whom her spell had locked onto. This was her true breath of corruption.

The green fog they'd seen earlier was nothing more than a decoy—mere aesthetic. The true corrosive breath was unseen, formless, carefully guided and stored by Varma in preparation for a perfect kill.

Caught in her trap, Wang Yu would be annihilated. Not even his bones would remain intact.