Chapter 719

The battle with Nidhogg was akin to walking a tightrope over a pit of fire, with no end in sight.

A single misstep, and your entire body would be engulfed in flames.

Their attacks were almost meaningless, while the enemy could turn them into minced meat with just one strike.

Thus, it was only natural that Ferne and Floheta, who had exhausted most of their strength, were considering retreat.

Despite fighting tirelessly, using every trick in the book, Nidhogg remained unscathed.

Of course, Nidhogg wasn’t completely unharmed either.

One of its horns was broken, its forelegs were half-sliced to the bone, three Dragon-Slaying Crossbow arrows were embedded in its side, and its exoskeleton was shattered in places, revealing reddish muscles.

Yet, despite all these injuries, the Insect-Dragon rampaged with the same ferocity as before.

Even Ferne, who had lived for centuries, felt a thread of fear at its endless resilience.

“How are we supposed to defeat that…?”

“Is it immortal…?”

It wasn’t just Ferne. Everyone who looked up at Nidhogg, spewing Black Flame and roaring, felt despair and terror.

‘This might be doable.’

Except for one man who feared nothing but Ha-shal-leur.

—

Leaping, falling, and leaping again, Damien swung his Greatsword. There was not a hint of fear in his heart.

He swung his sword at an enemy he could never hope to match, and dodging the counterattacks alone required all his strength, leaving no room for emotions he couldn’t even feel.

No, that wasn’t the only reason…

Rather, it was the strange sensation that grew stronger each time he swung his sword at the dragon, stimulating his mind.

‘This feels familiar…’

Why did it feel so familiar? As if he had fought dragons countless times before. It was incomprehensible.

A hazy sense of déjà vu. With each swing of his sword against the Insect-Dragon, the sensation grew clearer, leaving no room for other thoughts.

—

“Haaaah!”

Damien leaped through the air, hardened by magic.

He let the dragon’s snout pass beneath his feet, twisted his body mid-air to dodge the tail that stabbed at him like a spear, and drove his Greatsword deep into the Insect-Dragon’s tailbone.

【Kyahaaaak!】

Fluid evasion and counterattacks. Moves he couldn’t have imagined just minutes ago now felt natural.

Damien intuitively felt that he was growing stronger at an unprecedented rate through his battle with the dragon.

With each swing of his sword, his strength, speed, reflexes—everything that defined a warrior—improved exponentially.

It wasn’t just his abilities. His swordsmanship was also growing at an astonishing rate. Instinctive slashes, guided by his instincts, traced efficient and sharp trajectories, easily tearing through the dragon’s flesh.

‘This attack alone would’ve been impossible for the old me. Am I getting stronger? Like Ha-shal-leur, who grew through battles with strong foes?’

Was the battle with the dragon pushing him beyond his limits?

‘No, it’s different.’

Damien immediately dismissed his speculation.

The sensation he felt now was vastly different from what Ha-shal-leur had described—breaking through a wall to reach the Realm of Heroes.

—

-What does it feel like to reach the Realm of Heroes?

Ha-shal-leur had said:

-Well…it’s like walking through an endless forest with no sense of direction, looking up at the stars. You use your soul as a guide to carve your own path, one no one has walked before.

Breaking through the wall to the Realm of Heroes is like forging a path through uncharted territory.

-You don’t understand? Of course not. It’s hard to grasp without experiencing it yourself.

It was a vague metaphor, but she couldn’t think of a better way to describe it.

-This is just my theory, but…just as desperation is the key to reaching the level of a Master, ‘conviction’ seems necessary to break through the wall and enter the Realm of Heroes.

She also offered advice on breaking through the wall.

-A firm belief in yourself. Whether you call it conviction or stubbornness…you wield that unshakable belief as your weapon and strike at the world.

Though abstract, Damien remembered every word.

-If your belief, conviction, stubbornness, or soul is strong enough, it will shatter the wall before you and manifest in the world as a ‘Heroic Tale.’

An unshakable self-belief, even against the world. That was the key to breaking through the wall and becoming a hero.

—

Thus, Damien couldn’t help but feel perplexed as he grew stronger by the second while fighting the dragon.

The sensation he felt now was far from the feeling of breaking through a wall with unwavering resolve.

‘This familiarity…it’s not like breaking through a wall, but rather…’

It felt more like retracing a path he had already walked, guided by faint memories.

Not breaking through a wall, but finding a door that had already been opened and stepping through.

All the struggles he had endured to break through the wall now felt like a lie, as everything felt so familiar and natural.

Damien couldn’t understand why.

【Kaaaaaah!】

But the Insect-Dragon, screaming as Damien’s Greatsword dug into its tailbone, had no intention of waiting for him to figure it out.

‘Right, I’ll worry about it later. For now—’

With unanswered questions in his heart, Damien fought on, guided by the déjà vu and his body’s instincts.

His Greatsword, now imbued with a power far beyond what it had an hour ago, swung like a bolt of blue lightning.

—

The first to notice Damien’s change was Ferne, who had been planning to knock him out and carry him away like a sack.

‘…Did he break through the wall?’

Just moments ago, he would’ve needed her help to dodge attacks, but now he effortlessly evaded them, his sword slicing through the Insect-Dragon’s exoskeleton like tofu.

Not only that, but his fighting style had completely changed.

Until now, Damien had relied on his experience fighting monsters.

A fighting style that involved dodging attacks by throwing his body to the side and striking with all his might when an opening appeared. It was a method that wasted a lot of energy.

But now, Damien had abandoned that style, moving in a way perfectly optimized for battling the dragon.

“Haaaah!”

With minimal movement and added rotation, he let the dragon’s foreleg pass by, then drove his blade into its arm, using the dragon’s own strength to tear it apart.

Next, using the Greatsword lodged in the dragon’s elbow as a wedge, he climbed onto its arm, leaped again, and swung his sword in a long arc from its shoulder down its back.

From the shoulder to the wing.

【Kyaaaaak!】

As the Insect-Dragon screamed and flailed its wing, Damien didn’t leap away as before. Instead, he rolled toward the base of the wing and swung his sword again.

The exoskeleton covering Nidhogg’s wing shattered like glass, and half of its root was severed.

【Kyahak…!】

Enraged, the Insect-Dragon unleashed a storm of Magi, sending Damien flying.

Damien used his massive Greatsword as a shield to block the impact, landing unscathed and creating distance.

His movements were so fluid, as if he had been battling dragons all his life. It was reminiscent of the dragon-slayers of old legends.

“…What the hell? Why is he fighting so well?”

Ferne muttered in disbelief, her face blank.

The gap in power between the dragon and the human remained, but Damien was putting up an astonishing fight.

If he had fought like this from the start, they might’ve had a chance.

Nidhogg seemed to feel the same.

【Kyaak!】

The Insect-Dragon, its exoskeletal jaws clacking madly, curled its head and tail like a ball, then unleashed a full-body explosion of Magi.

-Kwaaaaaaah!

A Magi explosion spanning three hundred meters in diameter. The shockwave swept through the air.

“Kyaaak?!”

Floheta, who had been staring blankly like Ferne, hastily erected a Mana Barrier and was sent flying, crashing into a city spire.

Ferne, who had used her Spirit’s wings as a shield to block the shockwave, lost her wings and fell, hurriedly repairing her Spirit’s body.

And what about Damien?

—

‘This is dangerous…!’

The moment the Insect-Dragon curled up, Damien felt his instincts scream a warning.

The déjà vu warned him. He instinctively knew: if he didn’t dodge, he would die.

And he also knew he had the ability to dodge.

Guided by the déjà vu that gripped his mind, Damien unleashed the Power of Feats he had accumulated, directing it at the world.

-Hwaaaaah!

A pair of radiant wings spread across the sky, casting a pure white light.