Demon Hunter and His Cabin
Chapter 893 - 677: New Shadow Fragments_2

Chapter 893: Chapter 677: New Shadow Fragments_2

"Didn’t Hillrenes say her wings were impossible for others to use?"

"Strange."

"You all can just die!"

Salam revealed a cruel grin, his yellow pupils locking tightly onto Roger. "I’ll make your death slower, and as for you—"

"Wouldn’t it be easier if you just agreed obediently?"

Anna’s face remained stoic, the Magic Mirror held before her.

Swish!

Salam’s body vanished into thin air. When he reappeared, he had eerily bypassed the barrier of the Magic Mirror and stood right beside Anna.

He wore a sinister smile as his clawed hand, covered in Scale Armor, struck towards Anna’s neck.

"Where do you think you’re going?"

A cold snort echoed from behind. In the next moment, a powerful hand gripped tightly onto Salam’s trailing dragon tail.

From the tip of his tail through his spine, the force surged all the way to his skull.

Salam felt half his body go numb. He let out a horrific scream, instinctively attempting to counterattack when a tremendous force hit from behind, swinging his body out of control.

The world spun wildly.

One rotation. Two rotations.

The surroundings blurred into streaks of motion as Salam found himself unable to steady his form. He felt like he was about to split apart.

Snap!

With the sound of shattering, it was as if he had been kicked at his waist. Unable to withstand the centrifugal force, Salam’s tail tore away at the root. The wound extended from the base of his hip upwards, ripping his posterior and lower back apart completely.

Screaming in agony, he plummeted from the sky.

The roaring wind howled around him. Salam flailed his wings desperately, trying to regain control of his descent.

But the space around him seemed to form suppressive walls. He couldn’t draw on any energy, and under the relentless compression, he was hurled into the Abyss.

Accompanied by a deafening crash, he fell like a meteor and smashed into the ground.

Thud!

At the same time, Roger descended to the bottom of the Abyss with Anna.

An invisible force seemed to pull at Salam’s body, but shortly after, Roger stepped down hard with his right foot. Salam’s body, caught between the clash of two immense forces, began to collapse.

The Scale Armor covering his entire body shattered, his bones cracked audibly, and his body was pierced through once more.

As Salam struggled to rise, he collapsed again.

And with every attempt to rise, he fell more completely than before.

"It’s fake. All of this is fake!"

He roared, but Roger applied just the slightest added pressure, silencing Salam completely.

Amid the endless darkness, a mountainous range undulated in the distance. Roger lifted his head and noticed jagged ridges along the peaks.

"If you want a fight, come face me yourself. Stop using this pitiful puppet."

"Are you so arrogant, or simply too much of a coward for direct confrontation?"

Roger sneered.

"Silence!"

The ground quaked violently, waves rippling across the earth. The mountains trembled as though some horrid creature was about to burst forth.

"Who gave you my eye?"

A beam of light flashed, illuminating the immense form of the mountain before Roger.

It was a Giant Dragon—a dragon bound within the mountain itself.

With its thunderous roar, chunks of rock began to slide off the peaks.

No, not rocks. Not mountains.

It was an almost tangible black Energy encasing the dragon, tethering it in place. The creature thrashed and roared, reaching out with its front claw to strike at Roger!

Boom!

Even before its claw could come near, the sheer power it exuded stirred up fierce currents of wind and debris. Facing the ferocity of the Giant Dragon, Roger advanced rather than retreated, drawing strength from the earth beneath his feet and striking with his fist.

A shockwave swept the battlefield. Anna had to shield herself with the Magic Mirror, yet still felt the impact’s intensity.

As she widened her eyes to look ahead, she saw Roger standing immovable amidst the chaos. In stark contrast, the ferocious Giant Dragon found itself pressed down by countless swaths of black Energy, roaring in fury but unable to rise again.

Its cries were drenched in despair, but to no avail.

"Wretched traitor... I’ll kill you!"

The dragon’s voice carried raw anguish. Roger didn’t strike but waited quietly.

After what felt like an eternity, the dragon, perhaps out of despair or exhaustion, ceased struggling. It turned its head, and only then did Roger notice the fathomless bloodied hollow where an eye should have been—and its solitary remaining eye.

"Pathetic. My power has withered to this extent. Tell me, where did you get that eye?"

But before Roger could respond, it sighed.

"I know. Who else could it be but her?"

"It was Hillrenes. She sent you."

"Where is she? Hiding away, snickering at my misery?"

Roger remained silent, cautious as ever.

He hadn’t forgotten Hillrenes’s warning before their departure: this realm was undoubtedly the Different Space she’d described.

And this being...

Was extraordinarily dangerous!

With that thought, a pitch-black weapon materialized in Roger’s hand.

Black Moon.

"If she wanted me dead, why didn’t she come herself?"

Noticing the weapon in Roger’s hand, an unmistakable shift occurred in the dragon’s expression. "Afraid to face me directly, is she?"

"Ha, she gouged out my eye just to peer through the Mist, then sealed me here, turning my body into mere sustenance to dissolve the Fragment’s curse..."

"Haha, such a venomous woman—what wickedness is beyond her?"

The dragon roared again, struggling anew. This time, though, it didn’t attack Roger but instead scanned its surroundings.

"Come out, Hillrenes!"

"I trusted you as my closest ally, yet you chose betrayal!"

"Come out! Are you truly too afraid to face me?"

Roger frowned, sensing something unusual. From what he’d seen so far, this dragon didn’t seem as powerful as Hillrenes claimed it to be.

But perhaps it was merely masking its true strength, conserving its energy without Hillrenes present. If that were the case, striking now would be Roger’s best move.

Still...

Where were the wings and the life-extending Fragment Hillrenes mentioned?

"Killing it will grant me everything I desire?"

Despite his lingering doubts, Roger hesitated only for a split second before swinging the Black Moon in his hand.

For Amanda’s sake, he had no choice.

Boom!

A blinding flash erupted. As Roger’s strike neared the dragon, the black material encasing its body suddenly splintered, blocking his attack.

"Did Hillrenes not tell you?"

The dragon appeared to have abandoned resistance. "To kill me, you must first sever my bond with the Fragments. No matter how powerful, a Fourth-Tier attack won’t suffice."

"Sever the bond."

Within those few words, Roger gleaned much. He realized the situation might not align with Hillrenes’s narrative at all.

"Haha, I understand now!" The dragon let out a wild laugh.

"She didn’t send you here to kill me. It was to harvest the prize. Her goal has always been that item."

"And my eye!"

"I failed, but my eye—I won’t surrender it to anyone. She believed stealing it would let her pierce through illusion and safely find passage to another world."

"But how futile—it only granted her a fraction of the eye’s power."

"Tell her this: she’ll get nothing."

"I’d rather destroy everything!"

The dragon’s voice was filled with resolute finality.

It stretched its claw with great effort, aiming towards its solitary eye.

"Wait!"

Roger suddenly spoke. "You said your eye could reveal the safe path to another world?"

Roger’s expression changed.

"What, she didn’t tell you?"

The dragon sneered.

Roger’s mind churned as he weighed the pros and cons. Hillrenes’s declarations and the dragon’s revelations intertwined.

Truth be told, Roger couldn’t distinguish between fact and deception in this moment.

"I’m not Hillrenes’s pawn. I want passage to another world. If you surrender your eye to me, I’ll spare your life," he probed.

"I don’t believe you."

"I don’t believe in promises anymore."

Despair filled the dragon’s sole eye. Its resolute tone left no room for negotiation.

The certainty in its gaze told Roger there was no changing its mind.

"Besides, you can’t save me," it continued.

"Because of her treachery, I’ve become nothing more than sustenance for breaking the curse, a resource to be drained dry..."

"So, I refuse."

"Fair enough."

Roger stepped closer to the dragon, the energy surging from Black Moon growing sharper. But at that moment, a glaring prompt suddenly appeared on the notification board.

"Detectable Shadow Fragment identified. Proceed with assimilation?"

"Hmm? Shadow Fragment?"

Roger hesitated briefly. Before he could respond, a faint, flickering structure resembling a house materialized not far away, accompanied by another prompt on the notification board.

Assimilation initiated!!

What’s happening? So urgent, all of a sudden?