It was as if time did not truly flow within the Dimensional Gap; even after such a massive disturbance, it retained its distorted, kaleidoscope-like appearance, never changing.
The land, which had been engulfed in high temperatures and blown back by a grand explosion, stabilized at some point, returning to its state of aimless drifting.
The explosive flames had dissipated, but the marks left by the great explosion and shockwaves remained. They were clearly etched into the terrain, giving the already desolate and ruined land an even more dilapidated feel, with piles of rubble and charred scorch marks everywhere.
Bang—
At a certain moment, a cluster of flames appeared out of thin air in the sky above this land, gradually taking on Leon's form.
Whew—
Exhaling, Leon looked at the tragic state of the land and couldn't help but click his tongue.
"Did I overdo it?"
He knew the power of the fire lotus he had condensed would be extraordinary. After all, he hadn't intended to hold back at the time, fully activating the power of "Zenith Tempest" to release the maximum amount of fire-attribute energy he could currently control. He had also subjected it to extreme compression, bringing the power of the flames to a whole new level.
However, he hadn't expected the power of fire-attribute energy compressed to the limit to be this immense once it erupted. This was beyond Leon's expectations.
"At least I didn't destroy the place."
Leon glanced at the ruined land and then looked toward the castle.
Under the assault of the explosion's aftershocks, the castle had also become more dilapidated. The outer walls had almost completely collapsed, and about seventy to eighty percent of the walls and windows were shattered, revealing the internal structure. Yet, it stubbornly stood its ground and had not completely collapsed.
Confirming this, Leon felt relieved.
He had placed his hopes of escaping the Dimensional Gap inside that castle. If the castle had been destroyed just like that, he would have nowhere to cry.
Presumably, a castle guarded by a Dragon King ought to contain some great secrets.
"By the way, where is that dragon?"
Suddenly remembering this, Leon began searching for the giant dragon.
As his magic perception expanded, Leon quickly located it.
Currently, the dragon was lying atop a pile of rubble.
Its condition was wretched. Its elegant, near-white fur was entirely burnt away, its skin was charred black, and one of its dragon wings was half-destroyed, exposing white bone. Even the horns on its head were broken, and its entire face was stained with blood. It looked to be at death's door.
Whoosh!
Leon flapped his ten devil wings and flew over, landing in front of the dragon. He retracted his wings and spoke.
"Well? Still want to fight?"
These words were quite malicious.
Given the dragon's current state, let alone continuing the fight, it couldn't even move.
That wasn't the worst of it; the worst part was that its life signs were gradually fading. Its breathing was becoming faint, and its blood-stained eyes slowly closed, allowing tears of blood to leak out.
This was clearly a sign of impending death.
Evidently, under the direct hit of Leon's terrifyingly powerful fire lotus, even a Dragon King with vigorous vitality and an unknown lifespan could not avoid suffering a fatal wound.
Leon had thus accomplished the feat of slaying a dragon within the Dimensional Gap, and a Dragon King at that.
Of course, he didn't feel he had gone too far.
The other party had struck first. Those repeatedly exhaled electrical breaths showed no sign of mercy; they were intended to vaporize him. Since that was the case, why should Leon show mercy?
However—
"Do you want to live?" Leon stood before the dragon and said, "If you want to live, tell me what you know."
Indeed, Leon wanted to try communicating with it again to gain some information.
Setting aside a method to leave this place, even just knowing the origin of this land and the information about the castle would make the trip worthwhile.
Unfortunately, the dragon still showed no intention of responding.
Only this time, it wasn't that the dragon didn't want to respond, but that it could no longer do so.
Its life signs completely vanished, and it stopped breathing on the spot.
It was dead.
"—What a hassle."
Leon scratched his head and finally expanded a magic circle above his palm, letting a chess piece fly out.
It was the remaining devil piece in Leon's possession.
It was a "Pawn" piece, the same as Ram and Rem's.
And this piece was currently radiating a brilliant light, telling Leon that there was a servant right in front of him who was perfectly suited for it.
"Taking a Dragon King as a servant?"
Leon suddenly smiled.
"Not a bad idea."
With that, Leon pressed the glowing devil piece against the giant dragon that had died from incurable wounds and chanted the incantation.
"In the name of Leon Eligos, I command—"
"Thou—unknown dragon, so that thou mayest become my servant, let thy soul return here once more."
"Be reborn as a devil and rejoice in thy new life."
As the incantation finished, the glowing devil piece shattered, turning into countless light particles that merged into the dragon's body, causing a hazy glow to appear over it.
Within the light, the dragon's charred body began to recover at a speed visible to the naked eye. As if time were reversing, the burnt fur, the broken horns, and the spilled blood were all regenerating, causing the dragon's life signs to burst forth again.
At the same time, Leon received the message generated by his trait.
[Trait: Peerage Assimilation, is taking effect...]
[Obtained basic feedback magic power (Large amount).]
[Obtained advanced feedback Sacred Gear (Strengthened).]
[Obtained extra feedback—Trait: Lightning.]
Almost at the very moment he finished receiving this message, the magic power within Leon began to soar wildly.
This time, he had taken in a Dragon King-class servant. This level of strength alone was worthy of a high-potential evaluation. The magic power fed back to him was incomparably vast, more than any previous time. It pushed Leon's magic power from the newly promoted ten-wing level all the way to its limit, hitting the barrier for advancement.
Leon's current magic power was likely the strongest among the ten-wing rank. His level could roughly be compared to Kokabiel, capable of confronting a Demon King. He was only half a step away from the Demon King class and could cross over at any moment.
With this level of magic power, he would likely only need to take in one more medium-potential servant to promote directly to the Demon King class. This showed how close his magic power currently was to that rank.
"Zenith Tempest" was also enhanced, its power strengthened once more. It might have already surpassed the "True Longinus," known as the strongest Longinus.
Of course, what Leon cared about most was the final extra feedback.
"Trait: Lightning?"
Had he obtained a new trait?
Thinking of this, Leon reached out his hand, channeled the magic power in his body, and tried to convert it into the lightning attribute.
Leon hadn't been unable to manifest magic power as lightning in the past, but he perhaps lacked talent in that area. The power of the lightning he manifested was pitiful, not even reaching half the power of a standard magic bullet. This had caused him to simply give up on the path of lightning magic.
In sharp contrast was Rias's "Queen," Akeno Himejima. She was most adept at using lightning magic to fight, which was why she earned the title of "Priestess of Thunder."
However, Akeno Himejima was only able to use lightning magic that way because of her talent; that was an entirely different matter from a trait.
Just like Sona Sitri, as a pure-blooded devil from the Sitri family, she was extremely skilled at using water magic. But that was a result guided by the Sitri family trait, quite different from personal talent.
One didn't need much talent; as long as one possessed the inherent trait of the bloodline, one could use it freely. To put it simply, one required hard study, while the other relied on being born with it.
The Eligos bloodline also had its advantages in this regard. Pure-blooded devils born to that house were naturally gifted at detection, finding reconnaissance tasks using magic power most effortless.
Now, through the extra feedback brought by the "Peerage Assimilation" trait, Leon's own magic power possessed characteristics beyond just detection.
Thus, when he tried to manifest his magic power as lightning this time, he was surprised to find that his magic power completed the conversion with extreme fluidity, causing a dazzling thunderbolt to bloom in his hand.
That sense of fluidity was on an entirely different level compared to before.
If before, Leon had to painstakingly manipulate his magic power and deepen his mental image—requiring a profound understanding of the concept of lightning just to have the imagination to manifest it—now, with just a thought, his magic power immediately manifested as lightning on its own. The process was effortless.
Moreover, while the lightning manifested in the past had only half the power of a standard magic bullet, the lightning manifested now was terrifyingly powerful, comparable to the lightning-attribute natural force Leon released using "Zenith Tempest."
"What if I inject this lightning magic power into 'Zenith Tempest' as fuel for releasing lightning?"
As this thought arose, Leon had already activated the power of "Zenith Tempest," injecting the lightning magic in his hand into the Sacred Gear as fuel before releasing the power of thunder.
Boom!!!
In the next second, a terrifying ten-thousand-foot lightning bolt erupted from Leon's hand, directly illuminating the entire world.
Seeing this, Leon's eyes instantly lit up.
He tried using ordinary magic power as fuel again to activate "Zenith Tempest" to release lightning. As a result, although the lightning released this time was also impressive, it wasn't as frightening as the previous one.
"Good grief, the difference is several times over."
Even when using the same "Zenith Tempest" to release the power of lightning, the difference in power between using lightning magic as fuel and using ordinary magic as fuel was several-fold. It could be described as a night-and-day difference.
The emergence of lightning magic not only raised Leon's combat power in his normal state by a level but also greatly increased the power when using "Zenith Tempest" to release lightning.
"At this rate, I'd even dare to use the power of lightning to compete with the current Demon King Serafall Leviathan's ice magic."
This made Leon somewhat excited.
However, thinking of his current situation, Leon quickly calmed down again.
"Whether I can even go back to see Serafall is still an unknown. I should focus on finding a way to escape first."
At this thought, Leon retracted the lightning power in his hand and turned his gaze forward.
By this time, the elegant-looking dragon had fully recovered and woken up.
It opened a pair of large eyes and propped up its body, looking down at Leon with an intense sense of pressure.
Leon looked up, meeting the dragon's eyes, his face calm.
"Can you turn into a human form?"
Leon asked composedly.
Not all dragons could turn into human form like Tiamat.
In the original story, among the Five Dragon Kings, only Tiamat had ever taken human form. Even the Two Heavenly Dragons hadn't done so. It was clear that taking a human form required either talent or practice.
Leon really hoped the dragon before him could take human form; otherwise, he would probably have to run around with a giant dragon in tow from now on.
Not knowing what Leon was thinking, the giant dragon watched him quietly for a moment before a soft light suddenly erupted from its body.
The light enveloped the dragon's entire body, causing it to slowly shrink.
As time passed, the giant dragon actually shrank to be even smaller than Leon. Only then did the transformation stop and the light fade.
"Ah—"
Leon, whose expression had been calm, was stunned when he clearly saw the person before him.
Because what appeared before him was a young girl who looked to be in the lower or middle years of elementary school.
The girl's height was only about 120 centimeters, very similar to a human elementary schooler. She wore clothes with an ethnic flair, had long, gradient purple hair in twin-tails, and large blue eyes. She looked petite, adorable, and very innocent, with a delicate, doll-like quality.
The little girl just stared expectantly at Leon, saying nothing, yet it was as if she had said everything, causing Leon's mouth to twitch.
"—Are you really that dragon from just now?"
Leon was silent for a long time before he spoke.
His expression made it look as though he was unwilling to accept this reality.
"Gao!"
The little girl seemed to see the slight in Leon's attitude. Very unhappily, she made a "dragon roar" expression, as if trying to tell Leon that she was very fierce. Yet, no matter how one looked at it, it just seemed like she was acting cute.
Leon put his hand to his forehead.
He was feeling a bit dizzy.
Thinking that he had accidentally killed such a soft and tender little loli just now, a huge sense of guilt rose in Leon's heart.
The key was that he recognized the identity of this loli dragon.
This was yet another character who had crossed over.
"Tell me, what is your name?"
Leon asked for now.
The little girl blinked her eyes, and it took a while before she spoke somewhat reluctantly.
"Kanna Kamui."
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