Within a breath, Qin Ran met the expanse of silent blackness.
Amid the Calamity Dragon's sinister laughter, the silent blackness instantly contracted from a spreading sheet into a sphere, enclosing Qin Ran.
The deathly intent saturating the plague was unleashed in full.
Boom!
Countless skeletal phantoms surrounded the black sphere, wailing loudly.
They writhed as though struggling in their final moments before death.
They raised their arms as though awaiting salvation.
But none came!
Whether they struggled or hoped.
It all came to nothing!
All that remained was deeper despair!
Lodged in the Void Cave, the Calamity Dragon deftly controlled that despair. Without restraint, it poured every last bit into the Plague Ball.
It wanted everyone who stood in its way to understand what it meant to overestimate themselves.
Its power flowed smoothly. Everything happened in a single stroke.
But when it approached the center, where its target should have been struggling, something unexpected happened.
There, the Calamity Dragon sensed a resilient power.
Not only was it resilient, it was also gentle, yet concealed a sharp edge.
Those were the qualities it hated most!
"You remind me of those bastard knights!"
"They carried a scent much like yours!"
"But compared to them, you're still a long way off!"
The Calamity Dragon's voice echoed through the night sky like peals of muffled thunder, while the enormous Plague Ball began spinning rapidly.
It resembled a peculiar millstone, seemingly intent on grinding Qin Ran to pieces.
Throughout it all, Qin Ran remained silent inside the Plague Ball, as though he accepted those words-or simply lacked the strength to resist.
The citizens of Aikend City watching their screens panicked.
C-could even the Gluttony King have been defeated just like that?
Dresden was even more frantic.
He wanted to rescue his friend.
But!
The shelter