Chapter 191

Chapter 191
## Chapter: 191

### Chapter Title: True Invincibility

—

A dark, satisfied curve stretched across Isera’s mouth.

She felt as though a priceless prize had simply fallen into her grasp, tangled in its own vines.

‘A fledgling Dragon God with that much grit—impressive.’

The sheer audacity was worth noting.

Like any dragon, a Dragon God was a creature that distilled its power over eons.

The potency of their hearts and the reality-warping reach of their Wish Orbs were inextricably linked to their “maturity.”

Logic dictated that a newborn deity would lack any truly terrifying depth.

In a moment where it should have been burrowing into the earth to survive, it had instead stepped into the light.

‘I can skip the tedious process of digging up the dragon vein, then.’

Uprooting a fully formed vein usually required a series of exhausting rituals.

However, if the Dragon God died, the vein would naturally wither and shatter along with it.

“By the way…”

**Shwaaak!**

Isera reached up and yanked the serrated bone shard from her own chest, tilting her head in genuine curiosity.

This hadn’t been a failed strike or a glancing blow; it had bypassed her defenses entirely, striking a vulnerable point.

Was it effective simply because the blade was a physical extension of that Dragon God’s essence?

That felt like too hollow an explanation.

Even when Lucaria had funneled her power through her own eyes, she hadn’t managed to draw blood like this.

The specific “self-destruction” clause Isera had accepted as a flaw required the attacker to bet their entire existence on the strike. A simple shard of bone shouldn’t have been enough to bypass those laws.

‘It must be hiding a very peculiar trait.’

No matter.

It was irrelevant, provided the creature didn’t land a second strike.

Pinpointing a Dragon God’s Achilles’ heel was always a chore, but it was a solved science for her.

Isera had already successfully butchered two others of its kind.

Her toolkit for deicide was fully stocked.

‘We will begin by cycling through every natural affinity.’

The fundamental quartet.

Water, fire, earth, and air.

The vast majority of common Dragon Gods were tethered to these natural forces.

Typically, the larger the territory a Dragon God protected, the more complex their weakness became. But this “Earth” was already the domain of Lucaria, a member of the Seven.

A Dragon God manifesting from such a small, insignificant speck of land? Its flaw would be amateurish.

Likely one of the base elements.

Or a derivative.

Even if it wasn’t, it didn’t change the outcome.

“Legion.”

The remaining horde of tens of thousands of demons stood ready.

Isera projected her voice to the waiting swarm.

“All of you. Erase it.”

A synchronized barrage from a multitude of demonic attributes would force the weakness to reveal itself in short order.

—

**Huuuup!**

Park Tae-woo dug his heels into the dirt, fighting to stay upright.

His muscles were screaming, and his stamina was red-lining.

The “Fragments of the Golden Rule” he had been hoarding were almost gone.

‘Just one… I need to take down one more!’

He refused to buckle.

Not after watching even the legendary Lucaria fall to the enemy.

If he gave up now, the demonic flood would sweep over Korea.

The peninsula would be reduced to ash, and his people would be wiped from existence.

The appearance of this mysterious new “Dragon God” had bought them a moment of borrowed time, but Isera remained an unstoppable calamity.

He had to act now—while the demons were fixated on the newcomer—to thin their ranks by even a single body.

“Now! Full withdrawal! Everyone out!”

…What?

What was that coward blathering about?

Park Tae-woo whipped his head around, staring at Darkstar with pure loathing.

Taking advantage of the chaos as the demons swarmed the new deity, Darkstar was preparing to tuck tail and run.

“Darkstar! We have an opening! We have to support that Dragon God!”

“The battle is lost! It’s better to save what’s left of our strength than to die for nothing!”

Darkstar had already written off the newcomer’s chances.

To him, Isera’s current state was leagues beyond anything they had faced during the Great Expedition.

He believed that even if Wilhelm himself returned from the grave, he would be crushed under her heel.

“The casualties have been kept low, haven’t they? The Guardian of the Black Egg pulled out anyone who was flagging…”

“That’s irrelevant! If we stay, we’re just throwing lives into a meat grinder!”

Park Tae-woo was stunned by the man’s transparent excuses.

There were barely a thousand players left on the field.

The vast majority—tens of thousands—had already been evacuated.

The “Guardian of the Black Egg” had seen to that.

By forcibly warping away the wounded and those who had lost their transformations, the death toll had been kept miraculously low.

Darkstar knew this, yet he was still looking for a back door.

“Isera isn’t at full strength! She’s spent! This is the only chance we’ll ever get to kill her!”

After a grueling four-day marathon against Lucaria, Isera had to be running on fumes.

With the arrival of the new Dragon God, the scales might actually balance.

“I said move! Retreat!”

Darkstar didn’t wait for a rebuttal. He turned and sprinted away.

Park Tae-woo’s face twisted into a mask of fury as the other man disappeared into the distance.

‘Lunkstar, you pathetic piece of trash.’

The old, mocking nickname felt more appropriate than ever.

Roughly half of the remaining force followed Darkstar’s lead and vanished.

But a stubborn few, Park Tae-woo included, had no intention of leaving.

*Hoo.*

*Hooo.*

Words were unnecessary now.

The remaining warriors traded grim, silent nods of understanding.

**Taak!**

They kicked off the ground, charging back into the demonic tide.

—

The scale of the invasion had become a global obsession.

Every major power on Earth was streaming the conflict via satellite.

The very survival of the species was being decided on a screen.

“Why aren’t they nuking them? They’re all right there!”

“Shut up, man. We already tried that. Conventional physics doesn’t apply to those things.”

The global audience was vibrating with anxiety.

Military tests had already proven that even thermonuclear warheads were little more than fireworks against these cosmic invaders.

The Dimension Warriors were the only thin line between life and extinction.

As the hours ticked by, the mood turned funereal.

“…Is it over? Can we actually win this?”

“I thought the white dragon was supposed to be our guardian.”

“Ah…”

A collective groan went up as Lucaria was neutralized.

The number of surviving human champions was visibly shrinking.

Then.

“Darkstar is leaving!”

“Why is he running away?”

“He knows it’s a lost cause! We’re doomed!”

The sight of the alliance commander fleeing triggered a wave of panic.

It was the ultimate white flag. It seemed inevitable that the monsters would soon be crossing the ocean toward Korea.

“Reporter Kim Hana, if those creatures reach the mainland… what’s the prognosis?”

Inside the bustling offices of CK Broadcasting.

A group of journalists huddled around the monitors.

Kim Hana, known for her deep ties to the player community, was the center of attention.

“…”

She remained silent, her jaw set tight.

The answer was obvious. Total annihilation. Korea would be the first to fall.

“We have to believe in Park Tae-woo.”

“If he falls, the front line collapses…”

“Don’t talk like that!”

Kim Hana snapped, her voice sharp with tension.

Park Tae-woo was ignoring the retreat orders, standing his ground as the nation’s final shield.

He was the ideal hero, but he was only one man. If he died, there would be no one left.

Wait—no, there was one more.

‘Gracia.’

He was still somewhere in Korea, wasn’t he?

She had no idea why he hadn’t joined the front, but if she could reach him, if she could just convince him to move…

She turned to sprint out of the station.

“Aaah!”

“Look! It’s over!”

The room erupted in despair.

**Boom! Boom! Rumble!**

On the screen, a hellish storm of magic was descending upon the new Dragon God.

Demons were raining fire from every conceivable angle.

A massive wall of soot and black smoke swallowed the entire area.

Had it been hit?

Even Lucaria, with all her power, had focused on evasion rather than enduring such a direct assault.

The world’s final hope seemed to have been snuffed out in seconds.

“W-Wait, look!”

“How is it still standing?”

“The smoke… look through the smoke!”

As the haze drifted away, the Blade Queen stood in the center of the crater, completely untouched.

The crowd gasped.

There wasn’t a single blemish on her form.

‘I have to find Gracia now, while they’re distracted!’

Kim Hana didn’t waste another second. She bolted for the exit.

She had to find him while the Blade Queen held the line.

She had a lead—a hunch based on her research.

‘The site where the dragon vein is being born.’

There was a high probability Gracia was there.

She remembered a cryptic note from the “Hermit’s Diary” that pointed to that location.

—

“Hm…?”

Isera’s brow furrowed.

Tens of thousands of her subjects had just unleashed a coordinated extinction-level event on that spot, yet the blade-wielding Dragon God looked as if she had just stepped out of a bath.

‘So, she isn’t vulnerable to the basic elements.’

Isera hadn’t stopped at the four basics; she had cycled through dozens of esoteric affinities.

The fact that the creature was unharmed meant that simple “attributes” weren’t the key to the puzzle.

‘A mutation indeed.’

It explained the creature’s confidence.

If the conditions for harming it were this obscure, this might take longer than she anticipated.

But she had a shortcut.

“Wish Orb.”

She would simply force the universe to hand over the answer.

She held the Wish Orb of Miron, one of the Seven.

Could a brand-new Dragon God truly possess more cosmic weight than Miron?

**Whoooosh!**

A massive, glowing sphere of pure intent coalesced in front of her.

Isera spoke to the orb as it pulsed with blinding radiance.

“Show me the ‘weakness’ of that woman.”

**Whoooong!**

The light flared and then died down almost instantly.

The Orb had processed the request.

However, Isera’s expression soured as she read the shimmering text that hung in the air.

《Observation impossible.》

…Impossible?

Even Miron’s artifact couldn’t see through her?

That shouldn’t be possible.

‘That ring. It’s interfering with the Orb’s sight.’

She quickly identified the source of the static.

The band around the Blade Queen’s finger.

That single piece of jewelry was acting as a total shroud against the Wish Orb’s “Observation.”

‘What the hell is that thing?’

It wasn’t just a specific block; it was a blanket negation of all outside scrutiny.

She had never encountered an artifact with such a high priority of existence.

‘Fine. It tells me one thing: she is hiding a condition that she absolutely cannot afford to have exposed.’

A secret so volatile that its discovery would mean her immediate end.

All Dragon God conditions followed a similar logic.

They had strict boundaries.

Even Isera couldn’t just grant herself “total invincibility” without a cost.

If she could, she would have chosen something like “100% defense bypass” or “absolute evasion.”

The rules governing Dragon Gods were always anchored in a form of reality.

The Blade Queen was no different.

“…Let’s see how long you can keep your secrets.”

—

A full day passed.

The weakness remained a mystery.

Furthermore, the Blade Queen hadn’t budged an inch from her original position.

‘Is her invincibility tied to her lack of movement?’

If so, the solution was to force her hand.

“Legion! Forget her. Target the dragon vein directly!”

She couldn’t stay still if her source of power was being torn out of the ground.

Once the vein was exposed and shattered, the Dragon God would be crippled.

**Shiiik! Shiiiik!**

But Isera’s theory was immediately proven wrong.

The Blade Queen’s wings unfurled, and she began to stride through the air as if walking on solid ground.

In an instant, hundreds of floating blades tore through the sky, methodically butchering the demons that tried to bypass her.

“…”

The Blade Queen had intentionally stayed still, baiting Isera into wasting her energy and her soldiers.

She acted as if her secret was fundamentally uncrackable.

She was far more calculated than Isera had given her credit for.

…Three more days bled away.

The “condition” remained hidden.

Isera could feel her own magical reserves beginning to dip.

‘I wanted to claim her heart while it was still brimming with life.’

Isera stole a glance at the incapacitated Lucaria.

Her plan was to consume Lucaria only after delivering the new heart to the Demon King.

Eating her now would replenish Isera’s power, but it would spoil the quality of the offering.

‘What kind of nonsensical rule is protecting her?’

Frustration was turning into genuine anger.

She had tested every known variable. Every paradox, every physical law, every conceptual weakness—nothing worked.

But she wasn’t finished.

She still had time.

…By the sixth day, Isera realized she had hit a wall.

She had run out of experiments.

The Blade Queen had spent the last week systematically slaughtering half of the demonic legion.

At the current rate of attrition, those blades would be at Isera’s throat within hours.

Ten days of unrelenting combat.

The demons were flagging, and Isera herself was feeling the weight of the stalemate.

Finally, Isera voiced the thought that had been gnawing at her.

“You… you don’t actually have a ‘condition’ at all, do you?”

On paper, she was weaker than Lucaria, but in practice, she was a literal wall.

Without a discoverable weakness, she was effectively a god of absolute defense.

Isera knew what she had to do.

It was time to regroup.

“Everyone, fall back to the ‘Ark’…”

It stung her pride, but the situation was untenable.

The Blade Queen was a lone entity. She couldn’t possibly stop an entire army from retreating in different directions.

**Creeeeak!**

Suddenly.

An enormous, suffocating shadow expanded beneath the Blade Queen’s feet.

Figures began to pull themselves out of the darkness—first one, then dozens.

“…Demon Bloodkin?”

A flood of Demon Bloodkin erupted from the shadow.

Over a hundred thousand of them filled the sky in a heartbeat, their wings creating a thunderous beat as they encircled the remaining demons.

‘She can summon troops? And Bloodkin, of all things?’

That monster.

Had she been waiting for them to reach their breaking point before cutting off their escape?

“You… what exactly are you?”

Isera had to know.

This was no mere mutant Dragon God.

This was something that defied the very hierarchy of their world.

A being of true, unadulterated invincibility.

For the first time, the Blade Queen opened her mouth to answer.

“I am the legion.”