Chapter 1453
As Leon was trying to get his bearings, a deadly sense of danger plummeted from the sky. The thick clouds seemed to explode apart as a massive, furry tail—at least seven or eight hundred meters long—lashed down from above.
The force burst out of the clouds so quickly that the clouds didn’t even have time to react. Only when the tail was about to strike above Leon’s head did a cavity several kilometers wide appear in the sky.
Leon’s body vanished in an instant. The enormous tail whipped through the spot where he’d just been, causing faint ripples in the air itself. The force from the tail struck the ground, and a series of thunderous explosions erupted, one after another.
It was as if countless magical bombs had been planted beneath the earth. Massive boulders were blasted high above the treetops, and ancient trees were shredded into splinters by the shockwave. The explosions carved a straight line thousands of meters long through the forest, and when the dust finally settled, a blank scar—seven or eight kilometers long and several hundred meters wide—had appeared among the trees.
After that single strike, the creature that had ambushed from above finally revealed itself. Leon drew the Doombringer Staff and cradled the Death Tome in his left hand. The chains across the Death Tome snapped one by one, unleashing a terrifying power from within. The Crystal Phoenix lazily poked its head out from the pages, glanced at the monster overhead, and promptly retreated back inside, refusing to react.
Leon didn’t have time to worry about the Crystal Phoenix’s lack of cooperation. His eyes fixed on the monster above, and by now, he had a pretty good idea of what it was.
Its torso looked like a giant green caterpillar, over ten meters long, but on its head grew a single, eerie horn. Three webbed bird claws protruded from beneath its body, and a colossal leopard’s tail—hundreds of meters long—trailed behind it.
A body more than ten meters long, yet a tail that stretched for hundreds. Its head featured only a mouth—no nose, no ears—making it look profoundly bizarre.
Earlier, Leon had been puzzled. His concealment had been nearly perfect—he’d flown for so long without being noticed by anything—so how had he suddenly been ambushed? Now, it all made sense.
The Nightmare Leotail is, without question, the only thing in the Realm of Nightmares that can be confirmed to truly exist.
Not that everything in the Realm of Nightmares is fake—this forest beneath our feet might well be real, and those ancient beasts from the age of gods and demons might be real too.
But no one can be sure. Even if you collect materials from those giant beasts, Leon wouldn’t dare guarantee any of it is actually real.
The only thing you can see and be absolutely certain is real—not just a product of the Realm’s dream power—is this Nightmare Leotail.
Legend has it this creature is a parasite of the Lord of Nightmares’ domain—maybe even a parasite on the Lord himself. Its whole purpose is to devour anything that shouldn’t exist, or more precisely, anything that shouldn’t exist in the Realm of Nightmares.
Any soul that enters the Realm of Nightmares will naturally be affected in some way—effects that are impossible to control. Unless you’re stronger than the Lord of Nightmares, there’s no way to hide these influences.
Once these influences are sensed, the Nightmare Leotail appears, devouring souls that disrupt the dream. The Vampire Progenitors can come and go as they please, untouched, simply because they have no souls.
No matter how much chaos they cause here, the Nightmare Leotail doesn’t care. Souls are all it recognizes—no soul, no devouring.
Leon’s expression grew grim. After seeing the Nightmare Leotail up close, he immediately activated the Chapter of the Fallen and transformed into the Skeleton King. The Leotail itself has no rank, but it always matches its opponent’s level. A stronger Leotail might even be a rank higher, and legend says the Leotail Overlord can surpass its foe by two ranks—that’s pure annihilation.
If a Leotail Overlord shows up, even Agalon would run. Two ranks higher is beyond the Sky Tier; if Leon met one, he’d have to turn tail and flee. Two ranks above him would be level forty-nine…
It’s not like the lower ranks, where, as a Magus, Leon wouldn’t fear an opponent four or five levels higher. But the gap between Sky Tier seven and nine? That’s a chasm. It’s even greater than the difference between Sky Tier seven and Grand Magus.
Luckily, this is just an ordinary Nightmare Leotail, matching him at level forty-seven. But Leon’s own forty-seven is… a bit of a stretch.
Only his mastery of the dark rules, empowered by the Chapter of the Fallen and a pure Soul Fire, has reached forty-seven. So only his dark rule comprehension is at that level—the rest haven’t caught up. Only as the Skeleton King, wielding the Reaper’s Scythe, is he at his strongest.
Transformed into the Skeleton King and brandishing the Reaper’s Scythe, his aura instantly shifted. The Nightmare Leotail’s natural suppression in the Realm of Nightmares seemed to diminish by half.
The massive, furry leopard tail whipped toward him once more, and Leon swung the Reaper’s Scythe to meet it.
The skull on the Reaper’s Scythe opened its jaws, releasing a bizarre, piercing scream. Runes of darkness and death shimmered across the scythe’s surface, especially along the blade, which glowed with a blood-red light. The soul-severing power surged tenfold, as if the blade had been freshly sharpened in an instant…
As Leon swung, the Reaper’s Scythe expanded into a colossal weapon, over a hundred meters long. A towering skeletal phantom appeared, draped in a tattered cloak and hood, eyes swirling with death vortexes, gripping the scythe as it slashed forward.
The phantom’s strike passed through the Nightmare Leotail’s tail, which seemed unharmed, yet the creature’s attack abruptly ceased. Its shrill scream echoed like a chorus of banshees clutching Leon’s soul.
Everything in front of Leon twisted, transforming into an abstract painting.
Then, with a blink, reality snapped back into focus. Leon watched as a blurry phantom drifted from the Nightmare Leotail’s tail—the severed shadow of its tail itself.
As soon as that phantom appeared, the skull on the Reaper’s Scythe opened its mouth and sucked it in.
In an instant, the rear half of the Nightmare Leotail’s tail turned completely gray, as if it had lost all color and vitality—like a lifeless stone.
The Nightmare Leotail hovered in the sky, shrieking loudly. When it tried to swing its tail again, it found it could only move the parts that hadn’t turned gray—the gray portion was like a heavy stone dragging it down.
After devouring part of the Leotail’s soul, the Reaper’s Scythe grew even stronger, fully adapting to the realm’s rules.
Leon flew up and swung the scythe again. The phantom slashed through; the Nightmare Leotail, unwilling to give up, spat out a torrent of black liquid. Where it splattered, space itself became stained, like a canvas splashed with filth. As the liquid dripped down, reality fractured, everything breaking apart.
But none of it affected the phantom of the Reaper’s Scythe. Leon slashed again, severing the rest of the Leotail’s tail. The skull on the scythe devoured the phantom of the other half, and the Nightmare Leotail seemed to lose all strength, plummeting from the sky.
Leon, murderously wielding the Reaper’s Scythe, swooped down. As he landed, a human face appeared on the Nightmare Leotail, staring at Leon in terror.
"Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! It’s my first time attacking—I haven’t even completed a mission yet…"
The Nightmare Leotail’s voice was thin and shrill, like a terrified seven- or eight-year-old. With its tail gone, its rank instantly dropped to the teens, and its childlike face was filled with panic—especially when it glanced at the skull on the Reaper’s Scythe, its body shaking uncontrollably…
Who wouldn’t be scared? The Nightmare Leotail is nearly impossible to kill, especially in the Realm of Nightmares. These creatures are naturally favored here, able to match their opponent’s rank by tapping into the realm’s power—or the Lord of Nightmares’ power.