Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 450: The Sword of Damocles (10)

Dragon Raja 3

“Marvelous! Simply marvelous! Look at it—this is a being capable of defying the very laws of nature. The current can’t restrain it!” Osho exclaimed in admiration. “Let’s give it even more of a challenge!”

The workers exchanged shocked glances, fully aware of how powerful that massive object was. The high-speed current it generated could easily pull a small submarine off course, yet the target completely ignored the vortex’s power. Osho was right—that creature defied the rules, seemingly capable of ignoring certain laws of physics.

The second test immediately began. The engineering team leader pressed a remote control, triggering a violent explosion that blasted water and mercury tens of thousands of tons into the air. The Oni Clan had thrown 12 plastic explosives into the water, each mixed with thousands of steel pellets. When they detonated, the explosion released a barrage of high-speed steel balls, equivalent to hundreds of military shotguns firing at once.

However, on the sonar screen, the massive, whale-sized target once again ignored the test, swimming unhindered through the flames of the explosion.

“Beautiful! So beautiful! This is the power! The power to change the world!” Osho’s voice trembled with excitement.

For the third test, the 12 gates at the bottom of the well opened. These gates were covered with metal nets, originally designed to filter debris. The gates were extremely sturdy, and the metal nets were flexible, comparable to the strongest fishing nets in the world. A whale swimming at full speed would be ensnared.

But the target effortlessly tore through one gate after another, as if a hot knife was slicing through butter.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven…” the engineering team leader loudly counted down the remaining gates as the target broke through each barrier, approaching the surface.

The workers at the bottom of the well had all taken shelter in safety pods made of alloy, nano-fibers, and high-density polymers, designed to withstand even the shockwave of a nuclear explosion if they weren’t at ground zero. Yet, inside the pods, they trembled with fear. The creature was still swimming, but its roar had already reached them. The tremors were so intense that they feared the well was on the verge of collapse. Cracks spread wildly across the metal plates lining the well walls. Even with noise-canceling headsets, some people began to bleed from their ears. The roar seemed to penetrate their skulls and stab directly into their minds, a chaotic and frenzied howl of rage and joy, like Death himself cursing the world from the depths of Hell.

Only Osho and Ruri remained calm. Osho stood on a platform midway up the well wall, looking down with unwavering focus, as if watching a master’s performance from a VIP box. Ruri stood in the rain like a ghost, water streaming down his long hair.

The water erupted, and the grayish-white liquid, mixed with mercury, shot into the sky. Propelled by the creature’s violent ascent, millions of pulmonate snails were flung outward like bullets, smashing into the well walls with explosive force. Their hard shells shattered completely, their bodies reduced to mucus-like substances that clung to the walls. A ghostly white figure, draped in the gray-white liquid, rocketed upwards like a cannonball. But gravity quickly slowed its ascent, and before it could fall, it found a foothold. Grabbing onto the iron frames of the well, it climbed upward at high speed. The creature was roughly the size of an orca, weighing an estimated 10 tons. The iron frames were unable to support its weight and collapsed layer by layer beneath it.

Osho clapped loudly, shifting from looking down to looking up, admiring the creature’s escape with awe.

Bright lights from above finally revealed the creature to everyone’s eyes. Its entire body was covered in fine white threads, resembling a giant cocoon, with a grotesque long tail trailing behind.

It moved so quickly that no one could see how this cocoon-like thing with a tail managed to climb. Its bony tail lashed out against the well walls, ripping off the metal panels in rows. Shards of metal and the snails’ corpses rained down like a violent storm.

The four Vulcan cannons mounted on the platform roared to life, pouring a torrent of steel down into the well. They were equipped with specially made armor-piercing rounds, powerful enough to blow a rhinoceros to pieces. But Osho’s intent wasn’t to kill the creature—the rounds, filled with nerve-paralyzing agents, exploded into clouds of gray-green smoke as they hit the creature’s body.

The cocoon of white threads was shredded by the barrage, and for the first time, the pale creature felt pain. It let out a piercing shriek that echoed through the heavens and the earth.

The engineering team watched through the observation windows of their safety pods, finally seeing the creature inside the cocoon. No one spoke; they could only hear their own hearts racing like mad. They had known what they were here to find, but at the moment they saw it, the terror descended upon them like a mountain.

From this moment on, some began to regret it—perhaps releasing such a creature back into the world was a mistake, no matter what glorious future it promised for the White Empress’ bloodline.

The Vulcan cannons failed to slow the creature’s ascent. It continued to climb unstoppably. But shoulder-mounted missiles rained down from above. The missiles didn’t target the god itself but the iron scaffolding it used to climb. The scaffolding, designed for construction, collapsed in a series of explosions from top to bottom. The god fell along with the debris, while the Vulcan cannons continued to rain bullets upon it.

It was enraged now. This time, it didn’t scream in pain but roared in fury. The pale tendrils of the cocoon burst apart, revealing muscular limbs that violently grasped the smooth well walls.

“Yamata no Orochi!” the head of the engineering team gasped, his voice trembling.

Myth had become reality before his eyes. What gripped the well walls weren’t tendrils but eight curving dragon necks. The creature had eight heads, each with sharp fangs biting into the well walls. Its lower limbs were deformed and short, so it used its eight heads as legs, climbing like a spider. The long, snake-like necks coiled and uncoiled, while eight pairs of golden eyes flickered in the dark. Though it was climbing upward, to everyone watching, it looked like a devil descending from the heavens.

Osho clutched his chest in excitement and exclaimed, “Magnificent!”

Despite its enormous body, the god was still in its juvenile stage, which made it appear emaciated, but it was agile and swift. Everywhere it climbed, metal plates cracked, and rocks shattered. One after another, alarm lights flashed red. It was getting closer to breaking free. The Vulcan cannons and missiles continued to burst with bright flashes on its body. Blood seeped from its pale scales, and some of the spine’s scales were torn apart by the explosions, revealing its stark white bones. Yet it didn’t slow down; it continued its ascent. It had just emerged from its cocoon, and once it escaped this place, it would need only a brief rest to regain more strength. At that point, it could easily destroy these insignificant creatures.

“Keep going! Keep going! I want to see how far this ultimate being can go!” Osho clenched his fists in admiration, his voice filled with longing.

A missile exploded near the god’s foothold, destroying part of the well’s wall. The impact caused the god to lose its grip and slide down, but its sharp teeth left deep gashes in the wall as it managed to hold on.

“Wonderful! That’s the way! How could the weapons of mere mortals harm the body of a god?” Osho clapped his hands, as if the plan to hinder the god wasn’t his. He sincerely hoped this creature could escape.

White cables shot out from the walls, wrapping around the god. These cables were only about the thickness of a finger, but they were woven from nanofibers. With such a material’s strength, it could even be used to build a super elevator reaching the upper atmosphere. Each nanocable could lift the Trieste itself, and the entire net of cables, if deployed in the ocean, could restrain a destroyer. The god tried several times to break free but failed. Missiles struck its abdomen, causing it to bleed profusely. It could no longer ascend even a meter, and the more it struggled, the tighter the net became.

“We did it! We caught it!” Cheers erupted from the engineering team over the headphones.

“Caught it? You think it’s that easy to capture a god? How wrong you are, terribly wrong,” Osho said softly. “It still carries a sword—a sword sharp enough to cleave the world in two!”

An elegant arc of light swept through the air, so radiant that even the blazing lights couldn’t outshine it. It was like the arc of a peerless swordsman’s blade. A second later, neat cuts appeared on the nanofibers, which could only be severed by lasers. The god broke free from its restraints.

At that moment, the white arc still lingered in the air, leaving everyone unsure whether what they had just witnessed was real or an illusion.

“Totsuka-no-Tsurugi,” Osho whispered in admiration. “Totsuka-no-Tsurugi!”

Indeed, the god carried a sword—the unparalleled blade of Japanese mythology, Totsuka-no-Tsurugi! In the myth, Susanoo had used his father Izanagi’s sword, Ama-no-Habakiri, to slay the Yamata no Orochi. However, when he cut through the serpent’s corpse, the divine sword was chipped. Upon examining the Yamata no Orochi’s tail, he discovered another sword, the legendary Totsuka-no-Tsurugi. Had the Yamata no Orochi not been drunk and asleep when slain, it wouldn’t have perished at Ama-no-Habakiri’s blade—Susanoo would have died under Totsuka-no-Tsurugi.

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