The Yellow-Haired Villain in Soaring Phoenix's Novels Also Desires Happiness

“The Dragon-Slaying Team you speak of cannot even get past me, a mere evil dragon’s running dog.”

Muen’s tone was gentle, as though he were casually chatting with an old friend, yet the deeper meaning contained within those words was like a sharp knife stabbing into Morton’s heart.

His pupils trembled. He wanted to refute him, but the moment he opened his mouth, the straight punch that had struck his abdomen forced all the air from his lungs, leaving him unable to utter a single word.

“To be honest, more than ten Fifth-Rank warriors, over a hundred Fourth-Rank warriors, plus no small number of mages—with the power of a single city, you have already developed an impressive force. Among the surviving lands similarly trapped within the fog, the last place I visited had only one Fifth-Rank expert. The place before that was even more miserable. It had only one local powerhouse, and he was an old relic from several centuries ago.”

“But what use is that?”

Muen grabbed Morton by the collar and smashed him into the floor. The exquisitely crafted office desk shattered into splinters just like that.

Amid the flying fragments of wood, Morton’s face turned pale. Hidden within this seemingly simple move was a force he could not resist. In New Tars, he was also one of the powerhouses standing at the very summit. Had it not been for the current accident, he should have been standing before that evil dragon as well, fighting side by side with Kran, the one bathed in dragon blood.

But now, like a child, he was being casually suppressed with a mere lift of the blond man’s hand.

“You are merely frogs at the bottom of a well. You have no idea how vast the true sky really is...... No, to hide from Miss Dragon, you have never even seen the true sky, have you? In that respect, you are not even as good as the pitiful Annabawei.”

Their positions had reversed. Now it was Muen who stood above, looking down at Morton.

“Do you understand?”

“......”

Do you understand? Do you understand?

You...... are merely frogs at the bottom of a well.

You have never even seen the true sky. You...... are nothing but pitiful wretches.

Those words continuously echoed through Morton’s mind.

“......Are you saying that all our efforts over such a long time have been nothing but futile?”

Muen deliberately loosened his suppression, finally allowing Morton to catch his breath, but what Morton felt at this moment was neither relief nor fear.

It was...... anger!

“Are you saying...... that everything we have struggled for all this time has been completely useless?”

What kind of joke was that?

What kind of fucking joke was that!

Something like that...... who would believe it?!

His neatly groomed gray-white hair had already become disheveled, and that face no longer possessed its previous kindly warmth. All his anger erupted at once, and in that brief instant, Morton actually broke through Muen’s violent suppression.

“Huh?”

Muen raised an eyebrow in surprise. They were both Fifth Rank, yet he had actually suffered a small loss in a direct clash. Aside from fighting Ariel, this was the first time.

“Running dog! Die!”

Morton had already completely lost his usual composure. He launched an attack against Muen in an almost suicidal manner, every move incomparably fierce.

He had to prove it. He had to prove that this evil dragon’s running dog was wrong. New Tars definitely possessed the power to defeat the evil dragon......

“Eh?”

Yet Morton’s full-power strike hit nothing.

“Where is this?”

He looked around in confusion and discovered that, at some point, he was no longer inside the office, but instead...... within a pitch-black space.

This seemed to be an arena, unimaginably vast and empty, yet there were neither performers nor spectators. He alone stood there in isolation, like a clown performing by himself, unable even to find his enemy.

“What kind of technique is this? Evil dragon’s running dog, do you only know how to use such despicable methods? Come out and die! Come out! Come......”

Morton roared furiously. He felt that the other party was as despicable as ever, utterly contemptible...... but very soon, his shouting abruptly stopped.

Because along with a certain shudder that came from his very soul, he instinctively raised his head.

Dong!

An ancient bell rang out, as though counting the mottled traces of time.

And above that false firmament, within that boundary of nothingness, a pitch-black solar disk surrounded by a pure white corona hung high in the sky, like a deep and terrifying eye coldly looking down upon him.

Looking down upon him...... an ant.

Unimaginable majesty. Unimaginable pressure. Morton could almost hear the wailing from the deepest part of his soul.

He abruptly came to his senses and discovered that this profound darkness was so familiar. He seemed to have only just seen it within the depths of those pupils...... but now it had been magnified hundreds and thousands of times, leaving him unable to summon even the slightest desire to resist.

“H...... how can this be?”

Morton could no longer endure it. His legs went weak, and he collapsed to his knees.

Before suppression that surpassed the level of his understanding, even the most enormous rage would be extinguished as laughably as a tiny flame.

Only now did he finally realize just how naive and childish his earlier thoughts had been. He had truly overestimated himself. Like a frog at the bottom of a well, he had actually wanted to defeat an existence completely beyond the scope of his understanding?

“Is it frightening?”

A familiar voice sounded.

Morton stiffly turned his head and saw that familiar flash of gold. That handsome face was right beside him, smiling as it looked at him.

Morton had completely forgotten how to react. He could only nod like a puppet.

“I also think it is frightening. Sometimes, even when I stand here myself, I wonder how the fuck I somehow became this terrifying without noticing.” Muen also looked at the Black Sun and sighed.

He had not been boasting just now. That Dragon-Slaying Team, which Morton regarded as incomparably powerful and capable of protecting New Tars, truly could not get past him.

Setting aside those abilities that were practically cheats, Muen felt that relying solely on his martial skills and combat experience, he could already fight at least ten Fifth-Rank experts here by himself.

There were no absurdly powerful special warriors like Ariel or Zagu here. They were merely ordinary warriors, and even ordinary warriors who lacked combat experience.

As for that so-called one bathed in dragon blood from earlier...... if the blood of a large lizard that might contain a trace of dragon blood was enough to completely transform him, then he himself could not have been all that outstanding.

After all, what Muen had once used was the heart blood of an ancient dragon.

As for the remaining warriors and all those mages...... fighting them normally might be very troublesome, but before the Black Flames and the power of time, numbers had no meaning.

The only way they could defeat Muen was probably by attacking his blade with their necks and hoping that such a cruel method of attack would frighten him to death on the spot.

Of course, with his current mental strength, no matter how gruesomely the people of Tars died, his eyelids probably would not even twitch.

“But even though I can fight all of you by myself, even though I am so terrifying that even I frighten myself, I still...... cannot compare to even one of Miss Dragon’s hands.”

Muen waved his hand.

The entire space instantly changed.

The events that had once occurred here transformed into incomparably realistic images and appeared before Morton’s eyes.

Boom!

Morton widened his eyes in disbelief, because that pitch-black sun was now crashing down with world-destroying force, carrying an endless sea of Black Flames.

He began to tremble, because he realized that as those Black Flames descended, with his strength, he would be completely devoured in an instant.

And yet...... that terrifying might, that Black Sun, that sea of flames, had only fallen halfway.

Because a hand so pale and so slender casually rose, just as Muen had casually suppressed him earlier, and forcibly pushed the descending Black Sun back.

Pushed it back...... pushed it back...... pushed it back......

Morton stared at the scene in utter shock. He felt that he could no longer understand this world. He had believed that he had already seen the most terrifying existence in the world, yet who could have imagined that even this most terrifying existence was nothing more than a tiny shrimp that could be casually swallowed.

The big fish ate the little fish, and the little fish ate the shrimp. Then what was he...... what was New Tars supposed to be?

“You said quite a lot. At best, I am merely a running dog who likes clinging to someone powerful......”

Muen turned his head. Watching the scene of himself being brutally beaten by Miss Dragon from such a close distance as an observer inevitably left him with complicated feelings.

Fortunately, there was ultimately someone whose feelings were even more complicated than his.

“And this...... is the true strength of the natural disaster you wish to defeat.”