Evolving by devouring from a young dragon

Leon got up from the ground, his right eye closed, blood dripping down his cheek onto the snow.

His left shoulder was severely injured by Bruna's punch, and he could barely lift his left hand.

His spatial magic originally required hand seals, but now one hand is useless and the other can barely move, greatly reducing the speed and stability of his spellcasting.

He glanced at Alduin, then at Blue, and turned to flee.

Auduin did not pursue them.

He raised his right claw, and the Wilderness Emblem on his palm shone brightly, its black lines spreading along his arm.

The power of slumber condensed into a grayish-white mist, which swept towards Leon.

The fog doesn't move very fast, but it covers a very wide area. No matter how fast Leon runs, he can't outrun the fog's spread.

Leon glanced back at the approaching mist, gritted his teeth, and barely managed to form a hand seal with his left hand.

A silvery-white crack tore open a spatial rift in front of him, and he leaped into it.

The crack closed in an instant, and the figure disappeared into the wind and snow.

Auduin did not stop.

He activated the Wilderness Emblem, continuously channeling the power of slumber into the snow beneath his feet.

Grayish-white mist surged and rose from the snow layer, like countless tentacles reaching towards the sky.

Wherever the fog passed, space began to distort, and the power of slumber seeped into the cracks of the spatial structure, making the entire area viscous and heavy.

A hundred meters away, a silvery-white crack suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Leon fell heavily from the crevice, rolling several times on the snow, his body covered in blood.

His left arm was bent at an unnatural angle, and a large chunk of flesh was ripped away from his right leg by the spatial turbulence, exposing the white bone.

He struggled to his feet, looked up at Alduin, his orange-yellow eyes filled with terror.

"You...you interfered with space using the Wilderness Emblem?"

"The power of the Desolate Ridge Emblem makes the surrounding space viscous. Once trapped inside, it is difficult to move, and encountering spatial turbulence is a matter of life and death."

Auduin walked toward him and said indifferently.

Leon gritted his teeth and barely managed to form a hand seal with his left hand. A silver-white crack tore open a fissure in front of him, but he did not crawl into it. Instead, he pushed the fissure towards Alduin.

The fissure was like a giant maw, biting straight at Alduin.

Alduin turned to the side, his dragon wings folded, and the rift flew past his shoulder, tearing a gash several meters long in the snow behind him. Leon seized the opportunity to turn and run, but his injured legs made him limp and slowed him down considerably.

Blue charged in from the side, swinging his right arm and slamming a punch into Leon's back. Leon instantly collapsed to the ground, spitting out a mouthful of dark red blood.

He struggled to turn over, pressed his left hand against Bru's chest, and a spatial rift opened, forcibly tearing off a piece of stone armor from Bru's chest.

Blue, however, did not back down at all. He swung his left arm again and punched Leon in the chest, breaking his sternum and causing it to cave in deeply.

Auduin walked slowly to Leon and looked down at the lion lying paralyzed in the snow.

Leon's right eye was tightly closed, his left eye was half open, and his pupils were already dilated. His left hand was still twitching in vain, trying to form a hand seal, but his fingers had long since become unresponsive, only managing to draw a few twisted silver-white lines before dissipating into the air.

"How... pitiful."

Auduin spoke words of pity, but his tone was full of mockery, revealing not a trace of sympathy.

Leon ignored him and, with his last bit of strength, tore a rift in his side with his left hand.

The moment the crack appeared, he rolled into it, and the silvery-white crack closed behind him.

Auduin did not pursue.

He infused the long slumbering power of the desolate emblem into the snow beneath his feet. Grayish-white mist rose from the snow and surged toward the direction of the closing rift. The mist seeped into the gaps in the spatial structure, imprisoning it.

After a while, silvery-white cracks appeared in the air.

First, Leon's agonizing screams echoed from the depths of the rift, followed by muffled sounds of bones shattering and flesh being torn apart, mixed with the sharp whistling of spatial turbulence.

Soon, all sounds fell silent.

The crack slowly closed.

Only a dark red bloodstain and a few tattered pieces of cloth remained on the snow.

Auduin stood before the pool of blood, looked down and stared at it silently for a moment, then turned and strode south.

Blue followed silently behind him.

The wind and snow grew fiercer, gradually covering the bloodstains and footprints completely.

……

As the wind and snow gradually subsided, a corner of dark light peeked through the gray-white sky.

Auduin stood on the frozen plain, gazing at the lingering snow behind him, silent for a long time.

He had already confirmed that Leon's aura had completely dissipated, and even his soul had been torn to pieces by the spatial turbulence, leaving him with no chance of resurrection.

Blue stopped behind him, scratched his head, and looked puzzled. He didn't understand why his boss had stopped here, since the snowstorm would stop just one more step away.

The yellowish-brown patterns on the stone giant's chest had faded, but they still flickered faintly from time to time.

"Boss," Blue said in a low voice, "those stone emblems...are they all ours now?"

Auduin did not answer immediately.

He took out two stone emblems from the spatial rift; the rock emblem was a deep, earthy yellow, while the desolate mound emblem was a deep, dark black.

The remaining two are still in the wolf king's hands.

Blue scratched his head. "What about the seal?"

"The Rock Emblem has been retrieved, and the seal is temporarily stable."

Alduin spread his dragon wings and soared into the sky. "As for the other two... we'll talk about them later."

Blue sprinted across the ground, each step covering dozens of meters, closely following behind him.

The snowstorm in the north gradually receded behind us, and withered stubble peeked out from the remaining snow on the frozen plains.

The further south you go, the higher the temperature gets, and the biting chill in the air finally dissipates, replaced by the familiar scent of earth.

Half a month later, Alduin's territory appeared on the horizon.

Black smoke billowed from the mine's chimneys, and goblins clanged and hammered away at ironware in the workshop.

The orc patrol was patrolling along the border of their territory when they spotted the dark golden figure in the sky and immediately sounded their horns.

"It's the boss!" a goblin shouted at the top of his lungs. "The boss is back!"

Alduin folded his dragon wings and landed on the high platform in the center of the territory.

Old goblin Grimm hurried over, his shaky steps carrying him to meet him, his wrinkled face filled with excitement.

"Master, you're finally back! This past month, over at the sealed rift..."

"I know," Alduin interrupted him. "The Rock Emblem has been retrieved, and the seal will be fine."

Grimm paused for a moment, then let out a long sigh of relief.

"Master is wise! ... In the past month, the sealed rift has been shaking every few days, and several mines have collapsed. The kobolds dare not go down into the mine."

Alduin did not respond and walked straight towards the sealing array deep within the territory.

The magic array was hidden deep within an underground cave, its walls covered with ancient runes. In the center, a vertical fissure stretched to its bottom, from which gray-black mist slowly billowed outwards.

This is where the seal of the Ancient Dragon of Ruins is located.

Auduin had an idea. He took out the Rock Emblem, and its earthen-yellow light shone in the dim cave, illuminating the surroundings.

He carefully embedded the emblem into the central groove of the magic circle.

In an instant, the entire magic array trembled slightly, and the earthy yellow light swept outward from the groove, spreading along the ancient runes to the edge of the crack. The gray-black mist was forced back by the strong light, and the turmoil in the crack gradually subsided.

The seal has been completely stabilized.