I am the Demon King of the Dungeon!

"Um."

Arthas closed his five fingers, grasped the Deep Sea Witch's fingertips, and then swung her around.

The Deep Sea Witch's body traced a dark blue arc in the air before Arthas slammed her to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Her back struck the sand, creating a crater tens of meters in diameter. The shockwave sent surrounding sand grains flying into the air, forming a sand waterfall.

Before she could even stand up from the bottom of the pit, Arthas's figure appeared above her. His entire right arm was covered in black dragon scales, and his five fingers were clenched into a fist. The patterns on the dragon scales on his fist looked like burning lava.

A punch lands!

The Deep Sea Witch crossed her arms, shielding herself.

The moment the fist collided with the arm, the pit collapsed several meters deeper. Dark blue light and pitch black light intertwined, tore, and devoured each other at the bottom of the pit. Wherever the light passed, the sand grains were instantly melted and then instantly solidified, forming layer after layer of glassy rock shell.

The Deep Sea Witch lay at the bottom of the pit, her hands still crossed in front of her. Shallow cracks appeared on her arms, and her pale skin was cracked like porcelain with fine lines. Ink-colored blood seeped from the cracks, and the blood solidified into black crystals the moment it came into contact with the air, sealing the wounds.

"That's interesting, it really hurts."

She stood up from the bottom of the pit, a dark blue light emanating from her veins, making her bluish skin look like a glowing deep-sea fluorite. She raised her right hand, her five fingers loosely clenched, and all the raindrops in the rain stopped at the same time.

Suspended in mid-air, like millions of tiny needles.

The Deep Sea Witch suddenly clenched her five fingers.

Suspended raindrops simultaneously shot towards Alsace from all directions. Each raindrop could compress steel into a thin sheet, and when millions of raindrops converged at the same time, the amplification was multiplicative.

Arthas stood still, his jet-black dragon scales spreading from his right arm to his entire body—forehead, neck, chest, and back—each scale glowing like a suit of ghostly fire armor from the underworld.

Raindrops fell on my body.

The tinkling sound was as dense as a downpour hitting banana leaves. The raindrops exploded into fine mist on the surface of the dragon scales. Before the mist could disperse, it was penetrated by the following raindrops, layer upon layer.

The pressure around Arthas was increasing exponentially, and the glassy rock beneath his feet began to crack, with fissures spreading out in all directions like a spider web.

But he took a step forward.

The rain curtain was pierced by this step, and the dragon's might poured into the ground from the soles of his feet, then surged back from the ground, shattering all the raindrops. The shattered raindrops turned into dark blue specks of light, which drifted in mid-air.

Arthas's figure passed through the spotlight and appeared before the Deep Sea Witch.

Right fist!

The Deep Sea Witch turned to the side, the wind from the punch grazing her ear, cracking the skin there and causing dark blood to seep out, which then solidified into black crystals in the air.

Instead of retreating, she took a half step forward, her left hand fingers together, the fingertips aimed at Arthas's throat.

The fingertip pierced the dragon scale again.

Another white dot appeared on the dragon scale.

but.

Arthas's left fist had already struck her ribs.

The Deep Sea Witch arched her body like a shrimp and was sent flying by the punch. She tumbled in the air and plowed long furrows in the sand when her feet landed.

She looked down at her ribs; a fist-sized crack had appeared on her pale skin, and dark blood was gushing out of the crack, congealing and sealing the wound.

"The Primordial Dragon God." The Deep Sea Witch raised her head, the dark blue light in her vertical pupils dazzlingly bright. "Your fist is heavier than Boris's."

"nonsense."

Arthas reappeared before her.

This time, it's both fists.

The Deep Sea Witch did not parry. She spread her arms and let Arthas's fists smash into her chest. The moment the fists touched her skin, her chest tore open on its own.

The pale skin rolled up to the sides, revealing the muscle layer beneath. The muscle was not red, but a deep blue, like solidified ink. Beneath the muscle layer was not bone, but a beating heart.

A dark blue heart.

The surface of the heart is covered with cracks, and dark light shines through each crack. The light flows continuously inside the heart, like a miniature deep-sea whirlpool.

Arthas slammed his fists into his heart.

The vortex inside his heart sucked his fist in, and dark blue light wrapped around his wrists, forearms, and elbows like seaweed, spreading towards his shoulders. Wherever the light passed, a thin layer of ice crystals condensed on the jet-black dragon scales.

Deep-sea salt crystals.

"At the deepest part of the Niflough Abyss, the salinity of the seawater is eight times that of ordinary seawater." The voice of the Deep Sea Witch came from very close, as if whispering in his ear, "Salt seeps into everything. Metal, rock, bone, even magic. Over thousands of years, the salt deposited in my heart is more than all the salt mines in the entire continent of Ashu combined."

Her index finger touched Alsace's forehead.

"You are very strong. But even the strongest can be eroded by salt."

Apply force with your fingertips.

Arthas's body fell backward, his magic instantly going out of control. The black dragon scales began to fade from his forehead, like flames being deprived of oxygen, extinguishing one by one.

He lay on the sand, face up.

Dark blue salt crystals spread from his fists to his shoulders and continued to spread toward his chest. Wherever the salt crystals passed, the dragon scales lost their luster and turned into a dull gray-black.

The Deep Sea Witch stood beside Arthas, looking down at him. The skin that had split open on her chest slowly closed up, and the vortex of her heart disappeared back beneath the muscle layer.

"Your strength is indeed superior to mine, but a fight isn't about who has the strongest punch, it's about who lives the longest. I..."

He didn't finish his sentence.

Arthas' right hand grasped her ankle.

Salt crystals still covered his arm, and the dragon scales remained dull and gray, but the strength in his fingers had not diminished in the slightest.

"You're right," Arthas's voice came from the sand. "Fighting isn't about who has the strongest fist."

He sat up from the sand, salt crystals peeling off his arms and shattering like dried mud. Beneath the gray-black dragon scales, new, jet-black growth began to sprout, not from the surface of the skin, but seeping from the gaps between the scales, like magma gushing from cracks in the earth's crust.

"But you've got one thing wrong."

Arthas stood up, his right hand still gripping the Deep Sea Witch's ankle. The salt crystals shattered as he rose, falling to the ground and being swallowed by the sand. His entire body was once again covered in black dragon scales.

"The source of the Primordial Dragon God's power is not limited to magic."

"It is existence itself."

He lifted the Deep Sea Witch up like a rag doll, then swung her around and slammed her to the ground.

a bit.

Two times.

Three times.

Look around.

……

The desert trembled under the impact. With each impact, a deeper crater appeared on the ground, and the sand grains at the edge of the crater were thrown into the air by the shock wave, forming ring after ring of sand waterfalls.

The Deep Sea Witch's body bounced up and down on the sand, her pale skin cracking more and more, and her dark blood splattered in the air, congealing into black crystals that spilled onto the sand.

Alsace released his grip.

The Deep Sea Witch lay on her back at the bottom of the pit, a crack on her chest extending from her collarbone to her abdomen, her dark blue heart clearly visible through the crack, and the vortex on the surface flickering like a lamp about to go out.

Arthas stood at the edge of the pit, looking down at her.

"The lockdown has been lifted."

The Deep Sea Witch lay at the bottom of the pit, looking at the blazing sun above the desert. The sun was mostly obscured by sand and dust, leaving only a blurry halo. In her vertical pupils, the dark blue light was gradually dimming.

"You really can kill me completely..."

"Nonsense, I can kill you a hundred times over."

The Deep Sea Witch closed her eyes.

The dark blue heart slowly stopped beating, and inky light seeped out from inside the heart. Wherever it flowed, the skin there began to become transparent, like ice melting into water.

At last.

The Deep Sea Witch's body turned into a dark blue light.

A ball of light rose from the bottom of the pit and floated in front of Arthas. Inside the ball of light, a tiny figure could be vaguely seen. It was the Deep Sea Witch, shrunk countless times, curled up like a fetus in a womb.

Her eyes were closed, and a slight smile played on her lips.

The ball of light gently touched Arthas's forehead.

Explode!

Dark blue specks of light danced in the air like fireflies, landing on the sand, on Pilian, and on Arthas's shoulder, leaving a small damp patch wherever they landed.

Pirian's body slowly floated into the sky, and the remaining crystals around him collapsed like ice crystals.

As the last crystal dissolved into a point of light, Pirian fell from mid-air.

Arthas reached out and caught her.

Pirien nestled in his arms, fragments of crystal still clinging to her crimson armor. Her eyes were closed, but her breathing was steady, and her pink braids hung down the outside of Arthas's arms, swaying gently with each breath.

The bell rang once.

It's very light.

Arthas looked down at the sandworm in her arms, her lips curved into a smile, she was probably dreaming.

The sun shone brightly again.

The desert has turned golden again.