Way To The West. Dragon Heart (A LitRPG Wuxia) series: Book 16, page 1
The Saga:
Dragon Heart
Way To The West
Book XVI
By Kirill Klevanski
Text Copyright © 2022 Kirill Klevanski
All rights reserved.
No part of this book can be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.
Introduced by Valeria Kornosenko
Translated by Julia Kharkova
Edited by Damir Isovic
Cover designed by Julia Jdanova
Illustrated by Valery Spitsyn
His deal with the Demon Prince has taken Hadjar deeper and deeper into the Strange Lands, where every step could be his last. With the aid of Abraham’s squad, he’s looking for clues and uncovering all sorts of secrets and mysteries, but the Raven Sect’s fanatics are on their trail.
What will this new twist of fate bring? Will Hadjar be able to fulfill his part of the deal? Did he make a mistake when he agreed to destroy the oldest and most powerful sect of the mortal realm?
HELLO ALL!
Hello all!
My name is Kirill Klevanski and you are reading my adventure LitRPG Wuxia Saga “Dragon Heart”.
The whole story is planned out and will have 2000 chapters. Now the story has almost 1700 chapters spanning 19 books.
16 books are translated into English and released.
To read from the beginning of the story (click the link):
Dragon Heart: Stone Will
Content
HELLO ALL!
Chapter 1389
Chapter 1390
Chapter 1391
Chapter 1392
Chapter 1393
Chapter 1394
Chapter 1395
Chapter 1396
Chapter 1397
Chapter 1398
Chapter 1399
Chapter 1400
Chapter 1401
Chapter 1402
Chapter 1403
Chapter 1404
Chapter 1405
Chapter 1406
Chapter 1407
Chapter 1408
Chapter 1409
Chapter 1410
Chapter 1411
Chapter 1412
Chapter 1413
Chapter 1414
Chapter 1415
Chapter 1416
Chapter 1417
Chapter 1418
Chapter 1419
Chapter 1420
Chapter 1421
Chapter 1422
Chapter 1423
Chapter 1424
Chapter 1425
Chapter 1426
Chapter 1427
Chapter 1428
Chapter 1429
Chapter 1430
Chapter 1431
Chapter 1432
Chapter 1433
Chapter 1434
Chapter 1435
Chapter 1436
Chapter 1437
Chapter 1438
Chapter 1439
Chapter 1440
Chapter 1441
Chapter 1442
Chapter 1443
Chapter 1444
Chapter 1445
Chapter 1446
Chapter 1447
Chapter 1448
Chapter 1449
Chapter 1450
Chapter 1451
Chapter 1452
Chapter 1453
Chapter 1454
Chapter 1455
Chapter 1456
Chapter 1457
Chapter 1458
Chapter 1459
Chapter 1460
Chapter 1461
Chapter 1462
Chapter 1463
Chapter 1464
Chapter 1465
Chapter 1466
Chapter 1467
Chapter 1468
Chapter 1469
Chapter 1470
Note from the author
The book 17 is AVAILABLE for the PRE-ORDER
Chapter 1389
H adjar came to his senses and immediately unleashed his mysteries and will. This was the only way he could keep his body from being immediately reduced to ashes by the pressure of the incredible fire energy. This wasn’t an ordinary fire, but a completely different one that tormented his very soul and heart. The fire of pure chaos. Not mere destruction, but actual chaos. After all, destruction still had some purpose, but chaos was both creation and destruction at once, their insane symbiosis, a kind of passionate union of two opposites, simultaneously absorbing and devouring each other while also complementing and restoring each other as well. It was like…
“Hey!” Helmer waved his gray, clawed hand in front of Hadjar’s face. “Hadji, my dear friend, this isn’t the best time to indulge in meditation. Of course, I am aware that you’ve only recently made progress by becoming a Nameless and returning to your fashionable outfit, but believe me, your and my asses are hanging on by a thread right now, one that is thinner than the pubic hair of a virgin.”
Helmer’s words and the appearance of the swarm of nightmares scurrying around his feet, playing with the demon’s torn cloak, where every gap looked like a predatory, fanged maw, brought Hadjar back to reality.
He’d really almost started meditating on various mysteries. He’d been at the Lord level for too long, had learned too much during that time, and had fought against a lot of powerful opponents… It would’ve been better for him to go into deep meditation for at least a year in order to strengthen his mind and soul, strengthen the foundations of his path of cultivation, but time, as always, was playing on the opponent’s side. Whoever this opponent even was.
He looked around. He was standing in the middle of a scorched desert, though even the deadest of mortal lands would seem like a paradise, a true oasis in the middle of a sandstorm, in comparison to this nothingness. This area seemed not to know what life even was. It was as if death was your only neighbor here, as well as desolation and the abyss. There was nothing to see: no hills, no rivers, no mountains, no vegetation or living creatures at all.
Something that resembled white sand crunched under Hadjar’s feet. However, Hadjar already knew what white sand looked like, as he and Einen had travelled the Sea of Sand a lot. So, he would never confuse this substance with it. White, insular, shiny. It wasn’t sand, but ground bones. It glowed with a golden and crimson light because of the strange sky above. It was low, but, at the same time, seemed to reach unfathomable heights. It was densely covered with clouds. It seemed as if, instead of a proper sky, there were only bloody clouds swirling in whirlwinds because they were constantly being tormented by a fire of flaming gold. Flashes of fire plowed through them and emerged like birds of prey from the dance of blood and metal only to disappear into them once again.
The only thing that the eye could cling to in this unnerving place were the sharp rocks that rose up everywhere. Like broken swords or fangs, they reached for the bloody, golden sky, as if trying to bite it, pierce it, or at least wound it.
“Damn it, Helmer! Seriously, where are we?”
“Hey, dude, seriously, have you changed your hairstyle? You really do look different. Did you actually have sex recently, or what? It’s a shocking change.”
“Helmer…”
“I already told you. I’ve brought you to my home. Welcome to the Demon Lands!” Helmer even did a weird hand motion as he said it a second time.
Hadjar looked around once again. Well, this was probably how he’d imagined they would look.
“What are we doing here?” He asked.
Helmer adjusted his wide-brimmed hat and stroked the lump of fear that had jumped onto his shoulder. The lump whispered something in its master’s ear, then returned to the swarm.
“The Prince ordered me to bring you here for an audience.”
“The Demon Prince?”
Helmer turned to Hadjar. His single, red eye flashed from underneath the brim of his hat:
“Hadjar, please watch your tongue. I wasn’t kidding when I said our lives depend on how the next half hour goes. I have displeased the Prince too often lately to be able to count on his favor. And you... Well, you are Hadjar Darkhan. In the miserable period of time you insist on calling your life, you’ve somehow managed to get in his way several times. So we’re in a very... unpleasant predicament.”
Hadjar knew all too well when Helmer was putting on an act and when he wasn’t. Right now, the demon who was the Emissary of the Prince of Darkness, the powerful Lord of Nightmares, was more serious than Hadjar had ever seen him.
“But the Demon Prince is a being of a different level. He can’t-”
“He couldn’t,” Helmer corrected him sharply. “You and I have recently made a deal.” Hadjar’s fingers tightened around the hilt of the Blue Blade. “Let’s not discuss it further. Suffice it to say, this deal has made you vulnerable despite the laws that restrict mortals, Immortals, and those who stand above all.”
Hadjar swore. He knew perfectly well that everything always had its price, but sometimes, it was very difficult to trace what exactly you would have to pay for something, be it a service or an action you’d taken. Apparently, the fact that he’d managed to delay the deaths of Arkemeya and their child had turned into problems that not even most epic heroes from ballads and legen
“You said the Demon Prince owed me a little.”
“That’s our ace,” Helmer nodded. “If things go the wrong way at all, you’ll definitely use that card, after which we’ll get out of here however we can.”
“We?”
“The Prince will skin me alive and boil me in the feces of dogs after the many times I’ve gone out on a limb for you.”
“By the way-”
“I still have some big bets riding on you, Hadjar.” Helmer glared at him. Ah, yes, the Lord of Nightmaresand his games. Everyone with such vast power always had their own games. “So please don’t shit yourself. If you feel like shit has already started flowing down your thighs, tell Daddy Helmer, and together we’ll try not to die under the nearest fence.”
Hadjar grimaced.
“Even the former bandits in my army were more gallant than you.”
“More gallant… By all the Extinguished Stars, what the fuck are you talking about right now? Are you the Mad General or a drunken whore? Why should I be gallant? Pull yourself together, man! We’re on our way to meet the Prince!”
The swarm of nightmares stirred, turning into a wave, then formed an oval archway, inside which space rippled slightly.
“Where does this portal lead?” Hadjar asked, checking whether his sword was firmly in its scabbard. It was purely a habit at this point.
“By all the blood and flesh in this world! Are you really that stupid? This is the gateway to the Prince’s Palace, Hadji. Nut up already and let’s go!”
Helmer easily lifted Hadjar by his collar, as if he weighed nothing and wasn’t protected by a shield of mysteries, will, and energy. He then threw him straight through the portal, like he was a mangy kitten.
Chapter 1390
H adjar found himself in front of large double doors. They stretched so high up that he had to take a few steps back in order to see the edge where they touched the ceiling.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Helmer asked, in a quieter tone than usual. It was clear from his voice that he was also nervous, but hardly for the same reasons as his unwilling companion.
Hadjar felt like if he went through these doors right now, his body would be reduced to atoms or even less than that, and so would his soul, past, present, and future. The creature that waited on the other side of these heavy stone doors adorned with the image of skeletons dancing in wild flames possessed some truly incredible power.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Helmer suddenly exclaimed. He bent down and held out his hand. One of the nightmares jumped up onto his gray palm. The demon moved it onto Hadjar’s shoulder. The feeling of imminent death instantly disappeared. “As long as this is with you, part of my power will protect you from the local forces.”
“Local forces? Isn’t that the aura of the Demon Prince?”
Helmer smiled a little crookedly.
“Look around you, Hadji,” the demon waved his hands around the corridor in which they were standing. It was made out of gray stone and currently empty. Not a single sound could be heard. The wide aisles were guarded by silent, creepy statues of harpies and chimeras. The hot, yellow light of the burning sky poured through the stained-glass windows. “Do you see anyone else here?”
Well, that was true. Apart from them, there was no one else present in front of the Demon Prince’s throne room. And Hadjar doubted that there was anyone else besides them in the Palace itself as well.
“The Demon Prince isn’t a being in the literal sense of the word,” Helmer pulled his hat slightly over his eyes. “He’s the very personification of this region and all its past, present, and future inhabitants. He’s like a primordial force that appeared in opposition to the one that sat his ass down on the Jasper Throne.”
Hadjar took another look at the mighty doors. They had such an exorbitant mass that he doubted that he would have the strength to move them by even an inch. They seemed to be…
“A cage, Hadjar,” Helmer nodded at his mortal companion’s unvoiced thoughts. “For in the whole Demon Lands, besides me, there are no more than thirteen demons that can withstand the presence of our ruler. The rest-”
“-would turn to dust,” a voice sounded from behind the doors. “You shouldn’t keep my guest waiting, slave.”
Helmer clenched his fists. His red eye flashed dangerously. Hadjar had seen the Lord of Nightmares fight once before, in the Wastelands. He’d destroyed an army of demons. He’d absorbed and devoured their essence with just one of his desires. He hadn’t expressed any emotions back then. For him, it had been a mundane chore, like a peasant clearing out weeds from their garden. And now, Hadjar finally saw Helmer’s rage for the first time, which made goosebumps march up and down his back, and the small lump on his shoulder trembled with fear. Even someone’s night terror was afraid of the Emissary’s rage.
“Yes, my lord,” Helmer answered heavily.
Taking a step forward, without turning to Hadjar, he approached the doors and touched their surface. The skeletons, frozen in an eternal, fiery dance, suddenly came to life. They turned to the demon and assessed him carefully. Only then did the monumental stone doors move. With a wild roar, as if mountains were falling, they slowly opened up into the throne room. Each of the doors, as Hadjar had assumed, was at least twenty-one feet thick. They clearly weren’t carved out of simple stone, although he couldn’t sense their magic properly. Even so, what little was revealed to his gaze was something that no ordinary stone could possibly hold within it.
Hadjar had seen many throne rooms, ranging from the castles of minor Barons in the Northern Lands, created for the sake of their ego, all the way to the Ruby Palace of the dragons, created by the best dwarven craftsmen. This one was simply impossible to call a mere throne room. Hadjar almost stumbled, but a clawed hand caught him in time.
Don’t show any weakness, a voice sounded in his head. At first, Hadjar didn’t understand how Helmer did it, but then he remembered the nightmare sitting on his shoulder. Otherwise, this beast will devour you just for his own amusement.
Hadjar looked down at the narrow bridge upon which he and Helmer were now standing. It led from the corridor to a wide platform with a throne. The hall itself, larger than a city square, was actually the huge, hungry mouth of a volcano. Lava was boiling down there, underneath the bridge. It wasn’t ordinary lava, either. Hadjar looked at it and saw flashes of something alive, something hungry, something that was ready to destroy and create with its destruction. Jets of fire rose up in golden arcs to the very bridge and broke on the stone, which was the only thing that connected the ruler of demons with his lands. The energy of this lava was so powerful that even despite Helmer’s and his own protection, Hadjar still felt its pressure weigh his soul down.
“So that’s what you look like, you bag of flesh and bones named Hadjar Darkhan.” The ruler’s voice was like the lava itself, eliciting the sense of molten gold and liquid fire. “Surprisingly, I don’t know any other mortal’s name. You should be honored.”
“My lord,” Helmer dropped to his right knee.
Hadjar remained upright. According to the laws of hospitality, which sometimes bound the living even more strongly than the laws of the Heavens and the Earth, he was a guest, and therefore could afford to take several liberties.
A firestorm raged behind them. Flashes of heat rose high until they touched the sky itself, igniting it with a red glow. This volcano was the center of this country, the greatest concentration of all the chaos that reigned here. And the quintessence of this chaos, its personification, was the Prince. He sat on a throne made of stone fangs and claws. Skulls and other bones served as its back. His crown was two huge horns, between which a crimson flame burned.
More than ten feet tall, he looked at Hadjar with white eyes that had no pupils. His mighty torso breathed fire and looked like it had been cast from molten bronze. He wasn’t wearing any armor, only massive shoulder pads, to which a ragged cloak sewn from scraps of leather was attached. A belt and steel boots with greaves, which he’d tucked pants made of the same material into, was all the attire that the Demon Prince wore.
On his left arm sat a creature that looked like a miniature dragon. In his right hand, he clutched the hilt of a huge, eight-foot-long sword forged from thousands of bloody lightning bolts. Stuck into the stone, it tirelessly kept splitting it apart, and it, as if by magic, was restored back to its original state every time. Red flashes of lightning surged out of this endless battle and flew away somewhere far up into the air. The ruler’s white hair barely covered his pointed ears. The Prince smiled, revealing rows of sharp fangs.
