Damien took the shortest possible route to the Dragon Lord, but it was by no means short. The main issue was the terrain, full of inclines and dips that made it impossible to teleport casually. When he reached the volcanic region, it became even worse.
There were thousands of spires surrounding the main volcano. The Dragon Lord's lair was in the very center of them all, right at the base of the volcano.
Damien was forced to weave through thousands of spires without making any sound. Avoiding the detection of the many people in the vicinity was also a problem, but he managed to do it with the help of the Void. Finally, he reached the lair itself. It was more of a mansion than a dragon's den, but it was built to look like a natural hole in the volcano. The magma that flowed from the top was used as lighting for the structure, creating a beautiful backdrop and scenery that elevated the ambiance to another level.
It wasn't beautiful for Damien, though. The magma made it difficult for him to stay concealed, and since he wanted to do this whole mission covertly, the fact that he didn't know anything about the mansion's layout wasn't helpful.
Still, he had to find a way to do it.
'And the magma ends up being the best method.'
Damien only had a few hours to spend investigating the area. It had been four days and it was already the night of the fifth. Soon, the tournament would start and he'd reach the real final moments of this confrontation.
He couldn't still be looking for information at that time. From a short search, he could only see that there was a system of channels through which the magma was directed so that it flowed how the Dragon Lord wanted it to. It looked like they ran throughout the entire mansion, which was good for Damien.
However, it wasn't as if sneaking through the magma was an untested strategy. Many had tried, and just as many had failed. That magma was supported by the Dragon Lord and to an extent was the source of his power. Anyone who stayed submerged in it for too long would find the very essence of their soul burning.
It was an effect with no counter in the Land of Nothingness, which made the Dragon Lord one of the most difficult Area Lords to face when he was in his home territory.
'Unfortunately for him, I have cheats.'
With the Void around him, Damien could be impervious to the magma and remained concealed without an issue. Rather than approaching the mansion and crawling into the tunnels from there, he entered one of the magma streams and swam against its current to reach the entrance of the channel.
It was just barely large enough for a human man to fit through. For anyone who was just slightly larger, it was impossible.
Damien was relatively tall, standing at six feet and two inches in height, and he had a wider frame that was built as he continued to fight and gain muscle. If he was in his original body, even he would have been too large.
The form he was taking to avoid surveillance was skinnier and smaller, meant to blend into society and look unassuming. This kind of stature was perfect for the task and allowed Damien to infiltrate the mansion without problems.
Still, he had to navigate the maze of channels and find one near the Dragon Lord.
'I sensed his aura near the back of the mansion. It'll be difficult to reach.'
The northwestern corner of the mansion was both the furthest from Damien and the deepest part of the mansion. It bordered the inner side of the volcano and was practically one with its magma pool. 'Maybe it would have been easier to dive from the top?'
But it also would have been more time-consuming.
Damien put away his thoughts temporarily and focused on navigation.
'Right, left, up…I'm glad that it's all relatively uniform.'
At the end of the day, the system was like the plumbing pipes in a house. They had a defined form and purpose, so as long as one understood where the start and end points were, finding a path between them wasn't the most difficult thing in the world.
The magma was relatively friendly to Damien. It was warm rather than scalding and blanketed his body, lulling him into a sense of peace.
'It may be a different kind of danger, but it's still dangerous.'
Damien had to consciously make sure that his mind remained on edge as he swam. With his attention focused on keeping himself stable, he was able to reach his destination after no more than three hours of searching.
Finally, he could sense the Dragon Lord's aura directly underneath him.
The Void's energy changed and Damien's body became ethereal. He phased through the pipes and into the walls themselves, giving him access to the sound coming out of the room.
He didn't care about the conversations the Dragon Lord was having with whoever he was entertaining. He was focused on that man's arrhythmic heartbeat. Du-Dun! Du-Dun! Du-Dun!
One short one long, one long one short. His heart was never able to beat properly as if there was something inhibiting its path.
Damien sharpened his hearing to another degree and gained an understanding of all of the Dragon Lord's body functions.
He was looking for a location, and he found it through this method.
'His heart, his stomach, and his eyes.'
Those three places were giving off very strange readings as if they had been tampered with. It was odd viewing the man as more of an object, but the approach made it easier for Damien to find the actual problem.
He sharpened his eyes to see through the wall and finally laid eyes on that man for the first time. He was just as robust as the Earth Temple Master but with fiery red hair and an equally flame-like beard.
If Damien used his own mana to probe, he would immediately be discovered by the mastermind. Damien had to find a roundabout method now that he wasn't in a position to use the same liquor strategy as before.
But, the base of that strategy was enough.
'Conveniently, they have food and drinks.'
Damien waited patiently for over twenty minutes, waiting for the Dragon Lord to grab something to consume.
When that moment finally came when he was most unsuspecting of interference, Damien widened his eyes slightly and shot a strand of mana inside.
It was digested along with the food and became a part of the Dragon Lord's regular bodily processes without being detected, and soon enough, information was pouring into Damien's head.
The Area Lord's strength, bodily abilities, mental power, and other stats came first.
But Damien's focus was on the lumps of malevolent mana that were present in the locations he'd marked earlier.
Despite being unable to immediately decipher their structure, Damien didn't take long to understand what they were.
As he thought, this piece brought the entire puzzle together.
Because the Dragon Lord…
'...that guy has been turned into a living nuke.'