Mana addiction!

Catherine's remark jolted Ambrose's memory.

When he had been conducting experiments in the past, he had witnessed drow elves suffering mana addiction firsthand. When the illness flared up, they truly did appear deranged. As if gripped by unbearable hunger, they desperately tried to stuff anything and everything into their mouths.

That was because a "mana vortex" had formed within their bodies, draining their vitality and magic, and creating the illusion of extreme starvation.

"This dragon has mana addiction too?" Ambrose muttered. "Did it somehow come into contact with elven blood?"

That seemed unlikely. If the elves had ever encountered this dragon, Catherine would certainly have known.

That left only one possibility: the dragon had been granted power it could not control. For example, it might have been forcibly infused with legendary-tier power.

If that were the case, then perhaps they could simply wait for the dragon to die on its own. Mana addiction was incurable. After prolonged agony, the victim's body would be completely drained, resulting in a miserable death.

The dragon was clearly past the incubation phase. If they waited long enough, perhaps its body would collapse on its own.

But that idea was unrealistic. The dragon's regenerative ability was absurdly strong, suggesting an immense reserve of vitality. No one knew how long it would take before it was finally drained dry.

Days? Months?

By then, it would be far too late.

Catherine hurriedly spoke up. "Aren't you able to treat mana addiction? Or we could seal the dragon away."

Ambrose shook his head. "It's not that simple. Setting aside its sheer size, any sealing spell would need to be amplified several times over to even have a chance to work on a dragon. And more importantly, a magical seal is based on magic. You've seen its magic resistance. A seal won't work at all, unless..."

"Unless what?" Catherine asked urgently.

"Unless the seal is cast from inside its body. There's no magic resistance there. I tested that earlier."

"How is that even possible?!"

Catherine found the idea completely untenable. One bite from those rows of fangs and a person would be ground to paste. Even if you somehow avoided being bitten, a single burst of dragonbreath from its throat would reduce you to ashes.

And even if you could reach the stomach, the dragon's gastric acid would melt you instantly. There would be no time to cast any sealing spell.

Then, Catherine noticed Ambrose staring straight at her.

"What are you planning?" she demanded. "You're not thinking of sending me into the dragon's belly, are you?"

Ambrose nodded. "Exactly. You're the best candidate. You'll definitely succeed, and there's absolutely no danger to your life." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Catherine's future as a doomed office drone had already been woven into her fate. Until that miserable destiny came true, she could not die.

That made her the perfect choice to crawl into a dragon's stomach.

But Catherine wasn't a fool. She immediately countered, "Why don't we just wait for it to die on its own? It's just a castle. Worst case, I'll give you a new one."

Everyone inside had already evacuated anyway. Let the dragon roll around here all it wanted.

The suggestion actually made sense. Unfortunately, the dragon was unwilling to cooperate.

After smashing apart nearly half of Ambrose's castle, it took to the skies once more and charged straight at Ambrose and Catherine.

Dragonfire sprayed wildly, forcing the two of them to dodge again and again.

The chase dragged on for a long time. The dragon showed no signs of weakening at all, while Catherine and Ambrose were clearly being worn down.

Even legendary-tier mana pools weren't infinite. Ambrose's Golden Throne had yet to fully recover after the previous battle. Every bit of power he used now would leave him weaker in the short term.

Catherine wanted to teleport away together with Ambrose, but he refused.

"No. This thing's mana addiction seems to have reached some kind of equilibrium. It probably won't be drained to death. Look at its size. It's already twice as large as it was at the beginning. If we retreat now, no one will be able to stop it. Once it devours all the surrounding lands, even a sealing spell may no longer work.

"Your Majesty, we can't retreat any farther. Just south of here lies the Court of the Silver Moon."

Catherine wanted to retort that they were in the very heart of Alkhemia. The Court of the Silver Moon was still far away.

But she also knew he wasn't exaggerating, not entirely. Driven by hunger, the dragon would keep devouring all life in its path. Sooner or later, it would reach the Court of the Silver Moon.

Once the safety of the elven race was at stake, Catherine's attitude changed instantly.

She asked Ambrose, "You said earlier that I would definitely succeed. Is that true?"

Ambrose thumped his chest. "Trust me. You'll succeed. You'll come back safe and sound."

Catherine clenched her teeth. "Fine. I'll trust you this once. Give me the sealing scrolls."

Ambrose smiled, took out several sealing spell scrolls, and used magic to stack their effects together. Only when he felt the combined power was sufficient to seal the dragon did he hand the thick bundle of scrolls to Catherine.

"I'll be waiting for your triumphant return, Your Majesty."

Catherine took the scrolls, gritted her teeth, and rode her giant eagle straight toward the frenzied dragon.

By now, the dragon had become truly monstrous. It stretched nearly sixty meters from head to tail. Its head alone was almost as large as a castle gate.

In comparison, Catherine's slender figure really did look like nothing more than a sliver of meat caught between its teeth.

That was exactly what she feared most. She hastily layered multiple defensive spells on herself, then charged at full speed toward the dragon's open maw.

The dragon, tormented by hunger and long past rational thought, saw Catherine rushing toward it and instinctively opened its jaws to snap her up in a single bite.

At the instant its fangs were about to close on her, Catherine leapt from the eagle's back and threw herself straight into the dragon's mouth.

Rows of cold, gleaming teeth slammed shut like a guillotine, grazing past her head.

Her vision went black as her body slid into a sticky, foul-smelling space.

The dragon's tongue writhed, trying to shove her back toward its teeth to chew her to pieces. Catherine twisted agilely, rolled once, and slid along the tongue straight toward the throat.

"Please don't breathe fire. Please don't breathe fire."

She prayed silently as she slipped into the esophagus.

Against all expectations, the dragon really did not breathe fire. Everything went far more smoothly than she had imagined.

Next came the stomach. From there, she would cut through the stomach lining and imprint the seal directly onto the dragon's heart.

The sealing spell had to act on the heart itself. Elves did not possess such overwhelming magic resistance, so an external seal was sufficient. But this dragon was far too terrifying. The only option was to seal it from within.

That was precisely why Ambrose needed Catherine to enter the dragon's body personally. Otherwise, he could have simply thrown the scrolls into its mouth.

Ambrose remained hovering in mid-air, continuing to distract the rampaging dragon.

Catherine had been within the dragon for nearly half a minute. By all rights, the sealing should already be complete.

"Did something go wrong?" Ambrose shook his head. Impossible.

A fixed destiny could not be altered. The Loom of Fate had nailed down Catherine's future. She could not die in a dragon's belly beforehand.

He had to believe in fate.

At that very moment, Catherine was standing inside the dragon's stomach, her feet planted on a mass of foul, reeking flesh.

The dragon had just devoured a huge number of demons. Their carcasses filled most of its stomach and had yet to be fully digested.

Catherine had never experienced anything so disgusting in her life. As the Queen of the Elves, she had always lived in comfort and refinement, dwelling in an elegant palace within the Court of the Silver Moon. She never even saw trash, let alone this kind of filth.

A sour, corrosive stench flooded her nostrils. As the dragon writhed, gastric acid splashed everywhere, continuously eating away at her protective shields.

To keep her footing, she had to sink her feet deep into the decaying flesh, in its nauseating slickness.

It felt like pure torture. Yet Catherine still forced herself to hold her breath, steady her body, and draw her short sword to cut into the dragon's stomach lining.

"This is all for the elves!"

That conviction supported her as the blade pierced the stomach lining and sliced open a wound.

Before she could finish cutting through, however, the dragon convulsed in pain. Its stomach lining contracted violently as it tried to crush Catherine between its folds.

A creature of such enormous size possessed equally terrifying internal strength. Cracks instantly spread across Catherine's magical shields. The dragon's stomach lining was like a siege hammer that clamped down on her with overwhelming pressure.

Catherine now had two choices. She could drop the short sword and reinforce her shields, hoping to withstand the pressure. Or she could ignore the shields on the verge of collapse and keep cutting, hoping to break through before they shattered completely.

She did not hesitate. She continued to swing the blade, hacking at the stomach wall, and shouted, "Damn lich, you'd better not be lying to me!"

Catherine chose to trust Ambrose. She chose to believe that she would succeed.

The short sword plunged deep into the stomach lining, provoking even more violent thrashing from the dragon. But at last, she pierced through, ripping open a massive wound just before her shields shattered.

Without a second thought, Catherine dove straight through the opening.

The decision proved to be the right one. The instant she emerged from the stomach lining, the wound behind her began to heal. Within just three seconds, it had completely sealed shut again.

Catherine groped her way forward through the dragon's body. She had no idea how long she crawled before finally touching the wildly pounding dragon heart.

The dragon's heart was larger than her entire body. Each beat was like a muffled thunderclap exploding beside her ears.

Had she not been a legend, her eardrums would likely have ruptured, leaving her unconscious.

Enduring the deafening pounding, Catherine poured her magic into the scrolls. Countless blue threads burst forth, wrapping themselves around the massive heart.

The threads interwove and bound the heart tightly in place. Endless runes imprinted themselves into the flesh, flowing along the blood vessels throughout the dragon's body.

Before long, Catherine felt a sudden sensation of weightlessness.

The dragon was falling from the sky.