"Ugh!"
"My Lord, please leave quickly!"
"Damned monster!"
"Oh God!"
Facing the frenzied Shalltear, the First Seat couldn't block the True Ancestor's offensive at all. Even though he temporarily saved his life with the help of various items, the losses to his unit were incredibly tragic.
Watching his subordinates sacrifice themselves before his eyes, the hatred in the First Seat's heart could no longer be suppressed. However, even if he burst forth with strength exceeding his past self due to his agonizing state of mind, he was powerless before the absolute power gap of a True Ancestor Dragon Lord.
And this was just the strength the True Ancestor Dragon Lord displayed while unconscious. If this
Dragon Lord's consciousness were clear, he would probably have been sacrificed by now. Hateful Gride—that guy actually lured such a dangerous existence into the continent and designed an attack on the Theocracy's unit; that was no longer a crime on the level of betraying the Theocracy. If he could return alive, he would personally hunt down Gride, this traitor who had betrayed the entire human race! However, he also knew that Gride would never let him return alive; this trap was Gride's killing move, giving him no chance of escape at all.
The First Seat gritted his teeth: "Gride!!"
He had never hated a person so much, nor had he ever been so pathetic. He was truly at a dead end. He had been too careless. If he could have predicted Gride's movements, he shouldn't have given Gride the chance to stall for time earlier. No, he wasn't a god. Even if he were to do it all over again, he didn't feel he could see through Gride's schemes. After all, a Dragon Lord wasn't something that could just appear randomly, and wanting to lure a Dragon Lord to a fixed location and make it go berserk—these conditions were simply impossible under normal circumstances. Before this happened, he couldn't have guessed that Gride's trump card was a Dragon Lord; even if someone had warned him about it, he would have likely treated it as a joke back then.
In contrast, Gride knew their methods and had even calculated that he would use a true artifact when encountering a Dragon Lord. Moreover, judging by Gride's later actions, even if the True Ancestor Dragon Lord hadn't ultimately mortally wounded the user of beauty that topples cities and nations, Gride, who was hiding nearby, would have stepped in to kill the user. In the end, they were completely toyed with in the palm of Gride's hand. No one knew what that man had experienced; not only had his strength increased greatly, but even his shrewdness had become so terrifying.
The First Seat kept retreating while his subordinates used their lives to buy him time to escape.
Granted, a barrier prohibiting the use of teleportation magic had been set up nearby, but the range of the barrier was surely limited. As long as he escaped that range, he could use teleportation magic to leave. Furthermore, Gride should still be nearby. Even if he couldn't escape, he had to at least eliminate this traitor and take back the artifact beauty that topples cities and nations!
With such determination and fighting spirit, the First Seat tenaciously evaded the True Ancestor Dragon Lord's pursuit. If the True Ancestor Dragon Lord had a clear consciousness, he wouldn't have been able to do such a thing at all. But the True Ancestor Dragon Lord was currently just a monster relying on frenzied instinct to slaughter; under his subordinates' valiant combat, that creature's pace was temporarily stalled. Meanwhile, the First Seat took out a detection item to find a route out of the barrier's range.
"As expected of the First Seat."
Seeing the various items the other party pulled out of his pockets, Nigun gained an even clearer understanding of how poor his former self had been.
Compared to the opponent, the items the former Nigun possessed were simply trash; the only one worth looking at, the demon-sealing crystal, had even been wasted. Seeing through the crystal ball that the First Seat had calculated the size of the barrier, Nigun immediately got up and rushed toward the route the First Seat had chosen.
The current First Seat had almost exhausted his mana. Since that True Ancestor hadn't finished him off, he would personally send the First Seat on his way. He could already imagine the First Seat's stunned and incredulous expression. But it was only natural, because even if the man exhausted his strength to kill 'Nigun's' body, he could still be resurrected, for his essence was a demon summoned by his master.
The sounds of the True Ancestor's slaughter and the screams of his subordinates gradually receded; the First Seat knew he was about to escape this forest of death. Originally, the higher-ups of the Theocracy weren't very certain about the news of the Catastrophe Dragon Lord's resurrection, and by their estimation, the First Seat of The Black Scripture plus the true artifact beauty that topples cities and nations were fully sufficient to take down a newly resurrected Dragon Lord. But they hadn't calculated that what appeared here wasn't a newly resurrected Catastrophe Dragon Lord at all, but a True Ancestor Dragon Lord in perfect condition!
As a result, their strength was insufficient. Moreover, creatures like Vampires inherently possessed racial skills specifically effective against humans. Not only did the strength displayed by the True Ancestor Dragon Lord seem no weaker than the Catastrophe Dragon Lord in its prime, but even if the True Ancestor Dragon Lord were weaker, its racial characteristics destined it to be a more difficult opponent than the Catastrophe Dragon Lord. Had it not been for the True Ancestor Dragon Lord being in a state of frenzy and not using skills or magic, they probably wouldn't have even had the chance to use the artifact earlier.
The True Ancestor Dragon Lord was a massive threat. Unlike the Catastrophe Dragon Lord, the First Seat believed they should gather all their forces to eliminate the True Ancestor Dragon Lord, rather than thinking about controlling it as they did with the Catastrophe Dragon Lord.
With this thought, the First Seat could even temporarily set aside his hatred for Gride, wanting only to bring back the news as quickly as possible. He walked to the edge of the barrier and instantly slowed his pace, heightening his vigilance. He knew very well that even if he didn't want to settle the score with Gride now, Gride would never sit idly by and let him escape, so this battle was unavoidable—and it was quite unfavorable given his current state.
"I know you're here!"
The First Seat shouted.
However, this kind of probing was useless.
Because Nigun could strike the First Seat without even showing himself; magic was such a miraculous technique. Just as the First Seat thought Gride really hadn't followed him, the pain of his internal organs being incinerated returned. This Familiar agony told him that Gride had indeed set an ambush nearby. If the First Seat hadn't been carrying healing skill items at all times, that single blow would have likely stripped him of his combat capability entirely. The First Seat used an item's
healing skill to treat his injuries. Just as he was about to speak again, the flames within him didn't stop; instead, they showed a trend of burning even more fiercely.
The First Seat's expression changed drastically, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. The healing skill couldn't keep up with the speed of destruction. This magic's damage was actually continuous and controllable?! At this moment, the First Seat realized—Gride had actually held back several times before?
No, he had done it on purpose, wanting him to believe this magic dealt one-time damage.
"Agh!"
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