"I thought the Lionheart Society and the Student Union were supposed to hate each other."
"And yet here you are, joining forces against a common enemy. You don't see that every day."
Jovian sat in his chair, smiling faintly as he watched the Lionheart Society members struggle beneath Xia Mi's overwhelming draconic pressure.
"This is Cassell College, an academy for dragon slayers! How could we ever allow people like you to defile this place?"
Lancelot gripped his alchemical weapon and charged straight at Xia Mi.
"Foolish."
Jovian shook his head as he watched Lancelot attempt to meet Xia Mi head-on.
What followed was a massacre. Only when these overconfident little dragon pups faced a genuine pure-blooded Dragon King did they finally understand that all their previous talk of slaying dragons had been nothing more than a slogan.
Only a king could kill another king.
Meanwhile, the two beautiful women with crimson hair finally came face-to-face.
Erii walked toward Nono in small steps, her expression blank and her lips sealed.
"How about…"
"We try to be friendly?"
The instant Nono encountered Erii, she began racking her brain for a way to keep her occupied.
As for defeating Erii, Nono honestly had never considered it. Taking down a monster capable of destroying an entire street in a one-on-one fight required another monster.
Erii said nothing. She merely extended a hand toward Nono.
"Huh?"
Nono instantly became alert. She could feel immense pressure gathering at Erii's fingertips.
"Back away."
The moment Erii spoke, a tremendous force descended upon Nono's body, forcing her to stumble backward against her will.
"Sit."
Before Nono could react, Erii issued a second command.
The instant Erii's voice entered her ears and Nono understood what she meant, her body had already seated itself on the ground.
"What?"
Nono examined her condition in bewilderment. She honestly could not figure out what Erii's Yanling was.
Perhaps every word Erii spoke was itself a Yanling.
Just as Nono began searching for a way out, a flash of light appeared atop a distant tower. Sunlight had reflected off a telescopic sight, glittering brightly while signaling deadly danger.
Bang!
A muffled gunshot rang out. A bullet glowing red streaked through a cloud of white smoke and flew straight toward Erii.
"Wall."
An ordinary person would have struggled to notice the bullet amid the chaos, but Erii's mind, willpower, and reflexes had all surpassed superhuman levels. She raised her pale hand into the bullet's path and quietly spoke.
A violent gale immediately rose.
The unknown sniper's bullet struck the wall of wind and stopped dead.
The projectile, glowing with the distinctive crimson radiance of a Philosopher's Stone, instantly shattered into countless fragments.
"Is she using cheat codes or something? Does whatever she says just happen?"
Nono was growing irritated. She remained seated stiffly on the ground, seemingly destined to stay there forever unless Erii gave her permission to move.
After seeing Erii summon wind merely by speaking the word, Nono had no idea what to do. She simply could not understand what kind of Yanling her opponent possessed.
"Nono, that girl's Yanling may be Judgment."
While Nono was thinking, a woman's voice came through the earbud lodged in her ear.
"Judgment?"
Nono raised an eyebrow.
Hybrids had cataloged all known Yanlings they could use up through Sequence 112. Judgment occupied Sequence 111. The higher a Yanling ranked on the sequence, the greater its power.
Excluding Rhine, which invariably killed its user and which no known hybrid could currently wield, Judgment was the strongest Yanling available to hybrids.
As for Yanlings ranked above Sequence 112, those were already beyond a hybrid's capabilities. They generally belonged to pure-blooded dragons, or were exclusive to the Dragon Kings themselves.
Erii did not respond to Nono.
Judgment had indeed once been her Yanling, but that was no longer the case.
Ever since she had replaced God while still possessing the body of a mortal, her power had undergone an unimaginable transformation. Her former self and her current self existed on two completely different levels.
Judgment had merely been the Yanling closest to true authority.
What Erii wielded now was authority itself, a power that had already transcended the boundaries of Yanlings.
It was inconceivably powerful. Erii could use every Yanling on the sequence list whenever she wished. She could even rely on her imagination to create entirely new Yanlings.
The only requirement was for her to move her lips, or simply form the thought in her mind.
Perhaps Oracle was the most fitting name for such an ability.
Once God spoke, all creation had to obey.
"So how are the two of us supposed to defeat a monster with Judgment?"
Nono spoke wearily, as though she had already given up.
"Are you surrendering?"
The woman speaking through Nono's earbud sounded displeased.
"I'm not giving up. I just don't feel like continuing a game that was impossible to win from the start."
Nono looked at Erii.
"I surrender."
"All right."
After a brief hesitation, Erii accepted Nono's surrender.
"What happens now? Do you need to knock me unconscious?"
Nono asked how Erii intended to handle her.
"No."
"Jovian wants to see you."
Erii shook her head. She did not know why Jovian wanted to meet this girl who seemed somewhat similar to her, but if Jovian wanted it done, then she would do it.
"Then let's go."
Nono tested her body and discovered she could move again. She stood and spoke to Erii.
"All right…"
"But…"
Erii nodded. She wanted to take Nono back, but the sniper who had fired at her remained a concern.
If that sniper also attempted to shoot Jovian, the consequences could be disastrous.
Therefore, Erii turned her gaze toward the distant tower.
Boom!
The tower instantly shattered before countless witnesses and collapsed into a pile of rubble.
"Hey!"
Nono's expression turned terrifying as she stared at the destruction.
"Susie, are you okay?"
Nono pressed a hand against her earbud and repeatedly asked about Susie's condition.
"If you mean the girl who shot at me, she is unharmed. But please do not do that again."
As Nono continued asking about Susie, the usually silent Erii spoke the longest sentence she had uttered so far.
"I, I'm fine…"
"My butt just hurts a little from the fall."
While Nono glared fiercely at Erii, Susie's voice finally came through the earbud.
"Thank goodness."
"You're seriously lucky to be alive."
Nono breathed a sigh of relief after hearing her voice.
"Let's go."
Erii turned slightly and spoke to Nono.
"Fine."
Once she knew Susie was safe, Nono stopped delaying and followed Erii toward Jovian's location.
Along the way, she saw defeated students lying everywhere. Countless students with C-rank bloodlines or lower had fallen to their knees and were praying nonstop. Some of those with even weaker bloodlines were already foaming at the mouth.
Nono sensed the faint pressure lingering in the air.
There was no doubt about it. The true dragons under Jovian's command had begun displaying their power.
She considered these students fortunate.
Had these hybrids with impure bloodlines experienced the horrifying pressure she had felt on Highway 000, they probably would have gone insane in the very next second.
They would have become mindless walking corpses, forever serving at the side of a Dragon King.
"You're here."
When Nono arrived before Jovian, people were sprawled across the ground all around him.
They were all familiar faces.
There was Lancelot, the Lionheart Society's acting president, as well as several other A-rank elites from the society. Nono knew them all. Strictly speaking, they were rivals.
"I told you we might see each other again soon," Jovian said.
"Why did you want to see me?"
Nono had no intention of wasting time with him and went directly to the point.
"Because you're special."
"Not just anyone can enter Odin's Nibelungen. Only those who have been chosen can enter. The fact that you went inside means you were chosen as well. You're special, just like Chu Zihang and Chu Tianjiao."
"However, you're even more unusual than they are."
Jovian crossed one leg over the other as he spoke to Nono.
"I'm special? How come I've never noticed?"
Nono froze. Throughout her entire life, she had never considered herself particularly special.
"Chen Motong, I think your name carries quite a bit of meaning."
"In any case, you'll be staying here for observation."
Jovian smiled faintly at Chen Motong.
"Okay."
"So, basically, you want me to stay, right?"
Chen Motong seemed to understand what Jovian meant.
"Yes."
Jovian nodded.
"If you win, I'll cooperate with whatever experiments you want to perform."
"But first, you have to win."
As Nono spoke, she pulled a handgun from inside her clothes. The weapon glowed red, its ammunition once again made from a Philosopher's Stone.
"Damn it!"
No one had expected Chen Motong to launch a frontal attack from point-blank range.
Xia Mi, Chu Tianjiao, Chu Zihang, and even Erii, who had been vigilantly guarding Jovian, were all shocked.
"I only surrendered to Erii. I never said I surrendered to you!"
Chen Motong moved to pull the trigger.
"What a cunning girl."
Jovian did not become angry. He continued smiling calmly.
"Stop!"
Just as Chen Motong prepared to fire, a voice entered her mind before she could complete the motion.
Her body instantly froze.
"Whew…"
Everyone sighed in relief when they saw Chen Motong stop.
Bang!
However, a bullet suddenly tore through the air and flew straight toward Jovian.
Everyone was stunned.
Chen Motong had clearly stopped moving, so who had fired the shot?
"Mission accomplished!"
Only Chen Motong smiled.
She had been nothing more than bait.
The real killing blow came from Susie.
It was another bullet made from a Philosopher's Stone, as though such stones cost nothing at all. In truth, producing these bullets had nearly exhausted the resources Cassell College had accumulated over the years.
Clang!
Unfortunately, the final bullet also missed its target.
Chime Gen, who had remained at Jovian's side, swung the alchemical weapon in his hand and shattered the bullet before it could strike Jovian.
"It's over."
With the final bullet expended, the game had reached its end.
Jovian remained seated as he quietly addressed Chen Motong.
Chen Motong said nothing, but she understood that it was indeed over.
Caesar and Lancelot had been defeated. They had run out of bullets. The Vice Principal and Fenrir had also lost.
They no longer possessed enough strength to continue fighting.
"On behalf of every student at Cassell College, I surrender."
"You have won this battle. Starting today, you are the new principal of Cassell College!"
Chen Motong formally announced the students' surrender to Jovian.
"Since you've surrendered…"
"Stand up and welcome your new principal."
As Jovian spoke, he rose directly from his chair without moving his body. He floated upward and ascended into the sky.
"What kind of Yanling is that?"
Jovian's flight appeared to completely disregard the laws of physics. Chen Motong and the other students stared at him in shock.
"The old era is over."
"A new age begins now."
"I am Jovian, your new principal!"
"Raise your heads and look carefully at the face of your principal!"
Jovian's voice was not loud, yet it spread throughout Cassell College, allowing every student to hear his words.
All the students gradually regained consciousness. They rose to their feet and looked upward.
Jovian floated beneath the sunlight like a supreme god.
"Perhaps this is what God looks like."
The Vice Principal lay on the ground, breathing heavily as he gazed at the magnificent figure in the sky and muttered to himself.
"I thought you didn't believe in God."
Fenrir lay beside the Vice Principal and questioned him.
"Of course I didn't believe when there wasn't one. But now that one exists, I obviously believe!"
The Vice Principal's words sounded vaguely philosophical, yet also seemed completely pointless.
"Heh."
Fenrir chuckled as he considered what he should do from now on.
The weather was bright and sunny that day.
Once the countless mortals recognized their place, they resumed their work and began a new day.
Those who still considered themselves extraordinary packed their luggage, gathered at the gates of Cassell College, and prepared to leave.
"I'm just wondering what I should eat today."
Lu Mingfei, who had barely participated throughout the entire battle, yawned while wondering which dining hall he should visit.
Everything seemed to have returned to peace once again.
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