"My lord...!"
A cry of shock and fury rang through the heavens.
The White Dragon Lord's eyes flew wide, nearly splitting at the corners as he stared fixedly at the scene before him.
His already ferocious features were now twisted beyond recognition by anger and fear.
In that single second, countless thoughts flooded his mind.
He was screwed!
The thought slammed into him like a sledgehammer.
If his failure to protect his charge had merely resulted in death, there might still have been some hope.
After all, with the high-level resurrection magic at his command, death was not necessarily the end.
But Naraku-sama was different. His unique nature left even the White Dragon Lord helpless.
The Soul was the foundation of Resurrection. Every form of resurrection magic, regardless of its nature, was built upon the Soul.
If the Soul were lost, then even he, a True Dragon Lord, would be powerless to bring someone back.
The problem was that Naraku-sama did not possess a Soul in the first place.
He was merely one of Naohara-sama's thoughts, a tangible manifestation of his mind.
Once he died, he would truly cease to exist, with no possibility of recovery.
Even if a new Naraku could be recreated from memories, his essence would be entirely different from the original. He would not be the same individual.
Before they had even set out for the Roble Holy Kingdom, Naohara-sama had specifically instructed the White Dragon Lord to protect the thought-form known as Naraku at all costs.
The fact that Naohara-sama had stressed the matter so strongly was enough to show just how important Naraku was to him.
And so, the White Dragon Lord was now gripped by utter terror.
Naraku-sama had died, and it had happened right before his eyes.
There was no question that he would bear responsibility for this.
At the thought, a chill ran down the White Dragon Lord's spine.
What kind of horrific fate awaited him?
Never mind whatever harsh punishment Naohara-sama might impose.
If the NPCs of Nazarick learned what had happened, they would probably tear him apart without mercy.
And that might still be the better outcome.
After living in Nazarick for so long, the White Dragon Lord understood all too well that sometimes, being alive was worse than being dead.
Take the former Platinum Power Plant, for example, or the current Deep Darkness Power Plant and Eternal Night Power Plant.
Was he going to follow in their footsteps and become the White Frost Power Plant?
No!
Absolutely not!
Just imagining it made his entire body tremble.
He had to act. He had to do something!
Yes. No matter what it took, he had to find a way to make up for this colossal failure!
This was a struggle for his very survival!
A deep blue gleam flashed through his pupils, and in the next instant, something astonishing happened.
The space surrounding the fissure seemed to freeze solid.
Everything came to an abrupt halt. Not the slightest movement remained.
[Tenth Tier: Frost of Judecca]
Among all the Tier Magic mastered by the White Dragon Lord, this was the only spell capable of affecting space. He was using it now to buy himself time.
Almost simultaneously with the flash of deep blue light, a massive Barrier spread outward like ripples at astonishing speed.
In the blink of an eye, the Barrier expanded to its limit, completely isolating the interior from the outside world.
[Wild Magic: World-Isolating Barrier]
Because he had been short on time, and because most of his energy had gone into filling the new Dragon Race's inherited memories, the White Dragon Lord's mastery of Wild Magic remained relatively shallow.
He knew only three spells.
The first was the teleportation spell [World Teleportation].
The second was [Soul Garment], which provided an enhancement effect.
The third was the Barrier spell he was using now, [World-Isolating Barrier].
Because he was still unfamiliar with these Wild Magic Spells, the White Dragon Lord could not yet wield them as freely as he wished.
Every use consumed far more Dragon Soul power than he had originally expected.
But right now, he had no time to care about that.
Worst case, he could simply use the souls of those Demihumans as fuel!
The instant the Barrier was complete, the White Dragon Lord, who had already been gathering his strength, opened his enormous maw without hesitation.
[Frost Breath Attack]
Magical power gathered and transformed into a stream of breath infused with biting frost.
Carrying terrifying force, the Breath Attack roared toward the fissure ahead.
Wherever it passed, the very air froze, while a thick layer of frost rapidly spread across the ground.
Just as the attack was about to engulf the fissure, the fissure, whose time had supposedly been frozen, suddenly trembled.
Crack!
A sharp cracking sound rang out.
The restraining effect placed upon the fissure by the 10th-Tier Magic shattered instantly.
Immediately afterward, a figure slowly descended from within the fissure.
Faced with the terrifying Breath Attack bearing down on him, the figure merely moved one finger.
"Hum!"
A faint vibration sounded, and an invisible wave abruptly spread outward from that fingertip.
The seemingly unstoppable Breath Attack struck the invisible wave and immediately lost all of its momentum, as though it had encountered its natural enemy.
The magical energy within the Frost Breath began to churn violently before collapsing altogether, dissolving into countless pure magical particles that faded into the air as though the attack had never existed.
"How irritable. No, that isn't quite right. To be more precise, what you're showing seems to be a mixture of panic and fear. Is it because that human died?"
"If that's the reason, then there's no need to worry. He isn't dead. Otherwise, that Barrier of yours wouldn't be enough to stop me."
A hint of contempt lurked beneath his smiling tone.
The man wore a priest's robe, with snow-white hair tied behind him and a grimoire held firmly in one hand. His eyes were narrowed, and the faintest smile lingered on his lips.
The White Dragon Lord ignored him completely and hurriedly looked to the side, toward Naraku's corpse.
Sure enough, a voice like heavenly music reached his ears, instantly lifting the fog from his mind.
Naraku's body, which had been lying lifeless on the ground, had somehow gotten back to its feet.
Neia was holding Naraku's severed head in her arms. She carefully raised it and gently set it back onto his neck.
The instant the head touched the body, something miraculous happened.
The two rejoined perfectly, without even the slightest seam between them.
"Thanks, Neia."
"That was close. If I hadn't taken a precaution, I really might have died here today."
Naraku's voice drifted over.
He flexed his newly reattached neck while softly thanking Neia beside him.
Naturally, something like this would have been impossible for a human.
But for an Undead, it was easy.
Special Class, Dullahan Knight.
In YGGDRASIL, a Dullahan's head was little more than a slightly sturdier ornament.
But things were very different in the New World.
The instant a Dullahan removed its head and separated it from its body, the head and body would become two independent entities, each capable of acting on its own!
His original self had once conducted a series of experiments on this strange phenomenon.
For example, by relying on the mysterious connection between the two, the body could fight openly on the front lines while the head remained hidden in the rear, providing blessings and administering potions.
The results were quite something. Whatever was done to the head also took effect on the body, and likewise, any damage dealt to the head would also injure the body.
Naraku's safety measures were simple.
First, using the class [Ruler of Wisdom], he changed his own class into a high-level Dullahan Knight class.
Then he converted his [Genius] class into [Death Knight], giving himself an effect that prevented him from being killed in a single hit.
Finally, he took advantage of the fact that every part of an Undead's body had its own independent health bar and had to be destroyed separately.
Together, these measures formed his ultimate survival strategy.
At the instant he had been ambushed earlier, his head had not so much been cut off as it had fallen off by itself a split second earlier under the force of the attack.
The only unfortunate part was where it landed.
It rolled straight to Neia's feet.
Naraku clearly remembered the expression on the girl's face at that moment.
The light gradually faded from her eyes. Her expression shifted from panic to disbelief, then finally became empty and lifeless.
Her lips trembled as though she wanted to say something, but no sound came out.
In the end, all she could do was slowly crouch down, reach out with a trembling hand, and gently stroke his face.
Tears spilled uncontrollably from her eyes and fell onto his face.
How should he put it?
It had been rather unexpected.
Someone crying over his death...
The last person to do that had probably been Clementine.
At that thought, Naraku looked at Neia's slightly reddened eyes, and his gaze softened even further.
Knowing that someone would cry over his death genuinely made him happy, even if feeling pleased about it was a little unfair to her.
At the same time, he also felt somewhat ashamed.
After all, when he had first realized that the Roble Holy Kingdom was in danger, his immediate reaction had been to have the White Dragon Lord take him away and escape.
He had never even considered going back for her.
I... really am pretty selfish, aren't I?
"Sir, as far as I know, I've never done anything to offend you. So why are you so determined to kill me?"
"And I assume everything that's been happening throughout the Roble Holy Kingdom is your doing as well."
Narrowed eyes and a smiling face. This guy clearly wasn't anything good.
Watching the man face off against the White Dragon Lord, Naraku asked the question in a quiet voice.
First, he needed to buy some time and see whether he could coax any information out of him.
"You really haven't offended me, and I had no intention of bothering with you at first. But what you've been doing got in my way, so I had no choice but to remove you as an obstacle."
The man was in no hurry to attack. Instead, he answered at an unhurried pace.
The Frost Dragon had been watching him closely the entire time. The moment he tried to open the fissure, it would undoubtedly use that same spell from earlier to freeze time and space and interrupt him.
So rather than fight, he might as well talk for now.
"I'm in your way?"
"From what you're saying, is this about the humans I've been protecting?"
Thoughts raced through Naraku's mind like lightning.
In only a moment, he had completely analyzed the meaning behind the man's words and reached a conclusion.
This man's objective was the humans under his protection.
A crisp burst of applause suddenly rang out.
"Clap! Clap!"
"You really are smart. If it weren't for this Frost Dragon, you might have become the first successful case~"
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