Deep within Gundrak, the stench of blood and decay in the temple was almost suffocating.
"Mortal—" Quetzlun's hoarse voice broke the silence.
He scrutinized Moragon beneath him, his long serpentine tongue flicking slightly.
"You have taken enough essence."
"Greed will only burst your body again, just like last time."
His words were ostensibly a warning, but in reality, they contained a hint of probing and wariness.
It was time to consider replacing him with a more "stable" mortal agent, Quetzlun thought to himself.
Moragon slowly turned his head, his bloodshot eyes meeting the wind serpent Loa coiled around him.
The intoxicated smile on his face did not disappear; instead, it widened, revealing his stark white fangs.
"Enough? No, my God—" His voice was deep, with a strangely viscous quality.
Although Moragon's attitude remained respectful, beneath it, an uncontrollable fanaticism and a hint of disdain seethed.
"This power is far from enough. ZulDrak needs a stronger foundation to—counter that Dragon God and clear all obstacles."
His gaze, like hooks, fixed tightly on Quetzlun's slender body.
Quetzlun's serpentine tongue paused for a moment.
He felt Moragon's undisguised greed, but he shouldn't dare to act rashly. After all, without him, he couldn't even maintain his human form.
Therefore, this damned mortal had to be taught a good lesson.
Quetzlun's vertical pupils narrowed slightly, and the viscous pressure he emitted suddenly intensified, causing the air in the temple to grow heavy.
However, just as he was about to speak again to admonish Moragon—
Moragon moved! And very quickly!
His body, without warning, transformed into an afterimage, wielding a battle axe stained with divine blood, striking with incredible speed and angle,
From bottom to top, he fiercely slashed at Quetzlun's serpentine neck!
"Hiss—?!" Quetzlun only managed to let out a shriek of combined shock and fury!
Thud—!
A dull sound of flesh and bone tearing!
Quetzlun's serpentine head, along with a corner of the skeletal throne behind him, was violently severed and sent flying by this long-planned, terrifying blow!
As his head flew through the air, his serpentine eyes still held an expression of disbelieving horror!
"It was Hakkah and Saronyah, their curse upon me just before their deaths..."
Quetzlun's last shred of consciousness flickered, then plunged into endless darkness.
The headless wind serpent's body began to twist and convulse violently, divine power exploding uncontrollably, shattering the skeletal throne!
Dark green, golden-glowing divine blood gushed like a fountain from the severed neck, emitting a pungent, foul odor!
"Not enough! Far from enough!"
Moragon's deep roar almost became a beast's howl, his eyes bloodshot, pupils trembling slightly with excitement and greed.
He lunged forward, plunging his hand into the gushing divine blood from the severed neck, his finger bones deeply embedded in muscle and bone.
A mist of blood enveloped his face, making his distorted smile appear eerily bizarre in the red and gold light.
"Ahhhh—!" Moragon roared, throwing his head back, then lowered it and bit down without hesitation.
He bit into a piece of flesh that still glowed with divine light; the fishy smell and heat exploded in his mouth, burning his tongue like fire, yet making every nerve in his body tremble with pleasure.
The divine power and the scent of blood drove him into a frenzy.
He lowered his head, his hands beginning to tear at Quetzlun's torso, greedily stuffing piece after piece of flesh and bone into his mouth.
With each chew, divine blood dripped from Moragon's jaw, splashing onto the ground and transforming into wisps of emerald green mist.
His chest heaved violently with ragged breaths, and the muscles in his back twisted as power swelled within him.
This process was bizarre and nauseating.
Gradually, the divine blood permeated Moragon's entire body, beginning to surge wildly into him.
Scaly patterns began to emerge on the surface of his body, and countless tiny snakes seemed to be slithering and swelling beneath his skin.
His eyes were completely filled with an eerie green light, and a snake-like, musky mist spewed from his nose and mouth.
Each swallow was accompanied by the terrifying sound of bones twisting and stretching, and Moragon's roars, a mixture of pain and ecstasy.
He knew the price of this power, of course!
He remembered the miserable state of losing control and turning into a monster last time!
However, the craving for power had deeply penetrated his bones, and his will, completely twisted by ambition and greed, had long overridden the last shred of reason.
He was immersed in this gruesome feast, as persistent as a moth drawn to a flame, disregarding everything else, solely pursuing power! Only power!
When the last piece of flesh was devoured, Moragon, covered in blood, stood in place, panting heavily.
His body had swelled an entire size larger than before, his muscles so gnarled they were almost inhuman, and dark blue-black veins bulged and pulsed beneath his skin.
Wind serpent scales shimmered faintly on his body, snow leopard claws began to extend from his fingertips, thick rhinoceros keratin covered parts of his shoulders and back, and a hint of serpentine chill occasionally flickered.
He barely maintained the outline of a troll, but his entire being had transformed into a monster forcibly stitched together from different Loa features!
Violent, chaotic divine power clashed fiercely within him, and his mind was like a flickering candle in a storm, threatening to collapse completely at any moment.
"Power—supreme power—" Moragon whispered, his voice hoarse, filled with madness and satisfaction.
He dragged his mutated body, step by step, towards the temple's exit leading to the surface.
With each step, a deeply indented footprint, emitting a putrid, bloody smell, was left on the ground.
—Divider—
Inside Gundrak City, the allied forces led by Skala and Toka had just completed their rendezvous.
They were slowly pushing along multiple main roads towards the temple district in the city's core.
The street fighting was exceptionally brutal; every house, every alleyway had become a fiercely contested battlefield.
Just as both sides were locked in a stalemate, a terrifying, heart-stopping pressure suddenly erupted like a tsunami, rapidly sweeping out from the temple as its center!
The aura contained the divine fluctuations of multiple Loa, clashing with each other, yet strangely seeming to be unified under a single will.
All soldiers, both friend and foe, felt their hearts gripped by this pressure, their movements involuntarily freezing, as they looked in horror towards the source of the pressure.
Heavy footsteps approached, growing louder.
A massive, distorted figure slowly emerged from the thick smoke and snow mist.
It was Moragon, but almost no troll could recognize him anymore.
With each step he took, his mutation progressed further:
Scales gradually covered his skin, claws continuously extended, his shoulders and back slowly swelled, multiple areas began to be covered by keratin, and an eerie green light flickered in his eyes.
When he finally reached the end of the central avenue, exposed to the allied forces' view, he had already transformed into a monster, forcibly pieced together from various Loa features, emitting a bizarre aura!
"Insects—" The voice it emitted was a superposition of multiple voices—deep, sharp, hoarse, roaring—with an echo,
Resounding throughout all of Gundrak.
"Do you see? This is the power of a god! I am—the King of ZulDrak! The only God of ZulDrak!"
He slowly raised his arm, which was half-transformed into a snow leopard's, dark green divine blood still dripping from its claws.
As he made his declaration, the sky suddenly darkened.
Dark clouds churned, and snowflakes began to fall from the sky, but they carried several different hues—grey, white, dark green, and black, different Loa's divine power coloring them differently.
The snowflakes landed on the soldiers, then turned into tiny drops of water, seeping into the gaps in their armor, causing searing pain mixed with coldness;
When they landed on the ground, the earth cracked open, releasing cursed steam.
"All who oppose me must die! All obstacles must be cleared!" Moragon let out a final, hysterical roar, and various colored divine light shot out from the crevices of his still-expanding body.
Boom—!
These divine lights exploded violently, sweeping over everything around them!
Instantly leveling the surrounding architectural debris!
When the light subsided, the monster standing before the allied forces was completely unrecognizable as human.
Instead, it was a terrifying beast, tens of meters tall, its body crudely stitched together from various Loa features!
It possessed the massive membranous wings of a wind serpent and a colossal body covered in thick rhinoceros keratin.
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