He swung his arm forcefully as if to dispel some thought. “Acting like No.2 and I were really that pathetic and weak!”
No.3 also surprisingly withheld his sarcasm, letting out a soft “Heh” before commenting, “That punch… wasn’t entirely useless.”
“Roar—!!!”
Just then, an enraged roar erupted from the ruins!
A terrifying, chaotic dragon pressure exploded again, even more violent than before, faintly touching a higher, heart-stopping threshold—it was the embryonic form of pressure belonging to an S-rank True Demon Lord!
Bricks exploded as the monsterized Li En reappeared.
A large patch of the dragon scales on his chest was shattered, and the bloody wound beneath was healing at supernatural speeds.
Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. His vertical pupils were bloodshot due to extreme rage and an inability to accept the facts, and he was locked onto Bart.
He still couldn’t accept it!
He couldn’t accept Bart’s description of Yize!
Bart must have made it up just to save face!
He, Li En, was the chosen one who had gained great power!
He had to be stronger than Yize!
He had to prove it!
Completely dominated by rage and obsession, Li En’s aura surged again. Ignoring the strain on his body, he charged at Bart once more!
This time, his speed was so great that he left a trail of afterimages in the air, his killing intent palpable!
Feeling the suffocating pressure rushing toward him, Bart’s expression changed, and he couldn’t help but curse. “Damn it… I really can’t stop this now…”
His previous punch had almost entirely depleted him. His current state was worse than before. Facing a Li En who was clearly beginning to explode at any cost, his chances of winning were slim.
From the human camp watching in the distance.
Luke saw Li En being knocked away and then charging back in a frenzy, and he nearly jumped for joy.
Ignoring his own injuries, he clapped his hands loudly, shouting as he enjoyed the chaos.
“Yes! That’s it! Let the dogs fight! Bite each other’s heads off!”
“It’s best if you both get hurt and die together! Beautiful! Brother Bart, keep it up!”
Sara, Emma, Laura, Swan, and even Dio all wore incredibly complex expressions.
Although they also desperately hoped the Blood Race and the Demonic Dragon would fight to the death, Luke’s blatant, noisy performance… was truly speechless. They even felt like covering his mouth.
Sara whispered helplessly, “Luke… be quiet!”
Was this the time to be happy?
Weren’t they afraid of drawing aggro?
Emma also nervously tugged at Luke’s sleeve.
Swan and Dio kept a vigilant eye on the battlefield and the movements of the other two Blood Race members.
However, in Li En’s eyes, there was only Bart!
Only this member of the Blood Race who kept using the fact that ‘Yize is strong’ to provoke and humiliate him!
He wanted to use his most violent attack to tear Bart to shreds and prove that he was the stronger one!
To prove that Yize was nothing!
“Enough.”
In the next second, a figure draped in a deep gray cloak appeared without warning in the path of Li En’s charge, just as Li En’s dragon claw, which carried terrifying power, was about to reach Bart.
He merely reached out his arm casually.
That hand emerged from the wide sleeve of the cloak.
It was also a dragonized arm, but this hand was far more perfect than Li En’s.
Li En’s certain-kill strike came to an abrupt halt.
Jellal had easily caught the wrist of the dragon claw he had swung with all his might.
Li En’s momentum was stopped dead. He looked up in shock.
“You… who are you?!” Li En hissed, struggling, only to find that the other person’s hand was like an unbreakable shackle, completely motionless.
“An interesting little fellow.”
Jellal’s voice was devoid of emotion, carrying a sense of condescending scrutiny.
“To be able to retain a portion of twisted logic even while being so deeply dragonized and eroded by a chaotic will, and even clearly express such… rich negative desires.”
“Your soul’s aptitude and your compatibility with this power are actually quite good.”
His gaze swept over Li En’s body, especially lingering on his dragonized features.
Meanwhile, Li En’s attention was completely captured by Jellal’s arm!
The scales covering it, and the pure, majestic Dragon Power that far exceeded his own…
“You… your hand… You are also…!”
Li En’s voice was distorted by shock.
It was one thing for Swan to have mysterious Dragon Power, but why did this mysterious cloaked man who appeared and was treated with such respect by the Blood Pillars also possess such complete and powerful dragonized features?
Moreover, it was clearly more advanced and more… perfect?
An absurd feeling, mixed with jealousy and panic, surged in Li En’s heart.
Was this kind of power… just common now?
Jellal did not answer his question.
He seemed to have lost interest in continuing the conversation. With his other hand, he casually made a swiping motion in the empty air.
Csh—
A stable, deep purple spatial fissure appeared instantly.
Then, Jellal’s arm jerked, and an irresistible force containing spatial binding and immense dragon pressure surged through his arm.
Li En felt his entire body tighten, as if bound by invisible chains. Even the chaotic Dragon Power in his body froze instantly. He was then dragged up by Jellal and thrown toward that spatial fissure!
“No—! Let me go! I haven’t yet—”
Li En struggled madly, his eyes full of resentment and anger.
He was just a hair’s breadth away from killing Luke, just a hair’s breadth away from… Why?
He looked at the heavily injured Laura and the pale Sara in the distance, his eyes filled with unfinished malice.
The spatial fissure swallowed Li En’s figure instantly.
The fissure then quickly closed and vanished, as if it had never existed.
Only the remnant of Li En’s last roar, filled with resentment, echoed faintly in the night wind: “…could have… done whatever I wanted…!”
Jellal vanished along with Li En.
In the center of the battlefield, only the three Blood Pillars remained.
In the distance, the human camp was dead silent.
Luke’s mouth hung open, and after a long time, he finally stammered out a few words.
“Holy crap… that guy… how did he get taken away by that black-robed schemer just like Senior Yize?”
He scratched his square head, looking completely puzzled.
“Don’t tell me… he was also caught to be locked up and slowly killed?”
This guess sent a chill down everyone’s spine.
At that moment, No.3’s gaze turned back toward the human camp, that repulsive, playful smile returning to his face.
He clapped his hands lightly, as if what had just happened was merely an insignificant interlude.
“Alright, the sideshow is over.”
His voice traveled clearly across the battlefield.
“Now, it’s back to us… time for the main event.”
His gaze slowly swept over the wall: Laura, who was heavily injured and unable to fight further.
Sara and Emma, whose mana was nearly exhausted and whose faces were pale.
Luke, who had lost that miraculous armor and had limited combat strength.
“However, looking at you now…”
No.3’s scarlet tongue licked over his fangs as his smile widened.
“It seems… there isn’t anyone left who can fight, is there?”
Despair once again flooded the hearts of everyone in the human camp.
Laura gripped her sword hilt tightly, her knuckles turning white, but the intense pain in her leg and the wound on her abdomen made it nearly impossible for her to stand.
Sara and Emma shared a glance, both seeing the powerlessness in each other’s eyes.
Dio gripped his sword, his gaze resolute, yet he knew that facing three nearly unscathed Blood Pillars, his chances of winning were slim.
Luke looked at the nearly hopeless situation, his expression shifting repeatedly.
Finally, he gritted his teeth and once again pulled out that palm-sized Disposable Anywhere Door from his coat.
He turned to Sara, his voice urgent and carrying a final hope.
“Senior Sara! In this situation… we… we should just retreat! Where there’s life, there’s hope!”
Sara’s gaze swept over the soldiers behind her who were terrified yet still gripped their weapons and hadn’t fled, and then further toward the scattered lights within the Betty Territory, where tens of thousands of innocent civilians lived.
She slowly shook her head, her tone incredibly firm.
“If we leave, what will happen to these people and soldiers?”
She paused and said bitterly, “And… in my current state, I can no longer support a long-distance group teleportation magic to take us all away.”
Luke looked at the small wooden door in his hand and said, “This thing can take us back to Starlight Academy…”
Sara looked puzzled. “That little thing can take us back to Starlight Academy?”
Luke said hurriedly, “There’s no time to explain… anyway, this thing can just take us back.”
Sara’s expression was resolute as she said, “You guys go. As a member of the Imperial Royal Family, I can never abandon the people and soldiers here to escape alone.”
Dio stepped forward and stood beside Sara, his long sword pointing diagonally at the ground. He said deeply, “I, Dio, am a member of the Betty family. It’s impossible for me to run away.”
Although Emma’s body was trembling slightly from fear, she still gripped her staff and nodded forcefully.
“I… I’m not leaving either! I can still heal everyone…”
Swan didn’t speak, but he quietly stepped forward to stand side-by-side with Dio.
Luke looked at his companions, each of them ready to face death, and then at the small wooden door in his hand. His face flushed with a mix of emotions.
Now, it made it look like he, Luke, was a coward…
“I… I…”
He opened his mouth, then suddenly stomped his foot hard, a look of reckless determination appearing on his face.
“Dammit! If we die, we die together! I, Luke, am no coward either!”
As he spoke, as if to completely discard the option of ‘retreating,’ he used all his strength to hurl the Disposable Anywhere Door toward the area outside the wall, far from the battlefield!
The small wooden door traced an arc through the air and disappeared into the darkness outside the wall.
……
At the exact moment Luke threw the door.
On the outskirts of the Betty Territory, a slender and tall figure dressed in black, form-fitting clothes was approaching at high speed.
It was Rhea Alside, who had traveled day and night and had just arrived near the Betty Territory.
She was just about to look for a path to sneak into the city or scout the battlefield when she suddenly felt something flying toward her from the direction of the city wall. It wasn’t fast and didn’t seem dangerous.
Rhea instinctively reached out and accurately caught the incoming object.
She looked down and saw a palm-sized, finely crafted, yet ordinary-looking wooden door lying in her palm. It looked like… a child’s toy?
A flash of confusion crossed Rhea’s scarlet eyes as she held the strange little wooden door up to her eyes, examining it carefully by the dim light of the Blood Moon.
‘A toy?’ she wondered to herself, her brow furrowing slightly. ‘Who would throw something like this on a battlefield?’
She looked up toward the distant city wall, where the sounds of battle and energy explosions were faintly echoing.
The gravity on her beautiful face grew deeper and deeper.
‘Yize… he should be alright, wouldn’t he?’