About half an hour passed before Zanou removed his finger from Langrum's forehead. Zanou was breathing heavily, completely sweaty, and his entire flame core was sucked dry before being converted completely to Yang. He wasn't experienced in this, so almost two-thirds were lost; however, when Langrum opened her eyes, a frenzied glow radiated, making it clear that it was enough.
At this moment, the whale approached Zanou and touched his forehead, speaking calmly. "When you extract that blood and the flower, the curse will hit you." Only after hearing this did Zanou realize that the blood was the origin of the entire swamp on the fifth level.
"What... this blood must be several times more potent. You..." Zanou murmured but was soon interrupted.
"I already intended to drain your flame core before; Langrum was just convenient. I'll add seal runes to the empty core. When you extract the blood and the curse attacks, use this to trap the curse inside the core, and the seal will activate." His words were calm, but they didn't calm Zanou at all.
The whale sighed. "Of course, this isn't a solution. But it will take a few hours for the core to collapse. How do you think we will escape from the elders when we leave? This is an excellent opportunity. The curse in the blood, that's something we can use."
The whale looked into Zanou's trembling eyes; it was clear that he still didn't have the courage for it. Then, the whale's eyes became piercing as he spoke.
"Zanou, don't you want to save your women? If you back down now, you may never get another chance. Without taking risks, you'll never achieve anything. I only give you a 50% guarantee that this plan will work. If you refuse to try, I can use another method to escape, but do you think old Dyen doesn't know about your attachment to that woman?"
Zanou heard that and fell silent; his fear was extreme, and the chances of success were as equal as failure. But... if the old man does something to her...
The whale nodded satisfactorily and then commented coldly, "This is a great opportunity. Remember, Dyen isn't an idiot. He must have already planned something."
Zanou's heart raced, and he glared coldly at the whale. Then the whale remarked, "I'm not saying this to convince you. He surely didn't kill her. But he has failed to catch us before; now, he must have spent a lot to capture us here and failed again. You, who know his malicious mind, what do you think he will do to your women, especially the one you were frustratedly attached to?"
Zanou clenched his fists, thinking frantically, while Langrum and Mira looked at him silently. He was weak and cowardly, but abandoning even the people he cared about would make him worthless, even as trash.
After a few seconds, he muttered, trying to convince himself, "I... will accept the risks..."
Zane and Gael nodded mentally; this was another significant change in this troublesome brother. After trampling on his ego and making him feel the changes in his abilities, he now had some confidence in himself.
Soon, the whale focused on Zanou, and with Mira's seal assistance, they prepared the ground as planned. Medium Soul Sealing Technique! The intended to use this technique of hers to seal the curse with Zanou's core. If everything went well, they would have enough time to escape, and Zanou could get rid of the curse. However, it might not work out; Zanou's fate would be determined by the outcome of his actions during the time he is stealing the flower and the cursed blood. After all, destiny was something fundamental for any cultivator.
With everything ready, everyone took their positions. Langrum moved almost half a kilometer away from the skull, the maximum distance where she could see and feel something inside the skull. After all, she was the one who would lure the dragon out, so she had to be outside. Zanou and Mira were ready and hidden to act at the right moment as well.
Then, the whale crept like an ant, stealthily making its way through a hole where the beast's eye socket was. Fortunately, the Demon Wyvern didn't notice him, continuing to sleep with its eyes closed.
Everyone watched the whale silently approaching at an incredible speed. However, as they approached the Wyvern, something seemed off with Goku. His steps slowed down, and in no time, Mira and Zanou, who were closer, noticed that the whole round figure was shaking strangely. Was that fear? Both of them thought so.
Zane and Gael were extremely bewildered, struggling to maintain silence and keep walking. 'Damn... our bloodline seems to want to kill us, it feels like it's about to explode.' Gael commented mentally.
At that moment, Zane, focused, noticed something. 'It's resonating in the direction of the flower and the blood... that place is where the seal was placed. What the hell is still there?'
'We have no choice. We have to proceed. It doesn't matter what it is. Once you master a part of the formation that feeds the seal, we can teleport to the upper levels. After all, this place is sealed by the laws of space-time.' Gael spoke seriously and continued walking. But when they passed the Wyvern, a subtle violet power emanated from Zane and Gael's body and disappeared into the Wyvern. They used Mira's power once again through the array.
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They definitely didn't know much about formations and arrays. But Zane, who managed to master some Yin runes from the formation in advance, could use energy in a more brute and rudimentary way to throw them out of place. It was like directing a water cannon at a dusty stone; the guided water could forcefully throw the dust from the stone. The water was the spatial laws, and they were the dust.
Despite the setback, it took no more than five minutes for them to approach the crystal. There was no reaction or defense; that planet was an ascending world, and not even an average cultivator from the divine realm should be able to manipulate anything in this formation. That's why it was left defenseless. But Zane, being a millennia-old expert in its energy base, quickly began to study it meticulously.
Tense minutes passed, and in another five minutes, the whale touched a spot on the crystal. A Yin rune leaped, floating around. After that, every minute, there was another touch and another rune jumping. Soon, a single swift motion was made, and suddenly, hundreds of runes emerged rapidly.
Then, the whale turned and looked at Langrum. She was like a very distant point at that moment. Even so, a cultivator had eyes capable of perceiving subtle changes. She watched inside the skull, and then a slight fluctuation passed through her mind, confirming the moment.
When they realized that she sensed their command, Zane triggered the runes around, and space began to bend slightly in preparation for the opportune moment.
'I've mastered 10% of the formation; that's enough to get us out whenever we want. But the main thing is that a large amount of infernal laws is intertwined; we're going to create many wings with this.' Zane commented, laughing cheerfully, but Gael felt that it was once again a raised flag.
On the other side, suddenly, all the Qi around surged like waves being dragged. The air became hot and bloodthirsty; it was a frenzied ogre bloodline pushed to its limit. Then, another oppressive power ignited as if a venomous snake were ready to attack its prey.
At that exact moment, the Wyvern's eyes opened in an intense red. All that lush dual power from Langrum was swept away, replaced by the death Yin from the Wyvern.
CRACK!
Just the furious intent of that Wyvern made the space around Langrum collapse, and the taste of blood rose in her throat. She held nothing back, so the white scales that were already on her body lit up, gaining bluish hues. It was a new power gained recently after assimilating scales from another beast very close to her.
She kept her feet firm without faltering. On the other side, the Wyvern roared fiercely. It personally had to rise and get rid of this nuisance.
When, with a thought, the Wyvern triggered its Qi, it felt something strange in its core. Then, it noticed something different around. It was a subtle Yin poison mixed with the air. The female Wyvern's intelligence was no less than any human's, so she quickly connected the dots. This insolent insect was plotting something, but did the insect really think this poison could save itself from the Wyvern?
The female Wyvern quickly drove the energy in its core, expelling all that poison. But... at a small point in its eyes, a subtle violet color emerged, Mira's power! Even though it was intelligent and powerful, it had never had a real fight and had no experience against mental power. So, it felt nothing different, but for some reason, subconsciously, it didn't want to use all its power at once. The Wyvern just stood up, going in that direction, with its bloodline and killing intent activated.
In a second after the Wyvern soared into the air, all the scales on Langrum's body exploded in a rain of blood. She thrust her large sword into the ground for support and vomited a large amount of blood; that was just the Wyvern's presence focusing on her. It wasn't even close yet.
Five seconds passed, and the Wyvern flew several meters quickly, focusing on the enemy. At that moment, all of Langrum's skin had already exploded in blood, even without a fight. She struggled to stay conscious but wouldn't hold on for much longer. It was at this moment that Mira and Zanou sprang into action.
Mira immediately covered herself and Zanou with a violet veil to not be noticed too quickly. Then, earth runes emerged at her feet, making her run at a frightening speed. In the next second, she arrived next to the grayish egg, which was larger than her, with a radiant smile.
Zane and Gael judged that this egg shouldn't be even a hundred years old, considering that a pure dragon egg took twenty thousand years to hatch. Being a Wyvern with a thin lineage, it should be something close to a thousand years for such. So, this egg hadn't even started forming yet, and clearly, no soul had fixed on it. Therefore, it couldn't be considered alive and could be stored in a ring. And that's exactly what Mira did.
Several meters away, Langrum's vision was already completely darkening when the Wyvern petrified in the air. She clearly saw an endless fury emanating from that beast, and a wicked smile sprouted on her face.
The Wyvern immediately turned and threatened to return, but a new wave of power reverberated through the body of that gigantic creature. Langrum's heart stopped when she saw the beast turn again in her direction with an unstoppable killing intent. The Wyvern did not run back to save the egg as Zane and Gael planned.
In female Wyvern's eyes, tears of blood seemed to flow. And in the center of the orbit, an intense black rune stood out in that blood-red eye.
"A slavery seal..." Langrum murmured, astonished.
On the other side, Zane and Gael felt all that change and came to the same conclusion immediately. 'Damn, it's a bloodline seal... Fuck! Most likely, all generations of these Wyverns must carry this to ensure they would be loyal and protect the place,' Zane muttered mentally.
'...he didn't come back because the priority was to kill the intruder and not protect the egg.' Gael's mind worked quickly, and he turned to Zanou, who had approached the flower and the black blood and was still hesitant.
"QUICK, OR LANGRUM WILL DIE!" the whale shouted.
Zanou heard that, and a cold sweat ran down his back; he closed his eyes and used his spatial ring to suck everything in front of him.
Immediately, Mira was covered with earth runes and arrived safely next to the whale. Then, she saw Zanou clearly covered in black lines and a roar of pain coming from his throat with all his might. Zanou went straight into infernal torment.
At that moment, Langrum was already kneeling on the ground, and the entire area around her was covered in blood. She didn't surrender and remained conscious, but she was giving her last breaths. Then, the black runes in the Wyvern's eyes lit up even stronger, and it stopped, turning even faster backward. Finally, it came back. The priority above the egg and even the intruder was to protect the flower, so the moment Zanou acted, the slavery seal activated once again, allowing the Wyvern to ignore Langrum as it initially intended.
Zane and Gael sighed in some relief and prepared to bring Zanou and Langrum back. Spatial laws could be used brutishly to bring Langrum closer, but as she was far away, it would take a few seconds; it was the time the Wyvern would take to return.
But it was in that second that they felt their blood freeze as they felt death hovering over their heads!
They immediately turned to the place where the black blood and the flower were, and a small blue point emerged there. The whole world seemed to fall silent, anticipating disaster.
'DAMN IT! USE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE IN THE FORMATION. CREATE A BARRIER!' Gael shouted to Zane.
Zane, in a hurry, activated all the Yin runes and infernal laws at his disposal. The next second, he created an impenetrable protection using the formation and the seal as a shield. Then, a powerful wave of death made reality distort.
"Zanou!" the whale shouted, exploding with earth laws and leaving the barrier. Zanou was a few meters away, and they were extremely fast, grabbing Zanou on the ground. In two seconds, they returned to the barrier. Then, the whole world entered into explosive and destructive chaos.
BOOOM!
The epicenter of power expanded and advanced rapidly. The barrier immediately cracked like glass, threatening to collapse. The whale stared at it incredulously as tears streamed down Mira's eyes. She realized that the extent of this power was not limited to a small area.
Outside, Langrum saw the destruction and death expanding and approaching while she was frozen. Her fixed eyes trembled, and she knew there was no salvation; that seemed to be her end.