“Are you sure you don’t want me to accompany you?” Amaranda asked him curiously.
“You are better off here than there,” he replied, to which she made a pouting face.
“Honestly, you are just like Lucky; not letting us women involve ourselves in your conflict,” she complained.
“Hey. Come now,” he tried to reason with her softly. “The main reason we don’t want to see you girls fight is simply that we want to protect you. That’s all there is to it. Besides, my main reason is more than just to protect you; its to give everyone here a batter fighting chance in case the enemy suddenly attacks this place again and it wouldn’t do us any good if all powerful fighters are over there. Isn’t that better?”
She remained silent for a moment before accepting his statement and said telepathically, “Makes sense, but I am still displeased by our treatment.” As he let out a nervous laughter, she further asked him, “Do you want me to teleport you there?”
“Sure. That’s a good idea,” he agreed with a smile, and she too smiled at him. As she began to prepare her teleportation magic, he became curious and asked, “Still, how do you know precisely where to teleport me to?”
“There’s a magic spell called World Sense that detects the whereabouts of the people I am searching for,” she began explaining while preparing her magic, which surprised him. “I can sense a malevolent presence that’s currently engaged in battle with Dominic and Valerian, so I am sending you to a place just away from them.”
“Oh. That’s good then,” he replied with a smile before suddenly looking worried and asked, “and make sure not to teleport me in the middle of their battle, alright? I don’t want to find myself having to face flying swords, energy attacks and what other attacks they’re probably firing at each other.”
Amaranda was silent for a moment before saying telepathically, “We’ll see.”
“Huh?” He asked, blinking in surprise by her unexpected response.
At that moment, her magic was completed, and she activated it by waving her staff around and pointed at him. In an instant, he was surrounded by a blue light and managed to hear her parting words before being teleported out of there.
“Dodge.”
He was momentarily confused by her choice of a send-off for him, but in the next second he appeared at his destination, he instantly knew what she meant.
“Whoa?!” Lagron exclaimed as he began dodging multiple swords flying towards him.
The Dragon Titan managed to dodge all of them before seeing a burst of lightning headed his way. Yelping, he instantly vanished and reappeared just in time to dodge the burst of lightning that soared past him. As the attacks flew past him, he finally noticed that he was in some kind of magic field that had a lot of golden swords floating around in mid-air. Looking behind to see where the attacks were flying towards, he saw a girl radiating a deadly violet aura that surrounded her while releasing an immense amount of energy.
He watched as the attacks flew towards her only to get destroyed by an equally similar attack fired by her. Once they were destroyed, it looked like she took notice of his sudden appearance and roared at him. Spreading her arms out wide, she quickly brought them forward while exerting her Energy Force to make the numerous swords fly at him.
As they came at him, Lagron snorted and put his hand out in front of him to aim at the incoming attacks before saying, “Dragon Discharge.”
In an instant, a powerful wave of energy was unleashed from his hand that seemed to act like a defensive barrier for him. The moment the swords made contact against the energy wave, they were destroyed into countless pieces and disintegrated in an instant.
Once the attack came to an end, Lagron snorted at the girl and shouted, “Ha! Is that the best that you got?”
Just then, he heard a familiar voice behind him call out, “Lagron!”
Turning around, the Dragon Titan saw that it was Dominic that was calling out to him as he and Valerian flew towards him. Suddenly, all three of them sensed a rapidly gathering energy from behind and Lagron turned around just in time to see the girl unleash an incredible amount of energy into her surroundings.
Her unleashed power surprised him when the golden swords suddenly seemed like they were infected by some black magic as they turned to black swords with a red aura surrounding them. This alarmed him because it showed that the enemy was capable of taking control of the attacks or magic of her enemies.
As the swords fell into her control, the girl raised a hand in the air and waved it down, causing all the blades in her control to start flying at them.
“Brace yourselves!” Dominic shouted, raising his sword in defence while Valerian raised his hands to guard himself against the attacks.
Once again, Lagron snorted and said, “Pathetic. Watch me.”
As he said, he channelled his Energy Force while also saying the technique name out loud.
“Dragon Sphere.”
In an instant, a sphere of energy formed around him and the other two much to their surprise. The moment the sword made contact against his sphere, they caused a violent explosion that resulted in a powerful wind and shock waves to be sent in all directions. However, none of it affected them as they were protected safely within the bounds of the sphere.
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“Nice,” remarked Valerian, looking impressed.
“You can do this with just your energy?” Dominic asked curiously.
“Of course,” replied Lagron proudly.
“In that case, how come you never used it in your battle against Lucky?” The Sword Titan asked shrewdly.
“Oh,” said the Dragon Titan, startled by the question but he quickly recovered and continued to say, “there was no need since he packs a punch powerful enough to break my energy barrier and hit me while I am defenceless. That’s why you guys are seeing this for the first time.”
As they looked at him with impressive looks, he turned to face her and said, “Now then, time to give her a beating.”
“Ah! Wait!” Dominic suddenly called out in order to stop him but by then it was too late.
Lagron had moved his right arm to the left and swing it in an ark while exerting his energy. Following his command, his energy sphere suddenly transformed into a powerful Energy Force that swept through the air before smashing heavily against the girl. She roared with pain sand was blasted away for several meters before crashing against several building and coming to a stop while surrounded by smoking debris of her crash.
“That was simple,” he said with a smile and turned to look at them. “How come you guys are having so much trouble with her?” It was at that moment that he saw Dominic had a hand over his face and asked, “What’s the matter? Got a headache?”
Dominic clicked his tongue and swung his sword to hold it vertically in front of him before saying, “Wall of Blades!”
In an instant, many of the surrounding golden swords came together and began to circulate around them to keep them out of sight from others view. This was also a means to ensure that no one outside the wall of blades could eavesdrop on their conversation, although this was done to ensure they are undisturbed as Dominic and Valerian began to fill in about the monster girl to Lagron.
“Huh?!” The Dragon Titan exclaimed, looking alarmed by the new information he received from them. “You’re actually telling me that no matter how much you sliced her apart, destroyed her, severed her neck and did whatever gruesome techniques to kill her, she would come back good as new?”
“Yes,” said Valerian by nodding his head in agreement.
“I don’t think its immortal and it has more do to with an incredible fast recovery akin to the vampires,” said Dominic thoughtfully. “It’s the only explanation that I could come up with seeing the situation.” Then he saw the expression on the Dragon Titan’s face and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Lagron was making a look that was a mix of shock, disbelief, and doubt as a reaction to the information about the monster girl possibly being immortal. At being asking what was wrong, he looked at them with a deadly serious expression on his face before asking them a simple question.
“What makes you think being immortal isn’t a thing?”
“W-What?” Dominic asked, looking bewildered.
“W-What do you mean, sir?” Valerian asked nervously.
“Like I asked: what makes you think immortality isn’t a thing?”
His question made them feel a strange chill go down the back of their spines and made them shiver with shock.
“A-Are you saying it’s… actually real? Immortality a-actually exists?” Dominic asked with a shocked expression.
Lagron remained silent for a moment before saying, “There is a method… not known widely… but I accidentally stumbled upon it and ended up fighting an incredibly dangerous foe so much that the Asura scarified himself just to weaken him to the point of retreating.”
“What? By Asura, do you mean Lucky but a past incarnation of his? Also, who’s this incredibly dangerous foe you’re referring to?” Dominic asked worriedly, feeling a sense of dread at the thought of an enemy that could make the Dragon Titan this serious.
“It’s a past incarnation of his, yes,” replied Lagron slowly in a quiet voice, “and the dangerous foe I was talking about is what you guys commonly call the Ancient Evil.”
Dominic blinked at him in surprise and asked, “Wait a minute…! Hold on! Are you saying that the Ancient Evil is… the result of something that people did in the past using… using whatever that method was to make that creature immortal?”
Lagron shook his head and said, “I don’t know how that creature came to be… but… I do know what method they used to make it… immortal.” Then he looked down at his hand, which shook as he seemed to remember the nightmarish events of that time and said, “It’s… unbelievable what they did on that day. No number of words could express the atrocity they committed to make that happen.”
They remained silent for a moment before Valerian asked while looking perplexed, “Sirs… Sorry to bother you but… what’s this Ancient Evil that you’re speaking about? I don’t know what it is, that’s why.”
The Dragon Titan took a deep breath and sighed deeply before explaining what the Ancient Evil was and the types of magic and skills it demonstrated. His explanation caused Dominic and Valerian to look very surprised before becoming extremely seriously.
“Oh damn!” Dominic said in a serious voice. “Don’t tell me that’s who we’re fighting against?!”
“What do you mean?” Lagron asked cautiously.
“What you described about the Ancient Evil, like its ability to increase power from the amount of damage it takes, ability to take control of its enemies’ attacks or skills, its ability to constantly regenerate itself because of its near invincible regenerative power as well as being able to use blood magic; everything is what that girl is.”
This time, it was Lagron’s turn to look surprised as he reacted with, “Huh? That girl? What are you—?”
“Didn’t you see how it corrupted and took control of my golden swords, didn’t you?!” Dominic demanded, making Lagron go silent and look horrified. “It could very well be the resurfaced Ancient Evil that we’re fighting against!”
Those words hit the Dragon Titan like a pile of punches that he could not dodge and made him suddenly look horrified. He became aghast for words from the realisation that their enemy was, most likely, the Ancient Evil. The very thought of that thing being their enemy made him feel very stiff and extremely nervous as a strong sense of fear gripped his heart and mind.
“Dammit!” He snapped at himself and clenched his shaking fist. “Even after all this time… I’m still afraid of it! Dammit all!”
At that moment, they felt a great rumbling from around them as if something heavy and powerful was being hit against the wall of blades.
On the outside, the monster girl had attempted to fly forward and punch the swords as hard as she could to destroy them. However, their resilience was incredible and managed to sustain her heavy blows, which forced her to retreat a few meters back before firing multiple energy waves at the swords with hopes of destroying them. This too failed as the wall of blades protected its occupants without fail. Finally, the monster girl let out a fearsome roar and unleashed her magic upon the wall of blades, which began to change colour to black with a red aura surrounding them to represent their corruption.
“No! She’s taking control of the swords!” Dominic yelled, as they looked at the wall of blades in shock. As the situation was getting critical, he realised what must be done and shouted at the others, “Brace yourselves,” and then shouted the technique name out loud, “Exploding Blades!”
In an instant, the number of his golden swords suddenly exploded, which resulted in wild blowing winds to sweep in all directions as well as shock waves that accompanied them. As the smoke spread, cloaking the battle field and making it difficult for the monster girl to locate them, the other three managed to reach the spot where Nara was lying down with the Mardana Kingdom’s King and his guards.
They heard the monster girl roar as it was attempting to locate them through the smoke, which made them very nervous, especially the Dragon Titan as he wondered, “Dammit! If it’s really the Ancient Evil, we’re done for! There’s not much we can go against it, even with all of us present! Dammit all!” Then he finally prayed, “Come quickly, Lucky! With you being here, we might stand a chance!”