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The Undead Dragon, the owner of the blazing hellfire volcano. The Wraith Lord, the owner of the prison where the prisoner’s limbs were chopped off after they were tied down with Soul Chains. The Ghoul King, the owner of the swamp that crushed anyone trapped inside with the immense weight. The Lich King, with his frozen skeleton that could inflict myriad forms of pain on his victims. The Death Knight, the owner of the sword forest and its countless blades that slit the flesh of anyone who entered the forest. The Succubus Queen, the owner of the world-covering flame of pleasure. The Dullahan Lord, the owner of the abyss of eternal wailing. Even Evergrant and the other enemies who had fought against Joshua before they died… All of them had sworn their loyalty to Joshua.
The headless knight, the Lord of the Dullahans, roared in accordance with Joshua's order, spurred the soldiers of darkness forward.
-Grrrr!!!
Thousands of soldiers followed the Dullahan Lord.
“Oh my god…”
Everyone who looked upon it staggered.
The skeleton soldiers that were armed to the teeth, the Dullahan Lord that couldn’t even be hurt unless he wasn’t attacked with aura, four liches that could utilize magic far more advanced than mages in the same Class, the wraith in the sky that directly affected people’s minds… they were all fine, but there was one creature that sent uncontrollable shivers down everyone’s spines…
-Krrrr.
One of the Swallow Empire soldiers flinched in surprise upon hearing an animal’s growling.
The large shadow of the creature was cast down from the sky. It looked down, shining the baleful red light in its eye sockets on the ground.
“Bone…dragon…?” the soldier mumbled disbelievingly, recalling old legends.
However, it was quite different from ordinary bone dragons, which were made up of only bones, because the dragon in the sky was covered in flesh. But that was not the most immediately concerning fact.
The dragon opened its mouth wide and inhaled deeply, making the air around it slowly distort.
“N-no…” The soldier fell into despair as he realized what it was going to do.
“Dragon bre-breath…!” The soldier could no longer stay still. It only took a moment for him to take action, spurred by the most basic survival instinct. “Runnn!!!”
As if the dragon waited for that moment, the dragon shot out a ray of pitch-black dragon breath from its giant mouth, striking the wide-open castle gates with the most powerful weapon of the strongest creature in the Human Realm.
The earsplitting report made the ground and sky tremble, but no one screamed—the ray of dragon breath swept away everyone in the vicinity of the gates in a flash, leaving behind nothing but the scattered stone dust to indicate someone had ever existed there at all.
Duke Eima blankly stared at the sight.
“Gosh, that lump doesn’t have a brain,” a sonorous and very out of place voice complained. “We don’t know when we’ll have an opportunity like this again, so we have to enjoy this as much as possible…”
Eima flinched and slowly turned his head. A half-naked woman was trying to get into Joshua’s arms.
“Master!” she shouted, flapping her adorable wings. “You missed me, didn’t you? Hmmm, in that case, I would’ve liked it more if you’d only called me…”
-You’re being rude, Cubar.
A death knight stopped the beautiful woman from hugging Joshua.
“…Wild King,” she pouted with a frown on her lips.
She looked very captivating, enough to stir the deepest desires of most men’s hearts.
-Step back.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work on the death knight standing in front of her at all.
“…I’m sorry, but would you stop interfering with us every time?” Cubar venomously retorted.
-I refuse.
The death knight firmly answered. Duke “Wild King” Altsma had been known as the Swallow Empire’s Master, but he had become Joshua’s loyal knight over time. On top of that, he even threatened a woman with his favorite sawtoothed weapon.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Cubar’s beautiful face crumpled.
-Can’t you sense what our master wants right now? I’m sure now is not the time to exchange silly jokes.
Cubar obligingly restrained her tempestuous demonic power. She looked at the Wild King for a moment, then she smiled seductively.
“…Wait, you’re not thinking about what happened in the ‘Gray Zone’ because of these small fries, are you, master?”
His eyes shining with red light, the Wild King chuckled as he quietly growled.
-The war lasted longer than planned… because we lowered our guard. Nothing will change that fact, and we should never forget about that…
“Alright, alright!” Cubar threw up her hand and pouted. “Fine, I’ll do it!”
-…Good choice.
The Wild King finally took a step to the side, revealing Joshua, who had been standing behind the Wild King. Cubar quietly smacked her lips and flew up in the air.
Eima stared at them for a moment, stunned by the surreal scene. He really couldn’t pull himself together.
“You…who are you?” he asked.
Joshua didn’t answer him.
“Answer me!” Eima furiously demanded.
“…Nothing,” Joshua finally replied. “Nothing has changed.”
“Wh… at…?” Eima froze.
“Joshua Sanders. I’m Joshua Sanders from the Avalon Empire.”
As if his remark was the signal, a storm of demonic power raged around Joshua.
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“Shit…” Eima gritted his teeth and started to draw up his power, mixing the power of his elemental spirit with his aura.
Joshua was considered to be as skilled as the Sword Emperor, so Eima had to give his best in this battle from the start. Eima awakened every drop of aura in his cells. His face reddened as he gathered all of his power.
The bone-chilling coldness spread out from him, crackling as it froze.
-You’re arrogant.
Eima’s eye widened.
Just as his ice dragon had completed its transformation, it was struck by a white aura. Eima flinched from the loud impact and held up his sword.
Something exploded.
“What the fu—” Eima cursed.
The ice dragon blocked the white aura without difficulty using its meters-long wings.
Grrr…
However, that was it. The wings were destroyed as if they were made of paper. Although an ordinary aura couldn’t even scratch the dragon, all it could do was block that white aura.
“How…” Eima murmured.
The knight, clad from head to toe in black armor, that was responsible for the dragon’s destroyed wings came forward. The sight was enough for the bystanders to forget about the army of darkness for a moment; they spent precious moments stealing glances at Eima and the knight.
“What’s… your name?” Eima asked.
In contrast to the people’s expectations, the knight readily replied.
-Long time no see, Eima.
“…What?” Eima asked, bafflement.
-You’re going to die soon.
“…Hup!” Eima inhaled sharply and hurriedly held up his sword when the Wild King appeared right before his eyes.
The Wild King swung his white sword against Eima’s ice sword.
“Urgh…” Eima groaned.
A high-leveled ice elemental spirit was the ancient ice itself. The coldness around the ice sword belonged to Eima’s elemental spirit, which enabled Eima to become a Star by just existing beside him, but the result was… the sword was cracking, creating creepy, ominous sounds as it gave.
“Impos… sible…!” Eima’s arms trembled as he strained against the Wild King’s strength.
-Remember one thing.
The Wild King calmly told him.
“What…?” Eima’s eyes narrowed.
-Remember my name because I am the one who is going to take your life away. I am the Wild King Altsma, the proud Master of the Swallow Empire.
“What?!” Eima was petrified by the Wild King’s introduction.“Wa-wait, the Wi-Wild King? He’s already dead—!”
-You talk too much.
The Wild King leaned into his sword harder, pushing Eima to his limit.
“Ahhhh!!!” Eima shouted as hard as he could, trying to scrape up every existing mana in his mana hall. But…
-It’s meaningless.
…nothing changed.
The Wild King’s white sword shone radiantly, and Eima was cut in half by a single strike from the Wild King. In the end, Eima got cut in half by Joshua’s subordinate, not Joshua.
Eima, one of the splendid Nine Stars, collapsed to the ground in a heap.
After losing its owner, the ice dragon howled.
Silence swept over the plain as two hundred thousand soldiers of the Swallow Empire struggled to process the unbelievable events.