Chapter 97: Overwhelming crisis
Chapter 97: Overwhelming crisis
The silence that followed the resumption of time was deafening.
Two massive, mountain-like dragon heads crashed into the ocean below with earth-shaking force. The impact sent colossal tidal waves racing toward the distant shoreline, while the headless, three-hundred-meter-long bodies of Captain Noren and Vice Captain Shiga poured torrents of black blood into the sea before sinking beneath the waves.
The remaining forty-seven dragons froze in mid-air.
The half-formed Annihilation Rays gathering inside their jaws flickered weakly before dispersing like dying candles. Their eyes shifted from the empty space where their commanders had stood just a millisecond ago to Victor, who calmly wiped the sweat from his brow as though he had merely finished a casual workout.
Pure, primal terror gripped every one of them.
"What happened?!"
"Captain Noren... was killed instantly?!"
"He didn’t even cast a spell! That human is a monster."
"Run!"
The dragon vanguard collapsed into complete chaos.
Not a single dragon considered fighting back. If commanders as powerful as Captain Noren and Vice Captain Shiga could be beheaded within a single instant, then the rest of them were nothing more than insects waiting to be crushed.
Forty-seven gigantic dragons turned around at the same time.
Their enormous wings beat frantically against the air as they desperately fled in every direction, hoping to escape this incomprehensible monster disguised as a human.
"Escape?"
Victor slowly exhaled, a cold smile appearing on his pale face.
"You came all this way to become my stepping stones. It would be rude of me to let any of you leave."
Although the Time Stop had drained an enormous amount of mana and left every muscle in his body aching, he still possessed his greatest weapon.
With a simple flick of his fingers, Victor issued his final command.
"Chaos Avatar."
"Annihilate them."
The colossal purple giant, its body swirling with destructive cosmic energy, moved.
Empowered a hundredfold by the Chaos Element, the Avatar slowly raised both of its enormous hands before bringing them together in a thunderous clap.
Space itself screamed.
A localized black hole seemed to materialize in the heavens as everything within a hundred-kilometer radius compressed violently. The fleeing dragons instantly found themselves trapped inside an overwhelming spatial prison.
Victor’s upgraded Space Prison was absolute.
No dragon could fly.
No dragon could teleport.
No dragon could even move more than a few centimeters before the invisible force dragged them back into place.
Sensing its master’s killing intent, the countless thorn-covered vines growing from Victor’s armor exploded outward.
They spread across the sky like a divine forest of celestial spears, piercing through dragon scales with terrifying precision. One after another, the dragons were impaled and suspended helplessly in the air as the vines greedily drained away their life force.
Agonizing screams echoed across the heavens.
Then the Chaos Avatar unleashed a vast wave of deep purple energy.
It swept across the imprisoned dragons like the tide of annihilation itself. Wherever the purple light touched, dragon scales dissolved into particles, flesh disintegrated into ash, and bones crumbled into cosmic dust before vanishing completely.
It was not a battle.
It was a public execution.
Inside Victor’s mind, the World System’s notifications rang continuously.
The mechanical chimes blended together into a beautiful symphony.
[Ding! Your Avatar has slain a Grade 7 Mixed-Blood Demonic Dragon. Gained 15,000 Evolution Points.]
[Ding! Your Avatar has slain a Grade 7 Mixed-Blood Demonic Dragon. Gained 15,000 Evolution Points.]
[Ding! Your Avatar has slain a Grade 7 Mixed-Blood Demonic Dragon. Gained 15,000 Evolution Points.]
...
The notifications continued without pause.
Within only a few minutes, the entire dragon vanguard had been erased from existence. The sky gradually returned to its peaceful state as the overwhelming draconic pressure disappeared completely.
Victor opened his status panel.
A wide grin slowly spread across his face.
[Evolution Points: 790,000]
It was an incredible harvest.
"The higher-grade bloodline creatures really give far more Evolution Points than the native monsters," Victor thought with satisfaction.
[Congratulations, Victor.]
[But we have another problem.]
The World System’s voice suddenly echoed inside his mind.
Victor’s smile immediately faded.
"What happened?" he asked with narrowed eyes.
[The tremendous pressure released by those Demonic Dragons has disturbed the Behemoth sleeping within this planet.]
[It has begun to awaken.]
[We do not have much time before it fully emerges.]
Victor silently took a deep breath.
He was already growing at an unbelievable pace, yet fate seemed determined to throw impossible enemies at him one after another.
[Furthermore, the Demonic Dragons will most likely dispatch their elite vanguard next.]
[These mixed-blood dragons carried fragments of their genetic memories. After absorbing their DNA, I recovered a considerable amount of information.]
[Would you like to see it?]
Victor nodded.
Humanity now stood before two overwhelming disasters.
One was the apocalyptic monster sleeping beneath the planet.
The other was the Demonic Dragon Race continuously sending dungeon armies to invade Ethereum.
As the memories flooded into his mind, Victor’s expression changed dramatically.
The hairs all over his body stood on end.
The Demonic Dragons were an unimaginably bloodthirsty race.
The fifty dragons he had just slaughtered were nothing more than like the local thugs employed by massive interstellar corporations. In the grand hierarchy of their civilization, they were barely worth mentioning.
The true elite were on an entirely different level.
A normal Sage Rank human possessed roughly one billion stars of combat power, enough to devastate an entire continent.
Yet these mixed-blood dragons possessed nearly ten billion stars each.
Captain Noren himself had reached approximately fifteen billion.
However...
Those numbers became insignificant compared to the elite vanguards Victor witnessed inside those memories.
Every single one of them possessed at least fifty billion stars of combat power.
Their genetic potential was over fifty times greater than that of ordinary humans.
And those monsters were merely the vanguard.
As for the true pure-blood dragon army...
Even the mixed-blood dragons knew almost nothing about them.
The only information stored inside their memories was enough to make Victor’s heart sink.
Every pure-blood dragon was at least an Elemental Lord.
Their captains had already stepped into the terrifying realm of Elemental Sovereigns.
As for the higher-ranking authorities above them...
They existed in a realm that vastly surpassed even the Sovereign level.
Victor remained silent for several moments before asking the question weighing most heavily on his heart.
"Can the pure-blood army arrive on Ethereum any time soom?"
[I believe they could.]
[If they determine this planet is worth their attention, they may even dispatch galactic-level beings.]
[At that point... everything becomes uncertain.]
Victor rubbed his forehead.
"So what?"
"Are we completely doomed?"
He could not help but curse.
[Not necessarily.]
[If you can kill the apocalyptic monster, you will awaken your Demonic Bloodline.]
[At the very least, the Heavenly Demons will become aware of your existence.]
[Once that happens, the Demonic Dragons would not even dare bark in front of a member of the Heavenly Demons.]
Victor frowned.
"You want me to submit to the Heavenly Demons?"
[At least they are the creators of this planet.]
[Unlike the Demonic Dragons, they would not slaughter humanity without reason.]
Victor slowly shook his head.
"You are still immature."
"The Heavenly Demons treat this planet as nothing more than a breeding ground."
"Even if everything goes perfectly, they would simply take me away. There is no telling what they would do with me after that."
"As for everyone else..."
"They would not care."
He sighed heavily before continuing.
"And how exactly am I supposed to kill an Elemental Sovereign?"
"A solid Elemental lord like Diana is already completely beyond my current league."
The World System remained silent for a moment before speaking again.
[Then perhaps you should seek out your unnamed master.]
[We still know very little about the universe.]
[Maybe he possesses a solution we have overlooked.]
Victor’s eyes suddenly lit up.
He had nearly forgotten about the unknown master of his.
"Nova," he called.
"What is it, Victor?" Nova’s gentle voice sounded from the wristband.
"Tell me about my master."
"Can he help us survive this crisis?"
Nova was silent for a brief moment before replying.
"Master belongs to a race known as the High Elves."
"They possess a Grade 7 bloodline, just like the Demonic Dragons."
"Within his race, Master is considered a Supreme Warrior."
She paused before continuing.
"He is certainly capable of helping you deal with the Demonic Dragons."
"However, he cannot interfere with the higher-order bloodline flowing through Diana’s veins."
"And even if you seek his help against the dragons, you must first prove that you are worthy."
"After all..."
"The Demonic Dragon Race is one of the most feared races in the entire universe."
Victor nodded.
It was only natural that he would have to prove his worth before his mysterious master would be willing to help him.
After all, why would a supreme expert involve himself in the problems of a complete stranger?
Still, another question lingered in Victor’s mind.
Was his master truly a good person?
Or was he merely another terrifying existence with his own hidden agenda?
Victor had never met him.
Everything he knew came from Nova’s words alone. Trusting someone he had never seen would be foolish.
His gaze suddenly fell upon the crimson sword resting in his hand.
A familiar status window appeared before his eyes.
[Name: Demonic Sword]
[Grade: 7]
[Required Evolution Points: 10,000,000]