Dragon Maken War

She used her mind to assess the number and location of the Guardian Shadows.

Leticia only called for those that were capable of long distance attack. The rest were dispatched towards Azell’s side. She decided those that could only fight up close would be useless against Reygus.

This was all possible, because Leticia possessed the staff that controlled the Guardian Shadows.

If one possessed the staff, it was possible to control the Guardian Shadows even if one couldn’t communicate with them. Kairen had given the staff to Leticia before the battle had started.

In terms of coming up with an overall strategy, Kairen was best suited for the role.

However, when a battle started, Leticia was the one most capable of bringing out the best in the Guardian Shadows.

Leticia was like Azell. She was talented in using clones. While she was entirely focused on the battle, she was able to split her will into multiple threads. She was able to maintain a constant link with the Guardian Shadows.

‘I’ll attack them all at once to separate the three of them.’

The goal of their tactic was extremely simple.

It was to separate Almarick, Reygus and Almarick as far as possible from each other. When enough Guardian Shadows arrived, the Guardian Shadows would swarm and distract the three of them. Azell’s party would use this opportunity to escape from the battlefield.

It wasn’t the time to resolve the conflict with Atein. They had to find a way to exit this place.

“Here I go!”

Leticia had around 200 Guardian Shadows that were capable of attacking from afar. They split into three groups, and they attacked Reygus all at once.

<That’s the spirit! It feels like I’m getting hit now! However, I still think you are short on numbers.>

It was as if several hundred magicians were focusing their attack on him. The three group attacked, retreated and attacked. It was an endless cycle.

Despite the continuous attack, Reygus was walking forward at a rapid pace. If the Guardian Shadows let up even a little bit, it seemed Reygus just charge through their lines.

Cold sweat ran down Leticia’s back.

‘During the Dragon Demon war, 400 men were gathered to defeat him.’

Reygus had been killed when he was lured into a trap. Spells, which had been prepared beforehand, had bombarded Reygus. When he was injured, it was said that 400 men had attacked him all at once. It was the perfect trap, yet by the time Reygus had died, over half of men were killed.

‘Moreover, this guy is stronger than before.’

She found out something after fighting him. He was stronger than the time he fought Azell.

‘It seems he finished getting used to being an Undead.’

Azell had faced Reygus when he hadn’t been an Undead for too long. Reygus had lost all of his Dragon Demon magic, so he hadn’t adjusted to his power as an Undead.

However, a warrior of Reygus’ caliber made adjustments quickly.

He was fully adjusted to being an Undead now, so he was basically a walking calamity. He was capable of swinging the outcome of a battle by himself. Reygus was one of the four Dragon Demon generals, and he was a nightmare to humans.

Would she really be able to defeat him?

Doubt started to form in her mind.

Also.....

‘Will they be able to last against Atein?’

Yuren, Laura and Arrieta were protecting the injured Azell as they fought against Atein.

Will they be able to hold up against Atein?

She was well aware of the critical flaws in her plan, but Leticia had no choice. She had to fight with all her might.

6

Atein didn’t get involved in the fights being fought by the Dragon Demon generals. He had other things to do.

“Hmm. I just have to wrap this up, yet I never expected it to be so hard.......”

Almarick hadn’t finished the job. He just cut off the head of the tree god, and he had abandoned the task. Atein had to continue the work of sealing the tree god. However, the seal itself was a great magic of epic scale.

“Both of you are quite skilled. It has been awhile since I’ve fought such a fun magic battle.”

He was creating a seal, and at the same time, he was fighting a magic battle against Azell’s party.

Puh-puh-puhng! Kwa-kwahng!

The sound of explosions rang out. Thunderbolts raced across the sky, and a strong gale swirled around them. Flashes of light was accompanied explosions as they appeared everywhere.

On the other hand, this wasn’t a one-sided phenomena. It occurred around Atein and Azell’s party. A massive amount of power was being shattered around them.

The surprising part was the fact that each side hadn’t casted half the spells they were capable of casting. Despite this fact, the power being displayed could kill several hundred people.

“As expected of the king......!”

Laura despaired.

Yuren and Laura were the top magicians of this era. They were powerful magicians. The two of them were attacking Atein, while he was trying to seal the tree god, and they weren’t having any success. It just slowed down the sealing process by a minute amount.

At some point in the battle, Laura and Yuren started being pushed back. Atein’s spells started to push past the interference caused by the two, and his spells started to manifest little by little.

Once the balance of power started to tilt, it started to tilt all the way. It was as if a blocked dam had broken open. A storm of magic flew towards the two.

“Huh?”

For a moment, Atein was taken aback. The magic, which had been sweeping towards the two, changed its direction. It was coming back towards him.

‘Is it the Vitan’s Chalice? She was aiming for this.’

An explosion erupted.

Atein had manifested a lot of spells. It was piled up as big as a mountain. Laura used Dimensional Distortion to send back the spells to it owner, but there were too many spell to turn back all at once. This was why a clash of magic occurred afterwards.

“It is a shame that Aunsaurus isn’t here to see this. You have great ability.”

Atein was truly impressed.

He wasn’t merely talking about her sending back his spells. Laura’s plan hadn’t ended there.

There had been a clash of magic, but the explosion seemed very small compared to the number of spells he had sent. The reason was quite simple.

Dimensional Distortions appeared around Atein. Laura had created numerous Dimensional Distortions, and she had directed the shockwave and heat from the explosions onto Atein.

The spells he had sent forth were returning towards him. The aftermath of the explosions was pouring out from all directions through the Dimensional Distortion.

On top of that, it was as if Laura and Yuren had been waiting for this moment. They started pouring out their spells towards Atein. Their timing was truly exquisite.

This was a dire situation even for Atein. Basically, the spells of three superb magicians were stacked against him, and these spells were being poured towards him all at once.

-Come Dragon weapon!

Even if her opponent was Atein, Laura thought....

-Gatekeeper of Emptiness! Sky’s Fortress!

...they could inflict significant damage to Atein.

“Agh!”

Laura was shocked as she saw a circular ball of energy appear in front of Atein. Its diameter was 20 meters.

“How can this be.”

Most of the spells were sucked into the ball, and it disappeared. A great explosion occurred a distance away.

Kwahhhhhhng!

The ground shook, and their eyes were filled with burning light. Laura was mesmerized as she pieced together what had occurred.

“It has been almost a 100 years since I’ve faced such a situation.”

Atein’s voice could be heard from within the cloud of dust and heat. He sounded as if he was truly enjoying himself.

The Gatekeeper of Emptiness was a Dragon weapon that had been used as template to create the Road of Emptiness. It couldn’t freely distort dimensions like the Vitan’s Chalice, but it was capable of creating a space that connected point A to point B. It could create a dimensional door.

The Sky’s Fortress was the archetype of Azell’s Unyielding Fortress. Unlike the Unyielding Fortress, it had a special property of the sky. In this aspect, it was more like the Sky Splitter.

It was a Dragon weapon that boasted overwhelmingly high defense, yet it could gather light from its surrounding to strengthen itself. It became almost impenetrable. It also was capable of absorbing any light-based attack.

Atein used these two Dragon weapons to get out of danger.

“As a magician, this is embarrassing. I had to completely rely on my Dragon weapons to get out of trouble. On this exchange, it’s your victory.”

“.......”

Laura was at a loss for words. She wondered if he was patronizing them, but Atein was sincere. His expression told the veracity of this truth.

‘He isn’t wrong, but.......’

He was right.

They weren’t able to kill Atein, but they were able to cause him harm. They had distracted him from the task of sealing the tree god. He would have to redo many parts of the sealing process. He also had to divert his magical energy as he sent away the attack to a different location using the Gatekeeper of Emptiness. He couldn’t recover that magical energy.

High rank magicians were capable of recovering some of the magical energy invested in spells after they were cast. This was why it was important to assess how much a magician could recover magical energy invested in a spell. It was part of making a judgement on how skilled a magician was. If one took that into account, Atein had lost a significant portion of his magical energy.

‘Something is off.’

Atein was showing surprising amount of power and ability. It was as if he was three great mages rolled into one. He had fought Laura and Yuren while he was sealing the tree god.

Even if one was a powerful magician, one was at a disadvantage in terms of power, speed and scale of the spells when facing numerous opponents. This was why one had to defeat multiple opponents all at once or defeat them one by one.

However, Atein’s method was different. He truly was capable of fighting Laura and Yuren at the same time as if it was a one on one battle.

‘How is this possible?’

It was as if he was using Incarnation. During the Dragon Demon war, Atein was one of the few users capable of using Incarnation, so maybe, it wasn’t strange that he was capable of fighting this way.

So why didn’t he just use Incarnation in the first place? Wouldn’t that be a more effective way to fight?

“King....no, Atein.”

“Do you have something you want to say to me?”

“You seem very confident.”

“Mmmm?”

Atein tilted his head in puzzlement. He spoke when he had a thought.

“From my point of view, I don’t feel the need to kill all of you right now. It isn’t a priority, so it is hard for me to show killing intent towards you guys. I also think it would be a loss to kill you guys considering your potential.”

“...there is no room for negotiation.”

“I know that. Still, I’m just trying to use my power to accomplish my goal. I would like to avoid killing you all in the process.”

“.......”

Laura’s expression hardened.

She wasn’t angry, because Atein had looked down on her. The difference between them was so large, so it was hardly an insult.

Atein was the first Dragon Demon and he was the first magician. He created the Dragon Arts. Moreover, he reset the relationship between the humans and Dragons by creating the Dragon Slayer’s Ritual....

If she ignored the fact that he was part of the Plain of Darkness, Atein was a main character from a legend. If she consolidated all the information she had gathered about him, she knew that he was at least 3,000 years old. Maybe, he lived for over 10 thousand years. It was strange to see that type of figure show human emotions.

‘Despite this fact..... He isn’t infallible.’

When she had that thought, she realized that the ability displayed by Atein was subtle.

He possessed enough ability to squash Laura and Yuren. If he wasn’t trying to seal the tree god, this would have been a much more difficult situation for them.

However, she became confused the more she interacted with him.