1440 One Moment
Boom!
Kacha!
Like a giant tree being toppled, a giant winged elephant-like beast crashed to the ground.
Cradle had a very intense aura and a suffocating amount of vitality. Moreover, Fortune Anvil's life laws affected the synthetic world all the time.
The ritual had been going on for millions of years already.
This forced the creatures to evolve in a specific direction—to reduce their size as much as possible instead of being bloated.
It's due to the simple rule that oversized targets were easily spotted and hunted down as opposed to creatures that were small and could hide themselves well.
Even beings that could grow as large as the sun outside only grew to the size of a cow here.
Yet, even in such situation, there were a few 'giant' beings here. Their existence itself was a testament to their strength and resilience.
The creature that just collapsed was one such example.
Its body was as large as an adult whale back on earth, its wings were wide enough to encompass an entire neighborhood and its flesh could feel a town for six months.
There was just a single fist mark between its eyes. But that one punch shattered its skull and sent dangerous shockwaves that blasted its fragile brain into fragments.
Sonya gave Varian a look of admiration before she placed the compass on top of the creature. From the carcass, a white light was sucked into the treasure.
"Two rank 7s down. Only a low rank 8 to go."
Sonya led the team with enthusiasm.
The rank 8 creature was a dragon that resided on top of a cliff hundreds of miles high in the sky.
"There is a kingdom of dragons in the Empire. They wouldn't accept this species as dragons though. They are very prideful about their bloodline." Sonya chattered.
Samantha gave a forced smile.
She was still hesitant on how to deal with Sonya. On one hand, being with Varian meant she's an enemy. But on the other hand, she's the daughter of Duchess Serenthia.
"Here it goes."
Princess Snow took out a ring and raised it such that she was able to see the dragon's nest through the small ring.
<Incantus, Amogus>
A red laser light fired from the ring and hit the nest.
Kaaa!
The blood curling screams of the dragon shook the sky and the next moment, a heavy rain of purple drenched them.
"No." Enigma's lips twisted in disgust. "This is blood."
Kaa!
A giant dragon even larger than the beast from earlier flew down in a blink. Out of its six wings, two were torn apart and there was a large gaping hole in its abdomen.
The killing intent of the creature enveloped everyone and a pressure that rivaled to bearing the entire impact of a tsunami started fall on them.
"Hurry!"
Samantha urged in an anxious voice.
"Behold," Varian closed his eyes with his hand and chuckled to himself, as if he's a secret villain who's revealing his real power.
"My ultimate combinatrix dimensional anti-existence annihilator!"
Samantha's chest constricted at the menacing name and she held her breath.
'Maybe he has way more treasures than I can handle! Damn it! And this treasure, it sounds like it can even kill rank 9s!'
Under her fearful eyes, a rusty dagger flew out of Varian's storage ring.
It shook severely as it blasted through the air, the wind howling and space cracking due to its overwhelming speed.
But halfway through, the rusty dagger blade seemed unable to bear the pressure and shattered into pieces.
Under Samantha's astonished gaze, only the handle hit the dragon's snout.
The dragon paused in the air and Samantha waited for the handle to show its power.
What's going to happen?
Explosion?
Poison?
Cutting the creature into pieces?
"…"
The dragon which had condensed all its aura into its snout also waited for the destructive power.
And waited.
A full minute passed in that silence.
The dragon opened its mouth and blew. The handle also shattered under the pressure and a single fragment from it fell down at Samantha's feet.
With an expressionless face, she picked it up.
It read exactly as <Ultimate combinatrix dimensional anti-existence annihilator>.
"Y-You! You stupid son of a bitch!" Abandoning all elegance, Princess Snow cursed like a shrew. "What the fuck is that name? What the fuck is that treasure? Arghh! I'm sooo angry!"
The dragon in the air nodded its huge head.
It seemed to say, 'Man, you got scammed by whoever sold that to you. That thing isn't even worth my whisker, I swear!'
"Err, that must be a counterfeit!"
Varian slapped his thigh and took out an identical dagger.
This one too had the same nameplate, except it had a <version 2.0> at the end.
Kaa!
The dragon panicked and dived down.
"Wait, wait, wait!"
Varian threw the dagger and this time, it luckily didn't shatter.
"Yay! Watch the power unfold!"
Samantha held her breath and the dragon hurriedly channeled its aura.
The dagger easily pierced through the aura barrier and struck the dragon once again on its snout.
Ting!
And this time, it didn't just shattered, it turned straight into powder upon contact.
"Your uncle!"
Samantha never wanted to kill someone so badly.
If not for the priority of the mission, she'd have kidnapped and tortured this guy for a full decade.
Graaah!
The dragon dived down once again and this time, its wings reached them in a blink, ready to slice them into pieces.
Samantha could no longer care about trapping them with her tricks and used up another treasure.
Boom!
Another red laser light enveloped the dragon, blasting off the creature's head.
Sonya hopped to its corpse happily and charged the compass.
Samantha glared at Varian. If eyes could kill, the man would've died a million times by now.
He merely smiled in response, with a bashful expression at that.
"You arrogant bastard, do you think this is a joke? You could've gott—"
Boom!
Varian suddenly punched out.
Almost at the same time, as if reading his mind, Enigma pulled Sonya toward her.
A purple light enveloped the world and a piece of sky seemed to be devoured by that domineering light.
A bit of the light scattered onto the dragon's corpse and upon mere contact, the low rank 8 creature's body exploded into pieces.
But in that purple brilliance, a thin red light flashed.
Shaaa!
All the sound in the world vanished and the brilliant purple light vanished in a blink.
Varian was on a knee.
Drip! Drop! Drip!
Droplets of Blood splashed the ground under him, forming a puddle.
A sword was lodged in his chest.
