Afterward, Luca didn’t let Tia stay. Instead, he told her to leave.
If she stayed until the Iron Mountain soldiers arrived, they wouldn’t spare her, even with Luca’s presence.
Tia also knew she couldn’t linger.
“I hope you remember your promise,” she said, giving Luca a deep, lingering look before merging into the shadows and disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Luca wasn’t worried about Tia fleeing. To him, it didn’t matter if she escaped—it wouldn’t harm his plans. Besides, Tia was a high-tier practitioner; if she truly wanted to leave, he couldn’t stop her anyway.
Turning his attention back to Jormungandr, who was still immobilized, Luca said, “I hope you’ll be as sensible as your follower. I don’t have much patience, and if you try anything like before, you know what will happen.”
With that, Luca lifted the restriction on Jormungandr.
As expected, after being threatened by the soul contract, Jormungandr had grown far more obedient. Though she glared hatefully at Luca, she didn’t dare to make any aggressive moves.
“That’s more like it. Keep it that way.” Luca reached out and patted her head. The smug smile on his face made Jormungandr tremble with rage, her serpentine body shaking with barely-contained fury. She wanted nothing more than to strike him down.
But in the end, she couldn’t summon the courage to face death.
“Jormungandr’s been dealt with. Now, all that’s left is that nine-headed beast,” Luca muttered, turning his gaze toward the distant Hydra. He noticed that Ryan and his group had already arrived.
The Hydra was firmly restrained by the golden chains from the bronze mirror, unable to move.
Ryan’s body radiated a sharp sword aura, his gaze cold as ice. With a swift slash of his sword, he unleashed a fearsome strike.
The silver-white sword light pierced the sky, as if it would split the heavens. Two of Hydra’s heads were instantly shredded, turning into a rain of blood.
The elderly man with glasses held a staff, his body glowing with an earthy yellow light as he chanted an incantation.
He is spelling.
The ground trembled as countless stones rose into the air, gathering above to form a massive stone spike—like an inverted mountain. With a deafening crash, it fell, pinning the Hydra to the ground.
The bald warrior’s body was surrounded by a powerful aura of blood energy, which coiled around him like a red dragon.
He didn’t wield any weapons, but every punch and kick reverberated through the air with thunderous force. His terrifying strength punched gaping holes through the Hydra’s body, making him seem like a human-shaped monster himself.
Under such a relentless onslaught, with Lucia, Franklin, and the others providing support from the sidelines.
Even though the Hydra could absorb surrounding life force to regenerate its body, it had no chance to fight back.
It was completely overwhelmed by the combined strength of these powerful warriors.
Most of the Hydra’s heads had been severed, and victory seemed within reach.
But Luca didn’t relax.
He knew that killing a Hydra wasn’t that simple.
In his previous life, he had led several hunts to take down a Hydra, coming close to killing it, but never succeeding in the end.
This beast wasn’t overwhelmingly powerful, but its vitality was extraordinary. It was incredibly difficult to kill.
As Luca was thinking of ways to help the others, he suddenly heard some commotion in the distance.
Turning his head, he saw Lucia, Catherine, and the rest of the group rushing toward him.
When they spotted Luca, their faces lit up.
“Luca, are you alright?” Catherine asked anxiously.
Sophia, too, looked worried but sighed with relief when she saw he wasn’t injured.
Luca smiled and waved a hand. “I’m fine, don’t worry.”
He noticed bloodstains on their clothes and realized they must have fought through the monster horde to reach him. The thought moved him deeply.
“Where are The Nightmare Cult members? I don’t see a single one,” Cassman said as he walked over, his giant sword in hand, scanning the area with confusion.
Everyone looked around, realizing for the first time that none of the cultists were anywhere to be seen.
“They left in a hurry for some reason,” Luca said casually. “Guess I got lucky.”
Cassman snorted. “They must’ve seen Count Ryan coming back, so those rats scurried back to their sewers.”
Sophia’s face turned cold. “After this, I’ll make sure my father cleans out The Nightmare Cult from the Emerald State. They won’t escape.”
The cult had caused immense damage to the Emerald State this time, even managing to ensnare Count Ryan’s wife in one of their schemes.
Once this was over, the Howard family wouldn’t let them get away with it.
But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.
With the area so close to the nightmare node, the monsters were everywhere, so they decided to bring Luca back safely.
Meanwhile, the battle with the Hydra was reaching its climax.
Only one of the Hydra’s heads remained.
If they could sever that final head, the Hydra would be slain once and for all.
Sensing this, the powerful warriors on the battlefield unleashed their strongest attacks, aiming to finish the beast off.
But just then, the tide of the battle suddenly shifted.
Roar! Roar! Roar!!!
The Hydra’s remaining head, its eyes glowing a furious crimson, let out a deafening roar.
Thick waves of blood-red energy exploded from its body.
All the blood that had been spilled on the battlefield suddenly surged into the air.
The sky filled with a swirling red mist, forming a river of blood that rushed toward the Hydra.
As it absorbed the blood, its regeneration sped up exponentially.
Within mere seconds, all nine of its heads had regrown.
At the same time, the Hydra’s aura surged several times over, growing even more powerful than before.
The golden chains that had been restraining it shattered, and a wave of blood-red flames swept out, forcing everyone to retreat.
The ground for thousands of meters around was scorched black under the intense heat of the flames.
“This beast is impossible to kill!” Bayou gasped, landing on the ground, drenched in sweat and out of breath.
After fighting for so long, he simply didn’t have the strength to keep battling this monster.
Kurk’s face was pale, and he didn’t even have the energy left to speak.
Franklin, Lucia, and the others were also visibly fatigued from the sheer amount of energy they had expended.
They were lucky that Ryan had arrived in time—had they been forced to keep fighting this monster any longer, it could have very well been the end of them.
“Are we sure its weak spot is the heads?” Ryan asked, frowning as he gripped his sword tightly.
Even with his level of power, he was finding this fight to be extremely troublesome.
For the first time, even Franklin and Lucia weren’t entirely certain.
“It’s the heads, no doubt,” the elderly man named Kruse said. “I once read about this King-level monster in an ancient text. The only way to kill it is to sever all nine heads.”
This explanation matched what Luca had shared earlier.
Luca, too, had learned this information from an ancient text—albeit from his past life.
Whether this information was truly reliable was difficult to say.
After all, no one had ever actually killed a Hydra; most of the knowledge came from speculation.
Even so, the group had no choice but to grit their teeth and charge at the Hydra once more.
It was the only method they knew.
As Luca watched the ongoing battle from afar, he frowned.
In his previous life, they had managed to sever eight of the Hydra’s heads multiple times, but that last head was always the hardest. Every time they got close to victory, the Hydra would somehow regenerate.
“What in the world does it take to cut off the last head of this beast?” Luca muttered to himself, deep in thought.
Suddenly, an idea came to him, and his eyes brightened.
He didn’t know the answer—but someone else did.
Luca’s gaze fell on Jormungandr, who was coiled around his wrist, pretending to be a bracelet.
“Do you know how to kill the Hydra?” he asked through their soul enslavement contract. At first, there was no response.
Luca’s frown deepened, and he said coldly, “Do you really want to die?”
After a brief moment of silence.
Jormungandr’s begrudging voice echoed in his mind.
Her tone was sullen as she replied, “You can’t kill it. The Hydra possesses an immortal body. Even if you sever all nine heads, it can still find other ways to regenerate.”
Luca’s heart sank. Did this mean they were doomed to let the true body of the Hydra descend?
Jormungandr continued, “However, this is just a mirror image of the Hydra. Killing it is simple—just erase its soul consciousness.”
“If its consciousness dies, no matter how strong its body is, it will collapse. That is the Hydra’s only real weakness.”
Luca nodded in understanding. As he had suspected, there was no such thing as true immortality.
He asked, “Do you have a way to erase the Hydra’s consciousness?”
Jormungandr hesitated for a moment before replying, “I can devour its soul, but you need to keep it suppressed. Otherwise, I won’t be able to get close.”
In truth, Jormungandr had a more efficient method to deal with the Hydra’s mirror image. However, devouring the Hydra’s soul would benefit her greatly, which is why she suggested this approach.
“I’ll send you over when the time is right,” Luca responded.
He was aware that Jormungandr had her own agenda, but it didn’t bother him.
The contract binding her was a Transcendent-level soul enslavement contract.
Even if the Hydra were at its full power, it wouldn’t be easy to break free, and Jormungandr was currently in a weakened state.
With that, Luca found an excuse to slip away from Sophia and the others.
Jormungandr was his hidden trump card, and he wasn’t ready to reveal her to anyone else just yet.
Meanwhile, under the relentless attacks from Ryan and the others, the Hydra had lost most of its heads again.
However, they could all feel the increasing difficulty in their fight—things were looking grim.
Luca waited patiently, knowing the timing had to be right.
When the moment came, he released Jormungandr.
The white serpent transformed into a streak of light, speeding toward the Hydra.
Luca watched closely, anticipating the outcome.
Before long, only one of the Hydra’s heads remained.
Once more, a dense wave of blood-red light and flames erupted around the beast as it attempted to regenerate.
But at that moment, a white streak of light pierced through the wall of flames, heading straight for the Hydra’s final head!
The Hydra froze in confusion for a split second.
When it realized what was coming, its blood-red eyes widened in shock.
Roar! Roar! Roar!!!
The Hydra let out an enraged, deafening roar, but beneath the fury, there was an unmistakable hint of fear.