‘Is everyone ready?’ Michael asked rhetorically.
He activated Foundation Break, activated Greater Enhancement on his body, all Soultrait Symbols, and each Seal, which activated simultaneously. Hel, Fenrir, and Jormungandr unleashed their Essences into their Seals, unraveling their dormant potential to initiate a Curse Fusion with three God Curses.
Michael’s body cracked and bulged. Darkish-green scales grew from his skin, a serpent tail shot out from his tailbone and his hands transformed into massive claws. At least one of his hands transformed like that. His other hand, his right side, seemed lackluster compared to the rest of his body. It was pale and void of any life.
His right hand transformed and seemed to suddenly lose all of its flesh. No. His flesh was replaced by a dark-glowing mass that drained and decayed everything it touched. Michael’s control of Death Call surged to a new level, and he could now form Undead Souls from corpses several hundred meters away. That was what he did while Jormungandr unleashed Perfect Heavenly Beast Physique. Fenrir didn’t stay idle while his brother did something, either. His Essence spread through Michael and his surroundings as he unleashed the True Extraction Domain at full power. Combined with the Nature Heart, which granted Michael full control of the Untamed Jungle and everything belonging to it, Fenrir could easily drain the lifeforce and energy from everything in the surroundings. That was what the wolf did. However, it drained only portions of lifeforce and energy from every living being in the Nature Heart’s control.
The energy and lifeforce drained from the surroundings were used to empower Foundation Break and activate another Soullife Arts. Two Soullife Arts, to be precise. Fenrir used one of his Soullife Arts with Michael’s permission. A vibrant golden shimmer enveloped Michael suddenly. It infused into his full-body serpent armor, augmenting the serpent scales drastically. The excessive energy of the golden shimmer entered Michael’s body, protecting him from external harm.
The golden shimmer was the Soullife Arts called Immortal Ward, a rare and expensive technique that rapidly drained energy and lifeforce. The amount of energy and lifeforce drained from them would increase according to the target’s size and the potency of protection they required. Therefore, even Divine entities wouldn’t easily activate the Immortal Ward. Only creatures like Fenrir, beings able to drain the surrounding energy and lifeforce, could activate such a Soullife Arts recklessly.
The other Soullife Arts belonged to Hel. It was a simple Soullife Arts that used Soullife Energy – a mixture of soul power, life force, and purified energy – to augment the user’s attacks. All attacks. This included attacks with Soultraits as well. It was exactly what Michael needed to deal with the Divine Lifeforms of the Dragys Lordess.
[I cannot conceal you much longer from the Divine Lifeforms if you keep tearing through the concealment layers of Perfect Heavenly Beast Physique.] Jormungandr complained. It didn’t want to use any more of its Essence if it could be avoided. It used more of its Essence for Michael since it met the odd Lord than it had used in the decades before their encounter.
Michael didn’t remain idle. He conjured the Aethyr Blades around his claws, applied layers of True Extraction, Qi, and Greater Enhancement onto them. He teleported behind one of the three Divine Dragys fighting the Azure Quetzalcoatl.
The Azure Quetzalcoatl was aware of Michael’s presence and had waited for his arrival. Its attacks grew in intensity seconds before Michael attacked, forcing the Divine Dragys to focus on the Quetzalcoatl as Michael appeared behind the Divine Dragys fighting in the back. The Divine Dragys was an Awakened with two Soultraits. One of his Soultraits allowed him to alter his natural fire element and transform its flames into holy flames that healed and purified its allies, while the other Soultrait restrained the Quetzalcoatl. It was a net that weakened the target if hit critically.
Michael knew enough about the Divine Dragys from the myriad of information the plant life had told him. He appeared beside the Divine Dragys, whose high perception instinctively picked up the new arrival. The Dragys whirled around to hit Michael with a series of nets, but Michael was no more. Only his presence and a blazing body looking like him were left.
“Behind you,” Michael mumbled while his Aethyr-shrouded claw pierced through his back.
It was obvious, but the Divine Dragys wouldn’t die that easily. That was also why Michael’s claws had been coated in Jormungandr’s poison curse power, which Greater Enhancement had further amplified. Michael inserted the poison curse power and Extraction into the Divine Dragys through the wound while twisting its claws in the surprise enemy. He grasped the man and hurled him high into the air where the Azure Quetzalcoatl was already waiting with its azure mythical flames.
The Azure Quetzalcoatl burned the Divine Dragys, who was surprisingly still alive. But not for long. A pitch-black sword coated in a silverish-gray hue emerged in the sky overhead the Divine Dragys immediately after the Dragys was burned by the Azure Quetzalcoatl. It descended with a burst of Death Authority and pierced through the Divine Dragys’ chest, shoving the unfortunate creature into the ground where it was impaled. The Divine Dragys struggled to move. It tried escaping, but the blade impaled the Dragonkin and dug deep into the ground. Only the eerily dark hilt jut from the Dragys’ chest.
Death’s Authority mixed in the Dragys’ body with the True Extraction Essence and the poison curse power, worsening the Divine Dragys’ condition.
The two remaining Divine Dragys turned to their comrades and were shocked to see a creature like Michael. He looked like a humanoid lizard, except that his serpent armor was more profound and pristine. It looked like proper armor, whereas the scales covering the Dragys were flawed and not as polished and clean as Michael’s. The creature they faced was also more dangerous than anything they’d seen before. Not even the Azure Quetzalcoatl could compare.
His eyes glowed golden and with much more vigor than any creature they’d ever seen. Even the Dragon Princes and Kings couldn’t compare. The Dragons Kings might be powerful creatures, but the power residing within Michael’s was…otherworldly.
Michael chortled. The Divine Dragys were fun. “Why are you only paying attention to me?”
“You don’t even know whose territory you’re attacking?”
He glanced behind the Divine Dragys with a smile. They’d forgotten about the Azure Quetzalcoatl when they sensed the terrifying power from behind.
Michael shrugged. It didn’t matter whether they knew who they attacked or not.
The Divine Dragys turned around in terror, their defenses raised to the limits, but that wasn’t necessary. The Azure Quetzalcoatl was nowhere near. In fact, it wasn’t there anymore. It had been teleported away.
The Divine Dragys shuddered, and their eyes widened in terror when their eyes fell upon their comrade.
“Who…are you?”
Michael chortled. The Divine Dragys were fun. “You don’t even know whose territory you’re attacking?”
Michael shrugged. It didn’t matter whether they knew who they attacked or not.
“Why are you only paying attention to me?”
He glanced behind the Divine Dragys with a smile. They’d forgotten about the Azure Quetzalcoatl when they sensed the terrifying power from behind.
The Divine Dragys turned around in terror, their defenses raised to the limits, but that wasn’t necessary. The Azure Quetzalcoatl was nowhere near. In fact, it wasn’t there anymore. It had been teleported away.
“I wonder how you guys survived in this world to become Divine Lifeforms,” Michael mumbled next to one of the Divine Dragys. He’d appeared beside the Dragys with a simple kick in the air.
“The Quetzal is not needed here anymore. I told it to kill your comrades while I take care of you guys.” Michael said, his Undead Hand pressed firmly against the back of one Divine Dragys. The Dragys’ scales lost vigor and withered. Michael applied Insert to Hel’s Death Authority and repeated the same process of using Insert to infuse poison curse power and True Extraction Essence into the Divine Dragys.
He unleashed Seer at full pontiac and used Domination to attack his mind and soul simultaneously. The Dragys blocked the soul attack but was amid a counterattack when the mental portion of Domination struck. His attack succeeded, and his spear pierced Michael’s arm, severing it in one go. However, Michael’s plan paid off.
Once the Divine Dragys’ mental guard was off, he used Cosmic Stride to forcefully teleport the Divine Dragys several kilometers high into the air. Simultaneously, he teleported the severed arm back to his arm stump, where the advanced healing serum did its work quickly.
Michael applied several layers of Greater Enhancement on River of Vigor and grew more scales to connect his arm until it reconnected properly. At the same time, he eyed the last Dragys, who’d already conjured a humongous fireball. The fireball compressed and transformed into a miniature sun, which burned everything in its surroundings.
“Is that your Soultrait? Not too shabby,” Michael commented while tapping into the Sphere of Elements. He used all excessive energy and bits and pieces of Soullife Energy to use fire-attributed energy of the Sphere of Fire to conjure Zeroa’s violet-azure flames. It was only a tiny wisp of a brightly flickering flame. Still, it contained the Soullife Energy of all Soul Power accumulated in the Sphere of Elements Soultrait Symbol and the energy and lifeforce that Fenrir had left behind to use.
The wisp whizzed through the air and impacted into the miniature sun. It looked like a droplet of water hit the vast ocean. However, that little water droplet was so much more than a mere drop of water.
When the violet-azure flame struck the miniature sun, the Divine Dragys’ eyes widened in terror. He knew what was about to happen and cursed Michael in its native language.
A moment later, the miniature sun exploded, burning everything in the epicenter of the explosion to a cinder. Including the Divine Dragys.
Michael didn’t watch the explosion. He was a bit sorry for the plant life the exploding miniature sun obliterated, but that sacrifice was necessary to kill the Dragys. In the first place, defeating a Divine Lifeform without causing any destruction was nearly impossible. They could obliterate whole planets by going all out. Maybe that was only possible because those planets couldn’t endure the strain of energy since they had yet to be infused with enough energy to awaken and evolve, but that didn’t matter.
Fact was the Untamed Jungle had to be prepared for a few more sacrifices to emerge victorious against the Dragys Lordess. They might have suffered a lot already, but it was necessary to go all-out to obliterate the Dragys Lordess and her powerhouses. Michael couldn’t hold back merely because of a few trees and bushes. He didn’t want to die to protect a handful of shrubs!
Cosmic Stride teleported Michael to the other DIvine Dragys. The Dragonkin fell from the sky, its eyes trailing the Untamed Jungle from above. It solidified flames underfoot, adjusted its trajectory, and moved to something it had sighted from high up in the sky.
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“Are you trying to find my Summoning Gate? Sorry, but I cannot allow that,” Michael said lightly while following Dragy’s eyes. His undead hand shrouded the Divine Dragys’ head suddenly, releasing a massive wave of Death Authority. The Dragys screamed at the top of its lungs as the life in its eyes dispersed. The Death Authority took away the life in the Dragys’ eyes, blinding him forever – not that forever was going to last long for the Dragys in the first place.
He would die in a few seconds.
That was if Michael wanted the Divine Dragys to die in a few seconds. But that wasn’t the case. He needed the Divine Dragys for a few more seconds.
Michael sensed the death of the other DIvine Dragys. The explosion of his miniature sun killed the DIvine Lifeform and the surrounding land. More than two kilometers in radius were destroyed by the explosion of the miniature sun. That was much less damage than Michael expected, but it was for the best. He had already been worried that half of the Untamed Jungle’s outskirts would be obliterated by the miniature sun.
Either way, Michael had been prepared for it. Since the Heart’s Choice trial in the Temple of the Forgotten, Michael had prepared himself mentally and physically for everything. He came up with enough plans to demolish the Dragys Lordess and wouldn’t hold back now.
But now it was time to focus on the last Divine Dragys. His body was being corroded by highly potent poison curse power and Death Authority. It withered rapidly, and the Divine Dragys could do nothing about it. It wasn’t a Demi-God or a Deity yet, and thus, it was unable to block the poison of a Beast God or the Death Authority, a divine power of a God Curse.
“How can you be so powerful? Not even the Lordess can handle the power of a god…” The Dragys asked, their eyes widening in shock and terror. The creature could tell what awaited its Lordess and it didn’t like the scenario at all.
“Do you want my honest answer? I don’t know how I acquired this much strength either. Maybe it was Fate.” Michael shrugged while draining the Divine Dragys’ lifeforce and energy, which he converted into even more poison curse power. He channeled more Death Authority into the Divine Dragys until he could hardly move.
The creature was on the verge of death, but Michael didn’t let it die. He was in need of information. The first battle was over, but it was only the start of a war. The Untamed Jungle’s revenge was just about to begin.