As he stood within Eldridge’s ideal country, Negary felt like he was fighting an entire country with his own strength, as if the air itself was desperately blocking his actions.
Despite not receiving any obvious attacks, Negary’s fighting strength had been weakened by 30%, the restriction of [Dragon’s Pressure] had also restricted Negary’s [Dracotongue].
Each of these Royas soldiers was wearing the same uniform, held up their weapons and charged at Negary. These people were the manifestations of the Royas people’s expectations and hope, so they didn’t know fear and never would retreat. Furthermore, since it was Eldridge who manifested them, each of them had Eldridge’s experience in battle, were perfectly united, perfectly coordinated and could exert terrifying strength in battle.
The soldiers endlessly flocked to Negary like a tide. Each of Negary’s punches and kicks could easily tear them apart, but there were too many soldiers. What was even worse was that these soldiers left no bodies behind after death.
If they left corpses, they would at least serve to obstruct the next waves of attacks, but they simply turned into shadows after death, leaving the people behind them unhindered. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Negary could tell that these soldiers weren’t actually being killed as they could simply be swiftly regenerated.
And with his observation, the enemies on the plaza were no longer limited to these close-ranged soldiers. Archers, cavalry, and even siege weapons like catapults were slowly manifesting as well.
Within Eldridge’s Seal of the Empire, any commonly-used weapons and forces within Royas could be manifested without much trouble. In fact, as long as Eldridge had the strength to maintain them, he could even summon Ancestral Spirit Armors and Last God serum soldiers within this illusory ideal country of his.
〖 If this is everything you have, Eldridge, I can declare your death right at this moment 〗 Negary slowly walked towards Eldridge, killing any attacker with a flick of his hands.
More and more dragon characteristics began to manifest on Negary’s body, from scales to horns, dragon wings, then finally a tail. His body was also growing larger, his humanoid appearance receding away, even the breath coming from his nose and mouth were starting to be dyed yellow with a smell of sulfur.
Until finally, a golden dragon took flight. As its abdomen slightly sunk in, an intense flame erupted from its mouth, burning the soldiers in its path and directly struck Eldridge’s body, crushing him into a pulp.
It took Negary ten years to create this dragon body. If it was only for the purpose of utilizing [Dracotongue], he wouldn’t have had to go through so much trouble. Negary’s true goal was to reproduce the power of true dragons from ancient times, which he had achieved. There was now essentially no difference between the current him and the dragons of old.
This was also the most recent dragon to have existed ever since the final dragon ‘Versace’ died at the end of the Third Empire.
“Negary, if you were willing to link the flames, perhaps there would have been no problem for both Nala and me” Eldridge’s voice came from the other side, the body that Negary crushed was just another illusion.
The response to Eldridge’s comment was a huge dragon roar. Negary’s dragon body was still growing larger. His [Dragon’s Pressure] swiftly expanded into his surroundings and silently caused Eldridge’s ideal country to collapse.
In the end, the Royas people’s support of Eldridge had plummeted considerably. If it was still at its peak, Negary could only choose to defend himself against the Seal of the Empire instead of crushing it by force like this.
〖 If you can hear their support, you can surely also hear their complaints and dissatisfaction 〗Negary dragon body gradually shrunk back into a humanoid shape, his vertical golden pupils stared at the drained-looking Eldridge.
Since the Seal of the Empire created through his mental power had been broken by force, Eldridge naturally received the appropriate backlash. The words of complaints and dissatisfaction of the Royas people grew louder and louder in his mind. They complained about his inactivity during the later part of the war that allowed Nala to retaliate, complained about how he suppressed the Royas domestic nobles so much, about how his belligerent actions cost so much wealth and benefits of the country.
〖 Do you regret it? 〗 Negary carefully approached Eldridge. Although his opponent seemed like he no longer had the strength to resist, there might still be some sort of trump card he was still hiding.
“Regret what? Regret that I had retreated?” Eldridge didn’t try to run, since he had already lost, he might as well retain what little dignity he had left as a king. His complexion was terrible, but he was displaying an exceptional grin. Answering Negary’s question, he spoke indifferently: “I am a king! And that was simply the king’s responsibility!”
“I believe that my offspring will fulfil the dream that I failed to accomplish” Eldridge stood up and fixed up his appearance for one last time, like a great king who watched over his subjects, he softly declared: “The Royal Empire will surely be born”
〖 Then I shall send you on your way 〗 Negary’s [Dragon’s Pressure] overflowed and filled the surrounding space. The sharp nails of his right hand pierced directly through Eldridge’s neck chopped off his head.
As Eldridge’s head fell to the ground, Negary turned to look at the Statue of the Last God behind him. It had always turned its back to the people below with arms wide opened towards the sky. It appeared to be dignified and noble, like the guardian god of all living beings. In a sense, he was, since he did choose to sacrifice himself to prevent the advent of the Black Abyss in the first place.
But if you came to his front, you would find that the Last God had many faces, all of them were vivid and lifelike, including the faces of dragons, of heroic humans, mysterious witches and noble gods. Their races were all different, but they had one thing in common: the expressions on their faces that were full of pain, unwillingness and despair.
If sacrificing the Last God alone was sufficient to stop the Black Abyss, then why did the New Deity and Progenitor Dragon try to run away, betraying their missions and becoming traitors in the first place? Replacing the New Deity and the Progenitor Dragon might seem simple, but it wasn’t possible without paying a heavy price.
The Black Abyss at the time was considerably more powerful than it is now. And so, in order to fulfil his role, the Last God had gone on a hunt and assimilated powerful supernatural creatures into himself before burning them all together.
It could be said that the Last God alone took out the majority of the supernatural entities in the world at the time and forced them all to burn away with him. If it weren’t for him, the supernatural power in this world wouldn’t have fallen to the state it was today, a mere shadow of its former self.
If Eldridge had walked the same path as the Last God and truly became his successor, then his loyal subjects would also burn as the Torch together with him, that was the true reason why he chose to back down when he knew about Nala’s existence.
Even if his prestige and his honor as the greatest king were to be completely lost. Even if the very subjects he protected complained and regarded him as the sinner of the Royas Kingdom, he would still not regret his actions. In his words, that was his responsibility as a king.
〖 The greatest king, that title is certainly not misplaced 〗Negary turned around and left, leaving Eldridge’s headless body where it was. Even without his head, he was still standing at the top of the stairs, as if to watch over his subjects.
