Just like the Dark Dragon described, this place was nothing more than a fortified prison. The deeper Erin and Angelina proceeded, the more they understood this point. The hanging steel chains and spacious, empty caves weren’t just there for show. Piles of white bones appeared along the way. No one knew exactly how many dragons who violated the taboo were imprisoned here until their demise. Not only that, but the farther the duo advanced into the tunnel, they sensed the atmosphere turning colder and brimming with a thicker death aura. It wasn’t as chilly as the whistling northern winds, but it startled them even more.
This meant that the death aura had completed the process of ‘quantitative change’ and coalesced into a ‘substantial’ presence. At this stage, the death aura wasn’t as simple as just being the atmosphere. The pressure it exuded was almost similar to the ‘death cloud spell’ by necromancers. Any life form that entered the atmosphere would have their vitality weakened and eventually die. The ‘death cloud spell’ was formed by coalescing magic powers, but here, the death aura naturally took shape into a substantial presence. Due to this reason, Erin and Angelina felt like the situation was getting trickier because this might possibly mean that a creature much stronger than them was hidden and lying ahead.
“Argh…”
Erin knitted her brows. A faint, indistinct spiritual light shone around her, resisting the negative energy in the hovering cold air. On the other hand, Angelina didn’t have any huge reaction. As an undead creature, she couldn’t possibly be affected by negative energy that eroded vitality. At that moment, underneath their feet was a stretch of solid ground covered by a thick layer of white frost. One who stepped above it would sense the chilliness escaping the surface. The deeper they advanced, the more obvious it felt to them, so much so that at a glance, they witnessed the entire tunnel shrouded in white frost. The ceiling was also covered in a thick layer of ice. This was a world of death, and no lifeforms would be able to survive long here.
Erin turned pale. Even though she had no issue pushing herself, the death air still affected her to a certain degree. Although she was able to soar through vacuums in the universe freely, the temperature in the universe was just extremely low, after all. Other than that, there were no other factors that affected her. But the chilliness here was entirely different. It wasn’t a normal coldness, but the atmosphere was coalesced from the death aura entirely instead. It could also be said that the moment an ordinary human entered this place, the spiritual flame inside their body would be extinguished immediately without struggling. The ice layer here was simply like a deadly poison that killed one upon touch. The air also diffused a coldness that could make one freeze into a popsicle from inside-out. Erin had high vitality, but she couldn’t handle the double erosion from the inside out and vice versa.
“The negative energy in here is almost at its critical point.”
Angelina gazed at the deep tunnel ahead with a heavy expression, at the same time feeling astonished. Even though she was an undead creature, she had never seen a place with such a thick death aura. This god-forsaken place might be a getaway paradise for great lichs, but for vampires like her, she had no idea what exact creatures would show up. If an undead creature were to appear, Angelina wasn’t sure if she was strong enough to defeat it. The strength of undead creatures were closely related to the power of their death aura. She reckoned that undead creatures who resided here must have existed for countless years. She didn’t have a clue as to just how powerful they would be.
“Your Highness Erin, are you able to handle it?”
Angelina turned over and gazed at Erin, who sauntered beside her. This place more or less had an effect on an undead creature like her, not to mention how huge the pressure would be on a mortal like Erin. Upon witnessing Erin’s pale complexion, it was obvious that she was doing her best. Despite that, this tunnel seemed endless. There was also no trace of any exits. If Erin were to carry on, Angelina doubted that she could hang on for long.
“I’m alright. I will be fine for the time being, Angelina.”
Upon hearing Angelina’s concern, Erin forced a smile. Even though Erin didn’t look good due to the influence of the negative energy, her expression remained gentle and peaceful and she didn’t seem to be struggling at all. Looking at Erin’s reaction, Angelina’s respect for her increased even more. But Angelina didn’t comment much as she continued to saunter ahead.
Whoosh…!
All of a sudden, a draught blew from the deeper tunnel, brushing past them and lifting their long hair. Upon sensing this cold current of air, Erin and Angelina instantly felt refreshed. Even though they didn’t know where the wind came from, it meant that…
There is an exit somewhere!
At this thought, the duo hastened their pace.
The death aura became denser and thicker, but it was still tolerable for them. No matter what, Erin was still the moon princess. In the underground, even though she didn’t receive any direct energy from the moon, her formidable power prevented the draughts filled with death aura from affecting her any further. But it was only temporary. As long as they got out of this tunnel…
Bang!
Erin came to a standstill, while Angelina who ran beside her couldn’t stop in time and crashed head-first onto an ice column. Judging from the heavy collision, Angelina must be in tremendous pain now. However, none of them grumbled. They widened their eyes in astonishment, gazing at the massive ice prison.
This prison, which was tens of meters tall, was seemingly the end of the tunnel. Standing before the duo were hundreds of solid ice columns, like prison fences blocking their path. However, the creature trapped inside the ice cage captured most of their attention.
It was a humongous dragon, twice the size of the Dark Dragon they met earlier. The dragon was entirely sealed in a thick bulk of ice, its limbs and body bound by steel chains. Apart from that, what shocked the duo was that there was no flesh on the dragon, but only ghastly white bones. Judging from the situation, it didn’t seem like the remaining bones of its carcass, but that this was its state from the beginning. And this only meant one thing…
“It’s an Undead Skeletal Dragon… Who did this?!”
During this period, Erin learned all sorts of unimaginable information. She once thought there was nothing in this world that would shock her anymore. But now, her head was in a complete blank. She stared expressionlessly at the Undead Skeletal Dragon and wasn’t as mindful of the coldness circulating around her anymore.
As everyone knew, the Country of Darkness was a nation of undead creatures, and they were most adept in creating all sorts of them. So it went without saying that dragons were no exceptions. It was especially so since dragons in the Country of Darkness would die one day and if they could manipulate powers of the undead to summon the dragons back to this world, not only could they increase the strength of their nation, but the dragons could also survive in another form.
But it was a pity that regarding this issue, the dragon race always upheld the attitude of ‘a tyrant boss can do whatever he likes, and commoners aren’t allowed the slightest bit of freedom’. Not only that, but the dragon race also prohibited turning any dragon corpses into undead creatures because it was deemed blasphemy against them. Undead creatures who did something like that would be eliminated immediately and generations of their family would also be implicated. However, as the graveyard of dragons itself was a secret, undead creatures couldn’t possibly kill a dragon and turn it into one of them, which was why basically no one committed this offense. Due to that reason, after personally encountering this dragon that was turned into an undead creature, Erin was flabbergasted beyond words.
Despite that, what surprised the duo the most was the pitch-black tunnel beside the Undead Skeletal Dragon. Even though the tunnel seemed endless, for some unknown reason, when they looked at it at the same time, they were confident that the exit they were searching for was right there.
“Let’s go, Your Highness Erin.”
The source of coldness in the underground tunnels came from that enormous dragon, where even Angelina felt her limbs stiffening. She gnashed her teeth and slipped through the gaps between the ice columns. With her petite-sized body, the fences made of ice columns weren’t an issue for her at all. Erin followed behind her closely, stretching her arm to get passed the ice columns. But at that moment…
Boom!
The moment her hand passed through the ice columns, a golden brilliance erupted all of a sudden, blasting her to the back and causing her to crash into the ground. Not only that, but Erin also let out a painful groan. At the same time, a ring of golden halo was clearly seen flashing above her.
“This is…”
Looking at this scene, Angelina was taken aback. She reached out her hand and fumbled with the ice column beside her. But what was strange was that no matter what movement she made, she couldn’t feel any resistance. Erin crawled to her feet with gnashed teeth, extending her right hand again. Almost simultaneously, the golden radiance exploded once more.
Boom!
This time, the prepared Erin didn’t get struck to the back. But even so, she took a few steps back and her complexion was as white as a sheet. It was apparent that there were measures to prevent dragons from leaving this place. It was ineffective on other races, which was perhaps why Angelina could pass through freely, but Erin couldn’t.
“Your Highness Erin, this…”
Angelina was at a complete loss. What made the situation worse was that she heard the clanking of steel chains from behind Erin. Angelina looked behind Erin and was stunned to discover that the imprisoned Undead Skeletal Dragon was swaying and getting up from its slumber. It seemed like the dragon was woken by the two intruders who broke into the prison. At that moment, Erin turned around and witnessed the oncoming danger. She stared at the dragon and gritted her teeth tightly, before turning around and ordering the dazed Angelina quickly.
“Leave, Angelina!”
Facing Erin’s words, Angelina was shook. Frankly, even though undead creatures couldn’t care less about their companions, after spending a long time with Erin in this god-forsaken place, they developed kind feelings for each other. Angelina couldn’t bear to leave her ‘companion’ alone in this ridiculous place.
“Huh? Your Highness Erin? We can try again. Maybe…”
“It’s impossible.”
Facing Angelina’s response, Erin shook her head with a bitter smile. Erin had already realized that the moment the mysterious energy struck her away, there was something that restrained and weakened her powers. Erin was able to rely upon her formidable strength to resist the death aura. But now, she felt like she couldn’t hold on any longer. If Erin were to try slipping through the ice columns again, perhaps she couldn’t stay at this place any longer and could only leave after receiving another attack.
“As a dragon race, it seems like I can’t leave here for the time being. I can only rely on you now, Angelina! Leave and inform His Majesty Rhode about the situation here. I’m sure he will have a solution!”
“…”
Upon listening to Erin’s command, Angelina bit the bullet, turning to the former and nodded with might. Then, the petite vampire dashed off in a trail of afterimages into the dark tunnel beside the Undead Skeletal Dragon. At that moment, the Undead Skeletal Dragon gradually woke up. The pitch-black eye sockets burned in spiritual flames. It shifted its head to where Angelina was and widened its mouth.
“———!”
At the next moment, an ice-cold, bone-piercing dragon breath exploded from its mouth, blasting at Angelina in an instant. Upon detecting the lethal chilliness of death, Angelina’s hair stood on end. She wrapped her arms around the invisible sword and darted as quickly as possible.
Even though Angelina gave her best, the cold air affected her greatly, causing her to slow down instantly. At that moment, the ice-cold dragon breath arrived from above. Upon realizing it, Angelina’s heart sank. She rolled to dodge the assault, but her skirt wasn’t as fortunate. Her skirt that was fluttering along with her swift movements stiffened immediately before metamorphosing into chunks of fragments. In the blink of an eye, her pitch-black skirt shattered and revealed her fair, slender legs.
Ssss———!
Angelina sucked in a breath of cold air. She wasn’t distressed over the loss of her skirt, but was baffled by this terrifying power. The dragon breath merely brushed past her and she felt as though her body were frozen entirely. Moreover, the speed of erosion from the ice-cold air was devastatingly fast. She was certain that if it were her body that came into contact with the dragon breath, she would have ended up the same as her skirt. Angelina shivered at this thought. Without checking out her surroundings, she took large strides and flitted into the tunnel ahead. This time, not only did she run at her quickest speed, but her bat-like wings also expanded in an instant. She metamorphosed into pitch-black lightning that burst straight toward the tunnel.
However, the Undead Skeletal Dragon realized what she was up to. The moment Angelina turned into pitch-black lightning, the dragon snapped its jaw open and spurted another stone-cold dragon breath at her. In this case, even if Angelina managed to enter the dark tunnel, she would still be frozen stiff. And if she didn’t make it into the tunnel, she would surely be sealed in ice. When that happened, she could forget about leaving this place!
“Be careful!”
Erin watched the entire scene helplessly. She couldn’t help but shriek, clench her fist, and stare at Angelina’s escape. If it were Erin who was on the other side, she could have turned into her dragon form and fought against the dragon. Perhaps she might not be able to defeat the Undead Skeletal Dragon that had been in here for who knew how long, but at least she could buy some time. But now, Erin couldn’t get past the ice columns into the prison, not to mention providing any assistance.
Angelina bolted ahead but eventually failed to make her escape. The moment she arrived at the entrance of the tunnel, the freezing dragon breath arrived above her. If nothing went wrong, she would be frozen into an ice sculpture at the next moment.
Yes, if nothing went wrong.
Swish!
Suddenly, the invisible sword in Angelina’s arms flew out of its sheath and slashed at the dragon breath, splitting it into two. The dragon breath dissipated shortly after and the Undead Skeletal Dragon widened its mouth. Spiritual radiance in its pitch-black eye sockets blazed frantically.
“What—… Why is that sword…!”
Meanwhile, Angelina vanished into the pitch-black entrance of the tunnel.
