She carefully scanned it with Mental Power while recording everything. She suspected it was an energy source for ancient constructs, perhaps magitech machinery. But what kind of machine would need power on this scale?
She had wanted to extract a small sample of the unusual material, but fear stopped her. Its strength far exceeded Ancient Steel. Afraid of triggering an explosion, she could only proceed slowly, inch by inch, using Mental Power.
She discovered that the surface was not truly smooth. It was composed of countless microscopic structures fitted together with nearly invisible gaps. Each component was smaller than dust, yet unbelievably precise.
"If this really is a relic of an ancient civilization," she whispered, "then why did such a civilization fall?" This question had always been a mystery across the continent. Many ruins were worthless rubble, yet sometimes unimaginable artifacts were unearthed.
As Lilith continued testing, she suddenly turned her head. "Hmm? Who's there?" Her face instantly turned cold.
As a Witch, she summoned the Magic Staff into her hand and rapidly constructed ritual Magic Array and dense layers of protection. One of the traps and Barrier barriers she had placed at the entrance had been altered in a subtle way. This was not natural.
She monitored Sky Island constantly. Such a change should have been impossible. Then a calm voice sounded.
"Oh? Still noticed, huh. Controlling it from this distance is a bit forced." The surrounding metal flowed like water, spreading on its own. In an instant, Lilith lost control as her Mental Power connection was severed.
No, it was not severed. It was overridden by a higher existence. The metal reshaped itself, and a tall, thin man stepped out. It was Ludwig.
His clothes were torn, the cost of breaking through the outer crystal defenses. His face stiffened into a twisted smile as eight eyes opened across it. The inhuman features and eerie presence put Lilith on full alert.
"Ludwig… no, that's impossible," she said. "That aura can't be human. Are you…?" Her thoughts raced through every possibility before her pupils shrank sharply. "Evil God!"
"So you do know," Ludwig replied calmly. "I was a bit late, but it doesn't matter." He looked at the Witch before him, who had sealed herself completely within crystal.
She had locked her body, mind, and soul, making movement impossible. It did interfere somewhat with his use of Authority. Still, this was only a remotely delivered puppet, so the limitations were acceptable.
"A pity," he said softly. "Even if I bring you back to the main body, I'll have to extract things slowly to preserve the memories." His gaze then burned as it shifted to the blazing sphere nearby. "And my core."
Elsewhere, in a valley rocked by continuous explosions, spell experiments were interrupted by interference. Errors appeared again as the casting collapsed. Belial lifted his head from the smoke, ignoring the flames and ice storms crashing around him.
He narrowed his eyes slightly. "Who are you? Interrupting and attacking me like this means you'd better give me a reason to live." In response, several Great Dragon with vacant, chaotic eyes circled in the air.
They roared and continued their breath attacks without hesitation. Seeing this, Belial sighed. "Then I guess there's only one way to handle this."
Red, blue, green, black, and white, the Five-Colored Dragonkind were all present, and their number had reached a shocking dozen or more. Among them were even three Ancient Dragon over thirty meters long, yet none showed any sign of weakness and all looked strong and solid. The dragon swarm roared together, then unleashed flames, lightning, and storms of breath, mixed with mysterious chanting of Dragon Tongue, turning the sky into a rain of meteors, each one a deadly display of Draconic Magic.
The swarm was in chaos, but in the eyes of the largest Ancient Dragon, there was a different light. From the start, it followed the small cooperation plan and went after the abnormally huge Black Dragon that might carry a rare case of Crystal Sickness. A strange and powerful Black Dragon like that, clearly carrying something special, had caught its interest, so it agreed to the deal.
What surprised it slightly was that Crimson God had warned it with an odd expression to be careful. It took that advice seriously, since it came from a high-level existence. Because of that, it put in real effort, bringing over thirty Great Dragon it had swallowed before, plus more than five Ancient Dragon, forming a force that could be called very strong.
At first, its plan was to capture the giant Black Dragon alive. Even at worst, that was worth dozens of slightly weaker Gold Rank combat units, not to mention that it was personally leading the attack. Thirty against one, the advantage was clearly on its side.
So why was it now panicking, burning through power at full output, and ordering over ten Great Dragon to cast Magic without restraint? Did it not fear damaging valuable materials. The answer was simple.
About five minutes earlier, the swarm had numbered thirty dragons, and now only a bit more than one third remained. Where had the other two thirds gone. The answer was everywhere, with only a few lucky ones leaving behind intact bodies.
Five of them had been crushed directly during close suppression, killed as easily as a heavyweight boxer hitting a kindergarten child. Even touching meant death, and a glancing hit meant injury. Nearly ten more, including two Red Dragon at the Ancient Dragon level, had their combined breath attacks smothered by a single breath carrying extremely advanced Law of Ice, freezing their bodies into ice statues that shattered into dust with a flap of wings.
Several others were toyed with and killed by strange but unexpectedly lethal Magic. A few more were blasted to death by crystallized attacks. Only then did the situation reach its current state.
It had already tried its best to overestimate the enemy, yet even its imagined peak had not reached the sole of that Black Dragon's foot. A deafening roar followed as the valley collapsed under multiple powerful Magic, the shockwaves riddling the cliffs with holes. The combined Magic of over ten Great Dragon nearly turned the area into a basin.
A blockbuster cloud of dust rose and covered the sky, but the dragons grew even more cautious. Their reactions were intense, claws spread wide, pupils shrinking, bodies trembling uncontrollably. A dull, heavy sound followed, like a massive object landing, carrying the weight of mountains, the force of a tsunami, and the certainty of death.
A faint pressure and scent spread out, not strong, yet enough to make these huge Great Dragon tremble like cats smelling a tiger. After a low growl echoed out, the entire swarm roared in fear. These beasts stripped of intelligence had their deepest instincts dragged out in a struggle for survival.
Their response was simply to roar as loudly as possible and bare their claws, trying to scare the enemy like clowns. At that moment, Belial yawned. He spoke lazily, saying the fireworks looked nice and asking if there were more.
He had not even bothered to raise a shield, watching the dragons cast Magic while copying their spell structures and recording them with satisfaction. He even personally experienced the attacks, though the effect was poor because his defense was too high. It seemed he had overestimated them.
"When I first saw so many dragons, I thought it was a group outing," he said. "With this little skill, you dare gang up on me. Who gave you the nerve." Dragons that could not even take a few slaps had no right to try to challenge Godzilla.
One or two hits and they fell apart, even his casual test spells killed them easily. He could not help wondering if Great Dragon were really this weak. Still, he found their spells interesting, some of them unseen even by Lilith, so he planned to squeeze out everything they had.
After taking the hits, he walked forward and roared a few times to scare them. He urged them to try harder and keep attacking. A massive roar followed, the sound waves shaking the clouds and the air vibrating like boiling water, drowning out the entire dragon swarm.
The huge and ferocious Black Dragon emerged from the rolling black smoke. It opened its bloody maw, bared sharp teeth, and spread wings that blotted out the sky like giant claws. Its furious face radiated raw malice, spreading despair and destruction.
In theory, the Great Dragon should have been fearless, having their fear stripped away, yet now fear and despair were forcibly carved back into them. An indescribable force stirred their minds again. The largest Ancient Dragon was no longer just shocked, but drenched in cold sweat, its eyes twitching as even the body it directly controlled reacted with instinctive fear.
It realized this was not its own fear being triggered. The Black Dragon itself was a source of fear, granting it equally to everything in its path. This was no slightly special Black Dragon, but something at a crowned level, requiring the main body itself to deal with.
With just this Clone, it should retreat as fast as possible. Each clone was precious and exhausting to create, especially since that family produced only one per generation. Before the dragon swarm was wiped out, it needed to leave.