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Chapter 529: Labrador Again

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He didn’t have to take a look at it to check. Siva is already aware. He could feel it intuitionally from inside his Inventory.

The [Realm Gate] that he used as the access gate to the [Purgatory Realm] had just shattered with the descent of this city-wide threat.

What more, he also knew that the City Lord of the Walled City of Mundus had already been notified that his city was under a threat of destruction. He should be issuing orders to evacuate the citizens of this city at all costs by now.

“Cortana!” Siva roared. The summoning took only five seconds, the same time span as the rate of his Sword Master and [Controller] synching all its combinations and basic controls.

[Synchronization complete! Uploading battle data into local CPU complete! Sword Master is ready!]

Siva clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Although he was right about Zelga, he still did not expect that he would unleash this Dragon directly here in Mundus. He had totally gone haywire from his anger and lost it.

He didn’t waste more time and ‘thought’ of it as well as he let his reflexes move his body before he could think. He kept on pressing buttons in his [Controller] and letting the Sword master escape by teleporting away. He had to be there in person but he also can’t let the Sword Master become a pile of scrap metals as well.

“Cortana, adjust teleportation range on key-combo and make it at least 1km every escape maneuver.”

[Done.]

Although Siva was seated on a cozy seat, Scion could feel that his mood and the situation aren’t going on the right track he intended.

Zelga had lost it. In order to vent his anger, he will sacrifice the innocent people in Mundus.

Even she, with her gentle disposition, could not help but feel loathsome towards him at this time.

Only basic controls and combos were uploaded and this “controller function” of the BM-Puppets was just one of the ultimate goals for the project.

Still, as effective as this was, Siva knew this won’t be effective in defeating the True Dragon. If he wanted a power that could fight against an enemy like this True Dragon, he would have to at least outfit a BM-Puppet with an arsenal comparable to two Rewloola Battleships, in addition to an energy supply that could last for an entire month without being needed to be charged, and Sword Master’s current arsenals —and that is only aiming to get a chance to fight against a True Dragon, not actually win against one.

Siva knew that he had to have a BM-Puppet with similar specs as Tai Long, outfitted with double the amount of requirements as above, and then a dedicated escape-maneuver Mini Realm, while at the very least being prepared to fight for an entire month without stopping, if he wanted to his BM-Puppets to win a duel against a True Dragon such as this Labrador.

—because unlike him, the BM-Puppets doesn’t have his [Killing Zone] so they couldn’t skip levels and had to fight against the enemies using every conventional and standard calculations.

At this thought, he gave the controller to Scion as he showed her its controls in a panel window.

“Here’s the tutorial and the basic combo list. Lily, I will be relying on you on helping your master how to familiarize herself into the controls.”

The little fairy quietly sitting on Scion’s shoulder stood up and saluted, [Leave it to me!]

Then Siva faced Scion, “As much as I want to see your abilities in full display, this is not an opponent even I can defeat with pure luck as last time. I will set the visual rendering into [Game Mode] so that you wouldn’t see any gore when using it. Acquaint yourself with the controls as quickly as possible because I might need your help this time.”

“I know, I’m not weak… go protect the city.”

“Then I’m going.”

Siva didn’t linger on for anything else and kissed her forehead. He stepped back and vanished on her vison before appearing outside, 50km away from Scion’s location and immediately starting to engage with the familiar enemy.

Scion also didn’t waste time.

“Lily, how can I help Rex with this?” her hands were a little shaky. Although she wasn’t directly on the battlefield herself, she could still feel the high tension that radiated off from that location.

Holding the controller, an experienced gamer will immediately notice the unfamiliarity of her grip to the hand-contours of the [Game Controller].

Moreover, a beginner fighting a boss-level at her first try —even at [Dante Must Die Nightmare Hell] mode at that— was just too dang cruel.

(AN: those of you guys who played DMC4 in PC before will understand this “difficulty” reference)

Even experts back then had to train themselves as well as familiarize their “instincts” to the controls of a ‘game avatar’ before fighting a boss. But Scion did not have that luxury right now.

Although, honestly, Siva could just use the [Sword Master] as a direct support near him just like how he had always done, but the thing is, he can’t afford to divert his attention to this fight the way he could before because, for one big reason, the range of Labrador’s attacks was just so overbearingly big that just one attack from him was already enough to pull all of Siva’s attention resources just to evade… what more if he had to worry about one other baggage that he had to spend materials on just to repair if damaged?

And yet, as much as he wanted to just let it rest in his Inventory, he also needed as much useful support as he could in the battlefield.

Upon his first clash with Labrador, he fought with an entire fleet of warships as his Support; but he does not have that kind of or level of Support now so he had to improvise and use everything at his disposal without wasting his attention resources or hindering his movements at all.

As such, it had been tasked for Lily and Scion to use the Sword Master as his aide.

In fact, he thought of asking help with the Vajras but he feared that it might be misunderstood by the Terran Alliance if a neutral party intervened in a city controlled by them.

Thus, Siva had no choice but to act alone and deal with this problem himself using his methods and all of his available battle resources.

Although Cortana was also a better choice, it was still ‘beneficial’ if he let Scion handle [it]. After all, she also needs experience.

[Master, the boss left the control for the [Sword Master’s] Mini Realm stock. There are five Mini Realms which was programmed to be able to keep Magical Spells. Would you like to use it?]

Scion wasn’t unaware on how Siva used his Mini Realms to sometimes store [Vajra Bolts] in it for his personal use. As such, being familiar with it, she also knew why Lily informed her of it.

“Then I’ll keep my spells cast on it.”

[One Mini Realm is one magic stock. It is better to cast it to its most powerful form and save it. I was also the one tasked of the Sword Master’s disaster escape maneuvers so please be familiar with this and do not lose focus or be surprised if the Sword Master suddenly teleports away to a different location. I will be informing you through the display if I am using it.]

“Alright. I’ll be counting on you, Lily!”

[Then I’ll begin the tutorial. Please pay attention…]

And so a [Classic Gamer] emerged in Terroa.

*****

When Labrador True Dragon appeared, Purgatory also collapsed, revealing the familiar space of the skies of Mundus, just before they were trapped by Siva and was played upon just then.

Good thing Siva didn’t bring them all directly to his Asgard upon capture and only sealed them within the same place and only took the ‘Purgatory Realm Entrance’ with him. If he had done that, Asgard will be having a hard time dealing with it.

Though filled with regret by exposing who was the summoner of that Dragon back then to Siva, Zelga still hated him more as he shouted and gave the command to his troops.

“Kill him! KILL HIM!!! Do not let him escape!”

It was useless since the [Elementis Ability] is only responsible for summoning a soulless body of the strongest individual the ‘Mana Provider’ defeated in his or her entire life.

The only command it can give is to confirm who the greatest threat to its summoner then imprint on them the brand of being its enemy. Its next set of actions will depend on the level of threat of their designated enemy.

As soon as the enemy is confirmed, Elementis will randomly begin to either defend or be vigilant and prioritize eradication of the threat to secure safety of its summoner.

The form and strength of Elementis and whether it is capable of either an aggressive stance, or would be turtling up and retreating, will be depending on the summoned being, adhering to the [rules] of its summoning: the strongest being the provider of the Mana that catalyzed the summoning had killed in combat.

In the end, [Elementis] is not an offensive ability and couldn’t be relied on at crucial times, but when provided with the right conditions, circumstances, and catalyst, it can become a devastating weapon just like the current situation.

As Blue Draco and Zelga had an agreement, they have already used [Elementis – Labrador] to its full capacity of uses and since it was instinctual for the True Dragon to heal itself with Dragon Magic, the wounds and injuries that were procured when they harvested True Dragon Materials from it all healed on the same minute that it was injured.

(AN: Labrador’s “Dragon Magic” is healing within 32 seconds of an injury that passed on a certain threshold of its tolerance)

Being mutilated by its principal, it was cruel, yes, but to Zelga, it is just a game-element. It doesn’t do him good if he doesn’t use his resources to its fullest capacities. Besides, Labrador didn’t even let out a single scream of pain so it was basically okay to mutilate it.

In regards to the current situation, he knew that summoning Labrador now was too early but what can he do? It is already done. So Zelga gave the order nonetheless because to him, he wouldn’t be satisfied if he didn’t vent on the anger he felt towards Siva because of this insulting treatment.

To him, Siva should give him respect for he is a prince! As such, his anger got the best of him at a moment’s fit and released Labrador.

Zelga saw that as soon as the space shattered and Labrador descended, they have gone back to the same place they emerged earlier but what was not in here now from before was the White Warship that was a part of the huge [Battleship Jeremiah].

“Where’s the ship?!” the people were surprised to see that their ship wasn’t present.

“That bastard! He took our ship!” Zelga fuming and was so angry that he was visually spurting smoke.

He cursed a few times more before clicking his tongue and looking at the clash happening above their heads.

Facing all his ‘knights’, he roared angrily: “Let’s go back to the base! We can’t be seen here with this creature!”

Although Siva could ‘lock’ space inside the Mini Realms if he set up the rules in it, the T-Devices are still special items exempt from certain aspects.

It can be ‘locked’ by [Divine Artifacts] or those old [Divine Spells] that was on the level as the one in Anazon Forest, but cannot be hindered by Siva’s Mini Realm, unless it reached a certain level.[1]

The reason why he could prevent them earlier in using the T-Devices wasn’t because of the Space Locking Pillars since it was used in the Merchant Group Subjugation operation; it was because of a rule he set up in the [Purgatory Realm] that when a T-Device is brought out, the finger that’ll press the button will press on the ‘dummy’ that he made in advance instead.

With this [rule], no matter how much they press, the ‘prisoners’ will always press the wrong button.

In the first place, the Inventory Plus Ultra was like an [Overgod Item] to some games; its effects was just that transcendent… especially in respect to the [Rules Application] function of the IPU abilities.

If only the game went normally without all of those changes that appeared two months ago, items of this level should be appearing only around 2 to 3 more years in the future when the [Players] have reached a certain amount of [Strength] (AN: not the stats) that could grant them the qualifications to fight the main antagonists of the game and dig up the true history of the vast universe of Terroa.

So… pulling out a T-Device? Trying to escape?

Your fingers will press my dummy!

—at least this was what’s Siva wanted to happen.

It did not hinder the T-Device’s function or effect, but it did hinder the users directly and this was an effect that he learned when experimenting on the limits of the [rules] of the Time-Space Cabinets. It wasn’t even violating any rules of the game nor did he lean towards anything pertaining to cheating.

But now, the Purgatory Realm was broken and the ‘hindering effect’ was now gone.

Upon Zelga’s orders, his Guardian Knights took out their T-Devices and one by one, they all came back to Jeremiah with a grand frown and a howl of absolute rage.

Zelga, when he appeared in the square within the South Quadrant of the Castle City Jeremiah, there was a slight pause as he controlled his poise but he still ultimately gave away his seething emotions as his chest heaved up and down, his breathing as short as his finger, and his face distorted to a mad grimace. Unable to hold it in, Zelga pulled out his helmet and slammed it on the ground, garnering looks of surprise from those who were unaware of all his troubles.

“Bastard. Bastard! BASTARD!!! Aaaaaahh!! You’ll pay for this, Siva, you will definitely pay for this!”

As he roared, the people around him shut their lips tightly, not even daring to breathe.

Almost all of the people in their Guardian Knights managed to return while half of the knights and all the operating crew of the White Warship managed to return, while those who mere missing were all sent to Siva’s dungeon back in Apus Epirus when they were defeated inside the Purgatory Realm.

In fact, and maybe it was a matter of bad luck, one of those who were knocked out at the last second before Elementis – Labrador came crashing in the Purgatory Realm, was Randall. He was ‘Siva’s’ last victim before he stopped and paused to look up.

When Zelga saw the missing numbers in his crew, all the more his hatred for Siva burned so he bid his adieu to no one and directly went into their hang out base and logged out to yell at the people back in his home.

Those who were left in their HQ were either on a neutral stance or angry, or perhaps even feeling a bit of schadenfreude at Zelga’s misfortune.

But to those locked in the dungeon cells of Apus Epirus, things were a little bit different.

Firstly, since they were knocked out, it means the NLD had already forcefully logged them off. That means that in the real world, it would take some time before they actually wake up and process the details of their defeat.

By the time then, when they log in, they’d realize that all their equipment and their abilities are sealed and their status had become [prisoners], with all their rights for communication (except the real world email) stripped off their avatars until all of them are set free.

But that was for the future.

*****

As soon as Siva appeared, he instantly became the main target for the True Dragon’s rampage.

Though his equipment and stats already went up an entire grade, he was still a Mortal and fighting a True Dragon without the [triple stats boost] given by the Artemis MOD would just be akin to suicide.

And yet Siva couldn’t just let this monster go on its rampage in the middle of the city.

What he did then since he was already the target, and knew that he was the target of the creature, is to go to the skies and bring the battle there, slowly bring it outside, to free the citizens of the city and give them time to escape and get far away.

A single thought and he vanished, dodging a big dragon palm that tried to smash him to pieces.

The wild wind howled savagely, the crashing noise rung as the dragon trampled over the city grounds with buildings falling like trees one after another.

The city below its paw crumbled and cracked, and a quake spread around the entire city, rocking the floating continent, sending tremors vibrating wildly the closer you are to the destruction’s core.

Because it was floating, all the more the people felt its cataclysmic effect.

Many citizens were buried alive.

Siva saw this and helped those he could and sent them directly to Asgard, and then gave an order to Akhenaton to orient them and make sure they aren’t aware that they are in Asgard and was just in an evacuation location.

But for those who were too late now, he couldn’t do anything to save them. Still, through Cortana, he could at least determine those injured but still had a chance to live and so also brought them to Asgard to make sure that they are tended. Asgard still had at least ten or so Clerics on them and with their help these injured ones could still be saved.

Siva then gave an emergency order for the men and women of Asgard: gather all their numbers to coordinate with Akhenaton so that they could be sent here to help out the citizens of the city.

After the order was given through a Comm Device he left with Akhenaton, Siva observed the city that received the blunt of the attack he just dodged.

Cracks webbed and spread from the paw and Siva hovered 1km above the Dragon’s head.

A moment passed by and Siva already finished the commands through his connection to Cortana. If it was something, Siva’s impulse to actually “care” to these innocent civilians was translated into “that” command by Cortana but he didn’t take it back.

“Stop now, Dragon!” Siva tried to talk to it with the Beast Blood Pendant’s effects but to no avail. The Dragon only looked at him and jumped. A shadow loomed over him sweeping downward with a forward somersault.

His scalp itched with trepidation. Though seen in a distance, the entire dragon’s movement was slow, facing its size and its unimpeded ferociousness in person was still something else entirely.

The attack came so fast that it only lasted a single moment of an entire second.

The shadow swept through Siva’s location where Siva himself barely dodged the brutal winds that ravaged through his location before teleporting far away from his location.

A Dragon’s true power wasn’t in its nigh-unlimited Mana Pool and unique Dragon Magics, it was their size and their bodies themselves.

It was the reason why Dragon Resources are very valuable and were prized treasures; even in the tiniest and most miniscule of quantities, they are gold no matter their forms.

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Many things are changing…!!

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