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Chapter 018: The Blood Dragon Church

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The words she said held true.

When Siva spoke for them to hurry, they doubled their speed while maximized his Absolute Domain to accelerate and cancel all wind resistance, their rate of advancement actually increased.

But... Would Siva actually let this chance go?

Since they were underground, somewhere, there is also the possibility of unearthing treasures here.

As such, he deployed the last of his Harvesters to the now 8km city-capable chasm that Electra made with her burst of anger.

Because Siva can't afford to waste another mini realm just to cover the hole, what he did was to put a Liberty Drone to guard the area and left one of the already premade 'mini realms' as the harvesting depot for the [Harvester]. Its task was to collect as many resources as it can and put it inside the mini realm which then is going to be transferred directly to his inventory.

Exactly 36 hours after they entered the deep cave tunnel, Siva was greeted with Cortana's report that a large hole was detected 10km away from him.

It only took him around two minutes to reach that hole and it was with Siva pushing the limits of what level of G his body could endure with it.

Light finally returned to Siva's bluish green sight and he welcomed it greatly.

It was a large hole in the deep darkness, the same size and width as the tunnel entrance.

Siva was on the lead but he didn't drop directly.

He anchored himself in the middle of the hole with the BMA's Absolute Domain as he stared at the sight below him —a sky with a sea of clouds, light of day, and a forest mountain beneath him.

The distance of where he was and that mountain is around 50km in visual distance.

Spreading the 10km detection range of the BMA, he was greeted with a surprise. Turns out, the sky in this 'realm' is a ceiling of Light Crystals and that that mountain is actually a hugely monstrous pillar of land that connected heaven and earth.

He could feel Electra's curious gaze at him.

She's still unhappy with the fate she had fallen in so she was watching just what kind of reaction he would have as he saw her home world.

But Siva's attention was actually fixed at the pillar of land that connected the ceiling of Light Crystals and mountain... and the hole at which they were in right now.

"How many pillars like this one were in the Inner Continents?" it was his first question.

"Aren't you curious as to how there are light in this realm instead of asking such ludicrous questions?"

Siva wasn't angered but said, "Just answer me."

"I don't know." She said after clicking her tongue and looking away, defeated, "But as far as I know, there are eight of them in the Dragon Territory at least... and for the ones I know that the Terrans in the other continents had, there are at least two."

"And how many holes like this one do you know?"

"Two." It was a quick reply.

Siva closed his eyes and thought of the one who made these holes. If his guess is correct, it should be the other side of his sanity, [Siva].

—no wait, there should be another one.

"You're lying." Siva looked at her, "What about the one that the Terran Human Alliance uses to get to the surface continents?"

"Them?" Electra scoffed disdainfully. "Why would they go to the surface? Can't you feel the depth of Mana in this place and compare it to the surface? I felt really suffocated there... why would I go to the surface aside from finding you and killing you?"

—I see.

—because I can't feel Mana at all that I can't tell their differences apart.

"I can't feel Mana." Siva said in full honesty but as soon as she heard it, she scowled angrily and the burst of lightning crackled in her hand. "Are you all for jokes? You insult me! So you're telling me that I got subdued by someone who can't even use his own Mana? Then how are you flying right now?"

"Technology." She said honestly.

—I couldn't tell her that it was because of the BMA and the Absolute Domain...

—heck, if she knew about that, she'd also realize that I even know that she's not wearing bra right now...

—oh shit!!!

Siva was too late to stop his train of thoughts. The moment he thought her not wearing anything under her loose robes, she immediately gasped and covered her body with her hands as her right fist crackled with lightning that formed into a whip.

"Pervert!"

—and now goes the 'charging' session.

Although it was humiliating, he couldn't stop her for it charges his BMA the highest when she was using her whip to hit him unlike the sword and the spear... and that was him still losing a right leg!

Seeing Siva fall to his fours, she smiled as she felt that this way of punishing him was actually quite fulfilling for some reason —unaware that she was just broadening the misunderstanding between the two of them.

Good thing nobody was seeing it or it might gather an unwanted attention.

"Stop! Haven't you vented enough already?" Siva's command stopped her whipping and she was still blushing, flustered, she did enjoy this session.

"Look at you face! You're enjoying it! Who's the perverted one now?" He said.

Electra blinked and blushed deeply red. She raised her hand to lash at him again but that's it, her hand movement ended there.

"People are coming!" Siva said, looking at the far off direction of the mountain pillar.

He descended 50m from the hole's surface edge and was greeted by strong winds, battering him in all directions. Still, because he was anchored to the surface walls of the cave tunnel, he was being held in place and so descended slowly before he stopped.

With a flash of lightning, Electra appeared in front of him and her gaze fixed at the direction he was staring at.

"I don't feel anyone... are you kidding me?"

"There are ten of them. I can't tell if they are from the Terran Factions or the Dragon Race."

She narrowed her eyes, "What are they wearing?"

"Loose robes but not on the same style as yours."

"What color?"

"I can't tell."

—that's one of the weaknesses of my domain.

"Useless." She scoffed again at him.

"Hey, I at least could feel them from 10km away so what about you? You're an Elemental Dragon but a mere 10km is your limit that you can't even spread out your senses from that far away?"

Siva was ticked with this slave's disregard for her Master. Perhaps teaching her a lesson or two will teach her of her place between the two of them?

Guessing what was running on his mind with the way he looked at her, she covered her body with both hands and slowly backed off.

"Disgusting pervert..." she murmured angrily.

"One more time you call me a pervert, I will make you feel how perverted I can really become."

Electra shivered and didn't dare to speak one more word of it. She just covered her breast with both hands which make her look more charming as her fiery unwillingness to accept the situation... paired with that embarrassed face... was a perfect match.

Siva did his best to ignore her blushing face and just stared at the labeled figures coming in to enter their 2km radius.

When they did...

"Ah!" Electra yelled and she gazed at the direction that Siva was looking at from the start.

That was also when the ten figures sped up their approach as they have also senses from 2km away the presence of the two of them.

"Blood Dragons!" She cried with hostility, pulling out her lightning spear and sword in battle stance.

"Is this going to be a battle?" he asked her.

"What do you think?" She barked. "Blood Dragons have amassed their strength and launched a large campaign to unify the Dragon Races into a single kingdom and they wanted us to dethrone all our Dragon Kings and worship their only God!"

"Eh? You mean the Blood Dragon God?"

"Since you know, why ask? They kill whoever does not conform to their teachings and since I am once a Noble Dragon, I am one of the names in their kill list..."

—once a Noble Dragon...

These words stung Siva's heart. His actions back then have really sparked quite a catastrophic storm of events in Terroa.

Why is it that Dragons can't extend their 'senses' through Mana? It's because they just can't. Unlike Immortals who imbues their "paths" to the Mana around them, thus extending their senses through the limits of their mastery, Dragons and to majority of the Divine Beast Race members, their bodies are their assets and has no use of "arts" or any of the mastery of anything else.

Heightened senses were their forte but it can only be extended as much, unlike the resonating of the path through the surrounding Mana.

Thus, the balance...

Terrans have their "Arts" while Dragons have their "bodies" to rely on. Of course, the latter was still a whole notch stronger but the Terrans have their numbers to compensate for their lack of personal overall strength.

The Elder Dragon of Lightning —Electra's father's death— should have been an outbalancing factor but it just so happens that the "balance" amongst the war between the Terrans and Dragons were all factored in the other Seven Dragon Kings so one neutral and peaceful Elder Dragon missing didn't affect the entirety of the balance much —at least not until the Church of the Blood Dragon God had made their move and toppled that balance.

The Church of the Blood Dragon God extended not only in the Dragons but also to the Terrans so this 3rd unknown-suddenly-becoming-known party is the reason why the Inner Continents' tensions had suddenly arisen to such an extent.

—add to that the ongoing invasions in the Surface Continents; there was actually a reason why those War Council Seats could not spare any manpower to support the effort in the Surface Continents.

It was also still a good thing that the Blood Dragon God's Church had 95% of their powers here in the Inner Continents, or else, the Surface Continents would have been included in this quickly escalating war for power and supremacy.

"Tsk. This is bad." Siva cursed.

"What now?" Electra asked and shot a look at him, seeing only his black smoke skin churning as if it was being riled up. "Don't tell me you're having a seizure right now?"

"No! It's quite the opposite... I could feel that my body is reacting to their presence... It's like I'm in the presence of a great enemy... It's my curse! It's reacting to their presence!"

His hair whipped upwards and the smoke in his body became much livelier. His red eyes kept on contracting and expanding as if he was some sort of hunter whose blood is being agitated by a prey.

At that moment, Siva received a series of prompts.

DING!

You've sensed the presence of a Blood Dragon God Elder!

D-D-DING!

Malevolent Aura is activated.

Endurance has been doubled

Blood Verse mode in effect.

DING!

Blood Verse: for each Blood Dragon God follower you hunt, all sustained injuries will heal. Lasts until the last of the Blood Dragon God follower is dead in the Hunter's immediate vicinity.

DING!

You are too weak to fight a Dragon God Elder!

DING!

Blood Verse in effect! All attacks against a Dragon God Follower have damages increased by 100%

DING!

Blood Verse in effect! All attacks received from a Dragon God Follower have the damage decreased by 33%

—what did I just see here?!!

All damage taken is reduced by 1/3 while all of his attacks to a Blood Dragon God Follower are now increased by 100%. DOUBLE DAMAGE! If Siva is to even add the effect of his Killing Zone, then it's not as hard as he thought it might be.

"Hey! They're almost here! We can't escape their Blood Prison Domain!"

Domains —this is how Dragons fight.

As Dragons do not use typical [Magic], but use the bloodlines they inherited to channel innate abilities, the Blood Dragon God's Followers are blessed by their God's ability —the Blood Prison!

"The Blood Prison Domain will not work with less than nine units in the formation. There are ten of them, and the last one is an Elder... this is such a mess right now..."

Siva also just finished reading the prompts and he glanced over Electra, "Are those followers same as you, Elemental Dragons?"

"No. They're all Terran followers! But that Elder is a Salamander!"

—a Fire Dragon!

—no wonder I was warned that I was too weak to be even able to receive a single attack from him...

The reason why Siva was able to subdue Electra is directly related to their relationship, as well as her being his element. Her attacks were neutralized on him while he had a way to suppress her via their unique connection to each other.

But aside from that, Electra was in every way very powerful compared to him.

If the Siva of back then, with Thorn and the rest, is to fight the Electra in front of him, even with his Dragunov... it would have cracked and shattered in overeating Lightning Mana energy before being as good as ash to receive her second attack.

—if it wasn't for that connection I had with her...

In fact, even with the IPU being upgraded, Siva will still choose to NOT fight with Electra simply for the fact that he doesn't have any way to actually attack and suppress her. Thus, if it wasn't for the [seal] he had left on her before he wouldn't have been in their current circumstances where he orders her around as his slave.

"I can handle the followers... can you handle the Elder until I'm done?"

"Make it quick! The Blood Prison affects my battle ability! Bah! So much for a [God] who can kill my dad as if he was an insect... I'm really wondering as to how you weren't able to bring that power that can make the world cower... now I see that you've actually degraded into that form of yours."

"Thank you for the compliment. If I have a way to tap into my other half's power, you would know it because the world would have burned by then. I am actually thankful that I am still in control of myself right now. Thank you very much."

With the short moment of their bickering ended, Siva immediately vanished and released six Liberty Drones with mini realms on three of them.

He released his 50 blades to randomly fly in every distance to hide their presence, and then stood in place to watch the reactions of his ally —no, slave.

"This is cheating!" she spoke through the armor.

"Hide now!" Siva yelled. This girl is really a newbie in battle tactics and only knew how to face all her enemies head on. She was really like himself back then, but more... a lot more naive.

As it was a 'command' from her Master, she made herself vanish in a heartbeat and although she still had her spear, her smell, sight, and sound at least had vanished... confusing the team of ten.

Twenty seconds later, the ten people came not too far away from him and Siva finally saw the 'Elder' his system prompt had warned him about.

It was a middle aged-looking man with a long fiery red hair dressed in a bloody church robe meant for priests to wear. It wasn't hard to imagine that this guy is a "Priest" in terms of rank within the Church of the Blood Dragon God.

Actually, he looked handsome; with a Semitic face with an imperial beard to finish the look. His red hair brushed back like a male Elf's hair style. His long robes fluttered in the wind as they stopped, making him looks more dashing.

These are all the characteristics of male Elemental Dragons: they're all queendom toppling handsome faces, regardless of how they looked. They were a kind that will never fail to seduce any girl as long as they targeted them.

—and recalling their feats, Siva hated him already.

The aura of fire radiated out of him; malicious and full of cruelty, it churned the fabrics of space as he continued to scour the surroundings with his gaze.

"She's still here but the other person is gone." he said and his voice sounded as handsome as his face to the ears, "Activate the formation. Spread it in all directions and do not let her escape our grasp...... or I will eat you!"

And this is the reason why Elemental Dragons are not famous for being fafa-bles despite how good-looking they are. They are all savage carnivores.

The nine disciples immediately followed and they each held a red bead that they put their Mana into place as they activated the formation.

In an octagon formation with one acolyte in their midst, a Magic Circle appeared in midair on their feet and expanded into a hundred meters. After that, the aura of the Blood Dragon Siva was once familiar with erupted from a dome of Mana created with the Magic Circle at its equator.

This is the Blood Prison—and it was still expanding in size as the seconds went by.

"Urgh... I can't keep this at bay. I'm being affected by the domain already..."

"Wait! Just wait a little more!"

Siva was unable to be affected much by it. But the curse on his body is making him uncomfortable as hell... he was being urged to kill. He needed to kill them as much as possible—not as fast as possible.

The group stopped just 40m away from the two of them and they are already inside the domain where Electra was already becoming weaker as her face flushed red. The blood in her body is burning her.

Ten second after activating the domain, a flash of something black went passed the head of the one in the middle of their formation and when it hit, the acolyte's head fell off.

The domain vanished at that moment.

"Now!" Siva's voice rung in her ears.

Not giving any time, lightning crackled and struck the Fire Dragon in the chest, making him bleed at the point of impact from the ambush —with the ambusher only 40 or so meters away.

"Where did—ARGH!!!"

"Die!"

Her lightning domain erupted as the adorable furry Lightning Kirin appeared as her avatar. She struck at the Fire Dragon who also summoned his avatar to defend —a hissing red scaled varan.

Just the power emitting from the two of them alone frightened Siva to the extreme.

But...

The difference in their bloodlines was obvious as she dominated her opponent after just a few bouts of exchange, rendering him burning into black ash as he fell to the ground and perished to the winds.

In the battle of Elemental Dragons, adulthood isn't always the key to victory. Other factors are applied as well. Since the Salamander was already injured in the first attack, it was not too hard for her to kill him on their direct clash.

Siva looked at the ashes and couldn't help but feel that is was such a waste.

He put his attention to the frightened acolytes.

Without their domain, they are nothing more than a few powerful Terrans and Siva didn't need other help dealing with them.

Since their prison was gone, the eight other followers were nothing more than food for Siva.