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Chapter 040: Is War Upon Us?

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The corpses of those who fell were littered in the magma floor. The only reason they were still in a complete —if not mangled flesh— state is because they are God-level existences.

Although they aren't real [Gods] in essence and only had bodies and Life Forces on that level, the "Dragons" —as a whole— are still treated as one.

Those Vajras that were either bitten or crushed, or clawed to death were on the floor of the fire cave, scattered around in pieces or in a mash of garbled flesh. It was a morbid sight.

And as for the Fire Dragons, they were still whole but the corpses had holes in their chests or heads as indications of their deaths via a lightning bolt or maybe two.

Treasures!

He couldn't be wrong with it.

Siva looked over at the sight of the battle and knew that it wasn't a battle he could freely partake in.

The Fire Dragons' bodies were burning in hot blue flames that danced in an invisible wind even if they aren't moving. Right now, they looked more like a walking infernal creature than a four or six-legged 5km large reptilian or serpentine creature. Just one casual swing of a Dragon Claw, Siva would've either melted or crushed by their force.

It sent shivers to his spine just watching them.

As these Fire Dragons perish due to the extreme shock from the Vajras' lightning, the blue flames in their bodies also dissolves and their bodies revert into those treasured carcasses rich in valuable Fire Dragon Materials.

'Since I can't join the battle, I might as well collect these spoils.'

[It wouldn't be so easy Boss. The temperature over the magma floor is reaching 800 Kelvin.]

Siva cursed at this report.

'You mean to say I'd have to become that again?'

That, as in the Blue Smoke "Figure" that infiltrated Baal's mothership back in the invasion in Jeremiah.

[Or you can just go naked. Since your skin is thick and 800 kelvin to you back then is just like being in a sauna bath, I believe you can survive even direct contact with the magma floor.]

'I won't get naked here.' he flatly thought.

Siva decided to be a scavenger. But...

—the sizes of these treasures were at least 5km with some even reaching 8km in size. Taking them all in inside his Inventory would take a lot of time.

Dragons were really large monstrous creatures!

He can bring items into his Inventory at the speed of 20m per second. That's 1.2km per min.

Siva would take at least around five minutes to get just one Fire Dragon to his inventory.

By then, would the battle already ended? After all, battles on the level of Gods may seem to fast but with their capabilities, one second was enough for them to launch six to nine physical attacks.

—that was as fast as Siva on his [Focus] state.

Siva cursed again.

'I should have at least made a Fire Armor from the resources from the mothership back then.'

[We didn't have the time all this time, boss, since we've been doing so many things in the real world and here in Terroa.]

'Yeah. Truly regrettable.'

As regrettable as this fact was, he could only wail on this. Alas, time waits for no one. He could only regret at not having enough time. It was always his most sinister enemy.

He looked over the Dragons' blue fire bodies and made another heavy sigh in his heart.

'The fires of these Dragons can definitely melt the BMA in one bout. And the insides of them during that fiery state would be made up of even hotter fires. I can't use the same tactic I used back then in Alexandria with them.'

In simple words, he was useless at this moment.

[Well boss, you can just collect the corpses of both parties for the Mechromancer Project.]

Siva's eyes lit up. Sometimes, it was really good to have a smart AI that can remind him of the things he might be forgetting.

'Of course we can't miss on that too.'

Why did he collect intact corpses of Fire Demons back the in Jeremiah? Why did he gather so many actuators and why did he conduct experiments with his own brain to monitor how it works?

It was all because of two reasons!

First, of course, is how it would help him implant his parents' memories to their clones when the time comes.

Second, it was because of his pursuit for the very pinnacle of his fascination with creating [Puppets].

Because he knew that pure mechanical puppets were very, very strong and very, very expensive in regards to materials cost, he might actually need to use corpses to compensate his lack of these resources. Besides, corpses can use magic. There might be a huge surprise if he chose to use them as the base materials for his Mechromancy Project.

Since he can't use magic and he can exploit the fact that he had a (continuous) high-level Portable NanoFurnace, he can just build his own army of puppets that can fight like madmen according to his thoughts.

'Alright. Let's get moving. Even mangled flesh of a Vajra is still a valuable resource.'

[Just don't let them catch you naked.]

'I'd rather die than to bare my naked ass in public.'

[With the chaos of the battlefield here, your black smoke ass wouldn't catch their attention.]

'...'

Siva imagined the scene of him with his black dragon dangling off in the magma fires as he went and scourge the battlefield for dragon resources and felt a certain type of chill run thru his spine.

Just the thought of it was enough to scare him.

"Never!" He sincerely and indefatigably swore.

—I will never do that again!

(AN: TRIVIA: when was the first time? LOL xP)

*****

Siva went into place, looked up, and observed the situation in the battlefield. His eyes made a look of understanding and his voice rung on the ears of Electra and the Guard Captain.

{Electra, gather four others and focus on defense while the Captain focus on attack. Move as one unit, maximize your dodging capability. The Fire Dragons aren't as united as you so use this to your advantage to minimize casualties.}

Blue smoke swirled around Siva, controlled by the tiny parts of the BMA and contained in a smaller tornado that focused solely on defending from the extreme heat coming from the sulfuric atmosphere.

Electra and the Captain didn't waste a second and they immediately went into action, following their orders to the letter.

Numbering only 19, they dodged and attacked as a single unit and this was enough to quickly dwindle down the numbers of the Fire Dragons one by one by the moment. The tides turned immediately as Siva focused on looting his first dragon carcass.

*****

10 minutes into the fight, from the area closest to the entrance of the fire cave, Elder Berth glared at the battlefield with a knowing eye.

"Something's wrong..." his heart was clenching. It was his instincts screaming at his gut.

He realized that all of a sudden, the movements of the Vajra had changed dramatically.

"They became organized."

He was a man of the battlefield and is sensitive to the slightest changes in the flow of combat. Just as the majority of the members of the current Church of the Blood Dragon God, every single one of them was all children of the battlefield.

If there was something amiss in the situation, as experienced as he was, he'd immediately see where the issue lay.

"Someone's acting as an observer!"

After the baptism of these 100 new recruits, Elder Berth's team of Acolytes now had stats of flat 900.

They were all elites of the elites. Because this was a very special mission that Pope Ajora gave her all to devise, the members and resources poured into this plan was also of no joking matter.

Capturing 100 Fire Dragons and building an Ark Gate for a surprise invasion... this was a plan with the same scale as the one that led to the Church's prosperity 25 cycles ago and so the preparations is also on a scale that the current generation of the Acolytes couldn't even begin to imagine.

"Who was it? Just a single change and the situation began to turn against us...!!"

Dragon's Blood can increase stats up until a certain extent based on the grade-level of the blood.

Lesser Dragon's blood increases stats regardless of the base number origin into a flat 300.

True Dragons to 600...

...and Elemental Dragons until 900.

Even if you bathe in fresh dragon blood stage by stage, it will always stop at flat 900 to all your stats unless you already have a stat exceeding it. And of course, that also depends if you're still alive to be able to even complete the entire process.

No Dragon would allow their blood to be used like this and so they will always try to kill you no matter the cost.

To get the qualifications to ascend to immortality, one will need to work the remaining 100 stats until he could initiate the Ascension Ceremony.

Any of the stat that reaches flat 1000 will directly qualify one to be called as a Quasi-Immortal and can trigger the ceremony. With this as reasoning, of course, if all the stats reached 1000, then all the stronger the ascending Immortal will become.

—of course, not everyone can reach a flat 1000 on all their stats and 99% of all the ascenders in the past only had at least one stat that reached the level required before they began the ceremony.

The Soul Puppet Spell was a sinister spell and one of the greatest taboo magic that one can use upon a Dragon.

Actually, the spell can be used upon anyone. But it has the greatest of insulting madness-triggering to the dragons because the very first time this spell was used all those eons ago was on a dragon and the Terran who used this spell back then was granted the ability to change into dragon form from being a pure and solid Terran... sacrificing the said Dragon to attain a separate [Dragon Form].

In short, the spell has a one-sided benefit only to a Terran that's why the Dragon Race never wanted to even hear of this spell ever again since then.

Naturally, Elder Berth had that ability and while the 100 Acolytes on his team turned into dragons that roared with flames, Elder Berth chose to hide his own ability to become a dragon in order to avoid all attacks while observing the battlefield for sudden changes... which was a right choice.

"Damn it, where is that observer? He's giving out commands to penetrate the other dragons' ranks!"

Even with the Blood Prison's help, the battle was still changing by the second.

Elder Berth decided to enter the battlefield as he changed and moved alongside the other Dragons, gliding and hiding from the Vajras' attacks, chasing after them, and casting support type spells that can boost their chances to minimize their losses.

But....

Now that the Vajras were working as a single unit, the ratio of losses on their numbers and the losses on the Vajras were slowly gliding to their defeat.

The blue fires of the Fire Dragons continued to burn as the Vajras lost one of their unit to three or four of the Fire Dragons' ranks.

Elder Berth's senses were tingling. With the Vajra's speed becoming their capital, even the fire domain fully spread with their heightened senses, they still couldn't get a proper lock on them.

In this manner, the minutes passed painfully slow.

CRRRRRAAACK~!!

Two pairs of Lightning Bolts fired from the domain of blazing blue fire in the air and they all landed on a Fire Dragon with six legs and a broken left wing.

With the Fire Dragon's defenses, it didn't die but in the next second, two more 'two pairs' of Lightning Bolts blasted with the crackling of thunder and the Fire Dragon whose been receiving a concentrated punishment since earlier gave out an opening on its head as the blue fire that surrounded its body parted, revealing a fiery red set of scalding scales and fresh skin.

The Fire Dragon let out a painful roar and its head flung back in the momentum. It was temporarily knocked out as it shook its head trying to get a grip of itself.

"Now!"

Electra's voice rung and after a crackle of lightning, another bolt streak out, parting the fire domain and then hitting the Fire Dragon on its head. Its body of fire was dispelled revealing the still steaming hot draconic scales and flesh, and then it rocked left and right before it fell dead on the lava with a loud thud and the rocking of the earth.

At that time, three to four fire domains also erupted and fire breaths spiraled at Electra's direction; the already sulfuric hot air becoming even more of an incubated inferno.

"Crista!" someone roared and a Vajra fell dead to the heated lava down below.

Still, the last Fire Dragon to fall was the sixth since the last Vajra's death. The Vajras are only down to 13 but the Fire Dragons' numbers were already on their last twenties.

Things aren't looking good for the Fire Dragons.

Seconds will pass by in that span of a moment, the entire battlefield's situation changes in a spike of a snap, especially since the Vajras who specialized in speed are now moving in synchronization.

Just by himself, Elder Berth could cast the Blood Prison Magic, albeit with a limited range and higher Mana Consumption, it was still enough to support this entire battle until this change he sensed that came at a very crucial time.

"Shit... we're losing real fast!"

Every second felt like a torture for this priest.

"Where is the Cardinal?! Is he really dead or..."

—had they retreated?

——impossible!!

————the Cardinal's team won't lose that easily!

If he changes into his Dragon Form then he loses that ability and will be like the rest of the Acolytes, a rampaging Fire Dragon. So Elder Berth chose to maintain the Blood Prison —in his Terran Form.

Right now, as soon as Elder Berth saw the change in the tide of battle, he already perceived that there was no chance this entire operation will succeed.

Because these guys came from the direction the Cardinal and the others went to earlier... it means that it's either the Cardinal is dead or there were other Vajras engaging the Cardinal and his team.

Even if he fully unleashed the full capabilities of his Blood Prison Domain Magic, their Fire Dragon team would have already reduced to their last ten or so numbers by the time he finished.

But that's not the main problem here.

The main problem is the fact that Cardinal Hossain is, one way or another, been delayed.

Whoever was facing the Cardinal's team right now is definitely powerful enough to last long against the effects of the Blood Prison that's why they are yet to come back here knowing that they're under attack by the Vajras.

That's the only reason why there was this team of Vajras that sneaked in and faced them in battle.

—meaning, the people in the surface city already knows that we are coming for them...

——meaning, this entire plan is already heading to the last possible scenario that the Pope had never wanted to have.

Just like Hossain, Elder Berth also knew that Pope Ajora wanted to sacrifice Horbe to their [God] if it can be helped.

But now that the Soul Puppet Spell Ceremony had been conducted, aside from Elder Berth who had long since been initiated in the spell, the backlash of the first transformation into Dragon Form would soon be becoming... and that's the catastrophe that is also their failsafe strategy.

But who would have thought that even the Fire Dragon team he led would suffer this gravely?

"Where... who...?"

Using the secret method to 'fly' that was developed by their Bloody Church; Elder Berth hovered there looking at the battlefield, surveying the background of the fight, looking at places where the observer of the other side might be hiding from.

Throughout the pressure the tensed atmosphere of the fiery battle gave him, just as he retracted his Mana Sense he's been holding on for a while now, at just the very edge of its scope, he felt it.

"Hm?"

Elder Berth felt something strange so he cast out his Mana Sense again. Only this time, he didn't get to notice what was wrong in that area so he turned his gaze over to look afar to see what was wrong.

Just now, as the eleventh minute ticked pass in the battlefield, he thought he might have just sensed a weird apparition —and this phantom of an event is what is vital in a battlefield.

There were 100 Fire Dragons of different types and species here, one of them is which Stern, the strongest of these Acolytes, had transformed into.

Now that Elder Berth counted him along with the corpses strewn at the ground, there seemed to be two missing.

"That's strange... did I just see something in..."

Elder Berth focused his gaze to a direction far away. For these creatures were really large and the fact that this large cavern itself was kilometers in size from floor to ceiling, when these dragon carcasses are stacked and scattered like that, they do looked like miniature mountains.

And because some of them were so overly large as well, even as he hovered there in a high altitude from the fiery molten floor, there are still places he had failed to see but could feel with his sense.

Elder Berth glanced over the battle and because almost all of the Dragons are big and couldn't move freely in this compacted space, almost most of the Fire Dragons are static mountain targets.

Yet as he moved a few hundred meters away from the center of the battle, towards that mountainous Fire Dragon carcass, he noticed it.

"You!"

He immediately dashed away towards Siva and as soon as Siva felt that he was nearing, Siva hid inside 5 layers of Mini Realms which startled Elder Berth into a stop.

"Where did he go?"

He was still about 800m away from where he had last 'sensed' Siva was at.

At this distance, he knew that the Blood Prison will still be effective in the Battlefield not too far away and so he stopped and observed, looking for Siva.

Then, after a few seconds, he felt something fast flew in the air and at the next instant, before he could even finish the thought of insta-casting his Tier-5 Barrier Magic, a bullet already made a hole on his face, followed by the wind-scattering effect of the special Dáinsleif Bullet.

Everything on his upper body, even the shoulders that connected to his arms, was obliterated.

His body fell towards the fiery magma below.

Siva appeared next as he made a heavy sigh.

"Good thing he went outside of the Fire Domain of the Dragons."

[Boss, you should really upgrade the Absolute Domain into a Mana-type so that it wouldn't melt or freeze in extreme conditions, and also wouldn't be blocked when conducting its scans.]

"Captain, Electra, now that the Priest is dead, you can just finish off these guys so that we can go back to the city and seal this place."

{What about you, Your Excellency?}

"Don't worry about me. I can't fight in that kind of environment because I am still weak. But if you can't defeat all of them, don't sacrifice your troops to it and should just make them all retreat."

{Okay.}

{We will drive them away.}