Chapter 596: The Sovereign’s Desperate Struggle

The monster looked down at its own stomach, the red skin in that area had split open, and something beneath the point of impact was hurting badly.

Impossible!

It was a creature of the Unholy rank.

Even without its first evolution, its physical structure was far beyond that of ordinary monsters and Fallen monsters.

But this human... had injured it with a simple punch...?

The Dreadmaw Sovereign gritted its teeth.

How did they become so strong?

The monster slowly stood up from among the broken rocks, dark blood dripping from the corner of its mouth, but it no longer intended to look at its opponents with the same contempt as before.

The two humans in front of it had changed, this was now clear, so it had to treat them as real enemies.

The Sovereign placed both hands on the ground, and black energy flowed from between its fingers into the rocks.

[ Ossuary Gravefield ]

The sounds of repeated cracking came from beneath the ground.

Ten meters away from Lian, a huge pillar of black bone emerged from between the rocks.

Then came a second pillar, a third, and in less than a few seconds, dozens of bone spears and pillars rose from different points across the area.

Some of them were several meters tall, and their sharp tips curved upward.

The Sovereign did not intend to injure them with this attack alone, the pillars blocked their paths of movement.

By creating a gap between the two humans, it could separate them and put more pressure on the weaker target.

But Lian noticed its intention before the bone formation was complete, and his gaze fell on the paths where the pillars were growing.

It was easy to understand that the monster’s goal was to separate them from each other.

The first pillar emerged from beneath his feet, but he only raised his right foot and slammed it down.

CRAAACK!

The tip of the pillar shattered before it could emerge from the ground, and a deep crack spread along its structure.

The second pillar bent toward his side from the left, Lian struck it with his elbow, and pieces of bone scattered in every direction.

He caught the third pillar with his hand and pushed it away from its path, the bone root emerged from between the rocks and broke against the ground.

The Dreadmaw Sovereign did not move for a moment, these pillars had been created by it.

They were not supposed to break like dry tree branches.

But that human was destroying them one after another without using a skill.

On the other side, Seris passed between two pillars with a short movement.

Her sword drew a silver crescent through the air and cut through the four bone spears that had risen around her.

The broken pieces fell to the ground, she did not even slow down and briefly looked at the Sovereign.

"That’s it?" The girl’s voice was calm.

But to the monster, it felt heavier than any insult.

The Dreadmaw Sovereign let out an angry roar, this time, its twisted horns began to shake.

A deep, drawn-out sound came from them, a sound that first resembled the howl of the wind at night, but soon turned into a sound with several layers.

[ Litany of Silent Hearts ]

The air grew heavier, and faint whispers could be heard among the sound of the wind.

Human voices.

Crying.

Begging.

And screams that seemed to come from a very distant place.

The Young Pendragon stopped moving for a moment, she heard a familiar voice among the whispers.

"Sister..."

For a fraction of a second, the image of Aria appeared in her mind, the young girl who had looked at Ryan’s bloody hand in disbelief.

But Seris quickly realized that what she was hearing was not Aria’s real voice, this was only a recreation of the emotions and voices that the Sovereign had recorded from its victims over the years.

Even after their deaths, the monster was still using the traces of their suffering to attack.

Her gaze grew colder.

At the same time, something else happened deep within Lian’s soul, the nine golden dragons moving around his main soul raised their heads almost at the same time.

The invading force was detected by the guardians before it reached the central part of his soul, and two dragons blocked its path.

Three other dragons spread its unstable energy throughout their defensive structure, while the remaining guardians covered the other paths.

The soul pressure that was supposed to trap his mind in painful memories lost much of its effect before reaching its main target.

Lian paid attention to this reaction for a moment, then gave a small smile, he had finally gotten the chance to test the Golden Nine-Dragon Soul against a real attack, and the result was very satisfying.

In contrast, the Dreadmaw Sovereign looked at him in disbelief.

Why isn’t it having any effect?

It knew that [ Litany of Silent Hearts ] could even cause some enemies of the same level to suffer from mental confusion for a short time.

But this human seemed to have heard nothing more than an unpleasant sound.

Lian looked at the monster.

"You know... using the voices of your victims is just as disgusting as I expected." His smile disappeared.

The Sovereign gritted its teeth.

But before it could reply, the human continued.

"I think it’s time to end this show."

The Dreadmaw Sovereign stepped back, not out of fear, at least, it was not willing to admit that to itself yet.

But it had now understood that a direct fight with Lian would lead nowhere, so it had to change its approach.

Its gaze settled on the female human, despite her high swordsmanship, the girl was still smaller than the monster in terms of physical size.

If it could catch her off guard from a suitable angle, perhaps it would find a chance to change the situation.

The monster spread both hands, and seven black and red rings formed in the sky above the area.

Inside each ring, long and uneven teeth appeared, then the edges split open, and seven huge mouths, each with rows of bone teeth, emerged from the rings.

[ Feast of Seven Maws ]

The jaws spread out around Seris, two in front, two on the sides, one above her head, and the remaining two positioned along her escape routes.

The monster had carefully chosen its attack angles.

If the Young Pendragon moved backward, she would be caught from behind, if she moved to either side, her path was already blocked.

And if she only defended herself from the front, the upper jaw could crush her from head to toe.

Seris raised her head, looked at the positions of the seven mouths for a moment, and then calmly held her sword in front of her body.

A silver crescent appeared behind her.

[ Moon Manifestation ]

The silver light around her sword grew stronger, and then seven smaller crescents formed around her.

[ Seven-Crescent Orbit ]

The Dreadmaw Sovereign let out a roar, and all seven jaws moved at the same time.

But she did not even step back, the first crescent struck the jaw on the right and forced it off its path.

The second crescent split the mouth in front of her through its upper teeth.

The third and fourth crescents spun in two different directions and destroyed the jaws that had blocked her escape routes.

The fifth jaw came down from above, and Seris only took one step forward, the huge teeth struck the ground a short distance behind her and split another part of the area.

At the same moment, the sixth crescent moved upward from below.

The upper jaw split in half, and only the final mouth remained.

But it did not even get a chance to attack, her sword passed in front of it with a short movement.

SHRAAK!

The two halves of the jaw separated in the air and turned into mana particles before reaching the ground.

The entire attack ended in less than a few seconds, and Seris lowered her sword, her gaze fixed on the Dreadmaw Sovereign.

The creature still had its hands spread out, but nothing remained in the sky.

Not one of the seven jaws and not even the slightest sign of the pressure from the encirclement, the monster forgot to breathe for a moment.

Where did they go? The Seven Hungry Jaws were one of its most powerful abilities, a skill designed to surround and destroy fast enemies.

But the girl had destroyed all of them without even needing to put up a serious defense.

The monster looked at Lian, the young man was standing farther away and calmly watching the fight.

It seemed that he did not even think there was a need to help Seris.

At that moment, an unpleasant thought formed in the Sovereign’s mind.

Could... this girl defeat me on her own, too?

Seris moved, this time, she closed the distance, the Dreadmaw Sovereign immediately jumped backward, but the girl’s sword passed by its shoulder.

Dark blood splashed across the rocks.

The monster let out a short roar and tried to attack from the left, but she changed her position before it could complete its movement.

The second strike hit its right arm, and the third slash landed along its side.

The Sovereign angrily tried to create some distance, but every time it took a step, one of the silver crescents limited its path.

After several exchanges, it finally understood the pattern of Seris’s movements.

The girl did not want to kill it immediately, she was testing its defensive abilities and reaction speed.

This was even more humiliating than the wounds themselves.