Chapter 210: Authority

"Damn it. Damn it. Damn it," Daemoth muttered, pressing his forehead between his thumb and fingers. There was a hint of fear in his voice. "How am I going to explain this?"

He glared at Vlad with his sharp grey eyes. "All because of this suicidal bastard."

He slammed his wand into the ground, channeling his mana into the purple sphere.

The undeads screeched in unsettling voices as they lunged at Vlad.

Now that the team was gone, Vlad didn’t need to hold himself up as a human shield anymore. He swung his sword behind his back, cutting off all the branches that had punctured through his skin.

His thick crimson blood splattered onto the ground as he staggered a few steps forward.

Just as the undeads were about to swarm him, he picked up his sword with the only functional hand he had left and poured his mana into it, activating the violent flames of Tempest Grade Sword Aura.

"AAAAA!!!" he roared, blood spilling from his mouth as he cut down the incoming monsters.

No matter what came at him, Dallahans, zombies, undead beasts, or arrows fired by distant archer skeletons, he cut through them all, never allowing a single attack to land on him.

As time passed, his movements grew frantic, openings appearing between his swings. It was becoming more and more difficult for him to cover all sides with just one arm. A few managed to slip past his defenses and land attacks on him. The ground beneath him began turning into a pool of blood.

Yet he never stopped.

He roared. He swung his blade. He fell. He got up. He roared. He swung his blade again.

The dark veins had already covered half of his face. But he paid them no mind.

More than eight hundred undeads had already been destroyed. Just a few hundred more, and he would reach him.

He glared at Daemoth, his bloodshot eyes sending chills through the necromancer’s entire body, causing him to instinctively take a few steps back.

"You dare glare at me?" Daemoth shouted, guiding the only three remaining Dallahans toward Vlad.

He blocked the strikes of two, but the third one sliced across his back.

"Aghh!" He swung his blade, pushing the two Dallahans backward before slicing the third one into multiple pieces with a rapid succession of swings.

His vision turned blurry, his hearing growing distorted. He could hear his heartbeat pounding louder than it should as the remaining undead monsters swarmed him from every direction.

"N-no... I can’t fall here," he muttered through bloodied teeth. "I-I... need to keep my promises. To Chloe... to Sera... to her."

Thump...

Thump...

Thump...

Everything fell utterly silent.

He could neither see nor feel anything. An endless void stretched before him as far as his eyes could see.

"D-did I really die?" he muttered, looking at himself.

He was completely bare. There was no sign of injury on his body, not even a single mark of blood. Even his severed hand was there.

"No, I have seen this place before," he muttered, his eyes narrowing. "I had a similar feeling when I met the Dragon and Thunderbird."

SUCCESSOR...

A deep voice resonated upward from the darkness.

He raised his head, finding a pair of crimson eyes, even larger than his entire body, staring at him.

Their pupils were vertical, and within their irises, countless patterns shifted with the slightest movement.

As the eye leaned closer, the entire face became clear.

The face of a majestic black dragon.

It had obsidian-dark scales and a pair of long horns that were separated into multiple branches along their surface.

WHY WOULD YOU SACRIFICE YOURSELF, SUCCESSOR?

The dragon demanded, its deep voice resonating through the empty void.

Vlad could feel the weight of its words pressing down upon him. Yet he didn’t cower before this mighty being.

"I needed power to protect my friends," he replied in a firm tone.

YOUR MERIDIANS HAVE BEEN DESTROYED. YOU WILL LOSE YOUR LIFE ONCE THE CORRUPTED VEINS REACH YOUR HEAD.

Vlad looked at himself, his eyes widening.

There were numerous tree branches piercing his body, with lines of blood trickling through them. His one hand was severed. Countless dark veins covered every part of his body, having already reached his nose.

I CAN USE MY AUTHORITY TO RETURN YOU TO THE TIME BEFORE YOUR MERIDIANS WERE DAMAGED. YOUR LOCATION WILL BE CHANGED TO THE ACADEMY AS WELL.

The dragon leaned closer, its gigantic crimson eye staring into his very soul.

As Vlad stood before the vertical pupil in one of the dragon’s eyes, he was only half as tall as the pupil itself.

"What about my friends?" Vlad asked, keeping his tone firm.

THEY WILL RETURN TO THEIR ORIGINAL LOCATION AS THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO.

"I don’t need you to help me," Vlad’s answer came instantly, without hesitation. "If all I wanted was to save myself, I wouldn’t have used the Tempest Mana to begin with."

He gave a slight bow to the dragon and said, "Still, thank you for offering your help, senior."

The dragon looked at him silently.

Slowly, its eyes closed, its lower eyelids sliding upward to cover its eyes before the upper lids descended over them.

A moment later, both layers parted, revealing its predatory gaze once more.

VERY WELL.

The dragon moved its gigantic finger toward Vlad.

The tip of its sharp nail, which was the same height as Vlad, touched his forehead.

THIS IS MY FIRST TEACHING. I HOPE YOU SURVIVE TO RECEIVE MORE.

A profound knowledge entered Vlad’s mind, leaving him with widened eyes as his body slowly fell backward.

Instead of hitting the solid floor, he continued moving downward while his feet remained fixed in place. His body rotated a full one hundred and eighty degrees, leaving him standing upside down.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing amidst the undeads once again, their limbs extended toward him with the intent of tearing him apart.

"Thanks, senior," Vlad muttered to himself, his lips rising into a faint smile. "I will use your gift wisely."