Chapter 1460

Everyone was baffled.

None of them could comprehend how such an assault could happen inside Pallan’s core, where the beings had come from, or what the meticulously prepared place they’d been taken to really was.

However, amidst the chaos, one thing was clear. The enemy had big aspirations, one of their goals being the collapse of the Continental Alliance.

Evangeline flicked the blood off her divine dragon sword. “They can fight all they want, but powerless people getting caught in the crossfire is not okay.”

“Oh my goodness... Even an ogre...” Shocked by her incredible power, Eosha blankly stared. “So, Ratius never even had a chance of beating you in the first place.”

“Is that how it looked?”

“Why did you intentionally hold back at the end?”

“I was annoyed.” Evangeline hadn't toyed with Ratius during their unusual match to hide her strength. She had simply been trying out her own version of the Drunken Sword Style that Davey often used. “The thing is, I couldn’t pull it off perfectly like my dad. That’s why I seemed so sloppy.”

If she had completely mastered the Drunken Sword, Ratius and everyone else wouldn't have noticed a thing, and the situation would’ve played out exactly as she intended. However, she couldn’t reach perfection, and so the match ended up being sloppy despite her prowess.

“I wonder if my Valide is okay. He can protect himself, but still...”

“I’m not sure, but let’s focus on getting out first. I think if we reach the end of the dungeon, we can get back to the banquet hall.”

Just as Evangeline said that and was about to speed up, the dungeon wall crumbled, and two people appeared.

“Prince Khrones?”

“Lady Eosha and Princess Evangeline...” He spoke with a hardened face, looking as if he had just been through a battle, and asked Evangeline, “Are you hurt?”

Unfortunately, he didn't believe she had won the duel against Ratius purely through skill, as his movements hadn’t been like his usual self.

Of course, if Ratius were there to hear that, he would've told him to stop talking nonsense. Alas, the only people present were Eosha, Evangeline, Khrones, and his friend, the mage Crama Linden.

“As you can see, I’m fine. But what about you, Prince?”

“I’m searching for survivors,” he solemnly informed them. “If casualties keep piling up like this, the Continental Alliance could collapse.”

It was an apt analysis.

“Let’s join forces for now. I plan to find more survivors and move together.”

Yet, he didn't get the response he was expecting.

Evangeline nonchalantly told him, “Stop talking and just go.”

“Hmm?”

“Prince, I'm telling you to run before you throw your life away for nothing.”

“Princess Evangeline, while some people here are confident in their abilities, most are powerless young lords and ladies. I can’t just leave them behind.”

“If you can’t handle it, save your own life first.”

Her words made Khrones frown. “You're saying you don't care if other people die? Then I must've misjudged you. I thought you were as righteous as the Saint of Tionis... No, I suppose that's only natural. It's understandable to be afraid.”

Facing his insults, her temper flared.

“Misjudged me? Hey, who are you to say whether you’ve misjudged me or not?”

“The enemies are strong. If I don't step up, I can't guarantee their survival.”

It looked like he had at least a decent grasp of how strong the enemies were. Yet, even that assessment was off.

Evangeline could already tell that the figures in the black robes who’d led the attack were not beings Khrones could handle yet, even if he was some praised genius. She could instinctively feel that each one possessed the skill level of a Swordmaster or even higher.

It would require a significant number of Pallan's Swordmasters to gang up on them in order to emerge victorious. From an objective standpoint, it was reckless for the young lords and ladies, aside from Evangeline of course, to try to stop them head-on.

“I won’t say it twice. Stop fighting and just go run.”

“I cannot do that,” he firmly declared. “Hey Crama, I need you to protect the two ladies while they escape. Can you do that?”

“No problem,” the man replied.

Eosha had a bewildered look on her face. Having already witnessed Evangeline’s martial might, she knew very well that she was beyond comparison to the two posturing young men.

“Hey, what are you...” She only needed to say one thing. Yet, the two kept interrupting her.

“Watch out!” Khrones instinctively intercepted an arrow flying toward Evangeline.

Snatching the arrow, he drew his sword. “He’s here.”

At that moment, skeletons began bursting through the walls all over the wide dungeon corridor.

“Tsk, tsk. You young ones are pretty good,” an aged voice called out. “Yes. That boy, in particular, has a great physical constitution.”

The figure in the black robe appeared from the darkness, leading a massive horde of skeletons. He continued, “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you escape. For the future of the continent, please all die here.”

“The future of the continent? Isn’t that just your own greed?” Khrones drew his sword and shouted, “Both of you, fall back! I’ll handle that guy!”

He applied his aura to his sword, unleashing a burst of his energy.

“Khrones!”

“Crama! Protect the two ladies! Protect them no matter what!”

He knew Evangeline was no simple commoner whose fate they could ignore. She was the daughter of the Saint of Tionis, exactly why he insisted she had to be protected.

The old man, who looked like a necromancer, simply laughed it off. “This continent has become stagnant. Human progress is always linked to war and struggle. But peace? Human rights? It’s all just nonsense. They are nothing more than impurities and pointless platitudes that make the continent stagnate.”

The old man slowly pushed back the hood of his robe.

Khrones’s eyes widened.

Crama was suddenly hit with a wave of pained nausea and stumbled, shouting with disbelief, “A lich?!”

“Kehehehe!! The mage noticed, huh? Too bad, it’ll be years before you’re actually skilled enough to do anything about my spells.”

Khrones broke out in a cold sweat. He had heard that the shockwaves of a fight between a high-level mage and a low-level mage could cause mana backlash, but it was his first time seeing it.

“Ugh. Cough!”

Seeing Crama suffer, Khrones gritted his teeth and pointed his sword at the lich. He mustered enough courage to threaten, “We will annihilate you where you stand and pass over your corpse. There will be no change to that.”

The old man just chuckled and motioned with his hand. Following the gesture, a significant number of skeletons began to rush toward Khrones.

Living up to his reputation as a genius, Khrones cut the skeletons down one after another.

However, the skeletons he cut down simply stood back up as if nothing happened.

Seeing the pitiful display, Evangeline sighed, lowered her sword, and prepared to join the fight. But then Crama fiercely grabbed her arm, desperately advising, “You must not, Princess! It’s too... cough. It’s dangerous.”

Seeing him spit up blood, she responded, “It looks like you're in more danger than I am.”

“I’m not... cough, in a state that you need to worry about.”

Saying that, Crama raised his staff.

“I will protect you both.”’

Despite coughing up blood, Crama kept casting spells at the few skeletons that broke through. “Khrones! I’ll protect the two of them! Kill that bastard!”

Hearing his declaration, Khrones swung his sword even more furiously. The fact that he managed to hold up against a master-level necromancer showed he was a genius, yet to Evangeline, he felt somehow trivial.

“Well, I’m comparing him to the impossible, after all...”

The age difference was only a few years. But having grown up watching and idolizing someone as extraordinary as her father, Evangeline had reached the point where she no longer saw much difference between a genius and a dullard.

“Shouldn’t we help?” Eosha nervously asked.

“Before that, let’s deal with the one in the shadows.”

It looked like the necromancer was just toying with Khrones for fun. Almost sure that he wouldn't kill him right away, Evangeline figured she should first gouge out the eyes of the one who had been watching the entire dungeon for a while now.

If he was using those eyes to keep the trapped young lords and ladies under surveillance, blinding them took priority over dealing with the necromancer himself.

She slowly scanned the dark dungeon. From what anyone else could tell, it was just an empty space.

Yet, soon enough, she fixed her gaze precisely on one spot. She called out, “Lady Eosha.”

“Yes?”

“Close your eyes.”

At the same time, her pupils slit vertically like a dragon, and Fear poured toward a specific target.

* * *

“Cough?!”

Know your enemy and know yourself, and victory is assured.

The dungeon was essentially the enemy’s home base. Thus, there were already thorough preparations in place.

The crux of their plan was to kill all the children who took part in the banquet. It’d be troublesome if even one of them were to make it alive.

Of course, controlling the chaotic dungeon was difficult, so there had to be someone to track the children and guide their forces so they wouldn't get lost.

There was one specific man who was performing that very role. He was monitoring everything using a special power he had planted throughout the dungeon.

As for Prince Khrones, who had been deemed a risk factor, the necromancer had personally stepped in to kill him before he could make trouble.

The specific man’s job, then, was to relay the status and location of the others in real-time to efficiently mark them for elimination.

Suddenly, the man had the unsettling feeling that Evangeline, dressed in white, was staring straight at him.

‘Impossible! There’s no way she can notice that I’m watching.’

Yet, Evangeline was staring precisely into the void where he hid. The space mage watching Evangeline and Khrones through that void felt a strange sense of deja vu and a shudder of dread.

It was then.

“Lady Eosha. Close your eyes.”

The moment the girl instinctively closed her eyes, Evangeline's pupils narrowed into vertical slits, just like a dragon's.

“Gaaah?!” The space mage, who had spread his eyes throughout the dungeon to monitor the situation, vomited blood and instantly collapsed. “Just now... what... cough! Gahh!!!”

He couldn’t even begin to understand what had just happened to him. He nonetheless forcibly drew up his mana to fight the horrifying sensation of needles piercing every inch of his body.

Yet, when their eyes met again, he realized his eyes, nose, and mouth were pouring blood.

“Dragon Fear...” he muttered in despair.

It was a mistake to consider Prince Khrones the most dangerous person there.

The most dangerous person they had brought there, the one who could severely disrupt the plan, was the daughter of the Saint of Tionis. That same daughter who had barely participated in any public activities.

“Damn it... Damn it!” Terrified, he struggled to crawl away. The fear of being consumed by the Fear had ruined his mana flow.

Yet, he knew he didn't need it. Thousands of years ago, before the empire fell, his people had hunted dragons. At that time, they had prepared countermeasures for the Fear they exuded.

The artifact he carried could certainly deal with that Evangeline's Fear. It might break after a single use, but what mattered was that he got the truth out. He refused to go down so helplessly.

Thinking himself clever for choosing to bring it, he opened an old box and activated the artifact.

He waited for the Fear that had consumed him to disappear.

“Gaaah?!”

Yet, for some reason, the artifact that could block even a dragon’s Fear instantly shattered and fell apart.

“No way! How could an artifact that can block the Fear of a full-fledged dragon shatter?!”

Unfortunately, he didn't know that Evangeline was a unique ancient dragon, practically the primeval ancestors of dragons.

The space mage who served as the eyes and recon expert tried to forcibly resist the sensation of his consciousness twisting into fragments. Yet, in the end, he suffered a full mana backlash.

At the same time, he lost all connections and communication with his comrades in the dungeon.

If he had been a little calmer, he wouldn’t have been defeated so easily, but he hadn't recognized the true terror of facing the Fear of an ancient dragon.