Chapter 1320: 78. Never Give Up

The true protagonist always appears last.

"Muen, wait for me. I'm coming to save you......"

Ariel cast an affectionate glance toward the suffering man on that purple bed, her expression incomparably resolute.

At this very moment, there was not the slightest trace of fear in her heart. There was only boundless pity and attachment toward the man she loved.

The restriction had already been shattered.

The path ahead had also been cleared.

Under these circumstances, how could she possibly stop moving forward?

No matter how terrifying the evil dragon was, how could it possibly overcome the......love buried deep within her heart?

True love was invincible!

"Skyfire——"

Ariel tightened her grip on the greatsword, and the aura around her body began rising step by step in an extremely unreasonable manner, entering an indescribable state."

Her eyes became extraordinarily strange. One side was pure darkness, the other pure light. Darkness and light intertwined, then merged together with the fiercely burning flames.

Ariel lunged toward Hamreign, while Hamreign herself was currently being temporarily restrained from all four sides......though of course, even if no one had been restraining her, she would not have dodged.

She raised her head. Although both of her hands and even her tail were temporarily occupied, she still faced Ariel's strongest strike with an awe-inspiring expression.

"Unsheathe!"

Boom!

Three-colored flames smashed into Hamreign and instantly swallowed her whole.

There was no particularly enormous commotion, because the target was only a single "person."

Nor did any world-destroying shockwave erupt, because this time they were inside a confined space, and Ariel had compressed this power to the absolute limit.

And correspondingly, its destructive power had also reached the absolute limit.

Ariel was very confident in it. This could be called the strongest strike she had unleashed up to this point.

The resentment, grief, and pity in her heart, together with her love for Muen, were all released in this single instant!

Space distorted, and even every sound was swallowed away!

And because all of that power had been condensed onto a single point before suddenly erupting the instant it touched the enemy, the terrifying impact sent Ariel herself flying backward.

She flew through the air like a sandbag and slammed heavily into the wall. She felt all the blood and energy in her body churning violently and had to spend considerable effort before finally calming it down.

But she had no time at all to worry about herself. She immediately raised her head and looked toward the very center of the "battlefield."

The other women had also been blown away by the impact, so that area now looked extremely empty.

The extreme heat, together with the spatial fluctuations caused by the collision between darkness and light, produced something resembling smoke around the place where the evil dragon had been. For a moment, Ariel could not see clearly.

But her perception could clearly detect that within that smoke, there was only a single aura.

An aura she knew, an aura she longed for!

It was Muen's!

"That dragon's aura disappeared?"

Ariel was overjoyed:

"Could it be that my attack worked?"

Wonderful!

So that dragon wasn't invincible after all!

Under the fatal strike of Ariel Bugaard, even a legendary Calamity would suffer!

"Hmph, so what if you're a Calamity? Even a Calamity can't stop me from taking Muen away......hm?"

Supporting herself against the wall, Ariel was just about to stand up and go receive the fruits of victory.

But very quickly, she noticed that something was wrong.

"This wall......isn't it a little too sturdy?"

The place they were in was nothing more than an ordinary erotic hotel. Logically speaking, the walls here should have been no harder than tofu to someone like her.

Even though everyone had done their best to control their attacks earlier to prevent this place from being destroyed......this time, her physical body had directly slammed into the wall. So why was the wall still so perfectly flat......and smooth?

Could it be......

Ariel stiffly turned her head to look......and after an unbearably long 0.01 seconds, what entered her vision was not the tastefully painted wall of the hotel, but......

A golden restriction.

"No way......"

Ariel's little mouth fell open:

"The restriction is still here, which means......"

"Why would you think an attack like that would be enough to defeat me?"

The smoke dispersed.

That aura reappeared as though deliberately teasing them.

Hamreign remained completely unscathed, still looking down from atop Muen at the battered group around her.

Those indifferent golden eyes glanced at the stunned Ariel, and a mocking curve formed at the corner of her lips:

"I admit that, by human standards, every one of you belongs among the finest of the finest. If another hundred years passed, perhaps I truly would need to take you seriously as opponents......

Unfortunately, as you are now, you don't even qualify to become my enemies!"

As though to prove her words, right in front of everyone, she twisted her waist once again.

"Hiss——"

The pitiful yellow-haired man let out another miserable cry:

"Don't......wait, this position......really hurts!"

"Muen!"

The women were anxious, but there was nothing they could do.

After the assault just now, even the most stubborn Celicia had no choice but to admit that, in terms of strength, they were still far behind this evil dragon.

Hamreign could not even be bothered to use the restriction to block them anymore. Instead, she had placed it around the outside of the room to prevent their attacks from blowing the place apart and exposing everything happening here to the public.

Trying to take Muen back from her by force was no different from a fool's dream!

"So you do still have some sense of shame."

Celicia sneered, though her face was slightly pale.

The expressions of the others were also becoming increasingly ugly.

"Damn it!"

Ariel pounded painfully against the restriction, once again hating her own powerlessness more than anything!

The last time, she had been blocked outside the restriction and could do nothing.

This time, she was inside the restriction, and she still could do nothing.

Could it be that everything she had done, everything they had done, had all been futile? Had the possibility of saving Muen already disappeared completely?

From now into the future, and into the distant, distant future, could their beloved Muen really only become this evil dragon's plaything?

The moment Ariel thought about the evil dragon's immense lifespan and the possessiveness she was displaying now, a chill ran through her entire body!

No......that kind of outcome was absolutely unacceptable!

But then, what could she do?

She raised her head and looked toward the others.

Celicia was silent. Anna said nothing. Even An, the maid who possessed countless memories from a thousand years ago, was doing nothing now aside from the veins pulsing across the back of her hand.

None of them could think of a way to defeat the evil dragon. How could she possibly do it herself?

"Are you going to give up, Ariel?"

"......"

Ariel froze and looked over in astonishment.

To her surprise, it was Liya who had spoken.

At this moment, none of her usual innocent cuteness remained. Her little face was solemn, as though a true Saintess were standing here, asking Ariel a grave question concerning the safety of the entire world.

"Ariel, are you going to give up?"

"Give up......?"

Ariel jolted violently.

"How could I?!"

It was true.

Right now, they seemed to have no chance of victory whatsoever.

They seemed capable only of watching helplessly while that evil dragon did whatever she pleased.

They seemed......to have already lost completely.

But even so, Ariel would never give up.

Even if hope was slim, as long as it was not zero, she would never give up.

Because......she was Ariel Bugaard!

The words "give up" did not exist in her dictionary!