Chapter 504 - 277: Dragon Knight (Part 3)

Lucy closed her eyes.

Then, she heard a distinct piercing sound. It was like the cracking of ice, like something heavy falling from the sky to crush everything. After that, she heard a muffled groan.

But she hadn’t been the one to make a sound.

A viscous, warm feeling spattered across her face.

Lucy opened her eyes and saw a man standing in front of her. His chest had been pierced by a golden spear, and a torrent of blood dripped to the ground from the tip that protruded from his back.

Lucy froze. The one who had taken the spear for her was... Sad!

Gasping for breath, Sad turned to look back at her—or more accurately, at the other person beside her.

The plain-looking Attendant gave him a slight bow. "Knight Commander Sad, we meet again."

Sad’s eyes widened. "You’re... How are you here...?"

Before he could finish, the light faded from his eyes, and he was dead.

The Fake Baron hoisted Sad’s corpse onto his spear and flung it toward the Griffin Knights, paying it no further mind.

Instead, he turned to the person who had suddenly appeared in an Attendant’s uniform. "Who are you?"

Lucy was about to say something, but the Attendant had her take the unconscious Zick and hide behind him. Then he turned to face the Fake Baron.

"You have a very familiar aura about you," the Attendant said. "Let me guess... you’ve been reincarnated."

The Fake Baron narrowed his eyes. "You know me?"

The Attendant replied, "I’d love to say I don’t, but the Golden Eyes in your sockets are just too shoddy. I’m certain no proud Giant Dragon would ever have pupils of that color."

He shrugged, a genuinely helpless smile appearing on his plain face. "At least, that’s true for the Giant Dragons I know."

Hearing this, Lucy immediately realized the Attendant’s identity. She stared dumbly at the man’s back, her expression one of utter astonishment. And then... she fainted.

Her Spiritual Power had long since been depleted; she had only been holding on by sheer will.

The Fake Baron was alarmed and uncertain. He took half a step back, only to see the plain-looking Attendant draw two pistols, then flick out a Long Saber that burst into flame. The fire danced in the Attendant’s own, brightening Golden Eyes like a frenzied Demon Fiend.

The Fake Baron’s eyes flew open. As if vaguely recognizing something, he roared, "Baron Constantin!"

His roar was like thunder, carrying an avalanche of fury. It was a wildfire that burned everyone who heard his voice.

Before the words had even faded, the Fake Baron transformed into a Mad Dragon, lunging at the Attendant with the Golden Dragon Spear in hand. At the same time, the Electric Dragon circling in the sky dove down like a falcon striking its prey.

At that moment, the Attendant flicked out two Fire Blades of his own, parrying the Fake Baron’s Golden Dragon Spear. The cross-shaped flame on his face burned away and melted, gradually revealing his true features. It made him look like a Demon who had just escaped Judgement in Hell, and he whispered like one too:

"What’s wrong, cousin Soron? Did you forget to eat breakfast?"

"Or perhaps," Baron said, "pretending to be me is the only way you can reclaim that shattered pride of yours!"

As soon as he spoke, the swooping Electric Dragon Attendant crashed into several clusters of seemingly insignificant flames. A few Griffin Knights vaguely saw that the flames seemed to take the shape of... Dragons!

In just an instant, the Electric Dragon Attendant slammed into those flames. A colossal explosion ripped through the sky, dyeing half of it red.

A single exchange! It took only a single exchange to instantly kill a Third Generation Species Dragon Attendant, equivalent to a Bronze Tier powerhouse!

The Knights were stunned, and the Cultists who had transformed into Dragons wore similar expressions.

At the same moment the explosion rang out, the Fake Baron’s body shot backward like a cannonball, carving a trench dozens of feet deep into the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust several meters high.

When the dust settled, all the Griffin Knights and Dragon Devourer Cultists saw a massive indentation in the Fake Baron’s chest, as if he had been struck by a meteorite. There were also scorch marks around the impact.

At the same time, the Golden Dragon Spear in his hand had begun to completely melt, a result of the extreme heat generated by Baron’s Dragon Flame during their clash.

In Prole, even the black Alchemist Michael had once stated that Dragon Flame was the best fire for metallurgy.

The Fake Baron—no, Soron—was helped up by two nearby Dragon Devourer Cultists. He spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with visceral fragments. Standing up under the bloody rain from the exploding Electric Dragon Attendant, he tore off his disguise. His two pairs of Golden Eyes stared daggers at Baron.

"How did you recognize me?"

Baron, now back to his original appearance, shrugged. "You reek of the Alchemy Bullets I used. On the Inner Side, not many people have had their heads blown up by my Alchemy Bullets. You’re the only one."

"Looks like you were recruited by the Dragon Eater Association and even became a Dragon Attendant... Let me guess. The one who saved you was Roy Hestia, and the one who made you a Dragon Attendant must have been that so-called Elder Pence."

Baron paid no attention to the Griffin Knights and Dragon Devourer Cultists who had surrounded him, holding their breath. He simply watched Soron—whose body was beginning to change, inflating like a balloon—and smiled.

"But it looks like the materials they used on you weren’t good enough, since you couldn’t even block one of my punches... Still, your Golden Eyes are very pretty. It’s a shame they’re not bright enough. Probably a problem with the ingredients."

Flames erupted like a red wall, surrounding Baron and separating him from the Cultists and Knights who were circling, waiting for an opportunity.

The downpour instantly evaporated as it hit the flames. A thick, metallic scent of blood rolled out from him, hugging the ground. The firelight cast an almost illusory, colorful sheen on the Knights’ Armor and the Cultists’ Scale Armor.

They looked at each other, and the Knights were shocked to read fear in the eyes of these supposedly mindless monsters.

The bloody rain continued to fall, soaking the bodies of all the Dragon Devourer Cultists, Griffin Knights, and Soron himself.

"You know," Baron said suddenly, despite the situation, "the only reason I’ve been talking so much is to stall for time."

"Trying to wait for reinforcements?" asked Soron, his face twisted and monstrous in his Dragon Attendant form. "But the only enemy they’ll see is you. Even if they show up, they’ll only try to kill you—the Lawbreaker who turned the Inner Side upside down."

His gaze fell upon the Law Enforcers on the battlefield. "As for them, I’ll just say I was following your orders to destroy the evidence."

"But you won’t live to see that moment."

An attendant handed Soron a Dragon Heart, which he devoured. His already monstrous form grew even more robust, sprouting more deformed arms like a willow tree shooting out branch after branch.

An unrivaled power rampaged through his body. Soron took a deep breath and exhaled a ball of fire. When he inhaled the fire and breathed out again, it came out as crackling sparks of lightning.

The Griffin Knights could sense that Soron’s Spiritual Pressure, layered multiple times, had already reached Bronze Peak. And that was to say nothing of his enhanced Dragon Mighty; they could barely resist the urge to turn and flee.

As things stood, it would be a stretch to expect even the battle-hardened Griffin Knights to fight Soron in his current state.

"No," Baron said, merely shaking his head at the horrifying sight. "I was only stalling for one reason."

Soron’s gaze flickered.

Baron held up a single finger. "To let someone else prove I wasn’t the one who killed them."

’Someone else...’ Soron suddenly understood. He meant there was someone else here!

Sure enough, Baron glanced to the side. "Miss Kesha, I trust you’ve seen enough of the show. You should be able to understand that I’m innocent now, right?"

Kesha, the Demon Hunter, still wrapped in bandages, gave Baron a coquettish eye-roll. "Mr. Constantine, are you trying to get me killed?"

"And here I thought you saved me just out of the goodness of your heart," Kesha said.

Baron remained silent. Kesha then turned to Soron and said, "Still, I never expected Mr. Soron to be alive. I once danced with him at one of Mr. Anthony’s balls. It really does seem to be him."

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