Chapter 367: Invincible Dimensional Escape

Taking advantage of the White Dragon Lord's focus on the Myriad Blade Slash, the eight-armed snake demon flashed a vicious grin and triggered its orb. A crescent of energy slipped behind the Myriad Blade Slash, using the barrage's radiant glow to hide from the dragon's line of sight.

Though he could not see the lunar blade trailing the barrage, a sudden, intense sense of crisis—coupled with the disturbingly familiar orb in the demon's hand—told the White Dragon Lord he was in trouble.

The Myriad Blade Slash was incredibly fast. With no time to think, the White Dragon Lord triggered the life-saving magic within his Golden Horn Ring, and his body instantly turned illusory.

Dimensional Escape!

Dimensional Escape allowed the caster to temporarily slip into an alternate dimension, leaving only a projection behind. In this state, the White Dragon Lord could not be locked onto or harmed—unless an enemy managed to locate his true body hidden within the dimensional void.

The Myriad Blade Slash and the hidden strike phased right through the White Dragon Lord's body. Before the eight-armed snake demon could rejoice, it realized in horror that the expected spray of flesh and blood had never materialized.

Both energy attacks passed harmlessly through his projection and flew off into the distant sky.

With the lethal threat gone, the White Dragon Lord's projection gradually solidified as he hovered in the air on beating wings.

Just as the White Dragon Lord prepared to counterattack his stunned opponent, he noticed that the eight-armed snake demon fighting the gold dragon had also pulled out an emerald Slashing Orb. An overwhelming urge to curse welled up inside him.

'Did the Blade Sovereign give a Slashing Orb to every single one of its subordinates?!'

The White Dragon Lord used instant-cast high-tier spells to entangle his opponent while devoting part of his focus to the gold dragon's side of the battlefield.

The energy blade fired from the orb filled the gold dragon with a profound sense of crisis. He triggered his teleportation equipment and vanished, but the Blade Sovereign's slash carried an innate tracking lock. The energy blade veered at an impossible angle, continuing straight toward him.

Seeing the gold dragon's bulging muscles and incredibly grim expression, the White Dragon Lord realized Leopold was out of options. He immediately triggered Sadolina's Bracelet (Fake) on his arm.

Three Gates of the Ice Beast materialized in front of the gold dragon. The Blade Sovereign's energy slash carved through the first two gates but was finally stopped by the third. The gold dragon let out a long breath of relief.

The White Dragon Lord closed the distance to the gold dragon. Seeing that their ultimate trump cards had failed, the two eight-armed snake demons fell back and regrouped, staring warily at the pair.

"Amos, I owe you my life," Leopold said.

"Save it for later. Let's deal with the enemy first."

The White Dragon Lord stared at the two eight-armed snake demons, his heart heavy. He only had one life-saving spell left. If the enemies pulled out two more emerald orbs, he wouldn't be able to protect both the gold dragon and himself.

"Amos, buy me three seconds."

The gold dragon panted rapidly in anger, his eyes blazing with murderous intent as he glared at the two snake demons.

"I'm going to make them pay!!!"

Although he did not know what the gold dragon was planning, the White Dragon Lord chose to trust his teammate. He expanded the range of his Roar of Ice, enveloping the gold dragon within its protection.

The White Dragon Lord's actions served as his answer. Magic surged violently within the gold dragon.

"Hah!"

Boiling magic rushed through the gold dragon's veins like magma, surging into every part of his body. His frame rapidly swelled, and his blood vessels throbbed so intensely that they forced the scales on his skin to bulge outward.

Though the two eight-armed snake demons did not know what the gold dragon was doing, they knew they had to stop him. They split up and attacked the White Dragon Lord from both sides. To them, the gold dragon channeling his ultimate move was both a crisis and a perfect opening.

The White Dragon Lord watched the two approaching demons grimly. While the gold dragon channeled his ultimate ability, Amos had to fight two-on-one and protect his teammate at the same time—a monumentally difficult task. He immediately activated Wartime Auxiliary Mode.

His immense, almost tangible spiritual power spread in all directions, sweeping over the combatants like a storm. Everyone felt a sudden shudder, as if some weightless substance had just brushed across their skin.

After more than a century of growth, the White Dragon Lord's spiritual power could cover a radius of ten thousand meters, and it was potent enough to interfere with reality itself. Consequently, the power of Wartime Auxiliary Mode multiplied. Every minute movement made by the eight-armed snake demons was detected and analyzed by the Gold Finger.

By noting subtle details like tensing muscles and slight tremors, the Gold Finger calculated the demons' next moves in advance and relayed them directly to the White Dragon Lord, allowing him to prepare his countermeasures.

To their astonishment, the two eight-armed snake demons found that the White Dragon Lord seemed to know their intentions before they even acted. He was always one step ahead, using magic to seal off their avenues of evasion. Let alone getting close, the demons were forced into a constant retreat just to fend off his instant-cast high-tier spells.

Against high-tier legendary powerhouses, the raw damage of high-tier magic was limited. However, taking those spells head-on would still result in physical injuries, and a direct hit to a vulnerable spot like the eyes could prove fatal.

The high-tier spells cast by the White Dragon Lord seemed to have eyes of their own, constantly striking toward the snake demons' eyes, noses, mouths, and other weak points. Combined with his ability to predict their positions, it created a bizarre phenomenon: it looked as though the two demons were intentionally thrusting their own vitals straight into his magic.

"Ahhh!!!"

Slashing an incoming ice spear meant for its eye in half, one of the eight-armed snake demons felt incredibly suffocated by the one-sided fight. It spun its eight scimitars into a blur of afterimages to shield its body and charged madly at the White Dragon Lord.

In a word—reckless!

The White Dragon Lord looked mockingly at the frenzied snake demon. Condensing an ice spear in his hand, he launched it at the charging enemy with a sharp whoosh.

The ice spear pierced right through the blurry shield of scimitars and struck the snake demon's abdomen, gouging out a shallow, bloody hole. Demonic blood flowed from the wound. The snake demon felt a sharp prick in its gut, and panic set in.

'A coincidence?'

Soon, both demons came to a terrifying realization: spinning their scimitars into a defensive blur was utterly useless. The ice spears always found the gaps in their guard to land effective blows. The two demons had no choice but to cover their vital spots while slowly inching closer.

The closer they got to the White Dragon Lord, the shorter the flight path of the ice spears, leaving the two demons with even less time to react. If not for the fact that the White Dragon Lord could not instant-cast master-tier spells, they would have died several times over by now.

"Die!"

Infuriated, one of the eight-armed snake demons hurled a scimitar like a javelin, launching it straight at the gold dragon.

Seeing the hazy glow of energy enveloping the blade, the White Dragon Lord's expression turned grim.

Blade Shatter Storm!

After flying a certain distance, the scimitar violently exploded into countless jagged fragments. However, the shards did not scatter. Instead, they were swept up by a bizarre whirlwind that hurtled straight toward the gold dragon.

The White Dragon Lord also possessed a standard-issue eight-armed snake demon scimitar. He knew it was enchanted with Legendary Keen Edge, Moon Slash, and Blade Shatter Storm.

Among them, Blade Shatter Storm was a highly destructive area-of-effect skill that sacrificed the weapon itself. The fragmented blades would sweep forward in a straight line like a storm, grinding everything in their path to minced meat.

The Gold Finger rapidly calculated the storm's flight trajectory and suggested using slanted ice walls to deflect its path.

Three ice walls with precise, subtle inclines materialized in front of the attack. Every time it shattered a wall, the storm's trajectory shifted slightly, until it harmlessly brushed past the gold dragon's body.

"Amos, thanks for the hard work."

The gold dragon opened his eyes, near-tangible waves of energy and killing intent erupting from his pupils.

Seeing that the gold dragon's ultimate move was ready, the two demons realized they had missed their chance and immediately retreated to flee.

The White Dragon Lord glanced back at the gold dragon. Leopold's body had nearly doubled in size, his scales covered in glowing white patterns. The power inside him looked ready to detonate, with thick white streams of palpable energy leaking from his nostrils, mouth, and ears.

In the blink of an eye, the gold dragon vanished, leaving behind only a trail of afterimages. The White Dragon Lord was stunned.

'Such insane speed!'

The White Dragon Lord felt that if the gold dragon had targeted him just then, he would have almost certainly been injured. Even though the Gold Finger could detect the gold dragon's movements, Amos's own physical reflexes simply wouldn't have been fast enough to react.

Of course, that assumed the two dragons were in close proximity. If they had proper distance between them, the outcome would be a different story.

The ones who felt the gold dragon's speed far more directly were the two eight-armed snake demons. Forced into a corner by his relentless pursuit, the two demons had no choice but to use Greater Teleportation to dodge.

The gold dragon unleashed wave after wave of energy blasts, bombarding a massive area in front of him. Firing as if the attacks cost no mana at all, he forced the eight-armed snake demons into a miserable, frantic retreat.

The White Dragon Lord surveyed the battlefield. Mage Alan was completely suppressing his opponent, leaving Padhak covered in deep gashes inflicted by Spatial Blades. Sular Grey Dove was locked in an evenly matched duel with the fire demon. The gold dragon was mercilessly hunting down one of the eight-armed snake demons, while Amos's own opponent was so intimidated by their recent clash that it didn't dare to strike.

Their side held absolute superiority!

Just as the White Dragon Lord prepared to take the offensive, he suddenly noticed a dense swarm of tiny dots flying over from the distant sky. Straining his eyes, he realized it was a massive horde of flying demons.

It turned out that the four high-tier legendary demons had split off from the main army, advancing early to intercept the enemy's high-tier legends. And now, the flying demons—whose speed was second only to the high-tier legends—had finally caught up.

"Leopold! Stop chasing! The enemy's reinforcements are here!"

The gold dragon glared reluctantly at the fleeing snake demon. Glancing at the demonic swarm approaching on the horizon, he changed course and flew back toward the White Dragon Lord.

The White Dragon Lord ignored his opponent and flew toward the fire demon.

The eight-armed snake demon froze for a moment before gritting its teeth, its arms trembling with rage at being so thoroughly looked down upon. But remembering the bizarre battle earlier—where it felt like it had been actively throwing itself into the White Dragon Lord's spells—it helplessly unclenched its fists.

Seeing the White Dragon Lord approach, the fire demon hastily fell back. Mage Alan also effortlessly disengaged from his opponent.

The two dragons and two casters gathered together, covering each other as they retreated. The high-tier legendary demon lords could only watch their prey escape, not daring to intercept them.

The sole exception was Rabmodo Modi. Watching his enemies speed away, the fire demon flew into a rage.

"Chase them! Why aren't any of you chasing them?!"

"Chase them yourself if you want. Right now, I need to feed."

The lord of Vagro Fortress, Padhak, had his wounds rapidly healing, but immense blood loss had left his body weak and unsteady. He turned and flew toward the incoming demon swarm.

The two eight-armed snake demons wordlessly turned and left. Rabmodo Modi was absolutely furious but powerless to do anything alone, so he had no choice but to follow them.

On the other side, the legendary demons leading the swarm saw Padhak flying toward them. Their faces filled with terror as they hastily slowed down and veered to avoid him.

Padhak cast a greedy glance at the legendary demons giving him a wide berth, rolling his thick tongue over his lips. However, legendary demons were rare, core combatants of the army. Reluctantly abandoning the tempting thought, Padhak bypassed them and flew straight into the rear ranks filled with high-tier and master-tier demons.

Some demons, unaware of Padhak's unique nature, even bowed respectfully to greet the demon lord—only to be instantly snatched up. Before they could even react, Padhak shoved them into his maw.

Crunch!

Like chewing on sugar cane, the unfortunate victim's body disappeared segment by segment down Padhak's throat. Padhak's aura gradually stabilized, a healthy redness returning to his face as he greedily eyed the trembling demons before him.

"Gahahaha!"

...

Meanwhile, after shaking off the demons, the White Dragon Lord and his allies regrouped to discuss their next move.

"Everyone, we need to monitor these demons' movements," Mage Alan said. "Trident Keep, Blackrock Fortress, and Riverrun are all incapable of fighting off this horde alone."

Mage Alan's statement earned unanimous agreement.

"The problem is how we monitor them. None of us belong to assassin-type classes, and sending our legendary subordinates to spy on eight-armed snake demons—masters of assassination themselves—is practically sending them to their deaths."

The two mages and two dragons frowned, realizing they truly had no counter to the stealth-oriented snake demons. To make matters worse, it was nighttime. Demons received a significant power boost under the blood moon, while non-demonic creatures had their combat strength stifled by its crimson energy.

After deliberating for a while without reaching any solutions, they had no choice but to drop the matter and return to their respective strongholds.

Inside Blackrock Fortress, the White Dragon Lord and the gold dragon convened an emergency meeting within the Central Castle.

"Everyone, there is a demon army in the wasteland," Amos announced. "The horde includes four immensely powerful high-tier legendary demons and an unknown number of rank-and-file troops. This is a force entirely capable of flattening Blackrock Fortress. Tonight, we must stay on highest alert against a potential siege."

"Lomana Ironfeather! Deploy your harpies to patrol the perimeter of the City Wall. Have each harpy fly a single lap before returning indoors to rest. They are only to resume patrols once they have fully recovered."

"Yes!"

"Gurgalu, order the army to sleep in their armor with their weapons at their sides. A battle could break out at any moment tonight."

"Yes!"

Seeing the heavy, grim expressions on his subordinates' faces, the White Dragon Lord offered some reassurance. "No need to be too tense. It's not guaranteed the demons will launch an attack, and even if they do, they might not target Blackrock Fortress."

"I'll also give you some good news. The Divine Factions are already fighting the demons, and the Alliance will soon join the war. Their armies are currently en route. Once the sun rises tomorrow, the Alliance's forces will resume their march. It won't be long before they reach the front lines, meaning the demons won't dare linger around here for much longer."

After finalizing the defensive deployments, the subordinates dispersed to execute their respective orders.

With the threat of the demon army looming over the wasteland, neither the White Dragon Lord nor the gold dragon dared to sleep. They simply rested their eyes and meditated in the main hall of the Central Castle.

During the latter half of the night, as the blood moon hung low in the western sky and its negative energy peaked, a harpy suddenly burst into the Central Castle's main hall.

"Master! Demon tracks have been spotted outside the city!"