Chapter 442: Duelists

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav

“Ha! The entire sky is burning. What a majestic sight.”

Dragon World’s air had never been as impure as it was now. Two moons hung in the sky, but both were blood-red. Mountains floating in the sky could be seen in the distance, their originally vicious wild beasts wailing and floating helplessly in the air.

An unfortunate Green Dragon suddenly came across a dimensional tear. In just a short instant, it went from Adult Dragon to Young Dragon to Infant Dragon to finally a Dragon Egg, a reverse evolution.

Time, Gravity, Space and all the world’s basic dimensional laws were distorted. Every single law of physics went into flux as Dragon World neared a complete collapse.

In the sky, Supreme Immemorial White Dragon Sam was attempting to say something to the numerous dragons roaring at him, but it was to no avail as a few moments later several streaks of dragonbreath attempted to bake him.

He didn’t attack them back. He simply landed on the ground and transformed back into his Snow Elf form with a greatly displeased expression.

“I told you—it’s useless.”

I had told him that trying to explain things would be meaningless.

“…Those stubborn old fools and artifacts. They deserve to be killed by the Titans! They really think that they can just keep themselves safe and not care about anything else!”

The young-appearing Snow Elf had a displeased expression but he had long known that this would be the result. Yet he had still wanted to try.

I shrugged without a word as it would be awkward of me to do so…

“What a great idea you had. You actually went up there yourself to explain. Right now, the dragons are at their angriest. Nothing that a ‘traitor’ like you tells them will be heard. The only reason they didn’t directly kill you is because they aren’t powerful enough to do so.”

Alright. While I didn’t say this out loud, the Devil Lord didn’t have any misgivings and simply said it.

“You…”

But even the Supreme Immemorial White Dragon didn’t dare to get angry enough to fight the Devil King. Sam could only look in my direction.

“Relax. I’ll give the White Dragons everything I promised. The White Dragons will definitely become the strongest dragon species. I’ll also give you everything I said… Yep, I definitely will.”

Of course, to make the White Dragons be willing to give up Dragon World and become hated by all other dragons I promised them something sufficiently tantalizing.

Now that the situation had developed so that Dragon World was cut off from the mortal plane, the dragons would be unable to remain neutral even if they wanted to. Even if the demons that didn’t give them trouble for some reason, I had arranged for a few “old friends” of theirs to meet them. And these “old friends” had an “excellent relationship” with Dragon City.

“Finally… finally… free… freedom!”

An ancient language echoed throughout the entire Dragon World. Although nobody understood this tongue-twister immemorial language, there was a magical meaning contained within that allowed all intelligent lifeforms to understand it.

Every lifeform could faintly perceive the Titans beginning to rise. The pure power of Order shook the dimension even further as these sleeping ancient existences awakened.

The tiny Snow Elf Sam’s face immediately turned pale.

“The… the Titans!”

“Yep, the Titans.”

I wanted to laugh out loud after seeing how panicked the Supreme Immemorial White Dragon was. It would seem that perhaps I had overestimated him.

The dragons in the sky panicked even more at this sight. They truly didn’t expect for the seal on the Titans to become completely broken at this moment. The dragons were about to be challenged by their mortal enemies, the Titans.

“…You… What have you done?”

Even an ancient and powerful existence like the White Dragon fell into a panic when he knew that he was about to face the dragons’ ancient mortal enemy from myths and legends.

“Me? I didn’t do anything at all. I simply followed my plan and cut off this dimension from the other planes.”

Actually, with Sam’s knowledge and experience, he should have been able to expect everything that happened here as long as he carefully thought about it. But unfortunately for him he was blinded by the beautiful promises I had given him, which was why he’d made such a big miscalculation.

In fact, everything I did would be easy to guess at.

The Titans were sealed in this world by the Creation Seal of the Four Elements, the strongest possible version of the Seal of the Four Elements. The plane of Dragon World was connected to the Four Elemental Planes, which constantly provided elemental energy that powered the seal on the Titans. But what would happen if the Dragon World’s plane was cut off from all other dimensions, including the Four Elemental Planes?

Of course, the seal wouldn’t have any more elemental energy and would become useless—it would start collapsing. Once the Titans broke free, this entire world which was created to seal them would collapse as well. And all of this was exactly what I wanted.

Of course, mortals alone would be unable to cut off Dragon World from all other planes besides the mortal plane. Orloss was only the scapegoat taking the blame. As for a certain Death God who was secretly interfering from behind? All you readers should know who that is without me saying his name out loud.

At the very least, back when I was in the Earth Elemental Plane, a certain Death God had cut the Earth Elemental Plane off from all the other planes. Of course, Sam didn’t know about this incident, which was why he wouldn’t be able to think that this would happen.

“You—you—you’re basically a devil!”

From a certain standpoint, Sam had fallen into my trap. Because of me, Dragon City would view him as a traitor. However, I yet again laughed out loud at this.

Did he really think that I didn’t know his intentions? Sam’s family was still in Dragon City. It was rather obvious that he intended to return to the dragons’ side and remain neutral immediately after he finished helping me and received his payment. But after he joined my faction would I really let him go so easily? Would my faction be easy to join and leave as one pleased?

“Devil? Thank you for the compliment.”

“Yes, that’s a wonderful compliment. He is definitely a devil.”

My response and Devil Lord Kamiltias’ response reached an accord. It felt rather nice to be called a devil, and Kamiltias naturally felt that calling me a devil was a compliment to all devils.

I was beginning to like this Little Tias fellow more and more. At the very least, he was decisive. He knew when he should gamble everything. He brought his full power here to support me.

Since the devils treated me with such sincerity, I would give them the same sincerity in return. The current situation would end in either a complete victory or a complete defeat. There was no room for hesitation or retreat.

Sam was still a dragon in the end, however. While he was experienced and knowledgeable—and decisive to an extent—he was still too naïve and arrogant when it came to major decisions about the overall situation. Like all dragons, he forever believed that he would be able to sit everything out. He believed that he would be able to obtain great benefits without paying too much of a price. In fact, he didn’t even want to have to personally fight.

“What makes you so special? Just because you’re a dragon?”

Well, I didn’t say something so insulting as that out loud to him. It was fine to simply think it in my mind. But right now the Supreme Immemorial White Dragon who had fallen into my trap was somewhat hysterical.

“Titans, and the other dragons… just how do you intend to deal with all this!”

Sam finally noticed just how insane we were. I had utterly antagonized the dragons, and the revived Titans were no friends of ours, either. Sam’s question was both calling me to account as well as seeking salvation.

“Deal with them? Why? The dragons and Titans are the ones who should be begging for me to save their lives. Do you know what the most profitable business in an apocalypse is? Selling tickets to safety!”

As the entire world began collapsing, there was only one location that remained stable… that’s right, the Ghostwind Plains, where my base was located. Soon, this would become the core of a brand-new world, the only safe location in the collapsing Dragon World. Anyone who wanted to take safe harbor here would require my agreement.

As for if I would take advantage of this opportunity to extort people? Of course! That’s a definite yes! Did everyone want to survive Dragon World’s destruction? Sure, but they would first have to buy tickets from me! Sold for the price of their full treasuries!

[You created an apocalypse and then charge money to save others? Was there a mistake with the Child of Fate from this generation? Morality should have been part of the evaluation as well…]

“Ha! I learned all of this from you. And at least I didn’t create all of this. Dragon World was destined to collapse to begin with. I’m even helping them deal with the aftermath.”

Alright, Astrya didn’t comment after that. Wasn’t the entire Holy War her fault to begin with? It was impossible for her to clean up and deal with the consequences, so in the end I had to come in and try to fix things.

And just thinking about things made me delighted. I would profit hugely if I succeeded in obtaining all the Titans’ and Dragons’ treasures and forced them to work for my cause.

“…Don’t be so happy just yet. The Chaos Main God existences are coming.”

Of course, in order for me to obtain this huge profit, I would first have to be able to deal with the tremendous trouble before me and get rid of these hunters.

The Dragon World’s plane was beginning to collapse and lose all its connections to the other planes. And as time passed it would only become more and more difficult to come here from the mortal plane. But this dimension’s collapse also opened up its other doors, making it much easier for certain existences to send over certain disgusting things.

“There are three Chaos Main God level existences? Do you recognize them?”

Naturally, the Chaos Faction had sent existences to hunt me down—they descended with their abyssal flames.

I had expected Cynthia to be able to react so quickly. I refused to believe that every single one of these devils I summoned weren’t on the side of the Chaos Abyss. As long as even one devil traitor told the Chaos Faction this secret and provided dimensional coordinates, of course the Chaos Abyss would be the fastest to send existences to hunt us down.

Since we had the Main God-level existence Kamiltias on our side, the Chaos Abyss would naturally send out Main God-level Demon Lords and Chaos Evil Gods. Considering the fact that Chaos Evil Gods typically brought their own Divine Kingdoms with them while Demon Lords had the ability to summon demons and could summon entire armies, fighting even a single such existence would end up as a war against an entire army.

[There are four Main God-level existences in total.]

Not far away, a new dimensional tear opened up in the red sky. A holy aura descended together with a familiar figure and an entire squadron of angels. This God glowed with an orange-reddish light. The Order Faction had also arrived to hunt us down.

His figure of light was hazy and impossible to see clearly, but I could instinctively sense that he was looking at me and desired to tear me apart.

“The God of Holy Light… only his incarnation?”

I was first surprised, then delighted but ended up being somewhat disappointed.

[His incarnation will be able to use almost the full extent of his powers in this plane where the dimensional laws themselves are breaking down. His incarnation’s power level is definitely at Main God-level here.]

Alright then. I could only exclaim how the God of Holy Light had a ridiculous amount of accumulated power. I never expected that I would be able to fight with my senior so quickly. I was so… delighted at the opportunity!

“It’s a pity that it’s only his incarnation instead of his true body…”

I lowered my head and retracted my angry gaze. I then loosened my clenched fists, allowing my desire for revenge to return to the bottom of my heart.

“Still, I’m going to make your incarnation stay behind here.”

Although it was impossible to truly take revenge against the God of Holy Light, I could at least collect some interest he owed me. The more powerful an incarnation was, the more power it would cost to create one. Slaying such a powerful incarnation would deplete a good portion of the divine power the God of Holy Light had accumulated for so many years, a rare opportunity.

Meanwhile, Kamiltias discovered who had arrived from the Chaos Faction thanks to their familiar energy waves. Well, even if the Chaos Faction had more Main God-level existences than the Order Faction, there were still only fourteen. Considering the fact that two of the Main God-level Devil Lords were on my side, there were extremely few candidates that remained.

“Demon Earl Ladvioka, who rules over the ninth through thirteenth layers of the Chaos Abyss. Demons’ real names are ridiculously long. This is already the abbreviated version of the abbreviated version. His name isn’t well known in the mortal plane, so it’s probably easier to remember him by his title, ‘Lord of Putrefaction.’”

A rancid smoke had begun spreading at the location where the Lord of Putrefaction had crashed down onto the ground like a meteor. This tainted gas transformed the air into a vicious toxin, and within it all was a tall figure now slowly standing up.

“I’ve never heard of him.”

Any powerful Demon Lord should have been famous throughout all the planes, but strangely even I had never heard of this Demon Lord before.

“He’s incredibly low profile. He doesn’t even have a single believer in the mortal plane. However, more than thirty viruses and plagues in the mortal plane are his creation. He’s incredibly secretive about harvesting souls. He even considers it a form of art… I’ll be a little more direct so that you can understand better. He’s an ancient demon from the same generation as I am. I’ve fought him many times. Although I’ve won more than I’ve lost, it’s been impossible for me to kill him.”

This Demon Lord had been able to survive despite losing to the leader of the Devil Lords so many times? This not-at-all-famous fellow would definitely be difficult to deal with.

Next to the Lord of Putrefaction was a giant warrior. Clad in heavy armor with not a single decoration or rune inscribed upon it, his face mask, which concealed his entire face, was nothing but a pure, blank white. Yet not a single person would dare underestimate him. He wielded a two-handed greatsword crafted out of obsidian. Divine golden blood could visibly be seen on the cracks of his sword.

He simply stood there silently but radiated an aura of absolute authority, as if he were a giant who could reach the skies. But the next instant he suppressed his aura as if he were nothing more than a lifeless statue, causing others to easily forget his presence.

“The eternal victorious warrior of the demons, Chaos Evil God Donatis, the Lord of the four hundred and fifty-first layer of the Chaos Abyss. You should definitely recognize him.”

Of course I recognized him. Many thieves, robbers and bloodthirsty warriors worshipped this Chaos Evil God. He was one of the Gods most respected by the demons, who rarely showed respect to any God, all because he was famous for being “super capable at fighting.” And in every Holy War he was always at the forefront of the vanguard yet managed to survive even until today. That was more than plenty of evidence for how powerful he was.

The Chaos Evil Gods were similar yet also different to the True Gods of Order. While the Chaos Evil Gods were also capable of strengthening themselves by obtaining more belief, they weren’t nearly as limited by Divine Concepts or natural laws. Just like the demons, they were capable of strengthening themselves through training and actual battles. Although there were rare exceptions who obtained power purely through faith, any Chaos Evil God at the same power level of an Order God would be twice as troublesome as the Order God. You would have to face both their godly divine powers along with the existence’s personal strength.

The Chaos Evil Gods’ Divine Kingdoms were typically within the Chaos Abyss itself. Since demons were their neighbors, they would always have to stay on guard against “warmhearted neighbors” who wanted to pay a visit. However, while Donatis only took over a single layer of the Chaos Abyss as his Divine Kingdom, nobody had “visited” his layer for the past thousands of years—best evidence of how frighteningly powerful he was.

It could be said that his past record of accomplishments and abilities made Donatis the enemy I wanted to see the least.

“Why did he come here? Is your relationship that bad?”

“He’s a loyal dog of Chaos, so what’s so strange about him being one of the first to come?”

Alright, I then turned to glance at the final Chaos Main God existence. My head hurt even more when I saw how his face remained the same even after turning gigantic. And he was actually cooking fish soup on the battlefield! The large fish struggling in the huge pot even looked rather familiar, with an incredibly ugly human face. I felt like I had seen this fish Demon Lord somewhere in some book before…”

“I believe I don’t need to introduce this final one to you. He’s the favored child of Chaos, your younger brother, Abyss Prince Karwenz.”

“What are his combat achievements? And the special characteristics of his powers?”

“Unknown. He has too few records of personally fighting. Any who have seen his powers are dead. And if I see correctly the fish in his pot is the Demon Lord of the seventy-sixth layer of the Chaos Abyss, Blackblade Fish Emperor Antolostan. Antolostan is capable of transforming into a sea of black mist that’s immune to both physical and magical attacks, an ability that’s truly difficult to deal with.”

Karwenz seemed to notice that we were looking at him and happily waved his hand at me in greeting.

“Roland, if you aren’t dead after our fight, I’ll invite you to drink some fish soup with me.”

Yep, Karwenz was exactly as I thought him to be. Perhaps everyone else would think that he was joking, but I knew that he was being serious. If our fight ended with neither of us dead, he really would invite me to drink fish soup together with him. But from another standpoint he meant that he would absolutely seriously try to kill me.

“This is definitely the fault of Chaos invading his brain. How can the other half of my soul possibly be this idiotic?!”

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