Kyran''s eyes narrowed as he saw the dark purple dragon emerge from the silver rings. Apparently, his Sigil also achieved an upgrade in ordance with the boost in his magic knowledge. Though he was a little surprised to see the dragon in the Sigil''s circle had Void attributes as well as Draconic.


    ''Hm?'' Kyran tilted his head to the side as he looked at the burly man''s back.


    A few seconds ago, the man was still struggling, but once the dragon emerged from the silver rings, he suddenly turned rigid.


    Then in an almost inaudible mutter, he said, "Dragon..."


    Silver, gold, and even purple-colored draconic writings appeared on Kyran''s arms which then converged at the back of his hand.


    Previously, the silver and gold writings turned into two ovepping dragons, but with the addition of the purple draconic writing, a purple dragon had appeared enclosing the two ovepping dragons as if securing them in ce.


    A simr symbol slowly formed on the man''s forehead.


    In Byron and Zephyr''s experience, after the symbol appeared on their forehead, they experienced the most excruciating part of the Sigil.


    This time, however, the scene that followed left Kyran looking at the man withplex emotions.


    The reason why Byron and Zephyr experienced intense pain, was due to their defiance. The more they fought the Sigil''s mark, the intense it would seethe through them.


    ''He''s not resisting,'' Kyran thought looking at the burly man with eyes full of doubt.


    He had seen far too many devious sides of humans and ''other'' humans that he doubted the man had fully submitted to him without a fight.


    Kyran''s doubt was reasonable. After all, he was not aware of Max''s dream and how much he revered the Dragons.


    A burning sensation seethed through Kyran''s hand as the Sigil continued to assimte every will within the burly man. On the first two asions, Kyran had felt intense pain during this part of the Sigil, but since this was his third time, and his pain tolerance had improved over the years, he simply ignored it and instead, focused on observing the man through his magic sense.


    As his connection to the burly man formed, he finally sensed what the man was feeling and slowly began to understand what was happening.


    ''That''s what this is all about. He really believed I am a dragon,'' Kyran thought in amusement. Another thing he noticed was the man''s body had begun to weaken. Most likely, the pill he took was now taking a toll on his body.


    While he did think of letting the man doubt his identity, he never expected thetter to be convinced.


    ''This... should be okay, right?'' Kyran thought, suddenly feeling an iing headache as he recalled Byron''s fanatical attitude toward him because of his identity as the Void Master.


    Hopefully, this burly man revered the dragons but was not a fanatic.


    Having one strange Sigil was enough.


    ...


    Zephyr''s strange hobby of seeing any potential young woman as Kyran''s mistress, crossed Kyran''s mind and his expression turned grim.


    That was right. He did not have a normal Sigil in the first ce. Chances that this burly man was also strange were very likely.


    Sighing inwardly, Kyran pushed all these unnecessary thoughts to the back of his head and concentrated onpleting the Sigil.


    While Kyran was thinking this, Max, on the other hand, stopped struggling for two reasons.


    One was his understanding of how powerful a dragon could be. No matter what he did at this point would be meaningless.


    He was prepared to die, but that did not mean he would not put up a fight. Unfortunately, the mixture of awe and fear of knowing that the masked man was a dragon had extinguished what remaining will to fight he had.


    The masked man also appeared to be interested in him, and if letting it do what it wanted to him would buy more time for Freya and the rest to escape, then he would dly surrender.


    The second reason was simple. His body had begun to feel the bacsh of taking two Red-Demon pills.


    Max was aware that the side effect of taking one Red-Demon pill was body weakening and a reduction of at least ten years of his remaining life. As for taking two pills, he had no idea. But he knew it would definitely be far worse than those two.


    "Spare... them..." Max muttered once more as he closed his eyes and sumb to the power trying to enter his mind.


    Kyran''s eyes shed coldly after hearing the man''s words again.


    He really had to deal with the man''s loyalty to the Temr Code or else, even if he made him his Sigil, he might choose to die by betraying him.


    Meanwhile, while Kyran waspleting the Sigil, Freya and Reuben jerked to a stop after sensing Max''s life force weakening.


    "No! Max!" Freya eximed.


    It was only then that she realized that Max and Reuben were no longer together.


    Freya had seen Max with his beast horde and team members arriving on the scene earlier. She also received an update from his members that he had stayed behind to keep the masked man busy while theyplete the emergency escape array.


    The Temr Code Elite Team had a special connection that let them sense each other''s life force. It was because of this connection that they knew what happened to Owen, Dess, and Quinne.


    However, when Freya died three times earlier, they had not sensed anything wrong. Because she did not die but the relics.


    "If the masked man''s reason foring is to exact retribution then it is I who should receive them!" Freya said from the other line.


    Reuben shook his head, "You are the leader of the Temr Code''s Elite Team. Sacrificing one of us is but a small feat. Please focus on the array''s activation. I... will go too."


    "No!" Freya disagreed at once. "It is bad enough to lose Max if you are lost too—."


    "The array still needed a few minutes to activate, Lady Freya. Max will not be able to hold for half a minute. Once the masked man moves, he will definitely go to the center of the array and destroy—."


    RUMBLE!


    A powerful tremor shook the whole camp.


    "This—!"


    Both of them eximed as they stared at the glowing gold array which represented the Emergency Escape Array.


    The runes, as well as the key points of the array, started to crumble as huge angry fissures appeared on the ground. After which, silver-white energy erupted from the fissures and as it did, red cracks appeared on the array.


    Both Freya and Reuben''s eyes widened. They clearly understood what those red cracks meant.


    The materials used to make the Emergency Escape Array had been damaged, rendering the whole array on the verge of copse!


    Before Freya or Reuben could fully react to what was happening, a thunderous voice reverberated in the air which reached all of the Temr Code members'' ears.


    RUUUUMBLE!


    Intense rumbling sounds filled the air as the tremor on the ground intensified,pletely destroying all the tents around the camp and the surrounding towers.


    The silver-white energying out of the fissures tripled in size, further widening the fissures. Anything it touched was destroyed.


    "AAAAHHHH!"


    Terrified shrieks filled the air as numerous Temr Code members caught in the eruption of the silver-white energy were obliterated.


    "Argh! That bastard!" Freya let out a frustrated scream as she cut off themunication.


    "Lady Freya!" Reuben called.


    Unfortunately, she was already gone.


    Clenching his hands tightly, Reuben looked back in the direction where Max had stayed behind to deal with the masked man.


    He no longer sensed Max''s life force.


    The meaning was all too obvious.


    Max had fallen.


    Looking at the Emergency Escape Array which was now glowing red and filled with angry cracks, it was also all too obvious that they would not be able to escape.


    Max''s sacrifice had been for naught.


    ''And I even told him to leave the rest to me!'' Reuben thought through gritted teeth.


    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!


    Explosions erupted one after another as the nearby mobile turrets exploded.


    "AAAAAHHHHH!"


    More miserable shrieks sounded as more members of the Temr Code fell victim to the silver-white energy. It was like these energies were alive and were snatching the members one by one.


    Reuben shook his head. He steeled his heart as two golden daggers appear in his hands. His energy surged and his eyes filled with determination.


    Most of their members probably could not escape now, but the important thing was to let the rest of the Temr Code, especially the Commander know what transpired here.


    Because their camp was close to the temple, all outsidemunication had been restricted. In order to send out a message, they had to return to the ruin''s town area.


    ''With my magic, I have better chances of getting there without detection.''


    Thinking of this, Reuben roused his magic.


    A dark-gray magic array formed beneath his feet. The runes in the magic array moved and snaked up his shin, making his gold armor''s leg area appear as if they had been designed with ck runes.


    Crackle!


    The air crackle as Reuben erupted with the full power of a Grand Master, then his eyes sh as the area around him slowly turned ck.


    ''World of Darkness!'' Reuben said inwardly and the ckness around slowly covered him. As the ckness moved up his body, the part where it touched began to disappear.


    Just before his torso waspletely covered by the ckness, the space behind him flicker and soon a ck silhouette appeared.


    A glowing silver-white dragon-scaled arm shot forward and a wed hand grabbed Reuben''s head from behind.


    Reuben''s eyes widened in shock and his heart almost stopped beating as the wed hand tightened around his head.


    "Where do you think you''re going?"


    Silver-white energy erupted from behindpletely destroying the ckness around Reuben. After which, cracks appeared on his gold armor as the defenses were shattered in an instant.


    The silhouette was none other than Kyran.


    And he hade after this guy, after looking through the burly man''s memories.


    Apparently, the burly man, named Max as Kyran learned, held this guy in high regard.


    Max''s reason was simple. Because this guy was one of the few who could understand him. Apart from this, this guy did not participate in hurting Zephyr. With all these facts, Kyran did not mind gifting this guy to Max.


    There was another one who could understand Max. However, Kyran had no ns on sparing that one.


    Because it was the woman who dealt a fatal injury to which Zephyr was now suffering.


    As to how Kyran knew about the injury, he learned of it after taking a quick look at Max''s storage ring and found a white orb.


    Kyran was familiar with the white orb. It was a recording item that by using one''s magic sense, could record data.


    Since the woman was the reason why Zephyr was in a bad state. Then Kyran had no ns of sparing that woman.


    "I''ll have to let you sleep for now," Kyran said and summoned a sleeping rune using the Draconic magic.


    Reuben did not even have time to react as the rune entered his head and fell unconscious.


    "Now then," Kyran looked in the direction where he sensed the woman''s aura.


    "Time to end this."