<h4>Book 2: Chapter 234</h4>


    Sedi ran to the ground while Lukas flew through the sky.


    In all honesty, the most efficient method for him would have been to be carried by Sedi. After all, it would allow him to preserve his mana, and her running speed was faster than his flight spell unless he pushed his speed to the maximum.


    “No. It’s fine.”


    When Lukas bluntly refused like this, Sedi smiled slyly and stretched out her thin white arms.


    “Or would you prefer I hug you? Like this.”


    She then offered to hold him in her arms. An idea that he hated even more.


    When Lukas shook his head firmly, Sedi burst intoughter. She probably knew that Lukas would never ept such an offer in the first ce.


    ‘In any case, I won’t need to use my mana much anyway.’


    It didn’t take very long for this expectation that Lukas had in his heart to be brutally crushed.


    They encountered Ancient Dragons.


    Not one of them, but three.


    Each of them was extremelyrge and ferocious.


    Rooaaar!


    They all roared at the same time. The volume was so loud that it felt like his eardrums were about to be ripped apart. If Lukas had to fight them on his own, he would have probably needed to use all of his remaining mana.


    This evaluation was enough to show how difficult these enemies were.


    “Shut up!”


    But now he had Sedi.


    She immediately appeared above one of the Ancient Dragons and stomped its head into the ground.


    Bang!


    With a heavy sound, the Ancient Dragon’s head was buried into the ground to the point that it was barely visible. The force of the stomp was so great that even the ground around the hole was heavily cracked.


    Sedi’s single attack had instantly crushed the Ancient Dragon’s skull and liquified the brain matter within. In short, it was an instakill.


    A haze of demonic energy flowed from Sedi’s body. In her current state, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Sedi’s entire body had be a weapon. No, not just a weapon, a weapon of mass destruction.


    She didn’t even need Lukas’ help.


    In less than an hour, she cleanly dealt with the three Ancient Dragons.


    “They actually came to us on their own. That saves us the trouble.”


    While humming happily, Sedi pulled their hearts from their chests and absorbed the dense demonic energy within them.


    Squelch.


    In a short amount of time, those incrediblyrge hearts shrunk.


    Sedi looked content. She had a satisfied expression on her face as though she’d just had the best delicacy in the world.


    “Each one’s demonic energy has a distinct vor.”


    “…”


    Those three Ancient Dragons that Sedi has just in.


    What would have happened if they were to appear somewhere, for example, a city on Combat Ind.


    If it wasn’t one of the major cities, then without a doubt, it would be ruins within a single day. In terms of size and strength, those Ancient Dragons were beings that couldn’t even be ssified as monsters, but natural disasters.


    And yet, these disasters had be nothing more than different vored snacks for Sedi.


    ‘It’s unfortunate.’


    ‘If it wasn’t for the existence of the Absolute lurking somewhere on the ind, Lukas would have prefered to leave Sedi on the ind so that she could continue to increase her strength.


    “I hope we can meet a few more.”


    Sedi had said this half as a joke, but she knew that such an event was unlikely to happen. Although their poption was by no means small, the probability of meeting an Ancient Dragon on Death Ind was actually surprisingly low.


    But that evening.


    Roaaar-!


    Ancient Dragons appeared before them once again.


    This time, there were five of them, more than before.


    Lukas concentrated his mana and said.


    “This time, I’ll help you.”


    “You don’t have to. I just absorbed a lot of demonic energy, so I feel better than ever.”


    “You might be full of energy, but the strain on your body won’t go away so easily.”


    “…”


    Sedi snorted like a daughter whose weakness had been immediately seen through by her father.


    Then the battle began.


    “…”


    In the end, she had no choice but to admit it.


    Thanks to Lukas’ help, the fatigue she felt at the end was significantly reducedpared to before.


    The five Ancient Dragons this time wererger and more powerful than the previous group, but the fight had actually been easier than when she fought the three Ancient Dragons on her own.


    Now that she thought about it, Sedi realised that she’d rarely ever fought together with other people. In fact, the only case that she could remember was the brief coboration with Kran back on earth.


    Their coboration at that time hadn’t been bad, but it certainly couldn’tpare to the bnce of having someone at the front with the other supporting them from behind.


    However, this fight had taken longer than the one before.


    This was because Lukas believed in aplete and easy victory even if it meant taking a bit longer to finish. Lukas didn’t say anything to Sedi, but she understood his intentions and slowed down to match his pace.


    “We actually managed to get the hearts of a few more Ancient Dragons.”


    While she happily sang these words, she noticed Lukas’ serious expression.


    “Why do you look like that? Is something wrong?”


    “…it feels a bit weird.”


    “What do you mean?”


    “We encountered eight Ancient Dragons today. Have you ever encountered a situation like this before?”


    “Um… I think five is the most I have met in a single day.”


    “…”


    Now that she thought about it, she’d killed five Ancient Dragons the day she entered the Heavenly Realm.


    In a way, while this situation wasn’t impossible, it was highly unusual. Lukas felt that something was going on, but he still shook his head and decided to wait and see instead of making a conclusion now.


    But the next day.


    “…something’s… going on.”


    It was Sedi, not Lukas, who muttered these words while panting heavily.


    She wiped some blood from her face while looking at the Ancient Dragon corpses that were scattered around them.


    There were ten of them.


    They had actually encountered ten Ancient Dragons at once.


    No, they didn’t encounter them…


    “They came to us.”


    Sedi nodded at Lukas’ words.


    “I have never met so many Ancient Dragons at the same time. In the first ce, it’s almost impossible to encounter so many at once since Ancient Dragons rarely share their territory.”


    The five Ancient Dragons that she encountered when she first entered were a special case.


    They all knew that they were equal in strength, and they were intelligent enough to know that if they fought each other, they would all be mutually destroyed.


    But the group that they had just encountered was not like that at all.


    Whether it was size, appearance, or strength, they were all different.


    They were probably from different ces as well.


    And yet, as if they shared thoughts, they had alle from wherever they stayed to attack Lukas and Sedi.


    Like they had received the orders from someone.


    And Sedi knew the only being who could make Ancient Dragons do their bidding.


    “…it’s the Dragon King.”


    Sedi’s voice shook slightly as she said these words.


    “It can only be that guy. All of the Ancient Dragons on Death Ind are under his rule, so sending them to attack us is as easy as flicking a finger.”


    Lukas was also certain that the movements of the Ancient Dragons were not natural.


    What was the Dragon King’s n? What was his goal?


    Did he want to kill them? Or just hold them back?


    He couldn’t tell which it was yet.


    Lukas frowned heavily.


    Their schedule was being dyed a lot because of the Ancient Dragons. It had already been three days. ording to the n, they should have already arrived at the coast andid their eyes on Temple Ind, but now, they had only reached about halfway.


    However, it wouldn’t be easy to avoid the Ancient Dragons. Since they were all capable of flight and were, in fact, quite fast, it was hard to outrun them.


    “…I have a bad feeling. So I think we should hurry up a bit more.”


    This was the conclusion that Lukas reached.


    Sedi, who had finished absorbing all of the demonic energy, turned to look at him.


    “How?”


    “I have no choice but to fly at my maximum speed, even if it consumes my mana.”


    After saying that, Lukas walked up to Sedi and held her hand. Then their figures flickered before shooting into the sky.


    As they flew through the sky, Sedi couldn’t help but look back. With her enhanced vision, it was possible for her to clearly see dozens of kilometers away.


    ‘There’s still more still chasing us?’


    And what she saw was several more Ancient Dragons flying towards them.


    They were fast, but they still couldn’tpare to Lukas’ Fly spell. With their current speed, they were able to gradually pull away from their pursuers.


    At that moment, Lukas was thinking about the safe zone guarded by the stone statues. The level of sorcery used in the area was quite high, so it might be possible for them to shake off the Ancient Dragons after they got close.


    Without stopping to rest, Lukas flew through the air at full speed for two days and two nights. Even though he hadn’t slept, he didn’t feel much of a burden.(1)


    Finally, Lukas and Sedi reached the shore.


    “Hmm. The demonic energy in this ce is really thin. Is it because of those statues?”


    Sedi tapped on one of the statues as she asked this.


    Instead of replying, Lukas checked his remaining mana.


    [Current Mana 3614/10000]


    ‘…about 3500.’


    He had less than half of his reserves left, but it didn’t matter since they had already arrived at their destination.


    There should be no more threats, and as long as they returned to Temple Ind, he would be able to quickly recover his mana.


    They were finally able to take a breather.


    Or so he thought.


    Bang!


    —An enormous beam of energy shot towards them from the direction they hade from.


    It wasn’t toote for him to react. However, Lukas simply stared at the energy beam without making any move to block it. This is because he could tell the energy beam wasn’t aimed at them.


    Lukas immediately realised what this enormous beam of energy was.


    It was a destructive beam or dragon breath attack that Ancient Dragons could shoot from their mouths.


    Voosh-!


    The dragon breath passed Lukas and shot across the ocean, splitting it apart as it flew. The force of the attack was so powerful, that despite flying overhead, it was still able to split the polluted waters beneath it like a miracle.


    And it was only then that Lukas realised the target of the breath attack.


    Temple Ind.


    Crackle-!


    The dragon breath was incredibly bright, to the extent of almost burning the retinas of whoever saw it. For a moment, the ck sky seemed to have be white.


    Lukas had a bad feeling. Then the sound of a huge explosion ripped through the area.


    Booom!


    The explosion was so loud that it sounded like the very world was roaring.


    The residual force of the explosion was enough to send storms of wind in every direction, and create enormous waves that were taller than many mountains.


    Before the wind and waves settled, Lukas and Sedi realised something at the same time.


    “…!”


    Temple Ind had disappeared.


    (Note:


    1.I’m not sure how urate that math is… Their original n was to arrive at the safe zone in three days while moving at a moderate pace, but because of the Ancient Dragons, they were only halfway… If Lukas was now moving at his full speed, why did it still take two days for them to arrive?)