Chapter 192: Envoy
For centuries, the Dragon Slayer Guild had been hiding its true power. Once revealed, it grabbed everyone's attention.
Long years of lying low led the creatures of the Dragon Plane to misunderstand the guild. They thought of it as just a free information hub, only sending out envoys to recruit weaker races. They didn't see any significant actions from the guild.
But this impression changed drastically. Even a slight show of its fangs shocked the entire Racial Union Zone.
The guild's envoys took over city-states, replacing the ruling officials. They demanded everyone to stop practicing Bloodline Advancement Art and cease the endless wars.
More than that, they infiltrated the territories of various dragon clans in the Dragon Plane, harshly dealing with adventurers harboring ill intentions.
It seemed like the Dragon Slayer Guild was protecting world peace.
But weirdly, another group was doing the exact opposite. These envoys didn't stop wars; instead, they added fuel to the fire started by Adam. After conquering cities, they freely taught the Refinement Art to different races and relentlessly waged war against the towns of the first group.
Lina encountered one such envoy while on a mission in a fire dragon's territory.
"Master, this envoy is stronger than the one I killed before. If it weren't for your power, I'd be dead," she said.
"Didn't your envoy status help?"
Lina, terrified, replied, "He's a madman! He demanded my submission, and when I hesitated, he attacked without giving me a chance to explain."
Following Adam's order, the demon read Lina's memories.
The attacking envoy's energy level had reached the transcendent level of this world. He attacked Lina with a strangely colored energy beam. The memory showed that when the beam hit the elven body, it caused severe atrophy, killing the affected area. The plants hit by the beam lost vitality quickly, but when it missed and hit the ground or rocks, there was no noticeable effect.
Lina's battle with the envoy was brief. His abilities were too much for her. Adam felt that even if Lina reached the transcendent level, she couldn't stand a chance against this envoy.
Shaking in fear, Lina confessed, "Master, he's very strong and terrifying. If he hadn't underestimated my elemental missile, I wouldn't have escaped."
Adam quickly froze Lina for a moment, helping her to stabilize. Then he asked, "Did you bring back the slave's corpse?"
Lina frantically shook her head. "No, it's deadly to touch!"
The devil trembled her soul, and Lina fell into unconsciousness from fear. Meanwhile, Adam went to the city to reinforce the magical array.
Adam had no intention of fleeing. The abilities of the Dragon Slayer Guild's envoy sparked his interest. If his suspicion was correct, the Cthulhu world would be of unparalleled importance to him. It might be the shortcut he needed to discover electronic existence in the ether environment.
...
The arrival of the envoy was slower than Adam had anticipated. On the third day after Lina returned to the City of Freedom, seven envoys dressed in black hooded robes appeared in the sky outside the city. Without any declaration or attempt to communicate with Adam, they launched an attack on the protective shield.
The Energy stones at the energy nodes rapidly depleted while resisting, and the protective shield visibly weakened under the constant fluctuations.
"Master? What do we do?" The devil was worried. The energy level of the seven envoys seemed not too strong individually, but Adam's power hadn't peaked either. In the world of mages, he would have been fearless, but here, the dragon's body greatly limited him.
"You stay here to protect my lab," Adam instructed before taking flight. The fragile shield shattered as he spread his wings.
Adam's gigantic fifteen-meter body did not intimidate the envoys. They scattered across the sky and, without a word, unleashed seven energy beams targeting various parts of Adam's body.
"Defense."
Adam uttered the word in the dragon language. Ice elements condensed on his body and bloomed outward, layer by layer, protecting him at the center.
The defensive magic was pierced, but new ice elements quickly filled the gaps. The energy beams weakened and eventually dissipated in the sky.
Adam was testing the envoys' attack strength, and they, in turn, were gauging his power level. After the first round of the clash, they hovered silently in the snowstorm for a while before one of them spoke, "Are you the sole surviving egg from the Frost Dragon Disaster at the Neltharion Mountain Range?"
The voice was strange, likely artificially modified, and it used a questioning tone to convey certainty.
The envoy seemed not to need a response from Adam. He continued, "There's a big problem with your origin and the Frost Dragon Disaster. We've known about it for a while, but we did nothing. Now it seems we were wrong. The best course would have been to kill you right away. Okov was a fool." The envoy's way of speaking was odd, disjointed, as if he was speaking whatever came to mind.
"You are accelerating the demise of this world."
"After the wars, we spent immense efforts convincing the dragon race and conquering our kin."
"Just to live in a world that's alive."
"But you are destroying all of that, undoing our years of effort."
"You are guilty."
"You are an enemy of two worlds, of billions of beings."
"So, you must die."
"Then we will steer the world back on track."
The envoys spoke one after another, their tone remaining calm yet clearly accumulating a towering rage.
"So, you must die." In unison, the seven envoys finished their last sentence and then shot at Adam energy beams far more terrifying than before.
The seven beams converged, creating a bizarre wave of energy that annihilated elements, leaving a black trail between heaven and earth.
"Elemental Cannon." Having transformed into the dragon language, this spell no longer required a long preparation time. In an instant, numerous cannon barrels formed in front of Adam, followed by a barrage of rockets filled with thunderous power, blanketing the area in front of him."