“As expected, I’ve heard that the Winter Queen is in cahoots with the Demon Race, colluding with them in their filth. The evidence is irrefutable—it’s your Demon Race that murdered Lord Elf Queen!”
The leader—or rather, the man bullying others with Melvas’s borrowed authority—pointed at Leia and bellowed. Clearly, he had no inkling of the gravity of the situation.
Wasn’t it just a stinking lizard with wings? What was there to fear?
He stared at Melvas, utterly baffled as to why this arrogant old man was trembling in fear. Melvas soon noticed the leader’s gaze and broke free from the cage of his terror.
“Your Demon Race may be strong indeed, but in the end, there’s only one of you. Surround her!” Melvas gritted his teeth and issued the order to the elf soldiers.
These soldiers, long under his mental control, wouldn’t dream of resisting. They would even turn on each other for the “greater good” he preached.
But this figure… she looked somewhat familiar.
Smooth, razor-sharp scales of black and deep purple adorned her body, her wings bat-like yet far more robust and powerful. Compared to the Demons he had seen before, the difference in size was like night and day. Shrouded entirely in darkness, her features remained indistinct, save for that pair of glowing dragon eyes piercing through the gloom.
“Hey, old man, you don’t think she’s a dragon, do you? There are only two dragons on the entire Camiran Continent. If even one shows up, we’re all dead meat.”
“Fool, would the Dragon King proactively come to the Elf Kingdom?”
Melvas naturally suspected that the one standing before him was the Dragon King herself.
But as he himself had said, no matter how idle the Dragon King might be, she wouldn’t venture into the Elf Kingdom. There were tastier prey to hunt elsewhere when foraging.
As for whether the Elf Queen’s death had anything to do with her?
Melvas couldn’t care less.
In most cases, he and his acquaintances only cared about the “results,” not the meaningless process.
“She just happens to look similar—it’s nothing but a bluffing illusion to scare us. Don’t let such a simple trick cloud your judgment. Have you forgotten what I taught you?”
“I haven’t forgotten.”
He nodded, drawing his bow alongside the elf soldiers and aiming threateningly at Leia.
“Surrender now! Your Demon Race murdered the Elf Queen. Today, we will rid the people of this scourge and slay the demon!”
Melvas was not as terrified as Leia had anticipated.
As an elder of vast experience, he channeled his knowledge more toward speculating on the evil dragon’s identity.
From a broader perspective, Melvas had little reason to be overly fearful.
He was a Soul Tier Layer 5 powerhouse. Soul Tier elves were rare as hen’s teeth. While an elder’s excellence wasn’t judged solely by combat prowess, Soul Tier Layer 5 marked him as an undisputed elite across the entire Camiran Continent. Dealing with ordinary folk required no more than a flick of the wrist.
Especially with his beloved Flame Magic.
He might be too decrepit to gauge her direction accurately, or perhaps this Demon had pulled some trick, but resolving such a threat called for nothing more than a wide-area Flame Magic blast…
“Flames, heed my command and burn into Purgatory!”
“Melvas, you…”
The leader could scarcely believe it.
He knew large-scale Flame Magic would harm any ordinary person caught in its radius—including certain immobilized wounded soldiers.
“Are you really going to do this?”
“Child, there’s much you still need to learn. They’re merely pitiable souls sacrificing for peace. I will remember them forever, and so will the Elf Kingdom—just like the Winter Queen’s lackeys!”
“…Fine!”
Melvas’s impassioned justification was the last thing the leader ever heard from him.
With a single command, the green-glowing Elf Arrows whooshed through the air in perfect unison, streaking toward Leia with unerring precision. Each arrow packed the punch of a handgun bullet. Though not as swift, their destructive power rivaled those technological hot weapons.
If one struck an ordinary person, their fate wouldn’t be like Ailin’s—they’d have a bowl-sized hole blasted through their chest or wherever it hit the instant of impact, their doom plain amid the spray of shattered flesh and blood.
Sizzle—
But the leader would never witness the devastating glory of the elves’ proud Elf Arrows.
His head soared skyward like a flung apple, blood trailing like a fiery comet tail in a brilliant fireworks display. And his blood? It was sewage even haughty Blood Clan members scorned to taste.
“!!!”
In that mere 0.2 seconds, the arrogance hadn’t fully faded from the leader’s face. Only Melvas had realized what had happened.
His eyes bulged like those of a stone lion guardian, and in that instant, every link in his chain of speculation was mercilessly shattered from all angles, leaving nothing behind but regret and fear.
The Leader’s strength was at the Soul Tier Layer 2.
Even he himself would need to employ a great many tricks to kill the man, but he was far from capable of doing so casually, without leaving so much as a trace of the attack!
His own incantation wasn’t even finished yet—the spell had barely reached the halfway point—yet this young man had already been slain!
That meant the power of this Demon Race member standing before him had already surpassed his own. No, perhaps it had far surpassed it…
For a Demon to so vastly outclass him… who could it be? There was no need to speculate.
He wasn’t arrogant enough to believe he could contend with the Evil Dragon.
“There’s a flaw!”
“…”
Melvas lunged forward in a swift blur, pressing the ancient, slightly decayed Flame Staff against Leia’s abdomen… Though from the feel of it, he couldn’t be sure he’d truly made contact with this supreme being.
In truth, after smoothly reciting his incantation, his confidence had soared back to its peak.
The Soul Tier Layer 5 was merely an assessment of one’s cultivation progress.
What truly mattered for powerhouses at the Soul Tier were their combat instincts and tactical acumen—skills that geniuses at the Soul Tier Layer 1 wielded to surpass those at Layer 2 all the time.
He had already clashed once with that human who had bombarded the city. Though it had ended with him playing dead and slipping away unscathed, he hadn’t been at any disadvantage during the fight!
In other words, if he relied on his own ingenuity and battle sense, escape was not impossible. He might even have a chance to bind the Evil Dragon long enough to get away! There might be no records of anyone who had ever fought her to draw from, but he was a once-in-a-millennium genius who had lived for over a thousand years.
The mere longevity granted by the Elves’ race wasn’t the true reason he’d survived that long… After all, long-lived races were all the more prone to dying from other causes.
And he was precisely the powerhouse who could evade every calamity!
“Boom—!”
As the incantation reached its conclusion, a roaring flame tornado surged forth from the staff, coiling high once more toward Leia.
