Age of Adepts

Even though it had the body and appearance of a skeletal dragon, its insides were very different. The gaps between the bones, its chest cavity, and the tiny holes in its bare, leather wings were filled with blue, bone-chilling ice energy.

Crystalline frost covered the surface of the bones. Strangely enough, it did not seem to affect the dragon, as if the ice did not exist at all.

The ferocity of the dragon, combined with the unstoppable seeping force of ice, gave rise to this horrifying monstrosity!

“Why is it an undead dragon?” Greem frowned. “I’m certain ice dragons are also creatures of flesh and blood. Where is its flesh?”

Greem might now have seen any Fourth Grade ice dragons back in Lance, but he had killed several First and Second Grade ice dragons. All of those ice dragons, without exception, were living creatures. None of them were undead!

“This is just evidence that the Ancient Reliquary is in its possession.” Kanganas’ crimson soulfire cut through the distance and landed on the ice dragon crouching within the palace. He explained in a cold voice, “It might have once been a dragon with blood and flesh, but after such a long time exposed to the Ancient Reliquary, its flesh must have been corroded away. Don’t forget, the Ancient Reliquary of Deep Winter contains the laws of death and ice.”

Greem instantly understood the situation after hearing the lich’s explanation.

As expected, there were always two sides to a coin!

This ice dragon coveted the ice laws in the Ancient Reliquary. However, if it absorbed the powers within the Reliquary, its flesh would unavoidably be destroyed by the death laws within. Those were high-grade death laws! The corroded tissue could not possibly regenerate through sheer physical powers.

The powers of death had thoroughly modified this ice dragon. It was a skeletal ice dragon with the law powers of both ice and death.

It was now an undead dragon from head to toe!

“Insignificant, greedy invaders. I smell the howls of resentful wraiths on you– souls of my subordinates, of the residents of my kingdom of ice. Your actions will be punished by Fate! I will seal you in ice and place you in front of the palace entrance to warn all who come after.”

The skeletal ice dragon raised its upper body, and its blue leather wings flared open. Strange runes glowing with bright light and a dense cloud of ice energy surrounded its body. From a distance, the dragon looked like an intricate sculpture of ice.

“Hmph! Big words for a mere dragon!” Kanganas couldn’t help but mock the dragon, “If I’m not wrong, you must be trying to merge the Ancient Reliquary with your soul, aren’t you?”

“You bastards! I knew it! You are here for the Reliquary,” The skeletal dragon roared as clouds of frost surged out of its mouth, causing the temperature in the palace to fall by a hundred degrees or so.

“The Ancient Reliquary of Deep Winter contains death laws and ice laws. You are trying to assimilate the Reliquary with your soul to advance to Fifth Grade. You underestimated its power and overestimated yourself. You were even willing to turn yourself into an undead just to make the assimilation succeed. Kehkehkehe. Quite decisive, I see!” The lich coldly continued, “Now that we’re here, best recognize your situation. Hand it over! Or else...”

Perhaps infuriated by the lich’s words, the dragon roared and crouched down. It charged towards the party with thundering steps.

“Sand King, Medusa, stop it!” Kanganas’ sharp voice rang out in the hall. Meanwhile, he took a few steps back and quickly started chanting the spell to open a rift to his undead dimension.

“Dammit! This beast is too big!” Sand King shouted furiously. “I can only stop it for around twelve seconds. You guys had better pick up the slack after that!”

Having said that, Sand King shook his body as he instantly extracted a large amount of sand and dirt from beneath the ice. The sand merged into his body. His insectoid body had only been five meters long, but it instantly started swelling. In the blink of an eye, he had turned into a scorpion about twelve meters long. Sand King immediately charged at the skeletal ice dragon.

The dragon’s tail alone was thirty-five meters long. It was several times larger than Sand King.

The collision of the two titans was like the crash of a comet against a planet. A violent storm instantly appeared at the center of the palace. Several of the closest ice pillars were blown to ice shard fragments by the rippling shockwave and blasted into the distance.

Sshina, who was lighter in weight, was blown back by the winds. She had to curl her tail around a pillar to stabilize herself.

Meanwhile, Tulas the Starspirit reacted unusually. Three strange shields glowing with a dark light appeared around him before he crouched against the ice. Several strange runes flew out of his body.

These runes seemed to possess incomprehensible and weird powers. They flew towards the flash of blue in the center of the storm.

Greem was also casting his spells quickly. As his voice started to rise in pitch, a massive door forged entirely out of flames appeared and opened wide.

The next moment, a tide of fire creatures rushed forward and charged towards the ice dragon at Greem’s command.

“Alright...my turn!” At almost the same instant, Kanganas managed to open his undead dimension.

A skeletal door appeared out of thin air. As it opened, an elite army of undead marched out from within in an orderly fashion.

At the very front of the army was a horde of two hundred fearsome ghouls.

These creatures had no skin– only slime above their exposed muscle fibers. They crouched over the ground like hounds, white bone spikes growing out of their spines.

Their primary weapons were their sharp, clawed limbs, as well as their vicious teeth and extendable tongues.

A dozen lesser liches stood behind the ghouls, dressed in gray robes and holding bone staves in their hands. They were natural undead spellcasters, capable of casting most death magic and several fearsome soul curses.

Flanking the formation of lesser liches was thirty undead knights.

There were all sorts of undead knights amongst them, from the weakest skeletal knights (First Grade) to the most powerful Scourge Knights.

However, even they weren’t the most potent forces in Kanganas’ undead army.

As the elite undead continued to swarm forward, the sound of rattling bones could be heard. A gigantic bone dragon, measuring fifteen meters in length, appeared in the palace.

“Army of the dead, dispose of this fool for me!”

Lich Kanganas waved his staff, and all the undead lifted their heads and let out a battlecry. They stormed towards the dragon from its flank.

Fire creatures, undead creatures, void runes.

The three spellcasters unleashed their powers, instantly summoning a terrifying army that charged towards the fight from every direction.

Meanwhile, Sand King was beginning to falter!

The gigantified body he created using his innate powers was not an actual physical body, after all. Sand King still had to endure the difference in Strength caused by the massive size difference with every clash against the skeletal ice dragon.

The dragon’s body had been forged harder than steel by the powers of ice. Apart from a few flakes of frost and ice falling off its body during the fight, it did not seem to be injured. Meanwhile, Sand King was already covered in injuries. Cracks could be seen everywhere on his carapace, and his insectoid blood was frozen into ice before it could even hit the ground.

Sshina moved around the battle with her agile body, occasionally scaling the ice pillars and attacking the ice dragon with her vicious snake arrows.

Sshina had six arms. Tow of them slashed the ice crystals aimed at her to pieces, while another two pulled the bow and shot out strange snake arrows.

These snake arrows came from her hair of snakes.

Every time a snake arrows hit an enemy–in addition to the impact of the arrow itself–the arrows would instantly turn into vicious poison snakes that coiled around the opponent.

It was Sshina’s most powerful long-range attack!

However, her attacks were virtually ineffective against Skeletal Ice Dragon Nax. Those snake arrows couldn’t even penetrate the thick layer of ice on Nax’s bones. After turning into snakes, the arrows would freeze into little sculptures before they could do anything.

The difference in their sizes also made Sshina fearful of approaching the dragon.

If she were hit directly by the dragon’s extreme ice powers, she would not be able to come out unscathed. She did not have Sand King’s tough carapace or his ferocious Strength to break free of the ice.

In all honesty, it was simply too difficult fighting against this skeletal ice dragon!

Sand King’s every movement was reduced to a crawl while he was within the radius of Nax’s frost halo. His insectoid limbs would be frozen to the ground if he stopped for even the briefest of moments. He had to rely on his overwhelming Strength to crush the ice before he could move again.

After holding on for thirteen painful seconds, Sand King had no choice but to retreat from the battlefield. The moment he stepped away, the large horde of fire creatures, undead, and void runes immediately surrounded the dragon.

The skeletal ice dragon, Nax, roared in anger when it saw enemies swarming in from every direction. It opened its maw and let out a giant breath of frost.

Every single creature in the charge, undead or fire creature, was instantly encased in a thick layer of translucent ice. As the frost dissipated, the ice crystals shattered, and every creature sealed within broke into pieces.