"Okay then. I know Elder Races are known for their bloodline talents. Go on, give me a glimpse of the future," Sevrak said, accepting the deal.

His plan was to test the limit of his new powers and, while doing it, crush someone like an ant under his finger just to feel better and remind himself of who he really was.

But deciding to try his powers on Adyr ignited another purpose inside him.

For someone who wanted to enter the Midlands and keep rising, there was no escape; sooner or later, whether as enemy or ally, the chance of facing an Elder Race was high.

At the very least, meeting one here in his own territory, with every advantage and all control in his hands, to test his strength, would yield good data and experience for the future.

In short, it would be like hitting 3 birds with 1 stone.

"Sure," Adyr said, black smoke pouring from his body while he prepared for the coming clash.

"Is this your bloodline talent?" Sevrak asked, the sight of Malice sending a cold shiver down his spine.

He had not even touched it, yet just looking at it made him understand what fear was and what it truly looked like.

"This is just..." Zephan and Throgar were shocked as well. It was their first time witnessing Adyr's Malice, though they had heard of it from the others.

The greatest shock belonged to Liora. Her Titan Ape body went still, her eyes wide with disbelief.

Her shock wasn't just from how eerie and wicked the power looked, but from the fact that she had already witnessed his Grace bloodline talent before.

Her mind could not grasp how someone could host 2 powers—Grace and Malice — in one body. It not only broke every rule she knew of life, but it also went against any known laws and the teachings attributed to the 4 Gods.

While all of them watched, trying to see through the black smoke and understand its effects, the smoke began to change before their eyes.

It first condensed around Adyr's body, then started to materialize.

It took shape at his head, forming a helmet that wrapped down to his neck, with 2 horns exactly like Sevrak's—only pitch black.

"What is that..." Sevrak's shock deepened as he watched Malice keep taking shape on Adyr, becoming a full body armor that mirrored his own blood-colored plate.

Dragon-scale plates knit into a full suit; the gauntlets shaped themselves into talons, each finger hardening into a hooked claw, and armor locked around his feet. In the end, it mirrored Sevrak's armor, only void-black.

It changed shape. Even Adyr was surprised, looking at his hands and feeling the 2 horns crowning his head.

When he first tried this Malice-forged armor, it was simpler, with fewer details. Now it resembled the skin of a Black Dragon, making him question whether Malice drew its shape from his mind or duplicated what his eyes had taken in.

Either way, there was no power-up and no decrease in the armor, only a change in appearance.

Now, 2 dragonoid figures beat their wings and held position in the air, facing each other—one blood-red, emanating power and authority, the other void-black, thin smoke rising from it with the feel of absolute fear and horror.

"I must admit, I underestimated you," Sevrak said, genuinely affected by Adyr's armor.

"Go on. Try your best attack," Adyr answered with the same calm, his crimson eyes shining through the visor's opening.

While Liora and the others pulled back, Sevrak raised his clawed hand and pointed his sharpened index finger at him.

A red electric current gathered before his finger, drawing energy from deep within, compressing into a small bright sphere.

After a brief charge, the red sphere burst forward as a long beam, swallowing air and sight alike, then slamming into Adyr and engulfing him completely.

It did not stop with Adyr. The beam kept extending to the far horizon, melting, tearing, and erasing everything along its path.

"This is too much," Liora said, seeing the attack far stronger than anything the Blood Dragon had unleashed so far, and tried to rush forward.

Before she could take another step, her body went rigid as if seized by invisible hands.

Throgar, who had stopped her, spoke from atop his Giant Eye. "Earthshaker, stay calm. This is not something you can intervene in or change."

It was an attack that even the 3 of them, intervening together, could not stop. They would only throw their lives away and add themselves to the kill count for nothing.

"Then stop being cowards and die with him," Liora snapped, straining against the invisible shackles, stubbornly set on leaping at Sevrak.

Thankfully, Zephan's words eased her stance. "Stop acting like he's dead. Open your eyes and look. He's still enduring."

Liora, jolted out of her fury, tried to see through the red beam, her anger-filled eyes narrowing to pinpoints. Adyr's body was still there, not crumbling into ash the way she had imagined.

It was unbelievable, yet real. Before their eyes, a Rank 3 Practitioner was enduring the attack of an upgraded Rank 4 Practitioner.

Only the black Malice armor flickered under the red light, shedding shade by shade into black smoke still beneath it; his ash-colored skin did not appear to be taking any damage.

At that moment, they remembered what must be protecting Adyr's body, granting him enough strength to hold himself together instead of being destroyed.

Inside Nimbus Land, Adyr's Sanctuary, the vast Citadelith stood beneath a dim sky, its ancient, solid structure shuddering under violent tremors.

By absorbing every shred of damage Adyr took, the structure shook violently. The ground itself seemed to crumble with each impact, and deep cracks split across the marble-like surface of the Rank 4 Spark.

Outer walls began to collapse, stone blocks crashing down the sides while clouds of pale dust rose and drifted across the trembling courtyards.

The entire island quaked with it, waves of pressure rippling through the energy sea surrounding it.

Even though the colossal edifice was a pure defensive-type Spark, it looked as if it might fall in seconds.

Yet as the walls kept crumbling, windows shattered, and tall towers toppled, a white, warm light descended—soft at first, then expanding—washing over the structure like a gentle tide.

The falling debris slowed midair, the dust caught in the glow, and the Citadelith's trembling seemed to ease beneath the healing radiance.

Suddenly, regeneration began amid the destruction.

The tremors still struck with the same dreadful force, yet the destruction seemed to lessen. Stones and arches that had visibly fallen began to knit back together, slowly but certainly, as if the Citadelith were remembering its original form and refusing to yield.

Adyr's energy body hovered in the sky, letting out a quiet sigh of relief as he saw that his Grace was working.

The main reason he had chosen this Spark was his plan to combine it with his bloodline talent's healing effect. Now, seeing how well they worked together confirmed it was the right choice. The Rank 4 Spark's already immense defensive traits had been pushed to another level, and his chances of surviving the attack rose along with it.

Even so, it still wasn't enough.

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