CHAPTER 72

A great war has ended in two locations. One took place on the shores of the Endless Sands Islands, where the Demon Queen Succubus suffered a massive defeat along with her army of orcs. In the end, she faced catastrophic losses, including six demon dukes, a sacrifice that led to the Abyssal Moors Queen becoming the first Demon King on this server to reach the legendary rank. This turn of events forced Kaya to abandon more than half of her army to save herself and even contemplate sacrificing some of the demon dukes to reach the legendary level. However, such an act had already been attempted by greedy ones before, revealing a penalty that involved losing the ability to summon seventh-tier beings. With this knowledge, she refrained from executing her plan, as slain summoned beings, along with the penalty, did not count toward the ten required epic kills for level advancement, rendering such a sacrifice meaningless.

The second war took place in the southern region of the main continent, where the tide of battle shifted unexpectedly. The King of Death, leading a colossal army of three hundred million, had been sweeping through the united forces of darkness. However, he soon realized that he had fallen into a trap, only becoming aware of it too late. The Archduke Dracula, now referred to as the King of Darkness, had allied with the Archmage Genibas, bringing the Demon King of the Dark Dragon under their command. They invested in this captive Demon King, elevating him to the seventh tier and summoning nearly ten epic-ranked dark dragons. With no means of escape, the King of Death's army found itself encircled by the united forces and was ultimately engulfed in a sea of dragonfire.

This development did not go unnoticed by a certain individual—Hazard, who was organizing his bandits, detected a massive drop in the number of undead under his command. He immediately established a mental link with both the King of Death and the Grand General Artemis, as both commanded enormous undead armies—one from the King of Death's southern massacres, and the other from the fallen of the hundred-million-strong war. However, Artemis reported that no city had closed its gates; instead, they were opening them, offering humans as tributes and pleading for the Demon King's mercy.

Hearing this, Hazard felt reassured, confident that Artemis's decision to spare seventy million fleeing soldiers had been the right one. Hazard had told him to seek out believers, yet the task of spreading faith was daunting—he had no idea how to achieve it and decided to address it later. At that moment, the King of Death sent his reply, containing only one word: Mercy.

Upon reading this, and witnessing the steady decline in the number of undead, Hazard realized that the King of Death, whom he had believed to be invincible in the south, had suffered such a crushing defeat that he could not even cry out for help. Instead, he begged Hazard to spare only those previously mentioned. Of course, Hazard would have been pleased to gain more subordinates—it was in his best interest. However, the defeat in the south and the unknown factor that had brought down the King of Death puzzled him. This prompted him to use Abyssal Eyes to spy on the King of Death's surroundings. What he saw—massive, black dragons with brutal appearances, each hundreds of meters long—sent shivers down his spine. Dragons, by bloodline and race, were vastly superior to the undead, and Hazard wasn't even sure if five epic undead could defeat a single epic dragon.

Thinking about dragons, he quickly remembered the three dragons he had summoned in their infancy. Since then, they had been stored in the chamber of fallen heroes, feeding alongside Cerberus. This recollection led him to check on them and assess their condition.

A few minutes later, as he reached the chamber, he received a message from the King of Death:"I will drag them all into the depths of hell, so show mercy to the innocent!"

This message shocked Hazard. He calculated that there was no possible way for the King of Death to escape. Moreover, he hadn't expected the King of Death to choose a suicidal assault despite knowing his fate was sealed.

"There are many epics in my army, but with legendary dragons in the south, there's no need to push for conquest…"

Hazard knew that the King of Death had no guarantee of victory in the south—he had merely been used. Regardless, Hazard intended to establish a bandit army to force Artemis's forces into defending the south while sending his bandits, led by the epic rogue Orka and the witches, north to confront the Empire.

At that moment, his eyes fell upon the three creatures before him—beings whose sheer size could mock all those epic dark dragons. As he entered, the three Lightning Death Dragons, their elongated purple bodies rumbling with deep growls, locked their glowing violet eyes onto him in the dark chamber. Their sheer size, nearly matching that of the Golden Legendary Dragon, Guardian of the Empire, made Hazard realize that their prolonged nourishment on the corpses of heroes had brought them to the brink of legendary rank.

Their deep breaths and unstable power fluctuations made Hazard contemplate a proper strategy for them. If he could have three legendary dragons under his command, the current competition would be meaningless. Yet, even as epic creatures, he understood that all three required a powerful catalyst to break through and ascend to legendary rank.

"You've grown so big…"

Standing so small compared to them, Hazard reached out and stroked each dragon's head. They had spent their entire infancy in this dark place, sensing only his aura. To them, his aura was both mother and father.

He searched the demon markets but found no suitable catalyst. Even if he knew what the right catalyst was—a legendary-ranked beast's heart? A legendary-tier monster crystal?—he was too poor to obtain it.

"Old man, are you still alive?"

He attempted contact with the only wise person around him—someone who was truly on the verge of death.

No response.

Glancing at his command structure, he noticed that the King of Death had vanished. Even though he had known there was no salvation for him, he still found it hard to believe.

"Did he really die?"

It didn't matter. Helping would have been pointless. He had no courage to face multiple legendary dragons without his fortress's defenses. Furthermore, there was always the possibility of a trap or more dragons waiting, which deterred him from venturing there.

Still, the death of someone who had played a major role in his journey, creating countless challenges for him, left him in a trance.

"Dracula… King of Darkness… The threat in the south won't disappear so easily…"

Then, he led the dragons out of the simple wooden chamber. Their appearance and immense size immediately drew the attention of the witches. Even Hazard himself felt empowered, knowing that such powerful beings with supreme bloodlines were under his command.

"Summon Orka and let these dragons feast on the blood of the Empire!"