Obadiah, who had just been speaking with fervor and weeping tears, was instantly stunned.
Obadiah stared blankly at Rhine.
"Rhine... Rhine... Rhine!!!!"
The enraged ancient dragon completely lost control in his fury and charged at Rhine without a thought for anything else:
"I could kill you a thousand times and it still wouldn't be enough!!!!"
47. The Grand Tutor's Heart Skipped a Beat
The nameless Golden Sword [New Single-Handed Sword 01].
It was the supreme holy relic of the ancient dragon race.
Though they had long since parted ways with those primordial beings, the ancient dragons still held an unwavering faith in those great higher beings.
And this Golden Sword
was a mighty relic inherited by the ancient dragons' ancestors from the higher beings, a token of their pact with the Supreme Being.
It was a sacred power that should never have been used, even if Obadiah were killed.
Yet now,
Obadiah had convinced himself to wield the Golden Sword, but not only had he failed to defeat his enemy—
the enemy had even stolen the holy sword from him.
At that moment,
Obadiah's despair and madness were beyond description.
He had lost all reason and charged at Rhine recklessly, trying to reclaim the holy relic.
However,
even a clear-headed Obadiah was no match for Histia.
Now, this mad dog posed even less of a threat to Rhine and the strongest demigod he had created.
Histia struck again.
The authority of Order gradually condensed into a crystal sword, aimed at the ancient dragon Obadiah's heart, ready to bring the battle to an end.
With just one strike,
the battle would be over.
They had obtained the Golden Sword, defeated the ancient dragon, and claimed his treasure.
Their journey would end in complete success. However...
Rhine felt that something was wrong.
After a thousand cycles of reincarnation, his countless experiences and stores of knowledge had become instincts buried deep in his mind. Those instincts had honed Rhine's sixth sense to an extraordinary degree.
Rhine felt that there was something he hadn't taken into account...
The ancient dragon Obadiah's barrier could sever the Dragon's Nest from the mortal world, fundamentally preventing any possibility of teleportation magic.
But...
The ancient dragon's barrier still had one final link to the mortal world.
The elemental ley lines of the Laita elves!
Obadiah's barrier was strengthened by draining energy from the elemental ley lines. Even after the barrier was activated, it still had to draw power from Rhine's spirit veins.
In other words...
If there were a powerful figure who knew the elemental ley lines extremely well and wished to intervene in this battle,
then
they could travel through the ley lines and arrive inside the barrier unhindered!
This was bad!!!
At the thought of the ley lines, the image of that woman instantly appeared in Rhine's mind.
And at that very moment,
Rhine's guess came true...
Beneath the earth, some unknown power invaded the network of spirit veins. Then a silver tidal wave burst forth.
It was liquid mithril.
Mithril... It should have been an elven magical forging material worth many times its weight in gold, the highest-grade kind of all. Yet now, it had gathered into waves, as if it meant to drown the abyss!
An endless torrent of liquid mithril surged through the elemental ley lines,
and the barrier made of Silver White Crystals was severely corroded!
The divinity of Order was challenged once more.
Unlike before, when the Golden Sword had easily dispelled it,
this time, mithril and crystal were evenly matched, locked in a stalemate!
A weak voice rang out from the sea of mithril:
"I never imagined that the person in this world most capable of understanding the truths of our divine lords would be a human... How shameful."
Then, amid the surging mithril,
a weary-looking silver-haired beauty appeared.
Rhine knew that woman better than anyone.
Laita's strongest demigod, the White Light Grand Tutor, Electra Lucia.
The only person in all the mortal world capable of interfering in this battle had finally arrived.
Whether the Grand Tutor was friend or foe was beyond question.
The prince of the human empire had invaded Laita with the Demigod Imperial Guard to hunt down the ancient dragon guarding the northern border.
Laita's White Light Grand Tutor would never allow that.
Yet after arriving on the battlefield, the surging mithril didn't attack Rhine and the others. Instead, it took the shape of a colossal liquid beast and tightly restrained the rampaging Obadiah.
"Ancient dragon, don't throw your life away."
The Grand Tutor said, "You're already under your enemy's mental control. Haven't you noticed?"
"Elf!!!"
Obadiah roared, demanding, "How did you break through my barrier?!"
Obadiah struggled to free himself, but the beast made of mithril had terrifying strength—enough to overpower the ancient dragon by brute force.
If any elf had been present, a close look would have left them astonished.
The mithril construct restraining Obadiah was no creature the Grand Tutor had casually fashioned. It was, in fact, one of the elven gods depicted in ancient murals!
And within this colossus of mithril, it seemed... the divine essence of a true god really existed!
Obadiah glared at the Grand Tutor.
The Grand Tutor remained calm. Her pale face was utterly indifferent.
At last... Obadiah stopped struggling.
He had finally realized something was wrong.
The fury and panic he had felt since earlier, and even the impulsive decision to unleash the supreme holy relic... had all come from Histia's mind-control spell.
The moment Obadiah realized he was being controlled,
the control ceased to exist.
Histia's spell had failed.
"Scheming human..."
Obadiah stared at Rhine with hatred.
Though Obadiah didn't know much about the demigods of Hain,
he did know a little about those of his neighbor, Laita.
For example,
though Hain's Order's Chosen Daughter, Histia, was exceptionally powerful,
there were still beings in the mortal world who could challenge her authority.
And among those considered most likely to defeat Histia was
this White Light Grand Tutor of Laita.
Though the Grand Tutor's bloodline was nowhere near as pure as Histia Hela's,
this monster had swallowed a demigod and raised her strength to a terrifying level.
Moreover,
no one knew
how many more demigods the Grand Tutor had swallowed in the decade or so after devouring the first one, using the same method.
The silver-haired elf beauty, seemingly as delicate as a flower, actually housed a mutated elven pantheon within her.
Disgusting...
But none of that mattered now.
With such a powerful ally,
Obadiah saw hope of turning the tide once more!
Obadiah said, "Elf, you deal with Rhine. I'll kill that demigod."
"..."
The Grand Tutor didn't reply.
She merely watched Rhine in silence.
Rhine, in turn, was equally on guard.
Histia Hela stepped in front of the Grand Tutor.
Rhine had no choice but to put off killing Obadiah and deal with the more troublesome enemy first.
The Grand Tutor asked coolly, "Rhine Hyun, four days ago, did you visit a brothel on the northern border?"
Rhine smiled calmly. "I did."
The Grand Tutor's expression darkened.
The truth was finally out.
"...I'll grind your bones to dust!"
Then, in the next instant,
the battle erupted!
The Grand Tutor attacked. The mithril surging beneath her feet transformed into countless mithril machines and launched the first wave of attacks at Rhine.
Histia immediately countered. A Crystal Spear appeared in her hand, and she thrust it into the ground!
In an instant,
countless crystal clusters burst from the earth, wiping out the entire mithril horde.
The first round ended in a stalemate.
The second round began at once!
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