The ebony witch, hovering aloft, gazed down upon the dragon as it struggled to its feet. With a slight gesture of her hand, infinite shadows surged forth once more, transmuting into razor-sharp blades that pierced directly into the dragon's wounds. Though it appeared as if she had subjected the dragon to a thousand cuts, in reality, it had little effect.
The monster was regenerating at a terrifying pace.
Despite the dragon's seemingly grievous injuries and Nine's apparent dominance, not a single adventurer dared to seize the opportunity.
They were, of course, too wary. Like hyenas, adventurers excelled at assessing situations and gauging risks. They were acutely aware that this seemingly battered dragon could incinerate them to oblivion with a single breath.
And how could Nine be ignorant of these adventurers' nature?
After a dozen seconds of futile attempts to inflict further damage upon the dragon, Nine released a soft sigh.
She did not consider herself to be deceiving the adventurers, but rather offering them an opportunity through their own avarice.
Since no one desired this chance, she had no choice but to rescind it.
"Now, all adventurers, regardless of stage, attack this dragon imdiately."
The witch's raspy voice resonated throughout the city once more. This ti, however, her words carried only pure frigidity and indifference.
"This is not a request. It is a command."
"—In the na of Lord Hydral."
This declaration not only stunned the hidden adventurers who had been biding their ti, but also left Nerilia and the other Shadewell mbers astounded.
"Nine!"
Nerilia exclaid in fury. "What are you saying? How dare you so recklessly invoke Lord Ansel's na—mmph!"
Tangible shadows thrust directly into Nerilia's mouth, silencing her subsequent words.
"Do not make lose all the good impressions I had of you, Nerilia," Nine cast a glance at the restrained Nerilia. "Do not make yourself appear so foolish... It will require extra effort to adjust the recordings later. How troubleso."
Thereafter, Nine ceased to pay attention to the dragon, instead further expanding the shadows under her control. An increasing number of hidden adventurers discovered an inky blackness beneath their feet. Before they could react in utter terror, ebony claws entwined around them, piercing their flesh with icy cruelty, slowly carving several wounds.
"Either engage the dragon in battle…"
Nine declared, gazing down at the shadows that now blanketed nearly a quarter of the domain, as if surveying her own territory.
She raised one hand, slowly curling her fingers. The nurous adventurers scattered throughout the domain, bound by black claws within the shadow, felt their bodies and bones gradually compressed and fractured. Their internal organs were on the verge of rupturing under this horrifying pressure.
"Or die here and now."
Subsequently, Nine released the shadow claws restraining the adventurers. Almost instantaneously, the vast majority of the liberated adventurers began a frenzied flight, utterly disregarding Nine's words.
Yet, no matter how they fled, they could not escape their own shadows.
Countless hands erupted from the fugitives' shadows, either impaling their bodies, snapping their necks, or crushing their skulls—executing them with the utmost decisiveness and efficiency.
"Rovven!"
The crimson dragon roared, having largely recovered from its previous injuries. It had grown even more enraged, seemingly not due to Nine's earlier devastating attack, but rather her failure to follow through with sufficiently vicious assaults—as if mocking its prowess.
Instead of soaring skyward, the dragon's maw gaped to an extraordinary degree. Crimson aether rapidly coalesced into a sphere crackling with lightning, aid at the motionless Nine above. The re existence of this concentrated orb instantly lted everything in its vicinity.
Yet Nine had not deigned to properly regard the dragon, thodically continuing her... slaughter.
"You accursed witch!!"
A desperate adventurer bellowed, launching an attack at Nine. But as he raised his longsword, before he could even unleash a blade of energy, countless hands surged from his shadow, tearing him asunder.
"How curious that you possess the courage to attack , yet lack the valor to confront the dragon," Nine murmured softly.
"Truly, an irredeemable pack of... hyenas."
She finally shifted her gaze to the colossal dragon. By now, the incandescent energy sphere had reached its zenith. The fifth-stage dragon Seraphina had faced could obliterate a distant mountaintop with a single energy beam. This fifth-stage dragon's accumulated power could effortlessly reduce this entire domain to a deep crater.
Yet Nine harbored no regrets for not slaying the dragon imdiately. It was unworthy of such effort. After all, dragon-slaying was not her primary objective—she had co to aid Ansel in establishing a new order in the West.
Moreover, Nine knew he was coming. Imminently.
She gazed into the dragon's dark golden vertical pupils, her eyes devoid of the solemnity one might expect when facing a formidable foe. Instead, they held only pity.
This pity instantly ignited the already frenzied dragon's fury.
BOOM—!
Indeed, it was ignited.
A jet-black energy beam, its origin invisible in the distant sky, annihilated the dragon so thoroughly that not even a speck of dust remained.
This terrifying black light, limitless and endless, with a diater of at least several dozen ters, leveled more than half of the entire domain. It surged towards the horizon, carving an abyss of unfathomable depth into the earth.
Nine had spared a few fortunate souls to bear witness to this scene of apparent apocalyptic judgnt.
The young woman descended slowly from the sky, returning to her wheelchair and relinquishing the borrowed power.
She knew her task in this domain had reached its conclusion.
Within monts, God from the Machine materialized in the sky above the ruined domain.
Its steel wings, unfurled behind it, exhaled azure flas. The serpentine maw upon its chest still emanated a faint aura of destruction. This godlike figure, seemingly lording over all creation, complented the annihilating strike that had just obliterated everything. The adventurers who had narrowly escaped Nine's massacre fell to their knees as if beholding a divine manifestation.
Nine, now seated once more in her wheelchair, rested her chin on her hand. Gazing at the extraordinary being not far off, whose face was a mixture of terror and fanaticism, she inquired nonchalantly, "Did you record everything?"
"..."
Nerilia, who had been restrained earlier, did not respond. She had indeed carried out Nine's orders, and by now she comprehended Nine's intentions.
The essence of the adventurer purge plan was to use them as sacrificial lambs, enabling Ansel to establish an inviolable authority and majesty. The forr was the ans, the latter the end.
As long as the world recognized Ansel's power and incontestability, it mattered little whether the adventurers were slain for breaking rules or for failing to combat the dragon.
In fact, the latter seed more justifiable. Compared to so convoluted set of regulations, the rationale of "cowering in self-preservation instead of protecting civilians during a Dragon Calamity" appeared far more righteous.
...Had this lunatic imdiately redesigned the entire plan the mont the Dragon Calamity struck, without even considering retreat or regrouping?
Nerilia recalled Nine's unhesitating deanor when she invoked Ansel's na to compel the adventurers to confront the dragon. Experience tales with My Virtual Library Empire
A suffocating... confidence.
Whether in making decisions on Ansel's behalf or in taking the lives of others.
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