Chapter 170: Void Eye

Laira immediately retreated. The Boundless Fishing Rod in her hand tightened the fishing line, but the Flame Bone Dragon beneath her feet was no longer struggling like before. Its entire enormous body trembled abnormally, the lava flowing through its joints changing from dark red to black-purple, while the cracks Laira had created across its skull began spreading wider.

Ethan raised his head and looked toward the sky. Above the battlefield, the space that had been dyed red by volcanic ash was suddenly torn apart by a long crack. An enormous eye slowly opened within that fissure.

Its pupil was a deep black-purple, surrounded by countless thin strands of smoke that continuously twisted and writhed. After staring at it for only a moment, Ruo Yan felt her mind being stretched tight, while the Undead Mage unconsciously took half a step backward.

Ethan did not even need the Eye of Truth to recognize that smoke. It carried the exact same aura Ryan had left behind when he escaped from the Lava Sea. The only difference was that this time, the purple smoke did not hide inside a small spatial tear. Instead, it descended directly from above and entered every joint of the Flame Bone Dragon.

"Laira, get away!" Ethan immediately shouted.

Laira did not hesitate for even an instant. She stomped hard against the Bone Dragon’s head and used the force to leap backward.

Almost immediately afterward, the Flame Bone Dragon erupted with a terrifying surge of black-purple fire-element energy. The fishing line wrapped around its neck and wings was blasted away by the force, while its enormous body shot straight into the sky, dragging countless burning rocks and streams of lava from the side of the volcano with it.

Its roar echoed across the entire Ember Battlefield. The surrounding volcanoes erupted one after another, lava shooting into the air and forming enormous pillars of fire. Above every volcanic peak, a red-purple Magic Array slowly began rotating, dazzling beams of light continuously connecting them together.

Within moments, the entire battlefield had been covered by a gigantic network of Magic Arrays.

The Flame Bone Dragon flew among those arrays. Its already enormous skeletal frame was now covered with layers of black-purple crystal. The white-gold flames inside its eye sockets had been replaced by a deep purple glow, while the aura it radiated had become at least several times stronger than before.

"Can I hit it now?" Laira landed beside Ethan, her silver hair blown wildly by the scorching wind. She tightened her grip on the Boundless Fishing Rod, not a trace of fear in her eyes.

"Fight it."

Ethan raised Realm Breaker, his gaze turning cold as he looked at the Void Eye still open in the sky.

"But that dragon is not our only real target."

Mumu immediately jumped between the three of them, its pale golden body radiating a stronger light than before.

When the Flame Bone Dragon opened its mouth, revealing a Magic Array gathering energy inside its throat, Mumu rushed forward and transformed into a hemispherical shield that covered Ethan, Ruo Yan, and the Undead Mage.

The stream of black-purple flames crashed into the barrier, creating an explosion that shook the ground, but the golden gel merely caved inward before slowly rebounding.

At the same time, supportive light spread from Mumu’s body and covered Laira and Ruo Yan.

Ethan felt warm energy flow into his body, greatly reducing the exhaustion caused by fusing Realm Breaker, while Laira’s aura clearly increased.

Ruo Yan also felt the Soul Threads in her hands become more stable, as though Mumu had blocked part of the pressure created by the fire-element energy filling the battlefield.

"Laira, Ruo Yan, I will keep the Void Eye within firing range," Ethan quickly said. "Pull that dragon away from the Magic Arrays. Do not let it continue absorbing energy from the volcanoes."

"Understood."

Ruo Yan nodded, and the Soul Threads in her hands shot outward like countless silver strands.

"Undead Mage, lock down its left wing."

The Undead Mage immediately raised both hands.

Gray-black deathly energy poured from its sleeves, wrapped around the Soul Threads, and extended toward the sky. The threads, originally as thin as hair, became much thicker under Mumu’s enhancement, their surfaces even covered with a faint golden glow.

They could not directly restrain a Bone Dragon as large as a mountain, but they were enough to interfere with one of its wings for a moment.

Laira did not wait any longer.

She stomped hard against the ground and shot upward through the rain of lava.

The moment the Flame Bone Dragon noticed her approaching, it swung one of its claws. The enormous bone talons covered in black-purple crystals slashed downward, as though intending to crush everything before them.

Laira twisted her body aside to avoid the attack, then swung the Boundless Fishing Rod.

The black fishing line shot forward, its hook embedding itself into a gap between the bones of the dragon’s neck, while she used the pulling force to close the distance.

A nearby red-purple Magic Array immediately rotated.

Dozens of lava spears shot from the array and flew straight toward Laira.

However, Mumu had already prepared in advance.

A layer of golden light covered her body, causing the lava spears to explode into fiery ash when they struck Laira without leaving a single wound.

"This shield is pretty good."

Laira laughed, then used the force from an exploding spear to twist her body.

She pulled hard on the Boundless Fishing Rod, dragging the Flame Bone Dragon’s head to one side before throwing a punch wrapped in Thunderfire.

The punch struck its jawbone.

The impact exploded loudly, but this time, the Flame Bone Dragon was only knocked back a short distance.

The black-purple crystals covering its jaw quickly cracked, then were immediately replenished by the Void smoke, causing the fractures to close at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Then let’s use the new one," Ethan said.

He raised Realm Breaker and locked onto the Bone Dragon’s chest.

The dark red patterns across the gun lit up, energy rapidly gathering at the muzzle along the lines that had just been fused into it.

When Ethan pulled the trigger, a deep gunshot rang out amid the roaring volcanoes.

The red-black bullet crossed the battlefield.

Its trajectory was not especially flashy, but it moved so quickly that the Flame Bone Dragon only had time to twist its body slightly.

The bullet passed through a gap between its ribs and struck the lava core inside its chest.

A small wound appeared.

However, what truly made the monster freeze was the dark red flame that immediately began spreading from the bullet hole.

The flame did not erupt violently like ordinary fire.

It simply clung tightly to the bone and black-purple crystals, slowly burning through them piece by piece.

The lava flowing through the Flame Bone Dragon’s joints tried to fill the wound, but the moment it touched the dark red flame, it was immediately devoured.

The black-purple smoke descending from the Void Eye also tried to extinguish the flame, but the result did not change.

"Burning works."

Ethan let out a soft breath.

He could feel the energy inside Realm Breaker decreasing rapidly, but the effect of this shot had already proven that the fusion had not been wasted.

The Flame Bone Dragon roared in pain.

It turned toward Ethan, the purple flames in its eye sockets shrinking into two cold points of light.

The Magic Arrays surrounding the volcanoes simultaneously accelerated, and a portion of their energy immediately poured toward the Bone Dragon, attempting to forcibly extinguish the flame on its chest.

Ruo Yan instantly realized what it was trying to do.

She raised her right hand, and the Soul Threads wrapped around the Flame Bone Dragon’s left wing suddenly tightened.

The Undead Mage also stood on the ground and pulled with both hands.

The monster’s entire body was dragged to one side, causing the stream of energy from the Magic Arrays to shift away, but the red-purple rings of light in the sky continued rotating and even began connecting into a second layer.

Ethan watched the scene, the corner of his eye twitching slightly.

He had just thought he had found a way to counter the monster’s regenerative ability, yet it immediately began using the entire battlefield as its personal energy source.

"Fuck, this is just a pursuit round and it even has a second phase?"

The moment Ethan finished speaking, the Magic Arrays surrounding the volcanoes simultaneously fired red-purple beams of light.

The beams did not attack Ethan’s group directly.

Instead, they poured straight into the Flame Bone Dragon.

The black-purple crystals Laira had cracked rapidly repaired themselves.

The Burning flame on its chest was also forcibly compressed. Although it still could not be completely extinguished, the speed at which it spread had slowed considerably.

"We cannot let it keep absorbing energy," Ruo Yan said, her voice becoming unusually urgent.

She controlled the Soul Threads and pulled them to their limit, trying to hold the Flame Bone Dragon’s left wing in place.

The Undead Mage also poured deathly energy into every thread, but after merging with the Void, the Bone Dragon’s strength had already far surpassed what it possessed before.

Within only a few seconds, it had stretched the Soul Threads so tightly that they emitted a piercing screech.

Ethan did not answer.

He simply raised his other hand.

The space in front of him twisted, and the Cataclysmic Thunder Gate slowly appeared in the middle of the battlefield.

The gate stood more than ten meters tall, its surface covered in countless surging arcs of black-purple lightning.

When Ethan poured power into it, bolts of lightning immediately shot from the gate and struck directly toward the Flame Bone Dragon.

Lightning tore across the sky and exploded continuously across its spine and wings.

Black-purple crystals shattered in large chunks, while lava was shaken loose and rained down across the battlefield.

The Flame Bone Dragon roared, its body being forced backward by the lightning, but the Magic Arrays above the volcanoes continued supplying it with energy.

The Cataclysmic Thunder Gate was powerful enough to injure it, but still not strong enough to completely destroy a monster borrowing power from the entire Ember Battlefield.

The Flame Bone Dragon flapped its wings and directly controlled a large Magic Array to fly toward the Thunder Gate.

A black-purple lava spear dozens of meters long shot from the formation, carrying enough force to destroy an entire mountainside.

Ethan was just about to redirect the Cataclysmic Thunder Gate when Laira appeared in front of it.