Chapter 402: I Waste Nothing

Seeing Priam appear in front of the core at such incredible speed, the giant Dragon roared in pure fury.

Its colossal tail plunged violently into the sea of lightning.

A massive wave of lightning erupted from the depths, blocking Priam’s path.

As if he had already anticipated the resistance, Priam unleashed a devastating punch. He channeled all his Ether into Ananke at once, multiplying his offensive power in an instant.

*BOOOM!*

A gigantic hole opened in the center of the wave. Without hesitating for even a fraction of a second, Priam charged straight through the explosion.

The Dragon was completely caught off guard by the sudden increase in Priam’s attack power. The moment the young man broke through the barrier, a deafening roar echoed behind him, and the beast took off in pursuit.

Despite its colossal body, the Dragon was terrifyingly fast. However, Priam wasn’t falling behind. Since he had already taken the lead, the creature couldn’t close the distance.

Suddenly, the sea of lightning below exploded. One giant dragon after another emerged from the electric depths, blocking Priam’s path. Opening their jaws, they fired lightning swords that tore through the air toward him.

Each lightning blade was as massive as a mountain range. Thunderous cracks tore through space—and every single one carried traces of the fearsome Destruction Lightning!

Faced with the lethal barrage, Priam activated the Yin Enchantment Rune.

His mastery and potential over the winds instantly multiplied; his body accelerated to an entirely new level, shooting through the gaps between the gigantic swords.

Priam caught them all off guard again. His power had multiplied twice within mere moments.

The nine giant dragons attacked in sync once more.

Priam snorted coldly. Any one of them possessed enough power to slaughter an Exalted Sage with ease. Destruction Lightning was no joke.

If there had only been one, Priam might have felt inclined to fight. But against nine? Facing them head-on would be pure suicide.

From what the larger dragon had said earlier, if he could subdue the core, he could create a new agreement. In other words, all he had to do was reach his objective to pass the trial.

Locating the core wasn’t difficult. A quick sensory sweep was enough for Priam to feel the overwhelming presence pulsing at the deepest and most distant point of that gigantic hourglass-shaped structure.

He accelerated to his absolute limit. Moving like a ghost among the thunderbolts, he dodged every attack.

The nine dragons unleashed a storm of furious attacks. It was a bizarre scene of nine giants trying to crush a single mosquito—with the difference being that this mosquito was simply too fast to catch. Unable to land a single hit, the beasts roared in pure frustration.

Walls of lightning continuously rose from the electric ocean in a desperate attempt to slow him down.

However, the force behind Priam’s attacks couldn’t be contained.

His attacks using the wind and the System to destabilize the electrical element easily tore through the waves as he advanced. Meanwhile, the turbulence created by the energy waves themselves ended up interfering with the dragons’ movements, allowing Priam to rapidly close the distance to his objective.

As he approached the core, Priam’s astonishment only grew. The hourglass-shaped area served as a convergence point for two massive sources of electrical energy that intertwined in perfect symmetry.

The lightning flowed in a mysterious and continuous cycle. Right in the center stood a gigantic image, almost like a statue. It depicted two intertwined Eastern dragons—one wrapped in deep shadows, the other shining with pure white light.

Priam couldn’t afford to stop and analyze the details. Ignoring the central image, he charged straight toward the core at the farthest point.

The nine dragons were incapable of stopping him; the young man’s agility and speed were simply too much for them, fueling the beasts’ fury even further.

But just as a victorious smile began to form on his lips, Priam’s heart sank. A terrible sense of imminent danger sent a chill down his spine.

Following his instincts blindly, he abruptly stopped in place.

*BOOM!*

In the very next millisecond, a colossal silver claw crashed down from the sky, violently smashing the exact spot where he would have been if he had continued forward.

Another dragon emerged, coming directly out of the lightning source in the sky. Its entire body shimmered with a mesmerizing silver hue, as if it had been forged from pure silver.

Every hair on Priam’s body stood on end. The aura radiating from that creature exuded deadly danger. His intuition screamed that the silver dragon’s power was on an entirely different level; one wrong move and he would truly die.

The silver dragon stared at him with a frigid gaze.

"Boy, the agreement with the Sovereigns ended 3,000 years ago. We worked hard to keep the entire cycle running for 100 million years. Now, we have the right to peacefully die completely, together with the remains of our world. Go back to where you came from, or don’t blame us for being rude."

"Who cares about that agreement?" Priam snorted, his eyes flashing with a cold light. "I hate these Sovereigns just as much as you do, and I need every tiny fragment of power I can get to become stronger. Now that I’ve made it this far, I’m not leaving without taking everything."

Now Priam was certain: he had entered the true heart of the Celestial Event. From the words of these creatures, the Specters and the anomalies of the event had been occurring under their control because of an ancient pact.

However, it seemed that the time limit of that agreement had expired. The Heralds, however, either simply ignored the fact or didn’t know about it—they continued conducting the Event as if nothing had changed.

"Then you can simply die here!"

The nine dragons lined up behind Priam, cutting off every escape route, while the terrifying figure of the silver dragon loomed before him.

"Sorry, but I can’t die yet. If I manage to subdue this core as you mentioned earlier, you’ll stop trying to kill me, right?"

"Exactly. But it’s useless. The Will of Heaven energy of our world has almost completely faded away. You won’t be able to subdue anything; you’ll only force the core to defend itself, burning through the little energy it has left. And we won’t let that happen."

The overwhelming aura of the silver dragon locked onto Priam.

The power of thunder converged from every direction, and that entire space was completely filled with silver lightning runes. Priam found himself trapped at the center of a terrifying Domain.

Silver, furious lightning swirled around him. Each lightning rune was as sharp as a divine blade.

Priam was immersed in an ocean of millions of silver runes. A single thought from the silver dragon would be enough to slice his body into a thousand pieces.

"Just let me try once. If I fail, I won’t force the core to defend itself as you said," Priam declared, his tone extremely serious.

The silver dragon growled coldly. "Die or get out of here. The choice is yours."

Priam merely snorted.

The next instant, his eyes burst with an overwhelming golden light.

He burned all of his Creation Essence in one go.

Now, this was his true state of maximum power.

A golden, sacred, divine aura—but deeply terrifying—enveloped Priam’s body.

Those silver lightning runes, which had previously sealed the area firmly, abruptly retreated, scattering in panic like prey fleeing from an apex predator.

As he burned this energy, Priam felt as though he were holding the power that came directly from the laws of the world in his hands. That was the power of a Sage: a will capable of shaping Reality itself.

The electrical energy of those entities, which weren’t even truly alive, would never be able to resist being used in this way.

The instant he activated this state, the silver dragon’s Domain was shattered. Priam disappeared and, in the blink of an eye, reappeared directly in front of the core of everything.

However, he had barely arrived when a colossal tail came lashing toward him.

Thanks to his Transcendental Anima, Priam managed to dodge in time.

Even so, only the silver shockwave accompanying the attack struck him with brutal force.

Priam felt as if a giant hammer had crushed his body. He spat out a mouthful of blood as his bones cracked, on the verge of shattering.

That silver energy was bizarre—it acted like a corrosive poison molded from the electrical element.

Priam exerted an absurd amount of force to stabilize himself in the air as he was thrown several meters away. The enemies didn’t pursue him.

At that same moment, he felt the Life Lightning runes engraved on his body pour out energy, nourishing his cells at an absurd speed. The effect quickly neutralized the bizarre power that had struck him.

’Oh?’

This surprised Priam. Then, he saw a new possibility emerge.

Taking a deep breath, Priam decided to use this trump card.

[Synthesize?] [Yes / No]

He extracted the bloodline of the assassin he had captured earlier—something with an extreme affinity for the electrical element. He hadn’t consumed it before because there had been no immediate need.

But now, he needed to use all the power stored within his body. Incorporating a bloodline with a natural affinity would make the process immensely easier.

In just two seconds, Priam synthesized his 6th Bloodline.

He let out a heavy gasp and turned his gaze back toward the dragons.

Previously, when he needed to manipulate Destruction Lightning, he had been forced to use the System’s Domain.

Now, however, Priam didn’t even need the System. With a mere thought, he moved the Life Lightning contained within the runes, and the energy flowed with extreme ease under his control. Indeed, possessing a bloodline with a natural affinity for the element made a colossal difference.

Priam’s body pulsed. Whitish lightning erupted, snaking over his golden energy armor.

The two forces mixed together, granting him a far more imposing and majestic appearance.

With his eyes fixed on the silver dragon, Priam clenched his fists, ready to burn his spatial bloodline completely and force his way to the location.

He didn’t want to use it before because he could currently only use it once. If he reached the location and failed, or took too long, he would put himself in a complicated situation against these enemies, and he wouldn’t have the option to escape.

"Wait a moment!"

The silver dragon’s voice suddenly rang out, interrupting Priam’s attack.

"Tell me... how do you possess so much of this?! This energy should be impossible for someone at your level to use like this!"

Priam replied without showing any emotion. "The laws of my world gave this to me. And, as I said before, I use every drop of energy within my reach to become stronger. I waste nothing."

The silver dragon stared silently at Priam. After a moment, it said:

"I’m willing to do business with you."