Caesar knew that Abbas could forcefully elevate his bloodline to the third degree of Blood Rage, but he didn't know that Paci could do the same. The secret of Blood Rage should be mastered by only a few, but how could Paci do it?
However, with a formidable enemy right before them, there was no time to dwell on such distractions. Paci and Abbas would hold the god down to create an opening for him, and what he needed to do was drive that decisive bullet into the god's body!
The second-degree Blood Rage ceased, and the Blood Sucking Scythe degraded back into Kamaitachi. Caesar needed to control the overall situation of the battlefield and could not afford to miss a single opportunity. In this situation, Kamaitachi would play a greater role than the Blood Sucking Scythe.
Invisible wind fiends howled and spiraled through the air. Abbas's heartbeat, Paci's heartbeat, the roar of thunder, and terrifying air blasts—all information rushed into Caesar's mind at high speed, while the god standing tall at the end of it all looked like a pristine white statue.
Abbas leaped high into the air, the thunder-wrapped curved blade tearing through the sky like the judgment of the Thunder God.
This was the first time Caesar had seen Indra unleashed at full power under the third-degree Blood Rage. The terrifying lightning scorched the earth in an instant, forcing even the god to raise that single golden eye and gaze up at the man riding the storm.
Paci arrived the next moment. The Domain of Dustless Space erupted, and the air around the god was forcibly compressed. Vacuum air blasts sounded continuously against the god's shroud, yet they failed to snap even a single thread of that seemingly worn fabric.
Indra's lightning cleaved straight at the god's face, but the next moment, the god vanished!
The terrifying thunder struck empty space, and the white figure reappeared not far away, right at the edge of the lightning's range.
"You like this are no different from the Dragon Kind," the god said. "I didn't expect humans to be able to reach this step by their own power."
A step that even he had to look upon with respect.
Yet Abbas's focus was not on that. He asked in a deep voice, "What Spiritual Word are you using?"
"What qualifications do you have to ask?" The god waved a hand, and a small tornado materialized out of thin air over the coastline, its dense, violent airflow turning the entire vortex a terrifying dark gray!
The members of Kassel College could not help but shudder. They all recognized this Spiritual Word, but they had never seen anyone wield it to such an extent!
Spiritual Word: Eye of the Wind King.
The violent tornado rampaged across the coastline. Paci instantly released the Domain of Dustless Space to encircle Caesar and Abbas. The defensive domain enveloped the three of them like a transparent dome, yet every impact of the tornado caused the dome to deform severely!
The god seemed to issue a silent mockery; perhaps in his eyes, the three of them were merely beasts making a final desperate struggle. He snapped his fingers, canceling the Eye of the Wind King, and released an even more powerful Spiritual Word.
Spiritual Word: Bloodline Traction.
Caesar and the other two instantly sensed something was amiss. Their Spiritual Words went out of control in an instant. The Domain of Dustless Space, Kamaitachi, and Indra all erupted simultaneously, but the targets of that eruption were their comrades right beside them!
Paci's single golden eye had already ignited into a deep crimson gold, and the Domain of Dustless Space was fully released, briefly neutralizing Indra's lightning. Fortunately, Caesar had already degraded the Blood Sucking Scythe back to the non-offensive Kamaitachi; otherwise, the effect of three Spiritual Words losing control at once would likely have been a devastating blow to friendly forces.
Yet the feeling of being sandwiched between the Domain of Dustless Space and Indra was by no means pleasant. His entire body was paralyzed by the electrical current, unable to move a muscle. If not for Paci's Domain of Dustless Space having drastically blunted Indra's might, Caesar feared he would have been roasted medium-rare by the electricity by now.
A pair of strong hands grabbed Caesar's shoulders and forcefully yanked him out from between the two Spiritual Word domains.
"Boss, how are you holding up? Damn, that lightning packs a hell of a sting..." Finger's chattering voice rang out. Caesar snapped out of his dazed state and saw the cyan hue fading from Finger's body.
"Damn it, why are you here?" Caesar coughed up a mouthful of blood. "Aren't you afraid of dying?"
"Professor Schneider's body is completely out of commission, not to mention those crew members. I didn't want to come either, but I had no choice," Finger said with a tragic and indignant expression. "If I don't help out, the lot of us are going to kick the bucket sooner or later, and I still want to live to go back and find my Cuban girls."
Caesar was momentarily stunned. Even knowing Finger was talking nonsense, a surge of emotion welled up in his chest all the same.
Schneider's body was not sufficient to support him in facing the god, and ordinary people without bloodlines could only prostrate themselves under the god's fully released dragon pressure. In fact, that single golden eye had merely cast a cold glance, and the dragon pressure from the superior being easily shattered ordinary human psychological defenses.
"Hey, Boss, do you happen to have a plan? If we keep going like this, we're not going to win!"
From the moment the god appeared, no matter how they besieged him, he had never lost his composure. On the contrary, by casually releasing a few Spiritual Words, he had battered Caesar and the others into a sorry state.
"There's still a chance," Abbas said, catching his breath. "I can push it one more time."
"You can still push?" Finger was startled. "I thought you'd given it your all."
"No," Abbas said in a low voice. "It's just a bit dangerous."
"Dangerous? How dangerous?"
"Not much. Might die," Abbas said. "Though we'll die anyway if we don't try, so it doesn't matter."
"Hey, hey, don't be rash," Finger protested. "We aren't done fighting yet, what's with the defeatist talk?"
"I'm very serious," Abbas murmured. "If Lu Mingfei were here, maybe this god wouldn't amount to much? But he's not here, and we can only rely on ourselves."
"I believe Little Lu will avenge us!" Finger's big eyes blinked rapidly.
"No," Abbas raised his head, his Golden Pupils glowing like molten lava. "We are going to kill the god with our own strength!"
The Blood Rage ignited once again in silence. Abbas's bloodline rank climbed step by step, and the dragon-like transformation that had just faded manifested once more—more pronounced than before!
He was preparing to activate the fourth-degree Blood Rage!
If Lu Mingfei were to witness this, his jaw would undoubtedly drop to the floor. He was probably the only person who had ever witnessed the fourth-degree Blood Rage: back in the Beijing subway Nibelungen, Chu Zihang faced the Dragon King Fenrir, who had invoked the "Dance of Shiva," and opened the fourth-degree Blood Rage to unleash the Heart of the Dragon King. Yet Abbas at this moment had actually mastered the power of the fourth-degree Blood Rage as well!
Though, come to think of it, Abbas was a person who had naturally emerged to fill the void left by Chu Zihang being erased from the causal nexus.
Lu Mingfei did not know how Abbas had defeated the lesser female dragon in this world, but the power of Blood Rage was clearly mastered by Abbas as well.
To challenge a god, one must first become a god.
He did not know what level he could reach after the fourth-degree Blood Rage; given the power the god had displayed, it might still not be enough to defeat him.
Yet to die without even trying—how could he possibly be reconciled to that?
All these sudden changes had come too quickly. They truly had not made adequate preparations. Cut off from the outside world within the Nibelungen, there was no time to call for outside help. From Lu Mingfei's disappearance, the Principal being ambushed, the Dragon Backbone Cross being stolen, Odin's appearance, Leviathan's appearance, to the emergence of Avalon—was the Dragon Kind finally launching its counterattack?
Only when truly facing a god did they realize that the true power of a Dragon King was far beyond what Norton, who had not fully awakened, and Jormungand, who was not adept at combat, could compare to. Perhaps the only ones comparable were the newborn White King Herzog and Lu Mingfei. But with Lu Mingfei missing and Heaven's Scourge unable to enter the Nibelungen, all they had to rely on was themselves and the sharp blades in their own hands!
Throughout the long history, lacking technology and saviors, humans and the Dragon Kind had still waged endless wars to the death. As Paci had said, relying on a heart unafraid of death, humans sacrificed their souls to gain the power to slay dragons.
Perhaps after the fourth-degree Blood Rage he would become a Ghoul? Abbas thought. It was a pity he hadn't defeated the god yet to ask him about the story of his past; a pity he would never again have the chance to find those murderers from back then and avenge the Dean.
As if restraining chains were shattered, his bloodline limit rose once more—fourth-degree Blood Rage!
Throughout their entire conversation, the god had not stepped forward to interrupt, simply standing motionless, head slightly lifted to gaze at the skies. It seemed that to him, humans were merely insignificant ants, and he couldn't be bothered to care whether ants scurried up and down, because no matter how they struggled, ants could never shake a giant dragon!
"Caesar," Abbas said in a deep voice. His eyes were once again overlaid with scorching white electric light, and not a single patch of human skin could be found on his entire body anymore; he was fundamentally a walking, humanoid Tyrannosaurus Rex.
"Understood." Caesar gripped his Desert Eagle.
Paci stepped to Abbas's side and said in a deep voice, "We'll do it together."
Finger let out a sigh, yet he too stepped forward. "Then I suppose we have to go together."
Abbas was the first to step forward. Deep cyan lightning coursed across his body, ionizing and piercing the air as electricity wrapped around him like armor.
Spiritual Word: Indra, evolve!
Spiritual Word: Pale Thunder Dominion.
The god finally turned his head slowly, fixing his single golden eye on Abbas, and after a moment, he gently shook his head.
"In the end, it will never be a true Heart of the Dragon King," the god said. "So in the end, you are still just a human."
"So what if we are human?" Abbas advanced step by step, the lightning growing increasingly violent and dense. "Therefore, this will be the victory of humanity, not demons."
A terrifying thunderstorm erupted on the coastline. Paci and Finger surged forward simultaneously. Three dark shadows shuttled through the thunderstorm, while the figure in white stood unmoving.
"Are you still just standing there trying to look cool?" Finger's voice came from within the thunderstorm. "Would it kill you not to be so arrogant?"
The deep cyan lightning slammed heavily into the god. The god's figure blurred in the brilliant glare of the electricity, the immense wind pressure combining with the lightning to compress it a second time within a tight space. Finger hoisted his blade and slashed horizontally toward the god's waist.
Yet the blade was caught. The god raised a hand, taking the slash barehanded without a single injury. The shroud was scorched black by the lightning, yet it did not tear; it merely whipped wildly in the immense wind pressure. His other hand made a grasping motion toward Abbas's curved blade—though if one looked closely, there was still a tiny gap between the palm and the curved blade. The god used the power of his Spiritual Word to resist Abbas's lightning, single-handedly holding off the attacks of all three.
Yet he had moved, exposing an opening. A mere instant was enough for Caesar to seize the opportunity.
He had kept Kamaitachi active the entire time precisely so he wouldn't miss this moment.
His finger squeezed the trigger of the Desert Eagle, and a bullet roared out of the barrel.
"Burning Blood" could ignite a "combustion" domain upon impact. If it hit the target's body, it was equivalent to triggering a small-scale Spiritual Word: Candle Dragon inside the target! Even a Dragon King could not survive this bullet, and there was an extremely high probability it would accidentally injure Abbas and the other two. Yet not a single person stepped back, not even Finger, who was terrified of death. Everyone shared a common resolve: as long as this bullet could slay the god, it would be worth it even if Abbas and the two others were heavily wounded.
However, the bullet came to a standstill right in front of the god. A crystal laced with fine red threads slowly spun before the single golden eye, and the next moment, it shattered into pieces.
"This is impossible!"
Everyone was shocked. That was a Sage Stone bullet; spiritual elements ought to override all four-element laws. It stood above the four elements, and the only ones capable of issuing commands to it should be the Black King and a tiny handful of White King descendants.
Yet that Sage Stone shattered right in front of the god, its filament-like fire elements being pulled away, the crystal dropping to the ground, and those fire elements actually melting within the god's radiance!
Caesar suddenly thought of a terrifying possibility... He was extremely reluctant to believe such a possibility could occur, but everything happening before his eyes was real.
The only entity that should have been able to issue commands to the ultimate fire element of the Dragon King Constantine was the brothers of the King of Bronze and Fire, along with the great Black King Nidhogg. But the King of Bronze and Fire were already dead, and the Black King had not yet returned... Yet the Dragon Backbone Cross of the King of Bronze and Fire had indeed been stolen! And the one who stole that dragon backbone was this white god before them!
If he was a Dragon King—or rather, if it could now be confirmed that he was a Dragon King—had he already devoured the dragon backbone of the King of Bronze and Fire? Had he acquired the power of the King of Bronze and Fire?!
Therefore, he hadn't actually issued a command to the Sage Stone, but rather to the fire element contained within the Sage Stone!
This was a colossal miscalculation, and the consequence of this miscalculation would likely be the annihilation of their entire force!
No wonder, no wonder the god's power was so immense, far surpassing every Dragon King they had ever faced in the past—because he had transcended the power inherent to a Dragon King itself!
The light radiated by the single golden eye shone upon their faces, carrying a sensation of burning pain, yet those Golden Pupils were glaringly cold, devoid of the slightest warmth, as if deities issuing a silent mockery toward mortals.
A massive wave of power swept over them like a tidal surge. Abbas and the other two were sent flying backward through the air, the god's pressure blanketing the world. Perhaps the only reason they weren't dead yet was that the god was playing a cat-and-mouse game with them. A cat could toy with a mouse as it pleased, but no matter how the mouse struggled, it could never escape the cat's control.
It was an absolute suppression of sheer power, suffocatingly oppressive.
"How many years has it been? All those who dared to challenge the throne have died," the god said. "Your bloodlines are not bad; you could have become our chosen people."
"Now, prepare to welcome evolution, humans."
"Evolution?" Caesar sneered, Dictator already in hand. "Into Ghouls?"
"Perhaps something better," the god said, "if you are exceptional enough."
The next moment, the god suddenly let out a shrill, miserable scream. Everyone watched in shock as a pair of burning giant swords pierced into the god's body from behind!