Thirty minutes earlier .

Within the second gate, it had been ten minutes since the fight started .

Trick Master was as skilled and tricky as his name suggested . For magic spells, not including creatures of the dragon race who could manipulate magic, the result of every magic spell was fixed . If one had heard the incantation before, they would immediately know what spell the opponent was using .

Beluga, Elso, Fargo, and Shueria had been playing Monster Soul ever since it launched . They had witnessed most of the magic spells accessible by players . However, Trick Master relied on his precise timing and the fairy race"s trait, which enabled him to cast two magic spells simultaneously, as well as the Sloth"s ability to create a clone of himself . As a result, he could cast four spells simultaneously in any variety of combinations, wreaking all sorts of chaos on the battlefield .

Instead of a four-against-one, the battle turned into a four-versus-four . Moreover, both Trick Masters had the greatest teamwork while the Temporary Whale Team"s members just hindered each other .

Once Trick Masters" opening was exposed, Elso attempted to strike as it was his usual role . However, Shueria also saw the same opening . Consequently, both of their powers clashed in mid-air .

Elso sent a disapproving gaze to Shueria . “You . Don"t get it my way . ”

“It"s you who is getting in the way,” argued Shueria . If his Dignified Palm Blade hadn"t been blocked, Trick Master would already be bleeding .

Trick Master intended to prolong the fight . He alone could keep four experts occupied . If nothing went wrong, Lost Ghost, Cheris, and Zazae should have already killed the enemies as he was busy fighting .

Even though he was secluded from the main battle, Trick Master wasn"t worried . Based on his speculation, the opposing side"s experts had to split their attention between fighting the infiltrators while holding off the Warlords .

Lost Ghost only needed to inflict some damage, and his stats would grow monstrously thanks to Gluttony"s ability . Cheris was a terrific swordswoman with her indiscernible attack range and her quick-draw sword technique . Her swordsmanship exerted its full power in a chaotic battlefield . As for Zazae, there was absolutely no need to worry about that guy . Zazae was the best among out of all Five Warlords . If not for Montra mostly sending him on covert missions, preventing him for revealing his true strength, Zazae"s name would have already been registered as one of the best players, on par with the Four Emperors .

Zazae"s ability was real . He was even a member of the dragon race who had already completed the Dragon Ritual .

All Trick Master had to do now was stall for time, occupying the opposing side"s four experts so that the others could annihilate the gathering party . Both Trick Masters" mouths kept reciting magic incantations with no sign of stopping . Four incantations were overlapping each other, preventing his opponents from predicting what spells he and his double were using . Sometimes, once the incantation was completed, he would just delay it and surprise his opponents when they came to get him .

The one who found the battle the hardest was Elso . His specialty was concealment and a.s.sa.s.sination . However, he couldn"t show such expertise inside this limit-s.p.a.ced dimension amid the flashes of magic spells .

Beluga and Fargo had it easier as their strengths laid in defense . Beluga achieved perfect mastery over Qi of Little Turtle while Fargo possessed Mystic Armor Qi . Protecting their lives was easy, though they lacked the ability to deal a serious blow to Trick Masters .

Shueria saw his opponent with his psychic power, not his eyes, so the dazzling lights of magic spells didn"t affect him . His Cloudy Tiger Qi was circulating within his body, elevating his attack power . He only used psychic power to enhance his movements and to fend off attacks . The Heart of the Sealed One continued to refill any power he spent, so he didn"t mind prolonging the battle .

The main reason why the Temporary Whale Team struggled was because none of the members were going all out . They didn"t know when their teammates would become enemies, so they hid their trump cards .

On the other hand, Trick Master had no reason to hide his real strength . As a spellcaster who could mix magic spells together, he had numerous cards he could play . His t.i.tle, the Illusionist Warlord, wasn"t for nothing . It meant no one could really tell where his strengths and weaknesses laid . The terrifying aspect regarding fighting Trick Master was that he could use a different set of spells every battle .

Trick Master wasn"t very aggressive with his attacks, however . He intended to slowly chip away the opponents" strengths until their energy was depleted . Only when that time came would he get serious and kill them at once .

One supportive spell, one defensive spell, one debuffing spell, and one offensive spell; by using them at the right place and time, the two Trick Masters could represent an entire army . During the previous war event, he was the Heavenly Dragon Guild"s key player . His role was the commander of a large army, and he was the best at that thanks to his ability to switch between being a supporter, sweeper, damage dealer, tanker, or crowd controller .

Beluga was worrying about the situation outside . Honestly speaking, Nednapha was slightly inferior to Shuran . She would have a difficult time against that man . Furthermore, even if they managed to defeat all Five Dragon Warlords, it would be pointless if all the people partic.i.p.ating in the gathering party died . It would imply that Lone Wolf and all the leader-level figures opposing Montra were incompetent; losing the ones under them even though the battle occurred at Zhongsuyuan City a . k . a . their base . The objective of this gathering party would fail .

Since the current flow of battle was getting them nowhere, Beluga decided that he would be the first one to fight seriously, even though he risked showing his full strength to people who could become his enemies .

“Elso, quit playing around . I"m worried about Ned and the people outside . This is not a request but an order . ”

As he finished speaking, Beluga didn"t wait for Elso"s reply . The qi surrounding him changed its form . Beluga unleashed a freezing cold aura, indicating he had elemental qi in his possession .

“Hah!!”

Beluga shouted, and the wave of his qi flew in a straight line, ramming into the spell firing at him . Both of his hands extended and grasped at empty air, or so everyone thought . Instead, he was launching invisible qi forward, moulding it into a fist before it struck Trick Master .

What Beluga was doing was delicately using qi as a long-range attack using the Cruise Breeze qi technique .

Trick Master felt like he was just hit by Beluga"s actual fist infused with qi, despite the distance between them . He dodged another attack while counterattacking with an Earth Spear from the floor .

Beluga snorted as if Trick Master"s attack was nothing . Once the spear tip started to fly up from the floor, Beluga only needed to flick his wrist to crush the spear with the invisible hand made of qi .

Fargo looked at what Beluga had done with admiration .

“Haha, most people know that you only have Qi of Little Turtle . It is unexpected to see that what you really have is Deploring Fairy Qi, one of the Ten Supreme Qi . Even more, your mastery over the Cruise Breeze qi technique seems to reach the pinnacle . ”

“A trump card exists to be shown off . Though, my "Distant Little Whale" may be nothing compared to the Berserk Warrior"s trump card . ”

“Since you already showed your trump card, I won"t keep mine hidden anymore . Well, I got nothing new to show . I only have the usual ones . ”

Fargo"s Mystic Armor Qi radiated and covered his body, similar to Sila"s Divine Raiment . Then, his body shot toward one of the Trick Masters like a bullet .

Before, Fargo"s weakness was his slow speed . Nevertheless, once he lost to Sila, he kept polishing Universe Momentum and elevated it to an entirely new level . The pulling and pushing powers transcended common sense, allowing him to launch himself off the ground and fly, disregarding gravity . It could be said that he was the first qi-type player known to be capable of staying in the air without the help of an item .

Fargo"s speed contradicted his bulky physique . His body flew at Trick Master without any concern for potential counterattacks, as he left that task to Mystic Armor Qi, the qi which he was proud of .

Trick Master needed to change his approach and used three of his spells to oppose Fargo while using the last one to keep Beluga in check .

Witnessing that the others had revealed their trump cards, Shueria no longer attempted to hide his real ability . He exerted the maximum power of Cloudy Tiger Qi and formed sword energy covering each of his hands . Next, his psychic power enveloped the blades made of qi, unleashing their terrific might .

Power continued to surge from his heart, granting him seemingly inexhaustible energy .

“Cloudy Tiger Qi? More importantly, he can use qi and psychic power simultaneously?! Splendid!” exclaimed Beluga .

Shueria leaped through the air using Psychic Impact, jumping around like a tiger in a forest .

Not only did his raw power increase, but Shueria had also trained under Crow and learned Crow"s personal profound art, Dignified Palm Blade, so his a.r.s.enal had been widened .

Using Dignified Palm Blade with both hands, he exerted more power than if he were to use two actual swords .

Trick Masters had a difficult time coping against the barrage of attacks . Beluga"s long-ranged attack was accurate and Fargo"s pulling and pushing techniques were troublesome . He also had to be wary of Shueria"s powerful strikes . Now, both of them had to abandon every strategy for the sake of defending .

Suddenly and quietly, Elso appeared behind one of them and stabbed his black sword through Trick Master"s stomach . As the battle intensified, Elso became calm and collected . His blade penetrated through all the defenses the Trick Masters prepared beforehand .

The wounded Trick Master cast Flame Claw at Elso, which he calmly welcomed and his body dispersed .

“Psychic Dividing Life . . . the skill that all psychic-type players desire,” muttered Shueria . He himself also wished to have this skill, though he didn"t know how to obtain it .

Psychic Dividing Life was one of the high-tier psychic-type skills . It was a pa.s.sive skill that divided the user"s health points into several batches instead of a single whole, enabling the user to receive fatal attacks many times as if having several lives . Any excess damage would not pour over into the other batches, instead being wasted .

Many players speculated that it was a skill developed from Psychic Body or Psychic Astral, though no one had yet to acquire it . They only witnessed the effect of this skill through some psychic-type monsters .

Elso reappeared next to Beluga . The flow of the battle now totally belonged to the Temporary Whale Team . However, when the four prepared to kill Trick Master once and for all, the sound of an explosion echoed from somewhere outside and the room began to shake heavily as if an earthquake occurred . The dimension began to vibrate, before slowly crumbling away .

***

Inside the last dimension, the fight had continued for longer than ten minutes . Lone Wolf and Cross had been on the offensive since the start of the battle, but they still couldn"t take Zazae down .

The Three Stars Warlord was simply too strong for them to understand . Even without the Envy Card, Lone Wolf and Cross still didn"t think they could defeat this man in a one-on-one fight .

“What"s wrong? Won"t you come to get me anymore? If you are too late, your comrades might die . ”

Zazae"s voice came out from the hood concealing his face over his purple a.s.sa.s.sin garment . His hand was spinning a chain whip with a metal ball on the end while his other hand was ready to draw the dagger at his waist . The qi he released was sometimes as hot as the sun and sometimes as cold as ice .

He had been switching between borrowing Lone Wolf"s Sun G.o.d Qi and using his own Frost Demon Qi . Both were included in the Ten Supreme Qi . Frost Demon Qi was the elemental qi with the power of Qi of Little Tiger, Qi of Little Bird, and Qi of Little Turtle . Its prominent point was its mysterious cold element, the complete opposite of Lone Wolf"s Sun G.o.d Qi .

Nevertheless, what made Zazae strong wasn"t the skills he possessed but his proficiency in using qi that was comparable to Lone Wolf . He could easily exert the power of Sun G.o.d Qi, which he just borrowed, as if it belonged to him from the start .

More importantly, he was from the dragon race .

Dragons were magical creatures, falling under magic-type . Most of the players selecting the dragon race were also magic-type . However, Zazae"s energy type was qi . The pa.s.sive skill, Dragon Scales, allowed him to constantly release black smoke from his skin, shrouding himself in smoke .

Lone Wolf and Cross had never seen this kind of power before .

Revin"s Solaria Dragon Scales and Kawin"s Python Dragon Scales were quite common as both dragons were famous element dragons whose information could be found in the game forum . However, there were still many other dragons out there that had yet to be discovered or revealed to the world .

Lone Wolf showed his true ability that he had honed by training under Poluk . He had invented his own profound martial art, Thirteen Celestial Wolf Strikes, and mastered it with advice from Poluk . With this art, Lone Wolf was confident that he could take on every player in Monster Soul .

However, strangely enough, as the battle went on, he felt it became harder for him to move or use his skill . The same experience also applied to Cross . The feeling was so subtle that, at first, they thought they just misunderstood . Unfortunately, the longer they fought, the harder it was for them to properly use their abilities . Finally, they noticed that something was wrong and realized that the cause of it must be Zazae"s Dragon Domain .

The dragon power residing in Zazae"s body belonged to the Skeleton Dragon King, Bones, which had yet to be discovered by a majority of players . The Skeleton Dragon King had the ability to weaken its opponent . Its Dragon Domain"s ability wasn"t as striking as Solaria or Raidola; it only slightly but gradually caused the opponent to find it hard to exert their full power . If its opponents stayed within its domain long enough, they would feel like it was their first time using any of their skills or unleashing their power . Naturally, their attack power would be reduced . The only drawback of its Dragon Domain was the long period of time before it became effective .

In that aspect, the Skeleton Dragon King"s Dragon Scales were more terrifying . Its scales were made of magic power in the form of smoke . Upon contact, it would accelerate the performance of the Dragon Domain . Furthermore, Zazae could also clad his weapons with the smoke .

Lone Wolf tended to clash against him head-on while Cross relied on the vitality of his undead race instead of dodging . As a result, it didn"t take long before they were completely under the influence of Zazae"s Dragon Domain: Fallen Kings .

“This guy is too dangerous . We should stop taking turns to attack . Let"s fight him together,” Lone Wolf proposed .

Under normal circ.u.mstances, Cross would have considered that to be an insult . However, Lone Wolf was right this time . Zazae was too strong; he was strong enough for Cross to abandon his stubbornness .

“Rhythm of the Imperial Graveyard . ”

Cross activated his Rhythm and charged at Zazae while Lone Wolf took a detour and struck Zazae from the other side .

Being under a.s.sault from two of the Four Emperors, a normal person would have already trembled in fear .

Nevertheless, Zazae was calm . If these two had worked together from the start, he would have felt worried . However, now that both of them were already at their limits, he had nothing to fear .

Zazae spun the chain and threw the metal ball at Lone Wolf . As for Cross, who was approaching him, Zazae extended the radius of the smoke surrounding him as a dome and intensified it, engulfing Cross and further weakening his ability .

Cross" floating swords dropped to the floor . Zazae stabbed Cross with his dagger before sending him flying back with a kick . Meanwhile, Lone Wolf noticed the opening and accelerated his speed while grabbing the metal chain to pull Zazae to him .

However, that was a bad move . Once he touched the metal chain, Lone Wolf"s energy output suddenly became feeble . Zazae seized the opportunity to dash at Lone Wolf and grabbed his neck . By coming into direct contact, the weakening power greatly affected Lone Wolf and he felt almost all of his power diminish .

Cross gritted his teeth as he stood up and rushed at Zazae with a sword in his hand . At that time, Zazae"s hot qi dispersed and his purple eyes stared at Cross .

“How about dying to your own skill?”

Zazae switched the target of Envy"s ability to Cross . His dagger in Cross" chest blinked twice before exploding . A hole appeared in Cross" chest and his body was swept away by the explosion . If he wasn"t undead, he would have already died .

Then, Zazae switched the target back at Lone Wolf and burned him with Sun G.o.d Qi . Lone Wolf was burning alive but he refused to cry out .

During the moment of despair, Lone Wolf came to notice that Zazae didn"t use Pride, the skill attached to his Pride Card . It was likely that, without the Pride Card in possession, not even Envy could copy the Pride skill .

The reason Lone Wolf decided not to activate Pride was because he was afraid that the card might cause him to go berserk and unintentionally attack Cross . However, such concerns weren"t important anymore . If he did nothing, both he and Cross would die .

“P-Pride,” muttered Lone Wolf .

The gla.s.s-like card that had an ill.u.s.tration of an angel with six pairs of black wings appeared before him and shattered into particles like usual . Nevertheless, unlike those previous times he had activated it, Lone Wolf"s blurry eyes noticed a tiny crack in the air . The crack was extremely small and was the same one that appeared when Sila activated Greed . Though, in Sila"s case, the crack was wide enough for the hand to pa.s.s through while the current crack was as small as the tiniest coin .

“Finally, there is a crack . . . ”

An overbearing voice came through the small hole . If Lone Wolf wasn"t imagining things, he believed he saw the crack becoming wider as if the person on the other side was distorting the dimension using raw strength .

Boom—!

The explosion sent all three people flying and collapsed at the same time . Then, a man with a dignified atmosphere came out . He wasn"t interested in the three at all and just silently observed the room around him .

“The dimension of the servant of death . . . This kind of place can"t confine me . ”

The moment he finished speaking, he used his qi to distort the entire dimension, shaking it with his power .

Zazae"s arm was broken, Cross was bleeding profusely from the hole in his chest, and Lone Wolf had burns all over . All three of them looked at the new visitor, and out of them only Lone Wolf knew the man"s ident.i.ty .

As if the system knew what they were curious about, it rang out and informed them .

Notice to all players within a thirty-kilometer radius, the Evil G.o.d Lucifer, Level 1000 Emperor Rank, has appeared . Regardless of your rank and level, we recommend you log out immediately . As this is a special circ.u.mstance, the system will allow you to log out from anywhere without any penalties for the time being .

Those who are killed by Lucifer will resp.a.w.n immediately at the nearest rebirth zone .

Those who are killed by Lucifer will lose all equipment .

Those who are killed by Lucifer will lose all money in their possession .

Those who are killed by Lucifer will permanently lose three skills, chosen randomly .

All three men stopped fighting and stared blankly at the Evil G.o.d, stunned by the thought that such a being existed in Monster Soul .

Moreover, bad luck seemed to befall every player outside . In normal cases, the system would have notified all players within the radius around Lucifer . However, since Sebastian"s dimension was a separated location, no one except for these three got to hear the system"s notification .