Under the moonlight, a colossal dragon as black as burning charcoal had just changed the terrain. The mysterious, vast desert is no longer there, replaced by the massive crater of dry sand as dense as a rock.

“Grrr…” Gio’s entire body was smoldering red, like coal in the wind. He raised his foot and found the black magma dragon half dead.

This ancient calamity beast surprisingly had a body that could be like a magma mound. Still, it needed to be more effective against his powerful earth stomps.

“…” Gio expected that his opponent would resist more than this. Still, the newly awakened ancient calamity beast couldn’t do much to test his freshly recovered self. He hadn’t even unleashed his other ultimate attacks yet, but his opponent was already dying.

“Grragh!” Gio spat out a stream of black-red energy into the distance.

*Boom!*

A magma explosion melted the ground within a two-kilometer radius. Gio spat out the energy he absorbed because it wasn’t his pure energy and couldn’t stay in his body for too long. Since the battle was over, then he had to let it out.

Gio’s body gradually shrunk to its standard earth dragon size.

“Well done. You’re so good at what you do, Gio.” Elena praised Gio while flying down with everyone. However, no one would approach Gio. After all, he was still smoking hot because he had just absorbed the legendary black flames and hot magma.

“Rawr!” Gio’s tyrannical voice suddenly changed to the docile dragon tone. He was a happy dragon now.

That made the dying magma black dragon surprised. There were some people there who could make an ultra-powerful ancient calamity beast act like a little boy!?

“Foolish. Even an ancient one like you is subservient to humans. Are they stronger and superior to you, the apex predator?” Mavis muttered weakly in beast language.

“Ignorant fool! They are the divines! Their power goes without a doubt, even fighting me is like playing for them. Also, my name is Gio, the Immortal Earth Dragon, not ape the predator.” Gio growled loudly.

He then transformed into a dragon-like man. He was still unbelievably hot, and his body was still black as charcoal. Yet, someone soon doused himself with fresh water.

“Are you having fun? Feeling relieved?” Lifa asked with a smile. She floated above Gio’s head and extinguished the heat in his entire body.

“Hum!” Gio just nodded in reply. He could see his body cool down gradually, and he slowly turned back to brown as it should be.

“Then that’s great.” Lifa created another water magic flow to wash Gio clean of foreign energy.

“Phew…” Evelyn hugged Ella with some relief. Her friend was rescued and is still alive.

The two wounded holy knights had also been healed. However, Ariel still needed to go through some rehabilitation for using forbidden magic that consumed a large amount of life force.

Elena heaved a subtle sigh. She then faced everyone. “We should return to the safe zone for a while. We need to wait for another evil avatar to come into the world. Luna, you will also come with us. Can you manage your kingdom’s affairs remotely?”

“Fufu~ Of course, anything for my daughter Ely.” Luna put her hands together and pressed them to her cheek. “We can go back to my palace. It’s very safe there.”

“No, we are going to the Holy Cathedral on Human Continent, Holy Central Region.” Elena shook her head, then glanced at Nell. “Please inform Ella’s parents about the situation here. She should still have the communication gold talisman between family members.”

“Hm, let’s write something there, and we’ll return to the Holy Cathedral immediately. We also need to investigate the true situation quickly and interrogate several parties.” Nell took a golden talisman from Ella’s robe and wrote something on it while glaring at the black magma dragon.

“!?” Mavis was still completely shocked because he didn’t expect there were still several divine beings who had survived the great destruction.

Yet, he suddenly felt an excruciating pain in his heart. He screamed in agony as if he was being tormented by that earth dragon’s painful stomps. “Argh!”

*Rip* *Tear* *Splash*

Something ripped open the magma black dragon’s chest from within, tearing his heart out.

A skinless human with over ninety percent burns and corrosion walked out, half in mist form, carrying a crystallized dragon heart.

“Heehee… hahaha! I’m alive! You stupid dragon. I freed you from the seal with so much effort and sacrifice, but this is how you treat your savior? I’m glad to be able to find a holy maiden nearby, so I don’t have to make sacrifices to the ten thousand blood holy knights and priests. What an ungrateful legendary creature. I have your heart now. Your power shall be mine!” The skinless human laughed like a maniac while holding a sizeable crystallized dragon heart.

Just as he was about to absorb it whole, a long-black-haired girl suddenly appeared right in front of him, staring at him with her purplish-blue eyes. It was as if she was looking deep into his soul.

“So, it was you. Everything is clear now. Unfortunately, your efforts will never be successful, Heretic Emperor, worshiper of the accursed. This is your end.” Elena made a griping motion forward, choking the skinless human without holding him.

She sealed his movements and forcibly extracted information from his brain, regardless if it would permanently injure him.

“…” Elena sighed because she saw something more terrifying than expected. This skinless human was an Emperor of the forbidden underground city, the corrupted human beyond salvation.

Elena then absorbed the rest of that man’s life energy. She burned that skinless human to ashes before he even screamed in agony.

The crystallized dragon heart soon decayed and turned into a red energy core. As he met his demise, the black magma dragon slowly turned into black magma mud.

“Can you fight the divine Ruvoid’s curse?” Mavis asked at the end of his life.

“You are no stranger to their race, but you chose to become the calamity beast that worshiped them. You were sealed by the Holy Church and the townspeople were executed ninety-five thousand years ago, leaving only one Emperor who survived the judgment. Their invasion and aggression has reached its end. The Ruvoid Race will soon perish. Go and be a good dragon in your next life.” Elena turned around and muttered while holding her long black hair from the desert wind.

“I see…” Mavis muttered weakly while staring at the night sky until his consciousness was enveloped by absolute darkness.

“Emperor-level Energy Core!” Sylvia picked up the big red crystal ball from the ground. She then went after Elysia. “You want to keep this?”

“Give it to Vanessa to keep.” Elena glanced at that Energy Core briefly, but she wasn’t interested. She preferred Lifa and Rhea’s resources in the Nature Realm to cultivate and level up.

“Oh~ Here, keep this well.” Sylvia handed the red Energy Core to Vanessa.

Vanessa blinked her eyes several times but immediately put the core into her Space Bag.

After that, Elena took everyone away from the wasteland. That place later was no longer known as a mysterious desert with an unknown disturbance but the Dragon Crater of Magma Wrath. The bundle of energy that Gio threw up formed a crater of magma fire that never went out and would raise many questions in the future.

Elena escorted the holy knights and priests to the Oistol Town, then immediately returned to the Holy Cathedral via instant teleportation. Nell and the holy knights performed a funeral for the two holy fallen knights from Ella’s guardian team.

At that moment, Ella had just regained consciousness and was surprised to see Dolla present in front of her. Ariel, Steph, and Dolla were still alive. She survived. Were they saved!?

“Dolla, Dolla, is that you? You survived the siege? I’m sorry you sacrificed yourself for us at that time. You bought us time to escape, but Maria… Sigh…” Ella raised her hand towards a nearby short, blonde-haired holy knight.

“Everything is fine, Holy Princess. The Goddesses came to save us. However, Maria and Mona couldn’t be saved. I’m just lucky that I still have a chance to live as a holy knight. I just need to start over. This new body is the one bestowed upon me by the divine. I will fight for the holiness of the Holy Church.” Dolla clasped her hands on her upper chest.

“I see…” Ella only understood part of what Dolla was saying because her consciousness had just returned. She then tried to propel her body to sit up and looked around as she wanted to know the condition of Ariel and Steph.

“Ella, are you okay? Please don’t move yet. You lost a lot of blood before.” Evelyn ran over in a panic. She held Ella’s arm and asked her friend to lie back on the bed.

“But, what about Ariel and Steph? Has the evil been punished? What about the undead in the desert? It’s a forbidden city with a lot of evil aura…” Ella shook her head, then asked.

“You don’t need to worry about all that. They are there, recovering. Ariel is yet to wake up. The undead and the mastermind have been punished. The one known as the mysterious wasteland in the western region no longer exists. It has been destroyed.” Nell appeared out of thin air and flew over.

“Thank goodness…” Ella breathed a sigh of relief.

“You lost a few years of your lifespan, but Elysia covered the price for you. However, Ariel will soon die. She used too much life force to borrow holy power far beyond her body limit. If she can’t ascend in rank within three years, she will die. I’ve made her body look like she should, but the backlash is still there. Treat those who sacrifice for you well, Gabriella.” Nell turned around and then went to the next room.

“…” Ella went silent, but she looked gloomy. She got the life force for her full recovery from Elysia, but who could make the sacrifice for Ariel? The damage was too severe, so there was no way for Ariel to fully recover?

“It’s okay. You only need to help Miss Ariel to ascend in rank within three years. She is already at Saint-level, there is definitely hope for her to rise to Emperor-level. She can live for another thousand or two thousand years. It’s the same for you guys too.” Evelyn smiled gently at Ella and her friend’s guardian knights.

“I think I need to resign from my current position. I lost my power to protect. I need to forge a new strength from scratch.” Dolla shook her head. She was ranked below Apprentice level now, and she didn’t deserve to be beside the Holy Princess.

“Dolla…” Ella felt sad. Her two guardian knights had already fallen, one was seriously injured with heavy backlash, and one would leave.

“My decision is made, Holy Princess. I cannot protect you with my non-existent power. Allow me to go and train myself again.” Dolla knelt down and put her hand on her chest.

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