Several minutes later, indeed, a figure appeared in the western sky.

At first, it was just a small black dot barely visible to the naked eye, which soon expanded in the eyes of the onlookers. It had a slender neck and a horned head, wings whose span was close to 1.5 times the length of its body, as well as thick legs and a tail.

Only, it was all made of bones.

Yet even as just bones, its size was enormous, indicating that if it were to have flesh and scales, it would be an even more terrifying behemoth.

Thick black fog swirled around the Bone Dragon, causing its skeletal frame to appear and disappear within the fog. In fact, it was this black fog that endowed the Bone Dragon with the ability to fly. It stemmed from the Extraordinary Runes engraved on the skeleton, forming an Array that allowed the object to ignore the effects of gravity and electromagnetism.

Although it might sound like something that would enrage followers of Newton, the Spiritual Material used for drawing the Runes was "Spiritual Essence," which is the remnants of Ghosts after death.

Given that Ghosts themselves can ignore gravity and fly erratically, the Rune's ability to ignore gravity... seemed not entirely illogical.

The bony framework was hollow and therefore had minimal air resistance, so it took scarcely a minute for the Bone Dragon to rapidly close in on the steam-powered ship.

The crew of The Azure Longsword also, after Miel's urgent notification, had all gathered on deck.

The Bone Dragon's neck bones stretched high, brewing a dark green, thick smoke within, before it spit the substance straight downwards.

"Scatter!" Aske immediately shouted.

Two pairs of wings quickly unfurled on the deck—one pair of pure, pristine white feathers and another pair composed of flowing, brilliant Will—lifting Nora and Eleanor into the air.

Faster than them were Thira and Peggy, the former using gravity manipulation to ascend, while the latter transformed into a small bat and charged directly toward the Bone Dragon.

Of course, Mia was the fastest. While the Bone Dragon lowered its head to release its Dragon Breath, she took Miel and teleported instantly onto the dragon's back.

Then they saw someone sitting atop it.

An Undead Demigod! Miel's complexion slightly changed, and her intuition told her that this "Dragon Knight" cloaked in black was none other than an Undead Lord who had crossed the threshold of a Demigod.

A hand extended from beneath the black robe, pale and flawless like a work of art, and pointed directly at Mia, who had suddenly appeared.

The next second, a dark green radiance flashed and missed, hitting nothing where Mia had been—she had once again activated her Ripple Sword, teleporting to his back.

Just as she was about to deliver a Backstabbing strike, a Domain suddenly rose up around them. Mia quickly teleported again, this time to the tail end of the Bone Dragon, escaping the domain's coverage. Blood suddenly streamed from her nostrils.

She coughed forcefully, and the spray also contained black streaks of blood. At that moment, Miel gently patted her shoulder, pulling forth the past condition of an unharmed Mia and overlaying it onto her.

"What was that?" Mia asked, both alarmed and angry, having recovered her health.

"Plague Law," Miel had obtained the answer from Raphael within the Eden Fruit, "The opponent is a Lord of Filth, whose main expertise is Plague."

"Pure Blood Monastery?" Mia exclaimed in shock. Wasn't that Peggy's master's power base?

"No," the Demigod opposite her spoke, the voice suggesting that she was female, "not all Lords of Filth belong to the Pure Blood Monastery."

"I know who you are," Miel said in a low, grave voice after filtering through the information provided by Derek, "the Blood Clan Lord of the Hafsi Dynasty who defected from the Pure Blood Monastery, the Plague Scorpion, Al Zaba."

"Eh?" The Plague Scorpion looked at her in surprise, laughed lowly after confirming she did not know this Half-elf Girl, "So, you recognize me? Or did you just guess my identity?"

"I guessed your identity," Miel said softly, her voice suddenly turning hoarse, "but I also know you, Zenobia."

Upon hearing this, the Plague Scorpion's face changed color, because "Zenobia" was her real name used within the Pure Blood Monastery, not the one she adopted after her defection, Al Zaba.

"Who are you!" she feigned terror and screamed, secretly readying the Plague Law skill once again.

"I am Minerva," Miel cackled coldly—accurately, it was the Banshee Queen she had summoned and possessed, looking down contemptuously at the Plague Scorpion across from her, "Proud and foolish Zenobia... today, you will die here."

No sooner had the words fallen than the Plague Scorpion spit out a mouthful of blood, the deadly force of the curse circulating within her body.

However, since a curse is not the more supreme power of death, the Plague Scorpion merely rapidly mobilized her Flesh and Spirituality, quickly suppressing the injury within her that was trying to spread, then lifted her head, venomously saying:

"I don't care if you're with Olelian or Tacitus, since you've chosen to be my enemy, then..."

Before she could finish her sentence, she suddenly lashed out a streak of green light, which split into several fragments mid-flight, and ultimately formed a filthy green net, hurling itself towards Mia and Minerva.

Mia vanished with Minerva once more, reappearing above the Plague Scorpion's head. Minerva pointed downward while in midair, saying:

"You shall not fly!"

The Bone Dragon, still breathing down below, wailed as if it abruptly regained its weight, fluttering its wings and gliding downward in a descent.

Through the abruptly stopped dark green breath, one could see the remains of the steam-powered ship on the sea's surface, rusted beyond recognition, its Synthetic Human crew nearly dissolved away, but there were no corpses of the Azure Longsword crew.

Because just a few minutes earlier, as all the comrades capable of flight left the deck, Sigrdrifa, who remained, had no choice but to grab Medea and then leap from the side of the ship, avoiding the direct hit of the breath.

Medea initially thought she would fall into the chilly sea water, but instead found Sigrdrifa landing steadily on the ice—creating a floating ice slab strong enough to support the weight of both of them the moment her feet touched the sea surface.

Then they looked up to see their companions charging at the Bone Dragon from above, while the black mist holding up the skeleton suddenly thinned out, and the entire skeletal frame seemed unable to bear its own weight, tilting and plummeting toward the sea surface.

On the inclined back of the dragon, the Plague Scorpion and Minerva exchanged attacks like lightning, with black and dark green skill radiance shuttling back and forth. Suddenly she stepped on the back of the Bone Dragon, and a mass of dark green worms spread from where she trod, swiftly burrowing into the dragon bones below.

Plague Law. Erosion!

As these tangible Plague worms penetrated the interior of the Bone Dragon, the curse power that had formerly resided within was also swiftly cleansed away by them. So the black mist rose again around the Bone Dragon, carrying it as it just managed to glide over the sea, circling back up into the sky.

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