Chapter 514: The True Knight
Chapter 514: The True Knight
Even Rayne's heart skipped a beat at the sight.
If the opponent had just one more clone, it would have been manageable. A desperate fight might still have resulted in a fifty-fifty chance. But now, Sea Goddess Hela seemed to be cheating, conjuring up five more clones in an instant.
Moreover, Rayne noticed the countless Sea God Cult's Flying Fish Knights and Manta Ray Knights converging from all directions like a swarm of crows, forming a vast, sky-obscuring net that surrounded them.
And as if following some command, these water-based creatures, known for their ferocity, began to spray water mist in a coordinated manner. Soon, a drizzle began to fall around them.
Clearly, the rain was advantageous for Sea Goddess Hela.
Thus, despite Rayne's efforts to lure Sea Goddess Hela onto the island, her tactics had significantly weakened their position.
This realization deepened the frown on Rayne's face.
As Rayne rapidly pondered a way to break the deadlock, a mental message from Menya suddenly came from behind him:
"Rayne, I have a plan, but I need you to trust me completely."
"Do you trust me, Rayne?"
"Huh?" Rayne was taken aback by Menya's sudden, seemingly out-of-context question.
He turned his head slightly to see Menya looking at him with an unusually serious expression.
However, he wasn't sure what Menya meant by "trust", so he didn't immediately respond with a yes or no.
"Trust me."
When Menya repeated this, something astonishing happened!
The Red Queen Menia, clad in her red wizard robe, began to emit thin strands of blood from her body. Though the amount was minimal, Rayne could sense the surging power within them.
At the same time, a translucent figure emerged from her mature, graceful form.
In the next instant, the figure approached Rayne. Just as Rayne was about to resist, he remembered Menya's words and relaxed. The translucent figure then stepped forward and completely merged with Rayne's body.
The thin, golden-tinged strands of blood also flowed into Rayne's body like a gentle stream.
"Dragon Blood Sacrifice?!" Sea Goddess Hela, witnessing this, clearly recognized what Menya had done.
"That Dragonborn actually performed the Dragon Blood Sacrifice for you!" Hela seemed incredulous, her eyes darting between Rayne and Menya, who was now pale and slowly collapsing like a doll.
"Of course, with your Multi-Headed Dragon Bloodline, you can almost completely absorb everything from her."
Rayne, however, was oblivious to Sea Goddess Hela's words. He was in shock, feeling the changes occurring within his body.
The System Prompt flashed repeatedly:
[Host receives unknown energy infusion, psi energy significantly increased!]
[Host receives high-quality dragon bloodline infusion, bloodline concentration significantly increased, automatically activating the seventh form: 'Jiulao Dragon' form.]
"This..."
"Ancient Dragon Form?"
Suddenly, Rayne felt an inexhaustible surge of energy within his body, and his three-headed dragon form expanded even further.
Unlike the previous Ancient Dragon Form, which increased his size by 30% compared to a regular dragon, Rayne's form now grew by over twenty meters, reaching nearly eighty meters in length, with his strength, agility, and other attributes increasing in tandem.
A rough estimate told Rayne that his power had increased by more than 60%.
At the same time, fragments of memories not his own flashed through his mind like a rapid slideshow: a young girl, lessons in royal etiquette, lavish court banquets, majestic dragons, an elegant young man, a multi-headed dragon...
"These... these are Lady Menya's memory fragments?!" Rayne exclaimed in shock.
He could see scattered memories of Menya from her childhood to the present. He even had a feeling that as he absorbed more of this "infusion", he would eventually possess all of Menya's knowledge.
In other words, all of Menya's secrets were now open to him.
This was a tremendous sacrifice for any woman!
Most importantly, Rayne finally understood why Menya had sometimes looked at him with a peculiar expression.
"Lady Menya, it shouldn't be whether I trust you, but whether I am worthy of your trust", Rayne thought to himself.
But clearly, this wasn't the time to dwell on it.
Rayne instantly understood the tremendous cost Menya had to pay to execute this move!
He needed to act quickly, resolving the battle as swiftly as possible to have a chance of separating the opponent's consciousness and sending it back into her body. Otherwise,
Rayne wasn't selfless; using such a method to enhance his strength went against his principles.
Moreover, while increasing his strength wasn't as simple as eating or drinking for Rayne, it was far from difficult, as evidenced by his rapid advancement to 4th-level Dawn Mage in less than two years.
Thus, following his instincts might be more important for Rayne.
"Roar!!!"
With a roar from Rayne, the Dark Silver three-headed Jiulao Dragon lunged at the nearest incarnation of the Goddess of the Depths. Despite its massive size, the dragon moved with even greater speed and agility.
Suddenly, Sea Goddess Hela realized Rayne was already in front of her. In a panic, she hastily raised her trident to block.
"Clang!!!"
A muscle-bulging, sharp Dragon Claw, with just one strike, cracked Hela's Energy Trident.
The other Dragon Claw stabbed with the speed of lightning, tearing a large hole in Hela's incarnation and sending hundreds of tons of seawater flying.
"Blaze Breath!"
Next, a cone of Blaze, nearly twice as powerful, instantly vaporized the majority of Hela's hundred-meter-tall incarnation.
"Mortal, do you think you can turn the tide?"
Hela's consciousness seemed to have transferred to another seawater incarnation, and she shouted in fury.
As Hela raged, her four seawater avatars simultaneously attacked Rayne.
But with Menya's bloodline and spirit infusion enhancing his power, Rayne's strength had significantly increased. Combined with his disregard for conserving energy, he swiftly demolished the three seawater avatars in quick succession.
Soon, Sea Goddess Hela was left with only one seawater avatar.
However, while the other avatars had been destroyed, the residual seawater, tinged with a faint black, had silently gathered at the feet of Hela's last avatar and rapidly merged.
The water mist spewed by the flying fish and manta rays, as well as the drizzling rain around them, was also drawn to Hela's last avatar.
Hela's final avatar grew rapidly, reaching nearly 170 meters in height, though this seemed to be the limit she could control in such a hurry, with some residual seawater failing to merge in time.
But Rayne was already in front of her!
"Clang!!!"
This time, Hela's reinforced Energy Trident managed to block Rayne's attack.
However, Rayne had more than just brute force. Hela noticed that the right void dragon head had retracted and regrown as a Red Dragon head.
In his current Ancient Dragon Form, Rayne could regenerate the same type of dragon head.
More surprisingly, the main dragon head spewed the Blaze Breath that caused the most damage to Hela, while the two additional Red Dragon heads also opened their mouths to breathe fire!
In an instant, three conical Blazes converged in mid-air.
The quantity seemed to trigger a qualitative change!
The three 'Blaze Breaths' collided, forming a searing, blindingly white Blaze sphere.
This was a Red Dragon secret technique from the 'Red Queen' Menya's memory—“Core Melt Flame,” which required at least three Jiulao Dragon-level Red Dragons to execute.
Even more devastating was the 'True Damage' it contained.
The power of True Damage was proportional to the concentration of dragon bloodline, psi energy, and the strength of the spell, so it was at its peak at this moment.
"No!!!"
The white Blaze sphere formed right in front of Hela's avatar, colliding and exploding instantly, leaving no time to react or dodge.
"Boom!!!"
A blinding white light flashed, followed by a brilliant light beam that rapidly spread. It not only penetrated the rain curtain created by the flying fish and manta rays but also blasted a hundred-meter-deep crater in the island's center.
The extreme heat instantly vaporized all the water vapor, while the True Damage simultaneously eradicated the consciousness of Sea Goddess Hela's incarnation.
Rayne, protecting the nearby body of Red Queen Menya, was also scorched by the Core Melt Flame.
However, with the destruction of Hela's seawater avatar, Rayne noticed a rare female mermaid body floating above the crater, almost unscathed and emitting a faint, colorful aura.
Rayne thought for a moment, then turned around and held Menya in his arms. He then flew over and also gripped the body of the mermaid.
As he did so, a System Prompt suddenly appeared:
[Ding! A large amount of high-quality, unknown energy capable of enhancing psi energy has been detected. Absorb? (Note: System absorption can remove impurities.)]
Rayne's eyes immediately lit up, and he joyfully chose "Yes" without hesitation!
In an instant, he felt a vast, pure, and mighty energy surge from the female mermaid's body, being rapidly absorbed and rushing to his brain from all parts of his body.
The psi energy particle in his mind, which was originally the size of a walnut, began to swell and grow even larger!
However, Rayne didn't have time to savor the changes brought by this energy. Instead, he planned to immediately extract Menya's spirit or consciousness from his body.
To do so, he needed to find a relatively safe place for a short period.
"Huh? An underground river? A cave?" Rayne suddenly noticed that the large hole he had blasted during the battle was now gushing with water.
After a moment's thought, Rayne swiftly dove down. With a splash, he leaped into the water and swam through a narrow passage, emerging in a cave-like area underground.
Around him were underground rivers and lakes, but they were not very large, and the temperature was much higher than on the surface. It appeared to be a gap formed after an underwater volcanic eruption.
Rayne quickly sensed his surroundings and found that, apart from some small fish, there were no aggressive creatures. He then gently laid Menya's body on a relatively flat boulder.
Next, he began the extraction.
"Ah!!!"
When Rayne actually started to extract Menya's nearly fused spirit and bloodline, a pain like having his own spine pulled out from his body assaulted every nerve in his body.
In the next instant, Rayne managed to separate Menya's transparent spirit and a large amount of brilliant golden-red blood from his body and quickly pressed them onto Menya's mature and graceful human form.
"Phew~~"
Although the entire process took only a few seconds, Rayne was drenched in sweat, and a sense of weakness washed over him.
It was normal, given the additional 'infusion' he had just received. Now that it was returning to its rightful owner, Rayne naturally felt a void within. However, having absorbed most of the divine essence from Sea Goddess Hela's descent, Rayne had still made significant progress.
Rayne glanced at his system panel:
Spirit: 272 (61% Qualified)
"The qualification level has increased from 34% to 61%, marking my official entry into the late stage of Dawn Wizard. Not bad."
Through this battle, Rayne had managed to match the strength of veteran empire guardians like 'Red Queen' Menya.
However, before he could fully appreciate this, he heard a muffled groan from the boulder beside him.
"Princess Menya, how do you feel?" Rayne immediately turned to look at her.
"Rayne, did you win?" Menya held her pale, white forehead, her face showing signs of pain.
"I won."
Rayne, having just experienced the excruciating sensation, knew how much pain Menya was enduring. Without hesitation, he stepped forward to support her.
Up close, he noticed that Menya's face was actually very beautiful, though she usually maintained a stern and regal demeanor to uphold the royal family's authority and her own presence.
"Rayne, I didn't expect you to defeat Sea Goddess Hela so quickly, and to return my consciousness and bloodline essence to my body after winning."
Menya's beautiful eyes fixed on Rayne, as if trying to see through him.
After all, ninety-nine percent of people, when faced with the opportunity to significantly enhance their strength by absorbing her dragon blood essence and consciousness essence, would eagerly absorb and strengthen themselves.
It was almost impossible for someone to risk weakening themselves by extracting her consciousness and bloodline essence again.
Additionally, Rayne's swift victory over the Goddess of the Depths had been crucial. If more time had passed, it would have been much harder to extract the essence.
"Rayne, absorbing my spirit and bloodline would have greatly enhanced your strength."
"Thank you, Princess Menya, but I once heard a saying."
"Hmm?" Menya looked at Rayne curiously, eager to hear what he would say.
"Someone said that if a person loses money, they lose nothing; if they lose strength, they lose something; but if they lose their character, they lose everything." Rayne said slowly.
"Character? I understand, Rayne. The person who said this was a true knight." Menya nodded, clearly impressed.
"And so are you!"
(End of Chapter)
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