Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"You don't have to worry about my lifespan, I'm a scourge that ain't so easy to kill. As for stepping back, I cannot do that too. I came here with one intention in mind and that is to subdue that guy. No matter what happens or who stands in my way today, I will achieve what I came here to do".

If Vadlris thought that a few swords from him was enough to scare Simon, then he was up for some rude awakening.

What Simon hated the most, was when people got in his way. If this adult dragon wanted to stand in his way, he wouldn't mind showing the latter that he wasn't some soft persimmon that others can just squish when they want.

Simon beckoned the curse energy inside Ozymandias' finger. The finger hummed as if alive, waves of curse energy gushed out and swiftly spread to a few kilometres of area.

On top of being extremely injured, Simon also had to resort to using the Ozymandias' finger. This would no doubt increase the strain on his body and worsen his injuries further. Nevertheless, he had no mind to pay any attention to the condition of his body right now as all of his focus was on the yellow robed man.

Even after he activated the finger and the miasma spread around the surrounding, he hadn't seen any noticeable reaction from the latter. What's more astonishing was that the miasma was unable to approach a couple of inches near the man as if there was some invisible layer covering his entire person.

No matter what the miasma did or how it rolled, it couldn't touch him. The yellow robed man was fine; however, the same couldn't be said for the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon whose body was starting to show signs of being affected by the miasma as purple smoke started coming out of its body.

Valdris narrowed his eyes and waved his hands, mana flooded out of his body and pushed the miasma away from them.

After doing that, he shifted his attention back to Simon, more specifically the giant grey finger that he was standing on. The faint feeling of danger that he was feeling in his heart was clearly because of that finger.

"Hmph, small tricks" Valdris moved his feet and gave a light tap on the air. Immediately, a vast sea like mana erupted out of his body that pushed away the curse energy. Majestic and powerful, it was in no way inferior to the curse energy.

While the vast pure mana was slowly pushing away the miasma from the surrounding, Simon willed the finger and slowly landed on the ground.

Subsequently, he glanced at Valdris and smiled.

"Oh yeah? Then how about this".

Simon pointed his index finger which was marked with runes at Valdris. ZZzzz, a humming was sound emitted, the finger moved and locked on the latter.

The finger of Ozymandias was extremely fast, it travelled through the air as of tearing through it and approached the yellow robed man in the blink of an eye. The finger than clashed against the latter with an earth shaking momentum.

Simon did not dare to look down on this seemingly ordinary looking man, he formed many mysterious seals and immediately used the strongest output of the finger of Ozymandias.

After months of practice with the [Dominator's control], Simon's understanding of the technique had increased from the rudimentary level and reached the intermediate stage. Now he can use various seals to tap on the hidden power of the finger of Ozymandias.

The grey finger covered with mysterious runes, shined and immediately droves of purple curse energy erupted out of it. It quickly enveloped the finger within causing it to take on a purple colour from grey.

The space bent abnormally as the finger charged forward, a purple trail of light was left behind in its wake that refused to fade away even after a while.

Valdris's expression changed the moment, he felt the finger rushing at him. All of the pores in his body opened and a loud draconic roar came out of his throat.

Scales started appearing on his body and his two hands became two golden crystallised claws. He barely managed to position his claws as a shield before the finger approached and collided against him heavily.

A dreadful amount of energy wave erupted out, the sky quickly darkened and small black fissure lines appeared in the air.

These black fissure lines were signs of space being shattered and unable to contain their power. They remained in the sky for a long time and only mended after devouring a large amount of mana. Nevertheless, it was enough to tell people what frightening level the clash had reached.

Simon had a solemn face after seeing that scene. Although he had expected the yellow robed person to be strong, given that their identity was a dragon who has reached the adult stage, he didn't expect them to be this strong.

This was the first time that he saw somebody stopping the finger of Ozymandias which was the strongest trump card in his possession. Naturally, he was startled.

"Push him back" Simon grit his teeth and made a few more seals, immediately the purple light coming out of the finger deepened.

BANG… BANG… the force of the gigantic finger increased and slowly but surely, the yellow robed man was pushed back.

As this was happening, a great storm brewed inside Valdris' heart when he noticed that he was being pushed back.

The demon he thought wasn't anything special, not only defeated one of his tribe members, but was even able to clash against him. What's more, the rank of the demon was just a Demon viscount. The shock he felt was so palpable that metastasised to his entire body

"Dammit, what kind of energy is this? It's sticky and viscous and constantly erodes your mana. It's like an infection that spreads the more you try to remove it. I cannot allow it to touch my body" Valdris had a gloomy face as he analysed the curse energy released by the finger.

Even a person as experienced as him, who has lived for around three thousand years, was unable to identify the finger of Ozymandias.

ROARRR… after being pushed back by more than a hundred meters, Valdris roared in rage. A bright yellow gold light that had a dragon's might, erupted out of him and swiftly started suppressing the purplish curse energy.

The two energies clashed and soon formed a weird equilibrium with none being able to gain an edge over the other. The crystals on his hands also enlarged and in the blink of an eye, it became two enormous yellow gold crystal claws.

These claws grabbed the finger and tossed it away from him. Finally freed from the lockdown of the finger, Valdris shifted his eyes back on the demon only to see that the latter was drawing some strange magic runes in the air.

The profundity and complexity of the runes were so ancient that even Valdris was unable to identify some of the runes. Nevertheless, given his perceptiveness, he could vaguely feel that it contained a supreme might that even made him feel afraid.

What's more, this feeling of uneasiness appeared even though he wasn't the target of that magic runes.

'This is bad!!'

Valdris shouted in his heart, an understanding dawned on him when he saw the demon stop attacking him after pushing him away.

He wasn't the target of the demon, in fact, it was the earth shattering lower dragon from the start. The reason why the demon attacked him with that finger, was because he wanted to push him away so that he wouldn't be able to interfere in time.

The space around Valdris shook and he appeared in front of Simon, his claws ripped through the air and was just about to smash into Simon's chest when they halted abruptly.

The magic runes drawn by Simon was completed and at that moment, a vast dragon's presence engulfed this place.

Valdris' entire body shuddered while the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon's body was plastred to the ground. The mighty presence was so powerful even these dragons had no choice but to adopt an attitude of servitude and kneel in front of it.

CRASH… the crystal like claws of Valdris immediately shattered and his body was unable to stand in the sky any longer and dropped to the ground. This pressure that originated from his bloodline, made him seem like a peasant that was in front of a royalty.

Slowly and with much difficulty, Valdris peeked his head up to see a behemoth dragon shadow in the sky above the demon. This dragon shadow had a crimson gold body that covered the entire sky, its deep draconic eyes were like two suns, filled this world with light and its presence was as if some sovereign had descended onto the lands.

Forget about defying it, one couldn't even move in front of it.

"Th-This aura… it's from Venerable Red!!!—So I wasn't mistaken?" Valdris mumbled with a lost look in his eyes.

That dragon shadow covering the sky, was only visible to a member of a dragon race who have completed the adult ceremony. No one other than them could see it. Even if it was some other beast or a high levelled person they won't be able to see anything in the sky.

Only those that were able to see that shadow, would be able to understand what that dragon shadow was and who it belonged to.

Valdris's aura became extremely restrained in front of this dragon shadow until it was practically hiding inside his body. His dazed eyes slowly traced the dragon shadow blanketing the sky and landed on that crimson magic circle that the demon had drawn.