"The Green Dragon Queen, although powerful, cannot easily penetrate human territories."
"No!"
Cecilia’s reason quickly overcame that inexplicable desire.
She had visited that adult Green Dragon many times and knew how powerful she was. The Green Dragon Queen indeed couldn’t easily set foot in the Human Kingdom, and the same went for her.
Moreover, other high-ranking colleagues in the Dragon Worship Sect would be more than happy to do that esteemed figure a favor, and then ruthlessly betray her intelligence and location.
She looked at Gauss with growing wariness.
This man indeed had something unusual about him.
Logically, she shouldn’t have lost her self-control like this.
Was it some kind of illusion technique she hadn’t detected?
"It seems I’ll have to subdue you first, to prevent you from beguiling me and clouding my mind."
Cecilia let out a girlish, crisp laugh.
But when the laughter reached Gauss’s ears, it sent shivers down his spine.
It gave off a sinister feeling.
And her words were equally baffling.
Beguile? What did that mean?
He clearly hadn’t done anything.
But one thing was clear, the other party seemed ready to act seriously.
She raised the long staff as tall as a person.
Innumerable chilling energies seemed to materialize and rapidly flow around her.
"Crack, crack, crack!"
In almost an instant, in a time utterly impossible to react to.
The ground beneath Gauss’s feet turned blue.
Then, a ghostly blue energy quickly condensed and grew around him, these sharp ice spikes intertwined, forming an inverted bowl-shaped ice coffin cage in just a moment.
Moreover, this cage was rapidly closing in on him.
"Magic Missile!"
Gauss unleashed several Magic Missiles, and the missiles struck the ice spikes, leaving only some ice shards behind, but never breaking through this ice coffin cage.
"What a strong protection!"
A sense of urgency arose in Gauss’s heart.
Instinct told him that the tightening ice coffin was absolutely not a good thing for him.
As the range of movement narrowed.
He found it even harder to escape the confines of this prison.
"Why not just surrender?"
"Why struggle?"
"If I wanted to kill you, it would be easy."
The Dragon Priestess extended her hand slightly, and an ice blade grazed Gauss’s cheek.
"Slash!"
The energy scale armor on the surface was instantly torn, and a trickle of blood slowly flowed along the wound.
Gauss remained expressionless.
He glanced outside the ice prison at the Dragon Priestess seated atop the bone dragon, her eyes beneath the mask betraying a playful glint.
It was as if he was already a trapped turtle.
He realized more deeply than ever that the opponent in front of him was undoubtedly the most powerful enemy he had ever faced. No contest!
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the slowly forming ice spikes atop the giant ice coffin.
Every attack could shatter his current defenses.
It seemed that this was indeed an adversary beyond his capability range.
He sensed that the other party seemed intent only on capturing him alive.
So, the spikes earlier were merely a warning, or perhaps a tease, not aimed at his vital points.
"Hehe—"
At this moment, his lips curled upwards slightly.
The blood within him gradually heated.
When faced with opponents far weaker than himself, it was at best considered slaughter, but the opponent in front of him constituted a real battle.
"Although you’re indeed stronger than me now, even a rabbit bites when cornered."
His golden eyes glanced towards his teammates still fighting, the unconscious Aaliyah, and then at the enemy on the dragon’s back, his gaze gradually becoming serious and cold.
Humanity was slowly slipping away.
In its place emerged a terrifying power about to rise.
In the distance, barely breaking free from restraints and having just undergone some initial healing from Serdur, the Red Dragon Dragon Beast Hephaestus clambered to its feet.
Suddenly, it sensed a familiar yet strange power rising from a certain direction.
It shuddered suddenly.
The freshly mended wounds on its body seemed to ache dimly again.
A moment later, it recalled its first encounter with Gauss, and the sense of being dominated by someone.
"Ghost Form! Activate!"
Gauss’s throat released a low roar, like a dragon’s angry bellow.
As soon as the words fell, energy erupted wildly from his body, as if caught in some berserk state.
His hair rapidly grew, losing its color, turning sheer white.
"Crack, crack!"
The joints burst with sound, and in the blink of an eye, under an invisible external force, his form quickly stretched.
His physique visibly grew taller.
Complex and exquisite phantom energy scale armor covered his body.
With a tearing sound, a pair of wings several meters long extended from his back.
An immensely potent ancient power awakened within Gauss.
Originally casually observing Gauss, Cecilia’s pupils constricted rapidly, her features behind the mask quietly growing serious.
"What’s this?"
If Gauss’s previous form had given her the illusion of a Giant Dragon.
Now, in her perception, there was no difference in aura between Gauss and a genuine dragon.
She wasn’t referring to the pseudo-dragon beneath her, but a true Giant Dragon.
She had seen dragons, knew dragons, and even served dragons; no one understood these creatures’ greatness and terror better than her.
"Interesting, how truly interesting."
Now, Gauss had become a supreme treasure in her eyes.
It was as if she saw the lofty ideals they had been relentlessly pursuing taking on form before her eyes.
Was he the key for humans to become dragons?
If before, she still had the idea of capturing Gauss to hand him over to the Green Dragon Queen, now she had completely changed her plans.