The army that just entered the destroyed shadow palace stood behind the man who seemed to be the leader.
"Hmm, it's a much stronger presence than the ones we have caught before. Just imagining how valuable this one might be is making me excited."
The leader of the army muttered in a gleeful tone.
The people behind him felt the same as all of them readied their weapons to deal with a dragon.
"All right everyone get in formations we have a dragon to find and catch." ordered the leader as he looked back at the people behind him.
"Yes, Lord Xander"
The soldiers spread out while the man named Xander just watched the soldiers spread out.
"Hmm, this debris and broken floors are blocking the path and hiding the dragon...well the construction group will be building the whole place again anyway."
[Explosion Magic: Brilliant Detonation]
A bright orb formed above the man's palm and soon started to grow bigger and bigger.
"Defensive formation"
Hearing his order the soldiers who were clad in white armor immediately formed a barrier around them.
The leader Xander smirked and pointed the huge orb of magic toward the palace and simply pushed it lightly.
The huge orb broke down into smaller orbs and scattered all around the palace.
Sekke looked at the orbs that were floating all around the shadow palace and simply focused back on the army above him. He wasn't able to see them but he could hear them and was able to sense them through ki and mana sensing.
Suddenly the whole shadow palace glowed bright and all the orbs made by Xander exploded simultaneously.
*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*
"I hope that the dragon did not die by that," muttered Xander and chuckled.
Soon the smoke dissipated and the giant and mighty dragon was visible to the army.
"Ho~ a big one. Looks like a kid who escaped the purge got the chance to grow up. Yo! Dumb Lizard!"
The size of the dragon was probably the biggest that soldiers had ever seen. This made all of them focused on Sekke with their weapons pointed at him and ready to strike the moment any order was given.
"Who the fuck are you?" asked Sekke.
"Huh?... Did that dumb lizard just speak...It's intelligent. Wait.....why am I getting a human presence from you as well? What the heck are you?" asked Xander in a confused tone.
"Nunya" replied Sekke in a calm tone.
"Nunya?"
"None 'ya f*ckin' business," replied Sekke in a calm tone.
"...You have quite a mouth on you despite being an overgrown dumb lizard."
"And you have quite the audacity to straight-up bomb your surroundings while someone is resting. So who the fuck are you anyway?"
"Not something that someone about to die should know," said Xander and gestured to his army.
The soldiers immediately charged mana in their weapons that were already pointed at Sekke.
[Magic Item: Spear of Order- Restrain]
Various glowing vines launched from the tips of the spears that were held by the soldiers and wrapped themselves around Sekke's entire body.
"....Seriously, are you guys even trying?" asked Sekke in an indifferent tone.
This made some of the soldiers angry as they thought that the dragon was crossing its limits.
"Acting tough huh?" asked Xander with a smirk on his face.
'....Vritra, are you sure that these guys are strong?' asked Sekke.
"Feeling the divine presence. I hope they are, otherwise, it will be very disappointing."
'...You do know that we have to get out of here alive, right?'
"Yeah, but think my other half. Won't it feel great to actually fight someone who is...well good enough to fight against."
'...It will....but we have to keep our priorities straight. Also-'
Sekke finally stopped talking with Vritra and looked at the people around him who were attacking the huge dragon nonstop with mana blasts and beams.
'...I don't think that these guys will give me a challenge. Not in this form at least.' thought Sekke totally unaffected by the 'mighty' attacks of these so-called divine beings.
"Are you guys done playing? If so, then go away. I have a lot to think about," said Sekke in a calm tone and just shifted his huge body slightly and easily broke through the restraints.
"Huh?!"
"Wait, did he just-"
"-break through the combined restraints from all of us?"
"You dumb lizard!! Know your place!"
'Great, a group of young masters.' thought Sekke and internally sighed.
"Stop it, everyone. It seems like this thing has some resistance against being restrained. Just ignore that. Follow up on my attack." declared Xander as a huge amount of mana gathered around him.
'...That's an impressive amount of mana. Maybe it won't be as boring as I thought it would be.'
"See, now go ahead and massacre them like a good dragon, my other half," said Vritra in a joyous tone.
'A jolly tone for such a dark thing. Well, seeing the situation it might be needed.'
"Take this and die you lizard!!! The spell that led to the demise of many lowlife lizards like you" yelled Xander with an ecstatic look on his face.
[Explosion Magic: Mass Extinctor]
A giant orb of mana appeared in front of Xander's hand and soon he fired that towards Sekke.
"Well time for some warm-up, I guess," muttered Sekke and took a deep breath.
"What? Going to use flames? Hah! You dumb lizards are all the same. My magic is [Explosion Magic] the magic that carries the aspect of destruction. And a lowly lizard like you who likes to use flames just powers up my explosion magic. You are just speeding up your own doom!!!" explained Xander.
"....You speak too much for a weakling. Watch and learn asshole. Feel the power of the dark lord," replied Sekke as black flames gathered in the dragon's mouth.
A sea of black flames almost five times the size of the huge explosion orb came out of Sekke's mouth easily engulfing and destroying the orb itself.
Seeing the black flames that came almost instantly, Xander's eyes widened as he tried to comprehend what happened.
[Magic Item: God's Grace]
All the soldiers who saw the flames heading toward Xander immediately pointed their magic tools toward Xander and activated them.
A bright orb of mana surrounded Xander trying to protect him.
Sekke thought that as well but didn't feel any resistance from the flames and this made him wonder what the glowing thing around Xander was doing.
But suddenly his gaze fell on the soldiers that were using the magic item. Many of them started falling one after the other lifelessly and this made the dark lord surprised.
"An item to transfer your life force for saving others...I don't know if it should be called divine or cursed," said Vritra.
'It's just f*cked up...' thought Sekke as he finally stopped his attack and took a deep breath.
Once the flames died down the orb around Xander vanished and an unscathed Xander came out and looked at Sekke with a horrified gaze.
"Y-Y-You monster!!!" yelled Xander.
"Thanks for the compliment. It shows how weak you are compared to me," replied Sekke.
"Y-You imbecile! How dare you kill all these men. You dumb f*king lizard."
"Well, you were too much of a coward to take that attack head-on and used a f*cked-up magic tool instead. Sounds like a skill issue to me," replied Sekke in a not-so-bothered tone.
Sekke then completely ignored the remained soldiers and Xander and focused on the dead bodies then fell after his attack.
The tentacles around him scattered and stabbed the armored soldiers making their living comrades widen their eyes in shock.
Not bothered by that in the least, Sekke simply absorbed the mana of the dead soldiers and stopped once he felt full.
"Good. Now then shoo. Let me be in peace. Carry your men on your way back." said Sekke as if ordering them and simply laid down.
This made the group of young master wannabees grit their teeth in anger and were about to curse back at the dragon, but all of a sudden a feeling of dread descended upon them.
Sekke simply looked up while releasing a 'slight' amount of his mana and looked coldly at the group.
"Go back while I am still being nice. I won't think twice before killing the rest of you if you bother me any further," said Sekke in a cold tone.
All of them moved back when they felt Sekke's aura, even Xander, the head of the young masters gulped down and he finally realized that this mission might not be as easy as he thought it was.
"J-Just what are you?! You filthy beast!! You dare make the enemy out o-!!" yelled one of the soldiers, when all of a sudden shadowy blades tore through his body killing him in an instant.
"Stop!!" yelled Xander when he noticed that his men were about to attack the monster.
The soldiers stopped and looked at Xander who was looking cautiously at Sekke, who was lying down with his eyes closed, but still had his mana and ki sensing on.
"Gather their bodies. We will revive them once we get back," ordered Xander.
'...So they have a way of reviving them, huh.'
"Maybe that's the reason why all of them used that magic tool to save him earlier. They don't fear death," said Vritra.
The soldiers immediately obeyed the command, although all of them were gritting their teeth in anger, but knew that it was foolish to go against their superior's orders.
While Sekke and Vritra were busy talking and the soldiers were gathering the dead bodies, Xander secretly took out a small glass orb and pointed it at Sekke.
[Magic item: Soul Sight]
This caught Sekke's attention as he thought that the fool was going to attack once again, but he didn't feel any damage at all.
He focused on Xander and saw a translucent screen appear above the orb with some incomprehensible words written on it.
"Sekke Bronzaza..." said Xander making the dragon's eyes widen from surprise.
Seeing that reaction, a smirk appeared on Xander's face.
"So you were a human, hosting the soul of a deceased dragon...I cannot read its name but it's the soul of a dead being huh..." continued Xander.
Hearing his words Sekke understood that the idiot must have used an appraisal magic tool of some sort.
'Well, it's good that the name of the dark lord spreads around anyway.' thought Sekke since he didn't feel that it was that much of a big deal. He was not a person who was shy of fame anyway.
But all of a sudden a huge amount of mana gathered below Sekke making him sigh once again.
"Fools like you never-"
But before he could complete a giant portal appeared below Sekke and tried to sink him in.
Seeing that Sekke simply floated and looked at Xander with a deadpan look on his face.
"Did you think that I would fall for such a trick?" asked Sekke.
But Xander's smirk simply widened as he raised his finger and the portal moved up and engulfed Sekke's entire body before vanishing in an instant.
-------------------
"Looks like you fell for it my other half," commented Vritra.
'Just shut up.' replied Sekke in annoyance.
'Anyway, where the hell are we?' asked Sekke.
"Don't know although I feel a lot of divine energy substitute here....Wait what's happening?" said Vritra in a surprised tone.
The huge dragon that appeared in an unknown place through a portal soon started glowing and an instant later the dragon's body vanished leaving behind a blond man who had a shocked look on his face.
"...Huh?" muttered Sekke in shock as he was somehow back in his human form.
Sekke looked at his body to see if there were any injuries on him, but seeing that he was fine he sighed and looked around.
Suddenly another portal appeared in the air and a familiar face leading the army came out of it.
"How is it human?!" yelled Xander in an ecstatic tone.
"Where the hell is this? And what the hell do you want from me? You have been bothering me for a while."
"This here is the land of the dead and do you know what's the speciality about this realm? No dead soul can use its power here. Means no annoying dragon soul to save you this time you damn weak human."
The moment those words came out of Xander's mouth, the soldiers that surrounded Sekke impaled his body with mana spears.
"Get ready to die a brutal death, human. No one's gonna save you here." said one of the cocky soldiers and laughter erupted amongst the crowd.
"*Sigh* Young masters indeed," muttered Sekke shocking the soldiers as they saw Sekke talking without any discomfort.
[Bronze Magic: Bronze Body- Logia]
Sekke simply broke through the mana spear without any issue and looked at the enemy army with a smirk and raised two of his fingers.
"Two things that you all got wrong and are gonna regret soon. Number one, I don't need the dragon's power to fight. Number two....the ones who are gonna need to be saved are you."
The armor-clad young masters were about to question and curse Sekke but all of a sudden a huge wave of mana spread around them and the sky started to turn dark....or so they thought.
Some of them looked up at the sky and a scene of horror welcomed them.
[Mana Zone: Unlimited Bronze Works- Gaster Circus]
The sky above them was filled with huge metallic animal skulls charged up with mana ready to cause a massacre.
"Ready for a bad time?" asked Sekke in an amused tone.
"H-Huh?" muttered a random soldier and the surroundings soon got engulfed in a bright light.
That was the instant the first massacre by a human occurred in the so-called land of the dead