Ch 168 – Ancient Dragon Spirit

In a realm akin to heaven, with floating islands standing atop rolling hills of fluffy white clouds, a golden palace can be seen in the middle that was akin to an insurmountable mountain. It gave off a grand and divine aura, like the palace where a God resides, and a Goddess does reside in the divine palace.

But at that moment, the beautiful and graceful Goddess Angelica can be seen glaring at the air in front of him as she clicked her tongue. Surrounding her were countless golden orbs colored gold, with each orb depicting a planet where her religion runs rampant.

In mere months, her conquered worlds have already increased by a terrifying amount, and she has only gotten stronger since. But now, she can't have the leisure to enjoy how far she has come as one particular problem can be clearly seen throughout all those golden globes.

A dark miasma can be seen spreading everywhere, dying the golden worlds with chaos and imperfection. One glance alone at that sinister dark miasma and one would know that they were a source of trouble and will bring a lot of problems to the inhabitants of the world.

'Demon Lord!' She gritted her teeth in anger as she stared at the air intensely. Slamming her hand down on her throne, she takes a deep breath and calms himself down. 'Who would have thought that the pathetic Ordo of my original self would rise to such power? Tsk, those useless reincarnates of Terra, they weren't even able to kill Ordo after giving them such strong cheats.'

Feeling her anger bubbling up, she waved her arm and used her equally immense power to slowly dwindle those dark miasmas away, purifying her conquered world clean back to its perfectly golden state. But like an undying tumor, dark miasma continues to spread and spread endlessly without stop.

It just showed how determined the Demon Lord was, and how absurdly strong he has gotten under Angelica's radar. At this point, Angelica was already sure that the Demon Lord was nearing her level at an extremely fast pace! It alarmed her that the Demon Lord would only continue to be an annoying problem for her, and she will need to deal with him sooner or later before he grows strong enough.

But just as she was thinking deeply, her attention was taken away when she felt a strong surge of energy appearing directly inside Earth!

'What?!' She felt alarmed, Earth was her home base and can be considered her base of operations. It had the greatest amounts of dedicated worshippers to her, and most of her devoted angels stem from Earth. It was akin to a goldmine of Mental Energy for her, so she treats it with the utmost care.

Now that a strange burst of energy that she was very much familiar with appeared directly inside America, New York alarmed her. As her vision changed, she saw a giant rupture in the space of the astral plane and a mighty Z-Rank aura erupts, causing not just the astral plane but also the physical world to quake from the pressure.

'An Ancient Dragon Spirit! It's the Demon Lord! But how?! How was he able to directly transfer an Ancient Dragon Spirit to the astral plane of Earth!' She felt alarmed, panic flashed through her eyes as she held back her shock to calm herself down.

Quickly, she noticed a certain someone inside New York, which can be considered the heart of America, 'Isaac Deathwill? Oh yes, the reincarnated Z-Rank Lich of Tellus! He really has grown a lot since the last time I saw him! Even his soul is at the peak of S-Rank! He's the only one I can use in the nearby vicinity, so it means he's the only card I can play against the Ancient Dragon Spirit!'

***

'Hmm?' Isaac opened his eyes inside an alleyway, alarmed at the sudden ominous feeling he felt.

Instantly, he felt the surge of energy explode from the middle of New York and he turned his eyes to see a rupture in space around a hundred meters tall. Seeing that, his mind quickly reacted and he hid his aura to the utmost of his capabilities and ran far away from the area to inspect from a safe distance.

He suddenly heard a loud roar erupting from the space rupture, and a ginormous head the size of a building poked through the space rupture. Slowly, the entire body passed through the space rupture, and the fearsome aura of a Z-Rank pressured him and all the others in the area.

'An Ancient Dragon Spirit?!' Isaac widened his eyes in shock.

The Ancient Dragon Spirit had a transparent white body with formidable white scales, a pair of soulfire eyes that shone brightly, its teeth were the size of houses, and its entire body can be considered a flying mountain! A flap of its wing and strong winds assaulted the area, causing windows to shatter in the physical world and the clouds to be disrupted.

Isaac instantly wanted to escape from the area. Even with his thousand years of life experience and immense combat capabilities, dealing with an Ancient Dragon Spirit would just bring unnecessary risk. He would rather run away and let the dragon rampage than deal with it himself.

But out of nowhere, he could clearly feel his battle intent rising as strange thoughts popped into his mind: 'An Ancient Dragon Spirit? If I were to devour it fully…'

He quickly noticed those strange thoughts which alarmed him. One thing instantly came to his mind, the only plausible reason that these strange thoughts appeared in his head: 'The Goddess… Does she want me to deal with the Ancient Dragon Spirit? Sigh, immense luck would definitely be under the might of a God. If I were to resist and run away, it would instead alarm a Godly being, I would rather deal with the dragon than incur her suspicion.'

Quickly deciding what action he would take, his eyes gleamed with a dangerous light as he looked around the area and saw the scared spiritual beings shaking and trembling in fear. Only he was able to move under such pressure as he too has been a Z-Rank being in his previous life. But Isaac knew that they'd quickly adapt to the fear and start running away based on survival instinct, and with that in mind, he knew he couldn't let this situation go.

'It seems like I'd have to use one of the forbidden techniques that I came up with!'

With a wave of his arm, spiritual energy grabbed the fear-stricken spiritual beings around him. Lifting them up into the air, he closed his right fist and they were all quickly absorbed into his soul. Feeling his soul getting stronger once more, he paused for a second and took another glance at the Ancient Dragon Spirit.

'To turn a disaster into a fortune! With the power of love and luck, along with my own experience, will I be able to transcend the boundaries of mortals and Demigods and kill a Z-Rank Demigod at the higher echelon of Demigods? An Ancient Dragon Spirit?' Isaac grinned ferociously, and he let his killing intent flow which caught the attention of the Ancient Dragon Spirit.

"ROAR!" The Ancient Dragon Spirit's voice echoed throughout the entire area, rupturing the ears of anyone who heard its roar.

Chuckling in response, Isaac's soul exploded with brilliant translucent light as his aura quickly rose to an unprecedented level. It was the genuine aura of a Z-Rank spiritual being, and Isaac flew through the air with a burst of speed beyond the barrier of sound.

Sensing that the figure in front of him was also at the same level of strength it was, the Ancient Dragon Spirit roared louder and charged forwards.

It opened up its mouth, spewing out streams of soulfire that melted everything in its path, including the physical world. The flames themselves were slow, which allowed Isaac to dodge them, but as they split off into multiple different bodies and moved through the air like coiling snakes ramped up the difficulty for Isaac.

That display of finesse showed that the Ancient Dragon Spirit was definitely not to be trifled with, but Isaac in his previous life was at the very peak of Z-Rank, he was just a step away from the level of Gods!

With absolute tranquility, his eyes gleamed as he pierced through the air and dodge all of the soulfire in the air and finally arrived at the Ancient Dragon Spirit who responded too late. With a burst of light, Isaac's fist slammed at the jaw of the Ancient Dragon Spirit and closed its mouth shut.

The soulfire quickly exploded within its mouth, causing it to suffer severe damage in just one move. But Isaac didn't stop there, he could already feel the temporary boost of his strength bringing severe repercussions to his soul.

'If I was inside my body right now, I could have instead burned my lifespan to cast a Z-Rank Spell, but now, I can only burn my soul to temporarily increase my spiritual strength and energy! This means I have very limited time to deal with this dragon before I die!'

With the immense pressure weighing down on him, Isaac exerted battle strength far above the Ancient Dragon Spirit and used the experience of all the souls he absorbed in the astral plane to show immense combat capabilities.

Considering he has the ability to absorb all of the memories of any soul, and coupled with his immense luck, he has gained a tremendous boost to his combat abilities outside of magic from absorbing tens of souls these past few hours.

From Demonic Fist, to the nameless S-Rank soul, to numerous other beings.

It ranged from magic, assassination, martial arts, sword-wielding, unarmed combat, and such. With plentiful experience and the risk of death, Isaac quickly adapted what he learned and showed immense prowess far above what he has previously shown.

Wielding the tremendous spiritual energy he now holds after sacrificing his soul, he charges forward like an arrow of light toward the badly damaged Ancient Dragon Spirit. Seeing his fierce charge, the dragon roared and wielded its own spiritual energy, and swung its claws, causing ginormous claw constructs to fly through the air.

Isaac dodges them swiftly while he flew around the dragon in circles, leaving behind a trail of light behind him which alarmed the Ancient Dragon Spirit. But it knew that if it didn't attack Isaac, Isaac would definitely take that chance to attack him.

And so, the dragon was slowly put into a dangerous situation as multiple rings of light formed around him. Seeing that, Isaac quickly pressed his palms together while mentally shouting: 'DIE!'

The rings of light quickly tightened around the body of the Ancient Dragon Spirit. Without being able to resist, a strange force quickly grabbed hold of it and Isaac tightened his palms, pressing them toward each other with his utmost strength.

Like a watermelon surrounded by rubber bands, a strong explosion occurred and the body of the Ancient Dragon Spirit ruptured into motes of white light. Without wasting his time, Isaac waved his arms and the light rings transformed into a bubble, trapping the motes of light inside it and shrinking down into a tiny orb which Isaac grabbed.

"Suc-Success…" Isaac muttered weakly as his aura reverted back to a measly D-Rank in mere moments.

To fall from the peak of Demigods to a measly D-Rank Soul, it made Isaac feel nauseous as he overexerted his soul to the utmost. But looking at the trapped soul of the Ancient Dragon Spirit in his hands, he snickered and without uttering another word, quickly disappeared from the area.

***

Angelica glanced at the footage playing in front of her with incredulous eyes. She sat there with her mouth agape, she couldn't believe what was playing in front of her right now.

'To think he'd be able to kill an Ancient Dragon Spirit, no, to think he'd capture it alive…' Angelica gasped in shock. 'Just what kind of potential does he have?!'

Angelica sank into silence as her brows furrowed. She constantly replayed the footage in front of her, and she zoomed into the face of Isaac with a mysterious glint in her eyes, 'Potential, no, this should be what I call a Queen! He's not just a pawn that needs to grow, he's already at the peak! With his strong cheat, he will definitely become a valuable piece in the future…'

Thinking of the dangerous potential Isaac Deathwill holds, Angelica's eyes shone with resolution and the screen in front of her quickly changed. On it, the appearance of a boy laying asleep on a bed can be seen, and with one tap, Angelica saw the small golden orb residing on the boy's chest.

"Isaac Deathwill, the thousand years old Lich of Tellus, the Undead Emperor. Be sure to use my gift to you well…" Angelica's eyes shone and the golden orb in the boy's chest flickered.

"Don't disappoint me."

AN: This chapter has 2192 words.

Going all out with the symbolism with this new character!

(October 7, 2022 – 317th day of writing)