'These two…'

After getting a quick grasp of the situation centered around the Snakeman, I temporarily ignored him as I shifted my focus into the two who accompanied him, only to look back at the Clan Leader.

The reason for that was…

Click!

A gust of gray wind moved to remove the robes of the two who accompanied the Snake-man as he snapped his fingers.

"Tada! Isn't the answer just as surprising as my visit?"

The Clan Leader's already grim expression only grew grimmer as he looked at the revealed faces, but I didn't need to look at them again to know the reason.

[ Race: Humanoid Lesser Dragon (Green) (Diluted)

State: Corrupted (Incomplete) ]

"You! What have you done to them!"

While the Clan Leader managed to control himself not to waste any energy by attacking, he couldn't do the same about his rage as he shouted out loud…

"Huh? What do you mean by that? I didn't do anything other than what these loyal little 'dragons' of yours asked of me… However, you shouldn't blame them either. After all, not all beastmen are the same… Oh what could those with extremely diluted bloodlines do for strength, they are all desperate deep down, which makes it very hard to refuse their pleas, so I shouldn't be blamed for my generosity either, right?"

Putting his hands on the heads of the two half-dragons who have lost most of their will as if he was patting them, the Snake-man put on a mockingly fake apologetic expression as he looked towards the Clan Leader…

"Haaa, you speak as if I don't know of your cheap tricks that you are still employing even now? To think that you go as low as to target those of my Dragon Clan using that repulsive manipulation art of yours just to know the location of our stronghold."

The Clan Leader closed his eyes for one second before letting out a deep breath as he seemed to calm down once more as if he decided to no longer be affected by the Snake-man's provocation, pointing out his lies as he waited for his chance.

'Is his mind art of similar kind to my use of Mental Energy…?'

Though my 'Eye of Knowledge' pointed out the Snake-man's peculiar ability, its details were still limited, but the Clan Leader's words could more or less explain that part of it relied on suggestions.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, I'm completely disappointed by your framing, can't you simply accept the facts? Is that how you repay my generosity to your clan members?"

The Snake-man clicked his tongue as he looked at the Clan Leader with a wronged expression as if he was waiting for his apology.

"Enough of this! Do you really think your little trick would last long? Or are you really making use of your last minutes to engage in this silly provocation? Your simple tricks could only allow you to find our stronghold's location but my Green Dragon Mountain Range's suppression still remains. No matter how strong this shield of yours is, it won't last for a few more minutes. Once it's broken, I will have your head."

The words spoken by the Clan Leader were extremely firm as he seemed to have steeled his will and overcame the Snake-man's mind game, his aura grew extremely sharp, ready to remove the Snake-man from existence as soon as he could.

'That should be the case…'

His assumption wasn't wrong either, the high rank of the Snake-man's 'Extreme Shadow Barrier' has already started to fall down even as he stood in his place, it possibly couldn't even last more than one minute before it would be breakable through offense. However…

'Just what really gives him this much confidence…?'

The situation didn't make sense at all… Could it really be that the Snake-man would choose suicide just to play a prank on the Dragon Clan's Leader…?

It felt extremely off, but both my Perception and 'Sensory Area' couldn't sense anything else other than the Snake-man and the two corrupted half-dragons

'Oh… he is finally realizing the situation?'

The Snake-man's face finally showed a hint of worry behind his smug grin when a few seconds had passed after the Clan Leader announced his death sentence, it wasn't obvious but my 'Sensory Area' did manage to catch it.

"L...o...r...d…"

'Huh?'

The hint of worry wasn't all my 'Sensory Area' managed to catch, the Snake-man strangely mumbled out a broken word as the worry on his face began to be more apparent…

'This…'

Just then!

"Hahahahahaha!"

My 'Sensory Area' managed to catch an anomaly as a strange pressuring laugh sounded out… the Snake-man's shadow was actually moving and turning corporeal!

"To think that as I came to get rid of that despicable blood's avatar, I would actually chance upon you who have been on our priority list… My luck is really good! This must be The Sacred Sovereign's blessing!"

At this point, I was already aware that something wasn't right, the shadow figure's eyes didn't form yet, but I could almost tell it was looking at me.

'Not Good!'

Normally, with my current level of ability, I was confident that I didn't have to worry whoever my opponent was as I could escape them all at the very least, but deep inside, I could feel the threat of whatever was forming that I was already moving towards it with the fastest speed I could muster in my current position!

'I need to finish this!'

The thought of just escaping didn't seem to cross my mind as if escaping wouldn't be able to eliminate this threat, my Perception was flaring to tell me that the only way to evade the threat was to destroy its source!

However…

'I didn't move…?'

My mind had already executed its order, but my body didn't seem to listen. The only thing that still worked was my ability to see the shadow form into a twin-horned demon who seemed to have something crushed in his hand.

"Gahhhh… why?!"

The last image that I saw was the Snake-man exploding into pieces as he screamed while the two corrupted half-dragons soundlessly disintegrated into black particles before the world turned completely black...