Chapter 334: Past and Future
What! There’s still a World Boss?!
The situation for defending the city was already tough as nails, and adding a World Boss to the mix was like pouring gasoline on a fire—goodbye calm, hello panic!
Someone suddenly remembered that this mission’s difficulty level was unknown.
Sure, it was bound to be hard, but that difficulty was based on the number of monsters, which couldn’t exceed the epic tier in quality.
“Legendary level, huh…”
On the bright side, if the mission level goes up, so do the rewards after completion.
Fortunately, during this little intermission, all the monsters were flat on their bellies, doing absolutely nothing. Finally, a small break for the players to catch their breath.
They looked up and could only hope this World Boss had a plan.
Let’s see what kind of freaky creature it might be; we can’t strategize until it shows its face.
But Edward wasn’t feeling as chipper; the more he knew, the more fear bubbled up inside him.
This calamity was sky-darkening terrifying.
The dark clouds probably covered half the Desert Realm, and maybe even the Jade Emperor Kingdom could spot it from afar.
This situation was way worse than the calamity he had seen a while back in Falling Leaf City, even more terrifying than the disaster that swept through half the empire and obliterated one-fifth of their territory a decade ago.
Unbeatable, unmanageable!
“Kid! We need to leave! We stand no chance against this calamity! It can’t cross realms; we’ll be safe back in the Jade Emperor Kingdom!”
Edward tugged at Yuliya lightly.
And she didn’t budge.
He turned to look.
Yuliya was still staring up at the sky.
She shook her head. “Teacher, we can’t run. It’s set its sights on me.”
At that moment, a dragon head took shape in the sky, fixated on the direction of Golden City—or more specifically, Yuliya.
Then its body rapidly condensed.
“Set its sights on you?”
Edward looked up and definitely felt the intensity of its gaze.
“This… it’s coming for you?”
“Yep.”
As she spoke, the colossal dragon finally assembled itself fully.
It spread its wings wide enough to cast a shadow over everything and began to circle in the air.
With a mighty roar, it sent shockwaves through the entire Desert Realm.
It was announcing the descent of a divine being!
【Name: Shadow of Time Demon God Asmavasa (Golden Lord, Dragon God)
Level: 80 (Legendary Mid-Tier)
Health: /】
When Yuliya saw the situation, she was surprisingly relieved.
Thank goodness, it was just a projection!
But even a projection was still super scary.
The other players exploded into chaos, cursing up a storm.
What they saw was the boss name “Shadow of Time Demon God”, while the true name was hidden away.
But that didn’t matter; what mattered was the fact that this thing was level 80!
What the heck?! This wasn’t meant to be tackled by mere mortals!
When you face a target you might actually touch, that’s when your resolve kicks in, converting belief into strength.
But a deity like this, one you could only bow to like an ant, nobody could oppose.
They didn’t even have the right to lay a finger on it.
They were like lambs waiting for the slaughter—cowering and waiting for the axe to fall.
And while Edward didn’t feel quite as dramatically as the others, he wasn’t exactly bursting with a fighting spirit either.
He could feel that this calamity was far stronger than the empire faced a decade ago.
Ten years back, he had teamed up with the Emperor and several knight orders, along with hundreds of thousands of troops, to put it down at a heavy cost.
This foe was even stronger, and without his older brother beside him, he was nowhere near his old self. The adventurers around certainly weren’t in the same league as knight orders.
Overall, there was zero hope for victory.
But…
Yuliya was being targeted.
Could he run away alone?
Absolutely not.
As a member of the royal family of the Jade Emperor Kingdom, with all that vanity and power, he had to bear some responsibility.
Last time, the burden fell on his brother, who took on more than his fair share of the calamity.
Why was the leader of the Royal Knight Order, who was supposed to shield the Emperor, living longer than the Emperor himself?
How ridiculous.
Now Yuliya was the most radiant princess of the Jade Emperor Kingdom, and she would shine even brighter in the future.
He should hold the line just like his brother did, right?
“You will walk towards a brighter future, while my path is destined to end here.”
Those were the words spoken to him by Emperor Abis a long time ago.
And now it was time to say the same thing again.
“Yuliya, your future will be ever so colorful; your journey is the stars and the sea.”
“Teacher? What are you saying?”
“I can hold them off for a bit; you need to escape. You can do it, right?”
“No way!” Yuliya reached out to grab Edward’s arm, but he stepped back just in time.
“I’m an old man now; I’ve already ticked off a few wishes on my list—good enough for me.”
“Teacher!! Uncle—!!”
Yuliya screamed desperately, raising her hand in vain, trying to grasp at something.
Edward transformed into a streak of light, soaring into the sky.
In that moment, he felt remarkably light-hearted.
Ever since that battle a decade ago, he had been weighed down by countless regrets.
Vanishing without a word was both his guilt and his escapism.
But now, all the gloom in his heart had lifted.
The bottleneck he hadn’t budged an inch on for ten years suddenly crumbled.
Despite not being in optimal condition, and without any thoughts of pushing through that threshold, he broke through exactly when he needed to, allowing him to buy more time.
Even if he temporarily leveled up, he still saw no hope of defeating that dragon.
Edward drew a sword he hadn’t touched in ages from his waist.
This sword wasn’t even his; his had been broken, left hanging on that crumbling wall.
This was his brother’s sword.
The next moment, a sword light tore through the sky, aimed straight at the giant dragon.
“Look! It’s Prince’s teacher! He’s making a move!”
“Of course, monsters of this caliber aren’t for us to handle; we leave that to the NPCs!”
But in the eyes of the dragon, Edward was nothing but a pesky little bug.
It merely lifted a wing and effortlessly blocked the sword light.
From the players’ perspective, a World Boss getting its name means it has a ridiculously overpowered stat sheet and absurd skills, not to mention some crazy mechanisms.
To handle a World Boss of the same level, you needed a whole army of close-level people working together—maybe dozens, hundreds, or even thousands.
Unless you just happened to be a World Boss yourself, single-handedly taking on one was like trying to throw a pebble at a brick wall.
And even with Edward’s newfound breakthrough, his stats still couldn’t hold a candle to the World Boss.
He was no match at all.
The dragon ignored Edward and kept its eyes on Golden City, shooting an energy orb toward it.
Everyone in the front, including Yuliya, scrambled back into the barrier.
The barrier absorbed the attack, buzzing and flashing with fierce light.
This hit chipped away 3% of the barrier’s durability.
