Guild Wars

Draco clutched his forehead with his temples bulging, an expression of pure agony mixed with confusion on his face as he slipped sideways and ended up leaning against a nearby wall.

This change was so sudden that those who came to receive him were stunned into stupefaction, not understanding why their omnipotent guild leader was looking as if he had been fed the world’s most potent toxin and was about to perish.

Shuangtian and Eva suddenly appeared in front of Draco, their faces full of shock and horror as they held him down. Their expressions shifted to one of panic as both beauties realized that their seemingly eternal connection with Draco had been blocked by a powerful force.

Forget helping him, they did not even have a clue what was happening and could only helplessly look on as the fellow grunted in agony, his eyes, ears, and nose beginning to leak blood. He did not become still, but his thrashing receded significantly as his eyes faded in color, his mental functions slowing down rapidly.

The two beauties raised his body then rushed outside the spatial blockade that Draco made, using their psychic ability of apportation to teleport into the Glorygore Labs building, right in front of the familiar elevator. Using their special access, Shuangtian and Eva opened the elevator and began to take the special passage down to the pocket world belonging to the AI.

Usually, they would directly bypass all this and teleport in, but that required Draco’s space branch abilities which neither of them had.

As the elevator went down quickly, both women had grim expressions on their faces as they swore to mutilate whoever did this to their soulmate.

..........

Within Draco’s mind, he emerged within a large platform that was not surrounded by a starry sky but rather a cold void. The white platform seemed like something out of a fictional sci-fi rendition of a spaceship’s control center, with multiple holographic screens hanging above the console-like terminals that displayed the various scenes from around him.

Within this platform, before the consoles, were three designated seating spots. One was at the forefront, linked to the console while the other two played a supportive role. However, only one of these seats was occupied, being the main one closest to the consoles.

In this seat was the figure of Draco wearing his attire of a black t-shirt, red Burberry shorts, and black slide slippers that gave off a casual vibe, his spiky hair neatly patted down. However, at the moment of the attack, this apparition of Draco showed a look of surprise and horror as it suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood-colored essence.

He rose to his feet sharply with a look of alarm.

"Who attacked me just now? Damn, that was a remote attack geared solely towards the soul and that attack was no weaker than the peak of the Origin level!" Draco’s shameless thoughtstream exclaimed with shock.

Suddenly the thoughtstream dodged as a claw appeared where it had been standing, piercing through a part of its abdomen and ripping holes into his t-shirt. He turned around to regard a bizarre creature appearing behind him within his inner self, being a mass of shadow that looked like a humanoid bipedal deer wearing a set of lavish robes.

"What the fuck?" Draco rightly muttered with confusion, wondering how such an abomination invaded his soul and especially how it managed to cut off his connection with his babes.

Even if Draco himself did not have soul-related branches specifically, he had minor soul-related powers here and there. Not to mention that one of Shuangtian’s branches was that of the soul, so it was usually up to her to defend the souls of the trio while Eva defended their minds from invasion.

To bypass Shuangtian in such a way that she could not do anything, this attacker had a soul-related ability that was definitely at the Origin level. Draco was not sure where he had such an enemy outside of Boundless, but he could only pinpoint the Primordials as the cause.

What confused him was why they never did this before and what kind of cost they were paying to do this now. Just in terms of Origin energy consumption, he could tell they were burning a huge amount to continually suppress Draco, cut the connection between him and his women, and especially to withstand Shuangtian’s likely furious counterattack.

All of this was likely to buy time for this wretched abomination to destroy his soul from the source, which made Draco wonder where they got the confidence from?

"Hmph, I haven’t had to do this for a long time, so I will let you enjoy it well." Shameless Draco boasted with a sneer, immediately taking a step forward as his body began to shift.

Immediately, his body slowly shifted from humanoid to that of a quadrupedal, specifically his black dragon form. Blood-red eyes shining with malice, horns that were long and menacing, spiked ridges on his back, and a muscular form that boasted immense power.

"AOOOO!!!" Draco roared loudly, releasing a majestic dragon’s might that caused the entire platform area to tremble from his might.

However, the apparition of the horned deer was undisturbed, rather only lifting a hand to condense a wave of black-green power that fired at Draco’s head. Draco saw this and responded accordingly, condensing destruction energy in his mouth as he spat it out, colliding with the dark miasma shot at him.

Both energies collided and shook the soul space, their powers wreaking havoc dangerously. The horned deer apparition had no problems with this, but Draco’s face obviously changed as he couldn’t withstand such a brutal fight.

Otherwise, even if he beat this fellow to death, he would likely be killed himself if his soul space shattered. That kind of death was one that neither Shuangtian nor Eva could save him from with their powers, as they were not absolute.

The apparition condensed another beam, but this time did two of them in either hand. One was aimed towards Draco and the other was cruelly aimed at the platform itself, showing that the enemy knew exactly what they were doing.

In fact, Draco realized that this was likely their source of confidence. They had sent an assassin in at a high price without knowing the full extent of his power and his methods, so there was no guarantee to defeat him head-on. Rather than waste this precious one-time chance, it would be better to focus on achieving the goal through an alternate means, even if it was despicable and self-harming.

Because once the soul space was destroyed, both Draco and this primordial launching the attack would bid farewell to the world without ever a chance to come back.

Realizing this, Draco’s expression became nasty, but he could only roar and charge forward while coating his body in destruction energy. Using his own figure, he swiped at the blow meant for the platform while spitting out an orb to blow the one heading for him.

However, this save meant nothing as the enemy simply charged themselves with that strange power and struck the platform below their feet, causing the entire soul space to rumble and for Draco to scream in agony, both internally and outside.

It was at this time that Eva and Shuangtian appeared outside, as things going on in the outside world moved at a much slower pace than within the soul space.

The horned deer apparition seemed to see the light of success and repeated the attack, which caused more damage as well as cracks to form across the platform. The shameless Draco, which was connected to the platform and in charge of everything, bore the brunt of this and was unable to make a move, forcefully reverting back to his human form with blood leaking from his mouth.

However, despite the upper hand the horned deer apparition had, Draco himself was not too worried as he sneered. This startled the apparition as it wondered what other trump cards he had when it screeched in agony since it found that its chest was pierced by a hand from the back.

Looking back, the horned deer apparition was completely spellbound by shock as it saw another Draco appear behind it, this one wearing business casual attire with a cold and unfeeling expression on his face.

"How could this be possible? How can one being have two souls?" The Horned Deer Apparition finally spoke for the first time, its voice deep and masculine.

This new Draco shook his hand and tried to rip it upwards, tearing the target into two, but the foe would not give him that chance as it rather powerfully knocked him back. After doing so, it retreated to the edge of the platform and kept both Draco within its line of sight, one who was severely wounded and a new one who wore a grim expression.

However, the horned deer apparition relaxed when it realized that the objective hadn’t changed. Whether there was one or a hundred souls in this fellow’s soul space, it would all be for naught if the ship capsized.

"Why didn’t you aim for its head?" The injured Draco asked the standing one with an accusatory tone.

"Because it was too risky. I had one chance to sneak attack and I chose the method that would securely deal damage rather than try to go for the kill and end up failing." The other Draco said in calm response.

Then, he turned to his waylaid compatriot with a cold look. "Also, you have no right to question me. I supported you and decided to withdraw my rights to controlling our body because you argued that you were the best for our future. Yet look, you lack the necessary skills to deal with such a foe and almost got us killed!"

The Draco who was injured gritted his teeth but could not say anything in rebuttal. His mind was in a mess as he tried to understand why this was even happening and how best to deal with this situation, because he was bound to suffer the most.

In this time, the horned deer apparition had let them speak to gather more information, but seeing that its time was dwindling, it immediately resumed the attack. The platform was still its major target and it had even given up on self-protection as well as dealing with the two Dracos.

Feeling the terrible shaking as the cracks spread out, the injured Draco became worse while the stoic one immediately charged forward to attack. Rather than transform into a dragon, it maintained a humanoid shape as it shifted into the Devil form that Draco possessed, its body glowing with a blue outline.

Immediately, energy surged into the platform that caused the cracks to lessen greatly and stabilize the trembling world, also having the effect of significantly healing the wounded Draco.

"Oh? Soul power?" The Horned Deer Apparition gave the stoic Draco a second glance, realizing that this must be the trump card.

However…

"It’s too weak. You cannot counterattack my power with just this." The enemy shook their head and drew on some of the power that was used to suppress the other problems from this ambush to power an even stronger attack.

BANG!

The attack this time was too great, and the cracks spread even farther than where they had gone before. Not only that, about a tenth of the entire platform shattered on the spot and became floating debris, causing both Dracos to suffer extensive damage.

Even if the stoic one had given up control rights and was not directly linked to the platform, it was still a case of the ship’s crew suffering if the ship was capsized.

Worse still, the enemy was relentless and was preparing another such attack, which would definitely yield far greater destruction this time. While the severely wounded Draco was pale and full of fear, the stoic one was calm and slightly relieved.

"It’s a good thing I brought him here just in case." The fellow muttered lightly, just enough for the severely wounded one to hear, causing his pupils to constrict greatly.

"NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" The fellow roared with horror, his expression more fearful than the death that was about to befall them.

It was too late though, as the sound of a chain snapping sounded from the void, the squeal of mental hinges emitting from the darkness like a caged door was being opened.