System's POV

Believing nothing could stand in his way anymore, Lucan eyed Zia greedily.

In his eyes, Tiona was not a wall but a mere flimsy sheet of paper. She was not strong enough to stop him from taking Zia.

Sure, her rank increased all the way to that of a Throne. But, so what? Against him, even a Throne was no different from an insect!

After her initial surprise, Tiona was able to regain her calm.

Her opponent was strong, but that didn't mean that the situation was hopeless.

"Give her to me, and I can consider sparing your life," Lucan stated. "This is the last mercy I will give you."

"I don't need your mercy," Tiona replied coldly. "I will never give her to you."

"Foolish girl." Lucan sneered. "I will not give you a second chance."

Despite being certain that he could take Zia from Tiona without much effort, he still took caution out of habit, believing one couldn't be too careful.

He only talked to the young lady holding Zia for a bit so that he could subtly check his surroundings and ensure that nothing around them could be used to threaten him.

After double-checking, he believed there was nothing of the sort, so he stopped holding back and fiercely lunged at Tiona, who had already merged with her demons and had transformed into a giant black snake, with scales made from countless blades.

This was her new form, Gladius Domini Mortis.

She had devoured Zia to keep her safe, as she wasn't very confident about protecting Zia while fighting with Lucan.

Seeing her futile resistance, Lucan couldn't help but sneer because he found her actions a waste of his time!

However, something he didn't expect happened.

A beam of light slammed into the side of his body, pushing him toward the mountain in the distance.

A loud explosion erupted as the beam strike from the main cannons of Nautilus obliterated the mountain.

Tiona had deliberately pretended like she no longer had any trump cards, successfully tricking the Artemian Commander into lowering his guards. And as she expected, the enemy was caught in surprise.

As she looked at the mountain, which had its upper half obliterated, she couldn't help but sigh in relief.

But her relief didn't last long, for a blue sphere—nearly four meters tall—rose up from the mountain.

Lucan's life-saving artifact had activated, saving his life. He looked at Tiona in surprise , knowing that if not for his artifact, he would have died not knowing how.

The King of Artem had personally gifted him this artifact, which could block up to three attacks that could instantly kill him.

Seeing that her enemy was still alive, Tiona didn't hesitate to flee, using the time that Nautilus had bought her as a headstart.

Lucan roared in anger before flying to pursue the fleeing snake, who thought that she could get away from him.

At that moment, the Artemian Commander saw a bright flash in the horizon, prompting him to activate another one of his life saving artifacts.

Just as the beam was about to hit him, he teleported dozens of meters away, barely escaping the second full-powered blast of Nautilus' Main Cannon.

"Damn!" Jubei cursed after Athena confirmed that the second attack failed to hit the target.

He only had one more shot before the Main Cannon overheated after raising its output to the limit.

"Use the secondary cannons and provide cover fire for Tiona," Jubei ordered.

He would only fire the main cannon when he was certain that Lucan wouldn't be able to avoid it.

Nautilus had positioned itself at the northern part of the continent, so it could help defend the sleeping Zia if something unexpected happened.

This was also why its secondary cannons were capable of reaching Lucan, who was currently using every means he had to dodge the attacks coming from the North.

Tiona was heading further north, so that Nautilus' support fire would become more effective.

However, the North was filled with mountains that could block the beam attacks.

Because of this, they had to rely on Athena to calculate everything, giving her full control of Nautilus' cannons.

After sensing that the repeated attacks were weaker than the first, Lucan summoned a shield to block the attacks that he couldn't avoid in time.

This continued for a while until Nautilus' main cannon fired one last time.

Tiona had focused the attacks of the secondary cannons on one location before firing off the main cannon.

And just as planned, Lucan used his teleport skill to evade the first blast, reappearing exactly where they wanted him to—the Artemian Commander had not seen it coming. The main cannon had hit him squarely, pushing him back several miles.

The blue sphere that had protected him was now filled with cracks, and he understood it would break once hit by one more attack of that level.

Although he was shaken, Lucan gritted his teeth and once again pursued Tiona, who was now miles away from him.

The Artemians were also a race that used advanced science and technology.

So, while he didn't know how many more times they could use those beam strikes powerful enough to trigger his life-saving artifact, he was sure that there wouldn't be much of them left.

And, he was right.

Without the main cannon to threaten him, the secondary cannons could only annoy him at most.

The shield he was using was more than enough to block them, so he didn't hold back and flew at full speed toward his target.

———

In the place where the Valkyries had fought against the Azothralls…

The dismembered body parts of the Azothralls were scattered in the surroundings.

Their heads were all cut off, and their chests all had holes where their cores were located.

The Valkyries made sure that they were deader than dead before they went to help their Master.

And they were right.

The Azothralls had indeed died… except for one.

The Golden Azothrall's head, which was lying several meters away from its body, opened its eyes.

Azoh' Karn was one of the two Golden Azothralls that were brought in this expedition.

But he and the other Golden Azothralls were created differently from the others.

And what was that difference?

They had three cores in their bodies.

The other two cores were impossible to detect and would only activate fifteen minutes after the first core was destroyed, or stopped working.

The first core was located on Azoh'Karn's chest.

The second one was on his head.

The third one was on his right leg.

Unless these three cores were destroyed, Azoh'Karn would not die completely.

Countless small golden tentacles extended from the head and moved towards its body.

A moment later, the tentacles reached their destination and pulled the head back, reattaching itself together once more.

Once that was done, Azoh'Karn raised his hand, and more tentacles erupted from its body.

These tentacles then grabbed hold of the dead body parts of the Azothralls around it, which then merged with the Golden Azothrall's body.

After making sure that it had absorbed the dead bodies of its comrades, Azoh'Karn dug deep underground and covered his tracks.

It then spun webs around its body, turning itself into a cocoon.

When he was done, the cocoon pulsed with golden light as Azoh'Karn entered a state of evolution.

Using the flesh and blood of its comrades, it forced itself to evolve and increase its rank to the next level.

It was already a peak Rank 9 Sovereign, and it only needed a little push to become an Archon.

The new batch of Golden Azothralls were programmed to do this as a last resort, ensuring that the Artemian Army would be able to overcome any obstacle that stood in their way of conquering Pangea.