Ch. 165 - Prelude to Collapse

Adam set down his Iceblade. Lina was dealing with soul overload, making her a bad choice for adding more slaves to their ranks. But the leftover rebels, who hadn't yet made deals, were too valuable to ignore. They could serve as ideal guinea pigs for testing out bloodline purification techniques across various races.

"Let's go," Adam said, as he put away the test subject and took off his safety gear and Iceblade.

Lina's expression turned serious. Her mouth opened, but in the end, she stayed silent and didn't ask anything. She nodded her head and led the way.

The village seemed back to normal. Contracted forest elves were gathered in a circle around those who were still resisting, at the center of the area. Puddles of blood were scattered around, evidence of a recent, fierce battle.

When Adam and Lina appeared, the elves standing in the outer circle bowed together, stepping back to make a clear path. Adam noticed that Lina's dad was leading those who resisted.

"What's happening here?" Adam asked, his voice icy cold, as if the weight of a dragon's spirit pressed down on Lina.

Feeling the intense pressure, Lina fell to her knees, her face flushing red. "I'm sorry, Master. There's really nothing I can do."

If Lina acted like a regular daughter, her dad, the tribal leader, acted heartless; he didn't seem to care about her struggles, even making fun of her and taunting Adam. "Wicked dragons and traitors should be eliminated. Don't expect any favors from me."

Adam found this puzzling. It was as if the tribal chief had been mind-controlled. Sure, dragons might not be liked, but could they really be hated this much? Compared to Ceylon Island, living conditions near the Makalu Mountains in Okov territory weren't bad. This is clearly a dog eat dog world, and have a powerhouse as their leader will only bring them benefits. Why was this guy so unyielding?

But in the grand scheme, this issue was huge for Lina but small for Adam. He could just use the same tactics he'd used on dragon slayers in the past.

Fed up with the delay, Adam slammed his foot down hard. This triggered sharp spikes of ice to shoot up from the ground where the resisting elves stood. They were impaled, their blood draining into grooves below them. With a powerful flap of his wings, Adam appeared in front of the tribal chief and released the devil into his mind.

Tears streamed down Lina's face, her emotions flipping between anger and submission. Adam noticed something was off with their contract, but he just looked at Lina with an uncaring face.

Soon after, the devil's eager voice broke the silence, "Master, I've got info on the Dragon Slayer Guild." With Adam's go-ahead, five jumbled-up pieces of memory poured into his thoughts.

The Dragon Slayer Guild was said to be created by the best dragon slayers on the planet. Its main goal was to gather forces from all kinds of races to fight against dragons, free people from their harsh rule, and set up a new, peaceful world.

From the broken memories, Adam found out that pretty much any dragon slayer could be part of this group. Most of what people knew was spread by the organization on purpose. Regarding the tribal chief's memories, Adam only saw that a stranger of unknown race, status, and gender had shown up after the tribe got their freedom. This stranger had invited the tribe to move and join the Dragon Slayer Guild as a group.

"Is that it?" Adam asked the devil, not fully believing what he heard.

As the devil was busy eating the souls of the forgotten slaves, it rolled its eyes a bit and said, "Master, their total energy can't even match a level-one mage. What could they possibly know that's valuable?"

Adam had thought about this already and reframed his question, "Is there any extra info on this mysterious individual?"

"Nothing more. The tribal chief didn't dare to look too closely. All he knows is that this unknown person will come back when the right time comes."

Adam yanked his claw out of the tribal chief's head and nailed him down onto the ice spikes. The chief and all the resistors were still alive, because Adam needed their bodies to keep making blood. However, they could no longer move, turning into living statues that only served to make blood.

Adam walked past Lina on his way to his lab, not even giving her a second look.

Lina felt like she had been tossed into a freezing pit of ice.

...

Back at the lab, Jace's head was still wide open. Adam put on his safety gear and picked up where he left off. In the back of his mind, the devil giggled, "Master, it looks like your little maid was thinking about turning on you."

Getting back to work, Adam cracked open the heads of four more dragon-slayers one after another. He then put on an ice crystal lens and closely studied the brain make-up.

Before, Adam had dissected a lot of infected creatures on Ceylon Island. When he compared them, he didn't see anything weird in their brains. These guys didn't even have the special tissue that helps make psychic powers, something that's pretty common in humans from the mage world. Maybe that's why they went the bloodline route instead.

"Master, are you gonna do something about her? Her betraying you could mess up all your plans," the devil kept egging him on.

As Adam stored the four brains into containers, he answered, "If she betrays me, she's done for. If she stays with me, she gets a shot at revenge for her dad. What would you do if you were in her shoes?"

The devil paused, then awkwardly said, "Master, why would I ever think about betraying you?"

Adam added, "Also, let's not forget I'm still a Frost Dragon. As long as I keep my true self a secret, I can find a safe place anywhere in this world. She's been tossed aside by Okov. Without me, she's got nowhere to go. No matter how much she hates me, she's stuck with me."

Adam then created an ice crystal board and jotted down the bloodline purification steps in Dragon-Plane Common language. He continued, "Feelings are a strong force, and hate is one of the strongest feelings out there. I'm not just going to let her off the hook; I'll actually help her get stronger. I want her to dive deep into her hatred, obsessed with the idea that one day she might be strong enough to get her revenge. That way, she'll be as useful as possible to me until she tries to take her revenge."

The devil stopped talking, realizing its master was way more cunning than he could ever be. Carefully, he shut its mouth and slid back into the furthest corners of Adam's mind, too scared to say another word.

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