Westminster Bank

"Brother L, thank goodness you’re here."

After Baron rescued Jack by pretending to be from the Blood Department and luring away the Guards, Jack clung to Baron’s leg and refused to let go. "You have no idea what I’ve been through!"

"I’m not interested in what you’ve been through," Baron said. "Let go. The Dragon Devourer Cultists must have realized something’s wrong. They’ll be here any second. We need to find a way out."

"I know a secret passage," Jack said.

Baron was instantly on guard. "What secret passage? Are you sure it’s an exit?"

"The hell, L?" Jack said. "What kind of person do you take me for? You think I’m the sort of idiot who’d drag his partner into the Dragon Devourer Cultists’ lair to see if there’s anything to loot, despite knowing how pressed for time we are? Someone completely clueless about the bigger picture?"

「Ten minutes later」

The two of them were in a secret chamber at the end of the cavern. The two had already taken down the Guards in the chamber. It was a large room, containing only three pits of blood.

That was because the Dragon Descendants in these pits were of a much higher Tier than those outside, and they were much larger as well.

Three Dragon corpses lay within: a Third Generation Fierce Dragon, a Third Generation Ice Scale Dragon, and a Fourth Generation Thunder Wolf Dragon Beast King.

Floating in the pits of the Fierce Dragon and the Thunder Wolf Dragon Beast King were two human figures. A closer look revealed them to be two corpses, each with a knife plunged into their abdomen.

Judging by their clothes, they must have been the heads of the Blood and Bone Departments the High Priest had mentioned earlier.

"Dragon Attendants."

Baron and Jack exchanged a look, their voices dropping to a whisper.

"It looks like the Dragon Eater Association has figured out how to mass-produce Dragon Attendants. We could probably make a killing selling this intel to an unscrupulous paper like the Mercury Times."

As always, Jack’s analysis was focused on the money.

Baron lowered his voice. "The Dragon Eater Association is known for achieving Dragon Heart Transformation by consuming dragon hearts. Now, they’ve also mastered creating Dragon Attendants. And this coincides perfectly with the Beowulf Family’s Dragon Hunting Ceremony. It looks like they plan to leverage the ceremony for some specific purpose."

"What purpose?"

"I don’t know. But I’m sure it’s connected to the Dragon Spear Trial happening at Dragon Spear Plaza. The earthquake we felt in the mountains just now was probably the signal that the Plaza was opening. They’re going to make their move soon."

"Damn!" Jack grumbled in frustration. "If only I’d known this intel sooner."

"I only just figured it out myself, by connecting it to what the High Priest said earlier," Baron replied.

"No, you’re misunderstanding me." Jack shook his head. "If I’d known sooner, I could have had my colleagues in the logistics department sell this intel for a high price to the Old Blood fathers of these Trial Takers."

Jack’s mind was, as always, on the money.

This time, Baron ignored him, instead carefully examining the Dragon corpses in the pits. Though the Dragon Attendants formed from each Dragon Body varied slightly in appearance, they all generally followed the standard form: a human upper body and a dragon’s lower body.

The members of the Old Race, who had been stored inside the Giant Dragons, were chosen as the primary ’ingredients’ for the Dragon Attendants. Baron guessed this was due to some sort of affinity—they had all been burned by the [Immortal Fire].

Based on the fragments he’d pieced together, Baron speculated that the peculiar flame preserved the vital essence of both the human and the Dragon after burning them, which served to stabilize the Dragon Attendant’s body. The soul, however, likely came from the third component: the Dragon Devourer Cultists themselves, who had fallen into the pits.

It seemed these Cultists used a similar method to preserve their own spirits from dissipating, which then became the souls of the Dragon Attendants through the medium of the blood pits.

Baron asked Jack, "Do you know anything about the origins of this [Immortal Fire]?"

Jack shook his head. Baron knew he wouldn’t have a clue. For something like this, the only way to get an answer was probably to find the Dwarf Master, Bagins, in Inner London.

But the most pressing matter right now was escaping the Dragon Devourer Cultists who were on their way.

With his Dragon Knight’s perception, Baron could clearly hear the thunder of approaching footsteps. He looked at Jack.

"You said this was an escape route, but this is clearly a dead-end chamber. Or is there another secret passage you know about?"

"There are no other secret passages," Jack said.

"Then we’ll have to fight our own way out."

Baron suddenly fixed his gaze on Jack. Jack, looking like a big, golden-haired drowned rat, was giving him a dopey grin.

The dopey grin vanished. "Brother L," Jack said, "surely you don’t think I’m that useless, do you?"

’Not *that* useful.’

Baron could hear the Dragon Devourer Cultists were now less than twenty meters away. "Whatever it is, spit it out! Any later and it’ll be too late!"

"After I discovered this secret base, I did a rough structural analysis of the cavern," Jack explained. "Based on my calculations, the rock wall is thinnest right here, in this chamber."

"You know geology?"

As soon as he said it, Baron remembered Jack’s academic credentials and fell silent.

’Compared to him, I’m the one who sounds like an idiot.’

"I planted a bomb on the wall earlier," Jack said. "The only problem is, the explosion might wake up those two Dragon Attendants."

The footsteps drew nearer, then stopped right outside the chamber.

Baron didn’t have time to worry about that. He told Jack to just blow it, and fast. Any later and they’d lose their chance.

"Hang on," Jack said, "I’m looking for the detonator in my Soluble Ring."

’For fuck’s sake,’ Baron thought. ’Get it together, man! How could you not have the detonator on you at a time like this?’

Then he thought again. ’Shit, it’s too late.’

The High Priest had already appeared in the chamber. He wore a mask, beneath which a single eye glowed gold. His extraordinary presence was reminiscent of a one-eyed eagle that still reigned supreme over the skies.

Beneath the mask, that single Golden Eye fixed on Baron and Jack, like the glowing dot of a surveillance camera in a spy film.