Naya struggled against the wind-element ropes dragging her deeper into the sea.
Her body ached, her mind reeled, and the overwhelming pressure of her S-Rank breakthrough only made it worse.
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The water around her churned violently, a chaotic storm of ice and currents following her like an unstoppable force.
The two Raashim Templars pulling her didn't seem to care. They were too focused on their destination—Azurea.
The dragoness was a terrifying force, already an S-Rank. She was supposed to be their ally, an unshakable pillar of strength protecting the temple. And right now, she was just within reach.
At this point, Azurea was doing all she could to strengthen the seal on the sea monster that had haunted a major part of Labh Salem's seas for centuries before Raashim's Temple took action.
Azurea had placed many high level barriers around the region to make sure that nobody from Eren's side would get into where she was currently at. However, due to lack of time, she had used the temple's measures that were already in place and did not bother to use any of her personal Skills and abilities.
As such, Naya's two opponents who met with these near-invisible and almost tamper-proof mana barriers didn't think much of them.
As they were unaware of what Azurea was doing, the two Templars simply used the high-level authority access given to them by the temple to make the barriers disappear, thinking that they were raised just as a precaution and thought nothing of them.
They then dragged Naya behind them as she struggled in her bindings while suffering from the physical pain and mental suffering brought by her current S-Rank promotion that was in full swing.
"Lady Azurea, please... please... help! Help us get rid of this wench!" the female Templar screamed desperately, her voice trembling with exhaustion and relief.
The male Templar, however, hesitated. Something felt wrong.
Earlier, the male practitioner was glad that he had come up with the idea to use Azurea's might to deal with the hot potato that was Naya. However, the male Templar wasn't as emotionally overwhelmed and relieved as his female ally was.
There was some part of him that told him that there was something wrong about how Azurea had her back facing them. The pureblooded dragoness should have at least turned towards them even if she didn't want to help them.
After all, even though Azurea wasn't one of God Raashim's followers, she still served as Raashim Temple's ally. He and his ally were no bigshots among the upper echelons of the Raashim Templars but they were influential enough to at least have an audience with dragoness Azurea. So why did she not even spare them a glance?
Azurea was there—he could see her form, the powerful, twin-headed dragoness surrounded by thick barriers of mana. Even if she was busy, even if she didn't want to help, she should have at least acknowledged them simply by addressing them in passing. Not even a "get lost?" or "who are you?" was thrown their way.
A sense of unease crawled up his spine. His instincts screamed at him that they had made a terrible mistake. A dragon's might was not easy to borrow. At least not to someone like them.
And then, Azurea moved.
The dragoness turned her bloodshot eyes locking onto them.
The moment their gazes met, the male Templar's breath hitched.
Too late.
Roar!
Azurea unleashed a deafening dragon roar. But it was no ordinary roar—it was made of pure, liquefied azure lightning.
The energy struck them like a tidal wave. There was no time to react, no time to run. The lightning devoured their bodies instantly, erasing them from existence before they could even scream.
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Naya, still bound in the elemental ropes, barely had time to register what had happened. One second, her captors had been there. Next, they were gone.
Even though she was not in her right state of mind due to her imminent breakthrough ritual, she could vaguely understand that her two opponents were killed in a "friendly fire."
Azurea let out a deep, frustrated grunt.
"Ugh! Idiots," she muttered. "Can't they see I already have my hands full dealing with this mess?"
She didn't care that she had just killed two of Raashim Temple's top Templars. If anything, she planned to demand even more compensation from the temple once this whole disaster was over.
Just like the Rashim Temple's forces, the dragonkind didn't want to deal with the sea monster that had been caged for more than a few centuries. Azurea had her own vested interests that made her form a cooperative bond with Raashim Templars. However, it didn't mean that she would let her extra efforts go to waste.
She was about to turn back and continue strengthening the barrier when something caught her eye.
An anomaly?
"No… wait… that girl's Elemental Attainments are resonating with Labh Salem's Laws… This… This… the fuck…. It can't be…" murmuring to herself, Azure bit her lips in frustration and watched on.
Not far from where she had just incinerated the Templars, a young woman—no, a demon beast in humanoid form—floated in the water, still bound by the ropes.
Azurea narrowed her eyes, recognizing Naya.
Her expression twisted in deathly irritation. Of course, Eren's people would show up here at the worst possible time. But even though Naya was from the enemy side, she wasn't a threat right now.
If anything, Naya was a nuisance. And Azurea had no patience for nuisances.
Her draconic eyes glowed as she gathered another surge of liquefied lightning, ready to wipe Naya out of existence like she had with the Templars.
But then—she froze.
Something was wrong.
Azurea's eyes widened as she finally realized what was happening.
Naya was undergoing an S-Rank promotion.
A flicker of genuine horror flashed across Azurea's face. Not because she feared Naya—far from it. A newly ascended S-Ranker would be no match for an experienced one like herself.
Even if Naya was given a few years to stabilize her S-rank in the future, she would be no match against a genuine S-Rank pureblood dragon.
No, her fear wasn't for herself. It was for the seal.