Chapter 202: Chapter 135: I Chant Your Name
He was L’s companion.
Yalilan glanced at Morey, the Blood Loss Knight who had appeared out of nowhere, and immediately issued her orders:
"Do as he says! Putin Team, pin down the Immortal Monster! Hera and Ode’s team, don’t let the surrounding cultists get close! The rest of you, with me—we’re taking its heads! I’ll get three! The rest of you, get the other three!"
As she finished speaking, she leaped high toward the monster. Her long saber, covered in Alchemy Circuits, carved a coldly beautiful arc through the air as she and the Demon Hunters behind her swung at the beast and its six newly regrown heads.
...
At that same moment, deep beneath the main altar, the dust cloud settled, revealing two figures upon the platform—completely unharmed.
Ferdinand was still bare-chested. The Priest, after only a brief hesitation, resumed the hymn he had not had time to finish.
The Blessing Barrier formed by the ritual was completely undamaged. It was as smooth as silk, without a single crack to be seen.
It wasn’t that the Annihilation Stone was useless, but rather that the Blessing Barrier below was simply beyond its scope. In Morey’s words, it was a case of a pony trying to pull a stagecoach.
Whether it was a trick of the eye, the group felt that Ferdinand’s frame seemed taller and broader than before...
Baron and Zod noticed something was wrong. It wasn’t just Ferdinand’s physique, but also the Magic Potion on the table... Ferdinand had already drunk it all!
Zod’s pupils contracted. He made a snap decision. "We either break this barrier or we run! Once the Magic Potion is consumed, the ascension begins..."
He didn’t need to finish. Baron had already charged forward, blades snapping out from his twin pistols as he hacked violently at the Blessing Barrier.
"Your luck is quite good. To think you’d catch me on the very day I decided to force my breakthrough to the Silver Tier."
Through the Blessing Barrier, Ferdinand watched Baron with a mocking expression. "But your luck isn’t *quite* good enough, because the one who came here is you, not Yalilan."
Demon Hunter L, however, simply smiled. He shot a glance at the Yellow-robed Priest, who had been so startled by his charge that he had instinctively stopped his prayer.
A sudden unease gripped Ferdinand. He looked at the Priest. "Don’t stop! Continue the prayer."
The Priest hastily resumed, "...Her devout followers shall receive immortality and power..."
Suddenly, Demon Hunter L began to chant a series of strange syllables. The syllables coalesced into verses that drowned out the Priest’s prayer.
He proclaimed, "I sing your name! Emperor of Dragons and all peoples, Master of the Immortal and the Mad, O Pulansantos!"
The demonic, mocking expression on Ferdinand’s face suddenly froze. The shock was as profound as seeing an Angel in Hell.
No, it wasn’t just him.
Everyone present—from Zod and Maguire to the cloaked, faceless Carmen—stared at the man on the platform who had suddenly begun to pray, their eyes filled with utter shock.
It was as if they couldn’t comprehend this sudden turn of events.
"I offer my blood and bone, my reason and my worship as a tribute!"
But Baron paid their shock no mind, sticking to the old method he had learned from the Dragon Eater Association.
"Is that... the Dragon God Prayer? Is he trying to hijack the ritual?"
A look of confusion was plastered on Maguire’s face. He clearly didn’t understand why Baron was reciting a prayer to the Dragon God at an Immortal Altar.
Zod also frowned. "Generally speaking, prayers to a specific faith only work at an altar dedicated to that faith."
"Setting aside whether he can even hijack the ritual, isn’t L afraid of drawing the Immortal Goddess’s gaze by doing this?"
Beneath her hood, Carmen’s elegant brows furrowed. Clearly, she also had no idea what the Dragon Knight, Baron, was trying to accomplish.
It would be one thing if the Immortal Goddess didn’t hear his prayer. If she did, however, it would be considered blasphemy by the Twin Gods.
Moreover, the Dragon God Pulansantos had fallen long ago during the War of Law, and the Dragon Law he commanded had been shattered.
A prayer like this would do nothing but attract the Immortal Goddess’s gaze and be deemed blasphemous; it had no hope of breaking a Blessing granted by a Divine Descent!
’If the Immortal Goddess discovers me here, fused with the Red Dragon’s Soul...’
Carmen’s heart seized. She immediately said to the still-stunned Maguire and Zod, "Quick, stop L! Chanting the Dragon God Prayer will draw the gaze of the Immortal Goddess!"
Zod and Maguire snapped to their senses and moved to stop L as Carmen had urged. But L, while chanting "...grant us Dragon Scales and Sharp Claws," motioned for the two of them to stay back.
Ferdinand listened to Demon Hunter L’s Dragon God Prayer, glanced at the unchanged Blessing Barrier, and felt the Magic Potion in his body begin to assimilate under the power of the blessing.
Deciding it was all just grandstanding, he gave a cold snort and ordered the Yellow-robed Priest to continue the Immortal Prayer.
The Yellow-robed Priest came to his senses and bellowed, "O, great Immortal Goddess..."
Baron raised his voice, shouting over him, "...and Fire and a Dragon Eye!"
Having said that, he waited, just like last time. He waited for the Cross—no, for the Blessing Barrier—to dissolve.
He didn’t stand idle in the meantime. Fearing a mistake from a slip of the tongue, he recited the Dragon God Prayer again and again.
But... after nearly ten minutes, nothing had happened. Ferdinand’s Spiritual Power fluctuations only grew stronger, and the corpse on the Cross grew more and more withered, until it looked like a tree trunk that had been burned to cinders.
The Blessing Barrier remained completely undisturbed.
That mocking smile returned to Ferdinand’s face. "It’s no use. I know what you’re trying to do, but hijacking a ritual like this is simply impossible."
Baron said nothing, continuing to chant the Dragon God Prayer.
Seeing Baron still struggling, he sneered, "Back when I had my Spiritual Sense awakening, my pupils glowed silver. That meant that according to Destiny’s plan, as long as I didn’t make a mistake, I was fated to reach the Silver Tier."
"And yet, on the path to the Silver Tier, I failed three times... Each failure damaged my foundation, making my hope of reaching it even more remote."
"For a time, I believed the Goddess of Destiny had abandoned me. I questioned whether the silver glint I saw in my own eyes during my Spiritual Sense awakening had been nothing but a delusion!"
He glanced at the Yellow-robed Priest, who was still praying to help him digest the Magic Potion, and said with a cold smile:
"Until at last, the Immortal Church found me... They promised to sacrifice twelve Bronze Tier Undead to help me assimilate the Magic Potion and ascend to the Silver Tier."
"I accepted their offer, because my many previous failures to advance had left my lifespan dwindling. Only by breaking through to the Silver Tier can I gain more power," he said. "And only by breaking through to the Silver Tier can I maintain my current appearance forever."
’And you think you’re so handsome,’ Baron thought.
"So now you understand the importance of that Return Gold Coin... But it doesn’t matter. You can keep it. I won’t be needing it anymore, anyway..."
"Because the Goddess of Destiny has smiled upon me after all. I have finally become a Silver."
The Alchemy Circuits on Ferdinand’s body expanded as a shimmering, silver layer began to creep up his bare arms.
His pupils began to shift, transforming into a pure silver brighter than any Hunter’s Eye.
"L, let’s go! Mr. Stephen is in Fude City! The Dragon God Prayer is useless! Hurry and come with us!" Maguire yelled at Baron.
But Demon Hunter L turned a deaf ear, continuing to loudly repeat the Dragon God Prayer again and again.
He used his own voice to drown out the Yellow-robed Priest’s prayer.
The sound of countless footsteps echoed from the tunnel, drawing closer, mixed with a clamor of voices. It sounded like the cultists from the Immortal Church.
Zod gritted his teeth, a muscle twitching in his cheek.
’This oppressive aura is unique to the Silver Tier... If we can’t break this Blessing Barrier soon, the newly-ascended Ferdinand will kill us all in an instant!’
He’d wanted to grab Maguire and run for it several times, but that guy was a complete fool, just standing there with his long saber, saying they should wait for L to break the Blessing Barrier and then rush in together to cut down the weakened Ferdinand.
’You idiot! Can’t you see L is at a loss, too?’
’Just how much trust can you possibly place in this Bounty Hunter who came back from the dead for no reason, who claims to be one of the Feinan People but doesn’t even recognize a Feinan Card, and whose Alchemy Circuits are a bizarre shade of red?!’
