Azoh’Karn couldn’t believe what was happening to him.
No matter how much he tried to reach the surface, he couldn’t break through the defenses of the three Earth Dragons, who were keeping him in place deep underground.
He already tried everything in his arsenal, but only Rank 8 and below Azothralls were allowed to escape the Earth Dragons.
Clearly, their main goal was to keep him in place, preventing him from reinforcing the Artemian Army with his strength.
"How!?" Azoh’Karn roared in anger. "How are you doing this?!"
"How?" The Leader of the Earth Dragons, Rogg, smirked. "We’re not doing anything special. Maybe you’re just weak?"
The Azothralls rarely felt strong emotions since they were only programmed to do two things.
One was to obey their Master. Second, kill anyone who stood in their way.
Right now, he was unable to do one of those things, fueling his fury.
The Golden Azothrall, who was now an Archon, didn’t want to admit it, but a sense of anxiety was starting to take hold of his senses.
He might be a recently promoted Archon, but he was still an Archon.
Fighting against three Rank 9 Sovereigns should be something he could do. However, reality was different.
With a roar filled with determination, Azoh’Ran lunged upward with the intention to break through the three Earth Dragons’ defenses.
However, just like what had happened earlier, the force of nature slammed down on him like a solid, brick wall, bouncing him back to where he came from!
With the three Earth Dragons working together, they used their Earth Magic to press down on the Azothrall, who was hell-bent to slaughter the three of them.
Thirteen knew that the Azothralls would attack underground, so he had asked the Earth Dragons and Erasmus to send the Undead Centipede King, Jalrog, to deal with them.
Jalrog was going to deal with the small fries, while the Earth Dragons would focus on Azoh’Karn, preventing him from rejoining the Artemian Army.
So far, their strategy had worked, allowing the Majin Princes’ and Princess on the surface to fight the other high-ranking Archons.
After repeatedly getting pounded by the earth around him, Azoh’Karn roared and slammed his two two fists on the bedrock, causing a shockwave that rippled outward like a quake.
The land shook strongly, but Rogg and his two kin didn’t even flinch. Their earthen domains simply absorbed the tremors, grinding the force into nothingness.
"Useless," Rogg snorted. "You’re flailing like a child throwing a tantrum. Did you really think raw strength alone would be enough to overpower Sovereigns who are the earth itself?"
"You dare mock me?!" Azoh’Karn bellowed, his golden body gleaming faintly in the suffocating dark. "I am Ascended! I am an Archon! Three lizards cannot hold me!"
"So what if you’re an Archon?" replied the only lady among the Earth Dragons, Endi. "We have fought against a Majin King and survived to tell the tale. Do you really think an Archon is special in our eyes?"
The ridicule and contempt in her tone was very eminent, like salt being rubbed on Azoh’Karn’s wounds.
Rogg and Brazoom both laughed, mocking the arrogant Archon who called them lizards.
Azoh’Karn’s fury spiked. For the first time since he was born, he felt something that made his heart pulse erratically—humiliation.
He had faced Zion and his allies in the past, and had lost to them.
But it didn’t make him feel humiliated.
He simply accepted it as a fact that his opponents were stronger than him and that he wasn’t a match against them.
But these merely Rank 9 Sovereigns of lizards were openly mocking him, making the golden scales in his body rise up like jagged blades.
He then lunged upward, his entire body shining in golden flames, burning away layers of earth as he forced his way upward. Discover more novels at novel·fıre·net
For a moment, it seemed as though he could break through with this momentum.
But then, a shadow passed overhead. Azoh’Karn looked up, just in time to see a colossal maw filled with jagged teeth descending.
Jalrog, the Undead Centipede King, bit down on him like a snake snatching prey.
Its segmented body coiled around the Archon in an instant, dragging him deeper into the suffocating darkness, deep underground.
"You picked the wrong hunting ground," Rogg said without a shred of mercy. "Down here, you are the prey. Our prey."
Azoh’Karn thrashed wildly, golden fire blazing from his body. But Jalrog’s undead carapace did not burn.
The Earth Dragons roared in unison, slamming their claws into the ground. The stone itself shifted, closing in around Azoh’Karn like an unbreakable tomb.
The Archon’s scream shook the underground world, but it was already too late.
On the surface, the battle raged on.
None of the Artemians realized that one of their strongest reinforcements was being smothered beneath their very feet, locked away in a living prison of scale, fang, and stone.
And high above the battlefield, Camazotz cackled as he threw another Golden Azothrall into the purple portal that led to the Domain of the Apocalypse.
"Favoritism!" the Majin Prince, Zachariel, shouted. "This is clearly favoritism!"
He was beside himself with envy due to the number of strong subordinates the Death Bat had tossed into the portal, surpassing the high-ranking warriors that the Majin Prince commanded.
Kamrusepa smirked. "Complain louder, Zachariel. Maybe Metatron will be merciful and allow you to do the same in the future.
The Majin Prince gritted his teeth, glaring at the beautiful Majin Princess, who looked very amused at the moment.
Of course, Kamrusepa was very happy with the current development of the war. After all, the stronger her allies were, the more powerful their group would become. Even if she couldn’t do the same, she still had benefits to reap.
Zachariel’s face twisted in frustration.
His pride as a Majin Prince was being trampled upon, and the sight of Camazotz casually "picking up" powerful subordinates made his blood boil.
"He’s not even putting effort into it!" Zachariel growled. "Look at him! A slap here, a kick there—then straight into the portal! Does that look like war to you?!"
"I’ve fought tooth and nail for every subordinate I’ve taken, and he’s there, picking them like ripe fruits in an orchard! If that’s not favoritism, I don’t know what is."
Paimon let out a long sigh. "Don’t let your jealousy overtake you, Zachariel. Camazotz is just lucky because he managed to cross over to Pangea, where Thirteen lives."
Of course, she didn’t openly say that the Death Bat was lucky because he and Zion were on the same team.
Everyone in the room understood this, but no one said it out loud.
In the end, Zachariel could only look at Camazotz’s blissful expression and grit his teeth in anger.
Right now, he wanted nothing more than to punch that smug face and turn it into meat paste!
The other Majins inside the conference room were more or less thinking of the same thing. However, they understood that this battle was still not over.
Until a victor between the Artemian King and Cranky had been confirmed, the victory of the Allied Armies still hung precariously at the outcome of the real battle that would decide all of their fates.
Zachariel even wished that the Artemian King would snap the Death Bat’s neck before continuing his battle with Cranky so the anger brewing inside him would disappear without a trace.