The Gunner struggled to rise, her legs kicking towards Saga, but due to the insufficient distance, coupled with her rough background, her abilities were almost entirely concentrated in her mechanical arm, leaving her powerless in the current situation.

Just then.

Boom, boom, boom!

The surrounding sea seemed to boil, with large splashes of water erupting, the sea surface bulging, and a mass of flames soaring into the sky, then adjusting their trajectory, sweeping towards Saga and the Topaz Dragon.

The submerged naval vessels had used their only means of attack, hoping to come to the aid of their comrades.

With a flap of his wings, Saga lifted Antonina into the air.

Rip!

A multitude of metal parts scattered, and the mechanical arm was completely severed.

Saga flicked Antonina to the ground, while his body rolled gracefully in the air, dodging the bombardment of cannonballs, and flew towards the boiling sea, plunging into it with a splash, raising a sky full of crystal-clear droplets.

The Topaz Dragon raised its head, exhaling a dark corrosive dragon breath.

Its neck twisting, the dark corrosive dragon breath swept over the incoming cannonballs. These solid cannonballs, upon contact with the dragon breath, seemed to undergo weathering and corrosion, their surfaces coated with a thick layer of mottled rust, then fell like scrap metal, without any explosion.

Like all Gemstone Dragons, the Topaz Dragon could use psychic powers.

However, in addition to psychic powers, this type of Dragon Kind naturally wielded dark negative energy—a broad category that included many more specific types, such as necromantic energy, dark energy, withering energy, and so on, all of which belonged to negative energy.

This particular Topaz Dragon mainly used dark negative energy as its means of attack or defense, and used psychic powers less frequently.

Rumble!

The sea roared.

Below, muffled thunderous sounds erupted intermittently, the sea surface bulging, countless splashes and flames shattered together, occasionally broken metal plates flew out, and faint traces of blood gradually spread.

The Topaz Dragon glanced at the battle beneath the water and withdrew its gaze.

Scanning the chaotic battlefield, the Topaz Dragon lifted one of its front claws and gently tapped the ground.

Hum!

A ring of gray-white dark negative energy radiated outward, slowing every pirate it swept over, dulling their movements and thoughts as if they were cursed by a spell, but Saga’s minions were unaffected, even thriving, their attacks enhanced with a layer of dark energy, greatly increasing their lethality.

As one fell, another rose.

The remnants of the war were quickly cleared, a large number of pirates died, their blood staining the ground, and the air carried a thick scent of blood.

The Topaz Dragon lowered its head, looking again at the Energy Sculptor it had captured in its claws.

“You’re quite sensible,” it said quietly.

The Energy Sculptor had given up struggling, although whispers in his mind roared at him not to care about death, not to fear bloodshed, urging him to fight to the death.

“If I continue to fight, I’ll truly die. These two seem to be Gemstone Dragons, one a mature Topaz Dragon, the other’s specific Dragon Kind unclear, but likely also a Gemstone Dragon, given its association with the Topaz Dragon.”

“Falling into the hands of such neutral Dragon Kind, cooperating a bit might still offer a chance to live,” the Energy Sculptor thought, suppressing his inner desire for battle and slaughter.

Having recently become a devotee of tyranny, and with the rationality and calmness of a Caster, he was still able to control his emotions.

However, the Gunner, with her rough background and more emotional nature, was different.

Suddenly, the Topaz Dragon’s gaze sharpened, turning towards a certain spot on the battlefield.

In the light of the still-burning flames, the Gunner, drenched in blood and missing a mechanical arm, struggled to crawl on the ground. Her clothes were torn, her wounds filled with sand and gravel, and one leg was unnaturally twisted, presenting a pitiful sight.

Hehe. Haha.

Supporting herself with one arm, the Gunner let out a strange laugh, mixed with heavy, roaring breaths.

At the same time, the runes of tyranny in her eyes lit up, overflowing with a crimson color.

Hum! A blood light shone from her body, exuding an aura of slaughter, destruction, and madness.

Her blood-soaked body suddenly stood up.

“Abyssal demon?” the Topaz Dragon frowned.

Beneath the sea.

Below the surface littered with metal debris, the six-meter-long golden Hatchling Dragon, like a cannonball shot from a gun, streaked a trail of gold through the dark waters, heading straight for the twenty-meter-long ‘steel monster fish’.

Thud!

Steel dented, twisted, shattered.

Saga burst out from the other side, breaking through the last of the submerged vessels.

The crew, in panic, quickly abandoned the crumbling vessel, sinking into the deep sea, and scattered in all directions.

Hum!

A gravity blade, wrapped in seawater, roared into life, crushing one pirate after another, their blood gradually staining the deep sea red.

Swoosh. A figure wrapped in a bubble-like energy membrane flew out, narrowly avoiding the gravity blade’s slash.

Saga narrowed his eyes and with a powerful flap of his wings.

Crackle! Lightning extended rapidly in the water, faster and more ferocious than the gravity blade, covering the Caster who had dodged the slash.

In Saga’s perception, this was a fifth-tier female Caster.

To Saga’s surprise, the leaping arcs of electricity reached her and electrocuted her without resistance.

“So weak? Could she be a prophetic Caster?”

In the Caster system, the weakest in the early stages are those specializing in prophecy, although later-stage prophetic Casters are equally powerful, in the early stages they only have some auxiliary sensory and predictive abilities.

Crackle, crackle, crackle. More arcs of electricity burst forth from Saga as the center.

The sea area turned into a thunderous marsh, a large number of pirates convulsing to death, then sinking into the deep sea.

After dealing with these submerged vessels, the golden Hatchling Dragon flapped its wings and soared into the sky, breaking through the sea surface under the night sky, its body splashing countless crystal-clear droplets.

In an instant.

Saga returned to the battlefield of First Quarter Island.

With a light exclamation, Saga also saw the abnormal Gunner.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. As if a strong wind suddenly blew.

The pirates, shark-tigers, and others who died here suddenly trembled, blood gushing from the wounds on their bodies, continuously gathering towards the Gunner, like a blood-colored storm.

Destruction, slaughter, bloodshed. The aura revealed by the blood storm made Saga frown as well.

“A demon?”

Like the Topaz Dragon, Saga’s first thought was also of the demons from the Abyssal Abyss.

The infinite Abyssal Abyss, clearly recorded in the legacy of dragons, filled with numerous warnings about this outer plane.

The legacy explicitly mentioned—

This is a place of endless, suffocating terror.

This is a place of extremely harsh environments and extremely dangerous life.

This is a place of relentless slaughter without moral ethics.

Evil, chaos, death, destruction. These are commonplace in the Abyssal Abyss, and the abyssal demons are representatives of evil and chaos, with many disasters related to them.

There are more than one rift on Saiga Planet that connects to the Abyss.

Even some demons have built fortresses in this prime material world, but because the rifts are not large, the scale of demons that come here is not vast, and they have been suppressed and hunted countless times by the native forces of this world. However, due to the difficulty of closing the rifts, the demon fortresses are destroyed and rebuilt, and a long tug-of-war has unfolded between them and the native forces.

“It’s somewhat similar, but it doesn’t seem to be a pure abyssal demon.”

“Could it be a human with a bit of demonic bloodline, now triggered?”

Saga and the Topaz Dragon exchanged glances, sharing a similar thought.

At that moment, the blood storm suddenly retracted.

A tall and burly monster appeared in the sight of Saga and the Topaz Dragon.

Three meters tall with a muscular body, bone spurs pierced through the skin at the joints and along the spine, half-embedded bone helmets barely revealed Antonina’s features, and thick bone armor covered the chest, forearms, thighs, and other areas.

The aura of blood swirled around it.

But the most eye-catching part was its right arm.

The mechanical arm that Saga had torn off was drawn back to her body by the blood storm.

Under normal circumstances, this severely damaged mechanical arm would be unusable.

However, unlike the purely mechanical structure before, it now had many skeletal structures, with skulls of various sizes embedded in it, the white exoskeleton and steel structure fused together, eerie yet with a strange sense of craftsmanship.

The monster’s eyes were blood-red, and it let out meaningless roars and howls.

Hearing this sound, the Energy Sculptor held by the Topaz Dragon went blank, showing a look of awe, and subconsciously murmured as if he could understand the other’s roars and howls.

“The blood sacrifice to the Blood God, the skull offering to the Skull Throne, the Lord of Skulls, is watching here.”

Blood threads spread in the Energy Sculptor’s eyes, the runes of tyranny flickering, and his inner desire for slaughter and battle surged at this moment.

Saga and the Topaz Dragon both heard the Energy Sculptor’s whisper.

Blood sacrifice to the Blood God, skull offering to the Skull Throne, Lord of Skulls. Searching through the legacy for records of gods or famous demons yielded nothing.

Saga looked towards the Topaz Dragon.

The Topaz Dragon shook its head, indicating it also did not understand who the Lord of Skulls mentioned by the Energy Sculptor was, as there was no record in the legacy.

“It seems you have some significant secrets, but soon, they will no longer be secrets.”

Saga chuckled, then turned his gaze to the transformed monster: “You think you can turn the tables just because you’ve gained a bit of power from some unknown evil god or demon?”

The monster roared, raising its mechanical skull cannon.

Pointing it at the golden Hatchling Dragon from afar, its body shook violently, all the skulls on the mechanical skull cannon opened their mouths, roaring together, a crimson light shining within, finally converging at the palm of its hand, in the mouth of a skull.

Saga narrowed his eyes and lifted his head, opening his dragon mouth, taking a deep breath.

Boom!

A high-tier seven blood-colored energy sphere erupted, firing from the monster’s mechanical skull cannon.

Crash!

The annihilating dragon breath, normally invisible and intangible but forming a blank trajectory by annihilating all matter in the air, burst forth simultaneously.

Feeling the high-tier attack, the Topaz Dragon, who had intended to intercept the blood-colored sphere, paused slightly.

The moment Saga’s dragon breath left his mouth, the Topaz Dragon’s keen mind sensed a lethal threat on the annihilating dragon breath.

In an instant.

The annihilating dragon breath collided with the blood-colored sphere.

As if they were not attacks of the same level, the dragon breath instantly pierced and tore through the blood-colored sphere, and without losing momentum, engulfed the stunned monster’s upper body, and along the way, annihilated all matter such as trees and stones, leaving a clear trail.

“Ah?”

The Energy Sculptor shuddered, his heart chilled, witnessing this horrifying scene, his desire for battle and slaughter instantly waned.

Is this the Lord of Skulls? The follower empowered by Him collapses at a touch, could it be some trash god, whose imposing appearance is just for show? He couldn’t help thinking this, the blood in his eyes fading away, his gaze suddenly becoming clear.

Huff. The dragon breath stopped, and the golden Hatchling Dragon exhaled a breath.