Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

That dragon shadow appeared the moment that magic circle was completed.

"That is… [Ancient Draconic Compel!!" Valdris muttered, a wild surge of emotions flooded his mind.

"No wonder… no wonder he could call upon that dragon shadow. His dragon aura… everything explains itself".

The [Ancient draconic compel] was a dreadful technique that was feared by all the members of the dragon race. It was mentioned by many of the ancient elders and the many records in the dragon clan that spoke about the might of this technique and how frightening it was.

It was said that during the ancient era, the person who created this technique, had extracted the soul of hundreds of traitors and used them as intermediary to perfect the technique. It was rumoured that the hundreds of dragon souls were still imprisoned within the technique, eternally doomed in the purgatory.

The contract made from this technique was absolute, especially against a dragon and those beasts that have a dragon bloodline.

Why would a technique that was created by Venerable Red appear on that demon? Numerous questions flashed in his head; however, all he could do right now was quietly kneel and wait for the dragon shadow to disappear.

Simon after evoking the [Ancient Draconic Compel], looked at the two kneeling figures. Although he had expected the dragon aura within him to have some effect after hearing Irene's words. However, even he never expected the effect would be this extreme.

Forget about putting up a resistance, they could barely move in front of this aura. Even that powerful adult dragon whose power gave him a thick sense of danger was powerless against it.

This fact once again made him realise how powerful this legacy technique was. Had it not been for it, he didn't think that he would be able to make that yellow robed person stop. Especially after seeing him resist the finger of Ozymandias.

This technique turned out to be quite beneficial to him.

"I wonder what that woman was thinking handing me such a powerful technique. Did she think that I would be able to make the most use of it or did she just nonchalantly throw this technique at me without giving it much thought?" Simon wondered.

-----

Somewhere in the Chaotic Sea Continent...

"Aachoo!! Sniff… sniff".

Lucine sneezed and rubbed her nose. f𝓇𝘦𝒆𝘄𝑒𝗯𝑛𝗼ѵ𝙚l.𝒄𝘰𝓶

"Did you catch a cold?"

Adalinda who was flying beside her asked.

"Hmm?! I don't think so. Is somebody thinking about me?" Lucine shook her head before muttering in a voice that only she could hear.

-----

A soul stirring beauty with snow like hair, appeared in Simon's mind. Her inborn nobility and that indolent attitude of hers, was still fresh in his mind.

This lady who acted high and mighty, was afraid of the putrid scent that Simon smeared on himself back when they met in the northern region of the forest. Now that he recalled those memories back he unwittingly found it funny.

Because of her, he had to deal with her unreasonable master who not only barged inside his dungeon, but also dragged him to various places. It was like roller coaster of a journey yet fun at the same time.

Not only that, they also saved him from a very critical situation in the end. Simon didn't have many friends, but those master and disciple duo were some of the few people in this world that he was fond of.

"I wonder what they are doing at this moment?" it has been more than half a year since they all went their separate ways. Well given their adventure seeking personality, Simon bet that they were out roaming the vast world.

All these thoughts flashed by in an instant in his mind due to the [high speed thought processing] skill.

Simon shook his mind and placed his attention back on the two kneeling dragons. One of them was an enormous giant, while the other had a human like body. Both of them were currently staring at him with trembling and dread filled eyes.

Simon sighed, this technique was quite overbearing and even tampered with the mindset of the enslaved dragon as could be seen from the behaviour of the Lightning Draconic Serpent. However, the circumstances were so, that Simon had no choice but to rely on this technique.

He was up against an adult dragon, if he didn't invoke the [Ancient Draconic Compel] there was no way he would be able to make them submissive the way they are now. 𝘧𝑟𝘦𝒆w𝚎𝙗nov𝘦𝗹.𝐜o𝓶

Steeling his mind, Simon did not dilly dally any longer, he needed the assistance of the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon in the upcoming dungeon defence against the combined coalition of the top five guilds and the various other big guilds across the kingdom of Ellesmere.

No preparation was enough preparation for a crusade this big.

Simon beckoned with his finger and droplets of blood underneath the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon, flew towards him—[Mana Flow].

Simon dropped the blood in the ten foot wide magic circle in the sky causing it to immediately erupt with a crimson light. The magic circle silently rotated and strangle fluctuations emitted out of it.

The rotation of the circle became faster and faster causing even the space to vibrate violently. Soon, the magic circle stopped rotating and disappeared, a droplet of blood remained suspended in its place.

Simon pulled the droplet of blood towards himself and allowed it to enter his body through the numerous wounds he had.

The moment this blood assimilated with his own, Simon could feel a gateway forming that connected his soul with the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon's, much like the one he had with the Lightning Draconic Serpent.

Simon spread his consciousness and allowed it to delve deeper towards that gateway at the end of which lay the soul of the lower dragon.

This was a form of absolute contract that bound this soul to him. Now, no matter what the earth shattering lower dragon does, he cannot betray nor can he go against his orders. What's more its current indifferent attitude towards him would soon change to become loyal and subservient.

"This is…"

It was not only him, even the earth shattering lower dragon felt the changes and its eyes went wide with surprise. It felt like its soul was suddenly being restrained by numerous invisible chains that came out from that mysterious gateway.

No matter how his soul struggled it couldn't shrug off those chains. Although these chains did not hurt him, he could vaguely feel the presence of hundreds of dragons within these chains. If he ever so much as thought of hurting the soul at the other end of the gateway, these chains would restrict tighter and shatter his soul.

After the technique was completed, the huge dragon shadow in the sky also disappeared and along with it, the suppression effect it had on the two dragons.

"What did you do to me?" finally freed from the bloodline fear that it was experiencing, the earth shattering lower dragon slowly stood on its limbs and asked.

"Nothing much, I just completed the master-servant contract between us" Simon replied with a smirk. He got what he came here to get, of course, he was happy.

"You!!" Indignant, the earth shattering lower dragon roared; however, to its surprise, it found that this emotion of its disappeared abruptly leaving a vague empty feeling inside him.

"Are you alright?".

At this moment, the yellow robed man stepped between them and asked. His eyes were looking at the earth shattering lower dragon with concern.

"Elder… please forgive this junior, he has shamed the dragon clan" there was genuine shame and remorse in its eyes. It was after all a genuine dragon from the dragon clan, a clan that was like the ruler, a supreme overlord of this world.

Given the innate pride and superiority complex all these fellows were born with, of course, they would feel indignant from the result of this fight.

Valdris knew what kind of emotions the earth dragon was going through, it sighed and said—

"You fool... you haven't dishonoured the clan. In fact, I could see that you fought with all of your strength. It's just that you were up against an odd opponent this time. Nobody could have predicted this outcome… not even me. Fate is indeed mysterious".

Right after saying that, Valdris turned towards Simon. Those yellow gold draconic eyes were looking straight at him, various complex emotions currently flashed in them.

Simon's body jolted, and he hurriedly recalled the finger of Ozymandias back to his side. However, due to him being too injured and the backlash from superimposing all those skills on top of another erupting at this moment, the finger fell on the ground midway.

Blood swelled on top of his mouth but Simon hurriedly gulped it down and forcefully activated the [Dominator's control] once again.

Now that the dragon aura that was surprising the yellow robed man was gone, he was free to do anything they want. If they held the intention to kill him and release the earth shattering lower dragon, it would be quite bad for Simon.

Realising that, his body became tense once again.

Seeing the finger of Ozymandias fly towards the demon, a strange light flashed in those draconic eyes of Valdris. However, in the end, he sighed and relaxed his aura. The tense atmosphere that had taken root in the air also disappeared at this moment.

"Relax, I don't plan to fight you. I just want to ask you a few questions and… a favour that I would like from you" Valdris' voice was unnatural, clearly he was not used to asking favours from others.

Since the other party told that he didn't want to fight him, Simon relaxed a little but did not relax his guard completely.

"So what is it that you want to ask? Ask away".