Chapter 172

"You..." At this moment, the proud and one of the strongest pillars of the Ethereal Empire was on his knees while looking at Aditya.

"I would love to torture you for a little longer unfortunately I have to clean some ants." After saying these words in a cold tone, the dragon king raised his right feet and pressed Tate's head on the ground.

At this moment Tate has never felt so humiliated. Tate one of those persons who stood at the very top of the continent. No one has humiliated Tate like this before. At this moment Tate was also having a new kind of emotions which was anger.

Meanwhile, everyone else was shocked and stunned by Aditya's actions. Especially Noah and Sylvie, the current Aditya was very different from the Aditya that he and she knew. This Aditya was indifferent, cold, cruel and merciless.

The beginner 5th-order Succubus, Nora was pitifully looking at Tate. Although she does not know on why Tate sold them out, but if she was in Tate's position, she would never even thought of betraying this man. 'Stupid old man, your stupid arrogance and your greed has killed you.' Nora wasn't exactly close to Tate or anything. She always kept a distance from Tate as she didn't really like the old man very much.

Now seeing him, just a few seconds away from death, she felt nothing.

"Hahaha! You can kill me here. But today I won't be the only one who dies here. The Heavenly Hemlock Forest will become all of your burial ground." Tate seems to have gone crazy. Maybe it was because he had accepted that he was going to die or maybe he has lost his mind from all kinds of emotions.

"You will see about that. But for now, you can just die." The next second nothing happened. But strangely everyone noticed the sudden change in Tate's expression. The old man began to struggle like crazy. But his body still remained under Aditya's foot.

Another second later, all the elite soldiers, Sylvie, Nora, Noah and Alicia, all took a step back as they watched the old man's body start melting. His whole body had started glowing red. White smoke started coming from his body.

Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

With a painful scream, that had sent shivers down everyone's spine, Tate lost his life.

『Ding! You have killed a Beginner 5th-order cultivator. The experience point that you have obtained has been saved for future use.』

Aditya released air from his lungs as he stared the melted body Tate. Aditya had used his Crimson flames to increase Tate's body temperature to the point where the body of the beginner 5th-order directly melted. One had to know that a beginner 5th-order can withstand a nuclear missile. 5th-order cultivators bodies were tough enough to survive in space, walk in magma or survive in the deepest parts of the sea.

As a cultivator progresses through each order, their body and mind also keeps on becoming more and more stronger. With each order, the cultivator's resistant to fire, water, illusion, mind control, holy magic, dark magic, lightning, wind and earth also increases. For example, even the strongest attack of a Peak 1st-order wouldn't even come closer to scratching the body of a beginner 5th-order.

In this world there are seven continents. Except for the main continent, all other continents 5th-order cultivators existent is considered like a Demi-God or God. Some rural people would go as far as to even start worshipping 5th-order cultivators.

For the next few seconds no one said anything. Everyone except for Aditya was still in shock. The fact that a mere beginner 3rd-order is able to kill a beginner 5th-order is absolutely shocking. "What should we do now?" No one knew who asked this question but this question turned everyone serious.

"We do not have any options. We will have to fight. If we're lucky a few of us might be able to survive and make it back to the Ethereal Empire." Noah replied. The crown prince already had made up this mind to do everything in this power to make sure that his sister survives even if it meant giving up his own life.

Hearing Noah's words, everyone's face changed. His words only reduced the moral of the whole team. Every elite soldier looked like they had lost their hope of living. After all they can sense the countless number of mutant fire ants approaching them. There was no hope for them. Even the beginner 5th-order powerhouse Nora looked like she also had lost her hope.

Only Alicia and Sylvie didn't gave up. Alicia's confident came from the fact that they had Aditya with them. A few months ago when the goblin invasion took place in Onard family territory, it was mainly because of Aditya, that the Onard family and the Echo Dominion Empire was able to avoid a huge disaster that could have resulted in the deaths of more than ten millions of people. The Goddess of wealth knew that as long as Aditya was here, they still had hope.

As for Sylvie, the guild Leader was very confident in her powers. If worse comes, she will use the 5-star treasure that his Majesty had handed to her when they set out for this expedition.

"We will make it. Trust me and trust yourselves. No one is dying here today." Everyone looked at Aditya. From his back two Crimson pair of large wings appeared. Aditya's arms transformed into dragon claws. Crimson red scales started covering his skin and his face like armor.

At the same time, the clear blue sky started to darken as strong wind started blowing. Within a few more seconds, the entire sky above the Heavenly Hemlock Forest had been covered by dark clouds which contained crimson lightning. The Crimson Lightning moved and flickered around the dark clouds like snakes swimming in clouds.

Even though Aditya's words wasn't very long or motivational. But for some reason staring at this man whose blue hair had turned red, who had crimson lightning violently flickering around his body, everyone felt that he was the ray hope of that everyone needed.

"If we want to win this fight, we must stay together. I want all the elite soldiers to be stay in a circular formation. The mages will stay back and attack the enemy with long ranged spells while others will take the short range fight. Sylvie, Nora and I will deal with the 5th-order mutant fire ants. As for Noah and Alicia, both of you will also stay with the elite soldiers." Aditya stopped releasing his killing intent.

All the elite soldiers quickly took their formation. In less than 10 seconds, they were standing in a circular formation. The mages were inside the circle while the body path or warrior type elite soldiers was going to fight the mutant fire ants head on.

"Nora, can you use your charm to control the mutant fire ants?" As Nora was a Succubus, she could have the power to charm other beings.

"Yes but my charming abilities won't work on 5th-order mutant fire ants. The number of 4th-order or lower-order mutant fire ants that I can charm is also limited."

"I want you to charm as many mutant fire ants as possible. Don't charm any weak mutant fire ants. Try to charm the 3rd-order or 4th-order mutant fire ants."

"Alright. But if a 5th-order mutant fire ant does appears and I fight it, then it will become difficult for me to keep fight and also keep the mutant fire ants under my control." Nora did not had huge mana reserve like Aditya. This limited her powers.

"Don't worry, I will be there to assist you." Everyone seems to have accepted the fact that Aditya can fight 5th-order mutant fire ants. No one questioned his orders. Without even needing to say it, Aditya had become the leader of this expedition group.

"I and Sylvie will focus our attention on the front. Nora, try to assist us using your charming powers."

"What about the back?" Sylvie asked curiously.

"I have a plan for that." Aditya mysteriously smiled making everyone curious.

"Aditya, there is a high chance that during the battle many of us will run out mana." Noah was concerned about this. Hearing Noah's words, Alicia, Sylvie, Nora and others also frowned.

"I do have some mana recovery potions which I had kept in my storage ring, but the potions I have won't last long. Meaning that we will have to try to finish this battle as soon as possible." Aditya then took out all the mana recovery and stamina recovery potions he had. After keeping a few recovery potions for himself, Aditya distributed other potions equally among the elite soldiers.

After giving out a set of orders, under everyone's eyes, the Dragon Monarch punched the ground and then released all the mana that he had condensed in his right fist.

Booom!

Suddenly the ground started shaking. Alicia had seen this scene before. She understood what Aditya was planning for the back.

Everyone was stunned once again seeing Crimson hot magma coming out of the ground like water. Aditya didn't looked affected by the magma at all. Within a few minutes, more than 500 meters area was covered in Crimson hot Magma.

"This will keep the ants from attacking us from behind." By drowning the area with Magma, instead of being attacked by all 4 direction, Aditya has forced the mutant fire ants to attack from 3 sides. No matter how powerful the mutant fire ants were, in front of the magma that Aditya has created, their powers were nothing. Their steel like hard bodies would instantly melt if they happen to step on the magma river.

"They are coming." From the north, tearing the thick bushes, thousands of red pairs of eyes stared at the human group that had entered the outer region of the heavenly hemlock forest. The mutant fire ants slowed walked in the direction of their targets without fearing the two 5th-order cultivators that their targets had.

At the same time from the west and east, more than a hundred thousand of mutant fire ants were marching toward the expedition team. While the mutant fire ants that came from the south were forced to change their direction as an arc-shaped pool of magma blocked their paths. Without needing to be told the ants knew that this magma was super dangerous to them.

"Princess, are you scared?" Alicia was startled to hear Aditya's voice. Just a second ago he was standing 20 meters away from her, outside the circle.

"Why.....I mean.....What are you doing here?" The goddess of wealth looked nervous. This was the first time Alicia had ever faced something like this. It was obvious that the goddess would be nervous and maybe even slightly afraid.

Aditya walked behind the princess and held her with his strong hands wrapped around her waist and her back resting on his chest. His face was resting on her right shoulder. From his close distance, Aditya was able to inhale the sweet and natural fragrance of her body which made him feel like he was drunk.

"You know if you let me kiss your beautiful face, then I will promise to protect you with my life." Hearing Aditya's Alicia's felt like punching this shameless man. In the face of such danger, this man was acting shameless with her.

"I don't need your protection." Even though the princess sounded angry, she still remained standing while leaning against his chest. Being held like this gave her a strong sense of security and comfort.

'Can you guys not flirt?' Everyone had the same thoughts. Everyone was about to face a life-and-death situation, the chances of their survival were less than 10% yet those two were flirting.

"Who will protect you?" Aditya asked with a smile.

"Sylvie and my big brother." Both Sylvie and Noah smiled hearing Alicia's answer.

"Oh really~! You know your boyfriend might die in this fight. Are you not worried about him?" Meanwhile, everyone wondered who was the Princess's boyfriend. The Succubus Nora felt she already knew the answer.

"Hmph! I don't need a shameless boyfriend who is trying to take advantage of this princess in this life-and-death situation."

Everyone "___"

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