As Freya was blasted backward, Kyran stomped his foot on the ground, leaving behind a deep crack, and followed in pursuit.
Freya gritted her teeth, and with the remaining golden shaft of her stave, she pierced it on the ground to stop her movement.
A narrow trail of fifteen-centimeters deep crack on the ground appeared from where she had pierced the stave. As soon as she managed to stop her momentum, she used the remaining force to spin around the shaft and then left her feet to land on one side. Then, using the shaft as her footing, she propelled herself forward to meet the approaching masked man.
Golden energy covered her as the damage to her armor was restored. Even the blood that trailed down from the corner of her lips vanished.
"You damnable fiend! I will show you why they called me the Undying Valkyrie!" Freya shouted as she spread her arms to the sides. Golden energy converged at her palm, turning into two golden blades made of pure magic energy.
Kyran did not say anything and pulled back his right arm, preparing to send out a punch.
"Humph! Only knowing how to use brute force!" Freya chided the masked man. She brought the two blades high above her head, crossing them together before slashing down.
Blade-like gold-colored force flew out from the blades and went straight in the masked man's direction.
Kyran released his punch, causing a silver-white force that looked like a dragon's claw. The air seethed as the claw flew to meet Freya's attack. It seemed as if the illusionary dragon's claw wanted to tear everything in its way.
BOOM!
An explosion rang out as the two attacks collided.
SHATTER!
However, amidst the explosion, Freya's attack shattered first.
As for Kyran's attack, it lost a bit of momentum but continued to fly toward Freya.
Freya's brow furrowed as she watched the incoming claw.
She immediately employed her armor's defenses, reinforcing the translucent golden aura that protected her, and summoned concentrated gold-colored magic energies. They formed into huge spheres, which she threw to block the claw.
BOOM!
Once more, an explosion occurred from the collision of the attacks.
But while Freya had employed two attacks now, Kyran had only used one!
While the dragon claw pursued Freya, Kyran was not idle. He followed from behind.
When the second explosion occurred, he stopped abruptly and slammed his fists on the ground.
BOOM!
The ground shook as a ten-meter chasm appeared starting from where his fists had landed. It snaked forward to appear under Freya's feet. Then, before she could move, silver-white energy shot off from within.
The silver-white energy also turned into claws that shot off to grab her.
"Tsk," Freya clicked her tongue as she evaded the claws from below.
As she did, the first claw the masked man had released appeared from behind the cloud of smoke and instantly closed the remaining three-meter gap.
Freya's golden barrier that protected her shattered at once.
"Guh!" She spat out a mouthful of blood after receiving the remaining force of the claw's attack.
Freya's eyes glowed before the claw could touch her completely, employing another ability within her domain.
Switch!
As soon as she activated the ability, she exchanged places with one of the golden soldiers in the distance.
These golden soldiers were the ones the masked man had destroyed instantly. However, within her domain, they had been restored.
It was the other ability her domain possessed. As long as Freya remained conscious, she could restore anything she willed.
Now, the golden soldiers were rushing again toward the masked man to attack.
BOOM!
The golden soldier exploded as the silver-white dragon claw clamped down on it.
Kyran's silver eyes glinted. He already sensed Freya's aura disappearing before the claw could hit. He also knew the exact location where she had reappeared. It was possible because he used his magic sense to track every movement in his surroundings.
Even within Freya's domain, it did not hinder Kyran's magic sense to 'see' everything in the make-shift camp.
That was how he knew that the remaining few hundred members of the Templar Code were gathered at the opposite border of the camp and had been preparing a crude transportation array.
Kyran guessed that they planned to link the array to the closest one they had.
Most probably, outside the ruins.
Such a transportation array could only transport three people at most and needed a lot of spirit stones to activate.
But because of its small range and simple array calculation, it was easy to set up, and the materials needed could be prepared beforehand. It also did not require an Array Specialist, and any Master mage would be enough to set it up. Most of all, they would only need five minutes to set it up and two minutes to activate it.
Kyran did not do anything to stop them for one reason. He wanted to crush their hopes of escaping right at the last minute.
As for why Freya suddenly returned to confront him, Kyran guessed it was not to buy time for these people to escape.
He knew there was something else. But he was unsure of what. Still, he did not mind waiting for Freya to reveal it. Once she unleashed whatever trump card she had prepared, Kyran would like to see the look of despair in her eyes once he crushed it before her.
Oh, right. Kyran could not see Freya's eyes because of her helmet and visor.
When Freya had switched places with one of the golden soldiers, and the latter exploded, all the transportation arrays the remaining members of the Templar Code were preparing had also been completed.
When Kyran's silver eyes glinted, he finally made a move.
Not toward Freya but to the rest of the Templar Code members!
"None of you can leave," Kyran said in a low voice.
However, his voice reverberated in the camp, becoming a massive force that swept over all living existence. An unsurpassable pressure bore down on the camp that instantly crushed their painstakingly prepared arrays.
The members of the Templar Code also spat out a mouthful of blood as they were forced to their knees. As the seconds ticked by, the pressure grew stronger, resulting in some of them to cause their knees breaking. Some with weaker defenses even exploded!
In just three seconds, the air around the camp was filled again with the reek of flesh and blood.
This was the might of a Dragon's power.
Draconic magic was considered powerful and almost unparalleled because of its destructive and oppressive nature. And though Kyran had not trained his Draconic magic during his stay in the Tower of Tribulation, he was able to understand its nature by meeting other mages with almost similar destructive and oppressive magic!
When Freya heard the masked man's words, her heart instantly sank. She could almost see the remaining members of the Templar Code fall one after another.
Not even a second passed after the image of her people falling crossed her mind, and miserable shrieks fleeted in the air.
Their heart-wrenching cries gripped Freya's heart, and her killing intent exploded!
"Bastard!" She screamed as her power rose a notch.
However, before she could move, her domain trembled as an enormous pressure bore down from the outside.
It felt like a thousand-ton mountain had fallen from above, crashing everything underneath it.
"Guh!" Freya was also forced to her knees as she coughed out a mouthful of blood.
Her domain once again showed signs of crumbling as thick angry cracks spread on its surface.
"I-Impossible!" She exclaimed.
"What is?"
Freya's eyes widened as she realized the masked man had appeared behind her.
Before she could turn to face him, he had already grabbed the back of her head and slammed it to the ground.
Crack!
Few of Freya's teeth and her nose broke from the impact, and she let out a pitiful shrill cry.
Ignoring her cry, Kyran grabbed her left wrist with his left hand while saying, "Was it this hand that did it?"
His question took Freya by surprise. But because of the pain she was in, it did not fully register.
Without waiting for her to reply, Kyran broke her wrist as easily as snapping thin dried twigs.
"Aaaahhh!" Freya cried out in pain once more.
"My bad, you're not left-handed, are you?" Kyran continued while releasing his hold on her head to grab her right wrist, "This is the right one, is it?"
Once again, without waiting for a reply, he broke her right wrist.
"AAAAHHH!" Freya's cry was far more pitiful than the last one. Anyone who would hear her would feel very sorry for her.
Anyone but Kyran.
Freya's mind reeled as she tried to make sense of why the masked man suddenly decided to torture her instead of killing her instantly.
However, because of the pain, her mind could not put together all the information she had.
"RAA!"
The golden soldiers rushed toward Kyran. They all raised their staves and pierced through the air, aiming at Kyran from different directions.
Kyran ignored all of them and did nothing to stop their advance.
TING!
As soon as the first group of soldiers closed, a loud metallic sound rang out as soon as their staves collided with Kyran's skin.
SHATTER!
In an instant, the tip of their staves shattered.
"Hm?" Kyran tilted his head slightly to look at the soldiers. Then, as if he had just realized a group of mosquitoes had tried to sting him, he glared at them.
His silver eyes glowed, and he said, "Scram!"
A powerful invisible force erupted from him and spread out in all directions, instantly obliterating the soldiers within thirty meters.
"Guh!" Freya also spat out a mouthful of blood as her internal organs shook from the force.
Her armor also cracked, but fortunately, she was not destroyed like the soldiers.
It was not that her defenses were far better than the soldiers; thus, she survived Kyran's force. But it was because Kyran made sure she did not die from it.
If she had died, how could he punish her?
"Where was I?" Kyran said as he turned his attention back to Freya.
"Ah, right. You did not happen to hurt him using your leg, did you?" he continued to ask as he bent his right leg, resting his knee right above the back ligament of Freya's knee.
Though Freya was wearing an armor made of the finest Aurum material, as soon as Kyran applied a little pressure, the armor cracked. It was as if Kyran weighed more than what he was supposed to.
"AAAAHHH!" Freya screamed as the pressure behind her knee deepened.
Her domain flickered as her mind reeled with pain. She could not even employ her restoration magic properly!
It was Freya's first time experiencing such excruciating pain. She had always relied on her restoration magic to restore herself to a better state before she could even feel the intense pain of getting hurt.
It had been possible because no one had ever inflicted her with so many injuries in a short period.
The masked man was the first!
Kyran's brow furrowed as he looked at Freya's back. He was waiting for her to use her trump card, but apparently, she deemed it was not time yet.
'It means she did not set up a trap... but is waiting for a person,' he guessed.
He instantly thought of someone she might have called, and his eyes glowed in anticipation.
If he was right, she had saved him the trouble of going to the Templar Code.
"Ah, this has gotten boring," Kyran complained and made a slashing motion at the back of Freya's neck.
Freya did not even know what happened as her head rolled to the side.
Blood gushed out from her severed head, and her domain crumbled.
Kyran waved his hand, and Freya's head disappeared. Then he looked at her body and summoned a purple-colored flame on his hand. He stood up and let the purple flame fall to the body.
In an instant, Freya's body disintegrated.
Suddenly, Kyran's eyes flashed as he sensed something, and he looked up at the sky.
WHOOOSH!
A thunderous sound pierced through the air as a massive gold and diamond trident appeared from above and went straight at Kyran's position.
BOOM!
The trident landed, and a massive explosion followed, instantly obliterating at least fifty meters of the ground.
"YOU DARE KILL MY PEOPLE! I, TRITUS, SHALL HAVE YOUR HEAD!"
Tritus had arrived!