Dragon Monarch System Chapter 1024:- Three Seconds to Save a Life

Aditya materialized via teleportation directly in front of him and unleashed a punch packed with all the power his body could muster.

Carrick was blasted backward by the impact. His back smashed against a tree trunk, toppling the entire tree right onto him.

"That’s a good punch!!" Carrick got to his feet and brushed the dust off his cloak.

Right as Carrick rose, countless multi-colored lightning bolts hurtled toward him.

In the final instant, he summoned a shadow chain to yank himself clear of the onslaught.

"That was...!!" He couldn’t utter another word. Aditya short-range teleported into his escape path. Carrick’s body was still airborne, hurtling straight at Aditya. The razor-sharp black sword nearly cleaved his neck, but he barely twisted aside at the last moment.

The blow intended to decapitate him instead gashed his right shoulder, carving a profound wound stretching from shoulder down to his chest.

"One more strike to end the battle." Aditya lunged to finish him off, but Carrick’s vast experience told him it was time to withdraw.

Carrick dodged the follow-up assault by instantly vanishing into his shadow. That shadow then faded from Aditya’s sight entirely. Or so Carrick assumed would happen.

Yet this failed to rattle Aditya. He possessed acute spatial awareness of everything nearby. Thanks to his gravity manipulation, his perception of his environment and the very weave of space had sharpened tremendously.

No matter how deeply Carrick shrouded himself in shadows, he couldn’t evade the detection of one who sensed space itself.

Carrick sensed it too. While circling Aditya from within the shadows, he realized Aditya’s gaze never left him. Like a predator bird eyeing quarry from the skies, Aditya fixed his stare on Carrick relentlessly.

It felt as though Aditya could see right through him. Even concealed in shadow, Carrick felt zero comfort. Aditya’s eyes bored into his own.

Normally, Carrick was the one lurking in shadows, glaring at foes this way. For the first time ever, he faced an adversary he couldn’t shake off. In that instant, roles reversed—he became the hunted, pinned by the hunter’s gaze.

Abruptly, twin chains erupted from the shadows, lashing toward Aditya. They nearly ensnared him, but something unseen halted them dead.

The chains grew impossibly heavy and plummeted to the ground right before him.

"We can do this all day, but this won’t do anything to me. And if you are just capable of this, then my earliest statement about you being always a number two is correct."

"You cannot even land a single attack on a man whom you called a useless exiled prince." Aditya stared at Carrick and declared.

These words ignited fury within him. His eyes blazed red, his aura surging with savage intensity.

Undead summoning!!!!

At his shout, a colossal magic circle unfurled across the battlefield, stretching nearly 1,000 meters (≈ 0.62 miles) wide. Aditya remained poised calmly at its heart as hordes of figures rose from the radiant runes, flooding the area in moments.

"At this point, you are just embarrassing yourself." Aditya now faced thousands of undead skeleton monsters encircling him. Every one packed enough power to slay a 5th-order cultivator. Yet to Aditya now, these skeletons were mere futile delays, buying Carrick mere seconds.

"What are these low-ranking, stupid, undead monsters supposed to do to me? They can try the whole day, but they still won’t be able to land a single attack on me."

"Stop with your stupid pranks and just come out of the shadows."

"You bastard!" Carrick boiled with rage by now. This worthless upstart dared mock him, liken him to his brother, and brand him second-best.

Carrick burst from the shadow, charging headlong at Aditya. From the start, he’d aimed to rattle Aditya’s composure and force mistakes. Instead, Aditya had pierced his own defenses, shattering his cool.

Aditya sidestepped with a brief teleport, materializing behind him to conclude the bout swiftly. But a dark purple magic circle flared underfoot, featuring a massive dragon skull at its core.

The circle bathed Aditya’s form in eerie dark purple radiance.

The instant after, Aditya’s actions halted. His hand hung frozen mid-strike.

His gaze abruptly dulled, unfocused.

Carrick erupted in maniacal laughter at the sight.

"Did you really think I jumped out of the shadows without a plan?"

"Aditya.....!!!" The girls cried out in alarm.

"Rin, try to bring him to the spiritual world." Athena commanded without delay.

Rin shut her eyes, straining to drag him into the Spiritual World, but it proved futile.

"I can’t." Rin’s voice dripped with frustration.

"I have a plan. But I need all of us to act." Athena had anticipated this. While Rin labored those few seconds, she’d devised Aditya’s escape.

"Now, time to end you." Carrick seized Aditya’s throat. He prepared to snap it when a firefly fluttered from Aditya’s shoulder toward his face.

"What’s this?" The harmless little firefly gave Carrick pause. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d seen one.

‘I remember. The last time I saw fireflies was when I was with mom.’ That lone firefly unlocked a torrent of cherished memories.

Lost in reminiscence while fixated on the firefly, he overlooked the swarm encircling him from every direction. Fireflies blanketed the air, forming a spherical barrier around him.

By the moment awareness dawned that more fireflies swarmed, escape was impossible.

The fireflies unleashed a blinding, intense flash. Carrick shielded his face and eyes with his hands, as if scorched by the sun’s full fury.

As Carrick’s eyes slammed shut, an unseen force tugged at his consciousness.

Upon reopening them, he drifted in a vast, pitch-black void.

"Where the fuck am I?" He bellowed. Silence swallowed his cry—no echo returned.

"Athena, I can’t hold him long," Rin warned, eyes squeezed shut. Trapping a superior cultivator in the Spiritual World taxed her mind severely.

"Just hold there for as long as you can." Meanwhile, Athena touched her forehead to his.

Aditya now glistened with cold sweat, his complexion ashen.

Horror of Death was Carrick’s unique innate ability, devastating against weaker cultivators. Aditya’s physical stats rivaled a Beginner 7th-order’s, but his mind, spirit, and soul lagged. Thus, the skill struck him hard.

Worse, it siphoned the victim’s life force amid visions of deepest terrors and nightmares. The target shattered utterly upon death.

As Wisdom’s Goddess, Athena could yank Aditya from the torment. A High Order caster demanded 3 seconds of contact—otherwise, a mere touch or firefly sufficed.

Inside the spiritual world, Carrick erupted with his complete aura. Rin could summon victims there but couldn’t curb peak powers. A full aura burst overwhelmed containment after seconds. Mid-7th-order and above proved impossible—that’s why she couldn’t drag Aditya’s grandfather Boris or the like.

"Fuck offfffffff!!!!!" Carrick’s thunderous roar demolished the spiritual world.

This backlash made Rin spew blood and crumple to her knees.

Back in reality, spotting the Goddess of Wisdom forehead-to-forehead with Aditya, Carrick grasped her intent.

"Die with him." He swung a lethal strike at her nape from behind.

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Truly, huge thanks to everyone for the generous golden tickets and gifts. Let’s keep the momentum going!!!