Chapter 785: The Next Statue: Tristan Kingdom Back in the palace, The King’s Study The moment the twins left, Adrian leaned back into his chair. "Imperia... why now of all times?" Another guard stepped in. "Your Majesty, orders received. We’ve started a distant tail on the two." "Good. Keep them within sight. Don’t provoke them. Don’t engage unless necessary." "Yes, Your Majesty." When that guard was gone, he tapped his desk with a serious expression on his face. The Vermilion Kingdom was just recovering from the demonic invasion. Adrian wasn’t ready for another fight, hence the reason he didn’t keep them locked up—doing so would be no different from angering the Imperia. They rarely left their kingdom to fight others; however, whenever they did, it was usually very brutal, and this was something Adrian wanted to avoid for now. The last thing he wanted was for that crazed psycho to attack the Vermilion Kingdom just because their envoys got locked up. He paced back and forth in the study, hands behind his back. Even trying to lock them down had been quite hard; he had released a crushing aura, yet the twins remained completely unfazed. He had disturbing feelings that they could be as strong as him—or even stronger—despite their extremely young faces. And these were just teenage envoys. Then imagine how powerful their ruler would be? "If the Imperians are truly after that power... they’ll head there too. I need to warn the Cromwell Kingdom." ... When they were returning, Nox had summoned his dragon. It was Drake—the Frost Dragon Prince. When he stepped out of the portal that led out of the taming space, he exhaled deeply as if savoring the very air. "Although that weird space helps us with nutrition and strength, nothing beats the real world." Jack stared at the humanoid dragon with ice scales around his body, signifying that he wasn’t human. Of course, he knew about Nox’s dragons—the same dragons that had been quite instrumental during the war. But for some strange reason, Nox always used them in their dragon form. It was rare to see them in their humanoid forms. Even the ones patrolling the Cromwell Kingdoms were mostly seen in dragon form. Yes, after the demonic invasion, Nox had assigned several dragons to patrol the skies. They were part of a spy network made up of ants, dragons, and even undead. That way, they could spot any threat from miles away and make contingency plans. Nox heard what Drake said and couldn’t help but fall into deep thought. "Well, it makes sense for it to feel slightly suffocating." The dragons, although classified as beasts, were a higher form of existence—standing on the same level as humans, yet far surpassing them in physical strength, mana affinity, aerial dominance, and natural regeneration. Even in their humanoid forms, they were walking calamities. Naturally, his artificial taming space—though conducive—wouldn’t be enough for them. Making a mental note to address that issue later, he commanded Drake to shift into his dragon form, which the latter did without hesitation. "Where are we heading to next?" Jack asked while they were mounted atop the dragon. Nox retrieved his map from his inventory and moved his finger to a particular spot on the map. Underneath his finger, it read: Tristan Kingdom. "We will retrieve the next statue..." he announced, the dragon slowly taking to the air. It flapped its wings powerfully, ruffling all the grasses below. Some moments later, the dragon was high in the air and then shot toward the direction of Tristan Kingdom. While the dragon was flying above, Soren suddenly paused and looked at the sky, seeing a black shadow fly past them. "What is it?" Selene asked, raising her head to the sky as well. Soren didn’t reply immediately, still staring at the direction. "I thought... I thought I saw something," he said, still looking upward. "Never mind—must be my mind playing tricks on me." "What are we going to do about the guards? Are they going to let us leave the capital?" Selene asked. "They won’t," Soren said. "Since the pioneer of this class is not from this kingdom, we no longer have any business in this place." "So can I kill the guards now?" she asked, a bit too enthusiastic, as if it was something very normal to say. Soren shook his head and continued forward. "Go ahead." ’Finally," she exclaimed, then turned back all of a sudden. All the spies following her instinctively paused and swallowed hard. They didn’t even get a second chance to think. Selene’s figure vanished. There was a faint shift in the air, signs of movement, and then.. SHRRK—!! A thin line appeared across the throat of the first guard. He didn’t even bleed at first. The second’s head twisted at a completely unnatural angle. The third guard blinked... and his arm fell off before he even processed what happened. By the time their bodies hit the ground, Selene was already walking past them, dusting her hands as if she had simply brushed dirt off her clothes. Not a drop of blood touched her. Not a single sound escaped the guards. They weren’t even given the chance to scream. Soren didn’t bother looking back. "You finished?" "Obviously," she said, sounding bored. "They were too slow. Why were they even following us with that level of skill?" Soren shrugged. "The Vermilion Kingdom just survived a demonic invasion. Many elites died. The ones following us are replacements." "tsk, poor excuse for their incompetence," she snickered, following her brother closely. Behind them, the corpses lay in the alley—neat, clean, almost surgical. ... Back in the skies The dragon soared through the clouds, cutting through the wind like a blade. Tristan Kingdom was a tiny speck on the horizon, but Drake flew with the speed of a hurricane. Jack held onto the dragon’s scales tightly, trying not to look down. "How far is the Tristan Kingdom from here?" Drake asked internally. "About two hours if you keep this pace," Nox said calmly. Drake didn’t reply, but he let out a low growl, he enjoyed flying fast. Approximately two hours and some minutes later, they began to notice the outline of the kingdom in the distance.