Standing on top of the now dead summon, Nan Tian panted heavily as blood dripped off his arm.

  The runic guardian was destroyed during the battle and the dragon was much harder to kill than he had expected.

  Looking at the destruction caused to the city with giant scales destroying the house, he couldn’t help but sigh as he summoned another spear.

  Taking steps towards Natia who was panicking, Nan Tian tried to focus his gaze towards her but his vision continued to blur.

  During the entire fight, she continued to summon tier 6 guards along with other monsters to keep him occupied while the dragon damaged him so it was no surprise that she would have run out of mana by now.

  He was in the same position. Had it not been for the mana potions that he continued to drink, he would have died long ago.

  Pulling his arm back, he grabbed his final spear and threw it towards the Queen.

  *BANG!!!!!

  ’Sh*t……’ Nan Tian thought to himself with a frown as he missed the throw.

  Seeing Natia pulling out a talisman, Nan Tian wanted to stop her but his body gave up, forcing him to fall forwards.

  Watching Natia leave through a portal that the talisman opened, Nan Tian couldn’t help but curse his luck.

  ’I can’t pass out yet.’ He thought to himself.

  Even if Natia had left, there’s no guarantee that she won’t just return the moment lost consciousness.

  Rolling his body over, he forced himself to look up at the sky and glanced towards his level.

  "Seems like I made up for not cultivating these last months." He muttered with a soft chuckle. During this fight, he had killed a level 700 summon, tens of tier 6 guards and even a bunch of small fries that came with the Queen.

  [Nan Tian – LVL 630 Incarnation of Light]

  Even after his body was being wrecked by the backlash, he activated more berserk talismans to keep himself fighting and it was worth it since the Queen had now left.

  Gritting his teeth, he could feel his body ache from the backlash as he took a deep breath and forced himself to stand backup.

  Using his sword as a crutch, he made his way towards the temple once more and sat by the staircase leading up to the altar. Closing his eyes, he rested his body while he could.

  ###

  Shiro didn’t know how long she had been reading for but the pile of books started to decrease.

  The moment she had finished the last book, her seal undid itself as she looked around in confusion before remembering where she was.

  "How long has it been." Shiro muttered as she quickly stood up.

  Glancing down at her phone, she saw that there were only two hours left and sighed in relief.

  The moment she did, she felt as though someone had just breathed near her and quickly turned around to see the empty library.

  Biting her lip, she found a good place to sit down before surrounding herself with walls and sealed up the top.

  ’I just need to stay here for two hours.’ She thought to herself while hugging her knees.

  Boxing herself in a corner, she started to recount the books that she had memorised and tried to piece things together.

  Time seemed to stretch on forever as she mostly spent that time trying not to think about things rather than piece together the information.

  Thankfully, this didn’t last long as Shiro sensed the mana gathering towards one point and a portal was opened.

  Widening her eyes, she quickly dismissed the walls around her and rushed towards the portal without looking back.

  Shielding her eyes from the light, Shiro found herself back at the temple.

  Looking around for Nan Tian, she was shocked to see him resting on the steps with Silvia and other healers tending to his wounds.

  "What happened?" Shiro asked in surprise as she quickly rushed over.

  "Shh." Silvia gestured for her to be quiet as Shiro nodded her head.

  Seeing that Nan Tian was currently sleeping, Shiro looked towards Silvia hoping for some answers.

  "Come with me, I’ll tell you. He’s finally resting so we shouldn’t wake him up."

  Standing up, Silvia gestured for Shiro to follow her as the two left the temple.

  Looking at the destruction of the city with the giant corpse of a draconic monster slowly evaporating into mana, Shiro couldn’t help but widen her eyes in shock.

  "Our trial was finished in 5 hours. By the time we came out, we saw Nan Tian barely holding on near the steps. His body was in a worse shape than yours since unlike you, he didn’t have the monstrous regeneration that you had. According to him, a Queen had sent a scout earlier and launched an attack on the temple but he managed to repel it. He wasn’t able to kill the Queen of Summoning but most of her summons were killed. He isn’t sure if they could be summoned again though." Silvia explained with a frown as Shiro paused in shock.

  She knew that Queens were probably going to investigate this country but she didn’t expect to see one on the first day.

  "How is his condition?" Shiro asked, glancing back in worry.

  "It’s not great. Backlash from stacking berserk skills." Silvia sighed.

  "If I didn’t learn how to treat backlashes from the trial, he would be looking much worse."

  Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows as she made her way back into the temple.

  Walking up the steps, she sat next to Nan Tian while holding onto his sleeve.

  Checking his body condition to see if there was anything she could do, Shiro sighed softly.

  Once her mental state had stabilised, Shiro looked down at Nan Tian before turning towards Silvia.

  "I’ll be right back."

  Nodding her head, Silvia watched as Shiro made her way out of the temple with a cold expression.

  ’That Queen’s probably- no, she is dead.’ Silvia thought to herself as she focused on treating Nan Tian’s injuries.

  ###

  Reaching the corpse of the dragon, Shiro drank a mana potion as nanobots appeared around her.

  Getting them to consume the corpse, Shiro had parts of her mind analyse the runes she learned within the library while the other used her knowledge to construct a spell that could track the link connecting the summoner and the summon.

  Slowly a tier 6 magic circle appeared on her hand as a red tether slowly materialised.

  "There." Shiro narrowed her eyes.

  She had around 10 minutes to deal with this Queen and it was more than enough. Even 5 minutes would be enough right now.

  Stomping down, her figure disappeared as she flickered through dimensions to increase her speed. Using a mix of special magic along with rift magic, Shiro charged towards the other end of the tether.

  ###

  "Sh*t!" Natia gritted her teeth as she sat down in a safehouse that they had prepared beforehand. She didn’t take everyone with her since there was only one person there but she didn’t think he would be able to kill her strongest summon. It was one of her rewards when she cleared a hidden trial and it was also her trump card for this event.

  She wanted to launch another attack but she was suffering from having her blood link destroyed with her summon so she was in no state to fight.

  However, once she recovers, she’ll have everyone here attack the temple.

  ’He’ll be suffering from the berserk skill backlash. Hell, there’s probably a chance that he’s already dead but we have 5 high level tier 6 guards. They only have that man and the Queen so we win in terms of numbers.’ Natia thought to herself while resting on a bed.

  However, the moment she looked down, she noticed a faint red tether appear on her wrist as a bad feeling appeared in her heart.

  Just as she went to touch the tether, it disintegrated into tiny light particles.

  Understanding that this was a skill, Natia immediately wanted to leave this place. But before she could even sit up properly, wires wrapped around her body, pinning her to the bed.

  "Why the rush?" A cold voice rang out as Natia forced herself to look up and saw Shiro crouching above her bed frame with a dark expression.

  Looking at the eyes that glowed slightly in the shadow cast by her hair, Natia could feel her body tense up.

  Flexing her finger, a needle appeared as it stabbed into Natia’s shoulder.

  She wanted to cry out but a rune appeared on her throat, stopping her from speaking.

  "This one stops you from speaking and moving. It’s a neat little combination I came up with using parts of the new runes I discovered." Shiro explained as a second needle appeared.

  "This one takes some time to use but once it completes its task, your mana realm will be destroyed. Every step of the way, you’ll feel excruciating pain as it’s shredding all of your links little by little."

  Throwing the second needle and stabbing it into Natia’s abdominal area, Shiro hopped off the bed frame and stood next to the bed.

  "And this one…… well. This one messes with your perception of time." Shiro grinned darkly as a third needle appeared.

  Stabbing it into her chest, Shiro brought out a dagger and grabbed Natia by her hair.

  "Enjoy the next ’year’ of my company."

  *PUCHI!