The Mentos Desert was once a plain. During the era of the gods, it was the most beloved place for the weaker races because it was the domain of the Earth Mother, the guardian deity of the Sitatul Continent. No matter how many wars raged in the outside world, they never affected this land. And among all the gods, the Earth Mother was the friendliest toward the weaker races.

Although she was a Main God, she was not as aloof as the others. To her, there was no distinction between the strong and the weak; she treated all races as equals.

The Mentos Plain was once the most prosperous and lively region on the Sitatul Continent. But with the departure of the gods and the collapse of the continent, it transformed into a harsh, uninhabitable desert.

When Avira and Kate arrived in the Mentos Desert, the sandstorm was more ferocious than ever. The swirling yellow sand blotted out the sky and sun, making it nearly impossible to open one’s eyes. An ordinary sandstorm would have no effect on Second Generation Vampires, but for some reason, this one made both Avira and Kate feel a sense of pressure.

The sand obscured their vision. Avira and Kate mobilized their Power of Darkness to disperse the sand around them as they walked deeper into the Mentos Desert. The soft, deep yellow sand hindered their steps. Avira surveyed her surroundings, her brow furrowed ever since she had set foot in the desert. “The sandstorm is mixed with the Earth Mother’s divine power. The power stored in the temple must have been released.”

Talia and Harris had arrived in the Mentos Desert a few days before them. The divine power leaking from the temple was surely related to them. Kate was worried about Talia’s safety, but the divine power’s influence prevented her from sensing Talia’s aura, which made her irritable. “An abandoned temple is still this arrogant.”

She flashed to the most intense part of the raging sandstorm and, with a ruthless expression, erected her Blood Domain. A dense, blood-red mist weaved through the sandstorm, coalescing into a ferocious beast. The beast whipped its tail and roared at the surrounding storm, and the cold Power of Darkness instantly claimed half the sky.

The sandstorm, which had been attacking indiscriminately, seemed to have found a target. It showed no fear of the beast. The sand condensed into myriad earthen spikes that surrounded the beast, as dense as a rain of arrows.

Kate had drawn all the divine power from the sandstorm toward her. Avira’s obscured vision gradually cleared. She stepped out of Kate’s Blood Domain and quickly scanned the area, soon pinpointing Talia’s location.

Avira glanced at Kate, who was entangled with the sandstorm, and clicked her tongue in annoyance. Her figure shot out like a bolt of lightning, and after a moment, she returned with two people.

Talia and Harris had been in the sandstorm for some time and looked rather disheveled, but they were not injured.

“Why are you here?” Talia turned to look at Kate, her brow furrowed as she asked Avira coldly.

Her golden hair was a mess, and her clothes were far from tidy. All traces of her usual elegance and nobility had vanished.

“I came to see the fine mess you’ve made.” Avira was smiling, but her eyes held a faint mockery. She said nonchalantly, “I heard you lost the Blood Coffin. I’m here to congratulate you.”

Talia raised a hand to smooth her hair, merely snorting coldly at Avira’s taunt.

Beside them, Harris sighed while shielding his face. “Listening to your sarcastic remarks is better than facing your sister’s wrath. Amelia, you have to help us this time.”

Leaving the Blood Coffin somewhere on the Sitatul Continent and having it disappear into a temple were two entirely different matters.

For the former, they might have received a few mild warnings. But for the latter… they might be put to sleep for a very long time.

“I’m only responsible for getting the Blood Coffin back,” Avira said coolly, crossing her arms. “I won’t interfere with how Samantha decides to deal with you.”

Hearing this, a smile actually appeared on Harris’s face. “As long as you’re willing to help. With you and Kate here, we can definitely get the Blood Coffin back.”

“Actually, you’ve come at the perfect time. Talia and I have already found the temple’s entrance, but the two of us alone can’t break this barrier.” Harris pointed in a certain direction, a hint of melancholy on his handsome face. “The Earth Mother’s temple has never shown any abnormalities before. I don’t know what’s happened this time.”

They had no plans to destroy the Earth Mother’s temple; they were just using it to store the Blood Coffin. Who would have thought that the other destroyed temples would remain quiet, while this one suddenly caused trouble?

After hearing Harris’s words, Avira’s expression suddenly grew solemn as if she had thought of something. She glanced in the direction Harris had indicated and walked that way without a word.

Harris followed right behind her. Talia trailed a few steps behind them. Kate, who was still entangled with the sandstorm, stopped fighting upon seeing Talia. She broke free from the sand, transformed into a white cat, and leaped onto Talia’s shoulder.

Having lost its target, the divine power once again merged with the sandstorm.

The barrier that Harris said he and Talia couldn’t break was actually just the divine power flowing from the temple, spontaneously protecting it. The divine power here was a hundred times more concentrated than what was mixed in the sandstorm.

Although this was the power of a Main God, the Earth Mother was no longer on this continent, so the power’s potency had weakened. With four Second Generation Vampires at the peak of their strength working together, the barrier struggled for a while before finally shattering.

The magnificent and majestic temple was finally unveiled, appearing before the eyes of Avira and the others.

Harris’s eyes widened slightly. He quickly scanned the temple and keenly spotted the Blood Coffin placed on the steps. “There it is.”

The moment he finished speaking, Talia had already flashed into the temple, heading for the Blood Coffin.

Seeing the Blood Coffin was intact, the weight in Avira’s heart slowly lifted, and she followed them into the temple.

Inside, everything appeared normal, and she couldn’t sense any divine power. Avira walked while observing her surroundings, a persistent sense of foreboding in her heart. She reached the bottom of the steps and looked up slightly at Talia, who was already beside the Blood Coffin. Suddenly, a black shadow flashed in the corner of her eye.

Avira froze for a second and turned her head sharply, but the shadow had vanished.

“Be careful-” Before Avira could finish her warning, Talia, who was inspecting the Blood Coffin, suddenly found her vision go dark. A cold wind rushed at her, forcing her back, while an immense pressure bore down on her.

The white cat perched on Talia’s shoulder, licking its paws, sensed the danger. Its expression changed instantly. It leaped off Talia, transforming into its human form to block the attack for her. A searing pain shot through its arm, as if it had been viciously whipped by something. The terrifying force made Kate suck in a sharp breath. “What was that?”

Talia reached out to steady Kate, her crimson eyes fixed on the space above them. Her tone was heavy. “It’s dragons…”

At some unknown point, countless dragons had coiled themselves around the sky-high stone pillars on either side of the temple. They were a dense, teeming mass. The dragons were of various colors, but their pupils were all a deep, earthen yellow. Their long, thick tails swayed in the air as they looked down at Avira and the others with unfriendly gazes.

Previously, the Vampires and Sethite wizards had attacked the Giant God’s temple. Later, the Elf Race, Wolf Race, and Vampires had fought a great battle here. This series of disturbances had caused the humans in Pegel to migrate away, leaving the already desolate place completely uninhabited.

Even the Giant God’s temple was the same, showing no signs of recent activity.

“It seems this isn’t the place,” Cynthia said, carefully examining her surroundings, her fine brows slightly furrowed.

The person beside her didn’t respond. Cynthia turned her head and saw Olivia looking down at her own hand, lost in thought. She raised an eyebrow and asked, “What are you looking at?”

Olivia looked up and met her gaze, then opened her cupped palm. A few grains of yellow sand lying there were blown away by the wind. She said in a low voice, “Sand.”

“Hm?”

“The wind in this place is mixed with yellow sand.” Olivia cupped her hand in the air again, catching more fine particles. “It wasn’t like this the last time I was here.”

Elves are naturally very sensitive to the elements of nature. Olivia had long since memorized the aura of the natural elements in Pegel. This yellow sand did not belong here.

“Sand… could it have blown over from the Mentos Desert?” Cynthia looked astonished. “But this place isn’t exactly close to the Mentos Desert, is it?”

Olivia frowned in thought, not saying a word. Suddenly, a fierce gust of wind carrying yellow sand swept toward them. After it passed, the damp ground beneath their feet was covered in a layer of sand. The aura mixed in this wind felt wrong. Cynthia and Olivia exchanged a look. The latter took out her staff and softly chanted a spell, and a whirlwind enveloped them both, carrying them off in a certain direction.

With the whirlwind as their transport, Cynthia and Olivia quickly reached the border of the Mentos Desert. The closer they got, the more powerful the sandstorm became, to the point where it blurred their vision. Cynthia placed a hand on Olivia’s arm, signaling her to stop. She summoned a barrier of light to envelop them both, then looked up to observe the sandstorm above the Mentos Desert. She quickly noticed something unusual. “The shape of this sandstorm…”

The sandstorm appeared chaotic, but upon closer inspection, one could see that the swirling patterns looked remarkably like soaring dragons. Because Cynthia had once seen a swarm of Magic Dragons circling in the sky, she quickly made the connection.

“This sandstorm contains the divine power of the Earth Mother.” Olivia took the longbow from her back, her expression somewhat grave. “It seems something has happened at the temple.”

She placed her fingers on the bowstring and rapidly fired three arrows. The sky full of yellow sand paused for a moment. As they shared the same earth element, the aura on the arrows made the sand hesitate. During that brief hesitation, a portion of the sand drifted downward. The temple, once hidden by the sand, gradually became clear in Cynthia and Olivia’s vision.

Olivia had stabilized the sandstorm to investigate the temple’s condition, but when she truly saw what was inside, she froze completely. Her tone was no longer as calm as before. “Are those… dragons?”

Although everything inside the temple was hazy and indistinct under the veil of sand, the sheer size of the dragons made them impossible to misidentify. Cynthia’s gaze followed the dragons’ movements, and a flash of insight struck her. She said softly, “The Earth Mother has already dispersed half of her divine power to create thousands of Dragon Knights…”

She raised a hand to her chin, a thoughtful look on her face. “That’s from the conversation between the God of Thunder and the Giant God that I heard from the statue’s memories in the Giant God’s temple. So, are these dragons the thousands of Dragon Knights the God of Thunder spoke of?”

If these dragons were a new race created by the Earth Mother to completely eradicate the demonic beasts, then shouldn’t they be sealed away like the other new races?