Chapter 844: The 8 Dragon God Sword

The sword's blade was simple and unadorned, its craftsmanship not particularly advanced, but the material was a strange metallic alloy, undoubtedly infused with various magical components.

The hilt was the most unique part, also the most mana-dense.

Moreover, Liszt observed with his Magic Eye that it thrummed with eight distinct magics—fire, water, earth, wind, thunder, light, ice, and darkness—each of archmagic potency.

Among them was a magic he knew well—Fire Dragon archmagic.

All these archmagic properties were engraved into the spiral patterns on the hilt, each stripe representing a color: blue, red, yellow, cyan, purple, white, light blue, and black.

"So this sword possesses eight attributes, all archmagic?" Liszt attempted to channel his fire-attribute Dragon Aura and immediately felt the sword's mana amplification, reaching an exaggerated degree, far surpassing his current ill-fitting Frostbite Dragonslayer.

When he unleashed a combat technique into the air—a single slash of "Scarlet Dawn Blaze"—nearly half the sky seemed to ignite.

The Ancient Wizards trembled in fear; even their most powerful spells paled in comparison to Liszt's offhand swing.

"Feels good. Shame it's not a knightly blade, ill-suited for cleaving strikes... Probably just a blade-shaped mage's focus, meant to amplify a wizard's spellcasting... The craft of ancient Archmages is truly something. To wrought this blade, they likely had to extract archmagic from eight different Elemental Dragons."

This showed that ancient Archmages had a high degree of mastery over dragons—at the very least, they could freely harvest power from various evil dragons.

"Though it's a magic sword, it can still serve me. I wonder what name you bore in the hands of an Archmage. Now that you serve me, you deserve a grander title—I hereby name you 'Eightfold Dragonblade'!" With a thought, Liszt stored the Eightfold Dragonblade into his dimensional ring.

Not being a product of a sacred dragon, the sword couldn't resist the gem-dimension's attraction.

Having found the Eightfold Dragonblade, he grew even more eager for the weapons of the remaining five statues—or rather, four, since one likely held the Scepter of Time.

Unfortunately, after searching repeatedly, he found no trace of the shattered remnants of the weapons.

He returned to the Elder, flipping through his notebook but finding no suitable translation. Instead, he gestured—first mimicking the statues, then the Eightfold Dragonblade, and finally pointing to an arm, asking where the other arm fragments were.

The Elder wasn’t stupid.

He quickly grasped Liszt’s meaning.

Replying in emphatic pantomime, he conveyed—as Liszt understood—that after the statues shattered, many fragments had been taken by splintered tribes for worship.

This made sense. The "ancestral relics" revered by the Horn Tribe likely didn’t just refer to the Scepter of Time but included the stone statue fragments—for the Moon Killers, these six statues were their so-called ancestors.

As the statues broke apart, the Moon Killers' tribes also fragmented, leading larger groups to take pieces back to their settlements for worship.

"So to find the other fragments, I’d have to search all Moon Killers' tribes... Too tedious. I’ll task the knights with it."

The Moon Killers were too widely dispersed; searching one by one would be time-consuming and exhausting.

Better to delegate it to the knights. After all, everything on the Isle of Flames belonged to him—no one could hide these ancient artifacts from him forever.

"So," he said to the new Elder of the "Sacred Tribe," who called himself "Sasumit," or "Su" for short. "Su, these ruins hold six statues of the Moon Killers' ancestors. Does that mean the mountain behind is the Sacred Mountain?"

"The Sacred Mountain!"

Su nodded excitedly, speaking in Lunar Language while gesturing: "Ancestors fought alongside dragons! The Sacred Mountain is the Eternal Paradise they built together! Moon Killers guard the Sacred Mountain, guard the entrance to paradise!" As he spoke, he pointed toward the Hourglass Valley, his eyes alight with devotion.

Then, an Ancient Wizard suddenly pointed behind Liszt at the now-visible Invisible Dragon and shouted: "Biglizarde!"

This phrase in Lunar Language Liszt understood.

"Biglizarde" meant dragon.

The Moon Killers had never seen a dragon, but they had heard the legends of their ancestors fighting alongside dragons. Feeling the powerful Dragon Fear of the invisible dragon Bard, the Ancient Wizards finally connected it to a dragon.

The Listener also gazed excitedly at Bard, though he cautiously asked Liszt, "Great Lizard?"

"Correct." Liszt gestured for Bard to lower his head near his hand, somewhat mischievously wanting to see the Ancient Wizards' reactions. "Great Lizard, my battle partner!"

Upon confirmation, Listener Su and the many Ancient Wizards immediately prostrated themselves, shouting in unison, "Hail the Sage! Hail the Dragon!" Sage meant "holy," and Dragon meant "dragon."

They had elevated Liszt to the same status as their ancestors, whom they referred to as "Sage"—holy beings slumbering in the sacred mountain, guarded by the Holy Tribe. Liszt was now a living Sage, with a living dragon as his battle partner, making them submit from the depths of their hearts.

Of course, this narrative was part truth, part sycophancy, likely more of the Ancient Wizards sucking up to Liszt while downplaying their quick shift in loyalty.

Watching the Ancient Wizards fervently perform their loyalty and piety, Liszt wore a faint smile—not because he enjoyed the flattery, but because he realized he had inadvertently completed the smoke mission: finding the sacred mountain and uncovering a sliver of the Ancient Wizards' secrets.

"Mission complete. Reward: entrance to the ruins."

He understood the entrance to the ruins was the wind gap in the hourglass valley behind them. There lay torn space—one leading to the material boundary of this location, the other likely leading to the "Eternal Paradise" spoken of by the Moon Killers, the so-called entrance to the ruins.

However, the entrance was blocked by countless dimensional rifts, making exploration impossible for now.

"Mission: Move swiftly on the sacred mountain. You have rescued many beautiful sprites. The sprites born on Flame Island have finally met their savior. As the master of Flame Island, all sprites belong to you. Please properly settle the Grand Sprite and these sprites. Reward: discovery of new archipelagos."

"So, new archipelagos... Yevich and the other two expedition crews have been searching toward the mainland. I thought they would directly find the legendary continent adjacent to Flame Island, but perhaps they’ll discover new archipelagos... Could it be another large archipelago?"

The expedition crews had not halted their mission and were still discovering new islands. Thus, the reward would likely fall to them.

Snapping out of his thoughts, with matters here concluded, it was time to leave.

"Protect these ruined statues, Su!" Leaving his last order, he mounted the invisible dragon Bard and took the sprites away in a container.

Flipping through his notebook, he found the phrase he wanted to say.

As Bard soared into the sky, all the Ancient Wizards heard Liszt's authoritative voice, amplified by the invisible dragon's magic: "*A wai o com e jin*."

This phrase in the Lunar Language meant:

I shall return!