"Suicide?"
Hearing Su Mo's words, Jibril's expression turned to one of keen interest, and she looked over curiously. Azriel, on the other hand, was completely bewildered, not understanding the reason for his statement.
"Didn't I say before that the claim about the Dragonia possessing hundreds of millions of times the Elemental power of a Flügel was a lie? If that's the case, how can they completely ignore a normal Flügel's Heaven's Strike and possess such an absurdly high defense?" Su Mo posed the question.
"I don't know," Azriel shook her head frankly.
"Hmm… Master, are you saying the Dragonia achieved this through some kind of special trick?" Jibril tilted her head, guessing.
"That's right." Su Mo nodded and walked over to the Dragonia's skeleton.
"Just as the Werebeasts have keener senses, the Elves can see the flow of Elementals, and the Flügel can see the folding of space, the Dragonia have their own special form of life—they can exist across dependent time."
In the world of No Game No Life, the gap between different races was like a chasm. There were huge differences just in their forms of existence. It was only natural that humans, who could neither perceive nor use Elementals, had such a low status.
"Across dependent time?" Azriel wore a perplexed expression, completely failing to understand.
Jibril, however, after a moment's pause, her eyes lit up as she realized something.
"Lord Su Mo, are you saying that the Dragonia don't just exist at this point in time, but also simultaneously cover the past and the future?"
"Correct."
For ordinary life forms, only the present is meaningful, because the past and future cannot be controlled. But for the Dragonia, that was not the case.
If an ordinary life form existed as a point on the river of time, only able to perceive the current moment, then the Dragonia existed as a plane on the river of time, simultaneously covering the past, present, and future.
Although this plane had its own length—the Dragonia had not achieved the feat of existing in the past, present, and future eternally—even covering just a few minutes into the past and future was enough to cause a world-shaking change within them.
"I see! By simultaneously covering the past and future, they can reflect the energy from those time points into their own bodies, achieving an infinite amplification and boosting their internal Elemental reserves to the limit! That's the source of their massive Elemental power!"
After getting the hint from Su Mo, Jibril became extremely excited. She had challenged this Dragonia several times before and had accumulated many questions. Now, after hearing Su Mo's words, those questions were instantly answered.
"When we hunt Dragonia, if they only receive minor injuries, they recover immediately. Now that I think about it, they probably aren't using healing techniques, but are overwriting the present with their undamaged past selves, directly ensuring they are always at their peak by converging time!"
"In that case, their bodies are just vessels used for time convergence. If this vessel itself develops an irreparable crack, then those injuries will be reflected and amplified infinitely, just like their energy, eventually leading to their self-destruction… This is their innate weakness, which is why Lord Su Mo said they died by suicide!"
After understanding everything, Jibril looked at Su Mo with worship in her eyes.
"As expected of Master! You saw the key that I completely missed at a glance!"
Hearing this, Su Mo shook his head.
"If you hadn't used your protection and had challenged it two more times, you would have seen the problem as well."
The main reason Jibril hadn't seen the truth was that the Sword's Protection was too strong. She didn't need to find a weak point; she could just kill it with one slash.
Although this was also a clever trick, using the Dragonia's weakness, it looked like a brute-force victory, which had hindered Jibril's information analysis.
From this perspective, although an individual Dragonia was comparable to a lower-ranking Old Deus, their chances of winning were not high if they encountered a god who was good at piercing damage and could easily break their defense.
"Master has such great faith in me!" Jibril accepted Su Mo's praise with a grin. Then, she curiously watched his hands.
"What are you doing? Do the Dragonia also have a Primordial Divinity?"
At this moment, Su Mo's hand was on the Dragonia's skeleton. The Dragonia's body, which had been dissolving into particles of light, was now being condensed in his hand, forming some kind of blue geometric structure. This familiar scene reminded Jibril of when Su Mo had obtained Michael's Primordial Divinity in the Divine Realm.
"Of course not." Su Mo shook his head.
The Dragonia of this world were purely a type of powerful creature, not the same as the dragon-serpents of the Godslayer world. Naturally, they had no Divinity.
"However, the Dragonia themselves have a spiritual core similar to a Divinity. The core structure is still Stardust Particles, just like you Flügel."
Or rather, the core structure of beings like Flügel, Servants, and gods were all very similar; they were all aetheric constructs. The difference between the three came from the difference in their cores. A Divinity was just a special kind of spiritual core. In this respect, the Dragonia were the same.
"So Master means you can directly obtain the Dragonia's power template?" Jibril blinked and asked in surprise.
"Mm." Su Mo nodded.
As long as it was a life form with a similar structure, he could grasp its composition through Stardust Particles and absorb its power into his own body. Now, he had completely mastered the Draconic Language, the Bellow, and the Dragonia's most crucial ability: time convergence.
"From its current structure, if the Dragonia weren't so greedy for the energy amplified by infinite reflection, their immortality would be much stronger. Unless they are hit by a continuous attack, it would be difficult to affect the power of their time convergence."
"That makes sense! But in that case, the Dragonia wouldn't have their current status." Jibril pointed out.
If they didn't have their nearly invincible image, the Dragonia wouldn't have been so safe all these years. In a way, their trick was very effective. Faking strength was also a means of avoiding disaster.
"That's true." Su Mo nodded.
Before long, he had completely absorbed the Dragonia's power template.
"So where are we going next?" Jibril asked immediately. "With Master's power, I recommend we go hunt some Gigants or Phantasma!"
One didn't need to ask to know that Jibril just wanted to help Su Mo collect the power templates of all sixteen races. The path she was leading was a bloody one. Of course, all the blood belonged to others.
"No." Su Mo shook his head. He wasn't unmoved by Jibril's suggestion, but before that, there were a few other beings in this world worthy of his attention.
"Let's go to the Elves first."
If he remembered correctly, at this time, the Elves should have a divine-tier genius. Although this genius's strength was no match for even the most ordinary Flügel, she could indeed develop techniques that not even the Flügel could break, and that could even threaten an Old Deus.
In the field of technique research, this genius had undoubtedly reached the divine tier. Although for Su Mo, this genius's vision was still limited, she at least had the value of being an assistant and was worth investigating.
"The Elves?" Azriel was puzzled. "Why are we going to those weeds?"
Clearly, she felt that with Su Mo's status, he didn't need to stoop so low, though she had no idea what his status was.
"It's Master's command. Why are there so many questions?" Jibril's answer to this was much simpler. "Then let's go now! I remember the Elves moved their capital, but it should still be on this continent."
Under Jibril's guidance, the three of them disappeared from the spot.
---||---
In the Elven country.
The great Flower Crown Lord, Synk Nirvalen, an Elf who had received the praise of the Forest God Kainas, was walking alone on a forest path.
Due to Su Mo's intervention, Jibril had not carried out her latter two dragonslayings. Without some strange Flügel releasing a devastating Heaven's Strike on a whim just because she got a bump on her head, the Elven capital was now a picture of peace.
Synk Nirvalen was also still a renowned genius among the Elves and had not yet begun her research on the Spirit Destruction technique.
To the average person, or rather, to the entire world of No Game No Life, a retainer's loyalty to their Master God was the most natural thing in the world. Even Jibril's rebellion could be seen as a form of loyalty.
However, in this environment, there was one unique exception.
The one who could insult her own Master God with the most extreme words was the Flower Crown Lord, whose loyalty was highly questionable.
"Why didn't that idiot god die in the toilet with the elders? I have so many techniques to research, yet he has to assign these boring tasks to me. With this kind of efficiency, they want to compete for the Star Grail? Those losers couldn't even get to hot shit in time!" she cursed at the elders and the god above her without a care for her image, her words fierce.
If any other Elf had heard this, they would have been shocked and judged her for the great sin of insubordination. The majesty of a god was not to be violated.
Fortunately, she was constantly casting detection magic and had long confirmed that the area was safe. Absolutely no one could approach her without her noticing!
Therefore, she could vent all her grievances…
"Master, I think this is the place!"
Seeing the three figures that had suddenly appeared before her, Synk Nirvalen's heart stopped completely.