"Captain, look, I found the other two pieces of the Eight Greed Kings' Imperial Map Fragment." In the cabin, Barrett excitedly said to EeDechi.
Two ornately decorated triangular silk cloths lay spread out on the table, their edges embroidered with gold thread patterns depicting all the races of the world, from elves to merfolk to flying dragons, symbolizing the Eight Greed Kings' rule over all things.
But the center of each silk cloth was blank, with no text, no drawings, and no lines.
These two silk fragments had both been scavenged by Barrett from the ruins. Amid the dust and sand covering everything, Barrett's eyes were incredibly sharp—he immediately spotted these two grimy silk cloths and stowed them in his spatial ring.
Once, when EeDechi had beaten the crap out of Sebas, she got a piece of the Imperial Map Fragment from his accompanying maid, Solution.
Legend had it that the power and wealth behind the Eight Greed Kings' rule over the world were hidden in this Imperial Map Fragment. Gather all the remnants, and the path to the treasure would reveal itself—the one who controlled them could inherit everything from the Eight Greed Kings.
"Such good stuff—hurry and put them away." EeDechi looked at the exquisite silk cloths and couldn't help feeling a bit thrilled herself.
Outside the cabin, several shouts of alarm rang out: "Sandstorm's coming! Sandstorm! Captain, turn the ship around quick!"
EeDechi felt a little puzzled. It was just a sandstorm—what was the big deal? They'd run into countless ones, big and small, all along the way.
EeDechi stepped outside and took a look, only to see the sky a murky yellow. It was clearly noon, yet the sun couldn't shine through a single ray. Right at the horizon where the desert met the sky, a massive sandstorm was rolling in. The sky-blanketing sand and dust showcased nature's boundless power to the merchants swaying in the wind.
This sandstorm was huge, almost bigger than all the ones they'd run into on the journey combined. The dark yellow storm stretched on endlessly, like a constantly tumbling wall of yellow sand, pressing right toward the three-masted warship.
"Turn the ship around! The sandstorm's heading north—hard to starboard!" Steve was in the captain's quarters, desperately spinning the wheel, while several crew members climbed the masts, cut the ropes, and lowered the sails.
The Emerald Sandboat laboriously rotated its massive hull in the sea of sand, with overwhelming wind and grit slamming against the deck and windows. The three-masted warship was like a tattered green leaf trembling in the wind.
The Emerald Sandboat finally turned course, sailing away from the sandstorm's path. The crew all breathed a sigh of relief, but in an instant, everyone's faces changed—that storm surging north had actually veered, rolling straight toward the Emerald Sandboat's position.
"Could this be a Sandstorm Stalker?" Steve's face went pale.
ROAR— A desolate, grating howl echoed from the sandstorm. Two plumes of dust rose up from the storm, like enormous bat wings.
"This isn't a Sandstorm Stalker—this is something way more terrifying than a Sandstorm Stalker. It's a Dragon Endbringer!" The first mate Bill Hades' legs were shaking, and he could barely hold onto the knife in his hand.
"That's the ancient Dragon Lord that rules over death—its soul stripped away by the Eight Greed Kings and refined into an ancient spirit puppet using top-tier necromancy to guard the Eight Greed Kings' cities!"
His words came true like a prophecy: a massive ancient dragon made entirely of yellow sand burst out from the fog-like sandstorm, charging straight at the three-masted warship.
"I'm going to take it on! You all protect the ship." EeDechi stood on the deck railing, giant sword in hand, and leaped with all her might, shattering the metal railing under her feet. Like a shooting star, EeDechi hurtled toward the yellow sand giant dragon.
"I don't give a damn what kind of dragon god Dragon Endbringer you are! Come at me!" EeDechi landed solidly, raised her giant sword, and swung it high—a massive blast of air sliced into the yellow sand giant dragon, shattering the dense sand mist.
The giant dragon beat its wings and dove down, its two huge jaws snapping viciously at EeDechi, the sand-formed fangs interlocking in a deadly mesh.
"Die!" EeDechi bellowed, swinging her giant sword and slicing the dragon's entire maw wide open.
The storm-like giant dragon howled and thrashed its body, sand pouring from the wound like blood. But EeDechi's face was unusually grim—she'd made a huge mistake!
She shouldn't have yelled!
In this sand-choked battlefield, opening her mouth for a shout had instantly filled it with grit. Sure, EeDechi's jaw strength could crunch rocks to bits, and her tough stomach could handle digesting a few grains no problem, but the taste of that dirt was downright awful.
"Ptooey ptooey ptooey!" EeDechi spat out several mouthfuls of sand-laced saliva, her temper flaring. She immediately hoisted her giant sword high and brought it down in a furious chop right at the dragon's head, severing the neck, hacking off both sharp front claws, and splitting the whole body in two—it crumbled into fine sand and hit the ground.
"This Dragon Endbringer was way too easy to beat—for an ancient Dragon Lord's soul, it was a total pushover." EeDechi kept spitting out the sand in her mouth, her head covered in dust, leaning on her sword in the sand, planning to head back to the ship later for a bath.
Suddenly, EeDechi felt a chill. This chill came from behind, like cold air spreading across the ground. In this scorching endless desert, why would she feel cold?
EeDechi turned her head and saw the Emerald Sandboat warship far behind her, her pupils widening involuntarily.
An ultimate aura of death was taking root and sprouting on the ship, a deadly silence of spiritual energy shooting skyward, the entire vessel shrouded in despairing gloom. The reason she felt cold wasn't due to changes in weather or temperature, but that icy grip of death, chilling her to the core.
"Fell for it." EeDechi muttered to herself. This yellow sand giant dragon she'd just slain wasn't the Dragon Endbringer at all—just a decoy to lure her away.
The enemies lurking in the Eight Greed Kings' desert knew the ship had EeDechi, the peak of combat power, so they specifically set this up to entice her away and then wipe out everyone on the ship!
EeDechi's heart went cold, and she immediately bolted toward the warship now stalled in the desert. Without warning, not a single one of the ship's thirty-two fire magic cannons had boomed, and no one had sent up signal flares.
In two leaps, she boarded the warship, stepping onto a deck permeated with decaying aura. Everywhere she looked, there were the corpses of the crew. The bodies were intact, as if they were just sleeping, their faces peaceful and serene. These people had all been stripped of life in an instant.
"Barrett! Franco! Cheeko!" EeDechi's heart panicked, kicking open cabin doors one after another, searching for traces of her companions.
On the deck, bloodstains crisscrossed everywhere. EeDechi followed the blood trails and saw over a dozen black chains with iron hooks, snagged onto the crew's corpses, dragging them off the ship.
EeDechi swung her sword to sever the chains, suddenly feeling the chill intensify, as if an iceberg was blocking her path. She looked up and saw a blurry, murky shadow standing at the stern, the ultimate aura of death bursting forth from it.
"DRAGON ENDBRINGER! GO TO HELL!" EeDechi gritted her teeth in hatred, her body like black lightning, raising her sword and slashing straight at that shadow.
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Roaring Heroes Battle the Overlord (Ainz) - Part 1 (Chapters 1 to 200)
Fanfiction[Note: Dear readers, according to Wattpad's rules, a single story can have a maximum of 200 chapters. Therefore, I've started a new story. Please continue reading in the new one. The new story has the same title as this one.] It borrows the world an...
