The three dragons continued tearing apart the wind arrow until it completely disintegrated.

Richard’s eyes had turned slightly red by this point.

In truth, this wasn’t easy for him either. Splitting the dragon into three while maintaining the same level of power in each one required tremendous effort.

Without doing that, destroying the wind arrow wouldn’t have been easy either.

ROAR!

All three dragons roared simultaneously, flapping their wings before charging toward the Yumo.

A single strike was enough to shatter one Yumo.

However, Richard soon saw even more of the same Yumo emerging from the red abyss.

Their numbers exceeded five hundred.

The combined aura they emitted made him feel a serious sense of danger.

Shua! Shua!

Working together with astonishing coordination, they unleashed five giant wind arrows toward him.

The others sealed off every possible escape route with walls of wind capable of shredding anyone who attempted to pass through them.

At maximum speed, Richard’s eyes turned silver, followed by silver radiance erupting from his body.

Whoosh!

An enormous majestic figure appeared behind him.

It wielded a silver spear and wore a wide cloak with a hood that concealed its head.

Its entire body seemed forged from silver, resembling a living silver statue.

Long wings extended from its back, and every flap tore through space itself.

Each second, they flapped a hundred thousand times.

Most astonishing of all was its aura.

It felt as though it had descended directly from the heavens.

Within the dark World of Death, the sky instantly brightened because of its appearance.

Clang! Clang!

The figure struck every incoming wind arrow.

Each swing of its spear sent the arrows flying away.

This was the most incredible power Richard had ever witnessed.

Yet he quickly realized how terrifyingly fast it consumed his Aether.

At this rate, he would be drained dry in a short time.

If he wanted to wield this power comfortably, he would have to become that being himself.

Even so, during the brief time it remained active, every Yumo it struck was instantly destroyed, split in half before turning into ashes.

Most astonishingly, it breathed white flames that appeared holy and pure, yet annihilated everything they touched.

Richard quickly realized he couldn’t maintain this for long.

He entered Void Mode and shot toward a seemingly safe forest, landing there before reappearing and releasing several deep breaths.

If he wanted to, he could continue fighting.

He could restore himself with Heavenly Water Energy and even become stronger.

However, that battle wasn’t providing the benefits he sought.

Even now, he could feel his body breaking through limit after limit.

He didn’t know how far those breakthroughs had progressed, but they were undoubtedly significant.

"Hm..."

He suddenly noticed someone approaching the battlefield.

His expression turned strange when he realized it was a group from the Skylight Clan led by Olivia, with her pink hair and silver armor.

They apparently hadn’t been far away and had come after sensing the aura of the Celestial Being.

Unfortunately for them, they didn’t get much time to observe.

Hundreds of Yumo emerged from the red abyss once again.

This time, however, their strength seemed to have returned to the earlier level.

The members of the Skylight Clan were far from weak.

They suppressed the Yumo with ease.

Richard wasn’t interested in meeting Olivia.

He remained hidden while recovering his stamina.

Until he returned to peak condition, exploring further was unwise.

In fact, it was probably best not to explore at all.

He didn’t want to encounter trouble that would prevent him from leaving the World of Death. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The time limit was only twelve hours.

A slight delay would leave him trapped here until the next opening of the World of Death—assuming he survived that long.

After an unknown amount of time, Richard recovered, and the Skylight Clan members eventually left as well.

Apparently, they didn’t enjoy training near the red abyss.

Richard intended to return to Carla.

However, the moment he tried to take a step, his legs refused to move.

He felt nothing unusual.

Yet he genuinely couldn’t move.

Looking down, he discovered that both of his legs were being held by two pitch-black skeletal hands.

How had he not felt that?

Naturally, this wasn’t something capable of frightening him.

Instead, it infuriated him.

His light sword slashed fiercely at the skeletal hands.

Clang!

Rather than cutting through them, the sword rebounded.

Richard couldn’t help but stare in shock.

Then panic began to creep in.

Unfortunately, he could only move his arms and upper body.

His legs remained completely immobilized.

"Who are you? Come out if you dare!" Richard shouted angrily.

"Hehehe..."

A hoarse laugh echoed from below.

Richard watched as a skull emerged from the ground, red lights glowing within its eye sockets.

"Damn it!"

Richard struck with his dragon fist without holding back.

Yet not only did he fail to destroy it, he couldn’t even push it away.

"Hehehehe!"

The skeleton continued laughing.

Its hands moved upward along Richard’s body.

Richard’s eyes widened.

The skeleton suddenly wrapped both its arms and legs around him.

If it had been a female skeleton, perhaps he could have accepted it.

But this was clearly a male skeleton.

"Get off me, damn it!"

Richard unleashed a shockwave to blast it away.

The entire forest was swept clean by the force of the wave.

Everything except the skeleton.

It remained attached to him.

"Hehehe!"

The skeleton kept laughing.

Richard was practically gasping with anger.

"Take... take me..." a rougher voice emerged from the skeleton’s mouth.

It sounded as though speaking itself was difficult for it.

"Do you even have a brain?" Richard asked.

"No... Take... take me..."

Richard: "..."

At this point, he realized he was dealing with a creature possessing extremely limited intelligence.

But what kind of creature was this?

He couldn’t even push away its skull.

There was no way he could treat it as something ordinary.

"Let me go first," he said again.

"No."

The skeleton answered instantly.

Richard scratched his head.

He couldn’t believe nobody had ever encountered this skeleton before, considering the World of Death had been opened regularly for countless years.

Given the skeleton’s strength and the fact that it was still "alive" in this condition, it had likely existed since some unimaginably ancient era.

The real question was:

Why had it chosen him?

Was there something within Richard’s body that had attracted its interest?