Karen had indeed been startled. After all, the person represented by this skeleton had exerted tremendous pressure on him.
Yet that habitual "Meow" shattered the tension at once, like a brick hurled onto a newly frozen lake, cracking the ice wide open with a sharp snap.
A faint smile curled at the corner of Karen's lips; he wasn't in the least bit angry at Purr's prank.
It was all too easy for people to grow numb and exhausted in the daily grind of work and home life, feeling that their existence was neither a heavy black nor a dazzling white, but a suffocating gray.
Times like those were precisely when one needed to consciously seek out a splash of color, and Purr was Karen's color.
If he returned home to find no Purr in the bedroom, it would hardly be different from not coming home at all—he spent most of his working hours sleeping in the office anyway.
Seeing Karen smile and realizing she was caught, Purr wasn't the least bit disheartened. While she did sometimes append a habitual "Meow" when speaking, if she had truly wanted to disguise herself, how could a seasoned, veteran explorer like her ever fail to control it?
Adding that "Meow" on purpose was merely her way of startling her little Karen while ensuring she didn't genuinely terrify him.
"Ah! How dare you show disrespect to This Venerable One!"
The skeleton spread its hands. Two balls of flame surged from its palms, transforming into a pair of fire serpents that spiraled gracefully around its body—a rather aesthetic sight.
When it came to "looking good," Purr was far more obsessive than Karen. Karen rarely bothered conjuring flashy spells just to strike a pose.
Right after, a crimson hexagram pattern flared beneath the skeleton's feet. In the next moment, the pattern duplicated and shifted, appearing in five other spots across the living room.
Immediately, another five skeletons emerged atop the patterns. Counting the original, there were six in total; from their aura and visual appearance, one truly couldn't tell real from fake.
All six skeletons began chanting in unison. Dense fire-elemental power resonated, and centered around Karen, the surrounding air seemed on the verge of boiling. Everywhere the eye could see, vibrant fire energy surged.
The head of a fire dragon materialized, hovering above Karen. Just as it prepared to unleash a deafening roar down at him, an immense pressure came crashing down!
Karen's expression grew slightly solemn. To put it into perspective: if the original fluctuation of spiritual power had a base value of 1, this transformation boosted it directly to 3 or even 4.
Such was Purr's ability.
Within a family system, Progenitor Allen was considered quite decent for a founder, but within the hierarchy of gods worshiped by the churches, he was completely off the charts in insignificance—a fact made clearly evident within Karen's own consciousness space.
Purr had once lamented why she had ever chosen the path of the family faith system in the first place. The road that ordinary clan members spent their entire lives pursuing toward their progenitor, she had traversed almost to the pinnacle of the fire attribute at an early age. The only reason she had never delved into Progenitor Allen's tenth-rank fusion of water and fire was likely that she simply found little point in it.
Yet here lay the brilliance of genius: when the ceiling of her primary path proved limiting, she branched out sideways, overtaking others from auxiliary routes.
However, this spell wasn't fully executed—not because Purr feared losing control and burning down the hotel, but because she was exhausted.
In an instant, all the hexagram patterns and duplicates vanished, leaving behind only the single original body.
The Order robes draped over the skeleton were flipped open from within, and Purr hopped down from beneath the skull. Upon landing, her four paws were visibly unsteady, and even her tail drooped limp.
Karen walked over, scooped her up, and rubbed her furry cat belly.
"This skeleton puppet is seriously amazing, meow!"
"Woof!"
Kevin, chiming in his agreement, clambered out from inside the skeleton as well. Earlier, he had been in the lower section while Purr took the top; the cat and dog had been jointly piloting this skeletal puppet avatar.
Karen asked, "It seems to work really well?"
"Yes, absolutely! A top-tier toy, a puppet master's masterpiece! It even incorporates lots of lost techniques, maximizing the puppet's amplification effects.
"It's just that I'm too weak right now. Otherwise, I really could have put on a little show just now to let you glimpse a sliver of my past glory."
"Is there a way to fix that?" Karen inquired.
"Well, yes. We could add some high-grade fire-attribute magic stones inside the skeleton, and tweak a few details of the formation arrays to gear it more toward conducting and releasing fire-elemental power.
"Once it's modified, I think I could use it to fight. But staying power is an issue—I can't go into battle carrying a sack of magic stones on my back, can I?"
"You seem to have forgotten the refrigerator at home."
"Oh! Right! Put the magic stones in the refrigerator, and during a fight, just crush a bead to teleport the stones we need, then stuff them inside the body. That way, we can fight continuously! Hehe, meow."
Although the refrigerator's range only covered the Yorktown Region, that was more than enough for Purr and Kevin. After all, their original range of activity had been confined to the house... and even then, their home had once been raided.
With this, Purr could go out for some fresh air when she wasn't guarding the house.
For example, she could pilot the skeleton, drive a car, and head back to Allen Manor to visit relatives.
Karen asked, puzzled, "If there was a method like this, why didn't you mention it before? Was it too expensive?"
He recalled that back then, at Purr and Kevin's urging, Karen had gone to the pottery workshop to ask Mr. Lemar to craft a puppet for each of them. They had been able to pilot two puppets—one male, one female—to go outdoors. The drawback was that the puppets couldn't leave the range of their true bodies, so they could only walk themselves.
Later on, though, they seemed to find those puppets boring, leaving them in the coffin at home to gather dust.
"Mmh, it's not a question of cost. Even if you have point coupons now, you simply couldn't build something like this," Purr explained to Karen. "Of course, it might also be because you joined the Church of Order right off the bat, and the church's immense heritage gave you that illusion."
"Illusion?"
"Yes. Point coupons are worth a lot, but they're still just coupons. Their value is backed by the credit of the issuing church, but not every problem in this world can be solved with money.
"Like I said, this puppet's craftsmanship incorporates lost techniques that are practically impossible to recreate. For instance, a tiny section required the technique and heritage of a certain church, but that church has already gone extinct—where are you going to find it again to replace it?
"Even if written manuals were left behind, spelling everything out in complete detail...
"It's just like the formation notes Mr. Hoffen left you. You understand them, and the Radio Sprite understands them. You can both learn so fast because you're naturally gifted with immense talent in this area. In your eyes, Mr. Hoffen's formation notes are priceless treasures.
"Try it, though: copy Mr. Hoffen's notes thousands of times and hand a set to every Order priest in the Yorktown Region, from servants to Bishops, telling them to study solely from the text. Do you think that in a few years, a vast legion of brilliant formation masters will spring up in Yorktown?
"It's impossible.
"If you took civil engineering textbooks from a university and handed them out to random people on the street, would they immediately become great architects after reading them?
"If you gave medical textbooks to an ordinary person, could he immediately start consulting patients or performing surgery?
"Mmh, maybe it's just because you're still so young, Karen, so you subconsciously assume technological progress is an inevitability that constantly piles higher and higher over time.
"In truth, that isn't the case. Technological gaps and regression are actually quite common.
"Take the dragon race of the Church of the Crypt, for example. Have they been constantly evolving? No, they've actually been regressing the whole time.
"Besides, back in my era, the Church of the Moon God launched a massive expedition to explore the Moon Space. In their mythological accounts, the Goddess of the Moon seemingly foretold events of the next era, leaving behind her legacy for her believers in a special realm known as the 'Moon Space.'
"Back then, the Church of the Moon God made several consecutive explorations into new spaces. Although they didn't find the Moon Space, they opened up quite a few special realms and successfully dispatched teams back and forth many times without incident.
"However, partly due to the exorbitant costs and the lack of anything valuable discovered in those realms, the expedition was eventually halted. The original team handling the project disbanded, and several small moon-affiliated churches that had assisted them were annexed by the Church of the Moon God.
"A few months ago, when war broke out between the Moon God and Samsara, the Church of the Moon God planned to restart the program, believing this was the moment the goddess's prophecy would be fulfilled. Yet despite numerous attempts at preparation, they failed repeatedly. Forget about exploring new realms—they couldn't even send people to the realms they had successfully visited in the past!
"The coordinates, formation diagrams, altars, and documentation were surely preserved in pristine condition, but the brilliant talents and teams from back then were gone, as were many of the supporting links in the chain.
"To start anew, they would have to cultivate a new team from scratch, restore every single step, and reverse-engineer everything from what their predecessors left behind...
"And having been severely weakened by the war, the Church of the Moon God clearly lacks the resources and capacity to start all over from the ground up.
"Another example is the First Knight Order of Order. During the 'First Day War' between Order and Samsara, several ancient commanders were revived to plan and direct the battle arrangements.
"Doesn't it sound bizarre to awaken people who died long ago to plan modern warfare?
"The problem is, the scale and mode of war those deceased commanders once directed was far more complex than today's; the war machines they commanded were far more advanced and varied; and... the enemies they faced back then were far stronger than those of today.
"Moreover, the First Knight Order doesn't only consist of combatants. If Ashley's parents eventually become top authorities at the Monster Beast Breeding Research Center, they'll also be eligible to enter the First Knight Order after death.
"Nowadays, when technical bottlenecks prove impossible to solve or reverse-engineer, the Church of Order will awaken technical specialists—or even small technical teams—from the First Knight Order to tackle the problem and provide guidance.
"And one major reason for this widespread regression among the various churches is... the gods are gone."
Hearing this, Karen understood. "The gods possessed the pinnacle of technology."
"Yes. The existence of many techniques—everything you can imagine—largely originated from the gods, or was tailor-made for them. Once the gods were gone, widespread technological regression became inevitable.
"Conversely, though, the reason gods needed their churches was that much of what they wished to accomplish required a massive church to realize.
"The Gate of Samsara wasn't something the God of Samsara forged piece by piece with a hammer all by himself."
"Woof, woof, woof!" Kevin chimed in.
"The stupid dog is right. One unignorable reason the Church of Order is currently the foremost church in religious circles is that while everyone is racing to the bottom, the Church of Order possesses a much larger 'reserve of slumbering talent.'"
"I see," Karen said, nodding. "No wonder when I read *Light of Order*, the sections regarding the church and warfare always felt disconnected from reality. I originally assumed it was mere hyperbole, but in truth, it's because we've regressed."
"Exactly."
"You two can take this skeleton and modify it. She committed suicide, so it's remarkably well preserved."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes. There's no need to hand it in, but mind its appearance."
"Mmh, that's easy—just slip a skin over it."
"Oh, right. As for the materials and labor required for the modification, you can ask Neo to arrange them. Now is the time to fleece the Church of the Crypt. Have Kevin talk to Neo."
"Naturally! That thrill-seeker has plenty of respect for our stupid dog, meow."
"Woof!"
Kevin lifted his canine head with pride.
Just then, Ashley entered the room, carrying the crow in her hands.
"Minister, I brought it back."
Karen took it, opened it, and frowned slightly.
"What is it, meow?"
"The bone dragon escaped."
"Ugh, that's a huge loss, meow! Can it be caught?"
"Muri is currently in pursuit." Karen turned to Ashley and instructed, "Go inform Alfred and the others. I'll pursue the bone dragon personally; tell them to keep focusing on their own tasks."
"But Minister, you're going alone? I mean, you still seem injured, and Blanche will be right back to treat you..."
"It's fine. I'm just a bit fatigued."
Purr said excitedly, "Remember, tell the Radio Sprite not to assign anyone else! The bone dragon escaping might actually be a blessing in disguise. If it were brought back to the special investigation team office, it would be a real hassle for our Karen to claim it for himself. After all, Miss Dena's objective was that dragon too, and she was injured this time—they might well give the bone dragon to her as a consolation gift!
"If Karen captures it himself in the wild, it can be like this skeleton—no need to report it..."
Purr trailed off as she realized something she had overlooked.
"Oh, wait! We can't just capture it secretly! It has to go through the Church of Order's official procedures... Otherwise, even if we bring it home, our family couldn't afford to raise a dragon!"
Indeed. Without an officially recognized partnership recognized by the Church of Order, even if they brought the bone dragon back, they wouldn't have the resources to nurture it properly. Raising a runt or deformed creature would be a complete waste and utterly meaningless.
Karen said, "There is a way. We can establish a fait accompli first—for instance, forcibly binding the bone dragon into some connection with me. Furthermore, Miss Dena is still unconscious, and for this Selection Assembly, I hold the highest official rank here. The higher-ups will likely grant the bone dragon to me if only to save face."
Purr clenched her cat paws at once. "Right on, meow! Ferment the soybeans into paste first!"
Karen left the room and took the serpent elevator down. As he crossed the hotel lobby, he saw Lady Augie sitting there.
Lady Augie leaned against a bench, staring blankly at the small fountain ahead, looking somewhat dejected.
This time, Lady Augie spotted Karen as well. Looking slightly surprised, she stood up and answered before he could even ask: "I was just planning to head back to my room to rest. I wasn't waiting here for you."
"Did you find your mother?"
"I did."
"Did you talk?"
"We did."
"Any regrets?"
"There wasn't much hope to begin with, so there are no regrets to speak of."
Their thoroughly insincere exchange concluded, Karen waved a hand at Lady Augie. "I happen to be heading out."
Lady Augie repeated, "I wasn't waiting here for you."
"I was looking for you anyway. So, give me a ride."
"Are you really that stingy with carriage fare?"
"I simply prioritize efficiency. All right, cut the chatter. This is an official Whip of Order operation. As a dragon belonging to the Whip of Order, it is your duty to assist."
Feeling helpless, Lady Augie followed Karen out of the lobby into the open air.
Karen reached out with practiced familiarity and grabbed Lady Augie's left arm, saying, "I'll point the way; you do the flying."
"Hunting someone down?"
"Hunting a dragon. The bone dragon escaped, and I'm going to capture it."
Hearing this, Lady Augie immediately took two steps back, pulling her arm from Karen's grasp.
"She deserves freedom."
Evidently, Lady Augie was projecting her own plight onto the creature.
"If you hadn't grown into a complete adult form, your brain development wouldn't even comprehend the concept of 'freedom' right now."
"I can help you with other matters, but this..."
"It seems talking to your mother was quite effective—you've grown so sentimental. Let me make this clear: if that bone dragon isn't recaptured, I will flip a coin to decide whether it's you or your mother who becomes part of the dragons to be culled."
"The higher-ups..."
"Yes, exactly. Directives from above. Of course, you're free to believe I'm lying. But as I said, at least here and during this period, your proud head should bow before me.
"We can keep wasting time chatting here. Once that bone dragon completely evades capture, I'll pin the frustration squarely on your head."
"I'd love nothing more than to bite you to death—I can hardly wait to hear the crisp crunch of your body between my teeth."
Karen asked, "And then?"
Lady Augie lifted her arm.
"Come on, then. Point the way."
...
Tracking was grueling work. Muri felt that if he were with his original teammates from the "Karen" squad, it wouldn't have been this difficult, and the capture would have gone much smoother.
The problem was that the people assigned under him were a makeshift group with little tacit coordination, not to mention that many among them were clerical investigators.
Consequently, Muri didn't wait around for them. He let them fall behind one by one during the pursuit while he played the lone wolf, continuing the hunt on his own while taking care to leave squad markers along the trail.
The bone dragon was remarkably fast, but Muri gritted his teeth and doggedly tailed her.
It was precisely Muri's tenacity that thoroughly enraged the white-haired girl.
She knew all too well that unless she shook off the man behind her, danger would perpetually loom over her.
By now, both parties had left the main city area; rocky earth stretched out on all sides.
The white-haired girl launched another attack at Muri. Unlike their initial clash, where she had merely scratched with her claws, this time she consciously utilized the bones extending from her body to whip and strike.
Crisis and combat were the rawest catalysts for unlocking potential, which testified to just how terrifyingly talented this bone dragon was despite having only just hatched.
Yet Muri was the most composed of all Karen's subordinates; otherwise, Karen wouldn't have appointed him vice-captain back when he served as captain.
At this juncture, Muri adopted a purely defensive posture. The barrier generated by his round shield was shattered time and again, only to reform each time.
He simply took the beating—shifting stances constantly to absorb the blows, forgoing all offense, striving only to leave no openings.
Dragon roars erupted from the white-haired girl's mouth again and again, while the phantom image of a lion flickered over Muri from time to time.
Confronted by this practically impenetrable turtle shell, the white-haired girl grew utterly frantic. Having dug too many tunnels earlier, she could already sense her strength waning; exhaustion was catching up to her.
Muri sensed the decline in her offensive, yet he still refrained from attacking. He had resolved that if she stopped to fight, he would defend; if she stopped fighting and tried to flee, he would pursue.
He had faith that reinforcements would arrive. For now, he just needed to do his job.
"Roar!"
However, when her emotions reached their boiling point, the white-haired girl's hair flared wild. Her body finally broke past its final restraint, and accompanied by the billowing spread of dense undead aura, she shifted into true dragon form.
Compared to the fully grown Lady Augie, her stature was rather diminutive—only a dozen or so meters in body length at present—yet reinforced by her true form, her boost in physical power was terrifying.
A dragon claw slammed down. Muri let out a muffled grunt, stumbling back rapidly as blood seeped from the corner of his lips. Worse still were his arms, which were growing numb and losing sensation.
There was good reason Karen subconsciously pictured Lady Augie in her giant dragon form whenever he saw her: for the dragon race, their true form and human form were two entirely different concepts.
Muri lacked a clear understanding of this. Deprived of key information, he found it somewhat baffling how, with the level of security and flimsy cages at the breeding ground earlier, this bone dragon had stayed there all along without escaping.
The bone dragon's tail swept across, tearing through the air with a deafening string of sonic cracks.
Muri growled softly, using his shoulders to force his numb arms into position. Leaning his weight forward, he condensed a fresh barrier to take the tail strike head-on once more.
*Smack!*
He blocked it again, but blood began trickling from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
Hovering in midair, the bone dragon's eyes flashed with a glimmer of predatory triumph. She could sense that the "bug" before her was teetering on the brink of death.
In the next moment, her foreclaw lunged down viciously, aiming to crush Muri into paste.
*Squelch!*
Before the claw landed, Muri drove his short blade straight into his own abdomen. Blood instantly drenched the blade. As the dragon claw descended, Muri wrenched the blade from his flesh and slashed upward.
A crimson blade-shadow flashed, cleaving directly across the bone dragon's belly!
*Boom!*
A violent detonation rang out. The bone dragon remained hovering in midair, but a red fissure had split open across her abdomen.
Down below, Muri stood his ground, ignoring his wounds. He shook his arms and pressed the blade against his chest, clearly preparing to execute the self-wounding draw technique once more.
The bone dragon hesitated. She feared pain and hated injury, yet her instincts warned her that if she gave up on killing him and fled, this seemingly feeble human would only keep dogging her steps.
She was fundamentally immature—by human reckoning, she was no older than a few-month-old infant.
A grim smile appeared on Muri's face. He opened his mouth and roared, "Ahhh!"
It was a messy, chaotic fight, rife with brute savagery and unreason from the start. Of course, when facing a dragon, expecting a structured duel was unrealistic anyway.
Yet Muri knew that if Philomena were in his shoes, she would have handled this situation far more easily.
His strength lay in versatility, while his weakness was relative mediocrity.
If Philomena were here, she could have utterly suppressed the bone dragon with her footwork, relentlessly harassing the beast whether it chose to fight or flee. He couldn't do that.
And if the Minister himself arrived, it would be even simpler. With the Minister's power, he could summon dozens of Chains of Order and bind this bone dragon fast.
None of which Muri could accomplish.
"Roar!"
Making up her mind, the bone dragon attacked Muri once more, whipping her tail across in another sweep.
Muri didn't hesitate to plunge the short blade into his chest. But before he could draw it out, a voice came from behind him:
"Leave it in. Pulling it out will only worsen the wound."
Muri answered immediately, "Yes, sir."
Karen materialized in front of Muri. Raising a hand, he intoned in a low voice:
"Order — Rampart Guardian."
A colossal barrier descended as if from the heavens, instantly erecting itself before Karen.
The bone dragon's tail struck the barrier. Black smoke rapidly evaporated around its edges—spiritual power bleeding off under the impact—yet Karen replenished it in a fraction of a second, leaving the barrier completely motionless.
In other words, the bone dragon's tail lash was no different than a human kicking a steel plate with all their might.
*Crack... crack...*
A succession of bone-fracturing sounds rang out. Her body spun several times in midair, whimpering and shrilling in agony.
When she finally steadied herself, the very tip of her tail was visibly snapped at a sharp angle.
Had Alfred been standing here, he likely would have lightened the mood with a knowing smile at his young master, quipping, *It really looks like a lovely brush hook.*
"Minister, it was my negligence."
"It wasn't your fault. Still, you had no need to resort to self-mutilation to handle her. I do want the bone dragon, but throwing away your life for it isn't worth the price. That's the honest truth—I'm still counting on you to take command and train that batch of Dark Moon warriors once they arrive."
"Yes, Minister."
Having suffered a severe blow at Karen's hands, the bone dragon clearly dared not attack again, turning to flee instead.
Karen wasn't about to indulge her. With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the rampart barrier. The wings of Qianmei behind him unfurled and beat, carrying him skyward. Once positioned above the bone dragon, Karen pointed downward:
"Order — Death Lockdown."
From the ground directly below the bone dragon, massive, towering black cones surged upward. The bone dragon in midair looked like a caterpillar landing on a steel-wire scourer.
Her body was instantly pierced and squeezed. No matter how desperately she struggled, crushing several black cones only caused even more to sprout, further constricting her space.
In the end, the harder she fought, the more immobilized she became, until she was wedged tight, unable to move a muscle.
Karen watched the scene below with utter calm. Such large-scale, high-intensity formations imposed immense strain and depletion on the caster, but to Karen, it was mere drizzle.
During his earlier clash with the skeleton, only a few pieces of furniture in Old Ville's restaurant had been damaged, leaving the restaurant mostly intact. That hadn't been out of some tacit desire to preserve the seeds of Wien cuisine, but simply because against an opponent of the same caliber, massive spells like this were useless—the other party could easily evade or exploit openings in your casting.
If that fight had been akin to a fencing match, cautiously probing for an opportunity, then against this massive, inexperienced bone dragon, the best approach was grabbing a door plank and bashing her with brute force.
Evidently, it worked like a charm.
Karen spread his hand, and the Sword of Diamans flew into his grip. Then, he drifted down slowly.
It was undeniable that Karen had absorbed the Church of Order's attitude of treating dragons like livestock.
In his eyes, the dragon race held no sacred aura whatsoever.
Moreover, Muri's injuries had ignited genuine anger in Karen. Had he not arrived in time, Muri would either have died or been permanently crippled.
Therefore, he intended to demand the bone dragon's submission through slightly brutal yet direct means.
Ask a question: *Are you willing to submit to me?*
A negative answer or silence, and he would smash one of her bones with the greatsword.
Then ask again, smash again, and see how long she could endure.
Still, despite settling on this method, Karen deliberately slowed his descent, drifting down at an easy pace. He had another way to achieve his goal that was far more cost-effective and left more room to manage their relationship down the road—though that depended on whether a certain party was willing to cooperate.
While the bone dragon had no idea what was in store for her, the other dragon nearby—who had brought Karen here but had had no intention of lifting a finger to help him—had already caught on.
Lady Augie knew full well just how much cold indifference and... savagery lay hidden in the heart of this young man, who otherwise carried himself with gentlemanly poise, impeccable manners, and striking good looks.
For example, fully aware of Miss Dena's identity, he had still dared to swing his greatsword and swat her away like a golf ball over and over again.
Thus, as the surrounding temperature plummeted and snowflakes began to drift down, Lady Augie revealed her colossal Frost Giant Dragon form. Circling above, she lowered her head and looked down.
Compared to her sheer bulk, the bone dragon below looked like nothing more than an earthworm.
At that moment, the bone dragon looked up as well, staring at Lady Augie in dazed awe.
A faint smile curled at the corners of Karen's lips.
At this moment, Lady Augie made a decision that went against her own heart and defied the proud will of the dragon race's ancestors.
She spoke:
"Do you want to grow up just like me?"
Chapter 629