His father-in-law had just dropped out of contact, and then an entire army of Githyanki showed up. Wasn't it painfully obvious that something had happened to the old dragon?
Though Gareth and Anbaixiu had been scavenging with great delight, deep down Gareth still cared about his father-in-law's safety. Love me, love my dog—or in this case, love my wife, care for her father.
Canggu had panicked even more, her thoughts entirely consumed by her father.
Without hesitation, Gareth stepped to Canggu's side and said, "Don't worry. We'll take out these toads first, then interrogate them at our leisure about your father's whereabouts."
Gareth then turned to Anbaixiu. "Brother, I'm leaving the memory reading to you."
Anbaixiu replied naturally, "Rest easy. It's a small matter."
As long as he could obtain complete Githyanki souls, Anbaixiu could peel apart their memories piece by piece whenever he wished.
Gareth nodded, then prepared to depart with Canggu.
Yet just as Anbaixiu watched Gareth mount the bone dragon and surge into the sky, an ominous premonition welled up within him.
"Not good! Come back!"
Anbaixiu tried calling out at the top of his lungs, but unfortunately, with her father's fate unknown, the young miss of the bone dragons was consumed with anxiety. With a single beat of her wings, she had already rocketed into the upper sky.
Aige asked in surprise, "What's wrong?"
"That reckless brute!" Anbaixiu said helplessly. "I have a feeling they're about to walk into trouble."
"This..." Aige was about to say that Gareth could hardly be at a disadvantage, but then she remembered Anbaixiu's identity. Could the intuition of a legendary divination wizard ever be wrong?
"Is it too late to help now?" Aige asked. "Should we ask the President for assistance?!"
Anbaixiu was taken aback. Could Aige actually summon that mysterious President? Or was she thinking of launching another Elegy Poetry Society expedition?
However, Anbaixiu soon shook his head. "No need to go through all that trouble. It shouldn't be anything catastrophic, just a bit of suffering for them to endure. Come on, we need to hurry too. What comes next is our home turf."
Aige asked curiously, "Where are we going?"
"To the true nerve center of this Dragon Tomb. We need to seize control of this place to deal with those Githyanki. You can't expect me, a mage, to fly up there and face them head-on, can you?"
Aige was even more surprised. "You can control this Dragon Tomb?"
"If the master of the house were here, it would be impossible. But now the owner isn't home and he let me inside, so how could that stop a professional thief like me? You might not believe it, but back when I was an adventurer, I was better at picking locks and disarming traps than actual rogues—especially magical traps."
Anbaixiu strode toward a certain direction in the Dragon Tomb. The invisible Dice of Fate spun continuously to clear a path before him. To an onlooker, a smooth, unhindered road seemed to unfurl directly beneath his feet, looking for all the world as though he had already taken control of the place.
Aige clicked her tongue in amazement and followed behind Anbaixiu alongside Melina.
While Anbaixiu advanced toward the core of the Dragon Tomb, Gareth had already ridden his wife out to face the Githyanki army.
This army was not particularly large, numbering perhaps two to three thousand at a glance, but they were clearly an elite force. They had somehow procured a horde of ixitxachitl, having tamed these massive deep-sea creatures into mounts. The Githyanki had transformed into ray riders, patrolling the waters outside Dragon Island.
In the sky hovered ten red dragons, each bearing several Githyanki dragon knights upon its back.
Gareth had originally intended to ask about his father-in-law's whereabouts first to confirm their intentions. Instead, they showed no regard for etiquette whatsoever; the moment Gareth appeared, a barrage of spells came hurtling toward him.
Gareth's fury flared. He had spared these toads last time, and now they dared to jump out and disgust him.
Reaching out, he patted Canggu's neck. The bone dragon understood his intent instantly and activated her concealment ability.
It was still the dead of night. Canggu and Gareth transformed into an imperceptible shadow, soaring toward the red dragons in the sky.
As long as he drew within forty meters, Gareth could unleash his black-flame greatsword and slice those red dragons in half. Neither dragon scales nor magical shields could withstand it.
Many years ago, virtually nothing in this mortal realm had been capable of taking a single slash from Gareth.
An undetectable shadow paired with an unstoppable strike—this was precisely how Gareth had once slaughtered his way through dozens of Astral red dragons, carving through them over and over until the Githyanki were scared out of their wits.
Yet what dumbfounded Gareth was that the moment they slipped into the shadows and began their charge, the red dragons scattered and fled in every direction.
This was no feint; they were fleeing at full throttle without the slightest hesitation. Even the Githyanki patrolling the sea commanded their ixitxachitl to submerge to the ocean floor. Who knew how long they could hold their breath, but once they went down, they showed no sign of coming back up.
Even more speechlessly, the red dragons flying in the sky were buffed with a whole suite of support spells, including Haste, Fly, and Feather Fall. When they took flight, their speed far surpassed Canggu's.
Though the bone dragon young miss could conceal her form, it did not boost her flight speed.
What was wrong with these Githyanki? Hadn't they come looking for trouble? Why did they turn tail and run?
Just as Gareth was puzzled, the dragon knights atop the red dragons began chanting loudly.
A prolonged incantation typically heralded an exceptionally powerful spell. Gareth was no wizard, nor was the bone dragon miss; they could only sense an enormous tide of magic brewing.
At that moment, Gareth made a catastrophic mistake: he gave chase toward the slowest-flying red dragon. Although most red dragons flew at roughly the same speed, individual differences inevitably existed, and this particular dragon possessed a slightly weaker constitution, flying just a hair slower.
It was that tiny margin that made Gareth think he might catch up. After all, the red dragons did not know where he was, so it might catch its breath mid-flight and allow itself to be overtaken. This was Gareth's instinctive reaction—targeting the weakest point was always the most efficient method in battle.
Yet just as Gareth accelerated in pursuit of that red dragon, barely flying a hundred meters forward, Miss Canggu said in confusion, "Gareth, there seems to be something in front of us. I just brushed against it."
Canggu's concealment merely shielded perceptions and hid her form; unlike her father, she could not phase directly into another plane to evade obstacles.
Consequently, if there was anything suspended in the air, Canggu would physically make contact with it.
A moment earlier, she had felt as though she brushed against something, but the sensation was so faint and fleeting that she could not identify it.
Hearing this, Gareth felt something was amiss and immediately told Canggu, "Something's wrong. Turn around!"
Canggu also sensed the danger and prepared to wheel around toward the sea. But she immediately felt something slam into her body—similar to the previous sensation, but with vastly greater force.
Not only Canggu, but even Gareth felt it.
"Spider silk?! A Web spell?"
Gareth froze. Sticky, invisible threads were now clinging all over him.
This distinct sensation was unmistakably a Web spell, yet why had not even the senses of the undead detected it?
The undead did not see with mortal eyes; they perceived everything through their souls. Even transparent objects would outline their shapes within an undead's senses.
Yet these webs had completely bypassed their undead senses through some unknown means.
What left Gareth even more speechless was that he could not even see who was casting Web, while a sticky, massive cluster of invisible webbing rapidly accumulated across his body.
At this moment, Gareth finally understood: the dragon knights flying in the air were continuously casting Web spells behind them.
They did not need to know where Gareth was; they simply waited for him to charge in on his own.
After the first contact with a web, the casters had roughly triangulated Canggu's position. What followed was countless Web spells converging on Gareth's location from every direction.
The accuracy was poor, but when the volume was sufficient, accuracy ceased to matter.
Gareth and Canggu were wrapped tight. Such an effect could not be negated by spell resistance, because the conjured webbing was physical matter, and its stickiness was not merely a magical effect.
Their concealment shattered. Bound into a giant cocoon by the webs, Canggu and Gareth could no longer fly and began plunging toward the sea.
Still, it was not an insurmountable problem. Gareth ignited with violet-black flames, burning the invisible webs to ashes. Given just a few seconds, he could break free.
Unfortunately, those few seconds were all it took for the battle to conclude.
Countless spells showered down on Gareth, their detonations causing his body to flash with chaotic light. Yet the Githyanki were exceedingly clever: they cast nothing that would help incinerate the webs, using only crowd-control magic such as Charm, Flesh to Stone, Banishment, and Slow.
The magical gear on Gareth's body activated one piece after another—items shielding against spells, granting saving throw exemptions, and so forth—until all of them were entirely depleted.
Then, a beam of purplish-red magical light struck Gareth, bypassing his magical armor and instantly transforming him into a pink phantom.
Banishment carried no damaging effect, but it could banish a target to another plane.
For the duration of the spell, the target ceased to exist in the current plane, unable to affect or be affected by either side.
The effect of Banishment was formidable, but it rarely succeeded on powerhouses like Gareth. The stronger an individual's presence, the greater their weight in the world, making it extraordinarily difficult to banish such a figure to another plane.
Yet sheer quantity proved insurmountable. After so many control spells were hurled, one was bound to stick.
The moment Gareth dissolved into an immobile phantom, a Githyanki astride a red dragon cheered at the top of his lungs, "It worked! Move!"
The red dragons that had scattered earlier swung back around, swooping straight toward Canggu.
From the very beginning, the Githyanki's target had never been Gareth. They knew full well how terrifying he was—he was not an enemy that could be slain in short order. From the outset, this was an asymmetric battle; even if the Githyanki fielded several times their numbers in a frontal clash, it would never be enough.
Thus, the Githyanki had fixed their sights on Canggu.
They had already gathered intelligence that Gareth's weakness was Canggu. As long as they controlled this bone dragon, Gareth would have no choice but to drop to his knees and await death.
So long as they swarmed forward, the young miss of the bone dragons, stripped of her concealment, would have no choice but to be captured.
Yet just as they were about to seize Canggu, a terrifyingly colossal figure emerged in the sky above the Island of Eternal Rest.
Chapter 377