The Iron Dragonwing Palace remained as grand and magnificent as ever. Yet after the red dragon's slumber, much of the iron in the side halls had melted and trickled down, forming spire-tipped silvery pillars, while congealed rivers of metal had frozen across the floor.
It looked like a dense forest cast in iron, brimming with a sense of primal power in addition to its grandeur.
"Is this the place...?"
"The red dragon's palace."
Olivia concealed her form, holding her breath with focused concentration outside the palace.
The closer she drew to the palace, the more overpowering the oppressive aura became. The suffocating pressure left her breathless, making it difficult for her to even reach the fourth layer of the Weave.
Beyond that, she felt a threat coiling deep within her bloodline.
Olivia was, after all, only a young silver dragon. Several times along the way she had wanted to give up, yet each time she had gritted her teeth and pressed on.
"I will fulfill your request."
"Don't you dare underestimate me."
Whether it was an illusion or not, Olivia couldn't shake an inexplicable premonition that the gold dragon wasn't dead. Perhaps Anhel was right beside her, watching over her, those signature vertical golden pupils ever resolute and gentle, yet still carrying that aloof, prideful demeanor he loved to affect.
Memory had a way of being romanticized.
Though Olivia had met Anhel only a handful of times and spoken with him just as few, the weight of her duty and lingering emotions had etched his image deep into her mind, growing clearer with every passing day.
After all, it was practically a dying entrustment, making it impossible for her to forget.
"Phew..."
Olivia exhaled deeply, struggling to maintain the Invisibility and breath-cloaking spells upon herself.
Spells she could normally cast with ease now drained every ounce of her energy. Constructing a spell matrix felt like storming a fortress, leaving her able to breach only the outermost barrier to cast these low-circle spells.
After a moment's hesitation, she passed through the battered gates and stepped fully into the palace.
The instant her feet touched the floor, Olivia's hair stood on end, and the sense of danger in her heart grew heavier.
"What on earth is in here?"
Yet she gritted her teeth, trembling as she followed the direction of the signal.
Suddenly, a familiar deep voice came:
"Olivia, over here."
"Anhel?"
Olivia looked up in pleasant surprise, only to find the space before her entirely empty.
Yet she was certain this wasn't an auditory hallucination born of extreme tension, but genuinely the voice of that gold dragon—some sort of communication spell.
Before long, she spotted a delicate little agate in a corner, inscribed with runes that recorded sound.
"It really is here."
Olivia hurried forward, breaking into a trot along the narrow, ruined corridor until she arrived at the empty grand hall.
Protected by some sort of magical array, this was one of the few places spared from the searing heat. It retained a minimalist, solemn architectural style, its intricately carved dome soaring nearly twenty meters high, supported by several stone pillars.
Yet it was far too vacant; almost no decorations could be seen, nor were there everyday furnishings like chairs or long tables. On the floor lay orderly, regular stripes.
It looked as if it had been prepared for some religious ritual.
*What kind of secrets are hidden in this hall?* Olivia couldn't help wondering.
She stepped into the hall and cautiously surveyed her surroundings. She found that the source of the message lay at the center of the hall: what appeared to be a crimson dragon scale.
Questions arose unbidden in Olivia's mind:
*Such a massive dragon scale... Could this belong to the "Lord of Cinders"?*
*How on earth did Anhel get his hands on it?*
Suddenly, specks of magical aura flickered across the dragon scale, and an ethereal illusory projection materialized above it.
To Olivia's delight, the familiar young nobleman with black hair and golden eyes appeared in the projection—none other than the "young gold dragon," Anhel.
Yet in the image, his brow was tightly knit, his tone exceptionally grave.
"Olivia, this may be the last chance."
"I have set up here..."
"Set up..."
Just as Olivia listened with rapt attention, the projection began to stutter, before abruptly snuffing out like a pinched flame.
"Why?"
Seeing the message cut off, Olivia couldn't help frowning. Anxiety surged through her, accompanied by an ominous foreboding.
Had the trail ended right here?
Had she risked her life to come all this way only for this?
Suddenly, her body trembled involuntarily as a primal terror surged from deep within her heart.
Olivia felt the view before her plunge into darkness as a colossal shadow engulfed her. She caught the pungent stench of sulfur.
What was that?
A despairing premonition was already taking shape in her mind.
Olivia stiffly turned her head, having to tilt it upward to take in the full sight. What stood before her left her barely able to keep her footing.
"Bahamut above..."
Straining her neck upward, she murmured in a trembling voice.
It was an enormous red dragon!
As racial nemeses, silver dragons even recorded many of the red dragons' weaknesses in their ancestral heritage, and Olivia had believed herself well acquainted with these mighty, wicked chromatic dragons.
Though she had mentally prepared herself for encountering this unseen "Lord of Cinders" before entering the palace,
she had never seen a red dragon like this!
Not even in dragon memory was there any record of such a creature.
Upon that hideous head, beyond the two large swept-back horns, spiral, demonic horns sprouted from the crown.
Most striking of all was the center of the dragon's chest: a blazing red crystal was deeply embedded in his flesh, ripples of liquid magma drifting across its surface. The surrounding scales bore radial fractures that constantly leaked dazzling firelight.
And that massive draconic frame was nearly thirty meters long—a size rivaling a very old dragon, perhaps even an ancient dragon.
His eyes resembled red-hot spheres of lava, blazing with fierce fire as he looked down upon her from above.
His wings were not deliberately spread, yet the immense shadow they cast was enough to darken everything around.
"Impossible... How could there be no record of a monster like this?"
"This can't possibly be a red dragon that emerged within the last century!"
Pale-faced, Olivia shook her head repeatedly.
She finally understood why Anhel had been so solemn back then.
This was plainly a very old red dragon, or even an ancient dragon!
Much as silver dragons disdained the rabid shortsightedness of red dragons, even they had to acknowledge their formidable prowess in battle. A red dragon of this age category ranked among the pinnacle combatants across all of Elezerg—by no means an opponent a fledgling young silver dragon like Olivia could stand against.
Yet the red dragon's massive bulk completely blocked the corridor's sole exit, ruthlessly cutting off her last avenue of retreat.
"I have waited for you for a long time."
The dragon merely spoke, yet the searing heat of his breath washed over Olivia.
The air warped, seeming on the verge of bursting into flame.
Chapter 244