Bloodscaled Fury

With a warp in space, the red dragon vanished from where he stood, ducking into the temporarily created extradimensional pocket—the Egg of Refuge. Cassius stared tensely at the Heart of Garyx and the Astral Prism within the pocket, his brow—crested with bone spurs—furrowing slightly. "An extradimensional space is only a temporary measure, and it's hard to completely prevent their aura from leaking. I'm afraid only my Kingdom Domain can block the prying eyes of those deities." "I have to bring them back to the palace." With that thought, Cassius extended a claw and tore through the space before him once more. Accompanied by a sharp rip, he carved out a spatial fissure fringed with burning flames. The red dragon squeezed into the narrow rift and emerged inside the grand hall of the Kingdom of Iron Dragon Wings. "Everyone—" "Leave this place at once." The commanding decree boomed out. Whether the tiefling guards standing watch by the entrance, the maidservants sweeping the courtyard, or the wyverns perched atop stone pillars, all scrambled to evacuate in haste. After all, this was an order from the supreme, singular ruler of the realm; there was absolutely no room for refusal. Cassius pushed the power of his Kingdom Domain to its absolute limit, hardening the surrounding Weave structure until it was as rigid as diamond, before finally bringing out the Heart of Garyx and the Astral Prism. He sealed the Astral Prism beneath heavy wards and stowed it away in the deepest recesses of the palace vault. Only then did he begin to examine the Heart of Garyx, which he had snatched from the very jaws of danger in the Astral Plane. Cassius used force magic to suspend it in midair—an indistinct, faintly glowing red crystal shaped like a miniature heart. Within it, dragon blood seemed to flow sluggishly, undulating in chaotic ripples resembling the cleansing flames spewed by Garyx. Yet this unassuming "heart" contained immense power beyond his imagination. Cassius had no intention of handing the Heart of Garyx over to the kingdom's spellcasters for study; this was, after all, an esoteric wondrous item on a divine scale. Faced with the temptation of power of this caliber, Cassius could trust no one but himself. The red dragon tentatively breathed a plume of high-heat flame, attempting to channel it into the crystal and observe its reaction, but the scalding energy sank like a stone into the ocean, swallowed up by the crystal without raising so much as a ripple. "As expected of the power left behind by a dragon god." "A suppression born of sheer essence." Most likely, only Cassius's all-out Primordial Breath could make even a minor impression on this crystal. Suddenly, he remembered the trope common in novels from his past life: claiming ownership by dripping blood. "Then... what about dragon blood?" Cassius parted his scales slightly and scored the skin with the tip of his claw. Carefully drawing a drop of scalding dragon blood, he suspended it in midair with force magic. The instant the dragon blood touched the Heart of Garyx, a magical reaction that even the Kingdom Domain could not suppress violently erupted. Smoke billowed, sparks flew in every direction, and boundless roaring flames poured recklessly out from the crystal. Boom! The next moment, the blisteringly hot crystal plunged straight into the red dragon's wound, entering his surging fundus vessels and flowing toward his powerfully beating heart. "Roar—" Cassius instantly let out an agonized roar. He thrashed and rolled across the ground, sending continuous tremors through the earth that cracked it into a web of fissures. Terrified, the guards around the palace thought His Majesty was about to summon another horrifying cataclysm and fled in all directions. Cassius finally tasted what his vassals felt when receiving the boon of a dragon bloodline. As the Heart of Garyx entered his flesh, it was like a red-hot iron sphere dropped into a bucket of water—the blood throughout his entire body began to boil, even seeping out through the crevices between his scales. The red dragon threw his bloody maw wide, unleashing a sweeping sea of roaring flames, while fire ignited even within his pale-gold pupils. A magnificent vision surged into his mind—a red dragon a thousand meters long tearing through the void and descending upon the Material Plane, blotting out the entire horizon. He parted His colossal jaws and spewed an endless torrent of cleansing flames, reducing every living creature on the ground—human cities, elven forest palaces, and anything else—into the basest ash. "No! It's doomsday!" "Fire! Fire everywhere!" "There's nowhere left to run! This is the final judgment!" Miserable weeping and cries of despair echoed everywhere, alongside cultists throwing open their arms in ecstatic prayer. Yet once Garyx fully completed His purification, nothing remained across the scorched earth but the sound of burning flames, followed by absolute silence. Looking down upon the burning earth, the red dragon threw back His head and let loose a long, echoing, primeval roar. "Roaaar!" At the same time, Cassius snarled again. Light radiating from his fundus vessels shone through his skin and scales. From the vents along his neck and tail, billowing plumes of white steam hissed out incessantly, eventually turning into blinding flares of light. This level of heat had long exceeded what mortal creatures could endure; even with a red dragon's fire resistance—capable of bathing in magma—it was excruciatingly agonizing. Under such intense agony, the red dragon had fallen into a wild frenzy, lashing out endlessly at his surroundings. He tore gouges several feet deep into the metal flooring with his claws, pulverized opulent furnishings with his thick tail, and even gnawed viciously at everything in the palace with razor teeth, leaving scorched blast craters beneath him. Under his ravages, the grand palace seemed utterly fragile, teetering on the verge of collapse. In the end, Cassius finally stopped, panting heavily in place. "Haa... haa..." By now, the Heart of Garyx had completely fused into his heart, pulsing in sync with the rise and fall of the red dragon's chest. Cassius's eyes were bloodshot, thick drool dripping from his jaws. A crimson sheen coated his scales, his horns were worn and chipped, and glowing red cracks ran all across his body, making him look just like the crazed dragons recorded during the Dracorage. Yet he had finally regained a sliver of remaining sanity—though still half-maddened, he could at least comprehend the notifications refreshing across his status panel. [You have absorbed the Heart of Garyx. Through the influence of your progenitor bloodline, your body, mind, and even soul will undergo irreversible transformations.] [Your alignment: Lawful Evil → Chaotic Evil] [Due to the power of Garyx, you have acquired an additional subclass: Bloodscaled Fury] Bloodscaled Fury An angry dragon is terrifying indeed. A dragon giving vent to wild fury—eyes bloodshot, mouth drooling great gobs of spittle, a bloody sheen coating its scales—is a horror few can withstand. Solitary dragons, bloodscaled furies are more like forces of natural devastation. Their chaotic tendencies mean that no one can predict when a bloodscaled fury might descend upon a human settlement or wilderness outpost and flatten the place, leaving an exploded crater behind.