Dragonshadow City was a desolate ruin suspended above a colossal chasm, through which freezing winds shrieked incessantly. The city rested upon a single immense spur of rock jutting into the void of the Underdark, its battlements and towers gazing down into a dreadful emptiness.
The city jutted out over a vast subterranean canyon known as the Howling Chasm, plunging downward for more than seventeen miles.
*Whoosh—*
A piercing howl tore through the air as hurricane-force winds relentlessly battered Dragonshadow City, threatening to sweep away any creature daring enough to show itself along the ramparts of the abandoned city or attempt flight across the rift.
Despite the ceaseless gale, the Howling Chasm had no shortage of perilous creatures. Belkers and voidwraiths reveled in the unending gusts, while ethereal, spectral shadow dragons and undead dragons routinely soared above the domain they ruled.
It had once been a trading city of the drow elves, but the shadow dragons of Clan Jaezred conquered the drow metropolis of Chaulssin and enslaved its people.
Over the ensuing centuries, the dragons systematically culled the drow population, twisting them into creatures of shadow and replacing them with their own draconic spawn, all while dragging the city ever deeper into the Plane of Shadow.
The supreme ruler of this domain was Mortifer Jaezred, the dread shadow dragon known as the Mouthpiece of the Night—the prime architect behind this twisted city.
In a gloomy alley, a hooded man spoke in hushed tones:
"Danyal, have you heard? The old monster is making a move against the surface world again."
"Yeah."
"According to our intel, he found a passage leading to Anzeta."
"The shadow dragons, shadow chokers, and shades have all been mobilized. Looks like something big is about to go down."
Mortifer's faction was not the only presence in Dragonshadow City; naturally, resistance groups existed as well. Under the shadow dragons' brutal tyranny, even the notoriously wicked drow had been reduced to pathetic victims, banding together in secret underground resistance cells.
The largest of these was the Brotherhood, led by the human Feridon Rice and the drow Danyal Belran. Numbering several hundred members, they had even managed to slay a newly hatched shadow dragon.
A patrolling shadow displacer beast padded down the street, sniffing the air.
Both men swiftly and adeptly cast spells, melting their silhouettes into the shadows and slipping away to their secret gathering place.
Feridon continued, "Maybe we can use this chance to seize power and assassinate that half-shadow dragon drow archon—that disgusting shadow mongrel."
"Yet when Mortifer returns, all our efforts will be in vain."
"..."
Both fell silent at once.
As leaders of the resistance, no one understood Mortifer's might better than they did.
An army of over a thousand Fadlan soldiers had once marched upon Dragonshadow City, only to be engulfed by the black fog and transformed entirely into undead shadows, serving as fodder for Mortifer. In the boundless darkness of the Underdark, that shadow dragon was virtually invincible.
The resistance's struggles felt more like a game to pass the time whenever Mortifer grew bored. He would even deliberately let rebels escape just to savor their deeper despair, relishing the absolute dominance of a cat playing with mice.
Feridon often burned with impotent rage, sinking into profound despair.
He didn't even dare take his own life, for any living being that died on this land was forcefully converted into an undead shadow, never to know peace for all eternity.
"Is there truly no one who can defeat him?"
"At least... we have to try."
"Maybe we could contact that kingdom in Anzeta and strike from within and without to slay Mortifer on the surface."
Danyal smiled wryly, pulling down his hood and shaking his head to reveal the black, pointed ears characteristic of a drow.
"It's impossible."
"I've read about the surface world in my family's records. Anzeta is the most desolate, remote region on the continent. How could a being capable of defeating Mortifer ever emerge from a place like that?"
"Our only hope is probably praying for a god to descend."
"..."
Feridon sank into silence once more.
He had attempted rebellion countless times, yet each had ended in failure. He even suspected Mortifer was using him as bait to draw out more rebels.
*Roar—*
Suddenly, a long, drawn-out roar echoed from the distance.
Immediately followed the shrieks of shadow dragons, the piercing wails of undead shadows, and a tumult erupting across the city.
"What is that?"
"Could it be... an invasion?"
Both Feridon and Danyal felt a spark of pleasant surprise.
They hastily gathered their robes, cautiously pushed the door open, and stepped out onto the dim, rotting street.
Sure enough, ranks of undead shadows, shadow displacer beasts, and shadow chokers were marching in haste, while even the shadow dragons wheeled in frantic disorder across the sky.
Feridon clicked his tongue in amazement. "What on earth happened to make them mobilize so many forces?!"
"Feridon..."
"Quick, look up!"
"A dragon... It's a dragon."
Danyal's voice trembled.
"What?"
Feridon whipped around and reflexively looked toward the sky.
The sight that greeted him was etched into his memory forever—a red dragon far more colossal than Mortifer spread his wings high in the sky, seeming to engulf the entire city. Boundless gales swept past, yet the dragon calmly beat his mighty wings against the hurricane winds, completely unfazed.
The dragon's body was remarkably solid, showing no trace of translucence; he was unmistakably a true dragon, not a converted shadow dragon.
He possessed four savage horns and an immensely powerful physique.
Across his chest spread web-like fissures, centered upon a crystal pulsating with fiery brilliance.
Before this unfamiliar dragon aloft in the sky, those wicked shadow dragons and shadow displacer beasts resembled nothing more than stray curs confronting an apex predator, letting out shrill, involuntary yelps of sheer terror. Yet the great dragon remained utterly unmoved.
"Mortifer, I've come for you."
The dragon flashed a ferocious grin, the depths of his pupils seething with an irrepressible lust for destruction.
Instantly, the crystal embedded in his chest blazed with blinding radiance.
It brought daylight to Dragonshadow City, long cloaked in gloom, and cast a rare illumination across the subterranean depths of the Underdark. At that moment, he was like a sun the underworld had never known, striking terror into the shadow creatures lurking in the dark.
The dragon parted his jaws slightly, and an endless torrent of fire poured from his maw, just like Garyx descending upon the mortal realm in the vision.
It was the Breath of Chaos, the All-Cleansing Flame.
It would burn everything to cinder, leaving behind only the purest chaos.
Chapter 268