Cassius gazed up at the descending shadowy canopy, his eyes brimming with keen excitement as a subtle urge for destruction resurfaced deep within his pupils.
"Tsk, tsk. What nostalgia. This spell again."
"Then... let us tear it apart."
A smile parted the ferocious dragon's maw.
"Reckless fool, you will become nourishment for the Shadowfell!"
Mortifer's voice resonated through the sky of the shadow domain like a venomous curse, yet a faint, barely perceptible trace of fluster tainted his tone.
Cassius snapped his wings, ascending almost vertically. Chaotic, erratic patterns of light flared across the crystal embedded in his chest.
Before this colossal black canopy enshrouding the city, before the tsunami-like tide of shades, even a red dragon thirty meters in length appeared somewhat diminutive. Yet Cassius showed not the slightest hint of fear; instead, he surged with battle-frenzy, even letting out an exhilarating roar.
*Boom—*
Dark crimson fire erupted from his maw, surging straight toward the shadowy canopy.
The pitch-black sky was torn open!
The instant the flames of chaos struck the gloom, the canopy was pierced through, leaving a colossal crimson wound.
Flames continued to burn fiercely along the edges of the breach, spreading relentlessly. The undead shadows perished before they could even utter a wail.
Without hesitation, the red dragon plunged into the pitch-black mist. The chaotic flames cloaking his body incinerated every approaching shadow into chaotic, disordered particles.
"Hiding is futile, Mortifer!"
"My Breath of Chaos will purify everything!"
Cassius roared, rampaging wildly through the dense shadowy fog and tearing burning holes one after another through the pitch-black canopy until it resembled a tattered black rag.
Meanwhile, the shadow dragon drifted through his domain, biding his time for an opening.
Having fought countless battles over centuries, this shadow dragon wizard had developed an exceptionally insidious system of combat.
Once the dark canopy descended, *Shadow Walk* allowed Mortifer to move without a trace through the gloom, materializing wherever shadows reached. *Ebon Eyes* granted him awareness of everything within the dark, and with high-tier shadow spells such as *Shades*, *Shadow Conjuration*, and *Shadow Evocation*, he could replicate any spell he knew within his domain, transmuting it into shadow magic.
Yet the flames of chaos swirling around the red dragon threw him into complete disarray. As though alive, the flames disrupted every spell construct he formed and steadily devoured his shadow domain, leaving him with less and less room to hide.
As time wore on, the domain of shadows he had amassed over centuries would be burned away to nothing!
"Curse this god-favored wretch! Curse these flames!"
Mortifer hissed a sullen complaint.
Yet that faint whisper was all Cassius needed to pinpoint him.
"Rat in the shadows..."
"I found you."
Cassius bared his teeth in a savage grin. Snapping his powerful wings, he crossed hundreds of meters in an instant, lunging directly toward the secluded pocket of gloom.
"I shall grant you total destruction! It will be your honor!"
"Behold my new power!"
*Roar—*
The red dragon unleashed an earth-shattering roar that pierced the night. Blood rushed into his eyes, his pupils flooded with pure destructive desire.
A deluge of saliva and flame spilled from his cavernous maw, and scalding blood seeped through the crevices between his scales, coating them in a gory sheen.
As his roar resounded, the surrounding Underdark—and even the surface world above—trembled. Countless living beings felt the terrifying weight of that presence, shuddering beneath the sheer will of his fury.
Boiling fury—this was Bloodscaled Rage!
"How is this possible...?"
Deep within the gloom, the shadow dragon felt boundless terror well up from the depths of his soul.
For hundreds of years, he had been the nightmare of all living things, the terror of countless mortals.
Yet now, Mortifer tasted the long-forgotten flavor of fear. It filled him not only with panic, but with an unbelievable sense of defeat.
Flapping his wings with violent force, the terrifyingly brawny, raging red dragon kicked up a supernatural, blood-scented gale that swept across the sky. The tempest physically dispersed the insubstantial shadows, exposing the shadow dragon hidden within.
*Shadow Walk.*
The shadow dragon hastily channeled his magic, preparing to slip away into the dark.
Yet Cassius was terrifyingly fast. A piercing sonic boom cracked through the air, and in the next heartbeat, the red dragon materialized before Mortifer without warning.
Watching the red dragon close in at blinding speed, Mortifer gritted his teeth and cast his spell.
*Shadow Evocation.*
Endless gloom gathered at his call, coalescing into an abyssal vortex directly before him, seeking to shred the red dragon to pieces.
Pitch-black meteors materialized across the sky, hurtling toward the red dragon in an illusion replicating *Meteor Swarm*.
A profound radiance gleamed in Mortifer's eyes as he unleashed several soul-rending, terrifying illusions in rapid succession.
Yet Cassius's expression grew only more savage. He parted his cavernous jaws and roared like a primordial beast. More blood bled through his scales, forming a crimson barrier of light that deflected all the incoming magic.
*Roar—*
*Draconic Fury.*
Beneath the wrath of a Bloodscaled Fury, every illusion shattered with ease. The defensive spells stood like fragile, paper-thin walls, easily smashed and torn apart by the red dragon's brawny form.
"No, this kind of power..."
"How is he worthy of such power!"
Panic and dread resonated in Mortifer's voice, accompanied by boundless jealousy and greed.
He had cast aside his draconic dignity in pursuit of power, gathering undead shadows at any cost. Yet his magic was being ruthlessly crushed by a young dragon mere decades old.
The shadow dragon yearned with desperate hunger. He wanted to claim Cassius's power for himself and supplant him as the favored child of the Dragon Queen.
"All of this should be mine!"
Mortifer let out a shrill, multi-layered screech.
*Shadow Conjuration.*
Black mist billowed from his body, churning through the air to form hideous shadow dragons that encircled the red dragon from all sides.
Together, they shrieked, unleashing torrents of shadowy breath.
Yet though little reason remained in Cassius's bloodshot eyes, he possessed the fiercest will to break all magic.
Seeing straight through to the shadow dragon's true body in a single glance, Cassius snapped his wings. Effortlessly shattering the layered barriers of bizarre shadow spells, he blurred into a crimson streak before Mortifer, his muscular, iron-hard foreleg snapping forward to seize the shadow dragon by his slender neck.
The shadow dragon struggled desperately, attempting to dissolve into shadows and flee, but the chaotic fire radiating from the red dragon plunged him into utter despair.
"I... have you."
"Tear apart... destroy... everything."
Lost in the throes of Bloodscaled Rage, his words bordered on madness.
Cassius stared into the shadow dragon's ash-white eyes. Furious white steam billowed around his entire body, and his pupils flared with the desire for annihilation—identical to Garyx in the vision.
Chapter 270