Slaughter of the City

To the shrill wails of undead shadows, the pitch-black canopy rapidly dispersed, and the dark mountain peaks in the distance gradually dissolved into oblivion. Throughout Dragonshadow City, shadow creatures—shadow gnawers, shadow displacer beasts, umbral spirits, and even shadow dragons—seemed to sense their master's demise, erupting in terrified cries and panic-stricken howls. Mortifer, the "Mouthpiece of the Night," who had entrenched himself in the Underdark for seven hundred years, was now utterly dead. Beneath the absolute destruction wrought by chaotic fire, not even the Goddess of the Night could claim his soul. He could only dissolve into chaotic, unordered matter. *Roar—!* A feverish, bloodthirsty roar resounded once more. Thick torrents of saliva and flame dripped from Cassius's cavernous maw. His visage was hideously contorted, his eyes still bloodshot, and a blood-red aura continued to envelop his massive frame. "Not enough. Still not enough." "Slaughter... destruction... purge!" The red dragon abruptly snapped his vast wings, raising a gale that swept through the city as his titanic form soared into the heights above. He looked down upon the tens of thousands of living beings within Dragonshadow City, peeling his lips back in a cruel grin. Deep within his pupils, the fires of destruction blazed with savage intensity, looking as if they would never burn out. ... "Look! The shadow domain has vanished!" "Mortifer is dead!" Watching the black canopy rapidly recede, Feridon was so overcome with emotion that he could barely string his words together. That shadow dragon had cast a pall over nearly his entire life, shattering every shred of his happiness. The suffocating oppression of that endless darkness still choked him to this day. Now his sworn enemy had been slain. Though he had not struck the blow himself, the joy welling within him was beyond words, bringing hot tears to his eyes. He clapped Danyal on the shoulder, wanting to invite him to celebrate this "victory." Yet the drow elf's expression remained grim, and cold sweat even beaded across his brow. Noticing his companion's abnormal demeanor, Feridon grew perplexed. "What is it, Danyal? Mortifer is dead! Isn't that something to celebrate?" "Don't rejoice too soon, Feridon." Danyal slowly raised his head, gazing up at the sky where the dark mist was dissipating. "I can't shake the feeling... that none of this is over." Remembering that rampaging red dragon, Feridon's heart began to pound with unease. "Surely not... The enemy of our enemy is a friend. As long as we declare ourselves as the resistance, he shouldn't make things difficult for us..." Suddenly, a violent hurricane-force gust swept over them, knocking them off balance. Feridon instinctively raised his arms to shield his face. "Fer... Feridon, look up." Danyal's voice trembled as he raised a shaking arm toward the sky. Feridon slowly tilted his head back, following the drow's finger, and his face instantly drained of color. *Roar—!* The colossal red dragon had reappeared in the sky. His broad wings cast an immense shadow, his pale golden pupils burned with a craving for annihilation, and a ruthless smirk was plastered across his monstrous draconic visage. A crushing aura of Frightful Presence bore down, suffocating every mortal creature in the city below. The dragon crystal embedded in his chest flared with a blinding radiance. The red dragon slowly parted his cavernous maw. Dark crimson flames poured forth like a cascading waterfall, descending upon the city. The entirety of Dragonshadow City caught fire. Every substance, whether stone masonry or living flesh, was doomed to total destruction once touched by the chaotic fire. This was the All-Cleansing Flame of Garyx, the purest emblem of destruction and power. The dark crimson fire spread through the city at an unimaginable speed, turning half of it into a sea of flames in the blink of an eye. "No—!" "Fire! It's burning!" "It's coming! I don't want to die!" A chaotic cacophony of wails and shrieks erupted from the inferno, yet every scream was cut brutally short, vanishing almost the instant it was uttered. Whether man, woman, or child; whether human, drow, or duergar; any living creature disintegrated into utter chaos the moment they made contact with the dark crimson flames. Fleeing was futile, and resistance was impossible. Cassius beat his wings high above the city, gliding slowly alongside the spreading fire like a harbinger of natural calamity, the living avatar of the All-Cleansing Flame. Watching the flames roll toward him, Feridon leapt onto the roof of a building, waving his arms frantically toward the sky. "We are the resistance!" "Lord Red Dragon, please stop! We shared a grudge with that shadow dragon as well!" Sweat poured down his forehead as he shouted with all his might. The drow elf stiffly reached out and patted the human fighter on the shoulder, his tone hollow. "Stop, Feridon. It's useless." Danyal's eyes were filled with despair as he murmured, staring up at the dragon in the sky: "I once read a chronicle passed down in ancient elven lore..." "That is the symbol of destruction..." "He is the cleanser of the world..." Before he could finish, the raging chaotic fire swept over them, engulfing both drow and human alike. Cassius spread his wings and swept through the sky, his expression utterly aloof. He appeared not to notice the humans shouting on the ground—or rather, he simply did not deign to care. Every living being within Dragonshadow City, whether good or evil, and regardless of allegiance, served only as an outlet for the red dragon to vent his destructive urge—reduced to cold, unfeeling statistics. Ultimately, amidst the roaring crackle of fire, Dragonshadow City—a metropolis with over a thousand years of history—was reduced to ash, leaving not so much as a broken wall behind. *Crack... snap...* Chaotic fire still flickered across the scorched ground. The thick blankets of ash were perhaps the only proof that this city had ever existed. Dragonshadow City's bustling trade under drow rule, its dark oppression under the shadow dragon, and the desperate resistance rallied by countless residents were all consumed by fire, vanishing into nothingness. ... Cassius finally emerged from his bloodscaled rage. A lingering crimson sheen of slaughter and destruction still tinged his ferocious draconic face, and exhilaration surged within his pale golden eyes. Prompts from his status panel refreshed continuously before him. [You have slain Mortifer, Mouthpiece of the Night (Challenge Rating: 21). Gained 33,000 XP.] [You have slain a shadow dragon. Gained 10,000 XP.] [You have slain an undead shadow. Gained 800 XP.] [You have slain an umbral spirit. Gained...] ... [You have slain a drow elf. Gained 15 XP.] [You have slain a human merchant. Gained 5 XP.] From this single massacre alone, his experience had nearly reached the threshold for his next advancement. Gazing at those tantalizing numbers, an unusual thought suddenly stirred in Cassius's mind. *If I were to kill every living creature on the Material Plane... just how much power would I gain?* *Enough to rival the gods?* *Or perhaps... surpass them?* Once the thought took root, it swelled like an uncontrollable tide, churning wildly in his mind.