"L-Lord Dragon, exalted dragon... we meant you no offense!"
"Yes, yes! It was that lich! He bewitched us!"
The three beholders pleaded for mercy one after another, their tentacle-like eyestalks trembling violently.
Beholders held all other living creatures in contempt, including others of their own kind. Every beholder believed its own existence was the pinnacle and paragon of its species, while any individual that deviated from it was a disgrace to their race.
Yet they cherished their own lives above all.
Confronted by an absolute disparity in power, these beholders knew that if they wished to preserve their lives, they had to compromise and swallow their pride.
The beholder in the center, its flesh covered in bulbous growths, floated forward, a fawning expression contorting its hideous visage. "Mighty dragon, I am Augu, a humble beholder.
"Your stature is so magnificent! A dragon of your caliber must possess countless treasures. I am willing to serve you without remuneration, to act as the guardian of your lair and slaughter anyone who dares covet your wealth!"
"Oh?"
"Just a moment ago—weren't you the one claiming you would devour me?"
Cassius reached out an arm and snatched the beholder in his claws, turning it lazily with his talons as if toying with a leather ball.
The beholder’s orb-like body shook violently, but it dared not offer the slightest resistance.
Terror written all over its face, it wailed and begged incessantly, "I—I didn't know! It was the lich! It was entirely that lich's command!"
Cassius rubbed his chin with his free claw and said mildly, "That almost sounds reasonable."
"Yes, Lord Dragon!"
"It was all that lich's fault! Spare my life, and I'll lead you to settle the score with him!"
Dizzy from being spun around, the beholder grasped at this final lifeline, speaking in an agitated rush.
"However..."
Cassius paused.
"You are too ugly."
The red dragon abruptly exerted his grip, clenching his talons as a truly horrifying power surged forth.
Flesh and gore splattered; eyeballs popped loose.
The insolent beholder was squeezed to bursting, reduced to a singularly thick, vile clump of mangled meat.
"Disgusting thing."
Cassius shook his claws in mild disgust. Flames flared across his scales, incinerating the lingering bits of flesh and slime until nothing remained.
"Augu was killed just like that!"
"I can't stay here! This dragon will kill me!"
Another beholder shrieked. Black smoke billowed from its swollen central eye, dark green slime sprayed from its mouth, and it darted into the haze, attempting to flee under cover of the darkness.
"Heh."
"You think you can escape just like that?"
An invisible ripple spread out. The black fog cloaking the burial chamber dispersed in an instant, exposing the beholder frantically fleeing through the air.
A searing Fire Bolt shot forth.
"Awoo—!"
With a pitiful wail, the flames impaled the beholder's body and detonated violently.
The beholder fell limply to the ground, its entire form rapidly reducing to charred ash.
It was merely a low-level cantrip, yet in the hands of a red dragon like Cassius, it was more than enough to casually dispatch a beholder.
Cassius turned his head, his pale gold pupils fixing on the sole surviving beholder, and said with a smile, "Only you left."
The remaining beholder shuddered uncontrollably.
"M-Mighty dragon, I... I..."
"I know spells!"
"And... and... I'm not ugly at all!"
The beholder's voice trembled. As if to prove its claim, it cast Polymorph, shifting into a maiden in the bloom of youth—albeit still with only a single eye.
Cassius studied the creature. Indeed, compared to the other two, its hide had been smoother and its eye less murky; by beholder standards, it could pass as fairly delicate.
It was certainly adaptable.
Even among beholders, this was quite a talent.
"..."
Cassius remained silent for a moment before asking, "What is your name?"
"O mighty dragon, I am Kuz."
Though it wore the guise of a one-eyed maiden, its voice remained as grating and harsh as ever, like pieces of metal scraping together.
"Change back and follow me."
"Yes... Master."
Just like that, the trio of beholders was thoroughly neutralized.
These aberrations, prepared by the lich to deal with human adventurers, crumbled instantly before a red dragon—a far more formidable monster.
Yet who could have foreseen that the intruder would be a red dragon nearly forty meters in length?
Even a lich would never have anticipated such an outlandish, improbable turn of events.
Kuz shifted back into beholder form and floated apprehensively behind the red dragon, looking thoroughly subservient and lacking even a shred of the arrogance it had displayed upon bursting from the hidden chamber.
Kuz offered obsequiously, "Master, th-that over there is that lich's phylactery..."
"I know."
Inside Soulweep Castle, the lich stared fixedly at the phylactery within the magical scrying projection, his withered face etched with sheer despair.
"Those damned beholders."
"And him... he is actually a dragon! Why would a dragon barge in here?!"
"How could this happen! Centuries of meticulous preparations for immortality... ruined by a damned dragon!"
Suddenly, recalling the sensation of being detected earlier, a terrifying suspicion welled up in his mind—
The "Cinder Emperor," who had caused such a stir in recent years that even Orestes had heard of him after unifying the Great Anzetta Waste, was also a red dragon!
"I've kept myself hidden so well. How could he have noticed me... No, this is a coincidence! It has to be a coincidence!"
The lich pressed his fleshless, rotting skull close to the crystal skull, staring intently at his phylactery as the balefire in his eye sockets flickered erratically.
"No, impossible..."
"It could never be him..."
Abruptly, cracks surfaced across the crystal skull, spreading at a dizzying pace.
Crack... crack!
The lich stepped back instinctively, his withered hands gripping his staff.
Within the fracturing magical projection, the colossal red dragon raised his head, a faint smile glinting in his deep, pale gold pupils.
"I see you."
Orestes felt an overwhelming pressure crash through space and time, instilling even in this proud, aristocratic lich an urge to prostrate himself in surrender.
The next instant, with a crisp crash, the exquisite crystal skull shattered into fragments across the floor.
"This is impossible!"
"No, no, no..."
Orestes staggered backward again, knocking into the jars and urns behind him filled with viscera and preserved flesh. His gaunt, decaying body tumbled to the ground.
Blood and entrails spilled across the floor.
Using his staff for support, the lich scrambled to his feet and stumbled in search of spellcasting components, frantic to prepare for the coming battle.
Meanwhile, the bone quill continued to scratch across the diary, though this time it penned only a single, brief sentence in frantic, hurried script:
"He saw me!"
Chapter 399