"Roar—!"
As the smoke cleared, an immense red dragon nearly forty meters in length emerged upon the battlefield, letting loose a furious roar.
The ground of ash and stone had been smashed into a colossal crater a hundred meters across, sunk deep into the earth.
Within that crater lay the crushed remains of hundreds of salamanders and flame drakes.
Terrified, the salamanders hurled away their spears and halberds, writhing their serpentine bodies as they scattered in all directions.
The flame drakes beat their wings in frantic disarray, flying haphazardly through the air.
"A—a dragon!"
"By the True Lord of Fire, how could a red dragon appear here?!"
"Move! Get out of here! That's a fucking great wyrm red dragon!"
The efreeti leading the force cried out in terror. Leaping onto the back of a flame drake, he urged his mount forward frantically.
Dragons were scarce on the Elemental Plane of Fire, even though the climate suited red dragons quite well.
Many red dragons had once attempted to build strongholds here, but even they found it nearly impossible to prevent their hoards from melting down, leaving them with no choice but to depart for the Hells or return to the Material Plane.
"Roar—!"
"So it is you... who wish to kill my vassals?"
Cassius raised his head and roared. Spreading his massive wings, he unleashed the overwhelming Frightful Presence of a progenitor dragon.
Instantly, flame drakes blacked out on the spot, tumbling limply from the sky.
Against a presence whose bloodline stood several tiers above their own, these creatures bearing only faint traces of draconic blood had no means of resistance whatsoever.
"No!"
"Run... run!"
"This is not an enemy we can defeat! All forces, retreat!"
The efreeti shuddered violently as well, but having no draconic bloodline, he managed to stay airborne.
The remaining efreet officers and hundreds of salamander raiders on the battlefield fled madly toward the City of Pig Iron.
Yet what happened next plunged them into even deeper despair.
The astonishingly massive red dragon did not give chase. Instead, he simply parted his maw.
What surged forth was not the fiery breath everyone expected—it was ice.
*Glacial Cascade!*
Freezing frost cascaded down like a colossal waterfall, submerging more than half the army beneath it.
Such frost-based evocation spells were notoriously weak on the Elemental Plane of Fire. Yet through the power of the Horn of Everfrost, the effects of Metamagic, and his extraordinary Charisma, Cassius forced the spell into manifestation.
And for the fire elemental creatures born and raised here, it proved absolutely fatal.
The scalding fires of their life essence were instantly frozen and snuffed out.
By the time the surrounding searing fire elements melted the frost away, those elemental creatures had long since perished.
"How... how is this possible?!"
"He's a red dragon!"
The efreeti officer froze where he stood, his expression completely blank. He had never witnessed such a dragon in his life.
"Run, run! We must report this to Lord Emir!"
Turning around, he accelerated into full flight, leaving trails of smoke in his wake.
Spatial distortions rippled before him as a portal began to form.
Efreet were fierce warriors and high-tier elemental creatures, blessed by nature with potent spellcasting abilities, including innate magic such as Plane Shift, Produce Flame, and Pyrotechnics.
Yet attempting to cast now was far too late.
Raging flames erupted right behind the efreeti, swiftly coalescing into a colossal draconic form.
The burgeoning portal shattered in an instant, vanishing into nothingness.
Despair washed over the efreeti's face. He reached out to conjure flames, but they proved useless against the red dragon, flowing straight into the crystal embedded in his chest.
"No, you cannot kill me!"
"I am an efreeti—!"
*Crackle—Boom!*
A dazzling storm of lightning engulfed Cassius's body and abruptly expanded, swallowing the surrounding efreeti forces whole.
"No—!"
"Help—!"
The efreet, so arrogant and overbearing just moments ago, were struck by violent lightning and reduced to unfettered, primal flames.
"Run!"
"Lord Izar is dead!"
"By the True Lord of Fire, flee!"
Because they spoke in Ignan, their cries sounded to Cassius like the hissing and crackling of burning wood.
The efreeti forces continued their headlong flight, driven to utter frenzy by the slaughter.
"Interesting."
Cassius flapped his wings and hovered in midair, pinching that bundle of flame between his talons.
This was the efreeti's essence.
Nearly every elemental creature possessed such a core—a living fire.
"Looks... quite delicious."
The red dragon opened his maw and swallowed the living fire whole. Instantly, a surge of energy suffused his body.
Cassius's eyes lit up. The flames of these elemental creatures seemed to make rather excellent nourishment.
"By the True Lord of Fire!"
"Lord Izar was... he was eaten!"
"Izar's been devoured!"
The surviving efreet and salamanders shrieked in absolute terror.
While elemental creatures consuming one another was not unheard of on the Elemental Plane of Fire, noble efreet being "eaten" was exceedingly rare.
Cassius let out a satisfied roar and directly unleashed the ninth-tier spell, *Dragon Absorption*.
A vortex like a black hole manifested within the red dragon's gaping maw, greedily pulling in every scrap of energy nearby.
The living fires of the salamanders and flame drakes he had previously killed were all drawn straight into his belly.
Witnessing this, the efreet and salamanders fled with every ounce of strength they had, running as if their very souls were on the line.
"Th-this..."
"O True Lord of Fire, they're being eaten!"
"Help! I don't want to be eaten by this red dragon!"
Yet even while feasting, Cassius did not overlook them. He swung a claw from afar.
*Scratch!*
*Slash—!*
Ashes swirled into the air.
Gleaming force claw-marks tore through the battlefield, slicing more than a hundred salamanders into pieces.
The ground looked as if it had been plowed over, scarred with claw gouges dozens of meters long and several feet deep, littered with severed salamander limbs and torsos.
"Run!"
"Let the salamanders buy us time!"
Assuming their smoke forms, the few remaining efreet managed to slip away, fleeing toward the City of Pig Iron.
Yet how could Cassius let a meal slip from his grasp?
The red dragon savagely tore through space, reappearing behind the efreet in a blaze of brilliant flame.
"No—!"
"I don't want to be eaten!"
The efreet wailed, but to no avail.
The magical vortex in the dragon's maw pulled them inward with irresistible force, rendering their desperate struggles completely futile.
With a few muffled screams, the last remnants of the army were snuffed out.
For them, this battle had been pure despair. The battlefield had become an abattoir, and the red dragon was a master butcher.
Not a sliver of hope remained.
Every attack proved useless, only fueling their enemy's power, while they themselves were dismantled with effortless ease.
Yet for the red dragon, this had been nothing more than an effortless feast; his enemies were mere food.
*If I devour five hundred efreet... I might gather enough energy for my next advancement.*
Feeling the faint fullness spreading through his belly, Cassius wore a content smile.
Ever since his bloodline advancement, he had not experienced such a feeling of satiety in a very long time.
The battlefield before the Brass Fortress lay in utter ruin, the invading army entirely wiped out.
Only the massive red dragon remained, standing tall upon the ground of ash and scorched earth, broad wings unfurled.
"Your Majesty!"
"Long live His Majesty Cassius!"
"All hail the Cinder Emperor!"
In the distance, many soldiers of the imperial vanguard dropped to their knees despite the scalding ground, letting their knees char black against the earth.
They raised their rifles high and cheered fanatically, their eyes brimming with fervent adoration.
This was their emperor—the very symbol of victory, the incarnation of might.
Just as he always had in every war past, their Dragon Emperor had crushed their enemies ruthlessly and without mercy.
"Your Majesty Cassius..."
Hot tears of emotion welled in Serkan's eyes, only to be instantly vaporized by the blistering heat.
He had never imagined that after being dispatched to such a remote and perilous front, he would see the Cinder Emperor in person, let alone receive His Majesty's direct aid.
Meanwhile, the fire dwarves led by Grim stared blankly at the red dragon's towering silhouette. Their bronze hammers and spears clattered to the ground, yet none dared reach down to pick them up.
"H-he ate all those efreet..."
"Do you... do you think His Majesty is full yet?"
Grim stammered, glancing nervously at those around him, his legs shaking uncontrollably. The sight of the red dragon devouring an entire army had seared itself deep into his brass-forged mind.
Those were efreet!
The most powerful and arrogant beings on the Elemental Plane of Fire, masters of vast territories who had enslaved countless fire dwarves and salamanders.
Yet they had been reduced to a dragon's snack, slaughtered before they could even mount a counterattack.
Only moments ago, this fire dwarf noble had believed that His Majesty Cassius was a red dragon unlike the rest—an amiable and benevolent ruler.
Now, however, it seemed he had been rather naive.
Chapter 442