At the moniker "the Fingerless," veins bulged across the efreeti's forehead. Fire seemed ready to burst from his eyes as smoke curled upward from his body.
He drew the gold-inlaid scimitar at his waist once more, the blade's tip gleaming with cold light as he leveled it toward the source of the voice.
"I've finally caught you!"
"What evil designs do you harbor?! How dare you insult a noble efreeti aristocrat—insult the Emir sent by the Great Sultan himself to govern you!"
"Are you questioning the rule of the Great Sultan? Questioning the guidance of the Lord of Flames?!"
Hamid was fabricating treasonous charges.
He intended to show this insolent fool the true weight of his authority.
This was about establishing dominance!
Efreet rule was a tyrannical autocracy, and the efreeti nobles who served as pashas and emirs embodied the Great Sultan's will.
Between efreeti nobles and common citizens lay an insurmountable gulf in status.
The guests attending the banquet hastily parted. Where the scimitar pointed stood an unremarkable, turban-wearing efreeti.
"What is your name?" Hamid demanded, a cruel grin spreading across his face.
The efreeti looked up, meeting the towering noble's gaze directly, an amused smirk playing on his lips.
"Heh, that hardly matters."
"My dear Lord Hamid, do you recognize this?"
Under the curious gazes of the gathered efreet, he unhurriedly drew something from his pocket—a ring.
A gleaming gold ring, its surface shimmering with an aura of fiery magic.
"Hss—!"
"Could that be...?"
"H-How can this be?!"
Panic swept through every efreeti who laid eyes on the ring; they sucked in sharp breaths of scalding air. Even the noble Hamid was no exception.
The reason was simple: this was the very ring Hamid had lost, the ring worn on the finger cleaved off by that human!
"Who... who on earth are you?!"
"How did you get in here?!"
"How did that ring end up in your hands?!"
Hamid masked the momentary shock in his eyes, barking out the questions as he forced himself to project authority.
His thoughts had grown frantic. To his eyes, the fearless confidence this "efreeti" displayed was definitely not an act!
"Through a secret passage, of course. The fire dwarves who built this city harbor a bone-deep hatred for your kind."
"Tsk, tsk. You efreet fancy yourselves the most civilized, most enlightened race on the Elemental Plane of Fire."
"Looking at you now, you're really nothing special—hardly better than the ogres under my command."
"As for who I am—"
Fractured motes of magical light began to shimmer across the "efreeti," as though a violent transformation were imminent.
"Insolent braggart, you—"
BOOM!
Just as Hamid began to retort, he watched the figure before him expand at a terrifying speed, forcing him to crane his neck back to look up.
"By the Lord of Flames..."
"H-How is this possible..."
Shrouded in the descending shadow, the efreeti noble stammered in disbelief.
A colossal red dragon had abruptly materialized. Its towering spine shattered the glazed chandeliers dangling from the ceiling, and its vast wings cast a shadow over half the hall.
Cassius lowered his massive head slightly, his golden pupils gazing down at the efreeti noble beneath him, a sinister, terrifying grin spreading across his draconic visage.
"When it's already this obvious, can't you guess?"
Only then did he finish the second half of his earlier sentence, adding with mocking amusement:
"I am the ruler of the realm you swore to destroy, and the lord you intended to trample beneath your feet, my esteemed 'Lord' Hamid."
The efreeti noble trembled violently, stammering under his breath, "A g-great wyrm... No, he's even bigger than a great wyrm red dragon!"
"Damn it, how could such an entity exist on the Material Plane?! A red dragon like this belongs in Baator, at Tiamat's side!"
Hamid looked up, his fiery-red face draining pale as a strained, desperate smile forced its way across his features.
"Lord Dragon, I believe... there may be a misunderstanding between us."
"Your subordinates must have misunderstood..." he pleaded, offering a feeble explanation.
Cassius only inclined his head, eyeing the efreeti's nervous face, and let out a scoff.
"A misunderstanding?"
"I don't see any misunderstanding."
The red dragon's voice grew heavier and more resonant, shifting steadily from airy mockery to burning wrath.
"Arrogant, ignorant efreeti. I see no misunderstanding. What I see is you hurling insults at me, hunting down my followers, and laying siege to my army..."
"I intended to offer you one final chance at redemption, yet to my face you heaped insults upon me, plotted to destroy my realm, and even dreamed of grinding me under your heel!"
By now, his voice rolled like thunderous peals, echoing loudly through the brass palace.
"I came bearing the goodwill of my empire, seeking cooperation between our people—and you chose, without hesitation, to make yourself my enemy!"
"Then I shall make you and your subjects pay the price you so richly deserve!"
"ROAAAR—!"
The dragon's roar shattered the air across the entire city.
His torrential Frightful Presence washed outward, subjecting every living creature in the city to a soul-crushing dread.
Whether it was the laboring slaves—fire dwarves, salamanders, and fire giants—or the whip-wielding efreet overseers, a visceral tremor seized every heart.
"Run!"
"Protect Lord Emir!"
"That is not a foe we can stand against!"
Inside the hall, pandemonium erupted as the efreet scattered in sheer terror.
Efreet were a fierce and valiant race, but faced with a red dragon of this magnitude, even the boldest warrior would lose their nerve and flee headlong.
The efreet took to the air one after another, their lower bodies dissolving into swirling plumes of gray smoke and burning embers.
And as the most powerful among them, the noble Hamid was flying desperately at the very front, shouting in a panic:
"Guards! Cover me!"
"Don't let him catch up!"
He flew with exceptional speed, a testament to the potent spellcasting prowess befitting an efreeti aristocrat.
Cassius was in no hurry to devour this feast. Unhurriedly, he unfurled his wings, then parted his jaws.
Wuuuum—!
Instantly, a surging vortex of magic coalesced within his maw, saturating the palace with an immense gravitational pull—Dragon Absorption once more.
"No—!"
"The suction is too strong!"
"Lord Emir, I can't hold on! Help me!"
The few efreeti guards covering the rear strained to fly away, but were inexorably dragged toward the black-hole-like tempest of spellcraft.
"Aaaagh!"
"My life for the Great Sultan!"
"Lord of Flames! Die, you cursed reptile!"
Seeing escape was impossible, the efreeti guards roared in defiance and launched a desperate counterattack in their final moments.
Scimitars slashed, arrows whistled through the air, and searing bursts of flame hurtled forward.
Yet against this terrifyingly monstrous red dragon, none of it had any effect; it didn't even amount to an itch.
Chhh—!
A sound like tearing air crackled outward.
Cassius unleashed a torrent of raging flame, submerging the efreet completely.
"No—!"
"How could I be consumed by fire...?"
"I don't want to perish..."
As incarnations of elemental spirits, efreet had nothing to fear from ordinary flame.
Yet as a progenitor dragon, Cassius's breath weapon possessed a superior magical nature, capable of absorbing the efreet's very essence and assimilating it as his own.
In just a few breaths' time, the breath fire burned on, raging even fiercer, while the efreet had already vanished without a trace.
Even their weapons had melted into liquid, dripping onto the floor.
"Ssshh—"
Cassius drew the flames back in. Feeling the surge of energy swelling within him, he licked his jowls in satisfaction.
"Just ordinary efreet yield this much energy..."
"Then what about that so-called noble...?"
The red dragon fixed his pale golden pupils on the efreeti noble who hadn't made it far, greed glinting in his gaze.
For these efreet, who treated all living things as enemies or slaves, he felt not a shred of pity.
The slavers enslaved.
The exploiters devoured.
Such was the natural order of things.
What was more, after recalling certain intelligence from his past life and confirming the state of that "Great Sultan," Cassius had even less reason to hold back.
"D-Damn it..."
"Lord of Flames above, they were eaten!"
"He actually dared do this!"
Hamid flew for dear life. Listening to the dying shrieks of his efreeti guards behind him, he was overcome with pure terror.
Chapter 446