Through the ravines of the mountain range, melted snow surged with wild abandon. Scalding steam drifted among the Anstica Mountains, turning the snowy peaks into what seemed like a celestial realm shrouded in clouds—yet the roar of dragons shattered it all.
"Roar!"
Amidst the churning mists, two colossal behemoths clashed in brutal combat. Their mountain-like silhouettes flickered through the vapor, shaking the very earth beneath them.
The Abyssal dragon snapped its wings, unleashing howling gales before swiping a gargantuan claw down toward the crimson figure.
Yet the blow struck only empty air. Mid-flight, the red dragon flapped his wings with explosive force, banking sharply to evade the thunderous swipe before plunging back into the mist.
"Boom!"
The mountains groaned as shattered rock sprayed in all directions. The Abyssal dragon's claw smashed into the mountainside.
Under this mountain-shaking force, boulders tumbled one after another from the summit, sending snow cascading in a cataclysmic avalanche and gouging an outrageous claw mark dozens of meters wide into the slope.
Jerlazax's deep, pitch-black eyes flared with a murky, sinister glow, scattering the cloud cover. This was the gaze of the Abyss, allowing him to perceive the true essence of all things.
"I see you..."
The Abyssal dragon muttered under its breath, glaring intently at the rolling clouds. His gaze penetrated the shroud of mist, locking directly onto the red dragon's position.
*Whoosh—*
Two crimson rays surging with chaotic power burst from those draconic eyes, blasting straight toward the red dragon hundreds of meters away.
Cassius pulled his body tight and swept his wings with explosive force. Tail held stiff and straight, he shot across the terrain like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, turning into a crimson afterimage and whipping up torrents of scorching gale.
Jerlazax whipped his head around, and the twin crimson rays tracked close behind, yet they couldn't even catch the tip of the red dragon's tail. Instead, they slammed relentlessly into the rock face.
The crimson light detonated in a string of terrifying explosions, disintegrating the solid bedrock wherever the rays passed in an instant.
"Rumble—!"
At once, the mountains cried out in agony. Shrapnel erupted into the air, and multiple peaks were severed at the waist, collapsing one after another and throwing up billows of dust.
At this moment, the Anstica Mountains resembled peerless giants standing between heaven and earth, slaughtered without mercy by that Abyssal dragon.
Scalding magma welled up where the rays had swept, dark-red rivers of molten rock creeping through the mountain ruins like the vibrant crimson blood of fallen giants.
Only distant Thierry Peak still stood tall and proud, unyielding in its majesty as the "King of the Snow Mountains."
*Tsk, tsk. Power of this caliber...*
Even Cassius couldn't resist glancing back, inwardly startled by the destructive might of those crimson rays.
Given the devastating potency, even with his current physical frame, taking a direct hit would likely leave him gravely injured and unfit to continue the battle.
Yet with Cassius's current mobility, combined with the predictive foresight of the Cataclysmic Dragon Eye, even a demon lord manifesting as an Abyssal dragon found it extraordinarily difficult to land a hit on him.
*Truly terrifying!*
The instant the rays were about to brush the tip of his tail, Cassius snapped his wings wide.
Every cord of muscle across the red dragon bulged. Pitching his massive frame almost completely perpendicular to the ground, he rocketed upward hundreds of meters in the span of a breath, trailing a cascade of sonic booms.
Cassius continued ascending through the high sky, carving out an elegant arc.
Immediately after, he flipped inverted, diving headfirst as he slowly parted his jaws. The dragon crystal embedded in his chest flared to life once more.
*Crackle!*
With the sharp pop of air rupturing, a pillar of incandescent white fire erupted from his mouth. Like divine retribution falling from the heavens, it struck straight toward the crown of the Abyssal dragon's head.
"Awoo—!"
The Abyssal dragon howled in fury, wrenching its head aside while conjuring thick plumes of chaotic smoke to surge upward into a mottled shield, blocking the falling pillar of flame.
Yet the red dragon's breath weapon was devastatingly potent, still carrying a thread of divine Order within it. It bored straight through the dense layers of mist and smashed directly against the Abyssal dragon's neck.
"Boom!"
A tremendous explosion tore right beside the Abyssal dragon's head, charring hundreds of its scales black and exposing rotting, purplish-black flesh. From the wound, pus and blood welled forth alongside curling tendrils of black smoke.
He had actually been injured!
"Hah, hah..."
Jerlazax heaved heavy breaths. Wisps of dark smoke curled from his deep eyes, and foul-smelling mist leaked between the seams of his jaws.
It was clear that unleashing rays of such intensity took a heavy toll even on this Abyssal dragon.
By now, the Anstica Mountains had been reduced to a devastated wasteland—strewn with shattered peaks, flowing lava, boiling water, and suffused everywhere with toxic Abyssal vapors.
Countless winged demons spawned from the shadows and chaos, flying erratically through the sky like grotesque swarms of dark storm clouds.
The Abyssal dragon, stretching nearly two hundred meters long, raised its head once more. Opening its abyssal maw, it let out a prolonged, wrathful roar.
Under this chaotic sound wave, an invisible blast wave swept outward for thousands of meters, churning up rolling clouds of dust across the land.
"Come forth, spawn of the Abyss! I command you—devour this pitiful red dragon!
"Drag him into the embrace of the Abyss! Turn him into nourishment for demons, and return all things to the ultimate chaos of the end!"
Instantly, the hundreds of thousands of winged demons summoned by Jerlazax throughout the Anstica Mountains went into a frenzied uproar.
"Kill him! Kill him!"
"The will of the Abyss is watching us!"
"Tear this reptile to shreds and we will receive the blessing of the Abyss! We might even ascend into balors!"
"Before Lord Jerlazax, before the demons of the Abyss, this red dragon will be torn to ribbons! Strip his scales, feast on his flesh!"
They beat their bat-like wings in chaotic frenzy, shrieking raucously as they vented their malice against all living creation.
Coalescing into a black cloud that blotted out the sky, the demons converged from every direction, surging toward the red dragon like an unstoppable tide.
Cassius hovered in midair, beating his vast wings. A glint of irritation flickered within his pale gold vertical pupils.
"A rabble like you thinks it can stand against me?"
A thunderous, booming voice reverberated across the heavens, completely drowning out the cacophony of tens of thousands of demons.
Amidst the dragon's roars and the demons' shrieks, radiant spells streaked across the sky, and an endless sea of fire spread outward, sending charred demons raining down like hail.
The red dragon tore through the demonic tide, reaping lives like a mobile tempest of thunder and flame.
With every breath, every sweep of his claws, and every whip of his tail, swaths of demons were obliterated, sending hundreds plummeting from the sky.
Furthermore, the souls of the demons Cassius slaughtered were devoured entirely, robbed even of the chance to reform within the Abyssal blood pools.
Yet driven by Jerlazax's absolute command and whipped into a frenzy by the will of the Abyss, the demons threw themselves forward in relentless waves, heedless of the corpses raining around them.
"Roar—!"
Another brilliant beam of flame bored through the swarm, flash-boiling the surrounding air and reducing thousands of demons to ash in a heartbeat.
Yet there were simply too many demons, swarming in from every angle. Even when killed, their decaying remains vented pungent bursts of chaotic energy.
Far away amidst the ruins, the nearly two-hundred-meter-long Abyssal dragon coiled across the land like a winding mountain range, the ground rising and falling in rhythm with his heavy breathing.
Jerlazax watched the red dragon battling the swarm, a twisted grin spreading across his murky eyes.
"Across timescales measured in tens of thousands of years, no one can truly resist the power of the Abyss, Cassius. With all the slaughter you have wrought...
"Heh, isn't that supreme bloodline in your veins boiling, hungering for ever more blood?"
***
Meanwhile, on the fringes of the Anstica Mountains, Pablicheko, who had journeyed from afar, watched the battle unfolding in the sky.
"By Bahamut...
"Is this... the true power of the Cinder Emperor?"
Watching the red dragon stand alone against tens of thousands of demons, his expression grew increasingly solemn.
After all, both the Cinder Emperor and the Abyssal dragon possessed the might to tear the order of the Feanso Continent apart. What was more, that very red dragon had grievously wounded his respected elder brother.
Pablicheko hesitated over whether he should step in to assist. In the vast sky, the red dragon appeared terribly isolated.
Suddenly, a slightly raspy female voice sounded from behind the silver-bearded elder.
"Brother Oszedro has already witnessed all this. He believes this Abyssal dragon is a calamity that threatens the entirety of the Material Plane.
"Regardless of whether this Cinder Emperor is a tyrant, at this very moment, as a denizen of the Material Plane, he deserves our full support."
Pablicheko turned around to see a woman who appeared to be in her forties, bearing pointed elven ears. She leaned firmly on a staff, her tone resolute.
"Pablicheko... do not let momentary hatred cloud your eyes. Do not forget our clan's mission."
She, too, was an elder of Melvold—the female wyrm silver dragon, Imelda Guard Melvold.
Together with the remaining two male wyrm silver dragons, she was revered as one of the "Three Pillars" of Clan Melvold, having safeguarded justice and order across the Feanso Continent for centuries.
Behind Imelda, dozens of silver dragons beat their wings, their burnished, plate-like wing membranes gleaming in the firelight as if capable of piercing through the distant gloom.
"I understand."
Pablicheko exchanged a glance with Imelda. They nodded to one another and took to the skies in perfect unison, transforming into two silver behemoths nearly thirty meters long, their wings whipping up howling gales.
Yet this was only the beginning. The wyrm silver dragon raised the silver-gleaming staff held within her claw, opening several extraplanar portals.
Gold dragons, brass dragons, astral devas, balisse angels, stag archons, warden archons, and numerous other benevolent beings of the Upper Planes poured forth, charging headlong toward the surging demonic tide over Anstica.
And even that was not all. With ripples in the fabric of space, massive teleportation portals native to this plane materialized out of thin air.
"For His Majesty Cassius!"
"Long live the Cinder Empire!"
"Quick! To His Majesty's aid!"
From the largest portal emerged the Ogre Archmage Trump, Hobgoblin Marshal Duoluo, Mezrolash the Oathbreaker, Alger the Redscale Conqueror, Misha the Daughter of Dragonfire, and Smaug, chieftain of the wyverns...
A host of "great figures" famous across the Empire appeared on the battlefield, tensely observing the distant clash between dragon and demons.
Trump gripped his staff tightly, murmuring under his breath as he stared at the mountain-sized, dark-red dragon in the distance.
"A two-hundred-meter-long dragon..."
As a spellcaster, he understood all too well what that meant. Under the ancient order of the gods, dragons of such scale had long since vanished from the Material Plane, existing only within the Astral void.
Reaching two hundred meters signified at least a quasi-deity entity, or perhaps even something from legend—a dragon god.
Yet Trump felt not the slightest tremor of fear. Instead, his heart pounded fiercely, and a stirring, epic crescendo seemed to resonate through his mind.
*Master will triumph, just as he always has. And after this legendary battle, he will ascend as a truly supreme being.*
The Ogre Archmage reflected quietly.
Immediately after, tens of thousands of players flooded out from the portals.
Most had attained Level 8, with quite a few having broken through to Level 10. They were already entitled to be called "Transcendent," serving as the backbone of the Cinder Empire.
"Roar—"
Mantou flew out from the portal astride a wyvern. Staring at the apocalyptic clash in the distance, he was utterly stunned.
"Holy crap...
"So this is the real final boss fight! That balor wasn't even warm-up!"
The other players were equally awestruck, blurting out whatever crossed their minds.
"This scale is absolutely insane! I'm hyped!"
"Elezerg is peak!"
"Emperor Cass is invincible!"
Across the horizon, hundreds of thousands of winged demons choked the skies like a pitch-black shroud, or a churning, spotted tide.
Yet that red dragon, the renowned Cinder Emperor, roared as he turned the surrounding sky into an inferno, sending charred demon carcasses raining down one after another.
Down below, the earth was an utter ruin, crisscrossed by rivers of molten lava and strewn with jagged rock. Entire mountains had collapsed, and that colossal dark-red dragon stretched across hundreds of meters, coiled upon the wasteland.
High above, Imelda swept her great silver wings, raised the silver staff in her claw, and let out a wrathful roar.
"To all of you—for the radiant order of Feanso! For world peace and stability, drive the demons from the Material Plane!"
Instantly, celestial beings clad in golden vestments and feathered wings, alongside metallic dragons covered in gleaming scales, charged toward Anstica, launching an assault against the ubiquitous demons.
On the Empire's side, Trump shouted at the top of his lungs, "For His Majesty Cassius! For the glorious vision of the Cinder Empire! Annihilate these remaining fiends!"
"Roar!"
"Charge!"
"Twenty-year Monster Hunter veteran requesting deployment!"
"I'm taking on the big boss! Boys, it's time to give this Abyssal dragon a pedicure!"
Dragon-Pact Sorcerers, dragon-blessed paladins, Redscale Conquerors, the Cinder Wyvern Legion... all the middle- and high-tier forces of the Empire charged into the demonic horde.
In an instant, holy radiance, arrows, dragonfire, and magical auras crisscrossed the heavens, immediately punching a massive breach through the left flank of the demons converging on Cassius.
"Awoo—!"
Before the demons could even pounce on the red dragon, beams of brilliant holy light struck them, sending them plummeting from the sky.
The Empire's vassals, celestial beings, and metallic dragons struck in unison against the fiends, while the players even blasted their epic battle BGM through their sound systems.
Chapter 535