Favored of the Gods

"Impossible!" Ed's voice was firm and resounding with iron conviction. Raising his warhammer toward Misha, he roared in fury, "We shield dwarves were born from the fires of the forge! Our bones are harder than the finest tempered steel, and we will never bow to wicked fiends! Even if I die today, hundreds of years from now our descendants will reclaim what is ours and take their vengeance upon that evil dragon!" Misha seemed to have anticipated his unyielding defiance. She merely arched an eyebrow without anger, remarking coldly, "Since you refuse to see reason, don't blame us for showing no mercy. Whatever you claim to be—scions of the mountains, children of the earth, or blood of the sun god—before the Cinder Empire, you are nothing more than a pile of ash waiting to burn!" *Roaaar!* Smaug let out a deafening howl, snarling at Ed, "Miss Misha, don't waste words on this wretched dwarf! Kill him!" Misha gave a slight nod. Closing her eyes for a fleeting second, she opened them to reveal golden slit pupils blazing with dazzling radiance. High in the air above, an illusory draconic eye materialized. It was the Cataclysmic Dragon Eye, capable of granting brief glimpses into the future and serving as a conduit for dragon breath. In the next instant, broad dragon wings snapped open behind her back. A nearly tangible draconic aura erupted from her person, and scales resembling crushed stardust began swirling about her form. Energy Scales, Enhance Ability, Draconic Agility, Protection from Energy, Aerial Maneuverability... a full suite of enhancements enveloped her in radiant layers—the very same buff routine Cassius had once relied upon. "What an astonishingly powerful sorcerer..." Feeling the immense surge of magical ripples, Ed could not help tightening his grip on his warhammer, muttering under his breath. Focusing every scrap of his attention, Ed threw himself entirely into the battle. The threat posed by this seemingly fragile young woman far surpassed that of the colossal, grotesque wyvern. A violent gale churned with sand and stone once more, blurring the dwarf king's surroundings and awakening the earth elemental energy in the soil beneath him. Looking down upon Ed from on high, Misha extended a slender hand. A massive, searing fireball formed within her palm, and her voice rang out with chilling indifference: "Those who defy the empire... shall be destroyed!" *Boom!* A scorching column of fire tore through the air like divine retribution falling from the heavens, surging straight toward the dark silhouette within the dust storm. It was the eighth-circle spell—Sunburst! Empowered by her dragon bloodline and the Child of the Elements gift, Misha's Sunburst rivaled ninth-circle magic in pure destructive force, warping the air into a shimmering haze. High above, Smaug swooped down as well, baring his fangs and claws as he plunged into the sandstorm, eager to avenge the strike he had suffered moments ago. *Crack!* Ed touched his warhammer to the ground. His body dissolved seamlessly into the soil, vanishing deep into the bedrock like a diver slipping beneath the ocean surface, darting rapidly through the stone. Earth Glide! Both Misha's Sunburst and Smaug's diving assault struck empty air, leaving behind nothing but a crater of bubbling molten rock. Though Ed had vanished without a trace, Misha did not panic in the slightest. Guided by the future vision of the Cataclysmic Dragon Eye, she foresaw his next move with absolute clarity and prepared her counter. *Boom!* Sure enough, the ground beneath Misha violently fractured. A jagged, massive blade of stone thrust upward from the earth, closely followed by the dwarf king swinging his warhammer with crushing fury! "Die, dragon minion!" Yet Misha was already waiting. Snapping her broad wings, she surged skyward while whipping up a scorching gale, conjuring a roiling storm of incandescent ash in the upper air. Incendiary Cloud! The scalding vapor seared Ed's eyes and choked off his vision, buying Misha the opening she needed to unleash an even more terrifying spell. Pointing a slender finger toward the heavens, she swept her hand downward, golden slit pupils ablaze with fire. *Whoosh—* Amidst the mournful wail of tearing skies, blazing meteors plunged vertically toward the earth, unleashing an apocalyptic explosion spanning a hundred meters wide, reducing everything caught within the Incendiary Cloud to cinder and dust. The ninth-circle spell—Meteor Swarm! *Rumble—* The earth groaned and shuddered, and the entirety of Evindeldan shook violently upon its foundations. Burning rocks rained down in all directions. Choking black smoke swallowed the sky, while roiling clouds of boiling vapor blanketed the earth, streaked with trailing embers and dancing sparks like a scene straight out of doomsday. "By the gods..." "King Ed!" The dwarves still fiercely defending the ramparts of Evindeldan were drawn by the earth-shattering commotion. Their eyes, reflecting the distant inferno, were filled with agonizing worry and dread. "*Grawr!* That dwarf must have been blasted into nothingness!" Watching the carnage, Smaug lashed his tail, letting out a gleeful hiss. Yet Misha's expression remained stern. Shaking her head, she cautioned, "No, he won't die that easily. This fight... is far from over." A sharp, pungent stench filled the air, thick with the metallic reek of deep earthen mines. Within the heavy smoke, a familiar silhouette still stood tall. A deep, gravelly voice echoed from within: "I told you... dwarves are born from the forge of Father Moradin, and we never fear fire! Shield dwarves never yield!" *Boom!* The figure within the haze thrust his warhammer skyward and roared like thunder. A howling gale swept across the battlefield, shredding the smoke to nothing. In its place arose a terrifying sandstorm—a swirling vortex of rock and earth tearing through everything within a hundred meters. Narrowing her eyes, Misha peered through the Cataclysmic Dragon Eye to discern Ed's true state. Ed still maintained the shape of a dwarf, but his flesh and skin had been replaced by solid, unyielding rock. Having just endured Misha's devastating bombardment, slow streams of magma crept across his stony hide, embedded with shimmering gems and precious ore veins. Scorching white steam hissed from the fissures in his rocky skin, making him look like some mutated thoqqua. Yet unlike those mindless aberrations born of the deep earth, the Ed standing before them was more like a master of the mountains and the soil, radiating demigod-like might. Seeing this, Misha offered a quiet warning: "Careful. His body has undergone complete earth elemental transformation. Stay off the ground and keep flying. And remain vigilant—to slay a creature like that, you must destroy his elemental core. Severing limbs won't stop him." "Understood, Miss Misha," Smaug replied hurriedly, beating his wings to gain altitude. Looking down at the colossal spectacle wrought by the dwarf, even the giant wyvern felt a pang of trepidation. Misha continued her instructions, "Don't worry. All you need to do is buy time. He cannot maintain this state for long. Without divine spark to anchor him, his consciousness will soon be swallowed by the immutable laws of the earth." "Splendid! Then we'll just wait for this little dwarf to dig his own grave!" *Boom!* *Crash! Rumble!* The sandstorm expanded relentlessly, claiming ever more territory. Huge boulders plummeted from above one after another, gouging jagged craters into the scarred earth. High in the air, Misha and Smaug twisted and veered, dodging the barrage of falling rocks as roaring thunder echoed from the heart of the storm once more. "I gave my flesh, my soul, my very being to these mountains! For thousands of years past, and for thousands of years to come, we shield dwarves are the eternal masters of this realm! Get off my land!" *Boom!* The ground ruptured open. A colossal hand formed of solid stone lunged up from the depths, grasping straight for the wyvern in midair. Smaug beat his wings with all his might, barely evading the crushing fingers. Even so, he was caught in the fringes of the sandstorm, howling in agony as the dust and gravel whipped across his hide. *Skreee—* A hail of falling stones rained toward the wyvern. Smaug dodged frantically, but a jagged rock shredded through his wing membrane, tearing several bloody holes through it. At the same time, Ed surged atop a rising pillar of rock. Raising a stone warhammer dozens of meters long, he brought it down toward the wyvern's skull with crushing fury. "Damn dwarf!" Smaug thrashed wildly with claws and fangs. Pushed to the brink of death, the dragon blood in his veins boiled over, unlocking an unimaginable surge of dormant power. A blinding light erupted across the wyvern's chest like a pulsing sun, and from his gullet poured forth a torrent of heat unlike anything he had ever produced before. *Whoosh!* The blistering flame turned the towering rock black, cracking it open into hollow pits. Fire poured from the rapidly expanding fissures until a massive portion of the stone weapon burned away, groaning and crumbling into dust. Seeing this, Smaug snarled with venomous glee, "I'll burn you to cinders! Behold the power my master granted me!" Flames erupted once more, but Ed merely scowled in fury, bellowing, "Ignorant beast, you know nothing of the true power of the earth and the mountains!" *Rumble!* The ground split apart again. Massive stone spikes jutted upward toward the heavens, thrusting straight toward Smaug's vulnerable underbelly. Smaug had no time to keep breathing fire. Flapping his wings frantically, he darted back and forth to evade the spears of rock. Yet his desperate struggle was not in vain—it had bought Misha precious time. An ancient, melodious chant of Draconic resonated across the upper sky, drawing Ed's gaze upward. "*You are the sole sovereign of the Great Anzetta Waste, the supreme Emperor of the Cinder Empire, Lord of Calamity who commands the thunder and the flame...*" Hundreds of meters above, Misha stood with her eyes closed, murmuring the incantation as her crimson hair whipped wildly behind her like tongues of living fire. *Flash—* Misha snapped her eyes open, her pale golden slit pupils flashing with breathtaking intensity. In an instant, an overwhelming, near-physical draconic aura washed over the realm, pressing down heavily upon the shoulders of every living creature within a thousand meters. A scorching tempest swept the plains as an endless sea of fire erupted outward, painting half the heavens in brilliant hues of orange and blazing crimson. "What... what is that?" "Moradin preserve us..." "By the gods!" The dwarven defenders looked on in utter terror, their hearts racing as they stared toward the eye of the storm. Behind the dragonborn girl loomed the colossal phantom of a red dragon, its immense wings blotting out the sky, making all creation tremble beneath its gaze. In stark contrast, the imperial ranks erupted into wild fervor. Their morale soared to unprecedented heights, and both officers and soldiers pressed the assault with ferocious zeal, cheering at the tops of their lungs: "For the Cinder Empire! For His Majesty Cassius!" "Forward! Take the fortress! His Majesty watches over us!" The soldiers burst spontaneously into song, and soon the stirring melody of the *Hymn of Cassius* echoed along the battered walls of Evindeldan. Down on the wasteland battlefield, Ed's sandstorm dissolved beneath the scorching tempest, raining fragments of shattered rock and dust harmlessly to the ground. Smaug tore himself free from the grasping earth, beating his wings in midair as he crowed smugly, "Dwarf, struck dumb with terror, aren't you? Behold the majesty of the Emperor!" Ed lifted his head. Fearlessly meeting the gaze of the draconic phantom high above, his expression grew somber, and he murmured, "So this is our enemy... the Cinder Emperor himself..." Misha looked down upon the dwarf, flames dancing within her golden slit pupils, while the phantom of the great red dragon stared down in tandem. "Submit to the empire, or perish—this is your final chance." A voice rang through the heavens, clear and melodious like a young woman's, yet utterly cold and devoid of warmth. At this moment, Misha's body was no longer her own; it was channeled and governed by the Emperor tens of thousands of li away. Cassius knew it was nearly impossible to bring this Lord of the Mountain to his knees, but there was no harm in testing his resolve. If nothing else, he might probe the deeper secrets of the dwarven realm. "Never!" the dwarf king barked, rejecting the offer without a heartbeat of hesitation. Misha—or rather, Cassius—sneered, "Ed, why be so stubborn? Look around you. Because of your pigheaded pride, Evindeldan has been reduced to rubble. Your people have been slaughtered, and barely a handful remain..." Guided by the voice, Ed could not help looking around the battlefield. The once-magnificent fortress of Evindeldan, the very pinnacle of dwarven craftsmanship and architectural genius, was now scarred beyond recognition. Under the relentless barrage of imperial artillery, broken walls and shattered rubble lay strewn everywhere. Dwarven bodies were piled together, blood pooling to stain the stone ramparts crimson. An army that once numbered ten thousand was now reduced to fewer than eight hundred souls. And the imperial onslaught showed no sign of slowing. Even those final eight hundred brave warriors would soon be overwhelmed and cut down by the fanatical imperial legions. Was all of this... truly worth it? A flicker of doubt brushed against Ed's heart, but it was extinguished in the next breath, replaced by unshakeable resolve. The Mountain Kingdom was not dead. He still had Zayn, and he had the shield dwarves who had evacuated into the tunnels. They would keep the flame of dwarven civilization burning, and one day, they would return to reclaim their ancestral home. As for Ed himself, he would use his life to prove the fortitude and valor of the shield dwarves, ensuring the spirit of their forefathers would never be forgotten! "Dream on, you son of a bitch! You orc-bred mongrel, shameless drow-wretched whore—" Ed unleashed a torrent of furious curses, venting the rage that had burned in his chest for days, spewing every foul obscenity known to the dwarven tongue. Finally, the dwarf king straightened his back with solemn pride. Pointing his warhammer toward the crimson phantom in the sky, he roared the words he had lived by: "Evil dragon! Shield dwarves never kneel! The Mountain Kingdom will never yield!" Misha's gaze turned chillingly detached. Raising her hand slowly, she answered, "Very well. Then take your kingdom—and walk together into oblivion!" *Boom—* In a flash of blinding brilliance, radiant flames illuminated half the world.