*Whoosh!*
Cassius beat his wings and took to the sky in an instant. Boundless flames surged from his throat—Chaos Fire, the Flame of Order, primordial fire essence, the divine power of multiple deities... disparate energies intertwined once more.
They collided, tangled, and reacted, ultimately unleashing terrifying fluctuations of law. Within that breath, miniature universes seemed to continuously spark into being and extinguish.
To slay the avatar of this greater deity, Cassius had held nothing back.
Even his fundus vessels were lit by the violent blaze, their radiance shining through his body to coat the red dragon in a hazy, shimmering layer of golden light.
"Damned reptile..."
Gruumsh could sense the dreadful might of the breath. He felt, faintly, that this synthesized power of chaos and order could actually devour divine energy!
The orc god swung His battleaxe, seeking to cleave space itself and flash aside to evade.
Yet Dumathoin's gaze was fixed on Gruumsh. In a fraction of a second, the Silent Keeper made up His mind—Gruumsh could not be allowed to leave here alive!
A resolute light ignited in Dumathoin's eyes. He slammed the Magma Hammer heavily against the earth, the hammerhead erupting in brilliant, blinding divine brilliance.
*Boom!*
In an instant, the ground convulsed and dust billowed as countless massive fissures ripped across the terrain.
Towering pillars of stone pierced through the surface and surged into the sky, forming a colossal hand that trapped Gruumsh's avatar within.
Each stone pillar radiated an earthen-yellow divine light, heavy with immense power of the earth, effortlessly sealing the surrounding space and preventing Gruumsh from departing.
"You overestimate yourself, Dumathoin! Did you truly think you could stop Me?!" Gruumsh roared, His face twisting with savagery. He swept His battleaxe horizontally.
Carrying a bloody divine glow, the axe sheared through the stone pillars at their waists in an instant, sending them tumbling in thunderous collapse.
He was, after all, a greater deity. Even with Dumathoin's full might, He could not be trapped outright—merely delayed for a fleeting moment.
Yet that single moment was enough for Cassius to finish gathering his power and unleash his cataclysmic breath upon Gruumsh.
Gruumsh looked up, only to find the red dragon's silhouette submerged in a blaze as dazzling as the sun. Searing heat swallowed the surrounding space in a breath, and countless pillars of flame rained from the sky like divine punishment descending upon the mortal world!
*Boom!*
Gruumsh's expression contorted with fury. A towering pillar of blood-red light erupted from His massive single eye, clashing head-on against the red dragon's flames.
For a time, the sky was engulfed by Gruumsh's divine domain. Scarlet light flooded every direction, creating a barrier that even Cassius struggled to pierce in the slightest.
The dragonfire—laden with the laws of order, chaos, fire, and the sun—clashed with and canceled out the bloody divine power, churning up terrifying currents of turbulent law where the two met.
At this moment, the orc god and the red dragon seemed like two colossal celestial bodies, radiating their own light and heat as they contested dominion over heaven and earth.
Yet Gruumsh was a deity of greater divine rank. His stature was simply too elevated. Even though Cassius gave everything he had, he was still gradually suppressed, teetering on the verge of collapse.
In the next breath, Dumathoin let out an enraged roar and raised the Magma Hammer high, bringing it down toward Gruumsh with all His might.
Shattered boulders soared from the ground, and in the heavens materialized a heavy hammer hundreds of meters long, forged of divine light and stone, hurtling ruthlessly down upon the Orc God.
*Boom!*
Once again, two titans of power collided. The violent shockwave expanded thousands of meters in a heartbeat, flinging sand, stone, and dirt high into the air and whipping up a storm that swept the land.
Beneath the combined, relentless assault of Cassius and Dumathoin, fine cracks finally spiderwebbed across the membrane of bloody divine light before it shattered entirely, dissolving into countless motes of radiance.
Cassius's breath struck Gruumsh squarely. The orc god's towering, hulking form was instantly drowned in a torrent of flames, and Dumathoin brought His heavy hammer crashing down upon the blurred silhouette within the blaze...
Flames surged to the heavens in an inferno of billowing smoke. The blistering heat threatened to liquefy the surface of the earth, sending streams of magma crawling across the ground.
The fire pouring from the red dragon's maw still cascaded like a waterfall. He plunged through the sea of flames, raking with his talons and sweeping with his colossal tail, leveling knolls with casual blows.
Dumathoin's heavy hammer struck the earth again and again; sometimes crags thrust upward, and sometimes bedrock cracked wide open. The earth convulsed violently, groaning in muffled agony as vast chasms split its surface.
Under the tempestuous onslaught of Cassius and Dumathoin, everything in the vicinity suffered indiscriminate ruin. This was no longer merely a natural disaster—it was a world-ending cataclysm!
Eventually, Cassius landed heavily on the scorched earth, panting for breath. The flames swirling around him sputtered out, and the dragon crystal at his chest gradually dimmed. He had expended far too much energy; even with the formidable physique of a progenitor dragon, he could not recover immediately.
Dumathoin also stepped back warily, heavy shield and hammer in hand, His eyes locked onto the dense smoke as He braced for another charge from the orc god.
The thick smoke gradually drifted away. Upon the devastated earth, the Orc God still stood tall.
Yet He was covered in wounds—burns, blunt-force fractures, and shattered plate armor left Him looking battered and disheveled.
"You... shall both die!"
Gruumsh's face twisted as He let out a low snarl. Under an eruption of divine power, His body surged once more and His wounds healed at terrifying speed, His entire form radiating bloody brilliance that swallowed the sky.
Such was the avatar of a greater deity! Even an attack capable of sundering heaven and earth could not destroy Him; it only drove Him into a frenzy, making Him all the more terrifying.
*Rumble—*
Beneath the gale of that divine storm, fine lacerations opened across the bodies of both Cassius and Dumathoin.
Whether dragon scale or stone, both were torn open with ease. The bloody divine light continuously ate into their flesh, burrowing deep.
*As expected of the chief deity of the orcs. Even if it's only an avatar, he's far beyond what I can overcome on my own...*
Watching Gruumsh at the eye of the storm, Cassius licked the scalding blood from the corner of his maw, sighing inwardly.
Even joining forces with Dumathoin's avatar and exhausting every trick, they could not truly destroy Him.
Fortunately... the all-out war between the dwarven and orc pantheons was still raging. Gruumsh had to keep His attention on the Outer Planes.
As the war intensified, even the sliver of divine power and will invested in this avatar would have to be recalled by Gruumsh's true body.
"Lowly reptile, I will sever your head, I will rip your—" Gruumsh's furious diatribe cut off abruptly. His single eye suddenly flashed with an irrepressible jolt of shock and fury.
The dwarves again!
Taking advantage of His divided attention, the dwarven deities had launched a counteroffensive, and their vanguard was already nearing the Eternal Battlefield!
If they breached His divine realm, the consequences would be catastrophic! He had to muster every ounce of His power to hold the line!
At that realization, Gruumsh glared venomously at Cassius with His single eye, His gaze so dark and hateful He seemed ready to flay the dragon alive.
He roared, "Cassius, consider yourself lucky! Remember this—when I descend upon this world once more, your death will be at hand!"
Immediately, a beam of bloody divine light surged from the giant orc's crown toward the heavens. Gruumsh's avatar prepared to pierce the boundary between the Material Plane and the Outer Planes to return to His divine realm.
Cassius breathed a sigh of relief, but as he looked up at the pillar of bloody light in the sky, an unmistakable glint of greed suddenly flared in his pale-gold pupils.
Gruumsh held five major portfolios: Orcs, Strife, Survival, Strength, and Territory.
These encompassed domains such as Chaos, Evil, Hatred, Orcs, Strength, and War. Aside from the portfolio exclusive to the orc racial deity, their affinity with Cassius was remarkably high.
A daring idea flashed through his mind: since he had already offended Gruumsh beyond reconciliation, why not take one last desperate gamble? Why not seize this rare opportunity to devour Gruumsh's divine avatar whole?
Without hesitation, Cassius beat his wings with all his might, soaring into the sky under Dumathoin's startled gaze as he gave chase.
Ten thousand meters above, the bloody divine light surged faster and faster, forming the faint visage of an orc within.
To ensure a smooth return to the Outer Planes, this avatar of Gruumsh had abandoned its physical vessel entirely, retaining only pure spirit and divine power.
Yet just as space rippled and the boundary of the world was about to be breached, the red dragon streaked across the firmament like a brilliant comet trailing radiant fire, appearing directly behind Gruumsh's avatar.
"Cassius! You dare seek death?!"
Gruumsh's translucent face twisted through shock, fury, and panic. He tried to condense weapons from His divine power to repel the pursuing red dragon.
Yet having reverted to a pure hybrid of spirit and divine power, His ability to affect the Material Plane was far weaker than when He had possessed Soro's body.
Cassius grinned ferociously, his golden pupils flashing. "Gruumsh, the next time you descend upon this world, you won't just lose an avatar.
"Mark my words—I will see your true body fall! I will wipe the wretched race of orcs from existence!"
*Boom—*
In an instant, an interweaving blaze of dark red and silver-white erupted from his jaws. Two flames of diametrically opposed natures tangled together, gradually emitting a terrifying gravitational pull like a black hole.
In the sky, a variegated dragon of fire hundreds of meters long took shape—the manifestation of his Plunder Breath.
"Damn you! How dare you blaspheme a true god?!"
"Cassius, stop! You will regret this! You cannot withstand my wrath!"
What remained of Gruumsh's divine avatar roared in madness, struggling and thrashing desperately, yet it could not escape the gravitational pull of the Plunder Breath. In the end, the fiery dragon swallowed it whole.
Chaos Fire burned through Gruumsh's divine avatar, reducing it to chaotic, disordered divine power and obliterating Gruumsh's imprint within.
The Flame of Order then brought structure to the energy, causing it to coalesce into a sphere of bloody light ready for Cassius to absorb.
Compared to when the avatar had first descended, however, less than a tenth of its original divine power remained.
"War, strength, survival... what exquisite divine power." Cassius gripped the sphere of bloody light in his talon, his face flushed with exhilaration.
Covered in blood and wounds as he was, the sheer satisfaction of seizing power made all the pain seem utterly insignificant.
Below, Dumathoin stood frozen on the ruined earth, staring up at the sky. He had never imagined the red dragon would be bold enough to devour an avatar of Gruumsh.
Dumathoin knew well that this audacious red dragon posed no small threat to the dwarven race, but for now, He faced an older and far more dangerous foe in Gruumsh.
The red dragon noticed the dwarf deity's gaze. He turned his head and beat his wings, meeting Dumathoin's eyes across the distance.
In that gaze, Cassius could sense a complex mix of surprise, hostility, and apprehension.
Cassius was not surprised by this temporary ally's reaction. After all, only months ago, he had slaughtered the god's worshippers and conquered the city under His protection.
If Dumathoin had let down His guard and offered warm friendship just because of this battle, that would have been truly bizarre.
The corners of Cassius's mouth curved into a polite smile, and he gave a slight nod. "My thanks for your assistance, Lord Dumathoin.
"Please convey my warmest regards to His Majesty Moradin. May He achieve ultimate victory in this millennia-long divine war."
The red dragon's tone was remarkably cordial, as if the dwarves were his dearest allies—and as if he had never slaughtered their people or seized their stronghold.
"..."
The only response was silence.
Finally, Dumathoin gave him a long, searching look. He leaned upon His great hammer, His body sinking into the bedrock as His heavy divine aura vanished completely from the Material Plane.
Dumathoin had departed the Material Plane to return to the pantheon war, where countless dwarves and orcs from across the multiverse would clash in the spatial turbulence.
To true gods, a battle between avatars was nothing more than a game played upon the fragile surface of the mortal world.
...
*Roar—*
A distant roar drifted from the horizon, drowning out the snarls of orcs and the shriek of artillery.
Before the towering walls of the Capital of Wyverns—or rather, Evindeldan—the fierce fighting came to a sudden halt. Orc warriors and imperial soldiers alike ceased their struggle in tacit understanding.
Though the fighting had stopped, the expressions on the orcs' faces were far more tense and anxious than when they had been trading blows—for this concerned the very future of their race.
The orcs lowered their spears, bone clubs, and stone axes; the imperial soldiers lowered their rifles and rocket launchers. Together, they turned their heads toward the source of the sound.
High in the distant sky appeared a colossal red dragon, its immense wings outspread to blot out the sun.
"It's His Majesty Cassius!"
"Long live His Majesty Cassius! Long live the Great Red Dragon!"
Bathed in his radiance, the imperial soldiers grew fervent and reverent. They brandished their weapons, letting out deafening cheers that shook the clouds.
The orcs, by contrast, looked on in despair, their expressions hollow. Weapons slipped from trembling hands; many sank straight to their knees.
Soro had also awakened from the divine possession. Looking around at the devastated battlefield, then gazing up at the red dragon soaring across the distant sky, he felt as though struck by lightning.
He collapsed to his knees with a thud, muttering under his breath, "It's over... everything is over..."
Soro knew with bitter certainty that as of today, the future of the orcs of the Ugo Steppe was shattered beyond repair!
Chapter 681