Watching the red dragon holding aloft a blazing sun and exuding an overwhelming majesty over all living beings, even the proud angelic godbloods wavered in their hearts.
Possessing the divine power of the sun themselves, they could appreciate the grandeur of that sun all the more, feeling the boundless majesty within it that shared the exact same origin as their own.
Within their golden pupils revolving with solar disks, shock, astonishment, and other emotions showed clearly.
"By Amaunator... how could this red dragon possess such pure solar divine power?"
"Could it be...?"
Constrained by their stations, there were many thoughts they could not voice aloud.
Could that red dragon truly be the genuine sun—the earthly incarnation of the Lord of Eternal Radiance?
Could His Majesty Wilhelm, who had forged a pact with Hell, truly have been forsaken by the Sun God, reduced to the god's castoff, a pathetic apostle of devils?
Unlike these deeply conflicted and anguished Thracians, the moment Cassius appeared high in the heavens, every Imperial burst into thunderous cheers, their faces brimming with fanatical, devout adoration.
"Long live His Majesty Cassius!"
"Long live the Great Red Dragon!"
Others gazed upon the sun suspended high in the sky and borne aloft by the red dragon, raising their arms to welcome the light and crying out from the depths of their hearts: "Lord of the Sun! His Majesty Cassius is the true Lord of the Sun!"
"Lord of the Sun!"
"Praise His Majesty Cassius! Praise the Sun!"
The people's roars rose in wave after surging wave, threatening to drown the entire city of Auguste.
Wilhelm stared fixedly at the sun in the sky. In his golden pupils, surprise and furious indignation appeared first, followed by mounting agitation, until they finally twisted into deep, venomous hatred.
He trembled with fury. Even the wings at his back quivered faintly as pristine white feathers drifted through the air. Raising the Spear of Final Judgment, he pointed its sharp tip straight at the distant red dragon.
"Cassius! Put an end to your tricks, you shameless thief who defiles the gods and steals power!"
Cassius saw through him in an instant—Wilhelm was panicking.
After signing a pact with Hell, Wilhelm himself harbored doubts that he had been forsaken by the Sun God and cast aside.
Because of this, he would seize any chance to prove himself, desperate to dispel the deep terror and turmoil within his heart and fill the hollow void consumed by power.
At this thought, the corners of Cassius's mouth curled into a mocking smile.
"Wilhelm, do you truly believe that a pitiful creature consorting with devils like you is still qualified to succeed Holy Fadlan and be a blessed servant of the Sun God?
"Stop deceiving your people and deceiving yourself. From the very moment you cast aside your bottom line and signed a pact with Zariel, you were destined to be abandoned by the Sun God!"
Cassius's voice struck Wilhelm's heart like a heavy hammer, shaking his spirit so violently that he could scarcely compose himself.
"Presumptuous!"
Wilhelm roared in fury. Twin beams of brilliant divine fire erupted from his eyes, and even the radiant wheel behind his back flared with solar flame.
The six wings behind him beat in unison, lifting his armor-clad body soaring into the air until he reached the zenith of the sky, confronting the distant red dragon across the expanse.
"Everyone in this world knows that only I—the Angel King, Lord of the Holy City, Wilhelm, son of Aragorn—am the true heir to Holy Fadlan, the one chosen by the Sun God!
"And only I can restore the Holy Fadlan Empire and spread the Sun God's radiance across the earth once more! For this purpose, sacrificing everything is worth it!"
Wilhelm's voice rang with the same pride and conceit as always, yet beneath it lurked an uncharacteristic edge of frantic irritability.
As hymns swelled, the halo behind this "Angel King" spun incessantly, blazing brighter and brighter to cast forth myriad rays of light.
The solar divine power inside Wilhelm poured out, coalescing high above into a hundred-meter-tall golden angel bearing six wings on its back. It exuded an overwhelming pressure, resembling the true avatar of a deity.
"In the name of the Sun God—despicable dragon, prepare to face judgment!"
The six-winged angel raised the Spear of Final Judgment. In an instant, thousands of spears condensed from radiant light manifested in the sky, densely packed, before hurtling toward the distant red dragon.
The golden angel of Wilhelm's avatar roared, "I bestow upon you death!"
Cassius sneered. "A mere puppet of Zariel dares execute judgment on behalf of the gods? Are you not afraid of meeting true divine punishment?"
To his eyes, Wilhelm had already been tainted by the powers of Hell; very little pure solar divine power remained in his body.
Yet this king still clung to his facade of sanctity, hoping to defeat a red dragon with this feeble trace of solar power. This could no longer be called arrogance—it was sheer delusion.
In that case, Cassius would wage this battle against this "Angel King" using the divine power he had plundered from over a dozen angelic godbloods!
The Blazing Sun Orb behind Cassius suddenly flared, releasing surging torrents of fire and even more brilliant flares of light, staining the entire sky in fiery orange-red.
*Whoosh—*
The red dragon beat his wings with ferocious force, conjuring howling gales. The flames soared skyward, transforming into a towering sea of fire spanning thousands of meters, as if the entire sky were splitting apart beneath such power.
When those thousands of light spears struck the sea of fire, like clay oxen entering the sea, they were devoured completely in an instant, leaving not a trace behind.
"How can this be?!"
Wilhelm's face changed drastically. He gritted his teeth, muttering under his breath, "No, it's just luck. I am God's favored! How can a mere chromatic dragon, a thieving beast that steals the power of others, be worthy..."
With both hands, the six-winged angel spun the Spear of Final Judgment. Seven entwined chains of holy light rattled crisply, forming a magic circle inscribed with the holy symbol of the Sun God.
The miniature sun at the tip of the Spear of Final Judgment floated in the center of the magic circle, growing increasingly dazzling. The surrounding space warped beneath the divine power, giving rise to golden vortices.
*Boom!*
A thick pillar of golden light tore through the heavens, shattering the cloud layers as it erupted from the miniature sun, blasting straight toward the distant red dragon.
*Roar—*
Cassius roared toward the heavens.
Flapping his wings and throwing his head back, a terrifying fusion reaction erupted inside the dragon crystal at his chest, bursting forth with blinding light. Golden torrents of energy surged through the fundus vessels within his body, gathering deep within his throat.
Flowing flames wrapped around Cassius's body, his metallic crimson scales gleaming beneath the radiance, while the surrounding air warped from the incomparable heat.
At this moment, it was as if the red dragon held a true sun within his jaws, poised to unleash that world-incinerating, all-destroying might.
Solar Breath.
A conical deluge of divine power poured from the red dragon's maw like a waterfall of red gold, lighting up half the sky.
*Boom!*
The Solar Breath collided with the divine light of judgment. Two powers born of the same origin clashed and intertwined, sparking a violent explosion hundreds of meters across in midair.
*Whoosh—*
The aftershocks of their clash spawned a terrifying energy storm that swept across the heavens in an instant, expanding out thousands, even tens of thousands of meters.
Any living creature within three hundred meters of the blast—be it human, drake, or hellish puppet—was scorched black in an instant, reduced to heaps of ash.
Those within a thousand meters were battered every which way by the blistering gale, scorch marks blistering across their flesh. They beat their wings frantically and struggled to maintain their levitation spells, barely holding their ground amid the tempest of energy.
Even the soldiers on the ground or tens of thousands of meters away were struck temporarily blind by the piercing glare, feeling only a blast of scorching wind rush against their faces.
"Gods above..."
"Is this the might of peak existences? Even the aftershocks of their battle can slaughter mortals with ease!"
"His Majesty Cassius is invincible! Tear that arrogant birdman to shreds!"
Shielding their eyes from the blinding radiance and peering through the gaps between their fingers at the apocalyptic catastrophe in the sky, every mortal present was shaken to their core, marveling in awe at the sheer might of these entities.
Before long, the clash of energy produced a victor.
Unexpectedly, the one who held the upper hand in this contest of solar divine power was Cassius, the Cinder Emperor—not Wilhelm, the hailed "Angel King."
Wilhelm's face grew increasingly contorted. Sweat streamed down his forehead, golden blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, and hairline cracks fractured across his skin, leaving him in utter disarray.
He roared at the top of his lungs, shrieking in fury, "Impossible! I am the God-given son praised by my father! There is no way you could possess greater solar divine power than me!"
Cassius, however, was not surprised in the least.
Within his dragon crystal lay the divine power cores of over a dozen angelic godbloods, including top-tier scions like Duke Walter; it was effectively multi-core driven.
Wilhelm, by contrast, had been corrupted by infernal power and forsaken by the radiant sun; the divine power he could draw upon was already nearly exhausted.
The Solar Breath pouring from Cassius's maw grew even more ferocious. He pushed the explosion right toward Wilhelm, forcing the latter to snap his six wings shut in a desperate defense.
*Boom!*
Feathers fluttered downward in droves as Wilhelm's pristine wings were blasted black by the Solar Breath, laying bare the mangled flesh beneath.
Cassius looked down upon the angelic godblood from high above and said coldly, "Face reality, Wilhelm. The current you has long since lost all right to wield the Sun God's power."
At this, unmasked mockery surfaced on his face, his tone turning flippant. He even twitched a claw tauntingly. "Come, let me see that filthy power you obtained by sacrificing your subjects' souls."
"You—!"
Wilhelm's eyes bulged in rage, his face pale as his entire body shook uncontrollably. Under the battering waves of fury, a single thought echoed incessantly through his mind:
*Kill him!*
*Kill him, kill him!*
*As long as I kill that red dragon and seize his power, I will still be the favored chosen one loved by the Sun God! I will still be the heir of Holy Fadlan!*
*As long as I kill that red dragon, no one in this world will ever uncover the truth or see through my secret!*
Deep within Wilhelm's mind, a seductive female voice resonated, whispering ceaselessly:
"Your Majesty Wilhelm, you cannot defeat that red dragon like this. Come, call upon our pact. Sacrifice those worthless, lowly mortals to Hell.
"Come. For a mere trivial price, I can grant you the power to slay that red dragon. In time, you shall reign over the Holy City, ascend the Golden Throne, become the true Emperor of Holy Fadlan, and forge a millennium of glory..."
"No... no! It is not time yet! I can still fight him!" Wilhelm clutched his ears in agony, shaking his head frantically.
At this moment, a sliver of reason still lingered in Wilhelm, not yet entirely swallowed by fury.
He knew that if he unleashed that infernal power in front of the hundreds of thousands of people in Auguste, his radiant image would collapse entirely, without a shred of redemption.
Unfortunately, Cassius also saw through Wilhelm's inner struggle. Looking coldly upon the devil-plagued angelic godblood, he said in an indifferent voice, "Since you refuse to reveal it, don't blame me for lending a hand."
He extended a forelimb and unfurled his claws. A silver-white palace manifested in his grasp, shimmering with starlight and exuding an aura of pure sanctity and righteousness.
—It was the essence of Lunia, the Silver Heaven, a fraction of the Seven Heavens' origin, nurturing the purest good and justice from the dawn of creation.
And Wilhelm, entwined in infernal power, harbored an innate dread and revulsion toward such unadulterated radiance.
Wilhelm jerked his head up and roared, "Evil dragon, what do you think you're doing?!"
Cassius sneered once more. "Tearing away your disguise with my own claws, of course, so the world can see the true face of the so-called 'Angel King.'"
Before the words had even faded, the red dragon wheeled through the sky for several circuits, then cleanly thrust his claws forward, plunging that sliver of heavenly essence straight into the Blazing Sun Orb.
In an instant, the light radiating from the Blazing Sun Orb turned purer still, shifting toward a brilliant silver and radiating a sacred aura as though poised to purge all evil from the world.
Within that illumination, mortals could witness myriad wondrous, glorious visions—the holy mountains and palaces of the Silver Heaven, angels and sacred beasts soaring through the nocturnal sky.
Yet in the eyes of fiends, they saw only solars with eyes blazing like torches and thunderbolts executing judgment over all creation—sights that struck terror deep into their very souls.
Now, empowered by the heavenly essence, the Blazing Sun Orb unleashed by Cassius sublimated into an even more sacred, formidable spell—one capable of filling all fiends with trembling dread and forcing them to bare their true forms under its light.
—It was the Sacred Sun.
Beneath its shining rays, scorched burns surfaced across Wilhelm's body. His flesh blackened, and even his skin fractured and tore apart.
He struggled in horror, shaking his head incessantly as he roared, "No! No, no! I am the scion of the Sun God, the Angel King, the future Emperor of Fadlan! I am the embodiment of goodness and justice!
"What right do you have to judge me?! I am the legitimate heir!"
Alas, his struggles were in vain. His once majestic, sacred form twisted relentlessly, falling into corruption toward the shape of a hellish devil.
Chapter 708