The Fallen Sun

Hummm— Across thousands of li, every living being felt their heart sink as a sharp, piercing drone rang in their ears. The sound was like weeping and wailing, like the cry of a newborn, sending a chill down the spine and raising goosebumps. High above, from within the sulfurous vortex, a pitch-black sun slowly rose. It eerily swallowed light, behaving like a black hole! The instant they saw that black sun, nearly everyone froze. Blank-faced and numb, they stood where they were and gazed up, as if it exerted an immense pull that would drain and consume their very souls. As the black sun ascended, a crimson glow permeated the high heavens. Half of the surrounding sky was dyed blood-red, undulating like flowing magma. For a moment, that pitch-black sun stood in fierce opposition to Cassius's sacred sun, even faintly gaining the upper hand. The Fallen Sun. The black sun hung high, bathed in pervasive bloodlight—this was Zariel's ritual to drag Auguste into Hell! "Sworn in the name of the Nine Hells: contracts are chains, souls are currency—what you seek you shall obtain, and what you fear you shall pay in kind!" Flapping her burning wings, Zariel soared into the sky. Countless flaming chains burst forth from beneath the earth, bridging heaven and earth to imprison the entire city of Auguste. Boom! With a dull rumble, the ground shuddered and buildings cracked. Magma seeped from the fissures in the walls of Auguste Cathedral. The land beneath Auguste was wound about with infernal steel chains, every link carved with twisted runes. The moment the chains constricted, the entire city sank several feet, plunging underground toward Hell. Gurgling lava welled up from the ground's fissures, and countless horrifying apparitions emerged throughout the city. The spire of the High Hall snapped, crashing down upon the fleeing crowds as fiendish phantoms materialized in the billowing dust. "No—!" "Gods above, the earth is splitting open!" "Amaunator preserve us..." "Your Majesty Cassius, please save us!" People shrieked and cried for help in terror. A single misstep would plunge them into the fissures in the earth, casting them into boiling magma, their souls destined to be devoured by the black sun in the sky. The citizens' prayers dissolved into shrill screams. Their shadows began to warp, as if dragged toward the earth by invisible chains. Infernal pact circles surfaced beneath their feet, and fiendish tattoos grew across their skin—omens that they would be turned into soul coins or lemures for Zariel. A chilling infernal hymn resounded across the heavens, and burning devil runes surfaced across the face of the black sun. The surrounding Material Plane was collapsing and crumbling away, hurtling rapidly toward Baator. Within half a day, Auguste would plummet into Hell entirely, reduced to a land of souls for Avernus. Cassius would never permit such a thing to happen before his eyes. Auguste—and indeed the entire Kingdom of Thrace—was an indispensable part of the Cinder Empire! Roar—! The red dragon, over sixty meters in length, let out a furious roar. The blast shattered charred rock pillars, and the beat of his wings whipped up a hurricane laden with sparks. Watching the red dragon charge with overwhelming fury, Zariel looked stern, her eyes blazing with wrath. "A meddling dragon with a death wish—stop him!" Howl—! At the Lord of Hell's command, the three hellfire ancient dragons howled to the skies. Flapping their broad wings, they bared their fangs and brandished their claws, surging into the air to pounce upon the red dragon. Behind them, over a hundred infernal dragons beat their wings, swarming toward the sky. "Halt him, and this land of souls is ours!" "Praise Avernus!" Another twelve hulking, powerful pit fiends took to the air—Zariel's twelve "loyal" legion commanders. Every one of them was a formidable warrior possessing at least legendary might. Wielding steel whips, great hammers, and other weapons, they spewed sulfurous smoke from their jaws. Behind each pit fiend stood thousands upon thousands of elite devils. The devil legions formed a surging, motley torrent, barring the path before Zariel as if ready to grind to dust anything that dared approach. Cassius looked at the sky-obscuring fiendish army before him without the slightest fear; in fact, he found it somewhat laughable. "Trying to use human-wave tactics against me? Don't you know the red dragon template fears swarms least of all?" With a thought, a mighty draconic majesty that had nearly condensed into solid form spread out, sweeping across the sky like a hurricane—the Progenitor Dragon Majesty unleashed at full power. Hummm— In an instant, the devils and infernal dragons within a hundred meters felt as though they had been struck by a mind blast. Their eyes turned white, their bodies stiffened, and they plummeted toward the ground in dense clusters. Under the intense pressure, some even had their skulls burst open, brains splattering outward. Even the three hellfire ancient dragons, each as massive as a hill and over a thousand years old, staggered dizzily as if struck by lightning. The red dragon swooped downward. From deep within his gullet erupted a fiery breath weapon potent enough to melt adamantine, the surging sea of flames obliterating everything before him in an instant. Boom! Amidst the sound of air violently detonating, over a thousand elite devils and a pit fiend legion commander were burned to ash on the spot, without a trace of remains left behind. With his individual might alone, the red dragon tore a brutal breach through the fiendish battle line, severing that motley torrent clean in half and blasting open a massive void in its center. None could stand against him; none dared. These high-ranking fiendish officers were not fanatical lovers of war like Zariel. They weighed pros and cons, took stock of the situation, and certainly would not throw themselves before a dragon capable of destroying them in an instant. Beside herself with rage, Zariel whipped the infernal steel chains in her hand, producing a sharp, metallic clatter. "Useless trash, every last one of you, attack! Stop that red dragon!" Roar—! The three hellfire ancient dragons let out muffled low growls. Their souls bound by infernal steel chains, they could not resist Zariel's command, even if it meant certain death. Immediately after, over a hundred chain-wrapped infernal dragons also snarled and surged toward Cassius like moths to a flame. Right then, a clear female voice rang out across the noisy battlefield. "Cassius, leave those infernal wretches alone—we'll hold them off!" A slender, graceful silver dragon soared high in the sky, unleashing a freezing breath of ice—it was Olivia's true form. Behind her, space flickered and the Weave rippled as dozens of silver dragons beat their wings and surged from a portal one after another, roaring in unison. Their polished, mirror-like wings gleamed brilliantly, their silver scales resplendent and noble, standing out sharply across the motley battlefield. "Good day, Your Majesty Cassius. We sensed that the Material Plane was suffering an infernal invasion—the Melvold Clan has come to offer aid." A massive female wyrm silver dragon held a scepter in her claws, nodding slightly toward the distant Cassius with a respectful yet dignified demeanor. The silver dragon waved her scepter, and a frigid silver star plunged from the heavens, slamming into one of the hellfire ancient dragons and eliciting an agonized howl. She was Imelda, one of the Melvold Clan's Three Pillars, who was primarily tasked with repelling the fiendish planes and had once shattered the schemes of Dispater, the Iron Duke. "For the Material Plane!" "By Bahamut, drive these damn devils back to Hell!" Dragon breath and fire intertwined. The silver dragons roared sonorously, beating their wings as they stepped forward to clash fiercely with the approaching fiendish host. Yet what these silver dragons did not know was that the hellfire ancient dragons were secretly breathing sighs of relief, rejoicing in their hearts—after all, clashing with the silver dragons of Melvold was far better than trying to stop that calamity-bringing red monster radiating terrifying pressure. Cassius nodded from afar in greeting to the wyrm silver dragon. Then, beating his wings, he whipped up another scorching tempest and streaked toward Zariel like an afterimage. The devil armies led by the pit fiends were exceedingly cunning and shrewd; they merely shot arrows and cast spells at him from afar, with hardly anyone daring to bar the red dragon's path. Cassius sneered and lightly swept a massive claw. Several blinding white pillars of fire erupted and swept across the air, instantly reducing over a thousand devils to ash and fine powder. Given a little more time, Cassius could have wiped out every fiend that had descended upon the Material Plane. Unfortunately, time was pressing—his primary objective was to stop Zariel. With that in mind, Cassius called upon his retainers through their telepathic bond. He snapped his wings tight and dove at full speed toward Zariel in the distance. Space warped and flames surged. Misha, the Daughter of Dragonfire, suddenly materialized behind Cassius, accompanied by dozens of Dragon-Pact Sorcerers clad in scarlet-gold robes. "Destroy them! Clear the path for our master!" Unfurling the dragon wings at her back, she raised a slender hand. Raging dragonfire gushed from her palm, engulfing hundreds of devil soldiers in an instant. Soon, however, a pit fiend roared. Swinging an infernal scimitar that severed space itself, he slashed viciously toward Misha's head. Slash—! The infernal blade sheared through the air, but Misha transformed her body into blazing fire elements. With a flicker of flame, she reappeared hundreds of meters away, reforming into human shape. Roar—! Just then, a draconic roar echoed through the heavens. A terrifying draconic majesty descended, stunning even the pit fiend so thoroughly that his eyes lost focus and he froze where he stood. Across the distant sky, Alger led hundreds of Redscale Conquerors swooping downward like a crimson deluge. Their resonant dragon roars were enough to make an ancient dragon tremble. "For His Majesty Cassius!" "Charge!" Seizing this golden opportunity, Misha pointed from afar, shooting a dark-green ray from her fingertip. It dismantled all of the pit fiend's surface magical wards, dimming the infernal-iron-forged armor to dullness. Squelch—! Riding the momentum of his charge, Alger brought his sword down. A flash of blade-light sliced through the sky, and dark red blood geysered upward from the fiend's neck as an astonished devil head tumbled through the air. Zariel's Twenty-Seventh Legion Commander, a powerful, newly promoted pit fiend, was slain right then and there! "Rule with an iron fist; the Dragon Lord above all!" Resounding war cries echoed across the wasteland as heavily armored dragon-blessed paladins marched forward in steady formation, the Imperial war banners fluttering in the wind. A phantom red dragon condensed from their collective will appeared above them, roaring in fury, ready to tear apart any being that dared provoke the source of their power. Bolstered by mass fly spells, the dragon-blessed paladins lifted off the ground and advanced steadily toward the sky like an impregnable floating fortress, their heavy battle plate gleaming under the glow of the flames. At this moment, to aid their shared master, the Empire's three specialized forces gathered together, standing shoulder to shoulder against the fiendish legions. Artillery thundered in the distance. The Empire's airships and heavy cannons fired continuously upon Zariel's infernal legions, supported by the silver dragons of the Melvold Clan as reinforcements. Free from the interference of lesser foes, Cassius streaked across the sky like a falling star, roaring, "Zariel, you will pay for your arrogance!" The dragon crystal at the red dragon's chest blazed with blinding brilliance. Deep in his throat, a fireball like a miniature sun formed. Unleashing his breath with all his might, the surging dragonfire turned into a tidal wave sweeping toward Zariel. To Cassius, this was merely a probing strike, yet its power was enough to slay an ancient great wyrm with thick armor plates. Boom—! "Overconfident lizard! I will show you the power of Avernus!" Zariel merely sneered, spreading her sky-scorching wings to meet the flaming wave—the body of a Lord of Hell was immune to the licking of fire. Shooting through the crimson torrent like an arrow, her burning greatsword sheared through the air. Carrying the fury of Hell, it cleaved toward the dragon's neck, instantly sundering over a dozen protective spells. That strike, bearing the very laws of Hell, severed space and carved through the essence of the Material Plane, possessing enough power to strike directly at an enemy's soul! At this moment, because Zariel was dragging Auguste into Hell, she enjoyed the full backing of the will of Avernus, wielding supreme, peerless power no lesser than that of a deity! "Cassius, not just Thrace, but your Empire too will become fodder for Avernus, enabling me to bring this Blood War to an absolute end!" Zariel laughed maniacally. Clang—! The red dragon was startled and swerved sharply. The sword edge scraped past his scarlet-gold scales, shaving off a blood-stained dragon scale amidst a burst of flying sparks. He whipped his head around. From within the surging dragonfire, a long-hidden silver-white pillar of flame erupted with terrifying speed. That flame radiated an aura of sacredness and righteousness, carrying Barachiel's celestial origin. "What?!" Zariel's pupils constricted. She had never imagined that a traditionally chaotic evil red dragon could wield celestial power. The Lord of Hell frantically beat her sky-scorching wings to climb sharply, yet she was still a fraction of a second too late. Boom! Zariel's left wing was pierced through by the red dragon's breath. The clash of fundamental powers of good and evil triggered a violent explosion. A gaping hole was blasted through that sky-scorching wing as silver-white fire spread outward, purifying Zariel's flesh. "What a pleasant surprise... Red dragon, your head will be severed, and your corpse and soul will become the finest fuel for the Blood War." Zariel glared fixatedly at the red dragon in the sky, her burning eyes brimming with boundless, demented delight—this fallen angel had long since descended into madness. Meeting Zariel's gaze across the empty air, Cassius parted his jaws in a grin. Within his pale gold slit pupils, where firelight swirled, a trace of exhilaration shone as well. "Then let's see if you have what it takes. "Zariel, you would make quite a fine trophy for the Empire." Yet upon his shoulder, the wound carved by the infernal greatsword was ghastly to behold, wrapped in infernal curses that gnawed at his flesh without pause.