"I'll move our battlefield first, lest we damage the palace." Cassius snapped his claws without haste.
In an instant, the surrounding space blurred and warped, abruptly rupturing as massive spatial fissures swallowed the female red dragon. In the blink of an eye, she found herself standing upon an unfamiliar, desolate expanse of land.
*Such terrifying spellcasting capability! I didn't even notice before being teleported to another space.*
*She hadn't stood a chance to resist!*
Dracarys was inwardly shaken. She had known His Majesty possessed immense spellcasting power, but she had never imagined it reached such a level.
Time and space were like fragile toys beneath the emperor's claws, torn apart at his whim.
At the sight of this, Dracarys's fighting spirit burned even fiercer. She firmly believed that only the mightiest opponents could draw out her full potential.
The Red Dragon Emperor before her was unquestionably one of them.
"Come, Emperor Cassius! Let me see just how vast the chasm between us truly is!"
Boundless madness gleamed in Dracarys's eyes. Her muscular draconic frame trembled violently with extreme exhilaration, as though she were on the verge of receiving a wondrous blessing.
"Heh, this is the first time I've seen someone show up on my doorstep begging for a beating. Though..." Cassius paused for a moment before continuing, "I worry I might accidentally beat you to death."
"If I were to die under your full might, it would be my honor!" Dracarys answered in a fever pitch.
Cassius shook his head with mild helplessness and slowly rose from his throne. In an instant, his colossal body, over sixty meters in length, was revealed entirely before Dracarys.
What a dragon he was!
The red dragon before her was a knot of bulging muscles with an elongated, sinuous tail, resembling a blood-red mountain range.
Thick sulfurous smoke and glowing embers vented from his cavernous maw, causing the surrounding air to warp under scorching heat and sending visible ripples of heatwaves radiating outwards.
His mere presence exuded overwhelming majesty and the fierce, violent beauty of raging flame.
"Truly... perfection."
Dracarys stared entranced at Cassius, unable to stop herself from licking her lips.
Cassius said unhurriedly, "Then... the duel begins."
The next instant, Cassius unfurled wings that blotted out the sky, nearly casting his shadow over Dracarys entirely.
Boundless progenitor dragon fear poured forth like a surging tidal wave, instantly engulfing her soul.
Progenitor Dragon Majesty!
*Buzz—*
A loud ringing filled Dracarys's ears. Her flesh, mind, and even soul were utterly suppressed—an absolute pressure stemming from the depths of her bloodline.
At that moment, she was like a frail skiff tossed about in a tempest, struggling desperately to cling to her sanity and resist the erosion of that dragon fear.
A single lapse in focus, and she would be reduced to his thrall.
"Kneel."
Cassius looked down upon the female red dragon from on high, commanding her in a dispassionate tone.
Dracarys trembled even more violently. Every organ and every cell throughout her body seemed to scream, urging her to submit to the Red Dragon Emperor.
Yet through sheer willpower, Dracarys held her ground, refusing to be dominated by that terrifying pressure.
A low, hoarse whimper escaped the depths of her throat: "No, I won't fall here... No!"
Gradually, that whimper morphed into a fierce, impassioned roar.
Dracarys threw her head back and howled toward the sky, her entire body wrapped in searing flames as progenitor dragon blood surged endlessly through her fundus vessels.
Cassius showed a hint of surprise. "You actually resisted my dragon fear... Interesting."
"Roar—!"
With a ferocious bellow, Dracarys snapped her wings and lunged at the Red Dragon Emperor, claws bared and teeth gnashing in a savage rush.
Yet what greeted her was Cassius's claw slicing through the air, accompanied by the deafening crack of displaced atmosphere.
*Whoosh—!*
*How can he be so fast?!*
Dracarys's shock was beyond words. Experience had taught her that the larger a creature was, the slower its movements became.
Yet this Cinder Emperor completely defied her expectations. His speed was even greater than hers! And the sheer power behind that claw was utterly horrifying—enough to tear space apart!
*Danger!*
She twisted her body violently midair into an unnatural posture, trying to dodge the swipe.
It was already too late.
*Boom!*
Accompanied by a piercing sonic boom, a violent blast of turbulence erupted across the sky, and even space itself seemed to fracture.
Shattered scales rained from the heavens as scalding dragon blood splattered everywhere. The female red dragon, nearly thirty meters long, was swatted flying, turning into a crimson afterimage.
Under that monstrous force, Dracarys's muscles tore and her bones snapped. Her body looked as if it had been crumpled into a mangled heap, reduced to a truly pitiful state.
*Crash—!*
She flew over a hundred meters away and smashed violently into a distant mountainside. Rocks shattered, the slope collapsed, and a plume of dust billowed into the sky.
"Not bad. Still alive after that," Cassius remarked placidly, glancing down at his claw.
Since this female red dragon still had some utility, Cassius hadn't unleashed his full power as she had asked.
He had probably used...
Thirty or forty percent of his strength?
Even so, that was already extraordinary. Cassius's Strength attribute was on the verge of breaking through the forty-point threshold; calling it world-shattering was hardly an exaggeration.
Under normal circumstances, even less than half of his strength would have pulverized an opponent into mincemeat.
Amid the distant ruins, Dracarys spat out a mouthful of crimson blood and let out a wretched laugh. "Hahaha... So this... is the power of a being capable of defying the Dragon Queen.
"One day, I'll grow to this level too! But for now—I haven't lost!"
Dracarys slowly dragged herself out from the debris, shaking her body. The blood of the progenitor dragon was already mending her wounds, gradually restoring her strength.
Letting out a roar, she beat her wings once more and took to the sky, bursting through the billowing dust clouds.
Opening her blood-stained maw, Dracarys took a deep breath, voraciously drinking in the surrounding fire-elemental energy as sparks ignited deep in her throat.
*Boom—!*
The air detonated in an instant. A cone of dragonfire poured forth from Dracarys's maw like a cascading waterfall.
It was a standard red dragon breath weapon, devoid of any of Cassius's peculiar variations.
"Daring to use a fire breath before me..."
"Commendable courage."
Watching the oncoming torrent of dragonfire, Cassius found it somewhat amusing. It had been a very long time since anyone had dared to use fire against him.
He wielded authority over the Elemental Plane of Fire, held the subclass of Elemental Master, and even commanded the solar divine power of Amaunator.
Forget Dracarys's breath; even a full-power strike from a fire elemental lord could do nothing to him.
Cassius raised a claw with complete composure. Harnessing his authority over fire, he instantly took command of the dragonfire Dracarys had unleashed.
The flames grew even more turbulent and fierce, reversing course to blast straight back at the female red dragon in the sky.
"Aroo—!"
Dracarys dodged in panic, yet she was still struck by the breath weapon—her own flames, magnified several times over by Cassius. A scorched crater was blasted into her chest.
Engulfed in flames, she climbed frantically into the upper atmosphere, barely evading the pursuing inferno.
*What terrifying mastery over fire! I can't use my breath weapon anymore!*
This Cinder Emperor was without question the most formidable opponent she had ever faced in her life—bar none.
The disparity in power was simply insurmountable. Whether in size, strength, speed, or spellcasting prowess, he held an absolute advantage.
The Cinder Emperor stood before Dracarys like an unscalable mountain, filling her with suffocating pressure and even despair.
Yet at the same time, she felt an unprecedented rush of exhilaration, as though dancing on the razor's edge of a blade, her blood boiling with thrill.
Only by fighting an enemy of this caliber could she become even stronger.
*Still—I must show Emperor Cassius my strength! I will make him acknowledge me from the bottom of his heart!*
Dracarys gritted her teeth and steeled her resolve.
Spreading her muscular wings, she circled several times in the sky, waited for an opening, and dove straight toward his blind spot.
*Whoosh—!*
The edges of her wings tore through the air with a piercing shriek as Dracarys lunged at Cassius once more.
"Plenty of spirit, but unfortunately... too slow," Cassius murmured.
He raised his left wing and snapped it down, instantly kicking up a scorching hurricane that knocked Dracarys off balance and sent her hurtling backward.
The next instant, Cassius moved like lightning, materializing behind Dracarys amidst the howling tempest.
He reached out with a thick, powerful arm and clamped a massive, razor-sharp claw around the female red dragon's neck, hoisting her into the air like a hunter dangling a hare.
"Aroo—!"
Dracarys struggled frantically, letting out hoarse snarls.
She thrashed her body, beat her wings, and clawed wildly, but it was utterly futile. She could not break free from that colossal grip in the slightest.
Cassius stared down at the female red dragon in his claw and said, "The fact that you've lasted this long has already exceeded my expectations, but the disparity in our strength makes this battle entirely pointless.
"This so-called 'duel'—ends here."
Before his voice had even faded, Cassius slammed Dracarys's body violently into the ground, hauled her back up, and smashed her down again, repeating the motion several times.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
Cassius moved with effortless ease, as though the creature in his grasp were not a red dragon at all, but a ragged burlap sack.
Only after slamming a crater nearly ten meters deep into the earth did Cassius release his grip, pull back his arm, and cease the assault.
Deep inside the pit, Dracarys lay half-buried in dirt and gravel, battered and bleeding, mangled beyond recognition.
*Pant, pant...*
Faint gasps reached his ears.
Not a single patch of Dracarys's scales remained intact. Most of the bones in her body were broken or dislocated, leaving her a bloody, wretched mess.
Had her chest not been rising and falling faintly with each breath, anyone would have mistaken her for a draconic corpse.
In Cassius's eyes, this red dragon was already clinging to her last breath, her life force so thin that continuing to fight was virtually impossible.
Yet to his surprise, Dracarys gathered every scrap of her remaining strength and slowly dragged herself up from the wreckage.
A weak, rasping whimper drifted from deep within her throat, halting and faint: "I... haven't... lost..."
"Why bother?"
"Stand down. If you keep going... you'll die. Even with progenitor dragon blood, you won't survive injuries like this."
Cassius looked at her, his voice calm.
"To fight... the mightiest dragon of the Material Plane... even death is worth it!"
"Madwoman," Cassius muttered with a slight frown.
Red dragons were inherently combative, born zealots for war.
Even among them, traveling thousands of miles just to fight a battle with a foregone conclusion—and putting her life on the line for it—made Dracarys an outlier.
Still, Cassius had no desire to kill her; that would be a waste.
As an offspring favored by Tiamat, the intelligence Dracarys possessed was of great value to the empire.
"Roar—!"
Dracarys threw back her battered head, spread her tattered wings, and let out a full-throated howl through her trembling throat.
Boiling fury churned within her heart. The blood seeping from around her scales turned into a crimson glow, enveloping her body.
Her golden pupils became bloodshot, burning with boundless madness and wrath, as though she were stoking the fire of her very life.
"Roar—!"
Like a beast lost to feral frenzy, Dracarys parted her blood-dripping jaws and threw herself recklessly at Cassius, snapping and tearing madly.
"Bloodscaled Fury..."
Cassius smiled faintly and pointed a claw toward Dracarys.
A brilliant white light shot from the tip of his claw, instantly dispelling the crimson aura enveloping her body.
Immediately after, Cassius raised his claw sharply toward the heavens.
*Rumble—!*
With a dull, rolling roar, thick stone pillars burst from the ground, thrusting upward.
Like the fingers of a colossal earthen hand, they hemmed Dracarys in on all sides.
Cassius clenched his claw, and the colossal stone hand closed with it, seizing Dracarys tightly and pinning her motionless.
The female red dragon thrashed with mad frenzy, making the ground shudder and dislodging countless loose stones.
Yet no matter how she wailed, roared, and snarled, Cassius turned a deaf ear, coldly watching it all unfold.
Only when the effects of Bloodscaled Fury subsided, her vitality thoroughly drained, did Dracarys finally settle down. In a faint voice, she murmured, "Emperor Cassius... I yield.
"Before your majesty, everything I did was like mortal child's play, not worth mentioning..."
This ever-haughty red dragon lowered her head deeply, finally humbled and awed, treating Cassius with the greatest reverence she had ever shown anyone in her life.
Yet Cassius couldn't care less about this so-called "duel." What interested him far more was something else—
Tiamat's descent into the mortal world.
At least in this era, the barrier of the Material Plane was unyielding. It should have been impossible for the gods to descend in their true forms.
In that case...
Just how had Tiamat managed to set foot upon the mortal realm?
With a casual flick of his claw, several beams of light brimming with draconic vitality cascaded down onto Dracarys, mending her body at a speed visible to the naked eye.
He fixed his gaze on the female red dragon and said in a low voice, "Dracarys, tell me everything you know."
Chapter 751