Lord of the Rotting Bog

Both Franz and Adrian harbored a blood debt against Ulrichia. This ancient green dragon was the primary architect of the Wild Green Scourge in northwestern Seleucia. Leading a legion of dragons and dragonbeasts, she had slaughtered countless humans—among them Franz's comrades-in-arms and Adrian's family. Now, face-to-face with their sworn enemy, their eyes burned with fury. Franz and Adrian glared at the ancient green dragon with unconcealed hatred, longing to tear her to shreds. Adrian raised his longsword, aiming the blade straight at the ancient green dragon. His voice rang out high and clear: "Ulrichia, give up your pointless struggle! Today is your doom, and today is the day we take back Forest Hawk City!" Duke Franz took a stride forward, his voice steady and powerful. "Vile beast, your atrocities have incurred the wrath of the gods! Your wicked cult is doomed to ruin!" Misha tilted her head slightly, radiating aloof pride. "Green dragon, I come on the orders of the great Cinder Emperor, Cassius, to take your life!" Ulrichia let out a cold sneer. "So it's nothing more than my defeated foes, cowards who abandoned their own fiefs and fled. Do you truly think latching onto that red dragon will let you stand against the Cult of the Dragon—or even against Her Majesty Tiamat?" Her voice grew increasingly heated and enraged, swelling at last into a majestic roar: "What delusional nonsense! No matter how mighty an entity of the Material Plane may be, it can never contend with a true deity! "What is more..." Ulrichia's eyes gleamed as she rolled them craftily. "Even if you occupy Forest Hawk City, will those Imperials ever spit out the meat they've sunk their teeth into? Do you honestly believe the Cinder Empire is some righteous protector? That realm was founded on invasion and plunder, forged through the fires of war. They are no different from our Cult of the Dragon!" "Enough!" Misha snapped in a sharp, furious cry. Breathtaking flames burst from her eyes, and countless meteors trailing fiery tails plummeted from the heavens, tearing through the sky to smash toward the ancient green dragon. Meteor Swarm! "Curse you, red dragon sorcerer!" Ulrichia let out a raspy growl. Sweeping her broad wings, she summoned a raging tempest of acid. *Whoosh—* Within that storm of highly corrosive acid, the flames gradually sputtered out, and the falling meteorites were pitted and eaten away, shrinking rapidly until they crumbled into dust. Just then, Adrian flapped his golden wings and surged into the sky. Holding aloft his brilliantly radiant longsword, he launched a sudden strike at the ancient green dragon from her left flank. Divine Smite! A beam of solar brilliance pierced through the phantom of the five-headed dragon, driving through the churning black mist and dark clouds to descend upon the ancient green dragon's head like divine retribution. Ulrichia let out a slightly panicked shriek. Snapping her massive wing forward as a shield, the eerie runes inscribed across her wing membrane flared with pulses of sinister, pitch-black magical light. *Boom!* Black and gold clashed violently, setting off intense waves of arcane energy. "Die, evil dragon!" Adrian brought down his longsword, hacking into the ancient dragon's wing. The strike instantly tore through the membrane, leaving a charred, meters-long gash across it. Ulrichia roared in fury and snapped her wings wide. The concussive blast of air hurled Adrian backward over a hundred meters. Cracks spiderwebbed across his armor, his internal organs churned violently, and he coughed up a mouthful of bright crimson blood. Ulrichia raised her scepter and pointed it at Adrian suspended in midair, chanting an ancient Draconic incantation. "Calius's Ray of Death!" A cone of chaotic, eerie light erupted from the scepter, streaking toward Adrian accompanied by piercing shrieks and mournful wails. Clutching his sword tightly in midair, Adrian bellowed, unleashing the divine solar power surging within him. A colossal sun disc manifested before him, spinning relentlessly. The Shield of Eternal Radiance! The cone of deathly light collided with the disc. Righteousness and evil, radiance and darkness entangled in a fierce clash, spawning a massive arcane vortex that seemed ready to swallow everything in its vicinity. "For Fadlan!" From the ancient green dragon's right flank, Franz kicked off the earth, rocketing over a hundred meters into the air. He swung his absurdly huge, five-meter-long greatsword straight toward Ulrichia's head. Carrying an unstoppable momentum and trailing a ferocious gale, the greatsword was on the verge of cleaving into the dragon's skull. Yet Ulrichia whipped her head around and opened her maw wide, unleashing a long-accumulated plume of shadowy mist from her throat. In the next instant, a torrent of toxic gas burst forth. The defensive enchantments woven into Franz's armor activated automatically. But before the breath weapon of an ancient green dragon, they failed to hold for even half a second, pierced in an instant. The heavy plate warped, corroded, and fractured. The virulent mist surged ruthlessly over Duke Franz's body. Even as a legendary warrior possessing physical resilience far beyond mortal limits, he could not withstand its gnawing rot. In moments, his face turned purple, veins bulged, and his skin sloughed away, exposing large swathes of bloody, raw flesh in a gruesome display. Yet even so, Duke Franz did not yield an inch. Braving the poisonous mist, he dropped from the sky in a downward cleave. His greatsword arced through the air; though Ulrichia tilted her head to dodge, the blow still struck true, sinking solidly into the ancient green dragon's shoulder. *Roar—!* Shattered scales flew and dragon blood sprayed. Ulrichia jerked her head back, letting out an agonized howl. The massive blade shattered her scales and bit deep into her shoulder, carving a wound several feet deep. Hot dragon blood gushed out like a geyser. Duke Franz bared his teeth in a ghastly, savage grin. "Ulrichia, countless times in my dreams I have returned to this city, cleaving your head off with my own hands to avert the calamity before it could begin." His gaze turned piercingly cold, and he ground out through clenched teeth: "Today, I finally fulfill that long-overdue wish!" With a thunderous battle cry, Duke Franz's muscles swelled, spraying droplets of blood. Pouring every ounce of his remaining strength into the effort, he wrenched the massive blade free from the dragon's shoulder. "Die!" He leapt onto the back of the green dragon's head, gripping a dragon horn with one hand while slashing at her slender neck with the other, his greatsword howling as it whipped up a violent gale. "Pathetic mortal—!" Sensing her life in imminent danger, the ancient green dragon thrashed desperately, contorting her body before snapping her wounded wings open. The runes covering her body flared once more with eerie radiance, unleashing a profoundly evil, twisted power. High in the sky, even the phantom of the five-headed dragon seemed to lower its heads slightly, casting its gaze upon the ancient green dragon. Tiamat's Protection! Accompanied by a distant roar, a tempest of chaotic black light erupted from the ancient green dragon, blasting everything around her—including Duke Franz—through the air. Under the violent impact of that power, Duke Franz's left arm, still clutching the greatsword, blew apart completely, bursting into a shower of blood. The massive blade tumbled from the sky and plunged deep into the earth, carving a massive fissure in the ground. Duke Franz fell from midair, his body broken and battered, his bones shattered, reduced to his dying breath. "Your Grace!" Adrian cried out in horror. Beating his wings frantically, he sped toward Duke Franz. Ulrichia grinned viciously and extended her scepter. Rings of pitch-black light coiled around Adrian, binding him so he could not easily break free. "Mortal, I warned you long ago: crossing the Cult of the Dragon has only one outcome—death!" A furious, savage gleam flashed within the ancient green dragon's slit pupils. Roaring, she swooped downward, diving toward the dying legendary warrior to finish him off on the spot. *Boom!* Carrying terrifying kinetic force, the colossal dragon body over twenty meters long crashed into the ground from hundreds of meters up, gouging out a crater dozens of meters wide and sending plumes of dust billowing skyward. Her massive talons slammed down heavily upon Duke Franz, mercilessly crushing his bones and flesh. Adrian struggled with all his might to break the spell, but he could only stretch out a hand, crying in despair, "No—Your Grace!" Ulrichia's draconic visage was dripping with spiteful satisfaction. She leaned down and mocked, "Mortal, how does it taste, drawing near to death? Exquisite, isn't it?" By now, Duke Franz was barely recognizable as human, reduced to a mangled mess of bloody flesh. His lower body had been crushed beneath the dragon's talons, leaving only his upper torso intact. Yet there was no trace of agony on his face—only serene calm. "Vile beast... soon... you will taste... the very same." Duke Franz's voice came in halting gasps. The corners of his mouth curved upward, spending his final drop of strength to offer a faint smile. Ulrichia's brow furrowed, a pang of vigilance striking her. *What does he mean? Does this human still have a trump card?* *Whoosh—* A complex magic circle a hundred meters wide lit up on the ground. Arcane lights interwove, and from the void echoed ancient, primordial summons. Immediately after, the phantom of a grotesque dragon materialized within the circle, wailing and roaring. Tens of thousands of arcane chains erupted from the earth, bearing an unknown power that bound the ancient green dragon fast, locking away every power coursing through her body. Now, Ulrichia was no different from a trapped beast fallen into a snare. Staring at the chains wrapping around her body and feeling that forbidden power, Ulrichia's expression changed drastically. "Curse it, the Dragon-Binding Array! How could this array still exist in this era?!" "Release me!" She thrashed frantically, trying to tear free from the chains, but beneath that forbidden magic, her entire body went weak and limp. In the distance, Misha hovered in midair, gazing coldly at the ancient green dragon, faint light swirling in her eyes. Her fair, slender hands were likewise entwined with ethereal chains, the far end tethered to a palm-sized green dragon phantom that thrashed relentlessly. Clearly, Misha was the controller of the array. Franz had devised this plan with Misha from the start—to offer his own life as bait in exchange for Ulrichia's death. It was a fair trade. "Green dragon, cease your futile struggling. It is meaningless. I shall grant you a swift death—this is the Master's mercy." Misha's voice was calm and chilling, as though stating a matter of utter triviality. Still struggling, Ulrichia roared, "Madman! Your Emperor is a raving madman! He dares dabble in the forbidden power forged by the ancient elves—is he not afraid of becoming the common enemy of all dragonkind?!" Misha's tone turned even colder, tinged with a faint edge of fury. "Remember this: no race, no power in existence has the right to place bounds upon the Master..." She waved her hand. "Do it." "Damn Imperials! What are you trying to do?! You had better think carefully—can you truly withstand the wrath of Her Majesty the Dragon Queen?!" "I have only one faith—and that is the great Cinder Emperor!" Before Misha's words had even finished fading, the space above Forest Hawk City twisted. Several aerial dreadnoughts over a hundred meters long materialized in the sky, casting immense shadows across the city below. "Prepare to fire!" Their dark, gaping gunports all aligned on the ancient green dragon. Terrifying amounts of energy gathered within them, unleashing a row of blinding lights as brilliant as the sun, dazzling the eyes. "Fire!" *Boom!* With an earth-shattering roar, hundreds of cannons fired in unison. A crisscrossing barrage of over a hundred beams carrying terrifying might rained down simultaneously upon the green dragon, falling like the wrath of the gods themselves. An all-consuming explosion, glorious flames blotting out the sky, plumes of dust soaring upward, and yellow sand melted into glass. When the smoke cleared, only a colossal crater hundreds of meters wide remained in the earth. At its center lay a mangled, scorched figure of red and green—Ulrichia. This once-unrivaled ancient green dragon was now reduced to a wretched ruin. Her body was broken and torn, her wings incinerated, her tail charred to a cinder, leaving only a ruined torso and skull, blood steadily pooling through the cracks in her scales. A gaping hole pierced clear through her chest, leaving only ash inside. Her heart had been thoroughly incinerated, vanished without a trace. As for Duke Franz? His remains had been reduced to ash in the blast, lost beyond recovery. Yet his vow to slay Ulrichia was indeed on the verge of fulfillment. Amidst the scorched ruins, Ulrichia raised her skull-like, blackened head. Lifting her dragon-headed scepter, she spent her final shred of strength to screech, "Father—!" "Forest Hawk City—the altar—!" Misha's face shifted, and she commanded with utmost urgency, "Quick! Destroy her completely! Do not let her summon that great wyrm!" Yet by now, it was too late. A dark green light burst from the eye sockets of the dragon-headed scepter, shooting straight into the sky and streaking toward the dense swamp forests to the north. From far away came a drawn-out, furious roar. The sound seemed to rise from ancient prehistory, striking a primal, instinctive terror into the soul. Crows throughout the swamp took flight in frantic chaos, letting out harsh, raspy cries. Thunder rumbled, and roiling black clouds spread rapidly, staining more than half the sky in absolute darkness. A chilling wind blew from the north, carrying a damp mist. Soon, a pattering acid rain began to fall from the sky, corroding the ground into pitted ruin. Faint, mournful wails seemed intertwined with the sound of the rain, infinitely eerie. Misha looked up, gazing solemnly at the distant storm clouds, and murmured: "The Lord of the Rotting Bog, Erebus..."