Suppression

"What tremendous spell resistance!" Erebus was inwardly shaken, his expression growing ever more grim. After that brief clash, he realized this red dragon's power far exceeded his expectations. Yet the great wyrm green dragon did not despair. Watching the red dragon charge toward him in ferocious fury, Erebus raised his dragonbone scepter high. An eldritch radiance gleamed within his eye sockets as he unleashed an immensely potent spell. *Time Stop.* In a split second, the flames blazing across the sky froze in place. Dust and shattered stones hung motionless in midair, and even the churning black clouds ground to a halt. Within a radius of several kilometers, everything was fixed in the exact instant the spell took effect, as if someone had pressed a cosmic pause button. Cassius had intended to activate Dragon Reaving to counter the spell's intrusion, but the moment his gaze caught the dragonbone scepter, his pupils narrowed sharply. *No, this isn't an ordinary arcane spell—it's divine magic channeled through the power of a deity!* Empowered by divine might, even Cassius found it hard to resist. He could only watch helplessly as his colossal form was locked fast by the magic, the surrounding space solidifying into stillness around him. This was Erebus's hidden prestige class—Profane Ravager of Tiamat! As devoted servants of the Chromatic Dragon Queen, Profane Ravagers were the living embodiment of Tiamat's destructive fury. They could convert all their spells into divine magic, releasing terrifying, god-touched power. *This* was Erebus's true trump card! *Boom!* Lightning crackled and crashed against Cassius, lighting up half the sky as bright as day. Yet the red dragon remained completely unscathed, arcing bolts skittering across his scales. Seeing this, the great wyrm green dragon thrust the dragonbone scepter higher into the air. An eerie gleam flared within his vertical pupils, and the space above his head warped and twisted violently, coalescing into a horrifying vortex of ghastly green that resembled a tightly shut draconic eye. With a vicious sneer curling his maw, Erebus threw back his head and roared to the heavens, "Dragon variant! Pay the price for your arrogant insolence! You shall bear witness to the majesty of the Mother of Evil Dragons!" *"Ruinous Gaze of the Evil Dragon!"* he chanted in Draconic. As the ancient draconic incantation resonated, the colossal eye in the sky suddenly snapped open, discharging a beam of sickly green light. Wherever the beam passed, grass withered and flowers perished; towering trees rotted to dust, while forest deer and wild boars were stripped instantly to brittle bones. The woodland dissolved into a blighted, deathly wasteland within an instant, extinguishing every trace of life across a thousand meters. Even Cassius felt the horrific effects of that eerie beam. His muscles began to atrophy, and his scales grew dull and aged. The baleful green ray shot straight for the Red Dragon Emperor's skull. If it struck true, even if he did not die, he would be robbed of a millennium of vitality, turned into a decrepit dragon creeping toward the end of his days. Yet at that very moment, a series of muffled, thunderous thumps echoed from within the red dragon's massive frame—the powerful, relentless pounding of his heart. Faint fissures cracked through the surrounding space with a grating hum. Crimson light flared across Cassius's body, venting jets of scalding steam as molten-gold patterns surfaced along his hide. Like a volcano on the verge of erupting, he shook violently. *Boom!* The next instant, the space within a hundred meters shattered like brittle glass. Time resumed its flow, flames leaped once more, and dark clouds churned anew. Relying on the sheer, overwhelming majesty of his physique, Cassius had forcefully shattered the shackles of Time Stop, tearing Erebus's divine magic to pieces! Facing the incoming beam of deadly radiance, the Red Dragon Emperor opened his maw wide. Boundless energy surged through his veins, rapidly condensing into a brilliant gold-red orb deep within his throat like a supernova about to detonate. *Roaaar—* A blinding torrent of gold-red fire erupted outward. Countless searing rays pierced the dark clouds, nearly setting the entire vault of heaven ablaze. Boundless light converged until an illusory sun seemed to rise in the high sky, radiating warmth and life. This was Solar Breath, imbued with the divine might of the sun god! Across the blighted earth below, countless Seleucians lifted their heads, gazing blankly into the sky as they murmured in awe, "Amaunator above..." Feeling that familiar, comforting power, Count Adrian was struck speechless with shock. Could the Red Dragon Emperor truly be a solar angel descended upon the mortal realm? In the blink of an eye, gold-red flame and eerie green beam collided. The two diametrically opposed energies—life and death, light and darkness—slammed violently against one another. *Boom!* Under the violent collision of two immense forces, sickly green and gold-red fires rippled outward. The colossal explosion instantly swallowed several hundred meters of airspace. A terrifying shockwave swept across the land, churning up a titanic tempest that tossed spectators into the air like debris—humans, dragon scions, and dragonbeasts alike. Far more unfortunate were the soldiers caught in the fallout. Those grazed by sparks of green light rotted away, their flesh melting down to bare bone in seconds. Those engulfed by the drifting gold flames were incinerated entirely, reduced to ash. Under this demigod-tier clash, every living creature within a thousand meters of the detonation perished without exception, leaving behind only scattered bones. The forest was burned into scorched earth, and the ground itself was sheared down by three feet. Thick smoke from the blast blotted out the sky, cloaking both progenitor dragons within its haze, their colossal silhouettes barely distinguishable. Right then, Cassius moved. Fire surged within his pale-gold vertical pupils. His fierce, predatory gaze penetrated the smoke, locking onto the great wyrm green dragon a kilometer away. Snapping his wings open, Cassius unleashed a tidal wave of fire that consumed the air and tore the smoke to shreds. Trailing a magnificent tail of flaming radiance, he plummeted toward the green dragon like a giant meteor. As he dove, an invisible force field rippled outward, threatening to pin the great wyrm green dragon in place. Flames mirrored in his eyes, Erebus reacted in terror. He frantically waved his dragonbone scepter, tearing open a deep spatial fissure and slipping inside just before the Red Dragon Emperor collided with him. *Crash!* Carrying apocalyptic kinetic force, the Red Dragon Emperor plowed directly into a nearby hill. The earth trembled violently, stone and dust rocketing skyward as the hill crumbled into ruin, its shattered remnants melted into slag by the raging inferno. Unfazed by the missed strike, Cassius turned his gaze back to the sky. Far above, sickly green light coalesced, re-forming the grotesque frame of the great wyrm green dragon, whose vertical pupils burned with vicious, feral light. Though Erebus had evaded the direct impact, the sweeping sheets of fire had still taken their toll. Scorch marks marred his dark green scales, and patches of flesh were burned raw. Yet a demigod was immortal. In mere moments, the great wyrm's wounds knit together at a pace visible to the naked eye, restoring his body to pristine condition. Cassius raised his head, staring down Erebus. "Green dragon, I must admit, you're quite a bit stronger than I expected. But... I truly never imagined a dragon of your caliber would willingly be Tiamat's running dog." Erebus met his gaze, narrowing his eyes into slits, his voice low and venomous. "Dragon variant, you are nothing more than a bumpkin of the Material Plane. You know nothing of Lady Tiamat's glory! The dragons' reign fell only because of wretched apostates like you!" "Glory?" Cassius gave a scornful laugh and shook his head. "More than a few chromatic dragons have been led to their slaughter by Tiamat. You're alive only because you're still useful to her." Erebus's tone turned chillingly grave, a sinister light dancing in his eyes. "Worthless fools deserve to become offerings to Her Ladyship! Tens of thousands of years from now, I will claim eternal life in Her divine realm, while you—wretched variant—will crumble to dust in the endless march of time, forgotten by all!" Cassius beat his wings, soaring upward with a savage grin. "Splendid. In that case, let me lend you a hand—I'll send you to see Tiamat right now!" *Roaaar—* In a flash, spells cascaded across the Red Dragon Emperor: Draconic Agility, Aerial Maneuverability, Eternal Freedom, and more. A kaleidoscope of magical auras flared around him. Cassius dissolved into a crimson blur, rocketing toward the green dragon with unimaginable speed. *Such speed!* Erebus's pupils contracted. Chanting in ancient Draconic, a dark luminescence wrapped around him, and his silhouette instantly turned translucent. Space flipped. A massive dragonbeast swapped places with the great wyrm green dragon, appearing directly in the Red Dragon Emperor's path, while Erebus rematerialized thousands of meters away. *Boom!* With an ear-splitting detonation, Cassius bulldozed through the obstruction. The dragonbeast burst into charred fragments before it could even muster a dying shriek. Before absolute might, a beast capable of crushing mortal legions was reduced to nothing more than butcher's meat, posing zero threat. "You don't look like a green dragon to me—you look like a scurrying rat!" Cassius banked steeply in the high heavens, turning into a gold-red comet as he plunged toward the great wyrm green dragon once again. Erebus swept his dragonbone scepter. Layer upon layer of sickly green light cascaded from his frame until eighteen identical figures of the great wyrm green dragon broke away from his monstrous body, scattering in every direction. Then all eighteen great wyrms raised their dragonbone scepters in unison. Torrents of necromantic magic blasted outward, converging high in the sky and hurtling toward the Red Dragon Emperor. *Roaaar—* Cassius bellowed. The flames before him solidified into a towering bulwark of fire, halting every beam of deathly light. He opened his jaws wide, a magical vortex swirling deep within his throat, and inhaled the entirety of the necrotic energy before spewing it back out in a sweeping deluge. As the deathly torrent washed across the land below, cultists and dragonbeasts fell in swathes like wheat before a scythe. In the blink of an eye, over ten thousand followers of the Cult of the Dragon collapsed into lifeless husks. Cassius slammed heavily into the earth, planting a colossal dragon claw against the ground. The earth fractured, and eighteen surging underground fire-currents ripped through the bedrock, hurtling toward the terrifying figures of the great wyrm green dragons. At the same time, blazing meteors ripped through the firmament with shrill shrieks and deafening booms, raining down toward the green dragon's position. *Boom! Boom!* With ear-splitting roars, pillars of flame ruptured the earth and pierced the clouds. The plunging meteors struck in devastating succession, completely obliterating seventeen of the necrotic duplicates. Under this apocalyptic bombardment of magic, the land was torn to shreds, reduced to smoking ruins. Tens of thousands more cultists and dragonbeasts were wiped out in the fallout, yet in the distance, the Red Dragon Emperor showed not the slightest sign of fatigue. Erebus's true body beat its wings, a thick shroud of black mist rising around him to ward off the searing fire pillars and falling meteors. "Curse this dragon variant! How can his spellcasting be so absurd? He's supposed to be just a red dragon!" Erebus's face darkened, furious and exasperated. The great wyrm raised his dragonbone scepter once more, seeking to weave another spell to keep his foe from closing in. In the next instant, Cassius flickered across space, ripping through the void to materialize directly before Erebus. A savage grin split his maw. "Caught you, reptile. This boring game... is over!" "What?" Erebus's pupils shrank to needlepoints. He triggered his magical items, desperate to initiate a teleport. It was already too late. Before he could react, the Red Dragon Emperor's titanic talon tore through the air with a deafening screech, slamming heavily against the great wyrm green dragon's neck and crushing him violently downward. *Crash!* The earth fractured, rock splinters sprayed, and plumes of dust erupted into the heavens. Dark green scales and steaming dragon blood splattered in every direction as the great wyrm was pinned to the earth under Cassius's single claw, gouging a massive crater into the ground. The magical equipment across Erebus's frame shattered and dimmed, unraveled entirely by the faint glimmer wrapped around the red dragon's claws. Erebus thrashed frantically, stacking Bull's Strength, Iron Body, and other enchantments upon himself. Yet it was completely futile; he could not budge the crushing weight pinning him down. By now, Cassius's physical strength had reached an incomprehensible realm—one could easily say he held the power to uproot mountains and drain seas. Every sweep of his claws and snap of his jaws sent tremors rippling through space itself. Furthermore, the Red Dragon Emperor stretched nearly eighty meters from snout to tail. Packed with dense, corded muscle and possessing astonishing mass, his weight exceeded that of the great wyrm green dragon tenfold. Even between two progenitor true dragons, Cassius held absolute, effortless supremacy in close-quarters brawling. After all, even before his last slumber, he had fought Gruumsh's avatar in brutal hand-to-hand combat. The great wyrm green dragon beat his wings with all his might, but Cassius swept his free claw across the air, sharp talons ripping through the wind. *Riiip—* Erebus's wing membrane was torn to ribbons, gruesome gashes opening across it as it hung in tatters. The Red Dragon Emperor seized the wing bone and wrenched it inward. With a sickening *crack*, the great wyrm green dragon's right wing snapped clean in two, the bone splintering into shards. *"Aaaagh!!"* Erebus let loose a shriek of agony, his vertical pupils brimming with fury, hatred, and a desperate glimmer. Even with his immortal nature rapidly knitting his flesh back together, he knew that if this continued, his defeat was absolute. Once dragged into close-quarters combat against the Red Dragon Emperor, this was no duel of equals—it was an outright, one-sided slaughter. Yet the cunning great wyrm had not lost his mind. His thoughts churned with schemes. Erebus knew he had to find an opportunity to shatter this deadlock and break through the red dragon's overwhelming suppression. Cassius pressed a single claw down upon the great wyrm green dragon's bloodied skull, leaning close with a feral sneer. "I told you... I'm sending you to see Tiamat right now!"