Boom—!
A torrent of glacial cold appeared in the sky like a rushing, endless river of ice, freezing and inundating everything in its wake—so intensely cold that even the Red Dragon Emperor would find it difficult to melt.
Midair, Cassius spread his wings and threw his head back in a resonant roar. Ancient runes surfaced across his scales, glowing with an icy-blue glimmer. It was as though the savage roar of a primeval giant echoed from deep within his chest.
The power of the Everfrost rune!
Thrym's Winter Wrath!
All the divine power plundered from the frost giants poured forth. Even though it conflicted with his innate nature, it granted the Red Dragon Emperor the ability to command frost and wield frigid cold for a brief time.
The Red Dragon Emperor raised a dragon claw, a breathtaking flash of cold light gleaming in his pale-gold pupils. The surging river of ice abruptly twisted and plunged toward the ground, showing signs of reversing its course and pushing back toward Erebus.
Shock washed over Erebus's face, the claws gripping his dragonbone scepter trembling slightly. "How is this possible? How could a red dragon possess the power to manipulate frost?!"
He quickly gritted his teeth, however, and brandished his scepter once more. Chanting ancient Draconic incantations, he prayed anew to the Chromatic Dragon Queen.
His pupils shifted into a deep marsh green—murky, viscous, and thick with poison and rotting miasma. The whites of his eyes took on a sickly yellowish-white pallor, with faint wisps of green vapor occasionally seeping forth.
The gaze resembled the eyes of a colossal crocodile lurking in a deep mire, brimming with deception, vile malice, and an all-corroding venom.
Erebus snarled in a furious roar, "Let life wither in your venomous breath! Let all the faint-hearted rot beneath your whispers!"
In the sky, the hideous green dragon head leaned down and spewed an endless torrent of eerie green toxic fog. The virulent vapor surged forward like a raging tide, sweeping toward the Red Dragon Emperor. Wherever it passed, vegetation withered, and all living things rotted and festered into bleached bones.
The poisonous mist was ubiquitous, saturating every inch of the space and leaving no room to evade. The slightest touch would cause flesh to fester and decay, plunging the victim into agonizing torment.
Within the churning poison fog, hideous draconic phantoms even condensed, roaring incessantly as they lunged toward the Red Dragon Emperor.
As a great wyrm green dragon possessing a progenitor bloodline, Erebus could unleash the most terrifying power when channeling Tiamat's green dragon aspect.
Even a demigod-level entity ensnared by this divine-empowered poisonous mist would suffer excruciating agony, trapped in a ceaseless cycle of dying and resurrecting.
"Die in agony, dragon variant!" Erebus shrieked a venomous curse.
"You court death—!"
Yet with a thunderous roar, a burning sphere of flame surged from deep within the Red Dragon Emperor's throat and blasted outward. Brilliant fire instantly engulfed his entire body, blazing furiously and incinerating the surrounding poisonous mist into nothingness.
Flapping his wings, Cassius became a gargantuan fireball blazing like a miniature sun, hurtling straight toward the nearby great wyrm green dragon.
Boom!
The Red Dragon Emperor struck empty air and crashed into a hill once more, while the great wyrm green dragon vanished into thin air, dispersing into countless tendrils of lethal, toxic smoke.
Midair, the toxic vapors converged, forming a colossal, grotesque dragon face whose eye sockets gleamed with sinister malice. The head alone stretched over a hundred meters long.
From the mist, a mountain-like silhouette gradually emerged. His scales were dark green, exuding an eerie glow. Thick vines wrapped around his torso and limbs, swarming with dense clusters of poisonous vermin, radiating an indescribable, horrific pressure.
Merely laying eyes on this monstrous dragon would taint and corrupt the souls of mortals, reducing them to hollow husks—walking corpses.
Behind him, among the illusory five-headed dragon, the green dragon head was exceptionally active. Light flickered in its narrow slit pupils as it gazed down upon the gargantuan green dragon below, as if admiring its proudest creation.
At this moment, Erebus had fused his soul and flesh with Tiamat's profane divine power, becoming a terrifying dragon that surpassed a demigod and rivaled a quasi-deity.
Erebus roared and bellowed, releasing soul-twisting screeches. "Arrogant dragon variant! Witness true might! Everything you take pride in is utterly insignificant before the great Mother of Evil Dragons!"
"Hahahaha! Do you see it? This flawless, magnificent form!"
The great wyrm green dragon extended a dragon claw dripping with venom and trailing smoke, swiping toward the Red Dragon Emperor midair and causing the very fabric of space to tremble.
Cassius beat his wings and soared upward, abruptly climbing several hundred meters to evade the devastating strike.
Where he had just been, the hills were corroded by poison, instantly webbed with countless fissures before collapsing with a crash, creating a boiling crater lake brimming with lethal venom.
"Die—!"
Erebus's roar set the earth rumbling. Following his motion, countless thick vines burst from the depths of the ground, snaking toward the sky to ensnare the Red Dragon Emperor, only to be reduced to ash by blazing fire.
Hovering high in the air, Cassius looked down at the green dragon beneath him. Panting heavily, he scoffed, "These guys with divine backing always transform and power up the moment things don't go their way... What an utter pain.
"Then again... did you really think you're the only one who can pull a trick like that?"
Roar—!
The Red Dragon Emperor flared his wings, raised his head high, and unfurled his massive, fearsome frame in a sky-shattering bellow.
In an instant, the progenitor dragon bloodline, solar divine power, laws of the elemental planes, and Hellish authority within Cassius were all activated. Endless flames erupted from beneath his wings. Golden-red, crimson, and fiery orange intertwined across the sky, blanketing more than half the heavens in an overwhelming sea of fire.
The flames, laden with boundless energy, intertwined and converged, adhering to Cassius's body and gradually condensing into a flesh-like substance, coalescing into a new head, neck, wings, torso...
At last, a crimson dragon over two hundred meters long loomed high in the sky, confronting the mountain-like progenitor green dragon coiled upon the earth across the expanse.
Although Cassius was far smaller than Erebus in his divinely empowered state, his energy density was unimaginably concentrated. Emitting a terrifying heat and releasing endless flames like a roving star, his presence was not in the least suppressed by his foe.
Cassius glared down at Erebus, his gaze sharp and his narrow slit pupils blazing with incandescent red light. "Now then... bring it on. Round two!"
Boom!!!
In the next breath, the thunderous crack of tearing air shook the sky. The Red Dragon Emperor dove downward like a crimson comet. The ocean of fire across the heavens poured down with him in an all-consuming deluge, threatening to swallow the entire earth.
"Let me show you—the gulf between mortals and deities!"
Erebus roared skyward without fear. Unfurling colossal wings that eclipsed the sun, he parted his cavernous maw, and a torrential breath of venom surged forth.
Yet at that very moment, a dazzling beam of light pierced the toxic smoke, tearing through the eerie green haze to strike squarely against the great wyrm green dragon's vine-wrapped shoulder.
A brilliant burst of fire erupted in a violent explosion, blasting a wound several meters across into his shoulder, from which billows of black smoke poured.
Immediately afterward, Cassius shot out of the poisonous haze like a streak of crimson lightning. Trailing a scorching gale, he roared and lunged toward the great wyrm green dragon.
Injured and infuriated, Erebus raised his colossal dragon claw, tearing through space as he swung toward the Red Dragon Emperor, trailing noxious smoke.
The sharp tips of his talons had turned pitch-black, gleaming with an unnatural luster. A mere scratch would infect an adult dragon with lethal poison and reduce it to bones.
"Die!" The great wyrm's roar made all creation tremble and souls quiver, sounding like a howl echoing from the Abyss.
Yet Cassius flapped his wings and banked sharply in midair, nimbly evading the swipe while lashing out with his claws, sweeping past the great wyrm's flank at blinding speed.
Slash—
Shattered scales went flying everywhere as warm dragon blood gushed out.
Erebus's body was sliced open by the Red Dragon Emperor's scimitar-like claws, carving a massive wound that spanned over a hundred meters. Foul, tainted blood poured from the hideous gash, enveloped and scorched by raging fire.
"Damn you, dragon variant!"
Erebus whipped his winding, spine-studded tail in a sweeping midair lash, attempting to knock the Red Dragon Emperor out of the sky.
Yet Cassius's back suddenly blasted a jet of dazzling flames. Surging with renewed velocity, he crossed hundreds of meters in an instant, dodging the sweep and reaching the edge of Tiamat's barrier.
Boom!
A searing white pillar of fire pierced the air. Charred wounds split across the great wyrm's thick tail, leaving it battered and mangled.
With divine empowerment, Erebus's size, strength, and defenses had received an enormous boost, but his speed was far too sluggish. To Cassius, he was nothing more than a giant punching bag waiting to be dismantled.
Watching the Red Dragon Emperor streak across the sky as a blur of afterimages, constantly circling around him, Erebus finally broke free of the intoxicating divine influence and regained total clarity.
As Tiamat's Profane Ravager, Erebus functioned much more like a cleric than a barbarian or berserker.
Overpowering this red dragon in melee—a beast of monstrous strength and blistering speed—was far too difficult.
What he needed to do was suppress him with the various divine spells bestowed by the Chromatic Dragon Queen, wearing the dragon variant down to death with an inexhaustible reservoir of divine power.
Erebus raised his dragonbone scepter, praying aloud in Draconic, and the illusory five-headed dragon in the sky stirred once more!
Instantly, flames danced wildly, thunder roared, toxic fog surged, acid rushed like a torrent, and frost spread... Within Tiamat's barrier, the chaotic elemental turbulence launched a frenzied assault against the Red Dragon Emperor.
Hideous dragon claws reached from the void to bind the red dragon, while temporal deceleration zones opened throughout the area to hinder his speed.
Cassius weaved and maneuvered through this elemental deluge, darting back and forth in search of an opening. Under the enemy's relentless bombardment, dense wounds of varying sizes began to mar his scales.
Tiamat's divine power, huh... Looks like I have to end this quickly.
"I've figured out all your tricks. Let's finish this, Erebus!!"
In the next instant, the Red Dragon Emperor tore through space, appearing abruptly directly above Erebus. Superheated currents blasted from Cassius's nostrils with a terrifying roar.
Lava-like fissures surfaced across his chest as fundus vessels flared with blinding light, funneling power incessantly into the dragon crystal on his breast. Diverse energies intertwined, sparking points of brilliance and triggering a violent magical reaction within.
Erebus did not squander this rare opportunity. Dense clouds of virulent smoke surged forth, mercilessly corroding the red dragon's body—shattering scales, rotting flesh, and even dissolving muscle down to the stark white bone in several places.
Lightning, frost, poison, and acid relentlessly battered the Red Dragon Emperor as profane divine power devoured his vitality. Yet Cassius grimaced savagely and weathered the onslaught, his body regenerating at a pace visible to the naked eye.
Cassius glared at the great wyrm green dragon ahead, the radiance on his chest growing ever more blinding, like a supernova on the verge of detonation.
"Time to settle this, Erebus!!" the red dragon roared with earth-shattering force, shaking the land.
Erebus's expression turned grave. Locking eyes with the red dragon with a gaze dripping with venom and hatred, he rasped in a chilling snarl, "Come, ignorant dragon variant! Meet your doom beneath the majesty of Her Majesty the Dragon Queen—!"
Erebus threw back his head and opened his poison-spewing jaws, unleashing a torrential green deluge that nearly swallowed the sky.
Above, all heads of the five-headed dragon glared down at the Red Dragon Emperor in unison. Opening their massive maws, a thick, five-colored beam descended from the heavens, tearing through space and hurtling toward the Red Dragon Emperor with boundless, surging divine power.
The two breath attacks converged and entwined, generating an even more apocalyptic might that turned heaven and earth pale.
And at that very moment, Cassius opened his cavernous maw. A glorious column of fire erupted from his throat, churning with smoke and overflowing with radiant flames. The horrifying temperature warped the air as the fiery pillar, looking poised to cleave the world in two, surged forth at blistering speed.
Breath of the End!
Boom!!!
The two unprecedented breath attacks collided, unleashing a tremendous shockwave that annihilated everything within Tiamat's barrier in an instant. Hills, trees, and boulders were ruthlessly obliterated. Even the earth was sheared away by several meters, laying bare vast expanses of smoking mineral strata.
The two breath attacks clashed and locked in struggle, throwing the surrounding climate into chaotic flux—one moment howling with bitter frost, the next surging with towering walls of fire, then churning with poisonous fog, then flashing with lightning and thunder, as if the world were undergoing a cataclysm of creation.
With the sustained output of energy, Cassius's body bore an ever-mounting strain.
His flesh and blood flashed like flowing lava. High-temperature, high-pressure steam and dancing tongues of flame vented from his maw, nostrils, vents, and even the crevices between his scales. The entire dragon was turning nearly translucent, to the point where his beating heart was visible within.
Meanwhile, the great wyrm green dragon's chest heaved rhythmically. He panted heavily, puffs of toxic smoke billowing from his nostrils, his eyes fixed on the red dragon in a gaze filled with greed and malice.
If only he could devour this red dragon and claim his bloodline, he would become the Chromatic Dragon Queen's most favored scion—perhaps even ascending to become a Dragon King, the founder of an entirely new dragon species.
At this moment, both poured out every ounce of their strength, holding nothing back!
Chapter 799