The spectacle of over a dozen battleships crashing one after another and detonating across the battlefield sent shockwaves through everyone present. Allied soldiers, players, and cultists of the Cult of the Dragon alike stared in terror and awe.
"What terrifying lightning!"
"Th-that kind of lightning is impossible for mortals to withstand! It's practically divine retribution!"
"Look out, her next attack is coming! Scatter!"
Frantic shouting and clamor flooded the allied positions, throwing the lines into turmoil and threatening to collapse all order.
Soldiers from the regions bordering Taliro wailed and screamed in sheer despair, with some units already breaking into a rout. This ancient blue dragon arriving on wings of thunder had long since become an indelible, eternal nightmare in their minds.
The imperial artillery commander bellowed furiously, "Hold your ground! Maintain concentrated fire! It's just an old blue dragon! I refuse to believe this thing is invulnerable!"
"For the Empire!"
"Fire—!"
*Boom! Boom, boom, boom!*
A deafening chorus of concussive blasts and howling air echoed through the heavens. Over a hundred anti-aircraft guns opened fire in unison, launching tens of thousands of shells into the sky. They formed a dense, crisscrossing web of steel hurtling directly toward the ancient blue dragon.
Gorazdla looked down upon the earth with utter contempt, sneering, "Rebels who follow that red dragon—is this all your defiance amounts to?"
*Bzzzt—*
All tens of thousands of artillery shells froze midair simultaneously, as if someone had pressed a pause button on reality. Innumerable electrical arcs danced between the stationary munitions, crackling and buzzing in a cacophony of static.
"C-Cassius above..."
"They're coming back!"
The next instant, lightning surged. Trailing blinding arcs of electricity from their tails, the shells turned into a shower of silver-white meteors, ripping through the sky at horrifying velocity as they hurtled in reverse.
*Boom!*
*Boom! Boom!*
In a flash, the imperial artillery positions were engulfed by tens of thousands of electrified shells. Blinding fireballs and billowing smoke swallowed the entire battery whole.
Propelled by overwhelming electromagnetic force, the shells carried staggering kinetic energy and speed, even swatting several brass dragons from the sky.
Under this devastating counter-bombardment, numerous player-piloted steam tanks and magitech warships were blown to scrap. Panic spread among the players, sparking a wave of angry curses.
"Is that a railgun?!"
"How the hell are we supposed to fight a boss like this? What were the damn devs thinking when they balanced this? Why is it always some broken gimmick monster?!"
"Get our magitech warships out of here! Fire up the spatial transit right now! Leaving them here is just feeding!"
Duoluo looked around. Fierce explosions and dazzling electrical arcs filled the allied encampment, which was littered with the burning wreckage of sky battleships, steam tanks, and arcanite armor.
Following the terrifying ancient blue dragon's entry into the fray, the tide of battle had reversed completely. Under the overwhelming might of the Thunder Tyrant, the Cult of the Dragon held a crushing advantage.
The hobgoblin officer said in a heavy voice, "We can't go on like this. Relay my orders: cease all conventional artillery and firearm attacks against that blue dragon."
Adrian stared at the distant ancient blue dragon and tightened his grip on his sun-god longsword, gritting his teeth. "Everyone, this dragon is too powerful. We must join forces if we are to stand any chance of halting her. The great Lord of Eternal Radiance will protect us."
"I've divined over three hundred scenarios, and there isn't a single one where we emerge victorious. In nearly all of them, a single blast of that blue dragon's lightning breath wipes us out entirely."
Complex runes swirled within the eyes of the archmage from the City of Myriad Laws, his gaze filled with despair and powerlessness. "Such terrifying magical emanations... In the presence of a monster like that, we are nothing more than insignificant ants..."
Dionysius let out a heavy sigh, offering a bitter smile. "No, haven't you realized? That blue dragon has already undergone an ascension in her life form. Mortals bound by the physical world simply cannot contend with her. Divine protection aside, even if the Sun God were to descend in the form of an avatar, he might not..."
Duoluo turned with a grave expression toward Misha, who had remained silent. "Misha, have you managed to contact His Majesty Cassius? We cannot just sit here and wait for death."
Misha bit her lip and shook her head. "The moment that ancient blue dragon appeared, I felt the bond between me and my master get blocked by something."
A dwarven general standing nearby, who harbored deep grudges against the Red Dragon Emperor, stepped forward and grunted, "Has your emperor lost his nerve as well? It seems he's terrified of this blue dragon and doesn't dare show his face!"
Misha's eyes turned freezing cold. She glared at the dwarven general and hissed, "You had best watch your tongue, dwarf. The Empire has already destroyed one dwarven kingdom; we wouldn't mind wiping out another."
"You dare bring that up—!"
The dwarven general puffed his chest, red-faced with fury, ready to come to blows.
"Calm yourselves, everyone! Stop wasting breath on meaningless quarrels!"
The archmage stepped in to separate them, then sighed wistfully. "This is the power of a quasi-deity. In a sense, she is already a god-in-waiting. Their mastery over the physical world far exceeds anything we mortals can fathom. Her mere presence alters the environment for dozens of miles around."
The ancient gold dragon narrowed his eyes and gazed into the distance, a faint radiance shimmering in his pale golden slit pupils. "Before descending upon the battlefield, Gorazdla used her divine power to conjure a thunder tempest spanning a hundred miles, enclosing the entire area. She most likely intends to slaughter us all to send a message to the Red Dragon Emperor—and to vent the Five-Headed Dragon Queen's wrath."
Adrian looked up at the raging thunder tempest above, murmuring in a daze, "Is it... really over? Is that blue dragon truly invincible?"
"Hahaha! Of course! I am invincible!"
Accompanied by howling winds and thunder, a colossal shadow fell over the allied positions. Wings that blotted out the sky cast everyone into darkness.
"I am thunder! I am destruction! I shall crush the bodies of cowards and restore the true glory of dragons to this world—!"
Gorazdla bared her fangs in a sinister grin, lazily beating her wings as she looked down at the humans, dragons, and dragonspawn across the allied lines. Her narrow slit pupils brimmed with mockery and arrogance.
As her skin-crawling laughter echoed out, thunder rumbled continuously and lightning crackled. The entire northern rim of the Locke Great Rift was swallowed by a catastrophic tempest of lightning and sand.
In an instant, gales tore up earth and stone, plunging the world into darkness.
Humans, elves, and dwarves were violently swept into the air and ripped to shreds by the roaring winds, thousands dying violent deaths. Across the ground, steam tanks were engulfed by surging electrical currents before erupting into violent explosions, spewing thick black smoke.
Even the mightiest champions among the allied forces could barely keep their footing in the storm, utterly incapable of mounting any effective resistance.
*Roar—!*
Dust and iron sand from the ground levitated into the air, coalescing into colossal beasts that charged allied soldiers with thunderous roars. Their bodies crawled with lightning-like patterns, kicking up billows of dust.
Amidst the storm, Adrian leaned on his sword to keep his balance, his body shimmering with the faint glow of solar divine power.
Watching the Seleucian soldiers torn apart by the tempest around him, rage overtook him. He snapped his head up and pointed his gleaming blade toward the blue dragon high above. Two piercing beams of fire erupted from his eyes, and a pair of magnificent flaming wings unfurled from his back.
With a sweep of his wings, he took to the sky, his furious roar rising above the howl of the wind: "Damned blue dragon, begone from this land! This is the homeland of Seleucians, the territory of Great Holy Fadelan!"
"A chosen of Amaunator?"
Gorazdla poked her head through the churning storm clouds, looking down at Adrian with amused curiosity. She chuckled, "Well, that's a rare sight. Ever since that self-righteous old fossil died, it's been ages since a chosen of the Sun God appeared in the Material Plane. To think I'd catch one here—what luck."
Flapping her draconic wings and bringing forth an endless cascade of thunder, she descended slowly from above the clouds, sneering, "Hahaha—Her Majesty the Dragon Queen will love an offering like you!"
"How dare a filthy beast like you speak the name of the great Lord of Eternal Radiance!"
Humiliated, Adrian's eyes burned with fury. He raised his longsword high, pouring every ounce of the Sun God's divine power within him into the blade.
"Die—!"
With a ferocious bellow, an intensely scorching crimson light surged along the edge of the blade, unleashing a flaming energy arc over a dozen meters long.
"Mildly amusing..."
The ancient blue dragon merely extended a claw with casual indifference. Thousands of lightning bolts converged at once, billowing like an ocean tide into a claw of thunder a hundred meters across that tore through the sky, reaching down toward Adrian.
*Boom!*
Flames and lightning collided in midair. In an instant, Adrian's fiery blade was swallowed by the blinding radiance of thunder and dispersed into nothing.
Lightning sparked within Gorazdla's eyes, her unvarnished arrogance laid bare as she regarded Adrian like prey. "Mortals will always be mortals. You can never stand against a god!"
Watching the lightning claw descend from above, Dionysius shouted, "Together! Block it! Protect Duke Adrian!"
The ancient gold dragon roared, beating his wings as he soared into the air to unleash a blistering cone of fire breath.
Misha thrust her hand forward, raising a towering wall of roaring flames before the descending lightning claw. Silver moon elves drew their bows taut, sending volleys of silver arrows suffused with moonlight soaring into the sky.
The archmage raised his staff, chanting an incantation under his breath as a translucent barrier etched with intricate runes appeared over Adrian's head.
Uniting their strength, brilliant flashes of magic intertwined. Several distinct beams of arcane light slammed into the thunderous claw, yet they could only barely hold it at bay, freezing it in midair for a fleeting moment.
"Feeble resistance!"
Gorazdla snapped her broad wings. In an instant, countless thunderbolts struck down, shattering the allied defenses in one stroke. The colossal claw of lightning crashed down, sealing Adrian within.
Crackling arcs of electricity wrapped around Adrian's body. He convulsed violently, scorched black by the current.
The ancient blue dragon laughed with wild abandon, commanding the wind and lightning as she slowly descended from the sky. "Struggle no more, mortals! You shall all become offerings to Her Majesty the Dragon Queen, nourishment for her descent into the mortal world! And that damned red dragon will share the exact same fate!"
"Were you referring to... me?"
Just then, a deep, resonant voice echoed from the distance. It carried an uncanny magic that drowned out the crashing thunder, the roaring lightning, and the howling tempest, sending a shiver through the heart of every mortal within a hundred miles.
Immediately following it came an overwhelming pressure that crashed down like a shattering mountain. Nearly every living being fell to their knees, trembling from head to toe. Even the metallic and chromatic dragons lowered their heads in terror.
"Tiamat above..."
"That's Frightful Presence!"
"Wh-what terrifying aura is that?!"
"His Majesty Cassius! It's the great Cinder Emperor! We're saved!"
The ancient blue dragon's expression shifted drastically. Flapping her wings with sudden urgency, she disregarded the legendary champions on the ground and shot into the sky. She raised her massive head toward the horizon, her slit pupils—usually filled with pride and disdain—finally clouding with gravity.
In the distance, the storm clouds were violently torn apart, and the terrifying sandstorm was swept away with ease. The pitch-black firmament was ripped open to reveal a hideous scar spanning several thousand meters—a scar of fire, of roaring, boundless flame.
The fiery rupture spread outward with terrifying speed, as if the dark sky were a wounded giant having its flesh flayed open by a colossal blade, exposing the crimson blood and meat beneath.
A piercing sonic boom tore through the heavens. An absurdly massive red dragon carved across the sky, brutally shredding the canopy of storm clouds and sand. Trailing an endless wake of blinding light and fire, he dove straight toward the chaotic battlefield.
In merely a few breaths, the red dragon crossed dozens of kilometers. His terrifying speed warped space itself, leaving a chain of sonic boom clouds in his wake.
It was the Cinder Emperor, the King of the North, Tiamat's most rebellious spawn, and one of the mightiest dragons in the Material Plane—Cassius Claubau Norixius!
"He... he tore the sky open!"
"Gods above!"
"So this is the legendary Red Emperor? The rumors didn't lie!"
"Long live His Majesty Cassius! Long live the Empire!" The crowds erupted into an uproar of stunned cries that surged across the battlefield like a tidal wave amidst the blistering heat.
Suspended in the sky above the allied positions, Gorazdla glared darkly at the diving red dragon. Her voice, laced with thunder, ground out between clenched teeth:
"Cassius, you shameless traitor. You finally showed up. I thought... you had fled before the fight even began."
Cassius's colossal draconic frame tore through the clouds and halted in midair, a sea of surging fire rushing in behind him. Looking down upon the ancient blue dragon, he curled his lips into a cold, mocking sneer. "Blue dragon, you think far too highly of yourself.
"Not even Tiamat or Bahamut could make me bow my head. You are nothing more than a loyal dog begging for scraps at their feet—how dare you act so brazenly in my presence!"
Chapter 817