"Boom!"
In an instant, the energy beams raining from the sky detonated, tearing through the chromatic dragonbeast's hardened scales and carving countless hideous gashes across its colossal frame.
Yet the beast was not one to yield. Raising its head, it opened its gaping maw and unleashed a terrifying, all-consuming dragon breath. An aerial battleship whose force field had not yet activated was caught dead-on, exploding on the spot and trailing thick black smoke as it plummeted toward the earth.
"Maintain the defensive force fields!"
"Look out! The enemy possesses extreme long-range firepower! Activate Tier Three defense interception systems!"
One translucent barrier after another materialized high in the air, shimmering with faint blue light to deflect the chromatic dragonbeasts' breath weapons, while the aerial battleships answered with relentless barrages of energy beams.
Beams crisscrossed dragon breath in midair, and immense explosions echoed on all sides. Mountainous chromatic dragonbeasts, steam tanks, and arcane armor rampaged across the battered earth; for mere mortals, a single misstep meant instant death.
The western front, defended by the Seleucian forces, was faring the worst. Under the brutal onslaught of the chromatic dragonbeasts, heavy infantrymen armed with pikes and tower shields were like fragile living targets, wailing amidst relentless surges of lightning, frost, and fire as their lines crumbled toward collapse.
Several particularly colossal dragonbeasts ran wild across the battlefield. Disregarding the Seleucians' torrential rain of arrows, they charged recklessly forward, shaking the very ground beneath them.
Panic seized the ranks, throwing the Seleucian army into utter disarray. Screams, desperate weeping, and agonized howls rippled along the defensive line.
"Watch out! They—they're coming!"
"Run!"
"Amaunator above, that thing's like a moving mountain!"
"Hold the line! This is our final battle! Kill these foul spawn of the Dragon Queen, and we can reclaim our homeland and avenge our fallen kin and comrades!"
"Look out! Here they come!"
"Roar—"
Four chromatic dragonbeasts let out furious roars. Pounding the ground with their massive limbs, sweeping up blinding gales of dust, they crushed forward with unstoppable momentum, flattening countless heavy infantrymen into bloody paste mingled with shattered armor.
The Seleucian soldiers fought back desperately, constantly releasing volleys of arrows, swinging their longswords, and thrusting their spears, yet none could pierce those thick, hardened scales.
As ultimate living weapons forged by the Cult of the Dragon expressly for war, wicked horrors blessed by Tiamat herself, their defenses could not be breached by ordinary men; those who tried met only a gruesome death beneath their towering bulk.
"Ah!"
"We're only mortal! We don't have the bizarre contraptions of the Imperials—how can flesh and blood stand against monsters like this?!"
"Help me!"
"Great Lord of Eternal Radiance!"
Agonized wails erupted across the Seleucian positions as flesh and bone were torn apart, the soldiers unraveling under the relentless wave of slaughter.
Yet right at that moment, a golden blade of light flashed from afar, cleaving open the heavy scales of one chromatic dragonbeast. Blood spurted forth, and the behemoth bellowed in pain and fury.
The soldiers looked up in astonishment. A figure cloaked in radiant gold, bearing wings upon his back, swept across the sky—none other than the godblood duke and leader of the Seleucian interim government, Duke Adrian.
Behind him were hundreds of indistinct figures enveloped in golden radiance. Wielding an assortment of weapons, they radiated a holy, sublime aura, looking for all the world like a host of angels descending from the eternal heavens.
They were devout followers of Amaunator, the last remaining godblood warriors of Seleucia. Gathered here today, their sole purpose was to retake the kingdom's capital, capture the Cult of the Dragon's final stronghold, and avenge their fallen families, their friends, and the countless innocent people of Seleucia.
"For Amaunator!"
"For Holy Fadelan!"
Adrian raised his sword high and unleashed a resonant battle cry. The hundreds of godblood warriors plunged from the heavens, charging the chromatic dragonbeasts in an unrelenting tide.
Golden radiance flooded the sky, clashing against brilliant bursts of flame and lightning as the godblood warriors encircled the four dragonbeasts rampaging through the lines.
"Forward!"
"The Dragon Queen's foul spawn cannot stand against the chosen warriors of the Sun God!"
"Charge! For the Kingdom of Seleucia! For Holy Fadelan!"
A surge of morale swept through the ordinary Seleucian soldiers. For a moment, their terror seemed forgotten as they followed behind the miraculous brilliance, surging forward in a grand horde toward the hideous beasts.
The two sides collided in a chaotic melee. The ferocious shockwaves whipped up a howling storm of sand and debris, obscuring the battlefield within, yet the deafening roar of soldiers, the pained bellows of the beasts, and the thunder of explosions rang out clear and unrelenting...
Across this vast theater of war, fewer than a hundred chromatic dragonbeasts held off the coalition's million-strong army, grinding the offensive to a bitter stalemate.
Felipe leaped from the city wall. A shockingly massive wyvern amalgam with a wingspan near a hundred meters glided low across the earth with a howling squall, casting a terrifying shadow over the land as it caught him firmly on its back.
Standing upon the giant wyvern's high spine, the Dragon Pope spread his arms wide and raised the Calamity Scepter toward the sky, laughing wildly. "Remnants of the old era, savor what little life you have left and tremble before Tiamat's might—a new world is at hand!"
With his Calamity Scepter as the epicenter, waves of black light burst outward, forming a violent storm of divine power that blanketed hundreds of li around.
High above, the phantom of the five-headed dragon seemed to curl its snouts into an eerie, mocking sneer that sent a bone-chilling dread deep into the soul.
Within the city, the followers of the Cult of the Dragon convulsed. Their flesh squirmed, and their skin split with crisp tearing sounds as crimson blood gushed out and filthy, murky slime dribbled from their lips.
Yet they felt no pain. Instead, their expressions grew increasingly frenzied, ecstatic, and wild.
"It's Her Majesty the Dragon Queen! I see Her! She's looking at me!"
"Great Mother of Dragons..."
"Hahahahaha! I see the Mother Goddess's majestic form! It's Her blessing! I have been chosen!"
"I am the chosen one!"
"I see Her too! I'm going to evolve into a noble true dragon and ascend to the divine kingdom!"
"Did you see, Father? I did it! Killing you back then was the right choice after all! I succeeded! I have Her Majesty's favor!"
The crazed cultists laughed, cheered, ran about, or fell devoutly to their knees, convinced that the supreme Chromatic Dragon Queen had manifested before them to bestow infinite divine might.
Accompanied by a chorus of sickening tearing noises, the muscles and flesh on their backs ruptured, sprouting twisted draconic wings. Flapping furiously, they swept up foul-smelling gales and took to the sky.
Tens of thousands of cultists beat their wings erratically in midair, their eyes gleaming with madness. Like surging storm clouds rolling above Sunset City, they spread frantically toward the coalition's front lines.
At the same time, the coalition soldiers trapped beneath the shroud of Tiamat's divine power fared no better.
Scores of men fell to their knees, weeping and grimacing in agony, incoherent babbling spilling from their lips. "No, please!"
"I couldn't save you..."
"You filthy monster, get away from her!"
Tormented by horrifying visions in their minds, they relived over and over the slaughter of their loved ones by dragonborn, their sanity rapidly unraveling.
Even those imperial soldiers whose wills were less steadfast succumbed. Because Tiamat held the divine domain over dragons, any creature bearing a dragon bloodline was affected to some extent—and the soldiers of the Cinder Empire were no exception.
"Emperor Cassius..."
"Her Majesty... the Dragon Queen?"
"Whose warrior am I? Dragon blood flows in my veins... dragons... the Mother of Dragons?"
In their minds, statues of the Cinder Emperor were warped into the terrifying likeness of the five-headed dragon. Their mortal wills swayed between faiths, unable to tell reality from delusion, like fragile skiffs tossed upon a tempestuous sea.
The entire coalition encampment descended into chaos, filled with crazed and disoriented soldiers, and the once-impenetrable defensive line was riddled with gaping breaches.
Felipe nodded in profound satisfaction. Brandishing the Calamity Scepter, he cried out, "Behold! Fear has consumed these wretched mortals!
"Go, children of Tiamat! Tear them apart! Let their blood flow like rivers, and let these pathetic weaklings become kindling for the birth of a new world!"
The mountain-sized chromatic dragonbeasts charged once more, tearing through the lines, while the hundreds of thousands of winged cultists dove at high speed, instantly swallowing the vanguard of the coalition forces.
No longer truly human, these cultists acted like ravenous beasts. Eyes glaring with vicious light, claws and teeth bared, they tore, bit, and gouged, ripping apart the coalition soldiers incapacitated by the divine shockwaves until barely a semblance of human form remained.
Having received Tiamat's "blessing," they had discarded the last shreds of humanity, reduced to monsters more cruel and savage than true dragons.
"Enough—"
"Pitiful cultists! Did you truly believe you received the blessing of the Mother of Wicked Dragons? No—it is an eternal curse!"
Just then, a voice both gentle and majestic echoed from the distance. A beautiful, holy priestess in white clerical robes trimmed with gold appeared in midair.
She was none other than the legendary cleric, former Honorary Bishop of the Church of Amaunator, and current Archbishop of the Dragon Oath Sanctuary—Ingrid.
Following the Cinder Emperor's ascension to demigodhood, the Sanctuary Archbishop's power had surged significantly. Channeling the Emperor's might, she had already surpassed most legendary figures.
"In the name of the Cinder Emperor—Purify the Will!"
Ingrid raised a magnificent dragon-headed scepter high into the air. An invisible ripple radiated outward from the scepter, casting down golden rays like the midday sun across the scorched earth.
In an instant, the coalition soldiers shrouded in black light and blinded by Tiamat's malice began emitting wisps of dark smoke with loud hissing sounds. Their eyes cleared, cleansed by the sacred radiance.
Even the cultists transformed into monsters were affected by the golden light. Their wings and talons swiftly shrank, and thick patches of scales sloughed away from their skin.
"No—!"
"This is impossible! I was chosen by Her Majesty the Dragon Queen! I am destined to become a true dragon!"
"No! How can you lowly creatures kill a favored child of God?!"
Amidst unwilling howls, the cultists whose dragonification had been forcefully severed fell to the ground in droves, only to be swarmed by the waiting coalition soldiers and hacked to pieces.
Afar on the back of the giant wyvern, Felipe's face darkened. Gripping the Calamity Scepter, he snarled viciously, "Absurd! How can the mere servant of a demigod hope to stand against the great Chromatic Dragon Queen, the Master of All Scales?!"
He swept the Calamity Scepter around, preparing to channel another divine spell, when several dark blurs whistled shrilly through the air, piercing clean through his body. He stumbled back several paces, nearly tumbling from the wyvern's back.
"Who? Who dares?!"
Felipe's expression twisted in rage, veins bulging on his brow. Reaching into the bloody holes in his chest, he plucked out several bloodstained bullets. He glared into the distance, his slit pupils locking onto a squad of elite imperial snipers.
"So... it's just a handful of the lowliest, frailest mortals?"
"You think you can kill me?"
Felipe's tone turned chillingly sinister as he raised the Calamity Scepter, its tip already radiating divine power strong enough to warp space itself.
His regenerative abilities were astonishing; within mere seconds, the bullet wounds had completely closed, restoring his flesh as though untouched.
Yet right then, a searing beam of light shot forth from the distance, aimed straight for Felipe's skull.
The Dragon Pope's expression shifted drastically. Jerking his head aside, he tapped the Calamity Scepter, weaving divine power into a massive shield of light before him.
A tall dragonborn maiden with fiery red hair and golden eyes hovered in the air on beating dragon wings, destructive flames dancing at the tips of her slender fingers—none other than Misha.
Misha looked down coldly upon the Pope. "To think the former royalty of Fadelan has sunk to such depths... reduced to Tiamat's marionette? How pathetic."
"You're that traitor's warlock?"
Felipe glared at the distant sorceress with chilling, murderous eyes. "Serving the great Lady Tiamat is my highest honor! Whereas you—you dare make a pact with a treacherous, thieving scoundrel!"
He extended a hand, sneering, "Sorceress, you have talent. Abandon that creature doomed to be devoured and submit to the great Chromatic Dragon Queen, the Master of All Scales. You shall receive even greater power and walk under a far vaster sky!"
"You dare insult my master..."
Misha's expression turned frostbitten, her eyes icy as brilliant flames flared once more in her hands. "Irredeemable dragon puppet—die!"
Chapter 846