Ember Dragon

In the west of the Taliro Desert, there is the Ashes of the Ridge.

The sand dunes undulate, frozen in the wind into eternal waves, and the horizon twists and boils in the heat.

The black rocks were eroded by the wind into jagged shapes, like the dried bones of a giant beast, full of traces of time. The gravel lashed against the rocks, making a numbing hissing sound, as if billions of hungry beetles were constantly gnawing at them.

Occasionally, a strange light flashes in the depths of the desert, dim green or dark purple, fleeting, like fragments of ancient magic imprisoned in the sand, or the cold eyes of some elemental life roaming in the yellow sand.

This is not an ordinary sea of ​​sand, but an ancient battlefield forgotten by the gods, the graveyard of life - the Ashes of Desolate Ridge.

Many years ago, this place might have been a dense forest full of vitality.

It is said that in that far-reaching catastrophe, the sun god and the wind god fought here.

The Sun God released an endless golden flame, burning everything to ashes and evaporating it into yellow sand, while the Wind God brought a howling gale, bringing one terrifying sandstorm after another over a long period of time.
But now, this battlefield forgotten by the gods has ushered in a new war - but the two sides in the war are dragons.

"Roar--"

In the extremely dry sky, seven brass dragons roared fiercely, their scales gleaming in the sunlight, full of metallic texture.

On the sandstone a few hundred meters away, there were four azure blue dragons with charred scars all over their bodies. They were roaring hoarsely, and their skin was making faint crackling sounds.

Among them, there was a female blue dragon that was obviously larger than the other two. Its scales were polished to a shine by the sand, and its body was inlaid with various magical equipment. This was the most outstanding blue dragon of the younger generation of the Faria clan - Christia Faria.

Christina flapped her wings and flew into the air, stirring up gusts of wind that blew up the yellow sand. She roared, "Shameless brass dragon, get out of this land! This is the territory of the Faria family!"

The eyes of the Brass Dragon were sharp, and his tone was full of hostility: "Filthy descendants of Tiamat! You are the ones who should get out! Go to Avernus and accompany your gods--"

Before he finished his words, the brass dragons swooped down, spitting out linear streams of fire from their mouths.

The blue dragons flapped their wings and dodged, and the flaming breath directly hit the sandstone. With a dull roar, the dark rock pillars collapsed.

"Damn copper crawler"

Facing the brass dragon with bared fangs and claws swooping down on her, Christina gritted her teeth with a ferocious look on her face. She suddenly raised her head and inhaled, with a dazzling ball of lightning brewing in her throat.

“Sizzle, sizzle, BOOM!”

Just before the brass dragon approached, dazzling lightning gushed out of its mouth, instantly engulfing the three brass dragons in front.

The blue dragon's lightning breath is the most powerful among the five colored dragons; even the red dragon cannot match it.

With a hair-raising crackling sound, the three brass dragons were electrocuted, their eyes sparkling and their bodies burnt black. They fell from mid-air, wailing and trailing puffs of green smoke.

After the companion in front fell, the four brass dragons behind them froze in their movements and were reluctant to move forward. However, Christina seized the opportunity, flapped her dragon wings, and soared into the sky.

Amidst the lightning and thunder, the young blue dragon roared and bit the wing of one of the brass dragons, tearing it apart and causing it to fall directly to the ground.

The remaining three brass dragons growled and wanted to come forward to help, but the two blue dragons followed closely behind Christina, roaring wildly and spewing dazzling lightning from their mouths, forcing them to retreat with two against three.

"Nosy brass dragon! Today is the day you die!"

Christina flapped her dragon wings and suddenly climbed high into the sky. She roared at the three brass dragons from above. A bolt of lightning as thick as a bowl spurted out of her mouth and struck the brass dragon's head directly.

With the power of the blue dragon's breath, if it hits the head directly, the bronze dragon, which has just reached adulthood, will be seriously injured if not killed.

The brass dragon's pupils reflected lightning and its eyes were filled with fear. It turned its head suddenly, but the lightning still struck its shoulder.

In an instant, accompanied by crackling sounds, crisscrossing arcs of electricity instantly enveloped the entire body. All the scales on the brass dragon exploded, and the huge dragon body fell to the ground uncontrollably, hitting the rock wall below heavily, causing countless pieces of rubble to fall.

"boom--"

The situation on the scene was reversed in an instant, and the blue dragon became three against two against the bronze dragon, and it was obvious that the blue dragon had a huge advantage.

What's more, as the best among the five-colored dragons after the red dragon, the individual strength of the blue dragon is superior to that of the bronze dragon.

Brass dragons are frivolous by nature, and tend to flee when they cannot win. The remaining two brass dragons looked at each other, turned around and fled, not forgetting to shout:
"Blue dragon! Just wait! Our army of metal dragons is coming soon! You descendants of Tiamat won't be able to keep your arrogance for long!"

"You are just a guy who can only talk!" Christina roared and was about to chase him, but the adult blue dragon beside her stopped her.

"Don't pursue them anymore. That's meaningless. Be careful not to be lured into deep territory by them. What's more important for us now is to deal with these losers."

As it spoke, the blue dragon turned its head and looked at the brass dragons lying in the ruins, a hint of cruelty flashed in the depths of its pupils.

Before Christina could respond, the blue dragon flew to the brass dragon, pierced its chest with its sharp claws, dug out its bloody heart, and made a shrill wail that resounded throughout the desert.

“I didn’t expect the situation to develop to this point.”

Christina looked at the dead brass dragon, just sighed and said nothing more.

Of course, she was not sighing for her dead enemies, but was worried about the future of the clan and the lives of her members.

Before the "dragon disaster" that swept across Seleucia, although the blue dragons of the Faria family often had disputes and conflicts with the metal dragons, most of them were pure struggles for interests and remained within a very small range, and there were very few cases of mutual slaughter.

The dragon clan has an unwritten rule that true dragons cannot harm each other's lives. Even opposing camps such as the five-colored dragons and the metal dragons will not kill each other.

But three years ago, the Dragon Worship Church launched a massive attack on Seleucia, and the "Thunder Tyrant" Gorazdra killed seven adult golden dragons in three days, triggering the wrath of Bahamut and igniting the anger of the entire metal dragon clan.

A month later, the revenge of the metal dragons came. A group of five gold dragons, seven silver dragons and twelve bronze dragons attacked the western lair of the Faria clan, killing six blue dragons and causing heavy losses to the clan members. Since then, the "gentleman's agreement" of the true dragons for tens of thousands of years has been completely broken, and the mutual hatred between the five-colored dragons and the metal dragons has reappeared in the world.

Both sides attacked ruthlessly and mercilessly, as if they had returned to the "Dragonfall War" period of the First Era, continuing the war that caused the fall of countless dragons.

Christina knew that if they killed all the brass dragons this time, the Faria family would be retaliated by the metal dragons, especially the brass dragons, even more fiercely, and more blue dragons would die.

Thinking of this, when the blue dragon was about to kill the second brass dragon that had fainted on the ground, Christina stopped him: "That's enough, there's no need to keep killing."

The blue dragon turned around, his eyes full of confusion, suppressing his anger: "Why? Haven't these hypocritical metal dragons killed enough of our people?"

Christina cursed in a bad tone: "Idiot! If you keep killing us, it will only bring us more losses. Killing these yellow reptiles will not benefit us at all, but will only bring more fierce revenge from the metal dragon!"

"Let's clean up that damn dragon corpse and go straight back to the Western Dragon's Nest. I want to see my father!" She spoke in a firm and decisive tone, with sparks of electricity in her eyes.

"Yes"

The blue dragon curled its lips, but still did not dare to disobey Christina's order. It had to lower its head, flap its wings, and fly towards the dragon's nest.

A blue dragon dislikes tall dwellings, preferring to dig its lairs underground, burrow beneath sand dunes, or use magic to carve rock into intricate spaces and tunnels large enough to house its expanding clan.

As the largest blue dragon clan in the entire south - and even in the entire Feanso, the Faria family has several dragon nests.

The Western Dragon's Nest is located on the ruins of an ancient city swallowed by sand dunes. Its entrance is an open cave. The carved stone pillars of the ancient city are integrated with part of the walls and decorated with blue and purple crystals.

There are constantly magical sandstorms blowing around the dragon's nest, as well as countless deadly traps, and monsters such as flying lion beasts, lion dragons, and desert scorpion dragons often roam around.

But after seeing Christina, the owner of the Dragon's Nest, return, all the monsters surrendered, and even the sandstorm left a huge gap for them to pass through.

Christina entered the underground dragon's nest, passed through the complex maze-like tunnel, and came directly to the deepest part of the dragon's nest, which was also the residence of her father, the patriarch of the Faria family, the ancient blue dragon Keldom.

After entering the cave, Christina stepped forward quickly, her tone anxious and angry: "Father, we can't go on like this! This war is completely draining the clan's strength!"

"Before this war began, there were ninety-seven members of the clan, but in two years, we have lost twenty-one adult blue dragons!"

The huge ancient blue dragon stood up and made a sound like thunder: "But it is worth it. When His Majesty Tiamat returns to the earth, our Faria clan will become his heroes and gain endless glory."

"Damn the glory!"

Christina interrupted the ancient blue dragon angrily, gritting her teeth and cursing, "Can honor bring our people back to life?"

"The war in the western part of the Taliro Desert is getting more and more intense. Gold dragons, silver dragons, brass dragons, bronze dragons, and even copper dragons have joined in. We are using the power of our clan to fight against the entire metal dragon clan of Feanso!"

Keldom was somewhat speechless, but still argued: "As long as we can hold on for this period of time, our Faria clan has occupied the western part of the kingdom. As long as Elder Gorazdra completes her mission."

"Did we occupy the western part of the kingdom? It was clearly Elder Gorazdra and her sect who occupied this place. We are at best consumables for her men." Christina sneered.

She looked at the ancient blue dragon and continued to persuade him, "What have we gained from occupying the kingdom? There are more and more enemies, more and more lowly blue dragon bastards, and our Faria clan members are getting fewer and fewer."

"Father, please stop. We shouldn't work for Gorazdra like this. She is no longer one of our people. She has been taken away by His Majesty. You should know what I am talking about."

Keldom smiled bitterly. "Christina, you're back just in time. I was just about to ask you to come over. We no longer have to be responsible for the defense of the western front. This place will be guarded by those so-called 'Blue Dragon Descendant God Slayers'."

"What? That's true."

Christina was surprised at first, but then she noticed the expression on Ancient Blue Dragon's face and felt something was wrong, so she asked in confusion: "No, is there something wrong with the Dragon Worship Church?"

Keldom looked bitter and said in a deep voice: "The Burning Empire moved south. They captured Forest Eagle City in one fell swoop, destroyed the Green Dragon Cult, and occupied the northwest of Seleucid."

"The Burning Cinder Emperor even personally killed Erebus and took away his divine body, which angered Her Majesty the Dragon Queen. She shot down the giant dragons in the kingdom of God and ordered them to assassinate Cassius."

Christina's expression suddenly changed, and her face gradually became gloomy, as if she was shrouded in a thick thundercloud: "Then we..."

Keldom sighed again: "Yes, our new mission is to go to the east and north of Taliro, resist the invasion of the Burning Empire, and do our best to kill the Burning Emperor."

"What a joke!"

Christina slammed the ground hard with her claws, stirring up countless gravel and causing the electric currents on the ground to hum continuously.

"Father, that means we are going to die! I have been to the Burning Empire several times and I know their military strength, and I know even more how powerful the Burning Emperor is!"

"Damn it, Gorazdra has gone mad! She no longer cares about the interests of the clan and is obsessed with the dream of becoming a god!"

Keldom whispered, "But this is the oracle of Her Majesty the Dragon Queen. It cannot be disobeyed."

It can be seen that the ancient blue dragon is already somewhat shaken.

Christina said coldly, "Father, our Faria family has fought in many battles and sacrificed too much for the Five-Colored Dragon Clan and His Majesty. More than 20 of our family members have died in the war. We have done our utmost and are impeccable.

The Dragonfall War tens of thousands of years ago proved one thing - in the disputes between dragons, the ones who suffer losses are never the dragon gods, but us. "

Keldom pondered solemnly for a long time before he said firmly: "Christina, you are right, we have lost too much in the war.

The Faria clan must not get involved this time, even if it means disobeying the oracle!" (End of this chapter)