Ember Dragon

"puff!"

Under intense pressure, Gu Jinlong felt a metallic taste rise from deep in his throat, blood gushing out, his bones almost crushed. He struggled to lift his head, his voice hoarse.

"You misunderstand. As an ally, I'm just a little worried about you and want to check on your injuries."

"Confirm the injuries?"

Kaisius grinned, revealing bloodstained teeth, and sneered, "Does confirming the injury require you to conceal yourself? Does it require you to cast divine spells on yourself? Do you take me for a fool like the White Dragon?"

Dionysius stared directly into the eyes of the Red Dragon Emperor, coughing up blood and letting out a bitter laugh: "Your Majesty Dionysius, if I may be so bold, you cannot control this evil divinity. You already possess such great power, so why do you continue to covet the might of the gods?"
Once your mind is influenced by Tiamat's divinity, you are highly likely to be harmed by this power, and may even cause immense destruction to the material world. Please believe me. The Great Lord of the North Wind is more suitable than you to safeguard this broken horn. If I were to take it back to my divine realm…

Kaisius stepped forward and stomped heavily on the ancient golden dragon's shoulder, laughing angrily, "Trying to ambush your allies and steal their spoils, is this what you call an ally? I really overestimated the bottom line of you metal dragons!"

"Crack!"

"Roar!" With a crisp sound, the ancient golden dragon let out a mournful cry. Its shoulder blade suddenly shattered, and its shoulder was trampled into a bloody mess. Warm dragon blood spurted out from the gaps in its scales.

"Be merciful!"

"Your Majesty Caesus, I beg you to spare Dionysius's life! He does not deserve to die!"

The metal dragons flapped their wings erratically, letting out cries, but dared not approach, for fear of angering the red dragon emperor.

Misha, Dolo, and other high-ranking officials of the empire glared at the metal dragon with hostility, roaring angrily: "How dare you attempt to ambush His Majesty! Who gave you the courage?"

"Metal dragons, is this how you repay your savior? If it weren't for His Majesty Caesus, you would all be dead here!"

"They are the enemy!"

In an instant, millions of imperial soldiers stopped in their tracks, countless dark cannons and gun barrels pointed at the metal dragons, their eyes filled with rage.

Although the metal dragons knew they were in the wrong, they still let out threatening growls to protect themselves from bullets and artillery fire.

Dionysius whispered, "Your Majesty Caesus, I am an emissary of His Majesty Bahamut, you cannot—"

"Thorn-"

A crisp sound rang out in the sky. The Red Dragon Emperor exerted his strength suddenly, and the wings of the ancient golden dragon were torn apart and ripped to shreds, with blood and flesh flying everywhere in an instant.

Dionysius let out a loud wail and fainted from the intense pain. Blood gushed from the gruesome gash and gathered into a small lake.

Even for an ancient golden dragon proficient in magic, such an injury would take at least several hundred years to gradually recover, but its dragon wings would no longer be as agile as before.

Kaisius glanced at him and then ignored him, saying coldly and warily, "I should have killed him, but I spared his life because of His Majesty Bahamut's recent assistance. However, his shameless behavior is enough to ignite a war between the Empire and the Metal Dragons!"

"You are lucky to have escaped a war!"

The Red Dragon Emperor flapped his broad dragon wings and suddenly soared into the air, stirring up gusts of wind carrying yellow sand.

"Metal Dragon, this is just a warning. Don't meddle in other people's business and block the Empire's path forward. Otherwise, no matter who it is, even if Bahamut himself descends, they will be mercilessly crushed by the wheels of history."

His deep, resonant voice echoed in the sky, shaking people's hearts and filling the golden, silver, and brass dragons with fear and terror.

"Is the Burning Emperor threatening the entire Metal Dragon race?"

"Lord Dionysius!"

"Quickly heal him!" After the red dragon ascended into the sky, the metal dragons swarmed up, unleashing all sorts of healing spells.

With a deafening roar, the Red Dragon Emperor tore through space and slowly disappeared into the sky amidst countless gazes filled with fear, worship, or panic.

"Long live the Empire!"

"Long live the Emperor of Burning Ashes!"

Imperial soldiers raised their weapons and shouted loudly; their unified voices resounded through the sky and shook the heavens.

After Gorazdra's death, the thunderclouds that had covered the sky dissipated rapidly at a visible speed, and countless dazzling rays of sunlight pierced through the clouds, shining on this land riddled with holes and scorched earth, giving it a sense of rebirth from the ashes.

The Seleucid soldiers, seeing the light of day again, wept with joy—especially those from the Tarilo region, who had not seen the sun unobstructed by thunderclouds for who knows how long.

Even at this moment, as believers of Amannatha, they couldn't help but murmur, "Praise be to His Majesty King Cassius."

Gazing at the majestic dragon silhouette that seemed to still linger in the sky, certain seeds were quietly sown in my heart—a glimmer of hope amidst despair.

On the other side, at the edge of the Locke Rift Valley, countless descendants of evil dragons and cultists crowded together, either falling into the abyss or being divided, surrounded, and annihilated by the allied soldiers.

In just a few days, millions of descendants of evil dragons and millions of followers of the Dragon Worship Cult were slaughtered. According to the Empire's joke, even killing a million pigs would take much longer.

This earth-shattering "Battle of the Great Rift Valley" thus came to an end, with the allied forces achieving a great victory and the Blue Dragon Church being completely annihilated.

After this world-renowned war ended, reinforcements from Sereneia, the Kingdom of Kassander, and other places left one after another. The metal dragons, who almost triggered a new war at the last moment, also left in a huff with their seriously wounded leader.

The allied forces, primarily composed of Imperial soldiers and native Seleucia soldiers, easily crossed the Locke Rift Valley. They split into three routes, traversing the Taliro Desert from the north, central, and south, respectively, to reclaim the homeland occupied by the Blue Dragon Cult. They swept through the region, annihilating countless descendants of the evil dragons and destroying dozens of temples. During this time, Bishop Dennis Drummond of the Blue Dragon Cult led his remaining forces in a desperate resistance, ambushing the allied forces at one of the temples. However, the Imperials discovered this in advance—and the temple became a testing ground, with tens of thousands of tons of artillery shells exploding above it, leveling the entire temple to the ground, leaving only ruins and scorched earth, and countless remains buried within.

To this day, two of the three major sects of the Dragon Church have been destroyed, with only the Red Dragon Sect in the south still existing.

The Red Dragon Cult occupies the most prosperous and fertile Sunset Plains of Seleucia. They possess the most extensive territory and the most powerful army among the three major sects of the Dragon Cult, and even control the former Seleucia King, turning this dragon-headed, human-bodied descendant of the gods into Tiamat's puppet.

Kazul, the Lava Lord and "god" of the Red Dragon Cult, is the most powerful of Tiamat's three followers. The heart beating in his chest is not an ordinary dragon heart, but Tiamat's immortal heart!
However, it's too early to say that the Blue Dragon Cult is a brand. Besides Dennis Drummond, the Blue Dragon Cult also has one of the original Blue Dragon descendant god-slayers—Quincy Vera—who is still stubbornly resisting the Allied offensive.

He gathered remnants of the Church of the Dragon from all directions and fled south across the vast Taliro Desert, now reaching the southernmost sandy hills.

Everywhere you look, there are jagged rocks piled up like monsters. These rocks form narrow passages, and every minute, every second, a gale carrying yellow sand rushes through the gaps between the rocks. Strange sounds like the howls of wild beasts often come from deep within them.

For humans, this is undoubtedly a purgatory of yellow sand, but for the descendants of the blue dragons who live at the bottom of the desert, it is a paradise where they can hide and live.

However, this land has a harsh environment and extremely scarce resources. The descendants of the blue dragons can only rely on the corpses of their companions to replenish their energy. They kill and devour each other, using the bodies of their own kind to sustain their lives.

Now, tens of thousands of blue dragon descendants have gathered here. The old, weak, and wounded have been devoured, and the remaining ones are hungry and eager strongmen. Their eyes gleam with a ghostly light. Due to the shortage of energy, they can no longer easily unleash lightning. They hide deep in these hills and valleys, quietly waiting for the enemy to arrive.

“We have not failed yet—the great Mother Goddess, Queen of Ten Thousand Scales, Queen of Five-Colored Dragons Tiamat is still watching over us!”

"Our defeat in the North was only because a shameless traitor stole the power of the Mother Goddess. Now, that arrogant red dragon has returned to his territory, and all we have to face are those weak and insignificant humans!"

"My kin, let them witness the power of the Son of Tiamat!"

On a towering sandstone pillar, Quincy Vera, clad in a garment made of a dozen human skins sewn together, raised a long bone knife in his claws, drawing forth rolling, churning clouds.

"boom!"

A long-awaited bolt of lightning struck his bone knife, and a powerful current coursed through his body, giving him an indescribable feeling of comfort and pleasure.

"Ow—"

The descendants of the blue dragon raised their heads in unison, letting out hoarse roars that sounded like lightning, their ferocious faces revealing expressions of madness.

In the once vast Taliro Desert, they were absolute predators and rulers, and now, at least in these windswept hills, they can still maintain their dominance—even though there is nothing else in these hills besides them.

Just then, a series of piercing shrieks came from afar. In the distance, streaks of fire and smoke streaked across the horizon, rushing rapidly toward the wind-blown sand dunes. The white trails they left behind resembled the withered, skeletal hand of death slowly reaching out.

The Blue Dragon descendants looked up in confusion, not understanding what was about to happen, but Quincy Vera was a survivor who had escaped from the Great Rift Valley War—he knew very well what those dark shadows tearing through the sky meant, and even had a considerable psychological trauma from it.

"Get down quickly—"

The blue dragon descendant, the god-slayer, stared wide-eyed, its face filled with terror. It opened its blood-red maw with all its might, letting out a heart-wrenching roar, before suddenly collapsing to the ground as if by reflex.

But by then, it was too late.

Moreover, this offensive has been planned for a long time, and even if the Blue Dragon descendants burrow underground, it will be of no use—after all, it is the Empire's newly developed magic-powered cruise missile, which can even be accurate to a single target.

The missiles used in this bombing all came from the Thrace launch center, thousands of kilometers away, and three of them were targeting the infamous blue dragon descendant and god-slayer, Quincy Vera.

"boom!"

Accompanied by a series of deafening roars, the dark figures rained down on the sand dunes and ravines, unleashing a series of terrifying explosions, with flames and black smoke shooting into the sky.

The earth trembled violently, and jagged, strange rocks in the sand dunes and ravines cracked and collapsed in the explosion, pouring down like a flood and burying countless descendants of the blue dragon.

"Damn Imperials!"

Quincy roared as the massive and powerful Blue Dragon Descendant Godslayer raised his dragon skull shield to block the flames from the explosion and the raging inferno. His body crackled with electric arcs—a sign that the Blue Dragon Descendant Godslayer was using all his strength.

But soon, three directional tracking missiles, accompanied by a piercing whistle, plummeted toward Quincy at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow.

"boom!"

The explosion resounded through the sky, and the warhead, carrying extremely terrifying kinetic energy, instantly pierced through the dragon skull shield and shot into the unsuspecting body of the Blue Dragon Descendant Godslayer.

In an instant, the scales shattered under the intense impact, turning into countless glittering fragments. A burst of blood mist shot out, and his extremely dense flesh and blood exploded instantly, turning into hundreds of crimson and black fragments. Even his hard bones were blasted into pieces.

Blood rained down, debris and fragments rained down, and the last blue dragon descendant, the god-slayer and the last hope of the blue dragon cult, died just like that. His remains were evenly smeared on the rocks.

After a round of bombing, the sand dunes and ravines were reduced to ruins of scattered rocks, with the corpses of the last blue dragons lying everywhere. Only a few lucky survivors lingered under the rubble, uttering weak groans.

Five kilometers away, several Imperial military researchers dressed in camouflage uniforms, holding optical binoculars, carefully observed the distant ruins, scribbling something down in their hands, then nodded in satisfaction:

"Indeed, after this test, the positioning missile's error is less than nine meters, and the magic tracking missile's error has completely disappeared. However, we still need to test its resistance to magic-nullifying barriers."

"Hmm, it seems that this batch of new missiles is ready for large-scale deployment."

Tragically, what the Blue Dragon Cult saw as their last chance and hope for a counterattack against the Allied Forces was, in the eyes of the military researchers, merely a trivial weapons test; they even complained that the sample size was insufficient. (End of Chapter)