Ember Dragon

"How is such faith possible? How could they be so devout!"

Tiamat's expression grew increasingly ferocious, her three dragon faces alternating between extreme emotions such as anger, jealousy, and surprise. Her immense malice coalesced into a tangible black mist, causing the surrounding vegetation to wither instantly.

"I have painstakingly built up my power in Seleucia for over a century, expending countless resources and killing tens of millions of mortals, keeping these lowly ants in constant panic and fear. Yet they remain unrepentant, not only refusing to provide me with faith but also recklessly rebelling."

Tiamat's tone grew increasingly frantic, transforming into a thunderous roar, like a volcano about to erupt, ready to unleash the pent-up rage within her.

"Why should these lowly mortals willingly offer their faith to you? Their lives are in my hands!"

boom--

Tiamat raised her head high, and a dark beam of light, filled with murderous intent, tore through the sky, carrying an overwhelming and terrifying momentum, and blasted towards Cassius's chest.

However, the power of faith coalesced into a golden ocean, sweeping across the sky and enveloping Kaisius's dragon body, easily blocking the dark beam of light.

Enveloped in golden light, Cassius looked down at Tiamat and sneered mercilessly, "What does this have to do with me?"

"You can't get faith? This is clearly the retribution you deserve for everything you've done! Killing millions of people and then trying to get faith from their relatives and friends is just wishful thinking!"

As he spoke, Kaisius raised his dragon claw, faith gathering in his palm and condensing into a golden spear thousands of meters long, which he then hurled out.

[Imperial Territory: Retribution!]

stab-

With a piercing explosion, the spear, like divine punishment, pierced through the dark beam of light spewed out by Tiamat. The enormous three-headed dragon tried to twist its body to dodge, but it still pierced through the shoulder. The golden spear, carrying mottled divine blood, nailed to the ground and deeply embedded itself.

Tiamat let out a painful howl, spitting out mouthfuls of blood, yet still questioning in a hoarse voice: "You wage war, seize territory, establish sects, create the Dragonborn Caesus, you call yourself righteous, but what difference is there between your empire and mine?"

“Old woman, I have never claimed to be righteous, nor have I ever played the role of a so-called messenger of justice. And the reason for your failure is not evil, but stupidity, outdated ideas and self-righteousness.”

Kaisius sneered, mercilessly mocking, "Tiamat, you are short-sighted, cruel, and foolish. You only know how to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, relentlessly exploiting and oppressing others. Your brain-dead five-colored dragons have turned the once prosperous Seleucia Kingdom into a wasteland of burning, killing, and looting. And you still expect to gain faith? What a joke!"

The red dragon suddenly flapped its wings, and the power of faith condensed in the sky into countless golden spears, swords, battle axes, and long-handled hammers, which crashed down towards the three-headed dragon like countless dense meteors falling to the earth with astonishing force.

Cassius was very interested in arguing with Tiamat. Every word he spoke would buy him a little more time, and he would win the battle when the gods invaded Tiamat's kingdom.

"Those lowly mortals are unworthy of my attention! Cassius, you, a noble dragon, actually care about the lives of a bunch of mortals! You are an insult to your own bloodline!"

Tiamat roared, and a thick black mist appeared above her head, swallowing up all the golden light that was falling from the sky. Then, the black mist condensed into countless ferocious heads, which attacked Caesus from different directions.

But before those dragon heads could even touch Kaisius's body, they disintegrated in mid-air, as if blocked by some invisible barrier—that was still the power of the Imperial domain.

"What right do you, a mere mortal, have to speak of faith to me? Human greed is endless, and indulging it will only lead to betrayal by those lowly ants, just like the old sun! You, a dragon, have actually believed in the tricks of so-called fairness and justice."

Kaisius continued with a cold laugh: "I'm not claiming to be fair; I'm just laughing at your inefficient use of mortals, your rigid thinking, and your complete lack of understanding of sustainable development."

Tiamat, only you could be so foolish as to use tens of millions of mortals as soul material! What a waste! Give me that many citizens, and I can double the total productivity of the Burning Empire, having them provide far more faith power than they currently possess!

Before the words were finished, several golden spears descended from the sky with a piercing whistling sound, piercing through the three-headed dragon's shoulders, wings, torso, and tail, as if to pin it firmly to the ground.

"Merely ordinary things—"

Divine blood spurted from the wounds. Tiamat struggled fiercely, her body radiating intense divine power that shattered the golden spears. Her battered dragon body rose into the air amidst the storm, seemingly preparing for another counterattack.

Faced with the counterattack of this true god, Caesus dared not be negligent. He immediately activated the Empire's domain to construct an indestructible barrier, imprisoning Tiamat within a golden city wall thousands of meters high. Countless chains formed from pure faith were also wrapped around her body, binding her hundreds of times.

Roar--

Tiamat roared to the sky, breaking countless chains, causing the divine barrier released by Caesus to shatter and then collapse with a crash.

"Cassius! Even so, you still can't stop me! How can you mortals possibly contend with the power of a true god? If I don't use my true strength, you'll really think I'm weak and easy to bully!"

boom! boom! boom!
With deafening roars, countless beams of dark divine light were released from Tiamat's body, mercilessly destroying everything in their path. Mountains, trees, and rocks crumbled and disintegrated in an instant.

That was the product of a divine outburst.

At this moment, Tiamat was willing to sacrifice her primal divinity to fight Caesus!

boom--

With a deafening roar, the three-headed dragon soared into the air with terrifying momentum and crashed into Caesus. Its huge claws swung through the air, sending Caesus flying thousands of meters away.

Kaisius crashed through several mountains before finally coming to a stop, spewing out scorching dragon blood. His bones were shattered, and his body was covered with a hazy divine light, clearly indicating that he was being corrupted by Tiamat's divine power.

Tiamat, positioned high above, unleashed a thick beam of tri-colored light that pierced through Kaisius's body. His flesh burned and disintegrated into ashes, even his heart was pierced, and a bottomless crater was blasted into the ground behind him.

If it weren't for the powerful regenerative abilities granted by the Imperial Domain, with countless points of light flowing into his body, that attack just now would probably have been enough to kill him!
"This is a true god's full-force attack. The difference in power levels is terrifying. He can still unleash such a powerful attack within my domain."

Thinking of this, Kaisius felt quite fortunate. If Tiamat hadn't been so arrogant and conceited, and hadn't used up her divine power to attack at the beginning, he probably wouldn't have had the chance to lure her here.

boom!
boom! boom!
Tiamat's eyes flashed with ferocity, and her attacks grew increasingly fierce. She wanted to eliminate Caesus as quickly as possible, sparing no effort to remove this major threat. However, Caesus, being within the Empire's territory, controlled the surrounding laws and constantly traversed space, dodging and weaving amidst Tiamat's breaths. In moments, he would fully recover, leaving her helpless.

Kaisius did not rush to retaliate. He knew that he only needed to do one thing—buy time.

But at that moment, Tiamat suddenly stopped moving. The divine light surrounding her body flickered, and fine cracks appeared on her body, like a statue about to shatter.

"What? How could this happen?"

Tiamat was taken aback at first, then her expression turned to one of extreme rage, and she growled in a low voice, "Bahamut! You hypocritical old man! I want Him dead!"

"I see."

Kaishus's lips curled into a sinister smile: "It seems the gods' attack has begun, Tiamat. Will you choose to continue your enmity with me—or watch your divine kingdom be destroyed by the gods?"

"Excuse my bluntness, but if you stop here, you'll still have a chance to make a comeback. If you persist in your ways, you'll probably end up like Karix, banished and sealed away in some godforsaken, remote plane."

Kaisius gazed down at the three-headed dragon and advised in a mocking tone, "Go back quickly, my dear Your Majesty. If you're worried about not being fast enough, don't forget that I still hold a portion of Hell's authority, which can help you teleport to Avernus quickly."

"Casius! You—"

His voice was hoarse, filled with resentment: "Heh heh heh, Caesus, don't think you can escape this calamity? If I fail, you will be the next enemy of the gods!"
You pose a greater threat to them than I do. Those hypocritical old fogies will not tolerate the emergence of a new Dragon God! Nor will they stand idly by and watch the Empire dominate the world! But if you and I join forces, our Five-Colored Dragon Clan will easily rule the material plane and become the most—"

"Enough, Tiamat!"

Kaisius interrupted the other person with an indifferent expression: "Of course I know that the gods are hostile to me, but do you think that after fighting to this extent, we still have a chance to make peace?"

Don't think I don't know who you are, Tiamat, the embodiment of greed and jealousy, a vengeful goddess. I stole your divinity and ruined your millennia-long plan. I'm afraid you've already torn me to pieces countless times in your heart.

If I were to blindly believe you and choose to cooperate with you, it would be tantamount to courting death. My fate would likely be even worse than that of Kazul, whose soul was scattered and destroyed. There is nothing more to discuss between us!

"So you're determined to be my enemy?"

"Till death!"

"Kasius! You are making an enemy of all the five-colored dragons in the multiverse! You will be hunted down by thousands of your own kind!"

Roar--

The response to Him was the roar of Caesus, a roar that resounded through the heavens and shook the earth, enough to make everything in the world—even the world itself—tremble and shudder.

At his command, the hundreds of rivers of faith in the sky coalesced into a golden spear tens of thousands of meters long. The spear stretched across the sky, surrounded by golden lightning and flames, resembling a bottomless chasm, exuding overwhelming power and radiating a rich aura of destruction, death, and slaughter.

This is the product of Kaisius gathering the faith of tens of millions of people and bringing the power of the imperial domain to its extreme, possessing destructive power comparable to a weak god.

[Imperial Realm: Divine Punishment]

The spear slowly descended towards the three-headed dragon, releasing terrifying wind pressure that mercilessly destroyed everything on the ground.

Even Tiamat looked up in alarm, staring at the golden spear, and growled through gritted teeth, "Cassius, how could you do this! You will pay for this!"

The three-headed dragon used a secret technique, and divine light shone brightly on its wings that blotted out the sky. It flapped its wings, greatly increasing its speed, and instantly swept across the sky, covering a distance of tens of thousands of meters.

However, the golden spear fell from the sky, and although it did not seem fast, it constantly traversed space, using the spatial laws attached to the Imperial Domain to approach Tiamat at a constant speed, leaving her with nowhere to hide or avoid.

Kaisius's eyes flashed as he watched Tiamat streak across the sky, and he said coldly, "If I can kill you, it will be worth any price."

stab-

The next moment, the golden spear tore through the sky and fell suddenly like divine punishment, piercing through the back and exiting through the abdomen, directly penetrating the mountain-sized body of the three-headed dragon.

Tiamat let out a heart-wrenching howl as she was pinned to the ground, causing the earth to shake and crack, dust to fly everywhere, and the earth to rumble and roar like muffled thunder.

Kaisius continued to mobilize the power of the laws, and the space around the golden spear was solidified by the power of the imperial domain, as if it were frozen in ice, making the three-headed dragon's movements extremely slow, as if it had entered slow motion and was about to be frozen in time.

But Tiamat mobilized the divine power within her body and struggled frantically. Behind her, a five-headed dragon phantom, tens of thousands of meters tall and blotting out the sky, appeared. The five heads were raised high, roaring to the sky and emitting blasphemous demonic sounds.

Even the spear that Kaisius had condensed with the power of faith and the power of laws trembled wildly under this sound, gradually cracking and crumbling.

click-

The golden spear of punishment suddenly shattered, and Tiamat, ignoring the torn flesh, flapped her wings and forcefully soared into the sky, glaring at Kaisius with eyes full of hatred: "You damned traitor!"

Kaisius met his gaze without fear and sneered, "Tiamat, you'd better go back to Avernas. On this land, my power is inexhaustible. Keep fighting me, and your stronghold will be lost."

Just then, a cold glint flashed in Tiamat's eyes: "Never run dry? Heh."

The three-headed dragon turned its head and looked north with murderous eyes. Then, a strange smile appeared on its lips, sending chills down one's spine.

"Casius, your source of faith is these lowly ants, isn't it? If I were to slaughter them all—where would you get your power?" (End of Chapter)