Grand Duke Balogel stood at the edge of the terrace. The towering peaks of the northern mountains were entwined by hazy clouds and drifting snow, forming a blurred picture. In such a vast landscape, even the terrace made of boulders was faintly integrated with the sky. It seemed that as long as he took a step forward, he would be able to blend into the endless landscape.
A steady and powerful voice came from behind the terrace. "Grand Duke, the Council of Dragonblood has handed over the matter."
Balogel, the ruler of the Dukedom of Holy Dragon, withdrew his gaze from the distance and turned to Sir Golos Hickel, who had just stepped onto the terrace, and nodded slightly. "Well, thank you for your hard work."
"Has the final moment arrived?" Sir Golos Hickel, who was tall and thick-bearded, looked at the Dragonblood Archduke in front of him with a complicated expression. "Are you leaving?"
"The final moment is almost here. I have to reach the battlefield before then." Grand Duke Balogel's voice was as deep as the mountains. "I can hear two voices echoing in my mind at the same time, and one of them has begun to weaken … It's time to leave. I've been absent from this coming of age ceremony for too long."
Sir Golos Hickel was silent for two seconds and lowered his head. "… This is your mission."
Grand Duke Balogel nodded and did not speak for a while. Only the whistling cold wind blew from the top of the mountain, carrying snow from afar. After a long time, the Dragonblood Archduke suddenly broke the silence. "More and more young dragons are leaving the mountains to seek adventure in the human countries in the south …"
"The attraction of the new world is huge, and … the instinct to fly is deeply engraved in the soul of every dragon. This is not something that can be changed by rewriting the genes," Sir Golos said. "The human world has just ended a war, and the situation of the whole continent will change. There will be more opportunities and a wider world … There will be more and more young dragons leaving the mountains."
Balogel glanced at the courtier who had followed him for many years and smiled. "You are different from me. You are also a 'dragon' born and raised in the mountains of the Dukedom of Holy Dragon. I still remember that when you were young, you also did the feat of jumping off the Dragon Leaping Cliff … I didn't expect so many years to pass in the blink of an eye."
"Yes, it has been many years." Sir Golos's always stern face could not help but soften a little. He might have recalled the time when he was young, or he might have thought of his daughter who was living happily in the human world. "You are still so strong and full of vitality, but I can't even glide … But this is nothing. I am much luckier than my parents and ancestors to be able to see the changes in this world in my lifetime."
Another gust of mountain wind blew from afar. Grand Duke Balogel glanced at the distant north. Through the hazy clouds, he seemed to be able to see the magnificent Eternal Storm spinning on the vast sea. The huge cloud wall was like a peerless barrier between the Loren Continent and Tarlonde. He took a deep breath of the cold air and said as if talking to himself, "Time's up."
"I wish you a safe journey." Sir Golos bowed his head and said in the most solemn tone of his life. "From now on, the dragon's descendants can call themselves dragons."
A gust of wind suddenly swept across the terrace made of boulders. The pressure of the Giant Dragon came from the wind. It rose with the wind, stirring up the surge of magic power into the sky. Sir Golos kept his head down in the wind until he heard a deep and majestic voice from the distant sky. "Look up, you are dragons!"
A white shadow of a Giant Dragon rushed from the highest point of the Dragon's Arrival Castle to the clouds. Thousands of dragon's descendants living around the Dragon's Arrival Castle saw this unprecedented scene. They saw the wings of the Giant Dragon raise a gust of wind. The snow on the mountains swept around him. The magic power in the sky changed direction. Even the clouds outlined a pale silver trajectory that pointed to the distant north.
Countless pairs of eyes looked at the sky from the mountains and valleys of the Holy Dragon Duchy. The dragon's descendants looked at the Giant Dragon hovering in the clouds with astonishment and even some fear. It was a real dragon, with a body of nearly a hundred meters, strong limbs, and complete wings. It was not a dragon's descendant who was born deformed and weak. In the countless years of history of the Holy Dragon Duchy, no dragon's descendant had ever seen a real dragon appear in the sky above their heads.
Was this good news? Was this a bad omen? Was this a signal from the Giant Dragon's homeland? Or was it just a passerby?
No one recognized that it was the Dragonblood Archduke who had ruled this land for countless years. Under the panicked gazes of the dragon's descendants, the silver-white Giant Dragon circled the highest mountain in the Holy Dragon Duchy a few times. Then, it raised its head and rushed to the northern horizon.
…
The Dragon of Chaos occupied the sky. Undulating clouds, mutated flesh, crystallized bone spurs, and blood-stained weapons formed its terrifying body that was measured in kilometers. This terrifying existence was beyond the comprehension of mortals and even beyond the explanation of natural phenomena. It galloped across the vast Tarlonde Continent, spreading destructive light beams and sulfuric flames across the land in an irrational, purely angry, and destructive manner.
The sky during the extreme daytime was covered by billowing smoke. The giant sun that would not set for half a year was also blocked by the "curtain of night" created by the Dragon of Chaos. Under the dim sky, scorching black clouds hung low to the sea. Thick bolts of lightning struck all the mountains and plains on the continent.
At the edge of the Tarlonde Continent, the chaotic gravity had torn apart more than half of the coastline. The earth curled up into the sky, forming a giant island that floated in the sky in a form that violated the laws of nature. In the heart of the continent, the runaway divine power had created a terrible crack that led to the Elemental World. The material world and the Elemental World seeped into each other. Living flames and surging ice were constantly reshaping everything on the land. In the sky, a gate to the Shadow Realm was forcibly torn open. With every roar of the Dragon of Chaos, ink-black lightning poured out of the gate, tearing apart the once glorious cities, continuous factories, and temples.
Everything that had accumulated over the past one million eight hundred and seventy thousand years on the continent dissipated like dust. The glorious but musty draconic civilization was being torn to shreds by its former protectors. The towering buildings, the huge network of pipes that connected the cities, the factory facilities that were once used to support the draconic population … Everything was smashed into pieces by the uncontrolled gravity storm, elemental erosion, and spatial fissure.
In this apocalyptic scene, countless Giant Dragon surged into the sky like a tide. Like a cold, bloodless machine, they tore apart the body of the Dragon of Chaos. The missiles fired from the depths of the ground and the coastal areas created a scorching sea of fire. Every minute and every second, large patches of "dust" would fall from the sky above Tarlonde. The "dust" was the remains of the Giant Dragon, the steel weapons created by Omega, and the body fragments of the Dragon of Chaos that were constantly weakening.
It was an apocalyptic battle, and it had been going on for who knows how long.
Deep beneath Tarlonde, the high-speed silver-white train rumbled through the layers of protected tunnels. The train carried mechanical weapons and ammunition that were ready for the next battle. The ancient computing center hummed as it calculated the firepower arrangement and the number of Dragons left in the next second. The underground furnace and the doomsday factory worked day and night, turning steel ingots into new weapons, or repairing the recovered Giant Dragon that could still be "repaired" before returning to the battle.
And in the deepest part of the underground steel kingdom, the core of Omega was running nonstop. It ran calmly and efficiently. There was neither reverence for the gods, nor pity for a body of flesh.
As a machine, the core command left by its creators was above all else. It carried out its last mission under the command of this core command, just like how it had commanded countless machines in Tarlonde for the past million years, commanding the Giant Dragon legion and the ubiquitous ancient turrets.
The number of legions and turrets was decreasing, but in Omega's precise calculation, victory would eventually belong to itself.
The Dragon of Chaos that was like a natural disaster had already weakened. More importantly, "He" had already severed the chains of faith between "He" and the mortals and shed the power of divinity. Now, "He" was still stronger than all the creatures in this world, but he was also weaker than "He" at any point in history. As for those dragons who were once "believers" … Every time they attacked the Dragon of Chaos, they were literally destroying the power that the latter used to maintain itself.
On the west side of Tarlonde, in a mine deep underground, the attack from the gods had just penetrated the last layer of steel plate of the fortification.
A silver-white metal egg was destroyed, but for Omega … it had only lost a negligible node. It had thousands of similar nodes, distributed throughout Tarlonde, and even in the nearby seabed.
Heat waves surged in the underground base as flames spread along all the pipes and paths. The sea gate in the distance had been opened, and the roar of seawater pouring into the mine was like thunder.
The silver-white egg-shaped device that had just been destroyed lay quietly in the middle of the base that was about to be submerged by the seawater. Its shell had cracked, and a large number of sparks jumped between the main body and the nearby walls. In front of the nearest pillar, some seriously messy characters were jumping, showing a brief thought of Omega before the node was destroyed.
"The meaning of life … is to continue oneself …
"The creators … chose to destroy themselves …
"Contradiction … error … lack of logic …
"Error, error, error …"
The jumping red characters were particularly glaring in the depths of the base that was gradually dimming, and the faint alarm disappeared in the roar of the sea and the explosion of various facilities. Accompanied by a thunderous sound, the last isolation door was pushed open by the raging seawater, and an immeasurable amount of cold water poured into the depths of the mine, swallowing the Omega node and its remaining thoughts.
And in Tarlonde, among the thousands of silver-white egg-shaped devices, Omega's thoughts were still going on, and the bloody battle … was still going on.
…
The former headquarters of the Dragons Council, the mountain city of Agundor had been completely destroyed. A powerful gravitational storm had shattered the once majestic mountain, and everything on the mountain and the city at the foot of the mountain were swept away.
A huge building was tumbling in the uncontrollable gravitational environment. It had a magnificent transparent shell, and its whole body was ellipsoid like a nest or a giant egg. At the edge of the building, a huge neon device still had some energy left, and the flickering characters pieced together an incomplete word: XX Arena.
A huge black limb suddenly hung down from the clouds. The limb was like a scythe that split the arena building into two. Amidst a series of explosions, a golden figure rushed out under the cover of the wreckage of the building. It spat out scorching flames and powerful lightning at the huge limb, and then dodged to the side in a thrilling manner.
It was a golden Giant Dragon, stronger and bigger than most dragons. Its hundred-meter-long body was covered in ancient runes, and the various features on its body showed that this golden Giant Dragon once had an extraordinary status in the dragons' society. But at this moment, like the other Dragons on the battlefield, its huge eyes had lost its original emotion, and only a cold, mechanical gaze was left.
In the midst of the fierce battle, the golden Giant Dragon suddenly stopped.
His eyes seemed to have regained some emotion, and he looked up under the influence of this emotion. He saw the Dragon of Chaos in the sky, roaring wildly and chaotically. Between the gloomy clouds, faint purple lightning surged. The body of the Dragon of Chaos was full of cracks, and there was light shining in the cracks. It was like some kind of critical point, indicating that this bloody battle had reached its final phase.
A powerful presence rapidly approached from another direction, and a huge body that was almost the same size as the golden Giant Dragon rushed out of the smoke. It was an extremely old Giant Dragon. He may have been a black dragon, but the long years and deep modifications had turned almost all of his scales into a grayish-white color. A large number of implants and modified structures were visible to the naked eye all over his body, making him look like a flying piece of steel instead of a fleshly body of Dragons.
"Helagol!" The old Giant Dragon spoke, his deep voice like thunder. "Quick! We won't be awake for long! "
Hearing his old friend's call, the golden Giant Dragon Helagol could not help but look at the 'head' of the Dragon of Chaos, as if trying to find a familiar sight in the chaotic mass, but he found nothing.
The old Giant Dragon's urging came from the side again. "Quick! Balogel is almost here! "
Helagol withdrew his gaze from the sky. Driven by his newly rebuilt self-consciousness, he resisted the soul-tearing sense of loss deep in his heart, and then without hesitation, he turned around with the old grayish-white Giant Dragon and rushed into the distant sea.
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