Chapter 273: Mortifer
Before the Howling Chasm, a roaring sea of fire surged across the horizon, painting the entire sky in a blazing orange hue and rendering the Shadow Dragons and Shadow Spirits translucent. The creatures let out agonized wails as they convulsed under the flame-light’s glare, emitting sizzling sounds as wisps of vapor continually rose from their forms, making them even more spectral. Under the relentless Purifying Blaze, no shadow could hide.
“Mortifer—”
“If you’re still hiding like a coward, I’ll destroy everything you’ve built!”
Kai Xiusu laughed wildly, his wings slashing through the air as he transformed into a colossal crimson silhouette, streaking across the skies above Dragonshadow City. Where the Red Dragon passed, Chaos Flames roared through the streets. With each sweep of his wings, a blood-soaked hurricane swept through the city, fanning the flames into an inferno.
Half the city had become a realm of apocalypse—ancient structures burned with relentless fury, every building echoing with screams of pain, curses, and despair. Beyond humans and Drow elves, the city’s most prominent inhabitants were the Drow with Shadow Dragon bloodlines—creatures caught between the realm of shadows and the mortal world, known as Shadow Elves. For centuries, they had bowed to the Shadow Dragon’s rule, mastering Shadow Spells and serving as loyal subjects under Mortifer’s reign—often acting as vanguard for the Dragon’s invasions into the surface world.
“No… I don’t want to die—”
“The fire’s coming! It’s burning toward us!”
“Mortifer, my most exalted ancestor, save us!”
“Damn it! All spells have failed! Nothing works!”
“By Lolth… is this divine punishment from the gods?!”
But the Chaos Breath had shattered the very fabric of magic—the Weave of Magic was in utter chaos. Even the most basic spellcraft models collapsed instantly. They couldn’t cast a single Shadow Spell before being swallowed by the spreading Purifying Flame.
Feriton, watching the consuming fire from afar, couldn’t suppress a dark, triumphant laugh.
“Hahahaha! These shadow vermin deserved this all along!”
“May they all burn to ash!”
Once a well-known mercenary in the Underdark, Feriton had lost everything—his lover, his children—when Dragonshadow City expanded, their bodies twisted into Undead Shades. Since then, his sole purpose had been to destroy the city and kill the Shadow Dragon. His heart burned with a hatred so deep it had become a second soul.
But Dania尔 remained grim, his gaze fixed on the horizon, whispering, “This dragon… he’s not just attacking. He’s trying to erase everything.”
Feriton’s laughter froze. The hardened warrior turned to him, voice tight with dread.
“We can’t cast a spell to escape? Like before—just teleport into the Shadow Plane?”
Dania尔 shook his head, his face taut.
“You’re not a spellcaster—you might not feel it, but the Weave is shattered. It’s like falling into a Chaos Sea. Even I can’t channel magic.”
Feriton’s face paled. Cold sweat broke out across his brow—whether from the rising heat or sheer terror, he couldn’t tell.
“We can’t… contact it? An enemy of our enemy is a friend. We’re rebels too.”
Suddenly, a terrifying ripple tore through the air.
The sky darkened instantly. Feriton and Dania尔 snapped their heads upward.
Feriton’s face twisted with fear—his mind flashed back to the night his family was taken, transformed into shades.
“That… that’s…”
“It’s Mortifer. He’s coming.”
Dania尔 murmured, voice low.
Half the sky was already transforming into the Shadowmire Abyss—a realm of utter darkness and silence, a place of monotonous black and white. Twisted, skeletal branches sprouted from the ruins of the city. Alleyways echoed with the wails of Shadow Spirits. The heavens were swallowed by an endless shroud of shadow, a pitch-black dome. In the distance, indistinct black mountains loomed like prison walls.
Dragonshadow City had always existed on the edge between the Material Plane and the Shadow Realm. At night, it often sank into the Shadowmire Abyss. For centuries, the Shadow Dragon had been slowly pushing the city toward full transformation into the Shadow Plane. And now, he had summoned his True Form Realm—pouring every ounce of his power into the descent.
Thousands of shadows rose into the sky, swirling above the city into a vortex nearly a hundred meters in diameter.
From the heart of the storm, the Shadow Dragon emerged—its body encased in scales like charred black stone, wings formed of translucent, ghostly matter.
There, within the storm, stood Mortifer, the Whisper of the Night—once the nightmare that had driven Kai Xiusu to panic, now the supreme ruler of this cursed city.
“Mortifer,” Kai Xiusu said, voice heavy with contempt, “the mouse hiding in the shadows—finally, you show yourself.”
“Come out now, or I’ll reduce your centuries of power to ash.”
Kai Xiusu loomed above, his overwhelming presence dwarfing the Shadow Dragon. The once-untouchable being, now, in his eyes, was no more than a black, venomous bat—weak, frail, and pitiful.
Mortifer’s pale gray eyes burned with emerald-green fire—filled with sorrow, fury, and disbelief.
“How… is this possible?”
“Only a few years have passed. What power have you gained? Even Tiamat’s Chosen One could not achieve such a gift!”
He, once a lowly Black Dragon, barely above White Dragon in status, had succumbed to the lure of power. He had thrown himself into the Shadowmire Abyss, transforming into an immortal, undead Shadow Dragon. Yet even then, it had taken him centuries to reach this state.
He couldn’t believe—couldn’t accept—that this young Red Dragon had surpassed him in mere years, dismissing his centuries of effort as nothing.
Kai Xiusu grinned fiercely, his wings flaring and unleashing a hurricane that shook the earth.
“My strength? It doesn’t come from that old fool.”
“Crushing a pathetic little mouse like you? That’s more than enough.”
Mortifer’s eyes flared again, the emerald fire burning with envy and malice. He let out a guttural roar:
“You will become the most powerful shadow under my control!”
“And I—will prove my strength to the Dragon Queen. I will become her new favorite!”
With a sweep of his spirit-like, transparent wings, the Shadow Dragon arched his long neck and let loose a spine-chilling shriek—
A sound like a thousand souls screaming in agony as they were transformed into Undead Shades, a chorus of pure terror, born from the abyss.
It came from the depths of ancient darkness, layered with the wails of countless shades, laced with the Shadow Dragon’s endless hatred for light and life, and an insatiable greed.
The Nine-Ring Spell, unique to the Shadow Dragon—
[Mortifer’s Shadow Descent Ritual]
The pitch-black dome above the sky began to descend slowly.
The distant Shadow Peaks drew nearer, looming like the walls of a prison that would cage the world.
Thousands of Shadow Creatures wailed in unison, surging forward like a tide, taking on grotesque, mist-like forms.
And Mortifer himself dissolved into the storm, becoming a vast shadow, merging with the darkness, ruling over this terrifying realm from within the abyss.
(End of Chapter)
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