Chapter 832: Awakening in the Volcanic Depths
“Lightning Breath of Gorazdra?” Kai Xiusu grinned, his lips parting into a fierce smile, electric sparks erupting from the corners of his mouth.
When he had fought that Ancient Blue Dragon, he had feared that Thunderbolt above all—so devastating, so instantly annihilating—could pierce through his body without mercy. But now… that power belonged to him.
The Red Dragon Emperor unfurled his mighty dragon wings and soared into the sky. His massive head lifted high, eyes blazing with blinding lightning, coldly overlooking the trembling mortal world below.
He opened his maw—but instead of a roar, instead of fire—there burst forth a breath even more scorching, more frenzied: a torrent of pure, annihilating lightning!
“Boom—”
The dragon’s breath tore open the sky, screaming like a storm given voice. In an instant, it shattered the lingering dark clouds ahead, blasting apart stone formations into rubble. Shards flew in all directions, crackling with blinding electric arcs, while the air reeked of burnt ozone. The lightning breath carved a charred scar across the earth, a thunderstorm born of divine fury.
That intense lightning—so fierce, so wild—danced like an extension of his will, leaping and writhing between the jagged horns of the Red Dragon Emperor and the solemn dignity of his form. At this moment, thunder was his battle cry, lightning his claws. This ancestral Red Dragon had not merely descended from the storm—he had been born of it, emerging from the heavens to claim the earth, transforming the very heavens and earth into his crown. A proclamation of his undeniable status: Lord of Thunder.
Had a Dragon Scholar been present to witness this phenomenon, they would have sworn Kai Xiusu was merely an Ancient Blue Dragon using a disguise spell. After all, how could a Red Dragon wield thunder and storm with such mastery?
Kai Xiusu circled in the sky, raising his dragon claw. The invisible force of the storm surged outward from his palm.
In an instant, countless lightning bolts converged as if summoned by a call. They coalesced in his open hand—a spear of lightning, over ten meters long, blazing with a light so fierce it stole the breath.
The Red Dragon Emperor let out a long, triumphant roar, then slashed his claw forward, hurling the lightning spear into the distance.
“Boom!”
The spear tore through sky and earth like divine punishment. It struck a small mountain with the force of a comet, instantly shattering stone and rock. Dust and debris erupted into the air, molten fragments cascaded down, and the peak cracked open in a web of blackened fissures before collapsing in a deafening explosion.
“Terrifying power,” Kai Xiusu murmured, nodding in approval. He couldn’t help but marvel.
Then, he spread his claws wide, reclaiming absolute dominion over the storm. For hundreds of meters around him, he commanded the electromagnetic field. With a crackling hum and the faint buzz of electric current, dust and rock—particles infused with metallic elemental energy—rose slowly into the air, suspended like a constellation of tiny asteroids around his colossal dragon form, drifting in slow, silent orbit.
“Fascinating… to manipulate electromagnetic force,” Kai Xiusu said, snapping his fingers.
The electric arcs flared brighter, surging with voltage. The suspended metal fragments, now charged to the point of super-sonic velocity, streaked through the air like a meteor shower, trailing silver-white threads across the sky. They tore through the earth with a thousand piercing cracks, leaving the land pockmarked and scorched.
“Boom!”
Dust exploded upward. Electric arcs snapped and crackled. The sky roared with thunder, a sound so powerful it shook the world, shattering silence—and stirring the soul of a long-sleeping entity.
“This… is my strength. You took it too?” Gorazdra’s voice, raw with shock and disbelief, echoed from the depths of her slumber. Her translucent dragon face, pale and glassy, twisted in despair. Everything she had—her power, her identity—had been stripped away. All she could do was watch helplessly as this red dragon lorded over her domain.
Now, she bore no trace of the Blue Dragon. Her scales were gone—no longer shimmering with deep blue, but transparent, colorless, like the purest essence of myth. She looked like the archetype of dragon as spirit and body merged, but her divinity had been worn thin, eroded by time and loss.
Had she not achieved quasi-godhood, had her soul not gained a sliver of immortality, and had Kai Xiusu not refrained from a killing intent—she would have already dissolved into nothingness, her will extinguished, her soul lost to eternity.
“Greedy, insatiable Red Dragon,” Gorazdra whispered, trembling, her gaze filled with fear. “No one in history has ever controlled so many divergent divinities. One day, your endless hunger will consume you—turn you into a divine abomination.”
“Is that a curse?” Kai Xiusu tilted his head, smiling faintly.
“If you can’t control it—then let go of me, Kai Xiusu. Return what you took. We could be allies. I’ll grant you all the knowledge I’ve gathered over millennia.”
Her voice cracked with desperation. She was no longer the tyrant of Tower Liro, the ancient Blue Dragon who once ruled the storm. Now, she was just a fragile soul, imprisoned by the Red Dragon Emperor.
“Such generosity,” Kai Xiusu said, shrugging indifferently. “You should worry more about your own fate. Tsk tsk… a near-god-level experimental subject? This is the first of its kind in the Empire’s history.”
“Experimental subject?” Gorazdra froze. She hadn’t expected this humiliation.
To imprison a quasi-god’s soul and conduct experiments upon it—such a transgression was unheard of, even among the most reckless, god-desecrating scholars of the Necroth Empire.
Her eyes widened in fury. “No! You cannot insult a primordial dragon like this! Even the basest, most shameless Gold Dragon would never do such a thing!”
“Too late,” Kai Xiusu said, his smile sharp. “And now, you’re nothing more than a ghost. Can you even call yourself a dragon anymore?”
He raised his claw, and the space around the soul entity rippled like water—etched with intricate, spiraling carvings, forming a vast vortex that began to devour her.
Gorazdra, abandoning all dignity, dropped to her knees, screaming in panic: “Kai Xiusu! Spare me! I’ll tell you Queen Tiamat’s plans! I’ll reveal the secret of deification!”
Kai Xiusu only grinned wider. His claw clenched—like glass shattering.
His voice dripped with mockery. “Save your words for my researchers.”
“Shua—”
A violent spatial rupture split the air. A massive crack tore open, sucking Gorazdra’s soul into the void.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a sterile white room. The ceiling was clean, clinical. Overhead, bright lamps glared down, illuminating rows of gleaming metal instruments.
“Where… am I?” she whispered, confused. Then rage exploded.
She roared—her last dragon power flaring—“Insects! You insolent insects! Do you know who I am?!”
A researcher in a crisp white lab coat smiled calmly. “Gorazdra, welcome to the Imperial Divine and Magical Research Institute. For the sake of humanity, we hope you’ll cooperate during the experiments. Out of compassion, we’ll minimize your suffering.”
“Let me go—let me go—!”
Avernus. The divine realm of Tiamat. The palace of the Dragon Queen shimmered with golden opulence—but now, it was silent. Empty.
Five-colored dragons—ancient, fearsome beings whose mere presence could make mortals tremble—exchanged uneasy glances, swallowing nervously. No one dared speak. Fear gripped them all. To be the first to speak might be to invite the queen’s wrath.
Gorazdra had been defeated. The Blue Dragon Sect was annihilated. The news had spread across the Material Plane—and even into the multiverse.
In the great rift known as Lock Great Rift, the Allied Forces—comprised of the Ashen Empire’s troops, remnants of the Kingdom of Seleucus, and the Metal Dragon Army—fought the Dragon Worship Cult. Emperor Kai Xiusu of the Ember Empire and the Thunder Tyrant Gorazdra had clashed in person, in front of countless witnesses. The battle was said to have shaken the heavens.
Dark clouds churned. Thunderstorms raged. The earth cracked open, rivers of magma poured forth. Mountains were shattered, and the battlefield was said to be littered with corpses—soldiers and dragon beasts alike—so many that the rift nearly filled. Blood flowed like rivers, thick and dark.
And in that battle, even Gorazdra—ascended to quasi-godhood—had been shattered. Reduced to ash. No corpse remained.
After long silence, Tiamat slowly lifted her head. Her gaze was cold, gloomy, her throat emitting a rasping, venomous sound.
“Fellow Five-colored Dragons… in all this vast race—can none of you stand against that traitor?”
Silence.
Her voice echoed through the vast, empty hall. The dragon flock remained silent, heads bowed, trembling.
She scanned them all—her eyes piercing, relentless. Each dragon shrank under her gaze, unable to meet her eyes.
Ancient Red Dragon Kaleymas held his breath, scales trembling. But Tiamat locked onto him.
“Kaleymas,” she said coldly. “You speak. How do we defeat your nephew?”
Kaleymas stepped forward, voice tight. “Your Majesty, that traitor is nothing. Before your might, all mortal things are crushed to dust.”
Tiamat’s voice cracked with fury. “Then why must I do everything myself? You are all useless! Get out!”
She roared—sending a shockwave through the hall. The dragons fled in terror, staggering into the Material Plane, battered by gales.
Only Tiamat remained.
Her five heads—each unique, each terrifying—were veiled in deep gloom. Their eyes, dark and fathomless, burned with endless hatred and a hunger for destruction.
“My chosen vessels—two destroyed. The Trinity Ritual cannot proceed. I must awaken Kazul early.”
She paused, then smiled.
“It matters not. As long as I claim that traitor’s body, I shall reign upon the earth. I shall descend into the Material Plane.”
Her five heads lifted in unison, gazing into the distance. Their eyes blazed with ambition, with a frenzied desire to annihilate everything in sight.
Tiamat unfurled her sky-cloaking dragon wings. A surge of evil divine power tore through space, ripping open the veil between realms. Like a comet, she streaked through the heavens of the divine realm, racing toward a point in the Material Plane.
In the south of Seleucus—Pakaya Volcano.
To the people of Seleucus, it was known as the “Land of Sunset” or “Place of the Sun’s Fall.” In ancient times, they believed the sun sank into this land each evening, merging with the earth. In that union, thick smoke billowed into the sky, giving rise to the fiery mountains—vast, restless, pulsing with unimaginable heat.
From afar, the black mountains loomed, shrouded in sulfur smoke. Only their jagged silhouettes were visible, like great beasts trapped in mist.
Deep within the volcano, a lava pool churned like a vast crucible. Crimson magma flowed slowly, like the blood of the earth. Giant bubbles swelled, popped—each release a deep, mournful sigh.
Then—a sudden surge.
A violent glow erupted from the crater. A deep rumble echoed from the planet’s core—like the roar of an ancient deity awakening.
“Boom—”
The molten lake surged. At its center, a colossal shape burst forth, rising like a titan from the abyss. The lava roared like a tidal wave, crashing against the black rock walls, hissing and spewing thick sulfur smoke.
In the center of the pool, the blood-red magma split apart—revealing a monstrous crimson silhouette, armored in thick, ancient scales, emerging from the magma!
Two vast wings unfurled behind it—like two crimson iron mountains rising from the earth. Bone spikes and deep wrinkles covered their surfaces. As they moved, they whipped up scorching gales, scattering smoke and ash.
When the haze cleared, the true horror was revealed.
Magma streamed from the dragon’s jagged skull, from its sharp, mountain-like horns, from the thick scales of its neck.
His head—formed from volcanic rock and molten iron—was like a grotesque fusion of ancient war armor, rusted and forged in fire. His maw, bloodied and open, exhaled a stench of sulfur, distorting the air above.
There was no doubt: this was a Red Dragon. An ancient, terrifying one.
And in his eyes—two vertical pupils, pale gold—flared open.
Not the eyes of any living creature. They were two molten solar cores, forcibly imprisoned and compressed within his skull.
At their center: a solid, dark gold core, radiating an almost solid light. Any rock beneath his gaze ignited instantly, turning dark red, on the verge of melting.
Then—his head snapped upward.
A torrent of intense heat surged forth.
“Boom—Rumble—!”
With a sound like the earth itself splitting, the Red Dragon slammed his powerful foreclaws into the scorched rock. The stone groaned, cracked, melted. More magma surged aside as his massive body emerged—slow, relentless, crushing every obstacle in its path.
One by one, his powerful back, his thick torso, his thick hind legs—each part of him rose from the boiling lava, as if he were not rising from a volcano… but reclaiming the world.
(End of Chapter)
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