Chapter 159: True Dragon: Dragon Showdown [VIP]
The sun began to rise in the east, and the fog lingering around the island in the middle of the lake gradually dissipated, allowing the people in Rosamarie Palace to see the enemy troops more clearly.
They were either riding horses and strolling slowly around the palace, or squatting in the woods waiting. A little further away, the neighing of horses and the clashing of swords could be faintly heard from the dark, heavily armed ships.
For Luke and his friends who grew up in the North City, this was the sound of impending battle.
"Luke—"
Kelly handed him a bag of dry food and some emergency medicine.
"Thanks."
Luke took the rations and medicine bag and casually asked, "How old are you?"
"I?"
Kelly smiled and said, "In two months I'll be ten years old."
"I can't tell."
Luke grinned. "You're just like your master, as slender as a girl."
"Your Highness is different from us."
Kelly spoke quietly, turned and walked into the depths of the palace.
Luke opened his ration bag and took a bite of the dried meat. He watched as the trees and ships surrounding Rosa Marie's Palace gradually raised the black flag with a golden dragon on it, symbolizing the True Human Empire.
Gazing at the golden lake and the troops around him standing ready with their flags fluttering, Luke once again felt like he was dreaming.
(A few days ago, I was a stray dog on the street, not knowing where tomorrow's bread would come from. Now, I'm facing off against the Emperor's army in the Grand Palace!)
(Yes! I have never enjoyed such glory! My body is shaking!)
"——The army has set out!"
Xiao Yun's voice suddenly rang out.
Luke looked up at Xiao Yun standing on the first-floor balcony, pointing his finger in front of him, and thought to himself: Sure enough, no matter what time, the master is as handsome and beautiful as a god.
Xiao Yun didn't have the leisure time for that at the moment.
His attention was completely caught by the imperial army that was trying to enter the island in the middle of the lake through a bridge made of eight iron chains. The army was originally stationed on the shore of the lake, but now it was lined up and marching in neat rows towards Rosamarie Palace.
[“Tower Master”, are you ready? ]
【snort! 】
The "Tower Master" coiled under the island in the middle of the lake snorted arrogantly.
Then——
“Ahhh—”
In an instant, everyone was stunned.
"Ahhh! What is that thing!"
"Is it a water monster? Or a demon from legend?"
“Oh my God!”
“Ahhhh—”
Screams of terror were heard everywhere.
Even sailors who are good at steering ships in huge waves will fall into great panic and confusion when faced with such a terrifying, thrilling and creepy black monster.
What's more——
【……I'm back! 】
An unimaginably gigantic black snake, M, slowly emerged from the water and used its massive body, covered in black iron scales, to engulf the lake island and the Rosa Marie Palace built on it.
Uproot! Uproot!
Bang!
The chain bridge connecting the island in the middle of the lake and the lakeshore, which was made of eight iron chains as thick as an adult's thigh, broke instantly, and the people on the bridge fell into the lake one after another like fish bait.
The fully armed ships surrounding the island in the middle of the lake were either directly overturned by the giant snake or swallowed by the huge waves caused by the giant snake.
Great panic was also spreading on the few boats that had not yet fallen into the water. Everyone on the deck was screaming, and the crew were desperately trying to change direction and return to the relative safety of the shore.
However, just when their ship finally sailed out of the giant snake's range—
The surface of Lake Oro, which originally glowed mysteriously golden from the inside out, suddenly turned dark!
“Ahhh—”
"What is that! What happened?!"
"You idiot!"
"Stop it! Stop it now!"
In the chaos, the bewildered knights in their heavy armor fell into the lake, their bodies quickly sinking to the depths. The last moment of their lives they saw was a pair of huge, majestic and ferocious black eyes, and - a golden body that filled the entire Lake Oro.
loong!
loong woke up!
loong is back!
…
…
The lake water quickly boiled, and countless bubbles rose from the water, turning into hot white smoke that rushed into the sky, and then turned into scalding rain that sprinkled all over the lake, sprinkled on the golden scales, and quickly evaporated.
The legendary golden dragon broke out of the water, its head alone taller than a building. A giant black snake, along with the island in the middle of the lake where the snake was coiled, was held on its head. Its black eyes, as deep and bright as a night lake, looked mysteriously at the Dragon Emperor with a dragon head and a human body, who was wearing a loose white robe and had rushed over in a hurry because of the huge commotion in the area. It was like a gaze between ancient times and the present.
"Ancestor, you finally woke up."
The Dragon Emperor spoke slowly, stretching out his hand covered with green scales, trying to touch the totems and gods from ancient times.
【snort--】
, turned his head, ready to stretch his body and break free.
"Ancestor——"
】
The golden dragon spoke slowly, its voice hurt.
[Ella gave me life, and I was born to be a part of Ella.]
"Ancestor,
[I have not been deceived by any power, but you——are always deceived by your own dreams...]
…
"...I am now convinced that you are a younger brother."
On the waterside balcony of Rosa Marie Palace, Xiao Yun couldn't help but speak as he looked at the majestic and huge golden head below.
"I'm not my younger brother! My body is less than one-tenth of what it used to be! Once I return to my original form, you'll know who my true younger brother is!"
The "Tower Master" raised his head, full of resentment.
The Dragon Emperor also noticed the black snake with the golden dragon holding its head up and Xiao Yun standing on the balcony of Rosamary Palace.
He raised his head and looked at Xiao Yun with interest.
"Are you surprised?"
His voice echoed in Xiao Yun's mind like a broken bell.
"Well, it's a bit unexpected."
Xiao Yun nodded: "I thought you would use the body of a dragon."
"A dragon's body? Hahaha!"
The Dragon Emperor didn't open his mouth, but a sharp and crackling laugh sounded in Xiao Yun's mind.
"How arrogant and ignorant you are! According to your tradition of calling the dominant species of planetary civilization human, you should call me a dragon man, and you will be called an ape man by us."
"Since you've always looked down on us, why did you modify the dragon's appearance to be so ape-like?"
Xiao Yun asked the Dragon Emperor with a frown.
"I can't believe you would ask such a stupid question."
"We are a native species of our home planet. We were born on our home planet and evolved with our home planet. Every part of our body is perfectly adapted to the environment of our home planet. Therefore, we can proudly declare ourselves to be the most beautiful, noblest, and most intelligent life forms our home planet has nurtured. But on Ella, if we insist on our original form and refuse to adapt to the environment of Ella, we will become even more foolish and stubborn than those guys in the 'Assassin's Order', and we will be unable to integrate into the native civilization of Ella—"
"Really? Did you really transform yourself into a form close to ours in order to integrate into our civilization?"
Xiao Yun sneered.
"Why, during the Eternal Empire era when Loong soared across the skies, were you confined to shadowy corners? Why, in the world after Loong's disappearance, have you spent five thousand years confusing Loong with dragons, wiping out the 'True Dragon Messengers' who were closely connected to Loong? And now you're even trying to deceive the Golden Dragon (Loong), who has finally awakened after a five-thousand-year slumber!"
"Because I—"
The Dragon Emperor raised his hands.
The next moment, a huge hole appeared in the sky and a beam of light fell from the sky.
The architecture of Rosa Marie Palace - starting with the spire and the roof, boulders broke, pillars snapped, and the building slowly collapsed to the ground.
"hateful!"
Xiao Yun shouted, rushed back to the room quickly, picked up the disabled Yaris and fled to an open area.
Luke and the others escaped being buried by the huge rocks thanks to their agile bodies.
Even so, there were still a large number of lives on the island in the middle of the lake - including many male and female servants of Rosa Marie Palace and the lizard monsters stationed at Rosa Marie Palace - who were buried in the ruins by the instant attack and died silently without even being able to cry for help.
"Destruction has arrived on the other side of the world, and there is no escape for life."
Leaning against Xiao Yun, Yaris recited an ancient poem: "When death opens its dark eyes, all that remains in the world is pure white death."
"...What does that mean? Pitch black and pure white?"
After escaping, Luke quickly ran to Xiao Yun and murmured in confusion.
"That's how the Eternal Empire was destroyed overnight... Of course, the scale and intensity of the attack they suffered was a million times greater than what we're experiencing today."
Yaris said softly, looking up at the sky.
Xiao Yun also looked at the big hole in the sky.
A huge silver circle that looked like a UFO in science fiction hung above them, emitting subsonic waves that shattered the speed of sound. The entire Lake Oro trembled with its arrival.
“Oh my God—”
Luke was stunned.
"What the hell is this!"
"A spaceship, or rather a starship."
Yaris slowly raised his head and looked curiously at the Dragon Emperor hanging in the air not far from them: "Have you repaired the starship left by your ancestors?"
"Over the past million years, the Dragon Clan's physical form, magic, and technology have all taken a completely different path from their ancestors. For us today, their starships are essentially useless. Therefore, I have chosen to extract their technology and transform them into vessels suitable for the new era."
"You're a pragmatist."
Yaris said lightly, turning his head to lean on Xiao Yun's shoulder.
The Golden Dragon was severely injured and forced into a long slumber. Over the past hundred years, He has continuously drained its power. Despite its enormous size, it is actually... not even as powerful as the Tower Master... We must escape quickly to prevent Him from discovering the Golden Dragon's true form...
I understand what you mean.
Xiao Yun raised his head and said with bluffing, "You possess powerful magical power second only to that of the gods, and a flying ship modified using the starship technology left by your dragon ancestors, but we also have powerful backing—our backing is the golden dragon that you regard as your ancestor and the spiritual totem of the entire empire—are you sure you want the entire empire to know that the golden dragon does not recognize you as its descendant?!"
"...You asked a sensitive question that even I don't know the answer to."
The Dragon Emperor spoke slowly, raising his left hand covered with turquoise scales again—
boom!
Another beam of light fell, and wherever it hit—including the shattered buildings and the lives crushed beneath them—instantly disappeared without a trace, leaving only a faint smell of sulfur.
"The first strike was a warning to you."
The Dragon Emperor rolled his eyes, and his golden eyes greedily stared at Xiao Yun and Yaris who was held tightly in his arms.
"The first strike begins, and it will be the elimination of the traitors, including my ancestor who refused to acknowledge me after sleeping for five thousand years."
"—Hey! Why don't you even acknowledge your ancestors?!"
Flo L made a sound of disbelief: "He was so humble and respectful just now! Now he's actually—Ah! Ahhhh!"
The light beam attack came from the sky. Even though Flo L could fly at high speed in the air, she could only barely survive. Half of her wings were affected by the light beam and evaporated.
[Tower Master, prepare yourself. I need you to confront that thing in the sky head-on and drain its beam energy! Then we can use its energy to spread our wings and escape.]
【Hey, hey, hey! 】
【This is an order.】
Under the dual orders, the "Tower Master" twisted his body, unwillingly -
"ah--"
With a roar that shattered the sky, the broken dark dragon spread its wings of nothingness and leaped into the air, spewing out dark blue flames emitting a black aura towards the circular flying object in the sky.
"Impossible! Impossible! There actually is—there actually is the first loong in the world! A living loong!"
The Dragon Emperor exclaimed.
Then—
Weapons in the sky began to fire.
The radiant light evaporated not only the people below, but also the lake water and the ground at the bottom of the lake.
(Ah…ah…)
Luke stood beside Xiao Yun, looking at the scene of slaughter that was comparable to the end of the world in a daze. He even had a sense of illusion as if he was dreaming - mankind was being destroyed by overwhelming force, but he was powerless to do anything.
"...I know what you truly desire. Although you call the golden dragon you suppressed beneath the Grand Palace your ancestor, you have no respect for it at all. For years, you have been madly absorbing its power, hoping to devour it, complete the fusion of the dragon and loong bloodlines, and become the only dragon on Planet Ella!"
In the interval between the battle between the Tower Master and the aircraft above, Xiao Yun raised his head, looked at the Dragon Emperor, and asked coldly: "Now that you have seen the first loong, a black loong whose power perfectly complements the golden dragon, are you planning to take it for yourself as well?"
"That's right."
The Dragon Emperor made no secret of his desires.
"After fusing these two loongs with special properties, I will achieve perfection and become the true Dragon Emperor. Then, I will send you brothers to the altar of the Holy City, using the billions of lives of the True Human Empire as sacrifices. I will activate the stellar energy in you and the eternal death in him, helping me gain power beyond all gods and eternal life. I will become the only god standing tall above the Sea of Blood!"
"What a foolish beast you are, thinking you can become a god with this ritual?"
Yaris laughed mercilessly. Although his voice was hoarse and weak, it shocked the Dragon Emperor more than the beams of light from the sky. He was so shocked that his emotions were almost numb.
"If this ritual could grant them power surpassing that of other gods and eternal life, why haven't the gods living in higher dimensions taken action yet? We all know they have no feelings for life on earth—simply because they suspect the Eternal Empire of seeking equality with them, they can unleash overwhelming power and kill billions of lives in the Eternal Empire."
“They—”
"You've been deceived! Do you know that?"
Yaris endured the tearing pain in his throat and looked straight into the Dragon Emperor's eyes.
"So far, all your efforts have been in vain. In vain you have tried to disrupt the balance of the universe itself, in vain you have summoned chaos that does not belong to the current dimension, in vain you have attempted to bring true darkness into the world! You don't even know what kind of disaster you are bringing upon yourself!"
"—I remember these words! You once said these words to me! No, it was a being from a higher dimension who once said these words to me through your body! What does this mean! And who was the deity who said these words to me?"
"Eternally, wars broke out between gods and gods more than once..."
Yaris said wearily, "The most recent war among the gods is still going on. You, like us, are just pawns in this war..."
"Then I should—Ah! Damn it!"
The Dragon Emperor uttered a curse.
——The "Tower Master" used his flexible body to deliberately shake violently in the air, and his body was sometimes larger and sometimes smaller, making it impossible for the high-altitude starship to aim and could only shoot everywhere. One of the attacks even nearly hit the Dragon Emperor himself, although the light beam was bounced back by the defensive barrier surrounding the Dragon Emperor before it hit his body.
And below them, Lake Oro and a large area around the lake had long since turned into endless ruins.
The palace's main wall had also collapsed.
From their high position, they could see the dense crowd outside the palace wall fleeing in panic like ants to a safe area to avoid being affected by the battle. At the same time, they could not suppress their curiosity and would look back from time to time or even stop to look up at the sky where deadly rays of light were constantly emitting.
The ground was filled with a faint smell of sulfur.
…
If there is an end of the world, it would probably be something like this.
The sky was filled with tens of thousands of incomprehensible discs. Giant snakes of darkness and fire swam their massive bodies high in the sky below the discs. The people on the ground couldn't tell whether it was night or day. They were killed like insects by the beams of light that fell from the sky, silently and at a loss.
The humans who managed to escape to the safe area thought fearfully.
Suddenly, another fierce white light burst out from the large disc in the sky and rushed towards the black giant snake dancing in the sky. People were about to flee in all directions -
The silver-white disc in the sky shook strangely for a while and then stopped glowing.
"What happened?"
"Is the battle of the gods coming to an end?"
"What are we witnessing?"
"Oh my god, we-ah!"
The hoarse screams rang out again, and then people closed their eyes in horror!
They saw the sun, or more precisely, an unimaginable huge creature that shone as brightly as the sun and was so dazzling that it was impossible to look directly at it!
The great golden majestic creature spread its broken wings and flew proudly into the sky, shining with the sun.
The atmosphere was shaking, the clouds were boiling, and the entire sky was dyed a dazzling golden color because of its arrival.
At this moment, no matter who they were or what creature they were, there was only one low and majestic voice in their mind:
"Loong! loong! loong!"
…
…
boom!
The golden dragon rose high into the sky and then turned into a huge mushroom cloud.
An unimaginably huge shock wave quickly covered the territory of the imperial capital. Debris and huge rock fragments splashed out with the shock wave fell like raindrops. People who had long lost their ability to think due to the dazzling light of the golden dragon fled like ants. After reaching the safe underground area, they immediately knelt on the ground and prayed frantically.
No one noticed that in the center of the mushroom cloud, several black dots fell onto Lake Oro below and then plunged deep into the water.
…
(ah……)
When he regained consciousness, Xiao Yun was almost at the bottom of the lake, and everything around him was pitch black.
Because under the protection of the system, he can still breathe freely even if his body sinks to the bottom of the lake.
Then he saw a ball of light.
A ball of white light was suspended in a deeper place not far from him, with a human body vaguely wrapped in the center of the light.
(Yaris! It must be Yaris!)
Xiao Yun swam hard to the side of the white light and stretched out his hands to Yaris who was surrounded by the white light.
As if hearing his brother's call, Yaris slowly opened his black eyes in the white light.
…
…
"Is everyone okay?"
After pulling the last companion onto the boat, Johnny, who was in charge of the reception, breathed a sigh of relief and distributed the blankets prepared in advance to everyone who was soaked.
"Be careful not to catch a cold."
"Thanks."
Luke took the blanket and looked enviously at Yaris and Xiao Yun, whose bodies were covered in a strange white light when they emerged from the water, leaving them completely dry. He muttered, "This is incredible."
"I find it incredible, too. But when I think about how Lord Claude is the honorable 'True Dragon Messenger,' and the unimaginable event that just happened, which is more mythical than myth... I suddenly feel that no matter how incredible the things happening to them are, they are normal, aren't they?"
Johnny comforts Luke.
The other people on the boat also looked at the two people who were sleeping in the same blanket with admiration.
Thick black hair shimmering like the night sky flowed down pale, transparent cheeks, blending into the dark brown curls that were outlined with a dazzling golden halo by the setting sun. This scene—
(Except for the fact that their hair is not the silver-white color that is in accordance with the myth, I cannot find the first difference between them and the twins in the myth.)
Johnny and his companions were thinking secretly, completely unaware that a slender black snake covered with iron scales and a golden dragon-like creature with wings quietly climbed onto the boat at sunset and crawled under Xiao Yun and Yaris's blanket.
The boatman spread the sails and skillfully maneuvered the boat to cut through the waves of Lake Oro, riding the vast current, passing the two banks that had unfortunately been reduced to ruins and fire by the previous battle, and heading southwest of Lake Oro.
As night falls, the stars in the sky begin to shine, complementing the flames on the ground and reflecting their light in the lake.
Xiao Yun got up carefully, wrapped the still unconscious Yaris with a blanket, went to the deck, held the railing, and looked at the hellish scene on the shore with a heavy expression.
The imperial capital was burning, and everywhere was filled with the roar of collapse and the screams of the dying.
The "Dragon Tooth Soldiers" rushed into the streets and hacked to pieces anyone suspected of being an accomplice of the traitor...
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