Chapter 312 Young Red Iron Dragon, The Second Heart
Before we knew it, the year was 275 in the Gregorian calendar.
The border between the Serbian wilderness and the permafrost tundra.
This land, once dotted with sparse greenery, has now been reshaped by the cold wave that erupted during the final battle between two legendary kings, as well as the ecological changes brought about by the battle of the dragons.
The howling wind, carrying the relentless blizzard, is like millions of invisible ice blades, constantly slicing through the exposed rock and frozen soil.
As far as the eye could see, all that remained between heaven and earth was a chaotic white expanse. Thick snow greedily devoured every undulation and edge of the ground, almost assimilating the entire border area into a cold extension of the permafrost tundra.
Whew! Whew! Whew!
The howling of the wind and snow is the only, eternal background noise in this place.
In the snow-covered land, Red Maple Valley seems to be isolated from the world.
Despite the howling wind and snow outside, and the frozen landscape stretching for miles.
The valley is filled with a warmth and vitality reminiscent of late spring and early summer.
The towering maple trees are ablaze with color, crimson, golden yellow, orange-brown... countless burning colors intertwine to form a magnificent dome, the babbling brook reflecting the fiery shadows of the maple leaves, shattering into shimmering, flowing starlight across the river.
Right here in this tranquil valley, where warm colors flow and vitality abounds.
A slender and swift figure, like a shimmering sprite flitting through the forest.
It was after she ended her dragon slumber and entered adolescence that Deborah, the crimson-silver dragon, was able to skillfully use [Transformation] to transform into human form.
She appeared to be a human girl of about seventeen or eighteen years old, with a slender and graceful figure, delicate yet agile.
Her waist-length hair was not pure copper or silver-white, but rather like molten gold and flowing mithril, blended and splashed with the most exquisite brushstrokes. With each light leap and nimble turn, it splashed out dazzling and mesmerizing light and shadow.
Her skin was incredibly delicate, with a soft, lustrous sheen like the finest mother-of-pearl, and a deeper, subtle texture reminiscent of warm jade.
What's most unforgettable are her eyes.
The pupils are pure, dazzling, and seem to contain stardust, while the area around the pupils and up to the edge of the eyelids is tinged with a deep, warm base color, like the finest amber and beeswax.
Looking at the whole picture, those eyes seem to be embedded in a deep autumn lake studded with stars, profound and lively, reflecting the brilliance of the whole world.
now.
This beautiful crimson-silver dragon girl, with her flawless jade feet, lightly treads on the wet, smooth bluestone by the stream, leaping and running continuously.
Her goal was a magical butterfly with wings that shimmered with a mesmerizing rainbow halo.
"Gotcha!"
Deborah let out a series of clear and melodious laughs, then suddenly leaped into the air, her slender hands reaching out to the fluttering butterflies in the air.
The magic butterfly seemed to have anticipated this, and its wings flapped rapidly.
Buzz!
In an instant, light and shadow shifted, and illusions arose—hundreds and thousands of magical butterflies identical to the original appeared out of thin air, like exploding colorful fireworks, flying and scattering in all directions without any pattern.
However.
Deborah's gaze remained unwavering and undistracted.
Her gaze was fixed on one of the many illusions in the sky, and then her outstretched hand moved without hesitation, swift as lightning, through the layers of false light and shadow, and her five fingers closed.
Snap!
He firmly and precisely grasped the real magic butterfly in his palm.
"ah!"
With a short gasp and a flickering burst of magical light.
The magic butterfly in Deborah's hand disappeared.
Instead, she held a fairy dragon in her hand, flapping its wings in dissatisfaction and drooping its tail—Vera.
To pass the long, boring wait for Garos to awaken in Red Maple Valley.
Deborah specially brought this quirky little guy back from the tribe to keep him company and relieve his boredom.
Vera puffed out her cheeks, wagging her tail angrily, her eyes filled with confusion and frustration: "Why! Why can you catch me every time?! My illusions are so perfect! So lifelike!"
Deborah raised her chin slightly with a smug look, a cunning and beautiful smile curving her lips, her honey-colored eyes gleaming with mischievous light.
"secret!"
She would never tell the fairy dragon that she had already cheated!
Before the game began, she silently left an extremely hidden and imperceptible magical mark on Vera. No matter how Vera's illusions changed and became indistinguishable from reality, that mark always guided Deborah to locate her true form.
After a chase and a contest of illusions.
Still not satisfied, the dragon and the fairy went to a calm bend in the lower reaches of the stream and started a fishing competition.
Vera clearly still remembered the painful experience of her first time fishing, when she tried to use herself as bait and was swallowed whole by a ferocious fish.
This time she learned her lesson and carefully used her nimble tail to wrap around a thin twig as a fishing rod, while intently watching the buoy on the water's surface.
Deborah, on the other hand, simply reverted to her original form as a crimson silver dragon.
The elegant and massive dragon body stretched lazily by the stream, its long tail leisurely immersed in the cool water.
She didn't use a fishing rod, but instead used the tip of her tail to gently sway on the bottom of the water, mimicking the movements of aquatic plants or bait, fishing in a way she was familiar with.
Not long after.
Whoosh!
Water splashes everywhere!
Deborah's long, slender dragon tail, covered in crimson and silver scales, suddenly swung upwards.
A plump fish, its scales shimmering silver in the sunlight, was thrown onto the grassy bank and was still jumping and struggling energetically.
"Another one!"
Deborah's tone was light and cheerful.
She was preparing to dip her tail into the depths of the stream again, looking for her next unlucky target.
Sudden!
Buzz...!
The once calm, mirror-like water surface suddenly rippled violently in circles, and the solid ground beneath our feet trembled clearly, as if a giant beast were turning over underground!
Wow!!!
The fairy dragon Vera's eyes widened instantly, bursting with excitement.
"My fishing rod is shaking! Oh my god! Lady Vera is about to catch an unprecedentedly huge fish, maybe even bigger than a dragon! Deborah, get ready to hold it down for me! Don't let it get away!!"
It was as if to confirm the fairy dragon's exaggerated words.
boom!
A muffled roar suddenly erupted from the bottom of the stream.
The next instant! It was as if countless explosives buried deep in the riverbed were detonated simultaneously!
The crystal-clear water was torn apart, lifted up, and transformed into millions of shattered diamonds that scattered in all directions by the violent force. The solid riverbank cracked inch by inch like a fragile biscuit, and pebbles the size of bowls and frozen mud were shot out in all directions like cannonballs.
The center of the sky was filled with water mist and smoke.
A massive, suffocating shadow covered in dark scales, with overwhelming force, tore through the water and dust, and soared fiercely into the sky.
"I caught it! I caught it! Hahaha, a fish as big as a dragon!"
"Lady Vera is truly the goddess of fishing! Deborah, quick! Help me subdue her..."
Vera dodged the deluge of water droplets and flying stones while screaming excitedly and incoherently.
"You idiot, that's not a fish, it's Garus."
"I caught Garus?! Aha! Doesn't that make me even more amazing? Vera the Dragon Fisherman, that title is fantastic."
The fairy dragon danced excitedly amidst the smoke and mist.
"I think he just happened to wake up."
Deborah looked up at the sky.
at the same time
The figure that tore through the stream and the earth, carrying endless water vapor, soared into the sky and appeared high in the heavens.
The cold wind howled like a knife, blowing against his steel-like scales, yet it could not shake them in the slightest. The snowflakes flew wildly with him, almost transforming into a blizzard tornado connecting heaven and earth around him.
And just as the snow tornado was about to take shape.
With its colossal wings spreading wide, the dragon tore through the wind and snow, then suddenly hovered high in the sky.
With its sharp, guillotine-like wings and its tail that can be joined together to form a giant blade and a spear, the massive figure of the black-and-silver-edged dragon was finally revealed without any obstruction between heaven and earth. It was none other than the young Red Iron Dragon.
"call……"
A deep, resonant dragon's roar, seemingly echoing with metallic vibrations, slowly emerged from Garus's mouth, filled with sharp teeth.
He moved his large, slightly stiff body, his joints clanging against his scales.
"This time... I slept so much my bones are practically rusting."
After hovering for a moment, allowing the icy gale to fully awaken the dormant body and senses.
Galos began to carefully examine the changes in himself.
First, the health level is 17!
This is a number that would frighten most adult dragons.
It should be noted that... the life level of a typical adult red dragon is generally around level 15, and even the strongest gold dragon of the same age among the main dragon types only starts at level 16 when it comes to adulthood.
Galus, on the other hand, had just entered his youth.
"Level 17. My usual training, the large amount of precious metals and magic gems I ate, and the black oil crystals I swallowed before bed played a key role; otherwise, I should have been level 16."
Galos pondered to himself.
Immediately, he began to observe the changes in his own body.
First, there's its size. From the tip of its nose at the very front of its head to the end of its menacing thorns at the tail, its total length is an astonishing twenty meters or more.
This is not the size a young dragon should have.
Even among adult red and gold dragons known for their massive size, this size is definitely above average. If we use white dragons as a reference, even a white dragon that has entered its prime would find it difficult to match Garos in terms of sheer size.
But strangely enough...
His muscles, which should have been brimming with explosive power, now appeared abnormally shriveled and atrophied.
The massive skeleton covered in thick metal scales was still rugged, robust, and full of power, but the muscles outside the skeleton, which should have been full and bulging like lava mountains, now seemed to have been drained of their essence by an invisible force, becoming thin and loose.
The enormous dragon body, over twenty meters long, gave off a strange sense of contradiction at this moment.
It remains powerful, yet feels eerily empty.
It seemed that only the hard, thick bones and tough dragon scales were supporting this steel body, while the inside had lost the filling of active life energy.
This change is unusual.
Galos remembered it clearly.
Before falling into a deep sleep, he not only consumed a large number of magic gems and precious metal ingots, but also swallowed all the accumulated black oil crystals in one gulp.
Given his accumulated resources and life strength at the time, even if Dragon Sleep consumes some energy for transformation, his state after waking up might not be as muscular and ferocious as he was at his peak before falling asleep... but he should never appear as a skeleton dragon, as if he had been starved for a hundred years, skin and bones.
and.
His life energy, his magical energy, and his dragon energy all plummeted at this moment, as if something had drained most of his energy reserves during his slumber and transformation.
As Galos examined it, this thing also came to light.
heart!
Galos took a deep breath, clearly feeling the beating of his heart and the surging, furnace-like energy within it.
More importantly...
He sensed with absolute clarity that his heart seemed to have split into two.
The special energy structure that had evolved during his previous slumber, located in his right thoracic cavity and originally storing heat energy, has now transformed deep within his right thoracic cavity into another heart that is beating vigorously and radiating amazing energy fluctuations.
More precisely, it is not heart tissue that proliferates at the level of physical flesh and blood.
Instead, it was formed by the vigorous life energy, vast magical energy, and condensed dragon energy within his body—energy that was originally scattered and stored throughout the dragon's body—that was compressed, condensed, and transformed, ultimately creating a core organ composed purely of high-density energy! A unique energy heart.
It's obvious.
All the energy that Garros lost was concentrated into this heart.
(End of this chapter)
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