Chapter 341: Strange Dungeon
The battlefield was silent.
Then, like the tearing of a veil, the silence broke. Black shadows rippled outward from a single figure at the center of the devastation. Vespera, the Shadow Monarch, stood amid the lifeless corpses of draconic beasts. Her form was untouched, and her eyes shone in the darkness like twin voids.
Anyone who would see this woman in her current state wouldn’t hesitate to label her a monster.
Hundreds of draconic creatures surrounded her still. Their wings beat the air, stirring ash and dust, but her expression did not change for a single moment.
She lifted one pale hand.
From the floor of the dungeon, innumerable shadows erupted like spears, skewering the creatures. Some fell instantly, others roared and struggled, making their fire-breath cut swathes of darkness, but it did not matter. Their efforts were futile.
Her shadows regenerated, devoured their flames, and bound their throats shut until silence reigned once more.
Then, with a single commanding sweep of her arm, the battlefield was drowned in a black tide. When it receded, only mountains of corpses remained.
Vespera lowered her hand slowly. She felt nothing. There was no time for sentiment.
Still... something was off.
Her cold gaze lingered on the bloodied remains. These draconics were different. They carried an uncanny resilience, sharper reflexes, and patterns of coordination that the "feral" kind that humanity encountered many times before in other dungeons never displayed. Their scales had crystalline ridges to them, their fire burned with streaks of violet, appearing to be some form of mutation she had not seen in prior dungeons nor in reports.
"A new subspecies, or... Evolving?" Her voice was flat, though the thought stirred a ripple beneath her mask of control.