Chapter 170: The War In The West
The Dragon Kingdom.
Weeks had passed since Adonis and Millia left for the City of Death.
The primary command naturally fell to his wives, Mariana and Sapphira. At first, they managed well. The integration of the Serpent-kin and the alliance with the Beast Kingdom went smoothly. Resource distribution was handled cleanly; those who contributed more were promoted to higher ranks.
The Beast King’s daughter, Leona, also assisted by training the troops and establishing order with her iron command. Everything was in a state of harmony.
However, despite these successes, they could not ignore the growing unrest at their borders. Dragonia was being slowly and meticulously surrounded on all sides by the human kingdoms of the Western Continent.
The fated day arrived, and Dragonia was set on fire once again.
The armies of Halveth, Sareth, Koran, and ten other kingdoms unified their forces and launched an all-out war against the Dragon King. They were driven by a profound fear of the Dragon Kingdom’s rise.
They understood clearly that if they did nothing now, it wouldn’t be long before the entire continent fell under the rule of King Adonis, leaving them as nothing more than mere slaves.
The horizon of the Dragon Kingdom was no longer a clear blue, it was now a jagged line of steel and smoke.
From the high balconies of the central palace, Mariana stood with her knuckles white as she gripped the marble railing.
Beside her, Sapphira adjusted the floating magical maps.
"They aren’t just raiding the borders this time, Mariana. The Halveth Vanguard has already crossed the Silver River. Sareth’s heavy cavalry is flanking from the east, and Koran has brought those gods-forsaken siege golems," Sapphira said coldly.
"They waited for Adonis to leave. Cowards. They think without the King, the dragon has no teeth."
"Let them think that, My Queens," a gruff voice interrupted.
Leona, the Beast King’s daughter, climbed the stairs with her massive claymore resting on her shoulder. Her golden eyes were burning.
"My warriors are positioned in the Red Gorge. If those Sareth knights try to push through the valley, I’ll turn the soil into a graveyard for their horses. But we need to talk about the sky, Queen Mariana. Koran brought Griffon Riders."
"Sapphira?" Mariana asked, looking toward the Dragon Queen.
"They are already on the move," Sapphira replied, pointing toward the sky. "The Serpent-kin have deployed their venom-spitting wyverns. It’s a mess up there, but we are holding the line. The problem isn’t the quality, it’s the numbers. We are being squeezed from all sides. If we don’t break one of these fronts, they’ll meet at the palace gates by sunset."
---
Down in the trenches of the southern border, the sound of war was a deafening roar. General Valerius of the Halveth Army sat atop his white stallion, looking at the towering walls of Dragonia with a sneer.
"Look at them," Valerius laughed, gesturing toward his lieutenants. "The great Dragon Kingdom, protected by women and beasts. Adonis is probably rotting in some hole in the Necro-Lands while we take his crown. Move the golems forward! I want those gates turned to dust!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The massive stone golems of Koran stepped forward, each footfall shaking the earth. They raised their glowing fists, slamming them into the protective barrier Sapphira had erected.
The magical dome flickered, sending sparks of blue energy cascading down like rain.
Leona roared from the ramparts:
"Is that all you’ve got? I’ve seen kittens with more bite than your golems! Come up here and face a real warrior!"
"Shields up! Archers! Aim for the bitch!"
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh...
Following the Halveth captain’s order, a rain of thousands of arrows blotted out the sun, hissing through the air toward Leona.
But before they could strike, a massive wall of fire erupted in mid-air, incinerating the shafts instantly.
Mariana stood there, her hands wreathed in dragon-flame.
"Leona, focus on the ground!" Mariana shouted over the chaos. "If those golems break the inner gate, it doesn’t matter how many knights you kill!"
"I’m trying, but there are too many of them!" Leona yelled back, swinging her blade to deflect a stray bolt. "It’s ten to one out here!"
The human coalition laughed, their confidence growing as the barrier began to crack. They could see the end. They could see the treasures of the Dragon Kingdom waiting for them.
Valerius raised his sword, ready to give the final order for the slaughter.
"Today, the dragons will be ceased from existence!" Valerius bellowed. "For the Western Continent! Charge!"
Suddenly—
The air went dead.
The sounds of clashing steel, the roaring golems, and the screaming griffons were cut short by a sound so low and vibrating that it made every heart in the valley skip a beat.
Wuuuuu... wuuuuu... wuuuuu...
It was the sound of a flute, that felt like a cold finger tracing down a spine.
"What is that sound?" Sapphira whispered, "That’s not human music. That’s... that’s Undead Master’s signature."
Mariana’s eyes widened,
"The sk... Look at the sky, sister Sapphira!"
Above the battlefield, the clouds didn’t just part, they disintegrated.
Buzz!
Then, a massive rift of obsidian violet tore through the atmosphere.
Next, the sunlight was swallowed by an absolute, terrifying darkness that spread across the horizon in a matter of seconds.
From within the rift, a city-sized structure began to descend. It was the Golden Cube, now reinforced with veins of black obsidian, pulsing with the authority of a god.
THUD.
The Cube didn’t land. It hovered just above the palace, and from its base, a bridge of pure shadow extended toward the earth.
"Look!" a Halveth soldier pointed, his voice trembling. "What are those things?"
From the shadows, they came.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Not by the hundreds, but by the tens of thousands. Skeletal knights in ornate plate armor, Reapers draped in stitched shadows, and bone-dragons that dwarfed the golems of Koran.
They marched with a rhythmic, terrifying precision that made the human army look like a disorganized mob.
In the center of the bridge stood a man with flowing dark hair and violet eyes that burned like twin suns. Beside him stood a woman draped in a gown of living smoke, her presence so graceful and terrifying that the very grass beneath her feet turned to ash.
"Husband," Mariana whispered, a tear of relief finally breaking through her stoic mask.
Adonis looked down at the unified armies of the ten kingdoms. He didn’t look angry. On the contrary, he looked bored.
He suddenly raised his hand, and the flute music stopped.
"I left for a few weeks, and you people start playing with matches in my house?"
"I hope you brought more than just rocks and griffons. Because my new Queen hasn’t had a chance to test her new subjects yet."
Millia stepped forward, raised a slender hand, and the shadows around the human army began to rise like grasping claws.
"They look tired, Adonis. Shall I give them the eternal rest they seem to be seeking?" Millia said, her voice a melodic haunting
"Do as you wish, my sweetheart. The Western Continent wanted a war. Let’s show them what a real one looks like."