Ashen Dragon

Of course, if Titus, or rather Cassius wished, he could instantly release the ancestral pressure to control this group of dragon beasts.

But that wasn't necessary, and he didn't want to reveal too much additional power.

Right now, Cassius just needed to control the strength, maintaining his dragon persona as a "diligent and dutiful justice guardian," earning Queen Catherine's trust, and becoming a hero in the Serenia rebellion.

Upon hearing the call of the Ancient Gold Dragon, Rhea slaughtered the monsters blocking her path, without hesitation rushing towards the Abyss Gate not far away.

"Stop her!"

In the distance, the Spider Elf Elder let out a roar, raising the magic wand, countless sticky webs appeared in front of Rhea, along with thousands of venomous spiders crawling along the webs, swarming towards her.

But Rhea clasped the sword with both hands, divine energy radiating from her, twisting and dispersing the surrounding magic energy, making the venomous spiders unable to approach.

[Power Ring]

She then applied blade oil, the sword tip sparking with the friction of the air, igniting immediately, the flaming silver sword swinging in mid-air, the flowing flames slicing through the webs with ease.

The flame spread along the webs, continuously burning, and in just a moment, the obstacles were cleared away.

Rhea vibrated her wings, coming directly to the Abyss Gate blocked by the Deep Dragon's corpse.

Her eyes shimmered brightly, releasing the divine favored energy from her body, which transmitted along her arm to the weapon, making the longsword emit the silvery glow of the Silver Moon.

"Get back!"

The longsword slashed down, neatly chopping through the Deep Dragon's corpse, the silver light descending from the sky, illuminating the Abyss Gate.

Supreme Holy Slash!

Under this divine power, the Abyss Gate emitted black mist, continuously shrinking, and the monsters peeking out were instantly killed by the sacred glow.

The Abyss Gate shrank into a black dot, finally disappearing from the Material Plane, while the surrounding Holy Branches also returned to purity in the light's cleansing.

"Well done!"

Rhea turned around, the number of Abyssal Drake, Deep Dragon, and Shadow Dragon in the sky was vast, like a thick storm cloud.

Meanwhile, the silhouette of the Ancient Gold Dragon, like a sun overshadowed by clouds, was struggling within, roaring fiercely, continuously releasing surging flames, trying to cast the radiance onto the earth.

In the distance, the celestial warriors from Heaven blew their horns, donned in golden, shining armor, charging towards the evil dragons, attempting to ease some of the pressure on the Ancient Gold Dragon.

"Lord Titus..."

Rhea flapped her wings, soared into the sky, joining the battle, fighting fiercely with the hundreds of evil dragons.

Beside the Elf Queen, the mage from the Arcane Priory observed the Blood Moon and barrier in the sky using the True Vision Technique, seemingly lost in thought.

"It's weakened..."

"Indeed, the influence from the evil god has weakened! These Abyss Gates distorting the world and the utterly evil monsters are the so-called 'Eight-armed Mother Goddess' anchor points."

Suddenly, the mage was stirred: "If these anchor points are completely eradicated, it will lose the ability to directly affect the Material Plane."

"And based on the distribution of the Abyss Gates... the most influential, initial anchor point is inside the Holy Tree!"

"Good." Catherine, hovering mid-air, opened her eyes, her clear pupils shimmering like two silvery full moons.

Currently, Bod Gate is governed by a four-member council, all of whom are Grand Dukes, and one serves as the council leader. If the vote ends in a tie, Great Duke Elder Ravenclaw makes the decision. The Upper City's security is managed by the elite official police force, the Watch, while other areas are overseen by a mercenary group known as the Flaming Fist. Great Duke Elder Ravenclaw is also the supreme leader of the mercenary group, headquartered at the Bodlan Sea Tower, the strongest fortress against maritime invasion at Bod Gate. Shaped like a crescent, the economic lifeline of Bod Gate, Gray Harbor, sees hundreds of merchant ships arriving and departing daily, bringing gold coins as well as greed and sin.

The Upper City, situated at a relatively high elevation, is composed of the Castle District, Temple District, Manoburn District, and Wide Alley District, filled with numerous religious structures, the Miracle Hall, and the Supreme Miracle House, both serving as the centers for the Church of Gond, the God of Craft, at Bod Gate. The Miracle Hall displays Gond's great inventions, while the Supreme Miracle House also functions as a workshop. The Lower City mainly consists of stone houses spread across six districts: Sea Tower District, Blonrich District, Steep District, Crowded Side District, East Road District, and Branpton District. The middle class typically resides in Blonrich District, adjacent to the Upper City's aristocrats, while the East Road District, near the Stone Lizard Gate leading to the Outer City District, is more of a mixed bag with lively bars and cheap inns. The Sea Tower District houses the Flaming Fist Mercenary Corps, whose headquarters, the Bodlan Sea Tower, is built on the largest rocky offshore island in Sea Tower District. Branpton District and Steep District are relatively rundown, serving as residential communities for sailors and laborers. The Outer City District stretches along the Chongsar River, clustered with temporary buildings and slums, its landmark a stone bridge spanning the river—Flying Dragon Crossroad—where many vendors gather, expanding the bridge's surface with planks and building numerous structures on it. Law and order barely exist here, and even the area the Flaming Fist Mercenary Corps can protect is very limited, with many poor and criminals unable to settle in the city congregating here.

The moss on the sewer arch turned a ghostly green under the dim phosphorescent light, the murky sewage sloshing over boots, each step prompting a sticky "gulugulu" sound. Purple-black slime oozed from wall cracks, flowing like veins towards the drain—a characteristic neural corrosive substance of the Spirit Sucking Monster Nest. Inhaling it induces auditory hallucinations, as if countless tiny tendrils were crawling in one's ear canals. Suddenly, a sound of bone misalignment echoed from behind a broken cast iron pipe, as if something was twisting and pushing through the narrow space.

As three patrolling guards raised their lanterns, the sewage suddenly erupted! Four Spirit Sucking Monsters burst from the water, their pale humanoid bodies covered in decay, their octopus-like heads' tentacles vibrating at high frequency, releasing visible purple mind shock waves. The leading guard's helmet caved in, his eye sockets bursting into a bloody mist under intense cranial pressure; the second's scream remained trapped as tentacles pierced his ear canal, his spinal cord drawn out like a puppet string. The sole surviving guard staggered backward, his firearm's blast swallowed entirely by the Spirit Sucking Monsters' collective subsonic shriek.

These Spirit Sucking Monsters were evidently tactically trained. Two feigning attackers slapped the water surface with tentacles, creating a corrosive liquid fog to obscure vision; a third descended from the ceiling, suction cups anchoring to a guard's skull, tentacle tips precisely penetrating the foramen magnum—not to kill instantly, but to puppet the captive, forcing him to turn and, with trembling hands, reload ammunition for its comrades' fireguns. Meanwhile, the fourth was using bone blade-like finger joints to pry open a fallen guard's chest cavity, extracting a warm liver to stuff into its maw, pale yellow digestive juices dripping from its jaw, corroding the ground into wisps of green smoke.

The parasitized were not completely dead. A guard's corpse suddenly convulsed, clawing up, translucent Spirit Sucking Monster juvenile tentacles extending from the neck wound, eyes dilating to a cloudy milky white. He grabbed a dagger and stabbed at his former comrades, a non-human synthetic voice squeezed from his throat: "Skull... a gift to the Overmind..." And the true horror only just began to reveal itself—the distant sewage pool began to boil, more pale figures surfacing, tentacles dragging several captives cocooned in slime cocoons, their human faces distorting into silent screams beneath the casing.

When the last gunshot faded, the sewer returned to silence. Only floating tattered uniforms and still pulsating neural corrosive substance mats bore testament to the massacre's existence. The Spirit Sucking Monsters hauled their captives into the depths of the drainage pipes, the slime cocoons occasionally twitching, as if the "seeds" within were on the verge of hatching. In the Overmind's psychic network, the coordinates of these new shells crystallized into a string of cold purple light, converging upon the massive pulsating shadow beneath Bod Gate.