Ashen Dragon

Erebos howled miserably: "Damn Variant Dragon—how dare you harm your kin as a five-colored dragon! His Majesty Tiamat will not spare you!"

"Even so, those hypocritical gods and the Metal Dragon Clan will never truly accept you! Betraying the Five-Colored Dragon Clan, you will become the enemy of this world!!"

Cassius roared angrily, sneering: "So what? The Empire will not bow to any divine!"

The Red Dragon Emperor flapped his dragon wings, transforming into a scarlet afterimage, accompanied by scorching dragonflame, he pounced towards the severely injured Ancient Green Dragon.

Cassius's arm muscles bulged, veins protruded, as he suddenly extended his dragon claw towards Erebos's head, the massive sharp claw burned with intense flames, tearing through the void with terrifying strength, roaring towards him.

This was not an ordinary claw strike, but a lethal blow carrying the Flame of Order, Chaos Flame, and Sunlight Flame!

"You—" Erebos looked astonished, his pupils shrank suddenly, reflecting the brilliant flames.

"Swoosh—"

At that moment, the crisp sound of flesh being torn and burned resounded in the sky, followed by an incredibly mournful and painful wail.

Flesh flew around, the light of divine power intersected in mid-air, and Erebos's pair of "Tiamat's Eyes" were forcibly gouged out by the Red Dragon Emperor.

The sightless Ancient Green Dragon became pitiable, with only two bloody eye sockets remaining where its eyes used to be, even exposing its ghastly white skull, looking extremely hideous and terrifying, like a rotting dragon skeleton.

When the eyes were detached from the body, blood spurted out, and the constant supply of divine power within the Ancient Green Dragon was cut off, even its hint of immortality was cruelly stripped away.

The hundreds-of-meters-long body shrank instantly, the flesh formed by divine power dissipated completely, and the overwhelming pressure vanished, leaving only the original scrawny dragon body over forty meters long.

"No—"

The blind Ancient Green Dragon drooped its head, dragging its battered body, crashing around like a headless fly, muttering: "This is mine! It's the strength His Majesty Tiamat bestowed upon me!"

"It's impossible, you are merely a lowly mortal, you can't take it away..."

Erebos's voice grew weaker, he lay in a pool of blood, barely lifting his head with his last ounce of strength, letting out a venomous roar.

"Arrogant Variant Dragon...you think you've won?"

"What else?"

Cassius glanced coldly at the Green Dragon, his right claw holding the pair of "Tiamat's Eyes", while his left claw swung in the air, slamming down on the Green Dragon's head, pressing it hard into the ground.

The sound of bones breaking echoed, under the Red Dragon Emperor's unparalleled strength, the Green Dragon's head first twisted and deformed, then was mercilessly crushed, bone fragments flew, white and red brain matter splattered everywhere.

But even with only half a head left, Erebos's jaws were still slightly moving, murmuring, the voice like the howling wind:

"Cassius...I curse you! This moment is the beginning of your decay...you will be entwined by poison and filth for life...with every breath you take...you will reshape my form for revenge!

One day—

My venomous offspring will be born from your body!"

Before the words fell, the Ancient Green Dragon's body suddenly collapsed, exploding, turning into omnipresent poisonous dust, seeping into the Red Dragon's wounds, quickly dyeing the exposed flesh purple-black, moss and thorns even grew among the muscle fibers, looking exceedingly bizarre.

This was "Erebos's Curse", as a demigod, his body-turned-poison powder and spores could parasitize into other living beings, and as time accumulates, the toxin will kill the host.

And this Ancient Green Dragon will be reborn in embryo form within the host's body, eating away the organs and flesh cleanly, eventually tearing through the host's skin, reemerging into the world.

Meanwhile, countless resentful souls howled and shrieked, surging madly from where the Green Dragon once existed, wandering over the land, cursing it with venomous cries.

In the face of this bizarre scene, Cassius showed no fear, only sneered: "A curse? Interesting, this method somewhat resembles the green-skin orcs."

"But—when you were alive you couldn't do anything to me, now you want to drag me down with you in death? How utterly ridiculous!"

Cassius suddenly clenched his left claw, torrents of dragonflame erupted from his body, the scorching Sun Fire capable of incinerating everything instantly burned away all the toxins that had invaded his body, turning them into plumes of black smoke.

The Emperor of the Crimson Dragon snapped his fingers, and a scorching storm swept across the land, clearing away all the wandering souls.

This evil dragon, who could stop children from crying at night, known by bards as the "Lord of the Rot Swamp," "Cui Lin Poison Miasma," "Blood Cyan Storm"—the ambitious demigod giant dragon, Erebos, perished like this.

As a demigod, Erebos still possessed a bit of his own immortal essence; those fragments burned into fine dust and ashes might someday reunite.

But Cassius was confident that even if that day came, Erebos would never have any thought of resistance.

Cassius extended his right claw, and the dragon's eye dragging blood threads quietly lay in his palm. The slit pupils flickered with a ghostly light, changing between gold, white, blue, and various other colors, exuding a divine power that made him drool.

It felt as though a hoarse woman's voice lingered in the Emperor's ear: "Cassius, do you see it? The supreme divine power you desire and seek is right before you, so simple, so effortless...

Come, let these magnificent Eyes of God replace your eyes!"

The voice became passionate and inspiring. If an ordinary mortal heard such whispers, they would surely fall into them, heedless of all else.

"From now on, wherever your wrath gazes, everything will be burned and turned into ash, even the gods will wail amid the fire that ends all things!

Come, Cassius, let it become your eyes, and you will gain the power to destroy the world, you will become the strongest dragon on earth! You will be crowned at the world's pinnacle!"

"Sounds good..." Cassius nodded slightly, seemingly quite satisfied with the divine dragon eyes.

"You agreed?"

The voice sounded a bit surprised, as if not expecting the Red Dragon Emperor to be so easily hooked.

"But, I refuse."

Cassius shook his head and spoke, his voice exceptionally firm, resounding with power, without any hesitation.

"Tsk tsk, to turn a cunning, greedy ancient green dragon into a devoted believer willing to die for God, quite the means, huh? Erebos must have succumbed to the temptation of power back then and donned these eyes."

"If I accepted these so-called 'Eyes of God,' your consciousness might immediately descend upon the Material Plane and occupy my body..."

Cassius paused his speech, suddenly raised his head, and looked at the empty sky with vigilance, speaking solemnly: "I guessed right, didn't I, your Majesty Tiamat?"

"Whoosh—"

The "Tiamat's Eyes" erupted with boundless divine power, condensing into a gigantic five-headed dragon's shadow in mid-air, releasing unprecedented pressure.

In the moment that shadow appeared, the world seemed to be engulfed by gloom, trembling endlessly; within a hundred miles, all beings were plunged into an extreme terror, a suppression from the soul.

The source of that pressure was the Five-Colored Dragon Queen, enemy of the gods, Mother of Evil Dragons—Tiamat!

"Cassius..."

Tiamat looked down upon the Emperor of the Crimson Dragon, those five narrow vertical pupils exuding an indescribable coldness, freezing everything in its gaze.

"This is your last chance to make amends; wear these divine eyes, and all past errors can be erased.

I will not pursue your faults further; as a distinguished figure among five-colored dragons, you still have the opportunity to rule this world with me."

Its voice was sinister, with undisguised threats and malice.

Cassius, however, sneered, fearlessly confronting with a sharp tone, his voice sharply retorting: "And if...I say no?"

"Then you choose to betray me, become an enemy of the Dragon Worship Church, a traitor to the Five-Colored Dragon Clan!"

Tiamat suddenly raised its pitch, all five monstrous heads simultaneously opened their bloody mouths and let out a soul-stirring roar:

"Rebel, I will have you buried with those lowly humans—"