E-Rantel, the central district.
Draevor Flame strolled along the cobblestone streets, her steps light and bouncy. She was a dragonborn who had heard from the adventurer Momon, back in Moonstone Hollow on the edge of the Eight Greed Kings desert, that she could find her younger brother Ezar Flame in E-Rantel.
So Draevor had headed north, skirting along the border of the Slane Theocracy until she reached E-Rantel. She'd pushed herself day and night on the journey—riding solo on horseback through the wilderness by day, and crashing out on the roof of merchant caravans at night. She'd hijacked a few wagons to make it happen, but she hadn't killed anyone in the process.
To cut time and take a shortcut to E-Rantel, Draevor had even risked sneaking through towns in the Slane Theocracy. Lucky for her, the place was in total chaos, with armies all marching toward the capital—no one paid attention to a masked dragonborn dashing through their streets.
Now that she'd finally made it to E-Rantel, she'd soon track down that spot called the Dragon Zoo and reunite with her half-brother. A thrill surged through Draevor, excitement bubbling up so fiercely she felt like breathing fire.
But she'd seen the city's rules: no using force or magic inside the walls, or you'd get booted out—or worse, end up dead. So Draevor did her best to rein in her giddy joy, hopping and skipping along the cobblestone avenue with playful strides.
As she passed a sahuagin's barbecue stand, Draevor eyed the fragrant meats sizzling over the charcoal flames, but she wasn't tempted. The cooked stuff was loaded with too many spices—Draevor just didn't care for it.
Her gaze lingered on the sahuagin's gill-slit face for a long while, curiously fixated on the fishman boss's gill flaps. The fishman's gills opened and closed, his fine tendrils quivering. Draevor had been born in the inland regions and rarely encountered this coastal race.
"Ha? Female dragonborn, what're you staring at me for? I'm not about to roast myself for you to chow down on." The sahuagin boss rotated his beef skewers, his yellow eyes roaming all over Draevor.
"Fishman, mind if I ask—do you know the way to Dragon Zoo?" Draevor inquired.
"Ha, Dragon Zoo?" The sahuagin flipped the beef skewer over. "Keep heading straight, then take two right turns in a row. You'll hit a wide square, and right next to the central teleportation hub, that's Dragon Zoo."
"Thanks, little fishy." Draevor's voice brimmed with unusual delight.
The sahuagin suddenly seemed to remember something; he looked up and asked, "What're you, a dragonborn, heading to Dragon Zoo for anyway?"
But no one answered him—the dragonborn Draevor had already bounced off into the distance, leaving him only a lonesome view of her back.
...
On the vast square, Draevor caught sight of the shadows of a group of massive dragons. The dragons struck all sorts of poses: some with wings spread in flight, others roaring skyward, and some crouched in rest, forming a marvelous tapestry of dragon life.
Draevor was thrilled beyond words; the scene before her stirred memories of life back in the dragon homeland. E-Rantel truly lived up to its name as a paradise where all races coexisted in harmony—surely her brother Ezar was among them.
Draevor broke into long strides, charging toward the dragons, drawing closer with every step. Gradually, she sensed something was wrong.
The dragons were all sharp edges and crags, wings unfurled, radiating an awe-inspiring menace without even trying—but they held the same poses forever, standing rigid on the ground without so much as a twitch, as if they were dead.
They were indeed all dead, now nothing more than lifelike specimens.
Among the dragon specimens, Draevor spotted her long-sought brother at a glance—the young red dragon Ezar Flame.
In an instant, Draevor felt as if she'd been frozen by frost; she stood dazed on the ground, her eyes as lifeless as a wooden statue, her once trembling excitement now plunged straight into an icy pit. Her heart felt like it had been pierced by a cold sharp sword, nailed dead to solid ice.
She moved her steps mechanically, her gait stiff as she walked toward her brother, approaching step by step beneath the wide dragon wings.
How she longed for everything before her to be fake, how she hoped her brother would blink his eyes, twitch his wings for a moment, then grin, lean down with a smile in his eyes as he looked at her and said: Sister, you've come to find me.
But he didn't.
Ezar was dead—her most beloved and closest brother was dead.
Pat.
A single clear tear slid down Draevor's cheek, falling to the ground and splashing up a puff of dust shaped like a plum blossom.
Draevor stood there numbly, her body as rigid as an iron stake, everything in the world drifting away from her as if weightless, endless sorrow and pain surging from her heart, as if her chest were stuffed full with a rusty spiked ball.
She plummeted straight into an irredeemable icy abyss, her heartstrings quivering in grief.
After a long time, a furious dragon roar burst from her throat, shattering the sky.
"EZAR!"
Draevor howled to the heavens, her sorrowful and icy pain fully transformed into hatred, overwhelming rage surging wildly in her chest!
Accompanying Draevor's long cry, with her as the center, surging flames erupted outward, scorching heat sweeping the entire scene, everything in all directions ablaze. Wild Magic · Dragon's Fury, unleashed!
The terrifying Wild Magic flowed like ripples, slamming into everything around, trees burning and collapsing, wooden explanatory signs exploding into ash, the adamantite-cast barriers melting under the ultra-high temperatures.
In the Dragon Zoo, the only living black colossal dragon was jolted awake. She was a female Dragon Lord, her limbs and head firmly shackled by heavy magical chains. She'd originally just been sprawled on the ground, dozing with half-closed eyes, but now, she too was stunned by the raw power of this raging Wild Magic.
Once she made out that the figure at the heart of the flames was a dragonborn, the black Dragon Lord roared in panic in Draconic: "Child, cool it a little—you're in E-Rantel now!"
But Draevor ignored the Dragon Lord's words; her eyes blazed like golden shooting stars, her body and soul utterly devoured by fury. She charged in huge strides toward E-Rantel's buildings—she was going to wreck this city, obliterate the place that had turned her brother into a stuffed exhibit!
Searing flames ravaged the ground, blistering heat and gusts shattering glass, liquefying metal lampposts; under temps that rivaled a volcano blowing its top, the pavement's bricks had already scorched into bubbling streams of lava.
Dozens of towering death knights swung their longswords high, the blades flashing with icy menace, their presence downright horrifying; they stormed toward Draevor in perfect sync!
Endless rivers of fire swirled around Draevor's form; she threw her head back and bellowed, a furious fire twister blasting from her maw, yanking a death knight straight into the inferno—the undead's bones and sword ignited, popping and crackling.
Another death knight came slashing in from the side; Draevor stomped on its bony arm and leaped up, her flaming razor-sharp dragon claws punching through the death knight's skull, crushing its soul fire.
The chilly soul fire snuffed out in a flash within her dragon claw; after yet another death knight hacked apart its buddy's skeleton, it thrust its sword toward Draevor's chest.
Draevor snarled and clamped both hands on the blade; the steel edge melted into red-hot liquid iron under the extreme heat. Right away, Draevor hopped up, channeling raging flames through her claws into the death knight's skull.
Before its soul got wiped out, the death knight used the broken blade to gash open Draevor's arm; golden-red blood spurted out in a flash, the stuff igniting on the spot like sun-forged magma.
The Dragon Zoo and central teleportation hub were engulfed in a firestorm; buildings crumpled and blazed like they were made of tissue paper.
Shrill alarm bells wailed across the open sky, more death knights pouring in...