Someone pointed toward the distance with trembling fingers, unsure if the shaking was from fear or movement. Some of the city's defenders were hastily gathered adventurers, and if nothing else, they were well traveled. Even the most experienced among them had never seen a lifeform that only existed in bedtime stories and bardic songs.
They saw a white dragon soaring through the storm of wind and snow. Its wings were draped in ice and frost. Its body was wrapped in a raging storm.
Its roar came with thunder. Crystals hung from head to tail, gleaming and clear, and its powerful form carried an indescribable sense of greatness. Its appearance was fierce but not excessive, its body strong and well-proportioned, and from claw to fang there was a strange kind of beauty.
Just by flying, it kicked up towering waves of snow on the ground, sweeping past monsters that were nearly frozen into ice statues. In the next moment, those bodies exploded as it harvested lives with terrifying efficiency. Legends said such beings possessed long lifespans, keen intelligence, and overwhelming power, not only breathing fire but also wielding dragon language Magic beyond human comprehension.
With the dragon's already immense size, how many people could ever witness it casting Magic? Perhaps this was what it looked like, even more exaggerated than songs and tales. In the blink of an eye, a terrifying Beast Tide was wiped out, one so dreadful it left people feeling utterly helpless.
"But luckily…" "That dragon… probably does not intend to attack us, right?"
Someone pulled out blood-stained tobacco leaves from a pouch and leaned against a massive monster corpse, trying to light them. Judging from the scale of this Blizzard, clearly the dragon's work, no matter its purpose, at least their lives were spared. If it had any hostile intent, their fate would not have been much better than the monsters outside.
"Look over there!" Several soldiers ran over from another section of the wall in panic, and as everyone turned, their faces went pale. The strange monster that had breached the wall was perched on the ramparts, facing an injured female mage.
In the next moment, everyone felt that the mage was surely doomed, yet some sharp-eyed observers noticed the monster's body trembling slightly. It must have been an illusion. For despair itself to feel despair, what kind of thing was that?
"Roar!!!"
A massive dragon roar erupted from behind, sending a chill through everyone as a shadow passed overhead. They saw the white dragon that had slaughtered the monster horde flying over, and icy breath blasted from its mouth, smashing the monster off the city wall.
"Hmph. Trying to run? Whirlwind Chop!"
After sweeping the ground outside, Belial spotted a huge lump of ugly black flesh clinging to the city wall. Only half its body remained, with the rear missing after he had thrown it away earlier. He recognized it at once as the thing that had pretended to be dead and slipped away from him before.
Annoyed, he released a clean breath attack and smashed it into the ground, grinding it down without mercy. Every inch of the creature was frozen into fine chunks, and only then did the download bar in Belial's mind finally start to move. He nodded in satisfaction.
He stepped down onto the city wall, adjusting gravity to lighten himself so his tens of thousands of tons would not crush it outright. Even so, the surface cracked apart under his foot, stone bricks bursting and whole sections sinking down. He sensed another source inside the city and decided to take it as well.
Just as he was about to take off, he noticed a blonde girl at his feet whose hat had been blown away by the pressure of his landing. She looked strange, with a tired air that reminded him of an overworked office drone. The more he looked, the more familiar she seemed.
He switched off the close-range Energy Field around his body. The girl stopped shaking at once, and he nodded to himself. He lowered his head to look more closely, then suddenly snapped it back up toward the city, his eyes lighting up.
"Traffic!"
What he saw was one large source standing beside another even larger one. Compared to everything he had taken before, this was a massive haul, several times greater than all the rest combined. It might even be enough to complete the God of Destruction template in one go.
Excitement surged through him, and he flapped his wings hard, rushing straight into the city. He still held back enough to avoid knocking the girl off the wall, and even used careful control to pick up her hat, place it back on her head, and brush off the dust. Then the giant dragon flew away, cheering loudly.
Feltz felt that she had experienced too many sharp turns in a single day. First came the rare Beast Tide, something that should not have happened at all, forcing her to use up precious crystals and scrolls. Then an unexpected monster appeared, devouring hope along with everything else.
The worst part was that the monster reached the wall and crashed into her first. In a daze, she launched an attack that was little more than a suicidal gesture. She never believed it would do anything, and even at her best she would have needed her mentor's scrolls to stand a chance.
There was no time to think further. A river-like torrent of freezing power fell from the sky, vast and absolute, and crushed the monster that had embodied all her despair. It was driven down without resistance, never to climb back up.
Another heavy impact shook the ground, and a different kind of shadow fell over her. The wind pressure tore her mage hat away as she looked up. A dragon stood there, covered in bright white scales that reflected the sunlight.
Its long tail was rimed with frost, its back lined with clear spines, wings spread wide over thick limbs. She could barely see more than that, yet the pressure alone was enough to make her breath catch. It was stronger than anything she had ever felt, far beyond even her mentor.
"…A dragon."
Feltz forced the word out, her mind crushed under the sheer Magic pressure. Her body shook on its own, muscles locked tight as if her bones might crack. Instinct took over before thought, spreading from her body into her mind.
She realized with bitter clarity that when the gap in power was too vast, all other options vanished. Only fear remained, the last response left to a living thing. The dragon lowered its head, briefly letting her enter its gaze.
The pressure vanished as quickly as it had come. She stopped trembling, and even her exhausted body felt light by comparison. Though she was still afraid, it seemed the dragon had deliberately withdrawn its presence.
She startled again as the dragon bent its head lower, its vertical pupils reflecting her tiny figure. Cold breath washed over her face as she struggled to force a smile. Strangely, the longer she looked at its fierce features, the more familiar they seemed.
Feltz had once studied dragons in depth after an experience with her mentor, focusing especially on the Black Dragon. She knew that adult dragons were usually between twenty-three and thirty-two meters long, and that they never stopped growing. Ancient dragons were living histories, weakened in body but still terrifying in Magic and wisdom.
Yet this dragon matched none of that. Its body showed no sign of age, its limbs were unusually thick, its neck short and packed with muscle, and barbs and blade-like scales jutted out where no normal dragon should have them. Everything about it looked built purely for battle.
At first she thought it might be an ancient White Dragon, explaining its overwhelming power. Such strength would place it among the elite even at Gold Rank. Now, though, it seemed closer in shape to a Black Dragon, but only in the vaguest sense.
A Black Dragon should have black scales, not white ones that reflected light unnaturally. It also should not breathe the freezing breath of a White Dragon. The thought of a hybrid crossed her mind, but she had no answer.
Before she could sort it out, the dragon suddenly lifted its head, shaking the ground again. This time she understood why. Inside the city, a pillar of dark purple Magic shot into the sky, carrying an oppressive wave and a disturbing heat.
The feeling matched what she had sensed from the three-mouthed monster earlier. A chilling idea formed in her mind. "Could the Beast Tide have been caused by someone?"
The dragon beside her roared in fury, spread its wings, and charged straight toward the ominous light. Feltz watched in a daze, then reached up and touched her hat. It was back on her head, though she had no idea when that had happened.
Deep underground, a figure wrapped in black robes burned open a path through solid earth with searing flames. He ignored the dark Magic pouring out of the tunnel and entered a sealed stone chamber cut off from the outside world. The walls were carved with runes and octagonal symbols that radiated ominous power.