Translator: AnubisTL
As time slipped away, the atmosphere of the banquet continued to heat up in the fortress's courtyard, where wind and snow howled relentlessly.
Countless low-level familiars of all shapes and sizes, like busy worker ants, scuttled cautiously between the massive, awe-inspiring dragons and the powerful monster bosses. They delivered giant bowls brimming with meat soup, whole roasted beasts sizzling over open fires, and barrels of fragrant, mellow wine.
Having already arranged a future sparring session with the red-iron dragon, Alberto, in his human form, shed his golden dragon's majesty and aloofness. Once again, he began to dance with wild abandon in the center of the grounds.
His blond hair flew as he moved with unbridled freedom.
Garos's massive body lay sprawled on a stone platform covered in thick animal pelts, his head lowered slightly. He ate unhurriedly, his sharp gaze sweeping across the scene, savoring the long-missed clamor and celebratory atmosphere. Then, he turned his head slightly toward the iron dragon beside him.
"Solgorn, while I slept, did anything of consequence happen in the outside world?"
His deep voice cut through the surrounding noise, reaching the iron dragon's ears.
The Iron Dragon, who had a peculiar fondness for sweets, had just downed a large jar of cloyingly sweet honey syrup.
He was still savoring the taste, extending his rough tongue to lick the glistening sugar syrup from the edge of his jaw.
"There is much," he said after hearing Garos's question. "There are many matters worthy of attention."
"The turbulent changes of the past dozen years have far exceeded our expectations."
"Not only has the civil unrest within the Federation—which we foresaw—intensified, but the entire Bernardo Planet seems to have entered a tumultuous era of great upheaval."
Garos nodded slightly, signaling him to continue. "Detail them."
The Iron Dragon fell silent for a moment, organizing and synthesizing the information he had gathered from passing merchant caravans, adventurers in Creekwood Town, and Gordon.
"First, there is Nausir, the Elven Empire," the Iron Dragon said after carefully choosing his words. "They claim that while exploring the starry sky, they discovered the existence of other planets with life and are already attempting preliminary diplomatic contact."
This first matter alone was of such gravity that Garos couldn't help but glance at him sideways.
The Elven Empire was not the only empire on Bernardo Planet.
They maintained a fragile and delicate surface peace, yet beneath it, they were engaged in fierce, ceaseless competition and power struggles. Among all the empires, Nausir, the Elven Empire, held a dominant position in terms of comprehensive national strength and level of civilization.
They had always been at the forefront of their era, pioneering the exploration of the starry sky.
It must be clarified that exploring the starry sky still falls under the exploration of the internal Material Plane, rather than interplanar travel.
The scales of different Material Planes vary wildly. A small one might consist of only a single floating continent, while a large one could be a planet, a star system, or even an entire universe.
The sum of all these Material Planes constitutes the vast, boundless Material Plane.
Therefore, intra-material exploration, inter-material exploration, and interplanar exploration are three completely different concepts, each with its own distinct methods and challenges.
The Nausir Empire's discovery of other life-bearing planets meant that the material plane containing Bernardo Planet was not an isolated planetary world. Its vastness far exceeded all imagination, harboring more unknown resources and endless potential waiting to be unearthed.
Similarly, it also harbored other unknown dangers.
Immediately after, Iron Dragon Solgorn turned the conversation to Cantum, the orc empire.
They aspired to use iron and blood to utterly conquer the entire Theresia Continent, fully incorporating it into Cantum's territory.
This news did not surprise Garos much.
The knowledge treasury of the dragon heritage contained clear records of the Cantum Empire.
It was a war machine where theocracy and royal power were highly unified. Their state religion, the Holy Court of Fangs, fanatically worshipped the Great God of the orc race.
The Sleepless One, the Watcher—Ugosh.
He was a deity symbolizing berserk rage, combat, and conquest!
The core tenet of the Holy Court of Fangs was to launch an endless holy war against the entire world.
Kill all enemies who dare to resist, enslave all conquered beings. Only through eternal war and complete destruction can the orcs seize a wider living space and win the eternal favor of the divine spirit.
For such an extremely bellicose empire, after defeating the giantkin—their most troublesome opponent—it was almost an inevitable choice to eliminate all other obstacles and completely conquer the Theresia Continent.
But this was destined to be a long and unpredictable process.
The other empires—especially the Elven Empire, which harbored the deepest enmity against the orcs—would never stand idly by and watch them grow stronger. They would do everything in their power to obstruct them from the sidelines, never allowing the war banners of the orc empire to be planted on every inch of Theresia.
However, the information Iron Dragon Solgorn revealed next completely defied Garos's expectations.
The collective return of all adult metallic dragons to the Dragon Realm was for an ancient and grand ritual. They were attempting to assist the dragon race's top expert, Sky-Veiling Wings, in breaking through the limits of life and stepping into the Realm of Immortality.
Yet, this critical ritual had been brutally interrupted by a chromatic dragon's assault.
The attacker was the ancient dragon Heatherfell, known by the ferocious title "End of Winter, White Dragon of Myriad Spells."
Garos knew this dragon.
Her notorious reputation and legendary deeds were also clearly imprinted in the dragon heritage. Even among the ancient chromatic dragons, who were themselves a gathering of the mighty, she was an absolutely terrifying existence, ranked among the very best. As a result, many ordinary white dragons took pride in her, regarding her as the symbol of their race's rise and their greatest glory.
"A white dragon remembered so clearly by the dragon heritage... she is definitely no ordinary foe."
Garos murmured inwardly, swiftly searching the inheritance for records of this White Dragon of Myriad Spells.
In short, she was a Spell-Eater Dragon who had reached the pinnacle of the magical arts, but had also suffered a severe mental illness—paranoia—as a result.
It was said that every single scale on her body was inscribed with profound and dangerous magical runes. To advance further on the path of magic, she would stop at nothing, committing any atrocity imaginable.
However, she was fundamentally different from other Spell-Eater Dragons—those who were equally mad but often met untimely deaths.
Other Spell-Eater Dragons often lost their reason to their extreme greed for magical knowledge, acting with the foolishness of moths drawn to a flame. For instance, they might recklessly storm a heavily guarded legendary mage tower single-handedly, all for a tattered notebook containing a fragment of an ancient forbidden spell, only to end up with their bones scattered to the wind.
But Heatherfell, the White Dragon of Myriad Spells, was completely different.
She knew exactly how to leverage her strengths and possessed the patience of a top predator. Despite being a white dragon, her cunning and guile were no less than that of a green dragon. She was like a spider lurking in the shadows, capable of weaving a web for decades—or even centuries—to achieve a single goal.
A tale of her deeds is renowned among the dragon race.
To seize the unfathomable treasury of knowledge and the coveted magical legacy of a legendary spellcaster, she used transformation magic to assume the form of a beautiful, intelligent human woman with an insatiable thirst for magic. Without concealing her true nature, she meticulously plotted her way into the spellcaster's lonely life, ultimately entering it as his wife.
She remained by his side as the most loyal of companions. Not for a mere few years, but for a vast expanse of time—three hundred years, long enough for minor dynasties to rise and fall.
Leveraging the advantage of her long-lived race, she turned the passing centuries into a silent erosion. She maintained her disguise with exquisite care, playing the role of a gentle and considerate partner, offering timely support and insight as the spellcaster pursued his research.
She waited patiently, waiting for the human spellcaster to slowly burn out his mortal life-candle in the regret of his failed quest for the ultimate mysteries of magic, until he finally grew old and passed away.
In the end, she inherited everything he owned as a matter of course.
She inherited his life's work: his exhaustive research manuscripts, a vast library of magical tomes, a collection of artifacts of immense power, and a legendary mage tower—the crowning achievement of his life's effort.
It was this tower, and the terrifying knowledge it contained, that became the foundation for the true rise of Heatherfell, the White Dragon of Myriad Spells.
(End of the Chapter)
---------------------------
📖 You are reading [360] Chapters behind with [86] Free Chapters available on site.
🔥 Read up to Chapter [724] now, only on ᴄɪɴᴅᴇʀᴛʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ.
📚 Read upto [14,100+] Chapters on Site with [10,900+] Free Chapters!
---------------------------