Chapter 55: Another Feast

Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Another Feast

The Draxen Empire’s Royal Executioners had never known defeat. They were the Emperor’s iron fist, bred for absolute loyalty and armed with devastating enchanted weaponry. Yet, as the colossal Vermilion Dragon hovered above them, eclipsing the morning sun, their legendary discipline shattered entirely.

​High in the sky, Krono did not waste a single second admiring his newfound draconic form. He had transformed for one explicit purpose.

​"Omni Devourer," Krono commanded silently.

​The colossal Vermilion Dragon opened his terrifying, magma filled maw to an impossible angle.

Buzzz!

Instantly, a localized gravitational anomaly formed directly in front of his jagged teeth. It was the physical manifestation of an apocalyptic black hole.

Pitch black Miasma violently erupted from his throat, spiraling outward into a massive, swirling vortex of pure, unadulterated hunger.

​The air pressure in the valley instantly inverted. Instead of blowing outward, a violent, shrieking hurricane began pulling everything upward toward the dragon’s open jaws.

​Down on the ground, absolute chaos erupted.

​"Roar! Hold the line! Fire the cannons! Bring that devil down right now!"

​Dozens of enchanted siege cannons flared with bright green energy, firing a massive volley of destructive magical blasts toward the hovering beast.

But the magical artillery never even reached Krono’s scales.

The second the explosive green fire entered the terrifying gravitational pull of the Omni Devourer, the spells were instantly snuffed out and sucked completely into the black vortex.

​The vortex rapidly expanded, growing from ten meters to fifty meters wide.

BUZZZZZ!

​The gravitational pull became absolute.

​"Help me!" a heavily armored soldier shrieked as his boots forcefully left the dirt.

​He was violently ripped into the sky, screaming in pure terror as the black vortex swallowed him whole.

The sickening crunch of his armor being instantly crushed echoed over the howling wind.

​Then, the massive Land Dragons themselves began to lift off the ground.

​These were massive, ten ton siege beasts bred for raw weight and power. Yet, they were being pulled into the sky like dry leaves caught in a violent tornado.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

One by one, the heavily armored reptiles shrieked in absolute panic as they were ripped from the earth. Their desperate claws gouged deep trenches in the bedrock, but it was completely useless.

​Krono’s massive vortex swallowed the giant beasts exactly as effortlessly as a whale swallowing krill.

​Ding! Ding! Ding!

​[ Target Devoured: Elite Dragonoid Soldier ]

[ Target Devoured: Armored Land Dragon ]

[ Target Devoured: Elite Dragonoid Captain ]

[ Miasma recovered. ]

[ Trash bloodlines detected. Automatically discarded. ]

​Within less than sixty seconds, the valley was completely silent.

​All three hundred Royal Executioners and their massive Land Dragons were completely gone. The only evidence they had ever existed were the deep, jagged claw marks left in the ruined bedrock below.

​Krono slowly closed his massive, fiery maw. The violent black vortex instantly collapsed in on itself, snapping out of existence. He hovered in the bright morning sky for a moment, his swirling supernova eyes scanning the empty, devastated valley below to ensure not a single reptilian pulse remained.

​Satisfied with the absolute eradication of his enemies, the massive Vermilion Dragon slowly descended back toward the ruined mountain pass.

​Down below, Garth remained completely flattened against the dirt, his massive claws covering his eyes.

​"Are we dead? Did the master eat us too?"

​Nova stood directly beside the trembling Mountain Dragon. Her silver hair whipped wildly in the lingering winds. She stared up at the descending titan, her silver eyes glowing with absolute awe and deeply rooted devotion.

​"No, Garth. He did not eat us. He just finished clearing our path."

The colossal Vermilion Dragon dissolved into a thick cloud of black mist. When the dark smoke finally cleared, Krono drifted gracefully down from the sky, landing silently on Garth’s massive, mossy back in his flawless human form. He did not look tired at all.

​"Keep moving," Krono commanded smoothly. "We have wasted enough time here."

​For the next seven days straight, the trio traveled continuously through the endless, rotting wilderness of the Draxen Empire. Garth bulldozed through haunted forests, waded across toxic black rivers, and climbed over jagged mountain ranges. Despite the Mountain Dragon’s massive strides and tireless pace, the sheer scale of the spatial distortion separating the beast domain from the human territories was absolutely staggering.

​After a full week of relentless marching, they had not even crossed the halfway point to their destination.

​"My paws are going to completely fall off," Garth whined loudly on the seventh afternoon. "We have been walking forever, boss. The scenery is exactly the same! Just dead trees and grey dirt!"

​Krono sat silently at the front, his pale face reflecting mild irritation. Over the past seven days, he had slaughtered dozens of mutated beasts and roaming imperial patrols that had foolishly blocked their path. He had thoroughly searched their remains, but he had failed to find a single teleportation artifact. The spatial ring on his finger was incredibly powerful, but without a fixed anchor point or a physical gateway, crossing the dimensional rift manually was a complete waste of time and energy.

​As the sun began to set on the seventh day, painting the toxic sky in sickly shades of dark purple, Garth suddenly slammed on his brakes.

"What’s wrong?"

​"Do you smell that master? It smells like roasted meat. And very high density spatial magic!"

​Krono stood up immediately. His glowing supernova eyes pierced effortlessly through the dense evening fog. Hidden deep within a jagged, secluded canyon directly ahead of them was an opulent, heavily fortified stone fortress. It was an architectural anomaly in the middle of the dead wasteland, completely hidden from the main imperial roads.

​"Move quietly to the ridge," Krono ordered.

​Garth surprisingly managed to sneak to the very edge of the canyon without making a sound. Looking down, they saw a massive, glowing golden runic circle carved directly into the central courtyard of the fortress. It was a fully functional, pristine teleportation gate, humming with immense spatial energy.

​Nova narrowed her silver eyes. She carefully examined the crimson banners hanging from the high fortress walls. The sigil depicted a bloody fang piercing a human skull.

​"That is the crest of Lord Gedrion. He is a notorious local Dragon Lord. My people used to tell horror stories about him. They say he possesses a secret, completely unauthorized gateway directly into the Human Partition."

​"Why would a Dragon Lord need a secret door to the human kingdoms?" Garth asked, scratching his chin. "Does he go there for vacations?"

​"He goes there to feast," Nova replied coldly, "The Dragon Emperor strictly regulates the consumption of human nobles to maintain the livestock population. But Gedrion is a disgusting glutton. He uses that portal to bypass the border guards, kidnapping entire human villages and holding private, gruesome banquets just for his own amusement."

​Down in the illuminated courtyard, a massive, heavily scaled humanoid dragon draped in extravagant silk robes was stepping onto the glowing golden circle. Surrounding him were dozens of elite guards, loading heavy iron cages full of terrified, weeping human captives onto the platform.

​"It looks like he is preparing for another trip tonight," Nova added, looking up at Krono.

​Krono looked down at the opulent Dragon Lord and the glowing spatial portal. He did not care about the human captives crying in the cages. He did not care about the moral atrocities of a gluttonous reptile. He only cared about two very specific things.

​First, the portal was already calibrated and fully charged for the Human Partition.

​Second, Lord Gedrion looked incredibly nutritious.

​"Alright, Let’s get started."