#229: Long-Awaited Desire (8) — The Archmage's Restaurant

A man with blond hair, in the form of a human, appeared in front of the Black Dragon’s corpse.

He appeared human, but he was not human.

He only took on a human form to conceal his mana while moving.

The man looked around the Black Dragon’s corpse with a sorrowful expression. There was almost no trace left due to the explosion, but it was obvious that the dragon had self-destructed along with its heart.

“Child… Why did you make such a choice?”

Thus, the man sighed and shook his head.

“If only I had come a little earlier, I could have stopped this… No, more importantly, suicide!?”

No.

This wasn’t right.

He could certainly sense the presence of other dragons nearby, but all that remained was the ashes of one that had taken its own life.

It was incredibly suspicious.

“Isn’t this the child from this incident? I heard she was Saryn’s granddaughter…”

The granddaughter of Saryn, the eldest Black Dragon. That made the man feel even more sorrow.

At the same time, a question began to grow in his mind.

‘Ever since a few years ago, I’ve been sensing something suspicious from the Red Dragons, and sure enough, this incident is connected to them.’

Dragon Lord.

The title known as the King of Dragons.

The man had spent his entire life working for the peace of all dragons in that position.

During his time as Dragon Lord, there had never been a war between dragons. Also, it was rare for human nations to be destroyed by dragons, because he had rigorously prevented dragon rampages.

But recently, the Dragon Lord had felt a sense of unease from the Red Dragons.

It wasn’t just this incident. Several recent events had also involved the Red Dragons in some way.

Whether they were the perpetrators or the victims.

But without evidence, he couldn’t just oppress a clan. So, the Dragon Lord set out alone to investigate, and as a result, he felt something odd in this incident as well.

For that reason, he really wanted to meet the dragon in front of him, to hear a proper testimony.

But it had already died, so no evidence or testimony could be gathered. It was now impossible for him to investigate further into this incident.

And a bigger issue was that his lifespan was running out.

The absolute shortage of time.

The Dragon Lord was older than Saryn, the eldest of the Black Dragons.

He had predicted his own lifespan, knowing that it would soon come to an end.

But there were too many unresolved issues to just let it go. What if this threatens the peace between dragons and other races in the future?

That would absolutely not be allowed.

So, the Dragon Lord made a decision: to find a successor.

For this reason, the successor couldn’t be another dragon.

This task couldn’t be left to a dragon.

Whether they were Red, Black, or Gold, a dragon wasn’t suitable.

Someone who could step outside the dragon’s interests and maintain objective reasoning was needed.

The arrogance of dragons would ruin this investigation.

It was rare for a dragon to be able to see the world from a third party’s perspective like he could.

So, it was quicker to find a third party.

He wasn’t looking for another Dragon Lord. He was simply looking for a successor to investigate this incident.

Of course, since it was an investigation of dragons, he planned to give them enough power for the job.

As long as they could accept his heart, even a human could gain dragon-level power.

Of course, accepting the heart came with the condition that their life would be at risk. Without the proper mana vessel to hold the heart’s power, the Dragon Heart would explode, and the one who tried to accept it would perish as well.

But as time passed, the Dragon Lord grew more troubled.

Finding someone who could maintain the right mindset, possess strong determination, and be willing to risk their life to accept his power was the most difficult task of the Dragon Lord’s long life.

“Grand Elder!”

A young Black Dragon urgently approached the Elder of the Black Dragons, who was walking through the sacred ground.

Seeing the young dragon’s pale face, Medidana was startled and responded.

“What’s with your face? You’re about to join the ranks of the ancient dragons soon, so show some dignity.”

“This is not the time for dignity! It’s, it’s, it’s—!”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Speak properly if you’re going to say something!”

Medidana shouted, mimicking the young dragon’s tone. But the Black Dragon was still pale.

“I just received news that a large army of Red Dragons is heading toward the sacred ground! It’s huge! They say it’s even bigger than the last war, how can we worry about dignity at a time like this!?”

“What’s going on?”

Medidana’s face twisted in confusion. The report made no sense.

“Are you sure it’s the Red Dragons?”

“Absolutely!”

“They’re not using teleportation, but flying here?”

“Yes. It’s strange, but they are definitely flying toward the sacred ground!”

Medidana was dumbfounded.

Have they finally lost their minds?

As Medidana had this thought, other ancient dragons who had received the news started gathering as well.

The first to arrive was Diehegma, the de facto second-in-command of the Black Dragons.

As soon as Diehegma flew in, he shouted toward Medidana.

“This is a clear violation of the agreement! And it was the Gold Dragons who proposed and signed the truce! They’re now saying they’ll fight not only us, but the Gold Dragons as well!”

That was the truth.

That’s why Medidana was even more confused. He couldn’t make sense of what was going on.

But defense had to be made. Losing the sacred ground to them would mean defeat.

Medidana immediately summoned all available Black Dragons to the sacred ground and sent dragons to the Gold Dragon’s sacred ground as well.

The previously quiet Black Dragon sacred ground began to bustle, and the ancient dragon, Diehegma, became excited.

“This is actually a good thing! Let’s team up with the Gold Dragons and crush them!”

“Let’s first assess the situation properly. When the Gold Dragons arrive, we’ll discuss it together.”

But Medidana remained cautious.

First, he wanted to understand their true intentions.

If they weren’t fools, they knew that breaking the truce and starting a war right after would be like fighting two-on-one, and the Red Dragons knew this very well.

This naturally led him to think about his granddaughter.

“Rurin must have gone to their sacred ground…”

Of course, it wasn’t too worrying. The one with Rurin was simply a being in human disguise.

The human who had dragged Rurin out of the lair, where she had refused to leave, saying she would die with her mother’s memories.

So, all he could think about were the Red Dragons’ mysterious intentions.

Medidana began to lead the Black Dragons as they were summoned to the sacred ground.

The invasion of the Red Dragons was real.

To counter this, the Black Dragons were joined by a small unit of Gold Dragons who had arrived to observe the situation.

The numbers were even.

But for some reason, the Red Dragons seemed to be fewer in number. It was the Black Dragons who had fewer numbers due to the aftermath of the last war, yet the Black Dragons, allied with the small unit of Gold Dragons, held the advantage.

So, once the Gold Dragons formally joined, the numbers would overwhelmingly tilt in their favor.

The first to speak when the armies gathered was the Elder of the Red Dragons.

“It’s been a while, Elder of Black Dragons.”

“How long has it been since the truce was signed, and you’re already talking about how long it’s been?”

“Well, such things happen in life. What will happen now is your destruction.”

“You just said ‘destruction’? What are you talking about!”

Medidana asked, but what came out of the Elder’s mouth was an attack command.

Soon, a red breath was hurled toward the Black Dragon’s sacred ground.

“It was clearly the Red Dragons who made the first move! Gold Dragons!”

Seizing the opportunity, Diehegma shouted toward the Gold Dragons. Their provocation had turned into a war, and it was time to join the fight.

The situation was clear, so the Gold Dragon’s ancient dragon nodded, and soon the war accelerated.

Everywhere, dragons fought, casting spells and using breath attacks that intertwined and began destroying the sacred ground.

Kwang-!

The sound of explosions continued to echo everywhere.

The once-beautiful sacred ground was cracking and collapsing.

The Gold Dragons, who had joined after the clear violation of the truce, began to overwhelm the Red Dragons.

This was exactly what Diehegma had wanted, and he excitedly struck down the Red Dragons.

Kwang-!

The one who stopped it was the Red Dragon, Rihaim.

Diehegma and Rihaim clashed.

The clash of their powers created a powerful shockwave, turning the sacred ground into chaos.

And soon, the numerically disadvantaged Red Dragons began to fall back.

Medidana still had doubts about this.

Diehegma’s intentions were surely known by the Elder of the Red Dragons. If this wasn’t a suicide mission, it was completely incomprehensible.

At that moment, young Red Dragons appeared next to the Elder of the Red Dragons, having teleported in.

“Wait, I thought their numbers were a bit low… Were some of them missing?”

Medidana deflected the Red Dragons’ magical attacks while keeping his eyes on the Elder of the Red Dragons.

The Red Dragons were being pushed back by the alliance of the Gold and Black Dragons.

In fact, this was exactly the situation the Elder of the Red Dragons had desired.

After the last war, the Gold Dragons, inheriting the Dragon Lord’s legacy, had proposed and mediated a truce between the Black and Red Dragons. Breaking that truce meant the Gold Dragons had to punish the one who violated it. That was the agreement.

In fact, the real reason for the last dragon war was this.

The truce proposed by the Gold Dragons.

Breaking the truce after making it, creating a war with the Gold Dragons joining in.

And wiping everyone out! That was the true goal.

To achieve that, the orbs needed to gather, and after much delay, today was the day.

With the hope that the world would soon be his, the Elder of the Red Dragons took all the dragon orbs from his cloak.

The Red Dragons who participated in this war.

The dragons, who obeyed the Elder’s will, gathered their blood by wounding themselves for the Red Dragons’ world.

As if cutting their fingers to mix in their blood and drink it, they gathered the spilled blood and drew a massive magic circle around the Black Dragon’s sacred ground.

A magic circle made of blood.

This magic circle was a spell to activate a powerful sealing barrier.

The reason it was made with blood was because the barrier wouldn’t affect those whose blood was mixed with it.

The issue was that activating such a large sealing barrier required dragon orbs, but that problem had been solved.

This giant sealing magic circle, learned from ancient texts, required powerful mana, and its medium was the caster’s blood and the orbs.

The caster’s blood was dealt with, and so were the orbs.

The three orbs were now positioned in the center of the magic circle.

Even though the Elder of the Red Dragons didn’t know how to fully absorb the orbs with his power, he wanted them for this giant sealing magic circle discovered in his youth.

The dragon orbs reacted with the magic circle, starting to emit a strong light.

Gooooo-!

Soon, the massive sealing barrier that the Elder of the Red Dragons had dreamed of enveloped the sacred ground.

It sealed all energy.

It sealed not just mana, but also the life force of the dragons, meaning they couldn’t even use their breath attacks.

Due to the lack of energy, physical combat became difficult as well.

On the other hand, the Red Dragons, protected by the blood in the sealing circle, could still use magic, breath attacks, and physical combat without any issues.

At this point, the fight became more like a battle between adults and children.

Kraaaak-!

Fwoooosh-!

Kwaaaang-!

With the activation of the magic circle, the Black Dragons and Gold Dragons were unable to properly defend themselves and began dying.

Medidana stood dumbfounded with his mouth agape.

He had suspected something, but never expected this.

Massacre.

A merciless massacre.

The plan the Elder of the Red Dragons had prepared for years to wipe out most of the Black and Gold Dragons was proceeding smoothly.

Medidana himself was now in danger. Red Dragons surrounded him.

The Red Dragons slowly approached the Elder.