Chapter 681: Dragon and Orc
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
"His Majesty Cassius has made his move! I knew it! He's been watching over us all along!"
"Long live the Great Red Dragon! Long live the Ember Empire!"
The people within the Wyvern Capital roared in unison, their voices shaking the heavens. From the moment the Red Dragon appeared, even the blood spear that pierced the sky no longer instilled fear in anyone's heart.
They all gazed at the sky with fervor and devotion, ready to personally witness their Emperor defeat a deity, brimming with confidence.
In the minds of the Imperial people, Cassius was the embodiment of victory and power—utterly incapable of defeat.
The enormous dragon claw gripped the edge of the spatial rift, veins bulging along the arm as it pulled with tremendous force.
"Screeeech—"
Space was completely torn open. The earth darkened abruptly, and humans, orcs, and half-dragons within a hundred-mile radius all looked up to see a colossal, majestic head protrude from the rift. In its molten-gold vertical pupils, flames flickered.
Next came the massive wings that blocked out the city walls, followed by a mountainous, undulating torso and a gigantic tail.
In an instant, scorching gales swept across the land, and the near-tangible draconic might weighed down upon every living being present, instilling an involuntary urge to kneel.
Under countless gazes, Cassius tore through space and appeared above the Wyvern Capital. His massive form stretched over fifty meters long!
"By the Father God!"
"What a massive dragon!"
"This... this is the Ember Emperor?"
Even the resurrected orcs wore expressions of shock and trembled. Most of them were witnessing such a colossal and powerful creature for the first time.
Hundreds of bipedal wyverns within the Wyvern Capital lifted their heads, stretching their necks and unleashing a thunderous chorus to support the Red Dragon.
"Roar—"
The Red Dragon raised his head and let out a thunderous roar at the giant spear descending from the sky.
Just as the massive spear was about to strike the earth, the dragon crystal on Cassius's chest erupted with starlike brilliance.
"Boom—"
A stream of silver-white flame surged from his throat, soaring into the sky!
"Foolish Imperials—forget a laughable red dragon, even if Tiamat herself descended, she couldn't save you!" The Orc God's furious roar echoed across the wasteland, unleashing boundless divine power.
The giant spear, trailing the fire of the orcs, still carried an unstoppable momentum as it fell from the heavens, directly colliding with the silver-white flame.
Two opposing forces clashed and eroded one another. The origin-powered divine flames burst outward, forming a grand, dazzling explosion in the sky.
"Power of Order?"
Gruumsh stared at the distant Red Dragon, momentarily stunned, his expression dazed.
The sight before him baffled even a war veteran of tens of thousands of years. How could an evil Red Dragon possess a purity of Order comparable to Bahamut's?
Could it be a Gold Dragon clad in red scales?
Cassius seized the fleeting opportunity, pouring all his energy into output, and a spectrum of light erupted from the dragon crystal on his chest.
Flames of Order, solar divinity, Bahamut's divine power, the Empire's domain laws—every force opposing chaos and evil, capable of neutralizing the Orc Fire, surged skyward in unison.
"Boom!"
A deafening explosion rang out as searing shockwaves spread rapidly. Every creature within dozens of miles felt the heat crash into them.
The massive spear exploded midair, the divine power it carried scattering into countless blazing sparks and turbulent flows, all wiped away by Cassius's power.
The spear was utterly destroyed, reverting to its original form—a six-meter-long, bloodstained wooden spear. Though it seemed plain, it radiated extreme chaos and evil.
That was Gruumsh's Blood Spear, rumored to have wounded both Corellon and Moradin, tainted by their blood, hence capable of inflicting fundamental damage upon elves and dwarves.
Though Gruumsh had descended as an avatar, and the Blood Spear was a divine projection, it still contained a strand of true origin divine power.
"A fine item indeed."
Cassius licked his lips greedily, flapping his wings to rise into the air, unleashing a fearsome breath of plunder, attempting to devour the Blood Spear.
"Greedy reptile." Gruumsh snorted coldly, lifting his arm. The Blood Spear instantly tore space apart and returned to his hand.
Staring at the distant, colossal Red Dragon that had surpassed racial limits, the Orc God finally put away his disdain for mortals and regarded Cassius with genuine seriousness.
As a god of war, Gruumsh in that instant saw through the Red Dragon's nature with his sharp, murky eye—
A body of an Ancient Progenitor Dragon, chaos from the Abyss, Order from the Material Plane, essence of Heaven, divine power from the Sun God and Bahamut, authority from the Elemental Plane—even a wisp of Dumathoin's power.
What the hell is this thing? An Ancient Dragon? An Elemental Lord? A Demigod?
In Gruumsh's eyes, this creature was a patchwork of all kinds of mutually exclusive, opposing forces peacefully coexisting. Even he found it hard to believe.
This thing... is no ordinary mortal.
Still, Gruumsh was brimming with confidence. After thousands of years, he had returned to the world and would surely lead the orcs to a glorious and blood-soaked rise.
With that thought, Gruumsh raised the Blood Spear, pointed at the Red Dragon, and declared sternly, "Red Dragon, do you know what kind of being you've provoked?"
Cassius gave no reply. He merely looked down from above at the god's avatar, tilting his head with an expression of polite attention.
Seeing no fear in his opponent, a flicker of unconcealed fury flashed in Gruumsh's lone eye.
"Standing before you is the great Orc God! Cease your blasphemy!
If you submit to me—I may spare your life and grant you the honor of becoming my mount!"
Cassius cast a sidelong glance at the Orc God, sensing the immense divine power surging within, and grinned: "Gruumsh, I've got a much better proposal.
How about making the orcs my vassals? The Empire will reward your kind generously, and you'll be the leader of the vassals, kneeling before me. That would be your honor."
"Blasphemer! You court death!"
In an instant, flames of wrath roared in Gruumsh's lone eye!
His divine avatar trembled, unleashing god-tier power. A raging storm swept across the land, and his crimson divine domain enveloped dozens of miles, trapping even the Red Dragon within.
Gruumsh, Blood Spear in hand, rose into the sky amidst rolling black clouds, facing the distant Red Dragon.
Meanwhile, Cassius narrowed his eyes, studying the avatar of the Orc God.
Cataclysmic Dragon Eye, True Seeing, and various prophetic spells were unleashed—but divine resistance and rank suppression rendered them all ineffective. Cassius could only see a vague, hideous lone eye.
Only the system's overall assessment barely worked.
[One-Eyed God – Gruumsh (Divine Avatar)]
Challenge Level: 38
This was his first time facing a divine avatar of this level. Dumathoin had only been a medium-power avatar and hadn't gone all out, while the three Saints of Justice were mere projections.
Now, Cassius was about to truly become the enemy of a god.
Gruumsh's avatar stood just six meters tall, the same as its material anchor—Soro. Compared to Cassius, it seemed minuscule.
Yet divine nature endowed the avatar with immense strength, immortality, reality distortion, divine domain, and a murderous essence.
—As a greater divine avatar, Gruumsh's split self was stronger than most demigods!
"Truly worthy of being a greater deity's avatar."
Cassius licked his lips, his pale gold eyes gleaming with excitement. He roared ecstatically, "Old green skin! You're the one who's asking to die!
The Ember Empire avenged your people, wiping out the dwarves on your doorstep, and yet you shamelessly storm in to steal my land. Pathetic!"
Gruumsh said coldly, "Red Dragon, Avenderdan is not your territory. It's the land I bestowed upon the orcs!"
"Bestowed?"
Cassius scoffed. "A city built by dwarves and occupied for millennia—when did that become orc land? Just because you said so? What a complete joke!
Then I hereby grant the land of Mudshak to my vassals. Old green skin, why don't you hand over your divine realm to us too?"
Since it was now a battle to the death, he no longer cared about blaspheming a god.
The Red Dragon flapped his wings, and his full draconic might and the Empire's domain surged outward, shattering the surrounding crimson divine domain.
A massive spherical space opened in the sky. The Red Dragon's domain clashed with Gruumsh's, their borders forming chaotic turbulence that annihilated all and twisted space itself.
Cassius radiated like a glowing celestial body, his light and heat blanketing all around—including the Wyvern Capital.
"Mortal, you've made the gravest mistake of your life—by becoming my enemy! An enemy of all orc-kind!
Soon, you will kneel at my feet in tears, begging for mercy!" Gruumsh's voice brimmed with fury, divine power humming within.
In an instant, countless Imperial citizens—including Cassius—were struck by horrific visions of mountains of corpses, oceans of blood, and the Wyvern Capital reduced to ruins, with the one-eyed orc looming above.
Those of weaker minds went pale, fainting on the spot, some even dying of fright.
Such was the might of a god!
The so-called "words shaping reality" was no exaggeration—under divine power, mere speech could kill.
"So you wanna play that game? You think only you can do this?"
Cassius glared down at the orcs, a gleam flickering in his golden eyes—his True Dragon Sorcery distorted reality!
In a flash, the orcs saw terrifying illusions—a crimson dragon larger than mountains, thousands of meters long, spewing a sea of fire to burn them to ash.
"By the Father God!"
"N-No! This can't be real! But why is the fire actually burning me?!"
Once an illusion is believed to be real, the afflicted suffer real damage—like being incinerated.
This was the 7th-circle spell Cassius created based on [Tiamat's Terror Phantasm]—[Cassius's Terror Mirage].
But Gruumsh remained unmoved, coldly stating, "Pathetic trickery. Orcs who fall for such illusions don't deserve to be my children."
Cassius beat his wings and soared higher, still mocking aloud: "That's why your followers on the Fianso Continent are almost extinct!
Tsk tsk. Against Imperial weapons, your people were like pitiful ants, slaughtered effortlessly by my vassals."
"You'll die even more miserably!" Gruumsh's expression grew even more hideous as he chased after the Red Dragon at incredible speed.
Cassius's words had hit a sore spot. In just a few days, millions of orcs had perished in the Material Plane!
Though the faith of those green-skins was weak, it still supplied Gruumsh with considerable divine power—and a race's strength affected the god behind them.
Even for Gruumsh, who ruled nearly all orcs across the multiverse, this was no small loss.
If the Material Plane weren't still restricted, he'd have descended in person and torn the Red Dragon to shreds.
"Whoosh—"
Gruumsh tore through space, appearing above the Red Dragon's head. The Blood Spear, brimming with destructive essence, stabbed toward his left eye.
Cassius opened his mouth and released a wave of chaotic flame, forming a huge void in front of him to swallow the spear. Fireclouds surged from beneath his wings, gradually veiling the sky.
Then, he became a crimson blur, darting through the smoke and flame-filled sky.
But as a god, Gruumsh's lone eye could see through all. He lifted his hand lightly, and the Blood Spear pierced through space once more, wreathed in divine flame, flying straight for the Red Dragon's heart.
The crown above Cassius's head suddenly flared—the gem activated, unleashing a frigid north wind that extinguished the flames.
And so, high above, the Orc God and the giant dragon pursued one another through space jumps, explosions, and shockwaves that nearly tore the sky apart.
Meanwhile on the ground, orc and Imperial forces clashed again, locked in brutal combat.
"For the Father God!"
"For the rise of the orc-kind!"
Under Gruumsh's crimson domain, the orcs fought with berserk strength, recovering even from bullet wounds, regenerating their heads—virtually unkillable.
"For the Ember Empire!"
"Long live His Majesty Cassius! Kill those green-skins!"
"When the Emperor returns victorious, we must also seize our victory!"
With Cassius personally present, Imperial morale soared. Confidence in victory overflowed, and every soldier wanted to prove himself before the Emperor—gunfire and artillery were fiercer than ever.
Thus, the unfinished war raged on, chaotic and fierce.
But both orcs and Imperials knew—the war's outcome didn't rest with them, but with those two in the sky.