Chapter 1 The Battle Above the City

The battle over the royal capital, Ekronza, had reached a fever pitch.

The silver dragon was bound by the miraculous rope, Gleipnir's Entangler, unable to break free. But after all, it was an eighth-order pure-blooded dragon. Knowing that it couldn't escape its fate today, its desperate battle was terrifying.

Even those from the Celestial God Realm didn't dare to be careless, hiding within the defensive barrier and unleashing ninth-order magic and forbidden spells. Both sides began a furious exchange with the nine magic towers in the city.

Dragon breath clashed against legion magic, and the city became a boiling cauldron of violent energy.

The violent shockwaves flattened buildings in swathes, and avalanches of rocks and snow poured down from the Loke Snow Mountain behind the city like a torrent. People fled in panic, a scene of disaster everywhere.

When Suren teleported back into the city, he avoided the main battlefield and went straight to the post station near the royal palace.

He hadn't forgotten that he had been ambushed here before, and that there was still the corpse of a silver dragon whelp.

The corpse was still in the pit when he arrived, and Suren casually collected it and threw it into the biological research institute in the small void realm. In the words of Dr. Barks, the genetic research of pure-blooded dragons was extremely advanced.

The post station was in a good position to see the royal palace.

At this moment, the avalanche had buried most of the palace courtyard, and things were also quite lively inside.

Guards loyal to the royal family were engaged in a fierce battle with the private soldiers of the nobles who had already sided with the Celestial God Realm.

Suren had no interest in the battle, and he teleported directly in the right direction.

From the memories he had extracted from the white-robed wizard Garcia Haydn, the queen's brother-in-law, he knew exactly where the royal treasury was located.

After teleporting, Suren appeared before a magical light gate.

Although the Silver Dragon Kingdom had only existed for a thousand years, the dragon-taming civilization of the Dragon Country Sea域 had lasted for many tens of thousands of years. Of the nine kingdoms, only three remained, and the three royal families held most of the treasures of this sea域.

Suren was also curious about what exactly was in this treasury.

With a warlock's seal, a spatial rift appeared before his eyes.

He directly bypassed the profound restrictions and entered the treasury.

A glance inside revealed a glittering expanse of gold and silver in the thousands of square meters of the treasury.

"Sure enough, nobles everywhere are rich..."

Suren muttered to himself.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the commoners of the Dragon Country still lived in a primitive agricultural state, with simple food, clothing, housing, and transportation. The Gracie royal family, on the other hand, was rolling in wealth.

At present, all sorts of treasures were piled up like mountains in the treasury.

However, Suren wasn't interested in ordinary gold and silver artifacts. He was more interested in things that looked special.

After all, the Gracie royal family was a family of dragon knights. As soon as he entered, he saw a row of well-maintained dragon knight heavy armor, along with dragon spears, two-handed greatswords, shields... and so on. There were twenty or thirty sets of fine armor and weapon sets, all appraised as "silver quality" or higher.

Even in Luying, knightly heavy armor was a top luxury item.

A good set of armor could raise a knight's combat power by several levels.

Moreover, because these armors were dragon knight armor, the enchantments and runes were specifically designed to target dragon might and dragon breath, making them even rarer.

Just as Suren saw this batch of armor, his gaze was immediately attracted to a tall suit of armor, which was appraised as [Gracie's Dragon Knight Heavy Armor (Legendary)].

"The armor that Gracie I wore back then?"

Suren looked at the armor, which was appraised as legendary quality, and was pleasantly surprised.

He hadn't expected to encounter such a legendary treasure.

It was a full suit of heavy armor, appearing extremely thick, with a noble pattern of a thorn flower on the chest. This pattern was now the royal crest of the Gracie family. Although it had gone through countless years, it still overflowed with murderous aura.

This suit of heavy armor had accompanied its master in battle, stained with dragon blood, the blood of powerful enemies, and countless wronged souls. Even though it was just an empty suit of armor, it seemed as if a dignified dragon knight was wearing it, giving people a chilling sense of oppression. In the t-shaped slit of the helmet, there seemed to be a pair of ghostly eyes, staring at this stranger who had broken into the treasury.

"Oh... it actually has spirituality?"

Suren clearly felt the slight soul fluctuation in the armor, and was also surprised.

Like the Thousand Tachi's famed sword, Onimaru Hyakume, good weapons had spirituality, and so did this armor.

Suren had heard of it, but this was the first time he had seen it. He happily said, "Good stuff!"

He reached out to try it, and although he picked up the small round shield next to the armor, his right arm muscles bulged and strained.

It didn't seem to be designed for humans at all, but for the kind of heavenly divine power possessed by giants.

And that was just a shield.

If the entire suit of armor were worn, how terrifying would the weight be?

Since Gracie I, the founding king of the Silver Dragon Kingdom, was able to tame an eighth-order silver dragon, he must have had ninth-order strength himself. One could imagine how amazing the defense of the armor worn by a ninth-order professional would be.

Suren had the strength to wear it now, but not to fight in it.

No wonder it was left to gather dust in the warehouse. This dragon knight armor was not only frighteningly heavy, but it also chose its master.

Generally, strength-based professionals would almost certainly be unable to wear it in battle before the eighth order.

Suren felt the heaviness was very unnatural, and knew that the armor's spirituality was rejecting him, a puppeteer.

But that didn't stop him from being happy with his harvest.

The Dawn Mercenary Group was now adventuring in the Dragon Country, and they would inevitably have to fight dragons and wyverns in the future. This batch of armor was perfect for filling the gaps in some of the members' high-end equipment.

Moreover, Barrett and the subordinates of the "Holy Judgement Legion" that he had brought with him were all strength-based professionals, and were especially suited to this kind of heavy armor.

If the whole suit of armor didn't work, they could use parts of it. If the seventh order wasn't enough, they could wait until the eighth order to use it. They could always find the right time...

Suren happily collected the armor.

Looking elsewhere, there were many treasures in the royal treasury.

Ordinary gold and silver were piled on the ground in chests with brass nails, dozens of them, large and small. Along the walls were rows of cabinets, filled with treasures.

Suren found some of the "Ancient Dragon Country" literature and ancient books he wanted on the shelves, as well as ancient relics.

There were also some ancient relics, weapons, magic gems, and the like...

But there was no time to look at them in detail, so he collected them all in one go.

To his surprise, he also found a box of dragon crystals in a sealed box.

The quantity accumulated over a thousand years by the Silver Dragon Kingdom was considerable. The ones collected by the royal family were naturally all sixth-order or higher dragon crystals. Although most of them were wyvern dragon crystals, the quantity of several hundred was enough to make a large batch of high-level puppet cores.

Just then, the sound of fighting outside grew louder and louder.

The violent shaking made the royal treasury seem like it was in an earthquake.

"Someone is destroying the treasury door?"

Suren sensed the commotion and immediately guessed that the noble's private soldiers must have broken through the royal palace. Otherwise, the royal family wouldn't have triggered the traps to enter the treasury.

But the things in the treasury had been moved away. Suren ignored the scattered coins on the ground that were inconvenient to pick up, and teleported again, his figure already leaving the treasury.

He thought darkly, wondering what the expression on the faces of those rebels would be when they broke in and saw the empty treasury.

......

With a change of scenery, Suren returned to the vicinity of the post station.

Looking again, the rebels had already broken into the depths of the royal palace, and the battle was still very tragic.

Suren looked up again. The silver dragon was still full of vitality, and its battle with the ten thousand-man magic legion didn't seem like it would end anytime soon.

At this time, Suren thought of something, and with a teleport, appeared in the royal city prison.

Now, most of the royal capital, Ekronza, had been reduced to ruins, but this specially reinforced prison hadn't suffered much damage.

Suren had come here to rescue Bennett.

After all, the commander of the Miracle Legion had been captured, and hadn't forgotten to ask his sister to pass on a message, so it was only right to rescue him.

At this moment, the prison was also in chaos.

With such a fierce battle outside, the prisoners naturally wanted to take the opportunity to escape. The prisoners killed the guards and were fleeing in all directions.

The royal prison had seven underground levels, five of which were underground.

Suren knew that Bennett was in the bottom layer of the maximum-security prisoners, and teleported directly down.

The surrounding scenery became dim, and the air was filled with the smell of dampness and dead rats.

The fifth level underground was a water prison. This was also the most heavily restricted prison, and even though the upper levels were in chaos, this place was still sealed off.

As soon as Suren arrived, he saw Bennett and his hundreds of Miracle Legion subordinates in the sewage, looking disheveled.

Those people also saw him.

Bennett rubbed his eyes, and shouted in surprise, seemingly expecting it, yet also unexpectedly: "Mr. Suren!"

Being able to see someone meant that the message he had given to his sister had been successfully delivered.

But then, he hurriedly asked, "What exactly happened outside?"

Suren casually waved the Black Scythe and cut open the locks of the prison cells, explaining succinctly, "Garcia colluded with the mages of the Celestial God Realm to rebel, and has become a worshiper of the Outer Gods. They plotted to kill Princess Becky and the whelp, and are now besieging the patron dragon..."

"Ah?!"

Hearing this, Bennett and the Miracle Legion members suddenly changed color.

They hadn't known why they had been arrested before, but upon hearing this, they immediately understood.

So Queen's brother Garcia was a worshiper of the Outer Gods!

One by one, they were filled with righteous indignation, and were preparing to rush out to fight.

Suren released the crowd and reminded them, "The royal palace has now been breached by the rebels. The magic legion and the silver dragon are still fighting fiercely outside. This dungeon is actually the safest place..."

In that kind of battle outside, even seventh-order fighters would be cannon fodder.

Bennett understood what he meant and said, "Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Suren. But we are royal knights, and it is our duty to go out."

Hearing this, Suren nodded and didn't say anything more.

In any case, loyalty was a rare quality.

He hadn't been in a hurry to rescue them because he didn't want them to get involved.

Now that he had rescued them, there was nothing more to say.

......

Watching the Miracle Legion rush out of the prison, Suren's mind started working again.

Now that the royal treasury had been looted, only some scattered coins were left for the worshipers of the Celestial God Realm.

It was to create some trouble for those guys.

But not much.

Looking at the current situation, if there were no accidents, it was only a matter of time before the silver dragon was killed.

At that time, the entire Silver Dragon Kingdom... no, even the kings of Pania and Akatisa would become the Divine Kingdoms of the Celestial God Realm, with endless hidden dangers.

Suren didn't want to see this happen.

He thought the best outcome would be for the silver dragon and those from the Celestial God Realm to suffer mutually assured destruction.

Thinking this, he teleported, summoning the [Earth Elemental Wax Figure].

This level of the prison had elemental reinforcements, so he teleported to a crack in the ground.

Then, he used the wax figure to elementalize the mud and rocks, taking himself through the soil.

The ten thousand-man magic legion couldn't be confronted head-on, so the method Suren came up with was still explosives.

The last time he had blown up the city walls, the other side had seen the horror of the explosives, so they must have taken precautions.

Since there was no opportunity on the ground, Suren was wondering if he could bury explosives even deeper underground, and use more explosives to damage one of the nine magic towers.

He followed the wax figure all the way down.

Thinking that after going down deep enough, he could avoid the sensory range of those mages and then circle back up.

Suren had been careful enough.

He went down several thousand meters before slowly moving up.

The mechanics in the small void realm had already taken samples of the soil and rock layers, and calculated the precise depth data and dosage for the explosion...

According to his plan, installing the explosives about seven hundred meters underground could accurately blow up one of the magic towers.

Suren was carried upwards by the elemental wax figure all the way.

The dark underground had only earth elemental fluctuations, no light source, giving him a slight sense of claustrophobia.

Everything seemed to be fine.

Suren's senses were also fully extended, and he didn't notice any signs of being discovered.

But suddenly, an accident happened.

The crow on his shoulder suddenly squawked, warning of a deadly threat.

"I've been discovered!"

Suren's expression changed drastically. The sense of crisis came quickly, instantly making him feel his hair stand on end.

Without hesitation, he formed a warlock's seal and teleported to the ground.

In that instant, Suren sensed that the elemental wax figure he didn't have time to recall had lost contact.

He appeared on the ground, and immediately knew that he had just walked on the edge of death.

In that instant, he wanted to take the wax figure with him, but he clearly sensed that the wax figure's soul was "frozen" in place.

Suren had only seen this situation once before, and that was when someone was petrified.

People who were petrified didn't die directly, their souls would be sealed in the statue.

Tani's mother was in that situation.

Obviously, a high-level gorgon had just made a move.

"Those Celestial God Realm guys actually have a gorgon helping them?!"

Suren also found it a bit unbelievable.

But after thinking about it carefully, only a gorgon could do that.

Gorgons were true demigod bloodlines, and one of the sources of their divine blood was the "God of Earth"!

Their affinity and understanding of earth elements were extraordinary, and petrification curses were their specialty.

Just now underground was their home field.

But although gorgons were demons in the eyes of humans, they were genuine demigod creatures, just like dragons. How could they ally with humans?

Before Suren could think too much, he closed his eyes.

In the vision shared by the black crow, the ground in the distance suddenly bulged, then gradually formed a human shape.

The gorgon was chasing after him!

The killing intent was like needles pricking his back, and the hair-raising feeling made Suren feel that this one was probably stronger than the seventh-order gorgon that Bartolo had killed before!

Without any more hesitation, he teleported again.

Looking again, he had already appeared in the forest outside the city, more than ten kilometers away.

At this moment, because the crow on his shoulder had taken a single glance at the gorgon, the petrification curse visibly spread from its eyes. In an instant, its shiny black feathers had turned into the gray of limestone.

In the blink of an eye, the fat bird had completely turned into a stone bird.

Unable to stand any longer, it fell from Suren's shoulder.

With a "crash," it shattered into stones.

After the black gas dissipated on the ground, it gathered again, and an intact crow was resurrected.

Having narrowly avoided death stares twice, Suren frowned as he looked at the city in the distance: "This is troublesome..."

With a petrifying gorgon guarding the area, it seemed that there was no chance to cause any more damage.