Ashen Dragon

Chapter 286: Chapter 209 The Truth
 

“Ugh…”

The silver-haired girl barely covered her body with a blanket, but still exposed large patches of snow-white skin. The thin veil highlighted her graceful figure, everything was faintly visible.

After several days of intense work, the spell research was finally complete. Olivia was on the brink of exhaustion. She had never imagined that researching a spell could be so exhausting, it almost felt like she had experienced a thrilling battle.

But her research partner, “Angel,” seemed full of energy, as if he would never tire.

“Aren’t you tired?”

Olivia turned to look at the side of the man’s face, showing a playful and complaining expression.

Despite the unexpected ordeal, she felt exceptionally at ease and satisfied. It meant that they could go through more experiences together, fulfilling all the visions she dreamed about, far happier than the scenes in the “Scale of Oath.”

The “research partner” turned his head as well, a red light flashed through his golden pupils.

Olivia suddenly shivered.

She felt that the other party’s eyes seemed to harbor a… frenzy.

—Just like the abyssal demons she had seen before or those pureblood red dragons that burned, looted, and murdered. Those eyes did not belong to a righteous and kind gold dragon.

“Is this an illusion?”

Olivia furrowed her brows slightly, thinking to herself.

“Angel” smiled again, his eyes blazing as he looked at Olivia, “We dragonkin are born magical creatures. It feels a bit restricted to always study spells in human form.”

“Teacher Olivia, why don’t we… conduct the research in our true forms?”

Olivia buried her earlier doubts in her heart.

She smiled and threw a pillow at the other party on the bed, pretending to be annoyed, “This is a tavern. In such a small place, do you want to destroy it?”

But she didn’t expect “Angel” to respond with a cold face and a soft voice:

“It is not narrow here, Olivia, it is enough for us to do anything.”

“Angel, what… what are you talking about?”

Olivia suddenly felt a chill rise from her heart.

The silver-haired girl looked around in confusion. At some point, she had reverted to her silver dragon form.

—The cozy room, the soft bed, the flickering lights vanished like a bubble. In their place were lofty ceilings, cold walls, and thick steel pillars. She had never left this royal palace.

And the black-haired, golden-eyed youth before her revealed his monstrous true form. As fine spell radiance flickered, a red dragon over thirty meters long, as vast as a small mountain, appeared before her, its unfolded wings completely enveloping her.

The silver dragon stiffly raised her head, a foul-smelling black energy floated above her head, greedily sucking up light and dissipating thoughts.

She recognized the spell.

That was the incredibly malicious Eighth Tier spell—[Labyrinth of Thoughts], capable of imprisoning the target’s mind, creating a bewildering maze of illusions.

“No…”

“Impossible…”

Olivia felt like she had fallen into an ice pit. She shook her head incessantly, unwilling to face it all.

All those warm dreams and beautiful visions shattered, replaced by a more thorough and desperate destruction.

Despairing tears welled up in the silver dragon’s eyes. She summoned her last bit of courage, her voice hoarse as she asked:

“Where is Angel?”

“What have you done to him?”

Cassius walked slowly to the silver dragon, lowered his head, and whispered in her ear:

“The Silver Coffin of Trifa Church, the corner of the Fatri Hall, the waterfall in the southern part of Agur Forest, and the bookshelf of Witch Veil Tavern…”

Olivia was struck like a bolt of lightning, her face full of disbelief.

These were the most private pieces of information she had whispered to Angel. No outsider could possibly know, yet the King of Ashen detailed them all.

A terrifying thought arose in Olivia’s mind, but she still refused to believe it.

The red dragon blew out a puff of sulfur-scented white smoke, “Olivia, I told you before, once you learn the truth, you will only feel like an utter joke.”

“There has never been an Angel you knew… from beginning to end, there was only Cassius.”

He looked at the silver dragon and said each word slowly.

Olivia lay on the ground as she was exhausted. Her blue-gray eyes were filled with confusion.

The only lifeline that had once supported her now turned into the sharpest dagger against her. What was she supposed to do?

“Why…”

“Why did you do this?”

After a long silence, Olivia spoke softly.

Her voice sounded like a feeble question, almost a cry of despair.

But Cassius did not respond, only coldly saying, “Come, we still have a long time.”

“We can take our time and enjoy it…”

The silver dragon, imprisoned for months and further drained by days of study, was already on the verge of collapse. Moreover, the red dragon had absolute dominance in size and strength. She could only let him do as he wished without being able to resist at all.

This time, the research was even more intense, like a storm. Scorching energy surged through her body, and dense smoke swirled around her.

Cassius watched the slender neck of the silver dragon.

He suddenly felt an even stronger desire in his heart, a desire not just for physical pleasure. He was eager to unleash this craving.

“Tear it apart! Destroy everything!”

A raging voice seemed to echo within.

Was that his inner voice?

Cassius did not notice that his pale golden pupils were bloodshot, brimming with an endless desire for destruction. Viscous saliva drooled from his mouth, and sharp claws extended.

Olivia suddenly felt an immense danger, a primal instinct warning her, a creature’s fear of the most chaotic and unknown existence.

She felt unprecedented terror.

The silver dragon used her last bit of strength, struggling with her hands and feet, flapping her wings, but her claws only left shallow white marks on the scales.

Cassius grasped her neck with his thick arms, pressing her entirely beneath him. The veins on his arm bulged gradually, and his grip grew tighter.

In the face of death, the silver dragon desperately turned her head to bite his arm, but even her sharp teeth could not pierce the red dragon’s outermost defense.

For the silver dragon, it was a life-and-death struggle, but for Cassius, it was meaningless resistance, not even an itch.

The silver dragon was already on her last breath.

It seemed that everything was about to end.

Olivia stubbornly looked at the red dragon. She gathered her last bit of courage and said with all her might.

“No!”

“This is the essence of you five-colored dragons, filthy offspring of Tiamat!”

“Right now, you are like a beast ruled by desire, a demon from the abyss! All living beings will come to loathe you! Such an existence as you will eventually be utterly destroyed by the gods!”

Maybe sensing the end of her life, she almost pointed at his nose and cursed, disregarding everything.

“Abyssal demon…”

Cassius muttered.

“Abyssal demon.”

He repeated it, and the red dragon’s massive body trembled slightly.

Flames burned in his eyes, then extinguished. He stood still, as if struggling with an invisible enemy.

Endless roars echoed from the void, formless heat spread, the air filled with terrifying ripples, and even the ground shook violently.

Eventually, everything gradually calmed. Cassius opened his eyes again, and the bloodshot veins faded.

Under the immense pressure of the red dragon, no retainer dared say anything, not even his most trusted Ramp, but now the silver dragon’s unintentional insult provided him the only reminder.

It was an insignificant trigger, yet immensely valuable.

Previously, Cassius had been walking in a fog, but this reminder finally cast a small ray of light, allowing him to break free using his own will without fully succumbing.

Cassius finally realized it all.

The red dragon’s eyes gradually cleared as he grasped the revelation. His eyes showed shock and anger, not directed at Olivia.

“Damn it, it’s Jezarslack!”

“He must have tampered with the Heart of Karex! That divine destructive power and the abyssal consciousness even affected my mind!”

Cassius thought uneasily.

The rampant desire for destruction in his eyes faded.

Recalling his recent experiences, he recklessly indulged, becoming a beast driven by desire, even harboring absurd thoughts of “slaughtering the world.”

Just a bit more, and he would have become an embodiment of destruction, perhaps even a substitute for Karex, an extension of the abyssal consciousness.

At that point, he would be the enemy of the gods, losing his own will, something he would never want to see.

Moreover, he could feel this terrible influence still lingering, waiting to seize any opportunity to take over his mind, turning him into a chaotic destroyer.

Those frenzied blood veins still lurked beneath his skin, and the chaos flame remained within, corroding his reason, waiting for a moment to surface and plunge him into ultimate chaos.

He needed to find some solutions.

To address this problem, or rather… this curse.

Yes, a curse. To Cassius, it was like a curse similar to the Dragon Fan’s Lock, capable of unconsciously affecting his mind—a process difficult to interrupt.

Now, this curse was yet to be lifted and could invade Cassius’s mind at any moment, but now he could actively suppress it and seek a solution, rather than becoming a desire-driven beast.

Thinking of this, he looked deeply at Olivia.

“Thank you.”

“I will reduce the restrictions of the Dragon Binding Array.”

“From now on, you can move freely within this palace.”

Finally, under the terrorized gaze of Olivia, Cassius flapped his immense wings and turned to leave the palace.