Chapter 382 The Sinking To Ascend

POV Vesuvius:

The tall and majestic form of the dragon remained unmoving with his eyes closed. The clouds of smoke and steam drifted through the currents of time, carried by them around the dragon.

Energy trickled into him in river-like streams from the giant floating islands, with trees and grass growing on them and swaying within the streams of time and haze of the vapours.

The pools and ponds of magma bubbled under their roots and their leaves burned in eternal fire. Occasional sparks of lightning jumped between their branches.

More islands of ice and water drifted in the distance, the thousands of ice crystals shimmering under the influx of light.

Suddenly the dragon's eyes opened, revealing his reverse-slitted pupils glowing in bright golden light.

'I wonder if my domain will eventually spawn even some animals. I have life affinity, and it already gave birth to flora. Anyway, it is finally the time.' Vesuvius felt the energy nourish his body, 'This should be enough to fuel my growth.'

The dragon's giant hand, covered in armour of metal and crystal, moved, sending ripples through the shroud of clouds around him. It dived deeper and deeper into the sea of time like a stone sinking into a lake.

Its armour darkened and gained golden lustre while the long crystal claws prolonged. The armour thickened, and the entire hand grew in size. The energy rushed into the dragon, fueling his rapid growth.

'It works.' The dragon flapped his gigantic crystal wings as he descended deeper into the currents of time. The time and natural energy flowed into his body, and his body swelled in size in real time.

His horns prolonged, and the glow within the crystals on his body brightened up.

Instantly all the energy was gone, consumed by his body. The dragon stabilized himself, 'All this accumulated energy is gone and I moved only slightly.'

Contrary to how bad it sounded, his mood skyrocketed from the bottom pit of dullness into the heavens of excitement as he felt his domain slightly expand and grow more powerful. It was just a teeny bit, but it was sufficient to prove to the dragon his hypothesis worked.

'Each time I descend my domain will grow stronger which will speed up the entire natural transformation around me. In the end, my growth and energy production will grow exponentially, and eventually, I will break through a point when I will just keep descending.'

It was a blessing in disguise. Reaching an elder dragon's stage would take him centuries, and that was if he got enough sleep, and reaching a stage of an ancient dragon would potentially take multiple millenniums. As for the primal dragon, Vesuvius didn't even dare to make such a calculation.

'Here I can grow faster. I can reach the breaking point and become an elder dragon, or maybe even more!'

The dragon calmed himself down and closed his heavy eyelids again. A circuit formed within his mind, runes and letters linking up and lighting up. The translucent, slightly green letters and a circuit formed above his horns, hovering above his head like a crown.

'Hmm, hopefully, this change will make it work.' The dragon's eyes once again moved from one letter to another, carefully looking for any possible imperfections that could cause his experiments to misfire.

In the base, it looked like the simplified and reduced version of the space-warping circuit, with all the unneeded parts removed, and a few letters moved or slightly altered.

The dragon's mana flowed through his body and surged into his horns.

They pulsed, and ripples passed through the current of time, sending small waves through it.

'Huh? It worked?! Today is really a good day!' The dragon's eyes opened again as his two hearts pounded like cathedral bells. His spell moved with the time itself. It affected it and sent ripples through it.

'It wasn't even warping of time to any significant degree, but it did something. It is the step in the right direction.'

He wasn't even expecting the random change to work. He already spent an unknown amount of time analyzing it bit by bit by gradually changing its parts and observing the results.

With his general knowledge of magic, he could isolate the specific targeting runes. However, he had no idea how to make them target time instead of space as he lacked the needed examples of time element spells.

'Now that you work on time, I can finally start building upon you.'

POV ???:

An army marched down the road, their armoured boots hitting the stone pavement. The horns on the helmets gleamed under the cold winter sun, with snow piling all around the road.

Clouds of steam drifted around them as their blazing hot armours reacted with the snow and cold air.

The lines of kobolds, immortals, and humans advanced through the winter without any care for the freezing cold.

A middle-aged man rode a massive warhorse covered in scales and heavy black armour. A long, red cape fluttered behind him, and his horse's hooves drummed on the road.

The silhouette of a sprawling city grew on the horizon. Its thick walls and tall towers loomed above the white, snow-covered plains. The road was firmly barred by a massive metallic gate, and fires of firepits flickered all over the walls.

"Prepare the camp! We will besiege the city. Set up magic barriers and siege weapons. However, do not fire. We want to retake the city not a ruin." The middle-aged man barked orders at a nearby kobold with a cape.

"Yes, magistrate general!"

'Magistrate...' Even after a decade, he still didn't get used to his new title after decades of being a count.

POV The "Liberator":

"They have come." The player murmured, his short brown hair covered in snow as he stood on top of a tall tower, watching the incoming black column of monsters and traitors of humanity.

'Was I too impulsive? Yes, we have taken the city. Yet, we are now surrounded in the middle of enemy territory. Can we even hold it?' He clenched his fist and pushed back his doubts.

Without delay, he whispered to the woman by his side, "Do not let any civilians leave the city."

"Should we arm them?"

He shook his head, "No, they will be more useful as shields. I doubt they want to turn this battle into the slaughter of civilians. They are monsters, but they care too much about their effectiveness and taxes to do something like that. Especially when their master is unavailable to give such an order."

That was the problem of absolutistic and authoritative rulers. They could act decisively and fast to crush their enemies, but when they were absent, an entire country would be paralyzed and unable to make any large move in fear of their dictator.

'In the end, we just need to hold for a while to turn this city into a symbol.'