Chapter 423 The Dragon-Kind V2



One month later:

POV ?:

The houses burned everywhere, with thick flames rising out of them. The painful cries mixed with growls constantly reverberated through the night.

"No! Please, spare her!" The boy's desperate pleas sounded amidst them, mingling with the crackling flames that devoured his village. Amidst the chaos, his parents' lifeless bodies lay motionless on the ground, blood seeping from the wounds inflicted upon their backs.

His eyes stared into the darkness, filled with grief, anger, and terror.

The towering figures of bulging green muscles slowly receded into the night's darkness, and his sister's cries echoed through the night. They callously dragged her away as if she was nothing but a sack of meat.

Driven by an unwavering resolve, he rose to pursue them, but his legs betrayed him, weakened by the numerous painful wounds that covered his body, rendering him immobile.

Amid his fading consciousness and dimming sight, a mysterious and ethereal voice whispered within his mind.

"I sense your fervent anger and desire for retribution, yet your heart remains untainted. I shall grant you the power to confront the evil that pervades this world. Henceforth, you shall be my champion, the embodiment of the wind's speed, anger, and tranquility."

POV Venenomius:

"Venenomius, I will ask you only once. Do you accept my offer?" The almighty eyes of the dragon lord observed them from the unnatural darkness and the endless layers of smoke, their glow piercing through the thick haze with ease.

'This growth is truly unnatural and they aren't the only one.' Their attention fell upon the smaller, emerald-like dragon covered in vivid green crystal and gemstones.

He could feel the dragon wasn't even a year old, yet they had power surpassing that of their age by a significant margin.

'Is this the new generation of true dragons? Will they be even more powerful than they were before?'

The silence fell as the wyrm silently thought, its heartbeat sounding like a pair of drums.

'No, how could we wyrms shame ourselves by stagnating and lagging behind? We must also grow stronger, no matter the pain.'

"I do as I see the potential of the way you lead our kind." At last, he spoke, his voice filled with resoluteness.

"In that case, you will suffer. Be aware you will suffer both physically and mentally, but the reward will be worth it."

The wyrm pressed their head against the ground as they had already decided.

"Good, in that case, you will be the first of your kind. You will be eternally known across the empire I have built."

A thick golden liquid drew their eyes to it like flames drawing motes slithered in thin streams through the dark space of the dragon's own dimension.

"Recentibius, make them greater. Infuse their skeleton with my marrow and engrave runes into every single bone in their body."

Venenomius couldn't but gulp as they already could feel the pain that would follow the orders of the dragon lord. Their flesh would be cut and torn, while their bones would be engraved onto.

Yet, they didn't budge and firmly stood their ground, refusing to disgrace themselves by showing even the smallest sign of cowardice.

'It will make me stronger and that is the only thing that matters as it will make all of my research go faster and hoard bigger.'

POV Vesuvius:

Vesuvius closed his eyes, fully submerging his senses into his thoughts, isolating the outside world away and allowing him to focus.

He felt like laughing as he felt new distant connections form in his soul. They were blurry, hazy, and weak, but slowly, bit by bit, they grew stable and stronger.

'They must be the players I transformed. It looks like in the end they will be my path to Earth.'

It was a boon even he couldn't predict, but he was grateful as it opened a potential escape route if the gods struck him with greater than-expected force.

'In the meantime, all my projects to enchant the dragon kind are going well.'

As he thought, the images of the various races passed before his eyes.

'Elves? No, they are perfect but also too scarce. Soldiers must be expendable. Humans? They are not a bad choice.'

He already saw the effects of transforming humans in two examples, and both ended well, 'They are good, versatile and balanced with a large population. However, I am currently seeking soldiers, so let's focus on less balanced and more war-focused races.'

His thought moved further from the smaller races towards the larger ones, 'Trolls? No, they are so dumb that even after transformation they would be dumb as rock. They would make powerful warriors, but I am looking for powerful soldiers that can cooperate, keep formations and at least think for a moment before smashing things apart.'

At last, his thoughts stopped at a single race that perfectly fitted the requirements of good soldiers.

'Orcs... They would be a good test subject. They are big, strong and brutal. The war is part of their culture. On top of that, their bodies are already resilient and full of vitality, allowing them to survive even in the harshest conditions which would also make them more likely to survive the late stage transformations. There is a reason they already favorite targets for transformation for demons.'

Vesuvius finally picked the race to gain the privilege of becoming his new heavy infantry.

The soul connection spell immediately arranged in his mind, opening a path to his henchmen minion.

"Go take your knights, pick some orc tribe, and capture them."

'Even if the transformation rate will not be much better, they will already be a better baseline soldier. Their only problem is their slower breeding rate when compared to goblin.'

Suddenly someone new entered his domain, waking the dragon out of his thoughts.

A single kobold kneeled at the entrance of his divine kingdom, its golden eyes looking in the direction of the wyrm's screams, "Your Imperial Majesty, their Highness, Astrapolius, and the rest of your invited guests have arrived to discuss the reforms of the new imperial ministry of magic."

The dragon sighed, feeling like there was always more and more staff to do, stopping him from taking the deserved nap.