Nidhogg, the Blue Butterfly City.
The Dragon Chosen returned here with the carved sword, and they needed to make final preparations before heading north to Aesir.
However, the two-person team has now become a three-person team, with a woman as agile as a cheetah following behind the Dragon Chosen, becoming stronger by absorbing the power of the Dragon Essence.
"This is Winsor."
Fuan explained to the blind old man, who nodded while leaning against the wall, and then groped to light the candle.
It's even more dilapidated here than last time.
"Those people have taken everything from Lord Sharon's family, but luckily I managed to save this little house."
The blind old man sat on the stool, looking in the direction of Fuan.
"What brings you here this time?"
"Your Excellency the Dragon Chosen, it seems you have mastered your power. I believe it won't be long before you are able to challenge the Dragon Monarch."
"I'm still far from it; I've only completed two blood sacrifices."
Fuan shook his head, then couldn't help but ask curiously:
"Did all the previous Dragon Chosen complete ten blood sacrifices?"
"Of course not. The Dragon Chosen are noble, but they also need to accept challenges time and time again. Sometimes, the Dragon Monarch will find the Dragon Chosen in advance and kill them."
"There are very few Dragon Chosen who can completely break the weapon's seal."
The blind old man sighed and said that Fuan finally remembered the purpose of his visit. He took out the wooden sword and handed it to the other man.
"We don't know what the inscription on this sword means. Could you please tell us?"
The blind old man took the wooden sword and rubbed it with his rough hands. After a while, he stopped at a certain spot and then continued to touch it.
Soon after, the blind old man returned the wooden sword to Fuan.
" Dragon Chosen One, this sword depicts an ancient history. Where did you find it? It seems quite new."
"In Sai, to the south, the sea is beautiful, but the city has been mostly destroyed. We found a strange skeleton underground that was still alive, and we heard that it used to be human."
"He sealed a short sword with the sword that killed him, and it contained this information."
Fuan was unwilling to reveal the importance of the other group of people. He had completely become the Dragon Chosen, the most famous person in the world. Therefore, the Dragon Chosen must be the most dazzling existence in all things.
He did not want anyone to have a greater presence than himself; he was the Dragon Chosen, the chosen one of the world, the one and only Monarch.
Therefore, there could be no one else involved in this matter; only the Dragon Chosen found this thing after going through countless hardships.
"I see. The Dragon Chosen remains as powerful as ever."
"The inscription on this sword tells a story."
Legend has it that long, long ago, the world was ruled by Dragons. The sky and the land, the sea and the Forest were all ruled by Dragons.
"Humans could only live a difficult life living in caves. Later, a human wanted to rebel against the Dragons. They tried to kill the Dragons with fire, floods, and collapsing mountains."
"But each time, they failed. In the process, humanity became more and more desperate. They discovered that the Dragons were not afraid of fire, nor were they afraid of floods. Even when their bodies collapsed, the Dragons could only shake off the mud."
"The first human to rebel was burned to a crisp by the Dragons's flames, but his death inspired more humans to rebel against the Dragons's rule. They emerged from the caves and were constantly killed."
"Humanity gradually fell into dark despair, until one day, a huge Dragons descended from the sky on the most prosperous place in the world. Everyone was in despair, but the Dragons did not kill them."
"That different kind of Dragons, he wore a crown and then bestowed power upon mankind."
"That was the first Dragon Chosen. Under the leadership of the Dragon Chosen, humanity finally had a place to live."
" The Dragons did not disappear; instead, they became the masters of humankind."
"Is this the story this sword tells?"
Fuan was surprised and somewhat puzzled. The appearance of the corpse at that time should not have led to such an ordinary story.
"That was humanity's initial courage in confronting Dragons, a story I never knew before, and it should be remembered."
"Our ancestors are worthy of praise."
Fuan stood up, his expression solemn, and then bid farewell to the blind old man.
"I'm going the North. My armor is the North, and I can only find it there."
"A powerful Dragon Monarch dwells to the the North; you must be careful, Dragon Chosen One."
"Don't worry, I have a way to prevent the Dragon Monarch from finding me."
After resting for a day, Fuan and his two companions headed north. However, they were found by Dragonkin Warrior shortly after leaving Blue Butterfly City. After a fierce battle, they fled into the deep mountains.
Meanwhile, the number of Dragonkin Warrior around them was increasing. They did not belong to any one Dragon Monarch, but rather several Dragon Monarch had sent Dragonkin Warrior to kill the Dragon Chosen.
Even more remarkably, every few days, deafening roars would echo across the sky. The Dragon Monarch would arrive at the battlefield through the senses of the Dragonkin Warrior, only to be escaped by Fuan and his companions.
The enraged Dragons could only quell its fury by destroying the land.
"We found it. The armor is in Odin City. There used to be a very powerful human craftsman in that city. Even a Dragon Monarch asked him to forge a powerful weapon for him."
"Human artisans helped the Dragon Monarch forge weapons, but they also used parts of those materials to forge armor that could withstand the Dragons's flames."
"He was later killed, but that armor will always return to Odin City."
"That city is ruled by a Dragon Monarch, and I asked a villager from a burned-down village, and he saw the one who betrayed humanity appear in Odin City."
The agile woman spoke up, and Fuan showed an angry expression.
"It's him, he's from Odin City."
"Damn human traitors."
Beside him, Winsor hesitated.
" Dragon Monarch Drummond very powerful; he has lived for many years, and we might disturb him."
"Then I must get the armor back. Without the armor, I have no way to fight against the Dragons's flames. I must defeat the evil Dragon Monarch."
Fuan said firmly, "Now that we have a direction, let's head towards Odin City."
Odin City.
The Bard Sven prostrated himself at the Dragons's feet.
" Your Majesty, please forgive my sins. I have found the Dragon Chosen for you five times, but each time the Dragon Chosen has become much stronger. The Dragonkin Warrior you bestowed upon me are unable to completely defeat him."
"Please give me more power, and I will surely kill the Dragon Chosen."
"No."
The Dragons's imposing presence made Sven extremely nervous. What did "no longer needed" mean? Did it mean he was no longer needed, or that he was no longer needed to go find it?
The Dragon Monarch Drummond, not wanting Sven to continue frightening him, said in an icy voice:
"He will come here on his own."
Drummond spat out a suit of black armor, which landed next to Sven.
"Go and put it in that palace."
Sven looked in the direction the Dragons was pointing, towards the heart of Odin City's wealthy district, where rows of stone pillars stood. A palace? There were only those pillars left, but this was the place the Dragons had requested.
"As you wish, I will send the armor over, but do I need to set up defenses?"
"No need. I will personally take action and nip the Dragon Chosen in the bud before he gets close."
The Dragons vanished. Sven blinked. "Personally take action? Does that mean I'll have nothing to do?"
Not entirely.
Sven walked the streets of Odin City, and the people around him were terrified of him. Although he no longer worked for the Dragon Monarch, he was unaware of human enslavement, and Sven had previously left a great deterrent force in the city.
"Bring me all the stonemasons. I want to carve a statue for His Majesty the Dragon Monarch Your Majesty Drummond."
Sven was like a city lord issuing orders, summoning the artisans of Odin City to quarry stone, and then forging and assembling it.
Many of them were highly skilled Alchemist from the Frozen Earth Territory.
" Milly, over here!"
Sven called the little girl over and placed her beside him. There was plenty of food around Sven, especially meat. This was something he had created after gaining power in Odin City, something the Dragon Monarch was completely unaware of.
"Uncle Sven, you're a bad person. I can't eat with you."
Milly stared wide-eyed, but Sven ignored her and pulled her to sit down.
"Let's eat first and then talk."
Milly is not young, but malnutrition in the past made her look small. Recently, her muscles have become much fuller, and her skin is not as dark as before.
"You need to eat well to have energy. Oh, and bring some back for Grandpa too. He's getting old, so he needs to eat well to stay healthy."
Outside, all that exists is the arduous labor of slavery, but the slaves themselves seem oblivious to it; every day in the past, they were just as weary as they are today.
"Can you really hide it by putting it inside?"
After Milly left, the Alchemist apprentice behind Sven, who was responsible for cutting meat, asked worriedly.
"I should be asking you this question. If I get caught, I'm dead."
"Can't you liquefy metal? It shouldn't be able to tell, right?"
"The arrows forged by Master Brock have no Magic Power aura, so it shouldn't be able to tell."
Buried within the Dragons statues sculpted by the artisans are massive ballistae, painstakingly transported here bit by bit by Ryan, war machines used to fight the Dragons.
Most of the people doing these things were novices, and the Alchemist apprentices were participating for the first time, so they were all extremely nervous.
"Don't give yourself away, that's not how you cut meat."
Sven told the Alchemist that he didn't go to those "rich people" in Odin City this time because he was worried that those with ulterior motives would be watching him, thus exposing the Alchemist.
"I've heard some people talking about it these past few days. It seems that this so-called Dragon Chosen has already reached the vicinity of Odin City."
Unlike Muspel in the south, in the land of Aesir in the the North, the only emotion humans felt towards the arrival of the Dragon Chosen was fear.
They feared the arrival of the Dragon Monarch Dragon Chosen. For generations, they had been accustomed to sacrificing Dragons and living a life of enslavement. The changes brought about by the Dragon Chosen terrified everyone.
If news of the Dragon Chosen hadn't yet spread widely, Odin City would probably have been in complete chaos long ago.
Sven was not surprised by this news. He had met the Dragon Chosen five times before and knew that the Dragon Chosen had completed the third blood sacrifice. His current power was no less than that of a peak Golden Knight. If he were to unleash his power using that sword, he could fight against the Sky Knight.
I've heard that after ten blood sacrifices, the Dragon Chosen will be able to kill the Dragon Monarch, which would at least make them Legendary.
"He must have completed his fourth, or even fifth, evolution along the way, right?"
Sven hoped that the Dragon Chosen would be stronger. At least for now, it seemed that the goals of the followers of Lord Ryan and the Dragon Chosen were the same: only by ending the rule of the Dragon Monarch could they possibly take over the world.
The expansion of the Frozen Earth Territory was imminent, and Sven was eager to see that day. With his merits, he would soon rise to a position second only to Lord Ryan's followers within the Frozen Earth Territory, and perhaps even obtain the Noble Title of Lordship.
Lord Ryan is never stingy with this.
" The Dragons is waiting for him right here. Should we remind him?"
Sven hesitated, not knowing how to tell the Dragon Chosen that he hated him to the core.
"Damn traitor to humanity!"
Fuan stared wide-eyed into the distance, where countless people were struggling to make ends meet, carrying huge stones on their backs as they walked along the road, and even a single stone could only be carved into the shape of Dragon Scale.
It's unknown how long this kind of exhaustion will last, and many people will die during the process.
"Let's go kill him. Without those monsters, he can't stop us."
The executioner spoke from the side, his voice filled with murderous intent. This was his old profession; besides fighting and killing, he couldn't do anything else while following the Dragon Chosen.
"Not yet. Our goal is to find my armor. Killing him will expose our location."
The three entered Odin City. Like every other city, it had no defenses. People came and went freely, and the people of Odin City didn't seem to have much suspicion about Fuan and his companions.
"They're calling us country bumpkins."
"Recently, in order to forge the statue of the Dragon Monarch, that human traitor seems to have captured a lot of people from the surrounding villages."
"Damn it, he must have killed a lot of people."
Fuan grew even angrier, but his body instinctively turned towards the mountainside, where he saw the palace reduced to nothing but stone pillars.
"I can feel it, my armor is right there."
"Then let's go get it right away."
The executioner was somewhat anxious, mainly because he was returning to the land ruled by the Dragon Monarch. Memories of his past as an executioner were affecting him, awakening the fear of the Dragon Monarch that had lingered within him for many years.
"Let's wait until night. There aren't many people there, and if we go in, we'll attract attention."
As night fell, Fuan and his two companions stealthily approached the mountainside. Entering the area was easier than they had imagined, and the three of them went directly to the location of the ruined palace.
Fuan had already seen his armor hanging on a rock.
Just as he was about to step forward, he saw two bright lights appear in the darkness ahead. They were not lights, but the burning eyes of Dragons, which instantly illuminated the surrounding darkness.
" Dragon Chosen, I've finally waited for you."
The Amber Flame Dragon, the Dragon Monarch Drummond, crawled across the ruins, meeting the gaze of the Dragon Chosen, Fuan. Invisible ripples echoed and spread across the swords of the two men and the dragon. Drummond let out a cold roar.
"I will kill you!"
"Run!"
Fuan roared, and the two followers beside him, the moment the Dragons appeared, were so terrified that they forgot whether to fight or run away.
"Run!"
Fuan roared angrily, utterly astonished that the Dragons would set a trap for him here.
"Run? You can't escape!"
Drummond opened his gaping maw, sparks flew from his crimson neck, and then a brilliant breath of fire enveloped the three of them.
" The Dragon Crushing Mountain!"
Fuan drew his sword and began to fight the Dragons, but without armor, he felt the air growing increasingly hot, and his body struggled to withstand it.
He was no match for the Dragon Monarch; he had not yet reached his full power and needed to escape.
With his eyes bloodshot, Fuan slashed his longsword across his chest, blood spurting out and merging into the blade. In that instant, Fuan felt an unparalleled power erupt from the depths of his soul.
" Ashen Annihilation —Wildfire!!!"
Fuan's roar echoed through the night sky, his furious voice audible throughout most of Odin City. Dragons, accompanied by flames of Qi-Blood Flames emanating from Fuan's body, appeared, igniting the Cloud Sea in the sky, which twisted into a vortex. Below the center of the vortex was Fuan's location.
He unleashed his sword strike, but the Dragon Monarch Drummond stood frozen in place, gazing at the magnificent expanse of the sky, forgetting to fight back.
Finally, the powerful combat technique struck, destroying the already ruined palace. Under the protection of the two, Fuan and the other two quickly ran towards the foot of Odin City.
Still buried in the rubble, the Dragon Monarch Drummond did not pursue. The flames of his dragon breath flickered and ebbed, and he let out a frantic dragon roar. Some past memories were awakening, but were violently crushed.
Until a certain moment, the Dragon Monarch soared into the Sky-rank, continuously spewing dragon breath in all eight directions to the west, igniting the sky with flames that formed the same, but larger and wider, vortex of fire as before.
At the center of the vortex, the Dragons roared deafeningly, but within the Odin City, only one person could understand even a fraction of its roar.
" Ashen Annihilation - Vortex Sea!"
Fuan vaguely heard the meaning of the dragon's roar and fell into a deep sleep.
That was the complete form of a certain Knight Combat Technique.
Meanwhile, in the Frozen Earth Territory, on Rhino Horn Mountain.
Ryan warmly welcomed the Mages into his castle.
" Lady Brenna, I have heard Marquis of Northwind mention you many times. You are his teacher and the guide of the Empire's light. I never expected you to personally appear in the remote Northlands."
" Baron Ryan, the Northlands is not remote; it was once the center of the Norris Continent."
"I heard from students at the Magic Academy that you have some ancient Braille here? Coincidentally, I'm very interested in these things, and perhaps I can help you."