Deathwing's Wrath

Stormwind Noble District had always been known for its elegance and tranquility, yet tonight, Countess Katrana Prestor's estate was engulfed in a raging blaze.

Like an enraged beast, the flames devoured exquisitely carved archways and silk draperies, reducing priceless paintings and antiques to charcoal. Servants screamed as they fled, while Stormwind guards frantically carried buckets to fight the fire, yet they could not suppress the eerie Dark Red Flame—it seemed alive, deliberately seeking out and consuming everything in the estate connected to "Katrana."

"Countess is still inside!" a maid cried.

The captain of the guards gritted his teeth and was about to lead his men into the blaze when an invisible force violently shoved him away. Immediately afterward, the estate's main beam came crashing down. Flames shot over thirty feet into the air, forcing everyone to retreat again and again.

No one noticed the tall figure standing in the shadows.

Deathwing—concealed in human form—watched the dancing firelight reflected in his golden vertical pupils, his expression terrifyingly grim. He had only come to question why his daughter had become obsessed with that laughable "fertilizer business," but he had never expected that the so-called Countess Katrana in the entire estate was merely an Illusion Puppet sustained by magic.

An hour earlier, he had slipped silently into the estate's bedroom and found "Katrana" lying weakly on the bed, her pale cheeks carrying a sickly beauty. But when he seized that slender neck, his hand passed straight through the phantom—

"Onyxia!" The instant he crushed the illusion core, the puppet strangely blinked at him, a mocking curve appearing at the corner of her lips.

"An interesting trick." His gaze swept toward the distance. "It seems my daughter... has found herself a new toy."

Suddenly, his ear twitched.

"We have to find the Countess!" the guard captain was growling at his adjutant. "Duke Bolvar will never permit House Prestor's representative to vanish without explanation!"

Deathwing sneered, and his figure dissipated like smoke.

Deep Blackrock Mountain, the Lava Lake cast its glow over the bizarre sights within Nefarian's Laboratory: dragon organs soaking in green fluid, wailing Chromatic Dragon Experiments, and parchment sheets covering the walls, densely filled with mad calculations.

The Black Dragon Prince was intently injecting a tube of Sulfur Extract into a Dragon Beast's spine when his movements suddenly halted. The laboratory's temperature abruptly rose, and unnatural ripples spread across the Lava Lake.

"Father." Nefarian did not turn around. "I am in the middle of a critical experiment."

Deathwing's human figure emerged from the shadows, Obsidian Boots stepping into a pool of blood with a sizzling sound of evaporation.

"Your sister." He went straight to the point. "How much do you know?"

Nefarian's dragon claw trembled almost imperceptibly.

"I'm not entirely sure either. I heard she's doing agriculture, making fertilizer and such." He turned around with a practiced smile. "You know, I've been busy with my experiments."

Deathwing suddenly picked up a glass jar from the lab bench—inside floated crystals resembling fertilizer ingredients.

"Then what is this?"

"Uh... an enhancer?" Nefarian reached out to take the jar back. "Fertilizer stories have been spreading everywhere lately, so I just got some to study and see whether it might help my experiments."

Crack!

The glass jar burst in Deathwing's palm, and white powder drifted down in soft cascades.

"One last chance." The Worldbreaker's voice made frost form across the Lava Lake's surface. "Where is she?"

Nefarian's dragon wings drew together uneasily behind him. Of course he knew what his sister was doing in her lair—he had even secretly bought a ten-percent stake in her fertilizer business, using profits from his sulfur trade to subsidize his chromatic dragon research.

"Swamp of Sorrows. The old lair." He finally shrugged. "But Father, you really should look at her financial statements. Last quarter's profits rose—"

Boom!

A blast of dragon breath grazed Nefarian's cheek and shattered half the laboratory bench. Severed limbs of Chromatic Dragon Whelps rained down.

"You'd better pray she isn't plotting something stupid." Deathwing seized his son by the throat and lifted him above the Lava Lake. "Otherwise, next time it won't just be experimental data that burns."

Once his father's oppressive presence finally vanished, Nefarian collapsed amid the ruins and wiped dragon blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Good luck, little sister." He gave a bitter smile. Then, after Deathwing had disappeared, he took out the Communication Crystal.

Swamp of Sorrows · Onyxia's Lair Underground Workshop

When Onyxia stepped into the underground workshop, Deren was sprawled amid a pile of iron pipes and Copper Ingots, gripping a strange Metal Cylinder in one hand with half a screw clenched between his teeth.

"What toy are you tinkering with now?" She raised a brow and nudged a twisted length of copper pipe with her toe.

Deren looked up. His face was smeared with machine oil, but his eyes shone with frightening brightness.

"Ammonium Nitrate Sucrose Propellant, paired with a Hollow-Charge Armor-Piercing Warhead!" He excitedly raised the iron pipe. "Specially made to deal with—"

"—Speak plainly." Onyxia cut him off.

Deren choked, scratched his head, and said, "Uh... it's... something that can burn a hole through your father's scales."

The Black Dragon Princess narrowed her eyes, her golden vertical pupil shrinking to thin slits in the dim light.

"Demonstrate it," she ordered.

Deren immediately leaped up and deftly mounted a miniature Rocket onto an iron stand, its warhead aimed at a Steel Plate half a palm thick, ten paces away.

"Won't it be too loud?" Onyxia frowned. "Dragonkin Patrols have been active in the Swamp of Sorrows lately."

"Don't worry!" Deren patted his chest in assurance. "It's quieter than a Goblin fart!"

He lit the fuse and dragged Onyxia behind a stone pillar—

Whoosh!

The Rocket flew out trailing faint exhaust smoke, punching a neat round hole with melted edges through the Steel Plate. Still carrying momentum, it embedded itself in the stone wall behind it with a crisp ding.

Onyxia stared at the still-smoking hole for three seconds in silence.

"...That's it?" she scoffed. "You expect to use this to give Deathwing a pedicure?"

Deren jogged over and pried the warhead wreckage from the stone wall. "This is an experimental model. Its charge is only one-tenth that of a live round." He wiped Slag from the Copper Lining Fragment. "The real big one can punch through three feet of homogeneous steel—but that's not the point."

He leaned closer to Onyxia and lowered his voice. "This is for finishing him off. Once the main charge blows him senseless, you grab this thing—" He mimed a thrusting motion. "—and ram it into the gap in his breastplate."

The tip of the Black Dragon Princess's tail swept across the ground unconsciously.

"I want to test it with live ammunition," she suddenly said.

Deren's smile froze on his face. "...What?"

"Now."

Onyxia assumed her dragon form, her pitch-black scales gleaming coldly beneath the swamp-gas lamps. She impatiently tapped the ground with her claws, shaking dust down from the workshop ceiling.

"Move it," she growled.

Deren went pale. Hugging a set of Composite Armor pieced together from Steel Plates and broken pottery shards, he tremblingly fitted it onto her foreleg.

"At least wear some armor... Don't complain, safety first," he said, his voice shaking. "This Composite Armor I made has pretty decent protection."

Onyxia snorted disdainfully, but still let him fasten the armor in place.

Deren retreated to a safe distance and laboriously set up the full-sized rocket launcher, making sure it was aimed at the armored dragon body—

BOOM!

The instant the Rocket left the barrel, the blast overturned three tool racks. The armor-piercing round struck the Composite Armor with perfect accuracy. Its copper-lined jet poured forth, punching through the Composite Armor like a hot knife through butter and leaving a scorched black mark on Onyxia's foreleg.

"ROAR—!" The black dragon roared in pain, and the sound waves cracked the workshop's stone walls in spiderweb patterns.

Deren rushed over to inspect her worriedly. "Your Highness, are you alright—"

But Onyxia suddenly fell silent.

She lowered her head and stared at the smoking wound. Extending her tongue, she licked the scorched scales, then suddenly let out a low laugh.

"Human." She swept her tail around, curling up the launcher and tossing it before Deren. "I want a hundred."

The sharp, acrid odor left by the Rocket launch still lingered in the air. Deren was hurriedly picking up the overturned tool racks, while Onyxia lowered her head to lick the burn on her foreleg, an oddly pleased gleam flickering in her dragon eyes.

Suddenly, the air in the corner of the workshop twisted.

"Wow."

A crisp child's voice came from the Void.

Deren spun around sharply. A golden slit had opened in midair, and a small head with twin ponytails poked out from it. Her big round eyes stared fixedly at Onyxia's wound.

"Chromie?!" Deren nearly bit his tongue.

"You actually let this thing hit you?" Chromie—the humanoid gnome form of a Bronze Dragon—hopped entirely out of the Time Rift. Pointing at the Black Dragon Princess's burned scales, her face was full of disbelief. "Onyxia, since when were you so... brave?"

Onyxia's tail cracked a Stone Tablet in half with a smack. "Get out here and say that, runt."

Chromie curled her lips and jumped completely out of the rift, brushing off dust that did not exist. She circled Onyxia once, clicking her tongue in amazement. "Seriously, I never thought you'd willingly be a target."

"What the hell does it have to do with you?" Onyxia narrowed her eyes. "What's a little pain? If I don't confirm the weapon's power, how can I trust it with the next stage of the plan?"

Grinning, Chromie hopped onto a chunk of rubble and swung her legs. "Same here. I came to confirm the plan again. I still feel stupid for believing you could handle that old dragon."

Onyxia's scales bristled slightly, and a low growl rumbled up from deep in her throat.

Deren hurriedly stepped between the two dragons. "Chromie, you came to confirm the plan, right?"

Chromie's expression immediately turned more serious. She jumped down from the rock and patted Deren on the shoulder. "Nozdormu has already noticed the abnormal fluctuations in the Timeline." Lowering her voice, she asked, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Deren nodded. "The Goblins have already spread the news throughout the Eastern Kingdoms. Rumors about 'black dragon fertilizer' are everywhere. Even Stormwind City's nobles are talking about it... Deathwing can't possibly fail to notice."

Onyxia snorted and toyed with a Rocket beside her using one claw. "We've also prepared a... little gift for him."

Chromie stared at the coldly gleaming metal projectiles and swallowed. "Th-these things can really hurt him?"

Deren scratched his head. "We just follow the plan. Man proposes, heaven disposes." He paused, then added meaningfully, "Besides... don't we have a 'big shot' watching over us?"

After saying that, he lightly tapped the ground with the tip of his foot.

For a moment, both dragons—though one was in humanoid form—fell silent.

Chromie's pupils contracted slightly. The tip of Onyxia's tail curled faintly upward. Deren merely stood there calmly, as though he had just remarked that the weather was nice today.

"...Fine." Chromie finally sighed. "I'll join you on time."

She turned and hopped back into the Time Rift, then poked her head out once more before leaving. "Oh, right—" She winked at Onyxia. "Your father might already be on his way."

The rift closed with a whoosh, leaving the workshop in silence.

Deren and Onyxia exchanged a look.

The Black Dragon Princess's mouth slowly split into a grin, revealing sharp dragon fangs.

Deren wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, but he began to smile as well.

"The fireworks show is starting early," he said softly.

Today, I'm pushing for 100,000 words and updating six chapters in a row. Brothers and sisters, if you think this new book is any good, please recommend and bookmark it. The author thanks you on his knees!