White Dragon's Wrath

A strange party was making its way along a narrow mountain path in the Vulture Dragon Mountain.

This path, nearly invisible from high above, lay at the bottom of a long, narrow gorge. With the cliffs covered in vegetation, the people and horses passing below truly could not be seen from above.

Ganis rode alongside Master Famit, who was clad in full armor, while watching the young mage leading the way twenty meters ahead. Suddenly, a thought came to him.

"Everyone knows the Vulture Dragon Mountain is extraordinarily dangerous, that dragons may attack at any time. Who would have thought there was such a marvelous passage here? If this road crosses the entire mountain range and reaches the Miles Empire on the other side, it could shorten the journey by at least three months."

Master Famit said quietly, "Through that lord's territory?"

Ganis gave a bitter smile.

Whoever that person was, anyone capable of living unharmed in the heart of the Vulture Dragon Mountain, surrounded by dragons, could hardly be some powerless weakling, could they?

A Lich?

Or a reclusive Archmage?

Advisor Ganis leaned toward one of those two possibilities.

Even if Ganis were beaten to death, he would never have imagined that a certain weakling mentor could not even pass the Cold Pool, let alone contend with dragons or emerge from the mountains.

After they ventured deeper into the range, a faint Dragon Roar occasionally drifted from the distant horizon.

Such roars carried the intimidation of a creature at the top of the food chain. Ordinary people could not endure merely hearing them; at best, they would become dazed, and at worst, suffer mental collapse and die of fright on the spot.

Ganis and the other attendants all looked grim.

Though the narrow mountain path offered them excellent concealment, encountering a dragon in such terrain would mean almost certain death.

"Roar—"

Another thunderous Dragon Roar rang out.

Fortunately, the horses' mouths had been tied shut long ago. Otherwise, even a single neigh might have drawn a dragon over.

Ganis asked, "Lord Quijote, how much farther?"

"Once we turn past the mountain path ahead, we'll see the peak where my master lives in seclusion."

After a brief consideration, Ganis decisively said, "Leave one person behind to watch the horses. Everyone else proceeds on foot. Raise our Embassy flag."

A shield-shaped flag with a red-and-yellow background, bearing the emblem of a Two-Headed Lion wearing a crown, was raised high.

Without question, this flag represented the glory of the Cervantes Kingdom!

To the north and south, the mountain walls and vegetation should have blocked it from view outside. Ganis was certain that someone as powerful as Downs's master would immediately discover their party once they drew near.

Not concealing their tracks and proceeding openly from east to west—this was the proper etiquette of an Embassy.

They had walked for less than ten minutes when, just as they caught sight of the black Lone Peak in the distance, the previously clear sky suddenly darkened.

Downs sharply pulled on his reins.

"What is it?" Ganis urged his horse forward and asked.

"Master... Master... he's probably discovered us. And he... seems very unhappy." Downs's teeth chattered.

After days of indirect probing, Ganis naturally knew that Downs's master specialized in Lightning Magic. But the fact that he had detected them from such a distance utterly shocked Ganis.

Heavens!

They were still nearly two kilometers from the peak.

He could sense their presence from here?

What kind of heaven-defying power was this?

"N-No way..." Master Famit swallowed hard.

Ganis pondered for a moment. He also found it hard to believe. "Should we slow down and continue forward?"

Downs was completely numb. "Let me make this clear first: if my master gets angry, please do not come any closer. Let me go apologize to him myself."

Remembering how his master had once disdainfully rejected even a king offering up an entire kingdom's Treasure Trove, Downs became increasingly convinced that Ganis and the others had offended his master with insufficient courtesy.

The party moved forward slowly for more than ten minutes. Then Downs suddenly raised his right fist high—this was their agreed signal to halt.

"What is it?"

"Master's... Master's Mage Tower has lit up!" Downs sounded as if he were at a funeral.

Following Downs's gaze, Ganis and the others looked toward the mountaintop, then froze in shock.

Dark clouds churned and surged through the sky, as though some unknown power was stirring the atmosphere.

Lightning flashed and thunder rolled within the storm clouds. Each peal struck everyone's hearts like a massive war drum.

Within a three-kilometer radius of the sky, countless bolts of lightning, large and small, began branching like trees as they converged on a single point atop the mountain. The lightning easily became the sole ruler of this Airspace!

Birds in the mountain range took flight in panic, instinctively trying to flee from the terror that had descended without warning. Quite a few, in their frantic confusion, had not even fully taken wing before crashing headfirst into the "anti-air trees" atop the slopes, dying miserably and falling back down.

The Half-elf advisor, who had lived for over two hundred years, went blank for several seconds before finally realizing just how terrifying this thunderous power was!

"In ancient legends, Legendary Mages commanded their Floating Cities to charge at the divine kingdoms of the gods in the upper planes, even knocking some divine kingdoms from the sky... So the legends were true..." Ganis trembled all over, both excited and worried.

That person, at least a Legendary Level Archmage, had suddenly activated his Mage Tower. It meant he was extremely displeased—or that he had encountered some trouble.

If the scene before him had merely been Ganis's imagination, then what happened next immediately confirmed his suspicions.

"Roar—" A long, distant howl came from the horizon.

"Dragon! A White Dragon!" The High-level Ranger responsible for keeping watch immediately pointed at the southern sky and shouted.

A huge, elegant creature spread its Wings and entered everyone's field of vision.

Its pure white body glittered in the reflected lightning, its scales seeming to be covered by a sacred, inviolable white halo.

It stretched out its neck and let out a long cry. The claws on its limbs seemed to extend slightly, and the Ranger with the sharpest eyesight in the Embassy could even make out the dense, sturdy scales covering the Dragon Body, as well as the meteor-hammer-like structure at the tip of its enormous tail, longer than a siege catapult.

Fortunately, yet unfortunately, the White Dragon was not targeting the Embassy, but the person atop the mountain.

The White Dragon raised its head and stared with diamond-like eyes full of an inorganic chill at the human standing beside the strange lightning tower on the mountaintop.

A small commotion broke out within the Embassy.

Master Famit gritted his teeth. "Damn it! It's a Young White Dragon! Those beasts never listen to reason."

White Dragons, also known as Ice Dragons or Glacier Dragons, were creatures famous for being slow-witted and stupid. They did not deserve that reputation. Though White Dragons possessed obvious bestial traits, their intelligence was equal to that of other Colored Dragons. They simply did not care about elaborate schemes or political power, preferring lives as hunters and collectors of treasure.

They would attack every living thing within their territory without restraint, unless a potential victim could swiftly provide sufficient reason not to kill them—such as gems valuable enough to tempt them.

This Young White Dragon, over twelve meters long, was extremely troublesome. Under normal circumstances, it would take a five-person party that had just reached Master Level to contend with it.

That's right!

Merely contend with it!

A White Dragon's innate high mobility meant it could flee at any time. Then, in its long life, the vengeful White Dragon would launch endless, utterly shameless retaliation against anyone who had angered it, at any point in the future.