The Golden Palace stood there like a strapping Legendary Warrior stripped bare and placed before a Succubus. No Dragon could resist.
The old Ancient Dragon Clan Chief had not stopped Annan. That alone was an extraordinary show of goodwill—
The humans and Dragons who had stood together moments ago turned on each other, fighting over the treasure that had belonged to Grand Lord Raymond.
Outside, though, the Square remained peaceful.
The Hellfire Legion was arriving in the Golden City through the Portal. Its troops fanned out through the streets to maintain order.
Annan watched the fight on the raised platform. Stripped of his divinity and his status as a Grand Lord, Raymond fought the Fanatics like a wild beast. His size and skill as a Great Swordsman kept him ahead despite their numbers, but his wretched appearance had robbed him of every shred of dignity.
"That spell. Is it a talent of yours?" the old Ancient Dragon Clan Chief asked. Even he had taken an interest in it.
"Yes, but I've never been able to cast it," Annan said regretfully.
"It's remarkable..."
Annan thought so too, even if it was the reason he could not learn so much as Mage Hand.
Come to think of it, an ancient being like the Ancient Dragon Clan Chief probably knew the real secret behind the gods' loss of contact.
"Old Clan Chief, why have all the gods disappeared?"
"They haven't disappeared. They're trapped in their own Divine Temples."
"Trapped in the Divine Temples... All of them?"
The Centurion had said something similar. During the Year of Turmoil, the barriers between planes had thickened until even gods could not cross them. But being unable to travel freely between planes was not the same as being trapped in a Divine Temple.
"A few fortunate deities