In the central area of the Doa Royal Palace, four Evil Dragon bones remained standing, though they lost much of their luster.
At the center of the four Evil Dragon bones, the metal grey Demonic Dragon created by an arcane master parasitizing a Dragon corpse lay limp on the ground, its body riddled with wounds.
In its surroundings, many corpses lay scattered, including both Evil Dragon followers and royal arcane masters or royal guards. The latter two had the higher ratio.
Some injured Evil Dragon followers remained standing and gathered around the Demonic Dragon.
One of them who was covered in snake scales looked at the huge airship high in the sky. He asked the arcane master controlling the Demonic Dragon, "Lord, what do we do?"
"Gather more people to protect me!"
The Demonic Dragon roared, "Even the joint attack by Ross and the others failed…… The Schwartz Worm that can be compared to a Yellow Dragon has been made into an airship by them. We must prevent them from coming back to kill me!"
"……"
The Evil Dragon followers who were thinking about how not to let them escape were shocked.
"The war has begun!"
"Build our camp with the Doa Royal Palace as the center! Summon all Corps!"
Suddenly, high ranked Evil Dragon followers wearing purplish black robes issued several orders simultaneously in various parts of the Doa Royal Palace.
Most Evil Dragon followers did not know which Bishop issued the order. However, they trembled at the order being repeated over and over.
The grand war had finally descended.
They could no longer hide in the shadows. They had to gather into an army and conquer the entire Doraster Continent!
……
"They seem to have stopped pursuing us."
Within the huge airship, Shanna checked the enemy movements in the Royal Palace and suggested, "Since we can't reinforce Belo, we must go to the Fearotz Stronghold!"
"Where's the Fearotz Stronghold? Why do we have to go there?" Stingham asked while pestering Merlin to make a deck chair for him.
"It's the camp of the biggest Corps in the Kingdom of Doa, the Royal Thorns Corps. It also contains an extremely important tactical objective to the entire Kingdom of Doa."
Shanna hung up a map of the Kingdom of Doa, then explained to those from the Kingdom of Eiche, "Apart from guarding the Eternal Winter Forest neighboring your Kingdom, the tactical locations of our Kingdom of Doa are the Fearotz Stronghold in the East and the Frost Tusk Peak Stronghold in the North."
"Our Kingdom of Doa has a bigger territory than your Kingdom of Eiche. Within its borders, there are two dangerous zones. One is the Thorns Swamp zone beyond the Fearotz Stronghold, the other is the Snowfall Forest zone beyond the Frost Tusk Peak Stronghold. These two zones have never been conquered by the Corps. There are innumerable poisonous and wood type monsters in the Thorns Swamp, while many powerful snow monsters reside in the Snowfall Forest. There are even rumors of secluded mysterious Barbarian Clans living there."
"If these two strongholds fall, just the monsters and beasts swarming into the Kingdom of Doa can cause a great disaster. In addition, the Corps stationed at these two zones are the Royal Thorns Corps and Hearth Valley Corps, the largest Corps in our Kingdom of Doa. If the Evil Dragon followers want to completely take over the Kingdom of Doa, they will definitely try to take control of these two places."
"The Fearotz Stronghold where the Royal Thorns Corps is stationed at is closer to the Doa Royal Palace. So, you expect the Evil Dragon follower army will attack the Fearotz Stronghold first?" Ayrin studied the map and comprehended a little after listening to Shanna's explanation.
"It's nothing to fear if it's an external attack. However, the few important figures of the Royal Thorns Corps were originally in the rebelling faction. They have been suppressed during the last internal conflict in the Doa Royal Palace. Our Chinyu Clan has been worrying ever since that if what we suspected were to be true, the commanders newly assigned to the Corps may very well be Evil Dragon followers! In that case, the previous peace might already be gone and the stronghold would be in great danger." Shanna spoke with a paled face, "If the Evil Dragon followers take control of that stronghold, they just have to play a little trick and the swamp monsters will be lured into the Doa Royal Palace. By then, the other regions fighting against the Evil Dragon follower army will be sandwiched by enemies."
"I agree with Shanna's plan."
The black-haired man Lenyu, who had the nickname Dimension Traveler, slowly explained, "Based on the current situation, after the Evil Dragon followers got exposed, they will not give up on Doa Royal Palace. They want to wage war with Doa Royal Palace as their base camp. The Kingdom of Doa is in a hot mess right now. If they cannot organize a proper resistance, it will be more advantageous to the Evil Dragon followers. It will allow them to gain more time to gather an army. If I was the Evil Dragon Bishop, I would take control of the Thorns Swamp as fast as possible. From how it looks, the Eternal Winter Forest is probably already under the control of the Evil Dragon followers. In that case, with the Eternal Winter Forest as a natural barrier and so many mutated arcane masters inside, the Evil Dragon followers can block the Kingdom of Eiche outside for a long time."
"We also don't know what they have prepared within the Kingdom of Eiche." Charlotte said with a trembling voice.
From the Fallen Shadow Valley campaign to Jean Camus's discovery upon his return, then to Stingham's identity being revealed, the great conspiracy of the Evil Dragon followers was slowly surfacing.
After hiding for so many years, the Evil Dragon followers had amassed an unimaginable force.
If the Fallen Shadow Valley was not discovered and conquered, it would be in a similar situation as the Eternal Winter Forest and Doa Royal Palace right now. It would have allowed the Evil Dragon followers to gain a complete upper hand and shroud the entire Doraster Continent into a dark era.
"Since everyone agrees, we will head to the Fearotz Stronghold!"
"Merlin, we will go to the Fearotz Stronghold!" Ayrin shouted towards Merlin with great fighting spirit and excitement.
At the same time, he opened the lid of one of the steam boilers and said to Stingham, "Stingham, lend me your spear to skewer this! Since there are powerful enemies waiting for us at that stronghold, I must finish up this worm before we reach there!"
"You can really finish all the meat which took up half of this airship!?" Stingham shouted moodily, "This is the Holy Artifact of the Green Dragon Divine Temple, yet you want to use it to skewer meat!"
"Hurry up, if it gets too hot, it will be hard to skewer and slow down my pace! This is a form of training, I might get another domain if I eat enough! Using a Holy Artifact to assist in training to fight against the enemy is a proper utility!" Ayrin justified his intention, leaving everyone speechless.
Stingham could not refute Ayrin and handed over the Green Dragon Spear for him to skewer meat.
"I'm digging in!"
Ayrin excitedly used the Green Dragon Spear and poked through large chunks of meat. He pulled them out and began wolfing down.
After eating a chunk of meat dozens of kilograms, Ayrin caught his breath and then evaluated, "This boiling method is also not bad, chicken drumstick flavor."
"Can he really finish all of it?"
Everyone became more speechless as they watched.
After flying away from the Doa Royal Palace and seeing no pursuers, the Chinyu arcane masters took turns to help. The two steam boilers had completely become hotpots and boiled the worm meat non-stop.
Even Charlotte and the others built a grilling stand next to the boilers and helped Ayrin grill meat.
From noon until midnight, Ayrin's stomach bloated to the point it seemed about to explode. However, he constantly exercised and seemed to be able to keep eating while digesting the meat.
As a result, Merlin built a windmill device and let Ayrin run inside. The spinning of the blades could generate strong wind to propel the airship faster.
A terrifying fact: Ayrin had been running and eating for an entire night!
By the time the first ray of dawn shone into the airship, everyone realized in shock that there was only a small pile of meat left.
At that moment, Ayrin suddenly stopped and commented without showing any fatigue, "Weird, I feel full."
"Not only do you mentally torment the enemies, you also want to torment us!" Meraly kept pulling out her hair and shouted, "You have been eating for almost a full day, yet you feel weird that you are feeling full!?"
"It's not that……"
Ayrin opened his mouth to explain. However, everyone was shocked when black light spilled out from his nose and mouth.
"What's happening?" Ayrin asked with a dumbfounded expression. As he talked, even the pores on his skin shot out black light. He was releasing a black radiance.
"Did you eat something wrong and mutated?" Charlotte became nervous, "Ayrin, how do you feel?"
"I don't feel anything…… it's just strange…… No matter how much I ate in the past, I always felt hungry as if each cell in my body wanted more. However, now I feel completely full." Ayrin also could not comprehend the feeling, "And I didn't eat out a domain. Apart from feeling full, there's nothing."
"Nothing? You don't sense a domain? There's no change to your body?" Stingham looked at Ayrin suspiciously. He suspected that Ayrin's internal structure had changed into something similar to the worm. He felt an urge to use his spear and poke Ayrin.
Belch……
At that moment, Ayrin suddenly burped.
As the burp came out, everyone changed their expressions in shock.
The entire airship violently shook in the air.
The cause for the shaking was the vibration from Ayrin's burp. It caused the air around Ayrin to vibrate violently and generate a terrifying power brand.
"Something did change! What's going on?"
Ayrin's eyes opened wide. He could sense his body rapidly changing.
His cells were trembling. Every tremble granted his body more power.
His physical strength was rapidly increasing!
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The airship felt as if something heavy was hammering it along with every beat of Ayrin's heart. The airship shook violently and was on the verge of falling.
