Ashen Dragon

Chapter 244: 170 Awakening (Part 1)

Chapter 244: Chapter 170 Awakening (Part 1)
 

“Finally escaped.”

Tiniya shook her frost-white wings, stretched her neck, and let out a joyful howl.

“Awooo~”

As if remembering something, her vertical pupils flickered, and she gritted her teeth with sharp, cold breaths seeping through the gaps in her teeth.

“Hmph, those hateful humans, they dared to force me to learn etiquette. One day, one day I will freeze them all and eat them.”

She tilted her head and instinctively looked toward the distant Royal Palace.

“But if I do that… Master will definitely be angry.”

“If it’s just a beating, that’s fine, but if Master locks me in that ‘cage’ again…”

Tiniya couldn’t help but shiver, her whole body trembling, immediately dispelling her earlier thoughts.

In fact, during these three years, this white dragon with a thin ancestral lineage had not caused any trouble; rather, she obediently learned various spells, etiquette, and even language.

Unlike ordinary white dragons with degraded bloodlines, Tiniya’s intelligence was actually comparable to an average human, though she was somewhat duller in certain aspects.

And her learning speed amazed the Ogre Archmage. Ramp just dangled a “Master favors educated retainers” incentive, and this white dragon pursued it with a frenzy.

Go to ?????.co

By now, Tiniya had already mastered simple communication in the common tongue, the basic etiquettes of the kingdom, and even learned a shape-shifting spell, making her a bona fide intellectual among the generally dim-witted white dragons.

“When will Master finally awaken?”

Thinking of the unprecedentedly powerful Red Dragon, her true master, Tiniya’s face turned a bit rosy.

The white dragon sneaked closer, pressing her body against the outer wall of the Royal Palace—because of the Red Dragon’s slumber, the metal walls were often scorchingly hot, even enough to cook raw meat, and even the Tiefling Guards stationed around dared not touch it easily.

As a creature fond of the cold, which only ate frozen food, the white dragon had low heat resistance.

The moment she touched the city wall, Tiniya’s side sizzled with burning sounds, and her pure white scales became charred.

“Awooo~”

Tiniya whimpered in pain but continued to rub against the wall undeterred.

She felt the heat transmitted from the metal as if feeling the powerful, sturdy, and scorching body of the Red Dragon, feeling its frenzied and surging strength.

“Master…”

At the thought, Tiniya’s mouth dripped with dragon saliva, and even her tightly covered scales couldn’t hide her infatuated and entranced expression.

The Tiefling Guard initially wanted to check the source of the disturbance, as capturing an intruder was richly rewarding. However, seeing it was the white dragon, they retreated like they’d seen a disaster star—this had happened many times already.

In a way, there was no saving this white dragon.

Suddenly, a strong gust of hot wind spread from the palace, and the ground trembled violently, creating fissures.

“Crack, crack…”

“Boom!”

With a loud roar, Tiniya snapped out of her daydream.

Frightened, she flapped her wings, flying crookedly in the air, letting out panic-stricken howls:

“Awooo~~”

The Tiefling Guards stationed near the palace were also terror-stricken, quickly retreating and evacuating, fearing to follow in the footsteps of their unfortunate predecessors who had perished in the palace.

“Gurgle, gurgle.”

Scalding magma spewed from the ground fissures, turning the surroundings into black lava.

“No! Run!”

“We need to leave here immediately!”

Ramp, the Tiefling Captain in charge of the recent palace security, turned pale instantly.

The ground cracked, magma gushed, and ash filled the sky. The scene mirrored last year’s calamity almost exactly, which he had witnessed from the palace walls as the Infernal Calamity devoured the unfortunate Tieflings within the palace.

He had been powerless back then, only able to watch them die. Now, the disaster seemed to befall him.

To Cassius, this was merely a trifling amount of power inadvertently leaked during his slumber, nothing noteworthy. Yet, this “dust” of immensely powerful individual strength fell on mortals like a complete disaster, effortlessly claiming lives.

“Run! Cough, cough!”

Ramp shouted, but the fine dust particles already clogged his nose and mouth, making him gasp for breath.

He quickly followed previous training, covering his nose and mouth with his clothes, bending over to walk and trying to leave this infernal place as soon as possible, with the Tieflings close behind.

However, with another “crack,” the ground split again, and deep fissures filled with scorching magma blocked their escape routes.

“Cough, cough.”

“No, I don’t want to die…”

Staring at the sky thick with ash, Ramp murmured in despair.

“Dying from His Majesty’s ‘morning temper’? That would be quite a joke.”

Yet the ash nearly blocked half the sky, rendering sunlight invisible, and the ground flowed with magma, cracking around them, mercilessly cutting off their escape routes. The palace vicinity appeared as if it was the end of the world.

Tiniya also struggled to fly through the volcanic ash and fog, covered in ash, almost turning into a “black dragon.”

Luckily, white dragons could fly and were far more resilient than mortals; although disheveled, she managed to flee without life-threatening danger.

But the Tieflings weren’t so fortunate; they faced a complete dead end.

Just as Ramp was about to succumb to total despair.

“Roar——”

Suddenly, a loud dragon’s roar echoed, long and ancient.

With the roar reverberating through the sky, an invisible domain rapidly expanded. As the wave reached, all agitated magical phenomena abruptly subsided.

The ash blocking the sky visibly dispersed, the magma returned to the earth or cooled into solid lava, the scorching heat faded, and even the burning ground cooled down.

In just a few breaths.

The scene, once resembling an infernal calamity, returned to normal.

“I actually survived!”

“Huff, huff!”

Ramp patted his chest, breathing heavily to calm his racing heart.

He turned to look at the grand palace within the walls.

“His Majesty… has awakened…”