Germott's scales were like carved ice crystals, his body coiled and suspended in the air, his frost-forged head held high. His ice-blue vertical pupils were fixed on the two strange Dragon appearing and disappearing within the black clouds in the sky.
Carlit, breaking out of the Forever Punished Domain, covered in blood and with one wing torn off, stumbled out. Ellie, her scales tightly locked and her magic surging, spotted the opening and quickly darted out of the domain.
"Get behind me, Carlit," Akzi said in a deep voice.
The Blue Dragon Akzi's massive single horn was shrouded in cerulean electricity, and his long, thick body stretched across the sky. With the skill of a Dragon, he firmly locked onto the two terrifying Dragons, covering his companions' retreat.
Ellie did not hide behind the two male Dragons but stood shoulder to shoulder with them, facing the enemy in the sky.
The Kogmora Dragon Clan consisted entirely of young Dragons. Their youth was an advantage; they were still developing, with ample room for growth and adjustment.
But youth was also their disadvantage, meaning they would struggle to gain a strength advantage against much older Dragon.
The two Dragons opposite them, as perceived by Dragons, were clearly adults.
Although Hydras were a relatively weak species, almost like the White Dragons among the Chromatic Dragons, they could only grow a fifth head during the Ancient Dragon period, thereby matching Legendary power.
However, an adult Hydra was still enough to have an overwhelming physical advantage over these young Dragons.
Moreover, these creatures, like Hydralisks, possessed formidable vitality; all of a Hydra's heads had to be severed to truly kill it.
The black clouds in the sky were the unique magical ability of these creatures: Darkness, Stinking Cloud, and Cloudkill. These spells could greatly obscure the enemy's and opponent's senses, limiting their activities and allowing Hydras to launch surprise attacks at will.
This was why, even though the Hydra species was not considered powerful, their list of enemies still included Red Dragon and Storm Giant.
The origin of these Hydras was unknown, but they were ancient enough. In the Dragon's heritage, some Scholars and Great Scholars believed these Hydras were an ancient branch of prehistoric Dragons that had been hibernating for millions of years.
Other Scholars, however, believed that Hydras were a lower-derived branch of High Dragona, creatures born through supernatural forces, such as the Chromatic Dragon Goddess Tiamat, who had altered them.
The other Dragon, however, was a presence that Akzi and Germott had to carefully guard against.
"Eternal Punishment Dragon,"
White Dragon Gemott, having studied the Dragon legacy within his bloodline, opened his mouth, bared his fangs, and coldly uttered three words.
The Eternal Punishment Dragon, this powerful Dragon, was one of the foremost among all True Dragon species in the Ekania World.
Before their youth, Eternal Punishment Dragons were one level stronger than the strongest Red Dragon species among the Chromatic Dragon, not only due to the two innate breath abilities of the Eternal Punishment Dragon—Disintegration Field and Weakening Gas Breath.
The former was an extremely powerful offensive breath ability, while the latter was a powerful auxiliary offensive breath ability. Creatures affected by the latter, if their will was not firm enough and their mind not strong enough, would suffer the effects of a negative spell—like Full of Despair.
They also possessed powerful spell-like abilities, each with its own unique use. If not for the fact that these Dragon's usual habitats did not overlap with those of many True Dragon species, they might also be revered by many creatures.
These Dragons would only be caught up to and gradually surpassed by the rapidly growing power of the Red Dragon after reaching adulthood.
"You are also a Dragon. We are of the same race. Why would you willingly associate with Giants? You should be with Dragon, soaring with us beneath the vast sky."
"You should belong to the Dragons Kingdom."
Gemott's eyes swept over the orderly legion commanders on the city wall, who were issuing orders for numerous Imperial Guard to load ballistas and cannons to repel the Giants outside the city wall.
And his and Akzi's mission was to stall these two adult Dragon, who were flexible enough to unleash powerful destructive and impactful abilities on the battlefield.
According to the Imperial Defense Directive, the Dragon Lord in each city could issue a Level 3 alert when encountering unforeseen dangers, summoning Dragon Lord from neighboring cities to assist in repelling the enemy.
A Level 3 alert meant that the strength of a single city and its Dragon Lord was insufficient to repel the danger and drive back the enemy, thus requiring support from Dragon Lord in nearby cities.
If the initial assembled force was insufficient to withstand the danger facing the city, the Dragon Lord could escalate the alert level until it reached the highest level of alert directive.
This was also a part of the preliminary defense system established by the Golden Empire, which was expanding day by day.
And Germott, Akzi, and Ellie only needed to buy time, waiting for new Dragon to join the battle, or waiting for their Imperial Guard to deal with the Giants outside before driving these two adult Dragon away.
"Heh heh, Dragons don't have that concept, even if we all call ourselves Dragons."
His face always wore a sneering and mocking expression, but this was merely the Eternal Punishment Dragon's normal expression. He poked his head out of the black clouds, and his sneering expression became very vivid, for at this moment, this Dragon was truly sneering at White Dragon Gemott's words.
"Although our bloodline of Dragon is inherently so, we are also driven by a mission."
The Eternal Punishment Dragon sneered, "We Eternal Punishment Dragons take the Gods' Promised Land as our confinement domain, but we never expected that we are its guardians, yet also its prisoners."
"Even to this day, abandoned by the gods, that mountain range remains our prison, Eternal Punishment Dragon. Hahah, the former prisoners have already become my masters, but I have received no pity."
"This is Dragon!" the Eternal Punishment Dragon roared with laughter, a strange green light flickering in his dark eyes. At this moment, his boiling magic, fueled by his anger, caused the faces of many restrained prisoner souls to roar and struggle forth from the strange striped patterns on his scales, wailing at the Dragon below.
"Even if we were once driven by Dragons, it was always taken for granted. This is what you call Dragon, Dragon ruled by those high and mighty Dragon Gods!"
The roar of ballistas and heavy cannons on the city wall rang out, as if echoing the Eternal Punishment Dragon's words, their thunderous vibrations shaking the hearts of the Dragon Lord.
"Then you should stop, come to the Dragons Kingdom, and see with your own eyes. The Golden Empire is a kingdom founded and ruled by True Dragon."
A calm voice echoed in the ears of the confronting Dragon. Another Dragon stepped out from the Golden Bell, the anchor point of psionic teleportation, and then transformed from a humanoid form into a powerful Dragon.
Dos, at this moment, arrived here through the unique teleportation channel of the Dragon Lord.
The three-headed Dragon in the sky bared his fangs, all three heads simultaneously letting out a mocking laugh. He laughed, "You may temporarily block our actions, but your Imperial Guardcannot stop those Giants."
"Dragon should be solitary, coming and going as they please. Those dependents and forces are merely tools for Dragon to enjoy and exploit. Why do you care so much about those weak, insignificant beings who do not deserve to exist in this world?"
"Is that so?" Dos grinned, raising his head, his enormous Dragon horns almost piercing the sky. The Dragon's vision could see a rumbling dark shadow in the heavens, moving seemingly slowly along its trajectory.
"Perhaps I'll disappoint you, you foolish fellow hiding in a remote corner with no clear understanding of the world," Dos scoffed, "I strongly disagree with the first part of your statement, but the latter part, in my opinion, makes a lot of sense for you."
Crack!
As a massive magical barrier slowly rose from the Bay Stream City, centered on the Tree of Life's outpost,
Dazzling currents surged around Dos's body, which had not moved for a long time. Dos roared, "First, let's take out this ugly fellow!"
"Azure Thunder Prison!"
Boom! Crack!
Muffled thunder rolled, lightning flashed in the black clouds, and brilliant white lightning struck down repeatedly, piercing through layers of black clouds, plunging like war spears around the Hydra. Streaks of leaping lightning transformed into shackles, then into a cage, trapping the adult Hydra within.
"Roar!"
The several Dragon, accustomed to coordinating, simultaneously flapped their wings and roared, a biting frost and azure lightning striking at once. The gnarled long vines, growing wildly against the wind, brandished their tentacles and thorns, shooting straight into the high heavens.
The Dragon's battle erupted at high altitude. Within the continuously exploding black clouds, Dragon weaved and attacked.
But even the sky where Dragon soared was not the highest point beneath the dome.
Beneath the heavens, above the clouds, a colossal shadow moved seemingly slowly, but in reality, at an extremely fast, constant circular speed. The clouds in the sky were directly pushed aside by this tall structure, enveloped in magical shadow.
However, the sunlight in the sky could penetrate the magical shadow on the tall structure, not affecting the area beneath the shadow.
Only extremely high-flying eagles and griffins in the sky, upon approaching, could see that within this massive shadow was a tall, moving spire, standing high in the heavens.
The gigantic energy crystal on the spire, shaped like a massive Dragon's Eye, watched every spot beneath the high dome.
This Dragon's Eye was connected to the elemental channels inside the Mage Tower, providing ample magic power, allowing the magical shadow to cover every part of this Mage Tower, which had only one floor but was six meters tall and twenty meters wide at its base, preventing the strong high-altitude winds from affecting the Mage Tower's trajectory.
The internal space of the tower seemed much wider than the tower itself could accommodate, with a spacious interior large enough to hold a giant plaza.
Inside the Mage Tower, tall energy pillars stood, surrounding a central giant elemental pool, channeling elemental power from several connected smaller elemental planes into the elemental pool.
Those surging elemental forces were then diverted from the elemental pool, flowing through the energy channels inside the Mage Tower, providing the immense power that allowed the Mage Tower to fly through the nine heavens.
Teams of busy spellcasters and Scholars in the Mage Tower used various magical instruments to record and correct the trajectory of this first floating Mage Tower born in the Golden Empire.
Through planar development and trade with arcane merchants from the Astral Sea and various civilized nations, the Golden Empire was finally able to construct its first scaled-down elemental pool and experimental Mage Tower, and successfully launched it into the sky.
These Mages and Scholars, if not guided and controlled, could easily cause problems. Fortunately, Kalon always had ample plans, waiting for his Scholars and Mages to research and implement them.
The launched Mage Tower was just a small step in the Empire's construction of an aerial defense system. These Mages, however, were motivated to survey the operating orbits for subsequent Mage Towers to be launched.
In the defense system construction document issued by the military, at least dozens of Mage Towers would need to be launched into the future imperial airspace, given the current territorial area.
These Mage Towers would operate like stars in the Astral Sky, circling the Empire's airspace, flying day and night along their constructed orbits. They would be the unbreakable Iron Dome of the Golden Empire, and also the Golden Empire's most formidable offensive weapon.
But even the Mage Tower was only in preparation for the later Floating City project, so these Mages had to collect data and perform a considerable amount of calculations to build a perfect orbit for the later defense system.
Beside these busy Mages stood towering Golem, a Golem Legion composed of various types of Golem, including Clay Golem, Iron Golem, Alchemical Golem, and Stone Golem, and Dragonbone Golem.
The souls that drove the Golem came from elemental life captured by the Empire from those small planes. This batch of ordinary Golem were also experimental products.
These products would be deployed by the floating Mage Tower into various border cities of the Empire, enhancing the Empire's defensive capabilities and testing and collecting relevant data for subsequent improvements by Scholars.
And responsible for deploying this Golem Legion and supervising these Mages were a group of Imperial Guard wearing Achilles heavy magic-powered armor, the strongest military branch in the Empire—the Emperor's Imperial Guard.
The Imperial Guard, to some extent, could represent the will of the Ancestral Red Dragon and held an extremely high status within the Empire.
The Achilles heavy magic-powered armor they wore symbolized that as long as these Imperial Guard did not fall, leaving their vulnerability to the enemy, they would always possess formidable power, proving how powerful this customized armor, which bound the Imperial Guard's souls, truly was.
And the Imperial Guard's heavy Horse-Slaying Power Blades were high-end weapons developed by the Department of Magical Integration. On the magical steel surface, magic that turned superheated flames into plasma was attached, driven by the Imperial Guard's own psionic energy, which could transform the Horse-Slaying Heavy Blade in their hands into a high-density blade, capable of cutting through all steel in the world.
Therefore, when these Imperial Guard in the tower observed the movements in Bay Stream Citythrough magical projection, they calmly picked up their Horse-Slaying Heavy Blades, walked to the Mage Tower's teleportation deployment device, and waited quietly.
The High Mage in charge of the deployment teleportation device widened his eyes, looking at the Giant in the image who was assaulting the city wall of Bay Stream City, and couldn't help but angrily shout, "These stupid dogs that crawled out of stinking ditches and mountain corners! If it weren't for the Mage Tower's construction not being perfected yet, unable to carry the newly developed magic-powered siege cannons, I'd blow these stinking dog-like things to hell with one shot!"
"Get ready," the Mage waved his hand and shouted, "The floating tower is rapidly descending and will reach the predetermined deployment distance in half a quarter of an hour."
Click, click, click!
The faceplates on the Imperial Guard's Dragon-faced helmets closed, making continuous sounds, and bright gazes pierced through the fierce Dragon-faced helmets.
Boom!
The foremost Giants, along with the Ogres and Trolls, had already charged beneath the city wall. The towering Giants swung their weapons, smashing the short city wall, creating gaps.
Although the Giants also left behind a few corpses, and other Giants were more or less injured, the thick-skinned Giants still seemed unstoppable in the face of Bay Stream City's weak forces.
One-Eyed Giant Asis also swung his massive bone hammer, surging forward, intending to charge up a blow to directly collapse the city gate of Bay Stream City.
But suddenly, a blinding light, like sunlight, fell from the sky. A strong beam of light projected down from the high-altitude clouds, illuminating the ground.
One-Eyed Giant Asis looked up. A tall tower hovered in the air, a massive beam of light projecting from the tower's base. Within the stably fluctuating beam, warriors in blood-colored armor descended from high in the sky, their flowing blood-colored cloaks like blazing banners.
Heavy Golem, like meteorites, fell to the ground, landing simultaneously on the Giants' heads.