# Chapter 21: Battle 1
The sun set.
A black and gold two-colored dragon lay on the gray-white stone cliff, silently gazing at the massive fortress situated between the distant mountains and rivers.
Half of this dragon's body shone like a platinum sun, while the other half was as deep and profound as the dark night of the void. It could be seen that the golden half of its body was stronger than the black left side. The single horn standing alone on one side pointed straight toward the sky like a spear, as solid and unyielding as metal or stone.
Purple-black scale powder continuously fell and scattered from its gently flapping wings, mixing with snow dust and gray sand to form a chaotic mist. This mist followed the wind, spreading toward the forest below, then vanished into the dark shadows.
Within the shadows stood countless silent figures. Their eyes flickered with purple-blue light. Chaos had clouded the eyes of these beasts, corroding their minds like poison. Now, the horde had lost the ability to think. Immersed in bloodthirsty madness, they could no longer see anything other than their enemies and their "King."
Only within this black-purple mist could they find solace, maintaining a minimum level of calm.
"...Hiss."
Ordinary Black Erosion Dragons possessed no intelligence—they were merely beasts acting on instinct. But this one was different.
Flapping its wings to sweep away the accumulated snow, the dragon slowly stood up on the stone cliff, surveying the army that belonged to it. A strange light flickered in its eyes, as if it were thinking.
Purebred Black Erosion Dragons were descendants of ancient dragons that spread plague. They were born from the corpses of deeply infected frenzied beasts, reproducing like spore fungi. Deep within the Central Black Forest of the continent, hundreds or even thousands of Black Erosion Dragons lived and multiplied, but only one among them could break through its limits and awaken as a platinum-white "True God."
The dragon lost in contemplation had once been one of them. It had succeeded, yet also failed.
In its mountain nest deep within the peaks, it had broken through its limits and begun a thorough transformation amidst excruciating pain. But when it was only halfway through its metamorphosis, on the other side of the mountain range, another of its kind awakened faster than it. Through some inexplicable connection, overwhelming killing intent pierced through forests and hills, locking firmly onto the black-gold dragon. To survive, the dragon could only abandon its nest, interrupt this once-in-a-lifetime awakening, and flee in panic.
It crossed through the black forests, tore through the floating clouds, and at a speed that could traverse human and elven kingdoms in a single night, reached the southern sea where no other of its kind had ever come. Only then did it shake off the newborn golden ancient dragon that had been chasing it... At that time, still without intelligence and extremely weak, it finally breathed a sigh of relief and instinctively chose to land on an uninhabited island.
On the island, it found a hidden cave containing many human skeletons. The cave walls were covered with strange patterns, and extremely evil totems and altars emitted an ominous aura. But how could an exhausted black dragon understand such things? It quickly entered and fell into a deep sleep.
Yet even in its near-comatose slumber, the endless pain caused by the interrupted transformation continued to torment it. It was a pain that penetrated to the marrow, like ants gnawing at its bones—a torment even a dragon could not endure. Even the unintelligent black dragon couldn't help but feel doubt.
Perhaps it should not have interrupted its transformation. Instead, it should have tried with all its might to see if it could complete its awakening before the other arrived.
Perhaps, even after interrupting its awakening, it should not have fled so miserably. Instead, it should have fought with all its strength, making the enemy pay in blood even if it cost its own life.
But what difference did it make now? The past was past. It was alive now, and it only wanted to stay alive.
Endless pain, accompanied by profound despair, invaded the dragon's heart, causing its will to continuously degenerate.
And at that moment, as if sensing this sinking aura, the evil runes on the cave walls gradually lit up, and light also appeared on the altar. Soon after, a strange voice sounded within the sleeping black dragon's mind.
It was obscure dragon speech—a complex language that even the most learned scholars dared not claim mastery of. Yet it could clearly understand, and in an instant gained the wisdom to think and respond to this voice.
"Give, and receive."
"Chaos above, foolish dragon, make your choice."
...
The recollection ended. The black-gold dragon slowly closed its single eye.
What exactly it had given, and what it had received—even it could not remember clearly.
But regardless, the black dragon that now possessed intelligence knew it was no longer the failed awakened Black Erosion Dragon of the past. Chaotic power brewed and transformed within its body, spreading infection through its scale powder and virus. It was wiser than before, stronger than before.
Even within true chaos, there was order. Pure chaos meant eternal extinction. Life and soul were the most orderly chaos, or perhaps the most chaotic order...
The mission entrusted to it by the mysterious voice was to kill as many intelligent beings as possible, using their souls and flesh as sacrifices to open several seals located at the extreme north of the world. The more sacrifices, the faster the seals would open. In return, it would gain more power and longer life, and might even undergo a second awakening, completely eliminating the eternal pain caused by its failed transformation.
The sun had completely set. The light of the twin moons gradually brightened, covering the earth in silver-white radiance.
"Hsssssaaaaaaahhh!"
With the Chaos Dragon's wild roar, the originally silent black forest instantly erupted into chaos. Accompanied by footsteps like earthquakes, countless beasts infected by chaos surged forth from the black forest, their howls and cries piercing the sky.
Their target was the distant fortress.
War had begun once again.
—The Fortress
The twin moons rose.
Holding a gray ironwood staff, a woman with violet-colored hair stood on the frost-covered city wall. She silently gazed into the distance at the white mountains and black forests, and the surging tide of frenzied beasts, then let out a soft sigh.
Verdani Scarlett, a Gold-rank mage. Although her face appeared quite young due to the reshaping of her body during her advancement to Gold-rank Transcendence, it had been over a decade since she inherited the title of Count from her father and became the lord of Moldavia Territory. At thirty-three years old, she was already the mother of two children and had repelled over a dozen Black Tide invasions over the years—one could say she was experienced.
But even so, this mage who had witnessed countless storms couldn't help but feel a sense of bewilderment at the scene before her.
Blizzards poured down from the black-gray sky. Amidst the howling wind, countless magical beasts surged from the distant black forest—endless, boundless, rushing like black raging waves. Among them were tens of thousands of winter wolves, massive frost mammoths, frenzied white bears, and low-grade dragon beasts mixed together in formation. Giant bats and wyverns circling endlessly in the air were as dense as black clouds.
"Two hundred thousand..."
Counting the tide that covered the plains like floodwaters, the rapidly approaching frenzied beasts, Verdani smiled bitterly, not knowing what to say. She could only repeat softly: "Two hundred thousand magical beasts—that's practically the entire Black Forest emptying out."
The violet-haired mage's estimate was not wrong. That was exactly the case. All the magical beasts near the Great Aias Mountains had been gathered together by some entity, controlled to repeatedly charge at this crumbling fortress.
It couldn't hold out much longer.
Verdani looked at the beast horde that seemed not to have diminished at all compared to a few days ago, then looked down at the city wall beneath her feet, already covered with broken pits and cracks, and thought with some despair.