# Chapter 8: I'll Talk, I'll Talk Everything
The battle of legendary experts in the void beyond the world was about to erupt, but the battle within the Far Sea Holy Mountain had already reached a fever pitch.
Eda Gray Island was a large volcanic island spanning nearly five hundred square kilometers, with terrain descending step by step from the central holy mountain toward the coastline. Its western and northern directions featured natural deep-water bays with large ports built there. Besides these two port towns, countless temples and clergy residences were scattered across the holy mountain, serving as hubs for the magical array circuits.
But now, whether it was the southwestern port or the other scattered temples and residences, all had been set ablaze. Yellow-green corrosive mist eroded the clergy's simple wooden houses, flames melted steel, and within minutes of the holy mountain shield being breached, tens of thousands of wyverns had completely destroyed all structures on the mountain's periphery.
This was the terrifying power of high-tier magical beasts operating as an organized army. Wyverns were originally among the most powerful Silver low-to-mid-rank magical beasts, with some strong specimens rivaling young dragons. Ordinary humans needed at least a four-person team to hunt a wyvern of equal rank. Tens of thousands of wyverns collectively spraying liquid flame to bombard the ground produced an effect no less devastating than napalm carpet bombing from a previous life—and even surpassed it.
The only forces capable of opposing them were equally organized high-tier armies.
For instance, the clergy legions of the Church of the Seven Gods.
At this time, the Church of the Seven Gods had not yet formed a holy army subordinate to the holy mountain. But as Holy Light users, their natural tacit understanding (moqi) surpassed ordinary teams. Nearly thirty thousand Silver-rank and above elite clergy gathered in the central temple district at the foot of the holy mountain, using various divine spells to resist the mad dragons' relentless bombardment, defending from temples that had been converted into fortresses.
Although the ultra-large shield surrounding the holy mountain had been destroyed, the small barriers of the temples themselves remained effective. Head-sized globs of liquid flame were sprayed by wyverns in midair, raining down like hailstones onto semi-transparent grid-pattern shields. Violent explosions caused the defending priest teams to pale from the impact, but they calmly continued injecting energy into the barriers to neutralize the flames. They knew well that wyverns had limited dragon breath—after two or three full-force sprays, they would need to wait until the next day to recover. As long as they endured this period, things would become much easier afterward.
Wyverns rampaged across the entire island, but the greatest concentration was in the northeast directions—the main base of the mad dragon army. The southwest defense lines easily weathered the collective spraying of the dragon horde, but on the northern side of the central temple district, many temple barriers had already been shattered by continuous dragon breath.
Tidal waves of dragons crossed the broken barriers, crashing against the outer temple defense lines. Terrifying roars spread in all directions.
If this were an ordinary army's defense line, it would be on the verge of collapse now. Flames exceeding a thousand degrees could melt steel and kill anyone, while wyverns' sharp claws could easily tear through armor—but the Church's paladins were different. Before the barriers were about to break, they stepped forward to replace the priests maintaining them, calmly drawing their weapons. Just as the barriers shattered and countless flames descended from all directions, these knights who believed in the path of Holy Light shouted in unison and swung their weapons.
Battle Qi and Holy Light flashed. The air was split by white shockwaves. Sonic booms of surging (xiongyong) air blades not only shattered the wyverns' dragon breath but also injured many approaching wyverns.
At the same Silver rank, a paladin's strikes were no less powerful than a wyvern's charge—cutting through steel and iron as if they were nothing.
However, these knights quickly withdrew. Countless steel divine spell puppets surged from the temples to take their place at the front lines—each over two meters tall, resembling automatic armor. These divine spell constructs were the true main force (zhuli) of this battle. No one was foolish enough to engage in brutal close-quarters combat with mindless berserk wyverns; every clergy member was a precious combat asset. With accompanying chants, sacred golden radiance surged over every clergy member and puppet. The entire central temple district was instantly coated with a layer of light membrane, forming a stark contrast with the black dragon horde.
Gold and black collided. In an instant, countless severed limbs and scattered parts flew into the air.
Wielding greatswords and warhammers as large as doors, the divine spell puppets also hurled stone balls at wyverns around the temples. Their movements were relatively slow, making it difficult to hit targets, but when they did connect, they could cleanly smash a wyvern to the ground and cut it in two. At the very least, they could break limbs or tear off a wing.
Meanwhile, wyverns, relying on their massive size advantage, could easily tear apart the puppets' bodies. One side was puppets, the other berserk—both feared neither blood nor pain. The central temple district instantly became a steel meat grinder.
Under the mad dragons' fierce charge, the outermost several temple defense lines fell in moments. Most of the clergy there were killed or wounded, with only a small remnant relying on the complex terrain inside the temples to hold out. But in this war, they could accomplish little. The golden defense line was instantly dented inward by the impact of the black dragon horde.
But in return, the mad dragon horde's momentum was completely suppressed. Dragons that had broken through the defense line now faced attacks from three directions, with no room to dodge or retreat. The brutal war of attrition thus officially began.
This was merely the battle between ordinary church clergy and wyverns.
Gold-rank grand knights and judgment priests, as well as high-tier dragons, had not yet joined the battle—let alone Ultimate-rank knight commanders, high priests, and dragon lords of that level. They watched the battlefield warily, ready at any moment to respond to enemy experts of the same rank.
---
Western defense line of Gray Island.
For the Ultimate-rank Blue Dragon, [Windrider] Surarno, everything that had happened in the past year felt as incomprehensible as a dream.
Blue Dragons were synonymous with freedom and self-will. They were bound by nothing and disliked any rules. These dragons born of the sky loved soaring through the heavens, admiring beautiful scenery everywhere. Whatever happened on the ground had nothing to do with them. This type of dragon had the least contact with humans. Compared to the trivial affairs of the surface, they would rather fly toward the sun.
But a year ago, the legendary dragon who was nominally the lord of Blue Dragons, [Ceaseless Zephyr] Retia, suddenly broke character. Through blood resonance, it issued a summons to all Blue Dragons, forcefully demanding that every Blue Dragon wandering across the Mycroft World gather at the Storm Nest deep in the far seas, claiming there was something important to announce.
But as mentioned before, this type of dragon was free and self-willed. The vast majority of Blue Dragons completely ignored their nominal leader's command and continued flying through the skies of various regions—Blue Dragons lived and died in the sky, like albatrosses. Young dragons grew up on their fathers' backs. They had no nests, so naturally they couldn't be found or threatened. Authority was a joke to these dragons.
Yet somehow, Surarno inexplicably became curious. Even though now it wished it could throw its past self into the Abyss, regardless, this Ultimate-rank Blue Dragon came to the Storm Nest and met the leader Retia—as the only Blue Dragon to arrive.
Then it learned some exceptionally insane things—like how the Five-Colored Dragon Clan was going to unleash a Dragon Calamity, throwing the entire Mycroft Continent into chaos. Like how they had already gathered a mad dragon army and could soon invade the Far South Kingdom, destroying this ancient nation... Retia spoke of these things with great enthusiasm, as if everything would be easy.
Surarno was dumbfounded.
By the Dragon God above, how could they dare? This was a war against a major human nation! For dragons, whose numbers were already scarce, even a moderate loss would mean near extinction!
Surarno originally thought that was the limit. The Five-Colored Dragon Clan occasionally went mad—that wasn't strange. At worst, they could admit defeat and flee. But even more insane was that now, somehow, it found itself on the Church of the Seven Gods' holy mountain of Gray Island, fighting against all the human clergy on this continent!
By the Dragon God's horns—this was a land protected by the Seven Gods! Even if they actually captured the holy mountain, what about the Seven Gods' divine descent? Even the two Dragon Gods working together (lianshou) couldn't oppose the enraged Seven Gods of Humanity. What had the other dragons eaten to dare such a thing?!
Surarno couldn't help but suspect that among the entire Five-Colored Dragon Clan, only it had reason enough to think of these things—of course, perhaps it too was mad, otherwise why hadn't it ignored this nonsense like other Blue Dragons and freely soared in the sky?
Looking back, the beginning of these mad events could be traced to over a hundred and fifty years ago. The Black Dragon Lord [Abyssal Sea Dragon] Keano went beyond the world to search for traces of the Red Dragon Lord and Green Dragon Lord. It ultimately didn't bring back news of the two lost dragon leaders, but instead brought back a strange statue. From then on, Keano seemed somewhat off. It apparently sought out the other two legendary Five-Colored Dragons and conspired for a long time.
That was when things started going wrong.
Blue Dragons didn't like gathering in groups, nor did they care about clan news. Surarno's understanding of these matters ended there. But during its wanderings across the continent, it gradually discovered its kin becoming increasingly evil—the Five Metal Dragons followed order, while the Five-Colored Dragons were unconstrained. But that didn't mean all Five-Colored Dragons were inherently evil. At most, they were libertarian. But from that time on, news kept coming of Five-Colored Dragons attacking humans, elves, and dwarves.
The peak of this madness was a hundred years ago, when the Black Dragon Mandagar and Black Dragon Grandi joined forces (lianshou) to destroy a small human nation. This shocking tragedy forced all the human experts on the continent to march on Dragon Island, compelling the dragon clan to make compromises.
"What, that's all?"
A dissatisfied voice came. Surarno felt a sharp pain at its neck.
Of course, the most unbelievable thing was now. The free Blue Dragon thought helplessly.
It was being interrogated by a human.
Surarno's entire dragon body was embedded in the ground, like a rotting tailed lizard rolling in a mud pit, as if someone had hammered it into the earth like a nail with a mallet. On its mud-stained blue dragon neck rested a black great axe glowing with ominous blood light. Its massive body was covered with huge wounds deep enough to show bone. Blue dragon blood flowed out steadily, filling the depressions in the ground, forming pools of blood.
And in the blood pool, a black-haired, red-eyed human warrior gripped the great axe. His other hand held a silver greatsword as a walking stick. The warrior asked in an impatient tone: "I don't want to know the cause of the Dragon Calamity. I want to know where the other Ultimate-rank dragons are now. No nonsense. Since you seem to have some brains, if you tell me everything, I'll spare half your life."