novelraw Chapter 429: Awakening, the Formidable Red Iron Dragon
Chapter 429: Awakening, the Formidable Red Iron Dragon
Four legendary giant dragons from the Raging Tides Dragon Domain appeared in the sky above Garoth’s sleeping ground.
Each of them radiated a vast, ocean-like dragon might, not ordinary legendary presences.
Leading them was an elder gold dragon whose scales shone brilliantly, named Kelton, his voice booming like thunder; beside him stood a silver dragon with an elegant bearing, though her face was currently frosted with cold; another had eyes sharp as lightning, a bronze dragon; the last had deep blue scales and spiral hornlets on his head, clearly one of the rarer Sea Emperor Dragons among the kin.
Their expressions were stern, their overwhelming dragon might displayed without concealment, clearly indicating hostile intent.
“Ovis.” The gold dragon elder Kelton spoke first, his voice rolling like waves, “It has been five years. Your Vophal Dragon Domain has delayed this for five whole years. Today, you must hand over Garoth Ignas to us, so we can take him back to the Raging Tides Dragon Domain to face judgment.”
Across from him, Ovis’s massive golden body stood firm, showing no sign of retreat.
On his resplendent golden scales, sacred vow runes representing oaths of honor were lighting up one after another, emitting a resolute and holy glow.
His mate, also a legendary battle dragon named Astrid, stood slightly behind his flank.
Her dragon qi had condensed into something almost palpable and burned fiercely around her, and her dragon pupils flashed a plainly unhidden warlike light.
“Kelton, the truth has not been fully established. I will not hand Garoth over to any dragon under such unclear circumstances.”Ovis’s tone was decisive, leaving no room for maneuver.
“Establish the facts? What facts are you still waiting for?! Siano was ripped to pieces alive — that is indisputable! That he carried filthy evil dragon blood is also a fact!”
The silver dragon elder let out an indignant roar, her voice trembling slightly from agitation.
“Ovis! How can you disregard kinship and favor a single red iron dragon — what are your intentions? Are you going to betray our metallic dragons’ common stance?!”
The female silver dragon was named Phiniel, and she was Siano’s biological mother, the bronze dragon.
As for Siano’s bronze dragon father, he had already died in battle when Siano was still a Young Dragon, slain in a brutal suppression campaign against the Helmod dragon host.
That campaign had been led by three legendary ancient dragons, a powerful blue dragon force.
They had entrenched themselves in the Boiling Sea and long been a thorn in the side of the Raging Tides Dragon Domain.
“Favoritism? I defend the dragons’ justice and untarnishable honor, not some dragons blinded by private vendettas and narrow prejudice,” Ovis replied steadily, refusing to be swayed by Phiniel’s sharp accusations.
At the same time, the gold dragon Astrid beside him gave a dismissive laugh and taunted, “You couldn’t keep your offspring in line, let him go astray, and now he dies — serves you right.”
She paused, her tone growing sharper: “Or perhaps, as his mother, you must also bear some responsibility for his death?”
“After all, you did not teach him what true justice is, or how obsession driven by hatred looks.”
Those words poured oil on the fire, instantly escalating the conflict to a boil.
Phiniel’s eyes filled with grief and rage, surging to their peak; her dragon pupils fixed on Astrid with a glare that seemed ready to breathe flames.
“Want to start a fight? Just what I wanted! My claws have been idle far too long, they’re itching.”
The bronze dragon, unafraid and even showing a flushed excitement, hooked a claw at the air in a challenger’s gesture, looking eager and ready.
“Everyone, you should be of one branch and share one enemy.”
“Why stir trouble over a single elder who bears evil dragon blood, injuring our harmony?”
The deep-blue Sea Emperor Dragon spoke with a relatively calm tone, attempting to mediate: “Hand Astrid over to you and you give dragonly guarantees, and you will not mistreat her; just take me back to the Raging Tides to fully investigate from a broader perspective and settle the dispute.”
Ovis shook his head slightly, his stance unbending.
His voice was low: “I have been clear. I will not hand Garoth over to any dragon.”
“Even if the Bronze Dragon King who rules the Raging Tides Dragon Domain were to appear in person, my answer would be the same.”
Astrid spat in the direction of the Sea Emperor Dragon with blatant disrespect and said, “Stop playing mediator! You barged onto our island without so much as a greeting, and now put on this act.”
“Is this how you negotiate? This is blatant bullying under the guise of strength!”
“Less talk. If you want to fight, then fight. Don’t stall around here!”
Hearing this, the Sea Emperor Dragon glanced with a trace of helplessness and silently shook his head, saying no more.
He had accompanied them to avoid matters escalating beyond control and had intended to remain neutral, but now his mediation felt futile in the tense atmosphere.
“You shelter a murderer! And that pair of offspring of yours lack the dignity and bearing proper to metallic dragons! I say your family’s bloodline and ideals have long been polluted; you are the degenerate among the dragon race!”
Phiniel lost control and roared.
She had shed the usual silver dragon grace and composure, replaced by ferocity steeped in hatred.
Kelton the gold dragon and the bronze elder accompanying her also donned hostile expressions, their dragon might condensing further, the air thick with gunpowder.
Ovis and Astrid refused to back down; their muscles tensed, power coursed through their bodies, readying them for battle.
Just as both sides bristled, the atmosphere razor-tight and a conflict about to ignite.
“Stop! That’s enough!”
“Fighting among metallic dragons is disgraceful!”
Powerful auras surged simultaneously from the Vophal Dragon Domain’s main island and other directions, rapidly descending onto the island.
They were other elders of the Vophal Dragon Domain.
They had detected the abnormal energy fluctuations and the standoff and rushed to impose order.
“Kelton, Phiniel… you four barged onto Ovis’s private island without invitation or prior notice; what is your intention?”
“Are you trying to start a war between our domains?”
A senior gold dragon elder of Vophal spoke first, his tone severe.
The Raging Tides dragons, aware they were in the wrong, were momentarily at a loss for words.
But Phiniel was now consumed by the pain of losing her child and by raging anger, ignoring rules and reason.
She furiously lashed her long dragon tail, smacking the air with a harsh sound, roaring, “I am a mother! I only want to see the monster who brutally killed my only son — is that not allowed?”
“My son… Siano… he was torn to pieces alive! No intact remains!”
“Even if he acted wrongly and was impulsive, does he deserve such torturous treatment?!”
Her voice choked with grief and indignation as she continued: “My mate died protecting the dragon domain’s peace, slain by an evil dragon’s claws! My son, because of his father’s fate, came to hate evil dragons — is that a crime?!”
“Now he followed his father’s path and died because of evil dragons!”
“And that monster covered in my son’s blood now lives safely under your Vophal Dragon Domain’s protection, receiving treatment and consolidating the breakthrough he achieved by killing my son.”
“This is an outrageous joke.”
“How can you act like this and face those kin who sacrificed themselves to fight evil dragons? How can you face the justice and honor you claim to worship?!”
Ovis’s eyes flickered with complexity at her words.
He understood a mother’s pain, but principles must not be confused.
He calmed his surging aura from the confrontation and said in a low voice, “Phiniel, I understand your grief and genuinely sympathize with what you have suffered.”
“But please do not attempt to cloud the facts and twist right and wrong.”
“Garoth did not kill your mate, and the death of your son was only a forced retaliation when he was on the brink of death! Remember, he was the most innocent victim in this assault.”
“Siano’s death was the consequence of his own choice to take an extreme path; it is his own doing.”
The old gold dragon spoke with clear, forceful logic.
Yet a soul clouded by anger and sorrow struggles to accept such reason.
If wise beings could so easily cross the chasms of hatred and stance to reach mutual understanding, so many disputes, conflicts, and enduring hatreds in the world would not be so numerous and hard to resolve.
“Don’t give me that sanctimonious rubbish.”
“Today, I, Phiniel, must see that red-iron evil dragon! I will demand blood for my poor son!”
She shook her head violently, her stance unyielding.
Just as the words full of fury and resolution left Phiniel’s mouth, an abrupt change occurred.
Beneath the legendary dragons, the broad lake surface that had been rippling under the weight of dragon might suddenly began to ripple violently from within without warning!
These ripples did not come from the aerial confrontation or the sea wind.
Their source seemed to be the very depths of the lake’s center.
In the blink of an eye, the ripples swelled into a surging undertow; the entire lake churned as if boiling, great waves rolling.
Hum—!
A heavy, scorching, metallic, ringing-hot dragon might rose from the lake’s center.
This pressure was concentrated and immense.
All the legendary dragons in the sky felt a chill, and, with puzzled and wary eyes, they simultaneously paused their quarrel and lowered their heads to look at the roiling lake surface.
Crash—!!
The lake exploded open.
A black-and-red dragon shadow, as if forged from metal and flame together, tore through the layered water curtain.
He forcefully leaped from the water, sending up a storm of splashing droplets like shattered jade.
Those flying droplets were instantly vaporized in midair by the searing heat that naturally radiated from his body, becoming vast plumes of white steam that rolled and accentuated the ferocity and majesty of the newly emerged titan.
At the center of the storm vortex was the red iron dragon, Garoth Ignas.
After five years of immersion in the Stillness Spring and transformation, this red iron dragon was not what he had been.
His black-red scales looked as if they had undergone deeper tempering, layered and flowing with an indestructible quality, covered with countless fine and profound battle-hardened patterns that told of an extraordinary past.
From head to tail, his body now measured an astonishing three thousand five meters.
His physique was still incredibly powerful, every muscle brimming with explosive force, yet his overall outline no longer exaggerated; it instead presented something approaching perfection.
Wings, claws, tail…
Every part of his body seemed subtly refined, harmonized with one another.
Not looking like something attained through later evolution, he seemed to have been born nearly perfect.
He was like an already high-quality ingot of iron, forged and hammered until impurities were purged, becoming purer, tougher, hundred-times forged steel.
Though Garoth had only recently reached the Legendary realm five years ago, merely standing there he made the surrounding legendary giants sense his formidable presence; he did not resemble a freshly ascended Legendary dragon.
Garoth’s gaze swept over the legendary dragons and finally fixed on the most emotionally charged figure, Phiniel.
He had not been awakened by the other legendary dragons.
About a month earlier he had already woken naturally, but remained within the Stillness Spring to carefully probe and familiarize himself with the changes after his breakthrough, consolidating his new domain and traits.
He had heard, clearly, all the arguments and disputes that took place above the lake.
He felt it was time to show himself and face all of it.
“You… are Garoth Ignas?!”
Phiniel’s voice trembled from the extreme emotion.
She stared at the red iron dragon who had emerged from the water and killed her son, her gaze filled with hostility and pain.
“Yes.”
Garoth’s voice was even, without ripple.
“You finally show yourself! Evil dragon! I want your blood debt paid in blood, for my poor son’s life!”
Phiniel roared in grief and rage, dragon breath gathering rapidly in her throat, flickering with a dangerous, deadly sheen.
“Repay with life?”
There was no guilt in Garoth’s eyes, nor even a trace of fear, only a deep, steady calm. “Lady Phiniel, I understand and sympathize with your pain of losing kin.”
His tone remained calm, then his words turned sharp as blades.
“But tell me this: when your descendant, a noble legendary dragon, disregards status, honor, and law to launch a vicious murder attempt against me, a younger dragon visiting the domain, what was I supposed to do?”
“Should I have offered my throat, thus enabling his evil act cloaked in justice?”
“Or because he is your son, or claims revenge or purification as his banner, does his murder magically become forgivable?”
“My self-defense, the struggle I made to survive, is that unforgivable cruelty?!”
“Besides, why would I target him instead of some other dragon?”
Garoth’s words were logically precise and struck at Phiniel’s attempt to blur right and wrong with pathos.
The surrounding legendary dragons, who did not know Garoth well, were deeply impressed by his calm rebuttal.
Even they, in Garoth’s position, would likely have found it hard to remain so composed.
That he, the true victim, could respond so coherently to such specious accusations proved the strength of his mind and clarity of thought.
No wonder that old Ovis valued him so much.
This red iron dragon… was indeed extraordinary.
“You twist facts!”
The silver dragon’s breath stalled and she halted the brewing of her dragon breath, retorting.
“Have you no fault at all? If not for the filthy evil dragon blood coursing through you, my son would not have…”
Phiniel, momentarily at a loss for a comeback, could only double down on bloodline.
“Bloodline?” Garoth cut in, a curve forming on his lips. “So in your view, the standard for judging a dragon’s good or evil is not based on actions and choices, but on innate bloodline?”
The silver dragon nearly shouted, “Yes!”
“Your bloodline determines that you are fated to walk the path of evil and chaos! It is a nature engraved in your bones! Your current calm and argument is just a cunning disguise.”
Upon hearing this, Garoth did not grow angry; he smiled.
His gaze swept the assembled dragons, his voice carrying clearly across the sky.
“You learned elders surely know that the Platinum Dragon God, who upholds justice and order, and the Immortal Dragon Queen, who represents chaos and destruction, were in ancient times of the same origin.”
“From a bloodline theory perspective, those two also share a common root.”
His eyes returned to Phiniel as he asked, “Lady Phiniel, by your logic, is the Platinum Dragon God thereby also destined for evil?”
Was she just slapping labels on and magnifying a sliver?
This line of reasoning was far too easy for him.
The red iron dragon threw it out, pushing it to its limits and placing a crushing label on the silver dragon.
“You… you dare…!”
Phiniel’s face paled instantly; her scales trembled with fury, but she found no words to refute Garoth’s heart-piercing line.
Garoth barely glanced at her, his dragon might slightly restrained yet became more concentrated.
His voice was like steel striking: “I, Garoth Ignas, judge deeds by the heart, not by origin.”
“Whoever seeks to kill me must be prepared to be killed by me, whether they are a Five-Colored Dragon, a wilderness beast, or… a metallic dragon like you who pretends to be righteous but is like an evil dragon.”
His massive body moved forward a step, exerting an invisible pressure, his eyes burning as he stared directly at Phiniel.
“Want to avenge your son? I understand, and I accept that bloodline-born hatred.”
“Come. I stand before you.”
“Challenge me — let it be in the oldest, simplest way among us dragons.”
“Let the elders here witness: I, Garoth Ignas, will accept your challenge and fight a duel of life and death that decides nothing by right or wrong.”
The silver dragon trembled and was about to agree.
“Calm down! Phiniel!”
A bronze dragon hurriedly stopped her.
Phiniel herself was not an elder; though a legendary dragon, her rank was not exceptionally high, and she had spent most of her life in a relatively peaceful domain, lacking true life-or-death combat experience.
If she rashly agreed to this duel, the consequences would be unpredictable.
Garoth was marked by battle-hardened patterns and was a domain champion.
Even newly broken through, he was far stronger than ordinary legendary dragons — not to be trifled with.
The Sea Emperor Dragon elder sighed again, his eyes full of complexity.
He looked at the nearly out-of-control Phiniel and said, “Phiniel, enough, let this be the end of it.”
“You have seen the one you wished to see; we should return to the Raging Tides. Continued entanglement will only shame the deceased and plunge the living deeper into pain and cycles of hatred.”
He then turned his attention to Garoth with a serious tone: “Garoth… your words carry weight.”
“I can see you are not an ordinary evil dragon, but once the seed of hatred is planted, it is hard to eradicate. Be careful and govern yourself.”
On the surface a warning, but beneath it a hint of goodwill.
Garoth bowed his head slightly in response and said nothing further.
Phiniel glared at him, then, without another word, flapped her wings and flew away at full speed, not looking back; the other dragons followed suit.
The island returned to calm.
A near-explosion of legendary conflict ended with Garoth’s appearance and his uncompromising stance.
The tense atmosphere slowly normalized.
“Your dragon might is fierce, it seems you gained much.” The old gold dragon looked at Garoth curiously and asked, “How many traits have you developed, five, six?”
The red iron dragon stretched his wings, nodded, and said, “Hmm, about that.”
He did not give a specific number.