"Roar--"

A long, loud dragon roar spread over a hundred miles. The powerful dragon might slowly descended, causing everyone to feel their shoulders sink and they couldn't help but bow down in worship.

"laugh--"

There was a sound of air bursting, followed by a whistling wind.

A red dragon over forty meters long flapped its wings, stirring up a scorching hurricane, and leaped up from the top of the Istalia Altar accompanied by flashing sparks.

The sunlight shone on the red dragon's red scales, covering his entire body with a faint, blurry halo, like a god descending to the earth.

The broad dragon wings blocked out the sun and cast a huge shadow, covering the thousands of imperial citizens below. All the people in the shadow were not afraid at all, but were filled with excitement and felt extremely honored.

Under the shadow of the red dragon's wings, this might be a sign of death in other regions, but in the Burning Empire it is a symbol of glory and luck.

"Cassius above"

“It’s an honor.”

"Your Majesty, he is right above my head!"

People looked up at the sky, and hundreds of thousands of eyes were focused on the majestic and huge dragon body, with feelings of awe and reverence arising spontaneously.

And among the crowd shrouded in shadows, there was a hooded half-elf disguised as an Imperial merchant - he was Richard, a double agent for the Empire and the Harpers.

At this moment, he was looking up at the giant dragon in the sky with numb eyes. His expression was extremely complicated, as if he had lost his soul.

"Cassius above"

Having lived undercover in the empire for several years, this sentence even became his catchphrase, and he said it subconsciously.

Several years ago, at the coronation ceremony that shocked the continent, Richard understood one thing - that dragon, that Burning Emperor, was not something that could be defeated by human power.

He was afraid that he would never be able to defeat this "enemy" in his lifetime, let alone take revenge. His only goal was to rescue Abil, return to the south, and live a peaceful life with her.

However, just now, Richard saw a scene that made him feel completely desperate——

I saw a familiar figure appear on the altar, with a tall figure, emerald green pupils, and pointed ears unique to elves.

Is it her, Abil, the elf ranger from Serenia, the lover whom he longed for and who appeared in his dreams countless times?

But now, she stood on the Great Altar of Istalia, looking up at the red dragon in the sky with fanaticism, waiting to receive the emperor's gift.

Richard didn't even dare to show his loss and despair too obviously, and had to force a smile, otherwise he would easily be mistaken for a spy by people nearby and be exchanged for gold coins.

Within the empire, this even spawned a special industry where some people made a living, so spies were affectionately called "fifty gold" by the people of the empire.

"No, that's impossible."

Richard was pale, and his trembling voice was drowned out by the cheers of the crowd.

"Long live His Majesty Cassius!"

"Long live the Empire!"

"For the Great Red Dragon!"

Amid the roar of the crowd around him, Richard felt silence all around him. He looked at the distant figure and even heard a sharp buzzing sound in his ears.

He saw that the elf on the altar was also cheering. Her face was ruddy and her eyes were fanatical, not much different from the imperial people around her.

According to the half-red dragon announcer, Abil is a typical example of "turning over a new leaf and converting to the empire" and is the first elf to join the empire.

She was brainwashed too!

Richard's mind flashed with the words he had read in the Empire Daily:

"The soul of the recipient will be blessed. He will be forever loyal to the empire and follow the great Burning Emperor forever and ever."

"No, Abil, you cannot become the emperor's concubine."

Richard muttered to himself and couldn't help but stretch out his hand into the distance, as if to touch the elf's body, but the other party just looked up at the sky devoutly and didn't pay any attention to him at all.

He also knew that if he really tried to stop the ceremony, not only would he be imprisoned, but Abil would also suffer a bad fate.

But if he stood idly by, Abil would become the emperor's soul slave, never to be rescued, and they would never be able to go back to the way they were before.

"Abil, no."

Suddenly, a suffocating feeling of powerlessness surged into Richard's heart, as if an invisible hand had strangled his throat, leaving him only able to utter desperate whispers.

He used to be full of vigor and vitality. He signed a contract with the wild goblins and thought he could become a legendary hero who could save the world.

And now, Richard has long realized that he is just a mortal who cannot control his destiny.

In front of a behemoth like the Burning Empire, in front of the god-like emperor, he is nothing more than an insignificant speck of dust.

Trying his best to raise his head, looking up at the giant dragon rising into the sky and its wings covering the sky, Richard's eyes revealed a hint of despair.

"No"

However, at this moment, in this warm atmosphere, in this glorious and sacred moment, almost everyone was looking up at the emperor's majestic figure, and no one noticed Richard's abnormality.

The ceremony is still going on, and the Burning Emperor is still hanging high in the sky, like the rising and setting sun, and will not change due to the will of any mortal.

"Roar--"

The red dragon raised its head and roared again.

The dragon's roar became more majestic and powerful, sweeping across the sky and the earth, echoing throughout Anzeta, causing all living beings to tremble and look up in the direction of the city of Istalia.

Cassius spread his wide wings with a wingspan of nearly sixty meters, and flames burst out from the edge of the wing membrane, spreading wildly to both sides.

The entire sky seemed to be torn apart by the flaming wings that spanned thousands of meters across the sky.

"Shh-"

The red dragon Huan flapped its wings slowly, and in an instant, flames splashed everywhere. The whole of Istalia was shrouded in hazy firelight and filled with hot air.

"it's time"

Cassius mobilized the blood power in his body. His burning heart was beating, the hot ancestral dragon blood was flowing in his basal blood vessels, and sulfur-smelling smoke was spewing out of his pores.

The surging light passed through the body, gradually gathered towards the chest, and finally gathered in the dragon crystal.

At this moment, the red dragon hung high in the sky, casting a brilliant light that even blocked out the sunlight, just like the real sun in the sky.

People were blinded by the dazzling light, but they were still extremely pious and kept praying.

"Cassius above"

"Praise the Burning Emperor!"

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty is the eternal sun of the empire!"

Then, Cassius' rumbling voice echoed between heaven and earth, rushing across the vast wasteland, roaring like thunder.

"As the Burning Emperor, I hereby declare that I will bring destruction to those who are enemies of the Empire!"

"Whoosh-"

As soon as the words fell, a sharp explosion was heard, and meteors fell from the sky, crashing into the crowded crowd amid people's horrified and surprised gazes.

Several panicked "people" were hit, their skins burned, revealing their true faces as demons, and they burned to ashes amidst their shrill wails.

The flames burned all the demons hiding in the crowd without hurting anyone else.

"There is still a demon in the empire, and it was hiding next to us just now!"

"Fortunately, your majesty is very observant! He saw through the true face of the devil!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty! Praise the Burning Emperor!"

People didn't know that these demons were deliberately released into the city by Cassius just to build momentum for the bestowal ceremony.

In the crowded crowd, Richard quietly wiped his cold sweat. He thought that the omniscient emperor saw through his rebellious thoughts and rained down his wrath. Now it seems that he was a little too nervous.

How could such a being care about a tiny ranger like myself?

The thunderous sound continued and the air was shaking slightly, as if the death of a dozen demons was just a trivial episode.

"And for those who are loyal to the Empire - I will also grant him supreme glory and let him gain eternal power!"

Beams of light shot down from the sky, like a bond connecting heaven and earth, and fell onto the people on the Istalia Altar, enveloping them in light.

"No"

"Abil"

Looking at the gradually blurred figure, Richard fell into complete despair. He stretched out his hand weakly into the distance, his eyes dimming.

Cassius slowly clenched his claws, and the surging power of his ancestral bloodline in his body completely erupted.

He has already refined a lot of ancestral dragon blood. The power brought by this gift is absolutely unprecedented, and it can even allow some of his followers to reach the level of true dragons.

[Blood Gift]

Suddenly, with those beams of light as the bond, the bodies, minds and even souls of Emperor Burning Cinders and his followers were connected.

"what."

Under the influence of this force, everyone on the Istalia Altar involuntarily knelt on the ground or even curled up their bodies.

Red scales gradually rose under their skin, sulfur-smelling smoke spewed out of their mouths and noses, horns protruded from their foreheads, and the changes in those with strong bloodlines were even more shocking.

The earth elf Doro was half-kneeling on the ground, sweat all over his body, with hot white smoke curling around him. There was a huge bulge on his back, like a volcano about to erupt, and it seemed that it was about to burst his skin.

In the pain of transformation, he clenched his teeth, his sharp fangs protruding, and smoke spewed out from the gaps between his teeth.

"His-"

Suddenly, there was a sound of skin tearing, and the hobgoblin suddenly raised his head, stretched out his arms, and let out a heart-wrenching roar of pain.

Then, the newly born dragon wings suddenly spread out behind him, soaked in blood, and splashed countless blood drops around.

With heavy breathing, the dragon-vein earth spirit, which was nearly four meters tall, rose into the air, stirring up gusts of hot wind.

"Ow—"

It was a long roar like a dragon's roar.

The dragon vein ogre standing on the top of the altar also let out a dull growl. He was also half-kneeling on the ground. Even in this position, he was more than three meters tall.

Under the cover of that light, Trump's body rose and fell with his breathing, constantly expanding, and the scales on his body became increasingly dense.

There were also two bulges on the ogre's back, as if something was about to be born inside.

Suddenly, there was another sound of flesh being torn apart, and two wings tore through flesh and skin, appearing behind Rump. They flapped continuously, making a buzzing sound - but this did not allow the ogre to leave the ground even a little bit.

Trump is now nearly ten meters tall and extremely fat. Just standing there he looks like a heavy mountain.

But his wings are only about one meter long. Rather than wings, they look more like pocket-sized decorations.

"Roar--"

The ogre felt the dragon power surging in his body, opened his bloody mouth full of fangs, and let out a satisfied roar.

But he soon noticed the pair of tiny wings behind him, and when he saw the giant earth elf taking off into the air not far away, the happy smile on his ugly face suddenly froze.

"Uh-huh."

Beside him, Tiefling Medorash was also half-kneeling on the ground, making a suppressed sound.

He had missed an award before, and his dragonization level was far lower than that of Dolo and Trump.

After the light enveloped the Tiefling, thick white smoke gushed out of his body, his red skin scales bulged, and the devil blood of the Nine Hells was suppressed by the ancestral dragon blood.

Almost instantly, his ram-like devil horns bent backwards and gradually transformed into the swept-back horns of a red dragon.

And the devilish long tail became even thicker, with scales and frills growing on its surface, turning into a giant dragon's tail.

"Ow—"

The white dragon Tinija roared.

She didn't care about her image at all. She curled up on the ground, flapping her wings wildly and twisting her body constantly.

Because he was worried that the blood gift would conflict with the blood of her ancestral white dragon, Cassius also deliberately removed some of the red dragon's fire characteristics for her.

But even so, the blood power that suddenly surged into her body still made her feel extremely painful, and she couldn't help but wail.

The ferocious and huge body of the white dragon expanded several times at a speed visible to the naked eye, and its body became more sturdy, closer to the stronger and more powerful red dragon - rather than the weak and thin white dragon.

Its wing membrane takes on a blue color similar to that of metal burning in fire, becomes wider, and the trailing edge of the wing membrane connects to the body far behind the hind legs and below the tail.

"Ow!"

"For the Burning Empire!"

In the light of surging flames and smoke, the dragon-blooded nobles roared and growled, and grew scales and dragon horns.

Their physical form became increasingly similar to that of the common and supreme emperor of the people of the empire - Cassius the Burning Dragon.

"Great Red Dragon"

"What a noble appearance! These dragon-blood nobles have become even more powerful!"

"It is said that even the lowest-ranking Dragon Blood Baron can live for more than 200 years."

"Yes, this is the gift from His Majesty. I really hope that one day I can stand on that altar."

The people below looked at the dragon-blood nobles who were undergoing transformation, their expressions filled with envy and longing.

After all, as long as you become a dragon-blood noble, you can become an absolute vested interest in the imperial system and enjoy countless benefits.

But among the crowd, there was a hooded man with a desperate look and a choked and hoarse voice.

“No, no
Abil, you shouldn’t be like this.”

Richard stared at the figure in the beam of light, and witnessed with his own eyes that the figure that haunted him became more and more hideous.

Dragon horns, scales, and sharp claws grew out of the body of the usually proud elf. The newborn dragon vein elf looked at the red dragon in the sky fanatically, shouting "Long live the dragon" repeatedly, which made Richard feel extremely unfamiliar and he kept shaking his head.

But he knew that he couldn't stop it.

After this gift, Richard had completely given up hope of returning to the South and living an ordinary life with Abil.

So, he had no choice.

The only thing he could do was to continue being a double agent for the Burning Empire, protecting the other party's life in secret while looking for a way to lift this "curse".

"Abil, I will get you out of here"

Thinking of this, Richard pulled down his hood, and his clenched fists began to turn white.

"As expected of the bloodline of the ancestral dragon, the bloodline pressure of those two dukes is almost catching up with that of a real dragon."

Hundreds of meters in the sky, in the center of the flaming wings that stretched for thousands of meters, Cassius narrowed his eyes slightly, and a hint of anticipation flashed in his light golden pupils.

He lowered his head, staring at the invisible power in his claws, and whispered, "It's time to verify this new power."

"Wow."

He suddenly clenched his claws, and a surging force of law suddenly gushed out from the invisible authority, and countless crystal fragments fell down.

【The Divine Authority Granted by the King】(End of this chapter)