Ashen Dragon

"Roar—"

A hoarse roar came from the distant sky, and as a massive bipedal wyvern with a ghostly green body emerged from the rolling black clouds, an evil cultist clad in black robes and wearing a dragonhead mask sat atop its neck.

Logan Benitez, the Dark Fang, the most cunning and ruthless leader of the Dragon Worship Cult in Northern Seleucis.

"Franz, who would have thought that a former Duke would skulk around like a rat without a burrow, fleeing with his men—truly pathetic."

Franz glared up, raising his great sword and let out a full-throated roar of anger: "Better than being human traitors like you, who willingly become the evil dragon's lackeys!"

Logan shook his head, smiled mockingly: "Franz, after running for so long, haven't you come to terms with your fate yet?"

"The great Mother of Evil Dragons will soon rule the world, and stubborn resisters like you won't even have the chance to become slaves! If you kneel now and beg for mercy, I might consider letting you sip some Dragon Blood, and become my attendant..."

"Never!" Thаnks fоr rеаding—brоught tо yоu by МVLЕМРYR.

Franz roared, grabbing his spear and hurling it skyward, slicing through the air and carving a beautiful arc in midair.

The cultist leader then pulled the reins, and the bipedal wyvern immediately raised its head high and let out a loud roar, allowing the spear to graze past and tear through Logan's black robe, leaving a bloody wound on his left shoulder.

Logan's face twisted instantly, he raised the dragonhead scepter and commanded angrily: "Go, tear them apart!"

"Roar—"

In an instant, dozens of bipedal wyverns, winged dragons, chimeras, and other monsters, tainted with filthy dragon blood, emerged from the clouds, roaring and diving towards the human soldiers who stood ready.

Corrosive liquid and poisonous water fell from the sky, eroding through the soldiers' shields and armor, causing significant casualties, while the flame breath weakened considerably in the rain.

As the monsters approached the defense line within a hundred meters, Count Franz raised the great sword and shouted a command: "All units—fire arrows!"

In an instant, over a thousand soldiers released arrows simultaneously, raining dense volleys toward the sky, swiftly piercing the frontmost monsters into sieves, causing them to plummet from the air.

Near the Sword Bay Region are several well-known cities, such as Waterdeep, Elturel, Neverwinter, etc. Waterdeep is built on the ruins of Erin Vier, the capital of the Elf Empire Ilfaen, possessing numerous divine temples. The Miracle Temple is the most magnificent Magic Goddess Temple in the game, featuring splendid towers adorned with various artworks and magical decorations, in a grand Baroque style, while Neverwinter City leans more towards Gothic architecture. It is the earliest human settlement, developed over nearly a century after Aegostor's formation, whereas the main city Bod Gate, becomes the largest and most prosperous trade city-state in the Sword Bay Region, a mix of nobles and commoners, thieves, regarded by adventurers as a "breeding bed for conspiracies." Bod Gate is named after a hero, Grey Port adventurer Bodlan, who once explored the continent beyond Sword Sea, returning with wealth to Grey Port, leading a team to establish a city here. Depending on the residents' status, Bod Gate is divided into the noble Upper City and the commoner Lower District, as well as the Outer City scattered around Chenyi Mountain, and the gate that separates the Upper City from the Lower District is called Bod Gate, naming the entire city and serving as a monument to the city's founder Bodlan. Currently, Bod Gate is governed by a council of four Great Dukes, one of whom is the leader of the council. If the vote ends in a tie, decisions are made by the Great Duke Elder Ravenclaw. The Upper City's security is overseen by the elite official police force known as the Guard, while the other areas are secured by a mercenary group called the Flaming Fist. Elder Ravenclaw is also the supreme leader of the mercenary group, with its headquarters located in Bodlan Sea Tower, the strongest fortress defending against seaborne invasions. Like a crescent wrapping around Bod Gate's economic lifeline—Gray Harbor, with hundreds of merchant ships docking daily, bringing gold coins, and also greed and sin. The Upper City is situated relatively high, composed of Castle District, Temple District, Manoburn District, and Wide Alley District, with numerous religious buildings, Miracle Hall, and Supreme Miracle House, serving as the church center of the God of Craft Gund within Bod Gate, Miracle Hall showcasing Gund's great inventions, and Supreme Miracle House doubling as a workshop. The Lower District largely consists of stone houses, comprising six districts: Sea Tower District, Blonrich District, Steep District, Crowded Side District, East Road District, and Branpton District. The middle class generally resides in Blonrich District near the wealthy of the Upper City, while East Road District, which connects to the Outer District's Stone Lizard Gate, is more mixed. It features many bustling bars and cheap taverns. The Sea Tower District houses the Flaming Fist mercenary group's station, near the largest rock island offshore from there, constructing the mercenary group headquarters Bodlan Sea Tower. Branpton District and Steep District are relatively more dilapidated, serving as residential communities for sailors and labor workers. The Outer City is distributed along the Chongsar River, aggregating temporary buildings and tenements such as slums, with the landmark of a stone bridge spanning the Chongsar River known as Flying Dragon Crossroad, hosting many vendors, even expanding the bridge surface with planks and adding numerous structures on top, where law and order barely exist, with the Flaming Fist mercenary group's ability to maintain security being very limited. Many impoverished individuals or criminals unable to settle in the city gather here. Moss on the sewer vault glows ghostly green under dim phosphorescent lights, turbid sewage floods over the boot bottoms, each step eliciting thick "glug" sounds. Purple-black slime seeps from wall cracks, aggregating towards drains like veins - a unique neural corrosive substance from the Spirit Sucking Monster Nest, inhaled by ordinary people, causes auditory hallucinations as though countless tiny tendrils writhe in the ear canal. Suddenly, a misaligned "click" sound comes from a broken cast iron pipe, as if something is twisting through narrow spaces. A spirit sucking monster bursts from the water, its pale humanoid body covered in detritus, with octopus-like head tendrils vibrating at high frequencies, unleashing visible purple mind shock wave ripples. The foremost guard's helmet is dented, and his eyeballs burst into a bloody mist under skull pressure; the second person doesn't even scream before tendrils pierce his ear hole, and his spinal cord is extracted like a puppet string. The only survivor staggers back, the misfire of his firearm drowned out entirely by the low-frequency shrieks collectively emitted by the spirit sucking monsters. These creatures have evidently undergone tactical training. Two feint attackers use tendrils to splash the water surface, causing a fog of corrosive liquid to obscure sight; the third hangs down from the ceiling, adhering to the guard's skull with suckers, with tendrils precisely piercing through the occipital hole—not immediately fatal but manipulating the captive like a puppet, forcing him to turn around and clumsily use trembling hands to load ammo for his companions' firearms. At this moment, the fourth spirit sucking monster uses finger bone blades to vivisect the fallen guard's chest cavity, extracting warm liver and stuffing it into its oral cavity, pale yellow digestive juices drip from its jaw, fuming on the ground. Three patrolling guards have just raised their lanterns when the sewage suddenly bursts open! Four spirit-sucking parasites haven't completely died. The remnants of the guard's body suddenly twitch and rise, translucent infant spirit sucking monster tendrils protrude from the neck gash, pupils dilate into murky milky white. He grabs a dagger and stabs towards his former battle companion, squeezing out an inhuman synthesized voice from his throat: "Skulls...for the Master Brain..." However, the true horror just begins to reveal—distant sewage pools start boiling, more pale figures emerge from the waters, dragging numerous captives wrapped in slime cocoons, those human faces contorted into silent screams beneath the cocoon shells.