Chapter 42: The Devourer’s Return

Chapter 42: Chapter 42: The Devourer’s Return

​"What is the bad news, Droogen?" the City Lord asked in a surprisingly cheerful mood.

​He sat comfortably on his frosted throne, looking exactly like a handsome human noble, except for the elegant blue horns protruding from his forehead. He hailed from a rare, ancient lineage of Ice Dragons.

Just by sitting there, he radiated an aura of profound, freezing coolness that kept the grand hall heavily chilled.

​The elderly attendant knelt on the frosted marble floor and fearfully replied.

​"There is a new hunter in our city, My Lord. He has completely paralyzed the Northern Gate."

​The City Lord took a slow sip from his crystal glass of frost-wine and chuckled softly.

​"A hunter?" the City Lord sounded thoroughly amused.

"Why on earth are you bothering me with such trivial peasant matters, Droogen? If some reckless commoner is poaching wild beasts in the outer woods, let the city guards handle it. I am trying to enjoy my quiet evening."

​Droogen trembled so violently that his knees audibly knocked against the hard floor.

​"You do not understand, My Lord. He is not hunting wild beasts. He is hunting us. He is hunting dragons."

​Hearing that, the cheerful smile slowly faded from the City Lord’s face, and the temperature in the grand hall hit freezing low.

​"Explain yourself clearly, Droogen. Who exactly is hunting my kind inside my own city walls?"

​"We don’t know exactly. But The survivors are calling him the Usurper. But the merchants who witnessed the massacre have given him a much worse title. They call him the Dragon Devourer. He is just a human boy, but he wields terrifying dark magic."

​"Oh, a Dark Magician, is it?" The City Lord set his crystal glass down.

He then walked to the open windown, overlooking the entire night sky.

​"A Dragon Devourer, huh? That is an incredibly arrogant title for a human to claim. Tell me exactly what this insect did."

Drroogen explained patiently,

​"He intercepted Baron Arklong’s elite search party. Witnesses swear the boy summoned some kind of black mist that dissolved their steel armor and ate their flesh alive. He consumed their living bodies completely. There wasn’t even a drop of blood left behind on the streets."

After this, the City Lord’s glowing blue eyes narrowed into sharp slits.

"He consumed their physical bodies, you say? Why does that sound so incredibly familiar? It is as if I have heard of this exact magic before."

​He fell into a deep, contemplative silence, tapping his pale fingers against the frosted throne.

"I once read about this specific kind of dark power in an ancient text hidden within the royal library. But I cannot quite remember the name of the wielder. Let me think..."

​"The Godless Hero..."

​All of a sudden, a mysterious third voice echoed softly throughout the freezing hall.

​The City Lord’s eyes widened like saucers upon hearing the forbidden title.

​"Yes, yes! The Godless Hero!" he blurted out, instinctively agreeing with the prompt.

​Just a second later, the horrifying realization struck him.

​"Who goes there?" the City Lord shouted in alarm, leaping up from his icy throne.

​He hurriedly scanned the grand hall to find the source of the voice, but he found absolutely no one hiding in the shadows. Only his elderly attendant, Droogen, was present, wearing a deeply puzzled expression on his wrinkled face.

​

​"Who is this Godless Hero, My Lord? Did you say this Usurper’s powers were similar to hers?" Droogen asked nervously, still glancing around the empty hall.

​The City Lord slowly turned around. The previous arrogance had completely vanished from his face. He was now dead serious.

​"The Godless Hero... According to the most ancient, forbidden texts, she was the absolute epitome of defiance and destruction. She was born as a girl, yet every single human, dragon, and demon learned to tremble at her title.

​"Five centuries ago, she single-handedly stopped the entire demonic invasion in Greto ( the human partition). She was the first entity powerful enough to force all the major powerhouses of the world to their knees, making them sign a universal peace treaty.

​"But the rumors stated she was incredibly young, and her terrifying strength came from a deeply unnatural source. The human churches accused her of heresy, condemning her as a defiler of God’s will.

​"They abandoned their greatest savior and branded her as the ultimate enemy of the divine.

​"Shortly after, her true nature was finally revealed to the world. She was not a hero. She was a Devourer, the darkest creature this world could ever produce.

​"She devoured everything in her path. Humans, beasts, ancient monsters, dragons, demons, and even angels. It is said she even consumed a piece of the sacred World Tree itself.

​"The terror of her existence seeped into every living soul, every stone, and every element in the world.

​"She was a living, breathing catastrophe. But then, at the peak of her absolute power, she mysteriously disappeared without a single trace.

​"And the most terrifying part? She was not the first to cause such apocalyptic mayhem. There were other Devourers before her. And every single one of them vanished in the exact same mysterious manner."

By this point, Droogen’s wrinkled face had completely drained of all color.

​"Then we must inform the Dragon Emperors immediately, My Lord! If we do not act now, this creature will grow far too powerful! The entire world will be at risk of being eaten alive!"

​Hearing him, the supposedly prideful City Lord crossed his arms with a fearful shudder.

​"Do whatever you want, Droogen. Just do not drag my name into it. I absolutely refuse to be the one who draws his attention. I do not have the courage to make an enemy out of a Devourer. I still want to live!"

​Seeing the supposedly prideful and powerful City Lord acting so cowardly, Droogen shook his head in disappointment.

Weren’t Ice Dragons supposed to be mighty and fearless?

​Without arguing the matter any further, the elderly attendant turned on his heel and disappeared from the grand hall. He was heading straight for the high messenger tower. From there, this terrifying news would be urgently delivered to every single Dragon Emperor across the five continents of Dragonia.

​Their reactions to the return of the Devourer would soon decide the fate of Dragonia, and ultimately, the fate of the entire world of Elphina.