Chapter 124 121: The Black Dragon's Shadow

"I'm back."

"Welcome back, dear."

"Where are Julia and the others?"

"They've already gone inside the ruins to explore."

"Is that so."

Regulus nodded. He had been away for nearly two hours between his confrontation and the thorough obliteration of the mountain range, so it was only natural that the girls had grown impatient and entered the excavation site on their own. After all, he had stated from the beginning that they wouldn't linger in this rocky valley for long.

Still, searching for two full hours without uncovering a single trace of Stride's corpse left a lingering thorn in his side. That man had to possess some obscure spatial relic, or perhaps a covert subordinate had extracted him before the mountain caved in.

In hindsight, his solitary pursuit had been slightly reckless. He should have brought Beatrice or Sphinx along. With their mastery over Yin magic and ancient tracking spells, even if Stride utilized high-tier cloaking artifacts, he wouldn't have been able to escape their detection.

'What's done is done,' Regulus reasoned. 'Given the catastrophic trauma Stride suffered, he won't survive for long regardless.'

His only hope was that the dying prince wouldn't unleash some spiteful disaster in his final moments.

"Dear, do you want to head inside the ruins as well?" Theresia asked, tilting her head.

"Let's wait for Julia and the others to emerge first, then decide together," Regulus replied.

Theresia pulled out a small communication mirror to contact the exploration group. Through the brief conversation, she learned that the underground chambers were utterly stripped bare. Aside from cracked stone walls and barren corridors—where even the decorative floor tiles had been pried loose by previous looters—there was nothing of value remaining.

The expedition had been an absolute waste of effort.

On the bright side, because the ruins were thoroughly hollowed out, there wasn't a shred of danger left inside. By the time Julia and the other wives trudged back out into the sunlight, their expressions were thoroughly deflated by the sheer boredom of the trek.

Listening to their playful complaints, Regulus offered a helpless smile. He had warned them beforehand that ransacked border ruins rarely held hidden treasures unless one managed to breach an unmapped stratum on day one.

With everyone's curiosity sated, there was no reason to remain camped in the valley. The entourage boarded their dragon carriages and resumed their journey along the main road toward the nearby border town.

However, just as the outskirts of the settlement came into view...

The Earth Dragons pulling the carriages suddenly exhibited violent abnormalities.

Some collapsed directly onto their bellies, their massive scaly frames trembling uncontrollably as they buried their snouts in the dirt, refusing to budge. Others thrashed in sheer terror, screeching and straining against their harnesses in a desperate bid to snap their reins and flee the area entirely.

The sudden panic instantly threw the entire convoy into chaos.

Regulus stepped out of the carriage cabin, his brow furrowing at the sight. The Earth Dragons chosen for his personal convoy were of the finest Lugnican pedigree—calm, resilient, and brave enough to hold their ground even against packs of wild Mabeasts. For the entire team to be paralyzed by primal dread simultaneously was completely unprecedented.

"What is happening?" Ine asked, holding onto Regulus's arm. There was confusion in her voice, but zero fear; with Regulus and the Great Spirits present, the concept of danger felt distant to her.

"Earth Dragons possess far sharper sensory instincts than human beings; they detect approaching threats long before we can," Beatrice said, stepping out onto the carriage footboard, her expression uncharacteristically dark. "For high-grade Earth Dragons to be reduced to this state of terror... only the oppressive aura of a supreme, apex dragon could trigger such a reaction, I suppose."

"An apex dragon?"

"Could it be the Divine Dragon?"

"No. If it were Lord Volcanica, the dragons would display reverence, not suffocating terror," Beatrice replied grimly.

"Then what kind of creature is approaching?"

"Betty does not know, I suppose."

Beatrice couldn't provide a definitive answer. While countless draconic subspecies roamed the world, none within her immediate knowledge possessed an aura foul enough to induce mass hysteria across an entire valley.

At that exact moment, Regulus's sharp voice cut through the commotion.

"Turn the carriages around immediately. We are moving away from the town."

The surrounding wives blinked in genuine astonishment. Even during the height of the Demi-Human War, when their carriages lingered near active frontlines, Regulus had never spoken with such absolute, unyielding gravity.

"Dear... do you know what is coming?" Theresia asked softly.

"I have a solid grasp. I'll explain later. For now, turn the convoy around and pull back as far as possible."

"Wait!" Carol interjected, stepping forward. "If an apex threat is descending, does that mean the border town ahead is directly in its path? If so, how can we simply turn our backs and abandon the innocent civilians living there?!"

"The current situation does not leave room to play the righteous savior," Regulus answered coldly, locking eyes with her. "And as a husband, the safety of my wives is the one and only priority I am obligated to care about."

The weight of his words silenced the entire group. They were sharp women; for Regulus to abandon his usual lazy arrogance and issue a direct retreat, the approaching calamity had to be apocalyptic.

Carol's expression shifted through a storm of conflicted emotions. As an imperial knight of Lugnica, her oath demanded she protect the populace. But as a wife, being reckless would only jeopardize the other girls in the household—especially since Regulus would never allow her to charge into danger alone.

"Even if we order a retreat, the Earth Dragons are completely frozen in fear," Carol pointed out softly.

Regulus frowned. 'Is there an area-of-effect calming spell that can force them to move?'

Before he could ask Beatrice, a startled gasp broke out from the rear guard.

"Look! Over the horizon—what is that?!"

Following the trembling finger of one of the maids, everyone turned their eyes toward the sky above the distant town.

Unlike the others, Regulus's enhanced vision pierced through the clouds instantly.

Descending from the stratosphere was a colossal, shadow-draped silhouette stretching dozens of meters in length, its jagged black scales absorbing the afternoon light. It possessed three massive, serpentine heads, each radiating a suffocating, corrupt miasma that warped the very air around it.

It was the Evil Dragon—Valgren.

'That bastard Stride...!' Regulus cursed internally, his chest tightening with unprecedented irritation.

Valgren's appearance meant Stride Vollachia had utilized his final breath to invoke the forbidden summoning, sacrificing himself to unleash the ancient beast upon the world. This was not a standard Mabeast or a rogue dragon—it was a world-ending calamity capable of clashing directly with the Divine Dragon Volcanica at the pinnacle of this world's power ceiling.

Even with the invulnerability of Lion's Heart, engaging such a creature in close proximity was an operational nightmare.

Regulus had no doubt he could eventually kill it, but an apex disaster of that scale could not be obliterated in a single instant. The moment the battle extended into a prolonged clash of pure destructive force, the catastrophic shockwaves would flatten the entire valley.

Even behind the combined barriers of Beatrice and Sphinx, the non-combatant wives by his side would be exposed to lethal fallout.

He refused to gamble their lives on that margin of error.