Chapter 209: Epilogue

"Ransom yourself?" Muria looked at the red dragon, Otris, with an odd expression, "With the treasure you've collected yourself?"

"Exactly!" Feeling a sense of foreboding under Muria's gaze, Otris nevertheless continued to answer stubbornly.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Muria raised an eyebrow, sizing up the red dragon that had lost all its strength and was lying limply on the ground, "The moment you were captured by me, your possessions were no longer yours."

The red dragon shot up, glaring at Muria fiercely. For any dragon, their treasure is their most sensitive spot.

"All the treasure you've collected is mine, and it has nothing to do with you anymore," Muria extended his hand, made a grasping motion in the air, and the Demonslaying Sword trembling in the red dragon's body flew towards him, shrinking during its flight to become a greatsword suitable for Muria's human form.

"Hmm!" Muria held the Demonslaying Sword, noticing a faint red glow over the snow-white blade and the ancient divine script on the spine slightly glowing. He nodded in approval.

Looking down, the horrifying sword wound that pierced through the dragon's body showed no signs of healing or bleeding. The sword's placement was the heart, and the fact that no blood flowed out after the sword was removed indicated how thoroughly the Demonslaying Sword had consumed Otris. It obeyed Muria's command to spare the dragon's life while maximizing its power absorption.

"Not bad!" Muria flicked the blade of the Demonslaying Sword. Following a deep sword hum, the divine weapon capable of growing with Muria transformed into a beam of light and entered his body.

"Ugh!" Muria hummed lightly, feeling the sword, after devouring most of the red dragon's strength, was now feeding power back to him—essence of the red dragon's vitality.

After being purified and refined by the Demonslaying Sword, this essence slowly merged into his bloodstream, subtly enhancing his physical strength and silently boosting his power.

"Here's the deal!" Noticing his physique strengthening bit by bit, Muria looked down at Otris with a benign smile, "I am a very kind and reasonable dragon, so I'll give you two choices.

The first option is to submit to me. As a principled dragon, a king would never covet his followers' treasure. So, the treasure you've collected remains yours; I won't take a penny.

The second option is freedom. You don't have to follow me, and I won't force you. But seeking freedom comes at a price. As a defeated dragon, all your treasure will belong to me, and you will be banished.

Crimson Wing, Otris, make your choice."

"Muria, brother, you call this giving it a choice?" After hearing Muria's words, the golden dragoness silently contacted Muria with her mental power.

Meanwhile, all the green dragons looked at Muria with speechless expressions. Taking away all a dragon's treasure and then banishing it—how is that kind? For dragons, not taking a life but taking everything else is the cruelest punishment.

A dragon's treasure is akin to half its life.

"I have no choice at all," Otris looked at Muria with a mix of rage and frustration.

"No, you can choose freedom," Muria said, smiling at Otris.

"To hell with freedom. What use is freedom without my treasure?" the red dragon roared inwardly, though outwardly remained calm.

"Great descendant of the Dragon King, I..."

"My name is Muria, Muria Iapetos Elonsas!"

"Great Lord Muria, I, the red dragon Otris, am willing to offer my loyalty to you, to follow you forever and fight for you."

For the sake of his treasure, the proud old red dragon did not hesitate long before choosing to submit to Muria.

"Eat this, recover a bit." Seeing Otris submitting, Muria, in a good mood, took out a fire elemental crystal from his space ring and tossed it near the dragon's mouth.

Seeing the fire elemental crystal near its mouth, Otris hesitated for a moment, not immediately swallowing it. Even though its weakened body was urging it to consume the crystal to replenish itself, the dragon's innate greed made it resist its hunger, wanting to keep the crystal instead of consuming it.

"Dragons' greed is incurable," Muria said, observing the red dragon hesitating, seemingly wanting to keep the elemental crystal for itself. He had seen many such dragons among the Titan race, "I command you, eat this elemental crystal."

The sword wound that pierced through the dragon's heart had not healed, and yet the dragon was thinking about amassing wealth instead of healing.

"You can't even fly now! And you're thinking about treasure," Muria scolded, "Hurry up and eat it, recover your injuries, and then, I'll help you collect all your treasure."

"What are you planning? Didn't we agree that if I submit to you, you wouldn't touch my treasure?" Otris became anxious upon hearing Muria's plan to collect his treasure.

"I intend to traverse all of Elrasia. As my follower, of course, you'll come with me. Are you planning to leave your treasure behind? Let's take it with us."

"Travel across Elrasia!"

The red dragon's eyes flickered, then it lowered its head, bit the elemental crystal, and chewed it twice before swallowing. A faint red glow flashed across its body momentarily.

The sound of flowing water, seemingly thick, echoed inside it. Having lost a significant amount of blood, the dragon's body began to regenerate blood immediately after receiving the crystal.

The flesh around the heart wound began to twitch, scales regrew, and broken bones realigned and healed.

The injuries were healing not because of the elemental crystal's immense power but because the Demonslaying Sword had consumed so much that the old red dragon had lost its natural healing abilities. The crystal merely restored its self-healing ability.

As the red dragon healed, countless red light points swarmed from the atmosphere into its body, making it appear as if enveloped in flames...

As Otris recovered, a silver-white light appeared above Varianthi, flickering a few times before exploding into a halo that spread rapidly, raining down countless bat corpses with tainted blood from the sky.

Among them, a knight enveloped in silver-white flames, wielding two stylish, chain-handled scimitars, appeared mid-air...

___________________

(Support with power stones, comments or reviews)

If you guys enjoy this story, In support me on Patreon and get access to +200 advance Chapters

Read Ahead

Patreon.com/INNIT