Chapter 284: Caught!
"Lord of Dragons."
"I'm sorry, the adversary possesses formidable concealment abilities."
"Using the dead dragon as a clue, whether through tracking spells, prophecy, or other means, we've failed to detect their presence."
After hearing the report from the dragons, Garon narrowed his eyes in thought.
An unknown force that could elude the detection of legendary dragons was certainly no ordinary creature, Garon concluded.
Since the dragons that died weren't legendary, only at most ancient dragons in power, Garon had assumed the attacker was probably a regular legendary creature. Hence, they targeted non-legendary dragons to ensure success.
But the current situation seemed to have become more complex.
"I understand."
"Tell me the territories of the deceased dragons."
Following Garon's orders, the dragons relayed the coordinates of the known locations to him.
Investigating after the event and being steps behind the adversary meant that without significantly surpassing the enemy's power and methods, dealing with this situation was indeed challenging.
The situation on the planet Karla had temporarily stabilized due to the soothing promises of the Court of Dragons. However, if the main culprit remained unidentified for a long time, the underlying tensions among the dragons might reignite, suspecting each other of fratricide and planting deeper seeds of discord.
Dragons are not detectives.
Even among the legendary, most dragons aren't adept at tracking enemies. Facing an unknown attacker, these legendary dragons were ineffective, and it would likely be the same outcome if Lockwood and others were to investigate.
To avoid wasting time and diminishing the Court's prestige, Garon decided to take matters into his own hands.
He possessed strong tracking abilities; even now, a divine being in another timeline was unaware of the temporal mark on him.
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*
After receiving the coordinates, Garon used spatial teleportation magic to directly arrive at the nearest location.
Space rippled gently.
In the space that seemed like the surface of water, a massive silver dragon emerged.
Garon looked around, observing his surroundings.
He found himself in a lush forest, with towering trees reaching dozens of meters high, their dense canopies moving with the wind, and the rubbing leaves creating a unique sound.
Due to the accurate teleportation, Garon appeared directly in the forest, landing on all fours and lowering his head to quietly observe the broken trees and the disturbed, cracked ground nearby.
The remnants of battle faintly indicated the circumstances of the fight.
According to Garon's knowledge, a mature green dragon had died here. The culprit, described by the green dragon's kin, was an emerald dragon from the gem dragons. Why a neutral emerald dragon would attack a green dragon and kill it was unknown.
This was extremely rare among dragonkind because gem dragons generally prefer not to initiate trouble.
Among the vast forests, the massive silver dragon's presence couldn't be hidden.
Some dragon kin saw the silver dragon, overwhelmed by Garon's majestic aura.
Garon lowered his head, looking at a crater about fifty meters in diameter.
Inside the crater were numerous broken rocks and tree fragments, all crushed by a heavy fall.
The scene of the mature green dragon falling from the sky and creating the large crater flashed through Garon's mind.
The body of the green dragon had already been taken by other dragons.
In dragon culture, finding the body of an unknown deceased kin in the wilderness meant that the true dragons would not leave it exposed to be devoured by lower species.
He narrowed his eyes, about to unleash the power of time.
At that moment.
A blue dragon, with wings brushing against the tree canopies, landed near Garon.
"Esteemed Lord of Dragons, the blue dragon Keldon greets you."
This adult blue dragon, appearing small next to Garon's massive form, bowed its head and spoke.
It was not a member of the Court and was not legendary in strength.
Garon's gaze shifted to the blue dragon.
"Is your territory nearby?"
He inquired.
The blue dragon nodded, saying, "Yes, the deceased green dragon was my neighbor. I am now taking over its territory and kin. I sensed your presence and came here."
After a pause, the blue dragon added, "I was the first to find its body."
"Soon after its battle with the emerald dragon, I intended to check on its injuries but found it dead instead."
The blue dragon's face showed a hint of viciousness.
"Damned gem dragons, just like the metal dragons, directly threatening the lives of us chromatic dragons."
Through its tone, Garon could tell the blue dragon, like many others, harbored deep hatred for gem and metal dragons. This was the adverse effect of a true dragon's death, where the temporarily stabilized situation was merely suppressed, leaving the underlying issues unresolved.
The blue dragon's attitude reflected that of many dragons.
"The murderer is not a dragon," Garon stated calmly and confidently.
The blue dragon looked puzzled, asking, "Not a dragon?"
"I personally saw the emerald dragon fly over my territory to the green dragon's territory, and after a great battle, it killed it."
"Besides me, my kin and the green dragon's kin can all testify."
"And on planet Karla, only dragons can kill dragons."
Garon chuckled, "What you see with your eyes is not always the truth."
He turned to look at the blue dragon.
Under the silver dragon's gaze, the blue dragon instinctively lowered its head, avoiding eye contact.
"A force is deliberately undermining the unity within our dragon kind."
"When I find them, they will pay a painful price."
Hearing the silver dragon's deep and cold voice.
"Leave now, and relay my words to all the dragons you know."
"It could be giants, elves, or humans, but the creature that killed the true dragon is not one of our own."
The best way to shift blame is to identify a common enemy.
Before discovering the attacker, Garon wasn't entirely sure of his hypothesis, but his tone was decisive, convincing the blue dragon.
"So that's how it is."
"Those lowly vermin dared to attack a true dragon."
Anger flared in the blue dragon's eyes.
Afterward, the blue dragon left as instructed by Garon.
Garon focused on his surroundings, closing his eyes slightly.
Waves of temporal power radiated from him, covering the surrounding space like flowing water. The space touched by the power of time rapidly rewound, creating an image on the surface of the temporal river. As the power of time flowed, the image quickly returned to a time before the environment was disturbed.
When time was rewound to the appropriate moment.
Garon stopped the flow of temporal power.
The pristine forest environment reflected in his platinum dragon eyes, Garon silently observed.
Soon, the image of the emerald dragon appeared.
The battle was brief, only lasting a few minutes before the green dragon was defeated, its neck twisted and falling to the ground, creating a huge crater and stirring up dust. The green dragon lay lifeless, covered in dust.
"The mature green dragon died in just a few minutes."
"The attacker must be of legendary caliber."
Garon paused the image, focusing on the so-called emerald dragon.
He scrutinized the creature closely.
The dragon's scales shimmered like emerald, its thirty-meter-long body classified as a giant dragon, and its green eyes looked down at the dead green dragon's body, almost spilling over with satisfaction and disgust.
"Got you."
Garon's gaze turned icy cold.
Under his will, the power of time wove into a mark, directly landing on the emerald dragon within the rewound image. After flickering a few times, the mark disappeared.
With Garon's current abilities, while he couldn't truly reverse time, marking a target through time reversal was well within his capabilities.
With the time mark in place, even if the target fled to the ends of the earth, it couldn't escape Garon's tracking.
Unless it could escape to a place beyond the reach of the river of time, which would imply unimaginable power.
The silver dragon snorted.
With a swipe of his sharp claw, the image of time reversal shattered.
But the time mark had already landed on Garon's intended target.
With eyes closed, Garon accurately sensed the location of this time mark in the southern hemisphere of planet Karla.
"So it hasn't left Karla yet. Quite bold."
After pinpointing the mark's location, Garon opened his eyes.
However, he didn't teleport there immediately.
Next, Garon's figure appeared at the sites of the true dragons' deaths, using time reversal and time marking to identify the killers of the true dragons.
After about half a day, he had confirmed his suspicion—there was indeed a creature disguising itself as true dragons to cause trouble.
Emerald dragons, green dragons, red dragons, bronze dragons... Each killer shared a common trait.
Their eyes were all green.
Dragons have diverse eye colors.
If only a few had green eyes, it wouldn't have caught Garon's attention.
But all of them having green eyes was highly suspicious.
A creature with extraordinary shapeshifting abilities had come to Karla, disguising itself as different true dragons to murder various dragon kinds, intensifying the discord among Karla's dragons, then disappearing to continue its scheme elsewhere, halting only due to the Court's extensive search.
"Let's see which faction is behind this."
The silver dragon raised his head high.
The dragon horns on his head shone brightly in the sunlight.
At the same time.
Using the dragon horn contract, Garon remotely sent the coordinates of the time marks to nearby Court dragons, instructing them to capture these troublemakers, preferably alive.
After receiving Garon's message, the legendary dragons immediately sprang into action.
Garon wasn't idle either.
To avoid alerting the enemy, he used the Imaskar crown for spatial teleportation, thus avoiding intense spatial fluctuations.
Within the blue glow emanating from the Imaskar crown, the silver dragon vanished.
In a desolate territory overgrown with weeds and sparse trees.
A thirty-two-meter-long red dragon lay resting on the ground, with no signs of other living creatures nearby.
Since it hadn't been long, Karla still had many unclaimed territories. With the dragon population not very dense, the demand for territories wasn't high, leaving these unoccupied lands barren, rarely hosting life.
This red dragon's eyes were green.
Breathing evenly, its body gently rose and fell, with faint light twinkling on its surface.
Soon, the red dragon stood up.
It fluttered its wings, intending to leave and rest elsewhere.
But just as it was about to take off, in its field of view, a few hundred meters away in mid-air, a silver dragon with the oppressive force of a tsunami materialized from the void, its figure solidifying amid a blue luster.
The red dragon's pupils constricted.
Using the time mark as a beacon, Garon had teleported here.
He immediately spotted the red dragon.
Under the silver dragon's gaze, the red dragon bowed its head, speaking in Draconic with reverence, "Noble Time Dragon, I am the red dragon, Grael."
As it spoke, its voice and movements froze.
Garon wasted no time, immediately employing a time stop to freeze the surrounding space-time.
The time mark on this red dragon meant it couldn't deceive Garon, no matter how well it disguised itself.
With a slight vibration of his wings.
The next moment, the silver dragon landed on the ground, closely inspecting the red dragon.
To the naked eye, it appeared precisely like a red dragon, and even Garon couldn't detect any anomalies, including the sulfuric scent characteristic of red dragons surrounding it, except for its green eyes which were odd.
Garon extended a claw, piercing the red dragon's scales.
Hot blood flowed out, igniting flames as soon as it contacted the air.
Even the dragon's blood matched that of a red dragon.
"What kind of shapeshifting magic is this, so powerful?"
Garon frowned slightly.
If not for the time mark and the creature's green eyes, after this examination, Garon might have doubted his judgment, for it seemed indistinguishable from a genuine red dragon.
Even Garon couldn't discern the truth, let alone ordinary legendary dragons.
Garon pressed a claw on the red dragon's head, releasing the time stop.
As time resumed and air began to flow, the red dragon's thoughts just started to awaken when its vision was filled with silver scales, and its head was firmly trapped by the dragon's claw.
The red dragon was shocked inside.
It instinctively struggled violently.
But no matter how it writhed, the claw gripping its head remained immovable, as if cast from steel.
"Reveal your true form."
"I can make your death easy."
The calm yet dangerous deep voice echoed from the dragon.
However, realizing it had no chance of escape, the red dragon, which had been struggling, stopped moving, showing no intention of complying.
"I don't understand what you're saying."
It responded.
"Have you mistaken me for someone else?"
The red dragon continued to pretend.
But it couldn't have anticipated that Garon could mark it based on past events.
Garon shook his head slightly, knowing it wouldn't easily cooperate.
But he didn't particularly need its cooperation.
After using time stop to immobilize the red dragon again.
Following a deep chant, a powerful Disintegrate spell took form.
After decades of studying magic on the continent of Faerûn, Garon had achieved notable success in defensive magic.
This Disintegrate spell wasn't cast using the Ring of Protection but was directly conjured by Garon himself.
In an instant, the spell capable of erasing magic effects landed on the red dragon.
As the spell's light passed, its scales, flesh, and bones emitted a strange green light, seeming to transform from physical matter to magical energy condensations. As the Disintegrate spell swept over, the magical effects were nullified, and the red dragon's body began to disintegrate.
After the Disintegrate spell concluded, a third of the red dragon's body had vanished.
Even a ninth-level spell hitting it didn't directly dispel its shapeshifting magic.
Garon, expression unchanging, cast several more Disintegrate spells in succession.
In moments, the red dragon's form completely disintegrated under the spell's effect.
Simultaneously, a slender figure about 1.7 meters tall emerged from the center of the disappearing red dragon's body, approximately at the heart's location.
This was a humanoid creature with a delicate face, a slender body, light green skin, and... a pair of pointed ears.
Frozen in time, the elf's body was naked, curled up with her arms wrapped around her legs, her green waist-length hair gently fluttering.
Garon recognized her as a female elf.
This elf carried a scent similar to that of the Moon Knights, indicating her bloodline as a high elf. This suggested she was also a high elf.
"I may have been discovered for killing the Moon Elves. Are they here for revenge?"
Garon pondered, looking at the elf. High elves, especially legendary high elves, hold a status in elf society comparable to golden dragons within dragonkind. Moreover, since elves generally have devout beliefs, the deities of the elven pantheon would place great importance on these legendary high elves.
"Did the high elves act on their own initiative to cause trouble on Karla, or was there encouragement from an elven deity?"
The elven deity system, with its numerous followers, possesses powerful divine beings.
Its overall strength isn't far behind the dragon deity system.
However, causing trouble on Karla, a planet highly valued by the dragon gods, made Garon feel that this issue might not be easily resolved.
As the time stop effect wore off and the elf regained her ability to move, she found herself completely exposed under the immense figure of the silver dragon. Garon's presence alone was enough to suppress any thought of resistance.
Despite her powerful magical abilities, she understood the futility of any attempt to escape or deceive Garon, especially after her intricate disguise had been so thoroughly dismantled.
Garon's gaze upon the elf was one of curiosity mixed with caution. The involvement of a legendary high elf in such clandestine activities suggested a larger plot at play, potentially involving elven gods or at least high-ranking members of elven society.
Considering the implications, Garon decided to extract information directly from her, using his own considerable powers to ensure compliance.
"Who sent you here, and what is your goal?" Garon's voice was firm yet contained an undercurrent of interest. He knew the value of the information she could provide, not just for resolving the current crisis but for understanding the motivations behind it.
The elf, realizing the gravity of her situation and the futility of maintaining her disguise or feigning ignorance, finally spoke, "I am Aeliana, a servant of the high elven court. Our actions were not sanctioned by the gods but were a decision made in the shadows of our society, driven by a desire for revenge and the restoration of our honor."
Garon listened intently, processing every word. The revelation that this was a vendetta executed by high-ranking elves without divine instruction was both a relief and a new concern. It meant that the conflict could potentially be contained and resolved without directly involving the gods, but it also hinted at deep-seated animosities that could escalate if not addressed properly.
"I see. Your quest for vengeance has led you to undertake actions that threaten the balance we strive to maintain. Know that your actions have consequences, and while I seek not to further inflame tensions between our kinds, justice must be served," Garon declared, his tone indicating that while he was open to a diplomatic resolution, he would not tolerate further aggression.
With that, Garon took Aeliana into custody, planning to present her to the dragon court for a decision on how to proceed. This incident had exposed vulnerabilities and simmering tensions that needed to be addressed, not just for the sake of dragon-kind but for the balance of all races on Karla.
As he transported Aeliana away, Garon contemplated the complex web of alliances and enmities that spanned the realms. This incident with the high elves was but a reminder of the fragile peace that existed, a peace that required constant vigilance and sometimes, the wisdom to look beyond immediate grievances for the greater good.
The resolution of this incident would not only determine the immediate fate of Aeliana but could also set a precedent for how such cross-species conflicts were handled in the future, potentially leading to a more stable or more turbulent era for Karla and beyond.
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