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If one were to transplant 'Hell' to Earth, would it resemble something like this?

The skies were filled with thick black clouds that showed no signs of abating. The ground below was, in turn, filled with blood, screams, ashes, and acrid stink.

Sovereigns were born from the darkness with the sole purpose of destroying everything, and so, they proceeded to systematically erase any semblance of light and life from this world.

The Dragon Emperor stood in front of them. It stepped proudly on top of the city now reduced to ash and swept its gaze all over its surroundings.

'What is going on with that b*stard, I wonder?'

After that brief stare-down, the Shadow Sovereign went into hiding and didn't appear again, even until now.

When he used his sensory perception to reveal his existence, the Dragon Emperor took that as the sign of the Shadow Sovereign finally declaring war.

And that was why, for the first time in an extremely long while, the Dragon Emperor's heart that went dormant while wandering within the gap between dimensions had begun beating powerfully once again.

Finally, one of only a few enemies that could truly threaten its life had bared his fangs at it. The true war was at hand.

To the 'Sovereign of Destruction', the sight of the battlefield filled with sheer, uncontrolled madness from all parties involved was pretty much the same thing as a marvellous gift from the heavens.

Could anything be compared to the pure joy derived from the battles?

Too bad, the event it had been waiting for didn't materialise.

The Shadow Sovereign vanished without a trace and showed no signs of appearing again even after a nation of his kin had been annihilated completely.

Of course, it'd be no different than killing himself to fight against the combined army of the Chaos World that easily numbered in the ten-plus millions with just over one hundred thousand of his servants.

However, if he was planning to run away from the get-go, he wouldn't have tried to threaten the Dragon Emperor even at the risk of exposing his current whereabouts.

'....Could he be aiming for something else?'

The Dragon Emperor grew more anxious as time continued to pass by.

Now that they had no clue when and where the Shadow Sovereign would begin his assault, the soldiers under the Dragon had no choice but to move at a much more cautious pace. Obviously, their marching speed had slowed down to a crawl as a result.

The Dragon Emperor wanted to get rid of all the nuisances bothering them as soon as possible and get ready for the battle against the Rulers, so without a doubt, the current situation was proving to be rather annoying.

Could it be....?

'....He's waiting for the annihilation of his kin so he can convert them all into his Shadow Soldiers?'

However, turning humans who didn't know how to wield Mana into his soldiers wouldn't be much help against the Army of Destruction. Surely, that b*stard would know of this fact, too.

It was then.

A voice interrupted the deep deliberation of the Dragon Emperor.

"Humans are coming, my liege."

One of the Ancient-class Dragons acting as its bodyguard informed it of the incoming attacks of the humans. But, didn't all the humans of this nation capable of wielding Mana, 'Hunters', die? If so, what could this be?