Outside Cloudhaven City, heaven and earth had changed color. That great city of the celestial realm had once been wrapped in celestial energy, ringed with lucky clouds, peaceful and untouched. Now every trace of that calm was gone. Demonic aura, thick and heavy as spilled ink, poured down from the highest heavens. It came like a surging black flood, crashing over the entire city without pause.
Dark red demonic aura twisted together with the clouds and churned across the sky. It turned into one savage ghost face after another, all of them howling without a sound, until the clear bright heavens were completely swallowed up. The sunlight was cut off entirely.
All that remained between heaven and earth was a dark crimson gloom so heavy it pressed down on everything, as if the end of the world had arrived, and even the air carried a ruinous presence that made the chest tighten.
High above the horizon, the Demon Dragon host packed the sky so densely it looked like a black cloud big enough to blot out the world. It stretched across the heavens over Cloudhaven City. Every Demon Dragon was massive.
Its scales looked forged from blood-red black iron, flashing with a cold, vicious gleam across its hide and over its twisted dragon head. Pairs of scarlet eyes stayed locked on the shattered city below. Black dragon breath spilled from their mouths, and every beat of those enormous wings sent wild gusts screaming across the ground, hurling broken stone and ash into the air.
Thousands of Demon Dragons held formation in neat ranks. Their combined presence rolled across heaven and earth, gathering into a force terrifying enough to crush every living thing in its path. Just by standing there, they drove every living being in Cloudhaven City into a shudder that seemed to come from the soul itself. Even breathing had turned hard.
Darian stood at the very front of the Demon Dragon host. His figure was straight as a spear, and demonic aura boiled around him, turning into wave after wave of black air that circled his body. He kept his head raised, his gaze sharp as a hawk’s as it swept over every corner of Cloudhaven City below with guarded weight. From the broken city walls, to the silent streets, to the city lord mansion still standing through it all, he missed nothing.
As one of the top experts of the Demon Dragon Clan, Darian knew exactly what this standoff meant today. The young man in black beside him was someone who could overturn the entire balance of the celestial realm.
And the young man in the city, the one about to come out of seclusion, was Jared Chance—the Dragon Emperor who had once crushed an entire era beneath him. The grudge between those two had been tangled across several lifetimes already. It would not end until one of them died. He did not dare slack off for even a second.
The demonic aura around him stayed right on the edge of eruption, his hands tightened without a sound, and the demonic essence inside him roared through his body, ready for anything that might happen at any moment.
Even if the people in the city were already spent to the last drop, he still would not underestimate a single person standing guard at Jared’s side. Every one of them had shown terrifying grit and nerve on the battlefield before.
Not far from Darian’s side, Skylar stood with his hands behind his back. His pure black robe moved on its own, brushing lightly under the force of the howling wind and the rolling demonic aura, untouched by even a trace of dust.
He stood tall and straight. Everything about him came off distant and cold, like he existed outside this upheaval between heaven and earth. The demonic aura churning around him, the savage Demon Dragons, the air of despair hanging over the city—none of it left the slightest ripple on him.
It was as if every conflict in this world, every slaughter, every matter of life and death, had nothing to do with him at all.
But those eyes, deep as an ancient frostpool, never once left the direction of the city lord mansion below. His gaze cut through layer after layer of demonic aura and broken ruin and locked hard onto that sealed hidden chamber.
Buried in the depths of his eyes was a trace of heat and anticipation he had forced down for a very long time. Under that, there was also venom that had been lying in wait for years, along with the sharp edge of coming satisfaction. He had waited for this day for far, far too long.
From clashing head-on in the mundane world, to fleeing in disgrace through the Ethereal Realm, to returning now to the celestial realm, he had swallowed humiliation, hidden himself away, and trained in silence.
He had even thrown himself onto the demonic path to trade for supreme power, all for this moment today. He was waiting for Jared to come out. Then he would crush him underfoot with his own hands and make him taste every bit of pain and humiliation he himself had endured.
Josephine stood quietly beside Skylar. Her purple dress drifted in the wind, quiet and remote like an orchid blooming in an empty valley, so clean and untouched she looked like an immortal cast down from the highest heavens.
Her skin was pale as snow, her features fine as a painting, and there was something airy and unreal about her. Set against the vicious demonic aura and the hideous Demon Dragons around her, she looked completely out of place, like a snow lotus opening in the dark—pure and impossible to ignore.
Her eyes stayed on the ruined city below too. Her brows drew together, and on that flawless face, something hard to put into words showed through. From the moment she arrived at Cloudhaven City, a strange feeling had been circling inside her and refusing to leave.
Her heart gave off a faint heat, as if an invisible thread had stretched out from somewhere inside the city and wrapped tight around it, pulling on her again and again. It felt familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Like a call etched deep into her soul, buried under such a heavy fog she couldn’t reach it or see it clearly.
She tried to trace that feeling back to its source, but her mind turned up blank. All that remained was a dull swelling ache, as if some memory that mattered more than anything had been forcibly sealed in the deepest part of her soul. She turned her head and looked at Skylar beside her. She could see his face still gave nothing away.
“Junior, why are we waiting here? Do the people in this city have anything to do with us?” she asked flatly.
At that, the corner of Skylar’s mouth lifted just a little. His eyes never left the city lord mansion. “Senior, we’re not waiting for a city full of people. We’re waiting for one person. Someone… very important to me, and very important to you too.”
Hearing this, Josephine’s brows pulled tighter. “Important? I don’t remember this city at all. I don’t remember any of this.”
“It doesn’t matter…” Skylar spoke in the same mild voice, gentle but carrying a certainty that left no room to push back. “Once he comes out, you’ll understand…”
Josephine didn’t ask anything else. She only looked back toward Cloudhaven City, while that strange pull inside her grew stronger and stronger.
On the walls of Cloudhaven City, the pressure had thickened until it nearly smothered everything. Roland was covered in blood. Golden dragon blood had soaked through his clothes and kept dripping from the gaps in his armor, pooling on the brick beneath his feet in glaring puddles.
The longsword in his hand had broken long ago. Only half the cracked blade remained, and he jammed it hard into the ground to hold up a body that looked ready to give way at any second.
His injuries were severe. The damage to the meridians throughout his body was already grave, the bloodline of the Sky Dragon Clan inside him thrown into chaos, and the draconic energy that had once blazed with golden light had now dimmed to a weak, fading glow.
Every breath pulled at the wounds inside Roland’s body and tore through him all over again. Cold sweat kept beading on his forehead, mixing with blood as it ran down his face. Even so, he kept his back straight. His eyes burned as he stared at the black-clad figure in the sky, without giving an inch.
He knew exactly what kind of thing he was facing. The black-clad young man before him had already reached a level of strength so monstrous it almost defied thought.
Even a powerhouse like Godric from the Celestial Palace had been badly wounded by a single strike and forced to flee in disgrace. In the entire celestial realm, there was hardly anyone left who could stand against his edge.
