"Did you steal her scent? Or did you steal her treasure?"

Ignis's voice rumbled through the cavern, vibrating in the very coins beneath their feet.

He leaned closer, his massive golden eye scanning the group behind Damien. His slit pupil contracted as he looked at Isabelle, then Lyra, and finally Leona.

A low, guttural sound echoed from his throat. It took Damien a moment to realize the Dragon was chuckling.

"Well, isn't this a circus," Ignis snorted, smoke curling from his nostrils.

"A Half-Demon reeking of sulfur... a High Elf smelling of trees... and a Beast-kin who looks like she chewed on a steam engine."

Ignis looked back at Damien, an amused smirk stretching his scaly lips.

"And you, the human with the stolen dragon scent. What are you doing? Collecting one of every race?"

The dragon poked Damien's chest with a claw the size of a spear tip.

"You're just missing a Dragon. Or did you come here to put a collar on me too, Collector?"

Leona growled low in her throat, her instincts screaming at the massive predator, but Damien raised a hand to calm her.

He looked up at the towering red beast.

'System, scan.'

[Target: Ignis (Ancient Red Dragon - Juvenile)] [Rank: Peak 6th Order.] [Note: As a True Dragon, actual combat power is equivalent to a Peak 7th Order or Pseudo-8th Order human.]

'6th Order...' Damien thought, sweat trickling down his back. 'He's young for a dragon, but in terms of raw power, he dwarfs everyone I've met except my father and the Queen.'

"I didn't steal her scent," Damien said calmly, adjusting his collar to relieve the heat. "And I didn't steal her treasure. I found her tomb."

Damien reached over his shoulder and tapped the hilt of the Pantheon Sword.

"Italica is dead, Ignis. She died in a dungeon near the border. I claimed her legacy because no one else could."

Though he did'nt see her body, Damien was'nt hundred percent sure, however he silently chose not to add that part

Ignis froze.

The playful, bored expression vanished for a split second, replaced by a void of unreadable emotion. The heat in the room spiked. The gold coins beneath them began to soften.

"Dead?" Ignis whispered. The word sounded like a rockslide.

He pulled his head back, looking up at the glassified ceiling of his dome.

"The old hag... actually kicked the bucket? She was always nagging me about 'responsibility' and 'legacy'."

Ignis let out a long, heavy sigh that sounded like a deflating bellows.

"If she's dead... then I must have been lying here longer than I thought. A hundred years? Two hundred?"

He looked at Damien again, his gaze piercing.

"So, human. You walked into her grave, took her breathing technique, and walked out alive. That explains the smell. Not bad."

Ignis rolled back onto his pile of gold, looking bored again, though there was a hint of melancholy in his posture.

"Fine. Keep it. It's not like she's using it. But why are you here? Did you come just to deliver the obituary?"

"I came for help," Damien said bluntly. "A huge war is about to start. The Twilight Association and the Void Cult are moving. They've already attacked the Elven Capital."

"A war?" Ignis yawned, picking up his golden chalice again. "Sounds tedious. Humans are always fighting."

"It's not just humans," Damien pressed. "They summoned a Demon General. Charron the Undying. We barely managed to kill him."

"Adding to the Void Demon Gods and others, the whole Elias is about to fall into chaos!"

Clink.

The chalice stopped in mid-air.

Ignis stared at Damien. Then, his massive shoulders began to shake.

"Pfft... Hahahaha!"

The dragon roared with laughter, slamming his tail onto the gold pile. Coins flew like shrapnel.

"You? Kill Charron?" Ignis wiped a tear of magma from his eye. "Oh, that's rich. That is the best joke I've heard in a century!"

"We did!" Isabelle shouted, stepping forward, her hands glowing with indignation. "The Young Master and the Elf Queen destroyed his body!"

Ignis stopped laughing. He lowered his head until he was nose-to-nose with the tiny demon maid.

"Little demon," Ignis sneered. "Do you know who Charron is?"

"He is the 12th General. The Lich of Decay."

"He is an 8th Order Monster," Ignis corrected, his voice dropping to a terrifying growl.

"A real 8th Order. Not the fragile humans you call masters. If Charron had actually descended, he wouldn't have just rotted a tree."

Ignis swept his wing across the room.

"He would have rotted the entire continent. The thing you fought? That was a puppet. A projection. A fraction of his power squeezed through a crack in the Void."

Damien felt a cold chill settle in his stomach.

'A projection?'

He thought back to the fight. The overwhelming pressure. The Domain.

'That was just a fraction? If that was a fraction... then the real enemy is completely out of my league.'

Damien realized something else then.

He looked around the cavern. The oppressive heat. The emptiness of the canyon outside. The lack of monsters for miles.

Ignis wasn't casting a spell. He wasn't trying to intimidate them.

"This heat..." Damien whispered. "It's just your residual aura, isn't it?"

"Obviously," Ignis huffed. "I can't help it if I'm hot."

"You turned an entire region into a wasteland just by sleeping here," Damien said, looking at the dragon with new respect.

As expected of a dragon, truly the peak of all races, even an ordinary sixth order can't do this ad a seventh order would need their domain expansion

"They attacked the Elves," Damien stepped closer, looking at the dragon before him, Damien decided to try another card to get him on his side. "And now they are coming for the Dragons."

WHOOSH.

The air in the cavern ignited.

Ignis rose to his full height. His boredom vanished instantly. His scales glowed bright orange, and the magma rivers in the room surged in response to his mood.

"Cultists..." Ignis hissed, the word dripping with venom. "Those Void-worshipping rats? They dare?"

His eyes turned into slits of pure fury.

"I remember them. They tried to steal my eggs back in the Valley. They tried to corrupt the nesting grounds."

Ignis looked down at Damien. The pressure was immense, heavy enough to crack the stone floor.

"If you are lying to manipulate me, human... I will melt you into a statue for my collection."

"But if those rats are really coming here..."

Ignis grinned. It wasn't a nice smile. It was a predator realizing dinner was delivering itself.

"Then I might just have some fun after all."

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