Under the Red Dragon.

Chapter 417 The Golden Age - The Emperor's Gift
"The Golden Empire has attacked?"

This was the first thought that popped into Morton's mind.

Even though Morton is located in the most solid triple castle in the city center, which is entirely made of cast iron and steel and reinforced with layers of dragon rune magic, the castle's condition cannot be affected even if an earthquake occurs outside.

But Morton could also feel the city walls shaking violently, the ground beneath them churning, and the most prosperous city in the Middle Plane was experiencing a catastrophe.

Morton is a powerful iron dragon. This young iron dragon has a size comparable to a young red dragon, making it a rare super-giant dragon.

In fact, in many books written by mages about dragons, the Iron Dragon race can be legitimately classified as a metal dragon.

Iron dragons not only possess a near-perfect life form and life instinct that allows them to adapt and evolve, just like metal dragons and chromatic dragons, but they also have the natural talent of dragons growing naturally over time. This is the threshold that most mages use to distinguish between dragons and subspecies of dragons.

Furthermore, in terms of talent for metals, iron dragons have an advantage that almost completely overwhelms red dragons, as not every red dragon can awaken its potential to control the earth and metals.

All Iron Dragons are born with the ability to sense and control most of the metal objects within the range of their mental power, and can pinpoint the location and precise quantity of the metal components within them.

Morton is the best of his race. In front of the Iron Dragon Morton, most of the world's metal armor and weapons would have a hard time getting close to his body without his permission.

This made it difficult for Morton to encounter danger from a young age. Unless a typical dragon-hunting team was equipped with an extremely powerful mage, their swords and blades were helpless against Morton.

Therefore, Morton the Iron Dragon thrived in the Middle Plane by relying on his ability to control metal, becoming the overlord of this small plane and known as the King of Steel. His subjects outside the plane all respectfully called Morton the Dragon King who controlled metal.

This made Morton the Iron Dragon extremely proud, because he felt that he was recreating the glory of the Iron Dragons from several eras ago.

Thousands of years ago, the Iron Dragons once held a dominant power over the world, and each Iron Dragon was part of a family.

Often, a powerful dragon family is enough to dominate a region, but the Iron Dragons' lineage allows these dragons, who already possess the power to rule all living beings, to form a clan of two or three powerful dragon families.

Each clan is led by its most powerful member, and the Primal Dragon Overlord of each species leads all the clans of that particular type of Iron Dragon.

These ancient iron dragon overlords were nominally and actually subordinate to the former sub-iron dragon king, known as the Omniscient and Supreme Dragon, Garugsingo.

Garugsingo, the Arethon King, holds a position in the Arethon race roughly equivalent to Tiamat's position among the five chromatic dragons after becoming immortal, and Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon King, holds a position in the hearts of the metallic dragons.

However, Garugsingo's rule over the Aetherian race was more direct. The Supreme Dragon linked all the ancient Aetherian overlords through a mental link, connecting with the ancient dragon overlords to directly influence the entire race's direction and decisions.

This once allowed the Atherosthus to rival the Metal Dragons and Chromatic Dragons.

Until the death of Garugsingo, the supreme dragon who ruled over all the Athena race.

In almost all the secret lineages of Ayataron, this result is kept secret, but everyone knows it.

Legend has it that the supreme dragon Garugsingo was envied and coveted by the immortal dragon god Tiamat because of his authority and power.

So the immortal spent several epochs designing a perfect conspiracy for Garugsingo, and in the end Garugsingo fell into Tiamat's trap.

After becoming immortal, Tiamat, with her status and power as a five-colored dragon god, summoned her ancient dragon army and stepped into the death trap that Garugsingo had set up.

Ultimately, this powerful and mighty Athena was besieged and killed by a group of ancient red dragons and Tiamat, and its authority and power were devoured by Tiamat.

Located in the first plane of Hell, the Evil Scale Fortress is a place that every dragon and demon who has visited has marveled at Tiamat's divine fortress.

Because the outer walls of the Evil Scale Fortress are entirely constructed from individual planets as bricks and tiles, even the body of an ancient red dragon appears incredibly small in front of the Evil Scale Fortress.

This is the most powerful divine weapon that Tiamat forged for herself using the power of the Athena Dragon King that she controlled.

This also resulted in many evil Athena dragons hating both the metal dragons led by Bahamut and the five-colored dragons led by Tiamat.

However, when faced with the five-colored dragons, these amorphous dragons would rather cooperate with the metallic dragons in order to deal with the five-colored dragons.

It must be said that the five-colored dragons are not well-liked in any world, not only because of the madness and chaos inherent in their bloodline, but also because of their creator, Tiamat.

Today, without the leadership of the Supreme Dragon Garugsingo, the Atheros' bloodline, strength, and status have almost declined to the brink of extinction.

Therefore, most of the Atheros are dedicated to restoring their former status and glory, and the vast majority of them advocate eliminating the Chromatic Dragons by ruling over some weaker races and other dragons, and by forming alliances with other benevolent dragons.

Morton was the same; he ruled over the native races and intelligent life of the Middle Plane, as well as the sub-dragon slaves he occasionally bought from astral merchants, while also working to kill every chromatic dragon he could encounter.

In the present day, the name of the former supreme dragon Garugsingo has become a title, signifying the title of the Dragon King.

This was also the goal that Morton, the Iron Dragon, pursued throughout his life.

Because Morton is an iron dragon, the iron dragon species that naturally possesses the highest status and strongest power among the iron dragons.

It's not just about bloodline talent; it also stems from the hierarchical relationships that Garugsingo, the former king of the sub-dragons, established for all sub-dragons.

Iron Dragon, Chrome Dragon, Cobalt Dragon, Tungsten Dragon, Nickel Dragon, from high to low, the Iron Dragon is undoubtedly the equivalent of the Red Dragon in status and power among the Iron Dragons.

However, Morton's ambition persisted until he encountered the Golden Empire. This was triggered by Morton's deal with the Astral Merchant.

Although the Middle Plane is a small plane, it is rich in various rare minerals and magical metals, and small astral merchant groups often come specifically for the magical metals produced in the Middle Plane.

Those astral merchants, catering to their tastes, also brought many dragon slaves they had acquired by chance from various worlds, most of them young dragons and fledglings.

In that transaction, Iron Dragon Morton bought the chromatic dragon cubs from the astral merchants who were in charge of this area.

Initially, the astral merchants did not want to sell these chromatic dragon cubs to Morton as a bargaining chip, because their goal was to sell them to the world of Ekania.

In the world of Ekania, the dominant civilization of the northern continent—the Golden Empire—is the target of these astral merchants. That civilization is not only generous and reputable, but also wields immense power in this region.

The nearly thirty small and medium-sized planes surrounding the world of Ekania are all influenced by the flourishing civilization of the Golden Empire, either directly ruling it or secretly controlling the course of the world.

Almost all the small and medium-sized planes affected were bound together by the mad mages of the Golden Empire in a strange way, gradually forming a beacon of spacetime that is lighting up a huge spacetime torch.

To those astral merchants, this was undoubtedly an extremely crazy move, but it also meant that the Golden Empire was exceptionally powerful.

However, Morton's vision was completely different from that of the astral merchants. In Morton's eyes, the Middle Plane he ruled was incredibly far from that region, and even if the other side was powerful, they could not easily find his world.

Moreover, Morton is undoubtedly the overlord of this world.

The praise and tales circulated among the astral merchants that Charon Gogmora rose to the position of Imperial Emperor during his youth and became the Supreme Dragon King who ruled the continent were merely a reflection of the fact that these astral merchants had never seen him fully display his power.

“He, Caron Gogmora, is the Supreme Dragon Lord, but am I, Morton, not the Steel Dragon Lord who rules the world?”

Morton scoffed at the time, insisting on buying the chromatic dragon cub from the astral merchant with an extremely firm stance, otherwise he would no longer welcome the astral merchant's arrival.

The astral merchant had no choice but to sell the five-colored dragon cubs he had to Morton, but before leaving, the astral merchant warned Morton.

"Do not harm these chromatic dragon cubs; the Dragon Codex of the Golden Empire has a natural effect on all dragons,"

"That was the law that the Golden Empire followed without fail, and one of the fundamental reasons why the Golden Empire continued to prosper even after its former supreme dragon king, the emperor of all colored dragons, Kalon Goggmora, was lost in the far reaches of deep space,"

The astral merchant said solemnly, "That is one of the spiritual sources that the Dragon Emperor of the Golden Empire instilled in this powerful empire. Once you break through that, it means you will become a complete enemy of that distant empire."

"Don't provoke them. Let them know what you've done. I might not see you again when I come here next time."

Perhaps it was jealousy, perhaps it was resentment, or perhaps it was the blood feud between the Atheros and the Chromatic Dragons passed down through generations.

Morton couldn't understand his own mindset at the time, placing all the rainbow dragon cubs on the altar and holding a grand, bloody ceremony.

Morton poked his shovel-shaped head out of the castle and swayed slightly. His huge pupils followed the direction of his sharp snout and looked into the distance. He no longer had time to think about the past.

The entire city was surging upwards as far as the eye could see, with waves of earth rising and piling up from afar, as if something enormous was surging underground.

Twelve giant iron dragons were startled by the commotion and took flight from the city to the highest point, where they, along with their dragon king and the native race they ruled—the legion warriors who had once been so powerful as to contend for supremacy in the Middle Plane—looked into the distance.

A golden behemoth walked from afar across the land, its steps causing the entire earth to tremble.

The sunlight shone on the giant beast's golden fur, reflecting a dazzling light as if it were falling on pure gold.

With each step the behemoth took forward, its size increased, until it reached the front of the city. By then, the golden behemoth had grown a hundred times larger, resembling the legendary Titan that held up the sky.

Behind this golden behemoth followed a series of tall steel constructs, their bodies covered in dark iron patterns, looking like Titan golems cast in steel.

The jet-black muzzles rested on the shoulders of these steel structures, their thickness resembling giant logs that had grown for decades, exuding a formidable aura.

Behemoth!

"Titan-class Armored Golem!"

When Morton heard the other amorphous dragons instinctively gather around and utter such dragon language, he squinted at the overwhelming black clouds following behind the Behemoth on the horizon.

That was the cry of a dragon, as one after another, enormous dragons with two wings swept across the sky and swooped down on the city.

Above this flock of flying dragons, several enormous dragons, like supreme kings, were leading them as they rushed towards this place.

"Red Dragon Nero,"

Morton bared his fangs and said through gritted teeth.

It was this young red dragon who led his legion from a distant star system and destroyed the kingdom that Iron Dragon Morton had built up for so long in the Middle Plane.

Thirty-eight cities were reduced to ashes by the flames of this young red dragon, and now, the last major city is also about to face destruction.

(End of this chapter)