Extraordinary Rise: Starting Contract with the Silver Dragon Countess

Cohen was prepared for Elder Ferguson's concerns and said with a light laugh:

“Ferguson, I completely understand your concerns.”

"Rest assured, I will not stand idly by and watch the descendants of my old friend Zharhei lose their foothold, or even face annihilation, because of my meager needs."

He paused briefly, allowing Ferguson to fully grasp the sincerity in his words, before making a groundbreaking promise:

"Before I need to summon your legendary dragons to battle in the future."

I will first fulfill a prior commitment—

I will assist your Shadow Dragonborn race in completely unifying the entire Dragon Plane.

This will allow you to fight mature dragons without any worries!

Unify the entire Dragon Plane?

These words struck like a silent thunderclap deep within Elder Ferguson's soul.

A look of horror involuntarily appeared on his face.

Unify the Dragon Realm!

These six words represent the ultimate dream and obsession imprinted deep within the souls of every member of the six great dragon clans.

It is the sole objective that has driven countless brutal wars, endless conspiracies, and alliances throughout the millennia of the Dragon Plane.

For this goal, the vast lava sea was once stained red with dragon blood, countless dragon corpses fell from the peak of the storm, dark rifts devoured countless souls, and countless skeletal dragons rose up in the wasteland of bones.

The current situation of six major ethnic groups occupying and confronting each other is a balance formed after thousands of years of blood and fire, which no one can completely break for the time being.

The elder instinctively refused to believe it.

This sounds like a huge pie in the sky, painted to gain their trust.

However, the person who said this was the mysterious young man in front of us.

He was the one who, in the Black Dragon Clan's dire situation, took out the "Heart of Time and Space" and single-handedly reversed the tripartite agreement between the gods, the demons, and Dragon Valley.

It was the being who made the proud progenitor Zalhei the Darkin willingly offer his soul in oath, pledging eternal loyalty.

His words have long been proven by the passage of time to be weighty and true.

Cohen understood that empty promises alone could not move a dragon saint who had weathered countless storms.

He stopped elaborating and directly laid out the grand strategic blueprint in his mind:
"I know this sounds unbelievable, but please let me tell you the whole plan."

The first step was to jointly mourn the descendants of the dragon.

You, Ferguson, will personally accompany me to my door.

I have reasons and leverage they cannot refuse, and I am confident that I can persuade them to form a solid alliance with us.

The second step is to deal with the Molten Dragonborn.

The Ember Dragonborn, entrenched in the Lava Sea, are a formidable force and a tough nut to crack that needs to be removed first.

I have reached a secret agreement with some of the native races of the Lava Sea, in addition to their mortal feud with the Thunder Dragonborn.

With attacks from both inside and outside, defeating the Molten Dragonborn is not a problem.

However, more thorough planning and mobilization of resources are still needed.

At that time, I will assign a specialist who is extremely skilled in planning and executing such tasks to be in charge of this matter.

Cohen emphasized:

"After completing these two steps, we will have half the power of the six major races."

At that time, based on our tripartite alliance, I will open a spatial channel to introduce the elite forces of the central empire of the main plane.

Form an alliance to jointly conquer the remaining Thunder Dragonborn, Corruption Dragonborn, and Pureblood Black Dragonborn.

With overwhelming advantage, we will achieve a swift victory!

I have absolute confidence that within two years, I can help you, the Shadow Dragonborn and our allies, completely conquer and integrate the entire Dragon Plane.

Cohen's plan was well-organized, from uniting and eliminating the enemy to bringing in strong reinforcements and the final battle.

Every step is feasible, especially the introduction of the power of the main plane, which is an unprecedented variable in the internal struggles of the Dragon Plane and is enough to break the balance that has lasted for thousands of years.

After listening, Ferguson fell into a long silence.

This is no longer a simple matter of providing some dragon warriors; it is a strategic choice concerning the future fate of the entire race.

Should they continue to live in their isolated corner, maintaining the stalemate of the past ten thousand years, or should they stake everything, trust this mysterious human before them, and gamble on the supreme glory of unifying the Dragon Plane and the potentially enormous risks involved?

At this critical moment when the survival of his race was at stake and a cataclysmic change was about to occur, even someone with saint-level extraordinary power felt an unprecedented weight.

After a long period of contemplation, Ferguson seemed to have exhausted all his strength, or perhaps he had finally made up his mind.

He nodded very solemnly, raised his eyes, and there was no longer any hesitation in his gaze:
"You made an ancient pact with the progenitor, and that soul contract still binds and protects our people to this day."

Whatever the future holds, we, the Shadow Dragonborn, will honor our promise to you.

This was not entirely based on confidence in the plan itself, but more on adherence to the ancestral oath and reverence for the ancient power represented by the contract in Cohen's hands.

He chose to believe, or rather, he chose to keep his promise.

Hearing Elder Ferguson finally give his solemn approval, Cohen secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

The most crucial first step of the plan has finally been taken steadily.

He knew perfectly well that, despite the ancient and powerful soul contract as the ultimate guarantee, the effects of passive obedience under the contract's constraints were worlds apart from the genuine recognition and cooperation of the other party.

After all, it will be Asuna, not him, who will truly lead the dragon army in the future.

Only by ensuring that the Shadow Dragonborn, from the highest levels to the lowest ranks, genuinely endorse this cooperation can we minimize potential risks and unleash the true power of the dragon legion.

Bermotti and Freya, who were standing nearby, watched all of this with some surprise in their hearts.

They witnessed firsthand how Cohen effortlessly accomplished a goal that the Central Empire's Noble Council had failed to achieve despite thousands of years of effort, countless resources, and the sacrifice of numerous powerful figures.

Cohen truly "subdued" the Shadow Dragonborn, one of the six overlords of the Dragon Plane, and not simply by force, but by making them willingly form an alliance and even promising to provide dragons to form an army in the future.

However, considering the incredible things that have happened to Cohen, this astonishing scene doesn't seem too surprising.

With the alliance with the Shadow Dragonborn secured, Cohen immediately began planning the next steps.

He turned to Ferguson and made his request.

The Shadow Dragonborn need to provide a sufficiently hidden, safe, and appropriately sized base within their territory.

This place will serve as a forward base and bridgehead for personnel dispatched from Cohen's forces to explore, train, and even carry out subsequent conquest plans in the Dragon Plane.

Ferguson naturally had no reason to refuse.

He personally led Cohen and the other two to a perfectly ideal spot deep within the Shadow Rift.

This is a demiplane space that is built upon a natural cave and has been cleverly reinforced and hidden by generations of Shadow Dragonborn using shadow magic.

The entrance is extremely hidden, the interior space is spacious, and there are ready-made ancient architectural remains suitable for human body size that can be used. With a little renovation, it can become a perfect base.

After selecting the location, Cohen did not hesitate and took out the "Book of Time and Space" to imprint the next spatial coordinates.

From then on, even without the official passage controlled by the Imperial Noble Council, Cohen and his forces had their own stable passage that allowed them to freely enter and exit the Dragon Plane.

While branding the spatial nodes, Cohen asked:

"The Central Imperial Noble Council has been waging war and infiltrating the Dragon Plane for thousands of years. As one of the overlords of this place, you should be aware of this, right? What are the specifics?"

Ferguson replied almost without hesitation:

I know some.

Their activities are very regular, occurring in batches roughly every ten years.

Their primary targets for conquest and raiding are usually the territories of the Molten Dragonborn and the Corrupted Dragonborn.

This is probably because these two groups are relatively weaker among the six major races, and the resources within their territories (lava ore, poisonous swamp specialties) are more suited to human needs.

He recalled briefly and added:
"However, based on our long-term observation, apart from regularly developing and transporting some unique minerals from certain planes, they do not seem to have achieved anything of real significance."

Unable to establish stable bases or conquer any dragonborn, they are more like a group of periodic, troublesome raiders.

This assessment is spot on, pinpointing the awkward reality of the Hall of Nobles' millennium-long strategy.

Despite massive investments, a strategic breakthrough has yet to be achieved.

Cohen nodded, not surprised by the answer.

He then asked another crucial question:

"The House of Nobles controls a relatively stable spatial passage. Do you know the exact location of the entrance to this passage?"

Ferguson shook his head this time:
"I'm not quite sure about that."

They've done a very thorough job of concealing and protecting the passage. However, it's definitely somewhere near the Lava Sea. Because every time we observe a large-scale human army, their initial activity always seems to originate from that area of ​​the Lava Sea.

Cohen nodded thoughtfully. When the three of them first entered, they used a temporary dimensional portal, which was very unstable.

It seems to be built based on a stable spatial channel. They used this temporary channel to reach areas near the Lava Sea, so it can be inferred that the destination of that stable spatial channel must not be far from the Lava Sea.

The exact location will probably only be discovered after we have completely controlled and even conquered the core territory of the Ember Dragonborn.

Cohen thought to himself, this is such a good "treasure land", with such rich resources and strategic value, he naturally intends to keep it all for himself and will never share it with the House of Nobles.

Although the main force of the House of Nobles only enters on a large scale once every ten years, it is hard to guarantee that during the intervals they will not send some elite reconnaissance teams to infiltrate.

Once they discover Cohen's plans and schemes here, it will inevitably lead to huge trouble.

Cohen plans to find this spatial passage, completely block it or take control of it, and fundamentally cut off the way for the House of Nobles to enter this place on a large scale.

In the blink of an eye, half of the thirty-day period for entering the Dragon Realm has passed.

With time running out, after completing the work of imprinting spatial nodes deep within the Shadow Rift, Cohen waited for Elder Ferguson to select a group of Gold-tier Shadow Dragons who had volunteered and possessed good qualities, as agreed, and temporarily placed them near the newly built base to await orders.

With everything settled, Cohen made no further delays and set off with Elder Ferguson of the Shadow Dragonborn, leaving the Shadow Rift and heading towards their next destination: the "Bone Wasteland" ruled by the Mourning Dragonborn.

……

The Bone Wasteland is located in the far west of the entire Dragon Plane, a vast land shrouded in death and silence.

Cohen, Belmody, and Freya did not travel on foot, but instead rode on a colossal shadow dragon, a transformation personally made by Elder Ferguson.

The dragon's wingspan blotted out the sky, and as it flew, it seemed to blend into the distorted shadows of light, moving at an extremely high speed yet with remarkable stability.

Behind them followed two slightly smaller, but equally powerful and legendary mature shadow dragons.

They were Ferguson's trusted subordinates, and their mission served both as protection and as a demonstration of the Shadow Dragonborn's sincerity and strength.

After a day and a night of non-stop travel, the three people and three dragons traversed many dangerous and strange landscapes and finally reached the border of the Bone Wasteland.

The scene before my eyes suddenly changed.

The land was no longer the scorching heat of the lava sea or the ruggedness of the storm peaks, but had become an endless wasteland paved with all sorts of pale skeletons.

A dry, icy wind howled past, whipping up bone dust and making a sound like a sob.

The air was filled with a strong aura of death and faint fluctuations of soul energy.

In the distance, the outlines of some strange and grand buildings, constructed from the bones of huge beasts or humanoid creatures, can be vaguely seen.

Before venturing deeper into the territory of the mourning dragonborn, Ferguson, while controlling the flight, briefly explained the current situation to Cohen via telepathy:

The Thunder Dragonborn are undoubtedly the most powerful of the six races.

They control the sky and thunder, possessing unparalleled offensive power across the planes, and their territory, "Storm Peak," is particularly easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The other five groups generally hold mixed feelings towards the Thunder Dragonborn:

They both yearn to challenge their dominant position and are deeply worried that the Thunder Dragonborn will launch a devastating campaign against them.

This fear prevents the five races from easily launching a full-scale civil war, even when there are conflicts, lest the Thunder Dragonborn take advantage of the situation.

Among them, the conflict between the Thunder Dragonborn and the Molten Dragonborn is the most intense and direct, making them mortal enemies.

This stems from the natural antagonism between their respective power attributes and the fact that their territories are extremely close, leading to constant resource competition and border friction.

Their struggles are the most frequent and brutal in the entire plane.

The Corrupted Dragonborn is a race that has perfected toxins, diseases, and biological corrosion to the extreme. Their very existence is a form of continuous destruction of the environment, making them the common enemy of the entire plane.

However, precisely because they are covered in poison, attacking them often means killing a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of your own, and may even invite a more terrible plague retaliation, which makes no ethnic group willing to fight them to the death easily, for fear that other forces will take advantage of the situation.

This "disgusting" but effective way of self-preservation has ironically made them the group least involved in direct conflict at the macro level.

However, the Corrupted Dragonborn also has a mortal enemy: the Mourning Dragonborn.

The root of the conflict between the two sides lies in the fierce struggle for the core strategic resource of "corpses".

The Corpse Dragonborn needs corpses to cultivate even more terrifying carrion poison, spread plagues, and conduct all sorts of horrific biological corrosion experiments.

The Mourning Dragonborn, on the other hand, need a large number of high-quality skeletons and souls to expand their undead army (liches, zombies, skeletal dragons, etc.).

This fundamental conflict over resources makes reconciliation between the two groups virtually impossible, and it is only natural that fierce conflicts frequently erupt between them.

Finally, there are the Shadow Dragonborn and the Pureblood Black Dragonborn. The feud between these two groups dates back to before the Black Dragons were driven out.

At that time, the Shadow Dragonborn were suppressed and discriminated against by the pure-blooded black dragon race, who believed in pure physical strength and dragon language magic, because of their "unorthodox" research direction.

This sense of alienation and hostility, stemming from blood ties and shared beliefs, not only failed to ease upon arriving in the immensely stressful new environment of the Dragon Plane, but instead intensified.

Pureblood black dragons view shadow dragonborn as traitors and heretics, while shadow dragonborn view the other as stubborn old fogies.

Ferguson's account closely matched Cohen's memory, which gave him full confidence in the reliability of the information and gave him ideas for the next steps.

The three people and three dragons did not deliberately conceal their whereabouts and soon penetrated deep into the core territory of the mourning dragon descendants—that wasteland paved with endless pale bones.

Elder Ferguson did not conceal his vast aura as a Saint.

Therefore, as soon as they stepped into the boundary of the Bone Wasteland, they immediately felt countless powerful, cold, death-inducing consciousnesses being cast from the depths of the wasteland.

As a saint-level being and an ancestor-level figure, Ferguson's name and aura were known to almost everyone in the upper echelons of the entire plane.

His sudden visit itself signifies something extraordinary.

Before long, the bone dust and necromantic mist that had been spreading ahead churned, and a strangely shaped giant dragon broke through the mist barrier and appeared in front of everyone.

This dragon was not made of flesh and blood; its skeleton had a grayish-blue jade-like texture, and its eye sockets burned with eerie blue soul fire. Its body was shrouded in an unsettlingly dense negative energy and the icy aura unique to liches.

This is a rare dragon that has transformed itself into a lich form.

Seeing this, Ferguson gestured, and he and the two legendary shadow dragons behind him transformed into human form to show that they had no hostile intentions.

The massive skeletal body of the lich dragon opposite was also shrouded in a gray mist, transforming into a humanoid figure wearing a wide black robe, with his face hidden in the shadow of a hood, and only two points of eerie blue firelight flickering deep within the hood.

The man in black robes stared at the strange combination of three people and three dragons opposite him, a deep sense of bewilderment rising in his heart.

The three humans were escorted here by the venerable elder of the Shadow Dragonborn, who personally served as their mount.

The scene was too bizarre, completely beyond his comprehension.

However, there has never been a major conflict between the Mourning Dragonborn and the Shadow Dragonborn, as their territories do not directly border each other and their power systems do not have any fundamental conflict.

Especially recently, the mourning dragonborn has been under considerable pressure due to internal reasons.

He really didn't want to make any more enemies out of thin air, especially a formidable one like Ferguson.

Therefore, he did not immediately try to drive them away, but waited silently for a moment, seemingly observing the other party's intentions, before a hoarse, dry voice finally rang out from under the black robe:

"Ferguson, when did you, a mighty dragon of saintly caliber, degenerate into a human's mount and servant?"

He could see clearly that the three humans had indeed arrived riding in Ferguson's magnificent dragon form.

In his view, this was an unbelievable disgrace and a trampling of the dignity of the entire dragon race.

He needed to figure out what Ferguson had gone through to commit such a "self-destructive" act.

The information hidden behind this may be more important than Ferguson's visit itself.

Ferguson did not get angry at Dickinson's sarcastic and hostile questioning; instead, he smiled faintly.
“Dickinson, in a way, this man should perhaps be considered the benefactor of your entire mourning race!”

Dickinson's face, hidden beneath her black robe, immediately fell into a frown.

Although his specific expression was not visible, the sudden shift to a cold and chilling aura spoke volumes.

To him, Ferguson's words were an utterly absurd insult.

How could a human be worthy of being the benefactor of the noble, mourning dragonborn? This is more like a vile provocation!

His body was enveloped in violent fluctuations of necromantic energy, and his hoarse voice became even colder and harsher:
"Ferguson, do you want to start a war with us, the Dragonborn?"

However, before Ferguson could answer, Cohen spoke first:

"Start a war?"
Are the current Mourning Dragonborn still capable of waging war against the Shadow Dragonborn?

Your eternal tombstones... are they alright?

Eternal Tombstone!

These four words struck Dickinson's soul like a death knell.

That was the most supreme sacred object of the Mourning Dragonborn race, the core hub that maintained the immortality of their undead army and gathered the death energy of the entire wasteland, the very source of their power.

Its condition directly affects the rise and fall, and even the survival of the entire ethnic group.

Recently, however, the Eternal Tombstone has suddenly undergone a strange change. Its energy is visibly fading. This news should have been a top secret within the clan, known only to a few core elders.

How could this human possibly know that! (End of Chapter)