Hogwarts wizards who signed in to Middle-earth.

Chapter 235 The Iron Crown

As Saruman watched as he was about to successfully hypnotize the dragon Gram, a triumphant smile appeared on his face.

But the next second, his expression changed instantly.

A struggle appeared in the eyes of the dragon Gram, but it quickly broke free from Saruman's hypnotic spell.

"You're asking for death!" the dragon Gram roared angrily.

The surrounding glaciers trembled as its body churned, and countless ice blocks fell.

The dragon opened its mouth and spewed extremely cold air at Saruman, causing the surrounding air to plummet instantly, as if the air itself were about to freeze.

Saruman's expression changed drastically. He immediately grabbed his staff and released a light shield to protect himself.

The extreme cold air struck the light shield, instantly freezing into thick blocks of ice. Under the relentless onslaught of the cold air, the light shield began to crack like ice.

Seeing this, Saruman dared not confront the dragon head-on and quickly retreated out of the glacier.

The dragon Gram was naturally unwilling to let go of the person who wanted to hypnotize and control it. After sleeping for a long time, it began to stir, preparing to hunt down Saruman and kill the wizard who dared to offend it.

Suddenly, the massive glacier began to crack, and the entire snow-capped mountain trembled, triggering an unprecedented avalanche.

Saruman escaped the glacial crevasse and quickly summoned the Fallen Beasts, narrowly avoiding an avalanche.

With a tremendous roar, a black dragon, over a thousand meters long, burst through the glacier and appeared atop the snow-capped mountain, roaring angrily at Saruman.

Its enormous size, almost ten times that of Smaug, exuded a suffocating sense of oppression.

The dragon Gram spread its enormous wings and flapped them forcefully, instantly creating a huge storm. Then it took to the air and chased after Saruman, who was riding the Fallen Flying Beast.

The fallen flying beasts fled in terror, desperately trying to escape the horrifying dragon.

Saruman rode on the back of the fallen flying beast, twisted his upper body, and unleashed a huge fireball with his staff to attack the dragon chasing behind him.

The scorching fireballs exploded on the dragon's body, but they still couldn't stop the dragon's attack, or even leave a scratch.

The three continued their pursuit across the vast northern wilderness.

Despite its enormous size, the dragon was incredibly agile and far faster than the Fallen Flying Beast. With a single flap of its wings, it quickly caught up with the Fallen Flying Beast.

Then it opened its giant mouth, puffed out its chest, and forcefully exhaled a chilling aura that swept towards the Fallen Flying Beast and Saruman.

Saruman's expression changed, and he activated his staff to release a dazzling shield to block the dragon's chilling attack.

Saruman blocked most of the dragon's icy attacks.

But the remaining impact affected the Fallen Flying Beast, freezing its wings and lower body instantly.

The Fallen Flying Beast let out a shrill scream before plummeting to the ground.

Saruman, riding on the back of the Fallen Beast, also fell down. During the rapid descent, he clung tightly to the Fallen Beast, using it as a cushion to absorb most of the impact and successfully landed safely.

The Fallen Flying Beast crashed directly onto a mountain peak, emitting a weak, dying cry.

Saruman quickly stood up, ignoring his disheveled appearance, and looked up at the dragon in the sky with a wary and solemn expression.

The dragon flapped its enormous wings and descended amidst a raging blizzard.

It looked down at the wizard, who was no bigger than an ant, and sneered, "Now where can you run to, wizard?"

"I'm already hungry, so I'll take you and this flying beast as snacks to fill my gaps..." With that, the dragon Gram snatched the dying fallen flying beast in its mouth, biting it to death, and then swallowed it whole in a few bites.

Then it fixed its gaze on Saruman, opened its huge mouth and fangs, and was about to bite him.

But suddenly it stopped, its body swaying slightly.

"Huh? I'm so dizzy, what's wrong with me?" The dragon Gram felt a wave of dizziness, shook his head vigorously, and showed a look of surprise and unease.

Then it noticed the triumphant smile on Saruman's face and was immediately startled.

"It's you! What did you do?"

Saruman replied smugly, "I simply hid a vial of poison inside my mount. Of course, this poison is unusual; it's a drop of Ugoliant's venom."

Ulgoliant is a giant spider-like evil god of equal strength to Morgoth. He is a monster born from the dark void outside the world of Arda. He once conspired with Morgoth to sneak into Valinor.

Morgoth pierced the core of the Two Trees with his spear, and Uggulliant drained the sap from the wound, injecting it with deadly poison, causing the Two Trees to gradually wither and die, plunging Valinor into darkness.

Ugoliant's venom can kill the Twin Trees, so using it to deal with an ancient dragon is naturally not a difficult task.

The dragon Gram was immediately filled with shock, anger, and unease. He opened his mouth and breathed cold air at Saruman, trying to freeze the despicable man to death.

But not long after it was sprayed, the poison took effect, and it became weak all over, collapsing to the ground with resentment in its eyes.

Saruman withdrew his light shield, looking at the mountain-like dragon before him with a broad smile. He walked towards the dragon, his gaze burning with desire.

If he possessed this dragon, he would be far more powerful than having an army of 100,000 orcs. The recapture of Aisengard would be just around the corner, and he might even gain greater power and realize his ambitions.

But the thought of Sauron forced Saruman to suppress his desire.

Although they are both Maiar, their strengths are worlds apart, and Saruman is currently under Sauron's control, so he naturally dares not outwardly comply but inwardly defy him.

He then took a reluctant look at the dragon Gram, and then took an iron crown from the sleeve of his robe.

Amidst the terrified and resistant gaze of the dragon Gram, Saruman ascended to the dragon's head and placed the iron crown in the center.

As soon as the iron crown landed on the dragon's head, it seemed to take root, and at the same time, it quickly grew larger, becoming a huge iron crown suitable for the dragon.

The iron crown was as black as ink, exuding a cold and dark aura, as if it were the crown of a dark king.

This Iron Crown was originally Morgoth's crown. When he destroyed the Two Trees of Valinor, he stole the three Silmarils and set them into the Iron Crown.

This is why the Noldor elves left Valinor and launched a long war of revenge against Morgoth in order to reclaim the Silmarils.

There are also the human hero Beren and the elven princess Lúthien, who infiltrated Angban and pried a Silmaril from the Iron Crown. After many twists and turns, they eventually became the star Eyarndil in the sky.

The remaining two Silmarils were removed from the Iron Crown after Morgoth was defeated by the Valar army.

The Iron Crown was later taken by Sauron, who then recast it to fit his own needs.

Now, this iron crown has been given by Sauron to Saruman, who placed it on the head of the dragon Gram.

The Iron Crown embodies Sauron's will and evil power. The moment it is put on, it seems to take root, firmly fixed to the dragon's head, becoming one with it.

The dragon Gram was unable to resist the erosion of Sauron's will and power; no matter how much it struggled, its mental defenses were rapidly collapsing.

Finally, the dragon's eyes were shrouded in a layer of black mist, and the shadowy figure of Sauron appeared in its pupils.

It has completely become a puppet without any self-awareness.

The dragon regained its ability to move, spread its wings, which were thousands of meters long, and stood up.

Its empty eyes stared at Saruman, but Sauron's voice rang out: "Well done this time, Saruman. When you return, I will allow you to reforge a Ring of Power at Mount Doom."

Saruman's face lit up with joy upon hearing this. Mount Doom was a fire erupting from the earth's core, the heart of evil energy. If a power ring were forged there, its power would certainly be a cut above other power rings.

Although he desired to forge the One Ring, he was also aware of his own limitations, and it would be good enough if he could forge a stronger Ring of Power than before.

So Saruman mounted the dragon, which flapped its wings and soared into the sky, like a giant canopy, carrying wind, snow and cold currents, flying all the way from the north to the south.

The dragon soared over the grey mountains, flying between the Lonely Mountain and the Iron Hills, passing east of Mirkwood, its destination Mordor.

As a frost dragon, Gram possesses powerful magical abilities. Wherever he goes, a chilling aura descends, as if winter has arrived, carrying with it northern winds and snow that sweep across the land.

Because the dragon was hidden above the clouds, the dwarves of Lonely Mountain and Iron Hills did not spot it; they only noticed the sky darken briefly before the temperature plummeted.

The dwarves were puzzled by this, but having no clue, they had no choice but to give up their investigation.

Only Thranduil, the Elvenking, in the Dark Forest, and Galadriel, the Elvenking of Lorien, seemed to sense something, frowning as they gazed towards the eastern horizon, but their perception remained vague, and they could not discern anything.

…………

Dui, on the other hand, is currently unaware of this.

He first returned to Eisengard, made sure everything was alright, and then rewarded the griffins and three-headed dogs responsible for patrolling and guarding Osankta.

Then he went to the depths of the Misty Mountains behind the mountain and came to the dragon breeding farm he had previously established.

The area around Dragon Field has been enchanted with various spells, hiding it from the real world like Diagon Alley, so the missing large tract of woodland is not visible from the outside or even from the air.

There are now more than a dozen sub-dragons living scattered around the dragon farm.

The largest of them were over ten meters long. Although they were far from being comparable in size to the dragon Smaug, they were still formidable creatures.

Ordinary swords and blades cannot penetrate the dragon's scales, and the scorching dragon flames can melt steel weapons. Even if Dui does not use deadly black magic, it will not be easy for him to deal with a sub-dragon.

The only problem is that these sub-dragons are not very intelligent, cannot speak human language like dragons, are short-tempered, aggressive, and difficult to tame.

However, this problem was not difficult for Dui to solve, so he simply handed it over to Smaug to handle.

Because of the dragon's imposing presence and their blood ties, these whelps submitted to Smaug upon seeing him. Even the unruly whelps who tried to rebel against the heavens were thoroughly ravaged by Smaug and then obediently lowered their heads.

Smaug then subdued these dragonkin descendants who were related to him by blood and became their king.

Smaug didn't need to interfere much; he only needed to come to Dragon Field once a year to assert his authority, and he could keep these dragons in line and prevent them from making any other moves.

(End of this chapter)