Fire spreads all the more upon wood.
They would witness the laws of nature.
The army of the Metalum Empire had at last penetrated all the way to Volcanium, the heart of the Ignis Empire.
Volcanium’s final line of defense exhaled a scorching breath.
The forces of Ignis under Emperor Vulcanus were waging, day by day, a war in the name of survival.
Beneath a sky hazy and white as molten metal, the white dragon Aureus still withstood the flames of Ignis, and behind it, Metalum’s siege colossi and Steel Knights advanced with heavy steps.
As the Crimson Flame Knights barely held back their advance, the few remaining coal throwers and carbonized infantry desperately hurled fireballs with the last of their strength.
“We must not retreat……! Not a single step……!!”
Varkas’s shout rang out, but the battle line was already on the verge of collapse.
Even the Destroyer of Hell could no longer exert its strength.
The Destroyer struggled at the front to bring down Metalum’s forces, but its limits were clear.
Metal was hard, and there were far too many of them.
On top of that, with the crystal infantry and crystal archers joining the front this time, Volcanium’s defense line was as precarious as fire before water.
Phellos spoke to Vulcanus in a voice of utter despair.
“There are hardly any flame cores left now. It will be difficult to commit any more troops…….”
Ragdor, standing beside him, nodded heavily.
Even he, a strategist in name, could say nothing.
Yet even in this situation, Vulcanus’s eyes were still burning.
“We do not retreat. There is nowhere to retreat to. I understand how you all feel. But never give up. Even if our fire is soon to be extinguished, burn on until the very, very end……!”
At his single sentence, flames came alive once more on the faces of his retainers.
Phellos said,
“Understood. We will not retreat!”
Ragdor also steeled his resolve.
“That is right. We are fire. Fire never shrinks back! We will continue to spread!”
The army of the Metalum Empire was pressing deeper and deeper into Volcanium’s interior.
Even so, Ignis fought to the end.
But even then, no one knew.
They did not know of the being approaching from the other side of the front.
While the entirety of the Ignis Empire was focused on the war, an unfamiliar wind blew in from the northeast.
“Huh?”
A flame spearman positioned in the rear turned his head toward the direction of the wind.
“Wait, what is that now?”
Something was bringing the wind with it.
Volcanium’s flames flinched even at that momentary wind, and the soldiers of Ignis unconsciously turned their eyes in the opposite direction.
“That couldn’t be, again……?”
It was a colossal being covered in green leaves like scales.
Following the Metalum Empire’s Aureus, the Silva Empire’s blue dragon Nemorensis had also entered Ignis territory.
Nemorensis’s presence could be seen even from within Volcanium’s fortress.
For a moment, Vulcanus stared at it as if his soul had left him.
“What is that now? Where did it come from, and why is it here?”
Vulcanus soon realized its identity.
The green leaves wrapping its entire body were its very symbol.
The Silva army that had followed Nemorensis seemed to be thrown into brief confusion by its unexpected course of action, but perhaps because an order to withdraw had come down from their main camp, they left Ignis territory.
Nemorensis advanced alone into the interior of Ignis.
Soon, it entered the battlefield between Ignis and Metalum.
Then something astonishing happened.
Merely by Nemorensis existing on that battlefield, the Ignis army gained strength, while the Metalum side was weakening.
“Huh? What’s going on?”
The Crimson Flame Knights and flame spearmen brought down Metalum’s soldiers more easily than before.
And Nemorensis blocked the path of the crystal infantry and crystal archers.
The crystal arrows of the crystal archers struck Nemorensis, but as expected, it did not budge.
“Swaaaaa…….”
From Nemorensis came the sound of leaves rustling as though shaken by the wind.
A wind of life spread through the interior of Ignis, and that wind began to make the flames of Ignis burn even fiercer.
“Yes, of course……!”
Ragdor cried out in surprise.
“Silva’s wood makes our fire burn even brighter……. Silva’s blue dragon has come to help us! Our flames are growing stronger!”
Silva’s Nemorensis was strengthening the surrounding Ignis forces through the effect of mutual generation.
Dragons were beings that moved while carrying their own energies with them.
Nemorensis was spreading the energy of wood into the land of fire.
Vulcanus silently looked at Nemorensis.
He still said nothing.
He, too, was glad at the appearance of Silva’s dragon.
But he still did not understand why it had come here.
“In any case…… let us keep watching.”
Before Vulcanus’s eyes, Nemorensis stood on Ignis’s side and defended them.
“Siege colossi, target that dragon!”
Commander Carden of the Metalum Empire shouted.
Following his order, several siege colossi changed their target to Nemorensis.
“Protect the dragon!”
Varkas shouted as well.
The soldiers of Ignis, having gained a colossal comrade, surrounded Nemorensis as if they had all made the same promise.
Flames wrapped around Nemorensis, protecting it from the army of Metalum.
The army of Ignis had not merely gained morale from Nemorensis’s appearance.
In truth, they had grown stronger by receiving the energy of wood emitted by Nemorensis.
For Ignis, which did not yet have a dragon of its own, Nemorensis fought alongside Ignis against Metalum.
Metalum’s siege colossi tried to bring Nemorensis down.
But Nemorensis’s body was harder than iron.
“Swaaaaa……!”
A fierce wind roared from within Nemorensis’s body, and its foot, like a thick tree trunk, swung toward the siege colossi.
Kwaaang!!
Crunch!
“Aaagh……!”
At the sound of the siege colossus’s exoskeleton being crushed, several Steel Knights screamed.
Kwaaaang!!
Once again, Nemorensis’s foot slammed down on the siege colossus’s head.
The siege colossus’s body bent and crumpled in a way unbefitting the dignity of steel.
Wood was harder than iron.
Wood was defeating metal.
“Now!”
The Crimson Flame Knights swung their swords of fire at the siege colossus, whose strength had greatly weakened.
The siege colossus melted in the blazing fire and collapsed.
“We did it! Keep driving them back!”
Varkas shouted again.
Nemorensis also moved.
It was looking down at Metalum’s soldiers.
Carden shouted,
“The enemy is nothing but wood! Do not fear it—continue the attack!!”
Metalum began attacking the newly appeared enemy.
But their opponent was a dragon.
“Swaaaaa!!”
Kwaaaang!
Nemorensis’s foot came flying again, and several Steel Knights were knocked away all at once as though struck by a massive tree trunk.
“D-damn it……!”
The Steel Knights who arrived next faced Nemorensis, but they too were outmatched.
The problem was not only that Nemorensis was strong.
It acted upon Ignis through the effect of mutual generation, while at the same time acting upon Metalum through a counteracting effect.
Compared to before Nemorensis had appeared on the battlefield, Metalum’s army had clearly grown weaker.
Nemorensis’s forefoot rose into the sky once more.
Then that foot struck the ground at high speed.
Kuwaaang!!
A tremor spread from its forefoot, shaking the ground around Volcanium, and the vibration knocked every nearby soldier off their feet.
Agnon, commander of Metalum’s army, shouted,
“This will not do! Retreat behind Aureus!”
Metalum’s soldiers withdrew toward their white dragon, Aureus.
They decided to entrust the decision to Aureus once more.
“Whiiiiir…….”
Aureus, already bearing more than a few wounds from the long war, began to advance again.
“Wooong, whiiiiir…….”
“Swaaaaa…….”
At last, the two dragons faced each other.
They raised their heads and looked at one another.
One being wrapped from head to toe in leaves, and one being clad from head to toe in pieces of steel.
“Swaaaaa…….”
“Whiiiiir…….”
The meeting of the blue dragon Nemorensis and the white dragon Aureus was unexpectedly quiet.
As if each was startled by the other’s existence, they stared at one another without moving.
The soldiers of Ignis, the soldiers of Metalum, even Emperor Vulcanus himself, were rendered speechless before the encounter between the two.
“Swaaaaa!!”
The first to move was Nemorensis.
It lifted its forefoot, like a tree trunk, high into the air and struck Aureus across the body.
Kwaaaang!
“Whiiiiir……!”
Aureus did not yield either.
It charged toward Nemorensis and struck Nemorensis in the abdomen with its huge, solid body.
Kuuung!
Crunch!!
Nemorensis staggered for a moment, but it did not fall.
“Swaaaaa!!”
It regained its stance and swung its foot toward Aureus’s head.
Slaaash!
Nemorensis’s toes only grazed Aureus’s surface, but the wound they left was clear.
“Wooong, whiiiiir!”
Aureus opened its eyes wide and glared at Nemorensis.
It raised its own body with all its might, trying to crush Nemorensis beneath it.
Kugugugung!!!
Aureus’s immense and heavy body shook the ground.
“Haaah……!”
The soldiers of Ignis were shocked.
Aureus had weakened greatly compared to the beginning, but even so, it was steel.
A part of Nemorensis’s body, struck hard by its attack, fell to the ground.
“Swaaaa, swaaaaa……!”
From Nemorensis’s broken body, its interior was revealed.
A skeleton formed of countless branches made up its body, but a portion of it had snapped and scattered across the ground.
“Swaaaaa!!”
Nemorensis, enraged, lunged at Aureus again.
Its forefoot, still retaining strength, flew toward Aureus.
Kwaaaang!!
Its attack was effective.
Aureus’s neck bent.
Aureus tried to counterattack, but it could no longer execute an attack as powerful as before.
Even so, their battle seized the gazes of all the surrounding soldiers.
“Swaaaaa!!”
“Whiiiiir……!”
Kwaang!
Crunch!!
Kuuung!
The battle between dragon and dragon was as intense as a typhoon, and with every attack, the ground trembled.
Crack!
Crunch……!
Once again, a large chunk broke off from Nemorensis.
Aureus’s delicate claws had carved away part of Nemorensis’s body.
“Swaaaaak!!”
Nemorensis’s roar had turned into a scream.
It attacked Aureus’s head again.
Bang!
Crunch!
Aureus’s already bent neck snapped once more.
Agnon shouted,
“This is no time to watch! Attack it!!”
Realizing that Aureus was in a precarious state, Metalum’s soldiers began attacking Nemorensis.
“They’re moving again! Counterattack!!”
Varkas shouted, and Ignis also moved to face them.
Gradually, the balance was breaking.
As Metalum’s army concentrated its attacks on Nemorensis, the weakened Nemorensis could no longer properly control its body.
Countless sharp blades of steel wounded it all over, and it gradually lost more and more parts of itself.
The blue dragon Nemorensis was also slowly losing its blue light.
“Swaaaaa……!”
With the last of its strength, Nemorensis brought its entire body down upon Aureus.
At last, Aureus’s neck fell, and it collapsed to the ground.
Nemorensis had no strength left either.
The blue dragon, crushing the fallen white dragon’s body beneath it, slowly closed its blue eyes.
Until the very end, Nemorensis held the sky within it.
That colossal body that had emerged from Silva slowly turned to ash within Ignis, disappearing into the flames.