CHAPTER 107: CHAPTER 107: KALAMUS HOUSE (5)

In that instant, the sky shattered. A silent roar tore through reality, and a hole opened above us, an abyss so black it devoured the very light. The jubilation died in the throats of millions of subjects. Everyone felt it: this was no eclipse, no common omen. It was a ravenous void, a hungry eye in the heavens, as if the universe itself had decided to watch... and swallow.

"The coronation of the Arcane Empire was forever marked by that eternal hole. And I, Kalamus, heir of glory, began to hear for the first time... the whisper of the unknown."

The sky did not close. That hole kept growing, spreading like a black wound over the world. What should have been the most glorious celebration of my life became a massacre.

The first roars shook me to my bones. Dragons. Hundreds of them. Descending in swarms, their wings blotting out the light, their shadows stretching across the entire capital.

I saw one of them, an ice dragon, open its jaws and freeze an entire district. People, houses, towers... all trapped in crystal before shattering. Another, a fire dragon, unleashed a sea of flames that wiped out thousands of soldiers in a single breath. One more covered the city in poison so corrosive it melted flesh and steel like butter.

My arcanists unleashed everything they had. Spells I thought unstoppable bounced off those beasts’ scales. Only a few penetrated, and the cost was the lives of the mages: bleeding from nose, mouth, and ears, falling dead after a single spell. The dragons were the nightmare of every arcanist, and they proved it with every roar.

I responded. I had no other choice. I called upon the skies, summoned seas of fire, rained meteors down upon them. I crushed lesser dragons, incinerated their bodies to ashes. But it was not enough. For every one that fell, two more emerged from the portal. The ground shook, blood ran like rivers, and the city I had sworn to protect sank into chaos.

Then my father rose. My old father, sick, weak, whom I had thought bedridden forever. He walked among the ruins with the aura of an emperor who had never stopped being one. I saw him raise his hand, and I felt it... all the mana of the empire answered his call.

He sacrificed his life in one final act. And he showed why he had ruled for so long. I saw him obliterate dozens of dragons in seconds, strike down generals with a single gesture. The earth split, seas rose, and for a moment I thought we would succeed.

When the radiance faded, only silence remained. My father disintegrated before me, leaving behind a crown broken in two.

But there was no victory. The portal remained open.

And what emerged from it froze my soul.

A different roar shook the world. The air grew heavier, the ground creaked beneath my feet. A shadow covered what remained of the empire. And then I saw it: a dragon that made the others look small. Its eyes were dead stars, its body warping reality around it.

It was the Dragon General, a level 96 monster.

I, with my freshly acquired level 95, understood the truth: I was still weak. Very weak.

The empire had lost its Emperor, and I had the scythe of death on my neck.

The dragon did not need to speak. Its presence said it all.

A colossal monster, lightning scales exploding like living storms with every movement. Its wings were walls of black clouds, its claws capable of tearing towers apart. It was pure electricity, a black sun made flesh.

The arcanists, thousands of them, gathered at my side. I saw the symbols of every magical house, the colors of clans that had once been rivals now united in a single army. No speeches, no orders. We all knew that if we didn’t stop it, nothing would remain standing.

The dragon roared, and the sky opened. Lightning struck the city, reducing entire districts to smoking craters. I saw hundreds of mages incinerated, reduced to glowing skeletons in the blink of an eye.

"Attack!" I shouted, though my words barely cut through the roar.

Thousands of spells flew: spears of fire, storms of ice, chains of gravity, void spheres. The air became an ocean of pure mana. The dragon responded by swallowing the magic, laughing at it, and releasing an electric breath that pulverized five hundred men in an instant.

The knights charged. Their enchanted lances glimmered, their armor resonated with ancient runes. I saw one leap from a tower, pierce a wing with his weapon, only to be devoured in pieces a second later.

I unleashed everything I had. A torrent of fire burned its scales, a gravity strike slammed it into the ground. The dragon shrieked, its roar shattering eardrums and breaking windows for miles. It writhed, smashed buildings with its colossal body, and rose again with even greater fury.

The battle raged for hours. Every victory was paid with thousands of lives. I saw archmages who had been legends fall, men and women who could destroy cities dying like insects under that beast’s claw.

And yet, we wounded it. Its wings were in tatters, its neck scarred with deep cuts, its body covered in burning wounds.

When we finally brought it down, the dragon fell in the city center, destroying the palace as if it were paper. We thought we had won.

Until it opened its eyes one last time.

An impossible discharge exploded from its heart, a sea of lightning that erased everything around it. I saw entire temples evaporate, mountains split in the distance, tens of thousands of my men die without even a scream.

The dragon died... but it dragged us with it.

When the smoke cleared, the capital was ashes. What little remained standing were stone skeletons, broken towers, and me, on my knees, trembling.

We had killed a colossus. But at a price no empire could pay.

And worst of all, the portal remained open.