CHAPTER 77: BRINGER OF THE PALE FIRE

"Fire, Shenhal."

As soon as Luke uttered these words, the Ancient Dragon let out a roar:

"GRRROOWWWLLL!!!"

The Ancient Dragon Shenhal exhaled with this sound. It was neither fire nor ice, but something in between. White flames suddenly rose from the dragon’s throat and burst forth. Everywhere the fire touched, it burned with white flames, and it continued to spread for hundreds of metres.

Shenhal’s icy fire was like a storm that could freeze life itself, a white fire, an icy fire; the flames were so cold that they first killed everything they touched in agony, then imprisoned them in ice.

Frankly, the soldiers of Esphia City, the ’wolves’ of the North who had grown up in war for decades, couldn’t help but smile at this sight.

It was simply too beautiful.

The northerners, who had not seen a real dragon in a very long time, now had the chance to watch this dragon’s pure white fire as evening fell and the sky darkened.

The Wolves of the North thought for a few seconds that they would burn. The soldiers outside the walls ran inside at full speed and tried to protect themselves from the pure white fire.

The ice-breathing trees advancing as far as the Northern Forests were turning into ice sculptures. It was possible to see that the trees that had been burned and had long since dried up had turned into ice in the areas where the fire had passed and disappeared.

A thin layer had covered everything.

The enemies, that is, each of the magical beasts, had begun to stand like fragile statues rather than charred corpses.

At the same time, everyone could clearly hear the strange sounds coming from the magical beasts hundreds of metres away.

"Crackle-crackle-crackle!"

It was now possible to hear the air crystallising in the lungs of every living creature.

As Luke continued his mission with the Ancient Dragon Shenhal, which he was riding and controlling, the names of hundreds and thousands of soldiers began to form in the minds of Kassadin and Hannah Wirgo.

Luke’s current appearance... This image of him on the back of the 100-metre-long Ancient Dragon would be painted by artists, and the story would spread to every corner of the world, spanning the five major continents.

The duo would be remembered as follows:

[He appeared out of nowhere. He was actually there to strengthen the walls of the North, but he acted out of a desire for no one to face danger. He was atop a dragon 100 metres long, 15 metres wide, with 40-metre wings, covered in pure white scales and red eyes. They call him The Bringer of the Pale Fire...and his breath, his voice is the one that brings death...]

[Bringer of the Pale Fire.]

[Stellar Frost, who appeared with a single word...That fire is as cold as the stars. The master of the Pale Fire.]

It was something that had existed for only a minute. In just a minute, the massive army of magical beasts heading toward the city had vanished.

The magical beasts, which had turned into ice sculptures, fell to the ground as if they had caught fire, but strangely, they turned into ice fragments and burned to ashes in separate pieces.

This was the most dangerous fire itself.

Though... There were two fires in the "most dangerous" part, but that was the usability aspect of the matter, so there was no need to dwell on it.

When Shenhal finished exhaling and there were no monsters left around, Luke ordered him to land on the wall, and when that happened, he was able to land on the wall with his feet, sliding off the wing of the Ancient Dragon.

Kassadin rushed over to him in seconds.

"There were some serious monsters among them, ones that could climb. I’m glad you came," Kassadin said.

Luke smiled and asked, "Does the North really deal with this many monsters every day?"

Kassadin smiled when he asked this question and replied, "This is only one-tenth of the attacks we normally face."

These magical monsters had come through small portals, so they had nothing to do with the massive portals that formed during winter. Of course, this raised a big question:

"How many magical monsters do you kill when the passages grow in winter?"

When Kassadin heard this question, his face became still, and after a short pause, he replied, "Almost twenty million."

Luke didn’t know what to say and just stared at Kassadin.

"Of course, this isn’t something that happens all at once. It’s spread out over almost a week. The passages in the north remain open for a long time," Kassadin said.

When Luke heard this, he furrowed his brow and asked, "What?"

"Didn’t you know?" Kassadin asked with great curiosity.

"I had no idea... Nearly twenty thousand monsters had come to my settlement, and this was only once," Luke said.

Kassadin, Hannah behind him, and the remaining soldiers were equally surprised.

This was impossible.

Luke was already wondering why so few monsters had come to his settlement.

He had thought it was just because of the fairies’ magic, but now that didn’t make any sense either.

Forget the fairies, even the Hiera, who were blessed to the core by Nyx and the Chaos-Born themselves, couldn’t create such magic.

"Where could they have gone?" Luke asked aloud, then reached into his inventory and pulled out a map of the empire and the continent.

After carefully examining the map, Luke looked around the area where the farms were located, in the western part of the northernmost point, and in the eastern part of the city, where he was wandering around.

While Kassadin tried to figure out what he was looking at, Luke narrowed his eyes and asked, "Father, what is needed to build a dungeon naturally?"

When Kassadin and those around him heard this question, their eyes widened, and they paused.

"Impossible... It would take years..." Kassadin muttered, then put his hand to his head and confirmed, "Actually, it’s possible..."

There was no need to be a duke or a prince to understand the terrifying reality of this. If there was a dungeon in the region Luke controlled, it meant that the region could be invaded at any moment.

It was like a ticking time bomb.