It felt as though a voice was whispering in the depths of their hearts. Run! Run! If you flee now, there might still be time!

The power displayed by the Red Dragon seemed able to directly wound the very essence of their souls. Once dead, it was very possible that they would be truly 'dead.'

Seeing that a Red Dragon could actually affect the morale of the entire Warrior's Rest—and she hadn't even ascended to godhood yet!

Even Tempas, the War God himself, couldn't help but take a deep look at Pafila. Upon receiving the War God's command, the Lady of Strategy dared not delay any longer and directly issued her orders:

"Stop her!!!"

However, both Caregus the Plunderer and Vilko, the Wave Marshal, remained impassive. A demigod naturally could not command them, who were divinities. She could only command Uthgar, the Father of Battle.

The Father of Battle, his face etched with a bitter expression, immediately lunged forward, diving towards Pafila, who was continuing to gather power for her divine ascension. And he knew what he was about to face. This legendary Red Dragon was key to this divine war. And naturally, this was Tiamat's 'must-save' maneuver.

Just as Uthgar was preparing to face off directly with a Dragon God, Tiamat, who was biting at five chains of faith, seemed not to even notice him, the Father of Battle. In her five pairs of enraptured eyes, it appeared at that moment that only "her child"—Pafila—remained.

How beautiful...

Her gaze revealed a complex mix of emotions; she admired Pafila's nearly heaven-defying talent while simultaneously envying her good fortune. She was so fond of her, so desperate to possess her, yet also understood that this child was trying to distance herself...

And she knew, at this very moment, the only one capable of stopping Pafila's ascension to divinity was herself, the deity Pafila worshipped. Unless she, in the name of a god, commanded Pafila to cease her ascension, no one today could stop her.

This little Red Dragon, born in a Brass Dragon Nest and found by Tiamat in the sea of faith... had waited for this moment for a hundred years and prepared for it for a decade.

In the end, the Chromatic Dragon Queen Tiamat chose... to witness and to remember.

The one thing she did not do was bless.

The child had grown up. She no longer needed the blessings of her mother, the Chromatic Dragon.

The time had finally come for the Red Dragon to spread her wings and soar.

The next moment, under the collective gaze of David, the Dragon Queen, all the deities in the sky, and the supplicants on the battlefield of the gods, Pafila forcefully unfurled her dragon wings!

Two terrifying hurricanes, capable of tearing anything apart, swept out in the direction her wings extended. Within the previously clearly demarcated sky, a third color appeared.

It was a shade as if shrouded under the Red Dragon's wings—endless, pure, crimson red.

This was the Crimson Calamity!

Soon, the approaching Father of Battle found that he could no longer advance a single step. His punch, honed through a lifetime of combat and capable of splitting mountains and shattering stone, seemed to meet an insurmountable force field, sending invisible ripples through the air.

How is this possible! Uthgar was struck with horror.

He was a god! A god, blocked by the 'domain' of a non-divine being.

What blocked him was the Coulomb barrier manifested by Pafila through David's Arrogance! It was a tyrannical power that should only exist outside the nucleus of a heavy atom.

The Father of Battle, under immense pressure from his Father God, Tempas, launched a frenzied assault on this invisible barrier. He couldn't understand why, at such a critical moment, his Father God still hadn't acted. Uthgar believed that Tempas, who had emerged victorious from the divine war and the contest of thousands of war gods, would not be so constrained by pride.

He seemed to be wary of something? What exactly was he wary of?

"He's wary that if he makes a move on the lower planes, he would attract the gaze and disfavor of my lord Asmodeus," Byel, Duke of Avernus, said with a chuckle. He was watching the divine strife from the Bronze Citadel, shaking his glass of red wine as he answered the queries of the dark generals.

Only Byel, who had risen from an insignificant Inferior Demon to his present position, knew this: the one who emerges as the ultimate winner in such a grand contest might not be the strongest fighter, but is definitely the most enduring. Both the War God Tempas and Byel himself were such beings. It was precisely because of their similar experiences that they understood the limitations inherent to their kind: they excelled at holding their ground but lacked a decisive cutting edge.

That was also why Asmodeus wasn't very fond of this new Duke of Avernus. Beings like Asmodeus preferred individuals such as the former Duke Zariel—who had once charged into the Abyssal Depths and whom Byel himself had betrayed and imprisoned. They also favored beings as sharp and unstoppable as this young Red Dragon, Pafila.

Only such beings could prevent the great ones from feeling... that this world... is too boring...

As Byel, somewhat disheartened, tossed his wine glass aside, the wind ceased. The Coulomb barrier vanished, and the world itself seemed to freeze.

With the impact of the neutron source birthed from David's Arrogance, the curtain of blood dyeing the sky a third color surged upwards like a fully ignited divine flame. Within Pafila's tightly clenched claws and folded wings, this power converged. It formed a blade that seemed to stretch endlessly, piercing through the Material Plane, the Astral Plane, and the Outer Planes, reaching straight for the conceptual domain of the Pantheon.