Chapter 144: The Voice of Night (Part Three)

  At this critical moment, a strange glint appeared in Cassius's golden eyes.

  "No."

  "Perhaps... there’s one way."

  Even as a living shadow immuo most attacks, the shadon could not evade psychic damage. This was Cassius’s only viable strategy.

  With this realization, Cassius roared without hesitation:

  "Vile shadon!"

  "Tiamat is watg this!"

  Mortifer ughed openly. "The Queen’s favored? Every red dragon cims such a title. It seems arrogance is a universal trait among red dragons—you are no exception."

  His voice turned icy.

  "Abandon your pitiful mortal pride, embrace the great transformation, and surreo the endless shadows!"

  "I shall grant you immortality."

  Mortifer tinued his transformation unabated.

  The surrounding space trembled violently—the wails of the pnar fabric’s resistance echoed. The Material Pne instinctively rejected the shadow’s invasion, but under Mortifer’s powerful magic, even spatial ws were temporarily subdued.

  Cassius locked eyes with the shadon’s proje, releasing his mental barriers and strug the terrifying vision of the five-headed dragon.

  He stared unflingly into Mortifer’s gray eyes, his golden pupils glowing intensely with are light.

  "Whoosh—"

  The illusion pierced the pnar barrier, passing through the Material Pne, and reached Mortifer’s true form in the Shadowfell.

  【Tiamat's Terrifying Illusion】

  "Roar—"

  In Mortifer’s vision appeared a colossal dragon nearly a hundred meters tall, its wings blotting out the sky. Even the shadon could only e its o gaze upon it.

  It was a nightmare amalgamation—a monstrous dragon body supported by stocky legs, with five writhing necks ending in five heads, each corresponding to a atic dragon. The colors of the heads extended down their necks, blending into the body like streaks.

  The beast’s bad fnks merged into stripes of gray, teal, and violet, culminating in a muddied brown tail. Its underbelly transitioned from pale green to the upper hues.

  This fearsome and terrifying image was one Mortifer knew well.

  —It was the Mother of Evil Dragons, the Five-Headed Queen, Tiamat!

  "Impossible…"

  Mortifer stared bnkly upward, muttering to himself.

  Seveuries ago, as a mere bck dragon, Mortifer had erected a crude altar in his sy ir, his precious iron s to the Queen. As one of the atic dragons, he had dreamed tless times of earnitention, even her favor, and experieng unparalleled glory.

  But the Queen had never responded.

  Back then, Mortifer had been a sy bck dragon, only slightly above white dragons in the atic hierarchy.

  Eventually, uo resist the allure of power, he surreo the Shadowfell, being an undead shadon.

  Now, Mortifer trembled.

  It was unclear whether it was from fear or exhiration.

  The five-headed dragon gazed coldly at the earth, spewing fire, ice, acid, lightning, and poisonous gas from its dreadful maws, each head embodying fury.

  "No, this isn’t real!"

  "Damn it, it’s an illusion!"

  Mortifer, with a millennium of magical expertise and the power to cast ninth-tier spells, quickly detected the illusion’s fws despite his shaken state.

  The illusion’s fire, ice, and acid attacks struck his form, but as a six-tier spell, it was insignifit against a soul steeped in the Shadowfell’s desotion for a millennium.

  Yet, another w Mortifer.

  "How could an ordinary young red dragon, even a dragon sorcerer, know such magic?"

  "Such a ving divine illusion—could he truly be Tiamat’s chosen?"

  Mortifer’s was not without reason.

  Among dragons, shadons were infamous as pariahs, despised by their kin.

  They had forsaken their noble lio embrace darkness, being wretched shadow beings. Even the atic dragons sed them.

  Righteous gold dragons actively hunted shadons, uniting kin to eradicate them and erase this "shame" fronkind.

  Killing a potential chosen of Tiamat and ing the atic dragons’ wrath was not a risk Mortifer wished to take.

  "Damn red dragon…"

  Mortifer faltered, his ritual’s progress stalled.

  He had no desire to provoke a divine-level enemy, but being deceived by the illusion had also humiliated him like never before, filling him with a desire to shred the red dragon before him.

  "Are you truly one of her chosen?"

  "Red dragon."

  Mortifer’s proje loomed over Cassius, his gray eyes narrowing, as if scrutinizing his every move for a clue.

  Cassius noticed Mortifer’s hesitation. He knew he had to act with greater arrogand authority, fully embodying the persona of a divine choseo deceive this a creature.

  Cassius stepped forward, staring fearlessly into Mortifer’s proje, and decred arrogantly, "Vile shadow creature who tramples upon our noble dragon lineage, you should think carefully."

  " you withstand the wrath of Tiamat?"

  Mortifer’s dim gray eyes burned with suppressed rage, flickering with shadowy fmes.

  "Damn red dragon."

  "Damn Material Pne."

  This momentary hesitation allowed the pnar barrier to reassert itself, rejeg the shadon from fully entering the Material Pne.

  Mortifer had already harvested thousands of shadow souls auries of pnning had not goo waste. There was o risk provoking a potential divine adversary.

  With this thought, Mortifer stared deeply at the red dragon, his gray eyes glinting with venomous rese.

  "The barrier may have been breached by thousands of wretched souls."

  "This nd is marked by the Shadowfell."

  "One day, I shall return here, and you will not be able to protect what you hold dear."

  Mortifer spoke coldly.

  Distorted vortices appeared around his colossal proje, as pnar repulsion forcibly expelled his maion from the Material Pne, dragging him bato the lightless void of the Shadowfell.

  FAL