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Casalos clicked its cold beak, and its entire body dissipated into the air, leaving only a ball of distorted light and intense heat that shot into the swarm of insects like an arrow, leaving a trail of blazing fire in its wake.
71. Finally meeting the boss
The biting north wind transformed Casalos into "wind," but guided by its eccentric ideas, this wind was so different.
Although he couldn't understand the specific mechanism of the "artifact," Casalos knew that he had truly become a gust of wind formed from flowing, high-temperature metallic steam. The insects' limbs and claws could only sway the wind's direction, and their spells could only disrupt its shape, but they could not truly harm the "wind."
However, the temperature of the metallic vapor is terrifying, even hotter than the fire dragon's breath, and can easily ignite anything it touches.
As the wind blew by, the insect's chitinous exoskeleton sizzled and bubbled, burning with a foul odor. This alone wouldn't have been enough to kill the resilient insect anytime soon. Unfortunately, these insects, like Casalos, were breathing efficiently; their unique respiratory organs, like bellows, sucked in and expelled the surrounding air, thus drawing in the wind that Casalos had transformed into.
The burning began in their fragile "lungs," rapidly scorching and destroying their internal organs... and magic power. Casalos's killing efficiency suddenly reached its peak, and thousands of insects were annihilated in a single gust of wind.
A fiery line was drawn through the swarm of insects, and it reformed into a solid dragon form, resuming its deathly dance of intertwined dragon wings and breath in its full glory. It wasn't that the biting wind made its transformation into a scorching breeze so brief, but rather that it discovered its dragon magic reserves couldn't sustain it in that state for long.
At this moment, thanks to the in-game enhancements, Casalos has grown into a young adult. In addition to its original class, it has also acquired the classes of level 8 Paladin and level 6 Priest, increasing its dragon mana capacity and granting it several additional feats. If it were to clear a dungeon in its original room-based style, it could easily kill a godlike being like a Hellfire with a single breath attack while standing still. However, even with such abundant mana resources, it can only support the use of the Blazing Wind Crown to maintain the scorching wind state for about half a minute at most.
More importantly, under the Scorching Winds effect, Dragon Magic's energy will not regenerate at all, rendering all the massive amounts of healing feats it previously selected to buy time ineffective. Simultaneously, Blazing Flame and Split cannot affect Scorching Winds, and killing the insects will no longer enhance the effect of Blazing Flame.
After trying it out, Casaroz realized that the Scorching Wind form could only be used as a "ultimate move" in emergencies.
Of course, the artifact's effect is not just about giving Casalos a high-cost ultimate skill. Even just the passive effect of the perpetual "Wind's Roar" is enough to greatly increase its combat power.
The omnipresent wind flowed with Casalos's will, lifting its wings and flowing over its body, allowing it to completely merge into the wind, achieving unprecedented speed and maneuverability.
Casalos could sense an invisible barrier preventing it from increasing its flight speed. That was probably the barrier to the speed of sound—the wind limit controlled by the passive effect of the Wind's Crown was right there, so its fastest flight speed stopped before the sound barrier.
To break the sound barrier, one would likely have to enter a state of rapidly depleting magical energy. The crucial point is that such flight speed is meaningless in this battle; there's absolutely no need to waste dragon magic trying.
With each sharp turn in the air, its entire body was being torn apart. Dragon blood seemed to be pumped into a certain part of its body with each maneuver, causing its brain to become confused due to lack of blood and its heart to bear enormous pressure. Unlike flight speed, which required additional magic power to increase, the limit of Casalos's passive effect in increasing flight maneuverability was limited by Casalos's physical endurance.
Even so, the enhanced flight capabilities brought by the North Wind Crown allowed it to completely escape the pressure of the endless swarm of insects.
The insects' melee attacks cannot reach Casalos at all; the spikes they shoot out or the spells they throw can only pass through its flight trails and end up in the swarm on the other side, accidentally injuring friendly forces.
Casalos danced among the swarm of insects like a fish playing in water. Its wings, sweeping forward at a large angle, became like two indestructible blades under the boost of high speed, easily slicing up any insect that dared to stand in its way, and injecting blazing flames into them, which exploded into a sky full of secondary flames.
It kept its beak tightly closed, but opened the gaps at the ends of its mouth on both sides of its cheeks, spraying dragon breath from between its teeth.
Tiny sparks of electricity burst forth from both sides of the dragon's head, scattering like raindrops onto the swarm of insects below. They exploded into bursts of flame, their intense light illuminating the darkness obscured by the insect swarm.
"Finally, we're playing a lawnmower game!"
The killing efficiency increased again. Casalos couldn't help but let out a loud dragon roar as it watched the gold coins jump up. It turned to circling to collect the spoils to sustain its growth. It had no idea how long it had been frozen in the storm. At this moment, every insect in the swarm had grown to the point where it could cause a catastrophe in Faerûn.
The Dragon's Treasury didn't let Casaroz continue to enjoy itself. Before it could even farm the 20,000 gold needed to max out the final level of Elemental Mastery, a terrifying aura that seemed capable of devouring everything swept across the swarm of insects, followed by a "howl" that made even the dragon soul tremble, coming from afar.
The next moment, it was as if a pedestrian was facing the deathly aura of an out-of-control, overloaded 100-ton king, as if it was about to be crushed.
Without any hesitation, Casalos instantly entered the Scorching Wind state. A black shadow, too fast to see, crashed through the swarm, creating a ripple that swept past its wind-transformed body, shattering the entire mass of scorching wind into a turbulent flow.
It narrowly avoided a fatal blow, but about one-fifth of its dragon magic power fell dormant and could no longer be awakened.
The shadowy figure stopped abruptly, ignoring inertia. A giant black wolf, its flesh rotting and bones exposed, exuding deathly aura, stood in mid-air. It turned around and looked at Casalos, whose body had reformed, with eyes that seemed to be blazing with green flames, and roared.
"You're so ugly, what are you yelling about here for!"
Casalos descended on the wind, and in one instant, a fully charged breath was poured into the wolf's mouth, which was almost the same size as its own colossal dragon body, interrupting its roar of war.
The fiery dragon breath, capable of extinguishing the life of an ancient red dragon, vanished like a small firecracker into the giant wolf's mouth. Casaroz felt approximately one-tenth of his dragon magic power vanish into permanent silence, and even his face, covered in thick iron shield scales, showed signs of...
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blue.
Devouring is this giant wolf's unique ability; it can even devour the pure destructive power of the gods!
72. Chaos Demon Hound
Kozf the Chaos Hound, the Avenger of Heaven, an enemy of the gods who serves the supplicants, one of the three great ancient evils, an existence as ancient as Faerûn itself.
Some believe that Jeremiah, the god of death, created him to prevent other gods from obtaining the souls of their followers. It is said that when Jeremiah realized that although he held sway over death and the dead, the souls of those who prayed would reside with their respective gods—not him—he went into a sudden madness and created the Chaos Hound. To punish the mortals and gods he perceived as usurping his domain, Jeremiah unleashed this terrifying evil. His later act of bestowing divine office upon Bane, Baal, and Melkor is considered a consequence of this impulsive act, and his voluntary repentance for creating the Chaos Hound has maintained his subservient attitude towards the god of death to this day.
Casalos expressed skepticism about this.
Kozf roamed the outer planes, devouring the souls of those who sought to merge with the gods in their respective planes. He found their taste intoxicating and treated no god differently when feeding. But like the flesh and blood of the living, the souls of the unbelievers and false believers filled him with utter disgust. This was why Kozf repeatedly wreaked havoc in Faerûn, leaving traces of destruction and devouring souls.
Any soul devoured by Kozf will be truly and eternally destroyed, and even the gods cannot undo it.
To protect their believers from the evil ravages of Kozf, the gods of Faerûn once joined forces to imprison this terrifying being for a time.
The story of how it was imprisoned is widely known, but it is also a popular tale found in taverns across the continent: centuries ago, the High Council of Gods, composed of powerful deities, carefully prepared a trap somewhere in the Desolate Wasteland of Destruction and Despair to successfully capture the Chaos Hound, but they found themselves unable to kill this ancient evil.
Therefore, they made a bet with Kozif: it could not untie the collar made by Gond the Miracle Maker. Confident, Kozif accepted the challenge, agreeing to let Gond put a short but sturdy chain around its neck. To prevent any breach of contract, it asked Tyr to place its right hand in its drooling jaw, to which Tyr agreed.
After the gods bound Kozf with chains, Gonde fixed the chains several miles underground in the floor of the Hollow Tunnel. The goddess of magic, Mystra, created a radiant aura of pure magic that enveloped him. This aura was indestructible and self-healing, and could never be removed or destroyed.
The two traps took effect; Kozf could neither break free of the chains, nor could anyone cross Mystra's barrier to approach it and provide it with new power. Realizing it was bound, the Chaos Hound snapped its powerful jaws shut, severing Tyr's hand. In the long struggle to free itself that followed, the beast reveled in the divine essence emanating from that hand.
Like all the stories of the gods, the several tales of the Chaos Hound circulating in Faerûn are blatant lies, riddled with contradictions. If the powerful gods could capture the Chaos Hound and directly prohibit Kozf from trading with other gods and mortals, then even if they couldn't kill it, why go through all this trouble to seal it away? Even Tyr sacrificed an arm and a portion of his divinity…
Considering that during the turbulent years, after Cyrek released the Chaos Hound Kozf, this creature relentlessly pursued the powerful god of thieves, Musk, and even bit off one of Musk's legs, Casalos reasonably suspects that the gods were probably thoroughly thrashed by the Chaos Hound and only managed to seal it away with a mere combined effort.
From Casalos's current perspective in the Dragon Treasury, how could an ancient evil creature imprisoned by the gods have participated in the destruction of the world of El?
Ancient history is difficult to reconstruct due to the deliberate deception of the gods, but no matter who fabricated these lies, it does not deny the eeriness and power of the ancient evil beings, which were comparable to gods.
"You want me to fight the Chaos Hound?"
Casalos was starting to doubt Dragon Life. Although he knew that the final boss of the El Al dungeon was the Dark Serpent Dandel, it was still the final boss, and it was still a long way from the completion of the El Al dungeon.
The first boss is the Chaos Demon Hound, one of the three ancient evil creatures along with the Dark Serpent. Isn't the difficulty of this dungeon a bit too exaggerated?
The dragon's breath, unleashed with all its might, was instantly annihilated in the demonic hound's mouth, like a spark falling into the sea, failing to even make a ripple. The dragon magic power Casalos used to power this breath was completely silenced by the demonic hound's eerie devouring force—as if it had been swallowed whole, Casalos's dormant dragon magic power losing all possibility of regaining its energy and becoming active again. The demonic hound's devouring was tantamount to directly consuming Casalos's maximum dragon magic power.
Worse still, this power doesn't just affect dragon magic; if Casalos is directly attacked by the demon hound, his basic attributes, such as life points quantified within the Dragon Treasury, will also have their maximum value reduced.
It can even devour the divinity of powerful gods. Tyr's hand and Musk's foot were bitten by it and could not be restored. Fighting a war of attrition with this thing is a dead end!
Add to that an immortal body that even powerful gods cannot overcome, ghostly movement with zero cooldown and flawless teleportation, and absolute initiative, and Casalos sees no possibility of victory—the flames are stacked high enough, but the damage from the flames takes time to take effect, and Kozf will not give it that time.
The Chaos Hound's terrifying howl was interrupted by a dragon's breath, turning into a hazy black shadow. Casalos hadn't recovered from the scorching wind from the previous attack when the shadow stretched into a line and pierced through it in an instant.
The twisted, pulling sensation of being ripped apart from the world permeated Casalos's dragon body, lasting only a moment but seemingly stretching to eternity.
As the shadowy figure disappeared into the swarm, Casalos, regaining its senses, had shrunk to about one-eighth of its original size, and its maximum health, strength, constitution, and other stats had also been reduced. This single attack had eroded almost half of its growth potential for the entire game.
As the swarm closed in, the aura of death returned. Casaroz barely managed to switch back to his Scorching Wind form, drawing a burning arc in the swarm to avoid another attack from the shadowy figure. He also managed to pick up two new spoils and slightly recover some of his growth.
The shadow created by the moving demon hound drew a sharp arc without pausing, sweeping past the dragon body that had fallen out of the scorching wind form and reformed, and biting off another one-sixth of its base attributes—as the attributes decreased, Casalos' resistance to the demon hound's devouring damage also decreased, and the effects it suffered became increasingly severe.
The unique flame that had begun to gleam in the shadows was Casalos's only hope.
73. Bloodbath
The damage from the Blazing Flame is a noble "true damage." The literal translation of the information from the Dragon Treasury indicates that it can ignore all resistances and immunity. This "all" should include the high-priority resistances and immunity brought about by divinity and divine power under the rules of the Kingdom's Heaven. According to the Dragon Gods, in the eyes of the builders of the Dragon Treasury, there is no essential difference between quasi-divine power and mortal things, and divine power is probably the same.
The flames rising from the shadows indicated that the blazing fire had already burned through the Chaos Hound's bones, flesh, and hide from the inside. If Casalos could maintain the flames and buy some more time, he would win this fierce battle.
The demon hound launched another attack with ghostly movements. The "wind" form provided by the Frost Crown allowed Casalos to barely dodge, but even if it avoided the devouring effect, the dragon magic power consumed by each dodge was still a terrifying number. It was very doubtful whether it could survive until the flames burned the Chaos Demon Hound to death.
In fact, according to the data on paper, the Chaos Hound Kozf's health, resistances, defense, etc.
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Its hard attributes aren't particularly high, perhaps even inferior to Casalos, which experiences significant growth in-game. Its strength lies in its various bizarre abilities. Offensively, it possesses Devouring and Corrosion that ignore divine defenses; defensively, it has Extinguishing that extinguishes the surrounding flames and a strange regeneration from decay after each instance of damage; mobile, it can move freely through the air and possesses ghostly speed equivalent to indiscriminate teleportation; it controls a terrifying howl that even divine power cannot resist; and it also possesses advanced initiative and melee counter-damage…
In short, Chaos Hound is definitely a monster with a strong mechanic. Without a corresponding counter mechanism or an overwhelming advantage, it is almost impossible to defeat it by relying solely on its stats.
Since Casalos has already put the crystal into the disintegration process, Blazing Flame, lacking the severe damage, cannot suppress the wolf's recovery. Even though it has already stacked a high value in the previous battle with the swarm, it will still take some time to burn the demon hound to death.
However, the duration of the blazing flames is limited, and Casalos still needs to find a way to extend them.
Kozf's speed was much faster than Casalozs's, even exceeding its speed when recovering from the change in the state of the Frostbite. Basically, Casalozs could barely enter its wind form to evade every two attacks launched by the Dire Wolf. As more and more attributes were devoured, this situation would only worsen.
Once again dodging the wolf's phantom attack by transforming into wind, Casalos immediately charged up its second breath, while simultaneously wildly waving its other innate weapons, infused with blazing flames, in all directions. With normal attacks, it couldn't even touch the wolf; its only hope was that the wolf, caught off guard by its phantom attack, would be distracted and grazed by one of Casalos's haphazard claws or wing toes, thus extending the duration of its blazing flames.
The dark shadow swept past the swarm of insects, brushing against the scorching wind. Casalos then unleashed a cone-shaped, covering breath in the general direction in which it disappeared. The shadow, which had been swept back from the swarm, quickly made a sharp turn to avoid the cloud of sparks and mist that possessed a mysterious power capable of harming it, and darted past the dragon's belly from the side.
Casalos, whose attributes had vanished into thin air once again, felt its claws brush against something as it swung downwards. Then, a viscous liquid splattered all over its belly, and a burning sensation and a pungent stench filled the air. Large black spots appeared on its thick plastron, which sizzled and rotted into pits, exposing flesh and bones.
Within Kozf's flesh and blood, swarms of maggots spewing acid constantly surged. Any melee attack that struck it would cause these maggots to explode, unleashing a cloud of acidic mist that inflicted continuous damage on the attacker. Now, Casalos had learned through experience that even immunity to acidic energy was not immune to the corrosive acid mist backlash from Kozf.
It doesn't matter anyway. This amount of reflected damage is negligible compared to the all-attribute damage caused by Devour. In any case, Casalos doesn't think he can withstand the Demon Hound's attacks until the Corruption causes serious damage to him. He can just keep the Blazing Claws active.
Seemingly sensing that Casaroz's claws also carried a mysterious power that could harm it, the demon hound Kozf, transformed into a shadow, did not reappear for a long time after attacking the swarm of insects. The overwhelming swarm of insects surrounded Casaroz, whose attributes had plummeted, plunging it into a grueling protracted battle. Only the occasional drops of loot allowed it to barely maintain its condition.
After hundreds more insects exploded into sparks in the blazing flames, the Chaos Hound reappeared. It stood suspended in mid-air, its malevolent red eyes fixed on Casalos, clusters of secondary flames blooming on its body. Having been accidentally touched by the secondary flames from the exploding insects, the Chaos Hound realized that ceasing its attack would only allow Casalos to continue growing stronger.
It raised its head again, opened its mouth, and its teeth reflected light like obsidian daggers. Millions of swollen maggots crawled and writhed on its jade-like bones, as if waiting for their next meal. Yellowish-green pus oozed from the fleshy maggots, forming swirling pools that flowed onto its enormous claws, scorching the air.
Too far away, Casalos was too late to interrupt the terrifying howl.
A silent roar erupted from the demon hound, distorting the surrounding air into transparent ripples. Insects touched by these ripples fell like raindrops. They did not die, but were plunged into panic and confusion, temporarily losing their ability to fly.
The ripples, traveling at the speed of sound, were not much slower than the shadowy form of the demon wolf, and within a few seconds, they had traversed hundreds of meters to reach Casalos. As if struck on the head with a heavy hammer, Casalos fell into a daze. The phantom of the Aetherian War, in which the Aetherian race was wiped out, appeared before its eyes. Chassa's maniacal laughter and the agonizing screams of the dying Aetherian members seemed to be projected from hundreds of subwoofers placed next to its ears, intertwining and drilling into its body.
Its heart and blood vessels, lungs, liver, gallbladder, stomach and intestines, and other organs all resonated with this roar, buzzing and trembling as they tore apart the countless capillaries that ran through them, forming large patches of blood stasis.
"roll!"
Casalos did not lose consciousness, but instead descended into a near-dragon-like rage, clinging to its last shred of sanity. Crimson blood mist seeped from the gaps in its scales, saliva brimming with dragon magic flowed from the crevices of its fangs, and its bloodshot eyes emitted a bloodthirsty purple light.
It swooped down towards the shadowy figure formed by the howling demon hound, sacrificing a significant amount of its attributes once more, and merged its two dragon wings into a spear that pierced through the shadowy figure.
74. Strategic Changes
Casalos lay on the protruding balcony outside the Red Dragon's lair, enjoying the warm midday sun on his body, his half-closed eyes reflecting the white clouds drifting in the blue sky.
The skies of Faerûn are much clearer than those of the three planets of Aiur. There is no desolation after the destruction of the rules that supported the world, no gravity that becomes disordered when you fly a little higher, and no insects that blot out the sky. This allows the dragons to relax and find some peace on their tense nerves.
Only when the sun sets and the golden afterglow spills onto Gasland Bay, creating patches of golden feathers, does it open its eyes, raise its head, and look down upon its own territory.
Many permanent settlements have now been built on the desolate grasslands. They may fall into ruin in the future, or they may develop into cities. But in any case, the eastern part of the Tindor Plains will eventually become the new Golden Vale, the new Kalinsan, and the new Sword Coast of Faerûn.
If it weren't for the inevitable disasters that followed.
Faerûn is hardly a peaceful land, but compared to Aiur, where the entire world was destroyed, Faerûn is a well-ordered paradise. Although Casalos has many criticisms of the gods, there is no doubt that they are the creators and maintainers of Faerûn's current order.
In the near future, during a turbulent year, the gods will be expelled from their divine kingdoms by AO and descend upon the continent of Faerûn in the form of saints, thus beginning the collapse of the order of Faerûn.
Casalos originally did not intend to get involved in the mess between the gods of the Pan-Faerûn pantheon, but after the battle with the Chaos Hound Kozf, its thoughts quietly changed.
There's no other reason than that, after a turbulent year, some idiot would release the Chaos Hound Kozf and the Night Serpent Dandel, who were sealed away by the gods!
If everything goes according to the original plan, the released Chaos Hound and Dark Serpent shouldn't cause any major trouble, but what if they do?
This world is inherently different from the Faerûn of Casalos's past life memories. Who can guarantee that things will unfold according to the script Casalos knew?
The gods, who once united against the Wild Gods, were powerless against the Chaos Hound and the Dark Serpent. Now, after the turmoil, each with their own ulterior motives, what ability do they have to fight against these two ancient demons?
Moreover, during the time they were sealed, Kozf had completely devoured and assimilated Tyr's powerful divine energy, and the Night Serpent Dandel was not idle either. They had utterly destroyed the world of Aiur.
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A terrifying existence!
Well, with AO watching over the Kingdom of Heaven, those two ancient demons can't possibly destroy this world.
But what about the continent of Faerûn…? The events of the Year of Turmoil suggest that the beings of Faerûn are probably as important to the gods of AO as harmless bacteria. In AO's eyes, stopping the Chaos Hound and the Night Serpent is the duty of the gods of Faerûn, and if the gods fail, and the Chaos Hound and the Night Serpent destroy the pan-Faerûn pantheon and annihilate all living beings on Faerûn, then that too is the duty of these two ancient evils.
With the help of the artifact's power and the favor of fate, Casalos ultimately relied on the blazing flames to achieve final victory in the battle against the Chaos Hound in the Dragon Vault dungeon.
It was another victory that was almost a mutual destruction. When the demon hound exploded into a sky full of secondary flames, Casalos had already weakened to a level even more frail than when it had just hatched. Before it could even check what Kozf had dropped as loot, a passing insect casually carried it back to the Astral Plane within the vault to reunite with Artanis.
Then Artanis gave it a huge surprise: the Kozf it killed was merely a battle avatar created by the Chaos Hound after it absorbed Tyr's divinity. It was still eight lifetimes too early to contend with the true Chaos Hound—roughly the size of eight bosses in terms of growth.
Ancient monsters are not like gods who become crippled and useless once they are separated from divine power and the magic network. They are monsters with strength that rivals or even surpasses that of powerful gods. If they are really released, the future of Faerûn may not be determined by the gods.
Faerûn is not an internal dungeon of the Dragon Vault. Casalos would have to wait an unknown amount of time to gain power comparable to the ancient monsters. To reduce or even prevent the possibility of a future of destruction, participating in the conflicts of the gods during the turbulent years is the only feasible way it can think of at the moment.
The primary task now is to find the key ordinary people who have fully exerted their initiative during this turbulent year and participate in its many events.
Midnight, who replaced Mystra as the new goddess of magic, should be traveling and adventuring all over Faerûn, spending her time in the beds of lonely men; Midnight's knight, the mercenary Kalanvor, burdened by a family curse and driven by profit, is probably also wandering around, and hasn't even met Cyric, the thief who escaped from Santyr Keep, remaining pure and kind despite his corrupt background.
However, Elminster, the chosen one of the goddess of magic, mentor and confidant of the Seven Sisters of the North, old friend of Kelben Black Staff, founder of the Harpists' Alliance, and great sage of Faerûn, has recently officially announced his retirement and retreated to the town of Shadowvale to become a hermit. To find him, one only needs to try one's luck in Shadowvale.
However, Shadowvale is the beloved place of Hiron, one of the Seven Sisters of the North, and another of the Seven Sisters, Storm Silverhand, also resides there. Like Elminster, the Seven Sisters, also masters of the harp, have no regard for the Iron Dragon, who is dedicated to restoring the glory of the Iron Dragon.
If Casalos were to rashly enter their territory, the only outcome would be being regarded as an intruder and expelled with magical bombardment.
The key issue is that Casaloz himself disliked these harp masters. This wasn't just due to the Harpists' Alliance's chaotic nature, which clashed with the Iron Dragons' order, but also because the Seven Sisters' temperaments were not something every creature could tolerate. In this regard, Casaloz wholeheartedly agreed with the bald, red-robed mages of Sel'thas's view: the Seven Sisters were essentially seven powerful shrewish women!