Under Garon's mental control, the time wheel on his wrist slowly began to rotate counterclockwise.
Simultaneously, a deep draconic language emanated from the silver dragon's mouth.
"Time, flow in reverse."
Garon perfectly replicated the actions and words used by the future Garon when employing time reversal, and he could confirm that the slowly rotating time wheel on his wrist was identical to the one formed by the future Garon.
However, under the bewildered gaze of the Coldforest Serpent Dragon and Garon's expectant eyes, ultimately, nothing happened.
Some of the time power within him was consumed, but the anticipated scene of time flowing in reverse did not occur.
The time wheel that was slowly rotating counterclockwise was merely for show.
It did not possess the true power to reverse time.
"What's missing?"
Garon's gaze slightly furrowed, and with a hint of disappointment, he dispersed the time wheel.
Meanwhile, Garon pondered deeply, scouring his memory for anything that might inspire him. As his thoughts raced, when the memory image froze on the runes of the time wheel, Garon's gaze suddenly sharpened.
That day, the future Garon formed the time wheel, through which he wielded a vast and mighty time power.
The structure of the time wheel mainly comprised two parts.
One was the power of time, the main body of the time wheel, which Garon possessed and showed no significant difference from the future Garon. The second part was the mysterious runes enveloped in the power of time, carrying a profound feeling and a special connection with time.
"Although I used the power of time to construct similar-looking runes, they were fake—not the actual runes themselves."
"I've seen many magic runes, but those clock-like runes, I've only seen in the hands of the future Garon."
Garon identified the problem.
He slightly shook his head, understanding that he certainly couldn't learn the methods of the future Garon; he lacked those key mysterious runes.
Garon did not force it.
His slightly disappointed mood quickly returned to calm and rationality.
Because he knew, as he aged, his body and spirit would become stronger, and he would eventually master the power of time reversal. It was only a matter of time, no need to rush.
"What time reversal are you talking about?"
"Can time flow in reverse?"
At this moment, the Coldforest Serpent Dragon, who had always been clueless about what Garon was doing, couldn't contain its curiosity and quietly inquired.
Among Garon's true dragons, only the Coldforest Serpent Dragon remained unaware of his identity as a time dragon. Different dragons, different dragon species, inherit different legacies.
In the Coldforest Serpent Dragon's draconic legacy, there seemed to be no record of legendary dragon species, and other true dragons, red and white dragons, also disliked interacting with it, having little communication.
"It was just a superficial attempt. Don't worry about it."
Garon casually said.
The serpent dragon did not delve deeper into the issue, turning its gaze towards the battlefield below.
Those elemental giants and lives that chose death over submission were rapidly dying under the attacks of the red dragons and high-level spellcasters. Fire giants turned into dissipating flames, their elemental cores extracted, and earth giants turned into fine rocks, all collected.
Because the elemental giants contained treasures that everyone coveted, conflicts and disputes arose between the red dragons and high-level spellcasters.
However, Roel and Gresha, the couple, remained wary of each other in the face of treasure, while Kricens and Fred cooperated, securing more elemental giants and, consequently, more elemental stones and cores than the red dragons.
In terms of sheer destructive power, newly matured red dragons couldn't match high-level spells.
In front of such combat power as the red dragons and high-level spellcasters, not many elemental giants had the capability to resist, except for one or two elite elemental giants who caused some trouble.
However, another part of the elemental giants that decided to swear fealty to Garon, upon seeing this situation, briefly pondered before choosing to turn their weapons against those few elite elemental giants, aiding the red dragons and high-level spellcasters.
After one elite earth giant was shattered, its elemental stones were snatched by Roel and Gresha.
Taking advantage of the situation, the elemental cores of two elite fire giants were each grabbed by Kricens and Fred.
After a short while, all ordinary elemental beings were eliminated.
Elemental giants and lives unwilling to submit and swear fealty no longer existed.
Above the land filled with rubble and black smoke, Garon hovered in the air, looking down. His dragon scales shimmered with a silver light, brilliantly reflecting in the vision of every elemental life.
The remaining elemental lives knelt on the ground, uttering peculiar sounds in the languages of the fire and earth tribes.
Without understanding the language, it was clear they were uttering some form of oath of fealty.
Garon didn't particularly care about ordinary elemental lives.
His gaze swept over the faces of the fire and earth giants below.
In the elemental demi-plane, elemental giants formed step by step from the lowest level elements, possessing the ability to command other elemental lives, representing the upper echelon. Securing their fealty essentially meant securing the loyalty of all other elemental lives.
Garon then pointed out a few elemental giants who understood the common language or dragon language.
"Swear by the name of the eternal and time dragon, eternal fealty to the great existence before you, the eternal dragon."
Swearing to other deities might attract some gods' attention, potentially causing some instability.
Swearing to other timelines' powerful time dragons wouldn't have such issues.
Quickly, a group of elemental giants swore their fealty.
The moment the oath was spoken, they felt an omnipresent gaze, invisible and intangible.
At the same time, these elemental giants had a realization.
If they broke their oath, the consequences would be worse than death.
Although the elemental giants had never heard of the eternal and time dragon before, this sensation indicated that the entity they swore to was at least a demigod-like powerful existence, making the oath effective.
"The eternal and time dragon, the eternal dragon. Could it be a dragon favored by some dragon god?"
Many elemental giants looked up at the silver dragon in the sky, guessing with awe.
Moments later, under Garon's command, the survivors began to clean up the battlefield.
Since elemental lives are hard to kill, by the time they swore fealty to Garon, both sides still retained a considerable number of elemental lives, not weakening too much.
Not only elemental giants have cores or elemental stones.
Other powerful individual elemental lives also had the chance to produce them.
These valuable materials were collected and ultimately presented to Garon, becoming part of his collection.
Then, he visited both the Stone City labyrinth and the city of Flamesteel, instructing the elemental giants to open the treasure vaults of the two legendary giants.
Countless gems and magical metals dazzled Garon for a moment.
With the special environment of the lava demi-plane, it was too easy to nurture magic gem mines and precious metal mines, all of which were fire and earth attributes. Regardless of the attribute, true dragons would gladly add them to their collection without prejudice.
Unfortunately, Garon didn't find any legendary equipment. If there were any, the Flamesteel City Lord and Stone City Lord would have used them in battle.
In the volcanic region, the Alpha tribe.
"I swear fealty to you, the great eternal dragon."
Within the shadow cast by the giant dragon form, Anya Zhen bowed her head, leading the humans of the Alpha tribe to swear fealty to Garon as agreed, becoming his vassal clan.
"Raise your heads."
Garon said.
The people of Alpha lifted their heads, looking at the legendary true dragon who had arrived in the lava demi-plane not long ago, defeated two legendary elements, and claimed all territories. Now, he was the object of their loyalty.
As the Alpha people watched, space rippled, and an ancient, heavy stone door was retrieved from the dimensional space by Garon.
Thud! The stone door stood upright, firmly on the ground, facing the Alpha people.
The flame-like patterns and deep runes engraved on it appeared in their vision simultaneously.
At the same time, Garon closely observed the reaction of the Alpha people.
He noticed that most of the Alpha people's expressions remained unchanged, looking at the stone door with curiosity and admiration, showing no signs of surprise or shock, as if they were just looking at a magical curiosity unrelated to themselves.
However, Anya and the mid to high-level spellcasters had quite different expressions.
Their eyes were filled with astonishment and their faces with complex emotions, displaying a mix of joy and regret.
"This stone door is a teleportation gate I obtained in the prime material world. I came to the lava demi-plane through it."
Garon, treating the stone door like a toy, examined it and said, "I think it has a certain connection with your Alpha tribe."
After a pause, he looked down at the high-ranking female spellcaster and said, "Judging by your expression, I think my previous thought was correct."
Anya regained her composure, her complex expression returning to calm, and softly said, "Yes, our ancestors used it to leave a shattered planet, leaving behind a spark of hope here, allowing us to barely survive."
"Every member of the Alpha Council is informed of that unforgettable history, using it as a caution to constantly reflect on themselves."
The Alpha Council, consisting of mid to high-level spellcasters within the tribe, has been in existence for a long time.
A small tribe of a thousand people having an organization called the Council might seem incongruous to outsiders, but Garon had a rough guess about their origins, so he wasn't surprised.
In fact, the number of mid-level court mages in some small countries on the Noah continent might not even match the number of mid-level mages in the Alpha Council.
A ratio of one-fifth of spellcasters is a terrifying proportion in any prime material world, shocking to behold.
If Garon hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed it.
After some thought, Garon's gaze swept over the Alpha people, speaking seriously, "Now that the Alpha tribe is my vassal clan, I need to understand the tribe's past history."
Anya was silent for a moment, then nodded and said, "As you wish."
Then, under Garon's gaze, Anya maintained a smooth and calm tone, stating, "Our history originates from a magic empire 20,000 years ago, which was glorious and bright, and we are just its remnants and ashes."
"Now, we are only known as the Alpha tribe, but our former name, in the magic empire 20,000 years ago, was Alphatia, the Alphatia Empire."
As Anya narrated, a terrifyingly powerful magic empire unfolded before Garon's eyes, like a painting.
It was a magic empire dominated by spellcasters, born on a world the size of a star cluster, where magic traces were found in every corner of the empire, and all high-ranking officials were powerful spellcasters.
The empire's council had 3,000 seats, with the lowest requirement being a spellcaster of level 36.
According to Alphatia's classification, level 20 was already considered a legendary spellcaster.
Even a multitude of legendary spellcasters, using the magic wind, filled the vast expanse of the galaxy outside their planet with breathable air, constructed magic fleets, and roamed the star seas.
"But even such a powerful magic empire was buried in time."
"Infighting among spellcasters led to the collapse of the grand fortress from within."
Garon slightly shook his head.
As he saw from the shadows of time, the Alphatia Empire was so powerful, but oddly, their magical schools were not diverse, with spellcasters only divided into two factions.
Initially, there were wind mages, followed by the emergence of fire mages.
For a long time, the newly born fire mage faction was quite prosperous, but the older wind mages, after creating breathable wind, attracted a large number of young talents, overshadowing the fire mages, causing dissatisfaction among them.
Fire mages were generally temperamental and initiated various conflicts.
The more stable and ancient wind mages, for the sake of the empire's stability, endured.
However, nobody expected the Alpha Emperor to personally take sides because he was a fire mage himself. He supported the fire mage faction, removed the wind mages from the council, reduced their influence, and further persecutions exacerbated the friction and conflicts.
The final outcome was already seen by Garon.
After a series of bloody conflicts, escalating factional fights even involved family, disciples, and relatives, making the ancient wind mages intolerable, and a full-scale war erupted.
They could create life-giving winds that filled the galaxy; naturally, they could also unleash world-destroying winds.
The young and temperamental fire mages ultimately faced the consequences. In the face of the world-destroying wind, they realized their mistakes and begged the wind mages for mercy, but it was too late. The previously conceding wind mages showed no mercy this time.
Subsequently, the planet of the Alphatia Empire was shattered by the world-destroying wind, countless spellcasters died.
This once-glorious magic empire, without any external enemies, perished due to the rash arrogance of the fire mages.
After Anya finished speaking, almost all spellcasters of the Alpha tribe displayed expressions of guilt and self-blame.
They were the remnants of the fire mages, the culprits behind the destruction of the Alphatia Empire.
Garon, observing the expressions of the Alpha people, fell into thought.
Due to the passage of time, Anya only knew the general events, with many details unclear.
For instance, why did the Alpha Emperor personally intervene?
"With such severe factional strife, as an emperor, he should have tried to mediate the conflicts."
"But the Alpha Emperor instead took sides, favoring fire mages, intensifying the conflicts, and the empire's destruction can even be said to be his doing."
The glorious civilization gradually decayed with time, eventually buried in the annals of history. Garon was quite curious about such matters, so he thought about it carefully.
Its destruction was probably not entirely due to infighting.
Garon slightly shook his head.
Such a militarily powerful magic empire, if not intervened by deities and demigod-like powers, could even dominate many outer planes.
Then, Garon refocused, reevaluating the present Alpha people.
If properly nurtured, these individuals might be able to revive some of the Alphatia Empire's power.
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