Nearly eight years have passed since the conclusion of the War of Glory and the ascension of the Eternal and the Dragon of Time to divinity.
During these eight years, due to the severe casualties during the Dragonfall War, the true dragons' instinctive distrust of the Dragon God had visibly weakened following the end of the War of Glory.
As the power of faith multiplied, the divine status of each Dragon God improved over time.
Today, a significant event occurred within the Dragon God faction.
Having resolved the allegiance of his two Red Dragon kin, Garon continued his studies in the Hall of Eternity, his knowledge of the Artificer's craft growing ever richer.
At this time, only Garon was in the vast dragon's lair.
Having passed the stage of youth, Yuna, now a teenager, had become more active in her thoughts and no longer stayed in the lair unwillingly.
After spending some time alone with Garon, she found her hobbies and continued to explore the prime material world.
She had wanted to invite Garon along, but since he was focused on his Artificer studies, Yuna did not disturb him.
In the dragon's lair, the silver dragon was intently focused, with magical energy continuously flowing between his dragon claws.
Countless Artificer runes danced between Garon's claws, emitting a faint light and forming unique patterns that rotated rhythmically, resembling a miniature galaxy.
Under Garon's will, the Artificer runes continuously spiraled and fitted together.
Finally, after more than half an hour.
Over one hundred thousand tiny Artificer runes formed a delicate rune sphere between Garon's claws.
This rune sphere was exquisitely crafted, its surface covered with intricate patterns of Artificer runes, emitting fluctuating light like a living creature's breath, rhythmic and orderly.
Garon stared unblinkingly at the rune sphere.
"Creating a basic Mechanism Spirit seems not so difficult after all," Garon muttered.
At this moment, the rune sphere floating above his claw was indeed a Mechanism Spirit, the most critical core part of the Artificer heritage.
After studying a vast amount of heritage knowledge, Garon felt he had grasped the construction method of the Mechanism Spirit.
So, he tried to create one for the first time.
And he succeeded without any mistakes, which was related to Garon's powerful learning abilities as a Dragon of Time and his demi-god level mental strength. Creating a legendary Mechanism Spirit was as easy for him as an adult learning middle school knowledge.
If Garon had still been a legendary dragon, such a feat would not have been so simple.
Garon's gaze swept around the lair.
He then pulled out several metal ores.
Engraving Artificer runes, Garon continuously hammered them onto the metal ores.
As the Artificer runes were imprinted, under Garon's will, the metal ores melted into liquid metal and then intertwined and mixed together, forming various mechanical structures under Garon's design, eventually turning into a lifelike mechanical lion.
The mechanical lion, over three meters long, looked like a delicate toy compared to Garon's size.
Garon held the mechanical lion with his claw, and it looked somewhat dim-witted.
The mechanical lion, created by Garon on a whim, was the lowest level of mechanical creation. It had no intelligence and could execute very precise and specific commands from its creator. However, if the commands were vague, it would become bewildered.
Garon's gaze shifted between the Mechanism Spirit and the mechanical lion.
Under Garon's control, the ball-like Mechanism Spirit entered the body of the mechanical lion.
Instantly, the glow of the Artificer runes began to flow and flicker on the surface of the mechanical lion. Both its internal and external structures underwent tremendous changes in just a few seconds. After merging with the Mechanism Spirit, the creature's biological rank was elevated to a mid-tier level.
Garon carefully observed the mechanical lion.
Now, the mechanical lion's surface shimmered with a unique combination of magical and mechanical energy circuits and patterns, and although its metal pupils remained cold, they now exhibited a distinct sense of intelligence.
The previously dull demeanor vanished.
"Sit down," Garon commanded.
As soon as he issued the command, the mechanical lion sat down.
Then, under Garon's control, the mechanical lion methodically executed his various commands. For vague commands, it made its own judgments and then acted based on the surrounding environment.
Inside the dragon's lair, Garon looked down at the mechanical lion, which was busily trying to bite its tail, and his eyes sparkled with interest.
"What I've created is the lowest level of Mechanism Spirit."
"In the core of the Mechanical Grandmaster, its Mechanism Spirit was a top masterpiece created by the entire Gaimasca Empire, a nation of Artificers. It likely succeeded only by
chance when all conditions were perfectly aligned."
Garon thought silently.
"The Mechanical Grandmaster has been developing on its own for thousands of years and has fully matured, having developed its own mode of operation and diverged significantly from the original Artificer system, making it nearly impossible to replicate."
Garon, as if playing with a toy, picked up the mechanical lion.
"However, I don't need to create intelligence at the level of the Mechanical Grandmaster."
"As long as I can add loyalty to me in the core intelligence program of the Mechanical Grandmaster, that will be sufficient."
To Garon, this still seemed achievable.
The prerequisite was his sufficient expertise in coding the Mechanism Spirit.
For now, Garon could only create the most basic Mechanism Spirits, which was obviously not enough. However, Garon had plenty of time.
Having come this far, the lord of this dragon court had enough pride to believe that with his abilities and a bit more focus on the Artificer's path, it wouldn't be long before he could attempt to rewrite the core of the Mechanical Grandmaster.
Under Garon's will, the mechanical lion nestled in a corner of the dragon's lair.
The spot where it settled was already piled with hundreds of odd-shaped mechanical creations, all experiments by Garon, now gathered in one corner of the lair.
Garon's expression became solemn once again.
Stars-like Artificer runes flew from between his claws, continuing to form new, more complex Mechanism Spirits under his mental command.
The river of time flowed quietly.
The quiet times did not last long.
Suddenly, a brilliant and majestic divine power surged from Lunia Heaven, spanning the Heavenly Mountain, sweeping across many planes, including the prime material world.
The Bottomless Abyss, the Nine Hells.
The Menagerie, the Blissful Realms, the Burning Hells.
The Prime Material World, the Upper Planes, the Lower Planes, the Elemental Planes.
In the endless planes, all demigods and stronger beings looked up at the same time at this brilliant and terrifying divine power. Some showed faces of fear, others were delighted, and yet others observed indifferently.
Various reactions were impossible to generalize.
In Lunia Heaven, the Silver Heaven.
Inside the Eternal Divine Kingdom, Garon, who was enjoying the graceful dance of the Sun Princess and her elven handmaidens, suddenly focused his gaze on the Northern Wind Divine Kingdom, almost a neighbor to his own divine realm.
Garon's gaze penetrated the barriers of the Northern Wind Divine Kingdom, reaching the Bahamut Palace.
The source of the brilliant divine light was here.
Platinum divine light burst forth from within Bahamut Palace, revealing the barriers of the divine realm and temporarily dyeing Lunia Heaven in shades of platinum. Countless extraplanar divine messengers showed faces of reverence, their wings folded and heads bowed, performing a noble ceremony towards the position of the Northern Wind Divine Kingdom.
"Ha ha ha!"
"Medium divine power! I have finally broken free from the shackles of lesser divine power and returned to medium divine power!"
The laughter of the Metal Dragon God resounded from the palace, rolling like a tide and spreading across the seven layers of Heavenly Mountain.
Immediately.
The figures of the gods of Heavenly Mountain gradually appeared in Lunia Heaven, congratulating the Metal Dragon God on returning to medium divine power, most bringing precious gifts to the Northern Wind Divine Kingdom.
After the Dragonfall War.
The divine power level of the Metal Dragon God, like the Eternal Dragon Queen, had fallen from powerful divine power to lesser divine power.
After countless years, following a grand victory in the War of Glory with the elves, due to the reconsolidation of dragonkind's faith, the divine power level of the Metal Dragon God was elevated to medium divine power.
In ancient times, the reason the dragon race could become the overlords of the multiverse was closely related to the two dragon gods who were themselves of near-powerful divine strength and also possessed extraordinary divine powers.
When the power of faith dissipated and their divine power level declined to lesser divine power, the two dragon gods were still near-powerful in strength, but due to the fall from extraordinary divine power, their overall strength was greatly reduced, far from their former selves. Now, although the divine power level of the Metal Dragon God was still far from its peak, it was, after all, a breakthrough.
The Metal Dragon God had been stuck at lesser divine power for who knows how many years, and one could imagine his excitement at this elevation.
"Celebrate, for the great and noble Metal Dragon God, the Sacred Dragon of Heavenly Mountain, the Lord of the North Wind. Today, he has broken through and returned to medium divine power!"
"Celebrate, for our dragon race's past glory shall rise again, illuminating all realms!"
The entire dragon race received the news of the Dragon God's promotion in this instant.
After a brief silence.
The true dragons in many planes let
out exuberant roars, one by one soaring freely in the sky, a dance of dragons in the heavens that made many species tremble with fear.
Other species, many still unclear about what had happened.
But seeing the reaction of the dragon race, it was definitely a momentous occasion worth celebrating.
The last time they saw such a scene was when the Eternal and the Dragon of Time were enshrined.
Only about eight years had passed, and now the scene of dancing dragons had appeared again, giving many intelligent creatures a vague premonition that the dragon race, which had fallen from the position of overlord after the Dragonfall War, might be rising again.
For other species, this was not good news.
This day, countless intelligent creatures would be unable to sleep, especially the giants, the archenemies of the true dragons, who might even dream of the dragon race returning to its peak and enslaving their own race.
In contrast, the dragon race was overall in a state of excitement.
"New gods are born, old gods ascend."
"Our pantheon is growing stronger, and I can already see the wings of true dragons soaring in the sky, where all species bow before them."
A true dragon murmured softly, memories of its heritage flashing through its mind.
Whether it was the grand victory in the War of Glory, the ascension of the Eternal and the Dragon of Time, or the promotion of the Metal Dragon God, all signaled the revitalization of the dragon race.
At the same time.
In the Bottomless Abyss, within a muddy swamp.
Bubbles with a foul stench split the surface of the swamp, revealing a head.
Dimogorgon raised its head, its twisted and hateful gaze seeming to see the Metal Dragon God and the Time Dragon in Heavenly Mountain.
"Damn the Dragon Pantheon!"
"Damn the Time Dragon!"
"Damn Heavenly Mountain!"
"The Abyss will eventually devour you!"
"When I become the Demon King, the first thing I will do is exterminate the dragon race!"
Dimogorgon roared and cursed in the demonic language.
This demon prince, since being decapitated by a near-powerful future Garon, had not recovered. Over these eight years, it had tried various methods, even draining a demon lord of his life force and soul, to no avail in restoring its own head.
Dimogorgon's two heads represented two wills.
Since its birth, these two wills had jointly governed its body, but due to the nature of demons, they did not get along very well, each always thinking of devouring the other.
Many demon lords predicted that if Dimogorgon's two heads could merge into one, that would be the day it became the Demon King.
After one head was decapitated, the will of that head vanished, and its powers disappeared as well.
If Dimogorgon could not find a way to regenerate its head, it would soon be unable to maintain its status as a demon prince.
In recent years, some demon lords had subtly sensed Dimogorgon's weakness and began to probe in various ways. Once the demons of the Abyss learned the truth, Dimogorgon would completely lose its deterrent power, and countless lords coveting the title of demon prince would bare their fangs at Dimogorgon.
The demon princes previously opposed to Dimogorgon would not let it go.
Given this urgent and dire situation, seeing the thriving Dragon Pantheon, Dimogorgon's heart was somewhat shattered.
As Dimogorgon continued to curse.
"Bahamut has returned to medium divine power."
Inside the kingdom of Alfheim, the elven chief god Corellon sighed and, after pondering for a while, issued a divine decree ordering the kingdom of Alfheim to lock down its barriers, forbidding entry or exit without permission.
Corellon had a premonition.
The multiverse was about to be thrown into chaos again.
The war between dragons and elves seemed to be just the beginning of a great upheaval.
As the chief god of the elves, he knew that it wasn't his consort who had attacked the young Time Dragon initially.
The true mastermind was still hidden, their motives unclear.
Corellon believed that the gods of the Dragon Pantheon surely understood that the initial incident was not the work of the elven pantheon, but they decisively seized the opportunity to declare war on the elves to restore the reputation of the dragon gods, stepping over the endless corpses of elves to regain their prestige.
Now.
After the War of Glory, the already weakened elven pantheon could no longer afford to stir the waters.
"But don't be too happy too soon."
"Whether this is a signal of your dragon race reclaiming the position of overlord or just a final flicker before the end, no one can be sure."
Corellon murmured softly.
Then, under the will of the elven chief god, Alfheim locked all its spatial passages, closing off the kingdom.
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