The twilight deepened, and the surroundings around Eucerolot gradually melded into darkness, making it difficult to distinguish reality from illusion with just the naked eye.

He had to ascend higher, and his Gryphon below, following its master's command, screeched loudly as it shot straight up into the clouds. The silvery moonlight poured down, refreshing the spirit.

Eucerolot's Gryphon was an exception from the breeding grounds. DeLuca family controlled the dragon trading chains of the empire, so they had sufficient conditions to conduct extensive experiments.

This Gryphon was crossbred with dragon bloodlines, but without mutating into a dragon kin or died of rejection. Instead, taking the essence and discarding the dross, it had greatly enhanced strength, endurance and speed, while its intelligence and magic far surpassed nomral Gryphons.

After three hours of high-speed flight, he finally arrived at Erl shortly after complete darkness fell. From afar, there was not a single light on the ground, only the brilliantly lit Pillar Mountain in the distance, with fearsome winged beasts flitting about.

"If I remember correctly, over a decade ago when Oakenburg attended some event, this place was considered the shining jewel of the western lands!" Eucerolot gazed down at everything below, lamenting the impermanence of the world.

Suddenly, the Gryphon below raised its head, letting out a shrill screech while shaking its head and raising its wings.

"Is someone coming?" Eucerolot immediately leaned down, stroking his companion's mane soothingly.

He knew this was a warning gesture, indicating outsiders was approaching them from the air.

After calming the Gryphon, Eucerolot maintained a crouched stance warily on the saddle, his right hand firmly gripping the reins while his left hand quietly reached for the pincer staff hidden under the saddle armor.

All around was silence, except for the calls of late-returning birds - no other sounds. But the prince knew someone was definitely observing and preparing to ambush him. This was his sixth sense honed from winning thirteen consecutive imperial hunting tournaments.

Suddenly!

Two silent blood arrows came shooting rapidly from above and below!

Eucerolot immediately yanked the reins. The dragon-blood Gryphon and its master were so in sync they were like one being. Its wings flapped powerfully, allowing them to dodge sideways and evade the two strikes.

No sooner had they left their original spot than the surprise attacks collided with a "squelch" of rotten impact.

However, Eucerolot continued diving, his left hand gripping the pincer staff tightly, the fork-shaped catalyst forming some spell.

Snap!

A sudden flash of light illuminated the airspace, revealing two blood wyverns in this domain preparing their second toxic blood breath.

He yanked hard on the reins. The Gryphon's superior air speed allowed its entire body to rear up abruptly, closing the distance to the blood wyvern below in less than a second.

Eucerolot raised his pincer staff, and the magic gathered between the forked catalysts was finally released.

A spiraling golden magic chain shot straight out. The blood wyvern preparing its breath was caught completely off guard and struck squarely in the body. The beam of magic immediately bound it tightly before phasing into its body.

It lost all power, its nerves losing control over its physical form as it fell helplessly from the sky.

However, the Gryphon's powerful talons caught the falling blood wyvern. With a few flaps of its wings, it quickly approached the second blood wyvern high above.

"Don't go! I am the fourth prince of the Natterian Empire. We've just signed a peace treaty with your red dragon master!"

Seeing the surviving blood wyvern preparing to flee to Pillar Mountain, Eucerolot hurriedly explained the situation in Draconic using a voice amplification spell.

"I've come alone because I have an important matter to discuss regarding the red dragon's vital interests. Your companion is not dead, merely immobilized. I will release the spell after seeing your master - I mean no harm."

Eucerolot's words made the fleeing blood wyvern halt its wings after fleeing a few dozen meters. It turned warily, seeing this human with open hands showing goodwill while mounted on a Gryphon with extremely high body heat, similar to its own dragon kin compatriots.

After a moment's thought, the blood wyvern slowed and turned back, leading the way. Eucerolot knew he had convinced it, so he urged his Gryphon to follow behind.

Along the way, he couldn't help but want to see how terrifying this dragon-occupied city truly was. But the area below Erl was neat, only showing signs of ongoing construction everywhere, not at all like the propaganda of streets littered with corpses, humans in chains, and monsters roaming freely in the empire's various reports. It looked no different from an ordinary city.

"It seems those old Morey nobles were determined to betray humanity... Could they have conspired with that dragon long ago?"

Eucerolot knew this must be the work of Moran and the others. Without this group of elites with human society, how could the dragon possibly manipulate the complex machinery of the state?

"What is that?"

As Eucerolot passed through Erl's city center, most of the houses had lights glowing from their windows, dimly illuminating a towering statue hundreds of meters tall in the central plaza.

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"Wings and a tail...is that a life-size statue of the dragon?" The prince begin to smile, having great insight into art.

"If they really completed it, it would be a tremendous achievement. But I wonder if this was the dragon's own idea or part of those nobles' plans?"

There were no incidents along the way, and Eucerolot arrived smoothly at Pillar Mountain.

By now, the Ryton forces had ceased all attacks, clearly having received the king's orders after the peace talks and forced to swallow their rage just a step from victory.

The dragon kin at Pillar Mountain could finally take a break from the battle to regroup. Large numbers swarmed about, repairing damage, tending to their wounded, while humans and other races brought in from their old territories did heavy lifting and moving objects. Blood wyverns flew everywhere delivering food and relaying orders. Even in the depths of night, activity did not cease, with the light stone making Pillar Mountain glow like a beacon.

Eucerolot maneuvered his Gryphon, dodging the blood wyverns crisscrossing the air.

"Follow me and don't fly erratically. We've established aerial routes here, not following the rules will cause collisions and disrupt order," the lead blood wyvern suddenly called back.

"No problem." Eucerolot couldn't help but admire. "I always thought only places like the Floating Isles had scenes out of fairy tales, never imagining the dragon civilization had long established its own three-dimensional ecological order."

The dragon kin at Pillar Mountain operated in an orderly fashion, strictly following the rules set by their superiors.

Curious blood wyverns would occasionally fly past Eucerolot, but seeing one of their own escorting the outsider, none approached to inquire, quickly going about their own business.

The blood wyvern flew on until they reached the main entrance of Pillar Mountain. After renovations, the entrance had been expanded several times over, though no gates had been installed yet.

"Grand leader."

The guide blood wyvern approached the large blood wyvern Mary standing guard at the entrance, murmuring to her before gesturing with a wingtip toward the obedient Eucerolot waiting in the air.

"Come with me."

Mary gave the human a deep look, casually swatting the subordinate with a heavy wing to express her dissatisfaction with its combat ability.

"My apologies, milady. With limited time and coming in secret, I couldn't properly submit a request and wait for an invitation," Eucerolot said, surprised to find this large blood wyvern was female. He immediately sensed a special maternal beauty in her and bowed politely in greeting.

Then the Gryphon relaxed its talons, dropping the bound blood wyvern onto the entrance platform, and the prince released the spell.

"All of you, get back to your patrols! No lunch tomorrow! Go practice at the new landing ground!" Mary roared at the two useless wyverns before turning and heading inside the mountain without a backward glance.

Eucerolot shrugged at the two brothers on the ground, following the big blood wyvern deeper into this den of dragon.

The interior of Pillar Mountain had undergone major renovations as well.

When Raphael first entered, he had to use brute force to smash a path through with his own body, leaving a bumpy, rubble-strewn trail that smaller creatures could not traverse.

But the goblin and kobold engineers had smoothed everything out with dwarven technology. The walls of the passageways were evened out and polished, so Eucerolot did not need to worry about sudden protruding rocks while flying.

"They've even divided it into ground and air routes." The prince noticed resting platforms built high along the walls everywhere to allow blood wyverns carrying heavy loads to take breaks without obstructing ground traffic.

There were many areas still under excavation and construction. Eucerolot suspected this group of dragon kin intended to hollow out the entire mountain and fill it with their domain.

Upon reaching the central district, the massive tunnel leading to Erl's former royal treasury stood before them.

Eucerolot knew from Morey's shared intelligence that this was the entry point for that dragon-slaying force, where a tower-master level mage from the Magic Council had unleashed a sixth-tier spell, destroying everything.

However, there were no signs of rubble now. The newly built central district was spacious and bright. Eucerolot felt dwarfed being there, but the realization it was built to serve the dragons put him at ease.

"Go on through, they've been informed," big blood wyvern Mary said to Eucerolot after speaking with the guards of Crimson Dragon at the giant wall gate.

"Farewell then, beautiful lady," the prince said with a smile, showing his four pearly whites.

It was not just his imagination - Eucerolot seemed to notice the slightest hint of a smile on the massive blood wyvern's maw.

"Good lord, a few words can't have kindled romance in the monster, can they? I was just being gallantly sweet-talked as usual toward females," the prince inwardly laughed bitterly. He had always believed any female was gentle and fragile, and a gentleman should do his utmost to cherish them.

But now he had reached the final step. Eucerolot turned and yanked the reins, flying his Gryphon into the dim, massive inner tunnel.

Pitter-patter.

A pebble suddenly fell, making him pause in surprise.

Here, the interior was not as well-lit as outside. Only moonlight filtered in through crevices, eerily illuminating the chaos.

Pebbles and dust rained down constantly. Eucerolot knew this meant the original structure's interior had been damaged but not repaired in time, leaving it at risk of collapse.

"If the outside is so well-maintained, why not handle this area too?"

Ahead was a large pile of discarded camp supplies - tents, boards, papers A bright light appeared ahead, signaling the dragon's lair. Eucerolot flew forward, but just before entering, he glimpsed rat dragons and blood wyverns huddled in a corner from the corner of his eye. They glanced at him indifferently before turning away.

"More guards," Eucerolot realized he had been announced in advance.

His Gryphon soared boldly into the lair, and the ruins of Morey's former royal treasury immediately filled his vision! The ceiling had a large opening where moonlight poured through, providing some illumination. The craggy cavern walls jutted out wildly, strange and natural shapes exuding an untamed quality. As for the treasury itself, it could only be described as utterly devastated:

Blackened scorch marks covered the surroundings, with ash and soot blanketing the ground in a thick 'mattress'. Many objects originally stored here lay scattered about, some melted and fused into unrecognizable lumps by the intense heat. Unidentified monster bones piled up in the corners.

"This smell...just like dragon dung from the dragon preserve of DeLuca," Eucerolot wrinkled his nose, pressing forward. Pillar Mountain's civilization disappeared within the dragon's lair, where it ate, drank and relieved itself all in one place, just like a traditional monster.

Eucerolot guided his Gryphon downwards, immediately struck by the vast sea of gold that assaulted his vision, leaving him as awestruck as everyone before him.

"You, the future human king," a deep Draconic voice rumbled from the depths of the golden expanse.

The Gryphon suddenly grew agitated, its brilliant golden eagle eyes burning with intense hatred as it screeched warnings, wings beating rapidly.

Eucerolot saw the golden coins below rise up in a 'mountain', reminding him of whales surfacing during his southern sea vacations.

Crash!

A crimson draconic figure erupted from the depths, scattering gold everywhere as Raphael ambushed the airborne prince!

The Gryphon's screeches reached a feverish pitch. Eucerolot had to yank hard on the reins to stop his decades-long companion from going into an outright frenzy.

The demonic dragon's gaping, blood-filled maw was almost upon him - he could even see the glow of dragonfire in its throat!

The crown prince knew there was no way to fight here, so he forced his instinctively clenched hand gripping the pincer staff to relax, pressing his lips tightly shut as the stench of death rapidly approached!

Clang!

Raphael's massive jaws snapped shut, but still a forearm's length away from Eucerolot.

Crimson Dragon then idly flapped a wing to glide onto a broken pillar, complaining, "Why do humans not fear death these days? You were about to be eaten but didn't even try to flee?"

The prince's heart finally settled down.

"So it was just an intimidation tactic," he exhaled deeply in relief. It was impossible to claim no fear - his back was already drenched in cold sweat.