CHAPTER 925: THE DEMIGODS ARRIVE

"Hahaha... bro, when you say stuff like that, I can tell you’ve got no experience with dragon girls," Leonidas boomed. "They’re insatiable by nature. It’s impossible to ’feed’ them enough."

As he spoke, Leonidas plopped down into his chair and started chugging from a keg of ale.

"So..." Orion began, letting the question hang in the air. He knew Leonidas would get it.

"Your sis, Daize, has been settled in on a territory in another realm," Leonidas confirmed. "Don’t worry. For both our sakes, I’m not letting her show her face on the Emerald Dream Realm battlefield again."

Orion lifted his own keg, clinking it against Leonidas’s.

"Holy shit, bro. You’re a legend." The praise was genuine.

"Heh heh, all in a day’s work, my friend. A small matter!"

A shit-eating grin spread across Leonidas’s face. It was clear his three-day "adventure" with Daize had left him thoroughly satisfied.

"So, is this Isabella chick still out?"

The fun and games were over. The first thing Leonidas did upon his return was scan the battlefield. He noted Makareth, who was once again going absolutely berserk on the front lines, but his gaze lingered with surprise on Isabella, who was still curled up within the protective embrace of her colossal dragon.

"Yeah, still out," Orion said with a shake of his head. He was almost jealous of Isabella; even while falling unconscious, her colossal dragon had instinctively shielded its master.

"I’ll go take a look."

Leonidas set down his keg, got up, and walked toward the dragon. After a moment’s thought, Orion followed.

"Her consciousness took a major jolt. No wonder she hasn’t woken up." Leonidas pulled a vial from his pouch, shook out two small pills, and handed one to Orion.

"Get this into the little chick."

With that, Leonidas took the other pill over to the colossal dragon’s massive head, pried its jaw open, and tossed the medicine inside.

Orion didn’t overthink it. He walked over to Isabella, lifted her gently so her head was tilted back, and pressed on her jaw. Her lips parted, and Orion placed the pill inside.

But as he went to lay her back down, he realized she wasn’t swallowing. The pill was just sitting in her mouth, not going down.

Orion paused for a second, then took out a waterskin. He fished the pill out of Isabella’s mouth and popped it into his own. He took a swig of water, let the pill dissolve, and then leaned down and fed the mixture to her.

"Heh heh, bro. How’d she taste?"

Orion had barely straightened up when Leonidas’s voice slithered over his shoulder. Before Orion could even process the question, Leonidas switched topics.

"Wow, I didn’t realize you were so into this Isabella chick!" he said, his voice dripping with insinuation. "Bro, you’re not worried... you know? That she gets around?"

Orion shot him a confused look.

"I’ve known a lot of female survivors, bro," Leonidas said with an air of worldly experience. "And let me tell you, a lot of them have a thing for keeping... boy toys. For all you know, the girl in your arms has a stable of a few thousand of them."

A wave of revulsion washed over Orion.

"Bro," he said slowly. "Is that why you made me do this? That’s a dick move, man."

His only response was Leonidas’s cackling laughter as he was already walking away.

"You’re the disgusting one!" Orion yelled after him. "Your whole family is disgusting!"

At that exact moment, Isabella’s eyes fluttered open. She fixed Orion with a venomous glare from her eyes.

Orion just shrugged, gently propped her up against her colossal dragon, and teleported back under the shade of his umbrella.

"Bro, a little heads-up next time you’re gonna screw me over?"

Leonidas didn’t say a word, simply handing Orion a roasted beast leg. Orion grunted a couple of times, then started tearing into the meat.

Suddenly, the sky itself seemed to recoil. The atmosphere shifted as three mighty, overwhelming presences swept across the land.

The dragon demigods had arrived.

The color drained from Leonidas and Orion’s faces. They both dropped their food and flashed into the sky above the Leonidas palace.

But someone was faster.

The will projections of Deputy Commander Edward and Arthas materialized in the sky, blocking the path of the dragon demigods.

"Hand over Daize and that beastman, and we can forget this incident ever happened," the leading draconic phantom declared, its gaze fixed on Deputy Commander Edward. It had stated the reason for their arrival and the terms for peace.

"Cut the bullshit," Arthas’s voice boomed. "You want a fight, you’ve got one."

How could Arthas, who had been monitoring the entire war, not know about Leonidas poaching a dragon arch lord? It was a total baller move that had boosted morale while simultaneously crippling the enemy.

Hand over Leonidas and Daize? What a joke.

That wasn’t how the Champions Alliance operated. Besides, only a complete moron would agree to a move that weakened their own side.

"So be it. We will have war!"

Just as the three-on-two battle was about to erupt, another mighty voice echoed from the distance.

"If there’s a war, how could you possibly start without me!"

It was Pollard, the progenitor of the Blood-Eyed Black Serpent, former ruler of Dragonflame Island—the very demigod who had once sought an alliance with the Champions Alliance.

"Your Excellencies," Pollard purred, addressing Edward and Arthas. "How about we each take one? The cries of my slaughtered children echo in my ears day and night. They tell me their deaths were so, so tragic!"

Deputy Commander Edward and Arthas were unmoved by Pollard’s dramatic entrance. With perfect, unspoken understanding, they simply launched themselves at two of the draconic phantoms.

Pollard didn’t get a verbal reply, but by leaving the third dragon demigod phantom for him, they had given him his answer.

Three-on-three. The sky turned dark as the battle between demigods began.

Far away, on the Dawn Continent, several shadowy figures materialized high in the atmosphere, their attention fixed on the western sky, toward the Dusk Continent.

A chorus of voices rose.

"A battle has started in the west. Is it a dispute over territory?"

"But isn’t there a supreme entity in the west?"

"Those terrifying blade flashes not long ago... why would war break out there now?"

"Could it be that another supreme power has descended?"

They chattered amongst themselves, reaching no conclusion.

"Let them be," a final, authoritative voice cut through the noise.

If Orion had been there, he would have recognized it as the voice of the shadow serpent, Tusha.

"As long as it doesn’t involve the Dawn Continent, the fiercer their battle, the better. Ideally, they’ll annihilate each other. We continue to gather our strength. If we cannot devour this world, then we will simply claim it as our own."