Ashen Dragon

"Endless blood war... another war mission, just the thing to earn some faction contribution and upgrade my bloodline."

Mantou rode a fully armed Bipedal Wyvern circling above the leased territory, where the busy gamers below looked like lines of ants in his eyes. The area was filled with smoke and dust, and the rumbling never ceased, with trucks and tractors dispatched by the Mechanical God Cult everywhere.

But as a self-proclaimed "professional gamer," Mantou long disdained doing these menial tasks.

In his words, the bit of faction contribution was not worth his personal effort.

Just then, Mantou saw a familiar gleam in front of him. Looking closer, he noticed a familiar bald head reflecting the light amidst the crowd.

"Noodle, let's go over and check it out; finally, a familiar face."

Mantou patted the neck of the Bipedal Wyvern, and the wyvern descended from high altitude with a thundering landing, stirring a cloud of dust.

As the dust settled, Mantou dismounted, looked at the familiar face, and smiled, "War Maniac Bro, no wonder you've been missing lately; turns out you've been staying in Aphernas this whole time."

Natural War Maniac rubbed his well-polished bald head and gave a simple smile, "This time it's a secret infiltration mission, couldn't reveal any intel to anyone, not even on the gamer forums.

I've been in Aphernas for nearly a month now, and was just about to message you guys when you showed up."

At that moment, a whistling wind came from the sky, followed by a dazzling white light that made Mantou instinctively shield his eyes.

"This is..."

In the radiant glow, a figure appeared before them wearing luxurious armor, wielding a longsword, and riding a Bipedal Wyvern— it was Singo.

"Roar—"

The Bipedal Wyvern let out a fierce growl, the gaps between its scales emitting faint light, with marks like miniature suns appearing in its vertical pupils.

Mantou couldn't help but ask, "What's this, an entrance effect? Where did you get it?"

"Empire Contribution Store's new product, a bloodline potion from the Dragon of Radiance branch, which grants the Bipedal Wyvern powers similar to Sun God Technique."

"How much—"

"Forget about it, they're sold out. It was apparently an experimental batch, and only three bottles were put on the shelves; when I went, there was only one left."

"Damn." Mantou cursed under his breath, feeling like he missed out on billions.

Even without any other effects, he would have loved to buy such a cool light effect!

Singo patted the wyvern's head and jumped down to stand before the two of them, "Long time no see, War Maniac.

Wait... is that an advanced Hell Contract?" Singo pointed at the Inverted Hexagram Array on Natural War Maniac's chest, looking somewhat surprised.

Natural War Maniac didn't hide from his teammates, "Yes, it's the reward for the secret mission, temporarily granting the Power of Hell at Deep Prison Demon Refining Level."

"Such a crazy reward? What have you been up to, assassinating a Hell Lord or something?" Mantou exclaimed in awe.

But to Mantou's obvious teasing, Natural War Maniac paused, then slowly nodded.

"..."

Mantou was speechless for a long time before he said, dumbfounded, "No way, dude... you really went to assassinate a Hell Lord?"

"Not that outrageous." Natural War Maniac chuckled and rubbed his bald head again, "We were just participants in the assassination; the real main force was Duke Piere..."

Anyway, the mission was over and didn't require confidentiality anymore.

In a few words, Natural War Maniac recounted their venture into Zarriel's chamber and their role in assisting Piere's coup.

After the mission ended, Natural War Maniac even received an honorary title personally bestowed by Piere, granting him the status of Hellboy, so much so that even high-level devils wouldn't dare provoke him easily.

After listening to Natural War Maniac's story, Mantou was silent for a long time, finally uttering two words, "Impressive."

Even Singo marveled, "I only heard about a coup in Barto Hell, causing restlessness across multiple layers of Hell, but I didn't expect you to be directly involved."

Singo asked again, "War Maniac, you've spent quite a lot of time in Hell and have a high status, so you should know more than us. What's the situation regarding the blood war this time?"

Natural War Maniac shook his head, his expression becoming serious, "Not great, this time three Abyssal Lords are invading together, with tens of millions of demons pouring into Aphernas. Duke Piere's army is retreating step by step, and even he dares not show his face."

"Tens of millions?"

Mantou swallowed, not only shocked by this number but also silently calculating in his mind—how much experience could this bring them?

It's an astronomical figure.

Natural War Maniac nodded again, "Yes, and as the abyssal rift expands, this number keeps growing."

According to an old devil, the highest demon invasion numbers in nearly a thousand years was over a hundred years ago when 'Demon Prince' Demogorgon led billions of demons to invade Hell.

The Emperor Aragon the First of the Holy Fadlan Federation personally led his army and even Heaven and the Gods participated in that massive war..."

"Truly worthy of the Abyss, the manifestation of universal chaos, its scale is indeed exaggerated," Mantou commented with amazement.

Natural War Maniac nodded in agreement, "Yes, two million demons may seem like a lot, but over the tens of thousands of years of blood war, it's just ordinary."

Singo asked, "If Duke Piere's army is retreating, why haven't the demons immediately attacked the Bronze Fortress, instead of giving us time to prepare?"