Ashen Dragon

Gazing at the demon that made him lose his dignity and forced him to sign a contract, Piere gritted his teeth, "Can you completely kill it?"

"If you're willing to pay the price, certainly, although killing an Immortal Divine Abomination is quite a troublesome task."

Piere frowned and fell silent.

"You only need to hold him off temporarily, after all..." Cassius smiled and then looked to the north, as if sensing something, and whispered, "The most powerful Lord is about to arrive."

"Buzz——"

A loud horn sounded from afar, echoing through the sky. The Tanari Frost Giants were striking their weapons, shouting coarsely.

And those dozen Frost Shamans raised their scepters, chanting, appearing to pray with devout expressions.

"He is the Extreme Night, He is Winter, He is the new master leading the Frost Giant race to greatness, coming from the Abyss..."

The sky above Aphernas suddenly turned pitch black, with auroras appearing, while icy gales swept the earth, accompanied by thunderous groundquakes, and mighty ice mountains slowly rose.

For a moment, it seemed like the Far North during eternal night, everywhere covered in extreme cold frost and snow, presenting a desolate scene.

Amidst the roaring blizzard, the space gradually twisted and trembled, as if the sky was torn open by a demon's giant claw, revealing a glaring wound from which abyssal black mist poured.

Next, an enormous incomparable figure appeared in the high sky, radiating terrifying pressure over a hundred miles around.

It was a Frost Giant towering a hundred meters high, with a burly, muscular physique, clad in leather armor stitched from White Dragon Skin, with hundreds of skulls hanging at its waist, currently sitting on a colossal throne made of ice mountains.

The Frost Giant looked down scornfully at all beings beneath, with cruel and fierce light shimmering in its pitch-black eyes, and an overwhelming anger burning in its pupils.

That was the King of Frost Giants, the Lord of the twenty-third layer of the Abyss, the famed Angry Lord, Koschech!

"This is... the ripple of divine power."

Cassius flapped his wings, ascending several hundred meters again, facing off the King of Frost Giants from afar, his dragon face finally showing a serious expression.

"Such overwhelming pressure, it seems this time... His true form has arrived."

This guy is a real demigod-level strongman, one of the most famous Demon Lords in the Abyss.

He has his own church and followers, having conquered several Material Planes, swallowing the half-planes once pioneered by the Giant Empire into the Abyss.

And Koschech has also stood out in blood battles.

Thousands of Frost Guards appeared behind crumbling walls, with ancient runes flowing over their azure skin, and frost battle-axes in their hands reflecting cold moonlight. At the highest point of the fortress, a throne inlaid with the Eternal Ice Core burst into dazzling blue light.

Nearby the Sword Bay Region, there are several well-known cities, such as Waterdeep City, Elturel, and Neverwinter City. Waterdeep City is built on the ruins of Erin Vier, the capital of the Elf Empire Ilfaen, with numerous temples of deities. The Miracle Temple is the most magnificent Magic Goddess Temple in the game, with luxurious towers, inlaid with various paintings and magical decorations, full of lavish Baroque style, while Neverwinter City leans more towards Gothic architecture, formed after nearly a century of development from Aegostor, the earliest human settlement. Meanwhile, the Main City, Bod Gate, is the largest and most prosperous trade city-state in the Sword Bay Region, mixing nobles and commoners, thieves, and adventurers, notoriously known as the "Hotbed of Conspirators." The name Bod Gate comes from a hero, a Grey Port adventurer named Bodlan, who explored beyond the continents of the Sword Sea, returning with wealth to Grey Port, where he led to establish this city.

Based on the resident's status, Bod Gate is divided into a noble Upper City District and a commoner Lower City District, with an Outer City District scattered around the Chenyi Mountain, surrounding the Main City, with the gate distinguishing the Upper City and Lower City named Bod Gate. The entire city is also named after it, also serving as a monument to the city's founder, Bodlan.

Currently, Bod Gate is ruled by a council of four, all Great Dukes, with one acting as the council leader. If voting is deadlocked, decision-making is handed over to Great Duke Elder Ravenclaw. Security in the Upper City is maintained by an official police force of the elite class, the Watch, while other areas are patrolled by a mercenary group called "Flaming Fist." Great Duke Elder Ravenclaw is also the supreme leader of the mercenary group, headquartered in the Bodlan Sea Tower, the strongest fortress defending Bod Gate against maritime invasions. Embracing Bod Gate like a crescent is its economic lifeline—Gray Harbor, where hundreds of merchant ships come and go daily, bringing gold coins, but also greed and crime.

The Upper City is at a higher elevation, comprised of the Castle District, Temple District, Manoburn District, and Wide Alley District, with numerous religious buildings, Miracle Hall, and Supreme Miracle House, serving as the church centers of Gund, the God of Craft, in Bod Gate. Miracle Hall showcases Gund's great inventions, and Supreme Miracle House also functions as a workshop. The Lower City mainly consists of stone houses, with six districts: Sea Tower District, Blonrich District, Steep District, Crowded Side District, East Road District, and Branpton District. The Middle Class often resides in the Blonrich District, close to the nobility of the Upper City, while the East Road District near the Stone Lizard Gate connecting the Outer City is relatively more mixed. It hosts many lively bars and cheap inns, while the Sea Tower District, where the Flaming Fist mercenaries are stationed, is the site of Bodlan Sea Tower constructed on a large rocky offshore island. The Branpton District and Steep District are relatively rundown, belonging to sailors and labor communities. The Outer City is distributed along the Chongsar River, gathering temporary buildings, shantytowns, and slums, with the landmark building being a stone bridge spanning the Chongsar River—the Flying Dragon Crossroad, where numerous stalls gather, even expanding the bridge's deck with planks, adding many buildings on it. Here, law and order are virtually non-existent, and even the protection range of the Flaming Fist Mercenaries is very limited. Some destitute or criminals who cannot be accommodated in the city gather here.

The moss on the sewer arches glows a ghostly green under faint phosphorescent lamps, with murky sewage covering the boot soles, each step stirring a viscous "gurgle." Purple-black mucus oozes from the cracks in the walls, pooling like veins toward the drain—it is the unique neuro-corrosive substance of the Spirit Sucking Monster's nest, inhaling which causes ordinary people to have auditory hallucinations, as if countless tiny tendrils are wriggling inside the ear canal. Suddenly, a "click" sound of bones disjointing echoes from behind a broken iron pipe, as if something is squeezing through the narrow space, contorting. Three patrolling guards just raised their lanterns when the sewage suddenly exploded! Four Spirit Sucking Monsters burst from under the water, their pale humanoid bodies covered in decay, with octopus-like heads' tendrils vibrating at high frequencies, emitting visible purple mind shock wave ripples. The helmet of the forefront guard dented, his eyes burst into blood mist under cranial pressure; the second one was pierced through the ear hole by tendrils before he could scream, his spine pulled out of his body like a marionette; the last survivor staggered back, his gun accidentally firing, but its roar was completely devoured by the infrasonic shrieks emitted collectively by the Spirit Sucking Monsters. These Spirit Sucking Monsters were evidently trained tactically. Two decoying individuals used tendrils to slap the water surface, stirring a mist mixed with corrosive liquid to obscure vision; a third one hung down from the ceiling, using its suction cups to affix to the guard's skull, tendril tips precisely piercing the occipital foramen—not to kill immediately, but to manipulate the captive like a puppet, forcing him to turn around, loading bullets for his companion's firearm with his trembling hands. At this moment, the fourth Spirit Sucking Monster was slicing open the fallen guard's thoracic cavity with the bone blades of its finger joints, extracting the warm liver and feeding it into its mouthparts, pale yellow digestive fluid dripping from its lower jaw, corroding wisps of green smoke on the ground. The host had not fully died.