Things developed just as Richard had guessed. The Fire Lizard Kings of the Linksa Empire and the Minal Empire each attracted one of the Great Wizards, while the remaining Fire Lizard King of the Morik Empire became a terrifying existence without any balance.
Fire Lizard King Morik, the most powerful of the three Fire Lizard Kings, was the first Fire Lizard to become a Fire Lizard King in the distant past.
At that time, Fire Lizards were still the servants of the dragons, building palaces for them, providing them with tamed beasts, and occasionally serving as snacks for the dragons.
It was a dark era, and thus Morik was born.
How Morik became the Fire Lizard King is no longer traceable, but it is certain that he was the first Fire Lizard to rebel against the dragons, the first Fire Lizard King.
In that same era, after Morik raised the banner of rebellion, the other two Fire Lizard Kings appeared one after another.
The current Fire Lizards do not know that, in the distant past, the three Fire Lizard Kings were actually like brothers. On the battlefield against the dragons, they could trust each other's backs.
But after ending the dragons' rule, everything changed.
Power is the most terrifying demon; it can turn comrades who were once like brothers into enemies facing each other with blades drawn.
The reasons for the rift among the three kings have not been passed down, but in the second millennium after the end of the dragons' rule, the three great empires emerged, marking the beginning of a war that would last for several epochs.
Morik stood in front of Position 19, feeling somewhat dazed.
How long had it been since he had left the throne to fight? A thousand years? Two thousand years?
He could not remember.
He looked around, and the faces of Linksa and Minal felt somewhat unfamiliar.
Since their brothers overthrew the dragons' rule, they had not fought side by side like this again.
Overthrowing the dragons... what a distant memory.
Awakening from his reverie, Morik glanced at Position 19, a hint of a bloodthirsty smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. He took a deep breath, and the massive phantom that signified his identity vanished. The magical energy within a radius of several dozen kilometers seemed to be drawn into a black hole, absorbed into his body.
The physical body beneath Morik's phantom stood ten meters tall, and after taking a deep breath, his body swelled again, quickly reaching twenty meters.
Once he finished inhaling, all living beings present, whether Wizards or Fire Lizards, fell into an extremely uncomfortable sensation.
Morik's deep breath had almost created an energy vacuum, leaving their cellular bodies unable to draw any energy from the air, even causing energy to flow outwards.
"Ah, it's been a long time since I've fought; my body is a bit unaccustomed to it."
Morik stretched his body, his life radiation shining as brightly as the sun, and his dragon might caused many Fire Lizard warriors to faint on the ground. Even some Wizards turned pale and trembled uncontrollably under this dragon might.
As the Fire Lizard King, Morik looked down on using dragon might, but as a level five Dragonblood, the dragon might naturally emanating from his body could make pureblood dragons bow their heads.
"Is this the Fire Lizard King of the Morik Empire, the World Master of the Crimson Sun World, a level five being from the Endless Star Realm?"
Richard watched the terrifying figure in front of the position, swallowing hard.
The horror of this Fire Lizard King exceeded even the mother insect god Richard had seen before, completely reshaping his understanding of a World Master.
And this was just a level five being; how terrifying would a level six or seven being be?
"Hey, don't just stand there in a daze, hurry into the Secret Realm to escape!" Ulysses urged from the side.
Ulysses' words jolted Richard from his shock at seeing the Fire Lizard King. He hurriedly opened a rift to the Secret Realm, ready to take refuge.
But before he could enter, an incredibly terrifying pressure descended upon him, or rather, upon all the Wizards present.
This pressure seized Richard's spirit, like an immensely powerful human intimidation technique, rendering him unable to move.
Morik pulled back his arm, preparing to unleash his power, and his target was all the Wizards before him.
Suddenly, a warm current emerged from Richard's soul, freeing him from the state of intimidation. The courage badge he had obtained in the nightmare world activated at that moment.
Having shaken off the intimidation, Richard leaped forward with all his might, hoping to enter the Secret Realm.
But in the next moment, Morik swung his fist.
Buzz! In an instant, silence fell, and all the Wizards heard only a piercing buzz near their ears.
In the previously empty sky, a pitch-black Spatial Rift suddenly appeared. A colossal torrent of energy surged forth, seemingly containing the power to destroy the heavens and the earth, even causing the space around it to twist uncontrollably.
It rushed toward Morik like a flood that had burst its banks, unstoppable.
Faced with this sudden torrent of energy, Morik had no choice but to redirect the force of his punch to counter this unexpected energy wave.
Richard swallowed hard; he recognized the abruptly appearing torrent of energy—it was the energy wave unleashed by the main cannon of the Floating City.
The Great Wizards indeed had a strategy to deal with this additional World Master.
As the torrent dissipated, Morik stood firm, unscathed, with not a single scratch on his body, though the luster of his scales dimmed slightly.
All the beings present were struck with awe at this scene. The Wizards were astonished by the might of this level five World Master, while the Fire Lizards were even more shocked by the power of their emperor.
Is this the strength of the Fire Lizard King? The last time a Fire Lizard King stepped down from the throne was so long ago that it was beyond memory; the Fire Lizard King was a distant myth to ordinary Fire Lizards.
There were even rumors among the Fire Lizards that the Fire Lizard King did not exist at all, that it was merely a trick used by the Silver-Horned Fire Lizard.
And now, the deity from the myth had stepped into reality.
Morik gazed into the distance, where the steel city rose into the sky once more, and the energy torrent just now was the work of the steel city.
"Divine weapons? No, divine weapons wouldn't be this weak; if it were a divine weapon, I would already be dead."
Looking at the Floating City, ancient memories surged in his mind. In the days before the Fire Lizards became the rulers of the Crimson Sun World, the divine relics were not as cherished as they are now.
He clearly remembered how the dragons used the terrifying weapons left behind by the deities to turn the Flame Behemoth King, which crawled from the depths, to ashes. The first thing he did before raising his army was to throw the dragons' divine weapon vault into the void.
Now, the main cannon of the Floating City reminded him of those divine weapons.
"Do the Wizards want to become the second divine race?"
Morik looked at the Floating City with a hint of mockery; the greatness of the deities was not something these mortals could pursue.
He gathered his strength again, still targeting the Wizards in the position, eager to see how many times that iron lump could unleash the energy torrent from before.
...
In the sky, two colossal wills were silently communicating.
"Teacher, this native World Master probably hasn't mastered any spatial rules; our Plan One should work."
Frost Grand Wizard and Fire Lizard King Minal faced each other. Although Frost Grand Wizard had not yet advanced to a five-ring Great Wizard, as a Wizard, it was still no problem to hold off Minal.
"Alright, prepare to act."
Hellfire Grand Wizard looked at Linksa before him, unable to suppress a hint of disdain on his skeletal face.
If it weren't for the power of the world backing him, this level five being wouldn't even qualify to stand before him.
Noticing Hellfire Grand Wizard's attitude, Fire Lizard King Linksa was instantly furious; as a Fire Lizard King, the ruler of one-third of the Crimson Sun World, he was actually looked down upon.
The way this green fire skeleton looked at him was as if he were a pig, easily slaughtered for meat with just a little effort.
Linksa, like Morik, took a deep breath, and the magical energy within a radius of several dozen kilometers surged toward him, while Hellfire Grand Wizard showed no intention of obstructing him.
He leisurely opened a Spatial Rift and took out a staff made of bones shaped like a ram's head. The staff appeared rough, with bones seemingly jammed together without any aesthetic appeal. Any Wizard apprentice who had studied alchemy could create a more refined staff than this.
But this staff extinguished the fury in Linksa's heart.
The raw materials of this staff were all level five beings like him, and the ram's head at the top exuded an aura even more terrifying than that of a level five being.
"Monster!"
Linksa felt a twinge of fear in his heart.
Hellfire Grand Wizard gripped the staff and slowly waved it. Runes emerged from the staff and vanished into the void. Immediately, another Spatial Rift appeared before Morik, forcing him to redirect his punch to counter it.
Meanwhile, Linksa stood frozen in front of him.
He didn't even have the courage to throw a punch.
"Fire Lizard, be grateful," Hellfire Grand Wizard suddenly spoke, "If it weren't for the Floating City being too expensive and the ordinary Wizards suffering too great a loss, I would be held accountable by the Council of Truth, and you would definitely end up on my dissection table today."
In the next moment, a wave of spatial disturbance instantly spread outward from Hellfire Grand Wizard. On the other side of the front line, Frost Grand Wizard emitted the same spatial wave.
Minal stepped forward, suddenly appearing in front of Frost Grand Wizard. He threw a punch, his dragon-scaled fist shining with brilliant light, each ray a manifestation of the Crimson Sun World's rules, each carrying a terrifying temperature that could distort space.
Frost Grand Wizard saw the fist and showed no sign of panic. He cackled, "Heh heh, don't rush; we'll have our chance to fight soon."
Suddenly, a blue figure appeared in front of the fist and then exploded, a frost storm close to absolute zero instantly engulfing Minal.
Frost Grand Wizard had actually sacrificed a clone to delay Minal's attack.
Then, the spell took shape.
A pitch-black Spatial Rift suddenly appeared beneath Morik's feet, and chains burning with green fire extended from the Spatial Rift, wrapping around Morik's legs and quickly spreading over his entire body.
Morik's body shook, and the green fire chains exploded into bursts of green flames.
He felt somewhat disdainful; trying to pull him in with this little thing was not enough.
But in the next instant, he found himself facing a skeletal figure engulfed in green flames.
The skeletal figure spoke to him with a mocking tone, "Fool, who said chains are meant to pull someone in?"
(End of Chapter)