POV Vesuvius:
The monstrous dragon rose up into the sky, all of the materials from his metamorphosis already safely packed in his pouch.
His massive body threw shadows on the ground, each flap of his wings echoing between the tall white mountain peaks and frozen mountain valleys.
He could feel the incredible force behind each flap of his monstrously large wings. The powerful gushes of wind send clouds of smoke in every direction.
All the regrets he might have had before were gone as he could feel his newly gained power.
Without mana supercharging his eyes, he could no longer see the magical aura in the distance, but he could still remember the direction from where it came.
He flapped his wings and quickly accelerated his body glowing in bright white, slightly blueish light from the magma in his armour. With a powerful shockwave, he quickly vanished on the horizon.
As he flew across the sky, he reached a more expansive, even bigger valley than before. His surroundings looked familiar, with all the white peaks looking as if he had seen them before.
Still, he couldn’t figure out where it was.
The whole valley was covered in thick ice like a giant frozen lake. Surprisingly there wasn’t even a speck of snow on its surface, preserving its beautiful pristine look.
The sun was reflecting on its shiny, reflective surface.
A dim white light was glowing from the lake as if it were frozen light, not the water.
He could already feel two distinct magical energies radiating from the lake with every cell in his body.
‘Something must be special about this lake.’ He stopped flapping his wings and widely spread them, gliding straight towards the ice mass.
As he was descending, the air was quickly becoming colder and colder. It was unnaturally cold, seeping deep into the dragon’s body. His body didn’t even reject it or try to block it.
Instead, it embraced the coldness seeping into it.
‘I felt this before…’
Simultaneously he could feel the stinging feeling of holy energy belonging to angels radiating out of the ice, washing over his body, but being unable to get inside.
Suddenly his cursed heart started to beat louder, making Vesuvius finally realise where he had seen this valley before. His eyes immediately grew wide from surprise.
‘This is the place where the winter dragon fought against the angelic army. I wanted to find this place anyway.’ He still couldn’t believe that it remained so cold even so long after the dragon died.
The cursed heart started to beat even louder than before, and an image flashed before his eyes.
The colossal dragon covered in ice stood in the middle of a valley, their body like a massive iceberg, radiating an immensely powerful aura of coldness. The flocks of angels around them suddenly fell to the ground, their bodies of light shattering as even the light itself froze.
At the same time, a bright white light radiated out of a massive gate in the sky, and the brilliant silver light flooded the whole sky.
The bright mass of light slowly descended from the sky, outshining even the sun itself. Its nine pairs of massive wings of light and white flames were so large that they looked like they could wrap around a mountain.
The flames weren’t white like a hot flame. They were perfectly white, like snow.
Hundreds upon thousands of eyes opened between the light, gazing upon the dragon. The light started to slowly retreat, revealing a silhouette of something hiding in the light.
There was nothing but wings and eyes, all of them radiating in holy light.
Vesuvius immediately recognised these eyes and wings, ‘It is a seraph, an angel of the highest order. They are supposed to be an angelic equivalent of a true dragon.’
The image finally vanished, the valley returning to its unassuming frozen looks. Vesuvius still felt his heart beat loudly, with the cursed heart pulsing with hatred.
‘So this is what happened here! The winter dragon likely fought and lost against the seraph… But that makes no sense. There had to be some trickery in play!’
It was common knowledge that angels couldn’t compare to reapers and dragons in single combat. And Vesuvius simply refused to acknowledge that a dragon might lose in a fair fight against a foe of similar strength. It was like heresy to his ears.
‘Was that seraph that old and powerful? Or did something else happen?’ Vesuvius wouldn’t simply believe that seraph was so much stronger as he felt from the image that they were of great power, but not enough to defeat an elder dragon.
‘The gate was still open, so maybe they brought another army as angels usually do. With a massive army of buffed angels under its command, it would easily give the advantage to the seraph.’
He could feel disdain growing in his heart at the underhanded style of angels.
Still, this news sent shivers down the dragon’s spine as he realised why the snow dragon died, ‘They were likely too arrogant and blinded by the rage that they instead spent their time playing with lesser angels while leaving their gate opened.’
It was a scary thought, as the same thing could happen to him. Luckily, he didn’t make the same mistake and destroyed the gate right at the beginning.
There was only one piece of good news for him, ‘There is both holy and cold aura radiating out of the ice, and with them remaining active for so long, it must originate from bodies of the ice dragon and the seraph.’
It was great news for him as he wouldn’t have to fight that seraph to gain the winter dragon’s inheritance.
The dragon’s looked at the ice with greed in his eyes as he realised that a treasure was likely frozen under the ice, ‘The bodies of a seraph and a true dragon are a legendary treasure.’
With a bang, his body landed on the ice, and he almost fell on the slippery surface. Even with the immense heat radiating out of his body, the ice didn’t start to melt.
He quickly folded back his massive wings, lifted his strong hind leg, and ignited his internal fire.
Then the leg turned into a blur and descended towards the ice. A loud thud echoed through the whole valley as the leg crashed into the ice.
Vesuvius felt his armour vibrating from the force of the strike.
He turned his eyes towards the place where he hit the ice. There were small cracks in its otherwise pristine surface.
‘What the hell? This will not work, if I don’t want to spend a century doing this.’
Vesuvius spread his wings and flapped them.
He shot towards the sky like a reversed meteor, leaving behind a trail of smoke. He stopped high above the lake and turned his head towards the lake.
He could feel his excitement growing as he was going to unleash his breath attack for the first time after his metamorphosis.
The heat started to quickly build up in his neck, a blue light radiating out of the armour on his neck as an immense amount of mana poured into his already self-sufficient breath glands.
Both of his glands at once started to produce an immense amount of fire.
Vesuvius firmly closed his mouth, and pressure started to build inside, the bluish-white light leaking out. He could feel the whole skeletal structure in his head and neck vibrate under the quickly rising pressure.
Finally, with a glint in his eyes, he opened his mouth, and a bright light flashed across the valley.
An immensely pressurised stream of white flames with a blue centre and traces of gold burst out, accompanied by light and rumbling.
The stream descended towards the ice floor, blasting against its surface, the bright light refracting from its surface.
The wave of flames immediately burst into every side from the point of impact, flooding the whole ground in flames.
The flames kept licking the ice, the temperature of the air quickly rising. All of the oxygen ignited, causing a powerful thermal explosion that shook the whole valley.
The fascinated dragon kept watching the beautiful fire show, his whole mind feeling at peace when watching it.
Finally, he closed his mouth, his eyes going wide after seeing the aftermath of his attack. The ice looked almost untouched, only a little thinner, with its upper layer evaporating.
‘How powerful this dragon and angel had to be to produce ice like this.’
Vesuvius felt like his chances to burn through the ice grew slimmer, but with his greedy heart, he refused to give up as he had still more tricks up in his sleeve, ‘Maybe I can focus it into a thin beam to form something like a thermal drill. Or I can use my vitality to boost the power of my flames even more. Also, maybe I can access it from the bottom by drilling through the stone instead of this super-ice.’
There was also a third option, but he refused to use it, ‘My corium lava is too dangerous. I can’t risk damaging treasure in the ice with it.’
Vesuvius angrily looked at his new foe in the form of the weird frozen light, determined to defeat it and access the treasure hidden beneath it. When he suddenly realised something else, ‘Isn’t this ice treasure on itself? It is so unnaturally strong as the last breath of the true elder dragon, and the powerful seraph class angel created it. When their bodies collapsed, they had to radiate powerful magic, forming this ice.’