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Langpu said, “Master, based on the information provided by those Starfallen, if we want to reach the top, we should first go through the gravity device...”

Cassius shook his head, saying, “There is no time.

“I will pierce through this tower.”

Before his words even faded, Cassius suddenly flapped his wings and shot straight upwards.

【Graceful Dragon】 buffed his form, and his wings swung with such speed that afterimages appeared, creating a terrifying velocity.

The red dragon raised his head high, and from his maw erupted a pillar of searing heat that instantly melted the several-foot-thick metal floor, easily boring a meter-wide hole. Molten iron dripped continuously from its edges, but Cassius paid no heed.

In just a moment, the fire pillar had already pierced the ceiling of the next level, pushing upwards toward higher floors.

【Into the Flames】

Cassius transformed into a blazing inferno, passing through the holes created by the pillar of fire, penetrating floor after floor.

Any monsters or devices blocking his way were reduced to ashes in an instant or shattered to pieces by the immense force of his accelerated body. Nothing could stand in his way, not even a dragon-mutated monster that failed to avoid him, which was instantly crushed into pulp by his onrush.

To Cassius, the twenty-eight-story Polar Night Demon Tower was no more than a child’s plaything.

Langpu was left stunned, unable to keep up. He could barely maintain his protective spells while climbing layer by layer using Flight, panting heavily by the time he reached the twelfth floor.

Meanwhile, Cassius had already reached the top.

All of this took merely a few dozen seconds.

“Boom!”

The searing white pillar of fire pierced the metal floor.

Immediately afterward, the pillar of fire turned into raging flames, finally consolidating into the massive form of the red dragon.

The 【Cataclysmic Dragon Eye】 could only glimpse a fragment of the future, and as Cassius ascended to the topmost level, the originally destined future was disrupted, and the vision became temporarily blurred, recalculating.

The white dragon imprisoned on the top floor was startled awake by the immense disturbance, struggling to open her eyes.

Cassius scrutinized the white dragon before him.

She had scaled cheeks, spiked wattles, and some teeth protruding even when her mouth was closed, with a crown of spines arching back—typical features of a white dragon. By the red dragon’s standards, encompassing all draconic species, she even looked like a young and beautiful white dragon.

Her relatively pure white scales and not-yet-mature body proportions suggested that she was still in her youth, only around a century old.

But what surprised Cassius was that her size had already reached fifteen meters. This was common for a red dragon but extraordinarily rare for a white dragon—something only very old or ancient white dragons would typically achieve.

The white dragon, often considered the disgrace of the chromatic dragons, could match a red dragon of the same stage—a great honor indeed.

“Tsk, tsk, is this the power of ancestral dragon bloodlines?”

Cassius mused to himself.

Facing this far stronger ‘kin,’ the white dragon Tinia hesitated for a moment before bowing her head, letting out a soft, pleading whine.

White dragons living in mountainous areas sometimes clashed with nearby red dragons, but they were wise enough to avoid stronger red dragons. Red dragons often deemed white dragons unworthy opponents and were happy to ignore them. They naturally understood the hierarchy among dragons.

“Roar.”

“Can’t you speak? (Draconic)”

Cassius was puzzled. Although white dragons were often mockingly called ‘white beasts,’ a young white dragon should at least possess the intelligence of a seven- or eight-year-old human child. Had Wagner damaged her mind?

He did not know that, under normal circumstances, mastering Draconic for daily conversation was quite difficult for a white dragon—some white dragons could only fully grasp it by the time they reached their ancient stage. The white dragon before him, imprisoned since her hatchling years and isolated from the outside world, was certainly no exception.

“Roar!”

Tinia nodded, growling softly.

“...”

Apparently, she couldn’t speak, but she could at least understand.

Since communication was possible, the rest would be easier.

The red dragon spread his wings, stepping toward her.

“Wagner. Do you know him?”

Upon hearing the familiar name, Tinia’s draconic face immediately twisted in fury. Her scales stood on end, her fangs baring instinctively—a reaction mixed with profound fear and hatred.

Though white dragons were not known for their intelligence, they had excellent memories, especially of events they directly witnessed or experienced. They remembered every slight or failure, and they were notorious for their vengeful vendettas against anyone who wronged them. This white dragon was no exception.

Cassius casually displayed the image from the 【Cataclysmic Dragon Eye】 to frighten her.

“This is what I saw—your future.”

“A future without hope.”

The vision showed the white dragon reduced to sustenance for the monstrous entity, mercilessly consumed.

Tinia’s eyes filled with fear, her wings retracting slightly, her entire body trembling. She could feel that it was real—something about to happen to her.

Cassius looked down at her beast-like slitted pupils—he saw within them a desperate desire for freedom, an overwhelming fear of the mage, and boundless hatred. That was enough.

“But the future is not set in stone, white dragon.”

“Submit to me, and I will free you... and kill Wagner.”

“...”

A look of confusion first flickered in Tinia’s eyes, followed by hesitation, and finally, a soft whimper escaped from her throat.

“Awooo...”

Due to the binding dragon array, she could not move much, but she symbolically turned her head, exposing her vulnerable neck to signify complete submission.

The white dragon was among the few true dragons that could be tamed, but this one, bearing an ancestral bloodline, held a unique pride. Even though she had been imprisoned in this tower for nearly a century, she had never fully yielded to her tormentor, the ‘human,’ and had continued to resist in vain.

But now, facing imminent death and needing to submit to a nobler red dragon, submission became a necessary choice for survival.

“Good.”

“You’ve made the right choice.”

Cassius grinned slightly.

The red dragon waved his claws, and shimmering claw-shaped magical force fields appeared, beginning to destroy the surrounding environment of the spell.

The 【Wagner’s Dragon Binding Array】 had already been studied for months by spellcasters summoned from across the kingdom. Though they hadn’t fully grasped its construction principles, like any orderly structure, disrupting it was far easier than restoring it.

Langpu, a month earlier, had worked with the court mages who had defected to Ember Kingdom to figure out how to destroy the spell nodes, and Cassius knew them by heart.

“Huff, huff... Master, I am late.”

Langpu panted, struggling as he climbed through the hole.

Seeing the scene before him, he immediately understood what was happening. He rushed forward, waving his staff to summon searing fireballs to destroy the dragon scales and dragon blood that formed the nodes of the binding array, desperately working to break its structure.

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