Aire City.
Located at the city’s edge, here stands a large, ancient castle.
The castle walls are mottled, seemingly having weathered many years.
At the main gate, and throughout the castle, soldiers patrol and stand guard.
But suddenly.
Bang!
After a strange noise.
A soldier guarding the main gate of the castle notices a long metal object dropping three meters in front of him!
The sudden impact sends chunks of earth flying, and the metal object bounces up, nearly hitting the soldier.
This startles them a bit. Looking up at the sky, aside from the blue sky and patches of white clouds, nothing else is visible.
How could metal fall from the sky?
The soldiers are puzzled but cautiously approach to flip the metal object over.
Then, they are astonished to discover that there are lines of text engraved on the metal.
"Those who anger the heavens will surely face divine punishment!
The first calamity will start here!
Mortals! Are you prepared to embrace death?"
"What is this?"
A soldier gazes at the three lines of text in confusion, full of doubt.
"Who knows! Don’t overthink it! Just take this metal and report the matter to Lord Viscount!"
Another soldier suggests, and the soldier who spoke earlier carries the metal, trotting off to find Lord Viscount.
No one notices, or rather, they simply cannot see!
At an altitude of tens of thousands of meters.
In the stratosphere.
The air, water vapor, and dust here are extremely sparse.
A region originally devoid of any life now hosts a Giant Dragon with black scales on its back, red scales on its belly, and red eyes.
It flaps its Dragon Wings slowly, remaining still.
The harsh environment is nothing for a True Dragon like him.
Even without air, he can extract the necessary Magic Power from various microorganisms and gases to sustain himself.
Currently, he’s silently watching below, his red eyes narrowed to a needle-like point.
It’s a needle so red it shines compared to the rest of his eye, allowing him to see some things on the ground at this extreme distance.
It’s akin to a common human seeing an object hundreds of meters away.
He observes the metal object just fallen being brought back to the castle and smiles evilly.
"Truth is only within cannon range! And the truth I hold can reach tens of kilometers!
Ants! Prepare to be washed by the Ninefold Truth!
Hehehe... Hahaha..."
Land couldn’t hold back as he burst into laughter.
After quite some time, he calmly opened his dragon mouth, and countless Elements began to surge.
A blazing red and bright yellow fireball quickly formed, expanded, and contracted!
Finally, with a whooshing sound,
the fireball hurtled downward!
Whoosh!!!
The fireball continues to plummet toward the ground!
40,000 meters... 30,000 meters... 20,000 meters... 10,000 meters...
Only then do some city residents notice it, but nobody takes it seriously.
Until 5,000 meters... 2,000 meters... 1,000 meters...
The soldiers guarding the gate and all around the castle realize something’s amiss!
How did it suddenly become evening?
Looking up, there’s only one question in their minds?
How did a fireball fall from the sky?
However, they still don’t take it seriously, thinking it’s just a fireball, and even if it falls, what harm could it do?
If worst comes to worst, they could just avoid it!
Meanwhile, minutes earlier, inside the castle.
In a luxuriously decorated room.
A middle-aged man, dressed impeccably, sits bored, thumbing through a book. Not far from him is a middle-aged woman, equally well-dressed, adorned with jewelry.
These two are none other than Viscount Ireland of Aire City and his wife.
"Old man! Accompany me to the Opera House; Kariel’s play, ’Flower Knight,’ is about to start." the Viscountess casually says.
"A play? What’s so good about a play? You’ve seen ’Flower Knight’ several times, aren’t you tired of it?"
Viscount Ireland responds without lifting his head, seemingly indifferent.
"Humph! You old man! You were so keen on ’Audition’ before! You watched every performance! How many times have you seen it?"
The Viscountess snorts coldly, glaring angrily at the Viscount.
This causes the Viscount to freeze, his expression becoming somewhat unnatural. Slowly closing the book, he says,
"Why do you keep holding onto trivial matters? You made them shut down ’Audition’! Do you know how many Gold Talers I lose each month because of it?
Thirty to forty!
I kept telling you to go to Aganfu’s place, to build relations with this major taxpayer, but you wouldn’t listen!
Thirty to forty Gold Talers! How many soldiers could I keep?"
Viscount Ireland mumbles angrily.
"Bah! Old man! Do you think I’m that blind or stupid? You just want to see those Elf Jade Pools dance! It’s not enough at the Opera House; you have to watch privately too!? Do you still have a sense of shame?
Oh? Unconvinced? Argue with me, and I’ll tell my father, Count Hailson! Who do you think helped you to the viscount position?" the Viscountess scolds.
Viscount Ireland is about to retort, but there’s a knock at the door.
"Lord Viscount! The castle guard says there’s an important matter to report!"
"Hmm? Let him in."
Viscount Ireland replies with a slight frown, and both he and his wife shift their attention to the door.
The next moment, the door opens, revealing a soldier holding a long, somewhat deformed metal object.
"Why are you bringing this?" Viscount Ireland can’t help but ask.
"Lord Viscount! I was guarding the city gate when a strange thing happened. This metal piece suddenly fell from the sky right in front of me!
It’s engraved with words! I thought I should bring it here for you to see."
"Engraved with words?"
Viscount Ireland becomes a bit interested, walks over to the soldier, and looks at the metal piece.
"Those who anger the heavens will surely face divine punishment!
The first calamity will start here!
Mortals! Are you prepared to embrace death?"
Viscount Ireland instinctively reads it aloud, frowning deeply.
"Is this a threat? A menace?" the Viscountess questions angrily upon hearing it.
"Judging by the content alone, it’s undoubtedly a threat, but... without reason, we haven’t offended anyone!
Why would this just fall from the sky?
I think it might be some caster’s prank!"
Viscount Ireland quickly deduces, shaking his head with a laugh, "Let it be! This kind of pointless prank, aside from being annoying, serves what purpose? Soldier! Dismiss! No need to mind it! Proceed as usual!"
As soon as he finishes speaking.
Beep beep beep beep!!
A piercing magic alarm suddenly blares!