"Aah, do you see it now? The death? The starving? The end?" Wood creaked, splintering ever so slightly.
"Silence imposter, you are nothing but vague recreation posing as the real thing, what's more pathetic is that you really believe yourself to be the true one, you disgust me, get the hell out of here" like a deep growl, a dragon rose up to his maximum height, hind legs stretched their limit, overlooking the countless high peaks.
Out in the distance, a red glow was advancing, steam rising endlessly into the night sky, the snow, both grounded and falling from above was denied its sole purpose, the ground below scorched by deep red flames, countless pikes swinging high up in the air, an army composed of infantry, soldiers, knights, mages… No occupation that had any sort of place on the battlefield was left out, all led by a singular figure.
The sky above was disturbed, two massive dragons circled above the approaching army, one unleashing torrents of regular fire without ceasing, the other shooting out bolts of lightning from its maw, destroying the landscape, massacring the native species and small populations, the only ones that were not crushed instantly were the draconic species and dragon cultists, no, they were in for a much worse experience.
At least, that was what the frost dragon believed, being injected with the blood of a vampire and forcefully turned undead was what he believed to be fate worse that death and because of the draconic aspects all of them carried, this particular vampire could not possibly fail to convert them, crushing their ego as he did so, ensuring that none could retain any allegiance to life even on the other side.
"Svaltimas, he is coming for you, Dracula will not pass on an occasion to get a hold of a genuine dragon, if you are strong enough in his eyes, he might leave your mind intact to ensure that you can make full use of your powers in service to the undead king, but be wary, or you'll be made into naught but a lesser thrall…"
"...The dragons that accompany him, they were followers of dragon lords he subjugated, they are fully aware and still follow his will, even if not crushed in spirit, you will find it difficult to not find the strength alluring"
"What did I say? Silence tree, if you know so much, why did you not warn the rest of the living as well? The true you might have been somewhat calculative, but never would he have allowed so many to be slaughtered!-"
The tree twisted his trunk, sounding like he would fell himself by simply moving.
"When I split myself, I made sure to not put my empathy in this vessel, I can assure you that this will all be necessary and that the end result will be unfathomably glorious! Now my friend, I would advise you to take flight, Dracula does not need to try hard to defeat you, as much as you are the strongest living dragon on Viridis, that is only because your kind was purged long ago…"
"The two minions of Dracula are stronger than you are, and yet, they are the bottom of the barrel compared to his old forces, run and grow stronger, fight again later, don't sacrifice yourself by rushing head on" The First Seed spoke, looking off at the advancing bloodflame army.
The vampire lord's army carried many absurdly long pikes, bodies impaled upon them, hardened spikes of blood left in the wake of the army, the frost dragon, lord of the mountains grumbled.
He spread his wings, almost smashing the tree to bits.
"What about you pretender? Will you confront him or run away as per usual? You didn't even confront a meaningless undead, of course you'll run…" answering his own question, Svaltimas took flight, leaving his home, which he had not left ever since he had crawled out of his egg.
The First Seed watched as the old dragon disappeared in the distance, freezing winds stirred up as he went.
"Still just as grumbly as you were as a little lizard" the tree looked off into the distance, sighing before beginning to retract into the ground, leaving just as the dragon had assumed.
Dracula was not oblivious to the massive amount of powerful life force in the distance, having been going straight for it, but before he could get anywhere close, it disappeared entirely.
"Mmh…" the gravelord rubbed his chin, this potent life force was rather unfamiliar, but also familiar somehow, the power was far below that of The First Death Hunter, but only he had ever had truly powerful life coursing through his body.
'Was this the tree Loimos mentioned?' he continued on moving, followed by a seemingly endless sea of vampires, igniting the mountains as they went, burning them with the fire of the blood.
Never slowing, crushing all and everything that stood in the way, Dracula, Son Of Dragon stepped near the edge, gazing down onto the sole nation that seemed capable of opposing them, Tamaris, home to countless livings, designated as the main bastion of life by the undead already.
The bright red flame shined all around this kingdom, the mountains conquered by Dracula, unsheathing his sword, he rose it high in the air, tip pointed straight at the sky, following by all of his men, no matter if they stood right behind him or on the other side of chain of mountains, brandishing their weapons smouldering with ignited blood.
As though he had known it in the depth of his soul, the wave reached them, empowering all of them, the magnificent presence of King Nitok, the flame burned brighter, the burning mountains erupting with even more fire, the rock breaking and falling to pieces.
"Glory brave warriors!" he chanted.
"Soon come the everlasting dominion!"
Spoken in death tongue, the clamour of the vampires seemed to amplify the destruction of the mountains.
"Ah, would you look at this…"
Just as predicted, Tamaris was quick to show off the defensive measures they toiled away to put in place, a variety of green barriers were erected all over the country, all pyramidal in shape, a multi-layered, massive one covering the entire kingdom.
"Seems like they improved on the old design" remarked the vampire lord, already familiar with such barriers, these were necessary to prevent death from plaguing the fertile lands, otherwise, the loss of life would have been inevitable back then.
They were in luck however, Dracula was only here to conquer the mountains, Tamaris was still allowed peace for a while longer.