Chapter 313: Thor’s Realization
Left alone in the quiet luxury of her private dining suite, Elora raised her crystal glass, taking a slow elegant sip of her chilled fruit nectar while staring at Vespera’s hooded silhouette on the screen.
A smooth scheming smile spread across her flawless face.
’So now...’ Elora thought, her mind already drafting long-term political maneuvers, ’...how exactly do I arrange our very first private meeting?’
...
Meanwhile, miles away in the ultra-luxurious, six-star private dining pavilion suspended above the neon-lit skyline of Rhyx City...
CHOMP! CRUNCH! GLUB! GLUB! GLUB!
The boisterous, thunderous sounds of slaughter echoed off the gold-leaf walls of the dining suite.
Thor was currently sitting slumped in her massive gilded mahogany chair, single-handedly devouring her fourth entire mountain serving of legendary culinary dishes.
Her broad muscled arms were covered in savory glazes, her wild blonde hair falling over her shoulders as she tore through a four-foot roasted manticore leg with her bare teeth.
She swallowed a three-pound chunk of roasted meat whole, grabbed a giant silver pitcher of dwarf-mead, and chugged the entire gallon down her throat in five seconds flat, letting golden foam spill over her singlet and dark trousers.
"GWAHAHAHA!" Thor laughed boisterously, slamming the empty silver pitcher flat onto the marble tabletop with enough force to make the crystal chandeliers above rattle violently! "Good! GOOD! Bring more!"
Seated beside her in an opulent velvet chair, the royal-blue-haired Princess of the Lord World covered her smiling lips with her delicate silk-embroidered fan, her azure eyes watching the broadcast on the maximized golden holographic wall screen.
"I must admit, Lady Thor..." the Princess remarked smoothly, her voice carrying elegance. "...looking at the battlefield layout now, the Blessed Land truly does not possess many warriors at all. Aside from their Lord and that dragon, their ground deployment barely numbers seventy or eighty women, while Lord Sky commands over two hundred troops."
Thor wiped her greasy mouth with the back of her broad forearm, letting out a loud dismissive scoff as she looked at the floating screen.
"Bah! You speak like a pampered imperial politician who has never held an axe in her life, Princess!" Thor declared bluntly, slamming her calloused fist flat against her thigh. "In a real war, the number of useless bodies standing on a field does not matter for a damn thing! Look at those women! Look at how they move!"
Thor leaned forward in her chair, her storm-blue eyes narrowing into those of an ancient battle-hardened Norse God of Thunder.
"They have quality!" Thor boomed out, pointing a thick, meat-stained finger toward the screen where Brida, Tasmin, and Morwenna stood in formation. "They have incredible, top-tier, god-like quality... Every single one of those lasses moves like a seasoned Valhalla warrior who has bled through a thousand battles! Seeing an army like that... it makes me respect this Vespera even more!"
Thor turned her broad head toward the line of bowing, sweating imperial butlers waiting by the double oak doors, shouting at the top of her lungs.
"HEY! BUTLERS! BRING ME A FIFTH SERVING! I NEED TEN MORE ROASTED BOARS AND ANOTHER BARREL OF MEAD RIGHT NOW!"
The butlers bowed in terror, running off to the imperial kitchens at top speed to fulfill her absurd order.
Thor turned her attention back to the massive holographic display, her storm-blue eyes locking onto the colossal Primordial Crimson Dragon... Talira hovering gracefully above the Blessed Land’s vanguard.
Thor squinted her eyes, a rare look of deep nostalgia touching her broad features.
"Hmph..." Thor grumbled softly in her throat. "It has been quite a long time since I last saw a real Dragon with my own eyes... especially a pure-blooded Crimson one."
The Princess raised her blue eyebrows, leaning slightly closer to Thor. "Are Crimson Dragons truly that rare in the higher realms?"
"Rare?" Thor laughed heartlessly. "There are only a tiny handful of true Crimson Dragons left alive throughout the entire cosmos! In the whole Sovereign Realm, you could count them on one hand!"
Thor reached up, scratching her thick blonde hair as she recalled ancient realm history.
"I personally knew one of the legendary Crimson Dragon Kings back during the Great Realm Wars..." Thor reminisced. "An absolute monster of a dragon. But she was eventually hunted down and slain by that insufferable bastard, Ititius, centuries ago. I don’t know if that old dragon had a daughter or an heir before she died... but seeing this one floating on that screen brings back old memories."
Thor grinned widely, her storm-blue eyes flashing with intense battle-hungry curiosity.
"By Odin’s beard..." Thor declared loudly, "I would love to personally visit this Blessed Land territory after this war is over! I want to challenge that dragon to a strength contest and drink mead with their Lord!"
Thor turned her head, looking straight at the royal-blue-haired Princess. "Where is this territory located on the map anyway? What is the regional name?"
The Princess opened her silk fan, consulting a glowing blue imperial map floating beside her armrest.
"According to the official LordTube registry data..." the Princess answered smoothly, "...the Blessed Land is situated in a neutral, unregistered border territory known as the Umbral Basin."
"..."
The second the words ’Umbral Basin’ left the Princess’s lips, Thor froze completely solid.
Her storm-blue eyes blinked once then twice.
"Umbral Basin...?" Thor repeated, her voice dropping its boisterous tone.
Hadn’t she heard that name somewhere before?
BOOM!
Without warning, Thor slammed her broad, heavy palm flat onto the marble dining table!
The staggering force of her physical impact caused the entire six-star pavilion to shake violently.
The crystal glasses shattered, the silver platters bounced three feet into the air, and the returning imperial butlers carrying her fifth serving flinched in horrified panic, nearly dropping their trays.
"MY GOODNESS!" the Princess gasped out, her delicate silk fan fluttering frantically as she shielded her face from the shaking table. "Lady Thor! What has gotten into you?!"
Thor didn’t even apologize.
Her mind was racing as she recalled the secret dimensional charts kept inside the Royal Archive of Valhalla back in Asgard.
She remembered where she had heard that name... The Umbral Basin wasn’t just a random backwater wilderness in the Sovereign Realm... it was one of the primary, ancient spatial nexus points where a forgotten Gate of Asgard hung suspended in the upper atmosphere above the basin.
Thor kept her mouth shut, suppressing the urge to blurt out divine realm secrets in front of imperial royalty.
She quickly smoothed her expression back into a boisterous grin, waving her hand dismissively at the sweating butlers.
"Gwahahaha! My apologies, Princess!" Thor laughed loudly, grabbing a fresh roast leg off the new tray. "Just remembered an old errand! I’ll have to do some private research on that basin later!"
The royal-blue-haired Princess narrowed her azure eyes, offering Thor a sharp, playful smile. She leaned forward, resting her chin on her fan:
"If your private research proves fruitful... and if you truly intend to travel to this Umbral Basin after the war... could you perhaps carry me along with you, Lady Thor? I am thoroughly fascinated by this Lord Vespera as well."
Thor immediately shook her head, taking a massive bite of roast meat:
"Bah! No chance, Princess! I am a God of Thunder, not an imperial taxi driver! I travel fast and hard... a delicate royal girl like you would get blown away by my flight currents!"
The Princess didn’t get offended. Instead, a serene amused smile spread across her porcelain face. She raised her ringed hand, snapping her fingers lightly toward the head butler.
"Bring out the Imperial Chef’s special." the Princess commanded smoothly.
CLICK!
The double doors opened once more, and four master butlers marched in, carrying a colossal gold-plated serving platter covered by a massive, jewel-encrusted silver dome!
When the dome was lifted, an aroma so intoxicatingly divine erupted into the pavilion air that Thor’s jaw literally dropped open!
Piled high on the golden platter were prime cuts of roasted Astral Kraken heart, glazed in thousand-year-old divine honey, garnished with glowing mana-truffles, and accompanied by a crystal decanter of legendary Imperial Ambrosia... a legendary, stat-boosting feast worth over fifty million spirit credits.
Thor’s mouth instantly watered like a cascading waterfall... Her storm-blue eyes widened to the size of saucers as she stared at the glowing food.
She slowly turned her head, looking at the smiling, royal-blue-haired Princess with a narrow suspicious glare.
"Hey... Princess... is this... is this a blatant bribe?"
The Princess covered her mouth with her fan, her azure eyes sparkling with refined playfulness.
"It is a shameless bribe, Lady Thor."
Thor stared at the golden platter of Astral Kraken heart for two full seconds... then let out a roaring, thunderous laugh that shook the room.
"GWAHAHAHA!" Thor bellowed in delight, snatching the entire golden platter with both hands! "WELL SAID! I ACCEPT YOUR BRIBE, PRINCESS! YOU’VE GOT A RIDE TO THE UMBRAL BASIN!"
Thor crammed a massive piece of golden-glazed kraken heart into her mouth, chewing violently, her storm-blue eyes locking onto the holographic screen as the battlefield below ignited.
"ALRIGHT!" Thor cheered, wiping golden honey from her chin. "SHOW ME MORE!"
...
Back on the smoke-choked clearing of the Umbral Basin...
Lord Sky stood on the elevated command deck of The Unmovable Wall, staring across the three-hundred-yard gap at the majestic Primordial Crimson Dragon... Talira and the dark-hooded figure of Warlord Vespera standing on the grass below.
Sky let out a deep, heavy, and exhausted sigh behind his silver-and-black streaming helmet.
Cold sweat poured down his neck beneath his clothes.
The sight of a thought-to-be-extinct Primordial Crimson Dragon effortlessly vaporizing thirty Iron-Scale Wyverns with a single bolt of divine white lightning was enough to make any Lord’s heart throb in pure, unadulterated terror.
...However, Sky was a veteran Classic Lord.
He took a slow, steadying breath, analyzing his internal HUD interface.
Even though Brida’s supersonic charge had dismantled his frontline heavy knights, and even though Tasmin had defeated his twin Light Specialists, The Unmovable Wall was still a massive, well-established mobile territory.
He had a lot more than two hundred total troops remaining in his territory ranks... he still possessed over two hundred and twenty elite, battle-ready troops, mages, and heroes ready for deployment.
’A Dragon...?’ Sky thought, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. ’Seriously...? How does a brand-new, unregistered Lord even acquire a Primordial Dragon?!’
TAP!
Suddenly, a heavy, reassuring hand rested firmly onto Sky’s shoulder.
Sky turned his masked head. Standing beside him was Hiro... his most trusted, highest-ranking Hero.
Hiro wore a clean white martial tunic, his long dark hair swaying in the wind, and a thick, dark-purple silk blindfold bound tightly over his eyes.
Despite being completely blindfolded, Hiro’s physical posture radiated an unshakeable aura of calm and sword mastery.
"Do not lose your focus, Lord Sky," Hiro spoke smoothly. "A dragon is a formidable beast, but it is still a creature of blood and bone... We have bled together in worse zones than this. We will win this war."
Beside Hiro, another elite Hero stepped forward to the railing... the tall woman clad in pink-tinted tower armor who held the massive Divine Aegis Shield.
She offered Sky a warm determined smile through her open visor, resting her hand flat against her chest plate.
"I will put in every single drop of my physical effort, Lord Sky! My barriers will shield our army from the dragon’s lightning until our blades reach their Lord’s neck!"
THUMP... THUMP...
Deep within the subterranean foundation of The Unmovable Wall, Elm’s [Four-Leaf Resonance] magic throbbed softly through the iron hull.
The gentle, silver-and-white clover aura washed over Sky’s body once more, providing a warm spiritual wave of quiet reassurance from his bedridden Hero down in the green nutrient tank.
Sky looked at his Hero officers, his heart swelling with immense overwhelming gratitude behind the disguise.
’Thanks, guys...’ Sky resolved in her internal thoughts, her black eyes sharpening into razor-sharp slits beneath the helmet. ’I want to win... and to win this war, I have to go all out with everything our home possesses!’
Sky took three slow deliberate steps forward to the very front edge of his command deck, looking down at Vespera standing in the distance.
"Lord Vespera!" Sky bellowed, his voice amplified by his helmet’s audio transmitter, projecting across the entire basin. "I thank you for personally stepping onto this field! But this war ends NOW!"
Sky raised his right hand high into the sky, pointing his gloved palm toward the morning sun.
Every drop of his mana ignited within his core.
"ILLUMINATE!" Sky roared at the top of his lungs.
BLAWFFFFFFFFFFFFF!
A blinding nuclear flare of pure intense white light erupted from Sky’s hand, shooting straight up into the atmosphere.