The thick tail covered in dark iron-colored scales slammed onto the ground.
The dull impact shook dust from the cave ceiling, directly silencing Olga’s attempt to probe further.
The Ferro-Dragon slowly rose from the straw pile, its metallic scales grating against each other with a teeth-grinding crunch.
Its dark red vertical pupils gathered a chilling light that made hearts palpitate, looking down upon the two distressed refugees of a fallen kingdom.
“Stupid… very… stupid, Olga.”
Although the voice still sounded like rusty gears turning, intermittent and showing physical discomfort, every word struck the Dark Elf Queen’s most vulnerable nerves with the precision of a heavy hammer.
For the two Dark Elves, the transgression of being called by name instantly dropped the atmosphere in the mine tunnel to freezing point.
“Enraging a Great Dragon… what good… does that do you?”
Upon hearing this, the color instantly drained from Olga’s stunningly beautiful face.
Following a low growl, the young Dragon’s massive mouth, filled with fangs, opened slightly, exhaling a puff of sulfurous hot air directly onto the Queen’s face.
“Do you think… you can use your current diminished magic… to perform sorcery and control… a Great Dragon, even one in its youth?”
This single sentence ripped through Olga’s final facade like a sharp knife.
The Queen’s body trembled slightly.
She subconsciously wanted to refute him, wanting to mobilize the magic within her to prove her authority, but the faint purple light that had just appeared on her fingertips instantly dissipated under the pressure of the Dragon’s Might.
In her proud phoenix eyes, her pupils contracted violently—the instinctive reaction of prey being targeted by a predator.
“If you truly… could do that, then the mercenaries who breached… this country’s defenses… would instantly be struck dead by your gaze.”
The Dragon realized immediately after waking up that Olga had absolutely no power over him.
Because he could move freely, completely unbound by this Dark Elf Queen who controlled magical beasts, and the enslavement seal just now was simply pushed back by his willpower.
“Enough!”
Chloe let out a sharp cry.
Although her teeth were chattering and the hilt of her sword was soaked with sweat, she firmly positioned herself in front of the already unsteady Olga, pointing her sword tip at the massive dragon head, her eyes filled with desperate determination.
“You are forbidden to insult Her Majesty!”
The Ferro-Dragon completely ignored the knight’s lament.
Its cold red eyes were fixed solely on the woman attempting to maintain her haughty demeanor.
“Your magical power… has clearly waned, yet you still cling to… the pride of a higher race… and chatter here…”
The massive dragon head slowly approached until its snout was less than half a foot from Olga, so close that she could see her paper-white face reflected in its red pupils.
“You have always been… overly… foolish.”
He continued to speak in his unfluent, yet magnetic, majestic, and hoarse voice: “I know, your power is waning… because you are about to prepare to return to the Dark Elves’ homeland… to conceive the next generation of Dark Elves.”
With this first revelation, the mask of composure that Olga had barely managed to maintain instantly cracked.
Her amber pupils contracted violently, as if she were staring at some unspeakable horror.
“Stop talking…”
She instinctively tried to rebuke him, but her voice was so weak it felt unfamiliar even to her.
However, the judgment from the Ferro-Dragon’s mouth did not cease.
Instead, it poured forth like mercury, penetrating every corner of the secret garden deep within her heart.
“Your pregnancy… is asexual reproduction… achieved by bathing in the Holy Spring of the Father’s Cavern… deep within the Nidavellir Underground Temple of your homeland… to conceive the next generation of Dark Elf offspring.”
“This act… occurs only once every millennium… You held selection and sacrifice rituals, and you were eventually chosen… thus coming here… after the Northern Theocracy weakened due to a magical rampage… establishing the Black City near the northern mountains… for fasting and meditation.”
Olga’s face was white as paper, her lips devoid of color.
She looked like someone stripped naked and thrown into a cold wind, her expression a mix of shame and terror.
The longsword in Chloe’s hand drooped weakly.
As a half-breed detested by the Dark Elves, she couldn’t understand the ancient secrets concerning the “Father God” and the “Holy Spring.”
But she could see that Her Majesty the Queen, who was always unshakable as an iceberg and eternally high above in her heart, was now trembling violently.
“Because the Father God’s magical power, as you call it… was gathered and attracted by your fasting and meditation, the outwardly radiating magic also strengthened the local demons… the Goblins, Trolls… Orcs, Cave Giants… and Gargoyles. They serve you as Queen for this reason.”
“You… are foolish… truly too foolish… You should never have accepted this title. You are skilled in court intrigues… but you are neither good at nor condescend to manage a nation.”
“The Black City and the Queen title… were both temporary conveniences for you, allowing you to meditate… without disturbance.”
“Now that your country has been breached… do you really think your kin… will care whether you live or die?”
The chilling air inside the mine tunnel seemed to completely solidify at this moment.
Water droplets seeped from the rock crevices, and the sound of them hitting the gravel was magnified in the deadly silence.
Listening to the hoarse, magnetic Dragon Language, Olga’s originally pale face, illuminated by the faint firelight, gradually shifted from initial terror to a feeling of near-numb absurdity.
She stumbled half a step backward, her dress sinking into the black mud in the corner.
Her slender fingers desperately clutched the rough rock wall beside her, the tips leaving several tiny scratches on the stone surface from the sheer force.
“Ha… haha… hahahaha…”
A low laugh spilled from the depths of her throat, weak and dry at first, then gradually becoming high-pitched and sharp.
Olga slightly tilted her head back, her dark hair scattering across her shoulders as her body shook.
There was no amusement on her cold, beautiful face, only a distorted curl of her lips.
“This is truly something. I thought I had picked up a useful weapon, but… it turns out I picked up a ‘Prophet’ who knows all the dark scandals of my race.”
Olga stopped laughing.
She slightly lowered her eyelids, her gaze fixed on a point in the void.
Her voice regained its arrogant and indifferent tone, though mixed with unconcealable exhaustion.
“You are correct. In the eyes of those’sisters’ in the north, I—who have lost the Black City, whose magic has diminished, and who has even fallen into a mine pit—am already a piece of rags dropped in the mud.”
“They don’t need a failed kinswoman, and certainly not a Conceiver who might have been ‘defiled’ by the filthy aura of humans.”
“After receiving my plea for help, they will simply toss my letter into the fire, select the next candidate, and send her to bathe in that Holy Spring.”
As she spoke, she released the hand gripping the rock wall.
In her palm, a black magical energy sphere, radiating dangerous fluctuations, began to condense.
“Since there is no home to return to, and no sacred mission left…”
Olga wore a pale smile.
“Rather than being captured by those despicable mercenaries, or rotting away like an insect in this dark mine shaft, I can at least… grant myself dignity.”
Yes, the Dark Elves in the original story completely ignored Olga.
Being inherently arrogant, isolated, and even slightly cruel, they didn’t care if Olga had been defiled or not.
The moment the Black City was breached, they simply assumed Olga was dead.
Therefore, they immediately stripped Olga of her qualification and prepared to hold a new ritual to select someone else.
Thus, Olga in the original plot became a public commodity serving the nation.
And she herself chose suicide to preserve her dignity.
“Your Majesty! Please withdraw that thought!”
Chloe let out a distorted shriek.
She instantly crossed the distance between them and violently grabbed Olga’s wrist.
The knight’s red pupils were bloodshot, and her breathing was ragged and heavy due to extreme distress.
“No matter what those people think, and no matter what this… this Dragon said!”
Chloe gritted her teeth, her body trembling slightly.
“You are forever my Queen. As long as I live, as long as I hold my sword, I will absolutely not allow you to take your own life here!”
Olga looked down at her restrained wrist, her eyes hollow and lifeless.
She did not resist, merely letting Chloe hold her.
The Ferro-Dragon’s massive body slightly adjusted its posture on the straw mat.
Its dark iron-colored dragon claw tentatively scraped the ground, producing a grating screech.
Its dark red vertical pupils locked onto the two Dark Elves plunged into despair before it, and its throat pulsed again.
“Dignity?”
The magnetic, majestic voice echoed once more in the cavern.
“Olga… your so-called dignity… is merely an escape… The current you… truly has nothing left… except that bit of false pride.”
“But you forgot one thing… the rules of this world… are never set by those arrogant women… meditating in caves…”
The Ferro-Dragon’s head slowly drew closer until its warm, mineral-scented breath was sprayed directly onto Olga’s cold cheek.
“The reason I rescued you… was not to watch you stage a suicide show here…”
“Your value… depends on whether you are willing, at this end of despair… to grasp what can truly return you to the throne… your future…”
Hearing the Ferro-Dragon’s words, Olga propped herself up against the cave wall, her thin dress still dripping with muddy water.
However, her amber eyes, which had been unfocused for so long, finally regained a glimmer of clarity.
With lingering exhaustion, confusion, and a hint of incredulous shock, she spoke with a dry, raspy voice.
Her voice was as faint as a candle in the wind, yet every word was distinct:
“Dragon… you… what exactly do you want?”
As soon as she finished speaking, the Ferro-Dragon slightly raised its head.
Its dark red vertical pupils calmly locked onto her eyes, and a breath carrying a magma-like heat brushed over the top of her head.
In the next second, a deep, raspy voice slowly echoed through the mine.
The words weren’t exactly fluent, carrying the raw stiffness of a dragon speaking human tongue, yet it possessed a soul-piercing magnetism and an unquestionable authority.
Every word was like heavy iron hitting the ground, causing the loose rocks on the cave walls to rustle and fall.
“I… want… you.”
The sentence was so blunt it was almost crude, making Olga tremble all over.
The raspy, majestic voice did not pause, continuing to echo steadily in the deathly silent mine with an unquestionable certainty and grand ambition:
“I will… help you restore your nation, help you… expel the invaders.”
“So that you… can continue to live your former life.”
Olga’s amber eyes widened suddenly.
The words ‘restore your nation’ were like a bolt of lightning, splitting through the gloom of her despair from the past few days.
But before she could recover from the ecstasy, the other’s words fell again with the dominance of a sovereign: “You can… continue to be… your Queen, but I will crown myself… as the Steel Dragon Emperor.”
“I will establish… a vast… interdimensional empire that spans worlds.”
The words were powerful and resonant, every syllable filled with the arrogance of one who would swallow the universe.
“As the eternal Steel Dragon Emperor… I shall rule over it… forever.”
As the last few words fell, the crimson light flowing between his scales suddenly intensified.
The pressure belonging to a dragon quietly spread, making Chloe, who was standing nearby, not even dare to breathe loudly.
Olga’s heart was like a stormy sea; the hope of restoration and the other’s monstrous ambition intertwined, leaving her speechless for a moment.
But in the next second, the Ferro-Dragon’s raspy voice rang out again.
His words were blunt and domineering, carrying a forceful tone that allowed no refusal, instantly shattering all her dazed thoughts:
“And first… you must offer up your body.”
“I will possess you… let you bear my children, and birth an army.”