Walking through the dinosaur-infested craters and out of the stalactite-filled caves, the terrain in front of you gradually becomes open, and a large number of man-made buildings have been eroded over thousands of years and are now in ruins, but the scale of the ruins alone makes it easy to imagine how magnificent this complex was in its heyday!

The massive ruins stand still in the darkness, like a dead city. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoCountless towers and pavilions form a ring of air corridors connected to each other, and even though they have been sleeping deep in the ground for thousands of years, there are still magical devices that keep their main structure intact.

What amazed Roland the most was the spacious plaza in the middle of the ruins, surrounded by hundreds of towering granite columns, all topped with a spell blessed with the "Immortal Flame" as street lamps, which were enough to illuminate the entire city in its heyday, and to this day nearly a third of the magic street lamps are still in operation, emitting a cold glow.

Roland extinguished the bull's-eye lantern and walked straight to the square.

The huge and solemn altar stood in the center of the square, made of blue, green, white, red, and black ores, and the place at the top of the altar where the statue of the god was supposed to be displayed was destroyed by magic, leaving a crater-like dentation. Most of the symbols carved on the altar have been preserved, and Roland has made sure they are the words of the Elder Dragon.

With the help of systematically deciphering these sacrificial records from the Dragon Age, and comparing them with the historical records of intelligent races such as humans, dwarves, and elves, a clear vein emerged in Roland's mind, running through the rise and fall of the major forces in the world of Varess for thousands of years.

Two thousand years ago, before the Perian Cult established the Holy Assanian Empire, the ruler of the world of Varess was undoubtedly an Arcanist. However, prior to the Arcane Age, the land's protagonists were not humans, but dragons belonging to two opposing factions: the five-colored dragons, who believed in Tiamat, the mother of dragons, and the metal dragons, who worshipped the platinum dragon god Bahamut.

The war between the dragons nearly destroyed the civilization of the previous era, until both sides were exhausted and defeated, and the humans who had learned the arcane knowledge from the dragons and elves came to the stage of history, and the role of the human beings increased day by day.

At the end of the Dragon War, both the five-colored dragon and the metal dragon had to face the reality of heavy casualties. Dragons are powerful, but they don't come out of nowhere, and a newborn dragon is no more threatening than a bison, and it takes centuries to grow to see all beings.

The brutal war is like a meat grinder, constantly strangling the lives of the dragons, and the newborn dragons are far from being able to compensate for the number of casualties, not to mention the fact that both sides are intent on hunting the young dragons.

In order to make up for the supply of troops, Tiamat and Bahamut adopted different strategies.

Tiamat created a class of creatures called the "Last Descendants of the Dragons", which is said to be the origin of most dragon-blooded creatures in the world today. The Last Descendant of the Evil Dragon is a hybrid of the five-colored dragon and other creatures, although it is not as powerful as the real dragon, its growth rate is far faster than the former, and it can form combat power in a short period of time.

Tiamat's evil wisdom doesn't stop there, as at the end of the war, her Sage invented a new technique called the "Earth-dwelling Egg", which increased the rate of reproduction of the Last Descendants of the Evil Dragon to sensational proportions.

Previously, the five-colored dragon probably used the method of raping other races to produce mixed-race offspring, but as soon as the ground-dwelling egg technology came out, even this procedure was saved.

The last descendant of the evil dragon hatched from the ground egg can reproduce offspring by devouring creatures, simply put, whatever creature she eats, the last descendant of the evil dragon born has the characteristics of that creature. If she devours multiple creatures at once, she will be born with a mixture of creatures and dragon traits.

Although there are failures in the offspring produced in this way, there are not a few evolutionary species that integrate the advantages of multiple races, and the combat effectiveness can be imagined.

What was the metal dragon doing when the last descendant of the evil dragon was devouring other species on the earth and proliferating like a virus?

The descendants of Bahamut are also carrying out a plan to expand their army, and their good nature does not allow them to adopt the self-serving methods of the Tiamat followers, and the final technology is to transform humans, dwarves, elves, and other good creatures into Bahamut's dragonborn fighters on a voluntary basis.

The transformation process is like rebirth, the creature hatches from a huge dragon egg, retains its original ability while gaining the characteristics of the dragonborn, its combat power is significantly improved, and its belief in justice is becoming more and more firm.

The "Call of Bahamut" ritual is indeed great, but as a strategic tool, where can its efficiency be compared to the frenzied proliferation of "ground-dwelling eggs"?

As a result, the tide of the battle was reversed, and the Descendants of the Evil Dragon were in a precarious situation.

In order to salvage the defeat, the metal dragon had to bow its haughty head and invite the leaders of the good factions, such as elves, dwarves, and humans, to meet, and ask them for more direct help to stop the expansion of the dragon's last descendants.

It is not known what agreement was reached at this meeting, but the result is known to everyone - the good camp formed an alliance to fight the evil dragon forces.

Centuries of war have finally come to an end, and the last descendants of the evil dragons have almost all been wiped out, and now the colorful dragon blood and dragon veins on the continent of Vares probably have their genes, not to mention the scarcity of numbers, because of their original sin, they are not welcomed in any town where good creatures live.

The followers of Bahamut have won the ultimate victory, but they have also overdrawn the future, and the harsh reality is just around the corner: after thousands of years of recuperation, the number of metal dragons is still pitiful, even smaller than that of the five-colored dragons. As for the dragonborn fighters of Bahamut, it has long been a legend because their dragon blood cannot be passed on to their offspring.

Elves, dwarves and humans emerged as the biggest winners, and the direction of development varied.

The elves of the world of Varess have near-perfect genes, long lives, and unparalleled magical talents, but they are peaceful and indisputable by nature, willing to wander between green fields and forests, and maintain the balance of nature, except for the drow and orcs, the elves rarely take the initiative to use violence.

The dwarves are far more organized than the elves, but they have little interest in the world above the surface and are more interested in exploring the minerals in the depths of the earth, and over time they have lost contact with the people of the surface world.

Only humanity truly benefited from the old order shattered by dragons and quickly rose to become the master of the earth, and when thousands of towers rose to the sky and magic was applied all over the streets, the first glorious imperial age in the history of human civilization was announced.

Through the development of magic crystal energy, the Arcane Empire quickly conquered the entire continent of Atlas, and in its heyday, it had dozens of large-scale astral fleets, shuttling through the major planes of Varestian, conquering countless planets, and even launching wars to invade the bottomless abyss, which terrified the demons.

However, the empire only flourished for less than 2,000 years, and then faced a crisis due to the depletion of the magic crystal deposits, coupled with the provocation of the gods, the major mage lords indulged in cannibalism, and the national power gradually declined.

The Perian Followers were inspired to rise rapidly, and after a hundred years finally overthrew the rule of the Arcane Empire and established the theocratic Empire, the great inventions of the Arcane Age and the magical doctrine that used the power of magic crystals were also destroyed, and only a very small amount of knowledge has survived to this day, and it is considered taboo by the Church of Light, and anyone who tries to access these forbidden knowledge will be branded as a heretic and severely punished by the Holy Light Inquisition.

Due to its relatively conservative policy, the territory of the Assanian Empire has been limited to the hinterland of the Atlas continent for more than 1,600 years, and it has never been as ambitious as it was in the Arcane Age.

History warns future generations that the Arcane Empire will die of blind expansion, but reality predicts that the Holy Assanian Empire will eventually die in its old ways.

In the ruins of ancient times, Roland reminisced about the past and the present, and felt more and more that the ultra-conservative theocratic rule of the Assanian Empire was unsustainable. In the Far East, for example, the idea of getting rid of the stigma of heresy, resisting imperial oppression, and demanding independence has become the common aspiration of the broad masses of the people, and he himself is in the middle of the whirlpool of this great change, and he feels it even more deeply.

"Mr. Roland, what are you thinking?" Veronica looked at him curiously.

"It's nothing, it's just to confirm where we are at the moment through the ancient written records on the altar." Roland stomped his feet, and the floor tiles were clearly engraved with the five-colored dragon head pattern, which was the holy emblem of Tiamat, "Every temple is a fortress of the last descendants of the evil dragon, and this is no exception, at the end of the war, these militarized religious facilities were all destroyed by the coalition forces, and the reason why the settlement area became" The Settlement area, it is precisely because of the great war that took place here four thousand years ago, the floating city is high above the sky, the Arcane fleet bombards the dragon, and the legendary magic life bombards the continuous mountains into a settlement area thousands of feet below the sea level, and the place we are in at the moment is the fallen temple. ”

"Subjected to the bombardment of legendary magic, the surrounding ground has settled a thousand feet, and this ancient structure has not been completely destroyed, so ah, my dear friends, it is best for you to dispel contempt when you set foot in this ruin. As a military fortress that was the focus of the last descendants of the evil dragon in the past, there must be a large number of traps buried here, as for whether the expiration date has expired......" Roland turned to look at Veronica and smiled very kindly: "You are the only one in the team who is good at searching for traps, so it's good to find a way ahead?" ”

"I knew there was nothing good going on!" Miss Ninja lifted her forehead and lamented.