Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 677 - 628: Enter the Stage

Ever since the Dwarves started becoming active, this once reticent sage-king seemed to be turning into a mediocre ruler. Visergg smoothed out his mature-looking furrowed brows, and his silly laughter hardly ever stopped, basically leaking the scent of alcohol from the corners of his mouth after a few words with Lyle.

Observing the swift transformation, Lyle could only summon his attendants for him and pray that everything was reliable on the Red Dragon’s end.

...

"Let’s extinguish the Great Furnace,"

The beard of Red Dragon Priest Fleisheimer was completely ignited, and he roared at the creature that proposed this foolish suggestion like a hedgehog.

"Have you lost your mind? To say such a thing! Is this how you speak, Baron of the Garden! The Great Furnace is your old home! If the flames are extinguished, will we both not be doomed?!"

The Baron of the Garden, his torch-like hair twisted into artistically wavy curls, stood with his arms folded, directing fire elementals floating around the Great Furnace with Magma Gemstones.

"Ah!!!" With a roar, he burned another scene arrangement to ashes, and the Elemental Lord fell into a rage.

"This damned Magma Lake, no matter what angle you light it from, it’s not right! It’s too bright! Our beloved Imelt, from whichever angle she’s viewed, as long as the Great Furnace is used as a backdrop, she looks black!!! Like a piece of charcoal!!! How on earth am I supposed to make your visually challenged, stubby little kin think of our treasure as a resplendent agate gemstone!!! Damn it! My artistic spark is about to be extinguished!!"

After a moment of thought, the Baron of the Garden said, "Then, let’s extinguish the furnace. I’ll lead the fire elementals to drain the strength of the flames. It’s alright, we fire elementals can still survive in the Elemental Plane, it’s just a matter of a portal...

"You dare!!"

Imelt’s mind buzzed a bit. She had just finished forging weapons for the Life Warlord, and now she was dragged to the Great Furnace by her two foster dads and managers and now was lying in her dragon form on a carved "all-natural" mineral stone. Imelt felt like a piece of art, the kind that’s about to die, and she was a bit tired.

"Actually, we could be less professional, gentlemen, a little poor lighting won’t be such a..."

"No way!!" "No way!!" The irascible Dwarf Dragon Priest and the fire elemental both responded to the Red Dragon at once, and Imelt withdrew her head, quietly assuming her role as the model.

"This is your first exposure with a brand-new attitude! We must dazzle! Be perfect! We are cultivating the faith of the Red Dragon! Imelt! You must be as perfect as a deity that is worshiped! As Lyle said, this is what ’idol’ means."

"I thought that was just an exaggerated figure of speech, my father said that Andrey always refines ordinary work to the extreme and then torments everyone."

"Mel! You should show more respect to Mr. Lyle, he has taught me so much! Doesn’t his status, his knowledge, make you realize the gap in experience?"

The Red Dragon looked at the Elemental Lord, who was dead serious, and rolled her eyes, muttering quietly, "Sorry about that, I just can’t equate the great man in your minds with the guy I remember getting his ass burned by my fire."

Imelt closed her eyes, accepting yet another light adjustment from the Fire Flame Elemental on the scales by her eyes. She too wanted to get this phase over with sooner, but she couldn’t be much help; she only knew how to forge and breathe fire. Among the Five Dragons, she cared least about appearances—a rough dragon, just slightly better than the battle-crazed Alcalon.

"Becoming beautiful... Kristo probably doesn’t struggle with that. That crystal block with the enchantingly handsome looks..." Wait, crystal block? Crystal?! If we used a crystal base with good light transmission, wouldn’t that solve the poor lighting problem?

Imelt realized that the Dwarf and the fire elemental had entered a blind spot because those fragile or hard crystals lacked pliability, so the pair had completely ruled them out.

Imelt’s suggestion was quickly accepted by the duo, and her crouching base was changed from precious metal ore to a Flame Crystal.

"There we go, my dear! Now I’m going to oil every single one of your scales, making them even more dazzlingly beautiful!"

"Are you sure they won’t catch fire? This is the Great Furnace after all."

"We’ll use high flash point decoration oils, and then keep the Fire Flame Elementals away from you."

...

Paul led his Military Governor troops to block all the pathways leading to the Great Furnace, the previously disabled captain of the smelting slag squad had rediscovered his old sensations during the week-long reconstruction efforts. Indifferently, the Divine Warrior picked up the Warhammer and fiercely smashed it onto the face of the young man leading the charge against his troops.

"Can’t understand Dwarvish, you fool fit to be remelted!"

Clutching his face, with the blood from his nose flowing back into his nostrils, Anxi’s face turned bright red as he yelled discontentedly, "Uncle Paul! You Life Warlords are too much!! We of the Red Dragon Royal Guard are inseparable from Lady Imelt!! You’re blocking our sacred connection!!!"

What responded to the young gladiator was an even fiercer hammer blow.

The entire Life Warlord unit displayed disdain, just as the Dwarven public thought they were there to stop the youths’ blind worship of the Red Dragon.

"You really are asking for it! We are the Life Warlords of Imelt! Royal Guard? I’m the Red Dragon Royal Guard. A bunch of green kids who can’t even fight, yet you dream of touching Lady Imelt’s hem. The Red Dragon is sacred and inviolable! I should have long suggested to your dad to rein in such an uneducated fool, not learning forging or fighting! Are you even a Dwarf!!!"

Faced with the bluster of the Life Warlords, Anxi and his group of young gladiators were first stunned, then burst into elation.

"Brothers!! If we blow up this pack of shameless, decrepit Life Warlords, we’ll get official recognition!! Lady Red Dragon is within reach!!!"

Paul was pissed yet amused, his eyes gradually reddening as the fury of the Life Warlords fused into the most intense flames.

"It’s because we are the strongest that we’re the Life Warlords of Imelt, you little bastards."

As the Life Warlords were about to make the audience enter lying down, a tide of Spark Elementals surged from the Great Furnace to McEnburt first. They let themselves loose, their juvenile laughter heralding the start of the entire fan meet.

Following orders, all members of the Life Warlords assembled and proceeded down the spiral staircase towards the Great Furnace. The space they vacated was then taken by the Dwarves, with Anxi snagging the best spot overlooking the Great Furnace.

The Fire Elementals seemed eager to show off their musical talent; a series of loud, concentrated explosions designated along the cliff opposite detonated in sequence, sending shattered rocks tumbling into the bubbling Magma Lake with an assortment of gurgling sounds.

Quite rhythmic, that was the only thing Lyle could compliment. The noise they stirred echoed through the Underground City, with the vibrating magma shooting up high enough to almost drench the Dwarves leaning on the railing.

"Hahaha!"

But the Dwarves seemed to love it, their bones sharing the same clamorous and thrill-seeking impulses as the Fire Elementals. Such grandiose scenes, akin to the end of the world, sent the Dwarves’ blood surging with excitement as the gentlemen stomp their feet and sing in rhythm. Some waved their weapons, intimately interacting with the approaching Spark Elementals.

Noisy, fervent, excited, impulsive.

In that atmosphere, as the chaotic scene of the Magma splashing sparks came to an end, within the biggest crater produced by the explosions.

Crawling atop the vivid red crystals, the Red Dragon came into everyone’s sight.