Last Egg: Reincarnated as a Dragon in a Game-Chapter 437 The Forgotten Variable

POV Vesuvius:

Full of anger, the dragon flapped his wings, rushing towards his city like a solar flare across the void.

His fury was still filling his mind. He couldn't just forgive someone injuring him and attacking him.

The streets still burned, the chaos even worse after the lightning attack.

"Thunder god? You failed. Now your minions will face my wrath" His roar shook with the ground, and instantly all the flames within the city were extinguished.

His focus turned to a single spot in the city.

A huge temple of white marble with a lightning-shaped metal fence all around it looked just like a tiny shed compared to his wingspan.

The crowds armed with torches and pitchforks surrounded it from all sides, the heavily armed kobolds already amasing to storm the temple.

'Even though I can't get the thunder god right now, I can still be petty and take it on their priests.'

His domain moved, and a tearing sound resounded through the square with the grounds shaking, making the crowd fall and stagger.

The ground cracked around the temple as it raised into the air, the invisible force lifting it into the sky. The soil and small pieces of stone rained down, the shocked crowds just staring at the temple rising higher and higher.

The swirling storm of heat, electricity, and frost retreated from its path, creating a corridor for it to pass.

"How does it feel, priests?! Your god attacked me, only to fail!" To his joy, he could feel the living humans inside, their hearts pounding with terror.

The roof flew away, torn by the power of his domain. The corridors, halls, and the muscular priests inside were revealed to the light of his eyes. The temple stopped only one tennis court away from his face.

"B-beast! In the afterlife..." The priest spoke, but Vesuvius could feel the lack of conviction.

"Are you sure mortal? The god of death is on our side. What if your soul, gets lost?"

"L-lie..."

"Hahaha, doesn't matter, just the feeling of uncertainty will torture you in your last moments."

Someone would call it petty revenge, but it was more than justifiable to Vesuvius.

'They always cowardly attacked my minions. I can do the same.'

The dragon fully opened his mouth, the purple light coming from inside painting the entire sky in purple. The temple moved and shot straight into the awaiting tunnel of doom.

"Ohh, god!"

"Mummy!!!"

The terrified shrieks of the priests were like music to his ears.

The next moment he closed his mouth and swallowed the accursed temple and its passengers.

"This is true power, mortals. You have prayed for the protection of your gods, but they can't even protect their own servants."

'This should completely shatter their last faith in their gods.' Vesuvius knew that most of the masses worshipped gods only for their personal gain, hoping for salvation, protection, or miracles. Only a few, the most zealous ones, believed selflessly.

A cold aura of death suddenly flashed nearby. The faint black shadow with two small, purple-glowing eyes floated high above the city. Its form blended with the clouds, hiding it from the eyes of the mortals.

'A reaper.' He immediately recognized the being.

Their rasp and aetherial voice silently reached the dragon, unheard by the mortals on the ground, "I am Morkraven, I am bringing a message from my lord."

'Speaking outside? No, some private place should be better.'

The golden light swallowed the dragon as he reappeared within the world of ice and fire that was his divine kingdom.

The reaper appeared nearby, its black smoky form turning into that of a sickly pale young boy with a missing eye and black circles around its eyes and deadly bluish lips. His tattered clothes were stained by unknown black liquid carrying the stench of rot and death.

"Speak now. What is the message."

"Coordination... it looks like you are trying to move in a way that is... undesirable."

Then it hit him as he realized he had excluded one important factor from all his projections and plans, 'Reapers, they should be allies.'

More and more dots joined together as he found the full extent of the planned cataclysm, 'It isn't just about weakening enemies by killing their followers. This is also supposed to boost our own powers as all the death energy will fuel the rise of more reapers.'

It all clicked together, 'I should have known. The system described the crystal thing as an infection and that should belong to the domain of the death god.'

It wasn't just the action of the rampaging crystal god. It was the calculated action of the entire trio, 'It also modifies living beings, so it is possible to even the dragon god helped to create this disease.'

Seeing the short pause, the reaper nodded, "I see you understand. Your plans to save as much of your population must fail. We need that power. You can save a lot, but most must die." The reaper's eyes flashed as an old moldy scroll manifested in their hand.

"Of course, we reapers believe in the equivalent exchange. For the lives of your property, we shall pay."

'Selling the lives of the citizens of my empire... not it is not selling them. It is just getting something from the inevitable. It isn't as if they are loyal.' No matter how he felt about it, he knew it was necessary, and on top of that, he couldn't just disrupt the plans of all his allies, no his kin.

"Tell me what is your offer, no what is the ceiling of the price you are willing to pay me."

POV Alesia:

The small emerald dragon blinked, looking at the glowing rune on a small metal coin lying on the stone floor below her. Her long emerald claw pressed against it.

The ground cracked and caved in under the pressure, but the coin remained intact and without a single blemish, the single rune on it brightly shining.

She lifted her claw and her heart pounded like on a race as the effects were far beyond the norm.

'This is impossible... these changes are simply too great.'

She wasn't the only one as the weird but smart and crafty being decked in their exotic armor with glass visor also watched the coin glow.

"I told you. You were using the so-called runes blindly. How could you truly use their potential without knowing how the matter works."

Even though she hated to admit it, she was wrong, 'Truly, reinforcing those so-called molecular and atomic attractions made the durability runes more effective than generally reinforcing the material.'

During enchanting, not only the shape of the rune and the rate at which mana was poured into it, but also her intent was important as it carried the nature of the enchantment. The shape of the rune and mana only stored it.

'Changing my intent from reinforcing material to directing the effects only to those connections focused the enchantment onto the parts that truly mattered instead of just evenly spreading it even where it was unnecessary.'

Her minion beside her was gasping, the visor of his helmet brightly glowing as he observed the coin, "Truly amazing, a letter charged with energy and intent can reinforce the binding between atoms! Ohhho, with this we can do a lot. We can turn even the most garbage cheap material into the highest grade exotics!"