Devouring Dragon Heir

The capital of Riverdale was shrouded in silence. Torches burned low along the stone walls, and the air carried the heavy scent of steel and cold earth.

For the last week, inside the sanctuary had been filled with cries of agony and the sickening sounds of flesh tearing, bones breaking, and bodies being remade.

A week had passed since Klaus began his interrogations.

The first elf spy that had been caught was a hollow shadow of his past self. His once radiant emerald eyes were dull, clouded with the haze of death magic.

Where there had once been fire and defiance, there was now obedience and silence.

He had been broken, reshaped, and bound as a death soldier. Another piece of Klaus's unshakeable army.

And he was not the last.

Dozens of spies had been captured since then. Humans, elves, even half-beasts. Each one had been dragged down into the same nightmare, interrogated until their wills shattered, their secrets spilled into Klaus's hands.

And once their usefulness was exhausted, they were reborn as death minions, swelling the ranks of the Zero Division.

Riverdale no longer feared infiltration. Each enemy spy only served to make them stronger.

But Klaus was not satisfied with the monotony; he wanted to get over this shit now. It had been a lot of days since he had seen his grandpa and his sports car; he wanted to go home soon, and that is why he had accelerated his efforts.

It had been a week ago, on a night heavy with storm clouds, that a man arrived at Riverdale's gates.

Kaiden.

A minor noble from the kingdom of Lionheart. At first glance, he looked broken and dishevelled, with bloodied clothes and a gaze that seemed hollow.

But when he was brought before Klaus, something else flickered in his eyes—not fear, but burning rage.

Klaus, seated on the cold black throne of the sanctuary, regarded him with disinterest at first. Men often came begging for protection, for favours, for alliances. But when Kaiden opened his mouth, Klaus quickly realized this was different.

"I came to offer my hand of partnership," Kaiden said, voice steady despite the storm in his chest.

Klaus raised a brow. "Partnership? From a minor noble of Lionhart? Tell me, why would I waste my time?"

The man clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. He swallowed hard, his throat trembling, before speaking again.

"Because I have nothing left. And I have everything to give."

The words spilled from his mouth like a flood, raw and unrestrained.

Kaiden spoke of the princes of the Four Great Empires, Falcon, Obsidian, Phoenix, and Titan, who had arrived at Lionhart like vultures.

They marched with their armies under the banner of the Anti-Messenger Pact, pretending to protect humanity from the so-called "evil demon of Riverdale." But in truth, they had come to rule, to devour, to take.

Lionhart's king, once proud, was now no more than a puppet. His throne had become a cage, and his voice carried no weight. Every decision, every law, every judgment was made by the princes who lounged in his palace, feasting on his lands while his people starved.

Food meant for the people was seized. Grains were redirected, livestock slaughtered, and entire storehouses emptied to feed the endless armies stationed in the kingdom.

While these princes were living lavishly like kings themselves in this kingdom, the children had to sleep with empty stomachs.

Kaiden had taken the courage and stood against it. He had complained again and again to the king, but he had only been shushed by him.

His pleas were drowned out by the sneers of the princes and the cold silence of his king.

Time and again, Kaiden had been silenced. Time and again, his warnings had been brushed aside.

Until the day came when soldiers marched to his own territory to seize what little grain remained. That day, Kaiden refused to comply with the soldiers and refused to let them take any grain.

The punishment that followed this act was merciless.

His wife, his gentle, kind-hearted wife, was dragged to the square. Before a jeering crowd, she was accused of treason, of colluding with the "demon of Riverdale." Lies, fabricated by the nobles backed by these princes to make an example of them.

"They… they burned her alive," Kaiden whispered, his voice breaking. His shoulders shook, his fists trembled, and his face twisted in agony as the memory replayed in his mind. "They tied her to the pyre. I… I begged. I begged them to stop. She screamed for me… until her voice… until her voice was gone."

He choked, biting his lip until blood ran down his chin.

"I was supposed to die with her. They framed me as well. But one of your spies used an illusion to save. He tricked them into believing that I got burned beside her, and then he brought me here.

Then Kaiden fell to his knees before Klaus. His forehead touched the cold stone floor.

"I want revenge, messenger, demon, evil being—whoeveryou are at this point, I don't care; I just want revenge, not just for me. Not just for her. For every starving soul in Lionheart.

For every child who is dying from hunger. For every man broken under the boots of those bastards. End them. End their oppression. I will give you everything I have: my knowledge, my loyalty, and my life. Just give me the chance to see them fall."

The chamber was silent. Even the ever-sneering Necrolord stood without words, watching the broken man.

Klaus leaned forward, eyes sharp as blades.

"Stand, Kaiden," he said softly, though his voice carried an edge that made the man tremble. "If your heart is true, then your vengeance will be mine as well."

Kaiden did not hesitate.

He drew maps, records, documents, and everything he had once sworn to protect.

He revealed hidden tunnels beneath Lionhart's walls, secret paths in the mountains, and weak points in fortifications. He spoke of the princes' camps, their supplies, their vulnerabilities, and everything he knew.

Each word he uttered was another nail in Lionheart's coffin.

Klaus and the necrolord listened very carefully, absorbing it all, their minds already weaving strategy upon strategy.

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The following week was consumed by preparations for the upcoming war.

Klaus knew what awaited him: four transcendents, each capable of tearing through armies. A combined force of 100,000 troops, backed by the resources of the southern empires.

Against them, Riverdale stood with Klaus's 38,000 dead soldiers and 10,000 of Riverdale's human soldiers, who had been reorganized, retrained, and reforged into a true fighting force under his command.

On paper, the numbers were hopeless. The enemy more than doubled them. But Klaus did not measure battles in numbers. He measured them in power, cunning, and strategy.

For the past week, he and Necrolord had been racking their brains to come up with multiple ways to win the war.

Thunder Lord had been gifted a thunder-type cultivation method, which he had been diligently practicing.

Lyssandra was fed with rare elixirs, and she rose swiftly to Pseudo-Transcendent rank.

Her illusions became weapons of war. With a flick of her hand, she could conjure entire phantom battalions, mislead scouts, or even shatter an enemy's morale with visions of horror.

Necrolord advanced as well, his darkness deepening. His necromancy grew sharper, faster. He could raise an army of corpses from a battlefield before the blood even dried.

The Zero Division grew stronger still. Each member now stood at SS or SSS rank, thanks to the cultivation techniques and boost from death energy.

Klaus poured resources into them without hesitation, even emptying Riverdale's treasury as well as his own draw points. To him, wealth meant nothing. Only strength mattered.

By now 20 pseudo-transcendents stood under Klaus's command; apart from Lysandra and Necrolord, these 20 were those that had been killed in battles or by him. Now these 20 abominations together would wreak havoc on the battlefield.

But he knew that still this much strength would not be enough.

So while Riverdale prepared for the war, he also tried to extend his influence outward.

Thunder Lord and Necrolord were dispatched to the northern and eastern nations. Their orders were simple: demand surrender. Those who yielded would be spared and absorbed into Riverdale. Those who resisted would be destroyed or broken.

The northern kingdoms, cut off from supplies, shivered on the brink of collapse. Hunger gnawed at their people. Most would bend the knee.

The east fared no better. Klaus's control of trade had already strangled them. Droughts and shortages pressed them from all sides. They had little choice but to submit.

Where persuasion failed, intimidation would suffice.

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In the war room, Klaus studied the maps Kaiden provided. Tunnels, supply routes, and hidden paths, all of these had been saved into his omniscient tracking skill, and thanks to his spies, he could get a map of Lion Hart generated in 3D in his vision.

He studied the terrain and contours of the kingdom's land to make better strategies for the enemy.

Several new generals of the Riverdale and his own subordinates like Lyssandra stood around the table, silent, waiting. Necrolord and Thunder Lord had still not returned, so they were the ones helping him these days.

He then used his mana to project the map in front of everyone in the room; this was the omnidirectional spatial mapping feature of this skill that allowed him to project the 3D map in front of everyone.

He also marked essential resource points in the map, like lakes and ponds, for the army to use and other enemy hidden bases were also revealed since the skill could track real-time data.

and after Klaus's realm increase, the effects had also been amplified along with the rank of the skill.