Ashen Dragon

Rose let out an angry hiss, her eight limbs constantly waving and weaving, crafting a scarlet spiderweb above her head formed by evil divine power and chaotic power.

This web had a diameter of nearly a kilometer, blocking out the sky and exuding a terrifying aura that made souls tremble.

"Those so-called righteous gods are merely wearing a mask of hypocrisy. If we had won that war years ago, I would now be the true Elf Main God!"

"Boom!"

With an earth-shaking bang, two forces collided again, and a silvery brilliance burst out in an instant, intertwining with the scarlet glow emitted by the spider's magic web.

In the distance, Cassius, transformed into an Ancient Gold Dragon, watched the sky, continuously observing the battle between Catherine and Rose's incarnations.

"What incredible power..."

"No, this is definitely not an ordinary incarnation. Rose must have used some secret technique to transfer part of her divine essence to the Material Plane."

"Wait, what is that?"

At that moment, Cassius's eyelids twitched wildly, and the body of this Gold Dragon incarnation trembled as he sensed an extremely terrifying presence appearing on the battlefield.

And the source of that presence was none other than the Spider Queen, Rose.

"Heh heh..."

Rose let out a cruel chuckle: "Catherine, you're indeed tougher than I imagined. As a lowly mortal, you've given it all you've got."

"It's just a pity... you chose the wrong opponent."

Before the words finished, one of her legs reached deeply into the void, pulling something out from the twisted abyssal vortex.

It was a piece of jet-black amber, within which seemed to be a solidified black rose, incredibly eerie, with its surface appearing stained with congealed blood.

This malicious object has a renowned name—

Qilashar Rose.

Used to bring calamity to elves, spread evil, and even weaken the elven pantheon, a divine artifact.

It was crafted by Rose and the Void Dark Queen.

Under the control of the Void Dark Goddess, soulless elves embedded a black diamond facet into a Holy Tree, causing it to drain of all fluids and become thoroughly polluted.

After mixing the Holy Tree's fluids with poison extracted from a thousand black roses, Rose's avatar descended, using magic to transform the poison into the shape of a rose, then solidifying the rose into amber tougher than Mithril and Mithril.

After being handled by two elf-hating evil gods, this rose became a powerful weapon against the good alignment elves.

It's said that the incarnation of the Elf God Dalar Fire Cloak was driven insane and murderous because of it.

In the vicinity of the Sword Bay region, there are several well-known cities, such as Waterdeep, Elturel, and Neverwinter City. Waterdeep is built on the old capital of the Elf Empire Ilfaen—Erin Vier, with numerous temples of various deities. The Miracle Temple is the grandest Magic Goddess Temple in the game, with splendid towers decorated with various artwork and magical ornaments in a baroque style, while Neverwinter City leans more towards gothic architecture, being one of the earliest human settlements formed after nearly a century of development by Aegostor. The main city Bod Gate in the story is the largest and most prosperous trade city-state in the Sword Bay region, a melting pot for nobles, commoners, and thieves, and called "the den of conspirators" by adventurers. The name Bod Gate comes from a hero, Bodlan from Gray Harbor, who explored beyond the Sword Sea to another continent, and after returning with wealth to Gray Harbor, led his team to establish the city here.

Depending on the status of the inhabitants, Bod Gate is divided into the nobles' Upper City and the commoners' Lower City, with the Outer City composed of scattered areas around Chenyi Mountain, and the gate separating the Upper and Lower City is called Bod Gate, the entire city being named after it, also serving as a monument to the city's founder, Bodlan.

Currently, Bod Gate is governed by a council of four Grand Dukes, one of whom serves as the council leader. If voting ends in a tie, Elder Ravenclaw, the Grand Duke, makes the decision. The Upper City's security is maintained by an elite official police force called the Watch, while other areas are secured by a mercenary corps named "Flaming Fist." Elder Ravenclaw, the Grand Duke, is also the supreme leader of the mercenary corps, headquartered in the Bodlan Sea Tower, the strongest fortress defending against seaborne invasions at Bod Gate, shaping the economic lifeline of Bod Gate as it encircles like a crescent moon—Gray Harbor, through which hundreds of merchant ships enter and exit daily, bringing both gold coins and greed and vice.

The Upper City is relatively elevated and comprises the Castle District, Temple District, Manoburn District, and Wide Alley District, housing numerous religious buildings. The Miracle Hall and the Supreme Miracle House, as centers for the Church of the God of Craft in Bod Gate, showcase the Great Inventions crafted by Gund in the Miracle Hall, while the Supreme Miracle House also serves as a workshop. Most of the Lower City's architecture consists of stone houses across six districts: Sea Tower District, Blonrich District, Steep District, Crowded Side District, East Road District, and Branpton District. The middle class generally reside in Blonrich District, near the aristocrats of the Upper City, while areas near the Stone Lizard Gate in the East Road District are more mixed, bustling bars and cheap inns abound. The Sea Tower District is the garrison place for the Flaming Fist Mercenary Group, with their headquarters on the largest rocky offshore island near the Sea Tower District. Both Branpton District and Steep District are relatively run-down and serve as living communities for sailors and laborers. The Outer City is distributed along the Chongsar River, gathering temporary buildings and shantytowns as slums, the landmark being a stone bridge spanning the Chongsar River—Flying Dragon Crossroad, teeming with vendors who have even expanded the bridge with wooden planks, onto which numerous buildings have been built, where law and order do not exist, even the protection range of the Flaming Fist Mercenary Group here is extremely limited. Those who cannot find a place within the city, whether impoverished or criminal, congregate here.

The algae hanging from the sewer domes glowed a ghostly green under dim phosphorescent lamps, murky sewage lapped over boot soles with each step sparking sticky "glug" sounds. Purple-black mucus seeped from wall cracks like veins gathering at the drainage, characteristic neural corrosive substance unique to a Spirit Sucking Monster Nest, causing hallucinations in ordinary people inhaling it, as if countless tiny tendrils were wriggling in the ear canals. Suddenly, from behind a broken cast-iron pipe came the sound of bones misaligning, as if something were squeezing through a narrow space, twisting. An absorbent monster burst from the water, its pale humanoid body covered in decay material. The tendrils of its squid-like head trembled at a high frequency, releasing visible purple mind shock wave ripples. The helmet of the frontmost guard was dented, the pressure surge in his skull burst his eyeballs into a blood mist; the second person was impaled through the ear canal by tendrils without having time to scream, his spinal cord extracted like a marionette's strings being pulled from his shell; the lone survivor stumbled backward, the roar of his misfired firearm swallowed entirely by the sub-frequency screech emitted collectively by the absorbing monsters.

These absorbing monsters were evidently trained with tactics. Two feigning individuals slapped the water with tendrils, stirring up a mist shield of corrosive liquid that obscured vision; a third dangled down from the ceiling, suctioned onto a guard's skull, its tendril tips precisely piercing through the foramen magnum—not instantly fatal but to puppet the captive to turn around, using his trembling hands to load a firearm for his comrades. Meanwhile, a fourth absorbing monster was using its bony knuckles' blades to open the chest cavity of a fallen guard, extracting the warm liver and stuffing it into its oral cavity, pale yellow digestive fluid dripping from its lower jaw, etching green smoke trails into the ground.

Three patrolling guards had just raised their lanterns when the sewage suddenly exploded! Four absorbing

The parasitized were not fully dead. The remnants of the guard twitched and rose, a semi-transparent tendril of a spirit sucking monster larva protruding from the neck wound, pupils dilating into murky milky white. He grabbed a dagger and stabbed at his former comrades, squeezed out synth sounds from his throat: "Skull... for the brain master...". And the true terror had just begun to reveal itself—the distant sewage pool began to boil, and more pale figures emerged from the water, dragging with tendrils a dozen captives cocooned in mucus, their human faces twisted into soundless screams beneath the encasing.