"Do I have the right to refuse?"
"Unfortunately, it seems you don't," Muria replied with a cheerful smile.
"Then let's sign the contract." As a Legendary mage, given the choice between death and sacrificing freedom to stay alive, he chose the latter. A thousand years was a long time, but there was a chance he could outlast it. Besides, this dragon seemed to have an unusual status, which could present a unique opportunity. The Legendary mage Ivan Ocherlovekin reassured himself this way.
"Good, it's always pleasant to deal with smart people." Muria's smile brightened as the mage submitted. He quickly drafted a contract and casually chose a powerful Lawful Good deity as a witness. The terms were simple: serve Muria for a thousand years in exchange for freedom afterward. Muria wasn't interested in playing word games with a mage; even powerful demon lords often lost such games against mages. Instead, he preferred straightforward physical force, ensuring the mage's compliance for a thousand years, by which time Muria might have moved on from the material realm.
Ivan Ocherlovekin, expressionless, signed the contract with Muria and then stood silently behind him.
"Ivan!" The rogue and priest, carrying their severely injured companions—a shield warrior turned into a humanoid charred figure and the swordsman reduced to a fleshy cocoon—looked at their sacrificial comrade with deep sorrow. They prepared to leave, intending to find help.
"Did I say you could leave?" Muria asked, his gaze odd as he looked at the two human Legends ready to depart with their wounded comrades.
"You said you'd spare us," the priest, now frustrated, turned back to face him.
"Yes, and you're still alive, aren't you?" Muria replied righteously. Behind him, Ivan remained silent, understanding that while Muria let them live, he didn't intend to let them go. Muria's strength far outstripped theirs; resistance was futile and would lead to death. To survive, they had to follow his will, so Ivan didn't bother to object.
"What do you want from us?"
"Serve me! I currently need more people under my command. Consider yourselves lucky; if you wait too long, you might miss the opportunity." Muria smiled warmly.
The two Legends were silent. They couldn't fight back, and they couldn't flee. Their comrades were gravely injured, and one had already become Muria's servant. What could they do but submit?
"So you want us to sign a contract as well?"
"No, that's not necessary. Just don't move." Muria lightly touched them with the Sun Spear, marking them with a golden lightning-like tattoo on their arms.
"That's it." Muria nodded in satisfaction, sensing that the Sun Spear had marked the two Legends, ensuring he could track them down no matter where they fled.
"It's a mark," the rogue said, raising his arm to inspect the mark. He had a chance to evade it but held back for his comrades' sake—a testament to the bonds among humans.
The allure of Muria's identity as a gold dragon, despite his uncharacteristic behavior, made him somewhat trustworthy.
"Ivan, take your companions and report to a dragonkin girl named Mia. Tell her I sent you; she'll assign you tasks."
With his mood lifted from forcibly recruiting the adventurer team, Muria gave Ivan the coordinates to Synaps, where they could report to Mia.
"My name is Ivan, not 'Big Ivan,'" Ivan corrected.
"I like calling you that."
Ivan's mouth twitched slightly before he and his companions teleported away, tearing through space.
With the human Legends gone, Muria's attention turned to the crystal ancient dragon recovering quietly in the icy mountains below. He descended, his gaze equally indifferent.
"Stop wantonly killing innocent humans."
"Humans are nothing but ants. I will kill millions of them to accompany my offspring in death," the perfect, crystal-like dragon raised its head, speaking with deep hatred.
Without a word, Muria struck downward, his fist embedding the dragon's head into the mountain. "I said, stop killing humans. Don't you understand dragon language?"
"Gold dragon, it's not your place to interfere in my actions."
"What did you say?" Muria's human form expanded, golden scales appearing, six sharp dragon horns emerging from his forehead, a long dragon tail extending behind him, and a pair of wings unfolding from his back.
Finally, a massive 240-meter-long dragon stood before the crystal dragon, its golden eyes gleaming. "I didn't catch that. Please repeat what you said about it being none of my business. I was sent to rescue you; you have to listen to me."
"Why should the gem dragon clan's affairs concern the metallic dragons?" The crystal dragon, despite being cowed by Muria's immense form, stood its ground, arguing as best it could, relying on the typically honorable nature of gold dragons.
This time, Muria didn't hold back. He grabbed the crystal dragon's tail, swinging its 60-meter body into a 300-meter mountain, covered in thick frost and snow.
Boom! Boom! Boom! The mountain crumbled as Muria, knowing how resilient the ancient dragon was, did not hold back, using the crystal dragon to demolish the mountain.
"My strength gives me the right to control you. Do you have a problem with that?"
"No, none." The ancient dragon, its scales shattered and tail nearly broken, responded weakly, blood dripping from its mouth. It had never suffered such injuries in all its battles against human Legends, but this gold dragon, supposedly here to help, had nearly crippled it.
"Good. Now you're coming with me. Follow my orders, or I'll beat you. Understood?"
"What do you intend to do?" The crystal dragon lay on the ground, barely breathing.
"Of course, we're hunting dragon hunters. I'm going to clear this continent of them," Muria replied matter-of-factly.
Upon hearing this, the crystal dragon's eyes lit up, and a crackling sound of bones mending echoed as it began to rapidly heal its injuries.
"There's no need for that. We can wait a bit." Seeing the dragon resorting to such drastic measures to recover, Muria suggested waiting, noting that the sight was painful to watch, even though he had caused most of the injuries.
"We should leave immediately; I'm already able to move."
…
"Keep crawling, let's see how far you can go," said a sinister-looking man with narrow eyes and a hooked nose, standing atop a mountain, looking down at a crawling white dragon below.
The dragon, severely wounded, had only stumps where its wings once were, its hind legs twisted grotesquely, clearly broken. Its front limbs were a bloody mess, with all its scales worn away and claws reduced to stumps of bone. Its head was scarred, with its horns broken off.
It had clearly endured unimaginable torture, leaving it unable to heal or regenerate. It was out of strength and could no longer heal its wounds.
"Crawl, worm, crawl! Do you see that mountain ahead? If you can climb over it, I'll let you go," the sinister man taunted, enjoying the sight of the dragon's fading light.
He loved torturing dragons, taking pleasure in seeing these once-proud creatures struggle and scream under his hand. He was a dragon hunter, known in his circles as a dragon torturer.
"Kill me, you vile human."
"No, you haven't entertained me enough yet. Keep crawling, or I'll pull out your bones one by one. If you don't want to experience that pain, keep moving," the dragon hunter refused, eager to continue tormenting the rare ancient white dragon.
"I won't let you humiliate me any longer." The white dragon lay motionless in the snow, its eyes dimming.
"Oh, really?" The hunter jumped onto the dragon's back, where its scales were now just a bloody mess. The dragon convulsed under the weight but was too weak to resist.
"Not crawling? You might survive if you keep moving." The hunter drew a strange tool and plunged it into the dragon's body, extracting a piece of crystalline bone.
"You think I'll believe anything you say?"
"That's too bad. Let's see how many bones I need to pull out before you start crawling again, you disgrace to dragons."
"One day, you'll be killed by a stronger dragon," the white dragon cursed as its bones were forcibly removed.
"Oh, really? But not today," the hunter replied nonchalantly.
"Actually, yes, today," said a cold, icy voice near the hunter's ear. Suddenly, a hand appeared, pressing on the hunter's head. With a "smack," the hunter's head exploded like a watermelon.
"Interesting, a stronger dragon has arrived!" came a strange voice from the hunter's abdomen, now headless.
"You disgust me, scum!" A black-haired, golden-eyed youth stepped through a spatial rift, riding a transparent crystal dragon. An invisible wind rose, forming an unseen barrier around them.
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