Miriel’s voice echoed through the city built of black rock.
The fire dragons dwelling in the buildings lifted their massive heads one after another.
Pairs of golden vertical pupils locked on Miriel, like an audience held fast by a play.
The black dragon in the pool gave a low, cold snort.
“Spare me the flattery. What do you actually want?”
Miriel’s expression hardened.
“What pains the heart is that the disaster my lord foresaw in those days has now arrived. This very month the empire’s Phine gifted Steam Armor to the Kingdom of Carolingia. Carolingia has already become the empire’s forward post for invading our country…”
When Duke Blackcandle heard this, his mountain-like body gave a violent shudder.
The air over the plaza seemed to warp under that force.
Killing intent surged in the golden vertical pupils.
“Carolingia is the vassal that boy Heath proclaimed. They dare betray the covenant sworn with the dragon race!”
The ground beneath Miriel’s feet began to shake hard.
She had to bend her knees at once and gather all her strength to keep her footing.
Inwardly she marveled at the terrifying power of an ancient dragon.
“Still more regrettable… His Majesty the Supreme King has given no response at all. We loyal ones are called the hawk faction by our political enemies. His Majesty’s eyes have been blinded by treacherous men, and he has always turned a deaf ear to the words from our hearts.”
The black dragon threw back its head and loosed an earth-shaking roar, as if it would shatter the entire mountain range.
The magma in the pool rolled violently.
Scalding heat-waves swept over them like a rushing tide.
Seeing this, Miriel called out at once.
“Please restrain your anger, my lord! We still have a thread of hope. According to the latest intelligence, in Carolingia the vampires of the Cerberus Bureau wounded Phine and killed a Steam Knight. Phine is extremely weak at this moment. If we can seize this once-in-a-thousand-years chance and slay her, we can not only cripple the south’s strongest Steam Knight in a single stroke, but also place a powerful deterrent on the seceding Kingdom of Carolingia, and even disrupt the imperial succession!”
Miriel raised her voice.
She used wind magic to drive her words through layer after layer of heat and send them through the whole city.
The dragons that had grown restless under the black dragon’s roar now began to shriek and beat their wings, as if stirred by her speech.
The next instant a high, ringing cry spread to every corner of the city.
Wherever it passed, the fire dragons lowered their proud heads in turn and ceased their cries.
The black dragon’s golden vertical pupils burned like torches and fixed on Miriel.
“It is indeed a moment. But you wish me to go to the Southern Continent and slay Phine? Why do the leaders of the hawk faction not go themselves?”
“Duke Flamewing and Lady Sarianna hold public office in the United Kingdom. Their participation in an attack would be no different from a declaration of war on the empire. At present, among us only you, my lord, stand outside the Northern Continent’s structure of power. This heavy task belongs to no one else.”
When Duke Blackcandle heard this, his vast body stepped suddenly forward.
The chains that bound him went taut, as if they might snap under that power at any moment.
He opened a maw large enough to swallow a mammoth.
A blast of scorching breath rolled toward Miriel.
Her golden hair danced in the heat-wave; the strands looked ready to catch fire.
“So you wish to bypass Heath and launch a surprise attack, and use me as a convenient death warrior whose involvement you can easily deny?”
Miriel faced the rolling heat that struck her.
She did not lower her voice.
“No. Only you can become the hero who reverses the situation between north and south!”
The ancient dragon in the pool slowly drew back its black-scaled neck.
The massive head rose high and gave a strange, bone-chilling laugh.
“By my strength alone I fear I cannot stand against an entire company of Iron Puppets. Besides, Phine is in the heart of Carolingia. Killing her cannot avoid a campaign. The clever tricks those naked apes have cobbled together grow more dangerous by the day. The old feat of one dragon against a nation can no longer be repeated.”
“We will naturally not let my lord take the risk alone. Before you were imprisoned here, my lord served as Dragon Guard of the Twin Moons region and had the right to call up the beast-race levies of the entire steppe. The moment my lord gives the order, we can start that process at once.”
Miriel bowed slightly.
“The plan is thorough enough. But I am still nailed to this tower by that damned formation!”
Miriel understood.
The ancient dragon had already agreed.
The corner of her mouth lifted beneath the mask.
The next instant the black giant tower that had stood so majestically at the city’s center suddenly shook with violence.
The ancient runes on its body flashed with piercing light.
Five golden figures surrounded the tower, hovering in mid-air.
At the same time a hoarse chanting rose in the air, like monks in a temple opening a scripture sealed for a thousand years.
At first the chanting was faint and rasping, as if it came from a distant antiquity.
It grew steadily higher and more fervent, until at last it became a sound like a great bell.
Every note was like thunder falling from the sky.
In that instant the chains forged of anti-demon metal seemed pulled by some force and snapped inch by inch.
Broken links fell into the magma pool, throwing up great sheets of scalding fire-water.
After thirty years the ancient dragon called Duke Blackcandle was free at last.
It shook its vast body.
Those black membranous wings could finally spread fully as it flew free of the magma pool that had tormented it so long.
The five golden figures descended slowly beside Miriel amid clouds of white steam.
As the distance closed, their true forms became clear.
Bodies strong as lions and tigers.
Arms like those of great apes.
Yet their hands were slender and long, like a woman’s fine fingers, the tips flashing with a cold gleam.
Ultimate beauty and ultimate ferocity fused in them and gathered in those bodies of steel.
They were Steam Armor.
Only two meters tall, fitted with neither firearms nor cold weapons, resembling no model from the Southern Continent.
Yet they were, without question, Steam Armor.
As the United Kingdom’s most advanced technical organ, Orfa University had for years thrown all its strength into catching up on Steam Armor research under the heavy pressure of the Dragon King Heath.
The process had consumed enormous material and wealth.
Because there had been no results for so long, most members of parliament now opposed it.
After all, the people of the Southern Continent had opened the mechanical age nearly a century ago.
Catching up in a short time was as hard as climbing to heaven.
On this issue Duke Flamewing himself had been one of the opposition.
Yet now these powerful and beautiful mechanical creations truly stood before him and had easily shattered a seal even an ancient dragon could scarcely move.
The sight made Duke Flamewing’s eyes widen.
A brief look of astonishment crossed his face.
Even as regent of the fire-dragon race he was deeply shaken by the sudden scene.
Miriel stepped forward and called out.
“Supermobile mage armor, Seraph prototype. What you see before you is the United Kingdom’s first company of Steam Knights! Your support will of course not be limited to beast-race cavalry. From this day we abandon our citizenship in the United Kingdom and are willing to go with Duke Blackcandle to the Southern Continent!”
The black dragon hung in the air above the plaza and cast a vast shadow.
It looked down on Miriel with a cautious recognition in its eyes.
It turned its head slightly and swept that familiar yet long-unseen dragon city.
Its voice was low yet firm.
“I have been imprisoned thirty years, yet the fire in my heart has never gone out. Since you have prepared so thoroughly and possess such resolve, I accept this matter. Let those betrayers and greedy ones of the Southern Continent witness the wrath of dragons!”
Miriel dropped to one knee before the black ancient dragon.
“Let Christine’s flame guide our swords! Holy, holy, holy, King of Ten Thousand Armies!”
“Holy, holy, holy, King of Ten Thousand Armies!”
The golden Steam Knights raised their arms and shouted, as if a turbulent current of magic had formed over the plaza.
The fire dragons of the city leapt onto the arched rooftops one after another, beating their wings madly and loosing dragon roars in unison.
The wind bells throughout the city were set ringing as well.
Bell and dragon-cry wove together and shook the entire mountain range.
People at the foot of the mountain who heard the sound stopped and looked uneasily toward the Fire Dragon Mountains.
The sound was like a prophetic poem of war.
The pastors of the Northern Continent always preached Queen Christine’s virtues to the faithful, yet they rarely spoke of her other face in history.
Christine had long borne the title King of Ten Thousand Armies.
When she appeared on the battlefield in that identity, enemies always died beneath the blade that burned with flame.