Free Web NovelChapter 164: Chapter 164: Ramona and the Iron Leviathan
Chapter 164: Ramona and the Iron Leviathan
The guest chambers in the eastern wing of the Iron Estate were designed for absolute luxury.
The heavy stone walls were lined with silk tapestries, and a massive hearth kept the room comfortably warm.
I sat in a high backed iron chair near the edge of the velvet draped bed. I had removed my S Grade armor, wearing only my dark trousers and a loose black shirt.
My massive green arms were crossed over my chest as I watched the sleeping Half Dragon.
It had been two days since we pulled her from the depths of Strata 6.
She shifted beneath the heavy silk blankets. Her flawless, sun kissed skin glowed faintly in the firelight.
The dark crimson scales along her waist and the elegant obsidian horns at her temples marked her as an apex predator, but right now, she just looked incredibly peaceful.
Her eyelids fluttered. Slowly, she opened her eyes.
Her irises were a breathtaking, piercing molten gold. She stared up at the stone ceiling for a long moment, taking a deep, shuddering breath.
Her mind was finally clear of the maddening, abyssal corruption that had tortured her for centuries.
She slowly turned her head and saw me sitting by the fire.
Her golden eyes widened. She did not look at my scarred green muscles or my terrifying size with fear. She looked at me with absolute, unfiltered recognition.
She remembered the pitch black and crimson fire. She remembered the suffocating pain.
And she remembered the pure, white Flame of Life that had reached directly into her soul and pulled her back from the abyss.
She threw the blankets off her body, completely ignoring her nakedness.
She scrambled across the bed with the predatory grace of a true dragon and launched herself directly at my chest.
I caught her easily, my massive arms wrapping around her waist.
"Husband!" she cried out, burying her face into the crook of my neck. Her arms locked tightly around my broad shoulders.
I let out a low, rumbling chuckle, gently stroking her long golden hair. "You heal quickly."
"You saved me," she whispered, her voice vibrating with sheer, overwhelming devotion. She pulled back slightly, her molten gold eyes staring deeply into mine.
"The dark was eating me alive. I prayed to the ancestors for centuries, and they sent you. You burned the rot away. My life, my hoard, my soul... they all belong to you now."
"I am Grik," I stated softly, letting my Domination Aura wash over her like a comforting, heavy blanket.
"The Sovereign of the Forge. What is your name, Dragon?"
"Ramona," she replied proudly, a brilliant smile breaking across her beautiful face.
"I am Ramona."
The heavy oak door to the guest chamber slowly pushed open.
Lysandra stepped into the room, followed closely by Kaelith, Nyssa, and Anise. The four women stopped at the foot of the bed, looking at the stunning, naked Half Dragon clinging to my chest.
Ramona instinctively tensed. The sheer, apocalyptic pressure of her Level 90 aura began to violently flare in the room. The air grew incredibly heavy, and the fire in the hearth turned bright blue.
"Ramona," I commanded gently, squeezing her hip. "These are my mates. My Pack. You will not burn them."
Ramona immediately gasped, realizing what she was doing. She closed her eyes and forcefully pulled her massive aura back into her core.
She compressed her Level 90 Calamity pressure down to an absolute minimum, ensuring the room was safe for the others.
"I apologize," Ramona said softly, looking at the four women.
Lysandra just laughed, her maroon wings fluttering in amusement. The Succubus Queen walked forward and tossed a soft silk robe onto the bed for the newcomer.
"Do not apologize, Ramona," Lysandra smiled warmly.
"We were wondering when the Sovereign was going to bring another Queen into the Pack. He has a habit of collecting the most dangerous women on the continent."
"A Level 90 core," Anise mused, her hazel eyes scanning Ramona with deep respect. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
"Your mana density is incredible. Welcome to the Velkrath Imperium."
"You do not mind?" Ramona asked, blinking in genuine surprise.
"Dragons are highly territorial. I assumed you would challenge me for his affection."
Kaelith stepped out of the shadows, resting her pale hand gently on my shoulder.
"The Sovereign’s core is infinite. His ambition is limitless. One Queen could never satisfy him. We share his power, and we share his bed. You are Pack now."
Ramona looked at the four women, and then up at me. A deep, highly satisfied purr vibrated in her throat. She slipped the silk robe over her shoulders, her elegant reptilian tail swishing happily behind her.
"I am going to like it here," Ramona smiled. freewёbnoνel.com
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Four weeks later.
The heavy fog rolling off the Azure Sea smelled heavily of saltwater, burning coal, and refined iron.
I stood on the edge of the newly constructed Eastern Seaboard shipyards. The human laborers and Orc mechanics were working in perfect, industrialized harmony.
Massive iron cranes hoisted tons of raw steel into the air, sparks showering down from the welding platforms.
Nyssa stood beside me, wearing a heavy leather trench coat over her white uniform. She held a glowing blue clipboard, her green tattoos pulsing with absolute pride.
"Submersion tests are complete," Nyssa announced, pointing her pen toward the dark water of the harbor.
"Hull integrity is flawless. Engine output is running at one hundred and twenty percent efficiency."
The water in the harbor violently churned.
A colossal, terrifying machine breached the surface. It was a massive, three hundred foot long submarine forged entirely from black iron and blue Mana Steel.
Heavy, auto loading torpedo tubes lined its sleek hull, and thick runic arrays glowed brightly along its armored spine.
"The Iron Leviathan," I rumbled, crossing my brass gauntlets over my chest.
"The Holy Empire will never see it coming," Silas added, stepping up to my left side with a freshly lit cigar.
"Their wooden galleons will be completely shredded from below."
I looked out at the massive submarine, my Sovereign intellect already calculating the grand strategy.
"We will bleed them in the water," I declared coldly.
"When their Paladins try to cross the sea, we will sink their vanguard and force them to retreat. We will show them that the Monster Continent is a fortress of iron."
I turned away from the ocean, looking back toward the sprawling mainland of my empire.
"But we are not going to chase them across the ocean yet," I continued.
"A long war with the Holy Empire right now will drain our resources and leave our borders weak. Let them taste our torpedoes and retreat to lick their wounds. We have a much larger, immediate prize to claim."
Prime Minister Hardsteel grinned, his old Orc tusks flashing in the fog.
"The West."
"Exactly," I nodded.
"Once the Holy Empire’s first wave is at the bottom of the sea, we turn the Vanguard West. The Beastman Continent is fractured and wild. We will conquer their Beast Lords, take their territories, and double the size of the Velkrath Imperium."
The ten year timer from the True Rulers was ticking quietly in the back of my mind. With a Level 90 Half Dragon by my side and an armada of Mana Steel at my command, I was ready to swallow the rest of the world whole.
