Just wanted to let everyone know before this chapter started that I am okay, the fires moved away from me and my house so there's not really any danger any longer! Yay! Since the last chapter kinda ended suddenly I'm just gonna pick it up right where it left off, so that way there's nothing missing from what I wanted to write in! Hope you enjoy and thanks for bearing with that less than satisfactory last chapter!


[Glaedr General Grade Lv. 25]

"Fifteen Levels above Beru…" Izuku trailed off, "If this guy is a Dragon God, then what the hell is the Dragon King gonna be like?!"

"Thank you my Liege. I shall forever be grateful for this opportunity to serve you."

"Laying it on a little thick there… but I guess that's normal for these guys."

"Normally, I'd have the strongest Dragon Shadow lead the Dragon Squad, but with how big you are, I think I'm going to leave you as your own unit."

Glaedr nodded, "I agree, my Liege. It does not suit someone of my stature to order them around effectively. I believe that Pektra remains as the most viable option at the moment."

The Prime Draconian smiled wide with relief, "I will do my best to ensure I keep up that belief."

Izuku rested a hand on his shoulder as he began walking out of the Critter Country/Earth Zone Territory, "I'm sure you will." He looked around, noticing the blue dome that had locked them into the area was now gone, "This Zone borders Westernland and Fantasyland, so since they're the closest, we should head to one of those first."

"Fantasyland is the territory of my sister, Aeolus, the Dragon Lord of Air. Westernland belongs to my brother, Vulcan, the Dragon Lord of Fire." About one hundred and fifty feet in the air, he bowed his head, "I understand that it is my Liege's will to acquire us as our strongest, however, fighting my sister as the Shadow Army is would be suicide. I can no longer fly and my breath attack will not reach her. My brother is not nearly the same adept flyer as her and could be brought down by a combined effort of the Dragon Squad, from there… he would be helpless against what I am now."

Izuku liked Glaedr's line of thinking, but couldn't help feeling a tad bit wrong about ordering one of his Shadows to kill his sibling.

"My Liege. I can feel the hesitation poking at your mind. You need not worry about my emotions towards my siblings. I am now apart of the Shadows, if we do not take them into your divine grasp, then I will never be able to see them again." His eyes swiveled down to meet Izuku's, their golden interior filled with unparalleled amounts of wisdom. "What I wish to do is not an act out of sheer loyalty, but an act of selfishness, in order to preserve my family."

Izuku nodded, "Well then, a Monarch must take care of his servants, so I suppose I have no choice but to help you with that wish."

Glaedr's fang filled mouth stretched into a draconic interpretation of a grin, "Thank you, my Liege."


[Westernland: Home of the Fire Dragon Lord, Vulcan.]

Izuku had never been to Disneyland before, so this was his first time seeing many of the attractions. Even if they were scorched and scratched by fire and claw, Izuku gazed wondrously at their existence. Bars and Saloons that perfectly mimicked that old western style in movies lined a dusty dirt road.

Like with the Earth Territory, as soon as Izuku and his Shadows were fully inside, a blue shield of unbreakable energy appeared. However, unlike last time, Izuku decided to sit back and see just how capable his Shadows were. If possible, he wanted to avoid participating altogether.

Level: 124

Strength: 283

Vitality: 215

Agility: 266

Intelligence: 359

Sense: 212

[Mana: 38468/38468]

[HP: 51574/51574]

[Shadows able to be extracted: 1946]

[Shadows able to be saved: 1068/1395]

"Three Levels from defeating Terra and one from killing all those Earth Element Dragons. It's given me a lot of extra breathing room for acquiring Shadows. I'm certain these Fire types will be an interesting addition."

The first type of Fire Dragon was apparently called a Lobber. It was a far departure from the almost scientific names assigned to the Amphipteres. Of course, that didn't detract at all from their deadliness. Like an artillery cannon, these Dragons would remain by the back line, their tails and claws buried into the ground as stabilizers while their necks reached into the sky, balls of fire exploding into brilliant arcs of light. They came crashing down on Izuku's army, damaging those who weren't protected by Tusk's shield or those who simply couldn't tank the damage.

Hyo obviously didn't like this and tested out his new daggers, slashing them through the air at the falling spheres of fire. Slivers of ice shot out from the blade, flying through the air and cutting through the artillery fire despite the fact that the ice looked so thin that just a few moments in the sun would normally reduce it to water.

In front of the Lobbers, a small army of "Trailblazers," wyrm-like Dragons, covered the path towards them. They were essentially just Dragon heads attached to long bodies made up of fire. Wherever they slithered, they left a long trail of blazing white fire. In fact, it was so powerful that most Shadows couldn't even go near it without getting burned into oblivion.

"I will finish this, my Liege."

Glaedr stepped over his comrades, careful not to squash them into Shadow pancakes. Completely unbothered by both the lines of fire and the Lobber attacks, the Dragons could do nothing to stop his advance. In fact, they now couldn't even harm the other Shadows, as Glaedr's body completely covered them and his mountainous back was not something that would give in easily to artillery strikes. It seemed that Gaia's Mantle was truly overpowered as a passive Skill.

[Glaedr is using Skill: Sandstorm.]

He opened his mouth, a veritable desert of sand pouring forth, blasting over the area. Each particle of sand was like a bullet, strong enough to cut through magically reinforced steel. The Dragons stood no chance and within moments, they became nothing more than bloodied messes of flesh.

"The Trailblazers might be good to help set perimeters and I can never have enough ranged Shadows."

[20 Trailblazers Elite-Knight Grade have evolved into 20 Fire Serpents Captain Grade.]

[30 Lobbers Elite-Knight Grade have evolved into 30 Draconian Cannons Captain Grade.]

The Fire Serpents honestly didn't look all that different from their Trailblazer form, except for maybe being far larger, their bodies as tall as Igris. The Cannons were the real attraction. Before they had looked similar to bulky geckos, but now, they were closer to Drakes. With no wings and longer necks, Izuku was certain that they were only there to serve one purpose, artillery.

The Dragons at a farther distance, realizing that Glaedr was akin to an unstoppable force, began running, heading for a lake that was at the end of the dirt path through the western town.

"Isn't it kinda odd that the Fire Domain has a lake?"

"No," Glaedr answered as he swung his tail, the spiked wrecking ball crashing through the ground and trampling many Dragons underfoot, "My brother's position as the Dragon Lord of Fire allows him to build up immense amounts of heat. This buildup can scale endlessly, but in order to keep his servants safe, he needs to periodically cool himself off. Our sister Neptune created that lake specifically for that purpose. It's magical, so he can't completely evaporate it."

"So then that means…" Izuku trailed off, his eyes gazing at the dark shape rising to the water's surface. Steam began rising from the lake in waves, the white mist completely obscuring their view of…

[Fire Dragon Lord, Vulcan.]

Izuku could see much through the mist, but what he could see were two glowing red eyes and a mouth glowing with intense heat.

All at once, the surrounding mist evaporated as Vulcan's heat was finally released. It was enough to melt solid steel.

[Dragon Lord, Vulcan is using Skill: Dragon Lord's Orders.]

The Dragons once hellbent on getting as far away from Glaedr as possible stopped in their tracks, their boss stirring courage within his troops.

Like Glaedr's form before being Summoned, Vulcan was a classic Western Dragon, but instead of rocky skin, he had the typical scales of a reptile, colored blood-red and glowing with fire. His roar was not deep and throaty like Glaedr's. It was short and piercing… and directed right at his brother.

"Vulcan!" Glaedr shouted, "I understand, but you must see that this is our fate, a Higher Being rules it so!" Vulcan roared once more. It seemed that the Dragons could communicate in non-verbal ways as well.

Of course, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Vulcan was not going to give in and Glaedr's body tensed up, prepared to fight.

"Hyo," Izuku commanded, "I don't want anything interrupting this fight."

[Hyo is using Skill: Glacial Bind.]

Rose vines made only of ice shot out of the ground, completely enveloping all Dragons but Vulcan, freezing them into solid blocks of ice.

After obtaining the Daggers, Hyo had quickly been coached by Tusk on new ways to use his Ice Magic. This was a result of that and it served to only infuriate Vulcan further. His maw opened wide, filling with bright red flames.

[Dragon Lord, Vulcan is using Skill: Volcanic Incineration.]

Vulcan's scales, which were already putting off enough energy to sear flesh from over a hundred feet away, only grew hotter, threatening to melt the ice that held his servants. Unfortunately for him, Hyo was not going to back down and only focused harder on his magic, sealing them further inside the ice.

Izuku held an armored hand up to his face, shielding it from the sweltering heat, but it did little to ease the discomfort, "Glaedr! Can you handle it?!"

"Worry not my Liege… All is still within the expectations us Shadows have prepared for." Just as the Dragon finished his sentence, Vulcan let loose the blast he was building in his throat. It would've been enough to melt the entirety of Mount Rushmore into slag.

[Hymn of Strengthening, Hymn of Giants, and Hymn of Protection have activated.]

Tusk targeted Glaedr for all of these buffs, enlarging his already humongous size and lining his entire being with a bright blue shield of Mana enhanced by the Evolution Core. Glaedr bent his body forwards, sending his front half into the ground, completely hiding the Shadow Army behind him.

The Volcanic Incineration slammed into his body, its force enough to make even Glaedr slide back a few feet. The beam of pure heat was powerful, but with all the precautions the Shadows had made, in addition to some of its power deflecting off Glaedr's armor and to the side, it wasn't making much progress.

Noticing this, Vulcan turned up the heat, his body becoming completely incandescent. He was now hot enough to the point where even the magically generated lake was beginning to completely evaporate, proving Glaedr's point about his sister's magic wrong. Izuku was hidden behind Glaedr, so he couldn't see Vulcan's body directly, but he knew from the light peeking around the Dragon God that if he could see him, he wouldn't be hesitant to call Vulcan a sun brought down to Earth.

The blue barrier separating Glaedr's rocky shadow skin from the fire was the first to crack, bending inwards and becoming malleable, as if it was melting, before vanishing altogether. Immediately, Glaedr was directly exposed to Vulcan's full power blast. But even though the heat was touching his skin, it did nothing to break through it. Glaedr, as he was, was simply too strong.

Eventually, the fire began petering out, and Vulcan had no choice but to let the fire stop flowing from his throat. Glaedr's plan, as it seemed, was to force his brother to use every last bit of fire he had saved up in order to greatly weaken him. Now, he was no more than an exceptionally strong Dragon, without any special abilities left.

Glaedr pulled up the front of his body, revealing the extremely scorched earth in front of him. Everything had been turned into a flowing river of molten slag. The buildings were no more than ash and the entire lake had been emptied of its magical water. None of Vulcan's servants remained. The heat had burned through their icy prisons and then even the Dragons themselves.

However, despite this immense destruction, the area that the Shadow Army was occupying was completely untouched. They stood on the only untouched and stable portion of land remaining in the molten landscape.

Izuku scoffed, unable to hold back the thought that was, "The happiest place on earth just got turned into a hellscape." Some might've argued that it was and always had been a hellscape, even outside of this Gate's alternate reality of it.

"Glaedr." Even though Izuku was several hundred feet away from the Dragon's Gods head, he seemed to hear him just fine.

"My brother has the strongest breath attack out of all of my siblings, but without it, one could consider him the weakest. I recommend we take care of him before he has time to build up enough heat to rival his last blast."

By then, Vulcan had already realized just how outclassed he was and began beating his wings even more furiously, changing his position from hovering above the evaporated lake, to flying in the sky. He was likely just trying to buy time to build up more heat as Glaedr had said.

Unfortunately, Glaedr's breath attack wouldn't reach that far, as it was primarily a close range type Skill. And without any wings, Glaedr was to sit this fight out for now.

"Wyverns, Pektra, Dragon Knights, Karkinos, and Chimera. Clip his wings." A little over three hundred flying Shadows shot into the sky, their wings spread wide as they traced Vulcan through the sky.

Despite not having any special abilities, Vulcan was still pretty superior to most of his Shadows in terms of physical attributes, including speed. Realizing that they were outclassed, the Shadows decided to form a sky perimeter of sorts, making a sphere that closed in tighter and tighter, honing in on Vulcan and cutting him further and further from freedom. Thankfully, the dome that locked Izuku in also seemed to lock Vulcan in and restricted his movement greatly in the air.

Karkinos was the first to strike. As Hyo blanketed the ground with Ice Magic to cool the slag, the Wyrm snaked forwards in the sky, its jaws latching onto Vulcan's right wing.

The red Dragon immediately began thrashing around, its tail spiking upwards into Karkinos's chin, doing little to the Shadow as it tore some pretty sizable holes in the membranes of its wing.

Then Chimera joined in, then the Pektra and his units. Eventually, they completely tore Vulcan's wings from his body, allowing him to plummet to the ground, landing heavily in front of his ex-brother.

Vulcan looked up to the Shadow Dragon's much larger frame, still determined to fight as it weakly opened its mouth, mustering the last of its quickly fading heat.

Glaedr didn't give him the honor of one last attack and instead pivoted his body, swinging his tail straight into Vulcan's head, crushing his skull inwards and killing him instantly and unceremoniously.

[You have defeated the second of the Six Dragon Lords!]

[You have Leveled-Up!]

[You have Leveled-Up!]

[You have Leveled-Up!]

[You have obtained Key Item: Key of Fire.]

[You have obtained Ingredient Item: Heat Resistant Scales of Vulcan.]

[You have obtained Item: Aerial Bane.]

[Item: Aerial Bane.]

Item Class: SS

Item Type: Bow

+400 Attack

Made using the neck bones of Vulcan, this bow has unparalleled ranged ability and will never run out of arrows. Upon shooting this arrow upwards, it will split into many different arrows at the peak of its ascent.

"A bow? I've never used anything like that… but unlike the whip I kinda want to learn how to use this thing." He resolved to do his best to teach himself archery and stored the bow inside his Inventory before turning his attention to Vulcan.

It took only two utterances of the command before his Shadow generated before them.

[Shadow Dragon Lord of Fire Commander Grade has evolved into Shadow Dragon God of Fire General Grade Lv. 25]

"Let's see… Glaedr was the gold Dragon… What was the red one? Needle? Prick… no that's stupid. Spine… Thorn!" Izuku shouted suddenly as the name came back to him, "You're Thorn."

[Thorn General Grade Lv. 25]

The Dragon bowed its head in thanks as Izuku began looking over its changes that it achieved in its evolution. Like Glaedr, it too no longer had wings. "Two Dragon Gods without wings… something is wrong with this picture!"

But Izuku did his best to ignore it as he looked over the new protrusions over Thorn's body. "Are those… cannons?"

Thorn proudly flexed his shoulders, shifting the new turrets that were built into his surprisingly mechanical form. On his back… well, one could only describe it as a rail gun. True to one of his servants' evolution into primarily artillery based units, Thorn seemed to be focused entirely on ranged attacks. "Yes my Liege! My breath attack is the pride of my being! It only makes sense that I would develop such powerful ranged abilities!"

Izuku looked up at Glaedr, who seemed to be averting his eyes in embarrassment, "Vul… er, Thorn was never one to shy away from bragging about his skills. You'll have to forgive him, my Liege."

Thorn looked on in confusion as his Liege and his brother talked about him. Izuku smirked, "Well, I don't mind, so long as he can actually live up to that promise." He turned back to Thorn, "So… you think those cannons of yours are strong enough to knock your sister, Aeolus out of the sky?"

Thorn's lips parted to reveal his man-sized fangs, "They are more than suited for the task, my Liege."