The King shouted loudly, "It's him! Mr. Rhode, the person who deceived me is him!"
Rhode finally met this 'mysterious person from the future'.
Thick black bangs covered his right eye and a small part of his face, while the long hair at the back was white, tied into a high ponytail, with a black tattoo around his left eye and a scar near his nose.
This young man had a slender figure, wearing a high collar cloak and rare vintage long boots, giving him a somewhat heroic air.
Unfortunately, this air was ruined by his expression.
It was a classic expression of a plan successfully executed, making one want to punch him in the face with just a glance.
Just as this thought appeared in Rhode's mind, he saw the young man's body melt into a black shadow, rapidly 'flowing' to the tail end of the Earth Mother Dragon, far from Rhode's position.
"So sensitive?" Rhode almost found his reaction amusing, a frightened bird.
The youth displayed a slightly annoyed emotion: "All thanks to you people."
Someone had been hunting him these past few days, and one guy with good hearing nearly caught his tail a few times.
If he weren't sharp enough, he might have been surrounded and caught already.
But he didn't share this, instead posed as if everything was under control: "I know you have a trick up your sleeve that even Jura of the Ten Wizard Saints can't defend against, so I won't give you the chance to hit me!"
"Oh," Rhode nodded, "you're saying your strength doesn't match Jura's."
"I never said that!" The youth shouted back, adjusted his breath, and calmly said, "Besides, such comparisons are meaningless because I will have 13 dragons, and no one can resist me!"
Without waiting for Rhode to say anything, he raised his hands and shouted loudly: "@#%*..."
"What's he saying?" The King, Princess, and others below were puzzled as they couldn't understand.
Rhode understood only partially: "It seems like some kind of ancient language?"
He had previously learned a little with Reby and only caught the word 'name'.
"Ha-ha-ha... You actually know that, truly worthy of being the most anticipated of this era's Ten Wizard Saints."
The young man was filled with pride and excitement as he spoke, "I'll tell you anyway! I just said, 'All dragons soaring in the sky, I am Rogue Cheney, the new era's Dragon King. I will lead you in restoring the Dragon Race's glory, reclaim this world! Now, bow to me, cease your internal strife, and from this city start annihilating all mages!'"
The King below changed his expression drastically, "That's his goal?!"
"Reclaim the world, annihilate mages..." Princess Jade's lips trembled, "Why do this kind of thing?"
The Knight Captain pointed his sword at the sky, "Such evil intentions must never succeed!"
The self-proclaimed Rogue completely ignored them, only watching Rhode—while boasting, he still kept an eye out for sneak attacks.
And Rhode was focused on his name.
Rogue Cheney, this should be the name of Sabertooth's Shadow Dragon. If he wasn't lying, is he Rogue from the future?
That kid with a somewhat introverted vibe, how did he turn into this?
Rhode looked at him with a gaze of care for the foolish and asked, "Then what? What's the point of shouting these things?"
"Of course it's..." Future Rogue's smile froze, then slowly vanished.
Before he shouted, dragons were fighting other dragons; after he shouted, dragons were still fighting other dragons.
"My Dragon Control Magic... This can't be!" Future Rogue shouted again with unwillingness, "Stop fighting your kind, your target should be human mages!"
The distant sounds of giant beasts colliding continued.
In the air, the heads of the Purgatory Sub-Dragon and Purgatory Dragon clashed like two fire meteors.
Flames and lava fragments dragged fiery tails as they scattered and fell, gradually extinguishing and cooling, like a splendid fiery red fireworks exploding in the sky.
Ironically, those different-sized fragments just happened to fall around the Earth Mother Dragon, one piece landing on its back and rolling to Future Rogue's feet.
The red lava cooled and solidified, turning into an unimpressive black sphere with tiny white smoke wafting from it.
Like silent mockery towards Future Rogue.
"Why?" Future Rogue muttered, "My Dragon Control Magic... Why aren't those six dragons responding?"
According to his plan, he wanted the royal family to release enough dragons from the Eclipse Gate by any means.
Then, Rhode should summon dragons to counter them.
At this time, he'd make his entrance, bringing all dragons released from the Eclipse Gate and those summoned by Rhode under his control.
This would eliminate the threat of Rhode's uncertainty while realizing his world domination dream.
However, now, only the seven dragons released from the Eclipse Gate clearly transmitted their willingness to cooperate, while the six summoned by Rhode were completely unresponsive!
"What exactly are the dragons you summoned?"
Having Dragon Control Magic? Rhode found it a bit outrageous.
He had seen control-type magic before, like Biguslo's Styling Eye, which could control others' bodies through eye contact.
Jie Li from Lamia Scale wielded a 'Puppet Strike' that could control objects other than humans, even temporarily commanding Lucy's summoned Star Spirits.
But these two kinds of magic definitely couldn't control dragons; otherwise, the battle would have been resolved by now.
Dragons inherently possess bodies and spirits far stronger than humans, theoretically impossible to be controlled by such magic.
Especially this person across, who wasn't even that powerful in magic power, how could he control seven dragons at once?
Future Rogue was apparently offended by Rhode's expression and gaze, saying with some anger:
"It doesn't matter if you don't want to answer, anyway, my side has the numerical advantage! Maser Gray, deal with him!"
The Earth Mother Dragon opened its mouth, brewing a breath attack in its throat.
Rhode didn't dodge at all, and similarly brewed a breath in his mouth, releasing it simultaneously with the Earth Mother Dragon.
Future Rogue was about to mock him for overestimating himself when he was suddenly briefly blinded, seeing nothing but white in his field of vision.
He heard deafening explosion sounds and was nearly blown away by the oncoming violent wind.
"What the...?!..."
He quickly lowered his body, hooking his hand between the dragon scales, the intense wind pressure preventing him from lifting his head or opening his mouth.
His clothes, cape, and long hair seemed to be tugged backward strongly, as if any slight relaxation would blow them away by the wind.
Being a Dragon Slayer Mage, Future Rogue clearly knew the difference between his breath attack and a real dragon's breath.
That Rhode could actually use a breath attack to directly confront the Earth Mother Dragon, was he still human?
A giant light sphere over a hundred meters in diameter appeared above the royal palace, the result of the collision and explosion of the two breath attacks.
The King, Princess, ministers, and soldiers had all prostrated on the ground, while the Knight Captain activated defense magic on his armor, struggling to block the flying stones blown by the wind from the King and Princess.
The five mages of the Hungry Wolf Knight Order were slightly stronger than ordinary soldiers, yet they too could only bitterly withstand the high-altitude wind, not daring to take a step.
The spire of the palace had already been ripped away, who knows where it flew, and the back garden, already ruined once by the Earth Mother Dragon, had now almost lost all its vegetation.
The surrounding wall was riddled with pits from the falling stones, fortunately, it was built thick enough.
Random debris hit the Eclipse Gate, making clanging sounds.
Once the wind finally eased, the scene presented was one of a landscape ravaged by a typhoon.
But they couldn't afford to care about these, instead, they looked up at the situation in the sky.
Rhode's position seemed to have retreated a bit, yet he remained unscathed.
Princess Jade was shocked, "This is... Mr. Rhode's true power..."
Arcadios recalled Rhode's initial moves against the Earth Mother Dragon, "Literally a humanoid dragon."
Danton was somewhat dumbfounded as he said, "I understand now why he said earlier that if it's just one or two dragons, he can completely control the situation."
The King felt ashamed because he hadn't handled the Dragon's Treasure issue properly.
If he had resolutely resolved that guild, preventing their interference, Lucy would've been able to close the gate in time, and it wouldn't have escalated to this point.
This time, the loss suffered by the Royal Capital, he as King bore undeniable responsibility.
"Your Majesty, Your Highness," Yukino reminded, "I think we should retreat to a safer place, otherwise we may interfere with Mr. Rhode's battle. If he has to hold back to avoid collateral damage..."
The King looked toward the Hungry Wolf Knight Order: "Is there nothing we can do?"
As the 'Kingdom's strongest enforcer', the Captain Scythe didn't hesitate at all:
"Though it's somewhat frustrating, this battle is beyond any interference from us. Perhaps not causing trouble is the greatest contribution. Please, Your Majesty and Your Highness, prioritize your own safety now."