The flash of light abruptly faded.
The whole world seemed much quieter, as if some noisy filth had been purified away.
The soldiers rubbed hard at their eyes, trying to get their vision to clear as quickly as possible.
After several long minutes, they finally began to come back to themselves, only to find that the world had become even cleaner.
No charred remains, no houses, and no Hornsent beings.
It was no exaggeration to say the place had been turned completely upside down.
The earth looked as though it had been carefully trimmed, hollowed into a vast, perfectly rounded hemisphere.
Only the ground beneath their feet remained, jutting up like a cluster of colossal towers piercing the clouds.
Terrifying, precise, perfect.
The soldiers, knights, and champions of Caria stared blankly, unable to find any other words for the man looking down upon them.
The clouds seemed to part gently under an invisible hand, and bright sunlight poured down without restraint. Nolan stood atop the highest tower, his long hair and cloak stirring in the wind.
Seeing that not one of those who deserved death remained, while those meant to live were safe and unharmed, Nolan spread his dragon wings in satisfaction and slowly rose into the air.
A faint smile touched his face as he turned to Moonrithyll and said with a soft chuckle, "Boss, it's done."
"You look far more like the boss than I do," Moonrithyll said, unable to resist teasing him with a casual wave of her hand.
Then she quickly composed herself, slipped back into her role, and asked, "Boss, what do we do next?"
Nolan shook his head slightly with a helpless smile. "You should meet up with the others first. I'll handle them."
"Them?" Moonrithyll looked puzzled.
Her confusion lasted less than half a second before the sound of air being torn apart exploded violently overhead.
The soldiers standing on the towering stone pillars were instantly battered by the raging gusts, staggering so badly they could barely stay on their feet.
The blades and swords they had been gripping, along with the loose stones scattered near their feet, were all wrenched free and rained straight down.
Everyone looked up and saw a massive Flying Dragon with gray-white Scale Armor diving toward them at astonishing speed.
Its bulky body looked as if it might drop from the sky at any moment under its own weight, yet it still moved through the air with surprising agility.
Close behind the gray-white Flying Dragon came four jet-black Flying Dragon attendants, each covered in black wings and black Scale Armor.
They arrived in a pack, like a dark, oppressive cloud pressing down from above, instantly casting the whole of Bonny Village into shadow.
The Hornsents, who should have come forward to pay homage, had already become fine dust, scattered throughout heaven and earth.
The bloated Flying Dragon circled in midair, sweeping its gaze across the surroundings. Yet the sight before it left it completely bewildered, its fierce dragon face filled with confusion and shock.
The Flying Dragons hovered there stupidly, staring with wide eyes for a long while.
Only when they finally noticed the knights clad in heavy black armor and the soldiers gripping sharp weapons did they snap out of it and gradually understand the situation.
Furious screeches rang out one after another, mixed with rolling roars. The Flying Dragons waved their sharp wing claws at the people below, as if pointing and accusing them of some offense.
The soldiers on the stone pillars in the great pit fell silent. Veterans who had spent enough time on the battlefield knew exactly what was about to happen.
In the Shadowlands, when the two sides met, killing each other was only natural.
Normally, even if the borders between two factions were clearly drawn, neither side would lightly cross into the other's territory to start a war.
But this place happened to be a lawless Hornsent autonomous region.
This fight was probably unavoidable.
Whether it was Messmer's army or those fierce, savage Flying Dragons, neither side understood why they should be the one to back down.
To the former, slaughtering Hornsent was only right and proper. The latter, likewise, had every reason to vent their rage.
The soldiers on the stone pillars had been startled at first by the sudden appearance of the dragons, but they soon regained their composure and stood quietly like spectators, ready to watch the show about to begin.
Several Flying Dragons flapped their enormous wings, rising and dipping in the air.
From above, they looked down with arrogant eyes at the thing standing in the sky with them, neither quite human nor quite dragon.
Nolan and Trina were chatting. Both of them had seen Flying Dragons before, but never this many at once. More importantly, they could actually see "fat" in the one leading them.
However, in the Lands Between, everyone knew that size alone did not decide how strong a creature was.
This fat Flying Dragon carried a thick layer of blubber and looked somewhat larger than the others, but it did not give off the slightest sense of pressure.
The lead Flying Dragon opened its mouth and let out a low roar.
Nolan and Trina, one aided by his constitution and the other dragged into learning by a Demigod, both heard the arrogance and displeasure in the dragon tongue.
"Hmph. You're a Flying Dragon too? Why do you look like a human? Did you master a way to take human form?"
The Flying Dragon's commanding tone was full of suspicion and contempt.
If Flying Dragons were all lackeys of the Mad Dragon, then this fellow was surely one of the chief lackeys under Bayle.
Trina could not help pursing her small lips and muttering softly, "These guys really know how to flatter themselves." Her words carried clear disdain for the Flying Dragons.
"Are you deaf? Our boss is asking you a question!"
One Flying Dragon henchman glared viciously at the silver-haired man with dragon wings before it.
Its gaze merely swept over the petite girl on his back and did not linger.
As a Flying Dragon, it liked large female dragons with gleaming Scale Armor. Naturally, it had not the slightest interest in this little human brat.
After briefly looking him over, the Flying Dragon turned its attention back to Nolan and bared its teeth at him in a vicious snarl.
"I'm not a Flying Dragon," Nolan said calmly, shooting a glare at the Flying Dragon that had just badly frightened the little goddess on his back.
The moment it felt Nolan's calm gaze, the enormous beast that had been baring its fangs and brandishing its claws seemed to lose its nerve, hurriedly shrinking back with its massive body.
"Not a shape-shifting Flying Dragon?" The fat dragon had not noticed anything strange about its subordinate, and its voice sounded somewhat disappointed.
Of course, it did not long to become human. It was simply that those dragon-slaying Warriors were indeed a major nuisance. If Flying Dragons could turn into humans, their chances of survival in the Lands Between would improve greatly.