Last Egg: Reincarnated as a Dragon in a Game

A few days later:

POV ???:

In the haunting glow of the red sky, an imposing wall stretched in a circle, surrounding a large city. The heavens bore an eerie luminescent hue, crimson-tinted with deep maroons and fiery oranges as if the sky was bleeding. The night air carried an intense aroma of death and blood.

Crystalline creatures prowled on the snow-covered fields outside, their crystal-covered bodies shimmering under the red moonlight as they refracted the light into the glittering snow beneath them.

They swarmed, moving with a cacophony of scratching and clicking, creating a discordant symphony that echoed ominously in the still night.

The sentries on the walls shivered under the glowing moon-like eyes of the monsters, who seemed to watch each of their movements as if waiting for them to slip on the ice-covered parapets and fall to their awaiting crystal-laden maws.

"What is it?!" A bright light flashed on the horizon, quickly closing in like a falling star, its brilliant white light refracting in the snowy fields.

The light stopped, hovering outside the wall, its luminance obscuring its appearance. At once, all the guards moved, the sounds of their armored boots on the parapets resounding as they took their position. The hundreds of crossbows, ballistae, and mana cannons were aimed up.

"Identify yourself!" shouted the soldier with a long, crimson cape.

The light seemed to ignore them as its distorted voice laden with divine power resonated above the city: "You have sinned against the light and its divine guidance! Repent for your sin and bathe in the eternal light!"

The light grew brighter and brighter, its white rays washing away the darkness of the night and banishing all the shades. "I, the chosen of the divine light, judge you guilty!"

"Fire!" The officer yelled and waved his glowing runic sword, and volleys of projectiles and bright rays of mana shot toward the light in the sky.

The time appeared to slow down as everyone watched with paused breaths.

However, a bubble of light expanded out, repelling all the attacks in fireworks of explosions with colorful sparks raining down, and the monsters howled and screamed in madness below the walls.

"You have failed your trial! You were supposed to repent! Now, reap what you have sewn!" The brightest light exploded and descended upon the wall that trembled beneath the soldiers and guards, stones rolling down in deadly avalanches.

The wall collapsed in clouds of rubble and dust, and like a tsunami of crystals, the monster tide rushed over the piles of rubble, howling as they swarmed the city.

The Next Day:

POV ???:

Under the sweeping arcs of the grand chamber's vaulted ceiling, a chilling pallor of desperation hung heavily in the air, the kind that stifled even the faintest of smiles.

Plush, ornately adorned benches bore the weight of wearied bodies, every face in the room a tapestry of exhaustion woven from sleepless nights and relentless stress with the pale and hollow faces.

From the elevated speaking podium, a young man draped in a richly embroidered coat broke the silence, his voice shaking yet determined as he detailed the calamity befalling them: "This is a catastrophe! The capital of the former Ostria kingdom has fallen!" A heavy silence descended again, a gaping void that swallowed any whispers of hope, leaving only the echo of his ominous words to hang in the air.

Resuming his distressing account with a trembling timbre that belied his fervent demeanor, he continued, "The holy coalition's army has landed on our western coast after they overwhelmed our defenses. Luckily, the crystal swarms are slowing down their advance."

With each of his words, the atmosphere turned heavier.

"The crystals are besieging our cities and walled security zones, making travel and trade almost impossible for regular people." At last, he paused and, with a slight bow, stepped back, leaving the room submerged in silence.

Seated in the shadowy recesses of the room was an old man, his eyes burdened. He felt a restless stir within him, an urgent need to disrupt the suffocating silence with the raw, unspoken truth they all chose to ignore.

'This is wrong. We all know where the problem is! We are doomed, and only they can save us.' He couldn't help but think about the offer he got.

Rising with a resolve forged from years of witnessing political undercurrents, he questioned with a booming voice that shook off the despondent haze in the chamber, "Where is the central government?!"

He continued as all the eyes gathered on him, pity in their eyes as if they already considered him dead, "Where are they? They all holed up in the northern Azerlisia mountains and their original Vesuvian kingdom. They have abandoned us, leaving us to fight for ourselves!"

Everyone paled, but he only snickered, knowing his words were true. The dragons, the monsters under their command, and their armies have abandoned them, taking everyone and everything they deemed worthy with them.

"As for the draconic monsters they gave the lands? They guard their small swatches, watching as the rest burn. The rest packed their ill-gotten hoards and slaves, leaving for the Azerlisia mountains!"

With a maniacal grin, he yelled even louder, "We are the ones no one wanted or deemed useful. They gave us those ranks and created this council just to throw us like pebbles under the legs of their enemies! We are garbage in their eyes, and no one will come to our help."

Such a deep silence fell upon the council room that he could hear his own heartbeat, like a set of drums, reverberate around him.

Despite the raw, unbridled truth he revealed, his words were met with a fierce backlash, an eruption of indignation, and accusations that sought to drown out his incendiary revelations.

"You are the trash here!"

"Go to hell!"

"You must be a traitor!"

The chamber erupted into chaos, the cacophony of voices clashing violently in a whirlpool of fear and anger.

The old man sat back calmly, keeping his grin from widening and hoping at least some would be smart enough to seek him out later.

'Only they can save us...'