Alter Magus, the prelate watched from the tower of his castle as a huge plume of smoke rose from the port. The docks and canvasses were in flames, as were the shops.

The alarm was sounded and the guard, like angry ants, rushed to the stables,

taking their armor, shields, swords and bows.

This horror had to be eliminated!

He gritted his teeth. An old one!.

He looked at his officers... Beware. The Beast is awake. The prophecy...

With a gesture the sheriffs gathered and a unit of military fairies flew after me.

I was already at the tank.

Cabal was explaining the controls to Waspy.

"On the screen, you can see the map with the landforms superimposed. Anything that moves, breathes or emits heat will appear in red on the scan line. The central point is you.

Don't let any red dot come close! They have magic and there is no telling what might happen. Normally, the high iron content would cancel out all their magic... but you never know...

Like a raging swarm, a group of elves, probably winged women, or fairies, I couldn't tell but they had followed me from the horizon.

Their uniforms flapped in the wind and they were armed with blowpipes and no armor. Otherwise, they would never have been able to fly.

I flew over the great valley and with my piercing eyes I admired their beauty.

I sighed and thought what a waste... but as I thought of my family, our children, my hardened heart grew even more dense.

I was ready for all the baseness...

There were about twenty of them and their wings quivered like dragonflies

Some were filled with red crystals, others with yellow and others with blue.

They were magnificent.

Then came flying beasts ridden by fairies/elves.

They were all as beautiful as each other.

Meanwhile,

A hundred horsemen had almost arrived.

Their horses were covered with armor plates but I was fascinated by the finesse of their equipment. They had almost an industrial level or advanced metallurgical knowledge.

Two battalions were gathering at the top of the hill overlooking the elven city.

I had no idea what they were called and, to be honest, I didn't care.

The magic was obvious from one of the officers holding a blazing blade. Probably a sword.

His armor was more colorful than the others and he must have been some kind of captain or commander.

The mage or priest had a forked staff, like the ones used to keep large snakes at bay and a fantastic light emanated from the end.

At the back, archers took their places and above them, in the forest, the fairies took their places.

Flames were coming out of their wrists and they were getting ready to fire.

I thought it was going to be fun, shooting fire at me... while I was taking lava baths.

It was fun.

Never in all these years have I had so much fun.

"But what a gift!" I exclaimed!

I was already dreaming about the parade of troops, thousands of elves, their mounts and the battle cries, all wanting to kill me!

This excited me so much that I was happy to have a loincloth.

I was craving flesh, devouring, tearing and slashing my living prey.

I was salivating in anticipation and was already looking forward to every possible plan.

Oh yes, an army of dwarves against an army of elves!

A massacre and an offering!

I was already starting to pray to the SHADOW! My goddess. It's true that as a human I still worshipped our Gods, but my instincts and my dragon nature were taking more and more place and the memories inherent to my species were flowing like a torrent in my head.

I was the last and only dragon, finally resurrected but alive!

I was offering sacrifices to my dragon goddess. The GREAT HYDRA!

The guardian of time and dimensions

I begged her to help me, to give me courage and to continue to survive.

I prayed to her for the injustice in which my world had been plunged and... against all odds, the goddess had answered me with a sign, by my name. It is she who gave me my name.

CARNAGE

And my name also meant the destruction of the flesh.

Every black hole or area of darkness could serve as her altar.

And... Sometimes my offerings would disappear.

In my dreams or meditation, the goddess would tell me about her struggle with the primordial gods. She had devoured them after they had killed each other.

Here, Tyrant, hypocritically hidden as an angel or a messenger, any scientist would have concluded to an extraterrestrial but according to Hydra, they were indeed primordial gods.

She explained to me that I had to exterminate them all, but that I should not get lost because another destiny would then await me. The prison of eternal ice where the defeated Tiamat rest.

I was far, very far from my goal and I still had a long way to go before I could evolve, but according to the Hydra, I had to absorb as many life forces as possible and do as my name suggests: a carnage.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the sound of a war horn marking the beginning of hostilities.

The elves were lined up, with the fairies in the air and in line like Napoleonic armies,

I admired the beauty of their uniforms. Even the most beautiful uniforms of the armies of my time could not compete, even the dragons of Napoleon and their golden breastplates.

Discipline was ironclad, and this resulted in the configuration of a double-edged sword.

The absolute order would bend in the face of tactical errors even if the strategy was good.

Slowly, I was surrounded.

Archers and ballistas blocked my path to the sea, fairies blocked my path to the northern mountains and the army with its spellcasters protecting the south, and the city once called Portland but now called The Sea Lion's Den, probably due to the few sea lions that miraculously survived the cataclysm. probably by sinking deep into the sea pits to mitigate the Gamma ray burns

CLAK CLAK were the boots of the foot soldiers.

The horsemen were armed with spears and probably trained to kill creatures like me.

Cabal spoke to the dwarf still chained in the tank.

To avoid any attempt or stupid initiative on his part,

Waspy showed his arm cracking in two, instantly covering it with flaking chitin. His arm revealed itself as a horrible nightmarish praying mantis scythe.

Her mouth opened and let through two huge praying mantis chelicerae and she licked the edges.

With his glasses down, the dwarf could see two insectoid eyes of a mantis and the black dot aimed at him, like the iris of a human eye.

He lowered his head, understanding the message.

Then the machine spoke to him.

"Dwarf, you are about to witness a tiny portion of our power. We know that the elves have seen fit to exterminate you and we will make you a proposal, but first, enjoy the show.

The elves and fairies all had their eyes fixed on me and paid no attention to the terminator next to me. This was not an android robot or a Skynet emulator from a science fiction movie but the real name given to this tank built by the ancient Russians.

The radome cup unfolded and began to spin.

The elves were a little distracted, but they paid no attention.

I cast a shield spell on myself and the tank.

With the sun and the shield, my scales looked like orange gold and the light reflected beautifully.

Immediately, the mages felt the flow of ancient mana.

Alter Magus immediately sensed the danger. It was an unknown type of mana, unknown to their deities.

He sensed that I was an intelligent beast, and out of fear, caution, or simple precaution, he prepared a teleportation spell for himself.

He raised a fire shield over the troops and the fairies did the same.

A huge beast, a pet or a monster, it didn't matter, but a creature from the air joined them and began to scream.

When I saw it, I imagined chicken drumsticks and marinated fillets.

This huge eagle was in front of me.

It must have had a wingspan of about 50 feet.

It was a beautiful animal and I felt that it was full of mana.

But I was surprised by the responsiveness of this army.

Alter-Magus spoke up.

"Sins of another time, know that we are ready and that King Phiélas, the king of the gnomes, has informed me of the horrible acts you have perpetrated.

We have the experience to subdue beasts like you, even if we think that you are elders. But according to our writings beasts like you could not exist.

So if you have any sense and Tyrant blood in you, surrender yourself and the dwarf.

The mage had made his speech, but he did not expect a response from a beast.

Magical animals were not known to speak openly or only with their master bound.

"Ah, Alter-magus. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

I flew in front of them.

The elves widened their eyes.

Obviously, I was keeping my cool and not the least bit afraid of them.

I watched as my index finger joined my thumb in a clench and flexed it.

"You should try the fairies stuffed with crushed gnome juice... it's a delicacy..."

Rage rose in the elf's eyes.

"My name reveals my true nature, I present myself, Professor CARNAGE! But why am I telling you all this... you are all going to die... anyway..."

Alter-Magus: "Why all this violence? This carnage, what have we done to you? And why the dwarf?"

The annoyed mage was ready to make the move for the troops to attack.

"How to put it. You probably know the ancient game of chess..."

to the name, the mage knew of the ancient game, but very few had seen one and even fewer knew how to play it...

"There are white pawns and black pawns... and... I am a black king. And I am an Elder. You destroyed my world and it is only right that I take back what is mine."

Alter Magus: "Then why are you attacking us and not trying to live in peace?"

I started to laugh.

Then I got serious again, showing my canines.

"I have my reasons! "

But before he could make a move,

I opened my mouth and a prismatic beam struck the bird, which crashed to the feet of the mage, dead.

A mass of fireballs went towards me and, Waspi had touched the control screen and the red points were surrounded by small squares.

TAK TAK TAK TAK

said the 4 cannons.

And at each TAK, a fairy fell dead, before even touching the ground.

The wounds were atrocious.

With each blow, an arm, a head or even the torso was torn off.

Each time, a hole of 30 cm

Within 10 seconds, the fairies were all on the ground.

The turret turned instantly towards the riders.

BLAM BLAM BLAM

The iron ammunition went past magic shields, trees, iron scale shields and gem-set armor.

Nothing could stop these projectiles of death.

In a fraction of a second, half of the troops were torn to pieces and a mist of blood splashed over the other half of the troops who were surprised by the violence of the attack.

The elves turned in panic to flee but another salvo stopped their hopes.

Alter-Magus, horrified, turned the ring around on his finger and found himself back in his tower at the port city.

There were many wounded but not a single elf left to fight.

So my robots stepped in and sorted out the "stuff"

"Organics on one side, souls and tissues on the other for recycling."

I left the wounded to Waspy.

"For your hive!"

She came out of the tank and rushed to the elves who were begging the fairy to heal them.

She smiled at them

"But I will heal you... I promise."

She then transformed herself.

From her head came out a kind of crown and many sharp teeth

Its limbs protruded from its torso as a mimic and its arms and legs transformed into a kind of praying mantis scythe.

With horror, the elves on the ground tried to escape but were stung by her stinger and they calmed down, their minds as if in a dream.

Their wounds closed and she took out a huge net and about twenty elves still alive were dragged and put on the tank.

Then Waspi went to join me to feast on the remains of the fairies.

We tore off their wings and decided to keep them. Their colors were beautiful and they could embellish our den as hangings, or shutters for windows or to embellish the drones. Bad taste, maybe, but provocation... certainly...

We also collected the ammunition shards, to be reprocessed and the radar was still running in case reinforcements or witnesses came back.

The dwarf in the tank had followed the video and was speechless.

It was a horror. A doomsday weapon.

And the dragon... What power. It would have taken a thousand dwarves and archers to defeat the Majestic Eagle... Carnage had only blinked an eyebrow and the bird was on the ground.

Then, with horror, he saw me pointing at the bird and it disappeared along with the remains of elves and fairies.

And everything went back to the way it was before, as if they had never existed.

But he saw the monster fairy full of blood and gore dragging the elves and charging them

Then the tank started up again on its own.

Waspy, still in her monster form, opened her back and 2 pairs of monster wings grew and whirred and she aligned herself with me.

"We're going home, Waspy... good job!"

Our convoy left behind a devastated path, streaked with blood.

Waspy: "Lord Carnage, what do we do with the extra bodies?"

Me: "A tribute to my goddess!"

She too delights in flesh!

"What if there are children?"

It's the same. They are reborn all the time except those that we kill. The "children" are hundreds of generations old.

If there is a real child in this mass, you will know it directly. You'll feel his tears... Tyrannians don't cry...It's mimicry, simulated feelings...

Waspy: "But have you seen their number? We would make a mistake and it would be fatal..."

Don't worry, soon we will be more numerous. All is not lost...and I have the goddess...The destroyer of worlds.

"What is her name?"

"All in good time, baby..."