Alister's foot pressed down harder, grinding the Emperor into the rubble-strewn earth as the dragon's voice dripped with scorn.
"Falsely accused, you say?"
He gestured with one sweeping motion, his golden claw trailing through the air like a comet, as if inviting the Emperor to witness the full extent of his failure.
"Look around you." His voice resonated like a bell. "Isn't this world—your world—a tangible monument to your greed?"
Alister could see it all play back.
The sky above was bruised with perpetual crimson, clouds choking with ash. The air, once vibrant and full of promise, now stank of rot and despair.
The once-prosperous lands had become barren, cracked and broken like shattered glass, each inch of soil soaked with blood.
Towering spires of broken temples pierced the horizon like bones jutting from a corpse. In the distance—
