Chapter 231

I jerked my head up and met Varen’s eyes with a huge grin spreading across my face.

“H-he’s alive! He came back!!”

As if he couldn’t believe it himself, Varen placed a hand atop Podric’s head. After confirming the child’s condition in his own way, he sprang to his feet before he even had time to celebrate.

Then he glared at Kaldrok, who was still screaming his child’s name in agony.

‘Kaldrok! Your child is here! He isn’t dead!!’

Varen’s true speech thundered through my skull.

I clenched my teeth and endured the stabbing headache.

Apparently Varen hadn’t considered that I would hear it too, but I didn’t care.

Thankfully, his voice reached the dragon who had lost all reason.

Kaldrok, who had been thrashing wildly, froze in place.

Even with those black, pupil-less eyes gleaming like wet obsidian, he found Varen immediately.

A moment later, a voice rough as rusted iron scraping stone echoed out.

‘L-Lord... Varen....’

‘Get hold of yourself, Kaldrok. I’ll save your child. You need to flee this place.’

Varen’s command rang out firm and unyielding.

I stared blankly up at his back.

He had always been enormous, but sitting on the ground and looking up at him now made him seem even larger.

Like a mountain standing immovable against the sky.

“Ah...”

A quiet breath slipped from my mouth.

Ever since meeting Podric, I had kept thinking about Ordin.

I suddenly wished he could see Varen now.

‘Run now, Kaldrok! Your crimes will be punished properly later. So wait for me in Belzena!’

That the son he had lost before even hatching had grown up this well.

That he had become the dependable new king of Dravergh.

Hoping somehow that Ordin was watching, I smiled faintly.

But Kaldrok did not immediately answer his new lord’s command.

Instead, he slowly began beating his wings.

Every flap from those spike-ridden wings sent shattered stones floating into the air and stirred violent gusts of wind.

‘Lord... Varen... I’m sorry... I am sorry....’

Kaldrok was crying.

Even from this far away, waves of sorrow, shame, and bitter grief poured from the dragon.

The wind generated by his wings reached all the way to us.

His body hadn’t even lifted off the ground, yet the storm blasting outward was already strong enough to make it difficult to stand.

“Ugh...!”

I threw myself over Podric protectively and flattened against the ground.

The rebel operatives also lowered themselves, struggling against the gale.

Only Varen remained standing firm as a mountain.

‘I’m sorry... about... Lord Ordin... khh....’

Hearing Ordin’s name spoken in Kaldrok’s voice made my chest ache.

It felt as though Kaldrok’s torment—being torn between his child and his lord—was bleeding directly into me.

Varen looked rattled by the beating wings, his fists clenched so tightly it seemed like he might launch himself forward at any second.

‘Damn it, Kaldrok, listen to me! Run now!’

‘I... already... already....’

Squinting against the raging wind, I stared at Kaldrok through blurred vision.

The dragon, stained dark copper by layers of thick blood, was half collapsed already.

He forced that massive body upright and spread his claws sharply.

“Nngh... no, run away...”

My voice barely managed to escape through the sand-laden wind.

But after confirming that his child was alive, Kaldrok had already decided to burn the last of his life away.

“KRAAAAAAH!!!”

Kaldrok poured every last scrap of his remaining magic into that roar.

The desperate cry spread outward like a fire consuming the world.

Ordinary humans without magical resistance collapsed instantly beneath it.

Some fainted outright, blood trickling from the corners of their mouths.

“No, Kaldrok! Don’t!!”

Varen shouted back just as fiercely, but Kaldrok did not stop.

A dragon incapable of breathing fire simply used its own body as a weapon against humanity.

He tore through stone walls with razor claws and climbed atop the ruined buildings, whipping his massive tail wildly through the air.

‘I will... avenge... Lord Ordin... khh... I swear...!’

BOOM!

Kaldrok’s tail lashed through the air like a whip and smashed into the earth.

The stone structure standing there exploded into fragments.

Broken rocks sprayed outward, drenched in the dragon’s blood.

What had looked like mindless destruction actually had a clear target.

‘Laskar... must die!!’

Kaldrok was trying to kill King Laskar.

It was the final act of loyalty he could offer the lord he had betrayed.

Completely unaware that King Laskar had already escaped the building and now lay unconscious behind me.

‘Laskar isn’t there! So run, Kaldrok!’

Realizing Kaldrok’s intentions, Varen shouted urgently.

At the voice of his young king, the copper dragon halted his swinging tail.

A moment later, those black eyes shimmering with moisture turned toward us.

‘But I... have already... reached... my limit.’

‘Get to Belzena somehow! Our people will save you!’

‘If I can kill... even one more... human... then perhaps... for Lord Ordin....’

Kaldrok, who had paused for only a moment, swung his tail violently again.

With a single movement that looked like the dragon’s own scream made physical, the fortress walls tore apart, and human screams erupted beneath the rubble.

“Damn it, that stubborn idiot...”

Varen ground his teeth together as he watched Kaldrok’s desperate rampage.

At that exact moment, I instinctively grabbed Varen’s wrist.

I spun him toward me and seized both his arms tightly.

I didn’t have foresight.

But somehow, I knew exactly what he was about to do.

“You’re not thinking about transforming into your dragon form.”

At my firm voice, Varen’s expression twisted violently.

He glared at me with blatant fury.

“Don’t stop me, Ceryl! At this rate Kaldrok is going to die!”

Kaldrok alone was already reducing the entire place to ruins.

That was how terrifyingly powerful dragons were as magical creatures.

And yet I had an overwhelming feeling that Varen absolutely could not reveal his true form here.

My worst premonitions were terrifyingly accurate far too often.

So I clung to him desperately.

“No! What if something happens?!”

“I can’t leave Kaldrok like this! He may be my father’s enemy, but he’s still one of Dravergh’s own!”

“No! Absolutely not! I don’t know why, but this is dangerous!”

Right as our voices rose against each other, a deep male voice boomed across the battlefield.

“All units, take aim!!”

The man was apparently using magic, because his voice echoed throughout the entire royal palace.

I hurriedly looked around, but I couldn’t find whoever had given the order.

Then, as though they had teleported, more than a hundred humans appeared in the blink of an eye.

All of them wore identical cloaks.

Deep blue cloaks—the symbol of the island nation surrounded by sea, the Alberian Kingdom.

An elaborate royal crest was embroidered across their backs in silver thread.

“Secure the dragon’s heart!”

At the man’s command, the royal mage knights moved with terrifying precision.

They surrounded Kaldrok while maintaining perfect formation.

At the same time, pillars of golden light shot into the sky from every direction.

They erupted from the walls surrounding the palace grounds, encircling the entire palace—large enough to rival a football field.

The blinding brilliance forced me to squeeze my eyes shut and turn away.

“Ugh, these bastards seriously...!”

The light was as bright as lightning, and the voices thundered like explosions.

I couldn’t think straight.

My senses, already several times sharper than a normal human’s, felt tortured by it.

I narrowed my eyes into the thinnest slits possible.

I could barely see anything, but my heightened senses detected something moving at the speed of light.

Beams of light rose upward from the walls before plunging back toward the ground.

They spread out irregularly, splitting into dozens of glowing lines that all converged on Kaldrok.

I tracked the movement through watering eyes.

The pattern felt strangely familiar.

A massive circle surrounding the target.

Straight lines crossing the ground.

“...Fuck, it’s a magic circle!”

It was the exact same method Horace had used at the Aylos family estate.

Back then, the spell had drained the life force of everything trapped within the circle.

I had no idea what kind of attack this one would unleash.

“Cut off the dragon’s head! Secure the heart before it stops beating!”

The voice roaring through the sky issued commands so cruel they made my stomach twist.

The blinding light had finally receded enough for me to open my eyes fully again.

“KRAAAAGH!!!”

The golden lines spreading across the ground suddenly gained physical form and snapped upward into the air.

They moved fluidly like living ropes and wrapped themselves tightly around Kaldrok’s body.

The dragon that had been tearing apart the royal palace moments earlier became bound by dozens of glowing restraints.

Kaldrok struggled violently to break free, but eventually even his long neck was dragged downward.

THUD.

With a heavy crash, Kaldrok collapsed atop the shattered ruins.

Then the surrounding mage knights moved simultaneously.

Multicolored magic burst from the rods they wielded.

“Kaldrok!!”

Varen screamed so violently it sounded almost like a seizure.

A pale white glow erupted from his body.

The sign that he was about to transform into his true dragon form.

I lunged at him without hesitation and wrapped both arms around him as tightly as I could.

If Varen transformed now, my body would obviously be torn to pieces.

That was exactly why I used myself as a hostage to stop him.

“No... don’t! You can’t!!”

Some instinctive terror deep inside me feared Varen revealing his true form.

And now I was watching the reason unfold before my eyes.

Kaldrok had knowingly charged into a trap to save his child.

And humanity had captured him alive.

I could not let Varen rush toward the exact same ending.

I clung to him with all my strength, and Varen shouted in frustration.

“Ceryl, let go! If we leave him like this, Kaldrok will—!”

But he couldn’t finish the sentence.

Because neither of us could bear to say aloud what kind of future awaited Kaldrok after being captured alive.

‘Urgh... Lord Varen...!’

At that moment, as if perfectly timed, Kaldrok’s voice echoed through my head.