The Guide panted heavily; despite his face turning deathly pale from blood loss, a twisted grin spread across it. “Death can’t scare a follower of the Formless God.” He coughed up a mouthful of bloody foam, his eyes trembling with madness. “You freak… haha… guess I’m just unlucky. With skills like yours, there’s no point pretending—you’re a trainee from the Royal Military Academy out on field experience, aren’t you? Go ahead and waste your time torturing me if you like. The grand ambition of the Nihility Cult will be realized, and the first step is the overthrow of this rotten kingdom. Before the bronze throne of the Formless God, I’ll savor the sight of everything you love being devoured by chaos.”
Hank’s veins bulged as he listened, the hilt of his sword creaking in his grip—but Nolan was faster.
A streak of black sword-light flashed, cutting the Guide’s manic laughter short as his lower jaw, along with half his tongue, was cleanly sliced away and sent flying, blood spraying in all directions. His eyes widened; all he could produce was a muffled, pitiful whimper.
Expressionless, Nolan showed no hesitation. Mountain’s Resonance traced a clean arc through the air—then, with a dull thud, the head rolled to the ground, its face frozen in its final moment of shock. Warm blood spurted outward. Nolan stepped aside to avoid it, flicked his blade to shake off the droplets, and sheathed it at his waist in one smooth, efficient motion.
Evelyn stood nearby with her arms crossed, a rare trace of admiration surfacing in her gaze. Even among mortals, that level of swordsmanship was exceedingly rare. As the dragonkin she had chosen, he wasn’t an embarrassment—though expecting a word of praise from a proud dragon was out of the question.
“Your swordsmanship is passable,” she said coolly, lifting her chin. “But cutting off that trash’s tongue was completely unnecessary. A waste of effort.”
Nolan spat to the side, glancing at the corpse. “Just seeing them pisses me off.”
Hank walked over, frowning at the headless body. “The Nihility Cult? Who exactly are they? You’ve got a history with them? That was reckless—now our line of information is cut off.”
“It’s a long story. And fanatics like them wouldn’t have told us anything useful anyway. I just didn’t want to miss any possibility.” Nolan crouched down and used the tip of his sword to lift the corpse’s clothing. “I’ll explain the rest later. For now, let’s clean up and get out of this cursed place.”
Watching him rummage through the body with practiced ease, Evelyn’s brows drew together, her tone dripping with draconic disdain. “Honestly, could you not be so small-minded? And don’t you dare tell anyone you’re my dragonkin. It’s embarrassing.”
“Can’t help it. I’m broke,” Nolan replied without even looking up. “Not like your dragon kind, sleeping on mountains of gold.”
Evelyn clicked her tongue and turned away, unwilling to watch his undignified behavior any longer.
A moment later, Nolan found a poison-laced hand crossbow, a small pouch of gold coins, and an old-fashioned black iron ring on the corpse.
“These bastards have pretty solid funding,” he muttered, pocketing the crossbow and coins before standing up and examining the ring between his fingers. Its dark surface was etched on the inner band with small words: Wholehearted Devotion—Koss. Probably the dead man’s name. Worth looking into later. “This should be the most valuable item here.”
Hank leaned in for a closer look, recalling Nolan’s knack for identifying magical equipment. “Is that the ring he used to cast spells earlier?”
Nolan nodded. “Yeah. Rings like this can store one or more specific spells, allowing even someone with no talent for magic to cast them. The difficulty of making one increases exponentially with the type of spell and the number of charges. This one holds three uses of Dimensional Banishment—a notoriously difficult spatial spell. Definitely high-end. The downside is that recharging it takes time; I’d estimate about a week.” He tossed the ring to Hank. “Take it. It’s practical and could be very effective in combat.”
Hank caught it, the metal cool against his palm. “Your spoils of war—you’re not keeping it?”
Nolan curled his lip in distaste. “I’ve got a thing about that. I don’t like using stuff that belonged to people like them.”
Hank studied him for a moment, then let out a short laugh and shook his head. “Where’d you pick up that noble habit? For soldiers like us, there are only two kinds of equipment: useful and useless. When necessary, even an enemy’s weapon is something you pick up and use.” As he spoke, he slipped the ring onto his finger.
Evelyn, utterly uninterested in the ring that mortals would consider priceless, had long since grown tired of the gloomy cave. She turned and headed toward the exit. Nolan and Hank exchanged a glance before quickly following after her.
The three moved in silence through the rugged tunnel, the atmosphere subtly tense. After more than ten minutes, a familiar patch of natural light finally appeared at the cave’s mouth.
Outside, Little Donnie was sitting on the ground, grumbling to Leus beside him. “Hey, old man, what’s taking Brother Nolan and the captain so long? Don’t tell me something happened. It’s just a few crystalized lizards—does it really take this much effort?”
Before the words had even finished, loose stones tumbled from the cave entrance. Little Donnie sprang to his feet in an instant, drawing his sword in alarm. The figure emerging from the shadows was not some stray lizard, but Nolan—bare-chested, his body covered in wounds—with Hank following behind him.
Seeing Donnie braced as if facing a great enemy, Nolan flashed him a grin. “Sharp instincts, kid. Relax—you don’t need to point that sword at me anymore.”
At the sight of Nolan’s broad, bare upper body, Anna’s cheeks flushed faintly, and she quickly averted her gaze. Leus and Kreil, on the other hand, visibly relaxed, and the tense atmosphere eased at once. Just as everyone let out a breath, however, a tall, silver-haired figure of extraordinary presence stepped out from behind Nolan.
Little Donnie’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. They had gone in to clear monsters and somehow come back with… a stunning elf?
He scratched the back of his head, dumbfounded. “Brother Nolan… wasn’t this supposed to be a lizard nest?”
Nolan glanced at Evelyn, who stood off to the side radiating an unmistakable “keep away” aura, clearly unwilling to deal with anyone, and lowered his voice. “She’s… not someone ordinary. I’ll explain later.”
At that moment, Evelyn spoke. Her voice carried a natural arrogance, yet it didn’t feel out of place—almost as if such a bearing was simply her birthright. “Nolan, come here.”
He shot the others a look to steady them, then followed her. The two of them walked to the edge of a nearby grove, where Evelyn stopped and turned around, looking for once as though she had something to say but couldn’t quite bring herself to say it. The sight alone was enough to leave Nolan at a loss.
She stared at him in silence, long enough to make his skin crawl, until he finally cleared his throat. “Miss Evelyn… is something the matter?”
“Hm…” she coughed lightly, masking a trace of awkwardness. “I need to return to my clan for a while. Take this.”
Nolan looked down. What she handed him was a thin, silvery-white shard, almost translucent, about half the size of his palm. It felt faintly warm to the touch, with a soft glow flowing across its surface. His eyes widened.
A dragon scale—and not just any, but one from a living dragon. Which meant…
He accepted it and looked up at her, about to ask a question, only to see the proud dragon girl wearing an uncharacteristically awkward expression, her gaze drifting ever so slightly.
“D-don’t misunderstand!” she blurted, her tone rising as if afraid he might read too much into it. “It’s just a beacon! My business in the mortal world isn’t finished yet, and as my dragonkin, you’re obligated to assist me in everything I do. Refusal is not allowed!”
Before Nolan could respond, she abruptly turned her head away.
Boom!
A powerful gust of air exploded outward from her position, forcing Nolan back two steps. In his stunned gaze, two pairs of magnificent wings burst forth from her back—each one formed from countless silver-white crystal shards. Every scale shimmered like a diamond, refracting the dappled sunlight of the forest into a dreamlike halo.
Without another word, her four wings beat once, and her figure shot straight into the sky, vanishing into the clouds in the blink of an eye. The immense pressure of the wind swept outward, sending fallen leaves and grass swirling through the air.
Nolan raised an arm to shield his face, frozen where he stood. Lowering it, he looked down at the warm dragon scale in his palm, his mind filled with questions.
Misunderstand? Assist? Since when did I become your attendant?
And those wings just now… a Crystal Dragon—the most noble and mysterious among dragonkind?
For the first time since his rebirth, Nolan felt the script he knew so well being torn open by an outside force, revealing a path into the unknown. The future he had always kept firmly under control no longer seemed quite so certain.
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