The battle began.
In the very next instant, the space of the Grand Library shattered—along with almost the entire dungeon.
In the blink of an eye, every monster Lloyd had fought, every region he had traversed, everything within sight was gone. All of it was consumed by crystal, swallowing Liurnia of the Lakes whole and transforming it into an endless crystalline domain that stretched as though it bound heaven and earth together.
At the center of this crystalline world, dragon and flame stood face to face, staring each other down.
Just like countless years ago, in that crystal-filled cavern.
"How nostalgic, Seath..."
The head of the Frenzied Flame tilted upward, fixing its sightless gaze on the dragon before it. Yet that eyeless stare seemed to look not at Seath himself, but at something lurking behind him.
"Not going to come out and say hello?"
"Or perhaps... give this thing a try?"
No reply came.
Or rather, the colossal dragon claw that slammed down was answer enough.
Boom—
The claw crashed into the ground, unleashing a fan-shaped crystal storm that spread all the way to the horizon. After a brief delay, the crystalline growths burst apart, fragments scattering like shrapnel.
But the devastating strike hit nothing. In a flicker of flame, Lloyd reappeared on the other side of the claw.
Dodging just in time, he drew Bloodhound's Fang. Taking advantage of the opening, he coated the blade in Frenzied Flame enchantment.
Bang—
Another claw slammed down, birthing a half-circle of crystalline storm across the ground.
Yet once again, Lloyd vanished in a flash of fire, evading the strike. Several flickers in succession carried him outside the range of the cursed storm.
Yes—the Death Blight Crystals.
Unlike ordinary crystal attacks, nearly all of Seath's were imbued with Death Blight, and the gauge filled with frightening speed.
After slipping past two claw strikes, Lloyd raised his blade and brought Bloodhound's Fang—now seared with Frenzied Flame—down on the crystalline scales covering Seath.
Crash—
Only a sliver of health chipped away, and it regenerated almost instantly.
But the scale struck by Lloyd shattered at once, swallowed by the black-and-yellow Flame of Defilement.
In the next heartbeat, Seath's left tail lashed toward him.
Unlike other dragons, Seath's lower half bore no claws. Instead, he once had three writhing tentacle-like tails—at least, in the past.
Originally, they jutted left, right, and behind, but now only two remained. Even this Seath, clad in crystalline scales forged from soul, had only the left and right tails.
The sweep came too quickly, its size too great to evade. Lloyd abandoned the thought of dodging, instead pulling out a Brass Shield.
Boom—
The massive tail slammed into the shield. Though the blow dealt little direct damage, the sheer force hurled him backward, knocking him out of range.
Landing on his feet, Lloyd didn't rush back in. Instead, he swapped the shield for a Sacred Seal.
With Frenzied Flame gathering in his eyes, two blazing beams erupted forth, slamming into Seath's chest.
Bang! Bang!
Two crystals shattered.
But Seath's health remained untouched.
And judging by the countless scales covering his body, there had to be at least a thousand more.
After dodging another barrage of attacks and trying various tools in response, Lloyd realized that Seath's scales didn't break by raw hit count alone.
Among the items he had just used was a golden throwing knife Old Margit had once found for him—three per throw, dealing three separate hits.
Yet even when all three struck, not a single scale cracked. After several volleys, only one had broken.
It was clear Seath had fortified those scales to an absurd degree. They were as resilient as they were numerous.
And while his defense was overwhelming, his offense was no less terrifying.
Every claw swipe spread into massive AoEs of crystal, each laced with potent Death Blight. Up close, his twin tails swung with blistering speed. From afar, his colossal breath attacks and sweeping grabs covered enormous range, all with devastating damage...
Boom!
Both claws slammed down again.
The crystalline ground around them split apart in a wide circle, cracks spreading outward from the impact point.
Moments later, the magic surging within those fissures grew unstable—and as the claws lifted, a massive explosion erupted.
Boom—
Waves of light spread outward as crystals erupted. Amid the rain of shards, the white Ancient Dragon unfurled its three pairs of wings.
Then, like an angel shedding feathers, the wings began to release countless glowing plumes. But up close, those "feathers" were no feathers at all—they were spears of light, condensed from pure magical energy. A moment later, they fired in volleys like a machine gun toward Lloyd's figure.
Bang, bang, bang—
The impacts rained down, detonating in a chain of violent explosions that sent shards flying everywhere.
Yet when the smoke cleared, the figure caught in the barrage was still standing. He was battered, bearing wounds from the relentless bombardment, but he had not fallen. In his right hand burned a ball of black fire—separated from the black-and-yellow Frenzied Flame, it was the fire of the Abyss.
The flame flickered, and with a series of blinding steps, Lloyd dodged Seath's relentless strikes, finally closing in again.
This time, Seath repeated his tactic, swinging his massive tail the instant Lloyd appeared.
But this time, Lloyd didn't defend. Instead, he thrust his hand forward and pressed the black flame against Seath's scales.
Bang—
He had no defense up, and though he blinked away at the very moment the tail struck, its sheer size was impossible to avoid completely. The sweep grazed him, carving away a huge chunk of his health.
But at the same moment, the black fire ignited.
The Abyssal flame—born of humanity set ablaze by despair and Frenzied Flame, pressed against Seath's scales by Lloyd's hand—caught and spread instantly across the dragon's body.
The Frenzied Flame could not burn through eternal frost, and the Abyss alone could not corrode fully crystallized souls. But the Abyssal fire, once lit, fed on cursed crystal as fuel. In the blink of an eye, nearly a quarter of Seath's scales were consumed in black fire.
Meanwhile, as Seath thrashed to smother the flames, Lloyd casually pulled out a blood vial, poured it over his fireball-like head, and his health bar shot back to full.
When Seath finally stamped out the fire, he roared in fury, hurling dozens of Crystal Soul Spears at Lloyd's position.
But it was useless.
The spears were larger and their blast radius wider, but Lloyd knew them too well. He slipped between them effortlessly, almost leisurely, and even found the chance to slap another burst of black fire onto Seath—burning away yet another quarter of his scales.
Boom—
Seath roared again, whipping up a crystal storm that drove Lloyd back to range.
Then the dragon raised both claws and lifted its head. Above it, five blue spheres of light slowly coalesced.
They resembled Homing Crystal Soulmass—akin to the Carian Sword Array, if compared in terms of Elden Ring's sorceries.
But unlike Soulmass, the spheres didn't immediately seek Lloyd. Instead, they pulsed with power, glowing brighter and brighter.
And then—
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom—
Five Soul Streams erupted at once, like a chorus of dragon roars tearing across the battlefield.
But whether from lack of control over such immense power or by deliberate choice, the beams didn't all converge on Lloyd. Instead, they swept wildly, erratically, across the landscape.
Everywhere the streams passed, cursed crystals erupted from the ground, pulsing with Death Blight before detonating in massive, chain explosions.
"You think you've got five heads, huh?"
The black fire flared again, devouring yet another quarter of Seath's scales.
The dragon faltered. Panic crept into its movements—its claws slashed erratically, its attacks warped, some breaking entirely from the established laws of battle.
But Lloyd remained calm, fighting as he had from the beginning.
And after a long deadlock, he slowly raised his hand.
Boom—
The massive claw came crashing down again.
This time, it struck true. Yet it did not land completely as before.
Whoosh—
Beneath that colossal claw, a small figure raised his hands. Though the difference in size was absurd, the claw could not press forward another inch. In fact, it was even being pushed back—slowly, bit by bit.
Then, black flames ignited.
From the point where his palm met the claw, the fire spread like a raging wildfire, racing across Seath's body in an instant.
Seath howled, staggering backward. With the shattering of his final scales, another crystalline storm surged to life.
But this time, the storm engulfed not only the space around him, but the entire Liurnia of the Lakes.
Throwing back its head, the white dragon roared to the heavens. The world itself trembled, and every crystal responded to his call. The ground shook violently, the crystalline land creaking as though it could no longer bear the strain. From the distance, vast swaths of crystal and even the fabric of the world itself began to split apart.
All power rushed toward the white dragon's figure. Slowly, layer by layer, exaggerated magical scales began to form across his body, while within his mouth gathered a blue sphere heavy with the essence of destruction.
Lloyd did nothing to interrupt.
He merely stood where he was, put away his weapons, and slowly raised his hands.
It was a gesture.
One from the world of Dark Souls, an homage to the sun.
Praise the Sun.
That was its name.
But here, there was no sun.
It didn't matter.
Because the sun was about to rise.
Lloyd's head began to float upward.
Yes—his head, transformed into a Frenzied Flame sun.
It rose slowly, burning brighter and larger, swelling like a newborn sun on the horizon, radiating heat and light. But unlike any true sun, this one's core was black. Its yellow flames seethed with madness, and its flowing blackness reeked of despair.
This was no sun of any natural world. It brought no warmth, no comfort—only a sickly, terrifying presence, a sun of suffering and distortion.
And indeed, its very existence was never meant to bless anything.
It was born for one purpose alone: to destroy what stood before it.
The sun fell.
The moon rose.
In Seath's maw, crystallized magic condensed into a perfect full moon. He spat it forth, sending it crashing against the twisted sun.
The warped sun, the frozen moon.
The diseased fire, the crystallized souls.
As they collided, the world held its breath in silence.
And then—
Explosion.
Boom!
Restrictions shattered.
Crystals collapsed.
The twisted sun plummeted from the heavens, smashing the moon to pieces, scattering it into countless fragments. With endless malice, it continued its descent, swallowing the wailing white dragon beneath it. In an instant, Seath was consumed, turned into fuel for the frenzied sun.
The sun slammed into the ground, erupting in violent fire. The malignant star shattered the crystalline world in its entirety.
Boom!
[VICTORY ACHIEVED]
[Obtained Weapon: 'White Dragon Sword']
[White Dragon Sword]
[A longsword forged from the remains of an ancient white dragon]
[The blade is pure white, sheathed in crystalline scales]
[The scaleless ancient dragon yearned for scales]
[But even after a lifetime]
[All it could produce were inferior imitations]
[Exclusive Skill: Wrath of the White Ancient Dragon]
[Drive the blade into the ground, invoking the power of the dragon within]
[Summons a crystalline storm that explodes moments later]
[For a time afterward, increases magic damage and imbues attacks with curse effects]
[Special Effect: White Ancient Dragon]
[When wielded, increases magic damage by 15%. This bonus is calculated independently and stacks with all other boosts]
Its basic attacks are strong, its skill damage respectable, and the normal attacks are further empowered. Whether for clearing maps or boss fights, it's an excellent straight sword.
As for that last effect...
Put it this way: even if you stripped away its basic attacks and skill entirely, plenty of people would still keep it in their offhand forever, never taking it off.
An unconditional, stackable 15%.
Two talismans together only grant 12% bonus sorcery damage. This weapon alone surpasses both. Stronger than a sorcerer.
Oh—wait. Seath really was stronger than most sorcerers.
Never mind then.
After checking his new prize, Lloyd lifted his head.
Because when he delivered the finishing blow this time, he literally smashed his own head through the map. By the time he came back to his senses, he was already in the Roundtable Sanctuary.
Alice was still there, organizing the shelves. When she noticed him return to himself, she pointed toward a side door.
"It's over there."
Lloyd nodded, handed over the pages and books he had collected inside the dungeon, then walked to the door and pushed it open.
[White Dragon Research Institute]
It wasn't a special field—just a straightforward map, and not a large one.
Walking a little further, Lloyd saw a door labeled "Research Room." He pushed it open and found towering piles of books, along with crystalline soulstones of varying colors and properties scattered across the chamber.
Moving past the clutter and deeper inside, he came to a fork in the path. He picked one at random and continued forward, until he reached a room labeled "Bedroom."
The door wasn't locked, only ajar.
Considering it was someone's private quarters, Lloyd paused, then knocked.
No answer.
He knocked again.
This time, there was finally movement. After some rustling, a lazy voice called out.
"Come in~"
Lloyd pushed open the door. Inside, seated in a chair, was a female dragonkin figure dressed in pure white, stretching as though just awakened. Ash-gray scales covered its body, its long slender tail hung limply across the floor, and the eight wings on its back beat slowly.
Still groggy, it turned its head toward Lloyd after he entered and spoke in a languid tone.
"Ah... it's you..."
Boom—
Without warning, two lumps of filth hurtled through the air, slamming into the very spots where they had just been standing.
Both dodged instantly, then raised their heads to glare at each other, their expressions anything but friendly.
"You bastard... you should be dead."
"Scaleless beast."
"Dim-witted fool."
...
[Upto 20 chapters ahead for now]
[email protected]/BlurryDream