Darkness cradled me.
My bones were dust.
My skin—torn.
My heart… silent.
And yet—
Something stirred.
A spark.
A flicker.
A whisper in the ashes.
> "You are not allowed to die yet."
> "You made a promise."
---
Awakening the Veil
My eyes opened—slowly.
Above me, trees twisted like blackened fingers. Smoke curled from broken leaves. My back screamed. Blood crusted across my mouth.
> I should be dead.
But instead—
My body began to glow.
Faintly, then brighter.
The pain in my shattered bones was replaced by heat.
Not burning.
Healing.
---
> "What… is this…?"
Veins across my skin lit up with glowing fire, not red—but blue.
Wounds began to close faster than before.
New skin formed over broken flesh.
> Regeneration… no. This isn't like before.
> It's something else.
---
My vision flashed.
In my mind, flames danced, curling into the shape of a bird—a majestic phoenix with wings spread across the sky.
Its feathers made of light and mana.
Its heart pulsing like a second sun.
A name appeared in my mind, like a voice from beyond.
> "Phoenix Veil – Regeneration Transcended."
---
> "It doesn't burn…"
> "I can control it…"
I stood, breath caught in awe. My skin shimmered with blue fire, yet nothing around me caught flame.
> "This is… my true power."
---
The Battlefield
And then I heard it.
> The roar.
Not human.
Not beast.
The Drake.
I shot my gaze toward the battlefield—and I saw it:
> My father, bloodied but defiant, cutting off the Drake's wing.
> The Drake falling. Recoiling.
And then—
> The Drake rising again.
His mouth pulsed with fire.
Mana crackled at his throat.
> "He's going to…!"
---
I ran.
My legs still weak, but healing with every breath.
The trees blurred past me as I sprinted through the wreckage.
But—
> "I'm too far…"
> "I won't make it in time…"
---
I clenched my fist.
The Phoenix Veil ignited across my arms.
> "Then I'll gamble it—everything!"
Without a second thought—
I drew on the fire within me. A flame orb gathered in my palm. At first, it shimmered red—
But then—
It turned blue.
Brighter than any magic I'd ever seen.
---
The orb crackled with impossible speed and energy.
I threw it—
> With all my might.
---
The forest wind howled as it tore through the sky—
A bolt of azure flame.
> Unseen.
> Unstoppable.
It screamed through the air, piercing the clouds, the wind bending around it.
And then—
> Impact.
---
The blue fire struck.
The sky was torn apart by the blast—blinding, wild, divine.
The Drake's aim twisted to the heavens, its breath of destruction unleashed harmlessly into the clouds.
For a moment, silence ruled.
Then—
> "WHO…?"
The Drake's voice trembled not from pain—
But from rage.
It turned its monstrous head, smoke trailing from its wounded face, one wing torn, one eye blinded by the divine flame.
Its remaining eye scoured the field.
Then—it saw me.
---
> Me. Still standing.
My body burned softly in a pale blue glow, skin mended by the Phoenix Veil, eyes locked with the beast's.
I stood at the edge of the ruined battlefield, far from the wall, between blackened trees and craters of bloodied stone.
> "You… should have died..."
"You… were erased..."
The Drake's lips twisted into a snarl.
> "IT WAS YOU!"
A roar unlike anything before shook the land.
Birds fled.
Clouds scattered.
The dead stirred.
---
The Monster Turns
The Drake's legs pounded the ground.
Trees splintered in its path.
It didn't care for the war anymore.
It didn't care about conquest or dominion.
> It only wanted me.
The monsters that still lingered—trolls, ogres, goblins, even wyverns—felt its fury and fled.
They rushed back into the forest, trampling one another in panic.
The battlefield was empty.
Except for two.
> A god of death.
> And a boy cloaked in blue fire.
---
The Drake snarled and lunged.
Its massive jaws opened wide—rows of fangs soaked in venom and rage.
It dove straight at me, faster than I expected for a beast that size.
> "Damn it—!"
There was no time to cast. No time to think.
I leapt backward—but not far enough.
> The Drake's mouth came down like a mountain.
My hand reached out—and grabbed something nearby.
> A massive mallet, still clenched in the lifeless hand of a fallen ogre.
> "Sorry, buddy. Borrowing this."
---
With a full spin, I slammed the mallet upward.
BOOM!
The metal crashed against the Drake's jaw, slamming it shut mid-lunge.
Its fangs scraped just past my head, missing by inches.
Its jaw snapped shut with a deafening crack as the mallet struck the hinge.
> "Tch—still too slow—!"
I ducked and rolled as the Drake twisted, swiping with its claw where I just stood.
The weight of its fury shook the earth.
But I was already moving.
> Blue fire trailed behind me like wings.
---
We stared at each other again.
Me: out of breath, heart pounding.
It: foaming, snarling, hunting.
> "Come on then..." I whispered.
> "You want to end me? Let's see who breaks first."
---
The wind howled.
Ash drifted through the sky like snow.
Across the battlefield scarred by magic and blood, only two figures remained:
> The one-winged Drake, its hatred seething through its breathless growls.
> And me, Alein Lunstein—bare-handed, bloodstained, holding only the cracked mallet of a fallen ogre.
My sword—
Shattered in the last clash.
My magic—
Barely stable.
But my fire—
Still burning.
---
I tossed the broken sword to the ground with a clatter.
> "Steel won't cut you," I said, raising the mallet with both hands.
"So I'll break you instead."
---
The Drake roared.
Its breath distorted the air.
> "You are alone, little prince."
> "No kingdom. No army. Just broken bones and foolish resolve."
I smiled, stepping forward, blue fire swirling around my feet.
> "You're wrong about one thing…"
> "I'm not alone."
> "Everyone who stood here… every knight, every soul I swore to protect—they're with me."
I raised the mallet.
> "And I'll carry all of them—into your skull."
---
The Clash Begins
The Drake lunged.
I moved first.
BOOM.
The ground shattered beneath my leap. The Phoenix Veil surged through my limbs, boosting my speed beyond human limits.
The Drake's claws swiped horizontally—fast, sharp.
I slid under it and smashed the mallet into its leg.
The impact cracked the scales and buckled its stance.
> "RAAGH!"
The Drake countered, tail whipping like a battering ram.
CRACK!
It slammed me across the ribs—I flew, rolled, gasped—
> But stood again.
> I would not fall.
---Blow for Blow
The Drake spewed a cone of flame—I dashed through it, my Phoenix Veil parting the fire like a divine shield.
I jumped and slammed the mallet down on its head.
> BOOM!
Its skull cratered slightly.
It roared, snapping its teeth at my throat.
I twisted and planted the mallet's shaft between its jaws, stopping the bite.
It threw me off.
I skidded across the dirt, armor scorched.
---
The Drake flew up—barely, with one wing—and dived like a meteor.
I ran forward, not back.
> "Let's end this."
---
The fire had faded.
The monsters were gone.
And the world narrowed—
To just me and the Drake.
---
It towered above me.
Burning with hatred.
Crimson light dripping from its teeth.
Its one remaining wing snapped, its eye bleeding—but its wrath had never been stronger.
Me?
I was broken.
One leg bruised. My side torn.
Blue fire flickering weakly around me.
And in my hands—
Only a half-shattered ogre's mallet.
But I was still standing.
---
> "No blade can pierce you," I whispered.
"So I'll carve you into history with something even stronger…"
> "My will."
---
The Drake hissed.
> "Why do you fight, little prince?"
> "Your death will be meaningless."
I stepped forward, dragging the heavy mallet.
> "No."
"It'll be remembered."
---
The Final Charge
The Drake spread its ruined wing and charged, teeth wide, ready to devour me whole.
But I ran too.
Straight at it.
The battlefield vanished behind us.
There was no kingdom, no castle, no sky.
Only the sound of a prince charging death.
---
The Phoenix Veil ignited one last time—
Blue fire surged across my back like wings.
I leapt—
Higher than ever before—
The mallet raised with both hands, glowing like the heavens.
> "FOR AIRILLESTA!!"
---
The Strike
Time slowed.
The Drake roared, lunging up to swallow me midair.
And then—
> I fell from the sky.
> Like a comet.
> Like a judgement.
> Like a star made flesh.
> And I struck.
The mallet crashed into its skull—
Right between its ancient horns.
> CRACKKKKKK!!!
Bone split.
Flame burst.
The shockwave shook the sky.
---
The Drake collapsed—
Its body slammed into the earth, its roars broken, its flame extinguished.
Smoke billowed from its mouth.
Its claw twitched…
Once.
Then fell still.
---
I landed beside it, one knee in the mud.
Breathing hard.
Burning.
Bleeding.
Alive.
---
Behind me, the soldiers on the wall stared.
Silent.
Then—
A roar of human voices.
> "HE DID IT—!!"
"THE DRAKE IS DOWN!!"
"THE PRINCE—THE PRINCE STRUCK IT DOWN!!"
---
And thus—
Alein von Lunstein, the forgotten fifth prince,
The "useless one"…
The boy reborn in fire…
> Became the Dragon Breaker.
---