"That's something I don't know," it said with a soft chuckle—not mocking me, but almost mocking itself.
As if it, too, was ashamed to admit there was something it couldn't understand.
"But I can theorize."
I waited, silent. That word—theorize—felt like a noose tightening.
"It could be your contradictory elements," it continued. "Light and darkness. Two forces that oppose and suppress each other. Both clawing to exist, but neither willing to yield."
A pause.
"Or... it might be something else entirely. Your souls. Your origin. I don't know."
It turned away slightly, as if even speaking it out loud disturbed it.
"But one thing is certain: you will not awaken those affinities by any conventional means.
Perhaps... not ever."
The words hit me like a hammer.
No affinity. No aura mastery. No power.
Just a broken body and a fractured soul.
How the hell am I supposed to survive in this world?
A world where power was everything.
Where even the weak needed an affinity to beg for their lives.
My hands trembled. My breath came short.
Why does this world want me dead?
I looked back at those eyes—ancient, calm, unreadable.
And then I spoke, not as a warrior or anomaly or cursed soul—but as a boy lost in a war he didn't choose.
"Then how?" I whispered.
"How can I awaken them? How can I use what's inside me?"
I didn't expect mercy. But I hoped.
He chuckled—low and dry—as if amused by the desperation in my voice.
Then he spoke.
"You're really lucky, Kael Thorne."
My breath caught.
He said my name.
I didn't expect that.
Not in a place like this. Not from a being like him.
"In this vast universe… where countless beings drift like dust across the stars… you found me. At the perfect moment."
His voice echoed in the silence, like an old memory being pulled from the dark.
"As if something guided you here."
I frowned. My thoughts flickered.
That feeling I had—back then.
Something had pulled me here.
Not just instinct. Not logic.
A call.
A pull from deep inside my bones.
Was that what he meant?
He stared at me, his eyes—those ancient, emotionless eyes—almost gleaming.
"I've been waiting here for a long, long time," he said quietly.
"Thousands of years. Waiting for eternal sleep. And in all that time… nothing. No one found me. Not even when they tried their hardest.
I remained hidden. Forgotten."
A bitter smile tugged at his unseen lips.
"And now, when I'm nothing but a shadow on the edge of death… you show up."
"As if to mock me."
His voice trembled—not with anger, but with something stranger. Hope? Bitterness? Regret?
"Or maybe… maybe you're the answer I've been waiting for."
I didn't understand. Not fully. He was rambling. Speaking of things I couldn't grasp.
But something about his voice—
The weight behind those words—
I couldn't look away.
Then he looked at me directly, and the air seemed to tighten.
"I can help you awaken your darkness element."
My heart skipped.
"But…"
He paused.
"It will be painful.
Very painful."
"Pain?"
I scoffed. My voice didn't tremble. Not this time.
"What is pain… in a world where you're born doomed?"
I looked him in the eyes, unflinching.
"What pain could possibly matter… when you know you're powerless? When your fate is already written and you're just crawling through the script like a rat in a maze?"
My fists clenched.
"I don't care if it hurts."
"I don't care if it destroys me."
He didn't speak. Just stared, unreadable.
"I've lived that worthless life already. Waiting. Hoping. Watching others rise while I'm shackled to the dirt."
My voice rose—quietly, but sharp as a blade.
"I refuse to keep breathing if all I can do is beg for mercy from the world."
A breath. Cold. Heavy. Certain.
"I'll carve my own fate."
"So tell me—what pain could ever stop me now?"
He looked at me—curious, maybe even impressed by my words.
But I didn't say them to impress him.
I said them because they were the truth.
Because they were my truth… and Kael's.
He gave a slight nod.
"Very well."
The moment those words left his mouth—
The world… broke.
The air shattered like glass.
Mana twisted into madness, raging like a beast unchained.
Everything around me stretched, bent, and morphed.
The darkness didn't swallow me—it knelt… and then it fled.
And what emerged from that void—
What I saw—
My eyes widened.
My body trembled.
My mind screamed for me to run.
But I couldn't.
I couldn't move.
My knees gave in. I collapsed, gasping. Blind. Deaf. Powerless.
An existence that shouldn't be seen by mortal eyes… was right in front of me.
And then—
Silence.
The pressure lifted.
My lungs opened.
I could breathe again.
And when I looked up…
I saw it.
A body so massive the tallest skyscrapers of my previous world would look like twigs beside it.
Shiny obsidian-black scales covered its form, each one etched with runes older than time.
Its wings stretched wide—vast enough to blot out the heavens.
A thick, spiked tail coiled behind it, crushing stone beneath its weight.
Two horns curved from its forehead like twin blades of night.
And its mouth…
Its mouth was a gaping abyss of serrated, jagged fangs—like the maw of a predator made to devour entire worlds.
But nothing compared to its eyes.
Those blood-red eyes locked onto me.
Ancient. Aware. Infinite.
And I knew.
I knew exactly who it was.
I had read about him in the novel.
Legends whispered his name with dread.
Children were warned about him in stories.
Noctharion
The name that even the strongest feared to speak aloud.
The Ancient Dragon of Darkness.
The bringer of extinction.
The one who turned entire kingdoms to ash with a single breath.
They said he was dead—slain by the First Rulers of the world.
Defeated and sealed in this very place.
But now…
Here he was.
Alive.
Awake.
And looking right at me.
"Why… how?"
That was the only question pounding in my mind.
How was he alive?
Noctharion the name alone was enough to freeze blood in the veins of even the strongest. He wasn't just a legend. He was the nightmare that haunted bedtime stories, the calamity parents whispered about when warning their children.
But he was supposed to be dead.
Defeated.
Erased from existence.
Even in the original timeline, Nochtaris was a name mentioned only in passing—an ancient terror vanquished by the first rulers of the world. A monster who died here, in this very place, thousands of year ago. The stories were clear: the mightiest heroes had faced him, fought to the death, and brought him down with them.
So why…
Why was he standing in front of me now?
The massive body covered in glistening, obsidian-black scales. The thick tail that stretched out like a river of shadows. The enormous wings, folded like curtains of night. Twin horns curled from his forehead like spears of void-forged steel, and his mouth... jagged, serrated, like it was built not just to tear, but to devour reality itself.
And those eyes—two glowing crimson abysses that seemed to look through me.
I trembled.
Not out of fear. Not entirely.
But because my entire understanding of this world, its history, and its fate… shattered in an instant.
They didn't kill him.
Those heroes, those legends—I now knew the truth.
They failed.
They died trying.
And now, the creature they failed to destroy was here, awake… staring straight at me.
He chuckled.
A low, echoing sound that rumbled through the air like distant thunder. His enormous form loomed above me, casting a shadow so vast it seemed to smother the world itself.
I couldn't see his full face—only those crimson eyes burning in the dark—but somehow, I knew he was smiling. A prideful, amused smile.
"So," he said, voice deep and ancient, "you know of me."
I forced myself to speak, though my throat was dry, and my mind screamed at me to run.
"Yes… Everyone knows about you."
I took a shaky breath.
"Nochtarion, the Dark Dragon. The Bringer of Destruction. The one who devoured the light itself."
He chuckled again, clearly entertained.
"Go on," he said. "What else do they say?"
I swallowed hard.
"That you were evil. That you destroyed everything in your path—cities, kingdoms, empires. That you spared no one. That you devoured all, drowned the world in shadows. That your madness corrupted the very mana around you… twisted it into something unnatural."
His wings twitched.
"And?"
"That's why the First Rulers gathered here. The mightiest of their kind—humans, elves, dwarves, beastfolk, even dragons. They united at this very place, the Morvath Vigil… and they fought you."
I looked up into the endless darkness above me.
"They said they killed you. That this place became your grave… and theirs."
Nochtarion was silent for a moment.
Then he laughed.
Not a chuckle this time—but a roar, so powerful the ground cracked and the air trembled.
"Kill me?" he roared, laughter rumbling like an earthquake.
"Those puny insects? They couldn't even look me in the eye—how could they possibly fight me?"
His voice shook the cavern, each word a booming drumbeat of fury and mockery.
I took a cautious step forward, curiosity burning hotter than fear.
"Then… what happened?" I asked.