Ancient dragons—the apex of this world's primordial life.
When you speak of such a terrifying species, what's the first thing people picture?
A colossal body that blots out the sky, radiating overwhelming majesty?
Dragon Language Arcana—vast and mysterious, the thing countless Arcana Mages would kill to learn?
Neither.
Plenty of beings have bodies just as vast. Some sky-propping titans are even larger than ancient dragons. And Dragon Language Arcana is indeed among the oldest, most primal mysteries—but elves, dwarves, other primordial races, and even the continent's current "true rulers," those terrifying two-legged apes, all have their own pride.
What people remember—what they envy—and what cannot be imitated…
Is a Dragon's Breath.
With nothing but an inhale and an exhale, an ancient dragon can seize the unruly mana of heaven and earth and make it its own, then spit out an elemental torrent that rivals other races' forbidden spells.
More importantly—
That elemental spit is just so damn convenient.
Fast damage. Low cost. Huge area. Different colored dragons have different breath attributes. You can even mix in your power to force a qualitative change—making it absurdly hard to counter.
Dwarves need a thousand master craftsmen hammering out a god-slaying weapon for thousands of days. An ancient dragon needs one breath.
Clerics spend days offering rites before they can even begin a ritual. You take one breath.
Elves? Don't even start—corrosive poison breath, scorching fire breath, freezing ice-dragon breath… any of them are the pointy-ears' worst nightmare.
Only the titans—supposedly all "saints of the flesh," bodies perfected—can truly wrestle ancient dragons on equal terms.
When ancient dragons fight other races, it usually goes like this:
The other side puts on a whole circus—targeted anti-dragon forbidden spells, specialized dragon-slaying weapons—barely getting started…
And then the ancient dragon gets bored, takes off, and sweeps the ground with dragon breath.
If there are survivors?
It breathes again.
We dragons are just that cracked!
The emperors of Zijinghua, as bearers of ancient dragon blessings, naturally shared in that privilege. Aside from Lily—an oddball whose swordsmanship eclipsed her breath advantage—dragon-breath techniques had always been the signature trump card of Zijinghua's royalties across the generations.
Of course, there was one exception.
Linen.
As the unprecedented "confirmed zero" descendant of a dragonblood House, Linen was born without awakening any dragonblood at all—and without the blessing of any ancient dragon.
Which meant he could never be a dragon-breath "player with moves."
But tonight, Linen was different.
Because tonight, a man with no dragonblood carried the blessings of two unprecedented, magnificent female monarchs.
One was Lily—the First Emperor of Zijinghua, and the sole bearer of the Holy Light Dragon blessing.
The other was Zijinghua's "only" female sovereign in history—
Empress Tivira Norton.
Not only could he use dragon breath—
He could mutate it.
A blazing, dragon-shaped torrent tore through the night like a meteor climbing into the heavens, setting the battlefield ablaze.
Linen's dragon was about to ram straight through Mordiana's shadow singularity—
Hard.
If he could destroy the singularity and stop the Shadow Realm's Mana Spirits from flooding into reality, Mother would finally have the breathing room to properly clash with this young Ring-bearer.
The outcome wasn't decided yet!
Mordiana—I'm the one who breaks you!
And then, something no one expected happened.
The singularity in the sky—still vomiting shadows and Mana Spirit creatures—suddenly shuddered violently.
And before Linen's dragon breath even arrived—
It cracked.
Literally cracked.
The shadow singularity split into two.
"Shadow Realm Arcana!"
Lily swallowed the complaints she'd been about to throw at Linen for hiding even this from her. She recognized the bizarre Arcana at a glance.
Beyond using the Shadow Arcana's power, creating "shadows" was also Shadow Arcana's specialty. This wasn't some profound technique—just a crude split-body. It could only mimic the original's appearance and would collapse the moment it was touched.
It wasn't even that Mordiana had turned her gaze here again. This was merely a pre-set trigger spell.
In the eyes of true powerhouses, it was a petty trick—something Mordiana might've cast casually, never expecting it to matter.
But for Linen, in this moment, it became a lethal variable.
Mother's blessing wasn't infinite. The dragon breath strong enough to destroy a singularity had already eaten most of what Linen had. As the heroic spirit lodged within him, Lily knew with certainty—
Linen couldn't fire a second breath with enough power to destroy a singularity.
"No choice—we gamble!" Lily shouted. "Linen, hit the right singularity!"
Linen gritted his teeth—
And as he committed, the badge on his chest suddenly vibrated violently. A low, hoarse voice sounded.
"Linen Norton, trust me. Don't hit either singularity. Aim your dragonfire between them!"
"Teresia…"
"Trust me!"
"…Understood."
There was no time left to hesitate.
The breath surged faster, spiraling skyward—Red Dragon Breath laced with holy light. It didn't target either split singularity.
It drove straight through the space between them, until it struck the altered "ceiling" of the Shadow World itself.
"Missed?!"
On the castle wall, soldiers who were still fighting back erupted into a massive cheer when they saw His Highness Linen unleash House Norton's ancestral secret art—Dragonfire—as the deciding blow.
Compared to that suspiciously sourced heroic spirit girl, dragonfire—the emblem of House Norton's glory—was a thousand times more inspiring.
But then…
They watched the breath pass between the singularities without touching either, splashing against the dome like a pebble tossed into a pond—kicking up only a few ripples.
Despair swallowed everyone.
Novie silently tied the Holy Sword to her right hand with cloth strips. Elena and Hysteria exchanged a look, making a decision. The three priests bowed their heads, murmuring what might be the last scripture of their lives.
Then—
Blinding light exploded, centered on a point between the two singularities.
It was like an invisible star igniting in midair—and then detonating.
The heat and brilliance turned the castle's canopy of night inside the barrier into broad daylight. Even Mana Spirits, whose minds held nothing but madness, lifted their heads to stare, their blood-red eyes filled with something almost human: disbelief.
The Shadow Realm's material flow into reality…
Stopped.
Linen hadn't struck either singularity.
But the Shadow Realm's "singularity" was, undeniably, broken.
"It worked—His Highness did it!"
After a long, stunned silence, someone shouted first on the wall.
Then everyone roared.
They cheered for the lone figure standing beneath the heart of that light.
Even inside the castle, the nobles Quinn had herded into shelters couldn't help looking up, confused, staring at the sudden radiance that had appeared in the night sky.
In the Shadow Knights' temporary command post, Quinn's profile was lit by the light outside the window. The Silver Dragon Princess's blessed eyes found the solitary figure beneath the blast's core at once, and she smiled.
"So that brat… actually did pretty well."
Outside the now-cleared grand hall, Reinhardt, Duke of the North, stood in the shadow by the doors, both hands braced on his massive greatsword. His expression was unreadable.
Inside the hall, Her Majesty—who had been pouring every shred of focus into maintaining the barrier—finally opened her eyes. A faint smile touched her lips as she looked toward the entrance.
...
"The long night has passed. Can dawn be far behind?"
Father Moden murmured the scripture's line, voice devout.
"But the darkness before dawn often outweighs the whole night."
Father Eris's voice was calm. Father Anel said nothing, compassionate eyes locked on the distant figure.
The singularity had been destroyed. Shadow Queen Mordiana's greatest trump card had failed.
But the experienced Cardinals didn't rush to celebrate—because the greatest contributor tonight, that young prince, still hadn't returned.
And the violent, arrogant Shadow Queen who had led a shadow legion to wage war against Zijinghua's upper echelon with her own two hands—
Her whereabouts were unknown.
Also...
What the hell was His Highness doing out there right now?
...
From afar, Linen was bent over, pacing back and forth as if he'd dropped something and was searching for it.
And the Mana Spirit legion—once fearless to the point of madness—now showed a terror beyond death itself. Each time Linen stepped closer, the Mana Spirits retreated in perfect unison.
The scene was almost comical.
Linen wasn't thinking about any of that.
As a cautious player, his first instinct wasn't celebration.
It was suspicion.
That's it?
Standing directly beneath the blast, Linen had witnessed the whole process.
He'd seen that what truly detonated wasn't either singularity, but the space between them—where a flying Mana Spirit had been.
That Mana Spirit seemed pinned in place by some force, its body carved with a strange brand.
The dragonfire incinerated it. Then the brand—now without a host—detonated instantly, and the "singularity" dissolved with it.
Or rather...
From the beginning, the sludge-leaking shadow singularity had been a smokescreen. The real "anchor" had been the bound Mana Spirit—and the bizarre brand on its body.
So while nearby Mana Spirits were still too shaken by the blast to approach, Linen began searching the battlefield.
"Why aren't you hurrying back to your companions? What are you doing?" Teresia's puzzled voice sounded.
"Can't you tell?" Linen said. "Ah—found it."
He reached into a pile of corpses charred by dragon breath and pulled out the branded Mana Spirit's body, scanning the strange pattern carved into it.
Teresia sneered.
"So that's it. You're coveting the forbidden art that summons shadows. Of course—Arcana Mages are all cut from the same black cloth."
"I am interested," Linen said mildly, tossing the corpse aside. "But you've misunderstood me."
Then Lily popped out cheerfully, perfectly in sync with him. Following her "master's" instructions, she blasted the corpse with the last of her holy light, then pulled out a bottle of blessed holy water and splashed it around like disinfectant, chanting under her breath.
Ever since leaving the Holy Trial space, everything outside felt new to her.
"What are you doing?" Teresia asked.
"Can't you tell?" Linen replied. "I'm making sure it's dead."
"Holy light to finish it off, holy water to burn-test it isn't playing dead—but why is your heroic spirit reciting the Holy Light Canon?"
This time, even Teresia didn't know what to make of it.
"Just in case Mordiana has some necromancy nonsense that could make it serve as a singularity again," Linen said matter-of-factly. "Better to be safe. Give it a proper send-off."
Teresia's mouth twitched.
…That actually made sense.
This prince clearly had a mountain of trump cards, and yet he was absurdly cautious.
"Also," Linen added, "when Lily is chanting scripture, she won't hover by my side, and she won't hear our conversation. After she finishes, that won't be true. So if you have something to say—something to ask—do it now."
Teresia hummed, biting her lower lip as realization hit her.
Shouldn't he be the one asking why she knew Mordiana's spell's weakness?
How had this turned into her questioning him?
Still, she did have something she was curious about.
"Just now, your heroic spirit said dragonfire was your last resort. That can't be true."
After a brief hesitation, Linen nodded.
"I prepared five layers of struggle. Who knew we'd only reached the third before the singularity broke. Thanks to your warning, I saved myself a lot of effort."
"…"
Teresia suddenly felt that not continuing to run—and instead provoking this guy back then—had been the right decision.
"You're staying out here. Aren't you afraid Mordiana will get furious and kill you?"
"Are you worried about me, Miss Teresia?" Linen smiled.
"If she wanted to, I would've been dead the instant I reached her singularity. The fact that I'm still breathing means her attention is elsewhere."
"And you aren't even curious why I know her spell's weakness?" Teresia pressed. If she didn't say it now, the topic might actually pass.
"If you want to tell me," Linen said evenly, as if it didn't matter.
Teresia laughed low.
That calm, courteous composure—she'd spent long enough with Linen to know it well. But under that gentle exterior was incomparable pride and arrogance.
Not like Mordiana or Princess Hysteria's surface-level haughtiness.
Linen's arrogance lived in his marrow, in every polished word and graceful gesture.
Because nothing about you could stir his interest.
The kinder and more polite he was, the more thoroughly he displayed that bone-deep contempt.
Compared to him, Mordiana was practically a shrieking fishwife.
In that instant, Teresia felt something loosen inside her.
Maybe only a tyrant with this kind of arrogance could make that arrogant, damned thing pay a price.
Maybe her imprisonment—maybe even their meeting—had all been for this moment.
Teresia laughed.
Then she laughed harder.
She was practically bellowing.
"Miss Teresia… are you all right?" Linen frowned at last, offering his prisoner a trace of concern.
"Hahaha! I'm great, Your Highness Linen. You want to know why I know that spell's weakness? Fine. I'll tell you."
She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, then grabbed her collar with her right hand and yanked.
Fabric ripped.
Linen's brow lifted slightly.
They'd spent days and nights together, yet both of them were careful about privacy—even their wash times were deliberately staggered. What she was doing now caught him off guard.
But he understood the moment he saw.
Teresia hugged her chest with her left arm to prevent any accidental exposure, but Linen wasn't looking there anyway.
His gaze locked onto the mark beneath her delicate collarbone—
A brand that looked embedded into her skin.
The exact same brand as the Mana Spirit corpse that had served as the Shadow World's "singularity."
"Your Highness Linen," Teresia said softly, eyes dark with something sharp, "you seem to know my past. You even know the first Mana Spirit I killed with my own hands was my father—someone who once couldn't even tie up a chicken, but went mad chasing power, an Arcana Mage."
She paused, hatred trembling at the brink of her voice.
"And you know the Tower of Chronomancy gave him the forbidden art that remade Mana Spirits. So do you know who gave an incompetent nobody—someone whose 'spells' were nothing but cheap stage tricks—the forbidden art that can turn living people into Mana Spirits?"
Linen was silent for a moment.
Looking at Teresia's clenched teeth and the hatred nearly spilling from her eyes, the answer felt self-evident.
"A few minutes ago, I didn't know either," Teresia said, a bitter smile tugging at her lips. "Not until I saw that monster hidden in the sky. Then I realized…"
"I'm the same as it is."
"Just another test subject—one of many—for some great being chasing the ROOT."
Her smile turned mocking, almost tender with self-loathing.
"Mordiana."
"What an honor. My true enemy… is a Ring-bearer."
Linen could only answer with silence.
"Linen Norton." Teresia's voice lowered, a laugh like a knife. "Let's make a deal."
"I know you won't let me go. So in exchange… help me get revenge."
Linen frowned, about to speak—only for her to cut him off sharply.
"I know what you're going to say. You don't do anything without profit. So I brought you profit."
"She's right in front of you."
Linen looked at the only "candidate" in front of him. In the magical screen, Teresia smiled sweetly.
"You guessed it." She tapped the tip of her nose.
"The payment is right here. Remember my first Arcana attribute—Mind."
"I'll be honest with you. I'm already close to the Fourth Ring. I can use a Fourth-Ring mind spell—Brainwashing."
Linen had heard of it: a spell with harsh limitations. If the target resisted strongly, the effect would be sharply weakened.
But if the target didn't resist at all…
Then it became disgustingly powerful—strong enough to rewrite the victim's thinking outright.
Teresia's meaning was obvious.
"You get it!" Teresia burst into laughter.
"If you agree to help me get revenge, I'll use Brainwashing on myself."
"Then you'll have a perfect Teresia—absolutely loyal to you. Obedient to your every whim. A Teresia who will never refuse any of your demands."
"If you say yes…"
"I will offer you—"
"Loyalty."
Linen fell silent for a moment.
The worst-case scenario had arrived.
Mordiana had abandoned the shadow singularity because she was off doing something she valued even more.
And Teresia's enemy was that Shadow Queen—the master of this Mana Spirit calamity.
Everything… connected.
For Linen, though, it was a connection that made his life harder.
And Teresia was repaying kindness with betrayal.
Staring at the assassin girl—usually proud even in captivity—now forcing a flattering smile, tears trembling in her eyes, while sickly madness and twisted hatred threatened to spill out of her…
Linen felt his answer could only be one.
"Sorry, Miss Teresia."
"I refuse."
"Huh…?"
In an instant, every expression on Teresia's face froze solid.
---
T/N: obviously he refuses! how is he gonna farm rejection points of you if your 100% loyal! tsk stupid girl, anyway wow so thats nasuverse, lets say skyrim, arcana is part of the weave so dnd heheh thats alot
anyway do you guys prefer dragonfire or dragonbreath actually idc ill just flip flop between them but when its an attack its dragonfire fuck you
bonus chaps
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300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
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