The throne of frost trembled.
A sound like stars cracking open echoed through the chamber as the colossal dragon stirred, scales glittering like shards of the night sky. Its eyes, veined with galaxies, blinked open—cold, radiant, alive.
And when they fell upon Nameless, the impossible happened. They widened.
"…You," the dragon breathed, its voice not merely sound but the toll of eternity itself, echoing in marrow and thought. "You are finally here. Or… am I still dreaming?"
Nameless stiffened, unease crawling along his spine. The sheer weight of the creature's gaze was suffocating, as if it looked not at him but through him—into something deeper he could not name.
The dragon's vast head lowered, lowering further, until its snout hovered just before him. The air shivered.
Then, to Nameless's bewilderment, the beast's luminous eyes softened.
The moment felt like a prayer.
"You're alive," it whispered, wonder bleeding through its thunderous voice. "After all this time."
Nameless swallowed hard. "You… know me?"
The dragon's chest rumbled with a laugh, vast and sorrowful, yet alive with disbelief. Its great eyes closed briefly, as if savoring a miracle it could scarcely trust.
"Know you? I am Tianlong Xuyuan, Celestial Wing of the Void Abyss. You—" the dragon's voice cracked with reverence, "—were my master, my brother-in-arms. My only companion when the heavens themselves turned their wrath upon you."
The Grandmaster stood still at the far end of the hall, his arms folded, his gaze sharp. He did not interrupt.
Nameless felt a chill cut deeper than the cold of the frozen throne. "I think you're mistaken. I don't remember you. I don't remember anything."
At this, Tianlong Xuyuan's breath shuddered out of him like a storm breaking. He closed his eyes, lowering his massive head further, so that his gleaming snout touched the stone at Nameless's feet.
"Incredible," the dragon whispered. "They carved even me from your memory." His gaze flared, cosmic flames burning in their depths. "Yes… I see it now. The gods have trapped you. Hollowed you out. But it wasn't enough. You stand here still."
Nameless clenched his jaw. "If you claim to have known me… then tell me how."
The dragon's laughter returned, sharper this time, echoing like cracking glaciers. He lifted his head, his body shimmering, his form flickering briefly into something half-human, half-shadow, wings spanning the hall like an eclipse.
"You do not recall the War of Ashen Skies? The day you slew the Three Primal Beasts? When you crushed the Serpent of the Dawn, the Phoenix of Eternal Flame, and the Behemoth of Earth's Spine—and then faced me?" His teeth gleamed, sharp and radiant. "But instead of killing me, you tamed me. You named me your wing, your shadow, your storm. From that day, I carried you across the heavens. Together, we burned their palaces, shattered their gates, and bled their divinity dry."
Nameless flinched. Images flickered unbidden in his mind—blood-red skies, flames, and wings that blotted the sun. His heart clenched in his chest.
"I don't…" he muttered, clutching at his temples. "…I don't remember."
The dragon's voice softened. "Because you told me to hide. You knew the gods would hunt me down. You commanded me to sleep beneath this mountain, to wait until your return." His voice cracked with something like grief. "And I waited. For centuries. For silence. For nothing. Until now."
Nameless staggered back a step, the weight of the words pressing on him like chains.
"They erased it," Tianlong Xuyuan said bitterly. "They took your victories. Your rebellion. Your bond with me. But not all. I feel it still—the tether. Do you not feel it too?"
Nameless froze.
There it was—faint but undeniable. A hum, a pull in his chest, resonating with the dragon's presence, as if some invisible thread stretched between them.
His breath caught.
Tianlong Xuyuan's voice lowered to a vow. "That is the oath we made, in fire and in blood. That I would be your wings until the end of all things."
The chamber was silent but for the pounding of Nameless's heart.
Finally, he forced out words. "And now? What do you want from me?"
The dragon's gaze locked on him, fierce and unyielding. "To tell you the story they buried. To remind you of what you were. To make you remember. But trust—" his eyes narrowed, glowing with cosmic fire, "—trust must be yours. For even I cannot swear my memory is untouched. If they twisted you, perhaps they twisted me as well."
Nameless's crimson eyes burned in the reflection of the dragon's abyssal gaze. "…Then tell me. Show me what I was. And I'll decide if I believe you."
Tianlong Xuyuan exhaled, frost blooming in the air like falling stars. Then his laughter boomed, vast and triumphant, shaking the frozen throne.
"Very well," he thundered. "Then let me tell you your story—not from the lips of gods or rulers, but from what you shared with me across endless nights of war. From the battles we fought, the skies we burned, and the vows we carved into blood and flame. From the day you stood against the great me… and won."
And as his voice rolled like thunder through the mountain, the ice itself seemed to shiver, as if even the world remembered that clash.
But then—
"Nameless!"
The cry pierced the frost.
Ryne stumbled into the chamber, breath sharp, her cloak heavy with ice. Yet where another mortal would have already collapsed, frozen lungs splintering like glass, she walked with stubborn defiance.
The Grandmaster was on her heels, wards flaring wildly, his expression a rare crack of fear. "Stop! Stupid child! You'll die here! No human breath survives this air—"
He halted.
Because Ryne was not dying.
Her steps rang steady against the throne's frozen glass. Her chest rose and fell, unbroken, her gaze burning as she moved closer. The cold recoiled from her as if the mountain itself dared not touch her.
Nameless turned, astonishment etched in his crimson eyes. "Ryne… how—"
But it was Tianlong Xuyuan whose silence thundered the loudest.
The dragon's vast body shivered. Stars rippled across his scales, constellations distorting as his colossal head reared back. His abyssal gaze fixed on Ryne—then widened, galaxies swirling with sudden, violent recognition.
"You—" The word tore from his throat, half-reverent, half-terrified. His jaws parted, the shape of a name ancient as the void curling on his tongue.
Ryne's eyes snapped to his.
And in them burned not defiance, not fear—but a warning. Something older than the dragon himself. A threat carried in silence, sharp enough to cut eternity.
The unspoken command hit Tianlong like a blade to the heart. He froze. His galaxies guttered, flaring and dimming in violent rhythm. The name died in his throat.
Nameless staggered, confusion carving lines into his face. "What is happening? What do you see?"
But Ryne did not answer. She only lowered her gaze, as if nothing had transpired, though the fire still lingered in her eyes.
The dragon inhaled sharply, the sound like glaciers fracturing. His voice, when it returned, was strained, layered with reverence and unease.
"What was i saying… Ah right... I will tell you what I know." His eyes slid to Nameless, though they never truly left Ryne. "Your battles. Your oaths. The truths the gods tore from your name."
A pause.
"But not all truths can be spoken here. Not all should."
His gaze flickered once more to Ryne, then fell away. The great beast—Tianlong Xuyuan, Celestial Wing of the Void Abyss—lowered his head, playing the part of loyal witness. Yet in the trembling light of his eyes, the truth was clear.
He knew her.
And for the first time since he had awakened, the dragon was afraid.
The dragon's gaze lingered on Nameless, then shifted, as if weighing the balance of silence and revelation. Its vast frame shimmered faintly, as though it were about to shed its monstrous form.
"Maybe I should not speak here," Tianlong Xuyuan rumbled. "If I take a human shape, I can walk beside you. There are places far from prying eyes where your past can be spoken freely. This hall is too thin with echoes. Too many watch."
Ryne stepped forward before Nameless could respond. Her smile was calm, almost pleasant, but her eyes carried an edge that cut sharper than the cold. "You speak as if the past belongs only to him alone now. If he is to know who he was, then I should hear it too. Don't you agree, Nameless??"
The dragon's gaze flickered, and for the briefest instant its great eyes widened—not at her words, but at her. Recognition. Alarm. It masked it quickly, lowering its head as though in respect. Yet Nameless saw the subtle tremor ripple through its scaled jaw.
And then it came. A voice in the dragon's mind, sharp as lightning across still skies. Ryne's voice, calm and merciless."You dare move, and I will reduce this mountain to ash. I am not what I was. But you still have to obey me now, and simply tell him what you know."
Tianlong Xuyuan's colossal body stiffened. A breath caught in its throat, its wings twitching in instinctive recoil. Nameless noticed, his eyes narrowing.
"Are you okay tianlong?," Nameless said slowly, suspicion threading through his voice. "Is something bothering you?"
"No," the dragon replied too quickly, then lowered its gaze, as if chastened by his own haste. A long, weary sigh rippled through the chamber. "No… nothing that should concern you."
It turned its great head back toward him, eyes heavy with memory. Frost clung to its teeth as it exhaled. "Very well. Then listen. Forget the shadows in this place, forget the silence of centuries. Just focus on what I tell you. For this is where your story begins."
The frozen throne room fell utterly still, waiting for the dragon to speak.