The blood-red warning lingered in Lin Z's vision long after he left the scorched arena.
It didn't fade like the others.
It stayed.
Scrappy perched on his shoulder, still covered in soot, occasionally letting out tiny sparks of heat like he was proud of himself. The crowd was gone now, the Colosseum emptying in uneasy whispers. Even the announcers had stopped speaking halfway through the final moments.
No one wanted to be the one to describe what just happened.
Lin Z walked through the stone corridors, his steps echoing.
"…Dragon Council," he muttered. "That sounds like a problem."
SYSTEM RESPONSE: Seeker Arrival ETA: 6 hours
Threat Level: UNKNOWN
Reason: Anomalous F-Rank entity exhibiting Rank-B combat adaptation
Scrappy sneezed again. A small burst of flame lit up the hallway.
Lin Z sighed. "Yeah. Definitely a problem."By the time Lin Z reached the lower districts, the atmosphere had changed.
People weren't cheering anymore.
They were watching.
Whispers followed him like shadows.
"That's him… the F-Rank kid…" "No way that tiny dragon beat Thorne…" "The Council is going to erase him…"
Even the merchants had stopped calling out deals.
Scrappy puffed his chest slightly, trying to look intimidating. Unfortunately, a small piece of ash fell off his nose mid-pose and ruined it.
Lin Z noticed everything.
Too many eyes.
Too much attention.
And worse too much silence.It happened when the sky dimmed.
Not sunset.
Something else.
A distortion folded through the air above the street like reality itself had been pinched between fingers.
Then it cracked open.
A figure stepped out.
No roar.
No dramatic entrance.
Just stillness.
He wore a long dark mantle lined with faint golden scales that didn't belong to any known beast. His presence didn't feel heavy it felt absolute, like the world had quietly agreed to make space for him.
The streets emptied instantly.
Even Scrappy stopped moving.
SYSTEM ALERT: Seeker-Class Entity Detected
Designation: "Veyl Kharon, Council Observer"
The man's eyes landed on Lin Z.
Not Scrappy.
Not the crowd.
Just Lin Z.
"So," the Seeker said calmly, his voice carrying without effort, "this is the anomaly."
Scrappy sneezed.
A tiny spark floated between them.
The Seeker didn't react.
He just watched it burn out in the air."You defeated a Rank-B tamer with an F-Rank beast," Veyl Kharon said.
It wasn't a question.
Lin Z didn't answer immediately. "He made it easy."
A faint pause.
Then, almost like curiosity slipping through a crack in stone
"No," the Seeker replied. "You did."
The air tightened.
Scrappy shifted slightly on Lin Z's shoulder.
Then
The Seeker raised one hand.
No weapon.
No spell circle.
Just a simple motion.
And reality reacted.
The shadows under Lin Z's feet began to crawl upward, forming a pressure that wasn't heat, wasn't force but judgment. Like the world itself was checking whether he should still be allowed to stand.
Scrappy's eyes flickered.
Something inside the tiny dragon clicked.
SYSTEM INTERRUPTION: UNREGISTERED RESPONSE DETECTED
Scrappy inhaled.
Not a sneeze this time.
A breath.
A deep, unstable pull of energy from the surrounding space.
Lin Z felt it immediately.
"Scrappy… don't
Too late.
The world flickered.
And for the first time since his arrival…
The System didn't predict the outcome.Veyl Kharon's expression changed for the first time.
"…That's not F-Rank."
Scrappy's tiny body glowed faintly wrongly like something inside him had remembered a shape it was never supposed to have.
And Lin Z realized something terrifying:
The Dragon Council didn't send a Seeker to judge him.
They sent one to find out why reality itself was starting to break when his dragon breathed.