The winds of the Sen Forest carried the scent of smoldering fire as everyone stood in awe before the majestic presence of the Red Dragon.
Vera Rojo was more than just a fighter
she was the very embodiment of pride.
She stood in her orange, flower-adorned cloak, her tiger-like eyes blazing with a mysterious red flame.
She glanced at her brother, Zalza, lying behind Karsa, his face disfigured, then turned her gaze to Karsa with chilling political coldness.
"Human," Vera said in a measured voice, tinged with menace, "it seems you lack wisdom as much as you possess strength.
Striking a prince of the Red Dragon Tribe is not a mere skirmish
it is a declaration of war that will compel my father, Rojovaz, to burn entire cities to the ground to restore his honor.
Do you realize the magnitude of the catastrophe you have brought upon your race?"
Karsa remained motionless, his gaze fixed upon her with golden eyes that resembled two black holes in the heart of the sun.
With a sudden movement, he released Zalza's grip, sending the latter tumbling to the ground, groaning and uttering incomprehensible words: "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
Karsa took a single step forward, a step that made the ground beneath Johnny and Alya's feet tremble inexplicably.
He stood directly before Vera, disregarding all protocols of fear, and said in a deep, calm voice: "You have spoken at length about honor and politics... If your father's honor demands blood, then here I am. Draw your sword and kill me now."
A profound silence fell. Alya, the gentle nun, clasped her hand to her chest, trembling, and whispered: "(Oh, Goddess of Love... Is this man seeking death? Or is he testing the wrath of dragons?)"
Johnny Morse's smile faltered slightly, and his eyes narrowed with murderous curiosity as he thought: "(Vera... it seems you are about to witness something momentous today.)"
Vera sighed heavily, a hint of disdain creeping across her face. "You're asking for death because you know you can't escape your fate."
She placed her hand on the hilt of her short, red sword, determined to end this arrogant human's life in one swift motion.
But the moment she tried to draw the blade, the unexpected happened.
Vera's muscles froze.
A chill ran through her spine.
Her dragon-like instinct, that innate insight she'd inherited from millennia ago, screamed in every cell of her body: "Back off!"
Her sword felt as heavy as mountains, and the forest air felt as thick as molten metal.
Her body, which had never known fear, refused to move, not out of fear of death, but because her soul sensed that the man before her was not merely an equal, but a being too distant...
Cold beads of sweat trickled down her forehead, and her tiger-like eyes widened in disbelief as she grasped the bitter truth
her sword would never be drawn in this man's presence. Breath grew heavy in the forest, and Vera Rojo was battling something deeper than fear.
She was fighting her dragon-like pride, which was beginning to crumble before Karsa's silence.
"My body...refuses? I am the daughter of Rochovaz...King of the Red Dragons! How can my royal blood tremble before a mere mortal?!"
Vera cried out in fury, taking a step back, the veins in her face nearly bursting.
Karsa made no sound. He calmly bent down to place the trembling Zalza on the ground, then looked at her with cold, golden eyes. "If your body knows the truth," he said, "why does your soul insist on ignorance? Kill me if you can."
Vera went mad. She resolved to break free from the constraints of her instinct by force.
She let out a scream that pierced the heavens, and her Sani organ began pumping oxygen atoms at a frenzied rate.
Her body swelled, her orange cloak tore away, revealing stiff red scales. In an instant,
she transformed into a colossal red dragon whose wings ripped through the surrounding trees, turning the landscape into a scene of devastation.
Karsa sighed deeply, as if the sight held no appeal for him.
Slowly, he reached for his waist and drew his only weapon an ancient Ottoman sword, broken in half.
Johnny Morse (Guardian of the South) stared wide-eyed, hissing incredulity, "(That sword... the one passed down among the generals of the Great Sun Empire? Why is he brandishing it in front of Vera?)"
Vera sneered with a dragon-like laugh that shook the earth. "A broken sword? I'll burn you and your worthless weapon in the inferno of my breath!"
Vera opened her mouth, and a condensation of heat coalesced into a massive fireball which she hurled directly at Karsa. But before the flames arrived,
Alia (the nun) lunged forward, her weary body trembling. She raised her twelve-star necklace, crying out with all her remaining strength, "In the name of the goddess of love, Tesna... protect your servants!"
A translucent pink shield formed, barely deflecting the dragon's flames. Alia staggered, collapsing to her knees, blood streaming from her nose, but she didn't flinch.
Vera stopped breathing and looked at Alia with a mixture of contempt and bewilderment. "Why? My brother, Zalza, tried to harm and enslave you just minutes ago, and this human doesn't care about you... why are you sacrificing your life to protect them?"
Alia raised her head with a faint, serene smile. "In my faith, the goddess of love taught us to repay evil with good... strength lies not in killing, but in the capacity to forgive."
Firea's eyes narrowed, as if mocking this logic: "Mere mortals... I'll start with you then—"
Fira didn't finish her sentence. In a flash, Karsa moved.
No one saw him move, but suddenly he was hovering in the air at dragon-head level.
With a single strike of his broken sword, he unleashed a golden pressure wave that slammed Firea dozens of meters back.
Fira tried to regain her balance while flying, opening her mouth to release her last "dragon breath" with all her might,
but Karsa, with a swift movement of his broken sword, cleaved the dragon's flames in two as if tearing through a silk curtain,
then shot down like lightning and struck the top of her head with nothing but the scabbard of his sword.
Fira's flames were instantly extinguished, and the red gleam in her eyes went out.
The great dragon's body crashed to the ground with a deafening thud,
and she slowly reverted to her human form, completely unconscious.
Karsa stood over her lifeless body, calmly returning his broken sword to its scabbard, saying in a low voice: "There is always a sky above a sky ... daughter of the dragon."