Recognizing the intruder, the tension in my body eased—only slightly.
“Enjoying yourself?” the yellow dragon asked, amusement dripping from his tone.
“Spit it out,” I demanded, extending my remaining arm.
“Mmm.”
Instead of complying, he rolled the severed limb around in his mouth like a delicacy, savoring every second before spitting it at my feet with disgust on his face.
Disgusting.
I crouched and retrieved the spit-soaked arm, never once taking my eyes off him.
<Water>
Water gathered into a thin, shimmering sphere, enveloping the broken hand.
“Why are you here?” I snarled, the pain sharpening my temper.
“So,” he said, ignoring the question entirely, “you finally got your claws on the polymorph spell you’ve been drooling over.”
Mock admiration laced every word.
“No thanks to you.”
A soft chuckle escaped him.
Light rippled across his golden scales. Bones cracked and shifted, wings folding inward as flesh reshaped itself. Within moments, the towering dragon was gone.
In his place stood a humanoid figure my height. Yellow eyes burned like molten gold in the cave’s darkness.
All just to rub it in.
<Inspect>
I cast the spell as subtly as possible, careful not to alert him.
Name: Dareth Duskbinder
Species: Dragon
Attribute: Fate
Age: 250
Mana: 490
Aura: 0
Prana: 0
As I stared at the numbers, one thought eclipsed all others.
He’s grown stronger. Far stronger than the last time I saw him.
Dareth Duskbinder.
Nicknamed the Queen’s pet — her “amusing toy.”
To me, he was a nightmare I had hoped never to encounter again.
“Why are you here?” I asked once more, my voice lower now. Cautious.
After crossing half the world to live in solitude, this fate-twisted psycho still managed to find me.
In days.
“Me?” He placed a hand over his chest, feigning hurt. Then he sauntered toward the pond.
“Oh, nothing special. Just checking on my favorite dragon.” He leaned forward, admiring his reflection in the water.
I narrowed my eyes. “Favorite? Last I checked, we’re closer to strangers.”
I’d met him only twice in my entire life.
Unless he’d been peeking into my future with that cursed ability of his.
“Still as slow-witted as ever,” he said, pity dripping from his voice.
So he had been peeking.
“What do you want?” I asked again, forcing the words through clenched teeth.
Beings like him don’t cross half the world to visit a nobody for no reason. Either he wanted something from me… or he is scheming something.
Both options spelled trouble.
“You can think of it as a friend visiting his friend’s new home.”
“Is that so.”
Yeah. Right.
“Hm… I did bring a housewarming gift.” He reached beneath a lifted scale on his chest and pulled out a purple crystal, once again ignoring everything I’d just said.
Don’t tell me—
“You were there?!” The realization hit like a blow.
When I fled the battlefield, I hadn’t gone straight into hiding. I’d made a detour — tempted by the unguarded Dragon Queen’s treasury. I’d reached the vault.
And then I’d chickened out.
That crystal was one of the runes I’d seen inside.
I stared at Dareth’s smiling face as the initial shock settled into something colder.
“Of course I was,” he said casually. “Watching you argue with yourself over whether to risk it was quite entertaining. Especially when you started agonizing over whether to take this.”
He lifted the crystal to eye level, letting it catch the light.
“In the end, you made the right choice not to touch anything. One wrong move, and you’d be dead.”
Argh… I should stay away from the mainland until every monster meddling in fate and time magic is wiped out.
“Here. Catch.”
He tossed the crystal.
I caught it on instinct, staring at him as confusion flickered across my face.
“…”
“…”
“Did you steal it?” I asked.
“No. I don’t particularly have a death wish.” He shrugged. “I requested a copy from the Queen while she was still alive. No guards. No tracking. You’re safe.”
“I see…”
A copy? Who is he trying to fool? Attribute catalysts are rare for a reason— producing even one is a monumental undertaking.
I should reject it.
Instead, I shifted my focus to the crystal and poured mana into it, carefully probing its contents.
“Gravity magic?” I muttered, squinting as I deciphered the rune’s attribute.
This is far too tempting.
Should I refuse?
Silence stretched between us.
“So,” I said at last, meeting his gaze, “what do you want in exchange?”
“Like I said—it’s a gift. From me to you.”
Does he really think that little of me? That I’d fall for this?
“…”
“…”
“A gift?” I scoffed. “From you? The one who wouldn’t share a simple polymorph spell with me—no matter how much I begged?”
A faint smile tugged at his lips.
“Alright, alright. I do need a favor.”
Hm. Let him play.
“I want you to help me resurrect the Queen.”
“…”
“…”
“No.”
I tossed the crystal back to him.
“I’m not suicidal.”
Does he even believe what he’s saying?
Resurrect the Queen? He might be stronger than me, but in the end, we’re both scraping the bottom of the dragon hierarchy.
At least make the favor believable—if you expect me to entertain it.
“Is that so?” he asked, his expression unreadable.
“Tell me,” he said, holding my gaze, “did you know the Troll King—the one who supposedly killed the Queen—was later hunted down and slain by the Elder Dragons?”
“…No,” I admitted. That was news to me.
“Don’t you find it strange,” he continued, “that a creature powerful enough to be hunted by Elders managed to kill the Queen in the first place?”
“No.” I frowned. “Why would I care about someone who’s basically a stranger to me?”
“I think it was planned,” he said quietly, ignoring me. “Doesn’t that make you curious?”
Absolutely not. I don’t even want to know.
“We should stop this here, Dareth,” I said firmly. “No matter what you say, I’m not interested.”
“Not even curious?”
He was starting to irritate me. Even entertaining a discussion like this—digging into matters far beyond our station—is dangerous.
“Dareth, shut up,” I snapped. “Face it. You and I? We’re nothing when it comes to real power. So act like it.”
I stepped forward, my voice hardening.
“What you should be worried about is your own survival. Now that the Queen is dead, do you honestly think you’re safe?”
“There’s going to be a war for the throne,” I continued, pointing at him. “And you? You should already be in hiding.”
With the Queen gone, only one faction remained without a powerful dragon at its helm — her former male pets.
Walking reservoirs of power.
Ripe for harvesting before the real conflict even began.
My eyes narrowed.
“They’ll hunt you. All of you. And why wouldn’t they? Devouring a dragon’s heart is far easier than scouring the world for catalysts and spending decades mastering new runes.”
As for me… I fall into the category of a defect. Harmless. Forgettable. Safe — so long as I stay out of the sight of opportunistic bottom-feeders.
In fact, this very meeting is a risk. If any dragon capable of peering into fate so much as glances in Dareth’s direction, I become collateral damage.
And that is not an unlikely outcome.
“So take my advice,” I said coldly. “Stop digging into things that will get you killed and start planning how to disappear — before you regret it.”
“Well,” Dareth said at last, breaking the silence, “I do have my reasons.”
“…”
“…”
“So, that’s a rejection?”
After a long pause, he tossed the crystal back toward me.
“Here. Catch.”
I caught it automatically.
“…?”
“Consider it a housewarming gift.”
He turned and walked toward the cave entrance.
“I hope you enjoy your life,” he added, his voice threaded with quiet menace, “while you still can.”
Light flared around him as his body expanded, scales erupting across his skin. In a blink, he returned to his true form and shot into the sky.
Silence swallowed the cavern.
“….”
That bastard is definitely up to something..
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