2025-12-15 20:36:49The floating bench swayed gently under them like a boat on quiet water. Old Man Kael sat with one elbow on the table, scarred hand rubbing his chin, staring at the torn-out page as if it had personally insulted his entire bloodline.
“Who might have done this…?”
He muttered, his voice rough as gravel.
Asta couldn’t sit still. He leaned forward, elbows on knees, fingers laced so tight his knuckles went white.
“There has to be another way.”
He said, the words tumbling out fast.
“Anything. I don’t care how dangerous. I need to know what’s inside me.”
Kael lifted his palm. A perfect sphere of golden-white flame bloomed above it, spinning slowly, soft and warm like sunrise.
“There is one way.”
He said quietly.
“I send this Dawn Lotus Flame straight into your heart. It’ll act like a mirror,let you look inside yourself and see the dragon face-to-face.”
Asta’s eyes lit up.
“Do it!”
Kael’s grin turned wicked.
“Of course, the second my flame touches the seal, the dragon wakes up furious. You’ll be cooked from the inside in three seconds flat. Eyeballs boiled, blood turned to steam and we’ll be scraping you off the ceiling with a spoon.”
Asta went pale.
“Okay, bad plan, really bad plan”
“Got a better one, genius?”
Asta rubbed his temples.
“Yeah. All the sealed dragons have black flames, right? Like the smoke on the pickaxe. Just list them. Describe what they look like. I’ll know when you say the right one.”
Kael raised an eyebrow.
“You sure? There are nine. And most of them make nightmares look friendly.”
“I’m sure. Go.”
Kael leaned back, folded his arms, and started counting on his fingers.
“First: Nyxara the Star-Eater. Void dragon. Scales like liquid night, eyes like dying galaxies. Her fire erases whatever it touches,people, memories, even time. Sealed inside the old Shadow Empire’s royal line. Funny thing,the empire vanished overnight.”
Asta shook his head fast.
“Not her. Mine’s hot. Angry-hot.”
“Second: Glacira the Eternal Winter. Ice dragon. Scales white as moonlight on snow. Froze three cities solid when her seal cracked a little.”
“Nope. Definitely fire.”
“Third: Terravox the Earth-Singer. Emerald and bronze, mountain-sized. His roar causes earthquakes that redraw maps.”
“Cool, but no.”
“Fourth: Tempestus. Storm dragon. Wings like thunderclouds, his eyes electric blue. Fire made of pure lightning.”
“Still no.”
“Fifth: Hemoria the Blood Moon. Crimson scales that drip liquid ruby. Drinks blood, spreads plague.”
Asta wrinkled his nose.
“Gross. Pass.”
“Sixth: Somnus the Dream-Weaver. Scales shift colour every heartbeat. One look and you sleep forever in whatever dream,or nightmare,he chooses.”
“Terrifying, but not it.”
“Seventh: Oblivion. No fixed colour. Some say pure white, some pure black, some say it has no colour at all. Its fire erases names from history. You stop existing in every story ever told.”
Asta swallowed.
“Close… but still not right.”
“Eighth: Aurion the Golden Dawn. Father of light dragons. Scales like molten gold, wings that blind armies. His fire is pure creation,life, healing, resurrection.”
Asta frowned.
“That one sounds… nice?”
Kael gave a short, humourless laugh.
“Nice doesn’t begin to cover it. Not your dragon.”
He went very still.
Then he spoke so quietly Asta had to lean in.
“Ninth…”
The air in the library suddenly felt thick, like the whole place was holding its breath.
“The one they tore out of every book. The Ash-Bringer. The End-Flame. Scales black glass shot through with rivers of molten red. Six wings, not four. Horns curved forward like a crown of knives. Eyes like dying suns. Its fire is black at the edges, crimson at the core. When it wakes, the sky turns to ash and the ground forgets how to grow life.”
Asta’s heart slammed against his ribs. His mouth went dry.
“That…”
He could barely speak.
“That’s it. That’s exactly what I felt.”
Before Kael could answer, a massive bronze bell high above them boomed,once, twice, three times. The sound rolled through the library like a tidal wave.
A calm, amplified voice followed from floating crystals everywhere.
“Attention all higher-class labourers and senior students. This is Headmaster Veyron speaking. One month from today, the annual Inter-Academy Flame Tournament will commence against White Crimson Academy. The winning academy claims the Eternal Flame Cup for the year. Labourers who place in the top sixteen will be granted full student status and immediate release from labour duties. Prepare yourselves. Glory to the Empire.”
The message ended. The library exploded,cheers, gasps and students high-fiving mid-air.
Asta’s eyes went wide.
“The tournament… I used to watch it every year with my father on the big crystal screen. The battles, the flames, the crowds…”
Kael was already on his feet, slinging the dragon ledger under one arm like it weighed nothing.
“Well, this year you’re not watching.”
Asta blinked.
“What?”
“You’re fighting.”
Asta laughed, loud and nervous.
“Me? I don’t have flames! I’m not even a real student anymore,I’m just a labourer!”
Kael started walking toward the massive doors, boots clacking on the invisible floor.
“That’s why I’m here, boy. Starting tonight, I’m your master. I’ll teach you how to hold the dragon’s leash without letting it drag you into hell. You’ll learn to wield fire that makes the sun look like a candle.”
Asta scrambled after him, heart racing for a brand-new reason.
“You’re serious? You’ll really train me?”
Kael glanced back, and for the first time Asta saw a real, fierce smile,no sarcasm, no bitterness, just pure fire.
“As serious as the end of the world, kid. Because if you step into that arena without control, the dragon won’t just win the cup.”
He pushed the huge doors open. Cold tunnel air rushed in.
“It’ll burn the whole damn empire down with it.”
The doors began to swing shut behind them.
Asta shoulders curled in, his hands shoved deep in his pockets.
“I’m not ready. I am not even strong, you said it yourself old man.”
Kael turned slowly, the golden light from the library spilling across his scarred face. For once, there was no sarcasm, no eye-roll. Just quiet and steady fire in his eyes.
“Listen to me, boy.”
He said, his voice low but firm.
“I’ve seen cowards with perfect flames burn out in the first round. And I’ve seen terrified kids with nothing but guts in their belly go further than anyone thought possible. Strength isn’t the fire you’re born with. It’s the fire you decide to carry when everything says you should drop it and run.”
He stepped closer, placing one rough hand on Asta’s shoulder, the same way he had when he stopped the dragon from killing those two idiots.
“You think I wasn’t scared when I faced my first lava titan? I pissed myself so bad my squad called me ‘Waterfall Kael’ for a year. But I kept swinging the hammer anyway, I didn't let their words get to me, my mind was as heard as a rock.And you know what I learned? The dragon inside you isn’t waiting for you to feel ready. It’s waiting for you to decide you’re done letting other people write your story.”
Asta stared at the floor, his throat tight.Kael’s grip tightened.
“They laughed at you, humiliated you, they now call you “Asta the Flameless Xavier.” They threw you away, your girlfriend broke up with you and also at the spot disdanied and humiliated you, let her go, let them all go, Let the whole damn empire laugh. And then step into that arena and show them what happens when the trash they tossed aside decides to burn brighter than their flames.”
long silence. Just the distant hum of floating fire-rivers behind them.
Asta lifted his head. His eyes were wet, but something hard and bright had kindled inside them.
“…Okay.”
He whispered. Then louder.
“Okay. I’m
in.”
Kael’s smile was slow and proud.
“Good. Because the dragon’s already chosen you, boy. Now it’s time you chose it back.”
He turned and started walking down the dark tunnel, boots echoing.
“So get ready, Asta Xavier… because training starts in section.”
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Chapter 744: THE COUNCIL IN CHAOS
The grand council chamber of the capital had not held this many raised voices at once since the founding accords were signed, and even that occasion, according to the older histories, had been a more orderly affair.Every major clan leader sat, or rather did not sit, in the ring of high-backed chairs arranged around the chamber's central floor, the seats themselves largely abandoned in favor of standing, pacing, gesturing, the specific physical restlessness of powerful people who had run out of ways to project calm.Cassian sat near the chamber's east arch, one of the few still in his chair, watching the room with the stillness of a man conserving his energy for whatever came after the shouting."Simultaneous."A clan leader near the center of the floor said it for perhaps the fourth time, his hands spread as if the word itself needed to be held up for the room's inspection."Every royal castle. Every nation. At the same hour. That is not opportunism. That is coordination.""Coordinat
Chapter 743
One syllable, low, carrying an alien weight in its consonants that recalled the incantation from minutes before, ancient and heavy, a sound shaped by a mouth that had never grown up speaking anything currently living, and every torch along the walls dimmed by a fraction as it passed through the air, as though the room itself had flinched.……..Dero's response came instantly.She raised one hand, fingers spread, and the air in front of her tore open.Not open. Tore. The way fabric gives way when tension finally exceeds what the weave can hold, a jagged, swirling wound of grey flame spreading outward from a single point, widening, stabilizing, until it stood taller than any of them and wider than the doorway it framed, a portal that showed nothing of what waited on the other side of it so much as it showed the absence of a side at all, a grey churn that hurt slightly to look at directly.The heat coming off it was different from Loki's, colder somehow despite the flame, a heat that pull
Chapter 742:DEPARTURE THROUGH THE RIFT
The Grand Master rose to his feet, still working the last tremor of the incantation out of his shoulders, the new fullness of his restored power settling into him in visible increments, a straightening of the spine, a steadiness returning to hands that had shaken faintly only minutes before.He gestured toward the three of them with one open hand, the specific gesture of a man presenting something he had personally cultivated."Descendants."He said."Of your former, loyal minions."Loki's eyes moved across the three faces again, slower this time, the assessment deepening into something closer to recognition, the specific quality of a man searching a new face for the ghost of an old one and finding it there waiting for him.He stopped on Kyx first.Her posture. The set of her jaw. Something in the shape of her eyes that belonged, apparently, to someone else entirely, someone who had stood in this same room a very long time ago and had likely knelt in the same place she was standing no
Chapter 741
The Grand Master stood completely still.His eyes were fixed forward, and whatever he was feeling as the incantation built was not visible on his face because he had decided it was not going to be visible on his face, the specific composed stillness of someone who had been through a great many things and had developed considerable capacity for absorbing them quietly.……..Kyx had been watching the entire thing with the focused attention of someone trying to understand something and finding that understanding kept arriving partially, that each piece led to the edge of the next piece rather than to a complete picture."What is he doing?" She said.Gull was already in motion, the specific small, self-satisfied motion of a man who had been waiting for someone to ask exactly that question and had spent the intervening time preparing an answer that was perhaps slightly more elaborate than the situation strictly required."What we're looking at." He said, lowering his voice to the specific
Chapter 740:THE ANCIENT PACT AND POWER SHARING
"It's good to be back." Loki said.He said it the way he said most things, with the smooth, unhurried quality of someone who had decided long ago that rushing words was a waste of the specific pleasure that a well-placed sentence could produce when given adequate time to land.His eyes moved across the Grand Master's face in the specific reading way of someone who was cataloguing something, not assessing threat, something closer to taking stock, the inventory of someone who had been away and was checking what remained while they were gone."Grand Master." He continued. "It seems you are almost there too."The Grand Master inclined his head slightly."The preparations are nearly complete.” He said. "Everything is moving according to plan." A pause, and something in the pause carried the specific weight of someone arriving at a part of a conversation they had been building toward. "But there is something we still need. Something that is, not yet within our reach."Loki's eyes mov
Chapter 739
"I am just telling you as a friend, Web. As someone who cares about your continued existence and the condition of your general wellbeing going forward.""Shut up." Web hissed."I'm genuinely trying to help…""Gull.""...look out for you…""I will remove your ability to speak and the method I use will not be subtle…"Kyx looked at both of them."Shut up.” She said.She said it at the same volume as the rest of the conversation, but with the specific flat quality that made volume irrelevant. Both of them went silent with the specific simultaneous stoppage of two people who had received a clear signal and had the collective sense to act on it.…….Loki and Dero had drawn apart.Not completely,his hands were still loosely holding hers, and she was still close enough that when he spoke again it was for her rather than for the room."I've missed you."He said. Low, private, in the smooth serpentine register that his voice had settled into since the moment of awakening. "Mi amor."Dero's
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