2025-12-15 20:35:50Asta’s neck hurt from looking up, his mouth was still open but he didn’t care.
Rivers of fire floated above him like liquid stars. Shelves taller than the imperial palace stretched into darkness. Students flew between them on wings of flame, on boots of flame, on nothing but raw power and laughter.
Books the size of doors glided past on glowing rails. Somewhere far away a phoenix made of pure light screeched, and the sound turned into golden musical notes that rained down like petals.
Asta finally found his voice. It came out a squeak.
“How… How is something like this in an underground cave?”
Old Man Kael folded his arms, looking annoyingly proud.
“This isn’t a cave, boy. This is the Grand Crimson Library, built two thousand years ago inside a hollowed-out heart-crystal geode the size of a mountain.”
“The First Flame Emperor and the Nine Dragon Sovereigns themselves carved the walls with living starfire and bound the whole thing with Aetherial Voidstone. It can’t collapse. It can’t burn. It can’t even be found unless you already know the way.”
Asta spun in a slow circle, his eyes huge.
“So… the academy knows about this place?”
Kael snorted.
“Of course they know. Who do you think keeps the words fresh every century?”
“Then why have they never told us? Why isn’t this in the brochures? ‘Come study at Crimson Flame Academy,free flying included!’”
Kael gave him a flat look.
“Because the official story is that the lower levels are ‘structurally unstable’ and might collapse on students’ heads if we let first-years down here.”
He rolled his eyes so hard Asta worried for his health.
“Truth is, they’re terrified of what would happen if a thousand hormone-filled teenagers with god-level flames had unlimited access to forbidden knowledge. Last time they tried an open policy, someone summoned a minor void prince in the cafeteria. It took three archmages and a very angry lunch lady to put it back.”
Asta barked a laugh before he could stop himself.
“You’re kidding.”
“Wish I was.”
Kael jerked his chin toward a cluster of floating tables near the center.
“Sit. Don’t touch anything that glows red. I’ll be back once I find the volumes on sealed primordial dragons. There are… a few.”
He shuffled off as he muttered about
“Organized chaos” and “kids these days.”
Asta wandered toward the tables, his head still tilted back, trying to take it all in. He was so busy staring at a boy doing barrel rolls on crimson flame wings that he walked straight into someone.
Books exploded everywhere.
“Oh,crap,sorry!”
Asta dropped to his knees, scrambling to gather scrolls and heavy tomes before they rolled into a nearby fire-river.
“I didn’t see you, I was looking at the ceiling and…”
A soft laugh stopped him.
“It’s okay. I’m the one who wasn’t watching where I was going… again.”
Asta looked up.
Red hair with gold streaks, tied in a messy ponytail. Emerald eyes. A small, shy smile. Freckles across her nose like someone had sprinkled cinnamon on cream.
He knew that face.
“Flora…?”
“Hey, Asta.”
She crouched to help, stacking books with quick, practiced movements.
“Guess we’re making a habit of bumping into each other.”
“Yeah.”
He grinned despite himself.
“Third time’s the charm, right?”
One of the books he picked up had a black leather cover embossed with a coiled dragon. The title was in old runes, but he could read it clearly enough: Draconomicon Arcanum – Volume VII.
He turned it over in his hands.
“You read about dragons?”
Flora’s cheeks went pink, but her smile got wider.
“You could say I’m kind of a dragon nerd. I’ve read every public volume twice and bribed three librarians for the restricted ones.”
Asta’s eyebrows shot up.
“Wait. So you actually know dragons?”
She laughed, soft and warm.
“More than is probably healthy.”
He glanced around,no sign of Kael yet. He gestured to the nearest floating bench.
“Can you… tell me? Everything you know? I mean,if you have time.”
Flora hesitated, then shrugged.
“I owe you for earlier. Those two idiots would’ve…”
She shook her head.
“Yeah. I have time.”
They sat. The bench hovered two feet off the ground and wobbled gently, like a boat on calm water.
Flora tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and started talking, her voice low but excited.
“Okay, so in the known realms there are twenty greater dragon bloodlines still active. You’ve got your standard elemental ones,Fire, Ice, Storm, Earth, Light, Shadow. Then the rare ones: Void, Time, Dream, Blood, and Soul. Each bloodline has sub-branches.”
“For example, Crimson Inferno dragons are pure destruction, while Phoenix-kin dragons focus on rebirth and healing. Storm dragons love riddles and collect sky-islands. Void dragons…”
She lowered her voice.
“They say if a void dragon looks at you too long, pieces of your shadow just… disappear.”
Asta was leaning forward, totally hooked.
“Then there are the ancient ones.”
She continued, her eyes shining.
“The Primordial Nine. They’re not bloodlines,they’re individuals. Each one is basically a walking apocalypse. The empire’s founding myth says the First Emperor only won because the Nine were asleep. If even one wakes up angry, countries vanish.”
She counted on her fingers.
“There’s Aurion the Golden Dawn, father of light dragons.”
“Nyxara the Star-Eater, queen of void.”
“Glacira, the Eternal Winter.”
“Terravox, who sings earthquakes.”
“Tempestus, lord of all storms.”
“Hemoria the Blood Moon.”
“Somnus, who rules dreams and nightmares.”
“And Oblivion, the dragon that erases names from history itself.”
Asta swallowed hard.
“And the ninth?”
Flora’s voice dropped to almost a whisper.
“The ninth one… the records are torn out of every book. Even the forbidden ones. People only call it ‘the Ash-Bringer’ or ‘the End-Flame.’ They say its fire doesn’t burn flesh,it burns possibility. Entire futures. They say when it roared the first time, three kingdoms were never born.”
She leaned closer, her eyes bright with excitement and fear.
“Some scholars think the ninth dragon isn’t asleep. They think it was sealed inside a human bloodline so it could never wake up fully. A living cage. And if that seal ever…”
Cough! Cough!
A loud, fake cough came from behind them.
Flora jumped so hard she nearly fell off the bench.
Old Man Kael stood there, three ancient books under one arm, giving her the most dramatic disapproving-grandpa stare in history.
“Young lady, some of us are trying to do research, not gossip about bedtime monsters.”
Flora went bright red.
“S-sorry, Head Labourer Kael! I was just…I have to go!”
She scooped her books and flashed Asta a quick smile.
“See you around, Asta. Stay safe.”
And she was gone, red ponytail bouncing as she darted between floating shelves.
Kael dropped into the seat with a grunt and slammed the biggest book onto the table. Dust exploded outward in a gray cloud that made Asta cough.
The cover was black dragon-scale leather, title burned deep with real fire:
The Ledger of the Nine Primordial Beasts
Kael opened it carefully. Pages crackled like dry leaves. He flipped past beautiful illuminated paintings of dragons,gold, white, violet, each more terrifying than the last.
Then he stopped.
The next page was torn out. Not cut,ripped. Jagged edges, like someone had been in a hurry or angry.
Kael’s finger traced the empty space where the chapter should have been.
“Well, that’s inconvenient.”
He muttered.
Asta leaned over.
“What’s missing?”
The old man’s voice was quiet, almost reverent.
“The chapter that would tell us e
xactly which of the Nine is inside you, boy.”
He looked up, his eyes sharp as broken glass.
“Someone went through a lot of trouble to make sure no one ever finds out.”
He closed the book slowly.
“Someone tore out the only record of the dragon sealed inside the Xavier heir…but who?”
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Chapter 449
One clean cut, diagonal, across the binding that held the basket sealed and the flame solid material split along the cut line with a sharp crack that echoed through the trees."Jabber!"From below, almost before the word had finished leaving his mouth. "Already on it."The flame shield came up from the ground,wide, cupped, angled perfectly and the basket fell into it, not crashing, just settling, the broken seal falling away as Jabber brought it steady and slow and set it down beside him on the ground with the careful hands of someone carrying something that couldn't afford to be dropped.Asta dropped from the branch and landed beside him.They looked at each other for one second.Then Mira was there, already reaching for the broken seam of the basket, pulling the edges apart, the flame material dissolving at her hands as she worked it open.The basket opened.Fifteen children.Pressed together in the center of it, some sitting, some curled against each other, all of them in the cond
Chapter 448
Then the side of her mouth moved. Just slightly."I won't kill you." She said. "You're too useful to me." She looked at him for one more beat. "Don't do it again."Gull exhaled.The exhale was quiet and controlled and the relief in it was absolutely genuine.He stepped back to his position.Dero looked at the men still kneeling on the ground."Is there a bed somewhere in this place?" She said. Not specifically to anyone. "Somewhere I can rest and recover my strength."Two or three of the kneeling figures began to speak at the same time.She held up one hand.They stopped.She looked at the competing voices, then at the ceiling, then back down."You know what.”She said. "Never mind. I'll find it myself."She turned.And then she looked at Web.The look she gave him was different from anything else she had produced in the last hour. It was slower. And warmer. In a way that was not entirely comfortable."Web.” she said.Web looked at her."Would you mind accompanying me?" She s
Chapter 447
"I genuinely didn't think he would die from that." She looked around at all of them with something approaching mild surprise. "Anyone else? Don't be shy. Come on. You can say it out loud or you can mutter it to yourself,your choice. Either way I'll hear it."Complete silence.Not one person moved.Not one person appeared to even be breathing in a way that could be considered voluntary.Dero looked at them all for one more moment, then straightened up.……………………."She can hear human thought."Kyx said it quietly, from just behind Dero's right shoulder. Not alarmed, Kyx didn't really do alarmed. Just stating it, the way you state a fact that you want on record."Yes." Gull said immediately, from the left.Web turned and looked at Gull. "How?"Gull looked at Web with the specific expression of someone who has been asked to explain something technical to someone they are not sure will fully appreciate the explanation."She has a built-in flame technique." He said. "Passive. Always ac
Chapter 446:Hear Every Whisper
The men in black cloaks were still on their knees.Every single one of them, heads bowed, hands flat on the ground, not one of them willing to be the next person to look up. The silence in the space had that particular quality of a room where something bad just happened and everyone is very focused on not being the reason something bad happens again.Dero stood above them. Unhurried. Looking across the tops of their bowed heads the way someone looks across a field,with no urgency, just observation.Then, from the second row of kneeling figures, something started.A trembling.One man. His shoulders were moving, small and fast, the involuntary shake of someone whose body was doing something his brain was trying very hard to stop. His head was down but his lips were moving, the faintest murmur, barely sound at all.‘’’Oh God.’’’He wasn't saying it to anyone. He was saying it to himself, or to the ground, or to whatever part of his brain was still processing the last two minutes.‘’’It
Chapter 445
He said."From that point." Asta said.Jabber nodded. Then, after a beat… "He is significantly more annoying than I expected a best friend to be, just so you know.""He is the most annoying person I have met in my life.” Asta said pleasantly. "I say that with genuine affection.""Likewise." Jabber said."Truly.""Deeply."Wabash laughed, a real one, short and warm, that moved his whole face. He shook his head."It's good." He said. “What you two have. It's, it's a good thing."Neither of them said anything for a moment.Then Jabber looked at his cup."This tea is actually really good." He said."Glad you like it." Wabash said."What is it?""Old forest blend. The cook makes it before any mission night. He says it helps you sleep when your mind won't stop."Jabber took another slow sip."Smart cook." He said.……………………..Deep in the forest, behind a wall of flame camouflage so thick it swallowed all light and sound, the children were crying.Not all of them, some had gone past
Chapter 444
Asta took his and sat cross-legged across from the prince. Jabber sat beside him, wrapping both hands around his cup.A comfortable quiet settled over the three of them for a moment.Then Wabash looked at Asta."You were about to tell me.”He said.“Before Yuki called the stop. How did you find out."Asta looked at his cup. Then up."Right." He said. "Yeah."He took a short breath."It was my first day in the academy mine pit.” He said. "The underground labour section,first-year students, grey uniforms, pickaxes. Clank clank clank in the dark for hours." He looked at his hands briefly. "I had blisters within the first hour. Didn't stop. Just kept going."Wabash listened without interrupting."There were two older students." Asta said. "Crimson uniforms, proper rank. They had a girl pinned against the tunnel wall." He said it simply, no drama in it, just the shape of what happened. "I put my pickaxe down and walked over and told them to let her go.""Just like that?" Wabash
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