The ape’s enormous body lay motionless upon the frozen ground.
For the first time, the battlefield was silent.
Soft white snowflakes drifted down from the heavens, gently landing upon the creature’s lifeless body.
The boy stood over it for a moment before letting out a quiet chuckle.
“You were a strong one.”
He turned around and prepared to drag the ape’s body back with him.
Then—
He stopped.
Something was wrong.
Terribly wrong.
A strange feeling crawled up his spine.
The boy slowly looked toward the sky.
His eyes widened.
The snow was changing.
The once-white snowflakes falling from the heavens were gradually turning black.
At the same time, the wind began to intensify.
It started as a gentle breeze.
Then it became a howling gale.
The boy looked around.
Nothing.
No movement.
No creature.
No visible threat.
Yet the sense of danger inside him continued to grow.
His instincts screamed at him.
Run.
The boy took several cautious steps backward.
His eyes darted across the snowy plains as he searched for whatever had triggered this feeling.
Nothing.
He wasn’t far from the area.
There shouldn’t have been anything dangerous enough to make him feel this way.
Then he looked toward the horizon.
His pupils shrank.
A storm was forming.
No—
Not a storm.
A hurricane.
A colossal hurricane was spiraling across the distant landscape, its enormous form stretching toward the heavens.
Its sheer size made the boy’s body tremble.
But something else caught his attention.
Something was moving inside it.
A shadow.
Something unimaginably large.
Something ancient.
Something that had existed long enough to witness history itself unfold.
The boy’s breath caught in his throat.
The hurricane suddenly split apart.
And something emerged.
A dragon.
Not merely a large dragon.
An incomprehensibly vast dragon.
The moment it appeared, the world seemed to freeze.
An earth-shattering will descended upon the land.
BOOM.
The boy’s entire body buckled.
His knees nearly gave out.
It felt as though an invisible mountain had been dropped onto his shoulders.
His bones screamed.
His muscles trembled.
Even his very existence seemed to be rejecting the pressure.
This wasn’t killing intent.
It was something far worse.
Dominance.
The overwhelming presence of a creature whose existence was simply too great for the world around it.
The boy gritted his teeth.
“How the hell did I attract a dragon of old…?”
The Dragons of Old.
A legendary group of dragons that had existed since the ancient war.
They had witnessed the destruction of countless realms and personally fought upon battlefields that had long since been forgotten.
Creatures blessed with divine energy.
Creatures whose strength surpassed the limits of ordinary dragons.
There were only a dozen of them left in the entire world.
Most had either been corrupted by the Abyss…
Or perished during the war.
And now one of them stood before him.
The boy’s eyes narrowed.
Fortunately—
He couldn’t sense any killing intent.
That should have been reassuring.
It wasn’t.
The hurricane slowly receded.
The ancient dragon lowered its enormous head and began sniffing the air.
Once.
Twice.
Then its eyes narrowed.
Something was wrong.
Its enormous gaze slowly shifted downward.
There.
Lying upon the snow was one of its kin.
The dragon-scaled ape.
Dead.
Standing beside its corpse was a pale teenage boy wearing nothing but black leather underwear.
The dragon stared at the boy.
For a moment, there was silence.
Then—
ROOOOOOOAAAAAR!
The dragon’s roar shattered the heavens.
The entire world seemed to tremble.
The ground fractured beneath the boy’s feet.
Snow erupted into the air.
The wind became so violent that the boy nearly lost his footing.
A cold sweat ran down his body.
“Shit…”
He stared up at the enormous creature.
“Why?”
His voice trembled.
“Out of all the beings I could’ve pissed off…”
His eyes widened.
“…why did it have to be this one?”
The dragon moved.
Despite its incomprehensible size, it crossed the distance with speed that defied reason.
Its enormous claws tore through the air.
The boy’s instincts screamed.
He threw himself sideways.
The dragon’s claws crashed into the ground where he had been standing.
BOOOOOOM!
The earth exploded.
The claws sank deep into the frozen soil.
The boy tumbled across the ground, rolling dozens of meters before finally forcing himself upright.
His heart pounded.
He had barely avoided death.
I can escape.
The thought struck him immediately.
I can still run.
Then he looked at the dragon.
And something inside him snapped.
Instead of running—
He charged.
“Why am I doing this?!”
He sprinted forward.
“Why am I doing this?!”
His legs accelerated.
“WHY AM I DOING THIS?!”
He poured every ounce of strength into his legs.
Then—
He launched himself into the air.
His body shot several meters upward.
He landed upon the dragon’s jagged, spiked back.
The boy immediately began sprinting.
He ran across the enormous creature’s back, weaving between the massive scales as the dragon thrashed beneath him.
Closer.
Closer.
Closer.
The boy finally reached the dragon’s neck.
He jumped.
His hand tightened around his axe.
He raised it above his head.
Then—
BOOM!
The boy slammed the axe directly into the dragon’s skull with every ounce of strength he possessed.
He expected something.
A roar.
A scream.
A cry of pain.
Anything.
Instead—
DONG.
A dull sound echoed across the snowy plains.
The dragon didn’t flinch.
It didn’t even stop moving.
The boy froze.
The dragon had felt nothing more than a tiny presence touching its head.
The boy’s expression went blank.
“…What?”
The dragon grunted.
Then it shook its head.
The movement was casual.
To the boy, it was catastrophic.
He instantly lost his balance.
“WHOA—!”
He tumbled from the dragon’s head and crashed into the ground.
The boy immediately pushed himself upright.
Then he looked up.
And froze.
The dragon’s enormous visage stared directly down at him.
Its sheer size was incomprehensible.
The boy’s nose began bleeding.
Then blood trickled from his mouth.
His eyes widened.
This wasn’t corruption.
It wasn’t madness.
It wasn’t an injury.
It was simply the result of being subjected to an existence that completely dominated his own.
The dragon’s presence was crushing him from the inside out.
The boy struggled to breathe.
The dragon slowly opened its mouth.
Then it inhaled.
The air began moving.
The boy’s eyes widened.
A tremendous suction force seized his body.
His feet left the ground.
“WAIT—!”
He was dragged through the air.
Faster.
Faster.
Until—
He disappeared between the dragon’s enormous jaws.
The dragon closed its mouth.
Darkness swallowed everything.
The boy landed upon something hard.
He blinked.
His hand touched the dragon’s tongue.
It was strangely smooth.
But unbelievably hard.
Harder than diamond…
Before he could process it, the dragon spread its enormous wings.
Then it flapped.
BOOOOOOM!
The surrounding mountains groaned.
The sheer force of the movement sent tremors through the land.
The dragon slowly rose into the sky.
Then it accelerated.
Mountains crumbled beneath the force of its passage.
The landscape became a warped blur.
The boy could barely comprehend what was happening.
The world outside seemed to darken.
Then—
Color returned.
The scenery changed completely.
Towering, jagged mountains stretched toward the heavens.
Volcanic landscapes spread across the horizon.
Lava flowed through enormous valleys.
And the skies…
They were filled with dragons.
Drakes.
Wyverns.
Ancient dragons.
Hundreds upon hundreds of them filled the sky.
The boy stared in disbelief.
Where the hell…?
The dragon finally opened its mouth.
The boy slid from its tongue.
“WHOA—!”
He plummeted.
CRASH!
He slammed into the jagged ground.
The boy groaned and slowly pushed himself upright.
“Ugh…”
He rubbed his back.
“Talk about a rough landing.”
He looked around.
His expression became grim.
“…Where the hell am I?”
Then his eyes widened.
His entire body froze.
He recognized this place.
His voice became almost a whisper.
“The last Dragon Realm…”
He stared at the endless landscape.
“…in existence.”
During the ancient war, every realm had been destroyed.
Even the divine Dragon Realms had fallen.
The Dragons of Old had possessed barely enough remaining divine energy to create one final sanctuary.
One minor Dragon Realm.
A realm created for one purpose—
To preserve the dragon race and its descendants.
A realm connected to Earth, yet completely separated from it.
A realm that could only be accessed if one of the Dragons of Old personally willed it.
The boy stared around in disbelief.
Excitement surged through him.
Then fear immediately followed.
This place wasn’t meant for humans.
Especially not humans like him.
The thought of escaping immediately entered his mind.
He turned around and looked toward the dragon.
But—
It was gone.
The enormous ancient dragon had simply vanished.
The boy stood there in silence.
“…You have got to be kidding me.”
He looked around.
He was trapped.
But then a small grin appeared on his face.
He had spent years collecting ancient books.
Books containing knowledge from before the war.
And according to those books…
He knew how to leave the Dragon Realm.
The boy’s grin widened.
He chuckled.
“Well…”
He adjusted his grip on his axe.
“I’ll get outta here in no time.”