The earth didn’t just shake—it split wide open.
As we broke through the mouth of the glacial gorge, a blinding, void-black pillar of light erupted from the center of the Frost-Grave Valley.
The sheer mana shockwave hit us like a physical mountain, detonating the ice beneath our feet and sending a roaring avalanche cascading down from the canyon walls.
"VALERIAN!"
Vespera’s frantic scream was swallowed by the thunderous roar of collapsing ice.
I was ripped from the saddle as a wall of blue ice and crushed rock tore through our vanguard, severing the path.
Rook tried to reach for me, his shadow-veil expanding, but a secondary pulse of corrupted abyssal mana detonated between us, throwing me headfirst into the dark, yawning crevasse below.
CRASH.
I smashed through three jutting ice shelves on the way down, the brutal impacts snapping my left collarbone and tearing open the barely healed wounds across my ribs.
When I finally slammed into the frozen floor of the lower cavern, the air vanished from my lungs in a choked, bloody gasp.
" CRITICAL WARNING: SEVERE PHYSICAL TRAUMA "
" LEFT CLAVICLE: FRACTURED "
" RIBS: MULTIPLE DISPLACED FRACTURES "
" VESSEL INTEGRITY: 24% "
" INTERNAL BLEEDING DETECTED "
Pain—blinding, nauseating, white-hot agony—flooded every nerve ending in my ten-year-old body.
I lay in the pitch-black ice pit, coughing up crimson spatters onto the snow, my vision swimming in absolute dark.
’Valerian! Kid, stay awake!’
Wren’s panicked voice echoed inside my mind, her shadowy aura wrapping tightly around my heart to force it to keep pumping.
’Don’t you dare close your eyes! They’re down here with us!’
Through the agonizing fog in my head, my crimson perception flared to life.
The cavern wasn’t empty.
Low, guttural growls echoed off the slick ice walls.
Four pairs of burning, void-black eyes ignited in the darkness.
Not low-tier scavengers.
Stepping out from the shadowed ice tunnels were two Sec Branch Dread-Enforcers—Stage 3 Blood Artists wearing blood-stained heavy armor—and two hulking Abyssal Fiends, six-legged monstrosities with skin like cracked obsidian and long, scythe-like bone claws dripping with black rot.
"Well, well..."
One of the Dread-Enforcers rasped, wiping blood from his iron mask as he stepped over the icy rubble.
"Look what dropped into our lap. The core line’s blind dud."
"Elder Garren said to bring his head if he survived the fall," the second enforcer growled, drawing a broad, crimson-engraved broadsword.
"Finish him. The ritual above is almost complete."
I tried to push myself up, but my left arm collapsed instantly under the excruciating pain of my shattered collarbone.
My breathing was ragged, wet, and shallow.
No siblings.
No Rook.
No imperial seals or paper ledgers.
Just me, a broken ten-year-old frame, two Stage 3 executioners, and two demon beasts in an isolated ice grave.
’Kid, your body can’t take a direct clash!’
Wren’s voice trembled with rare terror.
’If you ignite Stage 1 fully, your cracked ribs will puncture your heart! You’ll die!’
"Then I die fighting," I rasped, blood bubbling at the corner of my lips.
I forced myself onto my right knee, my teeth grinding so hard they bled.
I didn’t reach for a spell.
I didn’t plead.
Instead, I let my hand drop to the icy ground, reaching deep—past my broken bones, past my frail human limits—and yanked on the chain binding my ancient Dragon Core.
BOOM-THUMP.
My double-capacity dragon heart didn’t just beat; it detonated inside my chest.
" WARNING: FORCED OVERDRIVE ENGAGED "
" DRAGON-VEIN IGNITION: STAGE 1 (OVERCLOCK 150%) "
" PHYSICAL VESSEL SUFFERING IRREVERSIBLE STRAIN "
"WHAT IS THAT?!"
The second enforcer gasped, stepping back in sudden horror.
The air in the cavern instantly boiled.
The ice beneath my knees melted into steam in a fraction of a second.
Golden-crimson veins erupted across my pale skin, glowing so intensely they shone straight through my dark clothes.
The black obsidian-silk blindfold across my eyes began to smoke from the sheer, unbridled heat radiating from my Sovereign eyes underneath.
"KILL HIM! NOW!"
The first enforcer screamed, sensing the sudden, unnatural, primordial pressure flooding the pit.
The two Abyssal Fiends lunged first, their six scythe-like legs blurring into a deadly whirlwind of black, rot-coated steel.
"DIE!"
I didn’t dodge.
I couldn’t.
I lunged forward into the meat-grinder, my right fist igniting into a blinding sun of superheated blood-fire.
BOOM!
My palm struck the first Fiend directly in its obsidian chest.
The compressed dragon heat didn’t just crack its armor—it vaporized the beast’s internal core, sending a shockwave of boiling blood exploding out of its back and blasting the second Fiend into the cavern wall in a shower of black gore.
AGH!
The recoil slammed back into my own body.
Two of my broken ribs shifted, stabbing straight into my left lung.
Fresh blood erupted from my mouth, blinding my perception for a split second.
"HE’S INJURED! TAKE HIS HEAD!"
The first Dread-Enforcer materialized directly above me, his broadsword coming down in a lethal, Stage 3 heavy cleave—Sanguis Art: Mountain Splitter.
I couldn’t raise a block.
My left arm was dead weight.
In a split second of pure, desperate madness, I tilted my head, letting the broadsword bite deep into my right shoulder—iron scraping against bone—locking the blade inside my own flesh.
"What?!"
The enforcer gasped, his eyes wide behind his bone mask as his sword got stuck.
"Got you," I whispered through red-stained teeth.
I grabbed his wrist with my glowing right hand.
The dragon heat instantly seared his leather gauntlet into ash and melted the skin off his bones.
He shrieked in agonizing pain, but before he could pull away, I slammed my forehead directly into his face.
CRACK!
My skull collided with his bone mask, shattering the iron visor and crushing his face into pulp.
The raw, unleashed dragon heat erupted through the point of contact, incinerating his head in a blinding flash of crimson fire.
His headless corpse collapsed onto the ice, releasing his sword.
The last remaining Dread-Enforcer stumbled backward, his weapon shaking uncontrollably in his hands as he looked at me.
I stood amidst the steam and melting ice, my right shoulder gushing crimson blood where his ally’s sword had bitten in, my left arm hanging uselessly, my torso a ruined mess of fractured bone, and golden-red dragon fire leaking from my skin like liquid sun.
I looked like a demon crawling out of hell.
"Monster..."
The enforcer choked out, terror stripping the arrogance from his voice.
"You’re... you’re a monster!"
"Garren sent you to kill a dud," I rasped, taking a slow, agonizing step forward, every movement dragging a scream from my throat that I forced down into my stomach.
"You picked the wrong house."
I didn’t use a complex martial art.
I simply stepped into his guard, ignoring his desperate, frantic sword thrust that grazed my ribs, and drove my open right palm straight into his throat.
Blood Art: Sovereign Ignition.
BOOM!
A pillar of pure, unadulterated crimson flame blasted through his throat and out the back of his neck, blowing the cavern ceiling apart and lighting up the dark abyss in a terrifying, beautiful scarlet glow.
Silence returned to the pit.
The three bodies lay smoldering around me.
" COMBAT CONCLUDED "
" ALL HOSTILES ELIMINATED "
" VESSEL INTEGRITY: 7% "
" CRITICAL VESSEL FAILURE IMMINENT "
The dragon veins across my skin faded, the artificial heat dying out.
The moment the overdrive ended, the full, unmitigated weight of my injuries slammed back into my mind.
My legs buckled.
I collapsed onto my side in the slush and blood, my chest heaving in shallow, agonizing gasps as dark spots danced in my perception.
’Valerian! Stay with me, kid!’
Wren cried, her shadowy form wrapping entirely around my chest, desperately using her origin mana to hold my shattered ribs away from my heart.
’You crazy bastard... you actually pulled it off...’
I lay on the cold ice, blood pooling beneath my shoulder, my body completely broken, but my heart beating with a fierce, burning, untouchable rhythm.
From high above the destroyed cavern ceiling, the distant, roaring sound of Vespera’s dark scythe cutting through the avalanche echoed through the valley.
I closed my blindfolded eyes and smiled a bitter, blood-stained smile.
I was still alive.
And Garren was going to pay for every drop.