Crack!
A sharp snapping sound broke through the darkness.
A thin fracture appeared in front of Evelyn, and soft light spilled through it.
“Hm?”
Her consciousness had only just returned, leaving her mind foggy. Before she could even wonder where she was, more cracking sounds came from all around her.
Crack. Crack.
The fractures spread rapidly across the hard shell surrounding her body.
Evelyn instinctively pushed forward.
Snap!
The last large piece of shell broke loose and fell away.
Thick, sticky fluid slid down her body. A moment later, a powerful stench of rot hit her square in the face.
“...”
Evelyn wrinkled her nose.
Wait.
Her nose?
Her thoughts cleared a little.
She found herself inside a vast, dark, damp cavern. Faintly glowing moss clung to the stone walls, while farther away, piles upon piles of gold coins, gemstones, and other glittering objects filled the cave.
Coins lay stacked in heaps, with jewels scattered between them, catching the weak light and reflecting flashes of every color.
Evelyn stared for several seconds.
Where was she?
Her last memory...
Boom!
It felt as if something had slammed straight into her mind.
Broken images flooded back one after another.
A burning battlefield.
Collapsed walls.
Deafening explosions.
Flames staining the sky red.
Countless bodies lying in pools of blood.
She remembered gripping a weapon.
She remembered her arms going numb from fighting for too long.
She remembered people falling all around her.
The sky had been packed with magic and brilliant beams of light until it seemed as though the entire world was burning.
And then...
A blinding white flash swallowed everything.
She had died.
Evelyn remembered that much perfectly.
The agony of her body being torn apart had been far too real to be some nightmare.
But if she was dead...
Where was this?
“...”
Evelyn instinctively tried to stand.
The moment she moved, however, she realized something was terribly wrong.
She was standing on four legs.
Her center of gravity was far too low.
Something seemed to be dragging behind her.
More importantly...
Where were her hands?
Evelyn looked down.
A small claw covered in fine black scales filled her vision. Five sharp little talons rested against the damp stone floor.
“?”
Evelyn fell silent.
She lifted her other “hand.”
Another claw.
She looked farther down.
A round little body.
Black scales.
A white belly.
Then she tried moving whatever strange thing she could feel behind her.
Slap.
A long, slender black tail struck the ground.
“...”
Evelyn remained silent for a very long moment.
Then an overwhelming sense of danger suddenly washed over her.
Her head snapped up.
That was when she finally noticed the four enormous black “pillars” standing in the middle of the cavern.
Each one was impossibly thick, and all four were covered in layers of black scales.
Until now, Evelyn had assumed they were some strange natural formation inside the cave.
Then one of the “pillars” moved.
Thud.
A massive claw came down against the ground.
Evelyn froze.
Slowly, she raised her head.
Higher.
Higher.
And higher still.
At last, she found herself staring into an enormous pair of golden slit-pupiled eyes.
“...”
It was a dragon.
An absurdly enormous black dragon!
Those four pillars she had been staring at were its legs.
The dragon’s entire body was covered in thick, armored black scales. Its massive wings rested folded against its sides, while two heavy horns rose from its vicious-looking head.
Its mouth hung slightly open, revealing rows of fangs that looked sharp enough to tear through steel.
Even standing completely still, the dragon radiated an almost indescribable pressure.
Evelyn’s body tensed on instinct.
The instincts left over from her old life on the battlefield immediately made her want to reach for a weapon.
There was just one problem.
She didn’t have hands anymore.
A weapon?
What was she supposed to do, stab it with her claws?
Before Evelyn could come up with a plan, the enormous black dragon slowly lowered its head.
The massive draconic face came closer and closer until it was almost touching her.
Whoosh.
Scorching breath washed over her.
It carried a nauseating mixture of decay, acid, and what smelled suspiciously like old meat.
Evelyn nearly fell backward onto her rear.
That was disgusting!
And yet something felt strange.
This terrifying creature could have swallowed her with barely a bite, but Evelyn didn’t feel the fear she expected.
Instead, a natural mixture of affection and reverence rose from somewhere deep inside her blood.
She somehow knew instinctively that the dragon in front of her would not hurt her.
Then her mind shuddered.
Buzz!
It was as if a door buried deep inside her had suddenly burst open.
An enormous flood of unfamiliar knowledge poured into her consciousness without warning.
Languages.
Writing.
Magic.
Races.
The habits of dragons.
Ways of fighting.
Basic knowledge of the world.
There were even fragments of ancient knowledge she couldn’t fully understand yet.
The amount of information was staggering, yet none of it felt truly foreign. It was as though everything had been carved into her blood from the beginning, waiting for the right moment to awaken.
[You are a black dragon.]
[A noble chromatic dragon.]
[Swamps and stagnant waters are your natural domain.]
[Your scales are nearly impossible to penetrate.]
[Your breath can corrode flesh and steel.]
[You possess one of the most powerful bloodlines in the world.]
[Wealth, territory, power...]
[All of these rightfully belong to dragons.]
Finally, one last piece of information surfaced more clearly than all the others.
[You are...]
[An evil dragon.]
Evelyn fell silent.
What kind of species description was that?
At the same time, another name appeared in her mind without warning.
It was not the human name she had once possessed.
This one was unfamiliar, yet somehow it felt completely and unmistakably hers.
Evelyn instinctively raised her head.
A young dragon’s cry echoed through the cavern.
“Evelyn Astra Blackthorne!”
It wasn’t particularly loud.
Compared to the adult dragon standing before her, it sounded more like the cry of a newborn animal than anything impressive.
Still, the adult black dragon seemed noticeably pleased after hearing the name.
She gently nudged Evelyn’s head with the tip of her enormous snout.
The tiny hatchling nearly went tumbling across the ground.
Then, apparently having lost interest in watching her newborn child, the adult dragon turned away.
Her massive body lumbered toward a hill made entirely of gold coins and gemstones.
Clatter. Clink. Clatter.
Coins spilled down the treasure pile as the black dragon simply dropped herself on top of it.
After shifting around until she found a comfortable position, she closed her eyes.
As if nothing unusual had happened at all.
Evelyn stood where she was, still trying to process everything.
“Evelyn...”
She quietly repeated her new name.
“Evelyn Astra Blackthorne.”
It was long.
But she didn’t dislike it.
If anything, it carried a strange sense of familiarity, as though it had always belonged to her.
Evelyn shook her still-aching head.
The newly awakened Draconic Inheritance was tangled together with the fragmented memories of her previous life, leaving her thoughts in disarray.
After sorting through everything for a while, she finally understood what had happened.
First of all, she really had died.
At the very least, her old human body had unquestionably died on that battlefield.
As for why she had opened her eyes again...
She had no idea.
None of her memories could explain it.
She only remembered her consciousness sinking into a long stretch of darkness after death.
There had been no sound.
No light.
Not even any sense of time passing.
The next thing she knew, she had awakened inside a cramped, warm space.
Then she had broken through the shell.
Which meant...
“So I... died once and came back as a dragon?”
Evelyn looked down at her claws.
Then she turned her head and stared at the long tail swaying behind her with a mind of its own.
Finally, her gaze settled on the adult black dragon already sleeping on her mountain of gold.
She was silent for a long moment.
The evidence was right in front of her.
There wasn’t much room left for doubt.
More importantly, according to the Draconic Inheritance, this body wasn’t something she had stolen or possessed.
Her bloodline, soul, and body fit together perfectly.
Every part of her belonged here naturally.