Kain hurried down Red Flame Mountain.
His current level still wasn’t enough to withstand Ignition’s fury.
‘I’d love to fight her right here if I could…….’
But Kain knew that if he did, all his plans for revenge and everything else would go up in smoke.
Ignition was an Ancient Dragon who had lived for six thousand years.
Kain, whose Aura was still only 6-Star, couldn’t handle her yet.
‘At least I have time to escape.’
Kain knew just how extraordinary Ignition’s maternal love was.
He had experienced it before his regression.
He also knew just how clouded a mother’s judgment could become when she lost her reason.
‘She still didn’t think to use Teleportation. Same as before.’
It was amusing, but he needed to get as far away as possible before she arrived.
[Prophet. Are you saying Lord Ignition will be here soon?]
“That’s right. Parents and children are connected by a link.”
[A link between parent and child…….]
A strange emotion entered Bernatus’s voice.
Something like lonely resignation toward something he had never experienced.
Kain ignored it and quickened his pace.
Ignition had undoubtedly realized that Camiloas was dead.
‘I managed to kill Camiloas by using Bellacors, but Ignition will be difficult.’
It wasn’t only the Lord.
Kain needed revenge on Ignition as well.
Before his regression, Ignition had been the Red Dragon who burned the Kingdom of Asel on the Lord’s orders.
Kain had heard it from Ignition herself.
‘If I’m going to take revenge, I need to prepare properly.’
And the first step was her son, Camiloas.
‘I’ll make you taste the same pain I felt when I lost Mother.’
But inflicting pain wasn’t all he intended to do.
He planned to make full use of her.
That was why he had left something behind on Camiloas’s corpse.
‘Now let’s see whether things unfold the way I want.’
***
Not long after Kain left—
FLAP—!
A massive Red Dragon appeared above Red Flame Mountain.
Circling through the sky and looking down below, Ignition’s pupils widened.
She had spotted Camiloas lying at the foot of the mountain.
[M-my baby!]
Ignition plunged downward like an arrow and slammed into the ground with a tremendous crash.
Unable to control her massive body, she rolled across the ground.
But she had no time to care about that now.
[Baby! Camil! Camil!!]
Standing before her child, whose entire body was covered in blood, Ignition had already fallen into a panic.
[What happened? This blood…… There’s so much…….]
The red rocks of Red Flame Mountain had been stained an even deeper shade.
Camiloas didn’t move.
His orange eyes stared blankly into empty space.
[Camil…… What happened to you……? Wake up. Get up, get…….]
Ignition frantically shook her son before suddenly freezing.
Her gaze locked onto one spot.
His chest had been split open in a long gash, and the inside was ragged and torn as though someone had rummaged through it.
The place where his heart should have been was empty.
The moment she realized it could not possibly have disappeared on its own—
[AAAAAAAAAAH—!!]
Ignition’s fury shook the entirety of Red Flame Mountain.
[I’LL KILL THEM! I’LL FIND WHOEVER DID THIS AND KILL THEM! I’LL RIP OUT THEIR HEART WHILE THEY’RE STILL ALIVE AND TEAR THEM TO PIECES—!!]
Red Flame Mountain burst into flames.
Fire that Ignition unconsciously spewed forth swallowed the surrounding trees.
Amid those flames, she stared at her child.
With endlessly sorrowful eyes.
[Who did this……? Who did this to my baby……?]
She breathed heavily and struggled to suppress her rage.
If she wanted revenge, she needed to find a clue to the culprit.
Ignition examined Camiloas’s body.
Only then did she notice wounds she had overlooked before.
‘There are small wounds all over his face and body.’
A dragon’s scales were harder than almost anything.
Even human Aura capable of casually cutting through rock couldn’t harm one unless it reached the level needed against an Ancient Dragon.
‘He’s an Adult Dragon. Most attacks should have bounced right off him, yet he has wounds like these…….’
And what about these marks that had cut through the dragon’s scales?
How could they be explained?
Then Ignition’s gaze stopped at his head.
There was a wound on the back of his skull, as though something had pierced it.
‘He wasn’t stabbed through the chest first?’
If someone had already cut open his chest and removed his heart, there would have been no reason to stab his head afterward.
He would already have been dead.
‘They stabbed his head…… and then took his heart…….’
URK—
Ignition suppressed the nausea rising in her throat as she looked at her son’s corpse.
Her gaze filled with pity.
‘I swear…… I will find whoever did this and avenge you. Until then…… rest peacefully, my son.’
As she stared at him, something suddenly glimmered.
Inside the wound on her son’s head.
‘What is that?’
Ignition peered into the wound.
Something resembling the hilt of a sword was lodged deep inside his skull.
Using mana, she carefully pulled it free.
The object floated into the air.
It was a sword.
A weapon used by humans.
‘Those insects beneath insects……!’
Fresh fury toward humanity surged all the way to the top of her head.
That anger spread to her followers as well.
The human sacrifices they had offered her.
The dazzling jewels and treasures they had brought.
All of it suddenly felt disgusting.
She even hated herself for having enjoyed receiving such things.
For a moment, she thought perhaps every human should simply be killed.
But her reason soon returned.
She needed to identify which human had done this.
‘Wait. This crest…….’
Looking more closely, she saw a distinctive crest engraved on the hilt.
‘The Antonio Family?’
Ignition had interacted with humans for a long time, so she knew the Eight Great Families well.
Including their crests.
‘There’s no mistake. This belongs to the Antonio Family of the Bellion Kingdom.’
With a dragon’s memory that never forgot anything it had seen once, Ignition decided where to direct her fury.
Toward the Antonio Family.
***
Alton Drake was deeply troubled.
He had secretly contacted the heads of the remaining families, excluding Antonio, and gathered them together.
“You have all heard the news, I assume. Lord Bellacors went to see Lord Camiloas.”
Alton continued with a grave expression.
“It appears he went to confront him over the burning of Duke Antonio’s territory. If things go badly, a major battle may break out.”
“Indeed. We must stop them.”
“And how exactly do you propose stopping such great beings?”
“What, then? Are you saying we should simply stand by and watch? Should we not at least make an attempt to intervene?”
“This is not something for us to interfere with.”
“Agreed. We have no choice but to watch as though observing a fire from afar.”
Opinions clashed.
Alton remained silent and listened to the argument.
Sometimes, hearing everyone out helped him arrive at a good idea.
But the argument showed no sign of cooling.
Those who believed they should intervene and those who believed they should simply observe remained evenly divided.
BANG! BANG!
Alton struck the table and stepped in to mediate.
“This gathering was not called so that we could quarrel among ourselves. I have already sent a subordinate to Red Flame Mountain. Let us first observe the situation.”
“Hmm…… That would be best.”
“We shall follow Duke Drake’s decision.”
Alton let out a quiet sigh.
Things were only ever settled when he personally stepped in.
But the true problem was something else.
“My apologies for interrupting the meeting.”
A subordinate hurriedly opened the door and entered.
“What is it?”
“We received word from the scout sent to Red Flame Mountain…… He says he found a corpse.”
“A corpse?”
“He says it is Lord Camiloas’s corpse.”
Everyone sucked in a breath.
Silence fell over the meeting room in an instant.
“Understood. You may leave.”
Only after the subordinate left did the family heads begin speaking.
“T-this is madness!”
“L-Lord Camiloas……!”
“How could this…….”
Shock and lament mixed together.
“Lord Bellacors must have done it! It was revenge for burning his territory!”
“Indeed! Lord Bellacors is especially possessive of his territory…….”
“I had heard the Black Clan was cruel, but to think he would go this far in retaliation…….”
Alton maintained a calm expression outwardly, but inwardly he was equally shaken.
‘An Adult Dragon is dead…….’
Camiloas might not have been a dragon representing an entire kingdom, but Alton had still maintained ties with him.
He had offered Camiloas no small number of human sacrifices and tributes.
‘Wait. If Lord Camiloas is dead…….’
It was obvious whose fury they were going to incur.
Alton knew the relationship between Camiloas and Ignition.
“That is not the real problem.”
“What?”
“What do you mean, Duke Drake?”
“You are saying there is an even greater problem than this?”
Alton nodded and was just about to voice his concern when—
“Family Head!”
The subordinate who had left moments ago burst through the door without even knocking.
“This is terrible! A Red Dragon has been spotted over the Bellion Kingdom!”
“A Red Dragon……?”
Alton’s fear had become reality.
***
Every dragon clan preferred a different kind of lair.
The Green Clan favored dense forests.
The Blue Clan favored the deep sea or deserts.
The Red Clan favored places like Red Flame Mountain or volcanic regions.
And the Black Clan preferred swamps.
Bellacors’s lair was no exception.
[Hehe. Not bad.]
Bellacors smiled contentedly as he looked over a treasure vault that had doubled in size.
Since he had effectively stolen someone else’s property, a small amount of guilt began creeping into him.
[Insolent bastard. Why did you have to pick a fucking fight with me?]
Bellacors muttered to himself and crushed the guilt.
[Ignition raised that brat wrong. You cannot spoil a child like that.]
He had children of his own, but it had been more than five hundred years since he had last seen their faces.
[I should…… keep quiet about getting all this treasure.]
If his human followers learned about it, they might reduce the amount of tribute they sent him.
[I’ll have to squeeze compensation out of them for the duchy burning down.]
When it came to treasure, more was always better.
As Bellacors gazed happily over his hoard, the crystal orb in his lair lit up.
[I was just about to contact them anyway. Perfect.]
He poured mana into the magical device his human followers had prepared, connecting the communication.
―Lord Bellacors. I believe you should return to the kingdom immediately.
[What happened?]
―A Red Dragon…… has appeared in the sky above the kingdom.
[What?]
Who could it be?
Had Camiloas come to apologize?
Bellacors answered that he understood and ended the communication.
Whoever it was, entering his territory without permission was reason enough to drive them out.
FLAP—!
Bellacors left his lair, spread his enormous wings, and headed toward the skies above Bellion.
A Red Dragon floated in the distance.
One thing was certain.
It wasn’t Camiloas.
This dragon was roughly Bellacors’s own size.
[I’ll…… kill them all.]
[Ignition?]
Only after drawing closer did he recognize her.
But the way she muttered to herself made her look almost deranged.
[What are you doing here, Ignition?]
[Bellacors…….]
Ignition’s hollow eyes turned toward him.
[My son is dead.]
[……What?]
[The Antonio Family. Those bastards killed him.]
[…….]
Bellacors fell silent.
No.
He simply couldn’t find the words.
To be perfectly honest, he was flustered.
‘T-that bastard…… is dead?’
[Why are you reacting like that?]
Ignition narrowed her eyes.
[Don’t tell me…… you killed him?]
At that moment, Bellacors realized it.
Ignition suspected him.