One night, Cid was wandering around as usual and, true to form, got lost.
Before he knew it, he had stepped into a thick, swirling mist.
He was used to getting lost, but this time he had wandered quite far.
He walked for a long time without finding an end to the fog.
Just as he decided to turn back, he emerged from the mist–but not onto the path he came from.
Before his eyes sat the ruins of a lost ancient capital.
Cid immediately sent out a mana call for Shino.
About ten minutes later, Shino arrived at Cid’s location.
“What do you think of this place?
A city hidden in the mist…
it’s the perfect base for an Eminence in Shadow!” “This is…
the Lost Capital, Alexandria!” Shino remarked.
“Huh?
Alexandria?” “Alexandria!
It’s the capital recorded in history books as having been destroyed by the Mist Dragon!” “Sounds pretty impressive,” Cid said, his eyes gleaming.
“And a Mist Dragon, too?
I really want to try fighting it!” At that moment, a draconic roar echoed through the ruins.
“After all these years, a human actually dares to set foot here!” a majestic voice boomed.
A massive wyvern flew out from the heart of the ancient city.
“Phantom, who goes first?” Shadow asked.
As Cid’s primary financier, he made sure to ask for Shino’s opinion.
“You go ahead.
I’ll just watch.” “Just come at me together!
Don’t waste my time!” the Mist Dragon roared, exhaling a cloud of blue-violet fog that instantly blanketed the area.
Shino and Cid were blinded, but both could easily sense the dragon’s massive mana signature.
*Clap!* Cid clapped his hands together.
Mana swirled violently around him, forming a localized cyclone that blew the mist away.
Drawing his slime sword, Cid vanished and reappeared instantly above the dragon’s head.
He struck, but the slime sword failed to pierce the dragon’s incredibly tough hide.
While there was no visible wound, the impact clearly caused pain.
“You wretched human!” The Mist Dragon thrashed its body, trying to shake Cid off.
Cid simply took to the air, hovering above while the dragon twisted and turned like an idiot, trying to throw off a rider who wasn’t there anymore.
“What are you doing?” Cid looked down at the dragon with a look of pity.
“Damnable human, I’ll kill you!” The dragon gathered mana in its maw, firing a concentrated blue beam.
Cid raised a hand, manifesting a mana shield that blocked the attack effortlessly.
What followed was a one-sided beating.
The Mist Dragon wasn’t particularly fast or strong, but it was incredibly durable.
Cid hammered away for an hour without breaking through its defenses.
*Damn human…
once his mana runs out, he’s dead!* the dragon thought.
But an hour passed, and Cid showed no signs of slowing down.
Instead, the dragon realized its own mana reserves were failing.
Once its mana was gone, its physical defenses would plummet.
“Stop!
Stop!
I give up!
I surrender!
This place is yours!” the dragon cried out for mercy.
Shadow stopped his assault.
“So, this ancient city of Alexanda is ours now.” “It’s Alexand-ria!” Shino corrected.
“Close enough.” Cid took a quick lap around the city but found absolutely no treasure, eventually leaving in disappointment.
Shino returned to the temporary base and summoned the Seven Shadows for an emergency meeting.
“Shadow has discovered the Lost Capital, Alexandria.
He defeated the Mist Dragon there, and the dragon has agreed to let us use the city as our permanent base.” “Lord Shadow’s strength is truly immense,” Zeta remarked.
Having read extensively, she knew the legend of Alexandria–a city destroyed by a dragon and surrounded by a permanent, lethal mist that no normal human could survive.
“Zeta, give the others a brief history of the place.
I don’t think everyone is familiar with it.” Zeta recounted the tale, letting the others realize just how formidable the Mist Dragon was and how mysterious the ruins were.
Afterward, Shino led the Seven Shadows to the edge of the fog.
“The dragon’s toxic mist isn’t hard to handle.
You just need to circulate your mana in a specific pattern to neutralize the poison.” Shino demonstrated the technique, and the girls mastered it quickly.
He followed the mana markers he had left the day before to ensure they didn’t get lost.
As the mist parted, the girls gasped at the sight of the majestic ruins.
“The City of Mist…
so this is what it looks like?” They hadn’t been inside long when the Mist Dragon reappeared.
After losing to Cid the day before, the legendary dragon had spent the night fuming.
It couldn’t accept such a pathetic loss.
It decided to challenge the *other* human to reclaim its dignity.
“Mist Dragon, what are you doing?” “I keep my word, the city is yours.
But yesterday…
I had an upset stomach!
Today, you and I fight!” the dragon declared, desperate to save face.
“Alpha, everyone, stay back so you don’t get caught in the crossfire,” Shino ordered.
“It seems you didn’t learn your lesson yesterday.
Fine.
Today, I’ll be the one to beat it into you.” Shino drew a weapon from his robes.
“The Star Sword!” This was a masterpiece Shino had crafted over 1,324 days by fusing one hundred slime swords into a single blade.
It was designed specifically for targets with high physical resistance.
“Begin!” The dragon exhaled its mist.
Shino waved his hand, condensing mana into a massive folding fan.
“Disperse!” With one swing, a hurricane-force wind blew the mist into nothingness.
*This human…* the dragon was stunned.
*He cleared my mist even faster than the one yesterday!* Shino flew toward the dragon.
Compared to Cid’s instantaneous speed, Shino was slightly slower, which gave the dragon false hope.
*This one is easier to hit!* It fired its mana ray, but Shino swung the Star Sword, cleaving the beam in half down the middle.
Before the dragon could react, Shino was already above its head.
“Shatter!” The Star Sword slammed into the dragon’s skull.
The beast plummeted, crashing into the ground with the force of a small earthquake.
*His attacks…
they bypass my defense!* The dragon felt like its brain had been rattled loose.
Shino descended like a meteor, driving the Star Sword into the dragon’s belly.
The beast coughed up a mouthful of dragon blood.
“Stop!
I yield!
I yield!” Shino could have killed it, but he realized that if the dragon died, the mist protecting the city might vanish.
Without the mist, the base wouldn’t be a secret anymore.
He decided to let it live.
“I surrender!
I promise I’ll never challenge you again!
The city is yours!” The dragon scrambled into the air and fled, terrified of being beaten to death.
The Seven Shadows watched the exchange in stunned silence.
The Mist Dragon was a creature of legend, a beast that could end civilizations, yet it was helpless in Shino’s hands.
Just seeing the dragon had triggered their primal survival instincts, yet Shino had treated it like a training dummy.
“Phantom…
your strength has reached such a terrifying level,” Alpha whispered in awe.
“You’re amazing, Lord Phantom!” Beta added, her eyes sparkling with adoration.
“Master is so strong!
When can we have babies?!” Delta shouted excitedly.
“With Lord Phantom leading us, we will surely overthrow the Cult,” Epsilon said.
“I need to work even harder to keep up with his footsteps,” Zeta noted, her resolve hardening.
Eta, meanwhile, was staring off into space, mentally calculating how to add an automated engine to her bicycle designs.
— CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Prince_of_Lan_Li Check out other works!