"The Legendary Dragons…"
Those words were not merely a phrase; they were an atmospheric shift... They carried a weight too immense for the conscious mind to fathom, dragging a suffocating silence into the room. The air grew thick, charged with a tension so sharp it felt as though the very act of breathing was a violation of the stillness...
Even the dragons themselves—beings of absolute might—harored a primal, bone-deep dread toward this celestial echelon. It was whispered in forbidden texts that their number did not exceed what one could count on a single hand...
Lorian's voice broke the silence, thin and laced with a tremor he couldn't hide. "Yes... even the archives bleed thin when it comes to them. We possess nothing but their names and fragmented echoes of their visages. They are—as the legends dictate—four..."
He lifted his gaze slowly, as if looking at ghosts...
"The first is Daim, the Terror Incarnate... He is heralded as the most harrowing entity to ever draw breath... They say he possesses three eyes and two maws. His power does not merely rend the flesh; it erodes the very essence of being, erasing one's identity until nothing remains but a hollow husk..."
Round's hand betrayed him, shivering uncontrollably. Lorian continued, his tone sinking into a dark cadence...
"The second… Gaius, the Dragon of Calamity... The disasters we have endured in our history are but the stray sparks of his true furnace... He is clad in crimson scales of such brilliance that he is called the most beautiful of his kind… yet he carries the absolute end within the span of his wings."
A heavy, graveyard silence reclaimed the room...
"The third is Krouf, the Dragon of Annihilation and the Void. Information on him is a ghost—scant and ethereal. Yet, it is said that his mere presence warps the fundamental laws of reality. He is the progenitor of all Seals, the source from which all binding magic flows."
Lorian hesitated, his voice dropping to a jagged whisper. "And finally… the apex. The sun around which these terrors orbit."
The air literally froze...
"Orghion."
The name wasn't just a sound; it was a physical blow...
"The Primordial Dragon. The First Sovereign. The strongest to ever exist. It is said he reigned over the world in the antediluvian ages, his scale so massive he eclipsed the horizon itself. His power was not just destruction—it was an infinite, divine erasure. A being… beyond all."
For the first time, Raym felt the cold touch of true impotence... A helplessness he had never tasted before.
"This world… holds far more than I ever dared to grasp," he murmured, his voice a ghost of itself... "And I am still alive???"
Lorian stepped closer, his shadow mingling with Raym's. "Steady yourself... These beings are no longer tethered to our realm. And even if they were, they are beyond the reach of any master. They possess a will that transcends the very laws of ritualistic summoning..."
He added, his voice regaining a sliver of its usual composure, "Do not forget—these are but words in ancient tomes. The victor always pens the narrative he desires..."
Raym took a jagged breath, his fingers tightening around the hilt of his sword. The memory of Lonz—the raw, searing pain of loss—acted as his anchor, grounding his drifting spirit...
"Our objective remains," Lorian declared. "Find the Draconic Cult and sever their reach. Araki is weaving something catastrophic… and summoning a few lesser dragons is merely the overture to his symphony of chaos..."
They soon realized the Cult had vanished, leaving behind only the lingering scent of ozone and ritual incense...
"That bastard Araki is always a step ahead!" Round roared, his fist colliding with the stone wall. The masonry cracked under his fury, but the subsequent collapse wasn't caused by his blow...
The far wall imploded. Dust and debris erupted into the hall, and with it fell the mangled corpses of SI soldiers...
He had arrived...
The Dread Knight stood amidst the swirling grit. His sword was jagged and notched; his armor was a macabre tapestry of dried gore and fresh blood. He looked less like a warrior and more like a butcher clawing his way out of a massacre...
With a cry that sounded like the grinding of tombstone lids, he surged forward...
This time, Raym was ready. He met the charge, steel clashing against steel—but the force was staggering. The Knight's strength was a tidal wave. Rhyme couldn't hold for a second...
Round and Lorian dived into the fray instantly. The cacophony of metal against metal rang out like thunderclaps. The momentum favored the Knight until Saon joined the fray, his presence balancing the scales of the desperate dance. Sparks ignited the air, and the acrid stench of heated iron mingled with the dust...
Raym leaped back, his heart hammering. They all felt it—a chilling realization: they were not his equals...
In a flash of unbridled instinct, Raym channeled his essence. He flooded his fist with Pure Light, the radiance blinding and hot. He lunged, driving a direct punch into the Knight's breastplate...
A guttural, distorted sound erupted from the Knight's throat. He staggered, the armor groaning under the celestial impact, and dropped to one knee...
Shock rippled through the group...
Seizing the fleeting window, Raym infused his blade with the same Light and swung for the finishing blow...
The Knight vanished.
In the heartbeat that followed, a cold chill raced down Rhyme's spine. The Knight was behind him. A direct, lethal thrust.
"RAYM!!!" Lorian screamed...
But Raym didn't dodge... He moved into the strike, allowing the blade to pierce him just enough to trap it. He gripped the steel embedded in his side with a bloody hand, anchoring his feet to the earth...
He retaliated with a violent eruption of Light. Simultaneously, Saon descended, his Black Lightning intertwining with Raym's radiance in a chaotic, binary storm...
The dual impact was catastrophic. The Knight was hurled across the chamber, his sword shattering into a thousand fragments...
An eerie, stunned silence followed. Raym slammed his sword into the ground, leaning on it as he gasped for air...
"Your wound!!!" Lorian rushed toward him...
"It's nothing…" Raym wheezed, "I've grown accustomed to the blood..."
But the nightmare refused to end...
The Knight rose. Slowly... Deliberately...
He looked at his broken hilt, then drew the shattered remains to his chest in a bizarre, reverent stance...
In an instant, the broken blade didn't just glow—it ignited. A pillar of Pure Light erupted from the hilt, a radiance so absolute it threatened to sear their retinas.
Everyone froze, their shadows cast long and jagged against the walls.
Another user of the Element of Light???