Ruins bordered the coast. The brutal aftermath of war still lingered over what had once been a city of the Dragon Race. Buildings scaled to their massive frames lay crumbled and weathering away.
The sea, remembering the chaos and carnage of the past, lapped quietly against the shore. Morning swept the night away, leaving golden footprints across the water's surface. A breeze trailed the retreating edge of darkness from the horizon, pulling across the land. The damp, soft current of air washed over the Dragon on the coast. Disguised as an Elf, his bangs fluttered in the wind, revealing hollow eyes. Taking the dawn sea breeze head-on, the Dragon leveled a hostile glare at the sky.
Hummm!
Aircraft filled the sky above, stretching as far as the eye could see. A few Space Motherships hovered among them. Droplets of light rained from the vessels endlessly like a shower of shooting stars.
Flash!
Each time a light burst in the air, a band of starlight embroidered the sky. Every tiny speck served as a medium infused with tracking Magic.
The Kavites had poured all their resources into scouring the planet since the moment the hostage-taker escaped their base. Honestly, the fact that he had managed to cross the ocean and reach land at all was nothing short of a miracle.
‘The rest of the infiltration team must have escaped by now.’
The Dragon recalled the comms traffic right after he was discovered. Unlike him, the other four had received functional bombs, yet they had still abandoned the mission. They simply planted their explosives right where they stood when the transmission came through, then bailed. They had likely fled the atmosphere just moments before the planetary lockdown took full effect.
‘Escaping on my own is impossible. I have to reach the rendezvous point.’
They had established a pickup site precisely for this scenario—in case the mission failed and all off-planet escape routes were severed. The Ancient Dragon's current goal was to reach that location.
Of course, he had no intention of going alone.
‘It's only a success if I bring the hostage.’
The Dragon finished his coastal reconnaissance and slipped back into the ruins.
Inside a gloomy building, a Kavite lay sprawled on the ground, bound by restraining Magic. The Ancient Dragon's gaze fixed on the artifact around his captive's neck.
He had stripped away most of the hostage's protective gear, leaving only that one piece untouched. It appeared to shield its wearer from the toxicity of the dragon blood. As far as the Dragon knew, removing it would kill the hostage instantly.
‘I carried him over my shoulder, so he must have taken the brunt of the erupting dragon blood directly. A massive dose.’
He stared intently at the protective gear.
‘They developed countermeasures far faster and more effectively than we anticipated. That thing provides near-perfect defense.’
Up until their most recent skirmishes, the Kavites' dragon blood armor had never performed anywhere near this level. If their anti-poison technology had advanced this much, their detoxification methods had likely evolved just as rapidly. The Dragon suspected the mission might have failed anyway, even if the bomb hadn't been defective.
In the heat of the life-and-death struggle back at the base, he hadn't noticed, but now he could feel deeply complex waves of Magic radiating from the gear. The chaotic fluctuations blurred the Ancient Dragon's senses.
‘Their speed makes no sense. Their technological progression is completely disjointed. How could they achieve a breakthrough like this in such a short timeframe?’
The Kavite noticed his stare. Or rather, the mind of the man disguised as a Kavite was spinning just as rapidly.
The Dragon assumed his hostage's mind was consumed by anger and terror.
Minjun, however, was thinking something else entirely.
‘Was that dragon blood fountain the only one? Are there any more? What a shame.’
Minjun now had a pretty good idea why the Dragon had been lugging that thing around on his back.
‘It was a weapon. Meant to incapacitate the Kavites.’
His gnawing hunger, coupled with his ingrained assumption that dragon blood was merely food, had initially limited his imagination. But now that he had a moment to breathe, he could grasp the situation.
He figured the Dragons had planned an operation to disperse dragon blood throughout the base.
‘Diluted and dispersed like that, they couldn't have been aiming for lethal force. Paralysis, maybe? But even if they neutralized everyone inside the base, the perimeter guards and the Kavites in the Space Motherships would be completely fine. If they dragged it out, reinforcements would eventually arrive and crush them. In the end, it was just a stalling tactic.’
A more effective method would have been simply bombing the base. So why buy time instead?
Only one answer came to mind.
‘A prisoner rescue.’
They had needed just enough time to break the prisoners out.
One realization led to another. That little miracle from earlier—the dragon blood seeping through his cell walls—must have been the Dragon's doing as well.
Minjun smiled bitterly to himself.
‘I basically drank up the Dragons' entire strategic arsenal.’
It was a pointless hypothetical, but what if he hadn't consumed it and just left it alone?
‘Even if the Dragons had managed to free the other prisoners, I would have been left rotting in that isolation cell. Completely powerless—unable to break through my cell walls, let alone the core barriers of Yongreung.’
And if, by some sheer stroke of luck, the Dragon rescue team had stumbled across him?
He still couldn't picture a positive outcome.
"Hey."
His train of thought stopped there.
The man disguised as a massive Elf was approaching, casting a long shadow across the ground.
"What's your name? What's your identity?"
Fleeing across the ocean with trackers hot on their tail had left no time for anything resembling an interrogation. Watching the Dragon finally catch his breath and speak, Minjun deliberated for a moment.
The decision came quickly. It was better to stay silent than risk getting caught in a sloppy lie.
"..."
The Ancient Dragon tenaciously pushed to extract information, but his captive simply kept his mouth shut tight.
The Dragon thought.
‘Hmph. You don't even have the strength to sit up, yet you still want to hold out.’
Bound by the restraints, the Kavite looked completely limp.
The Ancient Dragon had no idea that his captive was actually sprawled out in utter comfort, savoring his first heavy meal in ages.
Compared to his prime, the amount wasn't even enough to register as a snack, but Minjun could proudly say it was the first time he'd tasted blood in ages. He needed time to digest. The sheer satisfaction and fullness were immense—enough that he just wanted to lie perfectly still and bask in the sensation.
The continued silence only cemented the Dragon's theory.
‘He's putting up a stubborn front. He must have a lot to lose if he opens his mouth. Definitely a high-ranking official.’
Regardless, once they returned to the unit, they had a variety of methods waiting for him.
"You don't seem to realize it's only a matter of time. You'll spill everything eventually."
The Kavite remained silent.
The Ancient Dragon gave up and sat down to take a moment to recover. He focused his mind, gathering the ambient mana from the air. At the same time, he had to juggle multiple tasks: monitoring the Kavite, scrambling any tracking Magic, and staying alert for approaching enemies.
In other words, he couldn't devote his full concentration to a single one of those tasks.
"...?!"
Suddenly, Minjun sensed something strange.
‘Danger. It's them!’
The timing was bizarrely out of sync.
The moment the Dragon returned from scouting outside, a Kavite search vessel stealthily made landfall on the beach.
The troops slipped into the ruins, carefully avoiding the warning Magic the Ancient Dragon had set up. They moved with absolute caution so as not to alert their prey.
Minjun's shadows, which he had scattered across the ruins, were the ones to detect the pursuers. They consumed a fraction of the power required for Dragon or Kavite Magic, yet they monitored a far wider area.
Ignorant of the impending threat, the Dragon had his eyes closed, his focus directed at the wrong things.
Minjun grew anxious.
‘Hey, you idiot. Now is not the time for this. Get up!’
A portion of the Dragon's awareness was still focused on him, so if Minjun made a move, he could redirect the Dragon's attention.
The problem was how to tip him off.
‘A hostage warning his captor is ridiculous.’
If he wasn't careful, the Dragon might start questioning his value as a hostage.
Nor did he have any intention of revealing his true identity. Minjun had already decided that the Dragons could never learn about the existence of the primordial race. It was a calculated decision, made with the future in mind.
It was better to let this Dragon, whose name and species he didn't even know, continue believing he was just a high-ranking Kavite.
‘Damn it, I'll have to handle this myself.’
He didn't have the power to wipe out the approaching troops, but he could certainly cause a distraction.
Minjun sent a command to the shadows scattered across the ruined city.
Swish!
Rustle!
The mindless Shadow Fragments swept through the dark ruins like streaks of black rain. They flowed together, trickling streams merging into a raging river, all surging toward the sea. Since the sun hadn't fully risen and the traces of night still lingered, their movement remained perfectly concealed.
Soon, the mass of Shadow Fragments plunged beneath the waves and began to rapidly expand in size.
Following Minjun's design, the mass took the shape of an absolutely massive Dragon.
He didn't need to worry about perfectly mimicking a specific dragon's appearance. Minjun hadn't even seen his captor's true form yet, and he was willing to bet the Kavites hadn't either.
The shadow beast Minjun summoned ended up looking like an enlarged, modern-Dragon-sized version of a caster's familiar guide dragon. It began a slow, heavy march through the coastal waters.
The resulting panic immediately sent the local marine life into a frenzy. The war had driven the planet's terrestrial animals to near extinction, but the underwater ecosystems were still relatively intact. Fish and other aquatic creatures bolted in terror, their frantic movements completely unnatural.
The Ancient Race sensed the sudden disturbance.
*
It was only natural that the Kavites had been turned completely upside down after a member of the primordial race was kidnapped.
While the vast majority of the search teams believed they were hunting for a kidnapped Kavite official, a very select few knew the hostage's true identity.
"What the hell were you doing over there?! Managing Yongreung doesn't just mean hitting your Mana Crystal quotas. I stationed an entire garrison there, and yet... not only was your perimeter breached, but they managed to take 'him'?!"
An elderly Kavite's furious roar blasted through the magical projection.
The Kavite—who would be stripped of his position as the Yongreung manager in a matter of days because of this very incident—bowed his head deeply before the elder.
"I have no excuses."
He foresaw his impending fate and felt a crushing wave of despair.
At the same time, he felt a deep sense of injustice.
‘Damn it, how was anyone supposed to know they tampered with the dragon blood?!’
The defective bomb had triggered the dragon blood prematurely, giving away the intruders' presence. But a significant amount had already been dispersed before they were discovered, severely delaying the Kavites' initial response. With so many of their forces poisoned and convulsing on the ground, they simply hadn't been able to commit their full strength to the pursuit.
He had attempted to explain the circumstances, but his excuses only seemed to enrage the elder further.
"And you call that an excuse? The interior might have been contaminated, but the moment the alert was issued, both our internal and external forces equipped their Anti-Poison Artifacts, did they not? And what possible reason is there for failing to catch a single man who is literally dragging a hostage around with him?!"
"I am deeply sorry."
The manager had absolutely no defense. Even with a dozen mouths, he couldn't have explained himself.
Because the truth was, he didn't know the reason either.
It was utterly inexplicable. Ancient Dragon or not, a manhunt of this scale should have caught him hundreds of times over by now. Yet they still had nothing. It was simply too difficult to believe this was the work of a single dragon; his evasion was flawless, his movements completely ghostly.
"He hasn't already escaped off-world, has he?"
"No, absolutely not. We are still finding traces of his movements on the planet!"
Watching the pale, trembling manager, the Kavite elder—who would one day become a Grand Councilor—began considering the worst-case scenario.
"...What are the chances that they discovered 'his' true identity and specifically targeted him?"
Even as he asked the question, he knew the chances were virtually zero.
The manager agreed entirely.
"Even his personal escorts died without knowing his true identity. Furthermore, when that Dragon came face-to-face with the primordial race, he completely ignored him and lunged for the Dragon Heart being transported by the official next to him."
They discussed various possibilities, but the most plausible hypothesis remained the simplest: the intruder had infiltrated the facility to steal the Dragon Heart, and merely seized a high-ranking Kavite as a crime of opportunity.
"Do you think the kidnapper has figured out his true identity by now?"
Would the hostage have revealed his race?
The elder answered his own question, concluding that it was highly unlikely.
"He considers the Dragons to be enemies. He knows exactly what those scaled beasts did—how they conquered the universe, exploited and enslaved every other race, and turned the world into a living hell."
Ever since they had first made contact with the primordial race, the Kavites had subjected him to what amounted to sheer indoctrination regarding the wickedness of the Dragon Race.
- People are suffering. Let us grant them the gift of freedom. Let us break the tyranny of these monsters who know only domination and exploitation, and help every race's potential bloom. Let us end this long winter and bring forth a spring of peace and freedom.
It hadn't been a lie, either.
If anything, the atrocities committed by the Dragons had only worsened since the war began. Even among the Ancient Race, their actions were widely condemned as excessively cruel. The Dragons behaved this way out of a need for military supplies, but their insatiable demand for those who possessed Divine Power also fueled the cruelty.
They desperately needed more of those individuals to treat their wounded quickly and without side effects. And nothing bred religious devotion faster than desperate, hellish living conditions.
"He will never reveal his secret to his captor. If he did, the Dragons would never let him go."
Nevertheless, the unease lingered. The fact that the primordial race had made physical contact with a Dragon was a disaster that should never have happened.
The Kavite elder pressed the manager harder. Whatever information the kidnapper might have gleaned from him—true or false, substantial or meaningless—could never be allowed to reach the Dragon forces.
Recovering the hostage was a given, but executing the kidnapper was an absolute necessity.
Beep!
Just then, a signal chimed on the manager's end.
Seeing the manager's expression shift drastically, the future Grand Councilor demanded an answer.
"What is it?"
The manager's face suddenly brightened.
"We've... we think we've found the Dragon!"
*
- Abnormal readings detected. Coordinates 24-070-4989! All nearby forces converge immediately!
The infantry squads scouring the mainland pivoted instantly, and even the closest Space Mothership drifted out over the ocean.
They refrained from indiscriminately firing Photon Cannons into the water. Doing so would obviously jeopardize the hostage's life.
How, then, were they supposed to capture an enemy hiding beneath the sea?
The Space Mothership had the perfect solution. Its ventral hatches slid open, but rather than unleashing missiles or lasers, they emitted a massive, invisible pulse.
The moment the pulse struck the surface of the water...
Whoosh!
The technology, born from Minjun's own advice, began to manipulate the planet's gravity.
Centered on the dragon-shaped disturbance in the water and the frantic movements of the local marine life...
The sea parted.
Craaaash!
Mountainous waves surged, retreating outward in a massive circle. The ocean floor was laid bare beneath cascading ridges of water that looked just like enormous waterfalls. The hidden depths, untouched by open air for tens of thousands of years, were suddenly exposed to the sunlight.
However, the fake dragon Minjun had summoned had already dissolved into the underwater shadows, completely vanishing.
"...What is that?"
The real Ancient Dragon sensed the anomaly instantly. Even before the deafening roar of the parting ocean reached him, he felt the tremendous surge of Magic driving it.
"Damn it. I don't know what it is, but I definitely shouldn't be anywhere near it."
He hoisted the hostage over his shoulder once more. Squeezing out every last drop of his remaining mana, he prepared to move. With Teleport still blocked, he had to push his concealment and acceleration Magic to their absolute limits to escape.
Realizing they had narrowly dodged a crisis, Minjun grumbled to himself.
‘Good lord. Talk about high-maintenance.’
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