No one spoke.
For several long seconds, the battlefield remained frozen in silence, as if the world itself needed time to process what had just happened. The students stood stiff, their eyes still locked on the spot where the blade had pierced through the dragon's mouth. Even the S-rankers, who had seen countless battles, found themselves unable to immediately react.
Then the silence broke.
"Holy… what the hell was that?!"
The reaction came all at once. Gasps, curses, half-formed words, none of them controlled. The students couldn't help it. What they had just witnessed went far beyond anything they understood.
One moment there had been a dragon, an overwhelming existence they could barely comprehend, and the next… a human figure had been dragged out of it like something filthy being pulled from a wound.
Narasha's thoughts were a mess.
She didn't understand how it happened, not even close, but one thing was crystal clear in her mind, the human inside the golem had been extracted like a parasite, ripped out without resistance despite the rules she thought she knew.
That shouldn't be possible.
Once a soul and physical body were absorbed into something like that, separation was supposed to be impossible unless the host released it willingly. That was common knowledge, something even mid-rank scholars understood.
So how…?
Her gaze shifted back to Ashan.
'He pulled him out with that sword…?'
The more she thought about it, the less sense it made.
'What kind of ability is that?'
Before anyone could organize their thoughts properly, Maren moved first.
"Assemble!" she called out, already stepping forward.
Lia, Sisiliya, Aren, Draven, and the rest of the S-rankers followed immediately, closing the distance toward Ashan, who stood near the now-lifeless dragon golem as if nothing unusual had happened.
Maren's eyes flicked briefly toward the collapsed body of the golem before returning to him.
"What happened to that man?" she asked, her tone firm but controlled. "The one that came out of it."
Ashan didn't even turn to look at her.
"Gone," he said simply. "That trash is gone for good. He won't be coming back."
There was no hesitation in his voice, no room for interpretation.
Dead.
Not even a body left behind.
Maren felt her muscles tighten slightly. She stepped closer, studying him more carefully now, trying to read something from his expression, his posture, anything that could give her an answer beyond what he was willing to say.
"Then answer me this," she continued. "Who are you? A human? Where did you come from?"
Ashan finally glanced at her.
His eyes were calm, almost indifferent.
"Why ask something so obvious?" he replied. "I'm clearly human. Just… not your average one."
That answer didn't help.
If anything, it made things worse.
Maren narrowed her eyes slightly but didn't push that line further. Instead, she shifted her approach.
"Then let me ask something else."
She turned her head slightly toward Eirena, then back to him.
"Did you come here knowing what that thing was?"
Ashan clicked his tongue in mild irritation.
"Didn't you already hear me?" he said. "I came here to hunt a dragon. A real one. This…" he tapped the golem lightly with his hand, "…is just a fake. A golem."
"A golem?" Draven stepped forward, curiosity overriding caution. "That doesn't make sense. Golems operate on artificial life forces constructed from mana. They don't… house people inside them. How does something like that even exist?"
Ashan didn't answer immediately. Instead, he stepped closer to the massive body and placed his hand against it, as if confirming something through touch.
"This isn't a normal golem," he said after a moment. "It's called a soul dragon. Rare… extremely rare. Honestly, it's more of a treasure than a weapon."
"A treasure?" Maren repeated. "What kind of value does something like this even have?"
Ashan glanced back at them.
"You've already seen part of it," he said. "This thing is S-rank by default, built purely for destruction. But what makes it truly dangerous isn't just its raw strength, it can manipulate all four elements; Fire, water, wind, and earth."
Draven's eyes widened slightly.
Maren went silent.
Elemental manipulation across all four attributes wasn't just rare, it was something that almost never appeared in a single entity.
Ashan gave a small nod toward Draven.
"In terms of skill, it's not far from you," he said. "Except it's in the body of a dragon, with far greater physical force behind every action."
Draven exhaled slowly, his expression turning serious. "Then it's not just dangerous," he muttered. "It's catastrophic."
Ashan's gaze sharpened slightly.
"That's not even the worst part," he added. "This thing is immortal."
That word hit harder than anything else.
Maren frowned. "Immortal? What exactly do you mean by that?"
"It means exactly what it sounds like," Ashan replied. "Its body doesn't age. As long as its core remains intact, it continues to exist. It can regenerate damage using mana, reshape its structure under certain conditions, and adapt to most forms of attack."
A brief silence followed.
This time, it wasn't confusion.
It was realization.
If this thing had not been restrained from the beginning, if it had been allowed to move freely from the start…
The destruction would have been beyond anything they could contain.
Lia's eyes lit up despite herself, a faint spark of excitement breaking through her otherwise composed expression.
'An immortal golem…'
The thought alone was intoxicating.
To study it, to control it, to understand its structure,
But before her imagination could go any further, Ashan spoke again.
"I'll be taking this with me," he said casually. "It's safer that way."
Lia reacted instantly.
"Why?" she asked, stepping forward. "We can secure it here. It'll be safe under our control."
Maren and the others turned toward her, catching the subtle shift in her tone.
Ashan let out a quiet laugh.
"You're Lia Frost, right?" he said. "One of the few S-rankers who can fly."
Lia stiffened slightly.
"That reaction just now…" he continued, his voice carrying a hint of amusement, "…was interesting. The greed in it wasn't even hidden. I've heard you can get a bit obsessive when it comes to rare things."
Lia didn't deny it.
She didn't confirm it either.
Ashan's expression returned to neutral.
"And safe?" he continued. "You call this place safe?"
He tapped the golem again.
"All it takes is one person without restraint, someone willing to abandon their humanity, to repeat what just happened. That alone makes this place unsafe."
Maren frowned slightly. "Then how did that man even get inside it in the first place?"
Ashan tilted his head slightly, considering.
"That part isn't certain," he admitted. "But I have a working theory."
He gestured toward the dragon's mouth.
"When I pulled him out, his physical body was already broken down. His mana pathways were completely open, leaking energy uncontrollably. My guess is that he forced them open permanently, then allowed himself to be absorbed into the core."
"The core?" Draven asked.
Ashan nodded. "Think of it like an ovum. The mouth acts as a high-efficiency intake point, it draws in mana far more aggressively than the rest of the body, and it's directly connected to the core structure."
Understanding began to form across their faces.
"So he let himself be absorbed on purpose…" Maren muttered.
"Exactly," Ashan said. "He turned himself into a living control system. A kind of interface that could operate the golem in real time."
Draven grimaced slightly. "That's… insane."
"And dangerous," Ashan added. "Which is why I'm taking it."
A brief pause followed.
"I assume there are no objections."
No one spoke.
Not even Lia this time.
As much as she wanted it, she understood the risk. Leaving something like this in a known location was an invitation for disaster.
Still, she didn't completely back down.
"And why should we entrust something like that to you?" she asked. "We don't even know who you are."
Ashan exhaled slowly, clearly losing interest in the conversation.
"Didn't they already tell you?" he said. "I'm carrying things far more dangerous than this. This barely qualifies as a problem."
Lia glanced at Maren.
Maren gave a small nod.
That was enough.
Ashan turned back to the golem, placing his hand against it once more.
"Well then," he said, almost casually, "I'll be taking this. It'll make a decent addition to my collection."
And just as he finished, a voice cut through the air.
Cold.
Sharp.
And filled with absolute refusal.
"That won't be happening."