An oppressive silence suddenly engulfed the battlefield.
It was not an ordinary silence.
It was the kind that descends just before disaster strikes, as though existence itself had forbidden anyone from speaking.
The dragon slowly settled onto a nearby patch of ground before silently surveying his surroundings.
One moment passed...
Then another...
Several long seconds slipped by, yet no one dared move.
No one even dared whisper.
The only sounds that disturbed the suffocating stillness were the strained breaths escaping trembling lungs—heavy, uneven breaths from people who could barely believe they were still alive.
Griem instinctively took a few steps backward.
His aged eyes widened in disbelief as they remained fixed upon the newcomer.
His lips trembled.
"...A... another dragon...?"
Valerius remained completely still.
Fear gripped him.
Yet what he felt wasn't fear alone.
Something about this dragon...
Something deep inside him screamed that this creature was fundamentally different.
This isn't an ordinary dragon...
Simply looking at him filled one's soul with an indescribable dread.
It felt less like standing before a living creature...
...and more like standing before something that should never have existed.
Daim slowly began walking toward Agnyr's motionless body.
His steps carried no urgency.
No rage.
Only calm certainty, as though the outcome had been decided long before he ever arrived.
Suddenly—
Aculeus roared.
"You cowardly bastard...!"
His voice shook with fury.
"You're nothing more than a scavenger feeding on easy prey!!!"
Daim paid him no attention.
He didn't even bother turning around.
He simply continued walking.
That was enough.
Aculeus finally snapped.
With an enraged roar, he launched himself toward Daim at full speed.
Only then...
Daim stopped.
He slowly turned his head.
And the third eye embedded in the center of his forehead...
Opened.
Instantly—
Aculeus froze in midair.
He couldn't move.
Couldn't struggle.
It was as if time itself had abandoned him.
Daim calmly raised his massive arm.
Pitch-black darkness gradually spread across it until the arm itself seemed to disappear into the void.
Silence.
Then—
He swung.
Just once.
One effortless strike.
That was all.
The next instant...
Aculeus's body shattered.
No blood.
No screams.
No remains.
His body simply crumbled into black dust that scattered into the wind...
As though he had never existed.
No one could comprehend what they had just witnessed.
Even the dragons they had fought until now...
Had never displayed power like this.
Several warriors instinctively stepped backward.
Others collapsed onto their knees in absolute terror.
The rest...
Could only stare.
Unable even to scream.
Their fear had gone beyond fear itself.
Daim finally stood before Agnyr.
Agnyr tried to move.
Tried to speak.
Tried to rise.
But his body no longer obeyed him.
Only his eyes remained alive.
Eyes overflowing with humiliation...
Powerlessness...
And despair.
Daim looked down at him for several long moments.
Then, in a voice whose echo seemed to shake both heaven and earth, he spoke.
"You..."
"...aren't even worthy."
Without warning—
The center of Daim's chest slowly split open.
A gigantic vertical mouth emerged.
It looked less like a mouth...
...and more like the entrance to another world.
Countless rows of jagged teeth stretched endlessly into darkness.
Then—
A dense black smoke poured from within.
This wasn't ordinary smoke.
It was living darkness.
Within moments it swallowed everything around them.
The sky vanished.
The horizon disappeared.
It was as though the deepest night had suddenly descended upon the world.
Summoning the last of his strength...
Agnyr shouted:
"Don't breathe it...!!!"
But his voice was far too weak.
Only those who still clung desperately to their sanity managed to hear his warning.
Slowly...
The smoke began to fade.
And then...
The truth revealed itself.
Everyone who had inhaled the smoke...
Had changed.
Their bodies were completely consumed by pitch-black darkness.
Their skin.
Their faces.
Their features.
Everything had vanished beneath the blackness.
Only one thing remained visible.
Their eyes.
They glowed with an eerie violet light that pierced through the darkness.
No one spoke.
No one screamed.
No one cried.
Only incomprehensible whispers echoed endlessly...
As though they were murmuring in a language that did not belong to this world.
Daim gave them one final glance.
Then spread his enormous wings.
With a single flap...
He disappeared.
Exactly as suddenly...
As he had appeared...
The few who had managed to retain their sanity exchanged uneasy glances.
Not a single soul dared to break the silence.
What... had just happened?
Who was that dragon?
Why had he appeared?
Why had he slaughtered one of his own without the slightest hesitation?
And what had become of those men?
Questions flooded their minds, yet not one of them had an answer.
Before Valerius could even begin to process what had happened—
One of the transformed men suddenly lunged at him.
His sword came crashing down toward Valerius's neck with murderous intent.
Valerius's eyes widened.
He barely managed to raise his weapon in time, blocking the strike before shouting,
"Hey, you idiot!!
It's me!"
But the man...
Didn't stop.
Didn't hesitate.
There wasn't even a flicker of recognition in his eyes.
Instead, he continued attacking with even greater ferocity, as though the only thing before him was prey that had to be destroyed.
Elsewhere on the battlefield...
Griem, Scythe, and the remaining warriors found themselves facing the exact same nightmare.
Every person who had inhaled the smoke...
Had turned on their former comrades without hesitation.
There were no allies anymore.
No commanders.
No subordinates.
No friends.
No enemies.
Only empty bodies...
Swinging their weapons at anything that still breathed.
Scythe's furious voice echoed across the battlefield as he deflected another strike.
"You fools!!
How dare you attack us?!
The enemy is right in front of you...
Not us!!"
A burst of laughter interrupted him.
A heavy...
Broken laugh.
It came from Agnyr.
It sounded like the laughter of someone moments away from death.
"Heh... hehehe..."
He slowly lifted his head.
"You foolish humans..."
"The ones standing before you..."
"...are no longer human."
Silence followed.
Then he continued.
"They're nothing more..."
"...than wandering souls..."
"...fighting without purpose."
Scythe let out a mocking chuckle while wiping the blood from his spear.
"Strange words..."
"...coming from someone who's already on death's doorstep."
He looked down at Agnyr with open contempt.
"So now you expect me to believe..."
"...that the dragon who appeared for a brief moment..."
"...attacked you as well?"
His smile widened.
"Looks like..."
"...even your own kind despises you."
Before he could continue—
Griem interrupted him.
For the first time since Daim's arrival...
The old ruler's face grew deadly serious.
"...He's telling the truth."
Scythe immediately turned toward him.
"So is Valerius...
Griem kept his eyes fixed upon the transformed men...
"I've heard of something like this..."
"...only once before."
He drew a slow breath.
"But I never imagined..."
"...that a dragon could completely alter a human being."
His gaze swept across the battlefield...
"Earlier..."
"I witnessed them driving us to attack one another through nothing more than their voices..."
He paused...
"But this..."
"...this is something entirely different."
Scythe frowned...
"What exactly are you saying, old man???"
His voice grew sharper...
"Are you sure..."
"...old age hasn't finally clouded your mind???"
The very next instant—
A blade pierced deep into his side...
Scythe gasped in pain...
He spun around immediately...
One of his own soldiers...
Had stabbed him.
For a brief second...
Disbelief filled his eyes...
Then rage consumed him...
"You bastard!!!"
With a furious roar, he threw himself into battle, striking at everyone around him, no longer caring who was friend and who was foe...
Meanwhile...
Valerius slowly stepped away from the chaos...
His gaze fell upon his own arm...
It was stained with blood...
But there wasn't a trace of that unnatural darkness upon it.
He slowly flexed his fingers...
They still obeyed him...
He looked back toward the transformed soldiers...
Then quietly muttered to himself,
Were we... attacked by these people from the very beginning...???
A forgotten memory slowly resurfaced.
One of the oldest memories he possessed.
...The scent of my mother's hair ribbon...
His body froze.
That smell...
It had been strange.
Unpleasant.
Almost...
Corrupted.
Exactly like...
The black smoke that had appeared moments ago...
His pupils narrowed.
No...
Could it have existed... even back then...???
Silence fell once more...
Even those still locked in combat seemed to pause for the briefest moment...
Their eyes slowly turned toward Valerius.
Even Griem looked at him in surprise...
As for Agnyr...
He did not answer immediately.
Instead, he simply stared into Valerius's eyes for several long moments, as though trying to decide whether the question before him was sincere... or merely another insult...
Then...
A bitter smile appeared across his face...
It was a smile filled with exhaustion...
And regret.
Finally, he spoke...
"...How can you ask me something like that..."
His crimson eyes met Valerius's...
"...when you were the ones who attacked us first???"
The battlefield seemed to grow quieter still...
Then he continued...
"You..."
"...were the ones who killed Gyre."
Valerius's entire body stiffened...
His brows drew together...
"What... do you mean???"
He took a step forward...
"No..."
His voice gradually rose...
"You were the ones who started this!!!"
He pointed toward Agnyr...
"You spread fear throughout the region..."
"And then slaughtered a peaceful scouting party..."
His voice faltered...
"...My father..."
He clenched his teeth...
"...was among them."
For the first time...
Agnyr's expression changed...
The mockery vanished.
Only disbelief remained...
He stared at Valerius in silence...
Seconds passed...
Then...
He laughed...
Not with arrogance...
Not with contempt...
But with the hollow laughter of someone who had finally realized how perfectly everything had been orchestrated...
"Heh... hehehe..."
He lowered his head...
"...That bastard..."
Then slowly looked back up...
"Daim..."
A weary sigh escaped him...
"...He truly played us all."
His gaze returned to Valerius...
"He never even bothered silencing those who discovered his secret."
A bitter smile crossed his face...
"He simply..."
"...made us destroy one another instead."
Everything around Valerius disappeared.
The screams...
The clash of steel...
The burning city...
All of it faded into nothingness...
Only his thoughts remained...
...Was I nothing more than a puppet???
Darkness consumed his mind.
Was my father...
His thoughts halted.
Then changed...
No...
Was all of Crag...
Nothing more than a game in someone else's hands???
His breathing grew heavier...
Did my thirst for revenge...
Blind me this completely???
Gyre's face resurfaced within his memories.
The dragon they had fought.
His hesitation.
His restraint.
His unwillingness to kill.
He wasn't trying to slaughter us...
He only tried to stop us...
Until...
They pushed him beyond his limits.
Then another memory surfaced.
Agnyr...
His desperate attempts to end the conflict...
His warnings.
He wanted all of this to end...
Valerius slowly raised his head...
Can one individual...
Really weave together a tragedy of this scale???
Can someone manipulate both humans and dragons...
Until they destroy one another...
Only to claim victory after everyone has fallen???
"Watch out... you foolish human!!!"
Valerius was violently pulled back to reality.
His eyes widened...
A spear was already racing toward him.
He barely managed to block it in time...
The collision sent sparks flying through the air.
He immediately searched for whoever had warned him.
Griem...
Was still surrounded by enemies...
Scythe...
Was desperately fighting off the transformed warriors...
There was only one person left...
Valerius slowly turned toward Agnyr...
A faint smile appeared on his face...
"...Hey."
He paused...
"...You walking corpse."
He folded his arms...
"Tell me..."
"How do I save them???"
Agnyr let out a weak laugh...
"Heh..."
"And what..."
"...makes you think I'd tell you???"
Valerius smiled back.
"Because..."
"...you will..."
He glanced toward the transformed soldiers...
"Besides..."
"...leaving them like this..."
He looked back at Agnyr...
"...isn't in your best interest either."
Agnyr clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Several silent moments passed.
Finally...
He spoke.
"...Cut off..."
"...their heads."
Valerius's eyes widened.
"What?!"
His voice thundered across the battlefield.
"You idiot!"
"I don't want to kill them!"
His fists tightened.
"I want..."
"...to save them!"
Agnyr laughed again.
But the laughter quickly turned into violent coughing.
He clutched his chest in agony.
Then, after struggling to catch his breath...
He spoke once more.
"...They can..."
"...be restored."
He slowly lifted his head.
"...By the power..."
"...of Pure Light."
Silence followed.
Then he continued.
"...But..."
His weary eyes swept across the battlefield.
"...I haven't sensed even the slightest trace of it..."
"...among any of you."
He slowly shook his head.
"So..."
"...forget it."
He closed his eyes for a brief moment.
Then offered Valerius one final piece of advice.
"...Just..."
"...stay alive."
Valerius stood frozen.
He wasn't thinking about Pure Light.
Nor about Daim.
Nor even about Agnyr.
Instead...
Another voice echoed within his mind.
A voice he had heard only moments earlier.
"You must never place your own life above everyone else's."
"The life of Karag's strongest warrior is worth more than Karag itself."
Scythe's words.
Valerius slowly clenched his fist.
Then quietly shook his head.
"...No."
He whispered the word to himself.
"I won't choose my own life..."
"...and I won't abandon them."
He slowly raised his head.
His eyes burned with unwavering resolve...
Then, with every ounce of strength left in him, he shouted across the battlefield—
"Aim for their heads!!!"