The wind grew colder.
Not the pleasant chill that accompanied high-altitude flight.
This cold felt...
Ancient.
Hours had passed since Ceal reluctantly agreed to accompany me toward the western frontier.
The familiar mountains surrounding House Ashford had long since disappeared behind us.
Even the skies had changed.
The brilliant blue heavens above Elarion slowly surrendered to an endless blanket of darkness.
At first, I assumed a storm was gathering.
Then I realized something strange.
The clouds weren't moving.
They simply...
Existed.
An endless ceiling of black stretched across the horizon as though someone had painted over the sky itself.
Neither of us spoke.
There wasn't much left to say.
The farther west we flew, the quieter the world became.
The forests below gradually lost their color.
Towering emerald pines became forests of twisted charcoal-black trees.
Their branches reached toward the heavens like skeletal hands begging for something that would never answer.
Leaves disappeared.
Flowers vanished.
Even the rivers changed.
Crystal-blue water slowly darkened until it reflected the sky like polished obsidian.
It was beautiful.
In the same way abandoned ruins were beautiful.
Beautiful...
Because something had survived long after it should have died.
The silence bothered me more than anything else.
Elarion was never quiet.
Not truly.
There were always birds.
Flying beasts.
The distant cry of wyverns.
The rustling of enormous creatures moving beneath ancient forests.
Today...
Nothing.
Not even insects.
The only sound came from the beating of our wings.
Ceal suddenly slowed.
I matched his pace.
For nearly a minute, neither of us spoke.
Then—
Ceal: "You noticed."
Astaroso: "The wildlife."
Ceal nodded.
Ceal: "Exactly."
His expression had grown noticeably more serious.
That alone was enough to raise my guard.
Ceal wasn't someone who became nervous easily.
If anything, he usually looked mildly disappointed by reality.
Yet even he continued scanning the landscape below.
Searching.
Waiting.
For something.
Or perhaps...
For nothing.
Another few minutes passed.
Then something brushed against my cheek.
I caught it instinctively.
Gray powder rested against my fingertips.
Ash.
Another flake drifted past.
Then another.
Soon countless gray flakes floated lazily through the air around us.
No smoke.
No volcano.
No wildfire.
Just...
Ash.
Falling endlessly from a sky that refused to explain itself.
Ceal caught one between two fingers before rubbing it gently.
His brow furrowed.
Astaroso: "Volcanic?"
He shook his head.
Ceal: "No."
Astaroso: "You can tell?"
Ceal: "This contains almost no mana."
I frowned.
That somehow made it worse.
A distant flash illuminated the heavens.
Golden lightning spread silently through the black clouds.
It didn't strike the ground.
It crawled sideways.
Like molten veins stretching across the sky.
Several seconds passed.
No thunder followed.
Only silence.
My eyes remained fixed above us.
Astaroso: "...Beautiful."
Ceal looked upward as well.
For a long moment, he simply watched.
Then—
Ceal: "Beauty and safety rarely share the same home."
That sounded like experience talking.
We continued west.
The strange warmth beneath my skin slowly intensified.
Not heat.
Recognition.
The scales hidden beneath my dark skin remained almost invisible, blending naturally with my complexion.
Normally, only another bloodline user paying close attention would even notice them.
Now...
Thin threads of golden light slowly spread between each scale.
Like tiny cracks filled with liquid sunlight.
Ceal noticed almost immediately.
Ceal: "They're glowing."
I looked down.
"...Since when?"
Ceal: "About five minutes ago."
"..."
That probably would've been useful information earlier.
The warmth pulsed again.
Gentle.
Patient.
Like something waiting beyond the horizon had finally realized I was coming.
West.
Always west.
Every instinct inside me urged the same direction.
Not forcefully.
Never forcefully.
Simply...
Welcome.
The mountains below gradually became stranger.
Entire peaks had collapsed inward.
Valleys twisted into impossible shapes.
Nothing looked natural anymore.
It was as though the land itself had once been soft clay before someone unimaginably powerful reached down and twisted it with their bare hands.
Then—
A scent reached us.
Burned stone.
Ancient fire.
Not smoke.
Not sulfur.
Something older.
Something that had been burning for so long that the smell itself had become part of the world.
Ceal stopped flying.
I followed.
Neither of us said anything.
Ahead...
The mountains ended.
Not gradually.
Not naturally.
They simply...
Stopped.
A perfectly straight cliff stretched across the horizon.
Miles long.
Impossible.
The continent looked as though someone had cleaved it apart with a single strike.
We landed upon the highest ridge overlooking the abyss.
The wind howled behind us.
Ash drifted lazily around our bodies.
I took one step forward.
Then another.
Then I reached the edge.
My breath caught.
The world...
Simply ended.
Before us stretched a canyon so vast that the opposite side disappeared beneath a curtain of falling ash.
Miles upon miles of black stone descended into an abyss where sunlight itself seemed unwilling to follow.
No rivers.
No forests.
No life.
Only silence.
Ancient.
Endless.
My eyes drifted downward.
At first, I mistook them for cliffs.
Then my mind finally understood what I was seeing.
They weren't cliffs.
They were ribs.
Massive curved bones jutted from the canyon walls.
Each one hundreds of meters long.
Weathered by countless centuries.
Farther below...
A spine stretched through the black rock.
Vertebrae larger than towers.
Beyond that...
A skull.
Its empty eye socket alone could swallow House Ashford's manor whole.
Its jaws remained open.
Frozen forever in one final, silent breath.
I slowly turned my head.
There were more.
Another skeleton.
Then another.
Then another.
Some complete.
Others shattered.
Some buried so deeply that only claws remained visible.
This wasn't a canyon decorated with dragon bones.
The canyon had been built upon them.
Neither Ceal nor I spoke.
Words suddenly felt...
Small.
Worthless.
Golden lightning crawled silently across the heavens.
Ash continued falling.
The Dragon within me...
Grew silent.
Not from fear.
Not from excitement.
From reverence.
It was the kind of silence one found inside temples.
Or standing before the graves of kings.
Somewhere deep inside my chest...
Something ancient bowed its head.
And for reasons I couldn't explain...
So did I.