The Dragon Heir

Oh boy…

Turns out I hadn’t been nearly as subtle with the Observer’s Suggestion as I’d assumed. That was… close. Very close. I’d come within a hair’s breadth of snapping the connection entirely, and I had a strong suspicion that witnessing what happened when that bond broke would not have been a pleasant learning experience.

Lesson learned, maybe.

Apparently, whispering inside people’s heads required a bit more finesse than just nudging them toward what I personally thought was “reasonable.” People existed on wildly different internal scales, and what counted as reasonable for one could be outright insane for another. If I wanted to use the Observer’s Suggestion properly, I needed to understand their reasoning first.

…Or did I?

It had worked at the start. The spell clearly carried its own compulsive weight. But once the patterns started stacking up, once they had enough repetitions to notice something was off, it became impossible to ignore. That’s when things got dangerous.

I sighed.

I’d never claimed to be an expert in psychology. Honestly, the whole thing was way too complicated. I could practically feel resistance building on their end, enough that I started getting paranoid another push from me would snap the whole thing. And whatever backlash followed would probably hit both sides.

Which was… tempting, admittedly.

I was very curious about what would happen.

But maybe that experiment could wait. Preferably until I had a safer environment. For now, I decided to stop using the Suggestion altogether.

That didn’t mean I was done, though.

What I would do was take advantage of the situation as it stood.

They were right about one thing— I couldn’t read their thoughts. But they were very wrong about another: I could still see and sense what was happening around them within a certain radius.

Quite clearly, in fact.

One thing I was quietly grateful for was recognizing the language Alexei was using to form words with those vines. I’d started digging into linguistic history long before preparing for the colosseum, mostly because I wanted to understand my own species and whatever past we’d been erased from. I’d uncovered bits and pieces, but none of it had a reliable origin. There was too much bias and too many agendas. Hard to tell truth from convenient fiction.

Still, it had pushed me to learn five different written languages.

All of them traced back, one way or another, to the same root tongue— the language once used throughout Vraal’Kor. What Alexei was using now looked like a modified branch of that script.

That lined up disturbingly well with what I knew of its origins.

The problem was, they knew something was messing with them. They just didn’t know how. And instead of landing anywhere near the truth, they’d veered off into full-blown conspiracy territory.

Which was… inconvenient.

But also somewhat exploitable.

From what I’d pieced together about that golden sphere, their conspiracy theories weren’t entirely unhinged.

A remnant, huh?

It was a system-related reward. Alexei hadn’t outright said it, but he didn’t need to. The hints were all over the place. And a reward tied to killing a Gold core monster? Yeah. That tracked.

Which raised an uncomfortable question.

Why couldn’t I claim it?

The answer was obvious in hindsight: my system was fucked.

Because there was no universe— none— where my greedy little dragon heart would willingly leave a reward like that untouched. Not unless something was very, very wrong. And it was. I’d tried everything short of actually touching the thing.

Which, in my defense, felt like a spectacularly bad idea.

It could’ve flash-frozen me on the spot. Or exploded. Or cursed me. Or turned me inside out. I DIDN’T KNOW.

Caution was a virtue. A very boring virtue. But still a virtue.

But it wasn’t the end of the world.

I shifted my gaze toward the massive crater carved into the ground and felt something finally click into place.

Hmm…

I could use this.

I wasn’t a grand schemer by nature, and I was fully aware there was a non-zero chance I’d screw something up catastrophically. But the way the pieces lined up. It was too good, too clean and too tempting.

It might be time to reveal myself.

The thought sent a thrill through me.

I grinned as I extended my senses, mapping everyone around me. Then I snapped my fingers and wove a Dark spell in a single motion. One moment there was light. The next it was devoured as a dense sphere of darkness swallowed the area whole.

Confusion rippled outward immediately.

In that heartbeat, I stood and phased into the Shadow Dimension, expelling the lazy clone to take my place. She appeared exactly where I’d been, dressed in my rags, as I let the darkness fade just as quickly as it had come.

The entire thing lasted less than a second.

People were looking around, startled, confused, and some were outright panicking— but no one seemed to clock me as the source. Good.

I could have done it in broad daylight, sure. But paranoia had kept me alive so far, and I wasn’t about to stop listening to it now. I needed the priestess persona completely separate from me. That was the only way this worked. The only way I stayed in control.

I reappeared quietly in the material world using stealth and immediately worked alchemy into the ice beneath my feet, shaping it as I dressed myself in a blue dress and cloak.

I was still in the priestess’ body.

Which wouldn’t do.

I needed a different body for this. A clean separation. And as the realization settled in, I knew there was no more putting it off.

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It was time to use the upgrade I’d been stalling on for far, far too long.

When [Transformation] hit level five, it upgraded into [Resonance Transformation], which was… frankly obscene.

It let me use all my dragon organs and aspects no matter what form I was in. Scales, tendrils, claws, wings, fire gland— pick and choose, mix and match, all powered through mana. Full dragon bits, half dragon bits, stuffed into whatever shape I happened to be wearing at the time.

Which was already ridiculous.

But there was more.

The upgrade also unlocked a second function: I could pick an additional transformation form.

Up until now, I officially only had two. Full dragon, and half dragon. My drakkari form didn’t really count— it came entirely from the transformation bracer I’d been wearing nonstop. And right now, in this trial, that bracer was gone.

Meaning I couldn’t dampen my half-dragon traits at all. No easing back into the familiar golden-haired version people recognized. If I shifted, I shifted fully.

Which was mildly inconvenient.

I opened [Resonance Transformation] properly and immediately felt something was… off and a little different. After fiddling with the sensation for a second, it clicked.

The priestess body was registered as an additional form.

That surprised me enough that I froze for half a beat. Had to be temporary… maybe. But still.

That meant I could transform back into the priestess after shifting into full dragon or half dragon. Curiosity got me. I immediately used the curious clone to test it.

And yeah.

It worked.

Half dragon to priestess.

Priestess to half dragon.

There was no resistance and no instability.

Oh, that opened options.

Which brought me back to the part of the upgrade I’d been aggressively procrastinating on.

Choosing an additional form.

I’d had the choice for a while now: drakkari or elf. I hadn’t picked either because the bracer solved the problem neatly, and once [Transformation] upgraded, things just… worked. Until they didn’t.

Now, if I wanted a proper humanoid form without the bracer, I had to commit.

Elf or drakkari.

And given that everyone here harboured a special brand of paranoia toward drakkaris— thanks to that whole tyrant dragon situation— I had a strong feeling picking drakkari would blow up in my face.

I needed information and subtlety.

Besides, I could always use the bracer later to become drakkari again.

The elven form, though? That was a one-time opportunity.

And if there was one thing I was good at, it was picking the option that gave me the most leverage with the least immediate consequences. Obviously.

So yeah.

Elf it was.

…Hmm.

Only problem was that it would be immediately revealed to everyone in the colosseum.

Ah well. Future Jade problem. I’d think about it after I survived this trial. Elf it was. Besides, after I evolved again I already knew my appearance would shift anyway. That always happened. People close to me hadn’t even recognized me when I went from silver-haired to golden-haired. I had a strong suspicion the same thing would happen post-evolution too.

So I stopped worrying about it.

Focusing inward, I latched onto the familiar sensation that came whenever I used Transformation, the same subtle tug I felt when upgrading things. At this point, it was basically muscle memory. There was an invisible path unfolding in front of me again, branching cleanly into two.

One side showed the silhouette of a horned figure, tail coiled around the thigh. Drakkari.

The other felt… elegant. Long ears and noble posture. That faint, irritating sense of superiority baked right in.

Ew.

Knife-ear.

Why did this feel more elegant than the glorious, horned heritage of drakkaris? Excuse me? Absolutely not. Unacceptable!

Well, again… If I was going to be a knife-eared fuck, I was going to be the most devastatingly, catastrophically elegant one to ever ruin their collective day.

Without hesitation, I chose it.

The moment I did, it felt like another path snapped into place inside [Resonance Transformation], clean and solid. I followed the sensation and let the shift happen.

My horns smoothed away. Golden, lustrous hair spilled down around me in thick curls, longer than I was used to. My ears stretched, tapering into elegant points. I grew taller than the priestess form, though still not quite as tall as my drakkari body.

One thing, however, felt notably… amplified.

My chest.

"...Huh."

I looked down and frowned. This felt… impractical. Deeply impractical. I hopped in place. Jumped again. Did a quick spin and a few gymnastics checks.

Yes. Confirmed. Very impractical.

Grumbling, I tightened the ice-woven dress I’d shaped with alchemy so things wouldn’t jiggle themselves into becoming a liability. There. It was now acceptable. Barely.

Still, the elven form felt distinctly different from my drakkari one. It was a little lighter, a bit sharper. There was less weight but significantly more presence to me. Very good for what I was about to do.

Part of my mind was still tethered to Alexei and Maksim the entire time. They kept talking while I did all this, completely unaware, and honestly the whole transformation hadn’t even taken a full minute. I dismissed the lazy clone and resummoned her immediately to refresh the timer.

Seven minutes.

That’s what I had.

I didn’t waste them.

I issued orders instantly. Curious and Terrorist shifted into their half-dragon forms, then dragged tangible shadows out of the Shadow Dimension, warping themselves into unrecognizable silhouettes. Shadowy, wrong-looking abominations, draconic enough to be unmistakable but distorted enough to make people very uncomfortable.

Perfect.

I used more alchemy to make my snowy dress more grandiose and manifested dragon wings temporarily. With all three of us moving as one, we approached the center of the crater.

No hesitation now.

It was time.

***

Alexei rushed toward the echoed scream and saw the entire area swallowed by a spreading haze. Darkness was rolling outward as if it were devouring everything in its path. One of their comrades was at the center of it, the source of the scream, a massive shadowy spear protruding straight through his stomach.

“NIKOLA!” Maksim screamed as he ran.

Alexei felt his heart seize as something abominable shifted within the haze. The shadowy spear withdrew, and the thing it belonged to moved. A second scream tore through the darkness. Then a third.

No. No— this couldn’t be happening.

Had he done something wrong? Had seeing through that thing’s spell somehow provoked it, ruined whatever game it had been playing?

His Bio Sense exploded outward on instinct, forcing its way through the haze and the chaos. His comrades were being skewered one after another, and yet something felt off. None of the strikes were fatal. The spears avoided vital organs with a borderline eerie precision. Alexei’s thoughts raced as he tracked the moving shapes within the darkness.

There were two of them.

They moved in strange, deliberate patterns, dragging the wounded— still alive— into different positions around the center of the crater. And then he noticed something else. They were also carving marks into the ice as they moved.

Within moments, understanding crashed down on him.

Symbols.

Living bodies bleeding onto them.

No. No way.

They were performing a ritual.

And suddenly everything made sense. The voice. The insistence on bringing them here. The Gold Core corpse. None of it had been coincidence. When he’d said they were already in a trap, he hadn’t meant it literally.

Now he understood.

Whatever this entity was, it wanted them as fuel.

That was when his senses caught something else.

Another presence had manifested behind him.

This one was different.

The moment it appeared, both abominations stiffened, their movements locking up as if something had seized them in place. Just as they were about to strike again, they froze, utterly unable to move.

Slowly, Alexei turned.

Behind him stood an ethereal figure, impossibly beautiful, her golden locks and body radiant even within the suffocating haze. Her presence radiated outward like something divine, and her swirling violet eyes met his as she smiled. It was the most warm and serene thing he’d ever seen.

Then instead of usual whispers, two shrieking voices slammed into his mind at once.

KILL HER!!

Alexei’s thoughts screamed in protest even as his body reacted, his staff moving to strike the radiant figure. Something snapped inside his head as a rational part of him fought back, clinging desperately to itself.

And then came the recoil.

It felt like a snapped tether whipping back, except this time it lashed directly into his mind. He braced instinctively for agony—

—but it never came.

Warm hands covered his ears.

She was suddenly there, floating inches away. Her presence was overwhelming as the pain faded before it could even exist. At the same time, he heard the abominations shriek behind him, their cries were distant and distorted through the haze.

“Ah,” she said softly, almost amused. “Such brute methods. These shadelings truly have no sense of elegance.”

Her head tilted slightly as she smiled. “Tell me, oh child of wolves, who finds himself in the briar patch… do you desire a key to your cage?”

His mind went blank for a moment.

“There is always a price for keys, of course,” she continued gently as she lifted his chin with impossible strength and pulled him closer. Close enough that he felt her steady, warm breath against his skin. He knew, with absolute certainty, that if she so much as twisted her fingers, he would die instantly.

Yet a traitorous heat rose to his cheeks.

“And your ledger,” she murmured, as if sharing a sweet secret, “has been accruing such interesting debt since yesterday. I am a meticulous creditor. I collect what is owed.”

Despite the warmth of her hands and the softness of her voice, Alexei had never felt so cold in his life.