My Class is Null, But I Always Get the Best Outcome

The cracks kept spreading through the sky, thin fractures traveling through the clouds like glass under pressure.

Crack.

Another line split open.

Crack.

The hunters who’d been celebrating a moment earlier began looking up, one by one, laughter fading out mid-breath.

One hunter lowered his weapon. "Wasn’t the disaster already over?"

"I don’t know," another said, eyes fixed on the sky.

Lily forced herself back onto her feet despite the exhaustion still pulling at every muscle. Mira’s expression hardened. Raze looked up, wary. "...That’s not normal."

Elden scanned the readings around him, and his face tightened. "The atmosphere is changing."

"Everyone, stay alert," Gabriel called.

The celebration died out completely. Everyone waited.

The clouds began moving strangely, no longer spreading outward but being pushed apart from above, the cracks between them brightening. Mana started flowing upward, against gravity, streaming toward the widening fractures.

Kai watched, his instincts telling him nothing useful. Not a monster. Not a dungeon. Not any attack pattern he recognized.

What is that?

Then a shadow moved behind the clouds. At first its size defied understanding. Then an enormous wing shifted, pushing the clouds aside, and a silhouette resolved slowly into shape.

A massive dragon, descending toward Mythal.

It emerged fully from the cloud cover, dominating the entire sky. Its wings stretched from horizon to horizon. Its scales caught the strange light bleeding through the cracks. Its eyes burned with something far older and heavier than mere strength.

Nobody spoke. Even the strongest hunters felt it instinctively.

This wasn’t something they could fight.

"...What is that?" someone whispered.

"I don’t know," another answered.

Gabriel’s expression tensed. Mira’s grip tightened on her weapon. Raze took an involuntary step back. Lily stared upward, unable to look away.

Kai simply watched.

Then the dragon opened its mouth.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!

The roar crashed over Mythal like a physical wave. The city shook. Buildings groaned. Windows shattered in long rows across the street. Loose rubble lifted off the ground.

But the true weight fell on the people. Every hunter felt an invisible force slam into their bodies at once, muscles turning to lead, mana sluggish and unresponsive, knees buckling beneath the pressure.

THUD.

One hunter collapsed. Then another. Then another.

"Urgh!"

"I can’t move!"

"What is this?!"

Mira dropped to one knee. Raze drove his weapon into the ground just to stay upright. Lily struggled to draw a full breath. Even Gabriel’s Church members, hardened by years of preparation, were forced down. Mayor Ko clenched his jaw against it, refusing to fall entirely, though his legs shook badly beneath him.

Nobody could fight. Nobody could even properly move.

The same pressure hit Kai, and his knees bent under it, breathing turning heavy, like an entire mountain had settled across his shoulders all at once.

What is this pressure?

He’d fought overwhelming monsters before. He’d stood against things whose raw strength dwarfed his own.

This wasn’t strength. Not exactly. Something sat behind it, something that didn’t need to prove anything at all.

Authority.

He raised his head slowly. The dragon’s massive eyes found him directly.

A voice arrived inside his mind, not through sound, not through the air at all.

"So you are the City Leader."

Kai froze. He looked around instinctively. Nobody reacted. Lily was still struggling under the pressure. Mira stared up at the dragon, unaware. Raze gripped his weapon in silence.

None of them had heard it.

He’s speaking directly to me.

He didn’t answer yet.

"You have gathered many beneath your banner," the voice continued.

Who are you?

The question went unanswered. Instead, the dragon’s gaze seemed to press deeper, past his body entirely, searching something underneath.

Its expression shifted, only slightly. Kai noticed anyway.

"There is another presence."

His stomach dropped.

"Hidden within you."

His first thought was immediate. Tiamat. He can sense her.

He didn’t move. The dragon kept watching him.

"Interesting."

Kai said nothing.

Then the dragon opened its mouth again.

ROOOOOOOOOOOAR!

This roar felt different from the first, less like force and more like the world itself splitting apart at the seams.

Kai’s eyes widened.

Then everything stopped.

Silence swallowed the city whole. Complete, absolute silence. The wind died mid-gust. The clouds froze in place. Dust hung suspended in the air. Falling rubble stayed exactly where it was, caught mid-fall. A hunter’s cloak hung frozen at the peak of its own motion. Even the flickering light from the damaged relics stopped flickering entirely.

Kai blinked, looking around slowly. "...Time stopped."

He rose to his feet, and the crushing pressure had vanished entirely. He took a step. Nothing changed.

He looked out at the city. Everyone was frozen. Lily. Mira. Raze. Elden. Gabriel. Mayor Ko. Every hunter. Every civilian.

Only he could move.

A faint ripple appeared beside him, and a familiar spectral shape gradually took form.

Tiamat.

"...You can move too," he said.

She looked up toward the dragon. "Apparently."

Her expression carried nothing playful this time. Only caution.

You know him, he thought.

She didn’t answer right away, gaze fixed on the enormous figure filling the sky.

"Bahamut," she said quietly.

The dragon’s eyes shifted toward her, and for the first time, its expression changed.

"Tiamat."

Kai looked between them. He could tell instantly this wasn’t a first meeting.

"You’ve changed," Tiamat said.

"So have you," Bahamut answered.

Kai’s eyes narrowed. There was history here, and a great deal of it. He didn’t interrupt, only listened.

He studied them both. Tiamat had always spoken like something that had lived through ages far older than the current world. Bahamut carried that exact same weight. Neither seemed remotely surprised to see the other.

"How do you two know each other?" he finally asked.

Neither answered immediately. Bahamut only said, "We have crossed paths before."

"That’s vague," Kai said.

Tiamat gave a faint smile. "Very."

Bahamut’s attention shifted fully back to Kai. "You have survived the Six Calamities."

"Barely."

Bahamut’s expression didn’t change. "That was not their purpose."

Kai’s eyes narrowed. "...What?"

"The calamities were never meant to determine whether you could destroy them." A pause. "They were meant to determine whether you could survive them."

Kai thought back through all of it, the hunters, the city, the damage, the constant adaptation, the impossible final meteor. Understanding settled slowly.

"...Then what were they preparing us for?"

Bahamut looked directly at him. His voice deepened. "What comes next."

Kai’s expression shifted. "What’s coming?"

Bahamut didn’t answer right away. His gaze moved across Mythal, over the frozen hunters, and then back to Kai.

"The final disaster will not wait."

Kai’s eyes widened. "You’re starting it now?"

"Yes."

He looked around at the frozen city. "But the city isn’t ready."

"The final disaster is not for the city."

Kai’s eyes narrowed further. "...Then who is it for?"

Bahamut looked straight into him.

"You."

Silence held. Kai had expected another disaster. Another environmental catastrophe. Another monster. Another ten-minute survival test.

Instead, Bahamut stood before him with the entire city frozen in time around them both.

He glanced at Tiamat. She stayed silent beside him, but her expression said enough on its own.

This was serious.

He turned back to the dragon. "...What do you want me to do?"

Bahamut’s eyes began glowing faintly.

"Endure."

Kai’s jaw tightened.

"Those before you attempted the same path," Bahamut continued. "Many possessed strength. Many possessed knowledge. Many possessed power greater than yours." A pause. "They still broke."

"...And you’re going to make me experience what they did?"

Bahamut didn’t answer directly. His voice turned colder instead.

"You will withstand the madness of those who came before you."

Kai’s eyes widened. The pressure in the air shifted around him, heavier, closer, wrong in a way he couldn’t name.

Tiamat’s expression turned deadly serious.

Kai understood, all at once, that this wasn’t a fight he could win with a sword.

It was something he had to survive.

Bahamut’s eyes ignited crimson.