The Regressed Heir of Ravencrest

Even though he didn’t know whether it would work, Ethan believed the Golden Dragon mark he had seen in Iris’s study would at least provoke some kind of reaction from his friend, or perhaps even stop the madness consuming her.

His instincts told him it would work. He didn’t care if anyone saw it. The only thing that mattered to him was stopping his friend before things took a turn for the worse, before the battle claimed hundreds or even thousands of lives, and before she was forced to carry the crushing guilt once she eventually regained her senses. He also thought of the catastrophic consequences House Ravencrest would face if the situation went on unabated.

Immediately, he inserted a thread of Intent and aura into his hand, just as he had done in Iris’s study. But the golden dragon outline coiled across his palm showed no reaction whatsoever.

What’s happening?

The dragon form remained stubbornly inert against his skin. Without hesitating for a single second, Ethan tried to imbue even more of his Intent into the mark. But the same thing happened again; it wouldn’t budge no matter what he did. He tried again and again over the next few seconds, more than a dozen times, until finally a violent tremor ripped through his mind, as though thousands of burning needles had pierced his skull simultaneously.

His body shuddered violently, and blood pooled in his mouth. The world blurred around him for a horrifying moment, but he managed to steady himself by driving the Eternal Sovereign Blade deep into the stone, enduring the gut-wrenching pain.

The accumulated physical exhaustion and relentless expenditure of energy over the last three days had finally caught up with him, amplified by the reckless overextension of his Intent. Even in the thick of battle, he had only used his Intent in paper-thin threads to slay the high-tier beasts most of the time. But faced with this desperate crisis, he had poured it out heavily without considering the consequences on his body. Because of the pain, he didn’t notice the faint crimson mark that briefly appeared on the back of his right hand, glowing for the briefest instant before fading just as quickly.

Every pair of eyes in the squad suddenly snapped toward Ethan.

"Captain...!"

Vera and Iron Wolf moved toward him in an instant, followed closely by the rest of the squad. But Ethan held up a hand, steadying himself before they could reach him.

"I’m fine..." Ethan raised his hand, gesturing for them to stay back. He swallowed the blood back down and gathered his Intent once more.

Over the past three days, Ethan had quietly noticed that despite the terror of their first Beast Tide, his squad had held together better than most of the soldiers on the wall.

Just as he was about to try again...

Suddenly, he sensed something colossal watching him from impossibly far away.

His instincts screamed all at once. Cold sweat dripped down his forehead as the feeling washed over him. He didn’t know why he felt it or what it was, but he understood in a fraction of a second that no matter what he did, the golden dragon would not emerge. Something was preventing him from drawing out that power here.

Ethan stood still for a few seconds, forcing his breathing to steady and his senses to return.

"Iron Wolf, stay here and protect the others," Ethan said. Before Iron Wolf could answer, Ethan moved. The pain still flared across his body, but he paid it no attention. Channeling the Unknown Energy into his legs, he executed the Northern Gale Steps and shot along the wall toward the central battlements, where he could see the fight clearly. Rune followed behind him.

As he moved, that same imperceptible sensation from the Unknown Energy stirred again, just as he reached the central line. The surrounding guards and mercenaries couldn’t even spare him a glance; they were either entirely lost in the battle unfolding above or scrambling to protect themselves from the violent aftershocks.

Then another thought struck him: the thing he had been holding off, unable to check it in the middle of constant combat.

Ethan spotted Van holding a position a mile down the battlements and executed the Northern Gale Steps again. The bitter cold radiating from the battle was freezing ordinary soldiers in place, but Ethan’s Cold Resistance trait let him push through it far more easily than the others. He hadn’t placed much hope in it, never having had the chance to use it properly, but it was proving invaluable now.

Van, who stood near the edge of the battlements watching the battle above to see if he could provide any help to Marcus, sensed Ethan’s rapid approach.

"Young Master—" Van turned toward him, his brow furrowing. "You should stay back from the..."

Van cut his own sentence short when his eyes landed on Ethan. Even from a distance, his keen senses could pick up the severe internal injuries tearing through Ethan’s body, as well as the excruciating pain he had to be enduring, a level of agony Van doubted he himself could bear without faltering.

"Sir Van, please protect me for a moment," Ethan said, stopping directly in front of the Earth Knight.

"What do you mean...?" Van started to ask, but seeing the burning, unyielding determination in Ethan’s eyes, the words died in his throat.

He had seen what Ethan was capable of over the past few months, and he had heard from Marcus about Ethan’s intelligence and the way he handled situations far beyond his age. The look in Ethan’s eyes right now said one thing clearly: he had a plan.

"...Alright," Van agreed grimly.

He released the aura of an Earth Knight, forming a dense barrier that layered securely over Ethan like a protective dome.

Ethan immediately sat down cross-legged on the flagstones. His head throbbed violently as he attempted to focus inward on the Unknown Sphere. Taking a few measured breaths, he focused again. A minute passed in agonizing silence. At first, he found nothing but a faint, subtle vibration, but he forced his Intent to probe deeper into the core, ignoring the blood rising in his throat once more.

Van watched the internal injuries in Ethan’s body worsen with every passing moment, his concern rising, but he held his tongue and maintained the shield.

Finally, Ethan’s consciousness reached the core of the Sphere. The Unknown Energy gathered there was different from the rest: similar in nature, yet subtly denser and somehow altered.

This... Ethan’s mind raced back across the past three days, remembering every single imperceptible tug he had felt from every beast he had slain using the Unknown Energy.

———

Meanwhile, far beyond the battlefield, in the ancient depths of the Drakengrave Ruins...

The enormous, ancient eyes that had opened when the ruins stirred at the primordial roar remained fixed upon the distant battlefield. They observed the battle at Northwatch without blinking, as though nothing happening there was worth a reaction.

A faint glint of curiosity crossed their gaze as it settled on Ethan. Slowly, the eyes turned toward the golden form coiled on Ethan’s palm, suppressing the mark from manifesting.

———

In the Winterveil Mountain Range

Riennal watched the entire battle unfold through the eyes of the Shadow Beasts concealed far from the fortress. Though he couldn’t discern every minor detail, he could easily gauge the scale of the battle and infer the rest.

The manic grin on his lips stretched wider with every passing second as he watched Marcus, Evelyn, and the Ice Dragon tear the sky apart.

His thoughts drifted to his Lord’s cruel plan.

No matter what happens from this moment on... House Ravencrest is going to bear unimaginable losses.

If Marcus and Evelyn succeeded in killing the Ice Dragon, a creature known among the powerful for its serenity and aloofness, and one on the verge of becoming an Ancient Dragon, the entire Ice Dragon Clan would rise in fury. They would demand the destruction of House Ravencrest, or at the very least, Adrian Ravencrest’s life. Once Adrian fell, the family’s enemies would handle the rest.

If they failed to kill the Ice Dragon, the total destruction of Northwatch alone would inflict a devastating blow on House Ravencrest. Furthermore, the Ice Dragon wouldn’t even remember its rampage. Once Riennal used the artifact’s power to draw the purple mist back out, it would awaken with no memory of what it had done. Or he could simply keep it bound and use it for his own purposes in the future.

And if both sides annihilated each other in the process? Riennal couldn’t ask for a more glorious outcome.

The Dragon Clan would never find a single trace of demons or the Abyssal Pact, as the purple mist would dissolve completely by the time the dragons arrived. Those prideful dragons would naturally assume House Ravencrest had committed a grave offense, one that threatened the Realm, and that was why their kin had descended with a Beast Tide at its back.

No matter the outcome, they would benefit. And if Riennal succeeded in this mission, he would earn a true contract with one of the highest demons below the Seven Deadly Sins themselves.

Just imagining it made all the pain he had endured over the years more than worthwhile.

———

High in the sky above Northwatch, the battle raged on relentlessly.

Marcus moved like a phantom through the howling gales of his Domain of the Northern Tempest, his heavy spear striking the Ice Dragon’s white scales again and again. Time and time again, he called out to the dragon. Yet its attacks never stopped for even a moment.

The toll on the two Heaven Knights was mounting rapidly.

Marcus’s armor was cracked in a dozen places. He had suffered more than a dozen injuries since the battle began. His arms felt heavy and numb from the endless physical blows and the never-ending barrage of magic. Beside him, Evelyn maintained the Flame Empress Art without a single second of rest, shielding the battlements below from falling ice while desperately searching for an opening to strike back. Her aura was draining at a constant rate; sweat and soot streaked her pale skin, and her breath came in rasping gasps.

They had landed a dozen shallow cuts across the dragon’s massive frame, but after every strike, frost surged from its scales, rapidly sealing the wounds shut.

Both Marcus and Evelyn were deliberately holding back their most powerful techniques. They knew the price they would have to pay if they killed the Ice Dragon, so they were trying to subdue it.

Marcus studied every movement, desperately trying to understand why it was doing this... but he could find no answer.

This can’t go on. Marcus’s eyes darkened as he dodged a sweeping strike from its tail. If we don’t subdue it now, Evelyn’s fire will fail, and the soldiers on the wall will be wiped out...

His thoughts flickered for a heartbeat to Ethan standing on the battlements below, and he clenched his teeth.

Deciding to press the attack regardless of the consequences, Marcus deliberately took a glancing blow from the dragon’s massive wing, using the momentum to drive himself inside its guard. He thrust his spear, imbuing it with his will, and drove the tip deep into the thick scales at its right shoulder joint.

SPLASH!

Marcus’s spear tore several inches deep into its shoulder. For a fraction of a second, as the blade ripped through its hide, a thin, imperceptible wisp of deep purple mist seeped out from the wound alongside its pale dragon blood.

To Marcus, Evelyn, and every soldier on the wall, the wisp was completely invisible.

———

Normally, Knights expanded their senses through aura, while a few Advanced Knights could channel it directly into their eyes to see across vast distances. Doing so required at least the control of an Earth Knight; otherwise, the delicate pathways around the eyes could easily be damaged. Even with his refined control, Ethan would normally never attempt such a reckless method.

What Ethan was about to do, however, was madness. Even he would have been the first to admit it.

He was going to use his Unknown Energy, dozens of times more violent and powerful than aura. If he used aura, the most he would gain was a clearer view of the physical fight. But Ethan was certain that if he used the Unknown Energy, he would see something else, something that might explain why its nature had changed and reveal the source of that imperceptible tug.

Without a moment of hesitation, Ethan stood up, gathered the tiniest thread of Unknown Energy, and guided it directly into the delicate pathways leading to his eyes.

"AHHHHHHH!"

AGONY!

An intolerable, burning sensation exploded behind his eyes. It felt as though liquid fire had been poured directly into his eye sockets. Thin streams of dark blood trickled down his cheeks from the corners of his eyes, dripping onto his collar. The pain he had felt earlier was child’s play compared to this; it felt as if his very soul was being torn apart.

"Young Master...!"

Van’s eyes widened in horror. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined Ethan would do something this insane. But Ethan simply raised a trembling hand, stopping Van from intervening.

Through the blinding agony, Ethan kept going.

And then, his vision transformed.

The world shifted into a stark, translucent gray landscape.

A faint purple mist drifted across the entire battlefield, threading through the icy air of that gray world. Tiny motes of purple fog clung directly to the brains and hearts of every monster in the horde below, pressing against their bodies as they lay pinned to the ground.

Then his bleeding eyes rose toward the sky, to the fresh wound Marcus had torn into her shoulder, where a thin wisp of purple mist was still seeping out alongside her pale blood. His breath caught in his chest.

Inside the Ice Dragon’s massive, majestic body, the purple mist wasn’t a scattering of tiny motes.

It was a vast, writhing ocean. Dense, dark purple fog coiled through her veins, wrapped around her pathways, and formed a thick, suffocating cage around her glowing Dragon Heart.

Ethan stood frozen on the battlements, blood streaming down his face, as the truth was laid bare before him.

He didn’t understand what the purple mist was, but he instantly understood that it was at the root of everything. Someone was using this energy to drive the beasts into their rampage. More importantly, it was the reason his friend, the serene and wise Ice Dragon he had known in his past life, was attacking without restraint, unable to hear Marcus’s calls or suppress her killing intent.

She wasn’t acting out of malice or madness. Something was controlling her from within, smothering her pristine Dragon Heart beneath an ocean of vile energy.

Ethan’s breathing grew heavier. Beneath all that corruption, he could still sense it: the same presence he had known in his previous life, the same friend who had once helped him through the darkest period of his life. She was still there. Somewhere beneath the madness, Mythralis was still fighting.

Then a golden screen materialized out of thin air before his blood-stained vision.

Ding!

[Emergency Mission Generated.]

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Emergency Mission

Objective: Save Ice Dragon Mythralis

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Rewards:

• 500,000 War Merit

• ???

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