Chapter 37: The Matchmakers and the Dragon
The Mother of Monsters circled him slowly across the cracked obsidian floor of the throne hall. Her six golden eyes glowed with intense interest as she looked him up and down. Her massive H-cup breasts swayed heavily with each graceful step, and her draconic wings were half-spread behind her back.
She released her aura. The air instantly grew heavier, pressing down on Hyun-woo like physical weights.
Hyun-woo rolled his shoulders, his clothes still covered in the dried black ichor of her children. His soft, pretty face looked almost comically out of place in this nightmare hall, but his eyes were sharp and focused.
“Lady, I will not be your husband until I get to know you better,” he said calmly. Though, as things stand, that seems highly unlikely, he added mentally.
Instead of getting angry, she laughed—a low, melodic sound that echoed through the massive hall with absolute authority.
“How delightfully quaint,” she purred. “You speak as though your consent bears any weight within my domain. I am Vespera, Sovereign of the Black Veil. When I desire a thing… it is already mine.”
A glowing blue status window snapped open in front of Hyun-woo as she unleashed her crushing aura.
[ Name: Vespera, Sovereign of the Black Veil ]
[ Race: Ancient Black Dragon (Humanoid Manifestation) ]
[ Level: 25 (Floor Boss) ]
[ Title: Mother of Monsters, Void Matriarch ]
[ Job: Dragon Sovereign ]
[ ACTIVE SKILLS ]- Abyssal Breath (Dragon)- Void Scales (Absolute Defense)- Corruption Dominion- Mate’s Claim (Forced Bond)- Draconic Transformation (Sealed in this form)- Infinite Hunger Aura
Hyun-woo whistled. “Level 25?” He gulped, but he didn’t actually panic.
Ebonara was much stronger than this.
Vespera’s smile turned haughty and vicious. “Does the mere weight of my presence instill fear so soon?”
Before he could answer, she moved.
[ Corruption Dominion ]
Black veins spread across the floor like living shadows and lashed upward, wrapping around Hyun-woo’s legs. They burned with corrosive intent, trying to rot him from the inside out.
Hyun-woo’s Primal Adaptation kicked in instantly. His skin shimmered with a faint golden-red energy as his body rapidly adapted to the corruption. With raw, terrifying strength, he ripped himself free, shattering the tendrils, and blurred forward.
He was in front of her in an instant. Vespera’s eyes widened in surprise, but she managed to bring her arms up just in time.
BOOOOM!
His fist slammed into her crossed arms. The impact sounded like heavy artillery fire. Vespera skidded back ten meters, her heels cracking the obsidian floor, but her grin only grew wider.
“Yes… A flawless specimen,” she purred.
Are you a fucking masochist? Hyun-woo thought as he dropped into a defensive stance.
Vespera retaliated immediately.
[ Abyssal Breath ]
A focused, blinding beam of void-black flame shot straight from her mouth. The dark fire was designed to burn anything it touched until absolute nothingness remained.
Hyun-woo dodged to the side, but the aftershock still grazed his shoulder. The intense heat instantly burned away part of his shirt and seared his skin. He hissed in pain but charged forward again, his Sex Beast class’s infinite stamina keeping him operating at peak performance.
They traded blows in a whirlwind of violence.
Vespera was a master of brutal, elegant combat. She used her wings to create powerful, slicing gusts of wind, her claws to rend the air, and her tail to whip at him from his blind spots. Every single strike carried catastrophic weight.
Hyun-woo fought with pure, overwhelming power. His punches shattered the floor. His kicks sent shockwaves rippling through the hall. He adapted instantly to her attack patterns, growing faster and stronger with every exchange.
The throne hall trembled under their clash.
She used her massive wings as both shields and blades, her claws to tear space itself, and her Void Scales to completely negate his heaviest punches. Every time Hyun-woo landed a solid hit that would have pulped a Harrower, her scales absorbed and dispersed most of the kinetic force.
But this time, it didn’t work.
His Coup de Grâce skill activated, completely bypassing her absolute defenses. His heavy uppercut slammed into her ribs with devastating, reality-bending power, rattling her from the inside out.
Vespera staggered back, black blood trickling from her lips.
Instead of anger, a wild, euphoric smile spread across her face.
“Magnificent,” she purred, delicately licking the blood away. “Are you truly of mortal descent? You battle with the unyielding savagery of a primordial beast.”
Hyun-woo didn’t banter back. He stayed completely focused.
He moved faster than before. He hit harder than before. Thanks to Primal Adaptation, his body kept optimizing itself the longer the fight went on—growing stronger, quicker, and more impossibly efficient with every single exchange.
Vespera could feel it, too. But instead of backing down, she fought even harder, laughing wildly with pure exhilaration.
Hyun-woo grabbed one of her wings mid-swing, twisted his body with raw leverage, and suplexed the ancient dragoness straight into the floor. The impact left a massive, spider-webbed crater in the obsidian ground.
Vespera roared in fury and unleashed a point-blank Corruption Dominion explosion, sending him flying backward into a stone pillar.
They fought for what felt like hours. The once-opulent throne hall was left in complete ruins—shattered pillars, burning crimson banners, and deep craters scarring the floor in every direction.
Vespera bled from dozens of wounds. Her perfect body was bruised and marked, yet her six golden eyes only grew wilder with excitement.
“You… possess true might,” she panted, her chest heaving, her massive breasts glistening with a mix of sweat and blood. “Worthy to stand beside me as my consort. It seems those mortals spoke the truth.”
Hyun-woo paused mid-punch, his soft face streaked with black ichor. “Mortals?”
**************
[ Three Weeks Earlier – Heart of the Black Veil ]
Deep within Vespera’s domain, a single human man cloaked in dark robes bearing the subtle emblem of the Hollow Oath knelt on the cracked obsidian floor.
Sweat poured down his face despite the chilling aura radiating from the dragoness lounging on her throne. Behind him, two of his subordinates trembled so violently their teeth chattered.
They had all seen what happened to the last group that displeased her.
Vespera’s six golden eyes bored into them like burning lasers. Her massive draconic presence filled the entire hall. Her wings were half-spread, and her claws tapped lazily on the armrest of her skull throne.
“Speak,” she commanded, her voice like velvet wrapped around grinding bones. “And choose your words very carefully. My patience for mortal kind wears thinner than your frail spines.”
The lead representative, a Hollow Oath negotiator named Elias Voss, swallowed hard. His throat felt like sandpaper. One wrong word and they would all become dragon food—he had seen colleagues reduced to ash for far less.
“M-Mighty Sovereign Vespera,” he began, his voice carefully measured as he kept his head bowed low. “We of the Hollow Oath do not come to command… only to offer service. We seek mutual benefit in these turbulent times.”
One of his subordinates let out a tiny, terrified whimper. Elias shot him a sharp glare that screamed, shut the fuck up if you want to live.
“We have… observed your long search for a worthy mate,” Elias continued, sweat dripping from his chin onto the floor. “A being strong enough to withstand your bloodline. Someone who will not break under your power. We believe we can… facilitate such a meeting.”
Vespera leaned forward slowly. Her massive bare chest swayed with the movement, but none of the humans dared look anywhere except at her feet.
“Facilitate?” she repeated, amusement and lethal threat mixing in her tone. “You insects presume you possess the power to deliver a consort to a Sovereign? Speak plainly, worm. Before I tire of your insolence and feed your tongue to my brood.”
Behind the humans, several towering Harrowers stood silently, watching with hungry eyes.
Elias’s heart nearly stopped. He chose every syllable as if it were his last.
“With the utmost respect, Your Eminence… we have identified a unique individual currently moving through the Tower’s influence. A human whose hidden power defies normal logic. We can… arrange for him to cross your path during the next descent event. No tricks. No bindings. Only an opportunity. If he proves unworthy, you may dispose of him as you wish. We only ask for continued… non-aggression toward our operations on the lower floors.”
His voice cracked slightly on the last phrase. The two subordinates behind him were practically praying.
Vespera stared at them in silence for a long, terrifying moment. Then, she laughed—a rich, commanding sound that shook dust from the ceiling.
“Such trembling little fools. You quiver before me, yet harbor the audacity to offer me a king.” She waved a clawed hand dismissively. “Very well. Bring him to me. Should this ‘unique individual’ prove worthy of my amusement, I may grant your pathetic sect another century of existence. Fail… and I shall personally extinguish every soul sworn to your Hollow Oath, across every floor of this Tower.”
Elias bowed so low his forehead smacked the floor. “T-Thank you for your mercy, Sovereign.”
They practically fled the moment she dismissed them, their legs shaking so badly they could barely walk.
************
[ Present – The Throne Hall ]
Vespera wiped a trickle of black blood from her lip, her six golden eyes gleaming with immense satisfaction. “The Hollow Oath honored their pact. They delivered you directly to my threshold. A pretty, soft-faced mortal who slaughters millions of my progeny, yet still possesses the breath to stand before me.”
Hyun-woo narrowed his eyes. “So it’s that group… and now they’re matchmaking for Floor Bosses? That’s… concerning.”
He knew the Hollow Oath well from his military days, but he had never imagined they were behind something like this.
“Cease this idle chatter!” Vespera snarled.
Hyun-woo could only shake his head in exasperation. Woman, you’re the one who kept talking.
She unleashed everything she had left in her humanoid form. She lunged forward, triggering Mate’s Claim mid-combat, trying to force a raw, binding soul-pact directly onto him.
Hyun-woo broke through the invading mental pressure effortlessly with the help of Primal Adaptation.
His adaptation power was so overwhelmingly absolute that even Vespera looked a bit concerned.
He closed the distance in a blur and slammed his fist directly into her solar plexus. Vespera coughed up a spray of dark blood, her knees buckling. He followed up instantly with a brutal, relentless combo, driving her backward with each progressively heavier strike as his real-time adaptation turned the tide completely in his favor.
For the first time in centuries, genuine fear flickered in her six golden eyes. She was going to lose. This pretty human was actually going to kill her in her own domain.
“Inconceivable! I refuse this!” she snarled, her voice warped with shock and draconic rage. “I, a Sovereign, shall not fall to the likes of you! Behold true, absolute power, my little consort!”
Energy exploded outward violently. Her humanoid form began to break apart and expand.
Bones cracked and lengthened with terrifying speed. Obsidian-black scales erupted across her skin as her body ballooned to a monstrous size, completely shattering her human guise.
[ SYSTEM ALERT ]
[ UNLEASHING TRUE FORM ]
[ DRACONIC TRANSFORMATION ]
A deafening, earth-shaking roar filled the entire floor—loud enough that even Hyun-woo got a bit concerned.
Where the seductive dragoness had once stood now loomed a colossal Ancient Black Dragon—easily over two hundred meters long.
Her massive wings completely blotted out the blood-red sky visible through the shattered ceiling. Her six golden eyes had transformed into two enormous slit pupils that burned like miniature suns in her massive draconic skull. Corrupted black flames licked hungrily between rows of sword-sized teeth.
The pressure in the air instantly became suffocating, heavy enough to crush a lesser being to dust.
Hyun-woo looked up at the towering ancient dragon, his fists still raised. He was breathing hard, his body bruised and battered, but his eyes were alight with a volatile mix of intense battle lust and a sudden, distinct hint of oh shit.
“…Well,” he muttered, staring at the sixty-five-story-long black dragon hovering above him. “…Isn’t she a little too big?”
**************
[ Two Weeks Earlier – Secret Location, Seoul ]
Deep beneath the ruins of what was once a major corporate skyscraper in Seoul—now a heavily fortified subterranean complex known only to a select few—a circular chamber hummed with dark arcane energy.
Obsidian walls etched with glowing violet runes absorbed both sound and light. At the center stood a long table carved from a single slab of void-tainted crystal, around which twelve figures in dark robes sat in tense silence. The emblem of the Hollow Oath—a fractured crown pierced by a black spear—gleamed on each of their chests.
Elias Voss sat at the head of the table, his face cold and calculating. The inner circle of the Hollow Oath waited for him to speak.
A holographic projection of the globe floated above the table. Simulated rift markers blinked in unison, counting down to a massive event exactly two weeks away.
One of the hooded figures, a gaunt woman with blue hair and a rasping voice, leaned forward. “Are we certain about the catalyst? Everything hinges on this boy. If he breaks too early, the entire operation collapses before it even begins.”
Elias raised a hand, his expression unchanging. “Patience, Sister Mirel. The Hollow King’s will unfolds in layers. We have observed him meticulously. Kang Tae-min is the perfect catalyst. His unique aura and hidden potential are exactly what we need to capture her attention.”
Another member, a broad-shouldered man covered in scars from countless Tower runs, crossed his arms. “Explain. We’re exposing assets we’ve cultivated for decades to force this breach. The Zenith Alliance will throw everything they have at us once the rifts open. If this spirals out of control—”
“It will not spiral,” Elias cut in smoothly. “Because Vespera will be fully engaged. The Mother of Monsters will take the bait. Kang Tae-min will be placed precisely where the dimensional thinning is strongest. She will claim the boy as her mate. And once she does…”
He snapped his fingers. A second projection appeared: an ancient, cracked obsidian eggshell pulsing with concentrated darkness so pure it seemed to drink in the surrounding light.
“Vespera’s birth shell,” Elias continued, his voice reverent. “The vessel that once contained the raw essence of an Ancient Black Dragon Sovereign before the Tower bound her. It is not merely a relic. It is the single greatest concentration of unfiltered dark mana accessible on this side of the Veil. With it, we can complete the Dark King’s ascension ritual.”
A younger operative, clearly new to the inner circle, dared to speak. “But… why not wait? The rankers are progressing. Floor 20 will be cleared eventually. Someone strong enough would eventually reach her—”
“Fool.” Elias’s eyes flashed with contempt. “This is the only way to lure her out voluntarily. The moment she crosses into the lower worlds under normal circumstances, the Tower slaps every restriction it can on her. Her true form becomes sealed. Her infinite hunger aura? Suppressed. Her eggshell? Nearly impossible to extract without her willing cooperation or total defeat.”
He gestured to the glowing countdown ticking above the table.
“By forcing a mass descent event through the rifts two weeks from now, we bypass both problems,” Elias explained. “The Tower’s restrictions on descending entities are much lighter during a forced breach. Vespera will follow her ‘mate’, Kang Tae-min, through a stabilized portal—drawn by her Mate’s Claim skill and her own obsession. Once she fully manifests in this world, even weakened, she will be vulnerable. We strike the moment she descends, while her attention is completely focused on the boy. We kill her outside the Tower… and the one who delivers the final blow will claim her birth shell as a reward.”
The room fell into heavy silence, broken only by the low hum of the glowing runes.
Sister Mirel exhaled slowly. “And Kang Tae-min? Are you certain he can survive long enough to draw her out? What if he dies before the breach stabilizes?”
“Kang Tae-min is resourceful,” Elias admitted with a thin smile. “But more importantly, Vespera will not let her chosen prey die so easily. She will protect her claim until she can collect it herself.”
The broad-shouldered man grunted. “It’s risky. If something unexpected happens—if she’s somehow killed in the chaos—”
“Then we adapt,” Elias replied coldly. “A dead Sovereign still leaves behind a corpse rich in dark mana. The birth shell is the priority. Everything else, including Kang Tae-min, is expendable.”
He rose from his seat, his robes swirling. The twelve members followed suit, placing fists over their emblems.
Elias’s voice dropped into a ritual cadence, echoed by the others:
“All hail the Dark King.”
“All hail the Dark King.”
The runes on the walls flared brighter, drinking in their collective resolve. In the holographic display, the countdown ticked steadily closer to zero, the simulated rifts pulsing ominously in preparation for the invasion.
Elias stared at the projection of the target coordinates, his eyes gleaming with fanatical certainty.
“Soon,” he whispered. “The age of false gods ends. The true sovereign will rise.”
{AN: What do you think will happen next}