Chapter 66: I love you
The training field had long abandoned its name—this was no place for training anymore. It was a slaughterhouse carved into the earth.
The sky above was smothered in black clouds, thick and low, casting a grim shadow over the land. The air was heavy with the stench of blood, so dense it clung to the back of the throat, sickly sweet and metallic. Every breath was a struggle against nausea.
The ground, once firm and dry, was now soaked—dark red mud formed where blood mixed with dirt. Severed limbs lay scattered like fallen leaves, twitching with the last remnants of ether. Crushed helmets. Shattered blades. Burnt flags.
Entrails looped around broken spears, and bones jutted out from charred corpses like twisted white roots.
Dragons and men lay together in death—massive reptilian bodies with their wings torn and their scales pierced by jagged weapons. Some had their throats slashed open, others were missing half their skulls. The humans didn’t fare better—bodies piled atop one another in grotesque mounds, eyes wide in death, mouths frozen mid-scream.
And at the very top of the highest pile, like a queen on a throne of carnage, sat a woman with crimson hair.
She wore no armor, yet not a single scratch marred her flawless skin. Humans and dragons alike had dared to step into her land—and now their broken, bloodied remains laid beneath her feet. A ’spar,’ they had called it.
She leaned back slightly, her gaze drifting up toward the dark sky.
Despite being drenched in blood, there was no mistaking her beauty. Fierce and unyielding, she was the kind of woman whose charm only grew stronger with each battle, each passing year. Time hadn’t dulled her; it had refined her into something far more dangerous—more alluring and more savage.
Just a few steps below, a maid stood frozen, her boots wet with blood. She had urgent news, yet even with all her training, she hesitated. One didn’t simply approach a beast in human skin—especially not when she looked so displeased.
Still, the message she carried might brighten her lady’s mood. She gathered her courage and stepped forward.
"My lady," she called gently.