It had been nearly a full day since the declaration of the Dragon Extermination War on the Zaraam Plains.

“Victory to Shadow Dragon!!”

“““UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH!!!!”””

“Bring victory to Chronostaria!!”

“““OSHHHAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!”””

The armies of both nations clashed relentlessly, exchanging fierce battle cries and wielding their weapons. The battlefield remained at a stalemate. Both sides suffered heavy losses, yet the decisive moment had yet to arrive. In the midst of this deadlock, Gilflare Ashflame, the third seat of the Seven Peerless Swords, found himself perplexed.

“Something’s off…”

Having stood on the front lines without retreating a single step, observing the battle unfold firsthand, he had come to a realization—the Empire had not entered this skirmish at full strength.

Only two of the Five Heavenly Swords, the Empire’s most powerful warriors, were present. And not just that—the legendary Netherworld Breaker, the First Sword, was absent. Instead, only the Third and Fifth Swords, who paled in both skill and experience compared to the First, had been deployed to this battlefield. Meanwhile, on the Kingdom’s side, all members of the Seven Peerless Swords were gathered, leading the charge from the front.

────No, the reason why all of the Five Heavenly Swords weren’t here was obvious. And considering that reason, it was perfectly logical.

The Kingdom’s objective was to push through the plains, defeat the Imperial army, and march on the Imperial Capital. In contrast, for the Empire, the plains were a crucial defensive line that they could not afford to let the Kingdom cross. Leaving their main forces stationed in the capital for security was a natural decision. Strategically dispersing and preserving their forces was a valid tactic.

Yet even with that in mind, the difference in military strength was undeniable. It seemed entirely possible to tilt the battle in the Kingdom’s favor at any moment, and both the Seven Peerless Swords and the Kingdom’s soldiers shared that expectation. However, despite that, the stalemate remained unbroken.

Why?

The reason was simple.

“GRUGAAAA!!”

“Damn it! Another one of those subordinate dragons!!”

“Surround it and take it down all at once!”

“Guh—GAAAH!? It’s stronger than the last one!?”

The cause of this equilibrium was the Empire’s use of subordinate dragons, remnants of the Shadow Dragon, as military assets. These creatures were the primary reason the Kingdom, despite its overwhelming advantage, struggled to break through.

No matter how many were slain, new subordinate dragons would appear, forming an endless wave of undying war machines that continuously tilted the battle in the Empire’s favor. Conversely, as time passed, the Kingdom’s forces were steadily depleted. Though they barely maintained balance for now, the reality was that they were slowly losing ground. If this continued, the tide of battle would inevitably turn.

“Tch────”

A growing sense of despair loomed over the Kingdom’s army. Up until now, the soldiers had managed to sustain their morale through sheer determination, but they were nearing their limit. The Seven Peerless Swords, who had initially focused on command, were now personally engaging the subordinate dragons, buying time for their forces to recover.

Still, the situation remained dire. The subordinate dragons were proving to be formidable threats even for the Seven Peerless Swords. And in that moment of vulnerability, one such dragon lunged at Gilflare, aiming to crush him in its jaws────

“GRUGAAAA!!!!”

“D-Damn it────”

Then, it happened.

“────Huh?”

Gilflare had braced himself for death, shutting his eyes in anticipation of the searing pain that would come in the next instant. Yet, that final moment never arrived.

The situation shifted without warning.

“What is… this?”

The subordinate dragons, which had been spawning endlessly, suddenly began to dissipate into mist, melting away like mud. Even the Empire’s forces were visibly stunned by this unexpected development.

Gilflare didn’t know why it was happening, but one thing was certain.

────The tide of battle had turned in the Kingdom’s favor!!

There was no reason to let this opportunity slip away.

“The subordinate dragons are vanishing! Seize this chance!!”

“““OOOOOOHHH!!!!”””

Fueled by the shouts of the Seven Peerless Swords, the soldiers’ morale surged once more as they prepared to press their advantage.

The storm of shadows subsided, and in an instant, the battlefield—once obscured by the towering forms of dragons—was laid bare.

‘How long has it been since I last took this form?’

Where the massive dragon had stood moments ago, a single man now remained. His long, jet-black hair flowed behind him, and his slender frame was draped in robes of shadow. At a glance, he appeared nothing more than an ordinary man, devoid of a dragon’s majesty. Yet his piercing eyes held the ferocity of a true dragon, and the magical aura and dark energy emanating from his form were unmistakably that of that damned lizard.

His transformation into a humanoid form────a Dragonborn, perhaps────was something I burned into my memory.

“Tch────”

I reined in the bloodlust and magic I had been freely releasing, narrowing my eyes at the scene before me in irritation.

I recognized this sight. I had already experienced it once before, during my confrontation with the Time Dragon. There was no reason to be surprised.

The dragon before me had declared, “I am serious.” And those words were no bluff or bravado—they were absolute truth.

────He hadn’t abandoned his true form on a whim.

Though his body had shrunk, the sheer force of the magic and willpower he now exuded had skyrocketed beyond compare. The sinister shadows swirling around him crackled with energy, and even the faintest touch against my skin sent jolts of numbness through my body.

‘Take pride, Claym Bradley. You are the first human to ever force me to fight at my full strength.’

Just hearing his voice was enough to recognize the sheer abnormality of the being before me. The air trembled violently, thick with the oppressive force of his magic. A single lapse in focus, and I would be devoured whole.

────Hah… How the hell did things come to this…?

Even setting aside his overwhelming presence, my body was at its limit. The vampiric thirst I had been suppressing was nearly unbearable. No, in truth, I had never truly suppressed it at all—not since I drank Chronos’s blood. I had simply convinced myself that I had, diverting my thoughts elsewhere to maintain the illusion. I couldn’t keep fighting for much longer.

────But that didn’t matter.

At this point, time was meaningless. What mattered was whether I could kill this dragon that had ascended to a whole new level of power.

“I’m borrowing this, Weiss────”

Almost unconsciously, I shattered the vial of blood I had been holding and drank it down.

The thick, iron-rich liquid slid down my throat, igniting a rush of euphoria and ecstasy that overwhelmed my senses. My hunger reached its peak. There was no suppressing it anymore—not that I had any intention of doing so.

The time I had left was short. It was only a matter of time before the Abyss consumed me. But to kill this dragon, this was the only option I had.

What's the next trick you're going to show me?

“Don’t get cocky, you damn lizard!!”

Ignoring the innocent gaze of anticipation directed at me by the dragon in front of me, I dashed forward. The distance was no more than ten meters by eye measurement. The dragon remained standing in place, its eyes gleaming with excitement as it watched my every move.

────So you think you can just react after seeing my moves, huh!?

I had already used up all the blood I had taken from my comrades. As a result, my body now contained not only my own magic but also five bloodline magics. From here on, I would use them all, exhaust them, and overwhelm the dragon.

“Oraaa────!!”

Leaping through time and space, I closed the distance to the dragon in the blink of an eye. Gripping the dragon-slaying sword tightly in my hand, I slashed upward from below, aiming at the dragon’s chest, which seemed almost frail and slender. The dragon, as expected, tried to effortlessly dodge my attack after seeing it, but I wasn’t about to let that happen.

‘Is that flash magic? And this… a dual restraint of gravity and ice?’

Even as the dragon was bound by gravity and ice, its demeanor didn’t change in the slightest. My swing had indeed aimed to slash open its chest, but the moment it realized it couldn’t dodge, the dragon simply flicked its arm lightly and deflected my blade. There was no need to be surprised by such an inhuman feat.

────It may look human on the outside, but inside, it’s still a dragon!!

Its structure was so utterly unreasonable that comparing it to a human was sheer folly.

“So what!?”

I launched an all-out assault, using every magic at my disposal to relentlessly close in on the shadowy dragon.

“────!!!!”

‘This is great! I’m starting to have fun!!’

Slashing, getting slashed, blocking, getting blocked────naturally, my body accumulated more wounds, and the bleeding increased. To make sure the spilled blood wasn’t wasted, I activated to shift the battle slightly in my favor.

‘Can you keep up with this speed!?’

“Ghh, ugh────!!”

But even that was nothing more than a makeshift solution. Now that it had taken on a humanoid form, the dragon’s combat style had changed completely. It still fought barehanded, yet every move was refined, as if it had mastered a martial art passed down from the Far East, aiming to kill me with precise, calculated strikes.

Far from keeping up, the gap between us only widened. The countless chains of blood I had summoned around me were shattered in an instant, stripping away my means of attack and defense. On top of that, as time passed, my consciousness was gradually being consumed by Vampiric Essence and was beginning to collapse.

“Damn it, you won’t shut up already!?”

I screamed without restraint. At this point, I wasn’t even sure if I was attacking, running, dodging, or simply being beaten to death without resistance. But as long as I could still scream, as long as I could still be angry, as long as I was still alive, I was holding on somehow.

“My blood is boiling────”

Summoning every last shred of my fragile resolve and determination, I charged at the Shadow Dragon. But my limit arrived almost immediately.

‘…So in the end, this is all you amount to.’

Before I realized it, the dragon that had been grinning with excitement had noticeably fallen silent. With an audible sigh of disappointment, it spoke in a disheartened voice. Then, without warning, it stepped forward, clenched its black dragon-scaled fist, and swung it upward with incredible force—right into my jaw.

“Ghh────gah!?”

My vision swayed violently, and my body was launched into the air as if reeled up by an invisible thread. The force carried me through the underground chamber’s ceiling, sending me flying beyond the castle walls.

As I drowned in the overwhelming shock and pain, the dimly fading moon flickered in the corner of my vision. Before I knew it, dawn was approaching.

────Huh? It’s already that late??

As that thought crossed my mind, gravity pulled me down, and I crashed into a pile of rubble.

Even in this absurd situation, where I should have been dead, I was somehow still alive. It was utterly ridiculous. Seconds, hours, days, maybe even weeks had passed—I had no idea how much time had gone by. But eventually, when I opened my eyes, I found a jet-black dragon looking down at me.

‘So even you weren’t enough…’

The dragon, gazing down at me, looked deeply sorrowful, its voice thick with dejection.

Why was it so depressed? I had no idea.

My consciousness was on the verge of dissipating. And yet, my mind remained strangely clear, my thoughts consumed by a single, maddening impulse.

────Not enough blood.

The dragon showed no signs of exhaustion. Not a single drop of sweat, not the slightest sign of labored breathing—it remained composed and unfazed.

Of course, I had known this from the start. But still, the fact remained—it was strong. Even after exhausting every ounce of my strength and using every last resort borrowed from my comrades, my fangs never reached this dragon.

────Utterly infuriating.

But who was this anger directed at?

Was it the dragon before me?

Or was it at my own pathetic self?

I no longer knew. And yet, I felt oddly calm. I had regained a strange sense of clarity, a collected resolve.

I had been mistaken. I thought I had given everything I had. I thought I had done all I could. And yet, the result was this. Before me stood a being that looked down upon the world itself. Thinking I could defeat such a transcendent creature with mere sacrifices and costs was nothing more than arrogance.

But my thoughts were no longer clouded by the negativity I had felt when I first learned the truth at the Sacred Peak of Time. I wasn’t acting out of self-destructive desperation. Even so, I had been prepared to die in this battle. It was a choice I should have made from the start.

And yet, in the end, I had still prioritized my own worthless life. After all, humans—at their core—don’t change so easily. No matter how much pain they endure, no matter how they resolve to reform themselves, in extreme situations, their true nature resurfaces.

To kill this dragon, I would have to offer everything.

────And I had already been given more than enough.

To be honest, I never wanted to resort to this. Because if I used this method, Claym Bradley would undoubtedly die. Even if I survived, I would never again obtain the future I envisioned. More than anything, the idea of using the power of the person I hated most in my second life was infuriating.

But realistically, I couldn’t afford to be selfish any longer. To secure the bright future of my beloved little sister, this was the only path left to me.

────It’s enough. More than enough.

Compared to my first life, this one had been vibrant and full of color. Thanks to those damn lizards, it wasn’t what I would call happy, but even so, it was far too precious for the lazy, arrogant Claym Bradley. Everything had shone like gold.

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth────”

So I no longer needed to be here. I was ready.

“────To kill a dragon, one must use a dragon’s power.”

With that, I took out the last vial of blood and gulped it down.

“You… you’re not seriously…!!”

For the first time, the dragon showed genuine shock.

“Here comes my final move, my last trump card.”

And with that, I let the dragon’s blood flow into my veins.