We traveled through time together, but I'm the only dragon? The others are all beautiful girls?

Volume 1 Snowfield Dragon Lord: Chapter 62. The Realm of Calamity

It smells like eggshells and sludge.

Akalion's first two foods were unpalatable but highly nutritious.

Why? Why do these monsters, born from distorted magical energy, have this smell?

Or rather... why does my birthplace, the cradle that nurtured me, exude an aura that originates from the same source as this calamity?

We need to confirm this as soon as possible; it might not be some kind of "enemy and friend share the same origin" theory.

With that thought, Akalion abandoned his attempt to devour the monsters, and his massive dragon body rose from the ground, soaring once more into the eternal night sky.

He wants to purify this land and all the monsters that inhabit it!

His grey dragon eyes swept over the chaotic monsters, now in disarray due to Eleanor's elimination of their leader, and he opened his mouth.

The river of light from the trial flows once again across this desolate snowfield.

After several breaths, the wave of monsters was reduced to a few scattered seashells, like those left on a beach after being washed away by the tide.

Eleanor and Firefly quickly 'picked it all up'.

It's not that these monsters didn't consider escaping.

Instead, if they dare to stray from the edge of this battlefield, the terrifying dragon shadow hanging in the sky, like a god, will "invite" them to the underworld.

Either way, it's death.

They also considered surrendering, emitting mournful cries that signified submission.

But neither Akalion, who has become a ruthless reaper, nor Luminosus, who enjoys the battle itself, nor Eleanor, who sees it all as 'food,' would accept it.

The enemy must die.

Moreover, the very existence of these monsters is an extension of [Calamity].

Akalion absolutely did not want his city to become a chaotic and calamistic realm because of a moment of pity.

Moreover, for Akalion at this moment, the absolute obedience of those elves had already satisfied his desire for domination to the greatest extent.

Why bother accepting such an eyesore and dangerous bunch?

Kill them all, leave no one alive!

"the last one!"

Ying looked at the last remaining monster on the battlefield, a hellhound whose body was particularly bright with hellfire, seemingly a leader-level monster.

"Woo~~~"

The hellhound tucked its burning tail between its legs, lowered its body, and let out a mournful wail filled with terror and pleading.

That clearly meant they didn't want Ying to get any closer.

But its wish is destined never to be fulfilled.

Ying dispelled the chainsaw blade formed by wind and rock elements above [Echoes of Eldra], then with a swift dash, she sheathed her sword and swung it down, her movements fluid and graceful.

The burning dog's head fell to the ground with a thud.

"—Sure enough, once I arrived in this world, this power gradually emerged."

Ying hung the jet-black, fine-gold longsword back on her waist. A faint yet incredibly pure, holy white light, not belonging to this world, slowly swirled in her palm.

"Are you saying that once you return to Teyvat, this power of yours will be sealed away again?"

After Akalion brought Eleanor back onto his back, he slowly landed next to Luminous.

"Yes. In Teyvat, I can only use elemental forces that are recognized by the laws of the world."

Ying nodded with some regret. Her own "light" was sealed by the laws of nature in Teyvat and was completely unusable.

Otherwise, why would she need to rely on the power of the Seven Gods Statues... Even with her current five times the aptitude, it would probably take her four to five years to recover her pre-sealing combat power solely through elemental force.

"If...if I could stay in this world for a long time—"

As she spoke, she turned her gaze to Akalion, and said no more. But the expectation contained in her golden eyes was self-evident.

"Then you'll be dead."

Akalion completely ignored her gaze. An invisible [Mage Hand] lifted her somewhat unwilling body from the ground and placed it steadily on his back.

He leaped with all his might, his massive dragon body soaring into the sky once more.

The Cursed Serpent Men and their pure-blooded Serpent Men army are not far ahead.

Their camps also have fire sources provided by hellhounds to ward off the cold.

There are not many snake people, totaling about three hundred.

However, one-fifth of them are cursed snake people who can cast vicious spells.

They must have been aware of the terrifying commotion that had occurred not far away, but they were already trapped with nowhere to retreat.

Since the Cursed Snake People are capable of using magic such as Suggestion, Akalion is not prepared to leave Luminosity and Eleanor to face them alone.

In case you're hit by a [Suggestion] spell, a type of [Enchantment]...

In D&D, the Enchanting tree is a magic tree that specializes in manipulating, influencing, and dominating the minds of living beings. It does not add magic to objects, but rather adds more dangerous magical effects to the soul and will.

If someone falls victim to this spell and is hypnotized, the consequences...

Come to think of it, snakes seem to be inherently lewd.

Tsk—such a threatening and evil creature must be completely wiped out of this world!

Akalion flew directly over the snake-man camp.

These monsters were more intelligent. Before he even breathed his dragon breath, the morale of the monsters below had completely collapsed upon seeing his enormous size.

Only a few fearless snake-men dared to charge at him.

Then, under Akalion's disdainful [Radiant Breath], they, along with their terrified kin, were reduced to nothingness.

And so, Akalion, carrying the triumphant song of victory, traversed the long river forest where the leaves shimmered with an ominous red light, and plunged headlong into the [Domain of Calamity].

Sure enough, the atmosphere permeating this place was remarkably similar to that of his birthplace.

However, the surrounding environment is completely different.

There was no snow here, the starry sky was bright, and everywhere there were towering trees that could pierce the sky, as well as all kinds of evil magical creatures, with hellhounds being the most numerous, followed by winter wolves.

This realm, corrupted by [Calamity], has laws that are completely different from those of the outside world.

Akalion noticed that although the various monsters were endlessly fighting and tearing each other apart, their corpses were never eaten by either side.

Don't they need food?

Akalion quickly understood the answer.

Because he didn't feel hungry at all.

That primal urge that had been with him since birth, driving him to constantly devour and grow, was completely soothed in this realm by a more fundamental [energy] surging from all directions.

This [Catastrophe Domain] is continuously providing him with nourishment.

The feeling was as if... he was a part of this place.

However, Akalion felt no sense of familiarity whatsoever—if he had to describe it, it was just ordinary, no different from anything he'd experienced on the snowfield.

No, you can’t say that either.

He could clearly sense that the primal magical energy here was more stable than the violent and chaotic energy outside.

But it is not a peaceful order and stability; rather, it is a self-contained stability filled with malice.

A faint, malevolent whisper carried on the wind.

But isn't this precisely the characteristic of a [II] level calamity domain?

Akalion instantly became alert, his intuition, both of his soul and body, frantically warning him.

"Are you two alright?"

He did his best to increase his flight altitude, trying to get away from the eerie forest below that exuded an ominous aura, to gain a favorable position, and then use a full-force breath attack to eliminate some monsters, so he could come back next time.

"What's wrong?" Ying patted the rugged horns on his back, which resembled mountain rocks, her golden eyes filled with pure question marks. "I don't feel anything at all."

"what happened?"

“My physical condition is perfectly normal,” Eleanor said, but her beautiful brows suddenly furrowed slightly. “It’s just… the ‘darkness’ within me has become more active than ever before. It likes it here.”

She paused, her eyes, which seemed to glow red, swept over the hellish scene below, a landscape of towering trees and bones. Her voice trembled slightly, a tremor she herself was unaware of.

"Despair, pain, pleading, and... long-lost hope—I am very familiar with this feeling."

"Can...this be resolved faster?"

The atmosphere here made her uncontrollably recall the dark and gloomy "Undead Asylum" that had imprisoned her for thousands of years.

The intense déjà vu that seemed to drag her soul back into that eternal prison made her wish she could burn the forest before her, along with everything on it, to ashes.

"immediately--"

As Akalion was saying this, just as he was about to thoroughly purify the area that he had detected, which was emitting strong energy fluctuations, in the most efficient way, an ordinary tree, no different from the towering trees around it, unexpectedly attracted all his attention.

On the trunk of that giant tree, a soft and warm light of hope, seemingly capable of soothing all pain, was shining quietly.

It made him want to rush over and hug her immediately.

This indescribable and powerful attraction, originating from the deepest part of his soul, almost instantly shattered Akalion's will.

"..."

"Akaleion!"

The voices of Ying and Eleanor, filled with alertness and worry, were like a thunderclap, instantly awakening Akalion's consciousness from its impending doom.

But it was all in vain. Just moments later, the light, in a more domineering yet gentler manner, once again bewitched his mind.

no......

I can't let them be with me...

In the final moments before his consciousness was about to be completely swallowed by that ocean of hope, Akalion mercilessly banished the existence of Luminosity and Eleanor from his world.

The lighthouse's glow will shine brightly this time.

I changed the chapter title.

Volume 1 Snowfield Dragon Lord: Chapter 63. Ancient Fragments

Akalion's body, like an out-of-control meteor, plummeted straight towards the towering tree that had lured him there.

With his last shred of self-awareness, he abandoned all flying skills, stopped all deceleration, and tried to smash the tree to pieces at full speed!

This is how you break free from this alluring state.

"Boom!"

After a violent impact powerful enough to shake mountains, the immense pain emanating from the very core of his soul forcibly brought Akalion's consciousness, which was on the verge of complete collapse, back to a moment of clarity.

He saw it.

The source of that light was not the manifestation of hope, but a single eye that floated silently in the tree trunk, gleaming with an eerie blue light.

The moment I met that eyeball.

Countless trivial, noisy, and malicious whispers, like a flood bursting its banks, rushed into his mind.

The world before my eyes began to overlap, and after countless overlaps, everything began to crumble.

Akalion saw a zebra crossing he knew all too well. The pedestrian crossing light was green, and a child was walking obediently across the zebra crossing towards the other side of the road.

Suddenly, a red 100-ton truck, capable of crushing everything, sped towards us, ignoring the red light.

That was... the truck that crushed him in his past life.

He seemed to have reverted to being an unarmed ordinary person, now standing behind the child.

His body's instincts and his soul's logic were screaming wildly, making him stand still.

But his heart led him to repeat the same mistake once again.