Lily of the Valley Manor, deep beneath the villa.
At the center of the blue magic array, the silver-haired dragon princess, dressed in a purple dress, was bathed in a cylindrical column of pinkish-purple light.
It emanated from a tiny pinkish-purple particle suspended in midair.
Like a spotlight, it made the silver-haired dragon princess the center of everything. The blue-white mana motes dancing around her were continuously pulled by the two mana vortexes on Enya’s body, absorbed and swallowed into the silver runes atop her core.
As time passed, that pinkish-purple particle gradually dimmed, as if its power was being drained, and it began to flicker noticeably.
When the light finally faded completely, the two faintly emerging mana cores had their silver runes fully formed.
The fluctuations in Enya’s aura gradually stabilized.
She slowly opened her eyes.
In her golden-red vertical pupils, a deep black was tinged with a hint of pale purple. It seemed a power wanted to emerge from within, but was forcibly suppressed by a will.
Enya spread her dragon wings behind her and looked down at her hands. Her fingernails were still a wine-red, dragon-claw shape.
“Haa…”
She let out a light breath and turned her head to look.
Her tail was still there too, as if she were still that half-baked dragon.
Enya pushed herself up from the ground, let the hem of her dress, which had been hiked up to her waist, fall back down, and then stretched her body.
Afterward, a hint of a smile curled at the corner of her mouth.
“As expected, it can indeed counterbalance the will hidden in the dragon blood.”
She looked inward and found that she could indeed use two incomplete authorities to counterbalance one complete authority. Enya finally breathed a sigh of relief. This meant she wouldn’t go weak in the knees in front of Archethia—she could at least manage a shove.
“Then, it’s time.”
Enya clenched her hands.
From the very beginning, she had been using the Bloodline Lock to suppress the dragon blood in her body. She had only released half of it before, leaving her stuck in a half-transformed state, similar to the Dragon Tribe.
The reason the Dragon Tribe were half-dragon, half-human was mainly because their bloodline itself was incomplete, so they could only temporarily undergo dragonification. Unlike Enya, who possessed a complete bloodline authority.
As Enya’s will loosened, the red thread coiled around her spine gradually shrank and disappeared, finally turning into nothingness.
At that moment, her body began to undergo some unusual changes.
Enya hugged her chest and crouched down.
The pair of dragon wings behind her spread wide, the blood-red wing membranes pulsating with the glow of mana flow, while the black-scaled tail extending from under her skirt tensed up.
Sweat beaded on her forehead. She knelt on the ground, her hands bracing against the floor, her white teeth biting tightly on her pink lips.
A drop of sweat slid down Enya’s cheek.
“Hss…“
It hurt, it hurt a lot, it hurt terribly!
The potion she had made for Lucia would make that black-haired maid experience the same pain Enya was feeling now, but she would be dreaming and would forget it by morning.
Enya, on the other hand, had to bear it all head-on.
With the bloodline seal released, the transformation of her body by the dragon blood would continue, meaning a complete overhaul of flesh, blood, and bones. It also meant the beginning of transcending the mundane…
Enya was about to shed her mortal form entirely.
As for the benefits, this bit of pain was nothing. So, Miss Enya just had to endure it a little longer.
‘…In Enya’s Sea of Consciousness, inside that floating library called [Survival’s Conception], the massive Black Dragon Princess shifted her gaze from the book to the darkness above. Pandrake squinted and murmured to herself.’
‘”So it’s finally starting, huh…”‘
Outside, the entire Lakeside City had sunk into the deep night. In the vaguely formed collective dream, the dark clouds covering the sky revealed a colossal figure.
At that moment, everyone had the same dream—a nightmare of impending calamity. Some screamed, some trembled in fear, others numbly lowered their heads and continued wandering.
In the Dream Realm’s Lakeside City, all the nightmare knights knelt on one knee toward the direction of that majestic figure. As a thumping sound like a heartbeat echoed through the dreams of everyone in the city, that intangible giant figure gradually solidified.
When Enya opened her eyes again, she was overlooking the entire city. Every detail in Lakeside City was within her sight, including the people contained within it.
She tried to control the body.
The sensation from her limbs was vastly different from when she was human. There was a slight awkwardness when moving.
But that awkwardness was quickly adapted to.
Enya lowered her head slightly, looking at her own massive form.
In the dream Lakeside City, the huge figure in the sky had solidified. She possessed the majestic posture befitting a dragon.
Deep purple light flowed over her immense, spread dragon wings. Her chest to her abdomen was white, while the rest, covered in thick scales, was a peculiar color.
To Enya, it looked like a black base with a layer of silver paint on top, but for some reason, the paint had chipped off.
In short, a chipped silver-black.
“There are fewer spikes than I imagined…”
Her body was smooth and rounded, with almost no particularly sharp points. The curves were graceful, and her physique wasn’t especially bulky. Anyone would immediately recognize her as a female dragon.
Her dragon claws were purplish-red. Her hind legs were noticeably longer and stronger than her forelegs, clearly indicating a type that could stand on two legs. Her tail was long, and the scales were that same chipped-silver color.
Her massive dragon wings flapped, and a purple light illuminated the land. All the nightmare knights celebrated the empress’s rebirth.
Enya watched this scene, hesitating for a moment.
Though it couldn’t be seen on her current dragon form, she was actually blushing a little. But even with her shyness, she still raised her dragon head and opened her mouth toward the void beyond the Dream Realm.
“Rooooar~“
A dragon’s roar.
Fear and desire replaced destruction, descending from the dream into the mortal world.
In Lakeside City, many people were jolted awake by this nightmare. Meanwhile, across various hidden corners of the world, those secretive existences had already faintly sensed a tremor from within the Spirit Realm.
Enya flapped her huge dragon wings, propelling her sky-obscuring body toward the top of the Dream Realm. She crashed straight through the boundary, burst out of the Dream Realm, and flew into the clouds of the real world.
That day, Lakeside City had a light night rain. But as soon as Enya appeared out of nowhere, her massive body churned the clouds, turning the light drizzle into a thunderstorm.
She circled above the clouds, getting used to the feeling of her new body.
“It’s definitely strange…”
As a newborn dragon, Enya still didn’t understand much about her body. Even though controlling her flight posture was almost instinctual, there were still many things she didn’t know how to do.
Time to ask the veteran!
Enya lifted the mute on Pandrake and asked inwardly.
“Pandrake, how do I control this body?”
“Aren’t you doing just fine?”
“I can flap my wings and stuff, but how do I hover?”
“…”
Pandrake was a bit speechless.
Normally, whether it was her, a true dragon, or ordinary dragon-kind, or even those wyverns with a trace of dragon blood, flight was already a limbic instinct.
No teaching needed!
But then again, Enya had become a dragon halfway through her life, so it made sense she didn’t know some things. After thinking it over, Pandrake felt that as a predecessor, she should properly teach Enya the physiological knowledge of being a dragon.
Then Enya suddenly said she figured it out…
Enya used a method she had just thought of and tried hovering in the sky above the clouds.
And she actually managed it!
Her body was now enormous. The Lakeside City below was like a large sand table compared to her.
She estimated her height had to be over a hundred meters, and her weight easily tens of thousands of tons. After all, she was a Beast Race, and with these figures, there was still a lot of room for growth for a young dragon like Enya.
For such a massive beast to fly, it definitely couldn’t rely solely on flapping wings. The dragon wings had a special layer of runes that allowed dragons to paddle through the ocean of mana.
Enya’s method was to use her wings to control the speed of the mana currents. That way, she didn’t have to flap her wings at high frequency like a bee; she just needed to give them an occasional shake.
Reasonable, very reasonable.
Seeing that Enya had figured it out on her own, Pandrake didn’t feel like bothering with her anymore. She was about to go back to her own business when Enya threw out another question.
“Pandrake, how do you do that breath attack?”
“…”
“Come on, tell me! It’s my first time being a dragon too. Teach me how to shoot it out. I’m quick to learn—I’ll get it in no time. It won’t take much of your time.”
“Fine.”
Pandrake figured she could consider this as rent payment.
She explained all sorts of dragon physiological knowledge to Enya, who listened very attentively while maintaining a hover.
Suddenly, the sun rose in the east.
Enya watched the first golden rays of morning light fall on her body.
“Morning already.”
Unknowingly, three days had passed.
Enya turned her head and looked north. Something there attracted her—a strong desire to merge. She hadn’t felt this when absorbing only one authority, but after gaining two incomplete authorities, the feeling arrived.
It seemed there really was something in the Northern Mountains.
‘I wonder what Vivienne and Antiros are up to.’
Neither of them had told Enya anything about what they were doing. Before, Enya thought it was because they knew she disliked it, so they simply kept her out of it. But now, Enya was more inclined to think they were deliberately hiding things from her.
“Never mind, let’s finish what’s in front of me first.”
Enya clicked her tongue inwardly. She adjusted her posture, dove toward the sun for a short distance, then stopped. Lowering her head, her golden-red dragon eyes pierced through the clouds and mist to lock onto a large mountain.
The dragon’s mouth opened slightly, revealing pearly white teeth, a crimson oral cavity, and a surging glow within.