Chapter 299: The Silver Dragon's Blood

"Finished fighting?"

Waving casually, Wang Yu looked toward the two dragons, now in human form, walking back from the battlefield they had all but turned into a ruin.

"Mm."

Sieg scratched his nose a little sheepishly. Noelle stood in front of Avia, puffing her cheeks and indignantly glaring at him with a pout. It made him feel even more awkward.

Aurelian wasn't much better. Though she had carried herself with detached elegance through the battle, she now deliberately turned her face away—feigning nonchalance, but in truth avoiding the tear-streaked face of her little sister.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"I'm sorry. In just one fight, I ended up destroying all those alchemical constructs you and Avia built. It'll cost time and coin to restore them."

Sieg bowed to Avia. His duel with his sister had not only left his metal wings in ruins, but also torn apart the arcane circuits etched into his body.

"It's fine. We needed to test them out in actual combat, anyway. This battle gave us exactly what we needed. Professor, I assume you gathered more than enough data to optimize them further?"

Avia didn't seem concerned at all. To her, Sieg's equipment was made for battle, not to be admired. If it broke, they could simply rebuild it. Better now than when lives were truly on the line.

"You're a friend of Sieg's, aren't you? Thank you for helping earlier."

Aurelian extended her hand toward Wang Yu, who had aided her when she first arrived in the plane of the dead.

"With your power, Lady Aurelian, I doubt my help was needed."

Wang Yu smiled modestly. From what he had seen in her clash with Sieg, annihilating those cultists from the Church of Dragonkind would have been effortless for her.

"No. When I first entered this plane, I was still aligning my body to the laws of this plane. At that moment, those enemies could have been... troublesome."

Surprisingly earnest, Aurelian corrected him with a slight shake of her head.

"..."

Wang Yu said nothing, not because he was being aloof, but because he had no idea how to respond. Aurelian held his hand as she studied him, her expression faintly amused.

"Your body is... curious. How did you accomplish such a feat? You're a grand knight, I assume, but you've already manifested something like a domain, a power usually seen only in legends or in those whose physical strength transcends mortal limits."

"A domain?" Wang Yu blinked. "I've never noticed anything like that. Are you sure? If your senses are correct, then I have no idea why."

He was being honest—he had no idea what she was referring to.

"That's strange. I'm certain I'm not mistaken. Your body resists my perception and shields itself from my senses. Only a domain can achieve such a feat against another domain."

Aurelian frowned slightly. Wang Yu didn't seem to be lying. So what exactly had she sensed?

"Can you explain what you mean more clearly?"

Now genuinely intrigued, Wang Yu leaned in. He'd heard of "domains" as something linked to legendary knights, but the way Aurelian described it suggested something far more profound.

"Do you know of draconic might?"

Aurelian's voice was calm, but as she spoke, an invisible pressure unfurled through the air. Unlike Sieg's overwhelming release, hers was subtle and controlled. It enveloped Wang Yu alone, sparing all others nearby.

"Yes. It's that primal fear and awe engraved in the blood of lesser beings—a genetic predisposition toward higher lifeforms."

Wang Yu nodded. He knew what draconic might was—like the fear a mouse feels upon seeing a cat, it was not a matter of bravery or courage, but of raw instinct.

He, however, was a foreigner. His blood bore no memory of this world, no inherited fear of dragons—and thus, he had never been affected by such things.

"You're not wrong. But it's not the full truth."

Aurelian let go of his hand, then slowly raised and clenched her own. Around her, bits of dust and broken stone began to rise into the air, pulled upward by an unseen force within the radius of her presence.

"This is the power of a domain. I have no fighting spirit, yet I can still wield it to some extent. In my view, this power matters more to legendary knights than fighting spirit. It's what truly allows them to stand as equals against those who wield forbidden magic."

Wang Yu stared at the dust and stone suspended within her domain. It all felt oddly familiar. When he summoned the power of the Chariot, an innate power contained within his very body, it manifested in much the same way.

Raising his hand, he spread his fingers and directed them at the stones levitating within Aurelian's domain. The Chariot stirred.

"When knights reach the legendary realm," Aurelian continued, "their power is no longer merely of the flesh. It begins to shape the world around them.

"They can cleave spells without any enchantments, and shatter elementals with nothing but their fists."

"Your people speak of inner potential—" She paused, frowning. "Is that your domain?"

Her gaze turned toward the stones that had, moments ago, been floating within her power. Now, they were all pressed firmly back into the ground.

Aurelian had sensed nothing—no force, no flow of power. But Wang Yu's outstretched hand told her all she needed to know.

"This is a domain?"

Wang Yu looked surprised. Could it be that the Chariot's true nature was what she called a domain?

"No," Aurelian said firmly. "What you wield isn't a domain. I can no longer affect anything within the range of your power—not even with my own domain."

She studied the dust and stones still pinned to the earth.

Her draconic might was fully released. She had focused her domain with all her strength to influence those objects—but in vain. They had ignored her. Her power passed through them as if she didn't exist.

No matter how much she amplified her domain, the stones remained rooted—anchored not by her will, but his.

She couldn't even sense where his power came from, or how it worked.

"What a mysterious force," Aurelian murmured, her eyes drifting back to the man before her. "I don't understand where it comes from, or what it does. But it's strong. Stronger, perhaps, than a domain itself."

Aurelian's gaze settled once more on her brother's companion. This time, there was newfound wariness and no small amount of fascination in her gaze.

To her senses, Wang Yu's presence was strangely fragmented. A draconic incantation allowed her to clearly sense the weave of his body: muscle, bone, fighting spirit, blood—everything visible in perfect, living detail. And yet...

Whenever she tried to view him using her domain, an ability that had always worked flawlessly before, he seemed to vanish entirely. Within the focus of her power, Wang Yu was nothing but a silhouette of darkness, a man-shaped void torn out of the world's canvas.

"You are... strange."

That was the only conclusion Aurelian could offer.

Wang Yu accepted the observation calmly. The more he crossed paths with the truly powerful, the more abnormal he seemed. To the weak, his nature remained hidden, but to those with strength enough to pierce through illusions, there was no place for him to hide.

It wasn't necessarily a good thing. In this world, drawing too much attention was dangerous.

Aurelian let the mystery go. She turned and walked back toward Sieg and Noelle. The reunited siblings sat down to talk.

Strangely, after their clash, the conversation flowed more freely. Having been a civil officer of the Nightblades for many years, Sieg had a way with words. Under his guidance, his elder sister began to open up.

Noelle, who had been weeping earlier at the sight of her brother and sister fighting, had started to laugh again, her spirits lifted by their light-hearted banter.

"Sister," Sieg finally asked, "can you tell me more about It?" One of his reasons for seeking his sister's acknowledgment had always been to gain more information about that enigmatic It.

"I've given you recognition only for the path you've chosen—not for your strength," Aurelian said.

"You're not ready yet. But I'll keep that answer safe for you. What you must do is cross the Endless Sea. Return to the island where the dragon kingdom once stood... and still stands.

"If you can overcome the Endless Sea and set foot on that land, you will have proven your worth in truth. Then, and only then, will I tell you everything I know about It and my plans going forward."

"But—"

"Shh. Let me finish." Aurelian lifted a finger, silencing him. "What I can give you now is information about the Church of Dragonkind. They are the true threat on this continent—zealots who worship the pure-blood dragons.

"They hunt us, those whom they call heretics. You and Noelle are both at risk.

"Think carefully—have you ever exposed your identity? These bloodhounds have an uncanny sense for blood. If they've caught your scent, they'll be tracking you."

Sieg was about to speak, but Aurelian's raised hand stopped him once again. Her words had clearly rattled him.

He had revealed his identity once, back in Aleisterre. Had the Church of Dragonkind already begun their hunt?

Aurelian told him all she knew. The conversation between the three dragons, siblings bound by blood and burden, went on for a long time. When it was over, Aurelian embraced both Sieg and Noelle in farewell, then transformed into her true form. The silver dragon tore open a rift in space. With a ripple of her wings, she vanished from the undead plane.

Sieg returned to Wang Yu with something in hand. "Wang Yu, before she left, my sister and I spoke about you. She wanted you to have this."

He pressed a small object into Wang Yu's palm, a transparent vial.

"What is it?"

"A silver dragon's blood."