Chapter 403: Not So Perfect

"I can no longer sense that presence in the void. It's gone. It's been slain."

At the edge of the coast, the Dragon King Wendel Myx, who was under Wang Yu's control, lifted his massive head and gazed toward the heart of the island. Through him, the Lady of the Night stretched out her perception to probe what lay there.

Milos, who had long imposed its will on the island in both the void and the material plane, had vanished. That one strike, which had transcended the limits of the heavens and felling the Isle of Dragons, had obliterated his abyssal form utterly.

"As was to be expected... Avia, help me pull these dragons out from this mass of flesh. The Dragon King's shell is nearly spent. Now that he's dead, his body can't regenerate any power, and all the power that's left has been slowly dissipating ever since I started controlling it. Let's make use of it one last time before it collapses entirely."

With a sigh, Wang Yu lowered the vast, pulsing lump of flesh clutched in the Dragon King's talons. Within it lay the dragons whom Milos had planned to drain dry.

Most were desperately weakened, their bodies shriveled to the point of immobility even after being freed. Yet the majority, at least, still lived.

"Got it. The mana circuits of this vessel are already unraveling. I'll need you to help me patch them up with the Chariot for the moment. Wang Yu, have you fully adapted to the strain of controlling this body?"

Avia, using the Perfect Fractal Lens, transmitted an image of the broken circuits to him while gauging his condition.

"Yeah. It's losing power, and I'm starting to adapt. The burden's much less now."

As he spoke, Wang Yu channeled the power of the Chariot to mend the failing circuits for her.

A tide of mana surged through the Dragon King's shell. Avia seized it and shaped it into spatial magic. The air rippled. The dragons trapped within the mass of flesh were released, though there were ghastly wounds where their bodies had fused with the mass.

"This doesn't look good... We need to treat them first."

Wang Yu clicked his tongue. Their condition was even worse than he'd feared; unaided, not even their mighty vitality would be enough to heal them.

He had just been about to ask the Lady of the Night to cloak them so that the merfolk fleet and Skyborne City, which remained hesitant to approach while the Dragon King lingered, could lend a hand. But his words were cut short by the arrival of ships and riders from the far sea.

"Orcs, humans... all manner of races. Powers from the continent. I see crests—the United Federation of Lokeren, the city-states of Dovos..."

Avia's voice was lined with thinly veiled scorn. These factions had ignored every warning when the abyssal creatures first appeared.

They had only come rushing to the Isle of Dragons because they were drawn by the collapse of the Tidewall and the dreadful upheaval on the island. They would bring nothing but harm to the wounded land.

"The Professor gave his life to save this Isle of Dragons. I won't allow strangers to set foot upon them. The dragons need time to heal. We'll drive off these opportunists."

Wang Yu's eyes narrowed, danger glinting in his tone. This island had suffered enough. The uninvited would need a sufficiently clear warning to stay out, it seemed.

"Let's do it with the last of this vessel's strength, then. I believe the Dragon King wouldn't mind guarding his kin one final time."

Wang Yu released the power of the Chariot that bound Wendel Myx's shell. He seemed to feel a sudden kinship then, as though the fading power of the Dragon King itself welcomed him. Even without the Chariot, it responded to his call.

Without the force of the Chariot, the Dragon King's power began to unravel. The colossal body of Wendel Myx crumbled like weathered stone, scattering layer by layer before the watching eyes of all.

"The Dragon King's body is crumbling," Icarus's voice rang out in the command hall of Skyborne City. "As we thought. He dragged a husk to the battlefield with barely a tenth of his peak strength. This is his destined end."

Skyborne City had been paying attention to Wendel Myx's situation throughout the battle, and they had predicted this turn of circumstances.

"Beep! Beep! Beep!"

"Director, we're detecting a high-energy surge! The Dragon King's body might be crumbling away, but his power isn't dispersing. It's condensing! The readings are spiking—something's wrong!"

Alchemical instruments blared shrilly. A scholar, staring at the display, cried out in alarm.

"Fall back! Stay clear of the blast!"

Following Icarus's order, the city's shields shimmered into existence once more. Icarus sent a priority request to Astartes to steer Skyborne City away.

A vast crimson bolt ripped the clouds apart, thundering down to strike the place where the Dragon King's body had crumbled away.

Unlike ordinary lightning, it did not fade. It tethered sky to sea, blazing ever thicker and ever more radiant until the crimson pillar seemed like a monument of wrath.

By the shore below, Wang Yu stood with his right hand raised. His palm gleamed with golden light, the mark of the Chariot, which drew the remnants of the Dragon King's strength to him.

He was the one who had summoned that bolt of lightning. Having mastered Wendel Myx's vessel and earned his recognition, he now shaped the dregs of his power into a weapon.

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Thunder roared. The Dragon King's shell disintegrated at last. The pillar of lightning had grown monstrously thick by then, swallowing sky and sea alike. Space itself warped beneath the strain.

Wang Yu gripped the bolt of lightning at its base with his golden hand. Above him, the crimson column rose up like a titanic blade swung from the heavens. Without that hand's indestructible nature, the power of the Chariot, Wendel Myx's acknowledgment, and his own hard-won adaptation to Wendel Myx's power, he would have been the first to perish.

All that remained of the Dragon King's power was transmuted into the bolt of lightning. Wang Yu wasted no time. With a single stroke, he brought it down upon the Endless Sea. In an instant, the sky shrieked. Arcs of inconceivable magnitude ripped countless bolts from the heavens, slamming into the waters below.

Waves towered, the spray itself rising like mountains. Where his blade fell, the sea itself split open—a trench a hundred meters wide, a thousand deep, and ten thousand long.

It took long minutes before the waters filled the gap again. Yet the lightning did not fade. It poured unceasing into the scar, forming a blazing wall that sealed the Isle of Dragons off from the world beyond.

The wall of thunder lay less than a thousand meters from the approaching fleets. From the sudden flares of panic on their decks, it was clear they had understood the warning: had that stroke been turned upon them, none would have survived.

To challenge such power was unthinkable. With only a moment's hesitation, the fleets wheeled about and fled.

"Well done!"

Avia smiled brightly. Wang Yu had done precisely what she wished she could have. Hidden once more beneath the Lady of the Night's veil, Wang Yu bore the young magician on his back and turned back toward the merfolk fleet. There, the tale of this battle would find its end.

A sharp creak broke the silence. On one of the merfolk fleet's vessels, a wooden door swung open. Through it stepped the silver dragon Aurelian, her hair tumbling past her shoulders, her face drawn with exhaustion. The cold, assured poise that once defined her was nowhere to be seen.

"Sister..."

The young red dragon Noelle waited within the cabin. Her eyes were still rimmed in red.

Before she could say another word, Aurelian seized her in a fierce embrace. Her cheek was pressed tightly against Noelle's, the hug so crushing that the younger dragon could scarcely breathe.

Pressed to her sister's chest, Noelle could feel the violent thrum of Aurelian's heart. Her tears that had long since stilled welled up once more and slid down her cheeks, dampening the dust-stained fabric at Aurelian's shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't strong enough to protect you or Sieg."

She whispered an apology, raw with suppressed emotion, into Noelle's ear. Startled, Noelle struggled against the arms that held her, wriggling free with all her strength.

"Don't, Sister. Brother knew you'd say that. Whatever happens, you need to see this. He left it for you!"

Her reddened eyes shone with sudden force of will. She thrust something into Aurelian's hands, catching her off guard.

It was a small coffer. As it settled into Aurelian's palms, it sprang open in a burst of mana. The mechanism within whirred to life, casting a vivid illusion that filled the cabin. A figure appeared.

"Hey, Sis. Um... yeah, I know this is awkward. If you're seeing this, I'm probably already gone. But if you're seeing this, it also means I managed to take care of that thing that's haunted you—and all of dragonkind. So, what do you think? Am I finally strong enough to earn your recognition?"

Sieg's likeness stood before her, scratching at his cheek with an unsteady smile. His words faltered at first, but then, as if he had made up his mind, they flowed more freely.

It wasn't Sieg, not truly. It was simply a projection, a memory engraved in mana. Though it was as fragile as mist, it was nonetheless enough to make Aurelian's breath catch as she stared silently at her brother.

"I always knew about your identity, Sister. Ha. Looking back, I suppose it's obvious. No silver dragon could ever be part of a brood of two reds. Even for the most chaotic members of our kind, that'd be impossible. Our family... was never quite what it seemed."

The words pricked her heart. A fleeting shadow crossed Aurelian's eyes.

"My broken mana circuits, the mission you told me about since I was little... I didn't understand then. But after living on the continent all these years, I do now."

Her silver eyes dimmed as the voice carried on.

"Sor—"

"Don't apologize, Sister. Please. Don't. I can already hear Charles laughing at me if I were to be wrong about this."

His interruption made her blink. The awkward smile on Sieg's face was so familiar it robbed her of words.

"I've never thought that you owed me anything. To me, you've always been the object of my admiration—the strong older sister who protected me and Noelle. As broken as I was, I drew strength from you.

"When I learned the truth of who you are and the burden you bear, I was even more impressed by how extraordinary you really are. Maybe calling you ‘great' sounds strange... but at the very least, you've always been an incredible sister. Whatever you are, you'll always be that to me and Noelle."

His voice paused now and then, as if seeking the right words, but the conviction behind them never wavered.

"As for my circuits... really, it's nothing. Sister, being able to overcome our instincts at all is already a miracle. Neither of us should demand more. At least I'm still Sieg, rather than Aurelian-and-Sieg in one."

He thumped his chest where his heart beat—and where those broken circuits ruined by Aurelian's claws lay.

Once, Milos had cast fragments of abyssal spawn into dragon broods as a grotesque experiment.

No one but Milos was willing to carry out such a dangerous experiment—or even capable of doing so.

The silver dragon Aurelian, the green dragon Goelia, the red dragon Caesar—all these dragons, either as hatchlings or adults, had been implanted with parts of Milos's flesh. Among them, Aurelian was the only one that Milos considered a true success.

Because these abyssal fragments started out so weak, the majority were slain outright by their hosts' defenses. In doing so, they granted their hosts a boon of exceptional strength and freedom from the Dragon God's chains of faith.

Aurelian alone, as a newborn silver dragon, had survived the abyssal implantation.

Her extreme weakness and the instincts of an abyssal creature had caused her to seek out food—an unguarded dragon nest with two eggs, its owners' whereabouts unknown.

Aurelian cracked the egg and thrust her sharp claws into the embryo of the young red dragon hatchling that would have hatched hours later. The next moment, Aurelian heard the hatchling's shrill scream, causing her kind nature and abyssal instincts to be at odds with one another.

Staring at the helpless red hatchling before her, she had chosen restraint. She had consumed the dragon's shell and what little blood was on her claws to satisfy her gnawing hunger, sparing the dragon's life—though her claws had scarred his mana circuits forever.

The physical wounds the red dragon hatchling had sustained weren't a big deal. The draconic bloodline was more than strong enough to heal such injuries. But Aurelian's claws had coincidentally disrupted the hatchling's mana circuits, the most delicate part of a dragon's developing body, and the last to form.

That red dragon hatchling became Sieg Wilsbach, and the "sister" who had maimed him became his idol. Last came Noelle, the smallest of the three, yet no less cherished.

"...I shouldn't even be alive," Sieg's image laughed softly. "You've always tried to make up for it, Sister, but you already gave me more than I could ask for. When every other hatchling had to fend for themselves, I had your protection. You shielded me and Noelle from the Dragon God's chains, and you sent us away to the continent.

"Without you, we'd be nothing more than Milos's puppets. My broken circuits are nothing compared to that.

"And besides, the knowledge I amassed and the friends I made along the way are surely among my most precious treasures save for you and Noelle yourself.

"By drawing on the fighting spirit produced by my body and what I learned during my travels, I found a path that belonged uniquely to me. Without my damaged mana circuits, I would likely have never embarked on this journey.

"And on the continent, I saw many things that I would never have experienced otherwise. Hugin, Gewen, Charles, Edward, Wang Yu, Avia, the Nightblades... There are so many people I would never have met.

"The world out there is brilliant. Traveling with Noelle, I saw so much more than I ever dreamed. And all the while, you carried the weight of the dragon race alone, struggling against the Church of Dragonkind. Honestly, if anyone should feel guilty, it's me. I had the power to help you, but I couldn't do it.

"What does identity matter? I learned to make peace with my disability. Sis, you've fought for dragonkind. Haven't you ever made peace with yourself? One of my friends used to say, ‘If you believe it, then it's true.' There's nothing left to agonize over.

"At the very least, everything is over now. The burden you've carried can finally be set down. You should learn to lean on others, Sister. This time, forgive me for helping without asking for permission. You can rest easy now."

Sieg's projection crouched and patted his knee, arms spread wide with a smile—the very gesture Aurelian herself had once made to comfort him.

At last, her long-buried composure shattered. Tears burst forth, spilling down her cheeks as the frost within her melted away.

Outside the cabin, Wang Yu and Avia leaned against the wooden wall.

A proud, untouchable silver dragon weeping like a child in her sister's lap—that image kept replaying in Wang Yu's mind.

He took Avia's hand and lifted his gaze to the heavens. The clouds had dissipated, leaving a bright blue sky behind.

"An imperfect ending, then?"

(End of Volume III: Wanderers.)