Without warning, the red dragon took flight. Whether the White Horn adventurers and knights stripped away its scales with their relentless attacks or not, it spread its wings wide and soared into the sky. As though it had been waiting for this very moment all along.

"...!"

Najin's eyes widened as he worked to tear apart the white dragon's wing. A chill raced down his spine. His instincts were sounding an alarm, and he knew that in situations like this, following them was usually the right choice.

CRUNCH, CRRRACK!

Najin twisted the sword buried deep in the white dragon's wing joint clockwise. Flesh tore, and the exposed white bone ground away with a grating crunch.

『———————!』

The white dragon thrashed with a scream of pain, but it could not keep its balance with one wing immobile. Its struggling only slowed its fall a little... but that was enough for Najin.

SHICK!

He pulled his sword free of the wing joint and flung himself through the blood that spouted like a fountain. Sliding behind the white dragon's wing, he drove his sword in once more. Hanging from the hilt, he sheltered his body behind the wing.

That decision proved to be the right one. The red dragon soaring above them opened its jaws wide and spewed flames. Dragon's breath, or simply Breath—a power exclusive to dragonkind. Flames said to possess at least the power of a Sixth Circle spell poured from its mouth.

Heat, scorching wind, and an onrushing tide of fire.

Without hesitation, the red dragon unleashed its Breath at the white dragon. It was attacking its other half, an ally of its own kind. Najin did not know why, but taking stock of the situation came before understanding it.

WHOOOOOSH!

Najin curled up behind the white dragon's wing. The flames would surely have melted him had they struck him directly. With the white dragon shielding him, however, they were barely bearable. The heat penetrating the wing scorched his skin with a hiss.

The white dragon's howling screams mingled with the sound of its flesh burning. Flames caught in the wounds Najin had hacked into it. Its scales could withstand the fire, but the flames streaming through the gaps he had forcibly torn open were burning it alive.

"What... is this? Why?"

Merlin's bewildered voice reached him. Even she had not foreseen this.

Najin realized something had gone wrong. From now on, he had to trust his own instincts. He moved as his senses warned him to.

'The red dragon wasn't aiming for me.'

It had targeted the white dragon. Not him—the white dragon.

Then this would not end with its Breath. The flames could eat away at the white dragon, but they could not finish it off. Something else was coming. What would it be? The flames were thinning.

Najin swung his body to shift his position and stood upright on the white dragon's still-hot back. Even the lingering heat of the dying flames melted the soles of his shoes, but he had no time to worry about that. Eyes wide, he peered through the rising heat haze.

'This is fucking maddening.'

And then he saw it: the red dragon charging toward the white dragon with its jaws wide open. Closing the distance in an instant, it thrust a claw forward and seized the neck of the white dragon, which was still reeling from its Breath.

Then came a crunch.

The red dragon sank its teeth into the white dragon's neck. Dragon teeth shattered dragon scales. Scales scattered, blood gushed, and the white dragon began to writhe in pain...

WHIIIIISH!

With its teeth still buried in the white dragon's neck, the red dragon descended. Beating its two intact wings, it began charging toward the ground. At this rate, they would slam straight into it. Even a Sword Seeker would die of shattered bones after hitting the ground from this height at this speed.

"Tch."

Najin clicked his tongue. He could not make sense of the situation, but he had to act.

CLATTER!

Najin hurled his dangling chain toward the red dragon. It caught around the arm of the dragon, whose attention was fixed on its white counterpart. He pulled it taut once to test its hold, then began running along the white dragon's back.

As they plunged toward the ground, he ran while hauling on the chain, taking the headwind against his body. He kicked off the white dragon's back and leaped onto the red dragon's head.

'I don't know why you've suddenly started biting each other like fucking maniacs.'

Najin took his sword in a reverse grip.

'But I was going to bring you down next anyway.'

He drove his sword into the red dragon's neck.

Clutching the firmly embedded sword, Najin braced for impact. Moments later, the entangled dragons slammed into the ground. A deafening crash sent heaps of earth flying.

2.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOOOM!

The two dragons that had plunged to earth slid across the ground, gouging it open. Mounds of dirt flew up, and the fallen stone pillars shattered into fragments. The impact shook the earth and knocked the standing knights off their feet.

"Get back!"

"Retreat! Retreat!"

The knights in the dragons' path began running, shouting warnings. Those who had fallen and could not escape retreated with the White Horn adventurers' help. The enormous bows they had set up on the ground shattered against the dragons' bodies.

CRRRRRASH!

After sliding for a considerable distance, the two dragons finally stopped. Sounds came from beyond the cloud of dust billowing into the sky. Crunch, crack... It sounded like a beast tearing into its prey.

"What...?"

"What the..."

The hunting force stared in horror at the sight revealed as the dust cleared. Before them, the red dragon was gnawing at the white dragon's neck, ravenous for its blood and flesh.

The white dragon and the red dragon. Were they not a pair? Nowhere was there any record of them fighting like this. On the contrary, the records were filled with accounts of them acting to protect each other.

It had happened so abruptly. As confusion spread through the hunting force, they suddenly noticed the red dragon's eyes. Red swirled within them. They were dreadfully menacing. The eyes of a dragon tearing into its own kind's neck and swallowing its blood were uncanny.

"... Oh, fuck."

Only one person recognized those eyes: Red-Eyed Roselin Ascalo, whose own eyes were exactly like the dragon's swirling ones. She felt a sense of foreboding. The witch's soul that made up half of her own was trembling.

And then the anomaly occurred.

BOOM.

The first to sense it was Najin, perched on the red dragon's neck. He had been about to swing his sword to sever its neck while it was distracted by the white dragon, but his body went rigid.

An immense, ominous presence.

An unknowable, incomprehensibly vast presence bore down on the entire area. Everyone in the hunting force, knights and White Horn adventurers alike, froze. Only Najin broke free of the pressure. He had felt this kind of pressure before.

His first encounter with Merlin. The scene she had shown him.

He had experienced this exact sensation then. Breaking free of its hold, Najin immediately raised his head. His gaze turned reflexively to the sky. There, in the vast expanse of night, was the source of that immense presence.

A void nestled among countless stars.

In that pitch-black patch where normally nothing could be seen... stars had appeared. Najin had watched the night sky every day since escaping the underground city, yet this was the first time he had ever seen them.

Stars that should not be visible. Stars that should not exist. Broken stars outside the natural order.

They were different from ordinary stars. Unlike the stars that shone platinum, these were red. A constellation glowing dark crimson occupied the void. And, like Arthur's, it consisted of thirteen stars.

"The witch...?"

Merlin's bewildered voice echoed in Najin's ears. Her eyes were wavering. Only then did Najin understand what that constellation was.

The baleful stars, the stars of Camlann. The constellation of the Witch of the Abyss.

The most feared constellation, which had brought down countless stars and ended the lives of so many great heroes. It scattered an ominous light. One flicker. One instant of light. After revealing itself for the briefest moment, the constellation vanished into the darkness.

But the light it had scattered remained.

『■■, ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!』

The red dragon roared. An incomprehensible voice, as though coated in soot, rang out across the area. The blast of wind accompanying its roar lifted Najin into the air. Thrown from the dragon's body, he tumbled across the ground and raised his head.

CRUNCH, RIIIP... CRACK.

The red dragon's swirling crimson eyes gleamed malevolently. Having broken the white dragon's neck, it tore open its flesh with its claws. It shattered the white dragon's ribs and pulled out the dragon heart beating within.

Then, with a crunch, the red dragon chewed up and swallowed the white dragon's heart.

In that instant, the red dragon's body underwent a violent transformation. Bones twisted. Muscles tore and swelled. Amid those grotesque sounds, its skeletal structure changed and its body grew immense.

CRACK, CRRRRACK!

More scales sprouted, its wings grew larger, and its standing as a living being ascended to a higher level. All of it happened in an instant.

An elevation of its very being. From incomplete to complete.

The dragon, originally one before being split in two, had become whole by swallowing its remaining half. As the heartless white dragon crumpled, the red dragon turned its head. Opening its blood-dripping jaws, it fixed its gaze on Najin.

The white dragon was dead.

And Najin was the one closest to the now-complete dragon. The moment it saw the white-and-gold constellation coiling around his sword, its pupils narrowed into sharp slits.

White and gold. Platinum. Stars.

The dragons' reverse scale—the thing that provoked their wrath.

With a roar, the red dragon lunged at Najin.

3.

The earth shook the instant the red dragon struck the ground. Spreading its wings wide, it charged at Najin, making full use of its enormous body. Najin caught his breath at the sight of it hurtling toward him, wielding its sheer mass as a weapon.

There was no time to be confused.

Najin's mind raced. There was nowhere to dodge. He had to block or deflect that charge. A constellation wound around his sword. Sword aura compressed to its limit scattered light. Just as he was about to swing, the red dragon moved.

It slammed its limbs into the ground. Then it pivoted, making a half turn without losing the momentum of its charge. Its tail lashed like a whip, scooping up heaps of earth.

GRRRRIND!

The dragon's tail gouged through the ground and cleaved the air. Najin swung his sword at the tail rushing toward him at a terrifying speed. And at the moment of collision, he could not help recalling a passage from history.

『A dragon's tail can shatter even the mightiest fortress wall. Before the beasts of the sky, all that humanity has built is utterly meaningless.』

Najin's body lifted into the air. The fingers gripping his sword broke with a crunch. He tried to rely on the recoil of his sword aura, but the resistance of the dragon's scales disrupted the aura, making even that impossible.

"Guh, agh!"

The impact overwhelmed him. Bones twisted and muscles tore. As the whip-like tail traced a perfect arc and lightly flicked its tip, Najin shot away like an arrow.

THUD, BOOM. THUD!

Najin tumbled through the fallen stone pillars, smashing them apart before crashing into the rubble. One blow. This was the result of allowing a single hit. His head had split open against a pillar, and blood flowed. The blood running down his forehead stained his vision red.

"..., ...!"

"...!"

"...!"

The hunting force shouted something, but Najin could not hear their voices. Only a high-pitched ringing filled his ears.

GRIND.

Clenching his teeth, Najin forced himself upright. His head felt heavy. His vision swam. He wiped the blood from his forehead with the back of his hand and exhaled.

'Merlin. Can you hear me?'

"... Yes."

He could hear Merlin's voice. It reached him not through his eardrums, but as a reverberation in his soul. Steadying his breathing, Najin raised his sword. Perhaps because his fingers were broken, his sword hand trembled.

CRUNCH, CRRRACK!

He closed his left hand around the right hand gripping his sword. Was that the sound of bones breaking, or being set back into place? He could not tell. But his hand no longer trembled.

Najin raised his head.

There stood a dragon.

The red dragon, Ddraig Goch.

Glaring at the dragon that had attained completion, Najin pushed through the pile of stones and stepped out. He took another step toward the dragon as it roared at the sky and shook the earth.

"That fucking lizard."

Najin spat the words out.

"I'm going to hunt it down and beat the shit out of it."

Well, earning a star was never going to be easy. It would have to take at least this much to accomplish a great feat.

Brushing back his blood-dripping hair, Najin took his stance.