The silence inside the shallow cave stretched, heavy and profound.
Outside, the blizzard of the Dead Ridges raged on, but inside the narrow rock enclosure, the atmosphere had fundamentally shifted. It was no longer just a freezing fugitive and a dying stray.
Alden sat leaning against the cold stone, his single crimson eye fixed on the girl.
Nova.
She sat perfectly still, her long, night-black hair cascading over her shoulders. The luminescent violet horns rising from her head pulsed with a slow, rhythmic arcane light, completely dispelling the gloom of the cave. Even wrapped in a crude dwarven blanket, she looked like a sovereign holding court. Her true aura, previously suffocated by the curse, now leaked into the enclosed space—a heavy, suffocatingly dense pressure that belonged strictly to the absolute apex of the world's hierarchy.
A Peak S-Rank entity.
"That certainly explains the attitude problem," Alden muttered again, his voice dry and completely deadpan behind his matte-black mask.
Nova's violet eyes flicked toward him. She didn't glare this time. The defensive, brittle arrogance of a dying girl was gone, replaced by the calm, immovable pride of a true dragon.
"It is not an attitude problem," Nova corrected, her voice smooth and resonant, carrying a strange, melodic undercurrent that hadn't been there before.
"It is the natural order of things. When you stand at the summit, you do not look down at the dirt and pretend it is your equal."
Alden let out a short, cynical huff. "Right. Well, for someone at the summit, you were awfully close to becoming a permanent part of the dirt today."
Nova's expression tightened. A flash of genuine humiliation cracked her regal facade, her jaw setting firmly. She looked down at her pale hands, flexing her fingers as if testing the flow of her newly unchoked mana.
"I am from the Dragon Valley," Nova stated quietly, her tone shifting from haughty to strictly factual.
"I crossed the northern borders and traveled into this desolate wasteland for… an important matter."
Alden tilted his head.
"Important matter?"
"It does not concern you," Nova replied instantly, her tone leaving absolutely no room for negotiation. She pulled the blanket tighter, her gaze darkening.
"What concerns you is what happened after. I was ambushed."
Alden remained silent, letting her speak. If a Peak S-Rank mythical beast had been reduced to a shivering, dying mess in the snow, whatever had ambushed her was a nightmare waiting to happen.
"They were not ordinary bandits or dwarven border patrols," Nova continued, her violet eyes narrowing at the memory.
"It was a coordinated syndicate. Five S-Rank criminals. Human, elven, and dwarven exiles, working together with terrifying synergy. They had been tracking my movements."
Alden's hidden eyebrow shot up. Five S-Rankers working together? That wasn't a bandit camp; that was a small army's worth of strategic destruction.
"I fought back, naturally," Nova said, lifting her chin with a cold, absolute pride.
"I slaughtered three of them. I shattered the elf's spine and burned the humans to ash. But the remaining two… they were cowards. When they realized they could not break my scales, they used a forbidden artifact."
She touched the center of her chest, right where Alden had burned away the parasitic chains.
"A Soul-Sealing Shackle," Nova spat the words as if they were poison.
"It bypassed my physical defenses and latched directly onto my essence. It completely paralyzed my core. I was forced to burn the absolute dregs of my residual, untainted mana just to take flight and escape. I flew blindly into the blizzard until my wings gave out, and I plummeted into the snow."
She looked back up at Alden, her gaze entirely steady.
"And then, you found me."
Alden digested the information in silence. A syndicate of elite criminals wielding anti-dragon artifacts. It sounded like the kind of geopolitical mess he actively wanted to stay a thousand miles away from. He already had the Human Empire and an SS-Rank Demi-God breathing down his neck; he didn't need to add dragon hunters to his list of enemies.
"So," Alden said, leaning forward slightly, resting his forearms on his knees.
"What are you going to do now? Go back to the Dragon Valley?"
Nova gave a single, definitive nod. "Yes. My core is recovering rapidly, but I am still spiritually exhausted. I must return to my territory to fully heal, and to report this syndicate to the Elders. Those cowards will be hunted down and eradicated."
Alden stared at her glowing violet eyes.
A crazy, incredibly reckless idea began to form in the back of his mind.
"Take me with you," Alden said.
Nova froze.
The regal, unbothered composure on her face completely shattered. She blinked, staring at the masked, dark-coated boy sitting across from her as if he had just sprouted a second head.
"Excuse me?" Nova asked, her voice tinged with sheer disbelief.
"You heard me," Alden replied smoothly, his tone flat and unyielding. "I want to go to the Dragon Valley. Take me with you."
Nova's violet eyes narrowed dangerously. The air in the cave grew noticeably heavier, her S-Rank aura instinctively flaring up in suspicion.
"Why?" Nova demanded.
"The Dragon Valley is completely closed to outsiders. No human is permitted to cross our borders without a royal decree. To even ask is an insult to our laws. What could you possibly want in my home?"
"That's none of your concern," Alden threw her own words right back at her.
Nova's lips parted in indignation, but Alden didn't let her speak.
"Consider it repayment," Alden continued, his voice cutting through her rising temper.
"I pulled you out of the snow when you were ten minutes away from freezing to death. I walked you through a soul-crushing ancient ruin. And I literally reached into your spirit and burned a high-tier curse off your core."
Alden tilted his head, his single crimson eye completely locking onto hers.
"I've read the history books, Nova," Alden said softly.
"I've heard the legends. Dragons are proud. They are the apex of the world. And an apex predator never, ever bears a debt to a 'peasant', do they?"
Checkmate.
Nova physically stiffened. Alden had aimed directly for her pride, and it landed with the precision of a sniper round.
Her jaw clenched tightly. She glared at him, a fierce, indignant fire burning in her violet eyes. She hated that he was right. She hated being manipulated. But more than anything, she absolutely loathed the idea of owing her life to a masked, rogue human who possessed a terrifyingly destructive dark-gold energy.
A heavy, tense silence filled the cave.
Finally, Nova let out a sharp, haughty snort. She tossed her long black hair over her shoulder, lifting her chin to look down her nose at him, even though they were both sitting on the ground.
"Of course," Nova sneered, her tone dripping with aristocratic superiority. "I will repay it. I have no intention of remaining in the debt of a wandering vagabond. If you wish to risk your life by entering the Valley, I will act as your sponsor. Once we cross the border, my debt to you is officially absolved."
"Deal," Alden agreed instantly.
He leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eye behind the mask.
Outwardly, he appeared entirely calm. Inwardly, his mind was racing.
He wasn't going to the Dragon Valley for tourism.
When he had absorbed the shockwaves of the Celestial Dragon's resentment, and later felt the Sovereign's Tear settle into his storage ring, the chaotic, blurry coordinates in his mind had fundamentally shifted. The map burned into his memory had cleared up just a fraction.
There was a second coordinate.
It was pulsing in the back of his mind with a faint, undeniably urgent throb. And that coordinate pointed directly into the absolute, heavily guarded heart of the Dragon Valley in the far north.
'I don't know what's buried there,' Alden thought, his heartbeat steadying.
'But if it's anything like the Sovereign's tomb, I can't let it slip by. I need every ounce of power I can scavenge if I'm going to tear Liam von Ravel off his throne.'
But sneaking into the Dragon Valley alone was literally impossible. It was a sovereign nation composed entirely of monsters that treated S-Rank power levels like a baseline requirement for adulthood. If he tried to cross their borders uninvited, he would be reduced to ash before he took ten steps.
Nova was his golden ticket. A VIP pass wrapped in an incredibly arrogant package.
Alden opened his eye.
"So," Alden asked, breaking the silence.
"Where exactly is this Valley? How long is the hike?"
Nova looked at him, her expression completely serene. She gracefully adjusted the folds of her blanket as if it were a silk gown.
"The Valley lies in the absolute northern reaches of the continent," Nova replied calmly.
"It is approximately ten thousand kilometers from our current location."
Alden froze.
He stared at her, waiting for the punchline.
"Ten thousand kilometers," Alden repeated, his voice completely dead.
"Give or take a few hundred," Nova nodded.
"Are you insane?!" Alden suddenly snapped, his composure entirely cracking.
"Ten thousand kilometers?! Even if I sprint without sleeping, that will take months! I'll be an old man by the time we reach the border, and we're currently sitting in a blizzard with half a pack of stale dwarven jerky!"
Nova didn't flinch at his outburst. Instead, the corners of her lips curled upward.
It wasn't a warm smile. It was a true, smug, completely superior smile that made her look incredibly regal and deeply annoying all at once.
"You humans are always so terribly impatient," Nova said, her voice practically purring with amusement. "And so hopelessly bound by geography."
Alden narrowed his crimson eye. "What are you talking about?"
Nova gestured vaguely toward the back of the cave, pointing deeper into the jagged black monolith they were currently using for shelter.
"I did not fly ten thousand kilometers to reach the Dead Ridges, Alden," Nova said calmly.
"I came here via a secure, ancient transit point. A secret teleportation gate."
Alden's breath hitched. "A gate?"
"Yes," Nova smiled, her violet eyes glinting in the dark.
"It is hidden within the labyrinth of these very obsidian peaks. Assuming the criminal syndicate did not completely destroy the runic anchors when I fled, it should still be operational."
She looked at his stunned, masked face, her smugness reaching absolute peak levels.
"It can teleport us directly into the outer sanctuary of the Dragon Valley," Nova stated.
"So, do try to contain your panic, peasant. I will have you at your destination before the sun sets tomorrow."
Alden sat there, staring at the smirking dragon girl.
He took a slow, deep breath, forcing his irritation down. He couldn't even be mad. She had totally played him for a fool just to enjoy the look of panic on his face.
'She's definitely going to be a headache,' Alden sighed internally.
But as he looked out at the howling blizzard beyond the cave entrance, and felt the heavy, comforting hum of his newly acquired powers settling into his soul, Alden couldn't suppress the dark, dangerous anticipation rising in his chest.
"Alright then," Alden said, pushing himself up off the cave floor and dusting off his dark trench coat.
"Let's go find this gate. I've got a schedule to keep."