The White Dragon Cannot Be Slain
Yeah, this was the Lily I knew.
For nearly a year, Deoen had been without a World Boss. Ever since the great incident where three of them appeared at once, not a single World Boss had shown itself. Sure, the occasional field boss reared its head with power on the level of a Low-grade World Boss, but that was nothing special.
Granted, there had been the most recent one — the Hungry Mimic.
But even that had played out entirely inside a dungeon. Everyone else had to settle for watching it through a screen; they never even got to see it with their own eyes.
In other words, no World Boss had emerged that would warrant summoning the 'armies' of the continent.
"First World Boss in how long?"
A full year. And it wasn't just any World Boss, either — it was an Upper-Intermediate one.
Slaying it would guaranteed drop a Mythic-grade item, and since it was tied to a World Quest, the connections and rewards from the kingdoms involved would no doubt be considerable.
So yes, all very nice and good... except—
"...There are way too many people."
Too many. Way too many.
This frigid, frozen mountain had turned into something like a tourist attraction, crowds pouring in from every direction to gawk at the dragon bound and sealed by the white chains.
Most of them were probably users, snapping photos and uploading them to the internet even now, this very second.
But did they realize something?
One flap of those wings would kill seventy percent of them.
The dragon stayed quiet because it was sealed. Under normal circumstances, a World Boss attacks the moment it spots a human — that's just how it works. Even the strongest rankers had to die a handful of times, a few dozen, grinding through attempts before they could barely bring one down.
If it weren't for Lily, none of this would be a spectator sport.
"So how exactly did you seal it?"
"It's easy. If you set your mind to it."
At Yena's question, Lily — still kneeling exactly where she had been — turned her head. Her gaze settled on Yena with an expression worlds apart from the Lily she'd known until now.
"If your magic has reached its extreme, and you understand your opponent's nature and essence, nothing is impossible. You could do it too, Yena."
"Extreme... what?"
"I'm saying it's nothing special."
Lily gave an ambiguous smile and turned her gaze away again, staring off at the spear she had planted in the ground.
"...Lily, I know this might be an awkward thing to say, but..."
"Go ahead."
"You seem really... saintly."
She didn't mean the appearance part.
That much had been said and thought plenty of times before. This was different.
The atmosphere is different.
Even standing this close, she felt impossibly far away.
Is this really the Lily I know?
She's like an NPC...
"Did you do your homework?"
"Wha— out of nowhere?"
"You're the only one who hasn't, so I wondered if you'd forgotten."
"...I've been busy. Things came up. And the Mock Siege Battle—"
"If you don't, you might not be allowed to join the next lesson. Such a shame."
Lily's eyes crinkled as she let out a soft, teasing laugh.
"........."
Yep.
That's the Lily I knew.
"...As such, the White Dragon Sgaredo — the Frozen Blight of Eternal Winter — remains sealed at this time. The one who sealed her was the first to discover her, Lily Elbrit."
"Ah, that famous Immortal everyone talks about these days. Wasn't she a warrior, though?"
"From what I understand, she commands a wide range of techniques and abilities. Sealing magic was among the powers she has demonstrated before."
"Heh heh. Then isn't the matter already resolved? If she can seal the beast, capturing it can hardly be difficult."
"However, Lily Elbrit has said only that it would be 'difficult.' It appears that any subjugation attempt will require substantial forces to be committed—"
Flutter.
"Oof. Can't breathe."
Yena stepped out of the tent and drew in a huge gulp of air. The freezing wind hit her lungs and jolted her wide awake.
She'd thought she might eavesdrop a little on the meeting of the kingdoms near Talikal, so she'd slipped into the tent serving as their temporary conference hall, stealth active.
Yena's reputation with the kingdoms was rock bottom.
Even having come to help, there was no way she'd be greeted with open arms. Rather than collect dirty looks and a paltry share of rewards while tagging along with them, she was far better off moving independently and claiming her own subjugation compensation.
"Well, that was pointless."
For all her eavesdropping, the meeting had made zero progress.
Nothing but talk of how amazing Lily was, how the sealing had been done, and how the users planned to mobilize.
Not a single concrete plan existed yet.
Which, in a way, was only natural.
The World Boss had appeared just two days ago, and Lily — the single most critical piece of any subjugation effort — was still maintaining complete silence.
Honestly, she had no idea what Lily was doing, kneeling there without moving.
Knowing Lily, there was a reason for everything...
But time was a factor.
With a sixty-day time limit hanging over them, Lily would have to break her silence and act eventually.
And so another day passed.
At last, Lily rose from where she knelt.
Lily's stream had continued without interruption.
After sealing Sgaredo with her spear and magic, Lily had knelt on both knees and closed her eyes. Even so, the stream never stopped.
She occasionally answered the chat, and when people kept arriving at the snowy mountain, she explained the situation to them as well.
Apart from her praying-to-the-divine posture, she looked no different from usual.
From the second day on, she spoke less and less. The conversations dwindled, and she stopped answering every person who approached.
As streaming content, it was admittedly on the boring side — but with the first proper World Boss in a year making an appearance, and the fact that this was, after all, Lily's stream, her viewer count hadn't dropped in the slightest.
It had actually grown beyond her numbers during regular commission streams.
No matter how many people asked, she simply held her position.
She was the one who'd discovered the boss, and the sight of her was so impossibly sacred that nobody dared disturb her.
And then, at long last—
Slide.
Lily broke her silence and rose to her feet.
"Hardly."
This is only the beginning.
Above me, a rift split open in space.
Through the gap, the hatchling tumbled out in a soft white thud, landing right in my arms. Far less wary than before, it nuzzled into my chest without hesitation.
"Woooohhhh..."
"Lily."
A man in a black robe approached from behind.
The man who had stayed by my side since two days ago, introducing himself as Sword Shadow. Despite having been told there was no telling how long this would take, he had kept vigil without moving an inch.
He was clearly no ordinary assassin — a razor-sharp aura was etched into his very frame.
"Allow me a formal introduction. I am Sword Shadow, the Black Knight of the Talikal royal house. His Majesty has requested your presence."
"I see. I'll come."
"Then—"
"But first."
I turned my head.
Hundreds of eyes, all fixed on me alone.
"Please gather everyone. I have something to say."
Lethes territory, lying at the foot of the snowy mountain.
Within it, a great hall that had once served as the county's social gathering place now packed with dignitaries of every stripe. Because everyone had arrived in such a rush, no venue had been chosen and no permission sought — they'd been throwing up makeshift tents and shacks all over the mountainside — but Count Retes had readily offered up his own building.
"......"
Readily? Offered it up?
Anyway. In that hall stood the General of Talikal, the ranking officials of the neighboring kingdoms, and the countless users sworn to those kingdoms.
"So when do we actually fight?"
And there were the users who belonged nowhere at all, drawn purely by the subjugation rewards.
Among them, a man with a massive battleaxe slung over his shoulder propped a foot up on the table and spoke bluntly.
Rank 17, Berserker Lycan.
As the leader of Madness, one of the top guilds, his words pulled a portion of the room's collective gaze straight toward him.
He took the attention as his due and gave his axe a swaggering hoist.
"Look, I get that the first discoverer is doing her sealing thing. And since she found it, fine, I get showing respect and all that... but isn't she dragging this out way too long?"
"But her seal prevented the Initial Damage from—"
"No, I'm telling you I acknowledge ALL of that?"
Krrng.
Cutting off a noble mid-sentence, Lycan rumbled with a wave of pure intimidation.
"My point is — she made us wait three whole days, then gathered us all the way out here. Shouldn't she at least say something by now?"
Most of the room felt the discomfort, but more than a few nodded along.
It had already been a good thirty minutes since Lily called everyone together.
And through it all, Lily simply sat there stroking the White Dragon's hatchling, quietly regarding the scene before her.
Stroke... stroke...
Thud.
"The White Dragon cannot be slain."