The Dragon's True Eye
“You... you bastard...!”
The middle-aged man, Hugo, unwittingly staggered back. His hands were torn open from the impact of the shattered rings, blood trickling down. He growled like a beast.
“What do you know about the power of dragons, you mere swordsman?!”
“Who knows. Doesn't look like you're any different.”
“...What?”
His yellow eyes gleamed menacingly, instilling intense fear and unease in anyone who met them.
But Roque saw through to the subtle fear hidden behind that intimidation. The man was heavily armed with dragon relics, but he wasn't a real dragon. Having faced a true dragon in Lije's illusion, Roque pierced the facade—this was nothing but mimicry.
Hugo, his yellow eyes flashing, realized Roque wasn't afraid, that he saw right through the gaze ordinary people fled from in terror. It meant the predator and prey had switched. Or perhaps, from the start, he had been the only prey.
Realizing this, Hugo's face twisted. The refined middle-aged gentleman aura shattered in an instant, his hunched shoulders and contorted expression turning him into a back-alley thug. Unable to hold back any longer, he bellowed.
“You bastard! Then I'll show you the true power of a dragon!”
With his shout, the bracelet on his left wrist flashed, and blue currents began crackling around his body. Electric sparks hissed and popped, coiling around him.
“Die!”
The next instant, spiderweb-like lightning erupted from his entire body. The remaining furniture in the reception room and the elf's already rag-like corpse were shredded to pieces in the blast. Hugo hoped this bolt would tear Roque apart too—at least force him back and create distance.
But Roque's response to the lightning wasn't retreat; it was advance. Not a swift ambush, but a steady, deliberate walk forward.
The lightning meant to incinerate and rip him apart focused solely on his Aura Blade, unable to pass beyond. Like bolts drawn to a lightning rod, it gathered on the gray energy blade.
“Ugh...!”
Hugo gritted his teeth, pouring out the relic's thunder, but the electricity never reached Roque. His Aura Blade alone blazed like fire.
“You... you...!”
Hugo's eyes captured Roque, now right before him, calmly looking down with his gray, thunder-wrapped lightsaber in hand.
The moment Hugo's lost ferocity met those bottomless black eyes, a gray flash streaked.
“Kuh!”
The crackling lightning that had lit up the reception room vanished in an instant. Hugo flailed his arms—now severed above the elbows—and stumbled back.
Roque lowered his Aura Blade and stood still, watching. Faint sparks crackled along the blade.
Staring at his severed forearms, Hugo trembled, then roared.
“If you kill me, the mayor's office won't stand for it! I'm the mayor's—”
“Benefactor, right?”
Hugo flinched at Roque's curt interruption. But he shouted again.
“That's not all! Me and my disciples—”
“Are the mayor's black hand too.”
Hugo clamped his mouth shut. His eyes shook wildly. For a moment, he wondered if Roque could read his thoughts.
“I can guess how it went. You sponsored the mayor, cleaned up his messes, and in return got permission to collect dragon relics. Stuff from Dragonland doesn't just come out easily. Back when the world's governments were intact, no amount of funding would've allowed it.”
“Y-Yeah... so...”
“So wouldn't the mayor's office be thrilled if you died? One less annoying stain before re-election.”
Hugo's yellow eyes widened. Roque's impassive face said it plainly: You're dying here.
Realizing it, Hugo bared his teeth, eyes flashing. Roque, about to sever his throat, reacted to a sharp instinctual warning and swung his Aura Blade.
“Damn it! Dodge!”
A scream-like warning was followed almost simultaneously by the crack of a gunshot and the hiss of an Aura Blade. Roque had blocked a bullet aimed at his head.
Turning, he saw Kaylee rolling on the floor, clutching her left cyberarm. The black-and-white prosthetic thrashed wildly, out of her control. Hacked.
“Move!”
Then a fierce whirlwind vortex erupted from the golden belt ornament on Hugo's waist, engulfing Roque. Not mere wind, but razor-sharp blades within.
Roque dropped to one knee, dodging the vortex, then pivoted on his right foot, slashing his Aura Blade.
“Argh!”
As the blade-storm gouged deep into the reception room wall, Hugo's legs below the thighs were severed.
But contrary to Roque's expectation of the body tumbling, it floated up, drifting through the air. His earring glowed.
Hugo's airborne target was the gaping window. Shattered by the earlier explosion, nothing blocked his path.
“Annoying.”
Roque stood casually, retracting his Aura Blade and brushing off his coat as he watched the man's back. Just before Hugo cleared the window, he extended his left hand.
“Ugh...!”
Hugo halted inches from the window. In disbelief, he looked down at his body. He'd seen Roque swing his blade earlier, felt it himself—yet now it was like magic.
Soon his earring glowed again, as if to break free from the invisible grip.
“Gah!”
But as Roque slowly clenched his left fist, the earring shattered in a flash, and Hugo's body crumpled. Like an invisible giant's hand tightening slowly.
Hugo's consciousness faded. He had more dragon relics, but none useful now. Nothing could escape Roque's grasp.
Then, in his blurring vision, something appeared at the window he'd nearly escaped through. A small girl's silhouette against the moonlight. But within the black shadow, two glowing eyes. A distorted halo of light. Hugo's pupils dilated facing it.
“Lije?”
Roque spotted the shadow on the windowsill too. It was Lije, but the atmosphere felt off. He focused his will to pull Hugo away from her.
But at that moment, Lije teetered forward from the sill, breaking his concentration. The will holding Hugo shifted to the falling girl.
Lije's defenseless body, plummeting to the wrecked floor, floated up. It drifted smoothly to Roque, who caught her naturally. She looked utterly exhausted, eyes closed.
“Lije?”
Her eyelids fluttered weakly. Her black pupils appeared.
“...Roque.”
“You okay?”
“...Sleepy.”
A faint smile tugged at Roque's lips. Tired, but no major issues. That was enough.
But the smile vanished quickly. His gaze turned forward. Even without his will or the earring's magic, Hugo still floated, back turned. Slowly rotating.
Facing Roque and Lije, Hugo halted. His closed eyes slid open. In his right yellow pupil, a white thread wriggled like a worm. The left eye rolled back, trembling.
The thread stretched taut, slicing the right pupil horizontally. The yellow iris split in two by the white line. Then, new pupils opened along it.
Emerging was a vertically slit reptilian glow. Not human mimicry—this was the eye of a true conqueror.
It fixed on Lije.
—Elizabeth.
Lije startled, clutching Roque's collar. Forgetting her fatigue, her wide eyes turned to Hugo—or rather, his right eye. The glaring vertical slit. Fear etched clearly on her usually expressionless face.
“...Recmorus.”
—Yes. It's me, shell.
“How?”
Lije murmured in disbelief, more a sigh than a question. Hugo's mouth moved in response.
—Did you think we'd sleep eternally? You're just a chrysalis shell. You bought time with your pathetic tricks before, but ascension has begun. You can't stop it. The world will bow to new heavenly rule.
“...Lije won't let that happen.”
The mouth revealed teeth, like a grin.
—You, a mere shell? Dare challenge our transcendence?
The yellow one-eyed glow intensified. The space around it darkened rapidly, rumbling. Power beyond the mage Hugo— the conqueror's gaze warped reality itself.
Lije paled facing it. The eye she'd dreaded since before sleep. The ones that destroyed her life, reduced her to an object. Unconsciously, she squeezed her eyes shut.
“...”
But soon she realized she was fine. No trembling, no shortness of breath. Just calm.
Opening her eyes, she saw Roque's face.
“...Roque.”
“Told you to stay in the car.”
The encroaching darkness and spatial distortion couldn't breach around Roque. A gray star shone in his black pupils.
—Aura Master?
Roque, looking down at Lije, raised his head at the voice. Darkness enveloping the space receded from around him, colors returning.
The conqueror possessing Hugo's body, Recmorus, narrowed his one eye.
—Pitiful wretch. Is that the sword you prepared?
“From what I heard, you talk like shit.”
—...What?
Before Recmorus could rage, Roque extended his right hand. The reality-warping pressure reversed, targeting him.
His one-eyed face twisted.
—Tch. This body's too lacking.
“Or maybe you're the lacking one.”
Recmorus's face twitched. The eye's glow flared—anger. Intense power poured from it. Roque fell silent, focusing his will. A grinding screech echoed between them. Moonlight entering twisted bizarrely.
Recmorus's mouth grinned, teeth bared.
—Not bad, Elizabeth. An Aura Master manifesting will externally. First I've seen. But what does it matter? Just one human's intent, a swordsman who can't grasp spells.
He seemed relaxed again; sweat beaded on Roque's forehead. Seeing it, Lije tensed to use her power.
“Don't.”
“...Roque?”
Roque looked at her.
“If he's the source of your power, using it now will only make things worse.”
—Hahaha! Smart sword! Yes, whatever you try would just loosen the bonds more. More kin would break free. If you want this over quick, go ahead—not a bad idea.
Recmorus mocked leisurely. But Roque smirked seeing it again: a limbless torso pretending composure.
—...What's funny?
“Nah. Just really lacking.”
—You bastard, really...
“Narrow field of vision too.”
—What?
Then a clear thunk rang out. As Recmorus turned, his one eye caught a thick projectile. It slammed into the opposite side—the pale, trembling left eye.
A moment's silence, then explosion.
Hugo's already mangled body shattered. Flesh and bone fragments scattered.
Roque shielded Lije, turning away during the blast. She couldn't see it but spotted Kaylee kneeling, propping her left cyberarm.
Her heaving cyberarm gaped vertically, revealing a small barrel. Sweat streaming, she met Lije's gaze and flashed a grin.
But she soon detected something odd in her special goggles and turned. In the air where Hugo exploded, a lone white thread wriggled.
The thread shot arrow-like toward Lije.
“Lije!”
Before Kaylee's startled shout finished, a gray flash from Roque's right hand sliced past the thread.
With a hiss, it burned to nothing.