Roar!

Lyserra let out a mighty roar and slammed into Calystron with brutal force.

The Dragon of Light's body was thrown to the ground, unable to fight back at all.

"Damn it!" Calystron roared in anger, opening both of its mouths as a ball of light slowly formed between its jaws.

Just as Calystron was about to fire the ball of light, Lyserra slammed her head into its snout.

The ball of light exploded inside Calystron's mouth, shattering its jaws.

Golden blood spurted out as excruciating pain tore through its body.

Lyserra flapped her wings, grabbed Calystron's body with her claws, and dragged it into the sky.

Calystron tried to resist, but it was useless. Lyserra's bloodline suppressed it, preventing it from unleashing its true strength.

After reaching the right altitude, Lyserra threw Calystron and opened her mouth wide.

A red energy ball formed, and she hurled it toward the falling dragon.

Buzz!

A golden shield appeared around Calystron, blocking the impact. But cracks spread across it, and moments later, it shattered completely.

"No good!" Calystron tried to evade but failed.

Boom!

The energy ball exploded, incinerating everything within a kilometer.

Black smoke flooded the area, hiding everything from sight.

Lyserra hovered in the air, wings beating slowly as she stared into the smoke with cold eyes.

A few moments later, the smoke faded, revealing Calystron's ruined figure.

Its stomach was torn open, golden blood pouring from the wound. Its horns were broken, its right wing shattered, and half its face crushed.

The mighty Calystron was completely overwhelmed by Lyserra's ferocious assault.

"It hurts... It really hurts..." Calystron whimpered weakly.

Since appearing in this world, it had always believed that no one could defeat it.

Even Arthur Solayne—the strongest human it had ever encountered—had never seriously injured it.

But now, a red dragon with a far purer bloodline was suppressing it so easily.

Its pride as the Dragon of Light was completely shattered.

It tried to activate its body's recovery mechanism, but it was useless. The red dragon's attack had damaged not just its body but also its ability to regenerate.

It looked up, staring at Lyserra, who floated high in the sky.

'Who is that red dragon? And who is that mysterious white-haired man?'

It had never heard of them, let alone seen them.

With power like that, their names should have been known across the entire continent.

Yet in reality, it knew absolutely nothing about them, as if they had appeared out of nowhere.

Buzz!

At that moment, the sky turned red.

Calystron was shocked as a massive magic circle formed above the red dragon's head.

Its eyes widened in horror. "Wait… don't… don't kill me!"

Its voice was hoarse and broken because its mouth was destroyed.

Lyserra didn't care. She roared fiercely, and hundreds of red lightsaber-like swords shot out from the magic circle.

They moved in unison toward Calystron with brutal force.

"Argh!" Calystron screamed, but the swords were endless.

They kept coming, tearing the giant dragon's body apart.

Fifteen minutes later, the last sword pierced its body, which was now completely covered in red swords of light.

Boom!

All the swords exploded in a dazzling flash.

When the light finally faded, Calystron was revealed—lifeless.

Its body was utterly destroyed. Only its ribs and crushed skull remained.

On the other side, the battle between the mysterious white-haired man and Gabriel had reached its climax.

Boom!

Gabriel's body slammed into the ground, and his pitiful figure lay there, severely wounded.

His face was bruised, his robe torn, and the left side of his stomach ripped open.

He looked nothing like the man who had first stepped onto the battlefield.

The mysterious man slowly descended beside him, looking down with a playful expression.

He spun his staff lightly and pointed its tip at Gabriel's nose.

"You… lost," he said casually.

Gabriel stared up at him with a weak, defeated gaze. His will to fight had completely vanished.

"Who are you… exactly? Why are you so strong? Why am I weaker than you?" he asked, his voice trembling.

He was a First Spirit Core. Even though he had just reached this level, his foundation was solid and his power stable.

Even if he fought someone who had been at the First Spirit Core level for years, he was confident he could defeat them.

But now, he had been crushed—completely—by the mysterious man before him.

All his attacks, from the weakest to the strongest, hadn't hurt him at all.

To put it bluntly, it was completely unreasonable.

"Didn't I already tell you that you're not worthy of knowing my name?" The white-haired man let out a deep sigh.

But a moment later, his expression relaxed again as he continued, "But it's fine. Since you're going to die here, I'll introduce myself."

He pointed at himself with his left thumb and said, "My name is Merlin Clay. People know me as… the Sovereign."

Gabriel's eyes widened in disbelief. "Merlin Clay?"

He had never heard that name before. And if he had, a man like this would have been famous in either the past or the present.

Suddenly, a possibility flashed through his mind. His expression tensed for a moment before a bitter smile formed on his face.

"So that's how it is… I understand." He looked at the man with a sorrowful gaze. "You're… not from this era, are you?"

The man wasn't surprised by the guess, but he chose not to respond.

Even so, his silence became the answer.

"Really…" Gabriel slowly closed his eyes. "How frustrating…"

***

"Are you done, Lyserra?"

A mysterious man appeared beside her.

Lyserra gave a small nod, then asked, "Are you Merlin?"

The man only smiled without replying.

Lyserra immediately understood what that meant, unsure how to react.

At first, she had doubted the possibility that he was truly Merlin.

After all, his power was extraordinary—far surpassing her own and even that of her former master, Ishtar.

But when she suddenly regained her peak power, she caught a faint glimpse of the future.

The man standing beside her was Merlin—from the future.

"Alright, my time is almost up," the man said. "But before that, I want to give you a gift to support your development."

He lifted his right hand. A moment later, a golden ball of light emerged from Calystron's skeletal remains.

The ball expanded until it reached dozens of meters in size.

"That Dragon of Light possesses an exceptionally strong source of vitality. Its lineage is also quite pure. If you consume it, you'll grow stronger. Your power will return to its peak," the man explained. "But of course, it all depends on your master. If he's still weak, you still won't be able to unleash your true power."

He chuckled and clenched his fist, making the ball of light shrink to a few meters as it floated toward Lyserra's mouth.

Lyserra glanced at it briefly, then opened her mouth and swallowed it.

Her body began to emit a bright golden glow.

Moments later, a golden cocoon enveloped her entire massive form.

The man stepped back and nodded slightly.

"Everything went smoothly. I'm sure that in the future, your journey will be easier, myself. This is the only help I can give you. The rest is up to you."

After saying that, his figure slowly turned into light and faded from sight.

...

"Where am I?" Merlin opened his eyes and found himself in a mysterious place.

There was nothing but complete darkness. He reached out around him but felt nothing, as if the world itself was empty.

"Am I dead?"

That was the first thought that crossed his mind. He had been trapped in a place like this once before, when he forced himself to drink a potion that broke the body's limits.

At that time, he had been fighting a wolf monster during training.

"Hah…" Merlin sighed deeply and rubbed his temples. "If I really die this time, that's game over, right? No second chance?"

He didn't want to die here. There were still so many things he needed to do, and people like his younger sister and his family were surely waiting for him back home.

Just when he felt all hope slipping away, a white light suddenly appeared before him.

Before he could react, his body felt as if it were being pulled, and he vanished from the darkness.

***

Merlin's eyelids trembled slightly. Moments later, they opened, revealing the ceiling of an unfamiliar room.

"Where am I now?" He muttered softly, glancing to his right and left.

He appeared to be inside a fairly luxurious bedroom. On the right side was a wardrobe, two windows beside it, and a desk with a reading chair.

On the left side, there was another window, a table with a flowerpot, and several other pieces of furniture.

If someone looked closely, this room looked almost identical to those in the Avernia royal palace.

As he was trying to figure out where he was, a playful voice suddenly came from above him.

"Oh? You finally woke up? I thought you were dead."

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