"Are you still just going to watch?" Daniel’s quiet voice spread through the burnt ruins.
It was unclear who he was speaking to, but his words made everything go silent.
The roar of the dragons stopped. The sound of mana explosions faded. Even the flames still burning among the ruins seemed to grow quieter.
Dozens of gazes unconsciously turned toward the sky, into the distance, far beyond the destroyed battlefield.
They followed Daniel’s line of sight, trying to see who he was looking at, who he was speaking to, who he meant.
But they saw nothing. No one was in the sky, and they couldn’t sense anyone’s presence.
Only Rodric seemed to have a glimmer of understanding in his eyes, and even a slight calm appeared on his face.
"I didn’t think he would actually come." He muttered to himself.
And then a crack.
Space split apart. Not like magical teleportation, not like spatial gates opening, but as if distance itself had been pushed aside.
The black clouds slowly parted, the sky grew darker, and a man stepped out from within that darkness.
No mana explosion occurred, no overwhelming pressure was released, but at that moment, the entire battlefield changed.
The wind stopped. The ashes floating in the air remained motionless. Even the chaotic mana of the ruins calmed down.
As if that man’s presence itself extinguished the very concept of chaos.
He was tall.
His long dark-gray hair fell over his shoulders, and his silver eyes gave the feeling of a being who had watched the world for centuries.
His clothes were simple, a black robe with thin silver lines, no armor, no weapon, but no one dared see him as an ordinary human.
Because the silence around him... was more terrifying than any mana pressure.
Rodric suddenly held his breath. His tired eyes lit up for the first time since the start of this battle.
"...Valdrak."
Alindra whispered the same name under her breath, her voice full of disbelief. It seemed they had finally found hope.
"The Silent Dragon..."
Even Varkas raised his head. The golden eyes of the dragon commander trembled for a moment. Something in his blood had reacted.
Not to power, but to an ancient memory. A title considered almost hateful among dragons.
Because Valdrak was not just anyone. He was one of the continent’s top three Eternal Warriors. A being who usually didn’t interfere even in continental wars.
A being who had remained an observer from a distance for centuries.
And now he had come. The survivors’ gazes fixed on him, and in everyone’s mind, an ancient legend came to life.
Hundreds of years ago, when a mad ancient dragon had turned the northern continent into hell, all armies had been destroyed.
Three empires had fallen, seas had burned, and even the Eternal Warriors had refused to stand against it.
But Valdrak had gone alone to fight it. Three days later, he had returned with a body drenched in blood, and had managed to obtain the heart of that ancient dragon as a trophy.
From that time, he was given a title.
"The Silent Dragon." They called him that because until then, he had no particular fame. Everyone saw him as ordinary, they didn’t think he was anyone special.
But he had slaughtered an ancient dragon, obtained its heart, merged with it, and increased his power.
From that day, people said that when Valdrak fights, even the sky falls silent. And most importantly, he was one of the few beings who had managed to connect with an ancient title.
Not just bear it, but "accept" it. The heart of an ancient dragon possesses immense power. Few beings in the world can withstand that much power.
Valdrak slowly descended from the sky, his steps landing on the air as if space itself was shaping itself beneath his feet.
But his gaze didn’t fix on anyone. He looked at the corpses scattered across the ruin.
At the remains of the knights.
At the elves buried under the black roots.
At the sky still burning with Varkas’s flames, at the army that was once the continent’s greatest power and now was nothing but a vast graveyard.
Then his gaze fell on the two wounded commanders, and then fixed on Daniel.
At that moment, Valdrak’s silver eyes narrowed slightly for the first time.
Something was wrong. Not just Daniel’s power, but his very presence. The space around him did not belong to the world.
When he had watched this battle from a distance, he had noticed this, but now that he was looking closely, he was even more certain.
Whatever this being was, he did not belong to this world.
And the tree behind him... Valdrak’s gaze fixed on it for a moment.
For the first time since his arrival, the silence around him grew slightly heavier, because he understood better than anyone that thing should not exist.
In all the forbidden legends he had heard over the centuries, only a few times had there been mention of beings that the "world" could not endure.
And now he felt that one of them stood before him. That thing was this tree. This tree needed to be destroyed. A tree nurturing a forbidden power that could plunge the world into chaos.
Daniel looked calmly at Valdrak, and a hint of interest appeared in his eyes.
Not because of raw power, but because finally someone had come who was different. Someone who, from the moment of his arrival, had started observing instead of being afraid.
A very faint smile settled on Daniel’s lips, almost invisible, but enough for Rodric to feel a chill in his spine.
Because he understood. Daniel... found this person interesting. But were they toys that this monster found interesting?
Valdrak slowly landed in the middle of the field. Not beside the commanders, not in front of Daniel.
But exactly in between.
"So... you’re the being who has terrified the entire continent." And after a few seconds of silence, he said.
There was no threat in his voice, no hatred, rather it was observation, like a hunter who had finally found the trail of an unknown creature.
Valdrak then turned his head slightly, his gaze fixing on the massive fruit behind Daniel.
Pieces of its golden shell slowly cracked, and beneath it, a living whiteness could be seen.
And at that moment, Valdrak’s calm face changed slightly.
Very subtly, but enough, because he had understood something.
"So it really has begun..." His lips moved quietly.
"Valdrak! If you know something, you should—" Rodric immediately raised his head.
But Valdrak just raised his hand, and Rodric fell silent. Not from force, but because for a moment, he felt that speaking was wrong.
Valdrak still had no intention of fighting. He wanted to understand. And that made some survivors look at him in disbelief.
Because to them, Daniel was just a monster that needed to be killed immediately.
But Valdrak behaved like someone standing before an unknown phenomenon.
A few seconds of silence passed, then Valdrak looked directly into Daniel’s eyes.
"What exactly are you? Where did you come from? I’m sure you don’t belong to this world... but how did you manage to come here?" He asked.
He didn’t ask who he was, but what he was. Because after seeing that draconic presence, those impossible laws, and that tree, he could no longer see him as human.
A cold wind passed through the ruins. Daniel was silent for a few seconds.
"That question has been asked of me too many times, but I don’t have an answer for it. As for how I am here, that is not something that concerns you." And then he said quietly.
From his tone, it was clear that although he found this Eternal Warrior interesting, that didn’t mean he had any respect for him.
After all, he still considered this Eternal Warrior an ant, just a larger ant than the others.
But contrary to everyone’s expectations, Valdrak’s eyes sharpened. Not from fear, but from interest, as if this answer was exactly what he had expected.
At that moment, a crack.
A quiet sound echoed through the world. Everyone unconsciously looked at the fruit. Another piece of the shell separated.
Valdrak also fell completely silent, his silver eyes narrowing.
And then he said very quietly:
"So that’s why the Prophet hasn’t entered the field herself yet."
Everyone was shocked, even Rodric, because if a being like the Divine Prophet had not yet entered the field, that meant there was something here that even she was cautious about.
But how could the Divine Prophet, who bears the power of the gods, be afraid of anything?
So this had only one other meaning: the Divine Prophet was still waiting for something.
"I didn’t want to get involved in this matter, but I cannot allow that fruit to be completed."