The moment that guess surfaced in Roland's mind, he shut his eyes by instinct.

When he narrowed them again and focused on the distance, the enormous figure in the far-off sky had vanished.

"Was it an illusion? Or..."

His thoughts were still racing when the heavy thunder of hooves rang out.

The tremor reached the ground beneath him. A fierce gust howled past his face.

"Shhrrk!"

A piercing sound tore through the air.

For one instant, an invisible force seemed to freeze the entire battlefield.

In the next, a scalp-numbing scene unfolded.

The monsters that had just been crushing the human soldiers and slaughtering them at will...

Their upper bodies separated from their lower halves, sliced apart with perfect precision, then slid free and crashed to the ground.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

Dull impacts sounded one after another.

Only after the blood mist spread, swallowed his view, and dispersed did Roland see the figure that had appeared before the human formation.

It was an extremely tall, powerfully built man clad head to toe in fine, bright silver plate armor.

An imposing full-face helmet of exquisite workmanship completely enclosed his head.

He stood with controlled strength, sheathing the silver blade in his hand, its edge still flashing coldly.

The battlefield, which had been full of noise, fell into dead silence.

Then the remaining human soldiers erupted with the ecstasy of surviving disaster.

They raised their broken weapons high and shouted the same name with all the strength they had left.

"Beckham!"

"Beckham!"

"Beckham!"

The wave of sound echoed across the blood-soaked flatland.

"So that's... Knight Beckham?"

Listening to the soldiers' fervent cries, Roland stared at that tall silver-white figure.

Back in Far Harbor, he had once witnessed Gundar, a Transcendent Professional and Knight, slaughter monsters and even take on the massive Kraken.

But he had been watching from far away then. It was nowhere near as shocking as seeing this kind of power at close range.

"So this is... the power of a Knight?"

A storm rose in Roland's heart.

He had roughly estimated the battlefield's numbers earlier. There had been at least three hundred monsters, and more than half were the harder-to-deal-with mutant monsters.

"In a single strike... he instantly killed more than three hundred monsters? Before they could even scream?"

This was no longer a battle.

It was one-sided slaughter.

Only now did the sound of hooves approaching from the distance truly reach the battlefield.

"Lord Beckham!"

Hearing that familiar shout, Roland looked toward the sound.

Sean was galloping over on horseback, followed by more than a dozen fully armed cavalrymen.

The dust they kicked up glowed gold in the setting sun.

"Everyone, withdraw at once! Head to Mist Creek Town and evacuate the residents!"

Beckham's resonant voice rang across the battlefield.

Once the surviving soldiers began forming ranks, he turned toward Sean, who had just reined in.

"Sean, lead the remaining attendants in clearing the battlefield, treating the wounded, and covering the retreat."

"Yes, sir!"

Sean instinctively straightened his back, but still asked,

"And what about you, my lord?"

"I need to go over there and examine the situation."

Beckham turned his head toward the horizon.

That was precisely the direction where Roland had seen the gigantic being appear earlier.

Before the last word had faded, a muffled boom sounded. His figure vanished from where he stood, leaving only two deep footprints in the crimson mud.

All of it happened in the blink of an eye.

By the time Roland climbed out of the pit, the soldiers had already begun an orderly withdrawal.

Standing at the edge of the battlefield, he shouted with all his strength.

"Sean! Sean!"

The young attendant turned at the call. The sharpness in his eyes changed to shock the instant he recognized his old friend.

"Roland?"

He immediately turned his horse, kicked his boots against the stirrups, and galloped over with practiced riding skill. His dismount was clean and fluid.

"Why are you here?"

Sean grabbed Roland by the shoulder. Fresh blood on his armor shone dark red in the sunlight, and his voice carried both surprise and lingering fear.

"Now isn't the time for that!"

Roland cut Sean off urgently.

Beckham's grave expression from moments ago was still vivid in his mind.

Anything that could make a Transcendent Knight so wary was not something they could resist right now.

He had no time to explain. With Sean's help, he pulled Teresa and Blackwind up from the pit.

"Are you all right, old friend?"

Using [Animal Friend], Roland gently stroked Blackwind's sweat-soaked mane.

But when he activated [Driver's Eye], his heart sank.

Every one of the mount's indicators had dropped.

In this state, never mind a long-distance sprint, even carrying a rider normally would be a problem.

Roland made the decision at once and helped Teresa onto Blackwind's back.

The silver-haired woman was relatively light. Given Blackwind's current condition, he should still be able to carry her.

"Teresa, ride Blackwind for now and follow those soldiers to Mist Creek Town."

"B-but..."

Teresa gripped the reins nervously and asked in a soft voice, her face pale,

"What about you, Mr. Roland?"

"Me?"

As Roland answered, his hand moved toward the cold white bone on his left wrist.

Although he had no concrete proof, a clear inference had already formed in his mind.

This bone on his wrist most likely came from that enormous being that had just soared across the sky.

"Damn it!"

"Judging by that thing's size, the huge bone the Goblins dug up in the forest was probably just one tiny piece of its body... Its body was broken into pieces like that, yet it can still come back to life?"

Even as thoughts raced through his mind, Roland showed a reassuring smile and pointed at Sean beside him.

"This guy and I are sworn brothers who've been through life and death together. He won't just leave me behind, right, Sean?"

"Of course not!"

Sean patted the sturdy armor over his chest.

"Miss, don't worry. I promise I'll bring Roland back safe and sound!"

Seeing that their expressions did not look false, Teresa said no more. After giving a light nod, she guided Blackwind toward the retreating soldiers.

"All right, Roland, get on. I don't know if Uncle Peyton and Old Gary have finished packing..."

"Wait a moment, Sean."

Just in case, Roland decided to discard the bone for now, lest it become a marker that allowed that unknown existence to track him.

Even if his guess was wrong, he could always come back and look for it after everything settled.

Even if he never found it again, that was better than gambling his life against an unknown risk.

With that thought, he tried to slip off the bone around his wrist.

But the bone he had once been able to remove easily was now stuck to his wrist like cast steel.

Worse, the touch that had once been cold had begun to turn faintly hot.

Roland's heart tightened, and he exerted his strength.

Under the pressure of his immense force, the bone gave a tooth-aching creak.

"What the hell..."

Just as he cursed inwardly, a scorching current of air swept violently toward him from behind without warning, carrying a suffocating pressure.

In that instant, heaven and earth changed color.

The obedient warhorses released shrill, despairing neighs. Their legs went weak, and they collapsed with a crash.

Ahead, the soldiers who had been retreating in orderly fashion seemed to be struck by an invisible giant hammer. Without warning, they went limp one after another and lost consciousness.

Even Sean, fully armed and iron-willed at Roland's side, gave a muffled sound.

"Thud!"

His powerful body dropped to one knee, his head bowed deep, bearing the weight of a mountain.

Blue veins bulged across his forehead. His teeth clenched tight, yet he could not make even the slightest sound.

The sudden change nearly stopped Roland's heart. Cold terror rose from the depths of his soul and seized him.

His body went taut. By instinct, he drew in a deep breath of scorching, heavy air.

Then, with extreme stiffness, he turned around inch by inch.

A few breaths later, his vision filled with a shadow so enormous it surpassed imagination.

It was not a mountain or a rock.

It was... a foot.

Ancient, thick, ferocious scales covered it, each one carrying a bronze metallic sheen.

The part planted on the ground already towered far above Roland.

Its savage outline blocked all the light before his eyes and radiated a pressure that inspired despair.

He could not even raise his head enough to glimpse the full form of this gigantic being.

That terrifying foot alone filled the limits of his vision.

"Dregs..."

Just as Roland's mind shook, a deep, heavy voice whose gender was impossible to discern exploded beside his ear.

Immediately after came a dull impact that made Roland's heart seize.

"Bang!"

From the corner of his eye, he saw Knight Beckham, who had cut down more than three hundred monsters with a single strike, crash heavily to the ground nearby like a puppet with its strings cut.

The dazzling silver plate armor was now cracked inch by inch, nearly shattered apart, exposing the blood-soaked body beneath.

And the cold, gleaming sword he had once gripped tightly now had only a lonely, bare hilt left.

Yet the Knight's spine had not broken.

Even facing this apocalyptic creature from myth and legend, even with his body ruined, he still braced his bloodstained hands against the ground and let out an unyielding growl from his throat, trying to stand again from the mud soaked with his own blood.

But...

"Kneel."

The deep voice rang out once more.

It was soft as a whisper, yet heavy as ten thousand mountains, crashing down on Beckham's shoulders.

"Thump!"

In the next moment, this Knight who possessed transcendent power was like a child crushed beneath an invisible giant palm. Both knees smashed viciously into the ground.

His entire body was pressed to the earth by an irresistible, terrifying force. He could no longer move in the slightest, and he lost consciousness.

"Dregs..."

The mountain-heavy whisper rolled past Roland's ear.

This time, Roland heard confusion in it.

In the next instant, however, an indescribable pressure poured down with every syllable like a tangible tsunami.

Roland's bones gave an ear-piercing groan.

He could not resist at all. His whole body seemed to be struck by an invisible giant wave, staggering and sliding backward dozens of steps. His boots carved two long trenches through the hard ground.

When he gritted his teeth and forced himself to raise his head again...

The enormous being that blotted out the sky finally crashed fully into his sight, its dreadful form completely revealed.

It was a living bronze mountain range.

Its jagged spine pierced smoke and cloud. Beneath the ancient bronze scales covering its whole body, dark red lava light surged like subterranean fire, and every rise and fall brought a deep rumble.

Its folded membranous wings twisted the light, and its bone-spiked tail easily plowed open the earth.

Supporting that apocalyptic body were the pair of feet he had just seen.

The giant-scaled claws were like hellish scythes, sunk deep into the ground.

And when Roland's gaze was dragged by an invisible power toward that towering head...

What he saw was a pair of eyes.

Two molten whirlpools burning in the darkness.

Sulfur-gold flame boiled along the edges of its vertical pupils, while deep within them rolled a rage that could burn all things and an ancient, eternal cold.

With a single glance, Roland's soul seemed to fall into a furnace, burning and screaming beneath that gaze of pure destruction.

"So it was you... Heh... A mere mortal, daring to steal the remnants of my body..."

Roland drew a breath, endured the pain spreading through every part of his body, lowered his eyes, and bent slightly in a bow.

"My apologies, Your Excellency. I did not know that piece of bone belonged to you..."

Before he could finish, a faint exclamation sounded beside his ear.

Immediately after, fierce wind swept past him, and the dragon's ferocious head abruptly filled his view.

But unlike that soul-freezing gaze from before, surprise now appeared in the Dragon's eyes.

"You... understand my words?"

As the words fell, the pressure rushing against him dispersed.

Roland seized the chance to take a deep breath. His previously frozen thoughts also began to race again.

"It's [Animal Friend]!"

In an instant, Roland grasped the key to the problem.

Dragons, as creatures of myth and legend, possessed a language all their own.

Ancient, mysterious, and containing profound and powerful force.

By ordinary logic, aside from beings with Dragon Bloodline, other races should have no way to understand it.

Yet at this moment, relying on the Trait [Animal Friend], Roland had miraculously established a connection with the gigantic Dragon.

This sudden ability to communicate made the Dragon, which had originally looked down on everything, withdraw its aggressive bearing.

After all, while ancient texts often praised Dragons for their mighty power, another rarely known synonym for them was "loneliness."

Constrained by some unknown rule, Dragons had an extremely low birthrate, which also caused them to feel an indescribable natural closeness toward their own kind.

After only a moment, however, the surprise in the Dragon's eyes faded and was replaced by undisguised disappointment.

Because it clearly distinguished that Roland was not one of its kind, but a pure-blooded Human.

"A Human who understands my tongue... It seems... you are Rudolf's descendant..."

Its words carried longing that could not be erased.

"Perhaps it is fate..."

The Dragon raised its head again and extended a mountain-like hand slightly forward.

In that instant, a drop of golden liquid radiating flowing light appeared out of thin air before Roland.

"By the covenant between Rudolf and me, it... shall belong to you."

Before the deep voice faded, that drop of golden liquid shot toward Roland's forehead.

Then it silently seeped through and merged into his skin.

Everything happened in an instant. Before Roland could react, the golden liquid transformed into a destructive torrent and rushed violently into his body.

Molten agony tore through his limbs and bones. His meridians and skeleton seemed to be burning.

Even more fatal, this scorching sensation reached straight into his soul.

He felt his most fundamental "existence"...

His memories, emotions, will...

All of it was ignited by invisible flames.

His soul twisted and screamed within the golden sea of fire, on the verge of being utterly burned away.

The twin torments of body-burning and soul-refining instantly crushed all of Roland's senses.

His vision was torn apart by golden light and darkness. In his ears, only boiling blood and the wails of his soul remained.

The thought of struggling had only just arisen before boundless pain drowned it.

The last spark of consciousness, like a dying ember in the wind, flickered weakly inside that scorching hell.

Then cold, viscous absolute darkness surged in from all directions, swallowed him completely, and dragged him into an endless abyss of nothingness.