I reached out—my fingers trembling—and as soon as my hand touched it, the entire cavern roared with power.
The soul accepted me. The transfer was complete, but we are not safe yet.
A voice sliced through the chaos.
"I WON'T LET YOU TAKE HIM!"
A fierce gust of wind exploded from behind me. Siegfried—mad with desperation—was already upon us.
His golden eyes blazed with fury. His movements were unnaturally fast, his presence heavier than before.
He wasn't holding back anymore.
I barely had a second to react before a shockwave of force sent me flying.
"CRAIG!" Fafnir roared.
Before I could crash, Ingi appeared at my side, catching me mid-air with a barrier of energy. His arms trembled slightly from the sheer force of the impact.
"Damn it! This bastard—" Zarathorak snarled.
Siegfried wasn't even looking at them.
His gaze was locked onto me.
His fingers twitched, his body tense with barely contained rage. "You… You think you can take the soul of a dragon and just walk away?!"
He stepped forward, his aura pulsing with something sinister.
"You are nothing more than a vessel now. You belong to me!"
Fafnir, still standing between us, cracked his knuckles.
"Like hell he does."
Siegfried's face twisted in pure wrath.
"Then I'll carve it out of him myself!"
And with a furious battle cry, he charged.
Siegfried blurred forward, the air splitting apart in his wake.
His blade—the true Balmung—glowed with a violent golden hue, the energy coiling around its edges like liquid fire.
I barely had a second to react.
CLANG!
Sparks exploded as Fafnir intercepted the strike, his claws clashing against Siegfried's blade. The sheer force of the collision sent shockwaves rippling through the cavern, kicking up dust and debris.
Siegfried's face twisted in frustration.
"MOVE ASIDE!" he bellowed, twisting his blade in an attempt to cut through.
But Fafnir held firm.
"Not a damn chance!" he snarled, his muscles tensing like steel cables as he forced Siegfried's blade back.
Before Siegfried could counter, Zarathorak struck from the side.
A crimson dragonic wave exploded from his palm, roaring toward Siegfried like a beast unleashed.
BOOM!
Siegfried twisted his blade and slashed through the attack, but the impact still forced him back several steps.
In that moment, Ingi appeared behind him.
"Mystic Chains: Voidbinding!"
From thin air, dozens of dark blue chains shot forward, wrapping around Siegfried's arms and legs.
For the first time, he stumbled.
His eyes widened, realization dawning that he was actually being restrained.
Zarathorak grinned. "Looks like we're finally making some progress."
"DON'T GET COCKY!" Siegfried roared.
With a single burst of overwhelming force, he shattered the chains as if they were brittle glass.
The next instant—he was already behind Ingi.
His blade flashed downward—aiming to cut straight through his spine.
But Fafnir moved faster.
He tackled Siegfried at full force, slamming him into a nearby wall so hard that the cavern trembled.
Siegfried coughed, but he was still far from done.
He twisted mid-air, using the momentum to drive his foot straight into Fafnir's stomach.
CRACK!
Fafnir gasped as he was launched backward, skidding across the stone floor.
But before Siegfried could recover—Zarathorak and Ingi struck together.
"Crimson Rend!" Zarathorak unleashed another wave of blood-red energy.
"Oblivion Surge!" Ingi conjured a pulse of raw destruction.
The two attacks merged, forming a single devastating force.
Siegfried barely had time to raise Balmung before it struck.
BOOOOOOM!
The explosion tore through the battlefield, swallowing Siegfried in an eruption of pure power.
For a brief moment, silence fell.
Then—A figure shot out of the smoke.
Siegfried—his armor cracked, his cape tattered, his face bloodied—was still standing.
But this time—he wasn't grinning.
He was seething. His breathing was ragged, his shoulders heaving with exertion.
He slowly raised Balmung, pointing it directly at me.
"This… isn't… over."
With a sudden burst of golden light, his body began to fade.
A teleportation spell.
He was escaping.
"DAMN IT!" Zarathorak roared, lunging forward—but it was too late.
Siegfried's form dispersed into pure energy.
He was gone.
For now.
The cavern was still shaking from the battle.
I exhaled slowly, my body aching from the overwhelming power of the Soul Transfer.
Fafnir and Zarathorak exchanged a look. They weren't smiling anymore.
"That bastard will be back," Fafnir muttered.
Zarathorak cracked his neck. "Let him. Next time, we break him."
Ingi, still catching his breath, turned to me. "Are you… alright?"
I looked down at my hands—the faint glow of Umbaxis' soul still lingering inside me.
A new power. A new burden.
And Siegfried still out there, plotting his next move.
"Yeah," I said, tightening my fist.
The glowing orb hovered before me, pulsating with warmth and power.
It wasn't just light—it was Umbaxis himself.
His soul, waiting.
Fafnir, Zarathorak, and Ingi watched silently. This was a moment none of them would interfere with.
My heart pounded. I had been through this before with Fafnir. I knew what came next.
A name.
A name to bind his soul to me. A name to give him rebirth.
I inhaled deeply, focusing on the essence before me.
Umbaxis was once a dragon of deep wisdom, shrouded in mystery and time. A guardian of knowledge, but also of unseen horrors. He had been imprisoned for years, his very existence used as a key to unleash destruction.
He chose to entrust his soul to me—to be reborn, not as a weapon, but as something more.
A guardian still, but one free to choose his own fate.
And so, I spoke the name.
"Veydris."
The moment the name left my lips, the orb exploded into a radiant storm of golden light.
The force of it sent a powerful gust through the chamber, shaking the very walls.
A silhouette began to take shape within the radiance.
Long, flowing hair like strands of silver mist.
Sharp, piercing eyes—deep and ancient, glowing with an ethereal gold hue.
His frame was lean but powerful, draped in obsidian-black robes lined with runic sigils. His arms bore markings of a forgotten era, the remnants of the chains that had once bound him now etched into his flesh like ancient scripture.
Veydris had returned.
The light faded, and the cavern fell into an eerie silence.
He opened his eyes.
For a moment, he simply stared at his own hands, flexing his fingers as if reacquainting himself with his new form. His expression was unreadable.
Then, finally, he spoke.
"So… this is what it means to be reborn."