Chapter 30: Dream
The moment that ominous red moonlight fell across the continent, Veles clearly realized that he was about to face an extremely dire situation.
He had misjudged the effect the Blood Moon would have on him. Or, to put it more accurately—he had underestimated his own power.
His body was expanding—no, growing.
The once-spacious prison quickly became stiflingly cramped. Sharp scales and claws sprouted across Veles’ body, and the upper half, which had barely maintained a humanoid form, transformed in an instant.
A terrifying monster had emerged.
Veles gasped, curling his body in pain.
Beneath the hard dragon armor, every drop of his blood felt as if it had turned into molten lava, continuously burning his nerves.
Alarms blared endlessly, as if the centuries-old Mage Tower itself were wailing in protest.
‘It hurts so much…’ Veles thought. ‘This shouldn’t be…’
On this perilous continent, mages, warriors, and ascetics—almost everyone pursued greater power. Yet Veles was undoubtedly the exception.
The dragon blood did grant him the power that everyone dreamed of, but the stronger that power became, the more the human part of his body was consumed.
When the dragon blood fully took over his body, he would descend into the fate feared by the greatest mages: an irredeemable, god-fearing draconic monster.
To prevent this, he had deliberately allowed himself to be injured from time to time. Wounds that would be fatal to others served him as a way to restrain his power. It was painful, of course, but effective.
This was why, before the Blood Moon’s arrival, he had appeared by the river in a remote village like Green River.
To ensure he would be weak enough before the Blood Moon’s arrival, Veles had previously traveled to the Mistshadow Lands and eliminated the long-standing Mist Spider Queen lurking in the swamp. His actions would spare nearby humans from fearing the night and the thick fog for hundreds of years to come. Yet during the operation, he had made a slight miscalculation: the wounds he sustained were far too severe, so much so that he could no longer maintain basic teleportation magic. As a result, he was expelled from the rift in space and fell into the damp, dark mud along the riverbank.
And it was there that he encountered…
“Veles! What have you done?!”
A howl, piercing and desperate, came from the other side of the layers of flickering magical arrays, pulling Veles’ mind back from the chaos and void.
He lifted his head and stared intently at the crowd beyond the arrays. Antara’s face was pale as she squeezed among the wizards standing at the ready, while his mother, the Queen of Alfied, stood farther back. Her expression was difficult to read, but her hands clutched a staff tightly.
It was the staff of the Archmage. Veles knew it contained a forbidden spell that had been continuously accumulating energy for decades. Once activated, he would be utterly crushed by the spell, his very soul reduced to eternal nothingness.
Veles understood that if he showed even a hint of fully succumbing to the draconic corruption, his mother would not hesitate to activate the forbidden spell—and from the current situation, that moment seemed to be drawing near.
The entire Mage Tower had been triggered, because his power was surging at the center of the array.
By all previous calculations, he shouldn’t have been so strong just after sustaining such heavy injuries. Yet now, under the guidance of the Blood Moon, his overflowing power seemed almost tangible, threatening to overwhelm the entire prison.
The backup suppression spells and arrays kept layering over him, but the moment they touched the dark, shadowy power of his draconic blood, they vanished like snowflakes dropped into a fire.
Veles drew heavy breaths.
Boom.
The dragon’s breath escaping his nostrils effortlessly melted the runed plates forged from mithril before him.
“Veles!”
Antara’s scream grew even more terrified.
Veles wanted to comfort the unfortunate elven mage, but he could no longer speak.
His boiling dragon blood continued dissolving the human-imposed restraints while simultaneously eroding his human rationality.
Everything in reality felt like it was slipping away. Veles could sense something older, fiercer, stirring deep within his soul.
He was consumed by insatiable hunger.
He craved slaughter and blood to fill the black hole-like void in his soul.
He was on the verge of becoming a demonic dragon…
But no—he could not!
A faint thought flickered through the sea of agony in his mind.
He seemed to see a delicate human figure—a mage—gazing at him with gentle eyes.
“Veles, my honey wine is ready. Would you like a cup?”
He heard Alan’s voice. In a daze, Veles suddenly felt as though he had returned to just moments before, wracked with pain, battered and bloodied, forced to lie prostrate in the foul, icy mud, waiting for the torment to pass.
But someone had saved him.
A drop of honey wine—sweeter than real honey, more delicious than paradise—fell onto Veles’ tongue.
The suffering of reality and the boiling of his soul receded in that instant.
A single drop of wine, sweet and golden, extinguished the hellfire burning in the chest of the nascent demonic dragon.
Veles’s vertical pupils gleamed like silver moons as he looked longingly at the human he cherished.
Perhaps it was the mercy of the gods that granted him such a beautiful dream in the moment he was on the verge of death… Deep within, Veles wrapped his arms tightly around Alan. He extended his forked, slender tongue and, following the instincts of a dragon, began to lick the small human mage.
He knew this behavior was extremely improper—well, perhaps far worse than merely “improper”—but the once-silent, silver-haired Reaper had completely lost his composure at this point.
He had to feed on the trembling body in his arms, drawing the honeyed essence from it, in order to quench the deep-seated craving within his soul.
He desired Alan.
He greedily sucked at the honeyed wine, never stopping even as the human in his embrace let out fragmented whimpers.
…
The night of the Blood Moon finally ended.
When the sunlight, representing the dawn of hope, fell upon the mage tower, all the magical arrays gradually faded.
The mages who had held on throughout the night staggered and collapsed to the ground.
Only the Queen of Alfied remained, standing with her usual dignity.
The staff in her hands had not activated, and the deadly forbidden spell had not been unleashed.
“Veles…”
The austere ruler stepped forward slowly, gazing at her child in the prison.
A tall, pale man lay collapsed on the ground, eyes tightly shut, clutching a small piece of cloth in his hands.
After such a terrifying night, Veles had fallen into unconsciousness, yet strangely… the expression on his face looked relaxed, even peaceful.
As if he were having a pleasant dream.
…
At the same moment, dawn broke over Green River Village as well.
Sunlight filtered through the curtains and fell on Alan’s eyelids. The young mage jolted upright from his bed.
“No… please, Mr. Veles, don’t—”
He let out an awkward, low whisper, his voice slightly hoarse.
Startled and flustered, Alan almost fell straight out of bed.
Fortunately, at the last moment, he finally came to his senses. He steadied himself and sat on the bed, breathing heavily for a long while, still unsure of what had just happened.
Gradually, his face turned an intense shade of red.
He swallowed with difficulty and then slowly lifted the covers.
The next moment, he buried his face in his hands, utterly horrified.
“How… how could this happen?”
He muttered, unable to believe his own eyes.
His bed, naturally, was a complete mess—worse than ever before—a “that kind of” complete mess.
Alan simply couldn’t face it.
He desperately wished he could quickly forget last night’s dream. But strangely, that bizarre, sensual, and extremely lewd dream lingered more vividly than any memory. Alan could even clearly recall how that grotesque, terrifying beast had, with its tongue and claws, methodically drained him inside and out.
Oh, wait—a beast?
Alan froze instantly.
He had no idea that, until now, he had been such a…
P*rvert.
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Author’s Note:
Alan: I can’t face Mr. Veles ever again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Veles: I can’t face Alan ever again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alan + Veles: We’re supposed to be good friends—how could we have a dream like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
