Slay the Dragon!

In an instant, Lu Mingfei, no longer the innocent little flower he once was, understood many things.

Why Constantine had wandered around campus calling for his brother, why he had run into Old Tang at the academy, why Norton had been so wrathful...

So he had been a Dragon King all along.

So they had already forged a blood feud.

They had killed his younger brother.

That friend who had eaten cheap hot dogs in Chicago, complained about life, and shared StarCraft tactics with him... that good buddy he had thought he could fight alongside in the virtual world...

He had long since been devoured by that cruel fate, transformed into the Dragon King before him, a bringer of destruction who had to be slain.

Sorrow wrapped itself around every inch of his body, nearly dragging him into an endless abyss.

But in the next second, an even deeper, sharper pain tore through his sorrow.

It was fury! Fury at this damned fate! Fury at whatever had turned Old Tang into this! And, above all, fury at himself for having to raise the butcher's blade now!

The hum of Wrath grew shrill once more, as if it had sensed the desire churning within its master. Nourished by sorrow and fury, the Dragon Communion Flame burned even fiercer, even madder!

He could not hesitate! There was no way back!

Norton dove at tremendous speed, his enormous shadow about to vanish into the depths. If he escaped into the Bronze City and recovered his strength, the consequences would be unthinkable.

Everyone on the ship—Nono, Zero, himself... everyone would become offerings to His wrath!

The gold in Lu Mingfei's eyes rapidly solidified amid his extreme grief and despair.

His gaze no longer rippled. Only calm remained.

A calm that was almost cruel.

The power of Storm gathered and compressed violently behind him.

He abandoned every flashy combat technique, abandoned the prayers of Dragon Communion.

He poured every last bit of his essence—the power of Storm, the power of dragons, and the final strength squeezed from a heart filled with sorrow and fury, already shattered—into the simplest movement.

His body shot forward like an arrow loosed from the string, tearing through the curtain of water and chasing the dragon shadow that was about to disappear with unflinching resolve!

Speed! Speed beyond all limits!

He caught up to the diving dragon head, staring directly at that iron-gray figure, at those golden vertical pupils blazing with wrath.

This time, Lu Mingfei saw clearly.

Deep within those eyes, beneath that inhuman majesty, there was nothing that belonged to "Old Tang." There was only pure destructive will belonging to a Dragon King.

The last faint shred of hope was completely extinguished.

Lu Mingfei's face twitched slightly, painfully.

There was no furious roar, no howl. Only a heavy resolve, as though it had drained the strength of his entire life.

He raised Wrath high with both hands, blade tip downward, aiming at the center of Norton's enormous head.

Then—

He drove it down.

The movement was clean and sharp, carrying an almost ritualistic precision and... an indescribable sorrow.

Squelch.

The sound was soft.

Like a heated knife cutting through butter.

The blade pierced His skull without resistance, reached the chest of the iron-gray figure within, and completely impaled it from front to back.

The Alchemical Domain on the blade went into a frenzy at that moment, reaching its absolute peak!

Time froze at that instant.

Norton's massive dragon body suddenly stiffened, every movement stopping at once.

The light in those golden eyes flickered and wavered violently like a candle flame in the wind, then... went out completely.

The enormous eyelids covered in bronze scales slowly, heavily closed.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, no final cry.

Only Lu Mingfei, gripping the hilt, hovering before the enormous dragon head.

Scalding dragon blood gushed down the blade, flowed along his scale-covered arms, and dripped into the boiling, blood-red river.

A warm drop of liquid slipped from the corner of Lu Mingfei's eye beneath its black scales, silently merging into the river dyed red by Norton's blood and disappearing without a trace.

He had won.

He had slain the Dragon King.

He had killed... Old Tang.

Overwhelming exhaustion and grief that seeped into his bones swallowed him like a tide in an instant.

In the white bone china cup was Darjeeling No. 2 tea, glimmering with a golden sheen. Beside it, a bone china saucer held rosewater scones that gave off a sweet fragrance.

At Cassel College, in the president's office, Lu Mingfei sat across from President Angers, separated by a broad mahogany desk polished by the passage of time.

Being invited by the president for afternoon tea was an honor at Cassel College that inspired even more envy than a scholarship.

At the moment, Lu Mingfei was in truly poor shape.

His battle with Dragon King Norton had left scarcely a patch of uninjured flesh on his body. After the cheat Lu Mingze had given him faded, the pain had nearly made him pass out.

Though he had spent a week recuperating, his crisp uniform was still wrapped in bandages beneath, making him look like a pharaoh who had escaped from some pyramid.

Under the president's hospitality, his shifty eyes darted around the room, making him look just like a country bumpkin who had just entered the city.

"Like my office?" The president wore a smug expression.

"Mm." Lu Mingfei nodded and took a small sip of Darjeeling tea.

Good tea.

But that was as far as his review could go...

The president pushed an envelope across the desk, bearing Mentor Goodrian's ornate signature.

"GPA 4.0 for your first semester. Your official transcript. Congratulations—there have not been many people in Cassel College's history who got full marks in the internship course."

Internship course?

Ha, right. He had spent so long in the Lands Between that Lu Mingfei had nearly forgotten about that.

Images flashed through Lu Mingfei's mind: hunting Demi-Humans on Limgrave's beach, tangling with Godrick Soldiers in the Gatefront Ruins, slaying the Flying Dragon Agheel in the lake, and fighting Margit, the Fell Omen, for his life at Stormveil's gates.

In a sense, those experiences seemed to count as a kind of internship too?

The president took a sip of tea.

"This time, you really did catch a 'good opportunity.' Still, you need to make up your internship paper. I drafted a topic for you: A Brief Analysis of the Four Dragon Monarchs."

"That sounds incredibly scholarly..."

Lu Mingfei scratched his head instinctively.

Since coming to Cassel, he had barely attended classes properly for even a few days. The Day of Freedom had come on the first day of school, followed by the Dragon Invasion, and then the Bronze Project immediately afterward...

"You do not need to make it too academic. Your experience this time has itself proven two key points. First, the Four Dragon Monarchs mentioned in the Ice Sea Fragment truly exist. They are First-Generation Species personally bred by Nidhogg, the Black King; second, 'twins sit upon the throne'—the Bronze and Flame King were a pair of brothers. This is a shocking discovery, though unfortunately it cannot be made public."

There was a trace of scholarly regret in his tone.

"You could actually interpret that much information from it?"

Lu Mingfei scratched his head.

"At the time, all I could think about was how to stay alive..."