Blue Dragon

"I told you I didn't come to fight with you, Blue Dragon," said Lucifer coldly.

The area around them was destroyed. Behind his back, three crystals of blue, yellow, and green hues were floating in the air. "I only came to hunt Calamity Dragons. You are an Ancient Dragon. We have nothing to do with each other," said Lucifer.

Blood was pouring out of his stumped left arm, his long hair was now cut short, and his body was covered with wounds, but Lucifer's expression was still cold and flat. His right hand held a sword covered in the red aura, he slowly aimed it towards the man who was standing in front of him.

"Human," the Blue Dragon sighed. "It's not that I have a grudge against you, but the Calamity Dragon that you killed is my son. I took responsibility by making him unable to mess with the human world because I failed to guide him to grow up as an adult dragon, but you killed him."

The Blue Dragon shook his head with a sad expression.

"Then, shouldn't you thank me for killing him?" asked Lucifer.

The Blue Dragon looked at Lucifer with a gaze full of interest. "Do you think so?" asked the Blue Dragon quietly. He had never met a human like this before. He lost one of his arms but was still pointing his sword at him. The Blue Dragon knew that this human would not be able to win over him. With a snap of his finger, this human would die. But he was acting as if the Blue Dragon was the weak one here.

"Will you hear my name, Human?" asked the Blue Dragon then.

Lucifer blinked. Why did this weak being suddenly want to introduce his name?

"My name is Juverin. My son who you killed is named Lashet. I've lived in this world for 1700 years," said the Dragon.

Lucifer tilted his face. "Hmm, so you belong to a young Ancient Dragon," muttered Lucifer, making Juverin's brows twitch involuntarily. Young? Even when compared to other Ancient Dragons, Juverin was among those who were seniors.

"My name is Lucifer. I guess there's nothing wrong with telling you my name. After all, you too will die soon," said Lucifer dryly.

Juverin chuckled. To an old man like him, Lucifer's words sounded like a sweet prayer. If he's going to die soon, then great.

"Can you kill me, human?" asked Juverin.

"I guess, killing you is not difficult. But…" Lucifer turned his head towards the rising sun. "My future wife must be waiting for me right now. If I'm late, I'm afraid I won't be able to see her again," said Lucifer dryly.

Juverin raised his eyebrows. Was the reason this powerful human was hunting the Calamity Dragon's Heart was to save someone he loved? But what kind of condition would one require three Calamity Dragon Hearts?

"Your future wife," said Juverin, accidentally remembering his wife who had died hundreds of years ago. "What happened to her?" he asked.

Lucifer got even more clueless. Was it because this dragon realized he was going to die, so he started asking such presumptuous questions?

"Hmm, I guess you could say the Gods cursed her?" asked Lucifer quietly.

Juverin was surprised. Curse of the Gods? What happened exactly? Did that woman do something that angered the gods in her previous life?

"And you went hunting the Calamity Dragon's Heart to release the curse of the gods from your future wife?" asked Juverin.

"Are you kidding? The Heart of the Calamity Dragon won't be enough to release a curse like that," said Lucifer.

Juverin agrees.

"If you take my heart too, an Ancient Dragon, will that be enough to release the curse of the gods?" asked Juverin then.

Lucifer raised an eyebrow. Come to think of it, he started liking this Blue Dragon named Juverin. "You're interesting," said Lucifer with a look full of curiosity. "You said your name is Juverin?" he asked.

"That's right," answered Juverin, confused.

"You want to come with me?" asked Lucifer.

"Huh?" Juverin furrowed his brows.

Lucifer removed the belt of his pants and began to tie them around his left arm so that he would not bleed too much. "Now you have no son to protect anymore, and I don't have time to kill you now. You want to follow me?" asked Lucifer then.

In essence, Lucifer wanted to say that he found Juverin interesting, and so did Juverin who considered Lucifer an interesting human. Moreover, now Juverin has no more purpose in life after his son died at the hands of Lucifer, right? Juverin chuckled. Lucifer thought of him like a stray cat by the side of the road and picked him up because he thought Juverin deserved to be his pet.

But Juverin's instincts confused him. Juverin had cut off the human's left arm. He knew he could kill the human with ease, but his instincts told him that Juverin couldn't underestimate that human.

Moreover, with Lucifer's attitude regarding him as a lowly creature—

"I can introduce you to my future wife. She's quite interested in dragons too," said Lucifer. Now Lucifer makes his future wife sound like a cat Dragon lover too. Juverin muttered with a question to himself, 'Has the human world changed so much as he devoted himself to preventing his son from messing up the human world?'

Calamity Dragons are dragons that fail to pass their growing period from adolescence to adulthood. Calamity Dragons are usually dragons born from dragon parents and other creatures. However, not all Dragons born to Dragon parents and other creatures will become Calamity Dragons.

And his son, Lashet is a Calamity Dragon born from two Ancient Dragons. Because of that, Lashet became a very powerful Calamity Dragon. His Raging Period was also much longer than that of a Calamity Dragon in general. The Calamity Dragon is generally needed to be calmed once in a hundred years, but Lashet has to be pacified once every ten years.

Ordinarily, those who calm the Calamity Dragons are any of the Dragons that are closest to or relatives of the Calamity Dragons themselves, and in this case, he is Lashet's father. And because of this tradition, many Ancient Dragons and ordinary Dragons couldn't bear to kill the Calamity Dragons. There were nine Calamity Dragons in this world, but looking at the dragon hearts that Lucifer had gathered, it seemed that they had decreased by three.

Lucifer cleaned his sword and put it in its sheath. "Well. If you don't want to come with me, I'll come back after the Red Moon to kill you," explained Lucifer later.

"So you will come back tomorrow?" asked Juverin.

"That's right," answered Lucifer.

Juverin chuckled. "Alright, alright, I'll come with you, human. By the way, can you repeat your name?" he asked. Somehow he couldn't hear the name Lucifer said earlier.

"...Lucius," Lucifer sighed. "My name is Lucius."

.

The Red Moon has risen.

The gatekeeper of the Capital is on standby at their post because today, the wedding of the future Queen and Queen's Husband has been held. The reception dance is still held in the palace today, but that's just the facade.

That party could only happen thanks to the greatness of Archmage Roxus Croix who created a magical wall that protected the entire capital. Tomorrow morning, Imperial Prince Samael will go directly to the battlefield to crush the coup.

But right now, an important figure was precisely at the Palace Gate office and refused to do anything other than stay there as if waiting for someone. The officers and knights who could only be astonished finally just accepted him, who had not moved an inch from where he stood, staring at the palace gate where some people who had permission to enter and exit were passing by.

He is Ernacht Croix, the Archmage's favourite step-brother.

Ernacht was upset. Since the sun rose, his sister, who had only slept quietly while calling out Lucius's name, suddenly changed. Amaranth who was first aware of it becomes suddenly frightened.

"Roxus! My daughter, what happened?!"

Roxus had been delirious like she was caught in a nightmare, but suddenly she was silent. Her body grew colder by the minute. Her breathing became scarce and her heart slowed down. Amaranth turns to her husband and son, screaming in confusion not understanding what happened.

"Why did Roxus' Mana disappear?! Why does Mana keep coming out of Roxus' body and evaporating in the air?! Eoin! Do something, please!"

Eoin quickly summoned the Royal Magus and doctors, or anyone else to explain Roxus' situation, but no one knew. Ernacht quickly got up, went to the palace gates, and knew that the only person who could save his sister now was Lucius. But the wait is still not over.

The red moon has risen.

Could it be that something happened to Lucius? Had he encountered an Ancient Dragon who was stronger than him? That might have happened, considering that he had gone out to search for the Calamity Dragon—

"Who are you?!"