That elusive and enigmatic male protagonist

Buildings collapsed amidst billowing smoke, the ground littered with the dead and splattered with blood. Soldiers from both nations fought fiercely across the battlefield, civilians screamed and fled in panic, while the nobles and royal family were guarded at the rear. Overhead, three enormous skeletal dragons roared and circled in the sky.

Upon each dragon’s back rode a knight clad in black armor, manipulating the bone dragons to swoop down, snatching people up only to hurl them to the earth below. Though they could have crushed the royal family instantly, they targeted only the guards around them, as if toying with their prey like a cat with a mouse.

Watching the remains of his own kind used as mounts and puppets, fury ignited in his black-gold eyes; his round pupils slowly narrowed into vertical slits.

A long, resonant dragon's roar swept across the sky, carrying an unmistakable aura of dominance that pressed down upon those below.

The bone dragons stiffened for a moment, restless and almost uncontrollable.

Among the crowd at the rear, an old man in a robe of white and gold—a priest—showed a look of delighted surprise on his face.

On the side of Valenriel, whether soldiers, civilians, or royals, despair surged in their hearts.

Another bone dragon? There was no hope for survival today.

Momentarily suppressed by the power of dragon blood, the bone dragons regained composure after a brief lapse, once again subjugated. The dragon knight drove his mount in a furious dive, aiming for the delicate young girl shielded among the royals.

The sole princess of Valenriel, famed for her beauty across the continent, proud and aloof—if he could pin her beneath him, what a sight that would be.

Just imagining it made the knight’s whole body flush with excitement.

The bone dragon plunged downward. As the knight’s face drew closer, twisted in a smile both sickening and terrifying, Daya screamed, “Charles, save me!”

Charles was still fighting at the front, unable to hear her cries. Even if he did, he couldn’t reach her in time. The bone dragon, swift as lightning, snatched Princess Daya up and flung her onto its back, where she was seized tightly by the dragon knight.

“Daya!”

“Your Highness!”

“Shoot! Bring down that filthy skeleton!”

“Ha ha ha! Since you’re so eager, let our little pet play with you for a while.” The knight said, controlling the bone dragon in a frenzy of slaughter. He gripped Princess Daya’s chin and kissed her violently. “Let me show you how your beloved father meets his miserable end.”

Daya trembled like a leaf, tears streaming down her face. “Please, please, don’t kill me.”

“Ha ha ha, listen! The princess you adore and risk your lives to protect, now, in this moment, begs only for herself.”

The soldiers below, already devastated by the princess’s capture, felt blood rise in their throats at these words.

Daya herself realized the shame in her plea. Through tear-blurred eyes, she searched the crowd and spotted Charles. Instinctively, she cried out, “Charles, Charles, save me!”

Charles, blood-soaked, bore a terrifying claw wound that cut deep into his shoulder, yet his resolve grew sharper, undiminished.

The knight holding Daya, seeing this, flashed with jealousy. “You call for him? Are you hastening his death?”

He sneered, striking his bone dragon and pointing at Charles. “Tear him apart for me.”

“Dahei, let’s go down,” Sijiu said, patting the dragon.

The great dragon curled its tail, placing Sijiu atop its head, and with a thunderous roar, dove toward the earth.

Now much closer, their figures appeared before everyone’s eyes in the blink of an eye.

“Ah! A dragon, it’s a dragon!”

“A dragon? Another one?”

Valenriel’s people were plunged into further despair.

“No, it’s alive! It’s a black dragon—the Dragon God!”

“There’s someone on its head, that’s… that’s…”

Bone dragons loomed nearby. Charles suddenly looked up, his eyes falling upon the imposing black dragon and the small figure atop its head.

“Your Highness!” Charles murmured.

“Roar—” The three bone dragons sensed an unprecedented threat and halted, turning their heads toward the black dragon. Where their eyes once were, empty sockets now burned with twin black flames—the source of the necromancer’s control.