The human-headed beast writhed beneath the crushing limb, its grotesque arms flailing, violet eyes bulging in panic. The arrogance that had filled its voice earlier was gone, replaced with shrill, pathetic pleading.
"W-Wait! I yield! Spare me! I—I was only playing! A little sport!"
A low, thunderous growl boomed from above, like the sound of mountains grinding. Then came the voice—deeper than the world's crust, ancient and furious. It rolled through the trees, bending branches and warping shadows.
"Maul'tahk."
The name landed like a curse.
"You made a vow," the unknown entity continued its vicious anger. "You said you would never spread your gradient within the heartwood of this forest. Not again."
Maul'tahk beneath the massive limb squirmed harder, panic bubbling through every word. "I—I forgot! It's been so long since anyone dared set foot in Vaingall! A newcomer! A little Fateling! I couldn't help myself!"
The voice above snarled in disgust.
"You forgot?"
The limb pressed down.
There was a sickening crunch.
"AAARGH—!"
Maul'tahk's scream cut short, lost in the sudden hush that followed.
The air trembled, the oppressive dark gradient that had saturated the clearing dissolving like ink in flame. Alongside it, the unnatural shadows peeled away, retreating from the roots and trees.
The forest began to breathe again. The black tint drained from the leaves. Color returned.
And in the wreckage of silence, Kivas saw it.
The thing that had brought Maul'tahk to ruin.
Her lungs stalled.
A creature that dwarfed the forest itself, towering high above the tallest trees, its colossal wings folded like mountainsides draped in ruinous shadow. Red-black scales, edged with gold and bruised with age, shimmered under the clearing sky.
Its long, coiled body stretched out through the treetops, serpentine yet grounded in brute weight.
A scribble of a dragon that came straight out of the devil's nightmare.
And then Kivas saw its head.
The dragon's skull was elongated and jagged, too many horns arching in alien symmetry. Its mouth stretched unnaturally wide, teeth spiraling not just from its jaws but lining the underside of its neck and torso like a grotesque crown of hunger. Its eyes burned—not red, not gold, but something older, god-shaped, yet comprehensible.
Kivas couldn't move. Her body refused. Every nerve curled inward. Her instincts howled in silence, warning of something far beyond death.
The entity turned, its massive eyes catching on the slumped, broken-winged girl against the tree.
Kivas didn't even flinch. She couldn't. All she could do was shiver, breath trapped halfway in her chest, her weapon trembling in her grasp.
The dragon tilted its massive head, observing her.
Then it spoke again, in a cold, reflective wonder.
"A Fateling." The voice reverberated like a dead god's memory. It tasted of smoke and time and endings. "It has been a long time since I've seen one wander in Fathomi."
Kivas blinked, slowly, still shivering in terror.
Fathomi?
The dragon's eyes narrowed slightly.
"You do not know the name of the world you breathe, for you are too young. Now, I dare say, you know her name."
It began to shift, body creaking with weight as it slithered forward. Trees bent away. Roots split.
Kivas backed up against the bark behind her, breath quickening.
The dragon's head lowered, impossibly slow, until one massive, terrible eye hovered before her.
A single golden-red orb, its pupil split and endless.
All she could see in her vision at that moment was that eye. As if it had already swallowed the world.
"Speak," it said. "What is your name, little Fateling?"
Her breath hitched.
She was still shaking.
But something inside her—some little shred of survival—urged her to comply. To submit to the current, ride the torrent, and hope to land somewhere not crushed beneath claw and fang.
Her voice came hoarse. "...Kivas. Kivas Chariot."
A low rumble passed through the dragon's frame—laughter?
"A Fateling with a name already. And one you've chosen so quickly." It raised its head slowly, its massive form shifting with glacial gravity. "Very well then, Kivas Chariot. You may return that courtesy."
The air trembled again.
"I am Samael. Voidling," the dragon continued. "Same kin as the one you saw buried under my limb. Though I do not claim him. He was weak. Undisciplined. Dead."
Kivas exhaled slowly. She tried to smile—shaky, thin.
"Nice to meet you, Samael…!"
The dragon didn't respond at first.
"Hm." Its head turned slightly, gaze still fixed on her. "Do you know the meaning of introductions here, little one?"
Kivas didn't answer. She knew whatever answer she gave would be wrong.
"In this world," Samael continued, "to share names is to acknowledge one another's existence. A sacred gesture of mutual recognition. It binds us to the law of reality."
Kivas blinked again, still frozen, still barely breathing.
"I, I see…"
"I assume Maul'tahk did not tell you his name?"
Kivas shook her head faintly.
"Of course not. He wished no acknowledgment. No bond. Just your bones in his maw." Then the dragon leaned closer once more. Its next words bled heat. "But do not think that mutual recognition means mutual peace…
"I hate Fatelings."
Sharp and twisted, the temperature around Kivas immediately dropped with the weight of that statement.
"I have killed them." Samual eerily chuckled, its breathing visible and audible from its gaping maw. "Devoured them. Burned their huddled nests and wiped them from Fathomi's bones. To the extent that, I thought your kind were extinct."
Kivas's mouth opened—but nothing came. She didn't even know what kind of answer could fix this.
"But perhaps fate grows restless. Perhaps this world calls for more." The dragon's wings slowly unfurled, casting a blood-colored light through the forest canopy. "Do know, my hatred is not without cause. For it is righteous. And it is what this world needs."
It stepped forward, and the trees bent in agony beneath its shadow.
Kivas's body went rigid. She tried to move, but couldn't. The pressure. The air. Her thoughts.
But on the edge of hopelessness, something shimmered.
A flicker. A spark.
A fiery purple light bloomed before her eyes—hovering like a tear in reality, angular and sharp-edged, a familiar glyph of divine essence.
『Soulmate Detected.』
Kivas was dumbfounded.
"What…?"
More glyphs lit the air.
『Would you like to imbue a Genesis Core onto this Soulmate?』
Seeing Kivas' abrupt change in emotion and expression, Samael paused in curiosity, Its massive head tilted.
Kivas, breathless and reeling, muttered the only word her brain could grasp.
"Y… yes?"
The glyph burned brighter.
Then, like a rod that was struck by lightning, it screamed and exploded.
Fiery gold ink burst outward from the air itself, roaring to life with a crackling flame. The symbols spread in arcs, latching onto Samael's immense form like divine chains.
The dragon reared back, roaring—not in fury, but in shock.
"What is this!?"
The fire spread.
Samael's form convulsed as golden veins seared across its hide. The flame dug in—beyond the flesh, deeper into its essence.
And Kivas could only stare as the unkillable beast began to scream.