Inside the cave, the three of them sat in a rough circle. A small chemical lamp cast weak light across the stone walls. Viola Ren's burns had been cleaned and bandaged as well as the limited supplies allowed. She leaned against the rock, still pale but fully conscious.
Kurana studied her for a moment. "You should start with a name."
"Viola Ren," she answered. Her eyes moved between the two men. "You're different from anyone I've met out here. Most people either run or try to use me. You pulled me out and asked for nothing."
Kurogami sat with his arms resting on his knees. "We needed the sample. Leaving you behind would have been a waste."
Viola gave a short, tired breath that might have been a laugh. "Honest, at least."
Kurana closed the container of black lava carefully and secured it in his pack. "That dragon is beyond anything we can handle right now. It heals. It doesn't tire the way normal creatures do. Staying here longer is suicide."
Viola's gaze hardened. "I'm not leaving."
Kurogami looked at her. "You just got cooked by that thing. You want a second round?"
"I came to the easternmost plains to test my limits," Viola said. "That dragon is the strongest existence I've found. If I run now, I'll never know how far I can go."
Kurana's voice stayed calm but firm. "There's a difference between testing limits and throwing your life away. That creature is not a training dummy. It is something older and denser than any monster we've recorded."
Viola met his eyes without flinching. "I know. That's why I'm staying. I've spent years becoming stronger. I won't stop because the wall in front of me is higher than I expected."
Silence settled between them for a few seconds.
Kurana finally spoke again. "Then stay alive. Do not fight it head-on every time. Watch its patterns. Use the terrain. If you die here, whatever potential you have ends with you."
Viola nodded once. "I'll be careful. But I will keep fighting it."
Kurogami stood and checked the quadbike near the cave entrance. "We're heading west. There's nothing left for us to accomplish here with the tools we have."
Kurana rose as well. He looked at Viola one last time. "If you survive long enough, make your way west when you're ready. The world outside these plains has changed. You'll need information as much as strength."
Viola did not ask what he meant. She simply watched the two men prepare.
Kurana and Kurogami left the cave without further ceremony. The quadbike's engine was kept low until they were far from the volcano's range. They turned toward the long route that would eventually lead them back to the western plains, carrying the black lava sample and the knowledge of the dragon. Neither of them knew what waited for them in the West — the political power Alexander had gained, the title of Western Empress now held by Tianya, or the new structure of the government. They only knew they needed to return.
Behind them, Viola Ren remained.
She rested until the worst of the pain faded, then left the cave on her own. In the following days she did not charge the black dragon recklessly. She observed from distance. She studied the edges of its territory. When she fought, she chose short exchanges — quick strikes, immediate retreats, always testing one aspect of the creature at a time. The dragon remained overwhelming. Its black fire still forced her back. Its recovery speed still exceeded anything she could match. Yet each encounter taught her something new about its movement, its timing, and the limits of her own body.
She continued, cautious but unyielding, driven by the same obsession that had brought her this far: the need to become stronger than everything standing in front of her.
The easternmost plains stayed under the shadow of the black volcano, and the dragon continued to rule its domain.