Aeryn kept her arms raised in front of her face.
Not out of fear, but because the overwhelming heat was nearly burning her skin.
The flames created by Ryuji's final technique had turned the entire valley into a living furnace. The ground still cracked beneath the intensity of the temperature, and even the air itself seemed distorted by scorching waves dancing in every direction.
Even several meters away from the impact point, breathing was difficult.
Every breath felt like swallowing molten metal.
Around her, several soldiers instinctively stepped back.
Some had dropped their weapons entirely.
Others simply stood frozen, unable to take their eyes off the enormous inferno still devouring the center of the battlefield.
No one dared approach.
The roar of the flames drowned out nearly every other sound.
Then, slowly…
The fire finally began to fade.
The towering pillars of flame gradually collapsed into themselves, revealing a landscape that had been completely devastated.
The ground had vanished beneath an enormous blackened crater.
Chunks of melted rock still crackled in certain places.
Thick smoke rose toward the darkened sky.
Aeryn slowly lowered her arms.
And what she saw left her speechless.
The basilisk was on the ground.
The massive creature lay motionless at the center of the crater.
Its gigantic body, once so terrifying, now seemed almost unreal in this state.
Some of its scales were still burning, revealing glowing red cracks between the black plates of its natural armor.
One of its eyes had been completely destroyed.
The other, once filled with monstrous hatred, had lost all light.
This creature…
This living calamity…
The monster that had ravaged entire cities for nearly seven years…
Was finally dead.
Even the survivors seemed unable to believe it.
The silence that followed felt almost oppressive.
No one moved.
As if everyone expected the basilisk to rise again.
As if their minds refused to accept such an absurd victory.
Then, slowly, their gazes began turning toward the top of the monster's body.
Ryuji stood there.
Standing.
Or rather…
Desperately trying to remain standing.
His torso was bare, his clothes almost entirely burned away. His skin was covered with countless burns and wounds, some still bright red, others already blackened.
Thin smoke continuously escaped from his body.
As if something inside him was still burning.
He simply stared at the sky.
Without speaking.
Without moving.
The hot wind lightly moved his hair while his body swayed almost imperceptibly.
Aeryn remained frozen for several seconds.
She had trouble looking away from him.
It was strange.
Very strange.
Because she knew exactly what she had thought of him at the beginning.
Ryuji had only been meant to serve as a tool.
A useful variable.
Someone strong enough to help their plans, yet unstable enough to be sacrificed if necessary.
She had fully prepared herself to manipulate him from the start.
To exploit his anger.
His hatred.
His desperate need to grow stronger.
But seeing him now…
Standing atop a calamity that entire armies had failed to stop for years…
She felt something else.
Something she hated admitting.
Admiration.
A faint smile unconsciously appeared on her face.
"That idiot actually did it…"
Even Alpha watched the scene in silence.
His usually cold expression seemed slightly shaken.
Then he finally muttered:
"He just killed a disaster-class calamity…"
One of the men in black answered with difficulty:
"With the artifact barely assimilated…"
Another added quietly:
"He's no longer just human."
Silence returned for a few seconds.
Even they seemed to understand they had just witnessed something abnormal.
Something beyond logic.
Roy, meanwhile, nearly burst into laughter despite the blood still running down his arm.
"Hahaha… this kid is completely insane…"
He slowly shook his head before looking at the basilisk.
Then at Ryuji.
"But this time… that insanity saved us."
A tired smile appeared on several faces nearby.
For the first time in a long while…
Hope truly existed.
Then suddenly—
Crack.
A sharp sound echoed through the valley.
Then another.
And another.
Everyone instinctively turned toward the same direction.
The stone statues were beginning to crack.
The victims of the basilisk's curse.
Chunks of rock violently fell to the ground as the stone covering their bodies slowly disappeared.
A man suddenly gasped for air before collapsing to his knees.
A woman immediately burst into tears.
A young soldier stared at his own hands in disbelief, as if he still thought he was trapped in stone.
"I… I'm alive…?"
"The curse disappeared…!"
"The basilisk is dead…!"
And this time…
The entire battlefield erupted with joy.
Shouts echoed throughout the valley.
Soldiers raised their weapons toward the sky.
Some cried openly without even trying to hide it.
Others laughed nervously from sheer shock.
Even the former prison guards and the revolutionaries celebrated together.
For a few brief moments…
The grudges.
The factions.
The conflicts.
None of it mattered anymore.
They were simply happy to still be alive.
Rare sight among humans. A giant catastrophe slaughters people for hours, and suddenly everyone becomes philosophical and united for five minutes. Then they'll probably go back to hating each other tomorrow morning. Wonderfully inconsistent species.
Aeryn silently observed the scene.
For her, this operation was a massive success.
The prison would fall.
The basilisk had been eliminated.
The existence of the draconic core had finally been confirmed.
And Marcellus himself had been exposed amidst the chaos.
Everything was proceeding exactly as planned.
Well…
Almost.
Because strangely enough, the mission was not what truly occupied her mind.
Her eyes kept returning to Ryuji.
To the smoke slowly escaping his body.
To that unsteady silhouette standing atop the dead monster.
Then suddenly—
Ryuji staggered.
His body tilted slightly forward.
Then again.
Aeryn immediately frowned.
"Ryuji…?"
He tried to take a step.
But his legs finally stopped responding.
His eyes turned blank for a fraction of a second before his entire body collapsed forward.
One of the men in black instantly leaped forward.
"I got him!"
He caught Ryuji before he could crash into the ground.
But the moment he tried to lift him onto his back—
He suddenly let go.
"Tch…!"
The man immediately stepped back while staring at his own hand.
His palm was burned.
Bright red.
As if he had just touched white-hot metal.
"His body…!"
Even Alpha frowned.
An abnormal heat was still radiating from Ryuji.
And even more concerning…
That heat was slowly increasing.
As if something inside him continued consuming him.
As if the power he had used still refused to stop.
And yet, despite that…
No one truly panicked.
Not yet.
Because the euphoria of victory drowned out everything else.
The basilisk was dead.
And that single fact alone was enough to temporarily make everyone forget every other problem.
Aeryn slowly approached the unconscious Ryuji.
Then crouched beside him.
The hot wind gently moved her crimson hair.
She studied his face for a few seconds.
Even unconscious, his expression still looked tense.
As if he were continuing to fight something.
"You really are… incomprehensible."
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
Then she slowly lifted her eyes toward the sky.
The smoke escaping from Ryuji's body still continued to rise.
Again.
And again.
Like a terrible omen no one truly wanted to face.
But despite that unsettling feeling…
The cries of victory still echoed throughout the valley.
As if, for once…
The world had finally decided to offer them a brief moment of peace.