It was broken. Jacky stood frozen before the tavern counter, staring blankly at the shattered remains of his blade. A cacophony of unintelligible noises swelled around him; perhaps he really had drunk too much, just as that woman had warned.
His sword, his most prized possession, forged by the finest craftsmen in his hometown despite his father's objections, the very symbol of his independence and pride—now lay scattered across the floorboards in five pitiful pieces.
He dropped to his knees, desperately trying to gather the shards as if his sheer will could fuse them back into their former glory. However, his vision blurred, making the futile task even harder. Why were his eyes suddenly stinging? He convinced himself it was merely the ale that had been splashed in his face.
A distant, frantic voice echoing from behind began to pierce through his numbness. A heavy hand gripped his shoulder. "Boss!" It was Korion, his most reliable friend and the sturdy tank every adventuring party relied on.
"Boss! We need to go. Now!" The raw panic in Korion's voice shattered the last of Jacky's drunken stupor.
"What?" Jacky mumbled, finally processing the chaos around him. Desperate screams bled through the tavern walls from the streets outside. Then came the sound that forced him entirely back to reality: a fearsome, bone-rattling roar that shook the very foundations of the earth, followed by a violent tremor.
"What is going on!?" Jacky scrambled to his feet, almost losing his balance before Korion steadied his shoulder.
"That man was right. The egg's mother, the Silver Dragon, is here. We need to leave, fast!" Korion wasn't a man who frightened easily, making the naked panic in his voice all the more chilling.
Jacky stood frozen, trying to assess the dire situation. Fuck, why did he even drink that much? His three companions watched his mouth intently, waiting for his command. He glanced down one last time at his ruined sword, lying uselessly despite all his efforts. The tavern owner's frantic voice barking orders at her staff faded into the background as he made his choice.
"We must stop at the inn to grab our belongings; we need to act fast," Jacky ordered, taking a final look at his broken blade. "Leave the egg here."
Without another word, the Band of Steel bolted for the door, trying to ignore Mama Millio's complaints. None of them spoke. Deep down, they knew abandoning the town was not right, but it was absolutely necessary for their survival.
***
By the time Elise rushed outside, the dragon had already descended upon the town's wooden fortifications. She scanned the chaotic streets for the strange man who had just left, but saw no trace of him.
Rihona had been fortified to repel wandering forest monsters, but they had never anticipated a threat like this. The wooden walls were woefully useless against the airborne nightmare. The creature was so massive that its silhouette blotted out the bright moonlight over most of the town, rendering the walls meaningless even if it had been grounded.
Panic had fully gripped the townsfolk. Most barricaded themselves inside their homes, while others fled blindly into the night, desperate to put as much distance between themselves and the town as possible. Rihona had only recently begun to prosper, meaning not every building was constructed from sturdy stone.
A deafening roar of warping air echoed above as the giant beast flew straight past the town. A fleeting sprout of hope bloomed in Elise's chest; perhaps the dragon was only searching for the egg and couldn't notice it inside the town. But that fragile hope shattered when the massive beast banked sharply and headed directly at the town once again, making a much closer approach.
Elise could only watch in horror as it unhinged its maw, revealing its blindingly bright throat. A condensed beam of pure light—a silver-white column perfectly mirroring the moonlight—rained down upon the town. Even from blocks away, she could feel the intense, radiating heat. Every building the beam touched was instantly obliterated, bursting into roaring flames beneath the catastrophic impact.
Agonized screams pierced the night, mingling with the shouts of veteran Adventurers desperately calling out to form a defense against the furious beast. Despite being Blessed with fast learning, Elise had zero experience fighting monsters, let alone a dragon. The overwhelming majesty and terror of the creature left her entirely unable to move a single finger.
During its first pass, Elise hadn't gotten a clear look at the Silver Dragon. Now, as it banked again in the distance, she understood exactly how it had earned its name. Its massive body was armored with highly polished, metallic scales that glittered like priceless gems under the bright moonlight. Even the thin, gray membranes of its wings were threaded with branching, silver-like veins.
When the beast dove for a second attack, the remaining Adventurers were ready to take it on. Magicians had hastily erected a shimmering defensive barrier, while archers and warriors prepared their counterattacks.
But there were simply too few of them. Most of the Adventurers had dropped everything and run for their lives. The dragon's silver beam struck the magical barrier and shattered it instantly. The adventurers' desperate retaliations sparked harmlessly against the creature's scale armor, lacking the sheer power to inflict any damage whatsoever. The dragon's second devastating salvo of fire reduced another massive chunk of the town to ashes.
How could mere humans ever hope to fight a monster of that apocalyptic scale? It was completely hopeless. Every instinct screamed at Elise to run like the rest and save her own life. Yet, the agonizing screams anchored her in place. They kept her sane and prevented her from fleeing with the cowards. People desperately needed help, and while the others were busy fighting a lost battle, she was the only one left who could save them.
There had to be survivors, ones she could keep alive and safe. Gathering every ounce of her courage, she rushed headlong toward the burning ruins.
***
Hours bled away as if they were mere minutes. Elise found herself wandering through the smoldering ruins of the town, completely covered in soot and blood. It had been a while since she had seen or heard any trace of the dragon. The only things left were the crackling fires and absolute destruction. Her cloak was riddled with burn marks from constantly rushing into the flames. She was certain she had burned herself multiple times, but her body was too numb to feel any of it.
She had done everything in her power and managed to pull some survivors from beneath the burning debris. But there were so heartbreakingly few. Most of the townsfolk had been instantly killed upon contact with the beam of light. Others were blown away by the concussive force, ultimately crushed or burned to death. More than once, she had mistakenly rushed to help severed body parts lying in the rubble.
But the most disturbing nightmares were the faces of those she couldn't reach or save in time. Their final, desperate gazes were permanently embroidered into her mind, destined to never be forgotten. She simply wasn't strong enough to save them.
She was only nineteen years old and had left her home less than a year ago. She had truly believed she was ready; she had thought her father was wrong. Elise Vandenberg had run away from home to seek travel and adventure, abandoning her noble responsibilities to her household and family.
A pale morning mist began to form over the ruined earth. It held a sickly pink tint, colored by the tragic mix of blood and ashes. As she staggered through that mist, unbidden memories rushed into her mind. Her family's grand mansion—her father was a well-known noble, so it was a massive estate.
A burning structure collapsed right next to her, but she didn't even notice.
She had never wanted to stay trapped in that huge house; she had never felt truly free within its walls.
Her hollow eyes drifted toward a pile of rubble. A bloodied hand jutted out, frozen in a desperate reach for the outside world, motionless and completely covered in ash.
She had always yearned to step outside and explore her father's territory, desperately reaching for the freedom she had always longed for. Away from her mother.
There were absolutely no signs of the Adventurers who had stood against the dragon. Elise could only pray that they had successfully fled and survived.
The day she finally reached the age to wield a sword had been the absolute best day of her life. She had relentlessly nagged her father until he permitted her to train with the captain of their family guards.
Half-burned books were scattered randomly across the debris. She stared at them with a profound sadness; she had always loved reading books. When she had been confined to her family's mansion, she had spent most of her time devouring everything that attracted her attention in her father's expansive library.
As she walked blindly, her mind went entirely blank, losing all sense of time. What finally snapped her back to reality was the sight of a building looming directly beside her, completely and impossibly unharmed. It was deeply unsettling because it was the only structure still standing in the entire vicinity. Mama Millio's tavern—the very place where this entire nightmare had begun.
How had this wooden place managed to survive? Everything surrounding it was reduced to absolute ruin. Perhaps the egg was still inside, and the dragon had deliberately tried to avoid destroying it. But for a creature of that cataclysmic size to exhibit such pinpoint accuracy... Her frantic thoughts abruptly ceased when she heard the familiar, terrifying sound of warping air directly behind her. She didn't even bother to look back; she simply lunged forward with all her might to avoid whatever was coming.
As the colossal beast landed amidst the ruins, a violent cloud of dust exploded around it. The sheer gale force created by its beating wings sent Elise tumbling violently across the dirt until she slammed hard against the tavern's solid walls.
That same wind simultaneously cleared the dust cloud and the bloody mist, leaving Elise face to face with the apocalyptic terror. It was unfathomably larger up close; standing at her full height, Elise could only reach its ankles.
This was it. It was the absolute end for her, too. There was absolutely nothing she could do against a creature of this magnitude. Her free and independent life had been drastically short, but at least it had been fun. She had done everything in her power. Her only true regret was never saying a proper goodbye to her father before leaving. With a shaking hand, she drew the sword he had gifted her and locked eyes directly with the monster.
But the monster was not looking at her.
"Back off." A calm, familiar voice drifted down from the tavern's roof. Elise blinked, looking up to see if her exhausted mind was playing tricks on her.
It was the strange man in the ragged white clothing, casually sitting on the roof. And resting safely beside him was the cause of all this trouble and bloodshed: the silver egg.
Was he always there? How did she not see him until now?
The Silver Dragon locked its fierce, reptilian eyes on him, aggressively inflating the metallic scales around its neck and the back of its head. Yet, the man did not seem the least bit intimidated.
He casually stood up and lifted the heavy egg with a single hand. Elise vividly remembered the burly tank of the Band of Steel struggling to carry it on his back, looking ready to pass out at any moment. Yet this strange man offered the massive egg to the dragon as effortlessly as handing an apple to a child.
"You had your revenge. Now take your child, and leave," he declared, his tone laced with a quiet, undeniable challenge, staring directly into the beast's eyes.
The dragon, initially unintimidated, unhinged its jaw and bared its massive fangs in a terrifying threat. But suddenly, Elise felt a crushing, suffocating pressure bear down on the air around them. She felt as though her entire body, and everything around her, was being violently crushed and stretched at the exact same time by this mysterious, unseen force. She nearly blacked out for a moment, but thankfully, the cataclysmic beast immediately backed down, cowed by the sheer pressure.
"I said, take it, and leave," the man repeated, his voice dropping to a freezing cold timber that proved he was absolutely not playing around.
The dragon hesitated, clearly acting out of extreme caution now, then slowly reached forward, making sure not to appear threatening this time. It gently clamped its jaws around the egg, opened its enormous wings, and launched into the sky with a violent burst of displaced air that launched Elise backward, sending her crashing into the dirt once more.
As she groaned and struggled to get up, the man gracefully stepped down from the roof, the loose strips of his white clothing swaying gently around him.
"Sorry for that. I tried not to hurt you, but I also had to scare her away, so I may have gone a bit overboard." He strolled over to her, watching the dragon shrink into the mountains as the sun finally crested the eastern horizon.
Was it morning already?
"What a great creature, isn't it?" he remarked, casually breaking the heavy silence.
Elise stared at the smoldering, blood-soaked ruins of the town, and a full night's worth of suppressed trauma, exhaustion, and fury finally boiled over. "Is this... 'great' to you?" she demanded, her voice trembling.
"Well, it is unfortunate..."
"People died out there, and you just..." Elise interrupted fiercely, pointing a shaking finger at the vanishing speck of the dragon. "You could do that from the very beginning! You could have prevented all of this!"
She didn't know where this suicidal courage was coming from. This man had just intimidated a Silver Dragon into submission; there was no telling what he could easily do to her. But after being surrounded by death and destruction for an entire night, culminating in that final confrontation with the dragon, she simply couldn't bring herself to care anymore.
The man met her furious gaze calmly. Up close, his skin was slightly darker than hers, but she still couldn't determine the exact color of his eyes. Did they constantly shift colors, or was it just a trick of the dawn's light?
"Who do you think protected this tavern, girl? Who do you take me for? I couldn't just let that pumpkin pie recipe burn to ashes, right?"
Elise stood utterly paralyzed, searching his face to understand whether he was joking or not. "You... protected the tavern..."
"I sure did. I also helped clear an escape path for the townsfolk who actually had a high chance of living."
"...For the pumpkin pie," she repeated, entirely ignoring his second point.
"Well, it really was that delicious."
He wasn't joking at all. Unable to process the sheer absurdity of his reasoning, Elise lost her words and let her raw emotions take the reins.
"YOU COULD HAVE SAVED EVERYONE!" she shrieked directly into his face. Realizing the gravity of what she had just done, she stood frozen, chest heaving heavily as she waited for his retaliation.
"Now listen here, girl," the Traveler replied, his voice calm but his expression betraying a dangerous, growing impatience. "I didn't bring that dragon here. I didn't cause all of this. I don't even belong to this place. Therefore, I hold absolutely zero responsibility for any of these things. Do you understand?" But Elise was too furious to care.
"What kind of twisted logic is that?! If I had your power, I would have—"
"Don't force your ethics onto others, girl," he interrupted sharply. "If you are truly that disappointed, then just get stronger. Or go take your righteous revenge on that idiot who stole the egg in the first place. But do not come at me like that."
Her breath hitched. He was completely right. The Band of Steel. The arrogant fools who had stolen the egg and brought this apocalypse down upon the town. If she could just get her hands on them...
"Oh, you like that idea, don't you, girl?" A wicked, knowing smile stretched across his face. "I happen to know exactly where they are, if you are interested, of course."
Revenge. That would do perfectly. She had so much grief and rage pent up inside her, and unleashing it upon the true culprits would feel justified, right? But...
"Why are you helping me again?" she asked suspiciously. This was only the first time they had met; what was his actual motive to help her?
"Well, you were the only one who caught up and acted out at the tavern, and I also watched what you did during the dragon's rampage. You have a good heart, and you worked yourself to the bone; you deserve at least that much." For the first time, his words carried genuine sincerity. Maybe he isn't entirely bad, Elise mused.
"I would like to know where they are," she finally said, her resolve hardening. "My name is Elise, by the way."
That wicked smile returned in full force. "You can call me Traveler."
Was this really the right choice?