Siegfried stood frozen, eyes locked on Kriemhild dropping from the sky like a living comet. She still hadn't shaken off the sheer power of that meteor strike that had carved into Fafnir when the chaos around her refused to wait.
Hundreds of wyverns had already swarmed in, jaws snapping less than a meter from her face. With her stamina scraped down to nothing, she couldn't hope to hold them off alone.
Kriemhild and Martha needed precious seconds to reach her. In that narrow window, Siegfried knew she was done for.
Just as the thought crossed her mind—
Three blazing streams of blue fire ripped out of the empty sky. The heat was so savage it made Fafnir's flames look tame.
The blue inferno swept straight through the wyverns circling her. The beasts didn't even get a chance to thrash before they vaporized into ash.
Siegfried's brow tightened. She couldn't tell if the flames were only meant to clear the swarm or if they were shielding her on purpose. Worse, the scent rolling off that fire felt sickeningly familiar to a dragon-slayer like her—and that was never good news.
"Those three blue flames… that's dragon breath!"
"Another dragon besides Fafnir?!"
She snapped her head upward. Wheeling overhead was a three-headed dragon every bit as massive as Fafnir, silver-gray scales gleaming as it poured blue fire across the battlefield, incinerating wyverns by the score.
Each head wore horns—two on the left and right, four on the center one, marking it as the clear alpha. This was the dragon summoned by Dobrynya Nikitich: Zmei Gorynych.
...
Across the battlefield, Ritsuka Fujimaru was still calling the shots for Mash.
They had the Dragon Witch pinned down hard. Ritsuka was actually starting to wonder why Jeanne d'Arc Alter still hadn't pulled out her real strength—when a deafening roar from above yanked her attention skyward. She spotted Zmei Gorynych slicing through the clouds.
Her eyes flew wide.
"Another dragon?!"
"Wait… that silhouette…"
The more she stared, the more it bugged her. She swore she'd seen that exact shape somewhere before.
"Is that… Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon? Or King Ghidorah?"
...
Back with Siegfried, the sight of Zmei Gorynych looping through the air only deepened the scowl on her face.
She had zero clue whose side this new monster was on. Black Jeanne's latest summon? Their own reinforcements? Or some third-party nightmare?
While she was busy running the possibilities—
One of the dragon's heads exhaled a torrent of blue flame that happened to arc straight toward her while mopping up wyverns. She felt the blistering heat and threw up a hand on pure instinct.
The fire simply curved around her, leaving her untouched.
The deliberate protection left her blinking. She looked higher and finally noticed the smaller silver dragon flying right beside the giant's bulk.
Riding its back was a female Servant calmly directing every gout of flame.
"Who the hell is she?"
Siegfried's confusion ratcheted up another notch. Clearly this woman was the one piloting the three-headed beast. But who was she?
Then a voice cut in right beside her ear.
"Need a mana top-up, Siegfried?"
She whipped around and found Adam standing there.
She stared at him, his words looping in her head like a broken record.
"...Eh?!"
It took a solid three seconds for her brain to reboot. Then her entire face ignited scarlet, hot enough to fry an egg.
"Master, are you serious?!"
"Mana transfer… that kind of thing…"
"I—I'm a married woman! You can't just—"
"And I definitely can't—"
"Even if I really am running low on mana right now… you still can't—"
Siegfried's tongue tied itself in knots. Two voices warred inside her skull, overheating her circuits until words failed her completely. She shot Adam a mortified glance, then jerked her eyes away fast.
But that single look caught the deadpan, utterly speechless expression on his face.
"…"
Adam stood there in silence, holding a glowing golden apple that could replenish mana, watching Siegfried steam like a kettle ready to explode.
It hit her like a truck—she'd completely misread the situation. Adam had simply meant to hand her the golden apple for a quick mana boost. Not the… other kind of transfer she'd instantly pictured.
Her face burned even hotter. Mortified, she snatched the apple, took a couple frantic bites, then desperately changed the subject while her eyes darted everywhere.
"Thanks, Master. Anyway—do you know what's going on with that new dragon up there?"
Adam picked up the cue like a pro, letting her off the hook.
"Zmei Gorynych is on our side."
"I—I see. Haha…"
Siegfried forced an awkward laugh, then paused as the name sank in.
"Zmei Gorynych?"
She repeated it, the pieces clicking. She'd definitely heard that before.
Her gaze slid to the female Servant riding beside the dragon.
"Master, is that woman controlling the dragon one of yours too?"
Adam glanced upward at Dobrynya Nikitich.
"Yep. Summoned her myself."
"You've got a Servant who can call dragons? And one that strong? Who exactly is she?"
"Dobrynya Nikitich. As a fellow dragon-slayer, I figured you'd recognize the name."
Siegfried's eyebrows shot up, interest sparking.
"Dobrynya Nikitich—the hero from the legends who took down the evil three-headed dragon Zmei Gorynych?"
"No wonder the name sounded familiar."
Adam looked back at the Rider in the sky, hesitated, then gave a small nod.
"Well… minor details differ, but yeah, close enough."
"But…"
Siegfried's face scrunched in confusion as she replayed the old tale. Something still felt off.
"Wasn't the hero in that story supposed to be a man?"
"…"
Adam went dead silent. His eyes traveled slowly up and down Siegfried's body—curves for days, silver hair tumbling to her waist, a smudge of battlefield dust on her cheek that did nothing to hide her flawless face.
"You might want to take a look in the mirror before you say that," he drawled.
Siegfried glanced down at her own chest. Right… she was a woman too~
Just like Dobrynya Nikitich: legend said male, reality said very much not.
While she was still processing that—
She remembered how Adam had hyped her up earlier, telling her her whole purpose in this Singularity was to kill Fafnir because she was supposedly the only dragon-slaying Servant around.
Now she looked at Dobrynya Nikitich overhead and felt the lie smack her in the face.
She blinked hard, then turned to Adam with pure bewilderment.
"Wait, Master, didn't you tell me I was the only anti-Dragon Servant on the team?"
"Didn't you say I got summoned here specifically to take down Fafnir?"
"So why did you just pull another dragon-slayer out of nowhere?!"
"That's not what we agreed on!"
"With how insanely strong the one you just summoned is, I'm starting to feel a little… redundant?"
Adam flicked a glance at his Servant list—four hundred and counting.
He could field way more than just Dobrynya for anti-Dragon work.
"Strictly speaking, the two who just saved you are dragon-slayers too."
He nodded toward Martha and Kriemhild, still locked in combat with Fafnir.
"You saw them both. Kriemhild and Martha—pure anti-Dragon."
Siegfried followed his gaze and got it instantly.
Martha's legend of taming a dragon made her bonus obvious. The part that actually surprised her was why her own wife had the same edge.
But that detail didn't matter right now.
What mattered was the realization that Adam could summon multiple dragon-slayers.
She'd barely registered Martha earlier. Now the full picture hit her like a freight train.
"You can summon three dragon-slaying Servants?!"
"Mm…"
Adam scanned his overflowing roster again and mentally counted how many anti-Dragon picks he'd grabbed earlier.
He shrugged.
"Strictly speaking… I can summon over a dozen."
Siegfried's jaw dropped. Her eyes went glassy, like she was sure she'd misheard. She asked again, voice shaky.
"Master… how many did you just say?"
Adam answered with perfect calm.
"Over a dozen. About fifteen, give or take."
This time the number landed crystal clear. Siegfried's mouth fell open so wide it could've caught flies.
"Fifteen?!"
"Master, where the hell did you get that many dragon-slaying Servants?!"
She shot a quick look across the entire battlefield at every Servant present.
"The number of dragon-slayers you're carrying is basically equal to everyone else combined!"
Adam just gave her a tiny, relaxed smile.
"Guess I've got good connections."
"No way—good connections don't get you—"
Siegfried's words died mid-sentence.
Because right beside Adam stood a figure that made her blood run ice-cold.
The aura rolling off her was pure wrongness. She gripped a blood-red greatsword as tall as she was. Black armor trimmed with silver filigree hugged her frame. Striking golden hair framed a face with two demonic horns curving from her temples. Her feet—twenty centimeters long—were black at the base and flushed crimson toward the toes. Crimson eyes burned under a strange red tattoo on her left cheek.
Sodom's Beast/Draco.
And the terrifying Servant simply stood there quietly next to Adam, occasionally glancing toward Fafnir and tightening her grip on the sword like she was itching to jump in.
Siegfried's dragon-slayer instincts screamed bloody murder. The pressure crushed her lungs; she forgot how to breathe. Even facing Fafnir earlier hadn't felt one percent this heavy.
"What's wrong?"
Adam's voice snapped the spell. Siegfried gasped for air, staring at the figure beside him in pure horror.
"Master, get away from that evil thing right now!"
She grabbed Adam's wrist and yanked him behind her, raising Balmung with both hands. The blade trembled—whether from exhaustion or raw terror, she couldn't tell.
Draco's brow twitched in clear annoyance. She shot a pointed glare at the hand still clutching Adam's wrist and clicked her tongue.
"Tch."
Adam spoke softly, trying to ease the tension.
"Easy, Siegfried. Draco's just a regular dragon-slaying Servant. No need to freak out."
It didn't help much. Siegfried still looked ready to bolt.
"But Master! Can't you feel it?!"
"She's radiating pure evil—like she's carrying every ounce of humanity's malice combined!!!"
Adam waved it off casually.
"Don't worry about it. She just looks scary. Personality-wise she's nothing like the aura she gives off."
Under Adam's steady reassurance, Siegfried finally lowered her sword a fraction.
"R-really, Master?"
"You're absolutely sure this evil monster won't hurt you?"
Draco's face twisted in open displeasure.
"I don't even have time to love Master—why would I ever hurt him?"
After a lot more coaxing, Siegfried finally let her guard drop.
"Master, I can't wait any longer."
"My blade's starving!"
Draco flashed Adam a feral grin, then vanished.
The next instant she reappeared directly above Fafnir's head.
While the evil dragon was still wondering why her skull suddenly felt heavier—
Her vision split into two separate images, both tumbling toward the ground.
Fafnir's massive body was sliced clean in half, straight down the middle, before she even realized what hit her.
Draco landed lightly, sword already sheathed, looking bored.
Siegfried watched the casual one-shot in stunned silence, then swallowed hard.
"Master… you're really, really sure this one isn't as evil as she looks… right?"
***
If you want to read up to 25 chapters ahead, don't hesitate to visit our patron: pat reon . com / XElenea (remove space)