I looked down at the letter in my hands as Uhana lightly tapped her fingers against the table, anticipation blooming across her face like an early spring.
I let out a long breath and set the letter aside. Her eyes met mine, sharp and gleaming.
"So, what do you think?" she asked.
"It's entirely illogical. Uhana, are you seriously telling me this is real?"
After I had finished my training, she had practically cornered me with excitement, overflowing with urgency.
"Yes," she said, voice low with disbelief. "It seems they've found something deep beneath the terrain. A sleeping dragon."
I leaned back in my chair and pressed my fingers to my temples.
The western continent. It had been annihilated long ago by the former king of Anstalionah.
Nalkafer.
He had fought the dragons alone, and during a single battle, in one legendary step, he shattered the entire continent, sending it into the sea.
It was the most defining moment in recent history. From that battle forward, the current era was named: Dragon's Fall.
According to historical record, Nalkafer slaughtered the entirety of the draconic race after they declared war on the world.
Not a single one should remain.
A few neutral or tame dragons had survived for a time, but even they had passed on.
So for a dragon to not only remain but to sleep, that was unprecedented.
To sleep meant it was gathering power. If it awakened, it could mark the resurrection of the draconic race itself.
"We need to inform the world," I said, voice firm. "Who's to say how this might play out?"
Uhana reached across the table and grabbed my hands.
"Wait. What if we helped this dragon? We could gain a powerful ally. Maybe even a connection to the lost bloodline of dragons."
"Risking the revival of the most ancient and dangerous race known to this world?" I said with a laugh.
She didn't back down, waiting for my verdict.
I grinned. "We'll go meet this sleeping dragon. I'll judge its nature for myself."
Her smile returned, bright and sure.
"With the meeting in Anstalionah, do you think we'll make it there and back in time without using magic?"
I shrugged and stood up. She looked at me in confusion as I took her hands.
"I have a few tricks up my sleeve."
The air around us twisted. Space bent, folded, and unraveled in an instant.
A moment of disorientation passed like wind through cloth, then the scent of snow, salt, and burning oil filled my lungs.
We stood inside a large canvas tent.
Lanterns swung overhead, illuminating crates, weapons, and workbenches. The scent of metal and fire lingered.
Around us, startled figures in thick coats snapped to attention. Surprise flashed across their faces before instinct took over.
One by one, they dropped to their knees, offering heavy fur coats with gloved hands.
A man stepped forward. Bronze hair, dark skin, and yellow-gold eyes that gleamed with recognition.
"My king," he said with a respectful nod. "I didn't expect to see you here."
I chuckled, handing a coat to Uhana while pulling mine over my shoulders. "Where's this dragon?"
He smiled and extended a gloved hand toward the tent's entrance. "Right outside."
I turned to Uhana, who gave a half-shrug. "Convenient, I guess."
We stepped out into the howling cold.
Before us rose a jagged mountain, black stone streaked with frost. A massive hollow had been carved into its base, reinforced with towering metal pillars.
Strips of magical lighting glowed along the path, casting eerie shadows against the stone walls.
Snow drifted in sheets around us, but the path forward was warm, almost unnaturally so.
"I'm guessing you tried exploring inside and found it," I said, turning to the man.
"Yes, precisely," he replied. "My name is Daniel. I led the expedition, though… our discovery was not expected. Not at all."
I nodded, slowly extending my aura outward. A shimmering veil of mana wrapped around all three of us.
If the dragon woke now and attacked, we wouldn't hesitate. I was prepared to teleport us out instantly.
As we continued deeper into the cavern, the air grew thicker, denser, and unbearably hot.
Steam hissed from cracks in the stone, and the walls around us glowed faintly with veins of molten ore.
The air shimmered like a mirage, and sweat clung to our skin.
All three of us shed our coats, dropping them onto the stone floor. Then I saw it.
The chamber opened into a vast hollow beneath the mountain, its ceiling lost in shadow.
At its center, surrounded by jagged black ice and veins of gleaming gold, the dragon slept.
Its scales were black as voidstone, massive and radiant, each one reflecting light like polished obsidian.
Its wings were folded against its body, vast and silent, and with every slow breath it exhaled, the temperature in the room surged.
I raised a hand, halting the others from getting any closer.
"This creature… this power," I whispered. "It rivals the divine."
Uhana placed her hand on my shoulder, brows slightly raised. "Uh. Wake it up or something?"
I turned to her, confused. "Wake it up... well, I didn't exactly think about how."
Truly, I accounted for many possibilities. But I had overlooked the most obvious: how to actually awaken it.
There was almost no ambient mana in the area, likely a safeguard.
Combined with the mana-suppressing devices set up around the cavern, this dragon might have remained asleep for another hundred years.
The future was lucky. Or maybe I was lucky that I'd live long enough to become that future.
I stepped forward and reached out, then slowly poured my mana into its body.
At first, it was just a trickle. Then, in an instant, nearly half of my energy vanished.
A split second later, we were all thrown back. I slammed into the wall, Uhana and Daniel crashing beside me, as an earth-shaking roar filled the cavern.
Dark mist, black and cold as the void, surged across the space. And then, nothing.
No light. No sound. Only the darkness, swallowing everything. I felt Uhana gripping my side tightly, and then, through that abyss, came a voice.
Elegant. Peaceful. Ancient. Terrifying.
"Little creatures of the world today… why would you gift me the power of tomorrow?"
The mist cleared. She stood before us.
Her hair was long and black, flowing like liquid shadow. Her eyes were deep onyx, ancient and still.
Her skin was a muted gray, smooth and cool like polished stone.
She wore only a long black dress lined with thin white threads, no shoes, no jewelry, no crown, yet there was no mistaking it.
She was royalty.
She looked like a young woman, eighteen, maybe twenty, but her presence was older than the stars.
Her form was delicate, graceful, refined. Timeless.
Her lips curled into a soft smile. "Ah… it was you. I thank you for the fuel."
I pushed myself to stand, my limbs heavy, my head dizzy from just being in her presence.
"Well, discovering you asleep in a frozen mountain was…"
"Weird?" she said with a playful glint in her eye.
"Yeah," I admitted. "Didn't expect any humans to find you, huh?"
"Not at all," she said. "Strange… I cannot feel my homeland. I should change that."
She raised a hand, and in the blink of an eye, I felt it.
The earth groaned beneath our feet. The atmosphere twisted and cracked.
Space itself screamed as something titanic shifted beneath reality.
"The western continent…" I breathed. "Did you just…"
"Raise it?" she asked, smiling at me like a child showing off a toy. "Yes. It will take time to fully rise… but I missed the sky."
Daniel and Uhana stared at me in stunned disbelief. I turned back to the dragon woman.
"You didn't just raise the fallen draconic continent… did you?"
She tilted her head, then grinned. "They called me the Cold Death. But little did they know, life was mine to command as well."
And then we heard it.
A roar. Trembling, eternal, ancient. It echoed across the world.
Not just one roar, many. A chorus of dragons awakening from death itself.
"You…" I said, breathless. "You revived the dragons. All of them."
The truth hit me like a blade to the chest. The title Cold Death it wasn't a name. It was a legacy.
This woman wasn't just any dragon. She was the Queen.
The black dragon of ice and death. The draconic sovereign of the old age.
She laughed with radiant pride. "My name is Pertunah. And I do apologize for stealing your mana so brazenly."
She walked past me, humming to herself like this was just another day. "Now, let me see if my children remain as they once were."
Mist trailed behind her. And then, in the blink of an eye, she was gone. Only silence remained.
I dropped to my knees and stared up at the cavern ceiling. "Fuck. Did we just awaken the strongest dragon in history?"
Uhana crawled over, patting my shoulder. "No, my dear," she said, voice dry. "I'm pretty sure you did."