After lunch, the three packed up the bowls and utensils and returned to the tent for an afternoon nap.
Just as Weston's thoughts were blurring—his mind heavy, eyelids drooping, on the verge of sleep—an extremely terrifying, cold, and gloomy magic power suddenly appeared within his perception range!
Who is it?!
Weston snapped awake instantly, all sleepiness vanishing as he bolted upright.
Mavis and Zera sensed the magic power as well, crawling out of their sleeping bags one after the other.
The magic was approaching at an incredible speed, as if crossing thousands of miles in a heartbeat.
Before the three could even compose themselves, a violent gale erupted outside the tent.
The wind was unnaturally strong. The tent, which should have been firmly anchored to the ground, shook violently under the force. It seemed as if at any moment, the four wooden stakes driven deep into the earth would be ripped out.
Immediately after, a loud thud sounded from outside, as if something massive had descended from the heavens.
Weston and the girls exchanged looks, knowing the situation was dire. They carefully pulled back a slit in the tent flap and peered out.
Plop, plop, plop!
Three heads popped out from the slit in the tent in a top-middle-bottom formation. Six eyes looked in unison toward the direction of the commotion.
What met their eyes was a scene they had never anticipated.
"This is...!!"
"A dragon?!"
"It's actually..."
Landed right next to their tent was no planetary debris or space rock fallen from the stars, but a living, breathing giant dragon!
A dragon with a dark red back and wings, and a white underbelly!
Since Weston had already revealed Licht's identity as the 'Luminance Dragon' to Mavis and Zera, the two girls weren't surprised by the existence of dragons in this world.
However, although they knew a partner in the guild was a dragon, they had never seen his dragon form.
Seeing a dragon appear right before them and feeling the horrifying magic radiating from its body, the two girls were struck dumb with shock. Their hands and feet trembled, and they couldn't snap out of it for a long time.
"What kind of dragon is this?"
"Red skin... is it a Fire Dragon?"
"No, that's not right! This is..."
This is... Irene!!
Weston's knowledge allowed him to see the essence of the dragon before him at a glance.
She wasn't a dragon; she was a human!
Like Acnologia and Elefseria, she was a human who had been forcibly dragonized by the backlash of practicing Dragon Slayer Magic to an extreme level!
With those red wings and white belly, who else could it be in this entire world but Irene?
"Hmm... humans?!"
Irene had originally come to the river to drink. Hearing the noise from Weston's group, she immediately swept her gaze over.
The moment their eyes met, Weston's heart tightened.
What kind of gaze was that?
It felt laden with a lifetime of grief, bitterness, hatred, resentment, loneliness, and madness...
It was terrifying!
But considering Irene's past...
If a person had endured three hundred years of torture and isolation, such a mental state was only natural. Weston even felt that the fact she could maintain this "stable" of a mind without going out to harm others was already quite remarkable.
"Why would humans appear in a place like this??"
Irene stopped drinking and fell into thought, seemingly pondering how to deal with the three humans who had intruded upon her territory.
Seeing this, Weston stood up and walked out.
"Wait, Weston! Let's see..."
Zera wanted to advise Weston not to be impulsive and to observe the situation first, but Weston moved too fast. He had already exited the tent and approached the giant dragon.
"You're human, aren't you!"
He used a tone of certainty, not a question.
Irene's eyes widened instantly as she froze in place: "You... how do you know? You can actually see through to my true form?!"
This response was as good as admitting Weston was right.
Hiding in the tent, Mavis and Zera were struck with horror upon hearing this.
"What?!"
"She's human?!"
"In that case, is she just like that Dragon Sage grandpa and the legendary Acnologia?"
Under Irene's thunderstruck gaze, Weston said firmly: "After a Dragon Slayer reaches a certain level of mastery, their body dragonizes. Without the proper method, they cannot return to human form."
"I happen to know an elder like that."
"After teaching himself Dragon Slayer Magic, it took him several years to return to his human appearance."
"That's why I could tell at a glance that you are human, not a dragon..."
As his voice fell.
"You... what did... you say?!"
"A Dragon Slayer can return to human form after dragonizing?!"
Irene's voice was actually trembling, as if she might burst into tears the next second.
There was a Dragon Slayer who had dragonized and managed to reverse it in just a few years?!
Then what did the three hundred years of suffering she endured count for?!
For a moment, a wave of intense grievance, unwillingness, and resentment welled up in Irene's heart.
She didn't hate anyone else but herself. She hated herself for being so useless—the creator of Dragon Slayer Magic, yet unable to reverse her own dragonization while other Dragon Slayers had succeeded.
She hated fate even more!
Fate had been far too unfair to her!!
"Do you... do you have a way to help me turn back into a human?"
I was waiting for you to say those words!
Weston nodded sincerely: "I do, Madam!"
"I happen to know the magic to undo dragonization. Do you need my help?"
"I need it desperately!!"
After waiting for three hundred years, she finally had a single lifesaving straw to grasp. Irene's voice betrayed an unmaskable urgency and madness.
"I beg of you!"
"If you truly have a way to help me undo the dragonization, please help me!!"
She shifted her steps, moving her massive body toward Weston, and knelt down.
"Then do not resist!"
Weston placed his right hand on the dragon's body and cast the magic to undo dragonization on Irene.
Instantly, the scarlet dragon emitted a golden glow.
The body rapidly shrank. Once the light faded, the dragon had turned into a woman with long scarlet hair, dressed in rags, haggard and destitute, yet possessing a sexy and full figure.
This was Irene.
"I... I really turned back into a human..."
"Is this a dream?!"
Looking at her human body and her human hands, Irene wept for joy, her face covered in emotional tears.
Though he hated to strike her down again at this moment, Weston still felt compelled to remind her.
"There is something I must tell you."
"While you have successfully returned to a human appearance, a Dragon Slayer's 'dragonization' is irreversible."
"In essence, you are still a dragon. You can no longer truly become human again!"
☰