The Skeleton Dragon's voice shook the cavern, each word hitting Eron's chest hard.
"Answer me, human. How did you survive the path that kills all?"
The silence that followed felt crushing.
The skeletons surrounding him rattled faintly, waiting for their master's command while the Hovering Blaze flickered uncertainly, its orange glow growing pale under the dragon's stare.
Eron's jaw tightened.
A slow breath in, then out, steadying himself.
"I don't need to answer your question."
The dragon's eye sockets blazed brighter and the ground shook under its breath, bones rattling like war drums.
"What did you say?"
Eron raised his palm as sparks gathered, but this time they weren't warm orange. They darkened, twisted. Flame bled into shadow, twisting into itself.
A number stirred in his memory, one he had marked with a warning even inside the Time Pocket, one of his most dangerous experiments.
He took a slow breath. "You leave me with no choice."
"Fireball Number Eleven." His voice turned cold. "Black Fire."
The orb flared into being, a sphere of twisting black flames hissing as reality itself rejected it. The cavern darkened instantly, light eaten by its presence.
The skeletons screeched in panic and backed away. Their eye sockets flickered wildly, bones twitching as if unwilling to obey their master. The soul fire inside them flared in terror, as if it feared being devoured by the black flame itself.
The Skeleton Dragon froze. Its skull tilted sharply, sockets narrowing in something Eron didn't expect.
Fear.
"That flame... you..."
The voice trembled, its echo cracking.
Eron stepped closer, raising his hand. The black flame hovered at his fingertip, its glow reflecting in the dragon's dim eyes. He pointed it toward the creature, as if the flame itself wanted to devour it.
"Wait." The dragon recoiled, its skeletal frame trembling as the black flame drew closer. Bones creaked and clattered, the soul fire within its head flickering in panic. It tried to pull back, but the air itself seemed to tighten around it.
"Do not be reckless, human. Put that flame down. Let us... talk."
Eron didn't lower his hand. The Black Fire twisted, dropping sparks that hissed into nothing. His chest rose and fell steadily but his mind raced.
He had seen what this flame could do, how it clung and burned endlessly, consuming more than just flesh. He had tested it once, back in the Time Pocket. The fire had raged for a month, refusing to die until he finally discovered how to extinguish it. He had been afraid of it since then. Warnings written in his own notes: Dangerous. Unstable. Don't test unless ready to die.
And yet here was a creature older than history itself, backing away from it.
"Talk, huh?" he muttered. His voice stayed steady but inside, his heart pounded.
Blue fire dimmed slightly in the dragon's skull, voice lowering.
"That flame... I know it. It belonged to the Codemanser who ruled long before my time. The Black Fire is a curse upon existence, a wound carved into time itself."
Its skull tilted closer, the blue fire in its eyes narrowing.
"Tell me, boy... where did you learn that? Did he teach you about that cursed flame? That man is already a divinity. It's impossible..."
The dragon stopped, the words fading as if caught in memory. Its skull lowered slightly, blue fire dimming in its eyes. Something in its tone shifted, not anger, but the weight of remembrance.
Eron didn't answer. The orb hissed louder in his palm.
The dragon let out a long breath, wind howling through its hollow ribs.
"Don't tell me you created it yourself... yet here you stand."
For the first time, the immense pressure on Eron's shoulders shifted. Not hostility anymore but something heavier.
Curiosity.
The skeletons around them stayed silent, rattling faintly but frozen. Their sockets darted between the dragon and Eron, confused, as if their instincts screamed to attack but their master's fear held them back. Some dropped their weapons entirely, bones shaking.
The Dragon pulled back slowly, voice rumbling softer, more careful.
"If you use that flame carelessly, you will bring ruin not just upon yourself but upon this world. Even the deepest floors will not contain it."
Eron's lips pressed into a thin line.
"Good thing I don't care what you think."
He pushed the Black Fire closer, its dark light spreading across the chamber. Bones hissed as though they were flesh and the very walls groaned against its presence.
The soul fire in the dragon's skull surged with light.
"STOP!"
Its wings slammed the cavern walls and sent dust and bones across the floor.
The shockwave hit him hard. Boots grinding against stone, he braced and kept his ground.
The Skeleton Dragon's head lowered, closer now, until its empty sockets nearly swallowed him. Its voice became a whisper that still shook the chamber's bones.
"Listen well, human. I will not strike you, not while you hold that cursed flame. But if you wish to survive, know this... you are not the first to wield such fire, and the man who did burned everything around him."
The silence after that lingered. Heavy. Uncomfortable.
Eron's jaw tightened but he didn't release the flame. He only let the words sink in.
The Dragon slowly pulled back, wings folding against its skeletal frame. Voice dropping, almost hesitant.
"We will speak again."
A pause. Sockets dimming.
"But know this, you are walking a dangerous path. And whether you burn alone or burn everything with you will depend on your next choices."
Eron lowered his hand slightly, letting the Black Fire dim but not disappear. Eyes locked on the dragon.
"Then watch closely. Because I'll decide that myself."
The soul fire in the hollow sockets flickered, unreadable, then dimmed. The rattling skeletons lowered their weapons and collapsed into stillness once more.
The cavern fell quiet again, except for the faint hiss of the Black Fire in his palm.
For the first time, the Dragon of Bones stepped back.
Eron stood alone in the bone-filled chamber, holding a flame that even ancient evils recognized as dangerous.