Chapter 148: 148. Adult Dragon Evolution

The cocoon of light pulsed in the void, a sphere of gold that had no right to exist in a place where nothing should live. It was the only warmth in the endless cold, the only motion in the stillness. For long moments that felt like hours, days, centuries: it simply floated, a seed waiting to break ground.

Then the first crack appeared.

Light bled through the fissure, not the soft gold of the cocoon’s surface, but something deeper. Something that had been forged in the heart of a dragon who had walked through three dungeons, absorbed three fragments of a dead king’s power, and torn a rift through reality to trap his brother.

The crack widened. Another joined it. Then another. The cocoon began to split along seams that had been waiting for this moment since the evolution began.

A silhouette moved within.

Scales caught the light: black as the void, but shot through with veins of gold that pulsed with every heartbeat. Wings spread, wider than anything that should fit inside the cocoon, their membranes translucent, veined with power. A tail lashed, sending cracks spidering across the shell.

Then the cocoon burst.

Light exploded outward in a shockwave that rippled through the void, scattering the remnants of Vorthraxx’s mana dissolution, pushing back the emptiness itself. And at its center, wings spread, scales gleaming, eyes blazing gold—

Owen.

His adult form was magnificent. Where his juvenile body had been lean, built for speed and agility, his adult frame was solid, powerful, built to endure. His scales were thick, layered like the armor of ancient kings, each one catching the light and holding it. His wings spanned a distance that made the void feel small. His horns swept back from his skull in a crown that needed no jewels.

He was the last Dragon King in truth now.

Then the system messages appeared before him, their light reflecting off his scales.

—

Ding-!

[Complete Basic Evolution Path Attained]

[Further Evolution will branch based on your existential Disposition]

[Choose your path wisely, Dragon King]

The voice for the last message was different. Where before it had been cold, mechanical, the voice of a system that existed to serve, these words carried something else. A weight. A finality. As if the last echo of Dominus’s consciousness in his power that made the unique dragon king system was finally fading, leaving behind only the machinery he had built.

Owen understood. The system had been Dominus’s gift, his legacy, his way of ensuring that whoever came after would have the tools to finish what he started. But now, with the last fragment absorbed, Vorthraxx’s power integrated and Drak’thar Developing, the system’s purpose was fulfilled.

It was now becoming what it was always meant to be : a tool. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Ding—!

[Skill list has been reset!]

[All non Dragon-born skills have been reintegrated]

[All skills that weren’t dragon-born have been removed upon evolution. You will need to relearn them to update them back onto the list of skills.]

[All dragon-born skills have risen in rank!]

[Skills:]

Fire Affinity (SS-Grade)

Mana Sense (SS-Grade)

Magic Affinity (SS-Grade)

Mana Absorption (SS-Grade)

Accelerated Growth (SS-Grade)

Momentum Shift (SS-Grade)

Ultra-Regeneration (SSS-Grade)

Indestructible Scales (SSS-Grade)

Dragon’s Eye (SSS-Grade)

Dragon’s Breath (SSS-Grade)

Dragon’s Tongue (SSS-Grade)

Dragon’s Aura (SSS-Grade)

[Humanoid Transformation (S-Grade) has evolved into Perfect Transformation (SS-Grade):]

-Perfect human transformation, half-dragon transformation, and full dragon transformation.

Owen’s eyes lingered on the list. He hadn’t lost much, or any skills as from the second dungeon onward he had relied on his pure dragonic skills and Sovereignty for months; time manipulation, dragon breath’, Spatial Teleportation, the more complex applications of his Sovereignties. They wouldn’t need to be relearned as they were naturally from the foundation of his existence.

But each of those applications would have been strengthened now because even his Sovereignties had gotten a rank up.

—

[Sovereignty of the Dragon King (EX-Grade)]

-Complete Sovereign over all dragonkind within the worldly territory. Using your blood, you can forcefully rank up and evolve a dragonkin once.

[Sovereignty of Destruction (EX-Grade) – 100% Mastery Achieved]

-Can maintain consciousness in berserk form as long as lifeforce isn’t depleted.

[Sovereignty of Space-Time (EX-Grade) – 100% Mastery Achieved]

-Total control over time and space within certain ’cosmic’ boundaries.

[New Skill added: Replication (SS-Grade) – Make Up to 10 copies of yourself that share between 10% to 50% of your power]

Owen stared at the panel, he had somehow inherited Vorthraxx’s Sovereignty but as a lower graded skill with limitations.

But that wasn’t the only thing that caught his eyes.

EX-Grade. He had never heard of any being attaining such a rank. The system itself had never displayed it before, had never even hinted that such a classification existed. It was beyond SSS, beyond anything the mortal realm had ever produced.

And there, in the description of his Sovereignties, four words that made his blood run cold despite the heat still coursing through his veins:

Worldly territory.

Cosmic boundaries.

What worldly territory? Were there other worlds? With beings as powerful as dragons or as complex as celestials? What boundaries? Who set them? And what will happen if he was to push against them?

But he filed the questions away. There would be time to understand later. For now, he needed to focus on what he had become.

—

[Name: Owen]

[Species: Dragon (King Bloodline)]

[Status: Adult Dragon]

[Rank: SSS]

[Level: 0/100]

[HP: 5,000,000]

[Stats:]

· Attack: 2,185,000

· Defense: 2,165,000

· Agility: 2,120,000

· Mana: 2,800,000

Owen let the numbers settle into his awareness. Millions where there had been thousands. Power that made his juvenile form feel like a hatchling learning to fly. He flexed his claws, felt the strength coiled in his muscles, felt the mana reservoirs that now stretched deeper than he could measure.

He was a powerhouse. In all the divine realm—the Arbiters and celestials that had once ruled from on high—none would be able to stand against him now. In the mortal realm, the demonic beasts and villains that had terrorized the world would break against his scales like waves against a cliff.

He was stronger than Dominus had been. He was stronger than any Dragon King before him.

He puffed his chest, letting the triumph wash over him. Then he reeled his arrogance back in. There was no room for pride in what came next.

He looked around the void. The emptiness stretched in every direction, but his senses had sharpened. He could feel the mana in his immediate vicinity, could trace its currents, its eddies, its sources. And there, drifting in the void, fading into the timeless dark…

Vorthraxx’s residual mana from The heart he had absorbed. The last traces of his brother’s existence.

He thought about how biblical this was. Three fragments of power from Dominus—the Father.Then the core, the dragon heart, from Vorthraxx—the Son. Both had poured their legacies into him, their hopes, their failures, their dreams. And through him, all the dragonkind lost in the past would live again.

Dominus. Vorthraxx. Chronara. Zephron. Verida. Fey’rath. Glacius. Every dragon who had fought and died in the wars that shaped the world. They would live through him in Spirit. They would see the future they had died for.

He looked for Vorthraxx’s body in the void but it was gone, drifted further into the void, lost in the vacuum of the timeless space. That would be the last he would ever see of his brother.

…Right?

He shook off the thought. There was no time for doubt. The world was still burning. The demon armies were still marching. The Will was still watching.

He raised his arm, coiling mana around his claws that responded to his will to Use his Sovereignty of Space-time with a precision that had been impossible in his juvenile form. Space folded, bent, tore.

And a rift opened before him. Not the amateurish, unstable wound he had created before. This was a doorway: Clean, Controlled, Stable.

Through it, he could see the other world. The sky was still purple and red, stained by the war that had been raging while he was gone. But he could see the sun breaking through the clouds, could see the light fighting to reach the earth.

Then he stepped through.

—

The void sealed behind him. The warmth of the mortal realm rushed to meet him, and for the first time since he had left, he let himself breathe.

The demon army was still there, still pressing against the human lines, still fighting with the desperation of creatures who had been sealed for a thousand years. But below, he could see something else. Spreading his mana sense across the whole world, he could sense everything on the surface nkw. he could sense and see the hunters regrouping. Beastfolk rallying. Elves and dwarves and fairies holding the line.

They had not given up. They had not broken.

The time he spent fighting Vorthraxx in the timeless space void was distorted the flow of time and what felt like days or years to him, seemed to have been close to a month for them.

But now, he was back.

He looked at the sky, at the armies below, at the future that was still being fought for. He thought about the power in his scales, the legacies in his blood, the weight of everything that had brought him here.

He thought about the cosmic boundaries he was yet to grasp. The worldly territory he did not understand. The Will that might still wake with its own motive and The battles that were still to come.

Then he spread his wings and descended.

The war was not over. But for the first time since it began, Owen knew, Truly knew without a doubt in his dragonic heart, that They Would win.

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