"You bastard!" Xia Jidong's roar echoed across the grassland as he watched Wang Jianjun's body crash to the ground. "I'll kill you!"
He launched himself skyward, mo dao gripped in both hands above his head. Gravity became his ally as he descended, the massive blade accelerating with the full force of his falling weight. The edge met the dragon-form Death Servitor's scaled back with devastating impact.
The creature's natural armor—scales that could deflect conventional weapons like they were toys—split open under the blow. The blade carved deep into flesh beneath, opening a wound that wept golden ichor.
The Death Servitor's shriek was almost draconic in its intensity—a sound of genuine agony that spoke to the severity of the injury. This wasn't a superficial cut. Xia Jidong had wounded it badly.
The creature's attention pivoted instantly. It forgot Wang Jianjun's crumpled form and whirled toward this new threat—this prey that had dared to cause it pain. Wings spread wide, it launched itself at Xia Jidong with murderous intent.
Meanwhile, Wang Jianjun lay motionless where he'd fallen—less than ten meters from where Ye Sheng, Chen Moqing, and Aki stood. The exit shimmered in the air just eight meters behind them.
So close. They were so close to escape.
"Let me go!" Chen Moqing's voice cracked with desperate determination. "I have to save Commander Wang!"
His body exploded with adrenaline-fueled strength, muscles burning as he yanked against Ye Sheng and Aki's restraining grips. The two agents stumbled, their hold broken by the sheer ferocity of Chen Moqing's struggle.
"Chen!" Ye Sheng spun around at the outburst, following Chen Moqing's gaze to where Wang Jianjun lay sprawled in the grass. Further back, the dragon-form Death Servitor had fully committed to attacking Xia Jidong, its attention consumed by the man who'd wounded it.
A window. They had a window.
Ye Sheng released Chen Moqing and broke into a sprint toward their fallen commander. Chen Moqing matched him stride for stride. Ten meters might as well have been ten kilometers—it felt like running through molasses, time stretching as his fear of arriving too late threatened to choke him.
They reached Wang Jianjun in seconds that felt like hours. Ye Sheng hooked his arms under their commander's shoulders while Chen Moqing grabbed his legs. "Move!" Ye Sheng gasped. "Fast as you can!"
Aki was already in motion, leading the way toward the shimmering exit. The three surviving operatives ran with every ounce of speed their exhausted bodies could muster, their unconscious commander suspended between them.
Just before they crossed the threshold, some instinct made Ye Sheng glance back.
The image burned itself into his memory instantly. Xia Jidong stood his ground against the Death Servitor, mo dao raised in defiant challenge. The creature's talons pierced his chest, punching through tactical vest and flesh and bone with terrible ease. Blood bloomed across Xia Jidong's uniform.
But there was no pain on his face. No fear. Only satisfaction—pure, genuine satisfaction—as he watched his teammates reach the exit.
His lips moved, forming words Ye Sheng couldn't hear but understood anyway: Go. Live.
Then the three survivors plunged through the dimensional boundary, Wang Jianjun's dead weight pulling them forward, and the Nibelungen vanished.
The dragon-form Death Servitor turned from Xia Jidong's collapsing body just in time to see the exit seal itself. It lunged toward the boundary, talons raking at empty air, and its frustrated howls echoed through the paradise that had become a tomb.
But it couldn't follow. The Nibelungen's rules bound it here, forever.
Ye Sheng, Chen Moqing, and Aki burst into the real world running, still carrying Wang Jianjun between them. Terror drove them forward—the irrational certainty that the Death Servitor would somehow breach the dimensional barrier and give chase. They ran until their lungs burned, until their legs threatened to give out, until they'd put more than ten minutes of distance between themselves and where they'd emerged.
Finally, Ye Sheng's gasping voice broke the rhythm of their flight. "Stop... need to stop. The Death Servitor... didn't follow us."
Chen Moqing and Aki both glanced back, still moving on momentum. Behind them lay only pristine snow and the distant silhouettes of mountain peaks. No pursuing monster. No shimmering portal.
Just silence.
They found a relatively sheltered spot—a cluster of rocks that would provide some windbreak—and carefully lowered Wang Jianjun to the ground. The commander's face was pale, his breathing shallow and irregular.
"You two check on Commander Wang," Ye Sheng ordered, already pulling out his specialized satellite phone. "I'm contacting headquarters now."
Chen Moqing and Aki immediately began assessing their commander's condition while Ye Sheng stepped aside for privacy. His fingers shook as he activated the encrypted channel.
"Command center, command center, this is Ye Sheng. Respond if you copy. Respond if you copy."
Static hissed for a heart-stopping moment before a voice emerged. "Command center copies. We read you, Ye Sheng."
Relief flooded through him. The Equipment Department's specially-designed phones were living up to their reputation—maintaining signal even in these remote mountains.
"Command center, this is Ye Sheng. Have you received communications from Li Quan and Ma Yue?"
"Affirmative. Li Quan and Ma Yue's report has been received. Headquarters is aware of the Nibelungen's existence above Kunlun."
Thank god. At least that much had gone right.
Ye Sheng drew a steadying breath, organizing the critical intelligence into concise statements. "Command, our team entered the Nibelungen under Commander Wang Jianjun's leadership. We've confirmed the Nibelungen belongs to the King of Sky and Wind. The Dragon King is in complete form—not diminished, not in human shape. Complete. It's currently sleeping within the domain."
He didn't mention the dragon-form Death Servitor. Compared to the revelation of a complete Dragon King, the presence of high-level servants was almost trivial.
The silence on the other end of the line stretched long enough that Ye Sheng checked to make sure the connection hadn't dropped. When the voice returned, it carried weight—the heaviness of someone processing information that rewrote every assumption.
"Ye Sheng." The speaker had changed. That was Professor Schneider's distinctive rasp. "Are you absolutely certain it's the complete King of Sky and Wind?"
"Yes, Professor Schneider. Absolutely certain." Ye Sheng's voice didn't waver. "Commander Wang Jianjun, Chen Moqing, and I all witnessed it directly. The Dragon King was sleeping at the bottom of a cliff. There's no doubt."
Ye Sheng had felt Rodan's presence before—when that second-generation dragon had been transported to Cassel College for study. He understood the pressure such beings exerted. What he'd experienced in the Nibelungen was incomparable. The fear that rose from his very bloodline, the instinctive terror that threatened to drive him to his knees—that could only come from the four Dragon Kings themselves, or the Black King and White King who stood above even them.
"Understood." Was that a sigh in Schneider's voice? Ye Sheng couldn't be certain through the phone's compression, but he thought he heard it.
The professor had every reason to be shaken. Initial intelligence had suggested "suspected next-generation dragon or above"—and everyone had focused on "next-generation" while mentally dismissing "or above" as bureaucratic hedging. Throughout recorded history, the few Dragon Kings that had appeared did so in human form, diminished and vulnerable. A complete Dragon King in full draconic glory was something no living person had encountered.
Until now.
"Casualties?" Schneider's question came after a pause, his tone suggesting he expected good news. After all, if the team had escaped and the Dragon King remained asleep, surely they'd avoided losses.
Ye Sheng's throat tightened. "Of the eight-person team... Li Quan and Ma Yue were sent by Commander Wang to report the Nibelungen's discovery. They're safe. Six of us entered the domain." He forced himself to continue through the weight in his chest. "Team members Ye Sheng, Aki Sakakotsu, and Chen Moqing escaped. Team members Xia Jidong and Qian Feng are confirmed KIA. Commander Wang Jianjun—"
"Commander Wang is critically injured!" Aki's voice cut across the distance. "He needs immediate medical evacuation!"
Ye Sheng relayed the information. "Commander Wang Jianjun is unconscious with severe injuries. Requesting immediate medical support!"
Six entered. Two dead. One critically wounded. Half the team lost in the final moments when that dragon-form Death Servitor had attacked.
"Understood." Schneider's voice had shifted into pure command mode—emotions locked away, tactical mind engaged. "Medical evacuation team is deploying immediately. Connect to Norma for precise GPS positioning."
"Yes sir!"
Ye Sheng's fingers flew across the phone's interface, establishing connection with Cassel College's supercomputer. The positioning data locked in within seconds.
Then he saw the coordinates and froze.
They weren't at Location Two—their original entry point. The GPS placed them at Location Three, hundreds of kilometers away.
"The Nibelungen..." Ye Sheng breathed. "It connects two separate locations?"
The thought was staggering. Most Nibelungen had single entry points. But the King of Sky and Wind's domain apparently functioned as a dimensional bridge between distant mountains.
At headquarters, the command center staff saw Norma's positioning data populate their screens. The first reaction was to assume a system error—the suggested distance was too far, too impossible. But when high-resolution satellite imagery confirmed the team's position, confusion turned to grim acceptance.
They'd traveled hundreds of kilometers through a pocket dimension.
Schneider's voice crackled through the phone again. "Ye Sheng, begin descent immediately. Carry Commander Wang down the mountain as far as you can. The helicopter evacuation team is already in flight—they'll meet you en route."
"Understood! We're moving now!"
Ye Sheng pocketed the phone and rejoined Chen Moqing and Aki. Working quickly with the limited equipment they had, they fashioned a crude stretcher from tactical webbing and collapsed tent poles. It wouldn't be comfortable, but it would let them transport Wang Jianjun without causing additional injuries.
Ye Sheng and Chen Moqing gripped the stretcher's front and rear. Aki took point as navigator, choosing their path down the mountain.
They began their descent at the fastest pace safety allowed, racing against time and weather and the possibility that Wang Jianjun's injuries might prove fatal before help arrived.
Behind them, somewhere in that impossible space between mountains, the King of Sky and Wind continued its drunken slumber, unaware that its long secret had finally been exposed to the world.