Far across the ocean, at the center of another nation, an imperceptible shift was quietly taking place.
It began as nothing more than a tremor. Everything seemed fine; people lived and worked in peace, unaware that a change was brewing, one powerful enough to swallow the heavens and blot out the sun.
Late at night, in the Principal's office.
Hilbert Jean Angers sat in his comfortable office chair, looking at the man half-hidden in the interplay of moonlight and shadow. After meeting with the other professors and his hand-picked Dragon King suppression squad, he had words for this singular entity.
"A Dragon King has awakened," he began.
"I know," Zoran replied, his expression indifferent, as if the matter were of no consequence.
"For an existence like you, is facing a Dragon King head-on considered a vacation?" Angers spoke slowly, his gaze like a torch.
If this world had a leaderboard for the greatest enemies of the Dragon Race, Hilbert Jean Angers would undoubtedly be at the top, his position unshakable. To him, a Dragon King was the ultimate mortal enemy.
He toyed with the folding knife in his hand. It was a weapon reforged from the fragments of a late friend's blade, a friend who had perished in the war against the dragons. The edge was unnaturally sharp, yet not long ago, the man before him had effortlessly checked its momentum. With a single finger, he had flicked the blade aside.
"The location of the awakening has been confirmed. It's at the heart of another country," Angers provided his intel.
"Someone will go. Someone I have chosen," Zoran said.
"Lu Mingfei?" Angers already knew Zoran had visited Lu Mingfei's dorm earlier that day for a lengthy chat. "It seems we have chosen the same person. He is my designated S-grade; his lineage surpasses the norm, and he possesses extraordinary potential."
"It is not about lineage," Zoran countered. "The boy has a silver tongue. As a reward for his words, I gave him... a few other gifts."
"Gifts?" Angers frowned. The nature of a "gift" from Zoran was something he found difficult to fathom.
"Do not place too much weight on lineage, Angers. Perhaps in the eyes of mortals, it is paramount, but in one aspect, he surpasses everyone."
"Lu Mingfei actually has such a talent?" Angers chuckled.
"At the very least, he knows how to please his elders," Zoran remarked softly, his tone quite subtle.
The folding knife in Angers' hand suddenly froze in mid-air. For a moment, he felt he truly might be getting too old to keep up with the times. He didn't quite grasp the implication of Zoran's words. If that counted as a talent exceeding the norm, then Angers was quite talented at pleasing women, yet no one came to "reward" him for it.
"So, an elder's reward has granted him the power to face a Dragon King?"
"I think you have it backward, Angers," Zoran's voice drifted over. "It is the Dragon King who must face him."
"I look forward to that moment, when an ignorant youth raises his blade and forces the so-called Dragon Race to stare into the abyss of despair. It brings me a certain... amusement."
"And you, Angers, in that moment, you will finally understand the meaning of my words."
Angers' thoughts drifted back to the lakeside when Zoran had arrived uninvited. Zoran had told him: You will see a real dragon.
So, was the man before him actually a master of genetic engineering? Had he transformed that withered eggplant of a boy, Lu Mingfei, into what Zoran called a "Real Dragon," a True Dragon capable of making all false dragons submit?
Angers shifted his gaze to the table, specifically to the set of alchemical swords he had recently purchased at a hybrid auction for a hundred million dollars.
The Seven Deadly Sins.
Incomparable alchemical weapons forged by Norton, the King of Bronze and Fire. Their power was sufficient to slaughter true First-Generation progeny. Norton's original intent in creating this set was to achieve the absolute death of other dragons.
Earlier, while meeting the academy squad preparing for the hunt, Angers had tested three of them to see if they could unsheath the blades.
Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Envy, Wrath.
Seven alchemical swords of varying shapes and sizes. Their power was so immense that they had birthed true "Living Souls." Only those acknowledged by these souls, or hybrids whose lineage was powerful enough to ignore such conditions, could forcibly break the intense magnetic seal of the scabbards to draw these dragon-slaying artifacts.
Of his hand-picked trio, Lu Mingfei had been excluded after lacking the physical strength to even budge the heavier blades. The other two, Finger and Chu Zihang, a former A-grade and a current A-grade, could not unsheathe them all. These were weapons reserved for true Dragon Slayers.
Angers reached out, pushing the Seven Deadly Sins slightly toward Zoran. "Want to try?"
"Is it that I want to try, or that you want me to?" Zoran asked tonelessly.
"That's the thing about dealing with smart people, nothing gets past you," Angers admitted helplessly. Zoran was too mysterious. As a partner, Angers desperately craved to know more about him by any means possible.
"Consider it the request of an old man," Angers said, his eyes burning. "I, too, wish to see these seven peerless weapons drawn from their sheaths."
A man who could easily block Angers' own strike would not be stopped by the Seven Deadly Sins. The Living Souls of the weapons would surely acknowledge him.
Angers flipped his folding knife, cutting a thin slit across his palm. Blood dripped onto the Seven Deadly Sins.
Having tasted blood, the alchemical weapons let out a sound like a low growl. The seven blades became instantly agitated, as if seven distinct hearts were thrumming within them. Every divine artifact has its peculiarities, and the Seven Deadly Sins were dragon-slaying tools that required blood to truly awaken.
They were treasures forged by Norton, the King of Bronze and Fire, the "King of Alchemy." Their specialized lethality against the Dragon Race was indisputable.
The Living Souls stirred as if roaring, emitting an invisible, daunting pressure.
Angers extended his hand politely. "After you."
He watched Zoran without blinking, terrified of missing a single detail. Even Angers himself couldn't guarantee he could draw the seventh blade, "Wrath."
"Do you know?" Zoran's unwavering gaze met Angers'. The pressure of the alchemical weapons couldn't even get close to him. His tone was as flat as still water. "You are destined for disappointment. The Living Souls of these weapons will not acknowledge me."
Angers froze, confused. "Why not?"
"Because... they fear me."
As the words fell, Zoran's silhouette vanished from the Principal's office.
Angers' eyes dropped to the Seven Deadly Sins. Before his very eyes, these seven artifacts, existences comparable to divine relics, suddenly went silent. Like eggplants shriveled by frost, they sat obediently in their scabbards, as quiet as if they had never awakened at all.
With a heavy expression, Angers reached out and dripped more blood onto them. Blood-hungry weapons usually reveal their edge once fed.
But the moonlight continued to descend, and Angers waited a long time. The office remained deathly still.
He could feel it. The Seven Deadly Sins were awake, just as they had been when the students earlier had roared, seeking their acknowledgement.
But now, those Living Souls were cowering.
They did not dare show the slightest insolence.
In a moment Angers had failed to perceive, they seemed to have endured an experience of absolute terror.
————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my p-atre-on: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]