Returning to the wyvern squad, Dax was welcod by a massive dark-steel fortress that towered into the night sky like a blade forged from the void itself. The walls rose impossibly high—smooth, seamless obsidian-black tal veined with faint silver circuitry that pulsed like slow heartbeats. Each corner bristled with a burly twin-barreled blaster turret—ship sweepers, their long muzzles tracking the sky with chanical patience, ready to shred anything foolish enough to approach from above.
Dax stepped forward without pause. Behind him marched twenty goblins—smaller than 01, yet already taller and more muscular than the feral packs he had slaughtered earlier. Their dark-green skin glead under the moonlight; eyes glinted with a mix of fear and feral curiosity. At the rear walked 01—towering, serpentine-eyed, the jagged cutlass slung across its back like a promise of violence.
On reaching the gate, Dax ca to a halt. He placed one palm flat against the cold tal.
"Registered." Inerous's voice echoed softly in his mind, calm and precise.
Instantly the massive gate groaned—a short, deafening tallic scream that vibrated through bone and stone. Then it rose, sliding upward with the slow inevitability of a guillotine in reverse. Dust and faint steam drifted from the edges as the entrance yawned open.
Inside, Dax's gaze fell imdiately on a huge grey cannon dominating the central courtyard. It was easily thirty ters long, barrel thick as a house, mounted on a rotating platform that humd with restrained power. He walked straight to it, circling slowly, studying the intricate coolant veins, the glowing energy conduits, the faint scorch marks along the muzzle that spoke of test firings.
The goblins behind him fanned out, heads swiveling in deep curiosity and shock—except for 01, who stood motionless, serpentine eyes fixed straight ahead, cutlass still gripped tightly.
A planet sweeper, Dax thought, eyes widening slightly. How did she manage this with the limited materials I gave her?
He placed one hand on the cold tal, feeling the faint vibration of dormant power.
"Isn't this a bit much?" he murmured.
His voice was barely audible, but a mischievous silver orb imdiately hovered into view.
"Welco, Master!"
Ceron's lens spun with unrestrained excitent, body tilting left and right like an eager child.
"What do you think of your base, Master?"
Dax reached out and touched the tallic sheen of her cold silver surface—gentle, almost affectionate.
"It is perfect," he said. "But why create a planet sweeper?"
Ceron's body dipped in an exaggerated, comical bow.
"Ooooh! Master, that is not a planet sweeper. Though that was initially my plan, but the resources were not enough."
She spun once in mock despair.
"So your most incredible assistant sat sad and lost. Then this great assistant decided to create a small sothing called the Continent Banger—but my baby is not yet complete."
She dropped her body lower in theatrical exaggeration, lens dimming as though pouting.
Dax chuckled—low, genuine.
"When did you beco a weapons smith?"
"Really, Master, I don't know. Maybe I was just born that way." She spun behind him, lens locking onto the twenty goblins and the towering 01.
"Master… what are those?"
"They are goblins."
Dax continued walking forward. Ceron's lens lingered on them for a long mont—then she zipped back to his side with sudden haste.
"But these don't look like the ones in the strange story book you have in your library."
"It's not a story," Dax replied, knocking lightly on her tallic surface with one knuckle. "These ones have been genetically modified by ."
He paused, hand still behind his back.
"Ceron—call them out for ."
—
Monts later, in the massive estate at the heart of the dragon squad's new base, every mber of the wyvern squad stood in formation before Dax.
Beside them waited Cain, Little Purple, and Nadia—silent, watchful.
"My god…" Anastas breathed, eyes glued to the twenty goblins and the towering 01. "What are those creatures? If I were crazy, I would say those are goblins."
The team nodded in unison—murmurs of shock rippling through them.
Zain, however, had eyes only for 01 and the jagged, venom-dripping cutlass across its back. He didn't care what the creature was. His mind replayed the banquet fight—the humiliating ease with which Dax had dismantled him—then the display against rlin, the chain of impossible events since. Sothing inside him had shifted.
Instead of being a toy… I will bend and beco a chess piece.
A faint aura leaked from Zain—controlled, deliberate. He had chosen his opponent.
"Today your training comnces in the artificial battlefield," Dax announced. "There, everything you need to grow battle-wise is provided."
He didn't need to greet them. They already stood at attention.
Dax snapped his fingers.
Reality folded.
In an instant they teleported—air rippling, space bending—into a vast sci-fi gymnasium. Strange floating blobs drifted lazily near the ceiling; rows of sleek capsules lined the walls, glowing faintly with diagnostic lights. The floor was smooth black alloy; the chamber was massive—easily large enough to accommodate the wyverns at full wingspan.
"After this training, each of you will be granted access to this room. You just have to register your fingerprint here."
He gestured to a sleek panel embedded in the wall.
The squad stared at him like he held lost, forbidden knowledge.
"Did you see how we got teleported here?" Mimi whispered to Hanna.
"We all saw," Hanna murmured back. "But I still can't wrap my head around how any of this is possible without mana."
Dax snapped his fingers again.
The artificial battlefield transford.
Dark walls burned away in a cascade of dissolving pixels; reality rewrote itself. An alien landscape unfolded—jagged crimson rock spires piercing a violet sky, rivers of glowing green liquid winding between them, distant storms crackling with purple lightning.
"Amazing…" The squad breathed in unison.
Anastas looked at his team with terrified eyes, then back at Dax.
This is no man.
Dax t his gaze.
A devilish smile curved his lips—slow, knowing, as though he had heard his thought loud and clear.
Anasta felt the weight of that smile settle over.
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