Capítulo 739: Because, I’m the problem.
The entire platform seed to hold its breath as Strax approached the pillar of black ice.
The air grew heavier.
Denser.
As if every particle awaited his decision—or feared what was about to happen.
rcedes felt her skin crawl imdiately.
Her instinct scread to retreat.
It wasn’t just mana there.
It was essence.
Draconic essence.
Ancient.
Authoritative.
Alive.
The pillar vibrated like a sealed heart.
The black ice pulsed in gentle waves—thump…thump…thump…—a slow cadence, but so deep it seed to reverberate within the bones.
rcedes brought her hand to her mouth.
“This… this isn’t an artifact. This is—”
“A reservoir.” Strax finished, without even looking at her.
His voice sounded deep.
Concentrated.
Almost… anxious. As if he were facing sothing that finally demanded his true attention.
The pillar’s surface reacted imdiately when he stopped before it.
Runes, extinguished for centuries, lit up like eyes opening after an eternal sleep.
Strax tilted his head, assessing the glow.
“…Hmph. So you were expecting her.”
The egg vibrated so strongly that the floating flas around it trembled, distorting as if under great pressure.
rcedes almost took two steps back—it wasn’t fear of Strax.
It was fear of what the place recognized in him.
And in the egg.
The voice of the ancient dragon—the one that had guided them there—seed to whisper through the sleeping ice.
Blood of blood… Echo of echo… Daughter who was never born…
Strax raised the egg in response.
The entire pillar pulsed.
The answer was clear.
He was welco.
— The heir is here.
Strax, however…
smiled as if he had just heard sothing all too obvious.
“The question is…”
he extended his free hand and placed his palm on the black ice,
“…how much of this can I use?”
rcedes’ eyes widened.
“STRAX, WAIT—!”
Too late.
The surface of the pillar exploded in light.
OOOOOOMMMMMMM—
Draconic energy shot upward, like a jet of raw mana, dense enough to crush any creature that wasn’t a dragon.
rcedes fell to her knees imdiately, clutching her chest as if her breath had been ripped away.
The air beca so heavy it felt like liquid.
But Strax?
He didn’t move.
Not an inch.
The torrential energy struck his hand—and was absorbed.
Straight into him. And it wasn’t a small amount.
Nor was it distant.
It was a sea.
An ocean.
An absurd amount of ancient power flowing directly into Strax’s body.
The blue light coursed through his arm like veins of inverted fire, rising to his shoulder, neck, chest, spreading like the stripes of an awakened ancestral animal.
rcedes scread:
“STRAX! YOUR BODY—”
But her voice trailed off when she realized:
Strax was… calm.
Relaxed.
As if letting water fall onto his skin.
No stiffness.
No effort.
No pain.
Just acceptance.
And control.
He clenched his fist, drawing even more energy into himself brutally and efficiently, as if breathing deeply.
The pillar began to lose its color.
The black ice turned gray.
Then white.
And then crystalline.
Finally…
CRRRRAAAAAACK—
…it transford into pure, ordinary ice, neutral, without any shine.
A corpse.
Strax opened his eyes.
The blue glow shot across his pupil like lightning before dissipating.
He sighed.
“I thought it would be more.”
rcedes gasped for air.
“‘More’…? Strax, this could have… could have destroyed you!”
He ignored the comnt.
Instead, he looked at the palm of his own hand—where the remaining draconic energy pulsed, dense and alive.
As if the power were a blue liquid, gathered in the skin.
He lifted the egg.
The hatchling inside stirred violently.
Almost bursting with anxiety.
“Calm down.”
Strax touched the shell.
And then, simply… he poured all his energy into it.
FUUUUUUUUUUM—!
The light was absorbed in a single burst straight into the egg.
rcedes watched, speechless, as blue light enveloped Strax, the egg, and even the ground around them.
The runes on the platforms lit up.
The columns trembled.
The egg shone so brightly it beca almost transparent.
Inside, sothing could be seen—sothing too big for a normal hatchling.
The wings were growing before hatching.
The body was lengthening.
The claws were thickening.
And the eyes…
Two bright eyes opened inside the shell.
rcedes fell to a sitting position.
“…this is no ordinary hatchling…”
Strax grinned, the most predatory and proud expression he had ever had since entering that tomb.
“Of course not.” He ran his hand over the egg, like soone stroking a ferocious animal about to awaken.
“I don’t need this energy.”
Strax raised his head, his warm breath escaping like steam.
“But she does.”
The vibration in the egg beca so strong that the surrounding air distorted.
It wasn’t heat.
It wasn’t cold.
It was pure power.
Strax rested the egg on his arm again and turned to rcedes.
“Her growth will be accelerated. She will be born… perfect.”
And then he walked to the center of the platform, where circular markings began to light up like gears in an awakening ritual.
rcedes tried to stand.
“Strax… what did you do to her…?”
He looked back, the smile still on his lips—wild, calm, dangerous.
“I gave her what I lack.”
rcedes blinked.
“What…?”
Strax looked ahead again, while the entire tomb responded to the growing egg as if it were the second birth of a lost empress.
“Her blessing.”
A wave of blue light swept across the floor.
The air trembled.
The egg responded with a muffled roar.
And rcedes realized:
The birth was near.
Strax raised the egg as if presenting a king.
“The world will feel it when she awakens.”
The entire cavern still vibrated with the echo of the absorbed and transferred power when Strax finally lowered his arm.
The blue light traveled along the runes on the floor, climbed the walls, and disappeared in an icy sigh that seed to pierce everything—stone, air, skin.
rcedes was still trying to recover, leaning against one of the broken pieces of column.
“So…” she whispered, her voice faltering. “What happens now…?”
Strax turned to her, holding the egg firmly. The intense glow that pulsed from within was no longer unstable—it was constant, rhythmic, full of purpose.
He gave one last look around the platform, as if checking if everything was in order.
Then he pointed with his chin to a wall to the left—a completely smooth, opaque wall, seemingly devoid of any detail.
“Now,” he murmured, “we move on.”
rcedes blinked.
“Move on…? Where to? There’s no sa—”
Strax interrupted her simply by starting to walk.
“Yes, there is.”
She stared at the solid wall, perplexed.
“But there’s NOTHING there! It’s just ice! Not even runes!”
Strax nodded, as if agreeing with sothing obvious.
“I know. That’s why nobody finds them.”
rcedes opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again.
She was tired of trying to follow Strax’s logic—which, incidentally, was rarely logical.
“And how do you know there’s sothing there…?”
“She knows.”
Strax lifted the egg.
It pulsed once—a pulse so strong that even rcedes felt it in her chest.
The wall responded.
A deep vibration ran through the ice, a low echo, almost the snore of a creature sleeping on the other side.
rcedes turned as white as freshly fallen snow.
Strax smiled.
“See?”
Before she could say anything, he continued walking toward the wall.
Without hesitation.
Like soone approaching an open door—not a solid wall.
When he positioned himself before it, the egg shone so brightly that the ice ahead looked like shadows.
rcedes’ eyes widened.
“Strax. Don’t go—”
He raised his fist.
“…Strax, NO!”
And then, with all the calm in the world, as if he were knocking down a fragile wooden door…
He punched.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The explosion shook the entire platform.
Ice flew everywhere, fragnts buzzing through the air at absurd speed.
The ground trembled, columns shook, and a frigid wind rushed through the newly opened tunnel.
rcedes fell back down, covering her face with her arms.
When he raised his head…
There was a huge hole where a wall had once stood.
A tunnel… no.
A corridor carved almost organically, wide enough for a dragon to pass through.
Bluish light pulsed inside, rhythmic with the egg in Strax.
He twisted his wrist, as if releasing the tension of the impact (which, incidentally, didn’t exist), and comnted:
“There.”
He started walking without even looking back.
rcedes followed him with her eyes, still trying to comprehend what she was doing with her own life.
“…you… you just… punched the secret passage.”
“Yeah.”
He passed through the newly created threshold.
“Faster than looking for the original entrance.”
rcedes stood with difficulty, still dazed.
“I… I don’t know if I should go with you…”
Strax stopped.
Then he turned, slowly enough so that only one eye—narrow, reptilian, gleaming blue and red—stared at her.
His expression wasn’t aggressive.
Nor threatening.
It was just… observation.
“Do you want to be alone,” he asked,
“in an ancient tomb, full of uncontrolled ancestral energy… with a dragon child about to be born… and a ritual reactivating?”
The question fell on her like an avalanche.
rcedes opened her mouth to answer, but couldn’t.
Strax continued, already turning again:
“Or do you want to accompany the only one here who knows where he’s stepping?”
The echo of his voice traveling through the newly revealed corridor sounded like a challenge.
rcedes looked around.
The platform trembled.
The runes glowed.
And the air was getting colder—much colder.
She took a deep breath.
“I… I don’t have a choice, do I?”
“Yes.”
Strax replied, walking into the dark passage.
“Stay and die.”
rcedes cursed softly.
“Great. Perfect. Excellent.”
Then she ran after him, adjusting her coat.
“I’M GOING! I’m going with you!”
Strax didn’t slow down.
“Good.”
rcedes sighed, exhausted and utterly terrified.
“…why does everything with you always turn into a nightmare?”
Strax replied with the sa naturalness with which he breathes:
“Because I’m the problem.”
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