Black Dragon X [LitRPG • Dark Fantasy]-Chapter 44 - 43 : Truth of the Mountain

Skyler was crawling. His fingers dug into the rock, leaving streaks of blood. He couldn’t stand.

He tried. He fell. His breaths tore through his chest like broken glass.

Kai was ahead of him. Lying there. Still. Close... Very close and yet farther than ever.

Skyler reached his hand out.

The threads moved. Slowly. Tauntingly. As if they were unafraid. They advanced toward Kai. A centimeter.

Skyler froze. He lifted his head with difficulty.

She was there.

Kanade.

Standing at the rocky edge. Her hair unmoving. Her eyes fixed. And the threads... they breathed around her.

"Stop..."

His voice came out weak.

She didn’t respond. Another thread slid closer to Kai’s chest. Skyler crawled violently. His knees slipped. He fell onto his side.

A crack split the ceiling. The sound of stone breaking loose. He looked up. The rock was falling toward him. He didn’t move away. He had no strength.

Her shadow covered his face. For a moment, a cold thought crossed his mind:

" Maybe everything ends here."

The threads trembled. One of them surged not toward him, but toward the stone. It shifted its course. The rock struck the side. Dust scattered.

Silence fell.

Kanade spoke quietly:

"Not like this."

He crawled again. Every movement tore at his muscles. His hand touched something wet. He looked.

Blood.

He hesitated. Then clenched his fingers around it. The threads were now above Kai, dangling slowly.

Skyler tried to ignite the light. A spark. It went out. He tried again. Nothing. A faint laugh :

—"I didn’t expect..."

She took a single step forward. The rock beneath her foot lowered, as if making way.

—"To think the bearer of the First Ray Stone... would be this weak."

He gritted his teeth.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about..."

The threads wrapped around his wrist. They didn’t tighten. They just... stopped him. He stretched out his other hand. Another thread caught it.

He was suspended between the ground and Kai. His eyes lifted to her. Her expression didn’t change.

She raised her hand slightly. The threads above Kai stopped. Then, They moved toward Skyler. One slid close to his face. The air froze. The second slipped behind his head.

—"The resonance within you... is hesitant."

He tried to scream. The sound stuck. Kanade whispered near his ear:

—"Choose... as others have chosen."

The two threads settled on either side of his head. They ignited. The stone glowed then went dark. The resonance expanded, branching inside his skull like a crack in glass.

Skyler tried to move. His body didn’t respond. The ground receded. Kai faded. Kanade became a faceless shadow. The sound intensified.

Pulse.

Pulse.

Pulse.

Not his pulse. Something else. Something older. The air compressed around him.Then, It shattered. He fell. No body. No gravity. Only dense darkness... breathing.

A flash.Far away.A voice he didn’t know and didn’t know how he knew:

"You were the chosen one."

The darkness cracked. And the light... entered.

—

Sun. Burning. The Drakhaen Kingdom.

Kanade stood in the center of a stone courtyard. Her hair shone beneath the light. In her hand... a stone. It didn’t radiate power. It pulsed. Her hand trembled. The voice returned:

"He didn’t choose me because I was the strongest."

The stone flared suddenly. Not an explosion an acknowledgment.

"But because I heard it."

Cut.

—

A sword gleamed. Commander Daemon stood beside her. Shoulder to shoulder. No words. Only respect. Nameless monsters surged from the mist twisted bodies, broken voices.

Kanade raised her hand. The sun exploded in the sky.

Daemon charged first. His blade carved an arc of dark fire.

Kaguchi followed behind them.

A spell tore open the air. The monsters retreated. No fear. Only harmony.

Cut.

—

A village. Children ran between the houses. A woman laughed. A man raised his hand in thanks. Kanade sat on a rock. The stone rested calmly in her palm.

Daemon stood at a distance, watching her. No doubt in his eyes. Only trust.

A child approached her, asked something. She laughed short, genuine. The sun behind her formed a halo. The voice within the shadow:

"I thought the light would be enough."

Cut.

—

The sun stood high. The village was protected. Daemon extended his hand to help her up. She took it.

A silent moment.

No betrayal yet. No dragon’s shadow. No fire.

Only light.

—

In the darkness, Skyler saw the scene crack. A whisper brushed his ear:

"So... Lilithia wasn’t the first.....!!!"

The resonance grew. The sun shattered. And the past began to burn.

—

The light dimmed.

The village remained but the shadows stretched longer. The air turned cold.

Kanade turned. The stone in her hand pulsed faster. Daemon raised his head. Above them A shadow. Not a body. Not a defined shape.

Just a black expanse erasing the sky. Sounds faded. Even the wind choked. A whisper not heard by the ear, but inside the bone:

—"It is time."

Daemon’s eyes widened. His grip tightened on his sword.

"But..."

Kanade looked at him. She smiled faintly, as if asking whether he heard it too.

The whisper returned:

—"The light has exceeded its limit."

A shadow took form. The outline of a vast, boundless Black dragon. Two eyes opened in the darkness.

—"Stop her."

Silence.

Daemon froze.

—"If you don’t... everything will burn."

His hand trembled.

—"She ... the First Ray Stone."

( First Ray Stone = the first name of the Sun stone )

—"Exactly."

The look in his eyes changed. Not hatred. Not greed. Fear. Heavy fear of something greater than himself. Kanade stepped closer.

"Daemon?"

He didn’t answer. The Black dragon’s shadow coiled around him like an invisible restraint. The final whisper:

—"This is an order."

The stone in her hand pulsed violently.

The scene fractured.

—

Night.

The same mountain. The same place.

The village lay beyond the slope small, warm lights. Kanade stood at the front. The stone ignited. Daemon stood beside her. Silent.

From the mist, Shapes emerged. No names. No faces. Only lethal intent. The wind lashed.

Kanade raised her hand. The sun was born in the night. A burst of light tore through the darkness. The shapes recoiled.

Daemon charged. His sword split the ground. Dark fire carved a boundary before the village.

"They won’t pass."

His voice was steady. But his eyes searched for her.

She fought without hesitation. Every strike a dawn. Every step protection. Cries rose from the slope. Children.

She clenched her fist. The stone answered. Greater light. Wider.

Daemon saw it. Saw the expansion. Saw the danger the shadow had warned of.

The whisper returned:

—"Now."

His sword lowered. Just one moment. Their eyes met. In hers trust. In his conflict.

Fire rose around them. The village trembled.

And Daemon... Still hadn’t decided.

—

Then, The light reached its peak. Kanade raised the stone. The sun was about to be born again.

"I will protect them."

She smiled.

Daemon moved. One step. Then, The sword didn’t strike her. It struck the stone. A sideways blow. Not fatal.

But It altered the course. The stone shuddered. The light faltered. The dragon’s voice returned heavier, deeper:

—"Now."

The energy reflected. The light that surged forward twisted, reversed, and hurled itself back at her.

Her eyes widened. No betrayal there. Only disbelief.

"Daemon...?"

The explosion wasn’t loud. It was muffled like a sun crushed inside a human body. Fire ignited from within. Cracks of light spread beneath her skin.

The stone screamed. Daemon reached out Too late.

"Stop!"

But the command had already been given. The light devoured her. Her knees buckled.

The mountain shook. The sun went out. Her body fell. Slowly. Silence. The stone rolled from her hand... then stopped.

Daemon stood there. His hands trembled. The shadow withdrew. And it was done.

—

A heavy silence.

Then, Screams. Not of battle. But of homes breaking. The Drakhaen army descended the slope. Black banners swept past like a storm.

A door burst open. A child screamed. The sound cut short. A small hand fell onto the dirt. Fire rose. Wooden houses burned easily.

The sky turned red. No faces. No words. Only Burning. And the mountain bore witness.

—

Ash covered the slope. Kanade’s body no longer moved. But the stone... It pulsed. Slowly. One beat.

Two. A thread of light emerged.

It didn’t rise to the sky. It sank into the rock. Into the heart of the mountain.

A soul clung on. Not free. Not alive. But not extinguished. Her voice, distant, like a memory sealed in stone:

"I... am here."

The mountain answered with silence.

Years passed in a blink.

Storms.

Snow.

Blood.

The mountain remained.

It carried.

It recorded.

It waited.

—

The darkness cracked.

The voice faded.

The memory closed.

—

"Enough."

The word didn’t come out as a full scream it shattered halfway. Skyler dropped to his knees. His breaths broke. His hand pressed into his chest. That pulse It wasn’t his. It sped up. Lagged.

Then returned, in a strange rhythm as if another heart was trying to assert itself. He slowly lifted his eyes.

The world hadn’t changed... But his way of seeing it had. The images of the past hadn’t vanished. They hadn’t faded. They clung to him, like an open scar.

The hand.

The strike.

The broken light.

A choice that wasn’t a battle but a decision. He remembered the stone. Not as power. Not as legacy. But as something he never chose.

He didn’t scream. He didn’t fight. He didn’t resist. He simply stared ahead As if seeing a path not yet opened, but knowing he would walk it.