Reborn as the Last van Ambrose

The passage from the dragon graveyard led Grim through corridors carved from stone that he didn’t recognize. The walls bore no markings. The deeper he went, the more the air seemed to thicken, making breathing harder.

Finally, the corridor opened into a chamber.

The hall stretched into darkness in all directions. Massive pillars rose from the floor, each one easily a hundred feet in diameter. The top of the pillars disappeared into the black void overhead.

At the center of this space, Grim found what he had come to stop.

Four perfectly circular holes had been carved into the floor. Their combined power created streams of energy that flowed toward the chamber’s center and then upwards towards something in the darkness.

Jiaolong stood beside the keyholes, but he was no longer the dragon Grim had been pursuing. The corruption had completed its transformation.

"You’re too late, human," Jiaolong said without turning around. His voice made the stone vibrate. "The ritual has already begun."

As if to emphasize his words, a sound echoed through the chamber—the groaning of metal. High above them, something was moving in the darkness.

Massive links of metal that had to be individually the size of buildings began to descend from the void overhead. Each chain had runic inscriptions that were hard to look at directly. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

As the chains lowered, they revealed what they had been binding.

Suspended in the center of the chamber, wrapped in countless layers of chain and magical binding, was an egg. But this wasn’t the egg of any ordinary creature—it was easily fifty feet tall. The shell seemed to be made of crystallized starlight, and as Grim watched, hairline cracks began to appear across its surface.

From those cracks, something began to seep out.

Mana. But not the colored energy Grim was familiar with. This was pure, undiluted power—colorless, yet so concentrated that it warped the air around it. Where the mana touched the stone, the rock began to change its fundamental nature.

"The Dragon Emperor," Grim breathed, understanding finally dawning.

"The answer to everything," Jiaolong confirmed, finally turning to face him. "For a thousand years, he has slept within that shell, his power contained by chains forged from dragon kings. But those chains are breaking now."

More of the colorless mana seeped from the egg, and the very air in the chamber began to vibrate. The pillars around them started to resonate, their crystallized veins pulsing faster as they responded to the awakening power.

"You don’t understand what you’re doing," Grim said, drawing his sword.

"Celestial Mist: Cross Cut"

His blade moved in precise arcs, creating afterimages that struck at Jiaolong from multiple angles. But the corrupted dragon’s response was swift. Dark energy erupted from his claws, meeting Grim’s attack and dissolving it completely.

"I understand perfectly," Jiaolong replied, his black eyes reflecting the light from the cracking egg. "I understand that the current order of things is broken. That dragons fight dragons while the real threats manipulate us from the shadows."

"Mo Xuan is the real threat!" Grim countered, launching into another attack sequence. "Celestial Mist: Thousand Paths."

This time, his blade seemed to dissolve into mist, striking from directions at once. Several cuts found their mark, drawing dark blood from Jiaolong’s corrupted body. But the dragon barely seemed to notice.

"Mo Xuan?" Jiaolong laughed, the sound echoing strangely off the resonating pillars. "Mo Xuan is a tool, just as I am a tool. Just as you are a tool. The only difference is that I know who holds my strings."

Above them, more chains fell away from the egg, each one striking the chamber floor with impacts that shook the foundation. The cracks in the shell were widening, and more of that colorless mana was seeping out.

"The Dragon Emperor will wake," Jiaolong continued, dark energy gathering around his claws as he prepared his own attack. "And when he does, he will judge this broken world and remake it into something better."

"Or Mo Xuan will possess his body and remake it into something far worse," Grim shot back, dodging as Jiaolong’s claws swept through the space where his head had been.

For the first time, doubt flickered across Jiaolong’s black eyes. "That’s impossible. The corruption protects me from—"

"The corruption is Mo Xuan’s power!" Grim interrupted, pressing his advantage. "Every piece of dark energy in your body is a leash he can pull. You’re not protected—you’re controlled!"

Jiaolong’s response was a roar of fury that made the chamber’s pillars crack. Dark energy exploded outward, forcing Grim to retreat toward one of the massive columns for cover.

"Lies," Jiaolong snarled, but his voice carried a note of uncertainty that hadn’t been there before. "Mo Xuan promised me power to reshape the realms, to prevent future wars—"

"Mo Xuan orchestrated the war that killed your mate!" Grim called out from behind the pillar. "He set up every circumstance that led to her death, all to break you down and make you susceptible to his control!"

The chamber fell silent except for the ongoing sound of chains falling and the ominous creaking of the Dragon Emperor’s shell. When Jiaolong spoke again, his voice was quieter, more dangerous.

"Prove it," he said.

But before Grim could respond, the quality of light in the chamber changed. The colorless mana seeping from the egg began to move toward the four key holes where the Dragon King’s power still pulsed.

The ritual was accelerating.

"Screw this, you only speak one language now."

Grim moved from the pillar and faced Jiaolong. As Grim moved out from the pillar the corrupted dragons that accompanied Jiaolong rushed towards Grim.

Grim stared at them as he lifted his sword above his head with one hand.

"Celestial Mist: Cleave," he shouted. As he dropped his sword toward the ground, a large wave of mana exploded from his blade. The shockwave of the technique Grim used was far stronger than anything he had accomplished before.

A large blast of Blue energy erupted from his blade as if he had just split water in two in the ocean. The mana was so intense that some of the dragons got caught in the blast. When the energy dissipated, the dragons that were caught in it were split in two.

Their lifeless bodies lay on the floor in front of Jiaolong. "Just as you got stronger in my realm. I got stronger in your realm." Grim said as he smiled at Jiaolong.