Ali stood still, watching silently as his summoned dragon finished devouring the last of the eggs stuck to the ceiling. Its obsidian scales gleamed faintly in the ambient blue glow of the cavern, streaks of gore and shattered egg remnants sliding off its jagged snout. Once the deed was done, the great head gave one last low, guttural growl that vibrated through the ground before obediently turning toward its master.
Without a word, Ali raised his hand.
With that simple motion, the dragon understood. It began to descend directly downward—its massive form melting through the air like ink dissolving in water. A massive black shadow bloomed beneath Ali's feet, growing wider and darker until it consumed more than half of the cavern floor.
The enormous dragon head, with its thick ridges and ancient power, slipped seamlessly into that black void. Its glowing purple eyes faded last, disappearing below the surface.
The moment it vanished, the shadow snapped back into shape, shrinking rapidly until it returned to its normal form beneath Ali's boots.
"I'll call you Shadow then," Ali muttered under his breath, his voice echoing faintly in the now-silent cave. "Actually… I'll call every version of you Shadow."
It was the truth. Ali understood that what he summoned wasn't a real dragon—not in the conventional sense. It was an extension of Bahamut, forged from the elder dragon's power, crafted specifically for him. It was a personal weapon given form.
Without wasting another moment, Ali turned away from the blood-soaked arena of his battle and stepped into a secondary tunnel at the far side of the cavern. The path was narrow, curling upward like a winding mountain trail carved deep into the earth.
Frigid air still lingered, brushing against his bare torso, but with every step the temperature climbed, bit by bit, like an invisible shroud lifting off his skin. The further he ascended, the more the cold retreated, replaced by dry warmth and the rough scent of dust and stone.
The terrain changed as well—sharper rocks, looser gravel, and the unmistakable sound of small fragments cracking under his footsteps. There were no magic crystals here. No shimmering lights. No vapour trails of death.
Just stone, silence, and the evidence of death.
Ali stopped abruptly as he turned a corner and came upon the next stretch of tunnel—and what he found made him pause.
'It must have been the mother spider's work…' he thought, his black eyes narrowing.
The path was littered with bodies—twisted, frozen, and shattered remains of smaller spiders strewn across the passage like discarded armour.
Dozens of them. Some curled inwards as if frozen mid-tremble, others ripped apart, their thin blue shells cracked open like eggs. Despite the similar features—light blue exoskeletons, crystalline veins, sharp fang structures—they were all much smaller than the mother he had just slain. Roughly human-sized, they were likely offspring—or perhaps even the unfortunate mates of the monstrous queen.
Ali knelt near one and examined its half-shattered skull, still embedded with frost along the edges.
"EAT."
He didn't raise his voice. He didn't have to.
From the shadow beneath him, a sliver of darkness surged forward, and the familiar snout of the dragon slid out—a smaller portion of the great beast, just enough to fit within the narrow confines of the tunnel. With a low rumble, it dragged the corpses of the spiders into the darkness one by one. The corpses slid into the blackness like meat into a grinder, gone in seconds.
Ali stood and resumed his pace, stepping through what was now a cleared corridor. He moved with sharp purpose, boots crunching the last shards of ice underfoot.
'Could've been the mother spider mating and killing all the males before laying the eggs… Happens on Earth too,' he mused casually, unfazed by the brutality. Life and death followed the same rhythms, no matter the world.
It took another full minute of steady, powerful strides before something new pierced the gloom ahead—sunlight.
Ali's eyes adjusted instantly to the warm golden beam streaming in through the broken end of the path. A hole. A natural breach in the stone wall.
With a burst of energy, Ali surged forward, his muscles tightening and releasing like coiled wire as he darted up the final incline. Thick green bushes surrounded the mouth of the tunnel, shrouding it from view. Beams of light cut through the leaves, sparkling like holy fire against the dust and gloom.
Ali pushed his way through, parting the foliage with his bare hands—and emerged.
For a heartbeat, he simply stared.
'Massive… I've never seen anything like it.'
He stood in the middle of a colossal forest, one that defied logic and dwarfed anything he had seen on Earth or in Paradise so far. The trees were so tall they vanished into the sky, their bark wide enough that dozens of men could stand shoulder to shoulder around just one. Their trunks twisted upward like towers of living stone, clothed in layers of thick moss, glimmering vines, and age-old scars.
Ali craned his head all the way back and still couldn't find the top of the nearest tree.
He was in a jungle built for titans.
He took a breath.
And immediately, his entire body responded.
'Incredible… the air is so dense…' He paused, taking in another slow, steady breath. It wasn't just dense. It pushed against him—pressed into his skin. The very atmosphere buzzed with energy, like walking through invisible waves of warm pressure.
It wasn't just air. It was magic. Alive. Pulsating. Saturated with unseen potential.
He looked around again. No sign of creatures. No immediate danger. But…
He could hear everything.
Bird calls echoed through the forest canopy in strange, melodic tones. Heavy footsteps—or perhaps paws—thudded in the distance. Branches creaked. Wind howled gently between leaves. Life was everywhere. Big life.
Ali didn't smile, but he felt the adrenaline stir again.
'First off…' he thought as he turned and walked back toward the thick patch of bush he had emerged from. He crouched down and carefully inspected the narrow opening.
It was easy to miss from the outside—tucked between massive boulders and the thick roots of a tree the size of a castle. Ali began to pile nearby rocks, shifting and stacking them carefully until they completely sealed the cave entrance. Once done, it looked like nothing more than a natural break in the earth, overgrown and forgotten.
'Those crystals are called magic crystals. They could be this world's gold—or something even rarer. Better to keep that to myself for now…' he thought, giving one last glance at the hidden cave.
Then, with a thought, he summoned his interface and looked at his map.
A blinking dot.
West.
Ali's mind flashed to the purple goblins he'd fought before—their erratic speed, sharp instincts, and cruelty. And now, there were hundreds. With magic. And one that was really big.
He exhaled slowly, then sprinted forward.
His boots slammed into the soft earth of the forest, kicking up leaves as he ran with incredible pace. As he moved, he pulled an item from his inventory—his black and gold mask—and affixed it over his face, hiding his identity beneath the glinting metal.
Behind him, his long white coat fluttered like a banner, the black dragon emblem on its back flickering between sun and shadow.
Ali's torso remained exposed to the elements, his abdomen tensing as the warm wind licked against his skin.
Ali surged through the colossal forest, his pace swift but smooth, weaving through the roots and undergrowth like a shadow on the move. His every step was calculated, each stride designed to conserve momentum without alerting the creatures that stirred high above.
He could feel them—many of them—lurking in the towering trees. Creatures with predatory breath, curious eyes, and ancient instincts. His Force sense prickled with life signatures above the canopy, nestled among branches and leaves as thick as boulders. Yet Ali didn't stop. He had a destination. His mind was locked onto Miles' beacon, and each second wasted was a second closer to the boy's death.
Then—thud. Another thud. Not above. Ahead.
Ali's pace halted. He instantly dropped to a crouch and pressed his fingers to the soil, reading the vibrations the way an assassin reads a heartbeat. Something massive. Running.
'Something is running here…' he thought, narrowing his gaze.
Without hesitation, he bolted to the nearest tree and scaled it like a phantom. In seconds, Ali had climbed forty meters high, his boots silently pressing against the bark until he reached a thick, sturdy branch that jutted out into the forest. He crouched there, every muscle calm but coiled, eyes locked forward.
That's when he saw it—the beast.
A black panther, but no panther from Earth. Its body was long, muscular, and unnaturally large—easily the size of a small bus—and it ran with staggering grace despite its injuries. Across its velvety black fur were glowing purple spots, each one shimmering like a constellation on the surface of a night sky. From those spots crackled faint traces of purple electricity, dancing over the panther's sleek frame like static caught in motion.
It was beautiful. Majestic. A deadly predator.
And it was dying.
Blood poured freely from three deep gouges in its side, long and savage—slashes that resembled talons, sharpened and curved like a raptor's. The panther limped with every stride, its body shivering with agony and fear.
Ali's eyes sharpened.
'It has purple electricity over the purple spots… does every animal here use magic or something? And is the size of a dragon?' he mused silently, fascinated by the exotic biology of this world.
The panther skidded to a halt beneath the very tree Ali stood on, its golden eyes darting left and right with raw desperation. Its muscles tensed, ears flattened. It sensed its end was near.
Then—silence fell.
The wind shifted.
A vast shadow stretched over the forest clearing, enveloping the panther in darkness. Ali slowly looked up, his breath catching at the scale of what now approached from above.
A colossal eagle, its wingspan wide enough to blanket entire buildings, glided silently down from the canopy. Its feathers were silver like steel, gleaming against the sun, and its talons—were already extended for the kill. A low rush of displaced wind shook the branches as it descended in terrifying silence.
Death from the sky.
The panther saw it too.
With a defiant growl, it leapt into the air one final time, purple lightning exploding across its body as it launched toward the incoming predator like a bolt of vengeance.
BOOOOOOOM
The forest shook.
Ali's coat rippled in the sudden gust as the eagle's wings unleashed a shockwave of silvery wind. The blast shattered the panther's upward leap, slamming the beast into the forest floor with spine-cracking force. Before it could twitch, the eagle's talons plunged downward and severed its head clean off, sending a gruesome spray of blood across the underbrush.
The eagle landed with brutal grace, its wings folding as it crouched over its kill. It wasted no time—its beak struck like a spear, pecking at the neck wound and ripping away a strip of flesh.
But then the eagle froze.
Its head jerked up.
And it saw him.
Ali stood atop the branch, still as a statue, his black eyes meeting the eagle's silvery gaze. They were at eye level now—two apex predators in a standoff. But only one had backup.
Ali didn't move.
He simply raised his hand. Closed his fingers into a fist.
ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAR
A thunderous roar unlike anything this forest had ever known erupted from behind the eagle. It shook the trees. Birds scattered. Branches cracked. And from the shadow of the trees behind it, a monstrous black maw burst into existence.
Shadow had arrived.
Before the eagle could even react, Shadow's massive razor-lined jaw clamped down on its right wing, biting through feathers, bone, and flesh with explosive force.
CRUNCH
KAAAAAAAAAA
The eagle screeched in confusion and agony, its majestic wing now lying in a pool of silver feathers on the ground. It turned rapidly, slashing with its other talon—but there was nothing there. No attacker in sight.
Then—a black gate yawned open in the sky above its head, pulsing with an ancient hunger.
SNAP
Shadow's jaws came down again. This time, on the eagle's head. It decapitated the creature in an instant, swallowing its skull before lunging at the rest of the massive corpse. Despite the eagle's body being larger than the dragon head itself, it vanished down its throat like an illusion being erased.
Ali, still standing on the branch, didn't flinch.
"The panther too," he called out casually, eyes still locked on the fading mist of blood.
With a rumbling roar of satisfaction, Shadow turned and descended on the decapitated panther's body. It crunched through bones, fur, and sparks of lingering purple lightning, devouring the carcass like a morsel.
Ali dropped from the branch, landing silently beside the fresh soil. His boots touched down like a whisper.
'It's just unfair… A dragon that can teleport anywhere with unstoppable teeth against beasts. Even if they're magical, Shadow will almost always win if the power is close enough…' Ali thought as he watched his summon finish the cleanup.
Then, without a word, Ali turned and ran once more. His coat billowed behind him like a battle flag, the black dragon emblem across his back glinting under scattered rays of sunlight. Each stride took him deeper into this supernatural wilderness. Every second brought him closer to the goblins.
His Spirit ticked upward with each passing moment, slowly replenishing.
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