The Epic Dragon Titan

As the golden light that stretched across the sky faded, a large, charred humanoid figure began to fall to the ground. But before it could descend more than ten meters, his companions caught him. The three Legendary figures stared at Muria with a mix of terror and anger.

"He survived my attack, which means he has earned the right to live. Now it's your turn." Muria smiled slightly at the shield warrior bound by elemental chains beside him. He had intentionally held back; with his power, he could have easily annihilated the Legendary warrior, but he didn't see the point—such an act would have been a waste.

"Wait a moment," the mage suddenly called out, though Muria noticed layers of magical shields forming around him, like eggshells. It seemed the mage was trying to buy time.

"Is there a problem?" Muria raised his hand, a tiny speck of light forming at the tip of his index finger. The light gradually expanded, with black space cracks appearing around it.

"What do you mean, Marco isn't dead?"

"Marco? Is that the name of the swordsman just now?" Muria tilted his head slightly, then fired the virtual divine flash from his fingertip, aiming it straight at the Legendary mage.

In an instant, the shields the priest had cast and the mage's own defenses shattered. The beam struck the mage, and like the swordsman before, the mage's body vanished as the light faded, seemingly obliterated.

"Come out, stop hiding. Do you think I can't tell if my attack killed you?" Muria smiled at the spot where the Legendary mage had disappeared.

As soon as Muria finished speaking, the Legendary priest and rogue, who had been watching with terror, saw numerous tiny space cracks forming where the mage had stood. Elements began to seep out, condensing into a faint, thin humanoid shape, as if a gust of wind could scatter it.

"Did you deliberately spare us?" the mage asked, feeling reborn.

"What do you think?" Muria replied with a sunny smile, resembling a youthful lad. "If I wanted to kill you, you wouldn't be standing here."

Muria extended his hand, and a golden lightning bolt rapidly shot toward him from the distance, finally settling obediently in his palm.

"And what about the swordsman? You said he's fine, but I don't sense his presence."

"How about now?" Muria gently shook the Sun Spear in his hand, causing some debris to fall from the divine patterns on it. As they landed, they seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, gathering in the center and forming a thumb-sized point of light. The light shrank and expanded, its glow fading to reveal a writhing ball of flesh. The flesh quickly absorbed the surrounding elements, growing larger.

"This is Marco's aura." Seeing the flesh ball floating in front of Muria, the three Legends looked shocked. They hadn't expected the swordsman to survive such a violent attack.

"You spared his life on purpose." Seeing this, the mage understood that Muria had deliberately not killed them, rather than the Legends being exceptionally resilient. Even with great vitality, the previous attack would have utterly annihilated them.

"You never intended to kill us."

"Smart." Muria smiled warmly at the Legendary mage, like a fox eyeing a fat chicken. Legendary mages are the rarest of all professions and the most versatile, capable of offense, defense, healing, and research.

"What do you want us to do?"

"You were trying to hunt a dragon just now," Muria stated, spreading his white fingers, revealing golden scales on his palm. "And I happen to be a dragon, so you need to pay the price."

"You're a gold dragon." The human Legends were even more surprised. This behavior—attacking without warning and acting unreasonably—was vastly different from the refined image they had of gold dragons.

"That dragon was slaughtering humans indiscriminately, which is why we intervened. We had tried to stop it before, but it killed a paladin instead. In this situation, what were we supposed to do?" The Legendary priest stepped forward, trying to reason with Muria, assuming that, like other metallic dragons, he would be rational, though this one seemed different.

"You could have imprisoned or sealed it, but you mustn't kill it," Muria insisted. "No matter what, I must stand by my kin. Even if the crystal dragon is at fault, I must present a stance that it is justified. Moreover, this situation wasn't caused by the crystal dragon."

"The root cause lies with humans. It was the death of its offspring at the hands of human dragon hunters that led to this revenge," Muria explained.

"We didn't stop it from hunting the dragon hunters, but it massacres civilians. These ordinary people did nothing wrong," the priest argued, while the rogue and mage remained silent, having already realized the issue.

"Even so, you can't kill it," Muria said stubbornly, despite feeling somewhat guilty. "You must pay the price."

"What do you want us to do?" the Legendary mage asked, sensing Muria's ulterior motives.

"Sign a contract with me, serve me wholeheartedly for a thousand years, and in exchange, I will spare your companions and let you live. What do you say?" Muria shamelessly threatened the Legendary mage.

"You would use my companions' lives to threaten me?" The mage was stunned.

"No, it's not a threat, just a transaction. A thousand years of freedom in exchange for the lives of five people—a fair trade for a Legendary, just two hundred years each," Muria said with a smile, exuding a villainous aura.

The mage remained silent.

"You have fifteen minutes to decide," Muria said, holding his hand forward. The cocoon formed from the swordsman's remains rapidly expanded, emitting a heartbeat-like thumping as it nurtured a new body.

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