In a forest on the outskirts of the city of Auria, two men glared fiercely at a third.
The silence stretched on until one of them—dressed in a black robe embroidered with a white dragon on the back—broke it. His youthful face held firm, determined eyes, and his very presence gave him the heroic aura of a novel's protagonist. His long red hair seemed alive, burning like flame.
He wasn't exactly slender, but he still stood in stark contrast to the other man—towering over him at twice his height, his massive frame literally worth two ordinary men. This giant also wore a robe, its back adorned with a bull's head. His dark skin gleamed even in the night, and his closely cropped hair and neatly trimmed beard gave him an imposing, authoritative air.
"Let's settle this once and for all, here and now," declared the red-haired youth, his blue eyes glinting with fierce, icy light.
"Alexander," the giant replied, "I'll show you just how great the difference between us is." From his outstretched hands burst a radiant glow, forming a circle in the air inscribed with runes—an arcane seal used only to summon monsters above Supreme rank. "Let's see who defeats theirs faster! Ten thousand mana crystals on the line," he said, nodding toward the third man, who watched their exchange with utter indifference.
"Don't regret losing later, old Dan," Alexander shot back confidently.
Then he too began his summoning. It took less than a second: in the blink of an eye, a two-hundred-meter crack tore open the forest floor, swallowing trees in its path. From it rose massive horns and the enormous body of a Minotaur—at least fifteen meters tall. The roar that issued from its throat made the entire woodland tremble.
Above them, clouds churned, and a colossal bolt of lightning split the sky, materializing into a white dragon nearly twenty meters long. Its body, wreathed in lightning, warped the air with every movement and sent sparks flying like fireworks.
The third man remained impassive, shrouded head to toe in a brown cloak. Only fragments of his face and a long black beard were visible beneath the hood.
"They are magnificent beasts, I must admit," said the cloaked figure.
Dan laughed. "Your good taste won't spare your life—but I can grant you a swift death."
At higher ranks, quality outweighs quantity. Rather than summoning hordes of lesser creatures, masters pour all their resources into developing a single, supremely powerful monster. The stronger the beast, the more mana cores it occupies—boosting its combat might and resilience, and granting it advanced self-preservation techniques. That's why slaying a Transcendent is so extraordinarily difficult.
"I have a better idea," the cloaked man said with sarcasm. "Let's pretend none of this ever happened. I take the crystal and leave. You keep your lives, and I keep the crystal."
"Sounds fair enough," the man in the brown cloak said sarcastically.
Alexander, who had been silent until then, raised his arm, signaling the dragon that hovered majestically in the sky. In response, the creature opened its mouth, revealing a sphere wreathed in chaotic golden lightning, pulsing with wild energy.
Without hesitation, the dragon unleashed its attack at the mysterious summoner.
A beam of white light ripped through the sky, flooding the dark forest and turning night into day for a fleeting moment.
"Very well, if that's how you want it… let's fight," the cloaked man declared, a macabre smile on his lips.
He raised his hands and, with precise gestures, activated a transcendent seal that flared into pale flames.
Above the rune circle, a spatial distortion opened—a black rift hanging in midair. As though tearing reality itself, a colossal, shadowy claw emerged from the tear.
First the claws appeared, then the rest of the figure—at first glance a dragon. But unlike the noble white dragon above, this creature was dark, shrouded in a dense mist that devoured every scrap of light around it.
Once fully manifested, it unleashed a devastating black lightning bolt that slammed into the dragon's luminous beam, triggering a cataclysmic impact that made the very air vibrate.
The collision roared like a gale, hurling everything into chaos. Trees were ripped from the soil and shattered like brittle paper.
When the smoke cleared, the cloaked man spotted a massive slab of rock—over twenty meters across—hurtling toward him at incredible speed.
With a powerful swipe of its tail, the mist-shrouded dragon pulverized the boulder into thousands of fragments, none of which even grazed the mysterious summoner.
"That guy's tough," Dan remarked.
"Let's go all out, or it'll get problematic if we drag this out," Alexander agreed.
With a simple, instinctive motion, both men ordered their beasts to attack.
The Minotaur charged, swinging a titanic fist, while the white dragon lunged, its fangs crackling with lightning. The shadow dragon met the onslaught with supernatural agility—melting into its mist and vanishing from sight before reappearing beside the Minotaur. It phased through the blow and deflected it with a shield of black energy.
Meanwhile, the white dragon's electrified bite struck the shadow barrier, which absorbed and dissipated the surging power in sparks of darkness.
With a guttural roar that echoed through the trees, the shadow dragon drove its razor-sharp claws into the earth, unleashing a devastating shockwave that sent both attackers flying.
As they recovered, the beasts launched themselves back into the fray with lightning speed.
While the creatures battled, the three summoners maintained their positions, locked in a fierce, unyielding duel.
Having put distance between themselves and the area where the creatures fought, the treetops were being torn apart and explosions erupted seemingly out of nowhere—actually the result of attacks so fast they were invisible to the naked eye.
As the battle raged on, the clash of beasts reached insane levels. The Minotaur, with the brute strength of a titan, advanced with devastating blows, while the white dragon unleashed searing strikes, its lightning slashing the air with deadly precision. With each assault, the shadow dragon responded by melding its essence with darkness, absorbing part of the energy and countering with unpredictable maneuvers that defied the laws of physics around it.
Explosions and flying debris transformed the forest into a scene of chaos, where the thunder of impacts blended with the wind's roar, sweeping along shards of rock and dancing leaves.
While the beasts waged their epic duel, the three men held strategic positions at the edge of the central turmoil.
Alexander raised his hand and, with a precise gesture, channeled a wave of energy that formed a shimmering barrier, shielding his allies from the deadly splinters. Dan moved lightly atop the rubble, his eyes alert to every shift in the battlefield and his actions calculated to exploit any gap in the enemy's defenses.
The man in the brown cloak, who had been calm moments before, was now showing clear signs of fatigue.
At the heart of the clash, the shadow dragon continued to defend itself with skill. In a crucial instant, it spun on its heel, condensing the black mist around it into an almost impenetrable shield that briefly dispersed the impact of the Minotaur's and the white dragon's strikes.
With a menacing roar, it unleashed another wave of dark energy that spiraled through the air like a serpent, driving back its foes and throwing off their attacks.
Although the dragon had held its own against the mighty beasts at first, it soon began to suffer serious wounds—after all, it was facing opponents of comparable rank, truly magnificent adversaries.
The man in the brown cloak grew uneasy, realizing he had underestimated them—and by the way things were going, he would not win this fight, something he didn't want to see happen.
Swiftly, he dispelled the summoning, recalling the dragon to his side. Then he drew a dark crystal from his sleeve and crushed it in his hand, causing it to vanish.
The two men, seeing the cloaked figure disappear, were furious.
"Coward! He ran!" Alexander shouted.
"It wasn't exactly a fair duel," Dan sighed.
"At least we forced his escape route. It looked like a teleport crystal—let's find him. He can't have gone far."
They dispelled their own summons, recalled their monsters, and shot into the sky in pursuit of the mysterious summoner.
*****
As he sped through the city's alleys, Arngrim—a thief unmatched in his craft, the finest in Volkavia, famous for purloining extraordinary treasures—knew nothing could slip through his fingers.
In Auria, the director of the Almost Academy had recently obtained a rare crystal from a natural source while investigating a hidden realm. That tip led Arngrim here, and he stole it—never expecting to face not only the director but another Master of equal renown.
Humiliated, he'd been forced to flee, expending his trump card—teleport crystals are scarce even for Masters. Wounded more severely than he'd realized and barely able to fly, he needed a hideout to rest and recover before leaving the city. Breaking into a house and eliminating its occupants in silence would be as easy as crushing ants—anyone below Transcendent rank posed no challenge.
Yet his luck could turn sour if he picked a powerful summoner's home. With that thought, Arngrim slipped farther from the center into the suburbs, where he found a seemingly ordinary neighborhood.
Ignoring any residents, he forced the door lock and entered, careful not to cause excessive damage that might draw attention—he was still on the run.
Inside, nothing special awaited him—an utterly ordinary house, save for its filthy condition and cobweb-choked corners. Abandoned, perhaps? "My luck's changing," he thought.
Once inside, he crashed onto an old sofa without ceremony, needing only a brief rest before driving on.
As the adrenaline faded, he felt deep cuts and bruises covering his body.
"Later," he murmured. "I'll come back, beat them senseless, and steal so much they'll be left in their underwear."
*****
In a dark bedroom, a glow flared in Marcelo's hands. A tiny light faded out and, as it touched the foot of the bed, revealed an apparently ordinary brick pulsing with a soft luminescence.
Suddenly, a whispering voice drifted from the brick:
"Food… Delicious…"