"Look at what's happening over here!"
In the observation room, one of the tutors had his eyes fixed on the projection of the Endless Abyss. Several dragon-blood warriors were moving strangely, but it was Vaskar who stood out most.
"Are those invaders… sick?" another tutor asked, narrowing his eyes.
He activated his divine projection and zoomed in on the scene. The image became clear: Vaskar,one of the top-tier dragon-blood elites, nearly pure-blood, was roaring and thrashing like a beast out of control.
"Is this some kind of environmental magic in Cillian's domain? Something that makes enemies turn on each other?" one asked, frowning.
"No," said a second tutor, enlarging the view. "This doesn't look like an illusion or crowd control. It's just him. Vaskar's the only one going mad."
"Wait… look at his scales. That's not just madness,his anatomy is changing."
On the screen, Vaskar howled in pain. His muscles twisted unnaturally, skin tearing open as distorted growths formed all over his body. Sarcomas, malformed organs,it was like his biology was rejecting itself. In his agony, he unleashed wild bursts of dragonic magic, attacking anything in sight. Soldiers, slaves, even empty air,nothing was safe.
Within minutes, he had killed hundreds. The others fled from him in terror, too scared to fight back.
The tutors watched in stunned silence.
"His body's breaking down. That's it,his bloodline was unstable to begin with. It's collapsing under the strain," one of them muttered.
Another nodded. "He's strong, sure, but not a pure dragon. Dragon-blood clans are barely stable as it is. This chaotic energy is tearing him apart."
They knew how the dragon-blood lineage worked. Descendants of true dragons and lesser species, they were treated as tools,sometimes warriors, sometimes slaves. Even the strongest of them, like Vaskar, were never considered real dragons. Some could mimic dragonic magic, but they would never match the blood of a true wyrm.
Still, what they were seeing now defied all of that.
"Raaagh!"
Vaskar fell to his knees, body twitching uncontrollably. He was unrecognizable,covered in tumors, flesh bubbling, blood pouring from his eyes, ears, mouth.
The other elites stepped back. One of them clenched his weapon tightly.
"We have no choice. He's lost it. We need to put him down before he kills anyone else."
The rest raised their weapons without hesitation. Though none matched Vaskar's peak strength, together they stood a chance,if they acted fast.
But just as they prepared to strike, Vaskar lifted his head.
The moment his eyes met theirs, they froze.
An aura burst from him,thick, suffocating.The kind that only real dragons possessed. The group didn't move. Couldn't move. They were like mice staring into a lion's mouth.
"…I'm fine."
The pressure vanished.
Vaskar stood, weakly but steadily, and looked around in confusion. "You… uh… are you guys okay?"
They were speechless. This was the same Vaskar who, seconds ago, was screaming about corruption, burning comrades alive, and tearing apart soldiers. And now he was asking if they were okay?
"Not only am I fine," he said, raising his arm and showing his newly reformed scales, "I've crossed the limit. My bloodline evolved. I've become a pure-blood."
Everyone stared. The pattern on his arm,it was the mark of pure dragons.
"I don't know what's wrong with this place," he said, his pupils glowing red with hunger, "but whatever it is… this world's a gift."
"There's a secret here,something that can push bloodlines further."
——x——-
"What the hell!?" one of the the yelled from the observation room.
"Did that creature just become a true dragon?! In the middle of an assessment?!"
"That shouldn't be possible! Bloodline reversal like that,it's like his genes were rewritten from scratch!"
"How is a prospective graduates domain doing this?"
None of them had answers.
But far beneath the battlefield, where Vaskar had bled into the soil, tiny grotesque insects were feasting on his spilled blood.
A few moments later above the Abyssal Plain, at the edge of the first layer of the Endless Abyss-
"Haha! This power… incredible!"
Vaskar laughed wildly, his claws tearing through abyss creatures like paper. Since his bloodline had twisted and pushed him into the pure-blood stage, everything had changed. His body was stronger, his magic sharper, and somehow,more dragon language spells had awakened inside him.
It was intoxicating.
Behind him, the dragon-blood army pushed forward with renewed force, nearing the tunnel that led to the second layer of the Abyss.
Vaskar paused, flexing his claws, gazing down at the glowing patterns on his arm.
"Pain, madness… whatever. Power is worth it."
A warrior jogged up and saluted.
"Lord Vaskar! We've reached the core area of this layer, but the world core… it's not here."
Vaskar, with renewed confidence, scoffed. "Idiots. This isn't the core."
He pointed toward the gaping black tunnel ahead, where writhing abyss creatures roamed.
"The real core is deeper. This world's layered,more complex than any we've invaded before. We'll have to conquer it floor by floor."
Then his tone turned almost reverent.
"The deeper we go, the stronger the pull. I can feel it… something down there is calling to me. Offering more."
He grinned.
"If I reach it, I might unlock the true secret of this world."
Vaskar had already lost sight of his original mission. His hunger for power now drove everything. His mind frayed at the edges, twisted by the Abyss. Compassion, reason, and loyalty melted into ambition and greed.
On the second layer, the army began its descent.
But the deeper they went, the more chaos took hold. Rules warped. Time cracked. The monsters they faced weren't just stronger,they were worse. Venom that melted armor. Teeth that drained life in a single bite. Creatures that feasted on wounded soldiers while they still breathed.
And always, the bugs. Dozens of them, ugly and bloated, feasting on every fresh corpse.
Even the toughest dragon-blood warriors started to crack. They had marched farther than any other world they'd destroyed,twice as far.
Some pleaded for rest.
"Rest?" Vaskar growled. "You don't get to rest."
Anyone who protested died screaming,ripped apart by Vaskar's claws, no matter their rank. It didn't matter if they were warriors, slaves, or even lieutenants.
Fear took over the army.
Comrades betrayed each other to stay alive. Officers sacrificed soldiers for useless tactical gains. Warriors stabbed each other in the back to secure supplies or favors. No one trusted anyone. The deeper they marched, the more they looked like the monsters they came to kill.
Far below, on the third layer of the Endless Abyss,
Cillian stood alone, eyes closed, his mind spread through every crevice of his domain.
He'd been watching. Tracking every step of Vaskar's descent.
He spoke softly to himself.
"what's the scariest thing in the Abyss?"
"Some might say it's the air,poisoned and suffocating. Others would point to the monsters, freakish, twisted beyond recognition. Or the chaos,the rules that break themselves, the future that dissolves."
"But they'd all be wrong."
He opened his eyes.
"The most terrifying thing in the Abyss… is what it does to your heart."
"No love, no loyalty, no kindness survives here."
"Not even your name."
He shifted his body, vanishing into the shadows of the third floor.
"It's time."
From the darkness of the tunnel, a dragon-like creature dragged its shredded body across the ground.
Covered in strange parasites and festering wounds, Vaskar howled in pain as he reached the threshold of the third layer.
Cillian stood waiting, smiling at the beast his domain had shaped.
"Let's end this farce."