The Villain's Story

Chapter 676: [676] Vast.

”Just how big is this damn planet?”

She asked, bewildered, she simply could not believe it took Alan a year to reach that ʼspearʼ. She knew what it was, she also knew who and where Kizmal was.

The year spent with Azmakul was not just for training, she had also received information, driving it out of the old dragon using tricks. Tricks that the dragon knew of, but didnʼt care about.

She did not really care about it, what and who Kizmal was, and whatever had transpired here ages ago didnʼt concern her much. It was simply something she was curious about a while back. Even if she did care, and her ʼhuman moralsʼ took control, what was she going to do about it? Give a lecture to the dragon that forced a supreme giant into an eternity of torture, the same dragon that was also the mother of her boyfriend?

But what she could not wrap her head around, no matter what, was... it took Alan a year to reach that damned spear of the heavens? The one he had to climb?

A year?

She knew he was fast, in fact, she experienced it. And she was completely sure that if he didnʼt have someone to carry and take care of, he could go faster. Incredibly fast.

Yet he took a year to reach there? How long was he going to take to climb it? Then descend? Then reach the chamber of the heart? A decade?

She didnʼt have that time, she was a human, she didnʼt have that much time! She had already spent a year here!

A chill ran down her spine, not from the cold of this savagely vast planet, but from the realization that the journey may have taken a decade if they went on the Arctic Titan, she was almost thanking Azmakul for destroying it.

The Arctic Titan was comfortable, but it was not going to replace years of her time!

”He just reached it now? After a year?”

She massaged her temples, trying to think. Just as she was about to talk to him with the help of the Astral bond, trying to make sense of things, Azmakul said something that piqued her interest.

”A year? No, I believe it took the prince a week to get there, I suspect it will take another for him to climb it, descend, and then I have some training for him before he enters the chambers.”

She paused, staring at the dragon with an incredulous look.

”Wait... What?”

”What do you mean?”

A thought appeared in her mind, but it was unbelievable, inconceivable even... if it was her a ʼyearʼ before. After all, she had just learned of the existence of a supreme giant that yearned for revival, trying to revive itself in the form of bloody, thunderous thralls. She had seen a river of pure, incandescent, magical light cover the skies for a year, drowning everything in its light.

”... You...”

For a moment, she struggled to formulate a sentence, Azmakul smirked.

”Time... You slowed down time?”

She had spent a year here... in this area, but had the rest done the same? While she had been busy, learning for an entire year, were they simply having a picnic for a week? However, that was not her main concern.

”How? What sorcery? Mana? The process behind it?”

She asked, her questions endless, approaching the dragon assuming the form of a towering elf.

”It is not that complicated.”

She disagreed.

”Not complicated? You delayed time! Slowed it down, and that is not complicated? I am unaware of how dragons operate, but let me tell you, this is not something we humans take lightly. Care to enlighten how you even managed this?

I need to know, just... something?”

Was she begging at this point, with the puppy eyes and everything? She didnʼt bother to care, her mind focused on a single topic. Azmakul shrugged his shoulders and pointed up.

”It is not something difficult, for me.”

She chuckled, looking at him with a smug smile.

”Oh, did this ancient being suddenly developed the need to gloat? That was unexpected?”

”Unexpected? You try many new things when you get to where I am.”

She looked up, staring at the river, as much as she was eager to learn whatever spell was used to accomplish a feat such as slowing down time, she knew pressing him too much would not yield any significant results. Not yet, at the very least, when she didnʼt have much knowledge about the river.

She had tried asking about it many times, but received the same response, every single time. ”If I tell you, you will not be you anymore. Just a crazy woman who is unable to stop torturing her vocal cords.”

From that, she realized that there were somethingʼs she simply wasnʼt ready to hear, or see even for that matter. Something that was reinforced when she tried using runic sorcery, and focused more on runes that involved Dragon tongue. That was a new... yet troubling experience.

When she experienced headaches that no amount of paracetamol could make go away, she knew it was something she should not touch.

That notion was cemented when she started the sorcery of names... and the motivation to fund a new drug was also discovered.

”So what now?”

She asked, waiting for the dragon to answer her, raising her neck and putting her hands on her hips, leaning forward a bit.

”You have a choice.”

”A choice?”

ʼA choice for what?ʼ

She silently waited for the dragon to continue, instead of jumping to conclusions. Something that had become more frequent ever since the rune was engraved. Impatiently tapping the

ground with her foot.

Azmakul refused to speak further for a while, a habit she had grown accustomed to, but it irritated her at the moment.

ʼWhat pers-dragon says that and doesnʼt answer immediately? Leaving me in suspense...ʼ

She complained, in her mind, of course. Nothing could make her say that to his face.

But Azmakul didnʼt present the choice, immediately.

”What are you to the prince?”