The border of the Silver Dragon territory was filled with smoke and chaos. Flames of war raged across the land.

The Black Sun Dragon King, Bly, stood side by side with the Disorder Dragon King, Jagus.

Bly looked ahead at the three wounded women, whose bodies were battered and exhausted. They stood steadfastly to shield their queen and princesses.

"I don’t understand. Two maids and a scout, hold on until now just to protect an already falling Dragon King. How peculiar," Bly said.

He gazed at Anna and spoke flatly, "Not long ago, your queen had already dispersed the Silver Dragon Clan. You could have fled when disaster struck, though it might border on desertion. But at least you could preserve your own lives. Am I right?"

Anna’s face was half-covered in blood, Her tattered dragon wings trembled weakly behind her, and her body seemed on the brink of collapse. But death itself wouldn’t force her to yield an inch.

"My life... belongs to Her Majesty. It’s none of your business—cough, cough—"

Just speaking loudly would cause Anna to cough blood.

She could no longer fight.

Facing Bly and Jagus, she knew it would only take an effortless flick of their fingers to end her life.

But how?

As Roswitha’s chief maid, she would never abandon her queen to save herself.

"Oh? Still clinging to your pride when death is at your door."

Jagus chuckled. His tone laced with the smugness and arrogance of a victor. "Your queen’s strength is spent, and as for those three little brats… even if we left them alive, how long could they possibly survive in this chaotic world? Sooner or later, they’ll—"

"Don’t you dare insult the princesses!"

Before Jagus finished, Milan conjured magic, shaping a concentrated water orb in her hand and threw it towards Bly and Jagus.

But the two did not move.

When the magical water sphere approached, they effortlessly opened a spatial magic circle, dispersing Milan's attack with ease.

"A futile effort," Bly yawned casually, seeming have lost his patience.

He turned toward Jagus. "Shall I, or will you?"

"I’ll take care of this."

Bly shrugged, conceding the task.

He knew his old companion had a tendency to run from trouble faster than anyone but was quicker to leap at chances to claim glory than anyone either.

Always be the one to act first.

Jagus began to stride forward, slowly approaching the wounded group, who looked like candles guttering in the wind.

Roswitha, physically and magically drained, knelt weakly on the ground, while shielding her three daughters beneath her bloody dragon wings.

She lowered her head and gazed her children.

At least, up until now, she had managed to protect her precious girls from harm.

A weary smile crept across Roswitha’s face. "Leon... I did my best to protect our daughters..."

Noa held Aurora in one arm, tightly clutching Muen's hands with the other.

Both of her younger sisters were trembling uncontrollably, clinging to their elder sister for solace.

When Noa met her mother's gaze, she caught fleeting despair beneath Roswitha’s smile.

So that's how it is… Mom… The smile of despair before surrender.

Noa’s pupils quivered slightly.

After a brief moment of contemplation, she placed Aurora beside Roswitha. "Mom, please take care of Aurora for me."

"Noa... What are you going to do—"

"I'm doing what I can."

"Noa, don’t! Noa—" Roswitha, near collapse, was powerless to stop her daughter.

Noa looked back at Muen, biting her lip in hesitation before saying, "Muen, I need your help."

"Big Sis..." Muen sobbed, clutching Noa’s sleeve tightly. "Muen is scared..."

Noa gently cupped her sister’s face, stared into her eyes, and enunciated clearly, "You are that man's daughter. You can do this."

Tears streaked down Muen's cheeks as hesitation lingered, but she finally summoned her courage and nodded firmly. "What should Muen do?"

Noa bent down and whispered instructions into her sister’s ear.

"Do you understand?"

"Yes, yes! Muen knows what to do."

"Good."

Noa mimicked a gesture her father used. She tenderly patted her sister’s head to encourage her.

Then, she turned and strode toward Anna and the others.

"Your Highness? Your Highness, go back! We’ll hold them off!"

"Milan, your elemental magic is water, isn't it?" Noa ignored Milan’s plea and asked.

Milan froze briefly but nodded. "Yes, Your Highness."

Noa turned towards Anna and Sherry. "Anna, Sherry, can you still summon Dragon Flame?"

Sherry glanced at the chief maid beside her and shook her head. "Anna cannot, but I can still manage it."

Sherry was also seriously injured, though not as severely as Anna. She could still muster Dragon Flame.

However…

"Your Highness, what are you planning?" Sherry asked.

Noa looked down at her right hand. Her palm etched with burn marks from countless practices of the first technique her father taught her.

"I won’t just sit there and wait for death. After all… I’m his daughter."

Jagus's footsteps echoed, growing closer.

He raised his hands to gather energy.

"Oh? You’re pushing children up front now? It seems that you’ve exhausted all your tricks," Jagus continued to mock. "Don't be afraid, little one. Death is nothing but a fleeting moment, entirely painless."

As he finished gathering energy, Jagus prepared to unleash it.

But before he could act, Milan and Sherry launched their Elemental Magic simultaneously.

The concentrated water orb collided with scorching Dragon Flame, triggering a burst of thick mist in the sky.

The haze quickly spread, blanketing the entire area and obscuring visibility.

Within the dense fog, Jagus’s sight was impeded, and his vision was mostly obscured.

With eyebrows furrowed, Jagus gritted his teeth in frustration and shouted into the mist, "Why are you still fighting back?! Isn't it easier to simply accept your death?"

As his voice cut through the smoke, flashes of two opposing elemental energies illuminated the side—a bolt of thunder and a burst of flame.

Jagus recalled that Leon Casmod's eldest daughter, who was pulled out just now, sported an exceptionally rare lightning-element awakening.

As for the fire element beside it, that undoubtedly belonged to the scout who had previously used Dragon Flame.

"So you used the cover of mist to relocate?" Jagus sneered. "What a childish tactic."

He began to stride towards the lightning and fire.

"Whether it's a diversion or an attempt to lure me away, it won’t matter."

Jagus spoke leisurely, "One by one, I’ll kill every single one of you, and then I’ll first remove your heads—"

Before Jagus could finish, a sharp explosion sounded behind him.

From the side, a petite silhouette leaped up. The lightning in her hands blazed like an arrow, aiming directly at Jagus’s shoulders.

Suddenly, a surging pain radiated through Jagus, which was painful enough to make him stagger before regaining his balance.

While the assailant was already preparing a second *Thunder Thrust.*

But this time, Jagus would not allow her to succeed so easily.

Even at such close range, despite the cover due to the fog, Jagus precisely locked onto Noa's movements.

"Vile little pest!"

Jagus roared angrily, reaching out his hands and grabbed Noa by the neck.

The thick mist began to fade.

In the clearing’s center, Jagus now held Noa aloft, suspending her several feet off the ground.

Noa was struggling, but her resistance proved futile.

There was no comparison between her and this Dragon King in terms of physical stature or strength.

Oddly, Bly, watching from afar, felt a gnawing sense of familiarity upon seeing the spectacle.

Though Jagus had captured the child, why was this scene so familiar?

"Use water and fire elements to create concealment, and then employ the dual awakening as bait, and finally use a rapid Thunder Thrust for a surprise attack."

Jagus scrutinized Noa, who was still struggling. "How could a mere child understand such tactics?"

"I’m no... a child..." Noa balled her fists and pounded Jagus’s arm. Her tail thrashed in desperation behind.

"Huh? Then what are you?"

"I am... Leon Casmod’s daughter!"

The mention of that name froze Jagus’s mocking grin in place.

The grip on Noa’s neck tightened as fury etched onto his face.

"Your worthless father is long dead, swallowed by a spatial rift. It has been six months already. Don’t you see the reality?" Jagus declared venomously.

"Don’t... insult my father..."

Jagus squeezed harder. Yet, shockingly, Noa continued her defiant struggle.

“Hurts, doesn’t it, child?"

Jagus sneered viciously. "Say it. Say, ‘Leon Casmod is dead.’ Then I might let you go—or grant you the mercy of a swift death. How is the deal?"

Noa's heart raced as her breath grew harder. Her sclera was full of red with strain.

"Let her go!" Shouted one voice.

"Don't move, or I’ll kill her instantly!" Jagus barked, with his fatal grip leaving little doubt.

Turning his attention back to Noa, Jagus pressed further:

"Say it. Admit your father is dead. That he was a coward, a spineless weakling who abandoned you and your mother to die alone."

Noa clutched desperately onto Jagus’s forearms, and managed to open her mouth.

"My father… isn’t dead! AARGH!"

"If you don’t speak now, I’ll crush your throat entirely until words are impossible to utter."

Noa’s grip tightened with fingernails clawing desperately at him. Rage consumed her wholly.

Her canthus began to appear scales. Her pupils were filled with homicidal intent and cruelty which should not belong to children at her age.

"My father… is *Leon Casmod!* He's alive! He’ll come back—and he’ll kill all of you down to the last monster!"

Jargas widened his eyes in astonishment.

Where did a two-year-old dragonling get the courage to speak to him, a Dragon King, in this way?!

“Well... well, you little thing. Since you’re so unafraid of death—”

Jargas threw her to the ground, then turned around and shifted into his dragon form.

In an instant, his massive dragon wings blotted out the sun, casting Noa in shadow.

The monstrous and imposing form of the dragon stood before Noa, and an overwhelming size contrast that bordered on surreal.

Jargas slowly lowered his dragon head, bringing it closer to Noa.

Even just his head alone was several times larger than Noa’s entire body.

“Not wet your pants yet, kid?”

The oppressive aura of a dragon’s might surged forth like a tidal wave, engulfing Noa in a heartbeat.

Her body trembled with fear, her heart nearly ceasing to beat.

But her will… remained utterly unshaken.

Noa gasped for breath, with trembling hands forming the essence of thunder. She then raised her head and glared fiercely at the massive dragon in front of her.

“...”

Jargas was at a loss for words.

The daughter of a monster… was also a monster.

How could she not be terrified?!

How could she still stand here, unmoving?!

Like an ant trying to shake a tree or a mantis trying to stop a cart, any idiom describing a hopeless disparity in strength would apply here.

And yet this little brat… she actually intended to attack Jargas.

“Alright… then bring it on.”

Jargas’s draconic breath brushed past Noa’s hair. “Let’s see if your weak and insignificant power can do anything to me. I’ll stand here and let you strike. What can you possibly accomplish?”

“In the end, won’t it be the same as your dead father’s fate?”

“All of you are going to die!”

“You, your mom, your sister, your maids—they’re all going to die!”

“Your resistance is meaningless, brat!”

The crackling hum of Chidori interrupted Jargas’s arrogant proclamation.

The blast of magic flared, lifting Noa’s hair. In the dragon’s pupils, fleeting images appeared—scenes of her and her father together.

Her gaze was firm. Her expression was calm.

“I have told you that don’t call me a brat.”

“I’m his daughter, the daughter of the Silver Dragon Queen. I won't just stand there and wait to die!”

“Then come and strike me, if you dare! Your pitiful strength can’t even leave a scratch on me!”

Noa raised the Chidori highly, thrusting it towards the massive dragon before her.

BOOM!—

Thunderlight claimed dominion over the battlefield in an instant.

The sharp cry of Chidori echoed across the expanse, and torrents of lightning roared like a beast awakened.

The once-arrogant dragon now howled in anguish.

“ROAR!!!—”

He tried to break free.

But the lightning element had paralyzed his colossal frame.

He could only collapse in place, helpless as the surging electricity dismantling his dragon body.

A mere child... a mere child could unleash this kind of power?!

Jargas forced his dragon eyes open, fighting against the dazzling radiance of the lightning. In its glow, he seemed to glimpse the figure of another man behind the little brat.

“It’s you... it’s you? IT’S YOU!!!”

The Chidori erupted, thunderous electricity surging, and the Dragon King’s body disintegrated into ash.

As the light faded, Noa stared at the scene before her in disbelief.

The lifeless corpse of the Dragon King lay right at her feet.

This was...

Suddenly, a warm sensation pressed against her small shoulders.

That familiar hand gently rested atop her.

“Good job, Noa.”

“Now, go back to your mom and sisters.”

“From now on, leave the rest to Dad.”