Craze: I will upload a new chapter every two chapter I upload on p@treon. How that sound?
To those who could help me please consider become my patron and get to read 50+ more chapters.
[email protected]/phelio (50% discount is on)
Ozpin's eyes narrowed, a subtle shift in his aura as he instinctively reached out with his magic, a probing tendril of energy aimed at Arthur.
He sought to peer into Arthur's essence, to understand the source of this unexpected directness.
But to his astonishment, his magic met an impenetrable wall. It simply washed over Arthur, unable to gain purchase, like water on polished stone.
Arthur remained unperturbed, a faint, almost imperceptible shimmer around him, the tell-tale sign of his true dragon bloodline passively rejecting all foreign energies.
Ozpin slowly withdrew his magic, his expression unreadable.
"A spy from Salem's side?" he finally asked, his voice calm, yet with an underlying steel.
Arthur let out a soft, humorless chuckle.
"If I wanted you dead, Ozpin, you'd already be a stain on these cliffs. And Salem's immortality is a weakness, not a strength, when facing someone like me. She may be far more powerful than you, but I assure you, I am confident in taking her down."
Glynda gasped, her eyes wide with disbelief, a tremor running through her usually composed frame.
"Immortal?" she whispered, the word a raw, painful sound.
Her gaze snapped to Ozpin, a sudden fury igniting in her eyes.
"Ozpin, is this true? We've been fighting an inevitable war, a war we cannot win?"
The implications crashed down on her, a tidal wave of realization. Every loss, every sacrifice, every student she'd seen fall, every friend she'd mourned – it all flashed before her eyes, painted with the bitter hue of a hopeless struggle.
The weight of it all, the endless, futile battle against an enemy who could not die, threatened to overwhelm her.
The carefully constructed foundations of her resolve began to crack.
Ozpin's gaze softened, a deep, weary sadness replacing the earlier steel.
He didn't answer Glynda directly, his silence a heavier confirmation than any words.
He simply looked at her, and in his eyes, she saw the echoes of centuries of burden, of endless battles and crushing defeats.
The unspoken truth hung in the air, a suffocating weight.
Arthur watched their exchange and said.
"It seems I have accelerated some much-needed revelations,"
He stated, his voice devoid of judgment, yet carrying an undeniable edge of authority.
"Ozpin has been fighting a war he couldn't win, yes. But that doesn't mean it was a war without purpose. It simply means he was missing a crucial piece of the puzzle."
He turned his attention fully to Glynda, his eyes surprisingly gentle despite the stark reality he was laying bare.
"Professor Glynda, the true enemy isn't just Salem. It's the cycle of conflict itself. And Ozpin, in his own way, has been trying to break it. But you cannot defeat an immortal by simply killing her. You must remove the very foundation of her power, the very reason she exists."
Glynda reeled, her mind struggling to process the sheer magnitude of what she was hearing.
"Remove... the foundation of her power? What are you talking about? What is she?"
Her voice was a strained whisper, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.
The anger was still there, but beneath it, a desperate plea for understanding, for a sliver of hope in the face of such overwhelming despair.
Ozpin finally spoke, his voice hoarse.
"Salem is... cursed. Cursed with immortality, yes, but also with an inability to truly die, to truly be free. And that curse is tied to the very essence of magic, to the balance of the world itself."
He looked at Arthur, a flicker of something akin to awe in his eyes.
"You say you can take her down, Arthur. How? How can you break a curse that has bound her for millennia?"
Arthur's faint shimmer intensified, a subtle ripple in the air around him.
"Because," he began, his voice resonating with an ancient power that made the very cliffs tremble slightly,
"I am not merely a wielder of magic, Ozpin. I am a part of it. And to break a curse, sometimes you must become the very thing that cast it."
He paused, letting his words sink in.
"There is a path to ending Salem, and to finally bringing true peace to Remnant."
Arthur raised a hand, and the air around him began to coalesce, not into a visible spell, but into a palpable pressure that bore down on them.
The gentle breeze that had been ruffling Glynda's hair stilled completely, the very scent of the salty air on the cliffs seeming to intensify.
A low hum vibrated through the ground, growing in intensity, and then, from behind Arthur, the clear blue sky began to ripple.
It wasn't a trick of light or an illusion.
The very fabric of reality seemed to stretch and distort, and then, a colossal, crimson-purple scale, glistening with an otherworldly sheen, pushed through the shimmering void.
It was followed by another, and another, until a section of the cliff face itself seemed to peel away, revealing not rock, but something far more ancient and majestic.
Ozpin and Glynda watched in stunned silence as a massive, serpentine form began to emerge.
It was a dragon, not of the Grimm variety, but something utterly magnificent and terrifying in its raw power.
Its scales shimmered with the colors of a crimson comet, its eyes, deep pools of molten gold, fixed upon them with an intelligence that transcended mortal understanding.
The air grew heavy with ozone, and the faint scent of primordial magic filled their lungs.
This was no mere transformation; it was a revelation. Find the newest release on noveⅼfire.net
Arthur wasn't changing into a dragon; he was unveiling his true form, a colossal being of pure draconic essence that had been veiled beneath his human guise.
The shimmer around him intensified, forming a majestic aura that pulsed with raw, untamed power.
The cliffs beneath them groaned, tiny fissures appearing as the sheer weight of Arthur's true form began to press down.
He wasn't fully manifesting; merely showing them a glimpse, an echo of his full power.
Even this partial revelation was enough to make Glynda's knees buckle, and Ozpin, though stoic, had a tremor running through his staff.
"This," Arthur's voice boomed, no longer a human sound but a resonant, ancient roar that vibrated through their very bones, "is the power that will break the cycle. I am the true dragon, the keeper of magic's deepest currents. Salem's curse, tied to the very essence of magic, is merely a knot that needs to be untied by the one who understands its weaving."
The crimson scales pulsed once more, and then, as suddenly as it appeared, the draconic form began to recede, the shimmering veil closing over it once more.
Arthur stood before them, his human form restored, though the faint, almost imperceptible shimmer around him was now far more pronounced, a constant reminder of the incredible power he held.
He looked at their awestruck faces, his expression calm and resolute.
"Do you understand now? I do not fight Salem with dust or human semblances. I fight her with the very heart of magic, the very force that sustains Remnant. And it is this power that will set her free, and with her, this world."