Chapter 61: 61. A king’s Kingdom To be
Morning light spilled through the apartnt window, it’s golden rays cutting across Yuki’s small living space, illuminating dust that drifted through the air.
She stood before her closet considering her limited wardrobe options.
Yuki dressed quickly and walked from the bedroom into the living room, and t Owen sittinh on on the couch in his humanoid form, perfectly still in a way that suggested he was in deep thought rather than relaxation.
His golden eyes were unfocused, staring at sothing only he could see. His wings were folded tight against his back, his tail coiled neatly around one leg to avoid taking up too much space. Even his normally expressive face was locked in an expression of serious contemplation.
He looked like soone carrying the weight of a terrible revelation and trying to figure out how to share it.
Yuki’s stomach tightened. This was it. Finally. Whatever Dominus and Chronara had told him up there in the sky, he was ready to talk about it.
"I need to show you sothing," Owen said as his gaze t hers.
Yuki sat down on the couch beside him, Uru jiggling contentedly on the armrest. "Okay. Show ."
Owen stood and moved to the center of the small living room. He raised one clawed hand and made a gesture.
Then reality tore open.
Space itself seed to split along a seam, peeling back to reveal sothing else beneath. Light spilled from the opening.
The tear expanded, stretching from floor to ceiling, until a doorway stood in the middle of Yuki’s living room. Through it, she could see... clouds? Sky? The perspective was wrong, the colors slightly off, the whole view carrying that sa sense of not-quite-reality that characterized dungeon environnts.
"Dungeon?" The word ca out as barely a whisper, Yuki’s mind trying to categorize what she was seeing.
"No," Owen corrected quickly. "Not a dungeon. Actually—" He paused with his expression growing more complicated. "Dominus and Chronara told
a series of things up there. So made sense. So didn’t. I’m still trying to filter through them in my mind."
He gestured toward the doorway hanging in the air. "This is one of the things I was told about. Or rather, given by Dominus."
Without waiting for Yuki’s response, he stepped through the portal and disappeared.
Yuki sat frozen on the couch, her brain still catching up to what her eyes had witnessed.
But she trusted Owen. Completely. Whatever this was, wherever it led, if Owen wanted to show her, then she needed to see it.
She grabbed Uru from the armrest and stood. Three steps brought her to the portal’s threshold. Up close, she could see the edges shimr and distort.
Then Yuki took a breath and walked through.
The transition was disorienting in a way that dungeon gates weren’t.
Then she was through.
She stood on a small island and Below was... nothing. Or rather, clouds. Thick, dense clouds that stretched in all directions like an ocean of vapor.
And ahead, suspended in the impossible sky like a mirage were familiar shapes.
"Get on."
Owen’s voice pulled her attention back. He had already transford into his juvenile dragon form, his massive black-scaled body almost dwarfing the small island. His wings were spread for balance, his neck lowered in invitation.
Yuki’s confusion was still processing, questions piling up faster than she could articulate them. But she complied with Owen’s request, climbing onto his back.
Owen’s wings flared, and he launched into the sky.
The perspective shift as they gained altitude made Yuki’s breath catch.
"Oh my God," she gasped, the words inadequate for what she was seeing. "Drak’thar!? How!?"
Because it was. Unmistakably. The five floating islands arranged in their familiar pattern—the central island largest, the four surrounding ones positioned at cardinal points like satellites orbiting a planet. The architecture she’d walked through, the impossible bridges of crystallized mana, the structures that defied conventional physics.
All of it was there.
All of it was empty.
"I asked the sa thing when I was given it," Owen replied, his ntal voice carrying the sa stunned disbelief Yuki felt. "Dominus granted
ownership of this pocket dinsion. But upon my first entry, I realized it was Drak’thar."
A system notification appeared in Yuki’s vision, not hers, but Owen’s, shared through their bond:
[Personal Pocket Dinsion: Drak’thar, Kingdom of Dragons]
[Status: Uninhabited]
[Structures: 2]
- Tower of Royals: OFFLINE
- Hatchery: OFFLINE
[Dragon Population: 1]
[Authority: Tier 1]
Owen circled the central island slowly, giving Yuki ti to take in every detail. The palace where they had t the Greater Dragons stood silent and dark.
The platforms where dragons had once perched and conversed were bare. The gardens,which had blood with flowers when they had visited before, were now just dirt and dead roots.
It looked like Drak’thar. But it felt different. Dead. The sheer amount of mana that had saturated every inch of the dragon kingdom, making the air feel thick and charged with power was gone. What remained was just... space. Beautiful, impossible, but ultimately empty space.
"Where is..." Yuki started, then stopped, unsure how to even form the question. "What is... Oh God, Owen. I’m so confused."
"I was too," Owen admitted, banking in a gentle turn that brought them back toward the entry island. "I still am, honestly. The explanation was... complicated."
He landed on the small island where they had started, transforming back to his humanoid form as Yuki slid from his back. They stood together, looking out at the floating kingdom that was sohow Owen’s now.
"Apparently," Owen said slowly, choosing his words carefully, "with this, I can revive the extinct race of true dragons."
They walked back toward the portal.
"So what are you saying?" Yuki asked as they stepped through the gateway, reality reasserting itself as Yuki’s shabby apartnt materialized around them.
Owen closed the portal with another gesture, the space sealing itself like the tear had never existed. "You’re going to rebuild Drak’thar? Here, in the real world? How?"
Owen moved back to the couch and sat, his expression troubled. "I’m not completely sure yet. The explanation Dominus gave was... vague in places. Intentionally so, I think. He was limited in what he could tell
without violating certain rules I don’t fully understand."
He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, and his hands clasped together. "But basically, it cos down to this: there are going to be more Story Dungeons appearing. Soon. And these dungeons will contain things I need."
"More Story Dungeons," Yuki repeated. She thought about the Shadowgrave, about how difficult it had been, how many hunters had barely survived. "How many more?"
"Dominus didn’t give
an exact number. But he implied it would be... significant. And he said sothing else, sothing that changes our imdiate plans."
Owen’s golden eyes t hers. "The next Story Dungeons won’t be appearing in Nexus Pri. They won’t even be appearing on this continent. We’re going to need to travel. Extensively."
"Travel out?" Yuki asked, the implications already spinning through her mind. "You an leave the country? Go to other continents? Of the Non-humans?"
"Yes."
Yuki sat down heavily on the couch beside him. Travel. International hunter work. Story Dungeons in foreign countries with different laws, Inhuman Races, different languages. The complexity was staggering.
"When?" she asked. "When do we need to leave?"
"Not imdiately," Owen said. "Dominus said the next Story Dungeon would manifest in approximately two to three weeks. That gives us ti to prepare, to—"
Yuki’s phone buzzed, cutting off his explanation.
She pulled it from her pocket and glanced at the screen. A text ssage from Odessa Wayne, the tistamp showing it had just arrived.
’Hey Yuki! Finally recovered from all the battle damage lol. Want to grab lunch? I know this AMAZING place in District Seven—super expensive but totally worth it! My treat! Say yes! Please! I promise I won’t talk your ear off (okay I probably will but in a fun way!)’
The ssage was so perfectly Odessa,enthusiastic, slightly overwhelming, genuine, that Yuki found herself smiling despite the heavy conversation she had just been having.
"Odessa wants to et for lunch," she said, showing Owen the ssage.
He read it and raised an eyebrow. "hmm."
"She said it’s her treat." Yuki hesitated, her thumb hovering over the reply field. Part of her wanted to decline, to stay here and keep talking with Owen about dragon kingdoms and international travel and responsibilities she barely understood.
But another part, the part that had spent the last month in life-or-death situations and heavy revelations, wanted sothing normal. Lunch with a friend. Conversation that didn’t involve Outer-Divinities or extinct races or the fate of the world.
"You should go," Owen said, reading her expression. "I need ti to process everything anyway. And honestly..." He smiled slightly. "You could use a friend who isn’t a dragon or a primordial sli. Soone who can have normal human conversations about normal human things."
"There’s nothing normal about Odessa," Yuki pointed out, but she was already typing a response.
’Sounds great! When and where?’
The reply ca back in seconds.
’YES!!! Noon at Celestia’s Garden! You’re going to LOVE it! See you there! ’
Yuki checked the ti. 10:47 AM. That gave her just over an hour to figure out what one wore to an expensive District Seven restaurant when one’s wardrobe consisted entirely of hunter gear and worn casual clothes.
"I should probably change," she said, looking down at her current outfit with new critical eyes.
Owen’s smile widened. "You have ten million credits in the bank and you’re worried about what to wear to lunch. Maybe stop at a clothing store on the way."
"Maybe I will," Yuki said, standing up with a sudden determination. "Maybe I’ll buy sothing completely impractical and ridiculously expensive just because I can."
"That’s the spirit," Owen encouraged. "Go have lunch with your friend. Enjoy being a normal person for a few hours. The dragon kingdom and Story Dungeons and everything else will still be here when you get back."
Then Yuki ran back into the bedroom as Owen watched her with a smile on his face but his thoughts still reeling from the sheer stress of responsibility that had been thrusted upon him, the Rebuilding of the Dragon kingdom and Reviving the Race of True dragons.
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