She had already felt it standing near the corpse, but the sheer amount of mana stuck inside such a little thing was staggering. It was a bit less than a mediocre Grade B crystal, but there were hundreds of such scales around his body.

Not to mention, she recalled countless old recipes from the Witch Tower’s library that accounted for a scale from a draconic monster.

With Conall showing the two of them how to properly descale the dragon, they all got to work while a magic circle slowly rotated the stick with a boar on it.

The area was also a nice place to be doing the activity. Since they were near the dead sea, no aerial monsters flew so low as to notice them butchering the monster.

About three hours later, with an in-between break to eat the boar, they finally finished descaling the monster, gathering seven hundred and forty red scales. However, before they truly began cutting off the scales, they first drained the precious dragon blood before quickly storing it inside Conall’s inventory ring.

Having taken off the two magical horns, they got to the claws and fangs, receiving sixteen and thirty six of them respectively. Almost all of them were as big as a dagger while being indescribably sharp.

In fact, they were so sharp Conall could skim through the membrane below the scales like through butter, even though it was rock-hard usually.

After removing the white layer, the pale, pinkish skin was finally revealed, and this was also the step where Conall took over while the girls watched.

Using Juliette’s new rapier, he easily cut through the wound he had caused on the dragon’s back. Finally seeing something through the exposed ribcage, he put his hand with the rapier inside the opened back before finding a specific, hard object inside.

A minute later, after cutting off all the tough veins, he jerked it away, revealing something the size of his head in his right hand.

An organ that connected both physicality and magicality into a union. He held onto the crystalized heart that glowed red.

Inside it, the deep fire that made it glow dimmed and brightened as though mimicking a heartbeat.

Created purely out of chance, the mythical dragonheart was right in front of them. It was said that if one could acquire it, their ability to connect with mana would evolve by just having it beside them.

And, if by chance you didn’t die from consuming it, you would gain draconic-like powers.

Looking at it with plain eyes, he disregarded such thoughts. The amount of high-quality, dense mana inside it would vanquish his existence and not leave a speck behind.

Being so rare and hard to obtain, it wasn’t a wonder for it to cost whole armies and militaries, only for the efforts to be wasted by a moron, who died white intaking the organ.

Silvana’s eyes couldn’t leave the heart, her gaze following each and every movement of it. Juliette, similar, looked at it with anticipation.

What they had achieved here was legendary, becoming a part of a very sparse number of people to ever obtain the said dragonheart, even if it was Grade B.

However, as quickly as they could cheer about it, Conall had already stored the dragonheart back in his inventory, continuing to find treasures inside the dragon.

Slowly but surely, as he made his way around the body with his sword, he got everything he wanted while the sun started to set.

A few minutes prior, he cut up some of the dragon meat to make steaks before taking out cast iron pans from his ring to sear and cook them.

Even raw, the meat was still extremely tender as it came from the underbelly, which wasn’t used that much by the dragon. Though, even the meat around the frequently used wings was sure to still be exquisite.

Using the salt and pepper he always brought with him in his inventory, he seasoned the steaks, just enough to bring out the already incredible taste of the dragon meat.

Some of the dragon’s fat was quickly rendered out in the pans and Juliette couldn’t help but drool at the fact of being able to try dragon meat.

Not only was it said to taste incredible, the high amount of mana contained within was extremely beneficial to everyone that tried it.

Hearing the large, crimson red steaks sizzle on the hot pans, she could only wait.

After a few minutes, Conall took the pans away from the hot coals as it was finally done. Transferring them onto wooden plates, he didn’t wait long before slicing the meat with his cleaned dagger and eating it.

Still pink in the middle, the meat gave just the slightest resistance as he cut into it, juices flowing out immediately.

Doing the same, the girls finally tried, and they couldn’t hide their amazement, even the indifferent witch.

While Juliette looked incredibly happy from the wonderful, robust beef taste filled with hints of hot sweetness all throughout, Silvana felt astonished as mana exploded in her mouth the moment she chewed on the meat.

All the while, Conall simply enjoyed the meat. He needed it for a quicker recovery, even though his stomach provided him all the necessary nutrition.

After walking around the black beach for a while, they slept for the night with Silvana watching out for them.

The crescent moon’s shine covered the shore, though the dark color of the waters and sand sucked almost all the light in, making it look quite imposing.

With dawn quickly engulfing the coast, they began packing things up before hopping onto the broomsticks. Although his body still hurt in a few places, it wasn’t as bad as when he woke up yesterday.

Soon, they were finally flying across the dead sea, to where the world’s end was located.

…

Behind Silvana’s back, Juliette shivered as she heard inaudible whispers coming from below. Although they had harmless tones, they felt nefarious to her instincts.

Looking at her from the side, Conall suggested something to the witch.

“Silvana, let’s move up a bit. The miasma is still a bit strong.”

Since both he and she didn’t experience mental atrocities on this level, it was hard to catch what Juliette was feeling, though her shivers and the scared look didn’t seem pleasant.

Flying just under the white clouds, Juliette came back to herself after a few minutes, the voices having lessened considerably compared to before.

Watching the strong waves of the purple, dead sea get smaller, Conall couldn’t help but look at all the fish that were floating above the surface as much as they were able to.

With poignant looks, the Grade C fish that couldn’t handle the waters tried their best to survive until they got stronger.

Nonetheless, he stared ahead of him, at the sky clear off any monsters. With the dark waters releasing an illusive dark energy, no bird wanted to fly below the puffy white clouds to hunt for food.

Even Grade A monsters tried their best not to venture out here because of both the miasma, as well as poor-quality food.

Their first day of nonstop travel passed by without any issues. It was during the middle of their journey that something had appeared.

Having already passed the first part of the dead sea, they got to the second layer, the lost waters. They were safe while flying a bit lower than earlier, but the weather here was what dictated good passage, well, at least in the air. There was no hope without luck or great artifacts for those in the waters.

And it just so happened that the weather was atrocious. Getting closer together, Silvana expanded her cloak to cover the other two as well since the thunderstorm they were experiencing was of the levels Juliette’s calamity released on bad days.

Practically like a wall, the threatening wind and the impenetrable, condensed fog slowed them down considerably. Going too fast through this area was too dangerous, even if they flew so high above the waters.

So, going at much lower speeds, they watched as countless lightning strikes roared around them each minute.

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The further they traveled inside the harsher it seemed to become. If Silvana didn’t put in some work, the wind would have already blown them off into the dangerous waters.

Thankfully, the metallic coating of the cloak was extremely resistant as no droplet of water went through the fabric. While the wind wasn’t able to make it move even slightly, it simply impeded their movement.

Looking through the transparent interior of the cloak, Juliette noticed something after an hour of travel in the second layer.

Ahead of them, below, something was glowing. Her passengers also noticed the oddity, as well as the fact that the light was becoming larger by the second.

Quickly steering off to the side, Silvana dodged the glowing blast of light that devoured the fog, revealing a large ship with vivid, red masts with a three-headed, golden lion on them. On the edge of the ship’s deck, a certain man in a black uniform grinned as he looked through his spyglass, directly at the eerie, flying object in the air.

Stretching out his arm, they only saw as his mouth moved through the air. However, even in the heavy rain, they could hear air and water splitting, making the witch promptly move away from the place.

Arrows poured onto them, trying to get away as quickly as possible.

“Who fires at first sight?!”

Juliette roared inside the cloak, angry at the empire’s marines.

“They weren’t in the right state of mind to begin with.”

Conall added, though he guessed that the grinning captain must have had something to move through the waters. Otherwise, he would be nothing other than a loony, or, highly unlikely, a pirate that stole the empire’s ship.

Just as all the arrows passed them by, a blinding light spread throughout the space, illuminating an expansive area of the waters. In a bubble of a few hundred meters, they could finally see everything properly, but so could the enemy.

The same white light that exploded quickly returned to a certain lantern the ship’s captain was holding, and Conall quickly understood where their arrogance came from.

‘A gift from their sea god, huh?’

They weren’t some second-hand sailors or marines. Collecting his thoughts, he voiced to Silvana.

“Was it one Grade A crystal for another minute of invisibility?”

“With the two of you added it’s probably around two.”

“Add it to my debt. We’ll move above the clouds until we escape their range.”

Dodging another round of mana-coated arrows, she listened, using all of her mana control to speed up.

Down on the ship, the black-haired captain looked slightly grim, not content at what was happening. He wanted to get whatever that was, the dark, almost black, but slight purple object.

However, once he couldn’t sense them anymore, even above the clouds, the Grade Ex captain got worried. Quickly sending out concurrent, short pulses of mana to his bracelet, he briskly got an irritated reply.

“What is it!?”

An angry, female voice rang out from the brass bracelet, mana stirring around the place.

“I need you on the deck right now, so wake up.”

“Ugh!”

The marines with bows quietly averted their eyes, not trying to capture the attention of the person who would be coming here in a few seconds.

Doors to the captain’s cabin came right off the hinges before sliding on the wooden planks. In a red dress, a petite, blonde girl came out, her brown brows furrowed.

“What the hell is your problem?”

She asked, anger in her tired eyes not stopping whatsoever.

“Someone with an interesting artifact is flying above the clouds. Right now, they’ve concealed themselves, and even I can’t tell where they are.”

She rolled her eyes.

“‘Even you’? Get down from your high horse already, boy. You! Is what he said true?”

“Me? A-ah. Yes, ma’am, we were shooting arrows at them a moment ago.”

She called out to a random soldier before using her mana. Like a bullet, she accelerated above the waters before going upwards, all while rain was being repelled as though there was an invisible barrier around her.

Though he couldn’t believe it, Conall smiled to himself, watching the duo of unaware Grade Exs. At the same time, he was bewildered that the empire would send out such incompetent people, especially for the purpose of sailing through these waters.

Before the mage girl could even begin scouring through the clouds, the space around her suddenly changed and everything became blank and white as paper.

The captain also panicked as he didn’t know what had happened. Sending out pulses to his bracelet, he tried to track her, who suddenly disappeared from the clear sky.

‘Even though he has a divine artifact, he’s still a moron. The world sure is big.’

Speeding above the clouds, where there still surprisingly was rain but no fog, they stopped being invisible a minute later, at Conall’s word. There was no need to use any Grade A crystals anymore.

“We got lucky.”

“Yeah, It’s rare for a divine artifact to be treated so poorly.”

Replying to Silvana, Juliette noticed something before pointing her finger.

“There, look!”

They were above the clouds, and although it was much colder here, the lack of fog made them see everything ahead, so they stayed.

Countless kilometers in the distance, the sky looked dark, as though it was night there. Yet, on closer inspection, it almost seemed like a tear in the sky that poured something out.

“We’re almost there.”

Silvana muttered under her breath, to which Conall chuckled without showing it. Even though her face looked emotionless, he had never seen such anxiety and nervousness coming off of her.

Of course, it was understandable. He told her they would be meeting her mother and father, the people she had never even seen before, for the whole half a century and more that she had been alive.

To finally shatter the rock she was living under, it was… eerie. As though publishing a grandmaster-tier magic in the Witch Tower, an impossible task to accomplish, yet, she was actually doing it.

For the first time in a very long time, her heart skipped the perfect rhythm it was always maintaining.

…

They had arrived at night, but that wasn’t an issue. The environment here prevented the sun from reaching anyway. Stretching across the whole sky and beyond, the world had been sliced open.

Countless energies were going in and out as streaks and lightning, all the time. Every time they gazed across into the open heaven, they felt shivers scatter across their bodies. It was as though every bit of negative energy was filling their spirits.

No longer looking at the abyss-like rift, they made their way through the land below the World's End.

Despite being an enormous island spanning hundreds of kilometers, they weren’t able to see any lifeform. All of the trees or greenery that they encountered were seemingly dead, despite having leaves. Though, even in the wind that swept through the place, not a single leaf, bush, or a blade of grass moved.

Silvana was using a magic circle that enlightened the space around them, only to discover that everything was devoid of any real color, lacking correct contrast. Bleak and dreary energies surrounded the plants as they went upwards to the sky.

However, none of that meant that there weren’t enemies here.

A spreading, echoing shriek entered their ears, to which Silvana quickly covered them while Conall experienced a drilling sensation around his body. It felt as if someone was punching his body, but with the way he used his aura, he was already used to such pain.

Spreading out his aura on fang, the pain immediately overshadowed the soul attack coming from the Grade C wraith that revealed itself.

With an ethereal, white body that glowed in the darkness, it flew around the place, targeting the enormous soul of the human boy while catching the witch along the way.

Having trained her spirit to a much higher degree, Juliette experienced nothing from such a weak attack. All of her aura remained in place as nothing could be taken away.

Conall moved to attack, but she stopped him. He still wasn’t in the best of shapes. Retrieving his aura, he simply watched as Juliette gathered her own spirit energy, dispersing the wraith away with a single sweep of her rapier.

Noticing the boy’s soul, countless more wraiths appeared, but Juliette dealt with them as though slashing through Octa’s bushes.

Running with everything they had, they quickly ventured into the deeper layers of the island, not having to wait long before a stronger monster appeared, though Juliette dealt easily with them as well.

For the next few hours, the only thing they did was run ahead of them, trying to get to the middle of the island.

They looked at the last tree before a vast expanse of nothing but dead, cracked land would be the only thing they stepped on.

In the sky above, a few kilometers away, a crack in the space spread around before changing shape constantly, branching off into countless spots.

Mimicking a golden ball of lightning, the crack deterred any monsters from coming close by, as they would simply be obliterated by the dense energy coming out of it.

However, before they left to go near it, all of them stopped, for a quick word.

“Juliette, could you wait for us here?”

Conall asked with a calm voice. Although they came here all together, they needed to separate for a while. It was an incredibly personal issue, but Juliette was aware of that, not minding that at all. Silvana helped them fight against the dragonheart for her cause, so the least she could do was give her some privacy.

Passing time by killing phantoms and ghosts, she let them go on their way towards the tear in the world.

Speeding towards it, Silvana felt her heart beat faster with each passing second. However, when it did, her velocity slowed down.

Even though she was running a second ago, rough steps were coming out of her. For the first time in her entire life, she experienced fear. Paralyzing fear that made her stop thinking like the Silvana she knew herself to be.

‘Should I have even come here? Will they actually know who I am? Will I know them?

Many thoughts corroded her mind. The only recollection she had of her parents was a voice telling her that her father was a giant, long ago when she was still used to living in the streets of the Empire.

Staring at the menacing crack ahead of her, Silvana felt it rapidly moving away from her grasp.

On the side, Conall couldn’t help but look at the slightly shivering girl. Without a moment of hesitation, he grabbed her hand, firmly holding onto it.

Trying to reassure her, the boy took her shoulder and made her look into his eyes.

“They’ve waited for you countless years. It will be fine, I promise.”

“How is it going to be fine? I’m supposed to be meeting a god and a random woman that’s most likely equally as strong.”

“Because they are the ones that are truly scared.”

“What?”