“C-could you please describe the creature again, sir?”

“Very well,” One Swing replied, giving the woman working the desk at the Adventurers Guild a nod. “It was a beast of great length, with great lengthy appendages carrying it long distances across the sky. The length of its long-range attack spanned the entire mountainside, leaving long-lasting damage across the length of its devastation.”

“O-okay…” The woman scratched her head. “Could you perhaps describe it in a little more detail?”

“Ah, of course.” One Swing nodded again. “Imagine if you took two hundred baguettes and laid them out across the floor.”

“R-right…?”

“It’s like that.”

“That description doesn’t help me at all, sir!”

After the creature had appeared above the ridge of the mountain, swooping down the ridge and breathing a sweeping blaze of molten blue flame down the mountainside, it proceeded to fly off into the distance, leaving the charred corpses of the two adventurers below it in a torrent of steam and molten rock.

At least, it would have left their charred corpses there, had Barbacoa not tackled One Swing into the snow, knocking the sword from his hand and dragging him into the hole she had dug previously in search of a live bandit.

At the bottom of the pit, Barbacoa had made the split decision to rake her claws across the surrounding walls, causing them to crumble in on the two adventurers, burying them in a thick layer of snow and rubble. Sheltered from the beast’s flame, they eventually dug their way back out again with nothing but minor burns.

Back on the surface, the landscape had been melted away—snow and rock both—leaving hot clouds of steam to blow across the mountainside. One Swing’s sword was still lying where he had dropped it, glowing a vibrant purple from the heat. Though the flames were hot enough to boil rock, the hardened soulstone would not melt so easily. It took a while before One Swing was able to hold it without being burnt himself, however.

After that, the two of them ran back down the mountain and back into the capital city of Gran Torte, where they reported straight to the Adventurers Guild about what had happened.

“A-alright, it was two hundred baguettes long…” The woman at the guild scribbled One Swing’s bizarre description of the creature down into the notebook in front of her, before looking up at him with a puzzled look. “How long is a baguette supposed to be exactly?”

“About one meter.” One Swing nodded.

“Say that from the beginning then! There's no need to make up weird units of measurement when it's exactly the same as one that's more recognizable and already exists!"

The woman sighed as she continued to scribble One Swing’s ramblings into her notebook. “I still don’t have a great picture of what attacked you. Only that it was long…”

Barbacoa cleared her throat from nearby. “The creature was a dragon. A winged drake. Although much larger than any drakes I’ve ever heard of.”

“A dragon?!” the guild attendant exclaimed in surprise, before tearing out the page of One Swing’s ramblings and throwing it in the trash. “If you knew what it was, just say that from the start!”

Dragons. One Swing had heard of the mythical beast before, but the idea of one appearing directly before him was something he thought impossible. That was because dragons were extinct. Much like drakes, dragons were powerful scaly beasts that existed as one of the strongest and deadliest of the monsters. However, unlike the drakes who lived deep in the bowels of the Underground, dragons had wings. The winged creatures took to the skies, creating their dens in high places and atop mountains. And this made them a target for demons.

The demons were beasts that stood at the pinnacle of monster-kind. A creature of pure violence and insatiable bloodlust. When demons once roamed the land, anything daring to openly fly through the skies was immediately brought down, or chased to the ends of the land until it was forced to roost, promptly being torn apart upon landing.

And thus, dragons were brought to extinction, the last of them dying out more than hundreds of years ago. They weren't the only creatures to become extinct at the claws of the demons before they were driven from the Capital twenty-four years ago and presumably fell to the same fate themselves.

Along with the dragon’s sudden appearance, there was one more thing that concerned One Swing.

“That dragon…” he began. “It was Cursed, was it not?”

The dragon had attacked them with fire. That was not a thing that dragons had been known to do. They were just giant winged lizards, after all, and so the ability to breathe fire could only be attributed to a Curse.

Barbacoa nodded. “Not only is it extraordinarily large, it also blew flames from its mouth. No doubt it was the one that attacked Shashlik.”

Shaslik must have encountered the creature while ascending the mountain and fallen victim to its flame. That was the only likely explanation for his injuries, One Swing agreed.

“It wasn’t just any dragon…” A voice from behind pulled the attention of the three away and to the man now joining them at the desk.

He was a wolfman. However, unlike Barbacoa, the man only had the ears of a wolf, sitting atop a regular head of white hair. At least, that’s all that One Swing could see of the man. Wrapped around his face and visible beneath the gaps in his loose-fitting clothing, white bandages were wrapped across his entire body.

“Ash!” Barbacoa exclaimed upon seeing the man arrive. “You should be resting. You’re still gravely injured.”

“Don’t call me that,” the man spat back beneath the bandages wrapped around his face. “And I’m fine. Don’t take me for one of these low-rank weaklings. I don’t need your concern.”

It was Shashlik. He was unrecognizable from the bandages and the change of outfit, but that sour tone and attitude could only be the A-Rank adventurer known as Shashlik of a Thousand Nettles.

“Oh, Shashlik of a Thousand Nettles.” One Swing gave the man a bow. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Whatever, F-Rank,” the man snapped back. “I don’t have time to talk to a weakling like you.”

Barbacoa shook her head at him in response. “I see your dishonest disposition is still the same as always. You’ll never make friends if you’re always this unapproachable.”

“I don’t want to make friends! And I don’t want to hear about being unapproachable from a woman who always looks like she’s scowling!”

“Also, Onesie isn’t an F-Rank adventurer anymore. In fact, he has just been promoted to C-Rank.”

Shashlik scoffed. “Only C-Rank? A weakling as strong as him should’ve made it to A-Rank by now. Pathetic.”

His words were often harsh, but One Swing found that Shashlik might not have been as unpleasant a person as he first thought. He had also paid off all of One Swing’s debts back in Bredkrum back then. Perhaps the man was just a little awkward when dealing with others, One Swing thought.

“A-anyway…” the attendant at the desk cleared her throat. “You had more information on this dragon, Shashlik?”

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“Yeah,” he replied. “It’s Wrath.”

“… What?” the other three replied in surprised unison.

“Cayenne of the Wrathful Flame, Harbinger of Hellfire and Destruction,” he continued. “One of the Sevens of old.”

Wrath of the Seven. At any one time, there exists seven of the strongest and most powerful beings across the land. The Seven they're called. And each one is given a title by the general public to match their renowned strength and feats. It’s a system that’s existed for thousands of years, and every time one of the Seven meets their eventual end, the title is eventually passed onto another. However, after Demon Queen Gluttony—the strongest of the Seven who reigned as the one and only Gluttony for as long as the title even existed—the titles had lost much of their luster.

It seemed this dragon was one of those Seven. However, a Wrath of the Seven already existed in this era. One Swing knew this. It was the warden of Surstrom Spire. Though One Swing had never met the man, he was sure the warden of Surstrom Spire was most definitely not a dragon. Meaning, Cayenne of the Wrathful Flame and Harbinger of Hellfire and Destruction was one of the Wraths of old, presumably one that had ‘perished’ many an age ago when dragons once roamed the skies.

“Cayenne of the Wrathful Flame, Harbinger of Hellfire and Destruction?!” One Swing exclaimed, shock on his face. “That’s…! That’s…! That’s a very impressively long name!”

“That’s what you’re shocked about!” The attendant snapped back, before turning back to the bandaged man. “A fire-breathing dragon, as well as one of the Seven of old… If what you’re saying is true, we need to let the Queen know immediately. Only somebody like her will know what to—”

The sound of heavy boots stepping through the doorway of the Adventurers Guild cut the woman off and stole away everybody's attention. It was a knight. A tall, golden knight was standing in the doorway, scanning their vision across the room, their face completely obscured by the face plate of their golden helmet.

The knight took a deep breath. “Kneel and rejoice!” The booming voice of a woman called out across the room. “Your esteemed and beloved ruler has chosen to grace you with her divine presence! Prostrate yourselves before the one who knows all, sees all, and stands above all! Queen Koko—!”

“Lemon, I told you we’re taking a break from that stuff today,” a voice interrupted from behind her. “That’s why it’s just the two of us right now.”

“But, my Lady—!” the golden knight turned back, only to be silenced by the wave of a hand laden with jewels and golden rings from the figure stepping into the room behind them.

“It’s fine,” the voice replied. “I’m only here to check something.”

Stepping into the guild hall, a small woman strutted across the room. At the sight of her, the entire guild went deathly silent, leaving only the sound of her heavy boots clomping across the wooden floor. She was small—clearly the size of a child, as most dwarves like her tended to be—but, despite her diminutive length, she was a woman who commanded complete and total dominance over the entire room.

With each step the tiny woman took across the floor, her honey-coloured curls—twisted into long drills that hung down past her knees—bounced along beside her. Behind her, a long gold-accented robe swept the floor at her back. And atop her head, a jewel-encrusted crown.

Approaching the desk with the adventurers still standing around it, the woman came to a sudden stop. "Lemon," she commanded, giving a snap of her gold-laden fingers and stretching her arms out at her sides.

“Yes, my Lady!” Rushing in behind her, the golden knight promptly snatched a chair from the room and set it down in front of the small woman. Wiping it down with a cloth, the knight then delicately placed her hands beneath the woman’s outstretched arms and lifted her off the floor, placing her gently on the chair she had placed.

“Mm. Very good.” The woman nodded, a satisfied look on her face. Now standing at a height higher than the desk, she turned to the attendant, still frozen in silence. “Don’t mind me. I’ve just come here to check something.”

At her words, the entirety of the guild knelt to the floor. The guild attendant, Barbacoa, One Swing, and even Shashlik had dropped to one knee once the shock of who had walked through their doors had sunk in. Although, One Swing was forced to kneel in an odd direction due to the position of the sword slung over his shoulder, its one-hundred-and-sixty-four foot length stretching across the entirety of the room and out the window on the other side, trailing fifty meters into a separate establishment down the street.

It was the Queen. Queen Kokoro la Peppyseed, the One Who Knows All, Sees All, and Stands Above All. The woman who had driven the demons from the Capital twenty-four years ago, and the woman who was known as the Omniscient Overlord for her unfathomable all-knowing wisdom.

Despite being quite short, she was a woman that One Swing respected. As far as One Swing knew, nobody had the length of wisdom that she held, and her royal command was one that spanned the length of the entire world. All across the land knew and respected the woman known as Queen Kokoro la Peppyseed. Greed of the Seven.

“Ah, don’t worry about stuff like that,” she said, gesturing for everyone to stand. “I’m just here to check something.”

“I—it’s about the dragon, isn’t it?” The guild attendant stood to her feet behind the desk. “Cayenne of the Wrathful Flame? One of the Wraths of old… To think you’d already known about it and came here to guide us… It’s true what they say about you being all-knowing…”

At her words, Queen Kokoro la Peppyseed smirked.

“I—is that true, my Lady?!” The golden knight was the next to speak up in surprise. “I wondered why you had wanted to come down here! Your wisdom is truly unmatched!”

The dwarf woman waved the surprise of the two off with a wave of her hand. “A dragon, huh? Sounds rough.” With a smirk still on her face, the woman showed no concern or worry about the threat of a dragon. Especially one as devastating as the one they had encountered on the mountain.

“Wh-what should we do?” the attendant asked, panic still in her voice. “Tens of thousands of people could die if we don’t deal with it immediately! Please tell us what to do, Lady Kokoro!”

The all-knowing smirk on the Queen’s face only grew wider.

“Well,” she began, shifting her eyes over to One Swing. Specifically, his lengthy weapon. “That’s a pretty big sword. Have you tried hitting the dragon with it?”

One Swing’s eyes went wide at her answer.

Queen Kokoro la Peppyseed was a woman whose words were known to contain more meaning than what they first appeared. Though she had a very outwardly lax and carefree appearance, the all-knowing wisdom behind that facade was a tried and true fact. She was the woman who singlehandedly drove the demons from the Capital and built the ruins back up to the magnificent city it is today, after all. Her many feats were evident proof of her intellectual prowess. Her words were like riddles, and it was up to the ones listening to extract the meaning from them.

Now on his feet, One Swing gripped the sword tightly beneath his grasp, an excitement burning in his heart. “Are you saying it’s up to me to defeat it?”

“Well…” The woman tilted her head, a smirk still on her lips. “You’ll probably need help, right? Adventurers travel in parties, after all.”

The guild attendant butted into the conversation with a complaint. “W-wait! Are you saying you want One Swing here to lead a party of adventurers to fight the dragon? He’s only a C-Rank adventurer!”

Barbacoa shook her head. “No, Onesie is much stronger than somebody of his rank. It seems the Queen recognizes that too. I think it’s a wise decision.”

“Tch.” Shashlik clicked his tongue. “Hurry up and make it to A-Rank already, weakling. It’ll be an embarrassment to all adventurers when a C-Rank loser like you beats that dragon.”

“I—if you guys say so…” the attendant conceded, before turning back to the Queen. “Can you tell us where the dragon is, Lady Kokoro? These adventurers said they saw it flee from Mount Kyuri-Cumber, but we’re not sure where it is now. Surely somebody as wise as you would know.”

Mount Kyuri-Cumber, huh?” the Queen pondered aloud. “Sounds cold. Maybe it went somewhere warmer.”

“Somewhere warmer? I don’t know what—” The attendant’s eyes go wide in realization. “It flew to Mustarseed Peak?”

Queen Kokoro la Peppyseed smirked.

Mustarseed Peak was a volcano. An active volcano that existed alongside a cluster of smaller mountains. A lot further from the city than Mount Kyuri-Cumber. Close to the dwarven city of Mudkayek, if One Swing’s knowledge on mountains was anything to go by. One Swing liked mountains, after all. For reasons obvious to anybody know knew the man.

“Well, looks like that’s it from me,” Queen Kokoro said, jumping down from the chair and making towards the door. Waving a gold-adorned hand over her shoulder, she gave the group a short farewell. “Good luck with the whole dragon thing. Come on, Lemon. Let’s go.”

“Yes, my Lady!” Following behind her, the golden knight made to leave as well.

Just as quickly as she had arrived, the Queen had made her exit. She had arrived simply to tell the guild of adventurers how to defeat the threat to her lands, and left the rest in their hands. Her casual demeanour towards the threat of such a fearsome beast seemed careless on the outside, however, coming from her, it inspired great confidence in those around her. She was a woman who knew everything, after all, and the carefree attitude of one who knows all is a sign that everything would work out in the end.

Stepping out of the Adventurers Guild, the Queen and her knight disappeared around the corner, their voices trailing off down the street.

“I don't think this place sells food, after all, Lemon. Let's find some other place to eat.”

“Yes, my Lady!”

As silence filled the hall once more, the eyes of everybody in the room fell towards One Swing, his one-hundred-and-sixty-four foot sword slung over his shoulder, trailing fifty meters out the window and into the city beyond.

By the Queen’s word, One Swing would be the one to lead a party to defeat the ancient dragon known as Cayenne of the Wrathful Flame, Harbinger of Hellfire and Destruction.

With the excitement of a lengthy fight against a long-living legend burning through his heart—

One Swing smirked.