Darren hit the ground hard. Heat bit into his skin through his clothes in an unforgiving manner and for a long moment the man simply lay there, sprawled motionless, staring up at black skies that offered no sympathy. When he finally moved, it was with a groan dragged from deep in his chest. His head throbbed as he shook it, grit clinging to his hair and face, the taste of iron and dust lingering on his tongue.

  “Damn you both…” he muttered under his breath, cursing the gods. Superstition could go to hell, in fact he was already there. If Hades and Thanatos truly wanted their precious package delivered, then they wouldn’t strike him down for a few angry words. The thought gave him a bitter sort of comfort as he pushed himself onto one elbow, pausing there while the world slowly stopped spinning.

  Everything had happened too fast.

  The fight with Death, the System being integrated into him against his own will, the deal he'd struck with the God of the Underworld.

  Darren needed time—just a few seconds—to sort through the chaos rattling inside his head. His thoughts drifted to what Hades had told him. Eons had passed since his death. If what the immortal had said was true…did Hiraeth even exist anymore? The question sent a dull ache through his chest. The Kingdom of Nozar felt like a half-remembered dream now. He doubted it still stood. Doubt came easily, here. But even as those thoughts threatened to pull him under, Darren latched onto the one thing that mattered. Nozar had never truly been his home. Home to him was laughter in quiet rooms, familiar voices calling his name, the warmth of people who waited for him to return.

  Home was where his family was. And if there was even the slightest chance that holding up his end of the bargain would bring him back to them, then nothing else mattered.

  A sudden flash of light snapped him back to the present. The System appeared again, its screen hovering before him, its glow a sharp contrast against the crimson landscape. Darren sat up straighter, eyes locking onto the translucent screen as words formed across its surface, letter by letter, as if being written just for him.

  // Begin the Tutorial?

  Below the question hovered two familiar options.

  // [ Yes ] OR [ No ]

  Darren stared at them, his jaw tightening. This System—this strange construct—was a gift from Hades despite Thanatos’ extreme reluctance. Death had doubted him, thought the power would be wasted on him. Darren felt a flicker of defiance burn in his chest at the memory.

  He would prove Death wrong.

  There was curiosity there too that the man held in regards to this System.

  What was it about this thing that made it so valuable?

  The crystalline structure of what was embedded in his chest caught his eye again, facets of light interlocking in a way that felt…familiar. It reminded him of Magnus Elarion’s creations, built with intent far beyond surface appearances.

  He didn’t hesitate any longer.

  Darren raised his hand and pressed [ Yes ]

  He felt nothing. No jolt of power, no rush of sensation. For half a heartbeat he wondered if something had gone wrong, until he noticed the faint indentation where his fingers met the glowing surface, as though it had been solid for that single instant.

  Darren had made his choice.

  The words vanished, the screen dimming briefly as if in thought. The man watched closely, piecing together what he could. It was processing his input. This System wasn’t just issuing commands. It was meant to help him specifically on this journey. How, exactly, remained to be seen.

  The glow brightened once more, new text appearing with crisp clarity.

  // The Tutorial's Mission Objectives:

  1. Find Charon and the Ferry of the Dead.

  2. Collection of Data

  Darren exhaled slowly, eyes scanning over the words.

  That was exactly where he would find his instructions along with the very package that he was to protect. Whatever lay ahead, the path was set now. He pushed himself to his feet, sand sliding beneath his boots, and lifted his gaze toward the endless red horizon.

  The Tutorial had begun.

  Darren tilted his head slightly as his focus shifted back to the hovering screen. After a brief pause, he reached out and selected the first objective. The moment his input registered, the ground beneath him reacted. A soft glow bloomed at his feet, seeping through the red sand like molten light trapped just below the surface. It stretched outward, unfurling into a thin, luminous trail that cut cleanly through the wasteland before him. The path curved and dipped with the terrain, disappearing into the distance.

  His lips curled into a grin.

  The System was showing him exactly where he needed to go. There was something reassuring about that, something almost comforting in its precision. But Darren’s eyes flicked back to the screen, his attention snagging on the second objective. He frowned slightly as he read it again.

  “Data…?” he murmured, the word slipping out quietly, as if hearing it aloud might spark some hidden understanding.

  The response came instantly.

  “Data.” The voice echoed inside his mind and Darren flinched despite himself.

  His shoulders tensed, his breath hitching for half a second as he instinctively looked around, half-expecting to see someone standing beside him. There was no one. Just the red sands, the glowing path, and the ever-present screen. It would take time to get used to this, knowing there was now another presence sharing space in his mind.

  “What about data?” he asked, feeling faintly ridiculous speaking to an unseen construct, but he pushed the feeling aside.

  If this System was going to be part of his journey, then he’d deal with it directly.

  The voice answered again, calm and unhurried. “I, M.E.R.L.Y.N., run on sheer Data. I use the information at hand so that I may aid you in any way I can. But no matter how hard I seem to search through my vast stores of knowledge, I cannot seem to find anything…on you, Darren Ittriki.”

  Darren’s brow furrowed as he listened.

  “More data needs to be collected such that I may accurately measure your level of strength in comparison to what I already know,” Merlyn the System continued. “Functioning to the highest of levels I am capable of is of the utmost importance, so that I may properly assist you on this journey of yours.”

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  It made sense. Darren had been gone for a very long time, long enough for history to blur into legend and legend to become half-truths. Even if his battle with the Dragon King had immortalized his legacy, it wasn’t something a logical construct like this System could truly quantify.

  Stories could lie.

  A machine wouldn’t trust any of that.

  “What else would you be?” Darren muttered under his breath, more to himself than to the System.

  This thing was logical and efficient.

  The only thing it could be was a mechanical creation.

  He rose to his feet, brushing red sand from his tunic with practiced movements, the heat still radiating faintly through the fabric. His gaze returned to the glowing path ahead, its steady light cutting through the oppressive stillness of the Underworld. Whatever waited for him out there, the System clearly intended for him to meet it head-on.

  Darren exhaled and glanced back at the screen one last time.

  “So you want me to fight?” he asked bluntly. He didn’t bother dressing the question up. The intricacies of how this machine processed thought were far beyond him, and he had no patience for dancing around the truth.

  The answer came almost immediately. “Yes. I do.”

  That was all he needed to hear.

  Because Darren had already noticed the movement in the distance. Even against the endless red expanse, the shape was impossible to miss—massive, hulking, and beginning to advance with purpose. Whatever it was, it had seen him too. The violent upheaval caused by his crash landing had not gone unnoticed and the creature was responding to the disturbance with alarming speed.

  “I am sensing a great horde of low-rank ghouls to your west,” the System announced, its tone almost bright. “A slight detour, but one that I calculate will provide great benefits to the Tutorial’s Second Mission Objective!”

  The words barely registered. Darren didn’t slow, didn’t turn his head, didn’t even glance at the sudden new trail of light that branched off to his left. The original path remained ahead of him, steady and unwavering, and that was the only direction that mattered.

  Detours meant delays, and delays meant more time trapped in this place.

  There would be no detours for Darren Ittriki.

  The sooner he reached Charon, the sooner this entire ordeal could be put behind him. The sooner the deal was fulfilled, the sooner he could finally see his family again. That was the only objective that mattered to him. Data, tutorials, optimizations—those were secondary concerns at best. And besides, Darren had a strong suspicion that whatever was coming for him now would satisfy the System’s hunger for data far better than a horde of low-rank ghouls ever could.

  The ground began to tremble beneath his feet.

  At first it was subtle, a low vibration that hummed through the soles of his boots. Then it grew stronger, the red sand rippling outward in small waves as the massive figure he had seen earlier broke into a full charge. Each step the creature took sent a dull shock through the land, the sound of its approach being announced to everyone who existed within this region of the Underworld.

  Darren slowed, his gaze sharpening as the creature drew closer. The momentum and force that it was creating could be seen in heavy waves, distorting the air around its form. As the distance closed, recognition struck him.

  The System reacted instantly. The screen flared, its calm glow snapping into a violent crimson as the mission objectives vanished entirely. New text burned itself into existence, flashing with frantic urgency.

  // Warning. The System is detecting a being of immense power. Calculating threat level—

  The words stuttered for only a fraction of a second before resolving, brighter and more insistent than before.

  // Spawn of the Colchian Dragon

  // Threat Level - S Rank. [ General Level 452 ]

  // Approach with great caution.

  Darren stopped dead.

  For a brief moment, the world seemed to narrow to the glowing red letters hovering before him.

  The System’s voice followed immediately, stripped of its earlier cheer, concern now threading through its otherwise measured tone.

  “Darren. Please listen to reason. So many things have changed since you were last—”

  But the words never reached him.

  The moment Darren realized what stood before him, nothing else mattered.

  Rage surged up from somewhere deep and primal.

  Spawn or not, rank or level be damned, what mattered to the man was that it was a dragon. The System had said many things had changed since he last drew breath. But Darren was sure of this. His hatred for the draconic kind, the very monsters that had taken everything from him, would never change.

  They needed to be erased.

  Darren raised his hand, fingers straightening as his palm flattened, the shape precise and deliberate. His arm moved, swinging in a wide, powerful arc, as if he were wielding a blade only he could see.

  For a heartbeat, nothing happened.

  The dragon continued its charge, jaws parting as it prepared to tear him apart where he stood. Then the air itself split. A violent flash of red crackled across the space between them, energy screaming as it carved forward. The screen before Darren didn’t just shatter, it was torn apart. Light fragmented into jagged pixels.

  Against the Divinity of Dissection, nothing was exempt.

  Not even the System.

  The Spawn of the Colchian Dragon met the same fate.

  Darren’s strike moved through the air without resistance, an invisible arc of annihilation that cleaved forward with absolute intent. His deadly magic didn’t explode or burn—it cut. It sliced through scale as though it were cloth, through muscle and sinew without pause, through bone as if density itself had ceased to matter.

  The dragon didn't even have time to roar.

  A thin, perfect line appeared down the center of the creature’s massive body.

  Then it split.

  Blood erupted outward in a violent spray, dark and steaming as the two halves of the dragon slid apart, collapsing into the sand. The force behind the strike didn’t stop there. Darren had poured everything into it—rage, memory, hatred sharpened by pain—and the slash carried on far beyond its intended target. The mountain behind the dragon was caught in its path, stone screaming as it was carved cleanly through, until it was no longer there.

  Silence was the only thing that followed.

  Heat still radiated from the bisected corpse, blood pooling into the sand as smoke curled lazily upward. Darren stood at the center of it all, arm still extended.

  Any composure he might have possessed was gone.

  What remained was malice that had surged the instant he read that singular word on the screen.

  Dragon.

  The emotion clung to him now, thick and suffocating, refusing to fade even as the danger passed.

  The System reassembled itself slowly, pixels snapping back into place as the fractured screen reformed before him. The red warning was gone. In its place, calm sterile white text appeared.

  // Spawn of the Colchian Dragon Defeated. EXP (Experience Points) shall be awarded once the Tutorial has been completed.

  Darren didn’t react at first. His eyes were fixed on the corpse, on the ruin he’d left behind.

  A long moment passed before he finally spoke.

  “Dragons…” His voice was hoarse, barely more than a whisper. “Are there more of them?”

  There was no immediate response.

  His jaw tightened.

  “Are there more of them nearby?” he asked again, louder this time, the words cutting through the still air.

  Finally, the System answered.

  “There are many upon this particular path."

  Darren laughed but there was no humor in it. Grim satisfaction settled over him. His gaze hardened as he slowly lowered his arm, blood-soaked sand crunching beneath his boots as he took a step forward. Dragons still existed. Dragons still plagued this world. And dragons still deserved the same fate they always had.

  They would die.

  “Ready yourself, Merlyn,” Darren said, his voice steady now, edged with resolve. “You’re about to get a whole lot of data.”

  He turned toward the glowing path once more, the trail of light stretching onward through the red wasteland, now marked by blood and ruin.

  “Let’s complete this bloodydamn Tutorial.”