Chapter 33: A child cannot live without a father!

Rest’s dark red vertical pupils were filled with worry as they stared at the motionless silver dragon lying on the ground. Just as he was about to lower his head and probe with gentler power, a blinding black-and-white light suddenly erupted from the ground.

This was…?!

Rest watched as countless lines flowing with silver-white dragon runes instantly spread out from beneath Rose, weaving into an enormous, complex magic array that covered nearly half the clearing and completely enveloped her massive silver dragon body.

“When did you learn this?!” Rest’s pupils suddenly contracted into dangerous needle points.

An icy chill shot up his spine. He was all too familiar with the aura of this array—it was his own spatial teleportation magic formation. But at this moment, it had been activated in reverse, and the destination was clearly not the Demon King City, but some unknown place.

The movement in front of him instantly made him realize that Rose had actually woken up.

“You were faking it?!” A dragon roar mixed with shock and the feeling of being fooled shook the entire forest.

Rest reacted in an instant. His huge black claws, carrying a piercing screech that tore through space, slashed fiercely toward Rose at the center of the array. He had to take her back.

However, the moment his sharp claws were about to touch that brilliant blue light—

“Whoosh—!”

The massive silver dragon body wrapped in light vanished from its original spot as if erased by an invisible eraser, leaving only lingering magic fluctuations in the air and scattered specks of silver-white light dust.

Rest’s claws smashed hard into the empty ground, sending dirt and broken stones flying everywhere. He had pounced in the direction of Rose and missed completely.

“Damn it!” Rest let out an earth-shaking roar of fury. The terrifying dragon might instantly crushed the remaining trees around them.

He stared fixedly at the spot where Rose had disappeared. His enormous black body trembled slightly from rage. After the initial shock came deeper confusion and a twisted emotion.

“When the hell did you learn this?!” His dragon speech was filled with disbelief.

Although he knew Rose was smart, he never expected her to learn so quickly.

“I learned it all from you…” Rose said painfully.

Pretending to be unconscious—she had learned that from Rest. The teleportation array had also been arranged according to Rest’s method.

Intense pain still tore through her body, but the immense sense of relief from successfully escaping, along with a vengeful pleasure, temporarily overpowered the agony.

She had succeeded.

Taking advantage of that brief moment when Rest had relaxed out of worry, she had perfectly executed her deception. She had endured the excruciating pain and pretended to faint, even holding her breath, all to fool him.

Back when she had briefly touched that massive teleportation array in the Demon King City, Rose had relied on her newborn dragon instincts to keenly sense the core power constructing the teleportation magic—an ancient and powerful dragon-language rune.

Later, while washing clothes and looking for a place to bury her keepsake, she had chosen a hidden spot and, using her memory and sensitivity to her own magic power, clumsily carved the incomplete yet sufficient positioning rune base.

She had quietly infused it with her own origin magic power, waiting only for a desperate opportunity to activate it. This was the final escape route she had reserved for herself.

Violent pain swept through her entire body, yet Rose’s huge dragon head lifted high. Her silver vertical pupils burned with icy flames as she stared deathly in the direction where the teleportation light had vanished.

Meeting Rest and being forced to endure all of this was the greatest misfortune and shame in her dragon life… no, in this twisted fate of hers.

“No—!!!”

A deafening dragon roar carrying heart-wrenching sorrow, like an invisible giant hand trying to cross space and grab the source of the disappearing light:

“The child can’t be without a father! Come back, okay?”

His enormous black body lunged forward desperately, as if he really wanted to chase into the empty spatial channel.

His massive black body made as if to pounce, as though he would charge into the spatial turbulence regardless of the consequences.

But this plea for her to stay was like viciously sprinkling salt on Rose’s bloodied wound.

Father?!!

That word was like the most vicious mockery, instantly igniting the last shred of reason deep in Rose’s soul.

“I can also be the child’s father!”

A mental roar mixed with sky-high humiliation, tearing pain, and extreme anger crashed toward Rest’s consciousness like an out-of-control dragon breath.

This was a completely logic-destroyed counterattack born from rage and burning pain.

She only wanted to use the harshest words to shut that disgusting mouth of Rest’s. Even if it meant playing along with his absurd script, she would snatch away the role he cared about most.

A brief silence fell, as if even the wind had stopped.

Rest’s mountain-like black body seemed to stiffen for a moment.

Then, a perfectly clear mental voice whispered beside Rose’s ear, “But you’re the mother!”

That voice was full of smugness that begged for a beating, making Rose feel as if her brain had completely exploded.

Mother?!

This title was even more absurd and humiliating than “father,” firmly nailing her in the position of the one being claimed. All her humiliation, pain, and anger fused together at this moment.

Her huge silver dragon head jerked upward violently. Her silver vertical pupils contracted into needle points from utter hatred as she stared deathly in the direction Rest’s voice had come from.

Go to hell, Rest!

Who wants to be this damned mother?! And she certainly doesn’t need you, this demon, to be the father!

She only wanted to tear this demon into pieces!

She never wanted to see him again! Never wanted to hear his voice or feel even the slightest trace of his existence!

Even if there was a child, it would be hers! She could be both father and mother. He didn’t even have the right to touch them!

Get out of my life! Forever!

Trembling, carrying hatred and determination so intense they burned, for the first time—and she hoped the last—she used all the strength in her body to roar out that deeply engraved name like a curse:

This was the first time Rose had called this bastard’s name, and she hoped it would also be the last.

“Goodbye, Rest. We will never meet again.”

Having endured such ravaging, the anger in Rose’s heart made her decide never to look back. That massive dragon body shining with unyielding silver light suddenly dimmed in front of Rest, then completely vanished. Only a blinding afterimage and rapidly dissipating magic embers remained in the air.

It was as if she had never existed, leaving only that unforgettable roar still echoing through the valley.

“No—!!!!!”

A dragon roar far more violent and desperate than Rose’s, carrying world-destroying might, suddenly exploded from Rest’s chest, shaking the entire mountain forest.

His huge black dragon pupils expanded to their limit from extreme disbelief and momentary emptiness. They reflected only the empty air and the distorted light lines disturbed by the magic aftershocks where Rose had disappeared.

Instinct overrode reason. His massive black dragon body lunged desperately toward that void.

Nothing was there except cold air and swirling dust. Not even a trace of Rose’s warmth remained.

His enormous black dragon head drooped powerlessly, pressing against the devastated ground he had smashed.

Heavy breathing sounded like the whimpers of a dying beast. Deep in those dark red dragon pupils reflecting the ruins, fury at being fooled first surged, then was replaced by an even deeper panic that made him tense.

The child and the child’s mother—that stubborn, scarred little silver dragon who now carried bone-deep hatred toward him and had fled—could not be allowed to wander alone in this dangerous world.

His bloodline, the mate he had claimed, could not struggle for survival alone in this crisis-filled world.

An unprecedented焦灼 flame, mixed with intense possessiveness and a twisted sense of responsibility, instantly burned away all his brutality.

His huge black dragon claws pressed against the scarred earth as he slowly stood up. Beneath the broken scales was a resolve as hard as steel. His dark red vertical pupils were no longer chaotic but burned with a near-obsessive, chilling focus.

No matter the ends of the earth, he had to find this runaway little silver dragon in the shortest time possible and bring both the child and the child’s mother back.