Devouring Dragon Heir

The echo of Klaus's cold words still lingered in the chamber long after he turned his back on Andrea and Caesar.

The silence that followed pressed heavily on the two kneeling figures, their foreheads still touching the stone floor, their bodies trembling with the weight of dread.

Andrea, her throat dry and her chest rising and falling rapidly, dared to raise her head only slightly.

The flickering torchlight illuminated the sharp lines of Klaus's back as he strode slowly toward the heavy doors.

Her heart screamed to remain silent, but her mind knew better.

There was one last piece of the truth she had not yet spoken, one detail so crucial that omitting it would mean the ruin of her kingdom and her life alike.

"My lord!" she cried suddenly, her voice breaking through the suffocating stillness. Her words echoed off the cold stone walls.

"Please… forgive me for not telling you this earlier. I did not tell you of the gift for the mission."

Klaus's shadow stretched long across the chamber. Slowly, he looked at the kneeling Andrea with sharp eyes.

"Speak." His tone was calm, but the underlying menace in it was sharper than any blade.

Andrea's body shook violently. She pressed her forehead back to the ground and babbled, her words coming out in desperation.

"The gift is something no mortal could ever dream of. My lord… it is a physique. A bloodline. The Void Walker's physique."

The name seemed to echo in the chamber like a tolling bell, a strange and profound sound.

Klaus's eyes narrowed further, his expression shifting to a subtle frown. His instincts told him this was no ordinary name.

"Void Walker?" His voice was skeptical and clipped. "Explain."

Andrea swallowed hard.

"It is a bloodline said to have been born from the descent of a god itself. The records are faint, and the legends are scattered, but what little my father found… he believed it was true.

The Void Walker's physique grants mastery over the element of space. Not merely bending it in small ways, not merely creating portals or distortions but true dominion over the void.

Movement without restriction, blades made of void itself. Such a bloodline and physique is something this world has not seen in countless ages."

Caesar, kneeling beside her, lowered his head further. "I did not believe it at first, my lord. But I saw the ceremony myself. The king got the approval of the supreme will to keep the void walker's physique and bloodline as the price for completing the mission."

Klaus listened silently, his sharp gaze fixed on the trembling queen. The element of space. A physique and bloodline tied to it.

His skepticism remained, but a faint flicker of curiosity stirred within him. He turned inward, addressing the system.

"System," Klaus murmured in his mind, "is a Void Walker physique valuable?"

The system's voice resonated, calm and absolute.

Host, do not underestimate what has been spoken.

Space-type physiques are among the rarest of all. Even the great dragons speak of the space element physique holders with respect.

The Void Walker's physique is not a myth. It is real, and if what she claims is correct, you must not let this opportunity slip from your grasp.

Klaus frowned. "Then could I not acquire it from the system's drawers? I have access to lucky draws. Perhaps it will appear there."

The system's voice lowered, almost as if sharing a secret.

[Host… even I cannot guarantee that. The Void Walker is not a mere physique.

Void walkers are a supreme race of beings, equivalent to dragons, phoenixes, and the other true supreme races.

The lucky draws withdraw their treasures from the dragon god's treasury. Even though it may be possible, the chances are low since void walkers are an equivalent race to dragons, so keeping their essences is taboo. Although it is not an issue for the dragon god, it is still not a chance to miss [host].

Klaus remained silent, and his hand clenched slightly at his side.

The system pressed further.

[Understand this: the space affinity is difficult to grasp, but if you acquire this physique and bloodline, then raising its affinity level will be as easy as it was with the fire element.]

For the first time in many hours, Klaus felt the faint stirrings of excitement within his otherwise cold heart.

Andrea, sensing the silence dragging on too long, dared to continue. Her voice was faint, yet each word carried the weight of legend.

"My lord, the tale is ancient. It is said that many thousands of years ago, before the current empires were even formed, a god descended upon Star Land.

No one knows why—perhaps curiosity, perhaps a secret mission. That god took a mortal queen as his consort, and from their union was born a prince unlike any the world had ever seen."

She paused, her hands trembling, before pressing onward.

"This prince bore the Void Walker physique. From the moment of his birth, space itself bent around him.

Distances collapsed, weapons failed to reach him, and enemies fell without understanding how they had died.

As he grew, his strength grew with him. No army could stand before him, and no fortress could protect against him. He was… unstoppable."

Caesar picked up the tale, his voice steady despite the unease in it.

"So powerful was he, my lord, that the legends say he became a danger to the very planet itself.

The void he controlled began to spread uncontrollably. He tried to become god himself by challenging and killing every warrior on the planet. The god who had given birth to the prince had already disappeared many years ago, so there was no one to control his rampage.

Entire valleys were swallowed, seas bent and folded unnaturally, and planetary destruction was imminent. It was then that the Supreme Will of Star Land itself intervened."

Andrea bowed her head low, her voice no more than a whisper. "The will of the world devoured the prince himself. The prince vanished without a trace, consumed so that Star Land would not be destroyed by its native."

The chamber grew still once more. Even the torches seemed to dim as the weight of the tale settled over them.

Klaus remained silent, his mind swirling with thoughts. He thought about the scope of a bloodline so powerful it could draw the wrath of the planet itself.

"System," Klaus whispered inwardly, "and this is the gift the king sacrificed himself for?"

It seems so, Host. If this is true, then your path has changed entirely. The mission to unify the continent may be absurd in its scope, but for a Void Walker physique, it is no longer a hassle but an opportunity.

Klaus's lips curled faintly into a cold, calculating smile.

He turned his gaze back to Andrea, who knelt trembling before him.

"So," he said softly, though the softness carried greater menace than any shout, "your father sought to tie me to his daughter's throne with the bait of a godly physique. A clever gamble, to be honest."

Andrea pressed her head to the ground again. "My lord, I have no intention to hold you back; it was simply my poor father's will to see his daughter safe."

Klaus stood in silence, then finally nodded once.

"Very well. If this Void Walker bloodline and physique are truly within reach, then I will claim it. And if your father truly sacrificed his life to seal it as a gift, then I will see whether it was worth the price.

But hear me, Andrea, if I find even a single lie in your words, if this 'gift' proves false, then not even the supreme will be able to save you."

Andrea trembled violently, tears spilling from her eyes. "Yes, my lord. I understand."

Caesar lowered his head further. "As do I."

Klaus turned away again, his shadow sweeping behind him as he approached the heavy doors. His shadow stretched long, devouring the light of the chamber, like the void itself come to life.

Inside his mind, the system's voice whispered once more.

[The host's omniscient tracking skill has detected a huge human army approaching the kingdom borders.]

It was not a surprise that the skill could now detect such faraway distances; after his consecutive rank-ups, the skill's detection range had been increasing constantly, and now it spanned hundreds of kilometers without any exertion.

Klaus's eyes glimmered coldly, his lips curving into the faintest of smirks.

His voice sounded to both Andrea and Caesar while his fading back faced them.

"Prepare for a battle; the empire is here."

Klaus then left the room, leaving a shocked Caesar.

"He must be mistaken; Godwin's death news shouldn't even have reached the empire so soon."

But before this, though, the sound of hurried footsteps was heard before an army official rushed to the room and kneeled, delivering the message.

"Sir, a huge army of 25,000 men, including 10,000 cavalry, is approaching the kingdom; it will reach the kingdom's borders in a few hours."

"What?" A headache appeared as Caesar got the news. "We might not be able to make it to the defense line to prepare the capital's walls. Treat the fortress as already neutralized."

"Follow me," Caesar said as he got ready for war.

The threads of destiny were pulling tighter. Riverdale, once a fragile kingdom on the verge of collapse, was about to become the eye of the storm.