Only I Awaken The Forbidden SSS-Rank Dragons

The roar seemed to shake the heavens themselves, his voice carrying like a storm.

The air vibrated with the force of his declaration, and the surrounding clouds spiraled into chaotic currents.

The woman's eyes narrowed slightly, a faint glimmer of intrigue flickering within the cold sapphire glow.

"Oh?" she murmured, her voice like silk brushing over steel. "Such defiance… it is rare to hear it spoken with sincerity."

Aleron's pupils contracted further as his dragon sense prickled with warning.

The pressure around the lady in front of him intensified, like an invisible hand pressing down on the world.

Even the metal beneath the soil trembled in his senses, as if fearful of her presence.

"Come willingly, and I will spare you unnecessary pain," she said, raising a pale hand. "Refuse… and I will take you in pieces."

A smirk crept across Aleron's lips. "You can try."

The ground beneath him exploded as he surged forward, claws crackling with metallic sheen from his newly empowered Metal Control.

He swung in a wide arc, sending razor-thin slashes of condensed metal force toward her. They sliced through the air, each one sharp enough to cleave reinforced steel.

But the woman merely raised her hand. A swirl of runes ignited along her sleeve, and the metal slashes dissolved into glittering dust before they could touch her. The dust spiraled harmlessly around her like golden snow.

"Beautiful ability," she said almost lazily. "But too crude."

Before Aleron could blink, she was in front of him. Not moving toward him—not even stepping—just suddenly there, her presence blotting out everything else.

Her palm hovered an inch from his chest.

His instincts screamed, causing Aleron to act immediately.

With a twist of his body, he leapt backwards.

Her hand still touched the air where he had stood, but the shockwave that followed cracked the earth in a jagged line stretching for hundreds of meters.

'Fast… too fast,' Aleron thought, his mind racing. 'But she's not invincible. No one is.'

He closed his eyes for the briefest heartbeat, feeling for the metals in the ground, in the weapons scattered from earlier battles, even in the blood-soaked soil around Mello's corpse.

A web of metallic threads hummed in his mind's eye.

"Let's see how you dance in my world," he muttered.

After advancing his metal control technique, Aleron had discovered a new, unique ability of this technique.

He could now feel metal threads and control them faintly, ultimately controlling the metals themselves.

Although it was a complex thing to master, Aleron had already done so with the use of his origin devourer talent.

The ground erupted as jagged spikes of metal shot upward, forming a cage around her. Each spike was layered with his origin energy, thrumming with destructive intent.

They twisted inward like the fangs of a great beast closing on its prey.

For the first time, the woman's expression shifted, not out of fear, but mild acknowledgement. She extended both hands, and the air thickened into a swirling barrier of wind.

The spikes met the wind with a metallic shriek, bending, splintering, yet some pierced through, grazing the hem of her robe.

Aleron caught it—a tiny tear in the flawless black fabric.

His grin widened. "So you can be touched."

The woman glanced at the tear, then at him. "You will regret that."

The temperature of the air dropped abruptly, the wind around her spiraling into a tornado that stretched into the sky.

Debris, soil, and shattered metal swirled violently, threatening to swallow everything nearby.

Aleron dug his claws into the earth, anchoring himself as the gale tried to tear him from the ground.

He analysed his surroundings as he struggled, looking for a way to break the stalemate.

A short while passed, and just then through the chaos, he saw it—a brief opening in the vortex as her focus shifted to compressing the storm.

With a guttural roar, he lunged through, cloaking his claws in condensed metal and slashing directly for her neck.

Her eyes widened slightly at his speed, but she tilted her head just enough for the claws to graze her cheek instead.

A thin line of crimson marred her porcelain skin.

The storm vanished in an instant.

Silence fell. Even the air seemed afraid to move.

She reached up and touched the blood on her cheek, then looked at it on her fingertips. "Interesting," she whispered.

Aleron's breath was ragged, but his grin remained. "That's two marks on perfection. Want me to make it three?"

The woman's gaze locked onto his, the faintest curve touching her lips.

It was not a smile of amusement, but the dangerous smile of a predator acknowledging prey that might actually bite back.

"This will be… entertaining," she said softly. "But playtime is over."

Before Aleron could react, she raised her hand, and the ground beneath him twisted unnaturally. The metals he had been controlling moments ago turned against him, snaking around his legs and arms with a speed he couldn't counter.

His eyes widened—she wasn't just manipulating wind; she was influencing his connection to the very metals around him.

'She's… severing my control?!'

In his mind, the web of metallic threads he had sensed earlier began snapping one by one. He flexed his arms, shattering some of the metallic restraints, but more replaced them instantly.

She stepped closer, her presence looming over him like an inevitable tide. "You have potential, 1317… or Aleron, as you wish to be called. That potential will bloom under the Genesis Coil… or wither here."

Her words dripped with certainty, as if his fate was already sealed.

Aleron's heart pounded, not with fear, but with a fierce, unyielding rage. "If my choices are to serve you or die—" His claws ignited with both dragon flame and metallic energy, the combined aura shaking the bindings loose. "—then I'll burn you to ash first."

Flames erupted outward, scorching the ground and forcing her back a single step. That was all he needed.

He leapt free of the collapsing earth, landing in a crouch, his gaze locked on hers.

The woman's expression finally hardened. "Very well. You've chosen death."

A blinding wave of heat burst from Aleron's fused form as the world around them warped under the intensity.

Ashkar's orange-red flames swirled with Aleron's energy, forming a spiraling aura that shimmered like molten metal.

The battlefield froze for a moment—even the mysterious lady's taunts died in their throats.