SSS Rank Sword Mage: Awakening Starts with Weakest Mana Affinity

The Spider twitched—freshly regenerated legs scraping against stone. The swollen mass buried in the ground, the thing that resembled its abdomen, pulsed with a deep, rising hum.

This wasn't just another sonic blast.

This one would end us.

I staggered, clutching my stomach as the burning pain refused to ease.

"Brother, what do we do now?!" Morad cried, panic tearing through our bond. "Let me at it—please!"

"Don't be reckless!" I snapped, wincing. "Your mana is dangerously low. If you use it all, you might die!"

"It's charging from the abdomen—the same place we avoided!" Morad yelled back. "If that hits, we're done!"

"I know!" My voice cracked. "The only trick left is summoning, but I barely know how!"

"Summoning? You can summon?" Morad shouted over the rising hum.

"Kind of! But what good is it if I don't know how to—!"

"Then I'll buy you time!" he declared.

Before I could stop him, Morad surged forward in his base form. He fired Water Volley after Water Volley, aiming directly at the beast's buried abdomen. If the Spider was pregnant, it was all over for us.

That idiot! Why would he do that? I realized we truly had nothing to lose at this point. Then, Morad's risky move made a discovery.

"Brother—it's not taking any damage!" Morad yelled, weaving through the powerful shockwaves. He had one job: delay it, keep it from firing that final blast.

I exhaled sharply, then sliced my palm open.

The blood dripped—my last desperate resource.

"Brother, listen!" Morad shouted, dodging another sonic quake. His voice trembled, but his focus was absolute. "Summoning is about contacting! Calling the name of the creature you seek!"

He launched another Water Volley, exploding dirt and webbing around the monster.

"You must have something that connects you to the Transparent World—and your blood must shape the contract! Call out their name and force the bridge open!"

The Transparent World… a realm of spirits? Souls? Something between worlds?

What connected me to it?

My hand drifted toward the feather-shaped relic on my lower abdomen—the mark Ashborn left me.

That had to be it.

But the mana cost…

Who would answer me?

Who could?

"Brother—take the risk!" Morad shouted. His voice grew louder on purpose, creating noise, disrupting the Spider's targeting. He darted left, then right, always moving. "They must still have you in their mind! Someone with… unfinished business!"

The Spider's abdomen glowed blindingly bright. Its charging was accelerating—too fast. Something beneath the earth was fueling it, amplifying it.

I swallowed hard.

"Okay… okay… someone with a connection to me…"

A name rose unbidden.

Cold. Sharp. Familiar.

Azazel.

I felt the blood pool in my palm, and I raised it to the vibrating air.

"I call upon the one named Azazel!" I roared, voice cracking from strain. "Azazel! Answer me!"

The world held its breath.

Silence.

Not a flicker.

Not a tremor.

Nothing.

"Shit—he didn't answer!" Morad cried. "Brother, we're done for! This is no time to act like a child—THINK! I'm not dying here with you! We have plans, remember?! I want to become a dragon—and you, Brother… what do YOU want?!"

His desperation lit a spark in me.

I want to be strong enough to be free…

The Spider's scream sharpened into a pitch so high the trees themselves vibrated.

I forced more mana into my voice, even as my pathways burned like molten wire.

"Isoldrick!" I roared. "Isoldrick—ANSWER MY CALL!"

Again—nothing.

No hum.

No pulse.

Dead air.

Morad's scales rattled—he was shaking.

"Brother!" he yelled, diving past a slicing shockwave. "It MUST be someone who still carries you in their thoughts! Someone who remembers you! Someone who can't move on because of you!"

Someone who… still has unfinished business with me.

My vision wavered.

Faces flashed through my mind.

And then—

It hit me like a hammer to the chest.

Galahad.

My lungs tore open as I screamed his name:

"I SUMMON YOU—GALAHAD!"

BOOOOOM—

A green vortex erupted into existence, ripping open the air like a wound in reality. It spun violently, a storm made of light, smoke, and memory. Invisible threads lashed outward, connecting to something far beyond this world—something buried deep within the Transparent Realm.

Wind howled.

Webs were ripped from trees like fragile cloth.

The Spider froze mid-charge, stunned silence.

From within the vortex, a voice rumbled—low, resonant, impossibly heavy.

It sounded like stone plates grinding beneath the earth.

"I only answered…"

The vortex swelled, the presence behind it stepping closer, each word shaking the ground.

"…because you are the Adjudicator."

The forest bowed.

Branches bent.

Roots trembled.

Cracks spiderwebbed through the earth beneath my feet.

I could feel his power—crushing, ancient, overwhelming.

"Wooooow… Brother, you did it!" Morad gasped. "So much mana—!"

He wasn't wrong. I had never felt mana pressure like this. Ever.

The Spider—the one that had nearly killed us—recoiled instantly, retreating into the earth like prey fleeing a predator. Its entire body shook in pure, animal terror.

Then a voice thundered my ears, deeper, resonating through the soil itself:

"...CLOSE."

Morad spun around. "W–Who said that? Brother, who was that?!"

The vortex began to shrink, spiraling inward.

Galahad's voice drifted away with it, fading like a titan sinking beneath the horizon.

"Looks like I won't be coming through," he said, voice growing distant. "You summoned me inside another creature's domain…"

"Galahad!!" I shouted, reaching toward the collapsing vortex.

But it vanished—gone.

Leaving us alone.

"Shit," I breathed. "We're screwed. The Spider we fought didn't even have a voice—so what the hell was that?"

But then the ground shuddered—

Harder.

Deeper.

Like something enormous clawed its way upward.

A fissure split open in front of us, tearing through trees, stone, and webbing.

Morad appeared at my side, trembling.

"B–Brother… we need to run…"

Run.

I had never—never—heard Morad say that word before.

Then the horns emerged.

Massive. Curved. Jagged.

Pushing out of the earth like the peaks of a buried mountain.

My breath stopped.

"Is that—no… it can't be…"

A head rose—black scales, molten eyes, crowned with spiraling horns.

A dragon's head.

And dangling from behind it—

Limp.

Lifeless.

Useless—

Was the Spider.

The same spider we'd fought so desperately for our lives.

Hanging like a discarded toy.

"Unbelievable…" I whispered.

My blood turned to ice.

The Spider wasn't the beast at all.

It was never the threat.

It was never the body.

It was the tail.

The true creature dragged itself free of the earth—

A colossal, coiling nightmare. A dragon so impossibly vast as tall as the tallest tree.

The real fight… what was I say real fight? Morad moving closer to me shivering in fear.

The air crackled as the creature's immense tongue lashed out, tasting the air. All I could do was stare at its stretched neck, paralyzed by its size. How the hell were we going to defeat that?

It began turning, as though looking for a pinprick, and then its eyes locked on us.

That's when a deep, resonant voice cut the silence:

"Since when do cockroaches crawl willingly beneath the feet meant to crush them? You tear open a portal into my domain, child…"

Impossible. This was what they were after? How were they ever going to kill this? Just standing in its presence alone…

Its eyes glowed, and as though all other sounds were reduced, my heart amplified. Morad turned, whispering, "Astraga, your heart!" My heart beat like a thunderous drum across the entire forest. Was this the ability of the Dragon? My heart's rapid beat was the loudest sound in the forest.

The voice deepened, echoing through my bones. "Hear it—the pounding in your chest."

I screamed back, "Please, make it stop!" I held my chest. Hearing my own heartbeat magnified so loudly was terrifying. This creature had no regard for life; its presence only yelled out destruction.

"That little heart of yours is wiser than it seems. Listen to it, for if you don't, your people will call your name—and hear no answer. Because beyond you lies only shadow, and beyond that, silence."

He moved his gaze from us, his tongue reaching toward the cocoons of children. He looked back at Morad and me.

"This village, these fields, these fragile lives you cling to so desperately—that gives you humans hope. You hold to hope as if it were armor. Foolish child…"

The Dragon's colossal tail rose up and smacked the ground in an instant. Morad collapsed, without any physical hit? What did he do to Morad? "Morad!" I yelled, but he didn't answer.

"I have come to claim what was always mine. I am the horizon of all things, the line where every hope ends. And only death awaits your people. This town was just the beginning."

"One trembling child with borrowed courage and borrowed power dares stand against me? You are strong, yes…

but I am beyond strength."

Its horns glowed.

The cocoons rose—levitating, helpless—drawn toward its mouth.

Children screamed inside them.

Then—

CRUNCH.

GULP.

Silence.

My vision warped.

My stomach convulsed—

I vomited, shaking, horrified beyond thought.

The dragon lowered its head toward me.

"I shall take from you what I require… now."

And I realized—as my feet moved on their own, carrying me toward the beast—that I was next. Next to be swallowed. Next to vanish into its endless hunger.

Suddenly, a calm, commanding voice cut through the silent horror.

"Whoever opened that portal, I owe you a debt… Lord Zedd, are you ready?"

The voice belonged to a woman. A figure materialized, impossibly calm across the darkness behind.

"Yes, Morgana," the man she addressed as Lord Zedd replied, his tone steady, ready for whatever this colossal Dragon had in store.