Kaito didn't bother with a long trek. That would be a waste of metabolic energy and, more importantly, time.

  In the middle of the bustling street, right in front of the Guild’s main entrance where the crowd of mocking adventurers was still lingering by the windows, Kaito tapped his staff once.

  [Point-to-Point Dimensional Displacement]

  Pop.

  The three of them vanished in a swirl of cobalt light, leaving a vacuum that sucked the hats off the nearest guards. The laughter inside the Guild Hall died instantly, replaced by a deafening silence as the locals stared at the empty patch of cobbles.

  The Land of Fire and Ash

  A heartbeat later, the cool breeze of Oakhaven was replaced by the suffocating, sulfur-heavy heat of the Peaks.

  The landscape was a nightmare of geological instability. The ground was scorched a deep, bruised black, littered with massive, glassy craters where the dragon’s fiery breath had literally melted the stone. Steam hissed from fissures, and the sky was a bruised purple, choked by ash.

  "Look at this place," Kaito muttered, stepping over a jagged crack in the earth. "The erosion control is non-existent. The craters are causing a massive drainage issue. It’s a total mess."

  Silvane, however, was thriving. She inhaled the sulfurous air as if it were mountain jasmine, her eyes glowing a fierce, reptilian gold. "The scent of a Tyrant," she whispered, her steam-vent ears giving a tiny, excited hiss. "He’s old. And he’s bored. I can feel it."

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  Lyra adjusted her white-and-gold robes, which Kaito had enchanted to remain perfectly cool despite the 120°C heat. She looked at Kaito, her expression firm.

  "Kaito," she said, catching his arm. "I know your first instinct is to reach into his head and 'optimize' his aggression. But look at Silvane."

  She pointed to the dragon-girl, who was already halfway up a scorched ridge, her hand white-knuckled on the hilt of her sword.

  "This isn't a 'bug' for her," Lyra continued. "This is her heritage. Let her fight him to her heart’s content. Don't rewrite his mind to make him a gardener just because it’s easier. Let them settle this as dragons do. Only intervene if the 'hardware'—the mountain—is about to collapse."

  Kaito looked at Silvane, then at the smoking vents. He sighed, folding his arms into his sleeves. "Fine. No mental patches. I'll just focus on structural stabilization. I don't want the volcano to erupt while we're standing on it; that would be a logistical disaster."

  The Tyrant Awakens

  The ground began to thrum. A nearby pool of bubbling, orange-white lava began to churn violently, rising upward like a fountain.

  ROOOOOOOAR!

  The sound was a physical weight, a blast of sound that sent a shower of ash into the air. From the molten lake, a monstrous form emerged. It was twice the size of Silvane’s dragon form—a gargantuan beast of obsidian scales and glowing, magma-filled veins. Its wings were tattered but vast, and as it landed on the caldera’s edge, the very mountain seemed to groan under its weight.

  The Tyrant of the Sulfur Peaks fixed its glowing red eyes on the three tiny figures.

  "Who dares enter the domain of Ignis the Eternal?" the dragon’s voice boomed, vibrating in their very marrow.

  Silvane didn't wait. She didn't look for a "Dialogue" option. She leaped into the air, her silver hair streaming behind her, a wild, predatory laugh tearing from her throat.

  "An 'arrogant' lizard who needs a lesson in manners!" she shouted. "Kaito! Watch the 'Rogue' work!"