Fafnir was the dragon emperor not just because of his strength, but because of his bond with all dragons. Fafnir was the first dragon, so essentially, all dragons were his children. He is the dragon emperor and the dragon primogenitor, so when Vaelrith and Drakar fell in battle, he felt it and sensed it. He felt their fear, their pain, their struggles, before they died, and the fear they felt shook him to the core.

Dragons were never afraid. They were the apex beings in the mortal world for a reason. Even a dragon could challenge a god, and they had the pride and strength to back it... at least that’s what the legends said. A dragon experiencing fear was too unrealistic, especially for Fafnir, but it had happened.

His subjects had experienced soul-deep fear as if they’d faced their natural predator.

High above the Dragon Empire... where even storms hesitated to form without permission... Fafnir sat. The mountain beneath him was ancient, one of the oldest peaks in Debranlith, forged in an era when dragons first claimed the skies. It had endured wars, cataclysms, and the rise and fall of civilizations.

And yet... It trembled because of him.

Fafnir sat in silence, clad in his war armor, the dark plates hugging his massive frame, crimson lines pulsing faintly like a heartbeat. The seven-foot blade rested beside him, embedded into the stone as though the mountain itself had been forced to carry its weight.

His head was lowered. His long black hair obscured his face, and his hands were shaking. They were shaking not from weakness, not from fear, but from something far worse.

Loss.

It came in waves. Feelings. Vaelrith. Drakar. He had felt them, every second, every moment of their final stand. The confidence, the fury, and the fear. Fafnir’s fingers dug into the stone beneath him.

CRACK!

The mountain groaned. His breath came out slow... heavy... controlled, but his eyes... when they lifted, burned.

"Fear..." he muttered, his voice low, disbelieving.

"Dragons... felt fear..."

The words tasted wrong, like something that should not exist. Dragons were apex. They were destruction given form. Even gods treated them with caution. And yet, his children had felt like prey. His jaw tightened.

Another wave hit him, older this time. Barki and Amara. They were not dead. Worse. They had chosen another. Chosen Ethan.

Fafnir’s grip tightened further.

CRAAAAACK!!!

The stone beneath him shattered, fractures spreading outward like a spiderweb across the mountain’s peak.

"Two... stolen..." he whispered.

His voice trembled not from weakness, but from being contained.

"Three... killed..."

His eyes lifted fully now, staring out across the distant lands where war still raged, where his forces clashed with enemies that should not have been able to stand against them.

"Five..."

A long silence followed. Then he laughed, low, broken, and dangerous.

"Out of twelve..."

His shoulders began to rise and fall slowly. Then faster. Power began to leak. The air around him distorted. The sky darkened. Clouds twisted unnaturally as his aura expanded, pressing against the world itself.

"I am..." His voice deepened, layered. "...the Primogenitor..."

The mountain beneath him began to sink, as though reality itself could not support his presence anymore.

"I am the FIRST..."

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

His aura exploded outward. The peak of the mountain didn’t just crack; it exploded. Stone disintegrated. Entire sections of the mountain vanished into dust and nothingness, unable to withstand the sheer pressure of his rage.

"I AM THEIR FATHER!"

The roar came next, not just sound, but force. A wave of pure draconic authority surged outward from him, ripping through the skies, tearing clouds apart, flattening forests, splitting the land for miles in every direction.

Cities far away felt it. Creatures froze. Kings stopped mid-step. Even the ongoing battles across Debranlith faltered for a single, terrifying moment. Because they heard it, they felt it.

Fafnir rose slowly. His full height revealed as his armor gleamed under the darkened sky. His eyes glowed.

"Enough."

The word fell like judgment. The mountain beneath him collapsed entirely now, reduced to rubble and dust as he stepped forward, hovering above the destruction he had caused without even trying. His sword lifted from the ruins, flying into his hand as if drawn by fate itself.

"I have tolerated this..." Each step he took in the air caused space to ripple.

"I have watched..." The ground below cracked further, unable to stabilize.

"I have allowed..." His voice rose. "...THIS FARCE!"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

His roar this time was different. It wasn’t just rage; it was a declaration, a command, a law etched into the world itself.

"ANBORD!!!"

The name thundered across continents and across oceans, into the bones of every living being.

"I, FAFNIR!" The sky split. A massive rift carved itself across the heavens as his power surged beyond restraint.

"DRAGON EMPEROR!"

Lightning of pure draconic energy rained down, turning entire regions into wastelands in an instant.

"PRIMOGENITOR OF ALL DRAGONS!"

His wings manifested, massive and endless, stretching across the sky like a living catastrophe.

"DECLARE WAR!" The words hit like a final bell, absolute and irrevocable. "ON ANBORD!"

Silence followed, heavy and oppressive. A low, trembling whisper escaped him.

"I will kill them..." His grip on his sword tightened. "All of them..."

His eyes burned with something far beyond anger now. Grief, twisted, and weaponized.

"Their children..."

"Their wives..."

His voice dropped. Cold.

"And him..."

The sky above continued to fracture as his presence reached a peak that the world itself struggled to contain.

"Ethan..."

For the first time, there was something personal in the name. Not just an enemy or just a rival.

"You will watch it all..." The land below him had become nothing but ruin. A wasteland born from emotion alone.

"And then I will erase you."

Fafnir stood alone in the sky, a king, a father, and a storm that had finally decided to fall. And across Debranlith, everyone knew.

The war had changed.

...

Ethan, who was walking with the KDC, halted and raised his hands, casting a golden bubble around them. At the same moment, they heard Fafnir’s roar and declaration.

Ethan smiled.

"He finally broke."