But the child’s eyes never left the battlefield.

Around him—

the fortress of Ashkar was dying.

Flaming arrows rained from the black sky.

Massive siege beasts smashed through the outer walls while enemy banners rose through smoke like monsters crawling from hell itself.

The king coughed beneath the rubble.

Blood ran down the side of King Vaelor’s face as he struggled to breathe beneath twisted iron.

“You… boy…”

His voice trembled.

Because now that the dust had settled—

he could finally see the child clearly.

The boy’s arm.

That gauntlet.

Vaelor’s eyes widened in horror.

“No…”

The ancient king suddenly grabbed the child’s wrist.

“Where did you get this?”

The boy froze.

For a brief second—

the screaming battlefield disappeared behind distant memories.

Cold nights.

Chains.

Dark underground cells.

A dying old blacksmith whispering beside a furnace.

“Never let the king see the Dragon Gauntlet…”

The memory vanished instantly as enemy soldiers stormed through the smoke.

“There they are!”

“Kill the king!”

Dozens charged forward with spears raised.

The child stepped in front of Vaelor silently.

The dragon eye on the gauntlet narrowed.

Crimson energy pulsed violently beneath black scales.

Then—

the boy clenched his fist.

BOOOOM.

The ground exploded.

A shockwave ripped outward like thunder itself.

Enemy soldiers were hurled backward across burning stone.

Some crashed through pillars.

Others slammed into siege carts.

The battlefield froze in terror.

Because the child hadn’t even touched them.

General Rowan staggered backward in disbelief.

“That power…”

One knight whispered fearfully:

“It’s the Dragon Core…”

Another soldier dropped his sword entirely.

“No one has used Dragon-Core weapons since the Dragon Wars…”

The boy ignored them all.

He grabbed the shattered gate above King Vaelor—

and slowly lifted it.

Every soldier nearby stared in disbelief.

The iron gate weighed more than ten grown men.

Yet the skinny barefoot child lifted it with one arm.

The dragon gauntlet screamed with crimson light.

Veins of fire spread across the battlefield floor beneath his feet.

King Vaelor finally crawled free from the wreckage.

But instead of gratitude—

fear filled his face.

Because now he remembered.

Twenty years ago.

The night Ashkar burned red beneath dragon fire.

The night the royal family betrayed the Dragon Guardians.

And among the burning ruins—

one weapon had vanished.

The Dragon Gauntlet.

Forged from the claw of the last Crimson Dragon King.

A weapon said to awaken only for the true heir of the Dragon Bloodline.

Vaelor slowly stared at the child again.

At the boy’s eyes.

At the crimson energy crawling across his arm.

And suddenly—

the king realized something horrifying.

The child wasn’t just using the gauntlet.

The gauntlet was responding to him.

Like it belonged to him.

A massive explosion suddenly tore through the western wall.

BOOOOOOM.

Stone shattered everywhere.

Soldiers screamed as an enormous armored war beast smashed through the fortress entrance.

The creature towered above the battlefield like a living mountain.

Black iron armor covered its body.

Its eyes glowed molten orange.

And chained to its back—

stood the enemy commander himself.

Lord Malgrath.

The Butcher of Varn.

The man responsible for destroying seven kingdoms.

The giant warlord slowly looked down at the child.

Then smiled.

“So…”

His deep voice echoed across the battlefield.

“The gauntlet finally awakened.”

The entire fortress went silent.

King Vaelor’s face turned pale.

“You know that weapon?”

Malgrath laughed darkly.

“Know it?”

He stepped down from the war beast slowly.

“Boy… I spent ten years searching for you.”

The child’s eyes narrowed.

He had never seen this man before.

Yet somehow—

the warlord looked almost relieved.

Malgrath removed his helmet.

Old scars covered half his face.

But one thing immediately froze the battlefield.

His right arm.

A gigantic silver gauntlet shaped like a dragon claw.

Gasps spread instantly through the soldiers.

“A second Dragon Gauntlet…”

Impossible.

The two ancient weapons began glowing violently the moment they faced each other.

Crimson light.

Silver light.

The air itself distorted between them.

Then—

the dragon eye on the boy’s gauntlet suddenly widened.

And a voice echoed inside his mind.

Kill him.

The child staggered backward.

A violent headache exploded through his skull.

Flashes filled his vision.

Dragons burning beneath black skies.

Children screaming.

An army wearing Ashkar’s royal crest slaughtering armored warriors.

And standing at the center of the massacre—

King Vaelor himself.

The boy gasped.

More memories crashed into him.

A woman crying while holding him as an infant.

A burning temple.

Two dragon gauntlets separating during the flames.

Then darkness.

The battlefield returned instantly.

The child breathed heavily.

King Vaelor stared at him nervously.

“Listen to me carefully…”

But before the king could finish—

Malgrath raised his silver gauntlet.

“Enough talking.”

The silver dragon eye opened.

BOOOOOOOOM.

A massive beam of silver energy erupted forward.

The child reacted instantly.

He raised his crimson gauntlet.

The collision detonated like a collapsing mountain.

The fortress shook violently.

Entire towers cracked apart.

Soldiers on both sides were thrown across the battlefield by the shockwave.

Crimson and silver fire spiraled into the sky.

The boy slid backward through burning stone—

barefoot feet tearing bloody lines across the ground.

But he didn’t fall.

Malgrath smiled wider.

“Yes…”

The warlord’s eyes burned with obsession.

“You really are his son.”

The battlefield went dead silent.

King Vaelor froze completely.

The boy stared in confusion.

“My… what?”

Malgrath slowly lowered his arm.

“Your father was the last Dragon Guardian.”

Another memory slammed into the child’s mind.

A man kneeling before him beside a furnace.

Large hands covered in ash.

A warm voice.

“Strength isn’t for destroying people, Ash…”

The child’s breathing stopped.

Ash.

That name.

Nobody had called him that in years.

Because he couldn’t even remember it himself.

Malgrath pointed directly at King Vaelor.

“That king murdered your entire bloodline.”

Soldiers immediately raised weapons defensively around the king.

But Vaelor screamed desperately:

“He’s lying!”

Malgrath laughed.

“No.”

He slowly turned toward the child.

“The Dragon Guardians protected this kingdom for centuries.”

His expression darkened.

“Until the royals betrayed them to steal dragon power for themselves.”

The silver gauntlet crackled violently.

“They slaughtered every guardian.”

The child’s fist trembled.

More memories returned.

Fire.

Blood.

A woman screaming.

Then—

King Vaelor himself holding a sword inside the burning temple.

The boy stumbled backward.

“No…”

Vaelor stepped forward desperately.

“You don’t understand!”

But suddenly—

another voice interrupted.

An old knight slowly emerged through the smoke.

General Rowan.

His face was pale with guilt.

Because he had been there.

That night.

And after twenty years—

he could no longer stay silent.

“The king speaks the truth…”

Everyone turned toward him.

Rowan slowly lowered his sword.

“Yes… the royal army attacked the Dragon Guardians.”

The child’s eyes darkened.

But Rowan continued:

“Because your father ordered it.”

The battlefield froze.

Even Malgrath’s smile disappeared.

“What?”

Rowan pointed at the crimson gauntlet.

“Your father went mad.”

The old knight’s voice trembled.

“The Dragon Core corrupted him.”

More memories exploded into the child’s mind.

A gigantic dragon burning across the sky.

A man consumed by crimson fire.

Soldiers dying everywhere.

The Dragon Guardians themselves screaming in terror.

“He wanted to awaken the Dragon King beneath Ashkar…”

Rowan’s eyes filled with grief.

“To do that… millions would have died.”

King Vaelor lowered his head painfully.

“So we stopped him.”

The boy’s entire body shook.

His memories shattered against each other violently.

Who was telling the truth?

Who was lying?

Then—

Malgrath roared furiously.

“LIES!”

His silver gauntlet erupted with energy.

“You murdered them because you feared their power!”

The warlord suddenly lunged forward.

BOOOOOM.

The ground exploded beneath his feet.

The child barely blocked the silver strike in time.

The collision blasted both gauntlets apart with catastrophic force.

The fortress walls cracked.

Flames spiraled upward.

And deep beneath the battlefield—

something answered.

A roar.

Not human.

Not beast.

Ancient.

Every soldier froze instantly.

Then the earth began shaking.

Cracks spread across the battlefield floor.

The king’s face turned white.

“No…”

General Rowan whispered in horror:

“The Dragon King…”

Another roar erupted—

far louder this time.

The entire fortress split apart.

And from the darkness beneath Ashkar—

something colossal began rising.

A gigantic crimson eye opened beneath the shattered ground.

Soldiers screamed.

The mountain-sized dragon slowly emerged from beneath the kingdom.

Black scales.

Burning wings.

Chains wrapped around its body thicker than towers.

The Dragon King.

The creature imprisoned beneath Ashkar for centuries.

Its roar shattered windows across the battlefield.

Entire armies fled instantly in terror.

But the worst part—

the dragon’s eyes locked directly onto the child.

The crimson gauntlet began burning uncontrollably.

The voice returned inside Ash’s mind.

Heir…

Come to me.

The child screamed in pain as crimson energy consumed his arm.

Malgrath stared upward in awe.

“Yes…”

His smile widened with madness.

“At last.”

The warlord turned toward Ash.

“Awaken it!”

King Vaelor grabbed the boy instantly.

“NO!”

But Ash’s eyes were changing.

Crimson light spread through them.

The Dragon King pulled against its chains violently.

The battlefield collapsed around them.

Then suddenly—

another memory surfaced.

Not fire.

Not war.

A quiet forge.

His father smiling gently beside the furnace.

“Promise me something, Ash.”

The child in the memory looked upward.

“If the Dragon King ever awakens…”

His father placed a hand on the boy’s head.

“Don’t become its master.”

The memory shattered.

Ash’s eyes widened.

Finally—

he understood.

His father had not wanted power.

He had wanted someone strong enough to stop the Dragon King forever.

That was why the gauntlet chose him.

Not to rule dragons.

To destroy them.

The child slowly stood.

Crimson fire exploded around his body.

Malgrath smiled triumphantly.

“Yes! Awaken!”

But Ash suddenly turned toward him.

And punched the silver gauntlet directly.

BOOOOOOOOM.

The silver weapon shattered apart instantly.

Malgrath screamed in disbelief as crimson energy consumed his arm.

“You—WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

Ash’s eyes burned like fire.

“Ending this.”

The Dragon King roared and lunged downward.

The fortress disappeared beneath its shadow.

Then—

Ash raised the Dragon Gauntlet toward the sky.

The dragon eye fully opened for the first time in history.

And the entire battlefield froze.

Because behind the child—

a colossal crimson dragon made entirely of energy appeared.

Larger than the fortress itself.

The spirit dragon roared across the burning kingdom.

Ash clenched his fist.

And both dragons collided.

The impact split the heavens apart.

Crimson fire consumed the sky.

Shockwaves flattened entire armies.

Soldiers watched in horror as the child fought the Dragon King itself above the collapsing fortress.

The Dragon King bit into the spirit dragon violently.

Ash screamed as the gauntlet cracked apart.

The power was too much.

The ancient weapon began breaking.

His body began burning alive beneath the dragon energy.

King Vaelor stared upward in horror.

“He’ll die…”

But Ash remembered the forge.

His father’s smile.

The people suffering below.

And for the first time—

the barefoot child smiled.

Then he whispered softly:

“Goodbye.”

The dragon gauntlet shattered completely.

A blinding crimson explosion swallowed the sky.

Silence.

Total silence.

The battlefield disappeared beneath crimson light.

And when the fire finally faded—

the Dragon King was gone.

The storm above Ashkar vanished.

The flames died.

The war stopped.

Only ashes remained drifting through silent air.

King Vaelor slowly stood among the ruins.

“Ash?”

No answer.

The child was gone.

Only fragments of the broken gauntlet remained on the battlefield.

The old king fell to his knees silently.

Then suddenly—

someone gasped.

Far beyond the ruined gates—

a small barefoot figure slowly walked through the morning light.

Alive.

The child’s arm was no longer covered by the gauntlet.

Only a faint dragon-shaped scar remained.

Soldiers stared in disbelief.

Then General Rowan slowly knelt before the boy.

One by one—

the entire battlefield followed.

Even King Vaelor bowed his head.

Not to a weapon.

Not to a bloodline.

But to the child who saved them all.

And high above the ruined kingdom—

hidden beyond the clouds—

a gigantic crimson dragon silently circled once before vanishing into the sunrise forever.