The Dragon Lord's Aide Wants to Quit [BL] Chapter 458: Beyond Recognition

It was truly laughable. And it wasn’t difficult to understand why that kid had looked at him as though he’d suddenly grown two heads.

Then again, what did that fledgling know?

A worn-out core.

As small as a measly coin and as weathered as an old glass bead.

That was what truly remained of the being referred to as the Wyvern King. It was the only thing he could truly lay claim to when the shell he donned, the organs that filled it, and even the blood flowing in his body had long since ceased to be his.

Perhaps some would call it magnificent that he’d managed to survive for this long despite everything that had happened. Maybe there were even those who would look upon his current body and consider it the culmination of everything his people had sacrificed to keep their King alive.

But could it really still be called survival when he could barely even remember his own name?

Surely, he couldn’t have always been the

Surely, there had been a time before , before , and before became the only names he could still remember answering to.

Somewhere within the growing fractures of that deteriorating core, there must’ve once been memories of a life where he’d simply existed as himself.

A man.

Someone with a name.

Someone who’d once fallen in love with the woman of his dreams and believed he would spend the rest of his life with her.

Unfortunately, no matter how deeply he searched, he could no longer reach those memories.

And perhaps that was for the best.

Because while he couldn’t perfectly remember exactly when everything had gone wrong, there was one thing the Wyvern King understood with painful certainty.

The moment that ancient seal had finally broken and he’d opened his eyes again was also the moment he’d realized that the mate he’d once known was truly gone.

Whatever remained now had already been twisted far beyond the woman he remembered loving.

So on this day, the man now known as the Wyvern King looked at the fragile being in front of him, hoping that just like the black dragons who had unknowingly brought him respite, this young one who seemed to carry their legacy would be able to do it again.

A silent beat passed between them as Riley kept his weapon raised, his entire body poised to react to even the slightest movement.

Unfortunately, the difference between them was still far greater than he’d realized.

The Wyvern King moved.

Or at least, Riley assumed he did, because he never actually saw it happen.

One moment, the colossal being was still standing where he’d been. The next, something massive abruptly filled Riley’s vision, and before the ex-mortal could even register the violent shift in the air, the tip of an enormous clawed talon was already pressed firmly against his forehead.

"!"

His eyes widened as his body instinctively tried to recoil, but there simply hadn’t been enough time.

No opportunity to dodge, much less enough warning for his magic to react.

The instant that claw touched him, Riley’s emerald-green eyes flared with blinding light.

And before he could so much as scream, the cavern disappeared along with the Wyvern King.

Everything around him seemed to vanish at once, leaving nothing but darkness as the last traces of the cavern disappeared from view.

__

When Riley’s awareness finally returned, he was already sinking.

Fast.

So fast that his panicked mind barely had time to process what was happening before the horrifying sensation of drowning overwhelmed everything else.

His hands immediately flew over his mouth.

For several frantic seconds, he tried to seal his airway, terrified that the moment he inhaled, water would flood straight into his lungs.

Except nothing happened.

Riley froze.

He wasn’t actually breathing in water.

That realization certainly didn’t make him feel any safer, though.

After everything that had happened, the black dragon immediately assumed he’d been thrown into another illusion, and this time, he wasn’t about to blindly trust anything he saw. His eyes darted around the seemingly endless depths before eventually looking upward, where faint streams of light filtered through the darkness like distant sunlight breaking through deep ocean waters.

Well.

If there was an obvious way out, he might as well try it.

The wary black dragon cautiously started swimming toward the light, keeping his movements controlled as he remained alert for anything that might suddenly come after him. For all he knew, this could still be another trap from that suspicious Wyvern King, and he wasn’t about to assume otherwise just because the ancient being had suddenly started making bold claims.

But as he continued upward, something appeared in the water ahead.

Images?

A scene—one no regular body of water would ever have.

And somehow, he immediately knew it wasn’t his doing.

Whatever this was, it unfolded through the Wyvern King’s eyes, showing the very same bloodied captive Riley had seen restrained against the cavern wall.

Only this time, instead of the scene he’d witnessed earlier, he seemed to be seeing the moment the injured figure had first been brought into the chamber, their body already in a horrifying state as the wyverns prepared them for whatever sickening procedure that madwoman had planned.

Riley’s worry immediately spiked.

He kicked harder, trying to reach the light faster, only for another memory to emerge in his path.

This one made him slow down.

By the looks of what he was seeing, this must’ve been the Wyvern King’s first return to consciousness after being sealed away for so long.

Riley felt the confusion first.

Then the horror.

The Wyvern King had opened his eyes to the sight of the Wyvern Queen, only to immediately realize that something about his own body was horribly wrong.

There were sensations that didn’t belong, parts of him that felt completely foreign, and an instinctive rejection of a body that no longer seemed entirely his.

Riley knew none of those feelings actually belonged to him, but experiencing them like this was another matter entirely. Having his own limbs suddenly feel alien to him was deeply unsettling.

But even that paled in comparison to what came next.

Behind the woman who seemed completely taken upon seeing the owner of this memory stood beings she proudly referred to as wyverns.

At that point, Riley momentarily thought he’d hear something endearing, maybe even some praise for all that demented yet admittedly extreme effort.

And yet, his expectations couldn’t have been further from the truth as someone else’s thoughts suddenly blared through his mind.

That had to be the Wyvern King, the same being Riley had been facing just moments earlier. And yet, despite supposedly being their recognized ruler, what he could feel with vivid intensity was nothing remotely close to affection or pride.

It was sheer revulsion, strong enough to make Riley’s own stomach turn.

Mortification.

Disbelief.

And something dangerously close to despair that the ex-mortal almost couldn’t believe what was happening.

As the memory drifted away and slowly dissolved into the surrounding water, Riley stared after it.

Something was horribly wrong here.

He resumed swimming, only for another memory to emerge from the strange waters around him.

And this time, Riley nearly stopped altogether.

Because among the fleeting images drifting past him were figures he recognized immediately.

Black dragons.