Meanwhile, as Lily rushed to hug Bruce... She reached Bruce and slowed to a stop, slightly flustered.

Normally, back at home, she would have jumped straight into his arms without hesitation. But with the wooden spear in her hand, and the curious eyes of her classmates watching, she hesitated.

In the end, she simply stepped forward and hugged him.

A normal hug.

Bruce smiled and wrapped an arm around her, accepting it without comment.

Lily's face was bright with happiness as she pressed against him, clearly relieved. Behind her, Ash wagged its tail enthusiastically before fluttering up and settling into its usual spot around Bruce's neck. The little dragon curled comfortably there, watching the siblings with keen interest, tail swaying lazily.

For a brief moment,

Amid the chaos, the danger, and the looming threats,

Everything felt… normal again.

"Big brother, you came."

Bruce smiled softly. "I told you I would, Why would I lie to my cute little sister?"

Lily giggled at that, her earlier tension melting away instantly.

"Hehe. Big brother, I saw you in the sky," she said excitedly. "You were on the back of a big dragon."

"Really?" Bruce raised a brow.

"Yes! I did!"

Bruce leaned closer, lowering his voice. "Then let me tell you a secret."

Lily's eyes lit up as she eagerly leaned in, stretching on her toes to hear him better.

"That gigantic dragon," Bruce whispered into her ear, "was Ash."

"Really?" Lily frowned, her gaze drifting to the small, cute Ash perched on Bruce's shoulder.

Bruce nodded.

Ash nodded too.

Lily's frown deepened as she stared at the little dragon, clearly struggling to reconcile the two images in her mind. How could something no bigger than a cat be the same gigantic monster that had cast a shadow over the entire Academy when it descended from the sky?

"That's hard to believe…" her expression seemed to say, even if she didn't voice it.

"You don't believe me?" Bruce asked gently.

"I do!" Lily beamed suddenly, flashing him a bright smile.

Bruce chuckled quietly and shrugged. He couldn't blame her even if she didn't. If it had been him, back when he had just transmigrated, when he knew nothing about dragons or this world, he wouldn't have believed it either. Something that small and adorable turning into something so vast and terrifying went against every law of nature he had known back on Earth.

But this wasn't Earth.

This was a fantasy world.

A world where strength came from titles and records. Where magic existed. Where beasts could evolve beyond reason. Where even death itself might not be absolute.

Bruce had long since accepted that applying the logic of his old world here was pointless. Even bringing a person from the dead is probably not impossible in this world... Bryce felt like he can probably do it himself.

With Life Glance and Death Glance, he already held authority over the cycle of life and death itself. If he truly wanted to, the only draw bag is that it's going to take a lot of mana to do that. if he had the corpse and the mana, which he did, he could likely bring the dead back to life.

He just hadn't needed to.

Not yet.

"Don't worry, Lily," Bruce said with a smile. "This time, you'll ride on Ash's back on the way home."

"Really?!" Lily's eyes sparkled as her smile widened even further. The thought alone sent a rush of excitement through her.

On Bruce's shoulder, Ash nodded eagerly, tail swishing back and forth in clear agreement.

Seeing that, Lily's excitement reached its peak. She didn't even try to hide it anymore.

She grabbed one of Bruce's fingers with both hands and started dragging him forward toward the Academy gates, unable to wait another second.

"Come on! Come on! What are we waiting for!"

Bruce laughed softly as he followed, letting himself be pulled along.

As she reached an open space next to the road, destruction caused by beasts lay everywhere. Broken ground, scorched marks, and piles of beast corpses were being gathered together, their useful parts packed neatly to be extracted at a suitable location later. Awakened workers moved efficiently through the mess.

But Lily was far too excited to care about any of that.

Reaching the open space, she suddenly stopped and shouted at the top of her lungs,

"Grow Ash, grow!"

Awakened workers nearby, along with students walking through the Academy gate on their way home, all turned toward her voice. Confusion flickered across their faces as they tried to understand what she meant.

At that moment, Ash wagged his tail excitedly and leaped off Bruce's shoulder.

A blinding light burst outward.

Mana surged violently as Ash's body expanded in an instant, bones shifting, wings unfurling, scales growing larger and sharper. The light was so intense that several people instinctively raised their arms to shield their eyes.

Bruce released a portion of his aura immediately, forming an invisible barrier around Lily and the nearby spectators, dampening the pressure and protecting them from the glare.

In the next breath, Ash had already reached his full size.

Fifteen meters tall.

A massive dragon stood where a tiny drake had been only moments ago. Ash let out a thunderous roar filled with excitement, the sound rolling across the open space and rattling the air itself.

Lily, the Awakeneds, and everyone watching could only stare in stunned silence as Ash slowly flapped his majestic wings. He descended gracefully, his massive frame hovering just above the ground, the force of his wings creating a powerful gust that rippled outward and kicked dust into the air.

The Awakeneds froze.

"That little thing…" someone muttered under their breath.

"…was actually that dragon people where talking about."

Most of them were part of the beast part extraction teams. They hadn't been present during the real battle. They hadn't seen Ash tear through A-Ranked mutants like paper, hadn't witnessed him shrink back into his small form before flying into the Academy.

They had only heard the stories.

Stories of a legendary dragon that descended alongside the Awakeneds, crushing breakout beasts and protecting the Academy's students and civilians.

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