This was a development Ize had never imagined.
Yes, Swan’s trump card was a ‘transformation.’
Not only had the species changed, but as Ize looked at the substantial ‘lethal weapons’ on Swan’s chest, he realized the gender had changed too.
At this moment, Swan’s face was filled with fury, and the pupils in her eyes had turned into the vertical slits of a dragon. Her entire being radiated a terrifying residual pressure.
She glanced down at her own physique, then looked back at Ize behind her.
Ize quickly closed his eyes and continued to play dead!
That shriveled skin, the snow-white hair…
‘That’s right. Compared to the price of power my senior paid, I’ve only turned into a “woman.” This seems somewhat insignificant.’
Moreover, she could clearly perceive the ‘mighty power’ now contained within her body.
If she had only traded her gender for such immense power, it suddenly didn’t feel so bad. She even felt a hint of regret now—why hadn’t she used Igniel’s power sooner?
***
“Im… Impossible! The Dragon Race?! How is this possible?”
Hearts’s previously smug expression had transformed into shock as she watched Swan’s change.
The youth before her had actually transformed into a dragon right in front of her eyes—a terrifying existence that only existed in legends and bloodline memories!
But why was it a female dragon?
Even if it was only a partial dragonification, the pressure radiating from her surroundings made Hearts feel a sliver of fear.
“It’s all my fault… It’s all my fault for not making up my mind sooner… For not possessing this power earlier… That’s why Senior Ize ended up…”
Before she could finish her sentence, Swan’s figure vanished!
Hearts only saw an afterimage flash past. In the next moment, a massive force that she couldn’t possibly resist slammed into her abdomen!
“Puu-wah—!”
Hearts’s eyes bulged, her entire body arching as blood mixed with bile sprayed from her mouth. She felt as if her internal organs had been displaced by that single punch!
But this was only the beginning!
The dragon-girl Swan had completely transformed into a rampaging Tyrannosaurus of vengeance. She had no technique, only the most primitive and violent outpouring of rage!
A fist wrapped in dragon scales smashed into Hearts’s cheek, shattering her cheekbone and knocking her head to the side. Several blood-stained teeth flew out.
A long leg covered in scales swept across Hearts’s waist like a steel whip. A clear bone-cracking sound rang out as she was sent flying horizontally.
Before Hearts could hit the ground, Swan had already caught up. Her claws swung through the air, leaving five terrifying, bone-deep gashes on Hearts’s back. Blood surged out like a fountain!
At this point, Hearts’s self-healing speed could no longer keep up with the damage Swan was inflicting without a supply of fresh blood.
“Senior Ize, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s all because I didn’t use this power sooner…”
Swan muttered to herself while violently beating the defenseless Hearts, as if she were confessing to the unconscious Ize. Every apology was accompanied by a heavy blow that pierced Hearts to the bone.
“If only I had turned into this earlier… You wouldn’t have…”
*Bang!* With a stomp, several of Hearts’s ribs broke.
“It’s all my fault…”
*Crack!* An arm was snapped backward, bending at a bizarre angle.
Hearts’s inner thoughts were screaming, ‘??? Can you please stop apologizing to someone else while you’re beating me to death!’
She was like a doll being wantonly ravaged by Swan within the cage of blood mist. The speed, strength, and blood-kin regenerative abilities she took pride in had become an absolute joke in front of her opponent.
‘Damn it, it’s all the fault of that guy lying on the ground…’
Hearts felt that if it weren’t for Ize’s previous magic consuming a large portion of her blood essence, she wouldn’t be getting beaten this badly by the semi-dragonified Swan…
She had to find a way to call for help. Hearts knew this wasn’t the time to worry about saving face. If she continued to be pummeled by this girl, she would definitely die from blood exhaustion.
“Blood Realm… Release…” Hearts used her last ounce of strength to scream for mercy, her mind frantically driving her intent to disperse the **[Blood Mist Cage]**.
Just as the surrounding blood mist began to fluctuate slightly and grow thin, at the very moment the barrier was about to dissipate—
The “unconscious” Ize snapped his eyes open as if he were a corpse coming back to life!
The time had come!
The barrier was about to break but hadn’t yet; the outside world still couldn’t see the internal situation clearly. He didn’t want Swan to go crying to Sarah and the others, saying, “Woe is me, Senior is dying because he overextended his life for me.”
He really wouldn’t be able to explain that.
Ize’s movements were lightning-fast. Where was there any sign of someone being heavily injured and on the verge of death?
He flipped up and, in the moment when Hearts was defenseless while seeking survival and Swan was slightly stunned by the barrier’s fluctuation, he closed the distance to Hearts in an instant!
His left hand accurately pinched Hearts’s jaw, forcing her mouth open. His right hand had already uncorked a small crystal bottle he had prepared, and he poured all the colorless, odorless liquid inside down Hearts’s throat!
“Gulp…” Hearts hadn’t even reacted to what it was before the liquid slid down her esophagus.
Ize was also momentarily stunned. When had his methods for forcing magical potions down people’s throats become so practiced?
Hearts, who was just one step away from lifting the barrier, stared at the previously dying but now youthful Ize. Her brain instantly stalled.
“Weren’t you supposed to be dying?”
“Also, what did you just make me drink?”
The sudden reversal of the situation left Swan, who had just completed her dragonification and was still immersed in rage and self-reproach, completely bewildered. The anger and sadness on her face froze, replaced by a look of blankness and consternation. Her molten-gold vertical pupils were filled with massive question marks.
“Senior Ize… You… What is this?”
She looked at the rejuvenated Ize, who had suddenly experienced a “final radiance” and was moving as swiftly as ever. Her mind couldn’t wrap itself around it for a moment.
Ize didn’t answer her first. Instead, he quickly issued his first command to Hearts, whose eyes were becoming misty and whose body was beginning to writhe uneasily:
“Stand over there. Do not move. Stay silent.”
Hearts’s pupils shrank. She instinctively wanted to resist or mock him, but she discovered with horror that her body was completely out of her control. Like a puppet manipulated by invisible threads, she stood rigidly in place.
She couldn’t move a single finger, and she couldn’t make a sound in her throat. There was only a strange, intense itching sensation sweeping through her body, followed by a rising flush.
“Senior, what’s wrong with her…?”
Swan looked at Hearts’s obviously abnormal reaction—especially those eyes that looked as if they were about to overflow with water, fixed intently on Ize, and her legs which were pressed tightly together and rubbing slightly. A blush couldn’t help but creep onto Swan’s face…
She seemed to… guess the reason a little, but she was too embarrassed to ask directly.
Ize rubbed his nose somewhat awkwardly and explained:
“Uh… I gave her a special magical potion called **[Truth Potion]**. The effect… well, it makes the person who takes it obey my orders for a certain period of time.”
He paused, his expression becoming even more subtle. “It’s just… the side effects are a bit special. It amplifies… um… certain desires…”
Swan’s face turned even redder in an instant. It was just as she had guessed! She instinctively pressed her own legs together, feeling a bit uneasy.
“Then, Senior…”
Swan’s gaze returned to Ize, filled with confusion and a hint of undetectable grievance. “Weren’t you overextending your life and on the verge of death? How are you now…”
Looking at the lively and freely moving Ize, where was there any trace of the white-haired, dying, miserable state from moments ago?
Ize gave two dry coughs, his eyes shifting around. Finally, he spoke the “cruel” truth: “That… Junior Swan, actually… I was faking it. It was mainly to catch her off guard so I could find a chance to give her this potion.”
He pointed to Hearts, whose expression was currently quite “vibrant.”
Swan: “…”
She stood there frozen, as if struck by a bolt of lightning.
Faking it? It was all fake?
The tragic sacrifice, the heart-wrenching “dying words,” the scene that made her feel so guilty she was willing to use forbidden power at any cost… it was all an act?!
Igniel, within her body, was absolutely fuming, his soul fluctuations rising and falling violently: ‘Dammit! Shameless! Cunning! Despicable! You humans are far too insidious!!! I have been tricked again!!!’
Swan’s voice carried a hint of a tremor. Her dragon pupils were filled with heartbreak from being deceived and utter disbelief:
“So… Senior Ize, the things you said about overextending your life for mana… and those… those words… they were all fake?”
Ize felt incredibly guilty under the gaze of those tearful dragon pupils. He steeled himself and admitted, “Pretty… pretty much…”
In an instant, boundless grievance flooded Swan’s heart.
She looked at Ize with an extremely resentful gaze, which even carried a bit of accusation.
Her sacrifice was real!
She had turned into a girl!
She had paid such a painful price!
And in the end, her senior was actually just acting?
Then what did her anger, self-reproach, regret, and that determination to risk everything count for?
A joke?
Ize’s scalp felt numb from her stare. He quickly tried to change the subject, bringing up Teacher Claire as a shield:
“Cough, cough. That… Junior Swan, don’t look at me like that. Teacher Claire taught me that if you have the ability, you should show it appropriately. You can’t hide your light under a bushel too much; you have to dare to take responsibility at critical moments…”
He shifted the tone, turning it back around to “educate” Swan.
“Look at you. You clearly had such great power, so why did you keep it hidden before? If you had used it earlier, wouldn’t we have had an easier time?”
Hearing this, Swan almost laughed out of anger. She cried out aggrievedly, “Hidden?! Senior, do you think I wanted to hide it?! Do you have any idea how high the price for using this power is?!”
Ize continued to play dumb, asking with a face full of “curiosity,” “What price? I think your semi-dragonified form is very handsome… uh, very cool!”
“Cool?!”
Swan’s voice went up an octave, carrying the echo of a dragon’s roar. She pointed excitedly at her obviously bulging chest, her slender waist, and her features which had become softened and feminine.
“Look clearly! Me! I’ve become like this!!! This is the price!!!”
Ize suppressed his laughter and nodded solemnly, trying to make his eyes look sincere.
“Yeah, it is cool! Semi-dragonification is such a rare ability! And this form of yours, in some… well, in some places I’ve heard of, it’s a very popular and worshipped existence!”
He was referring to the dragon-girl archetype in certain games and anime from his previous life…
Swan was stunned. “Really… cool? Really popular?”
She had originally expected to see looks of disgust or strangeness, but she hadn’t expected Ize to react this way.
Being told this, she looked down at her body, which was covered in scales but still couldn’t hide its female characteristics. The shame and unease in her heart seemed to lighten just a little bit.
“Of course!”
Ize nodded with certainty, then “curiously” pressed further.
“So, Junior Swan, is this form permanent or temporary?”
Swan wasn’t sure herself, so she immediately asked Igniel in her mind.
Igniel explained crossly:
‘Humph! By borrowing my power, you will naturally be influenced by my form, temporarily exhibiting female characteristics. But every time you use it, your body will be assimilated and reconstructed by my essence. This process is irreversible! The more you use it, the more thorough the change! Don’t even think about changing back!’
Swan’s eyes had just lit up at the word “temporary,” only to be dimmed again by “irreversible” and “thorough change.” She said to Ize with some disappointment:
“Igniel said… every time I use the power, I’ll turn into this. And… and my body will gradually become fixed as a female…”
Seeing her disappointed look, Ize pulled back his joking expression. His gaze was calm, without any discrimination or mockery. Instead, he nodded with a hint of understanding and comfort.
He had originally thought Swan followed a male protagonist’s script, but who knew it was actually a female lead’s?
He suddenly chuckled, leaned in a bit closer, and said in a low voice—half-joking and half-serious:
“Alright, now I know your secret.”
“So… Junior Swan, you wouldn’t want the fact that you’ll slowly turn into a girl to be known by Senior Dio, Senior Sarah, or anyone else in the academy, right?”
Swan: “!!!”
Looking at Ize’s seemingly harmless smile, and then at Hearts who was in a ‘strange’ state beside him, a pile of bad thoughts immediately surfaced in her mind.
This senior of hers… surely he didn’t want to…