What... What am I still doing here? I... I was ready to die, but I am still here, lying down in a dungeon, blind because of my own stupidity. Kris struggled to find the reason to survive any longer. She lost her eyesight, her teammates died, and the worst part, the beast that they were supposed to kill is still alive. But for her to lie down on the ground with her body all sore, being in that state already felt like a blessing. In that moment of silence, it made her realise that there is someone this powerful who is able to change her fate and let her reach this far. I'm just gonna wait here until I die after getting this far?! She gritted her teeth in pain with her attempt to turn her body, and slammed her fist trying to alleviate some of the pain, Urkghh! I'll live!! Damn it! She began hearing what appears to be two swords clashing, but that, actually, was a sword against the dragon's scales. She starts to feel the shockwaves of the fight, thus starts crawling and wanders without direction, but definitely going away from the fight, what sane person would want to get caught in between?

When she finally thinks that she's far enough, she hears something fall on the ground that's enough to make it tremble. Without her vision, she felt like someone's throwing tiny rocks at her. But she was just starting to get covered with dust as a result of the dragon's head falling. It made her cough, but it's not enough to make her give up just yet. She kept on feeling things on the ground, and finally, touched something that felt like a wall. With her remaining strength, she turned her body once more and lifted herself up, placing her back against the wall, enabling her to sit down and finally rest. What should I do now!? Panic crawls its way to Kris, she only has one choice for her to be saved, which was to lower her pride and ask the two adventurers who were supposed to be their victims.

Kris clenched her fists, and opened her mouth, "Please, someone, help..."Adelram flinched upon hearing the plea, making him turn and face the direction where the sound came from. His cheerful demeanor was quickly replaced with a strong killing intent. An intent so strong, the black dragon that stood behind him felt the bloodlust and roared in praise for its master.

Kris trembles in fear not because of the roar, but she feels as if she'll die if she attempts to move an inch. She starts hearing footsteps coming closer, she knows who's approaching, and it doesn't feel right. "Who, who's there! Help me!"

Adelram slowly approached Kris with his short sword in hand, ready to cut down. Everyone should've been dead by now— he paused his thought as he saw bandages tightly wrapped around her eyes, preventing her from seeing anything. He remembered the woman, who was hit with a dragon's trap earlier. "Kris Skye?"

Kris flinched upon hearing her name, she reacted to his voice by putting her head on the ground, kneeling to him. "Yes! That's me, please sir Adelram, help me!" She knew that Adelram was standing in front of him, so she looked up and waited for an answer. However, Adelram simply remained silent and raised his armed hand.

Vanessa, who was just waiting for whatever business Adelram was in, noticed his hands ready to slash Kris down. She almost dropped her staff by the surprise she felt, and ran straight to them as fast as she could, and stood in front of Adelram, preventing him from continuing what he's going to do. "Adelram! What are you doing?!"

"Step aside, I will not say it again." Adelram kept his arm in the air, waiting for Vanessa to move over to finish things quickly. Just move, please! "I can't leave witnesses, so get out of my way!" He exclaimed, which made Vanessa flinch.

She looked at the ground as a response and clenched her fist, "Fine, kill me with her, I'm... I'm a witness too anyway." She trembles in fear as she exclaims coldly, hoping that Adelram puts his arm down and prevents another meaningless death. A few seconds had passed and it felt like an eternity, Vanessa's eyes remained shut, and Adelram decided to put his arm down, sheathing his blade back, "There will be no next time." He swiftly and silently passed through Vanessa and kneeled down to Kris' level, "And you..." He lifted his bare fist and punched the wall, so hard that it almost left a mark on the wall beside Kris' head, "once you tell a single soul about me— I assume you know what will happen next."

Without saying a word, Kris nodded, completely understanding what he said as she lowered her head in fear and disappointment towards herself for being unable to do anything. The thought made her shrivel and tear up, but with her injured eyes, the bandages started to get moist and stained red as tears and blood flowed. "I~ I'm really sorry..."

Adelram stared at the bandages, and started to remove it gently, "A simple apology won't cut it. What you need is a constant reminder..." After getting the bandages out of the way, he swifty held Kris' chin with his right hand, "Now toughen up—"

"What are you doing?!" Kris tried to remove Adelram's hand off of her, but it just won't budge. She knew Adelram's strong after hearing the dragon getting killed, but a cold sweat run down through her spine after experiencing his strength first hand. She thrashes around to make sure, but it was all futile. "Get away from me!! Someone help!"Adelram placed a finger on her lips, telling her to shut up. While Vivian on the other hand, can't do anything against him, she's just watching whatever Adelram will do to her, but she needs to confirm that he won't kill her, thus approached the two and stared at Adelram, "You said you won't kill her."

Adelram looked at her with a disappointed glare, his smile disappeared quickly and he sighed, "Then what's the use of this constant reminder I'll give to her if I'll kill her anyway?" He snaps his finger and looks back at Kris who's motionless the whole time, breathing quickly as she was wearied by her persistent struggling earlier, her eyes wide in fear from Adelram's plan. The ground starts to vibrate, a jet black figure begins to form in thin air, holding a long staff and wearing a pointed hat with the same colour as the entity. "Grant her, Pandora's eyes." Kris starts to shudder as she feels a strong bloodlust coming from the entity that began to approach her. It's a beast within the cage, only shackled by Adelram's command. Who knows what that entity will do with a snap of its master's finger. After the entity finally reached Kris' face, the eyes of her dark blank face started glowing along with her wand.

Strangely, with the darkness she had after losing her eyesight, Kris is finally able to see something. Three, small glowing dots from afar, calming her down and steadying her breathing as it reminds her of the hope she's holding on and the chance she has been given. Although this euphoric feeling was short-lived and she is snapped back to reality after she hears a spell being chanted.

"[Pandora's eyes]."

A female? Kris thought, there is another one among them after all. This is her only chance to ask for help, so she gathered her remaining strength, and clenched her fist, "Help me— ARRRGHHH!" Her plea was cut short as she suddenly felt agonising pain in her eyes, the wounds being closed forcefully. Her screams continued as she started flailing on Adelram's grasp as she experienced the painful feeling of every tissue and nerve in her eyes getting repaired, which followed with a strong itch. Vivian's eyes widened whilst she trembles in fear and contempt for Adelram's ways, with nothing she can do, she silently shriveled behind him and closed her eyes, not being able to stand seeing Kris in such a pitiful state, hoping that it would be over soon. Tears began streaming down Kris' cheeks as the only light she's seeing fades away. "Why... The light, the vision, my eyes..." She sniffed and continued crying, not realising that the bleeding stopped and the pain in her eyes from earlier had disappeared.

"Do you know why it's called Pandora's eyes?" Adelram suddenly asked as he let go of Kris, and stepped back. He waves his hand and the jet black figure disappears in a split second. Kris kneeled down on all fours due to fatigue and the pain from before, his question made her notice that the pain has alleviated. Adelram smiled at her, "Now that you're all patched up, it's called Pandora's eyes because by some, it's treated as a gift, while others..."

Kris opens her eyes, it is still dark, yet she sees the surroundings clearly as everything is outlined white. She raised her head to see Adelram, not knowing that it was a mistake... "Treat it as a curse." The earth trembles around Adelram, a strong, dark, condensed magical aura emanating from him. On the verge of passing out from the pressure and intimidation, she looked up to see where his magic would reach, her dilated eyes starting to rest easy, "Im— impossible..." She whispered and finally closed her eyes as her body can no longer hold on and passes out upon witnessing something unfathomable.

Vanessa kept on looking between Adelram and Kris, but ran quickly to the woman as she saw her collapse and made a light thud. She noticed how Adelram was just standing there and made her quite disappointed, "Why are you still standing?! Help me!" She quickly turned back to hold Kris' shoulders and saw many cuts and dust settled on her skin, she laid her down properly and made sure she won't get hurt any more. So she threw some sharp rocks away from them and took her cloak off, she folded it to place it on Kris' head and act as a cushion. "What do I do..." She noticed how her eyes have completely healed, as well as the cut on her nose bridge too, however it left a scar— there was nothing left to heal. But as she recalled, she said "impossible" earlier… So she looked at what's changed, and upon her inspection, her once brown iris has turned black, also her pupils are white that seems to have multiple rings outside it. "Is this what you mean by constant reminder?" Her eyebrows went down together as her lips narrowed, waiting for his response.

Adelram flinched with a smile upon seeing her angry face, and steps away to prepare the loot and their belongings. The corpse of the dragon is too large, and it's such a waste to just leave it here in the dungeon to rot away, so he closes his eyes and thinks of a way to obtain it, but can't remember anything of help. He looked around once more, and suddenly heard a light groan. He knew where it came from and ran straight back to the two, seeing Vanessa worrying about Kris as she sweats profusely, as if she's having a nightmare she can't wake up from. Adelram kneeled and asked, "What happened to her?" And starts looking in her eyes to check if something happened at the spell.

"I don't know! She just starts to sweat—" Vanessa stops as she sees Adelram staring at her eyes. It bothered her that she got ignored, but it's understandable as she noticed that her scars started glowing. "What's that!?"

"Draconic mana." Adelram replied, "it appears that my spell in her eyes had made her absorb too much draconic mana from the trap that the dragon made, her own mana circle is gonna destroy itself as it tries to mix with the draconic mana. We need someone who can absorb it or she'll die." He remembered what he killed earlier, and stared at the dragon's corpse, and thought of replacing her heart with the dragon's, "Or maybe we can make her absorb the mana."Vanessa glared at him with high hopes of saving Kris from her state, she placed her hands on Kris' head and casted, "[Continuous Healing], [Iron Will], and [Blessing of the gods]*." While Adelram went back to the dragon's corpse, and went straight to cutting the torso to get its heart. This better work... Or all of my effort will be in vain.

*Simply increases one's luck.

Kris opens her eyes to find out she's lying down on a bed of flowers. Black flowers that seem to have glowing red tears dripping from it's stigma and to their petals. She is expecting to be wet from the red substance, but she doesn't have any stains from the flowers. She got up and looked around, there was nothing but darkness and an endless road, and tears of the flowers were her only light that stretched endlessly beyond the horizon. "Where am I?" She asked herself, she knows she's dreaming, but she can't seem to wake herself up, she tried to pinch herself, and even punched her own face.

A familiar roar echoed in the whole place. Kris knows she has to run or she'll get killed, what she doesn't know is where that dragon will come out. "You're thinking of running are you?" She heard a gnarly, rough voice coming from the dragon as it flew past her and landed a few metres away. The earth, at least the ground she's standing on starts to shake violently as the dragon's feet touch the ground, but having enough from all that has happened, she starts running away from the dragon, with her head shaking, "No no no no!! This can't be happening." She can't believe all the things she had to be with, it's a dragon.

The dragon simply laughed seeing Kris not straying further, "You and I are trapped in here, there's now way for you to run." The dragon placed its tail down to block Kris' path, letting her realise that she's not getting away no matter how fast she runs. Kris turns to the dragon dumbfounded. "See? We're trapped, in your subconscious mind, think of it as a dream."

"Then, why can't I just wake up?" Just as she is about to approach the dragon, it's maw opens and a tiny ball of flame starts lighting up. "Normally you'd have to die in your dream to wake up, but just this time, I'll have you wake up by my flames." Her eyes reflected the huge thread of flame starting traveling at a speed she didn't get to react, burning her existence away, making her close her eyes as everything turned white.

Kris suddenly rises from the bed, sweating from the nightmare she had. Everything's still black, but outlined with glowing white lines, she looked around and there seems to be a water jug residing on the table, which is just beside the bed she's lying on. She noticed Vanessa's silhouette, which is thicker than the outlines of the jug, and the table, it made her realise that these white lines surrounding them must probably mean their magic capacity. She recalled how Adelram's silhouette and compared it to Vanessa, the place feels more peaceful without his fathomless magic. But what made her smile is because she's not completely blind as she thought she'd be, she inspected herself and noticed she's wearing a loose garment that almost reached her knees, with all of her equipment gone. She gets out of bed, and proceeds to walk towards the mirror, she staggers to her feet, swaying a little. The first thing she noticed was her horizontal scar stretching from her one eye to another, which is kind of weird that it's glowing with her pupils. Aside from her eyes, there seems to be a line on her chest, so she pulled her collar down and saw another scar between her breasts. I don't recall having a scar this big before. She thought, "What happened to me while I'm unconscious?" Her shoulders lowered remembering what she said back then, "That's right... I don't care anymore. I'm bound to him now." Her eyes became emptier.

Kris suddenly felt a strong pressure in the vicinity, that same feeling she felt back in the cave, ~It was him... And he's coming.~ She quickly ran back to the bed and lifted the blanket to cover herself and act like she's still sleeping, but the moment her blanket touched the bed, she saw Adelram standing at the opened door, as if he was there the moment she ran. She had no choice but to tell the truth, so she sighed and scratched her head, "Yes, I am awake."

"What are you gonna do now?" Adelram directly asks her while approaching the sleeping Vanessa, he seems to bring another blanket to keep her warm, he unfolds the blanket that's big enough for Vanessa and carefully places it on top of her, making sure not to wake her up. And while waiting for her response, he looked at the moon and watched everyone go home to rest for the night.

That question made Kris aware of their relationship and remembered that she had done something terrible, that's probably why he asked as he's not going to take her under his wing. It made her take her statement back from earlier, and as she looked at Adelram's eyes, that was glowing white, it made her recall the very same eyes she saw in her vision. "I, don't know... I thought you'd take me in your party."

Adelram simply chuckled from her answer, "Who would take a murderer in their party?" he bluntly replied, "Vanessa and I would be dead by now if it weren't for the fact that I had to reveal my power." His eyes narrowed in disgust just by the thought of using it again, and noticed that Kris' eyes started to tear up. So he sighed and brought a bag of gold almost the size of his head and carefully placed it beside Kris, making sure not to make a sound. "Here, take this and go buy what you lost, don't be so sad now. You have everything that you need." He knows that she's feeling down not because of the gold, but it's worth a try to make her leave once and for all. Kris quickly grabbed the bag and shoved it back to him, "I don't want this..." She stood up and glared at him, "I gave my life up the moment you gave me these eyes! I don't even know what else you have done to me!"

"I simply replaced your heart with the dragon's." With Adelram's occupied hands, he put the bag of gold down on the table beside the bed and looks at Vanessa's face, "Those eyes seems to have absorbed the leftover mana from the dragon's trap, and normally humans don't take in draconic mana." Adelram turns his head to Kris and smiled, "Now go back to your home the first thing in the morning."

"I don't have a home." Kris replied without thinking twice on what she'll say, "I was just a beggar in the streets not until the Trills brothers took me in their team when they saw how large my mana capacity with this special ball they had. And there's where I met Aisha. That little woman taught me how to cast spells and wield a staff, and before she died, we were in the middle of learning spatial magic. And now that they're dead, I guess I'll go back to begging." She smiled weakly.

It'll be a waste to let her roam the streets and just beg instead of getting herself knowledge on magic, and it would be a nuisance to deal with her in the future since she has draconic mana now. He watched her look down on the ground pondering with teary eyes, "Don't pity yourself." Adelram replied, and held Kris' chin to make her look at him, "I changed my mind. I'll take you under me and make you the strongest Mage in the Kingdom. But I need some form of proof to prove your worth and loyalty." Adelram stared at her eyes and waited for a response.

Kris stared back, "You know I have nothing to give... So I'll give my life to you instead, I'll serve you for the rest of my life."

Meanwhile, back at the Dungeon, Lynya breathes in quickly after losing her consciousness, and starts to vomit upon seeing her dead teammates. I'm alive!!! I'm alive I'm alive I AM ALIVE!!! She almost starts to laugh hysterically as she can't believe that the dragon is strong, but looking around, the dragon was nowhere to be found. She pushed Aisha's corpse that's holding her in her waist and struggled as she tried to stand up, she suddenly remembered a vague memory about the battle between sir Adelram and that damned beast before she lost her consciousness and probably her sanity. Now that she found out his strength, she starts regretting her decisions about belittling humans and starts to yearn for more power. "Sir... Adelram... ADELRAM, you're perfect." She starts laughing and daydreaming about him amidst being around corpses. "I... I NEED TO PRAISE HIM MORE!! I NEED TO TELL EVERYONE ABOUT IT~" And starts to laugh harder.