Portals tore the sky open like bleeding wounds; to the west, a black one expanded, devouring air and light as if the world were breathing in reverse.

  “A dragon.”

  Tailer Aspenwolf said it calmly, eyes reflecting the blazing crimson shape emerging.

  “Queen of the Skies… seems like she just found herself a partner.”

  Valquíria spun Regina Caeli, the obsidian club Lukas had placed in her hands.

  The weapon growled — low, hungry, alive.

  “Gonna tell me to fall back?” she asked, smiling feral, hair ignited by the heat of the portal.

  “Fall back?”

  Tailer raised an eyebrow.

  “No. I’m telling you to fly. West. The dragon is yours.”

  He nodded toward the central portal.

  “I’ll handle Nightmare No. 2.”

  Valquíria laughed, slammed the club against her chest in salute, and leapt.

  The ground cracked beneath her.

  She became a streak of fire in the sky.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The dragon roared back.

  The central portal erupted in smoke and molten metal.

  Nightmare No. 2 emerged:

  Flesh stitched to living metal.

  Rows of misaligned eyes.

  Teeth where teeth should not exist.

  Arms too long, dragging like blades.

  Every step melted stone.

  “Human…”

  The voice came from several places across its twisted body.

  “…you are the obstacle?”

  Tailer adjusted the white wolf-fur coat on his shoulders, long braid sliding forward.

  He smiled faintly.

  “‘Nightmare,’ is it? Ancient records compared your kind to the gods who fought the Tower.”

  The monster laughed and drove tendrils of corrupted mana into the ground.

  The street shook.

  Tailer snapped his fingers.

  The world went silent.

  Wind stopped.

  Dust froze midair.

  No sound.

  No weight.

  Absolute gravity.

  Nightmare No. 2 was dragged toward an invisible point, bones shrieking like glass under pressure.

  The White Twins, curved daggers carved from winter wolf fangs, materialized in Tailer’s hands.

  Cold spilled from the metal — a white mist that scorched skin.

  “You’ve gotten small,” he said, voice steady.

  Nightmare No. 2 burst forward with impossible speed, ripping through the void by brute force alone.

  Tailer rotated his wrist —

  gravitational hexagons flared across the ground, the walls, the air.

  Each slash of the daggers released waves of frozen gravity, swallowing the enemy’s movements…

  …and returning them slow.

  Attempt to crush.

  → Void.

  Attempt to slice.

  → Void.

  Attempt to scream.

  → Void.

  Tailer lifted his left hand.

  The air vibrated.

  Inside the monster’s warped chest, something lit up:

  A black, hateful pulse.

  The heart.

  “There it is.”

  His blue eyes sharpened.

  “The only sound I care about.”

  Nightmare No. 2 tried to retreat; Tailer closed his fist.

  Its chest cracked from the inside.

  The White Twins traced two perfect arcs —

  not in flesh, but in the trajectory of time itself.

  Everything froze exactly where Tailer wanted it.

  “Freezing is easy,” he said, stepping forward.

  “Making time obey? That’s the art.”

  A white circle opened beneath the monster.

  Nightmare No. 2 hung suspended —

  Every drop of blood crystallizing.

  Every movement turning to sculpture.

  The heart pulsed like a black beacon…

  …ready

  to break.

  Tailer lowered his gaze.

  Calm.

  Cold.

  Predator.

  “Winter Void.”

  “Stay. Still.”

  End of Chapter 51