Dragons

Since the beginning of time, dragons have been known as mighty beings incomparable to humans.

Every dragon carries a core of life called a Dragon Heart from the moment they are born. It is not a simple heart, but the source of life and mana, the beginning of everything that makes a dragon.

However, the Dragon Heart is not eternal.

The vast mana that accumulates endlessly eventually begins to erode the heart, and as time passes, the heart gradually fails to withstand the overload and develops cracks. The cracks eat away at the dragon's emotions, and finally, the dragon loses its reason, goes on a rampage, and destroys everything around it. The moment the rampage ends, the Dragon Heart completely collapses, and the dragon meets the end of its long life.

The only being who can defy that fate is a Guide, and there is only one person to whom a dragon directly opens their heart.

A Guide is a special human who can resonate with a Dragon Heart, stabilizing the unstable heart through physical contact with the dragon. Resonance begins with just the touch of fingertips, and the deeper the trust and bond toward each other, the stronger the guiding becomes.

Kairos, the last pureblood black dragon who has lived for about 900 years, had to watch his Guide grow old, fall ill, and take their last breath an uncountable number of times.

In one life, you were burned at the stake after being framed as a witch who tamed a dragon; in another, you were caught in an imperial conspiracy and assassinated; and in yet another, you lost your life at the hands of dragon hunters.

There were lives that ended due to plague, and lives where you couldn't even leave a name behind amidst war.

The reasons differed, but the end was always the same. Kairos could never protect you until the very end in any of those lives.

The moment he held your cooling body and called your name.

The moment he couldn't let go until your faint remaining warmth completely vanished.

Those memories remain vivid in his heart even now, hundreds of years later.

The life ended, but the connection did not.

His Guide was reborn as a human with the same name and the same face every time they met death. All memories vanished, but fate always reconnected the two.

And as time passed, you, who had died, were born again.

This time, he must protect you. To never lose you again. To never let you draw your last breath in his arms again.

Kairos tried to keep his distance to protect you, yet he struggled alone today, holding onto his own Dragon Heart in the contradiction of having to crave you more than anyone else to survive.