"You…"
For a moment, Typhon Euphemilos couldn't comprehend what this human had just said.
Until now, she had never truly had any desires. No dreams. No pursuit of anything.
But now… I'm free? I… can go anywhere I want?
Watching the glowing remnants of the seals once left by the Olympian gods dissipate from her body, the red-haired girl felt as though the pain that had clung to her for so long had finally lifted.
In the smoldering heart of the volcano, surrounded by scorching lava—once a place steeped in despair and curses that refused to break, a place where sorrow clung to her like a second skin—
Now, it was gone.
"I can live the way I want now… I've been released… that's amazing!"
Her joy bubbled up into an unrestrained cheer that cast off all former pride and persona. The blood-red magma around her rolled and flowed like liquid fire, radiating a dazzling brilliance. Even her usually pitch-black eye seemed to catch a glimmer of light.
She stretched out her limbs, floating weightlessly beneath the molten surface.
"I don't have to die! I can keep living—forever! Really, this is wonderful!"
She didn't understand why that human would do such a thing—but it was a good thing nonetheless. Still, that didn't mean she was going to help him with anything. Usually, when people did things like this, it was to get something from her. She'd seen it before—whether out of base instinct or so-called lofty virtue, she'd seen it all.
"…He's gone, huh?"
Snapping out of her glee, the red-haired girl looked around and realized that the silver-haired human had vanished without a sound. Once again, she was alone.
But that was fine. She'd leave this volcano soon—this place that had sealed her away for centuries. She would go somewhere else. Live however she liked.
As for hunting down and killing those she hated—was that really how it would end? No, vengeance and hatred weren't so shallow. The point was to make them feel despair—to turn that love they once had for humans into misery…
But even as she thought that—
At the beginning, Typhon Euphemilos had planned to trick him. To devour him.
As a dragon girl, she had been thinking about how best to deceive that seemingly clueless human—get him to speak a wish, break her seal, and then devour him in his moment of despair. But that human hadn't listened to a word she said. He had just… casually, without hesitation, set her free.
And then walked away.
To someone like her, who had lived solely for the sake of vengeance against those who had sealed and tried to kill her, he had looked at her—completely unfazed—and simply said:
"You've had it rough."
And left.
Because he had treated the whole thing as insignificant, the red-haired girl now found herself thinking maybe… maybe it was insignificant. In the blink of an eye, she had forgotten the gods she once hated so bitterly.
Perhaps… she didn't even realize it herself. Like how people can't see their own expressions—maybe the thoughts hidden deep in her heart had been ignored even by her. Those feelings—fear, hate, anger, obsession—had gathered within her like a sword pointed inward. Brutal, unrelenting.
But were those truly her desires?
Perhaps they were just the opposite.
As a dragon born for the sole purpose of killing gods—loathed, feared, sealed away since ancient times—she had devoured rage, devoured sorrow, devoured hatred, and cast herself into a whirlpool of resentment. She was meant to be the calamity that, in this era, would wipe out the very humans once protected by the gods.
But it was all undone by a single sentence from that man.
Whether that was a blessing or a curse for the Primordial Dragon Typhon, she didn't know.
At the bottom of the slowly cooling magma lake, the red-haired girl stretched her body lazily and looked up at the ever-churning lava above.
She had long forgotten how she had once been taught to pray—to Chaos or whatever deity it was. But she could still remember the faces of those humans she had driven away after they had betrayed Chaos. Their tear-streaked faces pressed against the ground, wailing in grief—that memory had never faded.
"Humans die eventually. What's the point in liking the dead?"
Back then, she had laughed coldly at the idea. Humans didn't have much time anyway. Giving up was only natural...
For a pure-blooded dragon born to destroy the Machine Gods, it wasn't hard. The Age of Gods didn't exist for humans. In an age ruled by gods and fantasy beasts, the world had no reason to show favor to such tiny creatures.
Looking back now—she had never even noticed how cruel that way of thinking was.
Words spoken to her by countless people in the past flashed through her mind. She couldn't remember who said what anymore. Some were said directly, some behind the backs of the gods, some were whispered for her to overhear, and some were buried in prayers—but she had heard them again and again—
Monster.
And the girl thought to herself—they were right.
After all, she had no goals of her own. She had been born to kill the gods. That was it. Everything in her path was just something to be crushed.
She had no dreams. No destinations. Not even a sense of what she wanted to become.
Now that she was truly free, and her hatred was gone, a hollow emptiness filled her—so vast she couldn't even begin to imagine anything beyond it.
Worse still, she understood that this was now a human world. The gods were gone. She may have been free—but there was nowhere left for her to go. She was still stuck in this volcanic prison.
Typhon Euphemilos was a monster who trampled on life. The past could not be changed. Not then, not now.
"…Ah, right. I almost forgot—I still have something I need to do."
At that moment, the girl suddenly remembered the human's indifferent expression.
She had nearly forgotten to eat him.
She immediately got up and rushed toward the mouth of the volcano.
Dusk had passed. The sky had lost its clear blue. The golden glow of sunset had faded into a cooler, darker hue—the night sky taking on a soft, celestial blue that seemed to stretch endlessly from heaven to earth.
It was a world she hadn't seen in millennia. Quiet, yet filled with breathtaking beauty.
And into that beauty, the girl gazed.
"…That… human…"
The red-haired girl couldn't help but whisper.
She didn't seem to know what she wanted to say—but still, she tried to speak, awkwardly, as though unsure how to use her own voice.
"...You know... um... you…"
She wasn't trying to be clever or manipulative—or at least she didn't think she was.
"I forgot to eat you."
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