Chương 213: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 213 - An Incomplete Polymorph

The System's declaration that "they are not worthy" hit Su Nian right in the chest. He agreed completely. How could ordinary human clothes ever be worthy of a noble dragon? Built-in outfit it was, then. Su Nian scooped Anna up and flew at full speed into the inner palace of the Dark Sovereign Hall. Plenty of rooms back here. The problem was that at his current size, he couldn't fit through a single one of them.

The previous Dark Monarch had apparently been just as large, but could at least control his own dimensions at will. By comparison, Su Nian really was embarrassingly behind.

"Brother? Is it time for the Polymorph Potion?" Anna had been watching the Black Dragon's series of peculiar maneuvers and already had a pretty good idea what was happening. She beat her wings and flew up in front of him, hovering face to face, her bright, watery eyes brimming with joy and anticipation.

"Yes. But first, take this." Su Nian summoned the [Manjusaka] from the System Store and extended his dragon claw toward her. The gorgeous princess dress lay perfectly still in the center of his palm.

"It's so beautiful!" No girl on earth could resist the pull of a beautiful dress. Anna was no exception. Her eyes lit up. She flew a delighted circle around his claw, studying the dress from every angle, tilting her head this way and that.

"Is this for Anna?" Her voice wavered slightly. It wasn't the first time Su Nian had given her a gift, but that never seemed to matter. It moved her every single time. She never took anything he gave her for granted. Never treated it as something owed. She could be spoiled rotten and still hold onto a heart full of gratitude.

"Of course," Su Nian looked slightly sheepish.

"I'm about to polymorph, so you should go change first. It'll make things more... official." He didn't have much experience with this sort of thing. He was just following what he half-remembered from his previous life — things he'd seen happen around him. Some instinct that said: prepare a gift before a date, and treat a first date with weight and seriousness.

"Okay, brother. Thank you~" Anna laughed softly, flew up to the Black Dragon's cheek, cradled that big dark face in her small hands, and pressed a light kiss against it. Then she carefully lifted the dress and flew off toward the nearest room. She made it halfway. Then she slapped herself on the forehead, spun around, and came fluttering back.

"Anna's so silly. She almost forgot to give brother the Polymorph Potion." She stuck out her tongue, a little flustered, and set the vial carefully on Su Nian's claw.

"I hope when Anna comes back out, brother has already turned into someone who can hug and kiss Anna properly~" Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. And with that, she shot into the small room like a dart, too eager to waste another second. Su Nian looked down at the vial sitting in his claw. For a regular human, this thing would probably be two decent sips' worth. For something built the way he was, it wasn't enough to get lodged between his teeth.

Could this even work at his scale? It wasn't going to cut his polymorph window down to one minute, was it?... Probably not. He shook his head. No usage restrictions listed, which meant it was universal. And even if the System producing it belonged to the players' game side, System-made goods were always top quality. He stopped second-guessing himself and dropped the whole vial into his mouth, bottle and all, and bit down. Crack. He'd done it deliberately.

Otherwise, a bottle that small would've gone in whole and come out just as intact, stomach acid or not. [You have used a Polymorph Potion. Transformation in progress!] Insight gave its notification right on cue. Su Nian's shoulders dropped half an inch in relief. Then a strange sensation rolled through his entire body, warm and total, like sinking back into a dragon egg. That feeling. Being wrapped in liquid warmth. Comfortable beyond description. The kind you never fully forget.

Then, at some unplaceable moment, he came back to himself. There was the faint sound of a shell splitting open. Crack— The white mist thinned and drifted apart. He'd gotten smaller.

"Did I just... take human form?"

"System, open the inspection panel." A light screen flickered into view before him, like a mirror. Su Nian looked at himself. Pale, close-cropped hair. Crimson-gold vertical pupils. Skin a shade grayish. The face bore some resemblance to who he'd been in his past life, but refined, brows sharp as sword edges, eyes deep as still water. Not the soft handsomeness of a pretty-boy entertainer. Something more severe than that. Heroic. Commanding. The bearing of an emperor who didn't need to announce himself.

"This form is... not quite complete, is it." He eyed the pair of curved black horns rising from his head, shaped like a crown, and the faint scatter of dark scales along his jaw. He made peace with it quickly enough. Druid-developed potion. In his memory, druids always kept some animal features even in humanoid form, half-deer humans, bear-headed bodies, the occasional human head on a bird's frame. Apparently they considered it an aesthetic choice.

He stepped toward a doorway and gauged his height against the frame. Two and a half meters. His build was extraordinary, muscle stacked on muscle, but clean, not bloated. It all fit smoothly beneath the dark armor, every plate moving with him as if grown there. Not a single awkward angle. He also took a moment to assess a certain other dimension.

"The caliber has definitely decreased. One and a half meters down to ten centimeters. But it seems... roughly speaking... it's still not going to work." He exhaled. A quiet, resigned sigh. He'd have to find some way to shrink it further. Otherwise, certain kinds of closeness with Anna were going to remain out of reach for the foreseeable future. Though, honestly, fine. An hour wasn't enough time to accomplish much anyway.

"Brother~" Her voice came from behind him, shy and bright at once, soft and slightly trembling, like a feather drawing a slow line across the tip of his heart. Su Nian turned. For a single instant, he was certain he was looking at an angel that had wandered down to walk among mortals. Anna's dragon wings had retracted completely. Her snow-white fox tail peeked out from beneath the hem, curling out just enough, half visible, perfectly placed.

Her fluffy fox ears trembled in small, quick shivers, like a deer that had stumbled into the deep of a forest and hadn't quite steadied itself yet. The Manjusaka had been made for her. It traced the delicate line of her frame, accentuating every gentle curve, drawing attention to the fine architecture of her collarbones and the soft flush of her shoulders. White stockings sheathed her slender legs from foot to thigh, and where the silk ended, the petal-shaped hem began.

The two met in a composition that had no business being that perfect. Her smile was like the first chapter of a book written by someone who truly knew how to write. You looked, and you couldn't stop looking. Her eyes held whole sentences. Clear light moved across them like sunlight on water, rippling over something private kept deep inside. Even the tips of her fingers seemed to carry color. Su Nian stood there, not quite thinking.

He understood something in that moment — a phrase he'd carried without context until now. Between moonlight and snow, you are the third kind of peerless beauty. Anna was beautiful. Simply, undeniably beautiful. And just from standing here and looking at her, Su Nian felt it, a small stone dropped into still water, sinking without a sound, all the way to the bottom of his heart. ➤ Next: Bullying — What Was Lost