Chapter 404: Chapter 404

Lance had a mixture of emotions coursing through him. He was undoubtedly relieved that his daughter had come back to him. However, the reveal that she had become a superpower among the players alongside her friends was more than a little unsettling.

While nothing had happened while they were gone, He would be an incompetent fool if he truly believed that this was the end of any problems. If anything, this was only the beginning. While his daughter was strong, he also noticed that she was different from the others.

The one Crystal called Luna had heightened reflexes, super strength in addition to her hair being white with red eyes. Lance was confident in his marksmanship but the way she casually deflected his bullet despite the close proxmity meant she was undoubtedly a monster in combat.

Gregory was also someone he knew very well. He had once been a local celebrity, a reknowned fighter and potentially a world champion. That was until an accident forced him to retire. The last Lance had heard, Gregory or Greg as he liked to be called had permanently lost one of his eyes.

Yet now he was standing next to Crystal, looking at him with a somewhat relaxed expression and two eyes. Albeit one was an orange like colour, reminisicent of molten metal.

His gaze wandered back to his daughter who was sitting across from him as they discussed what they could about Crystal's group. She was adamant and headstrong, refusing to cave even to the smallest of official requests. Anything like that 'would have to go through their leader'.

Lance had seen the change in Crystal's eyes only once from a distance months ago when she had ripped off her blindfold in rage as she shouted at him. Since then, he had made sure that Gerard answered for his crimes.

Crystal's face twitched when he revealed to her that right now, the man was currently behind bars, awaiting trial for what he had done.

Taking a deep breath, Lance steeled himself before he asked the question that was on his mind.

"Crystal...I am not asking this as the mayor, nor as someone concerned for the safety of the city. I am asking solely as your father. What is happening to you?"

Crystal flinched, clearly uncomfortable with the idea of answering the question. Her fingers tightened on the edge of the table as if the wood itself was the only thing holding her together. The quiet tick of the wall clock filled the silence she left behind.

Lance waited. His eyes locked on hers, but she kept looking anywhere else. The longer she hesitated, the heavier the tension grew.

Finally, she spoke. Her voice was quiet, almost too soft for him to catch.

Lance leaned forward. "Changing? How?"

Crystal slowly removed her blindfold to reveal her sapphire Draconic eyes. Seeing them up close, Lance could instantly tell that those were not the eyes a human being, let alone his daughter should have.

"I am becoming a dragon."

For a long moment, Lance said nothing. His eyes locked on the sapphire irises staring back at him, glowing faintly under the room's light.

Those were not human eyes.

They belonged to something wild. Something powerful. Something unknown.

He felt his pulse spike.

Lance pushed back from the table so quickly his chair almost toppled. His body was trembling before he even realized he had stood, his hands slamming down on the wood hard enough to rattle the glasses.

"A dragon?" His voice cracked, disbelief and fear bleeding through each word. "What in the hell is a dragon?"

Crystal flinched but held his gaze.

"I do not know," she admitted. "The god who blessed me… that is what he called it. A dragon."

Lance shook his head slowly, trying to process the words. His mouth had gone dry, and when he spoke again his voice had a rough edge to it.

"So you are telling me you are turning into something nobody has ever seen before. Something not even the people giving you powers will explain."

"I am still me," Crystal said quickly, her voice rising as though she could cut through his panic with sheer force. "I have not changed like that. Not on the inside." Follow current novels on novel★fire.net

Lance's hands curled tighter against the table. He felt the cold creeping down his spine, the kind that came when the world shifted in ways he could not control.

"For how long?" he asked quietly. "How long before this thing inside you takes over? Before you stop being my daughter?"

Before Crystal could answer, another voice cut through the storm.

"She is still herself."

Both of them turned toward the sound.

Luna stepped away from the wall where she had been leaning. Her white hair caught the light as she moved closer, crimson eyes fixed on Lance with an unsettling calm.

"Yes, she is changing," Luna said, her tone even. "But she has not lost who she is. She is still Crystal."

Lance stared at her. "You speak as if you can guarantee that. As if you know what is happening to her."

Luna stopped behind Crystal's chair. Her arms crossed over her chest, her expression unshaken.

"Honestly, the stronger off she is, the better it is for everybody. I may not know the end result but I do know her. If the day ever comes when she is not herself, I will be the one to knock her head back on straight."

The words were delivered with absolute certainty.

Crystal blinked up at her friend. "You make it sound so reassuring," she muttered, voice tinged with faint sarcasm.

Luna's lips twitched in the barest hint of amusement before fading back into her usual stoic mask.

Lance did not share their calm. His eyes stayed on his daughter, the fear in them stark. "Crystal, this is not something you can shrug off. Nobody knows what dragons truly are. Nobody knows what you will become."

"I did not ask for this," Crystal said, her voice sharpening. "But I will control it. I will not let it control me."

"Control?" Lance repeated, frustration leaking into his tone. "You do not even know what you are turning into. How can you promise anything?"

Crystal leaned forward. Her hands, still gripping the table edge, trembled slightly, though not from fear.

"Because I have to," she said softly. "Because if I let this power own me, then it wins. And I will not let it win."

Her words held a quiet defiance that Lance recognized all too well. It was the same stubbornness she had carried since she was little, the same fire that had gotten her into trouble more times than he could count.

But this was different.

This was not a scraped knee or a broken window.

This was his daughter turning into something no human being had ever been before.

Lance dragged a hand over his face, trying to make sense of the storm building inside his chest. Fear. Anger. Helplessness.

"You have no idea what this means," he said finally, his voice rough. "For you. For the city. For the world."

"Then I will find out," Crystal said firmly.

Luna's voice cut in again, steady and sure. "And until then, you have my word. If this power ever turns her into something she is not, I will stop her before anyone else has to."

Lance looked at her. There was no hesitation in Luna's eyes. No fear. Only certainty.

And somehow that certainty cut through the noise in his head, if only a little.

He sank back into his chair slowly, his hands loosening on the table. The trembling in his arms had not stopped, but his voice was quieter when he finally spoke again.

"I failed you as a father. There is no denying that. Just know that whatever you decide to do, whatever you need, I will be there for you every step of the way."

As the words left his lips, Crystal felt for the first time in many years that the house was filled with warmth. It had once again become a home