Chapter 183 - 178: The Blood of the Dragon
For several seconds after the temple doors slammed shut, nobody moved.
The sound echoed through the valley.
Once.
Twice.
Then silence returned.
John stood frozen with the broken wooden dragon still in his hand.
The golden glow had disappeared.
Only a thin crack remained across the little carving.
Lythriel was the first to speak.
"...What did it mean?"
John didn’t answer.
He was still staring at the temple.
*The blood has returned.*
The words repeated themselves in his mind.
What blood?
Why him?
And what exactly had returned?
Commander Gareth stepped forward.
"Everyone stay calm."
His voice was firm enough to bring the expedition back to reality.
"Guards, secure the entrance."
Several guards moved toward the temple, but Gareth stopped them before they touched the doors.
"Don’t touch it."
The guards stepped back.
Darius approached slowly.
His face had lost its usual calm expression.
"Commander."
"I heard it."
Gareth nodded.
"So did I."
"The figure."
Darius looked at the sealed entrance.
"And what it said."
Nobody needed him to repeat the words.
---
John finally looked down at the wooden dragon.
The crack was still there.
He carefully turned it over.
Nothing.
The carving looked ordinary again.
"You should probably put that away."
Sylvara said quietly.
John nodded.
He placed it back inside his satchel.
Then he noticed something.
The crack hadn’t damaged the carving completely.
Instead, the broken line formed a strange pattern.
A tiny symbol.
The same circle and three crossing lines.
John stared at it.
"That’s impossible."
Lythriel looked over.
"What?"
"The symbol wasn’t there before."
Darius immediately came closer.
"Let me see."
John handed it to him.
Darius examined the carving without touching the glowing section.
His expression became increasingly confused.
"The craftsmanship is ordinary."
"So why is this here?"
"I don’t know."
Darius looked toward the temple.
"But I think we need to find out."
---
Commander Gareth shook his head.
"Not tonight."
Darius looked at him.
"Commander—"
"No."
Gareth’s answer was immediate.
"We’ve already had enough surprises for one day."
He turned toward the expedition.
"Everyone returns to camp."
"Nobody approaches the temple."
"Nobody investigates the entrance."
"We’ll discuss this in the morning."
The order was clear.
The expedition slowly dispersed.
But nobody returned to their tents with a peaceful mind.
The atmosphere had completely changed.
The ruins were no longer simply an archaeological site.
Something was inside them.
Something intelligent.
Something that knew John.
---
John sat beside the campfire long after everyone else had gone to sleep.
Lythriel eventually joined him.
She didn’t say anything at first.
She simply sat down.
John glanced at her.
"You should be sleeping."
"So should you."
"Fair."
They remained quiet.
Eventually, Lythriel spoke.
"Are you scared?"
John thought about it.
"Yes."
She looked surprised.
"You are?"
"Of course."
He stared into the fire.
"I don’t know what that thing was."
"I don’t know what it meant."
"And I don’t know why it recognized me."
Lythriel nodded slowly.
"At least you’re honest."
John smiled faintly.
"I’ve learned that pretending not to be afraid doesn’t make things less dangerous."
She looked toward the temple.
"Do you think it’s connected to your dragon blood?"
John looked down.
"I don’t know."
"But it specifically said blood."
"Yeah."
"And it pointed at you."
"I noticed."
Lythriel sighed.
"That’s what worries me."
John looked at her.
"What?"
"Whatever is inside that temple..."
She paused.
"I don’t think it wants everyone."
John understood immediately.
"It wants me."
Lythriel didn’t deny it.
---
The next morning, the expedition held an emergency meeting.
Everyone gathered around the main camp.
Commander Gareth stood in front of them.
"Last night, something inside the temple addressed one of our members."
He didn’t immediately name John.
"We don’t know what it is."
"We don’t know how long it has been there."
"And we don’t know what it wants."
A researcher raised his hand.
"Should we leave?"
The question silenced the group.
Gareth looked toward the temple.
"I considered it."
Several people waited.
"But we have no evidence that the entity intends to harm us."
Darius spoke.
"It also appears to have been waiting for someone."
Everyone looked toward John.
John remained silent.
Gareth continued.
"We’re not abandoning the expedition."
"But we are changing our priorities."
"The temple will be treated as a potentially dangerous site."
"Nobody enters without my permission."
"Research will continue outside."
"If anything else happens..."
He looked directly at John.
"...we reassess."
John nodded.
"Understood."
---
After the meeting, John found Darius standing near the old stone marker.
The scholar was staring at the symbol.
"You’ve been here for a while."
John said.
Darius nodded.
"I’ve been comparing the markings."
"Any conclusions?"
"One."
Darius pointed toward the symbol.
"This isn’t a religious symbol."
John frowned.
"Then what is it?"
"I don’t know."
"But every civilization leaves context."
"The symbol appears on roads."
"Maps."
"Buildings."
"Tools."
"That suggests it wasn’t merely ceremonial."
John thought about it.
"A warning?"
"Possibly."
"A territorial mark?"
"Possibly."
Darius looked at him.
"Or an identification mark."
John’s expression changed.
"Identification?"
"Something saying..."
Darius paused.
*"This belongs to us."*
John stared at the symbol.
"Or..."
He finished the thought.
*"This belongs to someone."*
Neither spoke.
---
Later that morning, John returned to the ruined settlement.
This time, he didn’t approach the temple.
Instead, he examined the smaller structures.
The expedition had already documented several buildings.
John wanted to understand the people who once lived here.
One structure appeared to have been a workshop.
There were stone tables.
Broken tools.
Metal fragments.
John crouched beside one of them.
The fragment was badly rusted.
But its shape was unusual.
It wasn’t a weapon.
It looked like part of a mechanism.
John called Darius.
"Have you seen this before?"
Darius examined it.
"No."
"Could it be from the temple?"
"Maybe."
He carefully looked around the workshop.
"There are several pieces."
John searched the ground.
One.
Two.
Three.
All were made from the same dark metal.
Eric joined them.
"Interesting."
John sighed.
"Don’t."
Eric laughed.
"Sorry."
He picked up his measuring tool.
"These pieces aren’t ordinary iron."
John looked at him.
"How can you tell?"
"Density."
He measured one fragment.
Then another.
"They’re heavier than they should be."
Darius’s expression became serious.
"Could be enchanted metal."
Eric shook his head.
"No obvious magical residue."
John looked at the fragments.
"Then what are they?"
Nobody knew.
---
The discovery didn’t stop the expedition.
In fact, it made the researchers more careful.
Every structure was documented.
Every carving was recorded.
Every fragment was catalogued.
John found himself spending most of the day working.
It helped.
The more he focused on ordinary work, the less he thought about the voice.
But occasionally...
He would feel that warmth again.
A faint pulse in his chest.
Always when he looked toward the temple.
By sunset, John had learned something important.
The sensation wasn’t random.
It became stronger when he stood near the central road.
Stronger near the temple.
And strongest near the symbol.
Whatever connection existed between him and this place...
It was real.
---
That evening, John sat alone.
He opened his journal.
**Day Ten – The Temple**
*Something spoke to us last night.*
*It called me by my blood.*
*I don’t know what that means.*
*I don’t know who built this place.*
*But I think they knew about dragons.*
He paused.
Then wrote:
*Or at least, they knew about something connected to dragons.*
John stared at the sentence.
He wasn’t certain.
He didn’t want to make assumptions.
But the possibility was becoming harder to ignore.
He closed the journal.
Then he heard footsteps.
Lythriel approached.
"You’ve been sitting here for a while."
"Thinking."
"About the temple?"
"Yes."
She sat down.
"Any answers?"
John smiled.
"More questions."
She laughed softly.
"Of course."
They sat together in silence.
Then John suddenly felt it.
A pulse.
Stronger than before.
He looked toward the temple.
The ancient doors were still closed.
But something had changed.
A faint golden line had appeared around the entrance.
Lythriel stood.
"John..."
"I see it."
The line spread slowly.
Across the stone.
Around the symbol.
Then downward.
A pattern began forming beneath the temple.
John stared.
The entire ruin was connected.
The symbol wasn’t simply carved into the entrance.
It was part of a much larger structure.
And the pattern extended directly beneath John’s feet.
He slowly looked down.
The ground beneath him began to glow.
A deep vibration passed through the valley.
Then a voice echoed from inside the temple.
Not the voice from last night.
A different voice.
Older.
Clearer.
And this time...
It spoke only one word.
"Descendant."
John’s eyes widened.
The ground suddenly stopped glowing.
Everything became silent.
Lythriel looked at him.
John stared at the temple.
He didn’t know what the ancient civilization had expected.
He didn’t know what his ancestors had done.
And he certainly didn’t know why he had been brought to this place.
But one thing had become certain.
The expedition had not simply discovered the ruins.
The ruins had discovered **him**.
---
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