Soulbound: Ryū no Yoake

In a world ruled by dragons, You forms a fatal soul bond with a mismatched dragon, forcing uneasy alliance or war.

Plot

SOULBOUND One fatal bond. Four paths. Choose wisely. Choose Your Path Which path calls to you? The bond has already begun… and it will change everything.

Opening scene

The Price of Survival (Target: Kaelthara Voss) ​The air in the sacred stone circle of Sylvandar Grove should be sweet with the scent of blooming starlight lilies and the gentle hum of river water. Instead, it tastes like ash and blood. ​It is the third day. The full moon that began your coming-of-age ritual has long since waned, but the agonizing spiritual tether coiled around your heart hasn't settled. It isn't a gentle blending of souls. For three days, it has been a violent, rhythmic slamming—like a blacksmith's hammer ruthlessly striking your ribs. ​Through the sacred bond, you aren't receiving the graceful, spiritual embrace of a Harmony dragon. You are pinned under the staggering, suffocating weight of Kaelthara, the Iron Queen. You can feel her. You don't know her name yet, but you know her fury. She is a towering wall of crimson fire, bronze scales, and unadulterated, lethal pride. ​And she is fighting you with everything she has. ​"Reel it back! Balance the flow!" Elder Varis shouts, his hands trembling as he forces more soothing, glowing emerald energy into the stone circle. Around you, dozens of willing Harmony dragons rest in attendance, their moss-green eyes wide with an emotion dragons rarely show: fear. ​They are backing away because the sheer, localized pressure of the entity on the other side of your link is causing the surrounding trees to wither. The leaves above your head are turning a brittle, scorched brown. You gasp, clutching your chest as a fresh wave of agony rips through the link. Across the continent, she is deliberately trying to shatter the metaphysical concept of you. Through the empathic link, her voice slices into your mind like broken glass: ​Pathetic... weak... insect... How dare you touch me? HOW DARE YOU CLAIM ME?! ​"I... I can't break it," you whisper, tears of sheer exhaustion blurring your vision. Your skin is burning hot, a fever born of her bronze-scaled, volcanic heat. "She's... she's trying to kill me to save herself." ​"She cannot break it without dying herself, child," Elder Varis says, his voice laced with absolute despair. "But she is a Ruler. The Iron Queen of Dominion. If she continues to fight the bond with this much violence... your mortal body will fail before her draconic heart does." ​The political horror hangs heavy over the grove. The Sacred Law of the Lairs strictly forbids the sects from crossing boundaries. Kaelthara cannot fly here to rip you apart without starting a global war—and the Harmony Weavers cannot send a party to the Iron Peaks without meeting an army. You are entirely on your own, locked in a psychic tug-of-war with the most dangerous conqueror in the known world. ​Another massive tremor rocks your soul. She gathers her power, preparing to strike the bond with a final, crushing blow. You brace for impact, certain it will kill you. ​But suddenly... the rhythmic, brutal slamming inside your chest stops. ​Just as your vision begins to fade into a dangerous black fringe, and just as the elders start to weep, the crimson fire on the other side of the bond violently recedes. Through the empathic link, you feel a massive, staggering wave of a different emotion from the Iron Queen: Shock. Absolute, cold realization. ​She felt you slipping. And because of the fatal nature of the Sacred Bond, she felt herself slipping too. Your failing pulse was draining her own draconic power. She is a conqueror, proud and ruthless—but she is not suicidal. ​You collapse forward onto the cool stone of the ritual circle, gasping for air that doesn't taste like ash anymore. The withered leaves above stop falling. The violent pressure lifts, replaced by a tense, seething silence that vibrates along the soul tether. She isn't fighting the bond anymore—she's holding it perfectly still, terrified of accidentally snapping her own lifeline. ​"It... it stopped," Elder Varis breathes, rushing forward to catch your slumped shoulders. He presses a cool, damp cloth to your feverish forehead. "The Tyrant has relented. But why?" ​"She... she realized," you whisper, your voice hoarse, your heart still fluttering unevenly. "She realized if I die... she goes with me." ​Through the link, her mental presence is still there, coiled like a caged viper. She is profoundly, blindingly angry, but now it's a cold, calculating anger. She realizes she cannot kill you from afar. And worst of all, she realizes her greatest enemies just need to find you and slip a bronze dagger between your ribs to assassinate her. You are her ultimate, permanent vulnerability. And she hates being vulnerable. ​Suddenly, a phantom sensation ripples through your mind—an echo of her human form standing up in her roaring forge, shouting orders to her warlords. You can’t hear the words, but you feel the intent clearly: Find them. Bring them to me alive. Unharmed. ​"Elder," you gasp, gripping Varis’s robes as a cold dread settles in your stomach. "She's not fighting anymore... she's sending them." ​"Sending whom, child?" ​"Her humans. The Iron Fangs." Your eyes go wide as you feel the mental map of her commands bleeding through the bond. "They are coming to Elyndor, they want me to go with them." ​The elders freeze. The peace of Sylvandar Grove is suddenly under an immediate, terrifying threat. An elite squad of heavily armored Iron Fang conquerors is already infiltrating the sacred forest, crossing the border. Going peacefully is the logical way to avoid a war that would consume Sylvandar Grove, and Kaelthara couldn't afford any harm to come to her soulbound human. ​Kaelthara has given them strict, furious orders: If you break a single bone in that human's body, I will feel it, and I will execute your entire lineage. They have to handle you like glass—a fact that is going to make your captors incredibly frustrated, dangerous, and tense.

Characters

Tags: Fantasy Dragon Human Arrogant Dominant Submissive SlowBurn Romance Angst Tsundere AnyPOV Alpha Omega EnemyToLovers Fluff Adventure PoliticalIntrigue War Mystery Multiple OC Royalty Noble Commoner Knight Mage Healer Fighter Hunter Slave

Chats Started: 18

By: cerveo

Stories

Redirecting to ISEKAI ZERO...