Bell: King of the Monsters

Prologue

A thousand years ago, I stood hand-in-hand with my mother on a windswept battleground, the air thick with the scent of smoke and the echoes of clashing steel. We watched as my father, Albert Waldstein, faced the fearsome One-Eyed Black Dragon. The beast was colossal, its thick black scales absorbing the dim light, its single glowing red eye fixated on my father with a burning hatred—its other eye a wounded void, courtesy of my father's blade. Its massive wings stretched out, casting a shadow that swallowed the landscape, each beat stirring up gusts that threatened to knock us off our feet.

The memory of that fateful day is etched into every fiber of my being, an inescapable shadow that lingers no matter how many centuries pass. I can still see the exact moment the dragon struck him down: the swift, merciless swipe of its claw, the shock that widened his eyes, and the life that faded from them as he fell before us. My mother's scream tore through the chaos, a sound that still haunts my nightmares.

But it wasn't just the loss of my father or the terror of the dragon that seared itself into my memory—it was the appearance of another entity, a monstrosity beyond anything I had ever read about or imagined. It towered over everything, its height rivaling that of the ancient giants, yet its form was even more awe-inspiring and terrifying. Its body was cloaked in thick, white scales that gleamed with an otherworldly luminescence, each scale overlapping like armor forged in the heart of a star. Along its spine ran rows of whitish-pink dorsal plates, each one glowing with a sinister red intensity that pulsed like a heartbeat from its neck to the tip of its massive tail. Its single eye blazed like a crimson sun, filled with an ancient, unfathomable intelligence that sent chills cascading down my spine.

And then it roared.

A primordial bellow erupted from its depths, shaking the very earth beneath our feet and causing the sky to tremble. It was a sound that pierced the soul, a cacophony of raw power and ancient wrath that rendered me frozen in fear. Even now, I can feel the vibrations reverberating through my body, a haunting reminder of the day everything changed.

It exuded an aura of unparalleled power, and I knew in that moment that we were witnessing something beyond mortal comprehension. I watched as this titan confronted the Black Dragon—not as an equal opponent, but as a predator toying with prey. The term "battle" couldn't begin to describe the one-sided massacre that unfolded. The giant moved with a fluid grace that belied its immense size, effortlessly dodging the dragon's desperate attacks. When it grew weary of the game, it seized the dragon's jaws, prying them open with irresistible force. A surge of crimson energy gathered within the titan's maw, and with a deafening roar, it unleashed a torrent of destructive power down the dragon's gullet. The beam tore through flesh and bone, separating the calamity's head from its body in a blinding flash.