Grrrrrk.
Musius opened his mouth, trying to say something. But the sound that rose from his vocal cords, regrettably, never flowed out past his lips. The last words he left behind merely seeped from his severed throat in vain.
Rumble, roll.
The head with three horns rolled for quite some time, its tongue lolling out, before striking a rock and coming to a stop. Behind it, the headless body of the Blue Dragon collapsed limply to the ground.
Thud.
A thick cloud of dust billowed up. It was the end of a dragon, one of the great race. Near the Blue Dragon’s neck stood a Death Knight, silently and gracefully, exuding a chilling Death Blade. Judging from the situation, it seemed he was the one who had severed the Blue Dragon’s neck.
The Blue Dragon Musius, who had met an unexpected end. As though proving he had fought a fierce battle, his body was so mangled that it was difficult to look at with open eyes. His once-powerful tail had been cut into three pieces, and his body, covered in hard scales, was bleeding from stab wounds all over.
Not even his wings and legs were intact. Every one of them had been cut from his body and lay scattered unsightly on the ground. The Death Knight said nothing, merely staring blankly at the corpse of the dragon that had departed this world by his hand. A moment later, a low voice came from beside him.
“Good work, Helbertron. Does this mean you’ve personally taken down two dragons now?”
“There are still plenty of dragons left to hunt.”
Spitting the words out bluntly, Helbertron quietly withdrew his sword and turned around. In the direction he walked stood three Death Knights. All of them were drenched in blood; judging from the circumstances, it was clear they were the ones responsible for killing the Blue Dragon.
A short distance away, a massive White Dragon was panting heavily as he healed himself. It was Katroi, who had escaped a life-or-death crisis. He repeatedly cast Healing, but because his wounds were so severe, they did not mend easily. Then a shadow approached him.
“You talked so big, and now look at you. You almost went off to the next world without even getting to drink the liquor you like so much.”
Despite the blunt tone of his voice, Damon was looking at Katroi with pity in his eyes. Though they were usually at each other’s throats, seeing him grievously injured and on the verge of death made his heart ache unbearably.
“……”
Had it been any other time, Katroi would have argued back and then some, but now he said nothing. He merely focused on treating his wounds with sorrowful eyes. A moment later, Katroi opened his mouth, and a grave voice flowed out.
“What in the world happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why did you, who were supposed to be guarding the portal, follow after me?”
At Katroi’s question, Damon’s expression hardened. Whether he knew for certain or not, the portal had most likely been completely destroyed by now. Damon let out a long sigh and began to explain.
“Hoo. There was no choice. If we’d tried to protect the portal, we wouldn’t have made it out unscathed either……”
“What does that mean?”
A flash of rage suddenly flickered across Damon’s face. It was a primal anger directed at the Red Dragon named Verkis.
“That bastard had set a trap there to wipe us out completely. A trap we could never escape from.”
“Who?”
“Verkis.”
At the name, Katroi’s expression stiffened. Because of the conversation he had had with Musius, he was already feeling an inexplicable fear toward the dragon called Verkis.
“Then how did you deceive his eyes and ears and escape?”
Damon shook his head with a bitter expression.
“At first, I was going to go out and fight too. But something just felt off. So I decided to send out bait first. I put Shrekheimer and four Death Knights we’d recovered from the portal onto Zicrate and sent them out ahead. To get a better grasp of the situation.”
“And?”
“As soon as Zicrate went out, sure enough, that bastard Verkis appeared. Without warning, he opened his magic repository and poured out a swarm of Stone Golems. Seeing Iron Golems and Bronze Golems mixed in, it looked like he’d set that trap with full intent from the start. So, to preserve ourselves for later, we had no choice but to retreat.”
Perhaps because it still weighed on his mind that he had not stepped forward even after seeing Verkis, Damon trailed off. But to Katroi, who was listening, it was shocking news.
“If that’s true, Shrekheimer and the Bone Dragon wouldn’t have survived……”
The troubled expression on Damon’s face deepened even further.
“There was nothing we could do. Fortunately, Shrekheimer has a Life Force Vessel, so we can revive him, but we should consider Zicrate and the four Death Knights completely lost.”
“Then after you escaped from there, you came straight after me?”
Damon silently nodded.
“Yeah. It was a foregone conclusion that the portal would be destroyed, but we couldn’t just sit there and take it, could we? I felt like I wouldn’t be satisfied unless we took at least one dragon in return……”
Katroi stared hard at Damon’s face with an incredulous expression. The moment from just before, when he had been on the brink of death, was still as vivid as if he were experiencing it right now.
The instant his Dragon Heart was about to be pulled out, Katroi had cleanly given up all lingering attachments. But at that moment, a hand of salvation he had never expected reached out to him…… Musius had turned his head at the sound from behind, but Katroi, whose eyes were closed, did not know that. However, he could feel the strength leave the foreleg that was gripping his Dragon Heart.
“Hm?”
Wondering what was happening, Katroi gently opened his eyes. The sight reflected in his eyes was of four familiar Death Knights surrounding the Blue Dragon and mercilessly hacking him apart.
Puh-puh-puk.
Blood was spraying in every direction. The Blue Dragon could offer no meaningful resistance and only screamed. The swords suffused with blue light split the Blue Dragon’s scales and flesh and severed bone as if cutting through radishes. The power of the Death Blades drawn forth by Grand Master-class Death Knights was truly fearsome.
Due to the sudden assault, Musius lost one arm and one leg. The Death Knights, with meticulous cunning, had first cut off the arm gripping Katroi’s Dragon Heart.
Kuaaaaargh.
He screamed until his throat felt as if it would burst from the pain piercing through his entire body, but the Death Knights did not hesitate in the slightest as they carved up the Blue Dragon’s body. Even the Shield he hurriedly spread could not block the Death Knights’ Death Blades. Unable to endure any longer, Musius launched a counterattack to stop the Death Knights. Several attack spells were cast through Draconic magic.
“You bastards……”
But not a single spell was executed. Damon, who had been waiting behind them, had watched for the spells as they were cast and dispelled them one after another. In the meantime, another leg was cut off. It was cleanly severed right around the knee. The Death Knights were venting all of their pent-up resentment upon Musius to their hearts’ content. As though they were taking out their frustration at not being able to fight Verkis.
“Krrr……”
Though repeated blood loss had left his mind hazy, Musius desperately attempted to escape. At least on the ground, he could not handle the Death Knights. Thinking only of escaping the crisis, Musius struggled desperately and shook off the Death Knights.
Perhaps his effort was not in vain, for Musius finally spread his wings and took to the air. But Damon, just as Verkis had done, had already laid a perfect trap. Waiting for him high in the sky was none other than the Bone Dragon Russellant. Though they had once been comrades, Russellant pressed down the surging Musius without the slightest hesitation.
Thud.
With his wings torn to shreds, Musius had no choice but to be driven unsightly into the ground, just as Katroi had been. And Helbertron, who had been waiting, charged in without mercy and severed Musius’s neck.
That, roughly, was the course by which the Blue Dragon Musius came to the end of his life.
Katroi, lost in thought, murmured quietly.
“You, who worshiped strength so much, have ended up being hunted by humans after all.”
Katroi, who had been gazing at Musius’s corpse with lonely eyes, turned his head.
“Where are the others?”
“I told them to go to the Luminous tribe for now and evacuate the elves. Since Verkis knows that humans and elves have joined hands, we can’t rule out the possibility that he’ll attack the forest. More importantly, I think we need to get out of here quickly.”
Damon looked around with an anxious expression.
“If that bastard Verkis finds out about this, he’ll come after us immediately, so we have to leave before then.”
Having finished speaking, Damon’s gaze landed on Musius’s corpse.
“If I had my way, I’d like to turn that bastard into a Bone Dragon to replace the Zicrate we lost. But we don’t have time, and those stupid Death Knights have chopped him to pieces……”
Still, we should recover the Dragon Heart, shouldn’t we?”
When their eyes met, Reindelf approached the Blue Dragon’s corpse as if he understood. Watching him extract the Dragon Heart with practiced skill, Damon opened Increcia.
“Get in quickly. Make sure to store the Blue Dragon’s Dragon Heart properly. And search through Increcia and find Shrekheimer’s Life Force Vessel, the one we put in before.”
“Damn it. You’ve got a filthy lot of demands.”
The grumbling Death Knights soon disappeared into Increcia. Immediately afterward, Damon even stuffed Russellant, who had been shrieking beside him, inside. The massive body of the Bone Dragon vanished from that place as if it had been a lie.
“That’s done.”
After closing Increcia, Damon looked at Katroi.
“Change into human form. We’ll take shelter first, then I’ll treat your wounds……”
Without another word, Katroi cast Polymorph. The massive White Dragon vanished, and in his place remained only a silver-haired young man stained with blood. Carrying Katroi in his arms, Damon hurriedly left the area. Out of concern for being tracked, he did not cast any magic at all. All that remained there was Musius’s corpse, cut into pieces, lying abandoned.
Not even ten minutes after Damon and Katroi disappeared, enormous shadows descended upon the place. At the sight of Musius’s dismembered corpse, cries of shock burst out.
“M-Musius.”
But there was no answer. Musius, the youngest of the four dragons who followed Verkis, had become a corpse that could never answer again, lying on the earth. Renius and Ryusike lost their words at the sight of their comrade’s gruesome corpse. Musius, who had been vividly alive only moments before, had departed down a road from which he could never return. The three dragons, alighting gently on the ground, stared blankly at their comrade’s body. None of them had imagined that Musius would meet such a miserable end. A moment later, anger surged up in Ryusike’s eyes.
“Those hateful…… Let’s pursue him at once. I won’t be satisfied until we tear him to pieces.”
But Verkis had already regained his composure.
“There is no need. By now, he will have already fled far from this place……
“There is no way someone as cunning as him would let his tail be caught so easily.”
Verkis quietly looked over Musius.
“Since the portal has been destroyed, the humans’ forces will no longer be replenished.
“Now it is time to unite the strength of dragons and orcs and crush the human army. That aside……”
Verkis’s gaze fell upon the stab wounds carved into Musius’s body.
“Unfortunately, it seems the Death Knights are still very much intact. It appears he used them to confuse us. Look at that.”
The place Verkis pointed to was where Musius’s neck had been severed.
“A technique capable of cutting off a dragon’s head in a single blow is something an ordinary Death Knight could not even dream of. In other words, he had separately hidden away the highest-grade Death Knights he had with him.”
Renius nodded as if it made sense.
“Now that you mention it, the abilities of the Death Knights said to have killed Russellant were relatively weak compared to the rumors. If we exclude that one Bone Dragon, then it means he has preserved his full combat strength.”
"Exactly. But it does not matter. From now on, we will band together and systematically smash the humans' main strongholds, one after another....... The first we shall eliminate is the elf tribe that dared join hands with humans. We intend to show them, in the most painful way possible, that joining hands with humans was a fundamentally wrong decision......"
Bereukiseu quietly restructured his mana. He intended to burn the corpse of the deceased Myusiuseu.
Dragons were a great race. Therefore, even a dead corpse had to be prevented from being desecrated by monsters and the like.
Furthermore, under no circumstances could Myusiuseu's corpse become a Bone Dragon and attack them. Having finished his thought, Bereukiseu silently deployed a Fire Ball.
Fwoosh.
Myusiuseu's corpse swiftly went up in flames. Though his body was wrapped in dragon scales, it could not resist Bereukiseu's Fire Ball. The three dragons stared blankly at the sight of their comrade's body burning. Silently burning with vengeance toward the human who had killed their comrade......
Having held Myusiuseu's funeral, the three dragons immediately flew toward the elven forest. Punishing the elf tribe that had aided the humans was their main objective. The dragons, having arrived above the elven forest, wasted no time restructuring their mana. As if aware of the dragons' fury, the elven forest trembled and remained silent. A moment later, a thunderous roar burst from Bereukiseu's mouth.
"Despicable elves. From this moment forth, the fury of the dragons shall burst forth upon your forest. This is the punishment for your misguided judgment."
The moment his words ended, a deafening roar resounded.
Rumble.
The sky darkened in an instant. No matter how high one gazed, the clear sky—previously devoid of a single cloud—was suddenly stained black. Shortly after, something began to pour down from the heavens.
Thud-thud-thud.
It was a rain of meteors. The dragons had deployed Meteor Swarm targeting the elven forest. Burning meteors falling from the sky ruthlessly crashed down into the elven forest. Under the continuous bombardment of meteors, branches were severed and leaves burst into flames. Even ancient trees could not withstand the onslaught of the meteor shower and were toppling.
The Meteor Swarm continued for quite some time. As if determined to leave not a single tree standing in the elven forest, the dragons relentlessly poured down meteor attacks. As if to turn the entire forest into scorched earth, once one meteor shower passed, the dragons summoned another meteor shower to incinerate the forest. Only after nearly half a day of casting Meteor Swarm did the three dragons finally withdraw their magic, as if their anger had been sated. Already, the entire elven forest was ablaze from the meteor attacks.
"You shall bitterly regret joining hands with the humans."
Looking at the burning forest, Bereukiseu turned his body with a satisfied smile. Reniuseu and Ryusike quickly followed him. Even after the dragons had disappeared, the elven forest continued to burn. The entire forest, spread across a vast area, was engulfed in flames. Yet, from afar, there were those who watched the flames and shed tears of blood.
"Our forest is burning."
The one silently swallowing his tears was Ollibie, captain of the Sentinels. Behind him, the elves continued to wipe away streaming tears. As if they had lost all meaning in life.