◈ Episode 429. Are You Prepared? (1)
Walswile swallowed a sigh. ‘He is beyond even what I imagined.’ It went without saying that he had brought his craftsmanship to its fullest. He had also wrung out every last bit of the aesthetic sense he normally paid little attention to. All so he could refine equipment befitting Hoyeol’s outrageously splendid attire. ‘Each and every piece is a masterpiece without equal on the continent.’ It would be a shame for even one of them to be forgotten in the background.
That was why Walswile had thought of Hoyeol’s empty hands. Gloves made from dragonhide would surely be able to fully protect the hands that would perform noble deeds in the future.
However, it seemed...
“I have heard your voice. Legendary Black Dark Dragon.”
“......!”
The gloves seemed to contain a great power even he, their creator, had not anticipated. Since he was from Arcana, he could not see system messages. Even so, Walswile could feel the change for himself.
Whoooom—Suddenly, Walswile’s short hands began to emit a faint light.
By creating the first [Myth] grade item on the Arcana Continent,
Walswile’s craftsmanship had advanced once again.
“?!”
However, Walswile had no time to congratulate himself, nor even the leisure to examine his glowing hands in detail. It could not be helped.
Rumble!
“Chainwalker, what is happening?”
The Iron Castle.
The dwarven fortress had begun to shake violently. Even the dwarves, who were short and thus relatively better at keeping their balance, could not withstand the swaying and staggered this way and that.
Grabbing hold of a pillar with difficulty,
the dwarf leader, Chainwalker, urgently shouted.
“Is it a storm?”
No matter how great a technology was, one had to be humble before nature.
The Iron Castle was no exception.
If it was a storm, they should not collide with it head-on, but detour and avoid it.
“No!”
“Then is it turbulence?”
I-It does not seem to be that either!”
“What?”
Then why?
Why was the Iron Castle shaking so precariously? The answer to that question was soon confirmed with the eyes of everyone aboard the Iron Castle.
Ssssss.
A shadow fell.
The fortress of the sky.
Something even larger than the Iron Castle was approaching.
“It’s so large we can’t even see its full form!”
It was neither a threat nor an attack.
Simply by approaching,
it was shaking the Iron Castle.
Chainwalker immediately made a decision.
Now that Behemoth’s Maw was not playing its role,
he assumed the worst possibility.
He imagined a colossal monster crawling up from the Demon Realm.
“All hands, prepare return fire!”
The threat of the Demon Realm was no longer a tale of the distant future.
Gulp.
The dwarves swallowed dryly.
However, fortunately,
the taut tension did not last long.
Click.
Amid everything swaying,
two legs stretched straight without the slightest tremor.
Hoyeol took a step forward and opened his mouth.
“There is nothing to fear.”
“......
Captain-General?”
“Did I not say so?”
“What are you referring to......?”
......
No, he had already said it? ‘S-Surely he means the Black Dark Dragon?’ However, the question remained.
Had the Captain-General not said himself that the Black Dark Dragon was not something that truly existed, but a legend given form? That was what he had personally witnessed as well.
It was a Black Dark Dragon with wings that were especially enormous and trailing even among dragons. If the Black Dark Dragon could exert influence over the continent like a real dragon,
the moment the Black Dark Dragon flew over Antonium,
most of Antonium’s buildings should have collapsed from the impact.
But nothing like that had happened in Antonium. ‘More importantly.’ Chainwalker flinched.
Clack.
Hoyeol had opened the door leading to the deck of the Iron Castle.
It was truly a course of action filled with questions.
It was the moment Chainwalker recalled Hoyeol’s words again. ‘He clearly said he had heard the voice of the Black Dark Dragon of legend......’ His pupils trembled faintly.
“......!”
If what he said about hearing its voice was not a casual remark?
Could it be that he had finally become able to fully wield
the power of that enormous Black Dark Dragon?
It was nothing more than a guess.
Whether that guess was correct or not,
the words he had to say were set.
Chainwalker added a solemn farewell to Hoyeol’s back.
“I sincerely hope you accomplish what you desire.”
*
[Effect: Yunaxus, the great Elder Dragon who shall be recorded in myth, has proclaimed. “Through my legacy, Claudi shall be able to understand and utter the Dragon Tongue!”]
That’s right, everything is karma. ‘Black Dark Dragon, that damned Black Dark Dragon!’ If some player other than me had obtained Yunaxus’s legacy, they wouldn’t have had to face this situation. Why, they could have just focused on learning this thing called the Dragon Tongue. ‘Dragon Fear, Dragon Breath. They’d be too busy counting their chickens before they hatched.’ But I, burdened with karma, cannot do that.
The outer deck of the Iron Castle.
Amid the raging storm,
I stood upright and looked at the cause of the situation.
That’s right, I faced the Black Dark Dragon of legend that had been speaking to me.
Swoooosh.
......
See, I’m sure that thing was influenced by the demon hunter’s trailing outfit, wasn’t it? Compared to dragons like Kudhanax and Froznax, its overwhelmingly enormous wings seemed capable of letting the Black Dark Dragon fly without even needing to flap.
Before long, its mouth opened.
“At last, you answer my call, Claudi.”
Looks like it’s been desperately calling out to me all this time.
“I have always remained by your side.”
When you put it like that, it’s a little burdensome......? Well, perhaps it was not entirely wrong. The Black Dark Dragon was a [Legend] that had been given form while drifting through the Arcana Continent and reality.
‘Not that I understood what it was saying.’
After all, I had only just now become able to properly understand the Dragon Tongue.
In other words, my ability had been lacking, so I hadn’t been able to hear you.
But what did it misunderstand from my awkward silence?
“It must mean that only now have I become qualified to face you.”
......
No, I’m telling you, I simply couldn’t answer because my ability was lacking. But this damned mouth of mine took the opportunity and answered.
“State your business, Black Dark Dragon.”
My fate, I swear.
In any case,
I dearly hoped it had a proper reason.
I can hear the Black Dark Dragon’s voice!
Because I had said something anyone would misunderstand and come out onto the deck,
the way the dwarves were looking at me was no ordinary matter!
“There is something I must show you.”
Whether it knew my insides were burning or not,
the Black Dark Dragon offered me its back.
I climbed onto the Black Dark Dragon’s back as steadily as boarding a subway. Instead of sitting down with my rear as if mounting a horse, I stood upright even there.
[Achievement: King of All Things, Ride a Dragon]
[Effect: Proficiency with all mounts increases to the maximum.]
[Duration: Permanent]
Thanks to the effect of the achievement I had obtained, my mount proficiency had risen to the maximum.
Even aboard the Iron Castle,
there had been a reason why I alone did not stagger.
‘By the way.’
Legendary Black Dark Dragon.
Where are you taking me?
I realized the greatness of idle talk.
A legend grows stronger the more widely it echoes, regardless of its substance.
In that sense, the Black Dark Dragon?
‘It might rival a real dragon.’
Leaving the Arcana Continent aside,
the name of the Black Dark Dragon in reality?
It would not be an exaggeration to say it had been mentioned tens of billions of times on social media alone.
The legend of the Black Dark Dragon had echoed through two completely different worlds.
In that sense, it would be fair to call the Black Dark Dragon an existence of [『Anomaly』] as well. Indeed, just as dragons had torn through dimensions, the Black Dark Dragon could also tear through dimensions and move through space.
At last, the Black Dark Dragon stated its business.
“A threat is closing in, Claudi.”
Beyond that rift in the torn dimension,
an unfamiliar landscape could be seen.
I realized what it was from the message that appeared.
[You have acquired the achievement, ‘One Who Witnessed the Demon Realm.’]
So that’s the Demon Realm.
To put it simply, the Demon Realm was like the calm before the storm.
By the way, you’re impressive, Black Dark Dragon.
So it wasn’t just empty talk that you observe the Arcana Continent from behind the scenes? ‘To think you can peek into the Demon Realm like this.’ It was a method I could never have imagined, nor one I could put into practice.
Of course, now that I had awakened to the Dragon Tongue, it might be possible if I practiced.
I became newly aware of it. ‘You really have to work hard, Hoyeol.’ Because the appearance of that Black Dark Dragon must be how reality and the Arcana Continent perceive my strength. I can’t even guess just how inflated the bubble is.
Even so, I shamelessly declared.
“A threat, you say. It does not even qualify as something of interest to me.”
The Black Dark Dragon flapped its enormous wings once more.
“I know. To you, demons are such beings. Even in the Demon Realm I observed, you are called one of the Ten Thrones Demon Kings, an unprecedented threat.”
......
What, the rumors have spread even to the Demon Realm?
Surely my full name hasn’t spread too, right?
As I flinched, the Black Dark Dragon moved its wings and continued speaking.
“In the Demon Realm, the Demon Kings of the Ten Thrones are known as primordial beings, beings who cannot die even if they wish to. However, that is because you destroyed Buer, one of those primordial beings, and seized a throne.”
Until then,
I could not immediately understand why the Black Dark Dragon was praising me.
But once I heard the detailed circumstances that followed, I could accept it.
I had done something far more incredible than I thought......!
As I had often seen, the Demon Kings did not get along with one another.
Fighting and clashing among themselves was their daily routine.
It seemed even the high-ranking Demon Kings were no exception to that. ‘So the fact that he had held on even as the lowest seat......’ Put another way,
it meant that even compared to the other nine high-ranking Demon Kings,
Buer at least had the ability to endure.
But I had eliminated not only Buer, but also Discus, the Lich of the Demon Realm who was aiming for Buer’s throne, at the same time. The Black Dark Dragon continued in an ominous voice.
“That is right. The Demon Kings of the Ten Thrones are also wary of you, Claudi. For the first time in the primordial history of the Demon Realm, the high-ranking Demon Kings are forming an alliance to destroy you, who have become a threat to them. That is the sinister plot of the Demon Realm that I have observed, Claudi.”
Indeed, it was something worth calling me so desperately for.
Still, should I call it a blessing amid misfortune?
It seemed Baal, the one ranked first, had not joined that alliance. ‘In any case, there was a reason things had been strangely quiet, wasn’t there?’ As I said, the struggle for the Demon King’s throne.
The Proof of the Ten Thrones had already begun.
Now I understood why Behemoth’s Maw had been so quiet.
It was simply that the demons had been shrinking back in fear of me.
However, that fear would not last long.
Among the Ten Thrones, excluding me and Baal,
there were eight high-ranking Demon Kings.
The moment those guys reached a consensus,
it would not be strange if an unbearable tide of demons from the Demon Realm began pouring into the Arcana Continent. It meant every single one of them might be aiming for my seat among the Ten Thrones!
‘This won’t be easy.’
I had simply been thinking of throwing myself into the Demon Realm.
To think the high-ranking Demon Kings were forming an alliance among themselves.
I had never imagined it. ‘This is a severe weight on my shoulders.’ Granfell’s past, intertwined with the Akshan Civil War.
I had checked Yunaxus’s legacy to take even a little of that weight off my shoulders.
To think such an ordeal was waiting for me.
It was a shock, but I did not show my emotions.
Even if I did not answer,
hadn’t it said it was observing the Arcana Continent on its own?
The Black Dark Dragon’s following words sounded rather reassuring.
“Claudi. You must grow even further. To the point that even demons who lose their reason to the malice of the high-ranking Demon Kings, even those who do not know their place, will be forced to submit. You must be reborn as an existence capable of instilling overwhelming fear.”
No, it offered not only words but also a direction.
“What makes that possible is the Dragon Tongue of a ruler.”
A message appeared before my eyes.
[Would you like to change your class to the hidden class, ‘Dragon Lord’?]
......
A truly huge message.