◈ Episode 519. Natural Enemy and Vocation (3)
Damn it.
Maia and Curtain, the two senior mages, gritted their teeth even as they clutched their hearts from the damage of Mana Burn. At this rate, the Shadow Mercenary Corps would either plummet to their deaths or burn to death in the flames. ‘……
A resolve to risk my life.’ Maia clenched her fist.
If she overworked the circle she had yet to fully form any further……
Perhaps I may never again.
Have a body capable of operating mana.
Gooooo.
Even so, she could not back down.
If I back down here, then I.
Would I not become even less than the Shadow Mercenary Corps I hate?
She was already suffering from mana exhaustion.
Kugung.
She could not embroider the air with a grand foothold like before.
Only at fixed intervals.
The best she could do was raise rock walls that could soften the impact of the fall.
“……
Kugh.”
Even with only a basic manifestation, Maia let out a groan filled with pain.
As if that were not enough, even her vision began to blur.
It was then.【Do not approach the king without permission】Dragon Tongue rang out once more.
“……?”
And yet there was no greater shock to her body.
She wondered if it had not been directed at her, but at the Shadow Mercenary Corps. However, there seemed to be no reason to utter such Dragon Tongue at the Shadow Mercenary Corps while they were falling.
Quick-witted Curtain opened his mouth.
“……
Could reinforcements have come from the Magic Tower?”
Maia was half in doubt. ‘No, the Magic Tower must be busy dealing with the damage.’ Merely healing the civilians screaming in extreme pain would have the Magic Tower pouring in all its strength. Moreover, several senior mages, including Tower Master Marcelo, were still guarding Seoul, where the Magic Tower was located. ‘Because it’s a land of anomalies.’ Seoul had been overlaid with the colors of the Arcana Continent.
If everyone from the Magic Tower left their posts and something happened in Seoul.
No one could guarantee what might occur.
Then there was only one face that came to mind right away. ‘Could it be Chief Lee?’ Curtain seemed to have thought the same. His face brightened subtly. But their hopes missed the mark. As if answering the pouring Dragon Tongue, another sound rang out.【Chirp】……
Was that a bird cry?
No, thinner than that.
Wasn’t that the cry of a chick?
“What in the world……?”
Bewilderment spread across the faces of the two exhausted senior mages.*【Chirp
- How regrettable】Proznax’s Dragon Tongue.
It was a dragon’s polymorph, changing not only its outward appearance but even the properties of its body completely. Because of that, Proznax’s Dragon Tongue came out as the cry of a chick.
But the power contained in that frail Dragon Tongue remained unchanged.【Chirp chirp
- How pitiful, brother whose name I do not even know】As a dragon knight of another meaning.
Skal had served Proznax and read the dragon’s moods.
Thanks to that, Skal was able to grasp the evil dragon’s condition at once.
“Is it perhaps beyond purification?”
“It is.”
Proznax had experienced turning into an evil dragon through the Evil Fruit.
Perhaps that was why. With his Dragon Eyes, he could clearly see that the evil dragon, his brother, had crossed a river from which there was no return, having transformed into such a hideous form that even his name could no longer be known.
“The Evil Fruit has completely encroached upon the Dragon Heart.”
“No……!”
“Even so, look closely.”
The Ice Dragon Proznax judged coldly.
“You must find out. You must surmise it. Why my brother ended up being ruled by the Evil Fruit. For you possess a field of vision that even I, the king of all things, cannot witness.”
Skal nodded solemnly.
Then he checked the vision even a dragon could not see.
The flashing system message.[Class Quest: Dragon Knight vs Evil Dragon Knight]
O sole Dragon Knight of the Arcana Continent.
Execute the wicked Evil Dragon Knight, and save the suffering dragon through death. Only you, the Dragon Knight, can grant a magnificent end to the king of all things who has resolved himself for the last.
-Defeat the 4th Legion Commander, Evil Dragon Knight Copper. (In Progress)
Thanks to that, he had been able to guess. ‘The king of all things who has resolved himself for the last.’ Perhaps.
Perhaps the dragons had gone to the Demon World of their own will. Perhaps, rather than become evil dragons and run rampant on the Arcana Continent, they had decided to rampage in the Demon World and meet their ends there.
Skal’s gaze turned toward the evil dragon.
Old wounds that had not been fully healed even by the regenerative power of Dragon Skin.
Those might be proof that the dragons had run rampant in the Demon World.
“In that sense.”
The chivalry of a dragon knight could not remain still.
“You deceived the king of all things to the very end, demons.”【Silence, human】Through the evil dragon’s maw, Copper spat Dragon Tongue containing his own will.
It was unmistakably Dragon Fear.
However, it had no effect on Skal.
Naturally.【How……?】“True Dragon Fear isn’t so frivolous.”
The passive skill of the hidden class, [Dragon Knight].[One Who Holds Dragon Blood (Master): Possesses greatly increased resistance to status abnormalities caused only by dragons.]
As if that were not enough.【Chirp
- Those words are correct】Skal had also gained resistance to Dragon Tongue while attending to Proznax.
Moreover, there was an experience that surpassed those two reasons.
The World Tree that had newly taken root in northern Antonium.
Had Skal not protected that young World Tree from the Primordial Evil?
Through that series of events, Skal had been acknowledged.
By none other than Proznax.【Chirp chirp
- We settle this quickly, fledgling Dragon Knight】Though the modifier “fledgling” was still attached, as a Dragon Knight.
At last, the aerial battle between Dragon Knight and Evil Dragon Knight began.
A speed of light so fast that those watching from afar could not see it.
Slice.
Nam Taemin, who had been advancing while cutting down the small mobs spilling out from the curse.
Lifted his head and looked at the sky.
No matter how he looked at it, he could not understand.
“Skal, how the hell is he flying in the sky? No, before that, where did that chirping Dragon Tongue come from? Hisagi, Leonie. Am I the only one who can’t even guess what’s going on?”
That was right.
No matter how beastlike Nam Taemin’s eyesight was. From this far away, he could not see the chick Proznax flapping as he hooked Skal with his legs.
But as stated.
Even if his outward appearance was nothing more than a chick.
His abilities remained unchanged.
Proznax declared.【Chirp
- Fledgling Dragon Knight, this is the first and the last】“……?”
Skal looked up at him in bewilderment.
Instead of answering, Proznax began to reveal his true form.
Craaaaack─“?!”A coldness that even the effects of [One Who Holds Dragon Blood] could not fully offset poured down. The Ice Dragon Proznax had undone his polymorph and revealed himself.
The burning island, Jeju-do.
The figure of the Ice Dragon appearing in the sky above it.
It was a truly brilliant sight.
“A-D-Dragon! It’s a dragon, not an evil dragon!!”
“An appearance message popped up! It says Ice Dragon Proznax?”
“Ice Dragon? Then Skal finally……?!”
And Skal, who had at some point mounted Proznax, was more than enough to satisfy the expectations of those who had watched Dragon Knight Skal since the Arcana Continent Chronicle.
But Skal himself could not enjoy it.
Because he was worried.
Skal asked cautiously.
“……
Is it all right for you to remain in that form?”
“The Dark Dragon clearly called me fledgling Proznax.”
“I remember as well.”
The reason Proznax had insisted on the chick polymorph.
It was because Hoyeol had called him a fledgling.
However, Proznax did not worry.
“But what is needed in this living hell is none other than my cold.”
“……!”
“If I merely stand by and watch, then I am still nothing more than a fledgling.”
Proznax, who had grown from a hot-blooded hatchling into a full-fledged adult. Only after hearing those words was Skal finally able to check the flashing messages.[Your achievement resounds through spacetime.][The beings of spacetime speak of your qualifications.][Spacetime’s qualification review begins.][You have acquired the title, ‘Transcendent’.]……
But at this moment, in Skal’s eyes, more than the glittering messages.
The vision of a Dragon Knight was more important.
Skal replied boldly.
“You clearly said this would be the first and last, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“Then I will prove that it won’t be the last.”
“Insolent, fledgling.”
At last, the Dragon Knight and the Ice Dragon surged toward the 4th Legion Commander, Evil Dragon Knight Copper, whose bewilderment was plain to see. And before long, the vision of the players who had entered Jeju-do flashed.[You have defeated the 4th Legion Commander of the Golden Land, ‘Evil Dragon Knight Copper’.]
Akshan revived.
Two senior mages who had resolved themselves for death for the sake of others.
And the Dragon Knight.
Even if it was a victory barely grasped.
At the end of three overlapping miracles.
It was a precious victory.
“Paimon, my lord……!”
Even if it was only the beginning.[The 3rd Legion Commander of the Golden Land, ‘Silver’, appears.]
Because everything begins with the first step.
And at that same moment.
There were those who had taken their first step onto Jeju-do.
“Then is it our turn from here on, Senior Bangrit?”
“Excuse me, Senior Bensch! You’re getting too excited from the start.”
“I am not excited; I am delighted. The fact that Chief Lee and the Magic Tower recognized us enough for us to fill Chief Lee’s empty place! Mm-hahaha!”*My loose tongue spoke subtly.
“A promise is important.”
If you mean a promise, I haven’t forgotten, Grandfell. ‘Let’s see, roughly three days left.’ I shall enter Hell in one week!
The romantic explorer Lorenzik. I had planned an expedition to Hell together with Elsidore and Kinver. Thanks to Elsidore, we had also secured enough [Spider Lilies Grown from Blood], which were necessary to go to Hell…… ‘The problem, as expected.’ Is nothing but being fully prepared.
First, I had drawn a blank at [Claudie’s Abyss], which I had been counting on.
If I’d known it would be like this, I should have listened to Grandfell. ‘……
Still, it’s not entirely my fault, you know?’ If you had told me from the start what the family secret was, there would have been no need for me to realize it belatedly, would there, Grandfell? It was the moment when I, Lee Hoyeol, was painstakingly shifting the blame.
Once again, my loose tongue recited.
“Breaking a promise is impossible.”……
No, I told you, I know. ‘And this is the Arcana Continent, no less.’ If three days remain in reality, then on the Arcana Continent, four times that—roughly close to two weeks—remain. I calculated even the time difference before heading to the eastern part of the Arcana Continent.
The reason I was suddenly heading east across the continent?
Unlike the perfect Lord Grandfell, I, Lee Hoyeol, who am lacking in many ways, had not let even a single message that passed by slip away carelessly. It was to carry out a quest.
A class quest, no less.[Class Quest: Gabriel’s Grave]
The one I had encountered in the Shadow Corridor.
Akshan’s most famous demon hunter, Gabriel.
Gabriel had said to me.
-“You know it well yourself, do you not? That I am a hopeless demon hunter who was even excommunicated from Akshan. So, in my own way, I shall leave you a hopeless last will.”
A hopeless last will? As your junior, I’m only grateful.
-“If you ever face a trial too great to bear, seek my corpse, which should be buried somewhere in the eastern part of the Arcana Continent. And recover my relic from my bosom. That is…….”
Of course, I had cut him off and blabbered shamelessly.
-“There exists no trial too great for me to bear.”……
Even thinking back on it, what an absurd loose tongue.
Even you have no room for excuses this time, do you, Grandfell?
Because it looks like I’ll be indebted to Gabriel. ‘In any case, it is all thanks to you, senior.’ Still, that lessened my concern about entering Hell completely empty-handed after drawing a total blank. It was a relic used by Gabriel, the only named NPC in all of Akshan. ‘I don’t know about anything else, but against demons, at least.’ Wouldn’t it have an incredible effect?
I was starting to look forward to it.
I looked toward the eastern part of the Arcana Continent. ‘I never had reason to stop by, so I didn’t know much about it…….’ It was a scene for which no expression fit better than “reduced to scorched earth.”
Since it was far from the imperial capital, Antonium.
It would likely take quite some time for the Empire’s hand to reach it. ‘And I don’t have the leisure to look around right now.’ I immediately drew up my mana. It was to spread my mana as widely as possible and search for Gabriel’s presence. But in such a situation, my lips moved once again.
“One must never forget a promise.”
No, how many times are you going to say it, Grandfell. ‘I told you, I’m not forgetting…….’ I was about to answer when I flinched.
Don’t tell me, it wasn’t that promise, but this promise you were talking about?
The premium Jeju-do green tea that costs over a thousand won each?! ‘Well, it is about time for withdrawal symptoms to set in.’ I understand how you feel, but endure it just a little, Grandfell. No matter how connected Seoul and the Arcana Continent are, that only applies to an extremely limited area.
Rocket delivery can’t come all the way to the Arcana Continent, can it? ‘Instead, if I break that promise, I’ll grant you one wish.’ To put it bluntly, it’s not as if the Jeju-do green tea fields are going to disappear in the meantime, right?