Chapter 155
Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding—!
Warning bells rang incessantly throughout Boltan.
The urgent strikes of the sentry ringing the bells in succession conveyed their desperation vividly.
"Hurry! Evacuate quickly!!"
Kyaaaah—!
Kugung—!
The ground shook as if an earthquake had struck, buildings collapsed, and citizens fell and were trampled. Even if they moved in an orderly fashion, evacuation would be barely possible, but they were in total chaos.
Dominated by fear.
Why the citizens of Boltan trembled and fled in terror— The reason could be understood by looking up at the sky. There hovered the object of terror that could reduce Boltan to ashes with a single breath.
The source of calamity, said to be sufficient to bring a nation to ruin even if only one existed.
A dragon had taken position there.
"It's, it's coming again! Again! Everyone dodge!!"
The jaws of the dragon gliding through the sky opened once more.
Crimson flames swelled from its chest, traveled up its throat, and spewed from its mouth.
Kwaaaaaaaaaa—!!
The crimson pillar of fire extending from the sky struck the ground.
Buildings were swept away by the fierce gale that came with the heat and turned to black ash in an instant, swirling through the air.
People touched by the dragon's fire burned away without even leaving bones, and the pillar of fire advanced toward the evacuating citizens.
"Kyaaaaaah!"
"God Lactus!!"
At that moment when they screamed and called out to their god— A man of enormous build appeared.
"Light of Lumitera!!"
Thud!
The man drove a shield larger than his own body into the ground and called upon his deity.
The man's shield radiated light and formed a massive shield of light.
Kwaaaaang!
"Uwooooooh!!"
The shield burned and blackened.
The heat traveled through it, reaching the man's hands and shoulders.
The smell of burning flesh spread deeply, but the man never let go of the shield.
"Everyone, help him!"
"Yes! Quickly!"
A few quick-witted people reached out toward the man's back and lent him their strength.
The light of the shield grew fiercer, and the man finally blocked the dragon's breath.
The citizens cheered, and the knights breathed a sigh of relief and expressed their gratitude to him.
The breath that had swept past moved toward another area, but his shield had blocked the dragon's fire.
The man gripping the nameless shield hid his blackened hands and flashed a smile showing his white teeth.
"Let's flee quickly!"
And right at that moment.
Hwiiiing.
Kwaaaaang—!!
The dragon crashed.
The Colosseum was completely destroyed from the impact of the crash, and clouds of sand and dust swirled like a storm across the area.
"Just as the prophecy said."
The man holding the large shield marveled at this fact before hurriedly running toward the Colosseum where the dragon had fallen.
* * *
Gurgle gurgle.
Blood flowing down his neck soaked the ground. It flowed and flowed, forming a pool and dyeing the garden spread before his eyes red.
Callius grabbed his dizzy head and barely stood up.
Numerous message windows made his head even more complicated, so he shut them all off.
'Garden of Lactus.'
Lactus's Tears.
A place where Lactus's tears—beautiful with their pink petals—were cultivated.
A place created quite deep underground.
Originally, it must have been a place with quite a beautiful atmosphere, but.
"It's completely wrecked."
It was utterly wrecked from the aftermath of the dragon falling from high up in the sky.
Having fallen from such a high place, Callius's body was also a mess, making him dizzy and nauseous, but he somehow endured it.
The Mad Dragon Sword harbored in his heart was, for some reason, favorable toward him, receiving the impact on his behalf and promoting his body's regeneration.
"Is it finally starting to acknowledge me as its master?"
Well, that might be the case.
The dragon lay fallen beside Callius.
Its neck had been completely severed, after all.
Thud.
Callius, who slumped down in place, glanced at the sword in his hand and drove it into the dragon's flank.
Spirit Sword—Bitan.
It must absorb much blood for its souls to unify and advance toward becoming a Phantom Sword.
Perhaps this amount of dragon blood might be enough.
'With the Iron Lord, this guy could be revived as an Ironclad Dragon.'
But there was no need to go that far.
Beati already existed.
Right now, it would be better to properly craft a sword than to have two dragons.
"First, let's make sure it's properly dead."
Callius drew out a new sword.
Iron Lord.
Just as he was about to pierce the closed eyes of the dragon—.
-Kraw!!
The dragon's jaws immediately snapped open.
Kwaaaaa!
Dragon's breath spewed out instantly!
"Hmm."
Callius dodged the breath as if he had already anticipated it and drove his sword into the dragon's head.
Stab!
Puhwaaaaak!
Callius, hit by the fountain of blood spurting like a fountain, looked at something that had taken the direct hit of the breath in his stead.
"A spear? Who is this? Ah, the gatekeeper?"
The gatekeeper guarding the holy water.
Formerly the Empire's Spear, one who bore false charges and became a gatekeeper guarding the holy water.
Since the shock hadn't fully subsided yet, he hadn't sensed its presence, but it seemed to have died from taking the dragon's breath.
"Well, that works out."
Former Imperial Spear with no eyes, ears, or tongue, but with an extremely developed sense of ki because of it.
It was expected to be quite troublesome to deal with, but apparently even he hadn't thought a dragon with a severed neck would fire a breath.
'Well.'
It would be strange to expect that.
[Dragons were born from the fountain of life.]
Dragons' lives are incredibly tenacious, to the point where such legends are passed down.
Tenacious enough to move for a while even with a severed neck.
Of course, that doesn't mean they can reattach it, but a dragon could live for another month or two if it set its mind to surviving with just a severed neck.
The reason dragon blood is precious is precisely because it contains their intense life force.
"The gatekeeper is dead, and I've split its head in half, so there's nothing to worry about."
[Title acquired: Dragon Slayer.]
[You have taken the life of Erbiwetru, son of the Fire Dragon Erbiwe. Erbiwe's rage reaches its peak.]
[The dragon race has begun watching you unanimously.]
"There's nothing to be done about the dragons' grudge."
The reasons he couldn't go to Carpe were increasing, but what could he do.
Since harboring the Mad Dragon, the dragons' wrath was something he had to bear.
[As a reward for slaying the Fire Dragon Erbiwetru, 「Trait - Dragon Power」 is reorganized into a stat.]
[Due to 「Constitution - Bone Fusion」, the affinity between 「Dragon Power」 and the body is high. You acquire an additional 100 「Dragon Power」.]
Dragon Power had been reorganized from a trait into a stat.
It meant there was now more room for growth.
『Callius von Zerban』
「Title」 - Hero of the Nation, Dragon Slayer.
「Class」 – Pilgrim
「Holy Power Rank」 – 2nd Class
「Divine Power」 – 11341/32105
「Talent」 – 【Bard's Blessing】 【Instinctive Intuition】
「Traits」 - [Grace] [Noblesse Oblige] [Repenting Past Mistakes at Death's Door] [Prodigal Son of the Order] [Glutton] [Three-colored Eyes] [Demonic Fragrance] [Demonic Power]
「Constitution」 - 『Bone Fusion』
「Stats」
Strength – 201
Agility – 186
Technique – 52
Health – 232
Faith – 110
Dragon Power - 108
'Demonic Power is still a trait, I see.'
But this too would someday be unlocked as a stat.
One peak of the Ten Thousand Flowers Blooming Flesh was still converted from fairy demonic power.
"Then what remains is."
Swish swish.
Callius, shaking off the blood on his sword, surveyed the garden.
Rubble had collapsed and broken things, but the Garden of Lactus itself was still intact. The warehouse storing the holy water was… .
"It collapsed. So that's why it came here."
The holy water warehouse had collapsed.
Still, he thought there might be one or two if he looked around.
"Should I raise the gatekeeper first."
The gatekeeper's true identity was originally the Empire's Spear.
He didn't remember the detailed settings well, but it was probably because he incurred the Emperor's displeasure.
"Was it that he had an affair with the Emperor's concubine? No, didn't the concubine and the prince frame him? I don't remember well."
Thinking it didn't really matter, he raised the Iron Lord and was about to raise him when.
"Hmm."
Suddenly, the light of Grace began to appear from the gatekeeper's corpse.
"Come to think of it, there's no need to increase the army's numbers any further than this."
Even now, there were plenty.
Improving quality over quantity was the best Callius could do right now.
There were still many ash-gray knights without weapons.
"I'll have to make the dragon into a sword too."
A usable sword would come out, but the creature's details shown in the message window indicated it was still a young dragon.
Looking at it now, it was large, but not that large in size.
A young dragon.
The level of a juvenile dragon.
Honestly, even at this level, it would easily handle a castle or a Master, but compared to true adult dragons and ancient dragons, it was like a drop in the ocean.
"Still, a dragon is a dragon."
If made into a sword, something useful would come out.
Even if Callius didn't use it himself, if he handed it to Commander Sang, they would become quite strong.
Callius then pulled Bitan out from the dragon's flank.
"It's changed a bit."
Was it because it drank the dragon's blood?
It became a bit more steeped in demonic energy.
Should he say its eeriness had increased?
'It seems like it's slowly beginning.'
Bitan was originally a sword where a hundred souls couldn't blend together and remained in chaos.
It was said that when the unification of souls was achieved with blood as the medium, the sword's rank would rise by one level, and looking at its current state, it seemed like it would happen after a little more time.
"Come to think of it, Roas was up above. I'll have to find it later."
It had broken while fighting the dragon and he had thrown it to the ground. Like Bitan, it was about time for Roas's rank to rise too.
He had been hoping for its rank to increase, using almost only Roas on this pilgrimage, but Callius's intuition told him the Predatory Sword would also soon ascend to a Phantom.
The Predatory Sword currently had no special abilities, but as his rank rose, Callius was focusing more and more on the potential of the Predatory Sword—Roas.
Predation.
Was this predation truly just about taking the opponent's soul?
Callius thought it wasn't limited to that.
Probably unseen for now, but the moment it rose in rank to a Phantom.
He believed its true value as a unique ability he didn't know would be revealed.
"Well, for now…… shall we begin."
First, turn the dragon and the gatekeeper into Corpse Swords.
Soon, brilliant silver divine power burst forth from Callius's entire body.
The quality of his divine power was 2nd class.
Divine power more than sufficient for Corpse Swordification.
It had been quite a while since the Corpse Sword ritual, but it flowed as naturally as flowing water.
Over the past four years, turning corpses into Corpse Swords was an indispensable part of his pilgrimage.
A moment later.
Two swords created without issue were held in Callius's hands.
One was a Phantom Sword.
One was a Spirit Sword.
Ironically, the one made from the dragon was a Spirit Sword, and the one made from the gatekeeper was a Phantom Sword.
He was a bit puzzled but didn't think too deeply. He was curious about the detailed information, but decided to put it off for later.
Because there was something he had to do first.
Putting away the two new swords, Callius drew the Iron Lord.
"Awaken."
As he gripped the Iron Lord and drove it into the ground, black tears instantly spread across the ground, and Callius's ash-gray legion began to appear one by one.
Most of them were regular knights.
"Recover all of Lactus's tears and the holy water in intact condition. And… ."
As Callius looked around, the appearances of slaves who had been bound here for a long time were revealed one by one.
The number of slaves detected by his senses, having reached the level of Master, was 56.
Their eyes were gouged, ears torn, and tongues cut out, but Callius could guess that most of them were elves.
All of them were scantily clad, barely dressed, and exploited like slaves.
Callius looked at them, who must have lived their entire lives in suffering in this place, and spoke.
"Take care of them. We'll be bringing them along."
The nameless slaves trembled.