Chapter 158
A few minutes ago.
"Insolent bastards."
He had already heard the report.
To launch a surprise attack on their own without a single word to him, despite knowing the enemy's location.
"He was an ambitious one, the type who would move the knights on his own at any given time."
A bastard who didn't know his place.
The Empire's 12th Spear.
Quillrod snorted and walked on.
Wearing crimson armor, he passed through Voltan's castle gates all alone.
What he held in his hand was a single spear.
The Empire's crest engraved on his chest.
The number 12 written on his cloak.
With just that, his preparations were sufficient.
"Even if I was surprised by the dragon's sudden appearance, it's still just a single dragon."
Quillrod whipped himself, erasing his fear and rallying his courage.
"There is nothing to fear. It must have inevitably sustained injuries. The dragons of the Dragon-Demon War were existences that even non-Master knights could hunt. If it's even injured, there's no reason for me to fear it."
Squeeze.
The spear he gripped tightly trembled as if responding to Quillrod's fighting spirit.
Master Quillrod.
The 12th Spear, bestowed with the title of Chain Spear.
Chain Spear (連槍).
A title personally bestowed by the Emperor upon Quillrod, who wielded a ceaselessly connecting spear art.
The period he had been the Empire's Spear was short, but his skill could not be called short.
For Quillrod was a Master, and his skill was that of an Empire's Spear that no one could look down upon.
"I am the Empire's Spear."
There is no need to tremble over a mere dragon.
Tonight.
I become an existence like the ancient sages.
Dragon Slayer.
I will become a Dragon Slayer!
"Huuup! Ha!"
He burst out with a powerful breath and shot forward.
Accelerating to the point where Quillrod's figure blurred. Accelerating again.
The injury from the dragon's surprise attack throbbed, but if he were to whine over this much, the title of Empire's Spear would weep.
Whoosh!
Superhuman physical abilities added acceleration upon acceleration.
Chain Spear Quillrod.
His spear was simple.
It controlled the wind and reduced resistance.
This directly led to acceleration of speed.
The reason he was called Chain Spear also lay entirely in the spear's innate ability and the spear art that utilized it.
As Quillrod approached the nameless forest, an arrow stuck in the dirt ground entered his vision, and immediately, his senses caught something.
But it soon disappeared.
'A trap? No, it doesn't matter.'
It might have been a beast.
Because the presence he felt vanished quickly.
It must have fled after sensing his aura.
Right, I am the Empire's Spear.
A strong one that anyone would instinctively flee from.
Such a self having an enemy to fear?
There is none.
The only one in this world he would bow his head to.
'Is only His Majesty the Emperor!'
Whoosh!
He accelerates even more. Accelerate! Accelerate! Accelerate!
There will be no one to block my path!!
It was then.
An unprecedented power was felt.
"……!"
Tremendous fire energy.
An intense aura added to it.
Quillrod's thinking momentarily flinched at the bizarre momentum where something else was mixed in.
"This is…!!"
The aura that spread in an instant devoured the area, and the sensation of fear rising from the tips of his toes struck his entire body.
Right at that moment.
Quillrod's field of vision flashed with light.
What he saw in that instant was something red.
But something black, and soon gray, struck his entire body hard.
"Come!!"
It was what he wished for.
If it's my spear, I will cleave even the dragon's breath!
"Gasp!! Ugh!"
But the world wasn't that easy. He thrust his spear, but it was useless.
Along with tremendous heat, a bizarre ash-gray color turned the spear to dust.
It was the same for himself. Without even knowing what this thing covering him was.
The Empire's 12th Spear.
Chain Spear Quillrod vanished from this world.
* * *
Voltan was the Empire's premier entertainment city.
It was a place where security defenses were near perfect from their perspective.
Nobles of the Empire, wealthy upstarts.
Vagabonds aiming for a quick fortune all visited Voltan according to their own purposes and goals.
But right today.
The citizens of Voltan trembled in fear.
"Did you hear that? The Empire's Spear was... by the dragon's breath..."
"I heard it too. That 'Dragon's Forest', right?"
"To think a dragon lives next to Voltan..."
The Empire's 12th Spear, Quillrod, who stepped forward for the safety of the Empire, had died.
And by the breath of a Fire Dragon that erupted from the forest, in a single blow!
The rumor was already spreading like wildfire within the Empire.
The Empire's Spear, a position only Masters could reach.
The incident where the one bearing that title evaporated in a single strike of a dragon's breath.
It was truly an unprecedented incident.
Over the past thousand years.
Dragons had disappeared after the Dragon-Demon War, and now they were stories of legend.
Just before they were dismissed as tales of oral tradition and mythology, a dragon suddenly appeared and boldly declared that it was the hegemon of the sky and a disaster standing at the pinnacle of all species.
The proof of that was precisely Voltan and the Empire's Spear.
It was Quillrod's death.
Not only the citizens of Voltan, but the people of the Empire were in an uproar over the dragon.
A dragon coiling up in the Empire.
Its existence alone was enough to make people disregard the Empire's sweat and blood thus far.
"The heavens are angered by the countless wars! The Empire must atone!!"
"The Empire is doomed! A dragon has coiled up, and the Empire will turn to ashes in its breath, leaving not a single trace!"
Not only busybodies but also the anti-imperial noble factions criticized the current Emperor and exposed the Empire's true state as if it was a golden opportunity.
Although unintended, a result beyond what Callius desired had come.
"So it seems."
Clang! Clang!
Ardu, who had made the knights who charged into the forest without knowing anything into steel ingots, was hammering away.
And in the meantime, Philo and Top General Garcia were sparring on one side.
The very person who turned the nameless forest into the 'Dragon's Forest'.
Callius sat in his chair, deep in thought.
"Hmm."
"But what are you looking at?"
Ardu, who was striking the steel ingot on the anvil, stopped hammering and asked.
Only then did Callius raise his head, with a rather displeased expression.
"I got something amazing."
As if he didn't care about the rumors, Callius handed something he held in his hand to the dwarf Ardu.
"What is this? A tree root?"
"Yeah. As you can see."
A halved tree root.
It must have originally been a sapling, but the upper part looked as if it had been neatly cut off.
This was the special reward that killed the Empire's Spear in one blow.
[Lactus's Severed Sapling]
Spear God Lactus.
His severed sapling, they say.
This was an object even Callius didn't know about.
Therefore, he had no choice but to ponder deeply.
First of all, he had no idea what it was used for.
He thought it might contain divine power since it was Lactus's belonging, but that wasn't the case either.
It was just a dry tree root.
Of course, since the system judged it as a reward and bestowed it, it couldn't be an ordinary object.
Moreover, it was the Empire's Spear.
A reward for taking down a transcendent in a single blow.
It was definitely not a normal object.
"Do you know?"
"I don't. Wouldn't it be better to ask Serena than me?"
I already asked.
He had also handed it to the elf Serena and the Elf Ash Knights, but the answers that returned were all the same.
"They said they didn't know."
"Looks like just a tree root to me, why is it special?"
"Hmm... hit it with that hammer."
"Isn't it precious?"
"It's fine."
Doubtful, Ardu eventually struck it with his hammer.
Boom!
Ardu's hammer was of the Spirit-grade, so its solidity and destructive power were extraordinary.
If he struck with such a hammer, a mere tree root would disappear without a trace.
"Huh?"
However, contrary to expectations.
The tree root was intact.
There wasn't a single dented spot anywhere.
It was an astonishing hardness.
"Amazing. Is it like the World Tree?"
"It's a bit different from that. The World Tree is said to be hard, but not to this extent. Anyway, that's also a tree."
The World Tree, said to be the parent of the elves.
The tree that forms the foundation of the world certainly exists in this world, but even so, a tree is a tree.
It is different from this severed sapling.
"Why don't you try planting it?"
Callius shook his head.
"Because I don't know what will happen."
It might cause some phenomenon.
If it caused an ominous phenomenon, it would be fine to plant it in the Empire, but if it showed a beneficial result, he didn't want to plant it here.
Because if he planted it and dug it up again, the effect might be halved.
'Besides, this is Lactus's.'
It is a sapling bearing the name of the Spear God Lactus.
A thing bearing the name of a god.
He had to be careful.
The object was too precious to make an uncertain choice.
'It's better to hold off for now.'
Probably later.
When he arrives at Carpe, the holy relic of the Order that Esther found.
Bea's Ring.
With that, he might be able to figure out the use of the sapling.
"Is the thing you're making going well?"
"I only do my best as always. I'll create something without any shortcomings for your knights to use, so don't worry."
"Alright."
The knights' armaments were not unified as swords. The types of weapons they used in their lifetime stemmed from what each of them had used.
Some used swords, spears, maces.
Some used scythes and shields, hammers or bows, and there were even those who used their armor itself as a weapon.
But Callius was a believer in the God of the Sword.
What he could create were only swords.
So Callius asked Ardu to bring out the knights' skills more smoothly.
To make weapons for the generals.
So Ardu asked him for a promise in return, and Callius accepted.
'Save the dwarves of the Empire.'
Seeing the elves he rescued this time, just as Serena did, Ardu also wished for it.
As the Empire pursued a policy of eradicating non-human races, most of them died, but there were still those who were used like toys.
Under the name of slaves, that is.
Of course, compared to elves, dwarves were treated slightly better, but even so, a slave is a slave.
Therefore, Ardu wished for salvation.
Of course, he didn't wish for the salvation of all his brethren scattered across the vast and wide Empire.
He wanted to rescue even just a portion of them.
Thus Callius accepted, and in return, Ardu promised to make the weapons for the knights to use.
"By the way, why did that swordswoman with water-colored hair come to the Empire?"
"Ah, she said she gained interest while looking for clues about the holy relic. She must have also heard about the Empire's saintess."
It wasn't such a huge story.
Since she was also a saintess candidate, she must have felt a sense of rivalry upon hearing the story of the Empire's saintess.
"More than that, how long will it take?"
"Well, it should be done around today."
It had been a month since he tested the Fire Dragon Sword.
Callius stayed here for about a month, reviewing the battle with the dragon and incorporating new insights into his swordsmanship.
It wasn't a great achievement, but it was a necessary task.
'Because battles with dragons will be unavoidable in the future.'
The regrets he had while fighting the Fire Dragon.
Re-emphasizing their weaknesses a bit more clearly was very important.
The more he reviewed it, the fewer mistakes he would make, leading to more effective swordsmanship.
"It's a bit regrettable that the Empire's Spear just evaporated."
Both the spear he possessed and Quillrod's corpse itself completely evaporated, so he couldn't even make use of his corpse.
Of course, as the rumors spread, there were fools who didn't know their place entering the forest, calling out to the dragon and seeking a duel.
They were all taken care of by his comrades and the Ashen Legion, so it wasn't much of an issue.
Of course, thanks to them, the skills of the knights belonging to the Ashen Legion improved by leaps and bounds.
Originally, they were just recovering their skills from when they were alive.
Anyway, the one month in the forest was useful and worthwhile in its own way.
"Bitan is still sleeping. And Roas is soon, so."
It was time to move again.
"Niol, how is the sword?"
[It is an excellent sword. It might be a bit too good for me.]
Niol was a sword-wielding knight.
Since he was a knight who originally used a double-edged sword, he matched very well with the Fire Dragon Sword.
When the Fire Dragon Sword was charged with fire energy, it was better for Callius to use it, but when it wasn't, he decided to leave it to Niol.
Even if it couldn't use the Fire Dragon's breath, the Fire Dragon Sword was quite fierce and sharp for a Spirit Sword.
Because even after using the Fire Dragon's breath, a certain amount of heat remained.
Crash!!
"Argh! One more round!"
Philo, who had been sparring with Garcia, sprang up from rolling on the dirt floor.
Top General Garcia's spearmanship slightly surpassed Philo's skill.
'If Philo's spearmanship is defensive, then Garcia's is offensive.'
It didn't have much irregularity or speed. Rather, it was a tyrannical spear that was foolishly honest and didn't fear taking wounds.
However, because of that, Philo's spear couldn't block Garcia's spear.
Philo's disposition was just like that.
Defense, and only defense again.
A guy who uses turtle-like spearmanship despite being a Dragonkin.
Block, block, and block again, then strike a blow when an opportunity reveals itself—a spearmanship style.
But that spearmanship was completely useless against Garcia.
Because he was the type to relentlessly attack without resting, without caring for his body, as if saying 'block it if you can.'
"Did it develop into that kind of spearmanship because he knows he won't die anyway?"
Top General Niol and Garcia were originally those who had been death knights for over a thousand years.
Now Callius had become their master, only their appearances having slightly changed.
Their essence was no different.
They don't die, and they don't tire.
The advancement of their skills could only be achieved by taking advantage of that benefit.
'They could grow even more.'
No, they must grow.
Only then would they be able to face the strong ones who would stand in Callius's way in the future.
"By the way, how long do you plan to hide?"
Callius suddenly shouted.
At that, Ardu who was hammering, and Philo who was pestering for another spar, stopped abruptly.
Soon, the bushes where Callius's gaze landed.
A massive figure pushed through it and appeared.
"You knew."
Armor armed from head to toe, and a cylindrical helmet.
A massive kite shield on his back.
And a small shield on his wrist.
Even a buckler.
But there were only shields and no weapons.
He was a shield-bearer to anyone's eyes.
A follower of the God of Shields.
Callius's eyes narrowed.
"You passed through the forest quite well."
There were scattered elves in the forest and Serena who ruled them.
It meant he possessed enough skill to sneak into the elves' security perimeter without difficulty.
"I've trained to hide my presence since I was young."
"I'm sure you did. The beastman race is a species developed in that regard, and it's also the specialty of the god you serve."
"You knew after all."
His appearance as he took off his helmet was that of a beastman.
He was like a white-furred hound.
His face looked gentle, but a large scar running across his eyes hinted at the path he had walked.
"It doesn't seem like you came because of the dragon rumors. Did you come to meet me?"
"Yes. I came to meet the savior pointed out by the prophecy."
"Prophecy?"
"Yes. You are the savior of our tribe, chosen by the Holy Maiden of the Shield."