Chapter 186
Chapter 186
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 186
Chapter Title: The Strongest Lifeform on Earth
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The strongest lifeform on earth.
The flesh forming its body was as hard as metal, and the single layer of scales enveloping it was even harder than metal.
Every drop of its blood carried mana as potent as if it had been melted from magic crystals, and its heart housed an attribute denser than anything else in the world.
Even its exhalations were from a supreme being.
A dragon.
The materials composing its body were too deep in hue to call crimson jade, yet too radiant with inner light to simply call ruby.
A red dragon, the most belligerent and destructive among dragons. And among those red dragons, the strongest and most noble—Rachel.
Even the pupil of her vertically slit eye was the height of a man.
Her massive body grew even larger and longer when she spread her wings.
No equal to her sturdy frame existed on the continent. At the gatherings held once every century where the leaders of all races convened, hers was the highest seat that all looked up to.
Yet now, her seemingly thin but tougher and sturdier than anything in the world membrane was torn, her wing roots broken, her sturdy tail twisted and staked to the ground like a pile, and harpoons the size of temple pillars embedded throughout her body.
From the lowest, filthiest floor, Rachel opened her eyes.
—How dare...
How dare these insignificant things!
Iron chains around her neck connected to a massive airship that had crashed to the ground.
The eye embedded in her face-down head had already burst and lost function. The upward-facing eye brimmed with a red glow uncertain whether sunset or blazing flame.
Flying ships the size of the smallest dragons—white dragons—numbered in the dozens, hunting the dragon.
They fired mana cannons, detonated harpoons and stakes. They wound chains around it, and if necessary, crashed their airships to drag the dragon to the ground.
Thud, thud!
Black, massive humanoid armored golems, with humans loaded into their cores, moved as one, spewing mana from their weapons like beams of light, slicing through other dragons.
—Insolent humans!
Rachel tried to rise in fury, but mana continuously drained from the dozens of stakes piercing her body.
One by one, dragons so powerful crumpled like a massive beast swarmed by fire ants.
Airships in the sky targeted wings, tearing and smashing them down, then dozens, hundreds of wooden puppet-like golems swarmed and attacked.
Once its strength waned, massive armored golems dropped to the ground, hacking at the bellowing dragon with mana-infused blades.
They ripped open its chest, extracted the dragon heart—then that heart powered another armored golem, loaded into airships to mass-produce more golems.
Filthy crawling vermin! Scum of all races!
Humans with nothing to their name, how dare they!
As Rachel bellowed in rage, tears streaming from her burst eye's bloody socket and her remaining eye, black hair fluttered before her vision. Something climbed her head and stood atop her heart.
"I'll rip out your heart too."
A powerful aura sliced through scales. Dozens of hooks dug in, prying the split flesh apart.
A colossal scream tore through. A roar shaking the world. Out of the corner of her eye, the black-haired man raised his sword high.
'My heart!'
Flames flared like solar prominences with each pulse. Heat that would leave no bones of a normal human, only white ash—yet the man and his sword gleamed intact as they plunged swiftly.
* * *
'It's obviously Rachel's fear inside.'
But it's too specific.
Never mind the airships attacking the flying dragon.
I looked around. Corpses everywhere, shattered golems, debris from buildings.
Humans, beastkin, elves, dwarves.
Humans and non-humans tangled in heaps of death. The ground was all bodies, so each step made my body sway.
Stepping on severed, mangled limbs, or luckily on a golem for better balance, I kept walking toward the roaring.
'Rachel's definitely never seen mass-produced golems before.'
After the spirit forest where I met Leaf, it was the border town Gabioren. So Rachel's never seen the mass-produced golems on the airships, nor the armored golems below.
No—only I, Cain, and Leaf know their exact shapes, from checking the airship via admin registration.
Yet what's that armored golem over there, ripping off a dragon's horn and stabbing the dragon with it.
'...Something's off.'
Did grabbing the rope mix my memories in? That's one hypothesis.
'...Better not judge hastily yet.'
I opened my sub-space to check the codex.
The codex, whose magic crystals should all be depleted, was restored—and this time, the sub-space spat out only the codex and stopped working.
Can I use sub-space only once per nightmare?
Or does it detect sub-space after one use and impose restrictions?
—Kraaa!
—Perish, vermin!
Dragon fear erupted everywhere. But mass-produced golems, lacking human fear, kept charging, while flying airships shrouded in mana barriers neutralized the fear.
On the ground and in the sky, only dragons and the forces of airships and golems remained.
People were inside the airships and armored golems, but on the ground right now, only me.
No.
One more.
Far away, atop a massive red dragon, stood a man raising his sword.
Too distant to make out details, but tall, with black hair.
As he raised his sword to stab what seemed Rachel's heart, I urgently opened the codex, fired dozens of magic missiles to shove the man back, then cast a shield over Rachel's heart.
"Rachel! Snap out of it!"
From Levi and Leaf's cases, nightmares end when fear fades.
I ran to Rachel, attacking the chains binding her, severing them one by one.
"Sharp winds."
I fired wind cutters repeatedly, slicing mana-infused chains. Expending all 3-circle wind cutter pages, I cut the chains through her arms—then she began yanking out the rest herself.
—Kugh. Aaaagh!
In agony, Rachel's screams burst like fear waves.
She pulled out the hooks prying her chest—the heart's rim, spewing fire, closed, blood gushing.
At the same instant, something grazed my cheek.
A sharp pain spread late; rubbing it with my handknuckle drew blood.
The black-haired man far away must've launched an aura strike. Not bisecting me outright—a warning?
"...da."
He seemed to say something, but as a normal human, I can't hear!
"Don't touch Rachel."
But he looks strong, so he'll hear me.
I pulled a magic crystal from the jammed codex, absorbed it into the defunct Aegis from my pocket, and smiled.
"She's my precious comrade."
I flipped the codex to a non-charging spell page—the strongest 5-circle one—and tore it.
"The earth shall move at my will."
Earth Field.
A spell letting me manipulate a fixed area of earth for a set time as I wish.
I designated the space between the man and Rachel. Pillars erupted to block paths near her, erasing footing or suddenly uplifting to fling him.
"Hah, hah..."
Breathing ragged with iron taste in my mouth, I dashed to Rachel—knowing this was just her nightmare.
Knowing wounds would mostly vanish upon waking—yet seeing red blood flow, I reopened the codex to tear my single recovery page.
—...Ade...lrian?
Rachel's massive eye fixed on me.
She scanned around, looked behind, saw the man leaping over my earthen pillars swinging his sword—then spread her wings wide.
The man's form vanished behind red wings.
—It's a dream.
And at that moment, the world shattered like glass—I was no longer on blood-soaked earth of flames and corpses, but in a dark corridor before a closed door.
"...What?"
Aegis hummed lowly, circling me.
Hastily closing the near-torn recovery page, I looked around.
'Did waking Rachel bounce me to someone else's nightmare.'
Order-wise, from Leaf's words: entry order into the dungeon.
Distance might factor in too.
Someone near Rachel before entry—connects immediately?
'Head hurts.'
Too many thoughts flashing, but priority: wake the kids from nightmares fast.
To confirm where I was, I scanned around.
'...Familiar.'
Feels like I've seen it.
Somewhere in a familiar massive mansion. Feels like ages ago.
'Raves family estate.'
Then it's Luna.
I stared at the door before me.
"Sob... sob..."
Faint crying.
As I grabbed the handle to open, voices sounded.
"Useless. A burden."
"Just a filthy beast, isn't it?"
—Please stay here. That's how you help us.
"No talent to speak of—don't know what makes you act so brazen."
Cain and Zero. Leaf and Rachel's cold voices.
Despising her lowly beastkin blood, calling her worthless, mocking her constant smile as fake.
"Regret keeping you by my side, Luna."
And an arrogant, condescending man's voice, as if scorning others was his soul's nature.
I opened the door, saw my own utterly loathsome face smirk, then kick another me's stomach.
"Guh!"
In my eyes, the other kids rushing to embrace the unsightly sprawled Adelrian looked utterly repulsive.
"Luna."
I pulled up Luna, slumped on the floor weeping like begging someone.
"That's too much."
Her timidity trait's gone, right?
Where's the guts that kicked the first princess?
Crying over voices like that—what good's it?
As I wiped her cheek tears with my handknuckle, Luna clutched her ears, pressing eyes to dry them.
She glanced between me and Adelrian, then lunged into my arms.
"Young master!"
"Yeah."
"The young master... said I'm useless..."
As she spoke, fury building—eyes blazing—I felt madness flicker in my mind.
I quickly tugged and stroked Luna's ears.
"How could that be? You know I always trust you."
"Right. Right. You know."
As I soothed Luna, an arm draped my shoulder. Turning, Rachel entered my view.
Somehow inside the magic tent.
Warmth on my leg—must be Levi.
Leaf sidled next to Luna. Unlike the chilly, dim mansion of Luna's nightmare, the tent with its campfire glowed warm.
"Adelrian. Leave some food before vanishing again."
This... brazen one.
Grinning, I sighed at Rachel eyeing me and hugged Luna alternately, released Luna, opened sub-space.
"Eat while you wait. I'll fetch Cain and Zero too. Absolutely don't leave the tent."
Probably a one-time dungeon, but dragged by fear again—trouble.
Rachel, tearing into the jerky I'd given, nodded at my words.