Chapter 122
Chapter 122
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 122
Chapter Title: Ghosts of the Past (2)
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Azel had fully acclimated to the Dragon Demon Armament, Cup of Lament. He no longer felt any sense of unfamiliarity even when manifesting it to fight, so lately he had even sparred against Kairen, who had been venting his pent-up frustrations nonstop.
Leticia said,
“A hundred-year-old child throwing a tantrum was too intimidating for me to handle, so I’m glad. It’s a relief that the excellent babysitter has returned from his vacation.”
“Hahaha. Well, you seemed to enjoy it too.”
“I won’t deny that, but that man has no sense of moderation.”
Leticia snorted.
After Kairen, who had sparred with Azel until he was exhausted, went off saying he’d wash up, Azel had begun sparring with Leticia as well. He had been itching for action after focusing solely on the Cup of Lament for a while.
They exchanged light probes with sword and spear, gradually accelerating as they tested each other. Their speed grew so fast that no ordinary eyes could follow the intermediate steps, and both unleashed their mana, pitting their Spirit Order and Dragon Spirit Art techniques against one another.
As psychic waves crisscrossed dazzlingly, Leticia thrust her spear forward with sharp momentum.
Crack!
The moment her cross spear seemed to clash with Azel’s Dragon Sword, he accelerated sharply and leaped in at an angle. He blocked the spear shaft with the shoulder of his armor to deflect its trajectory, closing in while launching a low spinning kick.
It was a strike that completely caught her off guard, but Leticia didn’t panic. She leaped into the air to evade Azel’s kick, spinning her body and spear to aim the blunted rear end at Azel’s head.
Instead of blocking or dodging, Azel charged straight in. At the same time, his form blurred, and identical figures appeared on both sides of Leticia. They were perfect duplicates indistinguishable from the real thing.
“I was wondering when you’d use it… Planning to get serious now?”
A white chill rose around Leticia’s body. She already knew Azel’s duplicates had substance. Trying to discern the real one was pointless. For now, she would halt all of them!
Fwoooosh!
The cold exploded omnidirectionally, freezing the surroundings. Leticia moved to depart the spot and chain into her next technique, but she soon beheld an unbelievable sight.
“…How did you do that?”
Azel stood right before her, sword held to her throat. The moment she thought she’d bought a brief respite with the cold burst and began her next move, he struck her blind spot. Even with all her battle experience, she couldn’t react in time and was forced to yield.
Azel withdrew his sword and said,
“It was good that you didn’t flounder trying to identify the real one. But don’t rely too much on omnidirectional spreading attacks. A tough opponent might brute-force through, and one with keen senses could read the flow of power and leap over it.”
“That’s not an answer to my question.”
“Simple. If you know the attribute of Dragon Spirit Art she wields is cold, just convert your own mana attribute to match.”
It was the same as using insulation against an opponent who favored lightning. By enveloping himself in cold-attuned mana, he could pass through that level of chill without harm.
Leticia flinched at the voice that followed.
“Against high-ranking mages, don’t use methods like that. It might work well against Spirit Order or Dragon Spirit Art practitioners… but you’re not the only one who can convert mana to various attributes, even if they’re not mages.”
Azel’s voice had come from behind her. She soon realized the Azel before her had vanished like a snuffed flame and was left stunned.
“Incarnation… I’ve heard the term, but experiencing it firsthand is shocking.”
The Azel who had held the sword to her face was a duplicate created by ‘Dance of Shadows’. Just like when he had defeated Niberis before. He had used a duplicate perfectly attuned to the opponent’s attribute to strike her blind spot, while his real body concealed its presence and form, waiting for another chance.
Azel said,
“It’s a technique few use, after all. Same in the Dark Frozen Wastes?”
“That’s what I’ve heard. I never rose high enough in rank to be certain, though…”
“Hmm.”
Even during the Dragon Emperor War, almost no one used Incarnation, and even fewer wielded it skillfully. Excluding Azel himself, only about three figures from the Dragon Emperor War had handled Incarnation with mastery.
Duke Crois Nidel, the alliance’s supreme technical veteran; Almaric, one of the Four Great Dragon Demon Generals; and… Dragon Demon King Atein.
‘Well, it’s a technique that’s very picky about its users.’
Techniques inherently select their users regardless of difficulty. Being able to use Incarnation didn’t mean one was unconditionally stronger than those who couldn’t.
Azel said,
“Anyway, sparring with you like this only confuses me more.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your Dragon Spirit Art… it’s truly similar to what I know.”
“The Dragon Demon Hybrid you called your teacher—was it Reshu?”
“Yeah. My fourth teacher.”
“You had quite a few teachers.”
“Five in total. Well, that old man is a bit iffy to call a teacher…”
Azel’s fourth teacher had been the Dragon Demon Hybrid Reshu, whose allegiance had once been unclear friend or foe, and his fifth and final teacher was Duke Crois Nidel, whom he had just recalled.
Leticia asked,
“You said that Reshu, the Dragon Demon Hybrid, taught you how to wield a dragon’s power. What does that mean?”
“Am I the one getting questioned now?”
“I feel like I’m taking too much of a loss if I don’t start soon.”
“Fair enough. Reshu was a 1st-Gen Dragonkin.”
“A 1st-Gen Dragonkin… one who walks the earth without parents?”
“That’s one way to put it. A possessor of power beyond comparison to other Dragon Demon Hybrids.”
In Azel’s memories, no one surpassed Reshu in Dragon Demon mana capacity. Even Dragon Demon King Atein was inferior in sheer Dragon Demon mana volume. Reshu wielded his power like a dragon—without the systematized Dragon Spirit Art framework, he swung it with mere will, unleashing natural disaster-level might.
“Someone who innately swung his power through pure instinct?”
“That’s right. Though during his time as my teacher, he learned techniques from me too, so he changed a lot afterward—but at his core, it was the same.”
“Did he use weapons?”
“No, he always said his own body was the ultimate weapon.”
“That’s even further from my teacher. As far as I recall, my teacher never displayed immense Dragon Demon mana even once. He might have been strong in reality, but he never showed it. And when using power, there was zero needless waste—for example, in the training to catch raindrops…”
“Training to catch raindrops?”
“It was training to thrust the spear tip rapidly while catching the falling raindrops on the blade without scattering them. It’s possible with precise mana control.”
“…”
“Why that face?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
“Hmm. So, what do you mean by the way he taught you to handle a dragon’s power?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. Humans originally have no Dragon Demon mana. Right?”
“Of course.”
“Even awakening and wielding mana is grueling training to control a completely new sense of power. But once you master mana like an extra limb, you acquire Dragon Demon mana. This isn’t an entirely new power—it’s the existing one undergoing a qualitative change. So what happens?”
“Hmm…”
Leticia thought for a moment before saying,
“…Confusion arises from the senses used to handle normal mana?”
“Exactly. It’s the pitfall everyone who gains Dragon Demon mana via the Dragon Slaying Ritual falls into without fail. And even performing the Dragon Slaying Ritual doesn’t instantly convert mana to Dragon Demon mana. It gradually takes on Dragon Demon properties. That’s what makes it harder. If generating mana is like sprouting an extra limb, mana turning into Dragon Demon mana is that limb twisting bizarrely. Sure, performance improves, but the number of joints increases, or an extra finger grows, or the range of motion changes…”
Even now, Azel’s mana hadn’t fully converted to Dragon Demon mana. From his experience, full conversion required at least two more Dragon Slaying Rituals and completely assimilating the dragon power gained from them.
“Acquiring Dragon Demon properties half-baked disrupts your existing senses. So what do you do?”
“Normally, you’d expand your existing senses to handle the new power like an additional weapon.”
“That’s right. You have impressive technical insight.”
“Don’t treat me like your student, you young human.”
“It was a sincere compliment. Anyway, that’s exactly the problem.”
They prioritize expanding control while maintaining existing senses after gaining new power. That lets them leverage the new power’s advantages to grow stronger. But…
“That’s wrong. You need to rebuild your technique’s framework from the ground up.”
When Azel first gained Dragon Demon mana, he used its traits to boost his techniques’ efficiency.
For example, to create a flame blade, he previously layered a mana barrier to protect the sword from the fire’s heat and another to supply energy to keep it burning, then ignited external flames. But after gaining Dragon Demon mana, he could directly combust the external mana field.
“Reshu called it foolishness and asked why I bothered.”
Reshu had looked baffled watching Azel’s techniques. He said just ignite flames that wouldn’t damage the blade.
“…Absurd. What do you think?”
“From my perspective, it sounds reasonable. Because it works, obviously.”
“That’s the conceptual gap between those born with Dragon Demon mana and those who aren’t.”
Can you create flames that burn only the target without scorching your own blade?
Give mages that theme, and they devise ways to protect what mustn’t burn before igniting flames. But those with Dragon Demon mana just create flames that don’t burn what shouldn’t burn.
It sounds impossible, but manifesting and controlling phenomena through will alone means exactly that. If you can image-make flames that burn only what you desire, you achieve that result.
“Reshu taught me that issue. So I had to overhaul every technique from the foundation. And Reshu refined his wild swings into systematized techniques.”
“So you weren’t in a one-sided teacher-student relationship—you were each other’s teachers?”
“Reshu was like that, and so was my fifth teacher, the old man.”
Azel smiled, reminiscing about the past.
His fifth teacher, Duke Crois Nidel, had been called the living scripture of Spirit Order at the time, possessing vast knowledge and the ability to manifest it. Azel, who had learned techniques piecemeal and relied on instinct, gained a clear foundation and learned the terror of systematized techniques from him.
In exchange, Azel taught him how to wield Dragon Demon mana, and the elderly Crois Nidel, whose mind had grown rigid with age, gained great enlightenment. Thus, he invented the technique of manifesting multiple Dragon Demon Armaments simultaneously—something thought possible only for Dragon Demon King Atein back then.
Azel didn’t tell Leticia the details about Crois Nidel. But even just hearing he was a technical master surpassing Azel surprised her.
“Fascinating people. By the way, what did this Reshu the Dragon Demon Hybrid look like?”