678
Chapter 678
‘Terakan Draker.’
Zeke, residing within Claudia’s body, couldn’t help but be surprised seeing him face Chronos.
He had thought Terakan looked similar to Arthur Draker when he saw his aged appearance in the Ark’s video.
But now as he controlled Claudia with his magical field, he looked remarkably similar to Zeke’s previous life.
The sharp eyes and fierce expression, along with scars and wounds across his face.
The impression of an injured beast was very similar to Zeke during his relic hunter days before regression.
While Zeke was slightly surprised by this appearance, Terakan Draker slowly approached Claudia.
As he approached, Claudia bit her lip hard and contained the electricity she had generated.
Terakan also withdrew his magical field that had been neutralizing the electricity and said to Claudia:
“Claudia, generating that much electricity doesn’t seem good for the child.”
At Terakan’s words, Claudia furrowed her brow and said,
“Terakan, are you going to make me lose my temper too?”
CRACKLE!
Suddenly electricity sparked from Claudia’s body without her control.
Seeing Claudia like this, Terakan shook his head.
“Calm down. If you really lose your temper, all the magic circuits in the artifacts and equipment at headquarters will burn out. Then I’ll be the only one getting scolded by the Archmage.”
Claudia Lubern, who remained in history as a Light Mage and Saint, was actually quite aggressive by nature.
Both enemies and allies feared her anger.
Though she remained in human form unable to manifest as a dragon after her contract with Terakan, that outlaw-like personality hadn’t gone anywhere.
After calming Claudia, Terakan finally turned to look at Chronos.
“Chronos, it’s been a while. But I’m not very pleased to see you either.”
Chronos tried to manipulate not only Claudia but also Terakan by pushing their prophecies.
At first, they believed in Chronos’s prophecies and granted their unreasonable requests.
But what they got in return was a near-death crisis and becoming wanderers pursued by the Seven Kingdoms.
Because of this, Terakan and Claudia eventually left the Central Continent and settled in Troy, a small city in the western region.
They thought they could escape both the Seven Kingdoms’ attention and Chronos there.
They settled there and quietly managed a small territory while hunting monsters and magical beasts coming down from the mountains.
But suddenly demon creatures started appearing in the physical realm.
The increasingly fierce monsters and magical beasts that appeared, along with black mages and demon creatures appearing everywhere, threw the Seven Kingdoms into chaos.
While they could somehow counter monsters and magical beasts with existing magical weapons, they didn’t work against demon creatures, who were called the masters of magic.
Eventually, they needed knights who could use Aura to face the demon creatures.
The rulers of the Seven Kingdoms had no choice but to ask for help from Terakan Draker, the strongest knight in the continent, to deal with the demon creatures threatening their kingdoms.
The Immortal Knight who became the final victor in the fierce Holy Grail War.
Terakan Draker was the only being who could fight and win alone against the Seven Kingdoms’ magic corps.
Terakan and Claudia initially scoffed and refused the Seven Kingdoms’ request.
But they couldn’t just watch when the growing demon creatures and monster armies started threatening Troy.
Reluctantly, Terakan led his following knights and swept away the demon army.
As news of Terakan’s victory spread to people who had only heard about the Seven Kingdoms’ continuous defeats, the entire continent began to pay attention to him.
Soon Troy, the small city where he stayed, became crowded with aspiring knights and mages flooding in from across the continent.
Terakan and Claudia accepted them and created knight divisions to face the demon armies.
They divided them using colored sashes based solely on strength, not origin.
The strongest knights were given red, and below that they set certain standards to divide them with blue and purple sashes.
Those gathered in Troy revered Terakan, who always wore black clothes, calling him the ‘Shadow Knight’ or ‘Black Knight’.
Thus the Shadow Knights led by Terakan achieved continuous victories against demon creatures, unlike the Seven Kingdoms’ magic corps.
As a result, the Seven Kingdoms, who had no way to counter the demon creatures, had no choice but to be wary of Terakan.
Even the Draker main family went so far as to delete records of expelling him as an illegitimate child and publicly announced they would accept him back as a family member.
This was because many young knights from the family admired Terakan Draker and went to Troy, diminishing the meaning of the main family itself.
The era of the Seven Kingdoms was setting, and the era of Hero Terakan Draker was rising.
While the demon army was falling apart around Terakan Draker and the Shadow Knights, an unexpected problem arose.
Dark mages succeeded in summoning higher demon souls and possessing dragons with them to manifest in the physical realm.
The power of higher demons manifested in corrupted dragon bodies was overwhelming.
Terakan's Shadow Knights and Claudia's Light Magic Corps had to mobilize all their strength to stop such demon dragons.
They actively sought out ancient ruins hidden across the continent and utilized weapons and knowledge left there.
In the process, Terakan obtained a summoning stone that could summon Pegasus, chains of light, and an ancient sword called Zahak.
Armed with ancient weapons, Terakan and the Shadow Knights were praised and called 'Dragon Slayers'.
The name came from facing demons dwelling in dragon bodies.
Thanks to them, the initially disadvantaged side found some stability through Terakan and his knights.
Moreover, since possessing dragons with demon souls was not easy, they could solve the fundamental problem of demon invasion by raiding dark mages' bases.
As the situation settled somewhat and the war was nearing its end through such efforts, Claudia conceived a child.
Though surprised by the unexpected event, Terakan and Claudia were carefully preparing for the birth, thinking this child would be a symbol of the new world.
They named the child 'Geo', meaning light in ancient language, with that sentiment.
Recently, Chronos suddenly appeared to Claudia through a dream while she dreamed of happily raising the child in their Troy home.
They left a prophecy that the Demon King would soon be resurrected, and Claudia's conceived child was related to that resurrection.
Claudia had been on edge since having that prophetic dream.
Because of this, she maintained an attitude that she would never forgive anyone who touched her child.
But today Chronos appeared directly before Claudia and Terakan.
Terakan looked at Chronos and said,
"When demon souls seeped into dragon bodies to become demon dragons, we requested help from the Lords. But they refused our request. You must remember too, Chronos."
When demon dragons first appeared, Terakan went to the dragons with Claudia.
But they refused help.
Saying they couldn't intervene in the physical realm as mediators.
Chronos had no answer to Terakan's words.
Then Claudia next to him glared at her with resentful eyes and said:
"If the dragons had helped then, the war would have ended without so many casualties. Don't you think the dragons' arrogance escalated the war?"
After listening to Claudia and Terakan's resentful words, Chronos slowly opened her mouth:
"If the dragons had moved and broken the karma balance, the Demon King's resurrection would have been hastened..."
CRACKLE!
When they mentioned the Demon King's resurrection again, Claudia couldn't hold back and generated electricity.
Terakan calmed her and said to Chronos:
"As you can see, now's not the time for such talk. The birth is near too. Chronos, you should come later. Then we'll listen to whatever you have to say about resurrection or..."
But then Terakan's intuition sensed something strange.
Claudia next to him also frowned and looked at Terakan.
"This is..."
Terakan nodded.
"A demon dragon. And above sacred dragon level."
They thought there would be no more demon dragons after attacking the dark mages' bases, but it seems some remnants remained.
As Terakan hurriedly turned to leave, Claudia tried to follow him.
Then Terakan shook his head.
"Stay here. I and the knights can handle it sufficiently."
Claudia made a worried expression at Terakan's words but soon nodded.
Soon Terakan went outside and Claudia exhaled before sitting in a chair.
Chronos still stood there looking at her in the same position.
Looking at Chronos like that, Claudia opened her mouth as if tired.
"Chronos, you've appeared as a spirit form anyway. Stop now and disappear. I don't have the strength to argue with you."
Claudia stroked her protruding belly while catching her breath.
At that moment, Chronos, who had been standing still, slowly approached her.
Claudia, who naturally thought Chronos would appear in spirit form, was startled to see a shadow beneath her moving feet.
"Wait, you're not in spirit form? Chronos, if you walk around in your current state..."
Although she was quite temperamental, having lived as a human for a long time, she had become much more emotional than when she was a dragon and felt like family with Chronos, who was born from the same source.
And it was the same for Chronos, who had remained in human form since the contract with the Hero King.
Though not connected by blood, they were connected as soul sisters.
Chronos approached Claudia and gently stroked her belly.
"Poor child of fate."
As she muttered those words, she suddenly began to cry.
Claudia, seeing Chronos like this, stammered in confusion.
"Are you crying? No, I thought you'd come in spirit form and start talking about prophecies again. If I had known you'd come in physical form..."
Claudia had always been particularly weak to seeing Chronos cry.
Then Chronos, who had been crying, lifted her head and spoke while looking at Claudia.
"Bahamut, listen to me carefully."
"When have I ever not listened to you? I've been through so much because of listening to your words."
Claudia replied in a softer tone. Chronos gave her a somewhat sorrowful look.
"Your child will become king."
Claudia's eyes wavered at Chronos's words.
"What are you talking about now? You were just talking about the Demon King's revival, and now suddenly you're saying Geo will become king, what is this about?"
Despite Claudia's words, Chronos continued without stopping.
"He will become king and open a new world. The current kings will all disappear into history. And... when the child becomes king, they will forget their father's name and carry on their mother's name."
Claudia couldn't help but be bewildered by Chronos's sudden prophecy.
Her prophecies were always unclear and inaccurate.
This was the first time Chronos had spoken such a clear prophecy.
Claudia looked at her with a now serious face and asked.
"Chronos, what exactly is going on?"
Just as Chronos was about to tell Claudia something.
BOOM!
Suddenly, with a tremendous noise, the wall was destroyed.
Demonic energy flowed in through the broken wall.
Claudia instinctively cast light magic towards it.
CRACKLE! CRACKLE!
Powerful lightning flew towards the broken wall.
Though the demonic energy was scattered by the lightning of light, it wasn't over.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Dark mages wearing dark masks and holding staves emitting demonic energy entered directly into where Claudia was.
Seeing this, Claudia's golden eyes gleamed.
"Insolent fools, how dare you, do you know who I…?"
CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE!
At that moment, lightning of light flowed from her body.
But then….
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
A magic circle made of demonic energy appeared beneath Claudia and Chronos's feet.
Instantly, the lightning flowing from her body vanished.
'What? what is this?'
Claudia, whose light magic had been blocked, tried to escape from the magic circle in panic, but whatever they had done, she couldn't move her body.
As Claudia frowned, one of the dark mages stepped forward and spoke to her.
[Light Witch, hand over the child you carry.]