Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Eldrin and Demir (2)
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Facing the true form of the Giant Dragon Drugen.
Clang! Clang!
Demir simply swung his hammer down.
The hammer carried the pride of his race.
It embodied the valor of a single hero.
* * *
“We should build an altar.”
Those were Demir’s words to Eldrin before the battle.
A single altar, exquisitely combining Eldrin’s ritual magic with his own alchemy.
“Drugen is strong. There’s no way we can seal away all that immense power with our own strength.”
Demir had to find a way.
His heart grew impatient.
The dragon was so terrifying that it hadn’t simply killed the two rebellious races outright.
Even though it could have obliterated them in an instant.
It had dragged things out for a full hundred years.
The agonizing century-long war with the dragon.
Of course, even that must have been mere amusement to Drugen.
“Then what should we do?”
At the time.
Eldrin was despondent.
Full of regret.
What if they hadn’t rebelled against the dragon?
A minority might have suffered, but some could have lived ordinary lives, right?
Even if stripped of freedom, they wouldn’t have endured pain like this, would they?
Countless thoughts stabbed at her heart.
“We impose a prohibition.”
“A prohibition?”
“We’re not sealing all its power. Just a mental seal. Surely your ritual can handle that much?”
“Ah, no way.”
Eldrin flinched.
As if she’d never even considered such a method, her body trembled.
The final ritual she knew.
One that sacrificed her own life to prevent the enemy from destroying anything with their hands.
It was called the Prohibition of Destruction.
“I-if… if that really works, then no matter how mighty Drugen’s power is…”
“What good is raw strength if it can’t destroy anything? Every time it tries, there’ll be backlash.”
They couldn’t kill the dragon.
They couldn’t seal its power.
So?
Leave the power be, but make it unusable.
That was the method Demir proposed.
“Y-you’re a genius…”
Eldrin, who had been in awe, soon closed her mouth.
Because her ritual was incredibly demanding.
To proceed smoothly, it required an enormous altar, and that altar couldn’t be ordinary.
Especially since it targeted a giant dragon’s mind.
“Sacrifices… That must be the offering for the ritual.”
Eldrin knew.
What resolve Demir had when he spoke those words.
* * *
Clang! Clang!
The dwarf kept swinging his hammer.
Even as Eldrin blocked Drugen’s charge.
“I’m just creating it.”
From the blank canvas of the world, he brought something into being.
The soft mud hardened, and ancient tree roots rose upon it.
Atop the roots, cold steel was laid flat.
- What trickery is this?!
The dragon roared.
But Eldrin impassively drew her bowstring.
Her arm muscles ached as if tearing.
Her body was covered in bruises.
‘Block it.’
‘It hurts.’
‘My limbs feel like they’re ripping apart, but endure.’
‘That’s how our races survive. How we claim freedom.’
She endured and endured.
The more she held out, the redder her entire body grew.
The energy filling her drained away completely.
“Demir!”
Eldrin tore her throat raw.
“I’ll bury my blood and bones in the altar!”
Her flowing blood coalesced and flowed toward the altar.
The ritual had begun.
“I swear on my life! No—on the life of the forest!”
Her voice was filled with fervor.
“Giant Dragon! Your malice will torment the world no longer. Your power will flow, yet not flow.”
Pffft!
Black blood poured from her mouth.
“Good. I swear on the pride of stone as well.”
Black blood flowed from Demir’s mouth too.
Their blood fused into a black orb.
“…”
They no longer resisted the dragon.
They simply stood atop the completed altar, glaring at it.
- What the hell is this nonsense?
The giant dragon furrowed its brow.
They’d been desperately blocking it, self-harming alone, and now spouting incomprehensible words.
The dragon couldn’t understand the scene.
But one thing was certain.
It felt unpleasant.
An ongoing sense of foreboding.
- Toys like you pulling off such vile acts. I would’ve played longer otherwise.
The dragon, now before them, raised a forefoot.
- Just die.
Screeech!
As the dragon’s foot slammed down, the air screamed.
Eldrin and Demir simply looked up at the sight.
Of course, with smiles on their lips.
That was when.
Drip.
The dragon’s foot halted right before them.
Its muscles twitched all over, but that was it.
The foot wouldn’t descend further.
- What? What is this?
The giant dragon panicked.
It tried flexing its power, thrashing about, but nothing worked.
It couldn’t control its own body.
Their flowing black blood had branded it, rendering it unable to destroy anything.
- Y-you bastards! What have you done?! What did you do to me?!
The dragon’s roar echoed thunderously.
‘Insane.’
Even watching from afar, my heart prickled from the sheer malice.
Glancing aside, Dagunar was trembling, brow furrowed.
Yet.
Eldrin and Demir’s eyes remained unchanged.
A gaze that could even seem noble.
As if capturing the dragon was their sacred duty, their expressions were blank.
“Wicked dragon.”
Demir’s lips parted.
“Unable to wield that power freely—surely that’s a greater torment than death for you?”
- Shut up! You damned scum!
“But no helping it. Unless a being is offered as sacrifice, this prohibition won’t lift. Eternally.”
- Me! The great me! You think I’ll just leave it like this?
The dragon raged.
It wanted to destroy everything around it, but couldn’t.
Flap!
In the end, the winged dragon took to the sky.
It couldn’t do anything without lifting this cursed sorcery.
“…”
Watching the fleeing dragon.
Eldrin and Demir smiled silently.
Whoosh!
And as if their time had run out.
Their bodies began aging rapidly.
Skin shriveling, then corroding away.
Sacrifice.
But their lips were unmistakably curved upward.
In this moment.
No one but them knew their thoughts.
[The skill ‘Memory Recreation’ (S-rank) has ended.]
And the world flashed once more.
* * *
“Hmm.”
I let out a groan.
“Hah…”
Daganur sighed in lament.
Atop the altar on the dragon seal’s floor, we simply sat in silence.
How much time passed?
Daganur spoke.
“Our ancestor… To think he was such a figure. It makes my heart ache for no reason.”
“The elves were remarkable too.”
“Agreed. Back then, we were a united people… How did it come to this?”
Daganur let his arms droop.
He seemed drained.
“Feels shitty. Honestly, I didn’t want to say this about my own race, but compared to the great Demir, our Chairman is just a petty, narrow-minded runt.”
“…”
“Demir knew how to sacrifice himself for his race. But our Chairman? He’s just bloodshot-eyed to kill elves. And thinking on it now, the reason’s laughable. Because the elves won’t hand over Demir’s relic? Yeah, total nonsense.”
That was true.
The reason for the war between the two races was incredibly flimsy.
“But.”
I tilted my head.
“Doesn’t it seem a bit off?”
“Hm?”
“Why are the elves guarding this place so stubbornly?”
I stood up.
Stretched and climbed onto the altar.
“I didn’t tell you, Dagunar, but the High Elf Queen definitely led me here.”
“Really?”
“Think about it. Why would the High Elf Queen, of all people, bring me and you—especially to this seal above her village?”
Asking to make an item was just an excuse.
Serphin had definitely put me here.
That much was certain.
“But why go to such lengths?”
That was when Dagunar tilted his head.
“Ah?”
A sudden flash in my mind.
In that instant, one possibility emerged.
A horrific yet highly likely one.
“Damn, I knew something was wrong.”
“What?”
I clutched my head with both hands.
And muttered.
“Why didn’t I think of that? No wonder… It never made sense.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Daganur scowled.
“Explain it plainly.”
“The Chairman or the High Elf Queen… Does it even make sense? Either one could wipe out their entire race alone?”
“Well… Narrow-minded or not, their strength is undeniable.”
“Sigh. Look, Dagunar.”
I spoke as if exasperated.
“You saw Demir and Eldrin, right? Are those heroes as strong as the Chairman or Serphin now?”
“Hm?”
Daganur blinked.
He thought for a moment, then answered.
“No, definitely our Chairman seems stronger.”
But that wasn’t the only oddity.
‘Those two. Favorability didn’t work on them either.’
Favorability is a system.
From my experience, the system is a law above the worldview shown here.
Favorability not working means?
The Chairman and High Elf Queen aren’t actually of those races?
“As you saw in the memory, the dragon is definitely still alive. It was just prohibited, not buried in this seal. It’s been alive in this world for 500 years.”
“T-that means?”
“What else? There’s only one conclusion!”
“…”
“Why did the Chairman stop the dwarves from producing weapons? Why did the High Elf Queen force her kin into war without reason?”
“…”
“And why haven’t those two participated in the war?”
I lifted the black orb from the altar.
[‘Orb of Prohibition.’]
[Temporarily awakens the power of the deceased.]
“The dragon can’t destroy anything. It only incites conflict.”
[Help one of the two races to resolve the conflict.]
Persuading both races was a red herring from the start.
This stage.
The true quest of ‘Forest and Stone’ is.
Capturing the Giant Dragon, Drugen.
“No way, so Vulcanus and Serphin… Their true identities are actually the Giant Dragon? That tragic twist?”
“What do you mean no way? It fits!”
“Guh?”
“The Giant Dragon is the cause of this war—the conflict between the two races!”
“This is insane!”
Daganur shot to his feet.
His mouth agape in shock.
It couldn’t be helped.
His race had been toyed with by one being for 500 years.
How could he not be stunned?
And.
“Get ready.”
I muttered.
Clearly, Vulcanus and Serphin had intentionally sent me here.
Which means.
They could be right beside us now.
Gulp.
As I swallowed hard and sharpened my senses.
Clap clap clap!
A presence appeared atop the stairs.
Step, step.
The High Elf Queen, Serphin’s applause.
“Being from beyond the world.”
Her lips twisted grotesquely.
“You’re smarter than I thought.”