Chapter 119
Chapter 119
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: The Black Dragon
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Seo Woo-jin abruptly shot up from his seat.
A sudden surge of mana.
The sheer magnitude of that spine-chilling power had his fingertips trembling.
‘Reina? No… it’s different.’
It wasn’t the sticky demonic energy she wielded.
‘Madness.’
It was mana of pure, rampaging madness.
“Th-this is…!”
Mohiaddin recoiled in terror at the colossal mana erupting alongside the explosion.
“It seems their attack has begun.”
Seo Woo-jin forced a calm expression as he spoke.
‘Damn it, I hope Rinar made it out properly.’
This had happened mere moments after the boy departed.
He could only pray the kid hadn’t gotten swept up in it.
“Hoo—”
Seo Woo-jin let out a deep breath and drew Rune Dea.
“Viscount, you should evacuate first.”
A proper evacuation required Mohiaddin’s power above all else.
“…And what about you?”
He seemed to have guessed from the sight of the drawn sword.
“I have to block the attack.”
He wasn’t sure if it was possible.
Frankly speaking, judging by the total mana he sensed, this foe was in no way inferior to Gerald or Reina.
If it was truly on that level, he might not be able to hold it off alone.
No, he definitely couldn’t.
Even so, he had to step forward.
‘This mess is my fault.’
If someone had to clean it up, it was him.
“I’ll support the knights.”
“That’s fine.”
Though Mohiaddin offered, Seo Woo-jin shook his head.
Truth be told, he’d have gladly borrowed help from a monkey if he could.
But the power of mid-tier knights wouldn’t even allow them to take a proper step under the weight of that force.
It wouldn’t be help—it would just get in the way.
It was far better for Seo Woo-jin to go alone; that offered a much higher chance of holding the line.
“Please have the knights assist the soldiers in evacuating the citizens. That’ll be more useful.”
With those words, he began to move.
There was no more time to waste.
Things had been quiet after the initial strike, but no one knew when the next would come.
He had to get out there beforehand and minimize the damage as much as possible.
‘Swift.’
An illusion gripped him as if his body were floating lightly upward, and he streaked through space like a beam of light.
A sudden gale whipped up, startling the milling crowd into stumbling falls.
But Seo Woo-jin didn’t stop.
‘Is that it?’
He didn’t even need to search; he knew.
The entire eastern wall had been obliterated, replaced by a wall of crimson flame.
Seo Woo-jin flashed past the screaming throng.
The evacuees formed a dense human tide, but with his body control honed to the peak, maintaining speed posed no issue.
How long did he run?
Ten seconds? Twenty?
From the lord’s castle to the wall, it couldn’t have taken more than a minute at most.
Coming to an abrupt halt, Seo Woo-jin scowled at the flames scorching the air.
‘It’s not ordinary fire.’
It was like the blaze had been deliberately contained to a specific zone.
Flames thick with mana.
The charred corpses of soldiers lay scattered across the ground.
Dozens were visible at a glance.
Seo Woo-jin gave a slight bow toward them.
‘People who didn’t have to die.’
A renewed weight of life settled on his shoulders.
After silently praying for their souls, he kicked off the ground.
Thud—
He charged forward, swinging Rune Dea.
Shwaaaa—!
The mana composing the flames frayed apart strand by strand, carving out a gap wide enough for a single person to pass.
Without hesitation, he hurled himself through it.
Roooar—!
The flames lunged to incinerate him, but they couldn’t breach the protective power of the coat from the Grand Duke.
Even so, the immense heat seeping through proved this blaze was far from ordinary.
After crossing what had to be at least five meters of flame, the unexpected source of the assault came into view.
“…Insane.”
Hundreds, thousands of scales black as pitch.
Pupils like an endless abyss that could suck you in forever.
Wings that seemed capable of summoning a tempest with a single flap.
And…
A colossal body dozens of meters long at least.
The beautifully sculpted form, graceful as if carved by a god’s own hand, exuded destruction in its mere existence.
‘A dragon.’
One known as the Black Dragon, among them.
A being listed even in Jayronin’s monster compendium.
‘What was it again?’
Something about a massive horn signaling the Demon King’s advent?
If Gerald and Reina were followers of the Demon King, then the Black Dragon before him belonged to that same sphere.
It shouldn’t have appeared in a place like this under normal circumstances…
‘Damn. Guess the magic worked a bit too well.’
For this thing, which should’ve awakened only upon the Demon King’s descent, to show up so brazenly now.
The Black Dragon held its long neck arched proudly, gazing down at the city beyond the wall.
It paid no heed to Seo Woo-jin at its feet, as if he weren’t even there.
Though it was blatant disregard, truthfully, Seo Woo-jin preferred it this way.
The moment it started moving would mark the true beginning of the catastrophe.
‘What should I do?’
He couldn’t use ‘Celestial Wing’.
Even if he did, it would only be a last-resort option.
What if he unleashed ‘Celestial Wing’ and still lost?
At full power, the limit was a mere three minutes.
After that, the backlash would be so severe that death loomed right before his eyes.
Which meant the city would be done for three minutes later.
He couldn’t gamble the lives of tens of thousands on that.
What Seo Woo-jin needed to do right now wasn’t slay the Black Dragon—it was buy time.
Though it already seemed impossible.
“Hoo—”
Seo Woo-jin took another deep breath.
The scorching heat at his back made his head feel like it was melting.
That was when it happened.
The Black Dragon’s head tilted slightly downward.
It peered into the abyss.
Seo Woo-jin felt a dizzying vertigo.
‘I thought my mana reserves could hold up against anyone…’
But the Black Dragon was on another level entirely.
Mana without end.
Infinity.
The pressure made his lungs feel crushed.
Oddly, though, there wasn’t a trace of demonic energy, despite it being a minion of the Demon King.
But Seo Woo-jin had no time to dwell on it.
[Pitiful one.]
The Black Dragon addressed him.
Not transmitted through the air to his ears, but resounding directly in his mind.
Reflexively, he tightened his grip on Rune Dea.
‘Pitiful?’
As Seo Woo-jin puzzled over the word, the Black Dragon continued.
[One who will scatter without meaning and vanish from memory. Why do you…]
He couldn’t hear the rest.
Was it the vertigo?
Or a language from a dimension beyond comprehension?
It seemed like words were being spoken, yet he couldn’t make them out or understand them.
[Has the time not yet come?]
Somehow, regret tinged the voice.
‘This could work?’
Unlike other demonic beasts or minions, communication was possible.
If handled right, he might end this without a fight.
Of course, it didn’t take long to realize that was a delusion.
[Endure. And prove your existence. For that shall be the beginning of karma.]
The abyssal eyes flushed red.
‘What the—!’
[If you hold no value, then bringing an end shall not be amiss.]
The Black Dragon’s maw parted.
Flames flickered within its cavernous throat.
‘Dragon’s breath!’
He’d seen it once before, from the dragon Im Tae-eun had commanded.
It had been just a bit larger than his palm, yet its destructive power ranked among the top even for heroic warriors.
If this Black Dragon, thousands of times larger, unleashed its breath?
He didn’t even want to imagine the consequences.
As Seo Woo-jin’s eyes went wide, the breath began to escape its jaws.
The air boiled instantly from temperatures beyond imagination, mirages rising in waves.
Piercing the rippling vision, a crimson beam poured forth.
‘Can’t block it.’
Seo Woo-jin judged coldly.
No skill in his arsenal could stop that.
For a fleeting moment, he wondered if ‘Jigo-hwa’ might offset it somehow, but he shook his head.
At least not now.
The Black Dragon’s breath was that high-dimensional, that destructive.
‘Damn it!’
But it wasn’t as if he had no options at all.
He lacked the ability to block it himself, but he had an item.
‘Aegis’.
The ring gifted by the Sword Sage.
It bore a spell to summon a shield capable of blocking any kind of attack once per day.
‘Said it could even stop an ancient dragon’s breath.’
Seo Woo-jin concentrated his mana on the blue ring and uttered.
“Aegis.”
A second splintered into a hundred shards.
In that imperceptibly brief span where perception failed, the magic activated.
A golden magic circle materialized before Seo Woo-jin’s eyes.
Filled with ornate, geometric patterns, it layered once, twice…
Until it formed a grand magic circle of ten layers.
---!!!!
No sound reached him.
Or perhaps the roar was so immense he couldn’t register it.
Feeling blood streaming from his ears, Seo Woo-jin stared straight ahead.
The golden magic circle clashing with the Black Dragon’s breath began to shine ever brighter.
And the colossal force, vast enough to shatter the world, was coiling into the ten-layered circle and dissipating.
‘Ah…’
Awestruck by the wondrous sight, Seo Woo-jin lost himself momentarily.
It was beautiful to the point of unreality.
But he couldn’t afford to gape forever.
Seo Woo-jin gripped Rune Dea tightly.
He intended to strike the instant the Black Dragon’s assault ended.
It wouldn’t penetrate, of course, but drawing its attention would suffice.
‘Can’t fight it head-on.’
He’d known it already, but the breath confirmed it.
Fighting meant death.
Even unleashing every hidden skill at his disposal, victory was near zero.
‘But I can’t just not fight.’
He had to evade as much as possible, luring it away from the city.
If he dragged things out, reinforcements would surely arrive.
Rinar had only just left, so at top speed, three days to Rimartan.
Once word spread, for the Sword Sage and Dark Duke to return here would take at minimum…
‘Four days? Five? If something goes wrong midway, maybe a week.’
Seo Woo-jin let out a hollow chuckle as he contemplated the time he’d need to hold off the Black Dragon.
A week.
An absurd span.
Forget blocking it, he wasn’t even sure he could sustain the battle that long.
‘Still, I have to.’
At the very least, until the citizens could evacuate safely.
The breath ceased, and the Aegis magic circle vanished.
At the same instant, Seo Woo-jin kicked off the ground and charged the Black Dragon.
Rune Dea rippled with black aura infused with ‘Jigo-hwa’.