20. The Dragon of Smoke
20. The Dragon of Smoke
Party. And Clan.
These were the words that defined the typical groups adventurers gathered into.
Of these, a clan was a large organization that united its members around a common purpose or a central figure to strengthen their bonds. In the present era, the ones at the centers of such clans were, of course, the Heroes who came from another world.
So, the attacker who appeared just now was one of those Heroes—a leader of such a clan...
"So, that old man over there, you mean? The one who turned this 'Yeomryong's' subordinate into a cripple."
Commonly known as the Yeomryong (炎龍).
The blaze rising from his sword could conjure a hellfire that scorched an entire area—its fury, without exaggeration, like the breath of a legendary dragon.
That was made clear enough by the sight of the woman who had been speaking with him: burned alive without him even lifting a finger.
"Tachia. Are you dead?"
"......"
"...Heh heh, they say humans are a short-lived species, but there's no knowing who goes first in this world, is there?"
Jang chuckled playfully, as if mourning her death.
Perhaps finding that attitude offensive, the Yeomryong soon aimed his sword directly at him.
"I want to confirm something: are you the one who split my subordinate's head open, old man?"
"If you mean splitting the head of some brat who didn't know his place, you've found the right person. But... isn't it a bit unbecoming for someone of your status—a Hero, no less—to make a personal appearance here?"
"If I'd sat around quietly after hearing my subordinate got attacked, my dignity as clan leader would have suffered."
From his words alone, he sounded like a leader who'd come to avenge his subordinates. But... who knew.
To take him at face value, the crosses set up among the clan members he'd brought along were far too hard to stomach.
"Well, as you say, having to come all this way is annoying, so I should probably set an example to prevent such things in the future."
Two crosses stood tall as if meant for an audience.
Tied to them were two burned corpses. A large crack was visible on the skull of one, as if it had been struck by a powerful external blow.
Had he decided that his subordinate getting beaten up anywhere was a stain on the clan's honor?
To the one who had merely given them a beating and sent them back, this outcome could only feel bitterly unfair.
"......That's a fine-looking sword."
But his opponent was so full of himself that he compared himself to a dragon, a being that transcended humanity.
Just as a person casually crushes an insect, it was only natural in this turbulent world for those with greater power to trample the weak.
"Doesn't the heat from that sword bother you?"
"Keuh huh, that sort of thing only applies to ordinary people who aren't born with abilities."
Pleased that someone had acknowledged the symbol of his pride, he didn't immediately swing his sword but instead leisurely offered an explanation.
"When I crossed over into this world, what I awakened was a complete immunity to heat... Since I can survive walking into a volcano with my bare body, isn't it only natural that I can handle a single sword that generates flames?"
-Fwoosh, fwoom.
The Ego Weapon in his hand ignited the moment he gripped it.
This was a reaction caused by the soul inside rejecting him, but for someone with perfect heat immunity, even that was just another useful tool.
"That's the basis of your confidence."
"You'll regret it when it's too late, old man. If I just go back without dealing with my subordinate's screw-up, it'll tarnish the name of the clan I built."
Even his joyful explanation of his power was only a momentary delay.
Once that brief reprieve ended, he aimed his sword and spoke in a smooth voice.
"Well, still, I am a Hero, so I should at least listen to the last words of a senile old codger. Is there anything you want to say?"
"Keh keh, how merciful, just like a Hero."
Was he hoping I'd pathetically beg for my life?
To put that on display for his subordinates and then crush even that, to highlight his own brutality?
"Yes, since the opportunity has presented itself, I might as well tell you an old story as a commemoration for my journey to the underworld."
"...An old story?"
"It's a fact many have forgotten. That calling people like you, who come from another world, 'Heroes' has only been a thing for less than 20 years."
Before that, threats certainly existed, but the situation hadn't been so dire that they were obsessed with summoning Heroes from other worlds.
That's why the term 'Hero' merely referred to the single strongest individual, or a small party led by one.
"Those called heroes also existed in this world, but they didn't possess special powers like you do. It was simply a title given to the person with the greatest strength, or to one who had accomplished great deeds."
"Haha, they must have been pretty pitiful existences then."
"Compared to you all, they certainly would be. But the existence that the hero I knew once faced was not like that."
As he spoke, Jang's eyes narrowed languidly.
He raised a hand to his mouth, and as he continued his reminiscence, he began to put strength into his grip.
"Because she was a 'dragon' who stood at the pinnacle of all things, something that mere humans could never dare approach."
"...A dragon?"
"A real dragon, not just a nickname like yours."
Slither.
A pungent scent began to slowly creep in from behind them.
Unaware of the scent silently spreading through their surroundings, the Yeomryong and his subordinates merely snickered at Jang's words.
"That dragon was once called the 'Volcano Dragon' because it nested in a volcano, and when it fought the hero, it was also called the 'Firewood Dragon' because it burned itself while pushing its foe relentlessly."
Indeed, they hadn't noticed.
What was spreading among them at that moment—more lethal to the human body than any poison—was slowly seeping into their bodies.
"And after burning everything against its worthy rival, do you know what remained?"
"Cough!"
The moment fierce coughs began to escape their mouths one by one.
The Yeomryong also sensed something was wrong and tried to put force into his sword.
"You, what the hell did you...!!"
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust... Even its overwhelmingly majestic form had to eventually crumble and vanish from this world."
No, it wasn't this old man.
The one releasing the suspicious smoke right into their location was behind him—the spot where the woman he had burned to death earlier had been.
"Yet its innate nature refused to allow even that, and forced it to persist in this world."
-Plop, plop.
The corpse rose to its feet, the ash clinging to its body flaking off to reveal the form of the being residing within.
What remained after the human skin had burned away were the gray scales characteristic of reptiles.
Though the two eyes shrouded by those scales had taken on a murky hue, they were precisely fixed on the one who had attacked her.
Yes, the mouth she opened at that moment was an act meant to target them.
"For continuing to live in this world in such a crumbling state, I personally call her this."
The Smoke Dragon.
A symbol of a faded legend, reaching the end of its lifespan, barely allowed to have only its form persist on this land.
"Yeomryong (Smoke Dragon) - Tasian Paleoi."
And so, the gray-white breath exhaled by that being soon swept fiercely over the Yeomryong and the clan members.
An attack laden with massive mass in and of itself, like the 'pyroclastic flow' that erupts when a volcano explodes.
-Kwuaaaaaaa!!
Clan members exposed to that pyroclastic flow collapsed without even having a chance to scream.
The ash clung to their bodies, hardening as it entered their respiratory tracts and solidified their insides, while its hundreds-of-degrees heat cooked their flesh.
The Yeomryong was not free from such an attack either.
"Ugh, urgh... urk......."
He could endure the heat with his ability, but the pyroclastic flow he'd inadvertently inhaled was ravaging his lungs even now, spreading throughout his body in place of oxygen and hindering his movement.
"Euuaaaaahhh!"
Nevertheless, the Yeomryong burned his own body in defiance and soon swung his sword, spewing flames toward the being that had risen from the ground.
But she did not burn.
Even as the flames swept over her, the woman whose outer skin had already peeled away accepted them in their entirety with her arms folded.
"Wh-why in the world...?"
The moment his attack—which he had been confident could burn and break through any defense—was blocked so futilely.
Facing the Yeomryong who felt hollow at this, the Smoke Dragon spoke.
"Does ash burn when you set fire to it?"
Her body had nothing left to burn even if you tried.
Wasn't it laughable to think you could kill her with such flames?
"Urk, urgh, guk......."
Unable to grasp that fact until the end, his body soon collapsed, suffocated.
As his consciousness faded and his ability dimmed, the power that had earned him the title of Yeomryong also vanished, and his body was swallowed by the ashes.
In the end, he lasted only a little longer than the others, but he too became no different from the shattered statues around him.
"Keh keh, maybe it's because not much life remains for her. She's become quite shabby compared to the last time I saw her."
At that scene, Jang—the only one who had succeeded in preserving his body—slowly removed the hand protecting his respiratory system and turned to look at the Smoke Dragon.
At the humble form of a dragon, nothing left but the traces, a far cry from the legend that had once threatened the world.
"...I guess I've become a has-been too. Earning the ridicule of a brat who just follows that fool hero around."
"I'm not ridiculing you. Rather, I say it out of worry that you might die before I do."
Back when there was no Demon King, no undead, and no threat from beastkin or Vampires.
When there weren't even Heroes from other worlds to oppose them, she was the being called the greatest calamity in this world.
But even she, reaching the end of her lifespan, could no longer display the same presence as in the past.
As if proving that even the most brilliant light is ultimately destined to be extinguished.
"...Hey, brat."
Even so, she was still an existence that mere mortals were not permitted to compare themselves to.
Soon, she posed a question to the companion of the hero she had fought in a bloody battle against.
"Is this the world that young punk wanted? Where idiots like these strut around openly?"
Trampling their own kind with power, drunk on ego, killing even the comrades who had sworn loyalty to them without hesitation...
.
Was mass-producing such scum truly the path chosen by humanity, which the hero she had fought while burning herself had protected?
"How could anything have bad intentions from the start? It's just that everyone thinks differently, and those clashes happen so often that things didn't turn out as intended."
"Then tell me. Is there even one reason why such a messed-up world should be maintained?"
As she looked at the Hero of the new era, her skepticism toward the current state of the world had faintly surfaced.
Unable to give a proper answer, Jang simply responded to her with a quiet question of his own.
"What if I said there wasn't?"
"I'd do anything."
If he could not stop her, she would destroy what he most wanted to protect with her own hands.
The contract made during the bloody battle with the hero she had fought in the past was still valid.
For now, she merely intended to hide among them and watch to see what direction the things he'd protected were heading in.
"Anything I can do."
But while one of his successors was flaunting their power after forgetting their mission.
And while the so-called leaders were absorbed in luxury and debauchery, only enthusiastic about squeezing those beneath them—what meaning was left in further observation?
"...If that's the case, why aren't you moving right now?"
Even though such a resolve had been established, why was she not stepping forward to annihilate humanity here and now?
Facing Jang who had voiced this question, Tachia silently looked up at the sky and thought of someone.
'I accept.'
Though he'd been pushed out and left behind by Heroes soaked in arrogance and vanity.
A weakling with the courage to go out into the world to achieve his own will.
'Really? Who knows what kind of trouble will happen if you take this with you.......'
'Well, yeah, that's true. But, you know, I don't want to let go of a chance to utilize my own abilities so easily.'
Since he entered this world as such a weakling.
A being with a gaze capable of seeing himself objectively, untainted by vanity or arrogance.
'And most importantly, if I have this weapon, the opportunity to see you again, Tachia, will naturally arise, won't it?'
And perhaps the most foolish human she had ever met.
'......See me again?'
'Yes. You see, I liked you, Tachia. You're blunt, but you unexpectedly listen to what I have to say kindly, I guess. Haha.'
...He liked her because she was kind.
She'd only picked up the habit of handling things hastily since she didn't have much life left.
He'd sorely misjudged her, hadn't he?
"For now, I'll wait for that fellow to come back."
But even with such a fool, she'd made a promise.
So she would wait until then.
"Because a dragon's promise is absolute."
If, by the slightest chance, he couldn't keep that promise for any reason.
From then on, she would quietly bury within her heart the thought of carrying out what she had originally planned.
***
Meanwhile, a tent situated in an alleyway located on the outskirts of the Empire.
"Wh-what?"
A fortune teller who'd been preparing to do business while avoiding the watch of the guards there began to break out in a cold sweat while staring at the crystal ball before her.
She'd clearly only been trying to check her own future, just to be safe.
So why had the future of herself, performing her mission while peacefully telling fortunes in the city, been replaced by an image of herself collapsed miserably in the middle of a burned-down city at a single moment?
"Suddenly... did the future change?"
An observed future could be changed, but that only applied when the observer attempted to change it.
The possibility that the future could suddenly change without such an attempt being made pointed to one thing.
"...A Transcendent."
An existence whose actions even a prophet receiving revelations from the heavens could hardly dare to predict.
The whims they caused impulsively sometimes led to catastrophes that enveloped the world...