Chapter 89
Chapter 89
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: The Dragon That Couldn't Become a Dragon
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The cradle garden, where the fresh scent of grass wafted on a clear day.
The sunlight was warm, and the air was as clear as ever.
Lapia, who had been playing with the spirits as usual, was chewing her gum with a deeply furrowed brow.
“Chwep… That’s not what I’m saying, okay?”
With a prickly voice, she poked one of the spirits with her finger.
But the spirits were showing strange reactions.
-Kyaak!
-Kyeng…!
-Kyung!
“Uh, uhh?”
Startled by the sudden screams, Lapia swallowed her gum whole.
“Shii… That was my last piece……!”
Lapia’s face fell instantly.
But what stood out even more was…
The spirits.
-My body won’t move…!
-Kiiing….
-Save me!
“…Huh?”
Something was off.
These were the spirits she cherished so much she even washed them with water herself…
Blood-red shadows were dripping from the spirits’ bodies.
A chill ran down her spine.
“W-What’s going on with this?!”
-Kiiing….
“Hey, hey…! Go back! Hurry, hurry…!”
Lapia frantically waved her hands, sending all the spirits back to the spirit realm.
And then, panting heavily…
She absentmindedly looked up at the sky.
“…Huh?”
There.
The midday sky that should have been filled with sunlight…
Was somehow covered in moonlight.
“…….”
High above, the blue sky and sun had vanished.
In their place…
A crimson moon blazed.
A blood-red moon… hung in the sky.
And below it…
“Damn it… What the hell are these things!”
“Hey, Kali! You okay?!”
“Urk…! I’m fine!”
Halfway up a steep mountain path.
Corrupted spirits had burst from the ground without warning, ambushing the adventurer party.
It was a complete surprise attack.
“Where the hell did these things come from….”
“It’s not even time for mana beasts to appear…!”
“It was definitely morning….”
The rookie adventurer Kali grit his teeth, breathing heavily.
It was supposed to be a simple escort quest for supplies.
But…
If he’d known, he would’ve just holed up at the inn and taken a nap… Regret flooded in.
- Pajijik…
That was when.
“Get down.”
A low, chilling voice rang out.
The party instinctively dropped to the ground.
《Extreme / Intermediate Magic》
「Corridor of Frost Arrows」
──────!!
Frost arrows pierced the earth in an instant.
The corrupted spirits were shredded to pieces, and in their place, pure white snow bloomed like flowers.
“Y-You’re…?”
A man with snow-white hair crowned by a wreath of ice.
…And eyes of gleaming gold.
“No need to know.”
Kaiderion von Delbar.
The Duke of Delbar had descended upon the world himself.
He looked up at the sky.
“…So it has finally descended.”
The witch’s advent.
The revival of the calamity of lust.
The world… would once again call the name of calamity.
“…That won’t happen.”
And the Duke of Delbar… would not allow it.
Step.
His footsteps pressed against the frozen ground.
So that this world would never again utter the name of nightmares.
So that no one would ever be trapped in inescapable dreams again.
***
“…….”
It was my oversight.
My mistake.
My misjudgment.
The one decision I made…
Had taken everything from me.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
[ Leviathan ]
■■
: 「Abyss」
■ Unique Skills
: 【Into the Abyss】
: 【…】
High■ Traits
: 【Dragon That Couldn't Become a Dragon】
: 【Abyss■ Servant】
: 【…】
Ab■■ities
: Vitality : 40 (S)
: Strength : 40 (S)
: Intellect : 29 (B)
: Mentality : 35 (A)
: Mana : 45 (S)
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
I should have noticed sooner.
If I’d suspected just a little earlier…
If I hadn’t trusted myself so much…
Leviathan would never have been taken from me.
“…….”
Why didn’t I look?
Just because it was a hassle?
“…No.”
I had 【Laplace’s Eye】.
An eye that pierced through all of an opponent’s information.
But…
I deliberately chose not to look.
Because if the being’s rank was far above mine, they could sense me too.
And I had learned that lesson painfully through Veronica.
“…….”
And Leviathan was a ‘dragon’ as well.
She would surely… react to 【Laplace’s Eye】 too.
I didn’t want that.
Because Leviathan might be with me for life…
I didn’t want to create an awkward moment for no reason.
So I turned a blind eye.
That’s why I didn’t look.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Dragon That Couldn't Become a Dragon】
■^%■■■@#
: The blood of dragons and spirits flows.
: ■
■+)■■■’…*(!…■Only for the ‘king’…■
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
“…….”
No.
It was all excuses.
I just turned away from the excuses I made for myself.
“…I was the one who didn’t look.”
Leviathan had always only looked at me.
Yet I never truly looked at Leviathan until the end.
“That’s right… You can’t see what’s right in front of you.”
Then…
Bellamir, leaning crookedly on her throne, cast her blood-red gaze at me.
“You’re always like that. Captivated by the past, clinging to the future… and missing what’s closest first….”
Bellamir’s gaze turned to the sky.
…The red moon.
The crimson moonlight grew ever thicker, devouring all the world’s light.
“That child too….”
“…….”
“And you as well….”
Bellamir remembers.
The looks the entire world gave her.
No one, not a single soul…
Had ever looked at Bellamir with warmth.
Always whispering behind her back, avoiding her face-to-face…
Their eyes held only disgust and fear.
“The lonely trembling girl is gone….”
Corrupted spirits gathered around Bellamir.
Impure children dripping blood-red shadows as they followed her.
Bellamir… carefully embraced them.
Like embracing parts of herself, children rejected everywhere…
She accepted them herself and whispered.
“I’m right here….”
In that moment…
Bellamir’s movements stopped.
The children who had been smiling at her while dripping red shadows…
For some reason… looked like they were wailing in agony.
Srrrrk…
Leviathan quietly approached her side.
Silently bowing her head… as if awaiting orders, she stood still.
But…
“…….”
Leviathan’s massive body trembled faintly.
“…Why is that?”
Bellamir gently reached out her hand.
Her fingertips brushed Leviathan’s scales, whispering dreams.
“No one is looking at ‘you’….”
“…….”
“No one is looking at us….”
That’s what she said.
The world isn’t looking at us…
So we just need to look at each other.
We can be everything to one another.
We won’t be forgotten or abandoned.
However…
“…….”
Bellamir didn’t know.
That her crimson eyes no longer turned toward her.
Pajijik… Pajijik…
In Leviathan’s eyes… purple and crimson intertwined.
Watching the change, I quietly lifted the corner of my mouth.
“Yeah….”
Even if you’re a spirit, you’re definitely a ‘dragon.’
A being everyone looks up to.
“You can’t submit to something like that.”
Pajijik…! Pajijijijik…!
The name ‘dragon’… demands pride worthy of it.
Unyielding will…
An unbowed head.
“H-How…!!”
Bellamir panicked and hastily withdrew her hand.
Leviathan, freed from the witch’s fingertips.
──────!!
Cracks rippled across the moon in the sky…
Space turned black, and endless abyss darkness eroded the world.
“…Ha.”
I know.
That you’ve always listened to my words.
So…
I’ll say it over and over until you snap out of it.
“You damn fish.”
Some game protagonist once said.
Miracles… come to those who don’t give up.
And I…
Until now.
Even now.
Had never given up.
─────!!!
Awakening from the dream, the moon shatters, and endless abyss blooms.
And…
The world granted me a miracle.
“Rise, Leviathan.”
If you only bow your head for the ‘king.’
I’ll gladly become that ‘king’ for you.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Dragon That Couldn't Become a Dragon】
A serpent that soared higher than any other, gazing at the heavens from the abyss’s darkness.
But she…
Never gained wings.
: The blood of dragons and spirits flows.
: An incomplete lineage, but its resolve surpasses that of a true dragon.
Bearing all the world’s ridicule and scorn, she chose scales over wings.
And on the ground instead of the sky, only for the ‘king’… she resolved to be a fake.
Someone said.
She could never be real.
But someone knows.
The sorrow she swallowed, the desire she hid.
And her loyalty, deeper than any other…
Shone brighter than a true dragon.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
***
“Why are you struggling?”
“…….”
Klaus stood panting under the red sky, corrupted spirits before him.
His body was already a wreck.
Covered in blood and sweat, he desperately held back the spirits.
But even so…
“…Phew.”
The corner of Klaus’s mouth slowly rose.
[ Klaus’s unique trait 【Adaptive Protagonist】 reacts. ]
“…I’m starting to get used to it.”
This sensation.
This feeling of overcoming himself even in despair.
“This feeling again.”
He laughed without realizing it.
Maybe it was strange.
Surrounded and cornered on a cliff…
Yet somehow, confidence overflowed.
No one behind him, only the witch and monsters ahead…
Why did it feel so reassuring?
[ Klaus temporarily acquires the trait 【Radiance · Extreme】. ]
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Radiance · Extreme】
Light does not retreat.
That light pierces beyond the extreme, illuminating the world.
: Light attribute attack power increases by 100%.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
- Kuaaaang!
Dazzling radiance exploded.
Klaus, swinging his sword, moved faster than light.
Light swept the surroundings in an instant, annihilating half the corrupted spirits.
“…It’s futile.”
Bellamir furrowed her brow and drove forth an even greater horde of corrupted spirits.
Spirits are infinite.
Human strength is finite.
An inherently unbalanced law of equivalence.
This fight… was unbalanced from the start.
“…What’s futile?”
Even as he fought frantically, Klaus lifted the corner of his mouth.
Wounds bloomed on his body, sweat kept pouring…
But his eyes still shone brilliantly.
“…You are fated to never succeed.”
“Success….”
Klaus quietly repeated the word.
Success.
What did that even mean?
Click.
Gripping his sword anew, Klaus smiled.
“That’s your standard.”
Klaus’s definition of success.
Wasn’t victory.
Only… ‘not giving up.’
“…You can never defeat me.”
“…Defeat?”
Klaus knew himself better than anyone.
His talents, his limits, and…
The reality that an unbeatable foe stood before him.
So…
“If that’s your idea of success… I’ll gladly remain a failure.”
“Failure… Can you bear it?”
A sneer crossed Bellamir’s lips, but…
Klaus unwittingly burst into laughter.
“You’re the one who has to bear it.”
Tuk.
Tuduk.
Black droplets.
The abyss’s darkness… began falling from the sky.
Riding the crimson moonlight’s flow… black shadows blanketed the world.
“Success isn’t mine.”
The moon gradually lost its form.
Atop the sky eroded by abyss shadows.
The crimson light distorted.
“It’s the protagonist’s.”
Puwook……!!
Rising abyss.
In its center, Klaus grinned through his bloodied face.
“Protagonists always show up at the end, right….”
────────!!!
Primordial darkness twisted.
A massive dragon swimming the abyss roared.
And…
“Perfect timing.”
In this moment when light and darkness alike fell silent.
A silhouette stepping forth over the abyss.
One man piercing the silence of the world.
“Adel.”