Chapter 115
Chapter 115
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 115
Chapter Title: The Evil Dragon's Fall
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BOOM!
Lightning roared through the thunderclouds.
Below them.
A man stood there, having incinerated the evil dragon with pristine white flames.
The Judgment Lord.
The world's one and only angelkin.
The halo spinning fiercely around him began to slow to a halt.
A satisfied smile crept across his face, content with having thwarted the prophecy.
Thud—
The body of the evil dragon, Jeramakia, began to fade away.
"Another prophecy averted."
In stark contrast to his smile.
"Aaaahhh!"
The old dragon, Jerome Makira, shed bloody tears as he writhed in agony.
Jerome Makira rolled across the ground and charged forward.
"Leyzon."
"Leave him be."
Leyzon stopped Syria from intervening.
He had anticipated the Judgment Lord's arrival.
But even Leyzon hadn't expected him to target the evil dragon first.
'Why go after the evil dragon first?'
The Judgment Lord revered the prophecy.
That meant he had deemed the evil dragon a key figure in it.
'The Judgment Lord moves to judge future evils in accordance with the prophecy.'
Leyzon's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
What was a prophecy, anyway?
In the end, it was just a skill.
And skills existed solely within the framework of the Empire.
'...Is the Judgment Lord truly acting to eradicate evil?'
Doubt began to creep into Leyzon's mind.
The entity that issued the prophecies.
He suspected it was manipulating the Judgment Lord at will.
Leyzon watched Jerome Makira charge toward the Judgment Lord.
The old dragon's eyes were consumed by rage.
He had sacrificed the current dragonkin for the future of their race.
A lifetime's devotion crumbled in an instant.
It was only natural that it would drive him mad.
Wounds tore open across his charging body, leaving it a mangled wreck.
Eden's curse bound him tight.
His body creaked, his legs felt like lead.
His mind was far from sound.
Yet Jerome Makira pressed on undeterred.
Propelled by sheer fury, he finally reached his son's side.
His son burned endlessly within the white flames.
"Jera."
He called his son by his pet name.
But no response came.
If anything, his son looked at peace amid the blaze.
The madness born from his transcendence lingered no more.
As if freed from that torment forever.
He burned away in silence.
Jerome Makira felt his insides twist.
Grief overwhelmed him.
If this was to be the end, why had his son endured such suffering?
Why had the dragonkin needed to vanish?
Thump—
His knees hit the ground, and he collapsed.
"Father, I will become a monster for the dragonkin."
His son, the seed of their future, tormented by madness.
Each time sanity returned, he wailed in agony.
Yet for the dragonkin's future, he endured.
Jerome vividly recalled his son's heartbreaking smile.
Now, his son was unrecognizable even to his own father.
And still, he had hoped his boy would carry on the dragonkin.
'Was it all my greed?'
If so, wouldn't it have been better to let the dragonkin's future unfold untouched?
Wouldn't a happy life with his son have been the better path?
Jerome Makira gazed blankly at the sky.
The clouded heavens mirrored the dragonkin's doomed future.
Drip—
Bloody tears from Jerome Makira's eyes soaked the ground.
His gaze fell upon the Judgment Lord.
Crackle—
Blue lightning arced around Jerome Makira.
Today, he had lost the dragonkin's future.
And his son.
Nothing remained for him.
Only the rage searing his soul.
He resented the world.
His faded hair darkened to jet black.
As if the evil dragon's madness had infected him.
Then.
Roll—
Something tumbled from Jeramakia's body.
A fist-sized orb.
It halted abruptly.
Jerome Makira's fury paused for a moment.
The Judgment Lord and Jerome Makira both stared at the orb.
It was translucent.
Inside floated what looked like a tiny dragon.
The instant their eyes met.
The Judgment Lord swung his hand.
Jerome Makira's hand shot out toward him in turn.
Blue lightning and white light erupted simultaneously.
Two beings at the pinnacle of power.
Their clash brought calamity to the Sunset Desert region.
But Jerome Makira had already fought countless battles.
He had no strength left to face the Judgment Lord.
'The dragonkin aren't finished yet.'
He stood before the Judgment Lord now out of sheer stubbornness.
Stubbornness to protect their future.
Blood poured from Jerome Makira's mouth.
His body trembled, but his eyes burned bright.
'The dragonkin aren't finished yet!'
The future his son had entrusted lived on.
How could a father falter now?
As Lord of the Dragonkin, he had to safeguard that orb at all costs.
The moment unprecedented power surged from Jerome Makira's body.
Red hair flashed in his vision.
The Bloodless Sovereign, Nirmokiria.
She appeared and snatched the evil dragon's orb in an instant.
"Nirmokiria."
Jerome Makira called her name with bulging eyes.
The Bloodless Sovereign's gaze met his for the briefest moment.
Her eyes were utterly cold.
"I beg you."
Yet Jerome Makira smiled at her with profound warmth.
It was the last thing he could do.
The Bloodless Sovereign gave no reply and fled the scene.
"The prophecy!"
The Judgment Lord's hand lashed out, white light flashing.
Aiming to seize the escaping Bloodless Sovereign.
But a massive shadow blocked his path.
BOOM!
The light veered off, vanishing with the shadow.
The Judgment Lord's brow twitched.
He knew the owner of that malice-filled red shadow.
The day his attendant died.
He had suspected that death tied to the prophecy's subject.
Poison and shadows.
The traces matched what he'd sensed in the Sahā Realm dungeon that day.
Another prophecy target lurked here.
The Judgment Lord had to stop it.
But another figure blocked him.
The battered old dragon, Jerome Makira.
He stood before the Judgment Lord, gasping for breath.
"Abyss!"
Jerome Makira cried out to the one who could turn the tide.
"...Just this once."
Leyzon had vanished the moment the Judgment Lord appeared.
That cunning bastard had likely used himself as bait.
He knew it, but he needed Leyzon's power now.
Blood trickled from Jerome Makira's mouth.
Proof his internals were in turmoil.
Yet he refused to halt the power he had summoned.
"Let this old one fight him—just this once."
He pleaded with blood churning in his throat.
Jerome Makira's body shuddered.
Selling his soul to a demon, but he was as good as dead anyway.
'If that's the case, then at least.'
He wanted to buy time for the Bloodless Sovereign to escape with the dragonkin's future.
He resolved to offer his life to the demon willingly.
It wasn't a bad deal for Leyzon either.
He had expended power battling Jerome Makira.
He had accounted for the Judgment Lord's arrival.
But avoiding him was the best option.
Even for Leyzon now, the Judgment Lord was a formidable foe.
The old dragon's final struggle.
From the red shadows, Leyzon raised a hand.
Syria and Eden stood beside him.
Leyzon had been Jerome Makira's enemy, yet he chose to oblige.
"Syria, Eden."
At Leyzon's call, the two undead moved in unison.
Syria's blood roughly animated Jerome Makira's body.
The forcibly injected blood temporarily restored his flesh.
Eden lifted the curse binding him.
Instead, he triggered a new one using the old.
A curse that numbed pain.
A curse that heightened the mind.
A curse that unleashed mana wildly.
The curses awakening him one after another.
Rumble!
Explosive power erupted from Jerome Makira's body.
A force even the Judgment Lord couldn't ignore.
Jerome Makira clenched his fists tight.
Undead on par with him—utterly absurd.
He felt anew the danger of the Abyss.
An utterly inscrutable figure.
'The fossils in the imperial palace have no idea what monster is stirring in this world.'
But it didn't matter.
He had merely used the imperial family for the dragonkin's future.
The Abyss's true aims were irrelevant now.
He would burn his life to avenge his son.
One name surfaced in his mind.
The young dragon, Nermakadia.
After his death, the child would be isolated in the palace.
Jerome Makira clenched his fists tighter.
A sturdy kid.
She'd manage on her own.
Believing that, he ignited his final life in brilliant flame.
Kaboom!
Blue lightning surged fiercely from Jerome Makira's entire body.
The Judgment Lord's face twisted in fury.
"Lord of the Dragonkin, stand aside. I must fulfill the prophecy."
Jerome Makira spat out the blood pooling in his mouth.
"So you're angelkin."
He smirked triumphantly, blood staining his lips.
"That face is no different from a demon's."
All emotion vanished from the Judgment Lord's face.
White light scattered from him at once.
Jerome Makira countered, unleashing lightning.
The Dragonkin Lord clashed with the angelkin.
The surroundings were devastated, gales howling.
The two calamities fought to kill each other.
Amid it all, Jerome Makira laughed.
The old dragon simply laughed, overjoyed at having passed on their future.