The Truth Behind the Crystal Dragon
Lim Dojun followed the trail Go Wonjin had left behind and crossed over to the neighboring estate.
They called it the neighbor’s house, but both mansions occupied such enormous plots that the distance between them was considerable.
The ground had been split open in long fissures and everything lay in ruins, so following the path was easy.
A shattered garden wall, a front gate cleaved neatly in two, and beyond it an entrance gaping wide open.
Lim Dojun read the lingering traces of sorcery left there.
‘Is this the sorcery of another world?’
The Ghost Temple was said to be composed of returnees from a world other than Astelgard. The power they wielded therefore followed completely different principles from magic, yet—unexpectedly—Lim Dojun found the traces relatively easy to decipher.
‘Concealment… this looks like a hallucination-type sorcery that distorts space through sensory interference. And there’s something hidden here. A seal of some kind, too.’
A dragon was called the apex of all magic. Even though Lim Dojun had only obtained 1.5 percent of that body, it meant his eyes and cognitive abilities had become, even if only slightly, those of a dragon.
Any sorcery, no matter how unfamiliar, could be interpreted on an instinctive level. He couldn’t yet grasp the precise structure or mechanics, but he could at least understand what the spell was meant to do.
‘It’s almost completely destroyed.’
Go Wonjin had torn through the array so violently that most of it had stopped functioning.
Lim Dojun stepped past the ruined spell circle and moved inside.
Boom! Boom!
The concealment sorcery was apparently still active; the moment he entered the mansion, the sound of explosions rolled out from deeper within.
“You crazy bastard! Are you trying to start a war with the Ghost Temple? You’re violating the Returnee Union’s treaty!”
“Shut up! You’re the one who kept making a damn racket first! Ever heard of self-defense?”
“What kind of lunatic calls this self-defense?!”
The furious shouting echoed all the way to where he stood. After that came the repeated clash of sword energy ripping across the floor and sorcery detonating against it.
While the surroundings flashed and thundered, Lim Dojun carefully scanned the area.
‘Where do I need to go?’
The answer didn’t take long. Sword energy flew past and demolished part of the mansion, revealing a basement staircase from which a suspicious aura was leaking. Lim Dojun realized at a glance that was his destination.
As he started down the stairs, Go Wonjin suddenly whipped around the corner.
“Bro. Why’d you come all the way here instead of waiting at home?”
“I came to help you, brother. Aren’t we sworn brothers?”
“Hah. Real loyalty right there.”
Go Wonjin grinned and clapped Lim Dojun’s shoulder a few times.
“But I’ve been dying to smash that ghost freak myself. Got a lot of built-up resentment. I’ll leave some scraps for you later, so can you let me handle this one?”
“If that’s what you want, I’ll leave it to you.”
“Thanks.”
Go Wonjin kicked off the ground again and charged back toward the sorcerer.
‘Looks like I won’t be interrupted for a while.’
Whoever the sorcerer was, he didn’t seem likely to break through Go Wonjin and come after Lim Dojun.
Inside the mansion, more spell circles were densely packed everywhere. But a large number had already been destroyed by sword energy, so only a few were still active.
Flutter.
Several talismans that had been lying on the floor rose into the air and shot toward him. The remaining security sorcery had triggered. Lim Dojun gave a light wave of his hand.
Crack!
A paper-thin blade of ice sliced the talismans cleanly in half. If this was the extent of their serious defenses, it was almost trivial.
At the bottom of the basement stairs lay a small room.
‘A laboratory?’
It resembled the research labs and testing rooms he had seen in the Magic Tower. The only differences were that magic circles had been replaced by spell arrays and scrolls by talismans; otherwise the setup was remarkably similar.
Hummmmm.
A strange wave emanated from the talisman in the center of the room—the same sound that had irritated Go Wonjin. Seeing it up close, Lim Dojun roughly understood its purpose.
‘It stimulates emotion.’
Listening to the bizarre frequency made all kinds of feelings surge: anxiety, chaos, irritation, happiness, joy… Yet Lim Dojun only felt them faintly. The dragon’s will residing in his body was blocking the sound that shook the emotions.
He gave the laboratory a quick once-over. Hoping to find anything useful, he rifled through a stack of papers. One rather old-looking report slipped out and fell to the floor.
“……!”
Lim Dojun’s eyes turned ice-cold.
Park Chanwoo, a sorcerer of the Ghost Temple, was dumbfounded.
‘What a lunatic! I’ve heard the nickname Mad Dog, but I never thought he’d act this recklessly!’
Go Wonjin, the Mad Dog. The name was famous. They said he came from a radical religious terrorist group in Astelgard called the Extreme Martial God Sect, and even after returning to Earth he still hadn’t adapted properly.
Or rather, he had adapted only halfway. He was the type who treated you well if he liked you, but charged in without hesitation if he didn’t.
That was why Park Chanwoo had reinforced the mansion’s security sorcery to avoid any unnecessary trouble. Yet during one experiment a portion of the energy had leaked out.
‘It was an unavoidable problem, but the bastard immediately starts swinging his sword…’
The Returnee Union discouraged infighting among members. A mistake here could spark an all-out war between the Astelgard Alumni Association and the Ghost Temple.
Anyone with a brain would avoid fighting recklessly, but—
“You empty-headed son of a bitch!”
This guy clearly had no brain at all.
Park Chanwoo ran quickly. He had barely managed to restrain the Mad Dog’s feet with sorcery because he stood no chance against him in close combat. If he stayed any longer, defeat was only a matter of time.
However, there were confidential documents in the basement that could not be allowed to leak. His plan was to destroy them and escape.
Tap tap tap.
He hurried down the basement stairs, stepping over the broken traces of sorcery.
When he reached the laboratory and saw Lim Dojun standing there, he flinched and immediately pulled out a talisman.
“Who the hell are you? What are you doing in my lab?”
“…This research report. Only the front part remains. Where is the rest?”
Lim Dojun flipped the paper. It contained only the cover and the first page.
The Crystal Dragon had been summoned by the Ghost Temple. What had been mere suspicion was now confirmed as fact.
Park Chanwoo frowned.
“What is that? Crystal Dragon? Ah. Looks like the shredding was incomplete. So that was still lying around.”
Even as he spoke, Park Chanwoo’s gaze kept drifting toward the talisman in the center of the lab that emitted the strange sound. It was the only item in this laboratory that he had to take with him.
‘An emotional amplification device created using Dragon Fear. We must continue developing it.’
If they kept improving it, they might even be able to produce something close to a pseudo-Dragon Fear.
“I need to leave before that Mad Dog gets here, so stop bothering me and get out of the way.”
Park Chanwoo hurled the talisman. It burst into flame in mid-air. He felt no tension looking at Lim Dojun.
One glance told him the opponent was a mage. And since he wasn’t with the Mad Dog, he didn’t seem particularly skilled. He had probably been snooping around hoping to scavenge something. A mage of that level would be easy to deal with.
Thud!
Behind Park Chanwoo, the shape of a ghost with a knife in its mouth flickered into existence for a moment.
Sorcerers of the Ghost Temple used a power called “soul force.” Magic and sorcery shared similar roots, but sorcerers temporarily amplified their soul force by borrowing the souls of the ghosts they commanded.
A mage possessing a human soul would inevitably be overwhelmed, even if only for an instant, by a ghost’s soul. Returnees who specialized in martial combat could usually resist this method, but mages whose spiritual eyes were open found it far more difficult.
‘Even a brief moment of panic will disrupt his casting. I just need to exploit that opening.’
Given time he would adapt, but at first he would have no choice but to be shaken.
Ki-kiiii?
Suddenly the ghost widened its eyes at something, dropped the knife it had been holding, and began to tremble violently. Then it dissolved into smoke and vanished.
“Cough?!”
The backlash made Park Chanwoo vomit blood. The pain felt as if his organs were being torn apart, but the question that rose in his mind was even greater.
‘What… what did it see?’
Why would a ghost that had been with him for so long suddenly annihilate itself?
He forced his blurring vision to focus. That was when he saw it—something faint hovering behind Lim Dojun.
A massive body. Glinting eyes.
The moment he looked directly at it, his soul felt as if it were being split in two. Park Chanwoo vomited blood again.
“You… you… how do you have the power of the Crystal Dragon?!”
Even with a mind half-crazed by terror, he asked the question that burned most in his thoughts. He had participated in the Crystal Dragon summoning experiment in the past and knew the details well. The experiment had failed, and cleaning up the aftermath had been an enormous headache.
That was how he knew. Though five years had passed, that feeling of the soul definitely belonged to the Crystal Dragon.
“!”
Only then did Park Chanwoo finally look closely at Lim Dojun’s face.
“Major… Lim Dojun?”
He remembered the man. During the failed attempt to control the Crystal Dragon, when the creature had broken free, the Special Counter-Abnormal Team had appeared. Lim Dojun had stood at the forefront, using every artifact at his disposal to confront the beast. His astonishing combat prowess at the time had left even the sorcerers impressed; the memory had stayed with them.
“I think we need to have a talk. What exactly happened back then?”
Lim Dojun strode forward, grabbed Park Chanwoo by the collar, and hauled him up.
“Kuhuhu… Major Lim Dojun. I heard you became a half-paralyzed cripple. How are you perfectly fine?”
“It wasn’t that bad. And I’m the one asking the questions.”
“Questions, huh? Cough. You dare look down on a returnee of the Ghost Temple! You should have killed me when you had the chance!”
The moment Park Chanwoo shouted, several talismans flew out from inside his robe.
“!”
An ominous power began to surge. Lim Dojun tensed.
‘This could be dangerous.’
In truth, he had done nothing to subdue Park Chanwoo. The man had summoned his ghost, then suddenly vomited blood and collapsed. But whatever he was preparing now was making the surrounding mana tremble violently. Judging by his expression, it would deal a serious blow if it went off.
Lim Dojun raised his own mana and prepared for the worst.
At that instant—
Shuk!
“Found you. Why do you keep running away? So annoying.”
“Cough…?”
A sword suddenly jutted from Park Chanwoo’s chest. Go Wonjin had appeared behind him without a sound and driven the blade straight through.