Draig Goch (1)
Without warning, the red dragon took to the sky.
Whether the white-grade adventurers and the knight order stripped its scales with their relentless assault or not, the red dragon spread its wings wide and surged upward, as if it had been waiting for this exact moment from the start.
"······!"
Najin, who had been dismantling the white dragon's wing, snapped his eyes wide. A chill raced down his spine. His instincts were sounding the alarm, and he knew well enough that in situations like this, following those instincts was almost always the right call.
Crack. Crrraaack!
Najin twisted the sword he had driven deep into the white dragon's wing joint, turning it clockwise. Flesh tore, and the white dragon's exposed pure-white bone ground away with a grinding screech.
『———————!』
The white dragon thrashed with a scream of agony, but with one wing immobilized, it could not hold its balance. Its thrashing only slowed the fall a little — yet for Najin, that was enough.
Shhk!
He yanked the sword free of the wing joint. Through a fountain of spraying blood, Najin hurled himself clear. Sliding behind the white dragon's wing, he drove his blade in once more and clung to the hilt, hiding his body behind the wing.
That judgment proved correct.
Because the red dragon that had climbed skyward opened its jaws wide and unleashed a torrent of fire. Dragon's Breath — the exclusive weapon of the dragonkind, said to rival a spell of at least six circles — erupted from the red dragon's maw.
Heat and scorching wind, and the onrushing flames.
Without hesitation, the red dragon poured its Breath straight at the white dragon. It was attacking its own half, its own kin and ally. Najin had no idea why — but grasping the situation mattered more than understanding it.
Fwoooooosh!
Hidden behind the white dragon's wing, Najin curled in on himself. Bare flesh would have melted for certain. But the white dragon's body filtered the flames once, and he barely managed to endure. Even so, the heat punching through the wing seared his skin with a sizzling hiss.
The white dragon's howling scream. The sound of its flesh burning. Flames crawled into the wounds Najin had carved open. The white dragon's scales could withstand fire — but the blaze that slipped through the gaps he had torn forced open was consuming it from within.
—What…? Why?
Merlin's startled voice cut in. Even she had not seen this coming.
Something had gone wrong. Najin understood that much. From here on, the only thing he could trust was his own instinct. He moved exactly as his senses warned him to.
The red dragon wasn't aiming at me.
It was aiming at the white dragon. Not him — the white dragon. Then this would not end with a Breath. Fire would only gnaw at the white dragon, not finish it. Something came next. What was next? The flames were thinning.
Using the rebound of his body, Najin shifted his stance and stood upright on the white dragon's still-smoldering back. Even the residual heat of the dying fire melted the soles of his boots, but he had no time to care. Eyes wide, he stared past the shimmering heat haze.
You've got to be kidding me.
And he saw it.
The red dragon, jaws gaping, charging straight at the white dragon. Closing the distance in an instant, it thrust its claws forward and seized the white dragon by the throat — the white dragon still reeling from the Breath.
Then — crunch.
The red dragon sank its teeth into the white dragon's neck. Dragon fangs shattered dragon scales. Scales flew. Blood sprayed. As the white dragon began thrashing in agony······
Whoooooosh!
Still clamped on the white dragon's throat, the red dragon dove. Beating both intact wings, it plummeted toward the ground. At this rate they would smash into the earth. Even a Sword Seeker, from this height and at this speed, would break every bone and die.
"Tch."
Najin clicked his tongue. He could not make sense of any of it, but he had to act.
Chrrrrk.
He flung out a length of chain toward the red dragon. It snagged on the red dragon's arm — the beast too absorbed in the white dragon to notice. Najin gave the chain one sharp tug to test the hold, then started running across the white dragon's back.
As they hurtled toward the ground, he leaned into the reverse wind, hauling on the chain as he ran. He kicked off the white dragon's back, vaulted up, and landed astride the red dragon's head.
No idea why you two suddenly decided to tear into each other,
Najin reversed his grip on the sword.
but I was planning to drop you next anyway.
He drove the blade into the red dragon's neck. Clutching the firmly planted sword, he braced for impact. A moment later the tangled white and red dragons slammed into the earth. A thunderous roar, and a mountain of dirt exploded upward.
Boom. Thud. Thuuuuud!
The two dragons that had crashed into the ground tore up the earth as they skidded. Dirt fountained. Collapsed stone pillars shattered to rubble. The impact shook the land, and knights who had been standing were thrown from their feet.
"Fall back!"
"Retreat! Retreat!"
Knights in the path of the sliding dragons shouted and ran. Those who had fallen and could not escape were pulled clear by the white-grade adventurers. The great bows they had planted in the ground were crushed to splinters against the dragons' bodies.
Crrraaash!
Only after sliding a long way did the two dragons finally come to a stop. Through the dust that had risen all the way to the sky came a sound. Crunch. Crack······ — the sound of a beast tearing into its prey.
"What…?"
"What the hell is…"
As the dust settled, the subjugation force could not contain their horror. What filled their sight was the red dragon, clamped on the white dragon's throat, devouring flesh and blood.
The white dragon and the red dragon. Had they not always been a pair? Nowhere in the records was there any account of them fighting each other. On the contrary, the histories were full of times they had moved to protect one another.
A situation that had erupted without warning. Confusion rippled through the subjugation force — and then they saw the red dragon's eyes. Pupils swirling with red. Eyes of pure, unadulterated menace. The eyes of a dragon that was tearing out its own kin's throat and swallowing its blood were wrong.
"···Oh, for fuck's sake."
Only one person recognized those eyes. Roselyn Ascalo, the red-eyed woman who carried exactly the same swirling pupils in her own soul. A bad feeling crawled over her. The witch's half of her soul was trembling.
And then the anomaly struck.
Thud.
The first to feel it was Najin, still perched on the red dragon's neck. In the moment the red dragon was absorbed in the white dragon, as he prepared to swing his sword and sever its throat, his body locked solid.
A vast, ominous presence. An unknowable, incomprehensible weight of existence crushed the entire area flat. Knights, white-grade adventurers — the whole subjugation force went rigid. Only Najin slipped free of the pressure. He had felt this kind of oppression once before.
His first meeting with Merlin. The landscape she had shown him. Back then he had experienced this exact sensation. Free of the binding, Najin snapped his head up. Reflexively he looked to the sky. There, across the vast night, hung the author of this colossal presence.
A void nestled among countless stars. In that pitch-black place where nothing was usually visible··· a star floated. Najin had watched the night sky every day since escaping the underground city, but this was the first time he had faced that star.
A star that should not be seen. A star that should not exist. A broken star that had slipped free of providence.
It was nothing like an ordinary star. Where the others shone platinum, this one burned red. A constellation of dark crimson light had taken its place in the void — and that constellation, like Arthur's, was made of thirteen stars.
—A witch······?
Merlin's stunned voice rang in Najin's ear. Her eyes were shaking. Only then did he understand what that constellation was.
The Calamity Star. The Star of Kamran. The constellation of the Witch of the Abyss.
The most feared constellation of all — the one that had cast down countless stars and brought an end to so many great heroes. It scattered its ominous light. A single flicker. An instant of radiance. For the briefest of moments the constellation revealed itself, then sank back into the dark.
But the light it had cast remained.
The red dragon roared. An unintelligible voice, thick with soot, rolled across the land. The blast of wind that came with the roar flung Najin's body into the air. Torn free of the red dragon, he tumbled across the ground and lifted his head.
Crunch. Rip··· crack.
The red dragon's swirling crimson eyes blazed with menace. Having snapped the white dragon's neck, it tore the flesh open with its claws. It crushed the white dragon's ribs and ripped out the dragon's heart still beating within.
Then — crunch.
The red dragon chewed and swallowed the white dragon's heart.
In that instant its body convulsed. The sound of bones twisting. The sound of muscle tearing and swelling. Amid those grotesque noises the red dragon's skeleton shifted, its bulk ballooning larger.
Crrrk. Crrrrrk!
More scales erupted. Its wings grew still greater. The very rank of the living creature ascended a step. All of it happened in a single moment.
An elevation of rank. From incomplete to complete.
The dragon that had once been one, then split into two, became whole by devouring the one that remained. As the heartless white dragon crumbled, the red dragon turned its head. Its blood-dripping jaws opened, and its gaze fixed on Najin.
The white dragon was dead. And the one closest to the completed dragon was Najin. The moment the red dragon saw the white and gold constellations coiled around Najin's sword, its pupils split wide.
White and gold. Platinum. Stars.
The reverse scale of every dragon.
With a roar, the red dragon charged him.
The instant the red dragon stamped the earth, the ground shook. Wings spread wide, it barreled toward Najin. A charge that put its colossal bulk to full use — mass itself as a weapon. Najin sucked in a sharp breath.
There was no time for confusion. His mind raced. Nowhere to dodge. He would have to take that charge or cut it aside. Constellations wound around his sword. Sword aura compressed to its limit scattered light. And in the moment he swung —
The red dragon slammed its limbs into the ground. Then it pivoted. Without shedding any of the charge's momentum, it spun half a turn in place. Dirt fountained as its tail lashed like a whip.
Rrrrrumble!
The dragon's tail scythed through earth and air. At the terrifying speed of its approach, Najin swung his sword. And in the instant of collision, a line from history forced itself into his mind.
"A dragon's tail will shatter even the greatest of walls. Before the beasts of the sky, all that mankind has raised is endlessly meaningless."
Najin's body lifted into the air. The fingers gripping his sword snapped with a wet crack. He tried to brace against the rebound of his sword aura, but the resistance of dragon scales scattered the aura and made even that impossible.
"Guh—!"
Impact crashed through him. Bones twisted. Muscle tore. The tail, whipping through a perfect arc, flicked its tip lightly — and Najin's body shot away like an arrow.
Thud. Crash. Thud!
He smashed through collapsed stone pillars and slammed into the wreckage. A single blow. The price of taking one hit. His head had struck a pillar; blood ran. The blood streaming down his brow painted his vision red.
"···, ···!"
"······!"
"·········!"
The subjugation force was shouting something, but none of it reached Najin's ears. Only a high ringing filled his eardrums.
Grit.
He clenched his teeth and forced himself upright. His head was heavy. His vision swam. Wiping the blood from his forehead with the back of his hand, he exhaled.
Merlin. Can you hear me?
—······Yeah.
Merlin's voice reached him. Not through his eardrums — a resonance of the soul. Steadying his breath, Najin raised his sword. Whether from the broken fingers or not, the right hand holding the blade trembled hard.
Crack. Crrrack!
He wrapped his left hand over the right, clamping down on the sword. Whether that was the sound of bones breaking or bones settling into place, he could not tell. Either way, the trembling stopped.
Najin lifted his head.
There stood the dragon.
The red dragon — Draig Goch.
Staring down the completed dragon, Najin shoved aside the rubble and stepped out into the open. Toward the beast that was roaring at the sky and shaking the earth, he took one more step.
"That lizard bastard."
Najin spat the words through his teeth.
"I'm definitely going to put it down."
As if earning a star was ever going to be easy. This was the kind of trial you needed if you meant to achieve something great.
Brushing blood-soaked hair back from his face, Najin settled into his stance.