Chapter 106
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 105
Chapter Title: Blindness (4)
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“I shall prepare magic to assassinate him before Mortheus succumbs to madness.”
“Let's focus on taking down the Giant King.”
“……”
“……”
For a brief moment, we stared at each other in disbelief.
Then it hit me.
The domain of Blindness was quietly, steadily encroaching on Igni.
‘Take down Mortheus and crush his heart.’
It was a perfectly reasonable goal. That had been the plan from the start, after all.
A few hours ago, I would have agreed with Igni without hesitation.
…Yes. Up until I heard from her about the whereabouts of Blindness’s power.
Our true objective wasn’t strictly Mortheus’s dragon heart.
It was the power of Blindness contained within it.
Even so, Igni had guessed that the expedition would soon clash with a mighty foe, and that Mortheus would lose his mind to Blindness’s power in the process.
Yet her conclusion was still to kill him before he fell to it.
If we wanted to deal with Blindness’s power, we should target the Giant King’s heart where it now resided.
Or at the very least, take down Mortheus after he’d gone mad as its host.
But Igni had said to kill him before he lost his mind to it.
A clear case of confusing means with ends.
The moment I heard it, I realized the truth. A thousand years ago, neither I nor Igni had been the protagonist of this world.
Mortheus had.
If all this was some grand play, then it was undoubtedly a tragedy scripted to destroy him.
My guess was that Mortheus would lead his expedition into their most glorious battle… only to meet the most wretched end.
I’d seen it firsthand while watching him. He wasn’t fighting out of revenge for his lost wife.
He fought to protect a crumbling continent, his falling kin one by one, and the young daughter he hoped would survive in it.
But if all his desperate struggles ended with that very daughter killing him, how horrific would that be?
A tale designed to place him at the highest peak, only to hurl him into the deepest abyss. A tragedy crafted solely for tragedy’s sake.
Even Igni had fallen under Blindness’s sway, her perception manipulated without a single warning sign.
…For some reason, I remained unaffected.
Thump! Thump!
My heartbeat pounded louder than ever today. No matter how the outside world twisted, this biological clock pulsed on in its steady rhythm.
The moment I focused on it, I knew exactly what I had to do.
It was the same as facing the Nightmare God. To counter a god’s power, you either overwhelm it with sheer force… or deny its very concept head-on.
The former was practically impossible, so it came down to the latter.
Prevent the tragedy bearing down on Mortheus.
Ensure he never succumbed to the power and went mad, so that Igni wouldn’t unknowingly kill her still-sane father.
…Burn the script laid out by the God of Tragedy.
And the first step was clear.
“Igni.”
“My lady. It seems you’ve been slightly touched by Blindness’s power. What does it matter what the Giant King is? The only thing that matters is Mortheus’s dragon heart…”
“You trust me, right?”
“Of course I do.”
Even as she said it, Igni wore an incredibly suspicious expression. I reached out toward her.
“Eek?!”
The horns sprouting from her head. I grabbed them both with my hands—the elegantly curved dragon horns that evoked a crown. Like gripping handlebars.
A solid texture pressed into my palms. They seemed meticulously maintained, their surface gleaming with a subtle sheen, smooth without any rough or sharp edges. Perfect grip.
It almost felt like they’d grown there just to serve as handles.
The horns, infused with the fire-attuned mana unique to red dragons, grew even warmer, and Igni’s face flushed red.
“Relax. Don’t be scared—just let your body go limp.”
“Limp from the neck up?!”
“I said body, not neck… but whatever. It’ll be over quick, so don’t worry. It won’t hurt much.”
“Sweet-talking like that…! Hmph, but if you insist so strongly? I suppose I could let myself be fooled once or twice? Anyway, proceed…”
Igni glanced my way sidelong, her eyes brimming with anticipation.
I gave her a short chuckle in return, then…
…
…
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channeled aura directly into her horns.
“Hoooook?!”
Igni let out a strange yelp as flame-like aura rose from her horns.
Of course, I wasn’t trying to snap them off or anything.
I was simply pushing aura in; the rebounding excess naturally spilled out instead of forcing it back in.
The temperature inside the tent rose rapidly, but Igni wouldn’t be harmed by this level of heat.
I held the thrashing, panicked Igni tight and kept infusing aura. How long did I continue?
The aura, which had lingered only in her horns, began seeping into her head, then soon enveloped her entire body.
From there, I started lightly filling her body with aura and drawing it out repeatedly—without interfering with her mana circuits.
If I had to compare it, it was like showering in flames instead of water.
Back in Calypso Territory, I’d never learned proper aura breathing techniques for various reasons, so I’d just accumulated vast mana throughout my body.
Thanks to that, I was confident in spreading energy through the flesh itself without touching the mana circuits.
…If I couldn’t even manage this, I’d have died long ago.
How many times did I rinse her body with flames? At some point, the now-calm Igni tapped the back of my hand gripping her horns.
“That’s enough now. Let go.”
“Got it.”
I withdrew the last traces of aura from her body and released her horns.
As expected, sweat beaded on her skin, but she didn’t seem hurt.
Having mana of the same attribute made it par for the course.
I wiped the sweat rolling down her round forehead with my sleeve, and she let her plump tail droop as she spoke.
“It was I who had been deceived, not you…”
“Maybe I’m under Blindness’s influence too, who knows.”
“No, that’s not it. When you fall to Blindness’s power, you don’t even consider that you might be wrong.”
I see.
Her firm conviction made me wonder if maybe… but that very doubt proved I was unaffected.
…Anyway, I’d ponder later why I was immune to the God of Tragedy’s power.
“Looks like you’re back to your senses. Let’s revise the plan.”
“Wise idea. First, forget what I said. This place is just a grand illusion born from Father’s dragon heart and the Blindness power parasitizing it, isn’t it?”
“So we’re already inside the heart—no need to hunt for it separately.”
“That too, but think back to what Father muttered after becoming the Evil Dragon.”
“You mean the things he said and did while fighting me?”
It was such a memorable battle that it came right back.
The morning sun doesn’t rise, I’ll defeat the God of Tragedy, fight alongside me, and so on.
“Aha?”
“Caught on?”
“Yeah.”
Simple enough. Every word from Mortheus, leader of the Wild Hunt… fit perfectly with the scenery Blindness’s power was showing now.
He kept repeating the past over and over, lost in blurred memories, living trapped in bygone days.
Gathering the West’s heroes, fighting, losing… and going mad.
That was the script permitted to Mortheus—and what unfolded in this domain of Blindness that we’d entered.
“There must be a reason the tragedy must repeat. Thus, we must end this cycle.”
“That’ll detach Blindness’s power from the dragon heart, and without fuel, the domain collapses. …Wait. Isn’t that the same conclusion as mine?”
To prevent the scenario where Blindness transfers to Mortheus, I take down the Giant King.
By denying the fated defeat and madness, weakening the power so it naturally separates from Mortheus’s dragon heart.
A god’s power is hard for mortals to handle… but once sufficiently weakened, things change.
I might even be able to destroy it outright—or at least reseal it far more safely than now.
One thing was certain: we could end the West’s calamity for good.
Igni nodded firmly.
“A mage grows stronger the more they prepare. I shall devise spells to face the Giant.”
“You said even you lack info on the Giant King since records are scarce. I’ll scout for weaknesses.”
Igni rose confidently. I stood too, patting her back encouragingly.
We’d been cooped up in the tent too long. The moment I dispelled the soundproofing spell and stepped out…
I locked eyes with Mortheus, who was peering in with his massive head, as if he had something to say.
His eyes, larger than my torso, trembled as he quickly scanned me and Igni.
The steam wafting from the tent, our sweat-soaked yet refreshed faces, Igni drenched in my aura, and finally, my hand naturally draped over her back and shoulder.
Whatever he imagined, Mortheus spoke in a grave tone.
-Remember this. Half-breeds must live in human society, not dragon society.
“I-It’s not like that! I just grabbed her horns like handles!”
-…….
Igni bowed her head reflexively, but Mortheus just clicked his tongue like the world was ending.
Handles. Good grief, how embarrassing.