Chapter 16
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Dragon Calamity (2)
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The princess's words, her breath heaving, slowed down.
The difference was minuscule, but that tiny gap created an opening.
Over the past ten days, Clay had trained relentlessly to close this distance. The hundreds of forms he had practiced against Tedric were all for this very moment.
Using the footwork embedded in the third form of the Silver Star Sword, he could close about six meters in one go.
That was exactly the distance between Clay and the princess right now.
‘Silver Star Sword, latter half, third form: Meteor.’
He raised the sword in his right hand horizontally high.
It was a motion not for slashing, but for thrusting.
Piiing!
His form shot forward like an arrow tearing through the wind. Faster than words could form.
Like a shooting star, as the form's name implied, it slammed into the dragon's horn.
Kagagang!
“Guh?!”
Sparks of crimson flame burst where horn met sword.
The thrust he thought would pierce through merely carved a long gash.
‘Too shallow!’
Even with mana infused into the blade, the dragon's horn didn't break. It left a rough wound, but nothing more.
But it wasn't for nothing.
Now one thing was certain.
‘The horn is definitely weaker than the rest!’
She had withstood countless attacks from soldiers without a single scratch on her body.
Arrows, mages' spells—none left even a mark on her skin.
Yet Clay's sword strike had left a clear wound on her horn.
“Aaaah!”
Crack!
Writhing in her first taste of pain, the princess's arm whipped toward Clay.
He reflexively pulled back, but it wasn't enough to fully blunt the impact.
“Keok!”
Unlike her delicate appearance, her strength was monstrous. It felt like being smashed by a massive stone pillar.
“Keok! Cough, cough!”
Clay flew several meters, rolling across the snow before barely coming to a stop.
Every breath stabbed his lungs like knives.
It was beyond pain. He wondered if he'd just die like this.
‘……Still, I got lucky.’
He could finally relax, feeling the texture against his back.
If not for the tree trunk, he might have tumbled down the mountainside.
‘A few ribs cracked, I bet.’
He staggered to his feet, but breathing properly was impossible.
Yet he wasn't the only one badly hurt.
The princess clutched her wounded horn, letting out agonized screams.
“Aaaah, aaaaah!”
Her golden eyes darted wildly, human reason clashing with draconic instinct.
Now would be the perfect chance to attack, but even taking a single step felt impossible.
‘……Hey, you said my sword could break it plenty fine.’
[I said probably.]
Gransesia replied sheepishly.
True, she had said "probably." So he'd half-expected something like this.
That reflex dodge when her arm swung— that was thanks to it.
Otherwise, cracked ribs would've been the least of it; his spine might've snapped clean.
‘It should be about time…….’
Yeah, this much was anticipated.
He hadn't thought a Dragon Calamity-level monster would go down easy.
That's why Clay had one more insurance policy.
“B-Banheart, sir! A-Are you alright?!”
‘He's here!’
Clay, taking deep anxious breaths, finally relaxed at the voice from behind.
“You…… came.”
“What reckless thing are you doing right now! You'll get yourself killed!”
Before charging at the princess, Clay had asked Michel the priest one favor.
Come down here once the princess's Dragon Words stopped.
‘Heroes who fight alongside protagonists really are something else.’
With a monster that had just literally mulched people right there, and he still charged in bravely. Michel wasn't ordinary.
Well, maybe it was inevitable—he'd received divine revelation and held a saintess's relic.
But right now, none of that mattered.
“I'll heal you right away.”
Clay had experienced Michel's healing once before, but his skill was leagues beyond an average priest.
His broken bones snapped back into place in seconds, minor cuts sealing instantly.
“To stand after wounds like that……”
“I believed you'd come, priest.”
“H-Haha. Truly…… Sir Banheart, you are an incredible man.”
Clay grinned at his awkward laugh and raised his sword.
The wounds were healed, but it wasn't over yet.
“U, uuuuugh.”
Her glowing golden eyes fixed on Clay.
Clutching her injured horn, the dragon let out pained groans as it took step after step forward.
“Priest Michel, get as far away as possible.”
“Y-Yes, sir.”
Michel nodded quickly and scampered off.
The princess had no interest in him anyway, so she didn't pursue.
‘Please be safe!’
Michel glanced back at Clay as he climbed the mountain.
Facing the monster that had slaughtered hundreds, yet calm and composed—like a true hero of divine revelation.
He had even wounded the dragon's horn.
An achievement no number of soldiers or knights could claim, done alone.
“Hey, Gransesia.”
Of course, Clay's calm wasn't from confidence in his own skill.
He just had something reliable.
[What.]
“You messed up.”
[W-What did I.]
“Because of your bad intel, I nearly died just now?”
He'd attacked the horn as she said and almost got killed.
Without Michel, it really would've been dangerous.
[……So what do you want?]
“Eye of Simosa.”
The saintess's relic.
According to the settings, with her consent, it granted a "powerful" ability.
The synopsis mentioned it too.
The Eye of Simosa was needed to defeat the Dragon Calamity.
“You're not saying a relic's power is just some anti-demon branding iron, right?”
[Damn you.]
Gransesia clicked her tongue briefly at Clay's nonchalant question.
Not refusal. Just admiration.
‘He must be terrified.’
Of course he was. Yet here he was, coolly assessing the princess. Amusing and impressive.
[You…….]
As Gransesia began explaining the Eye's power, the princess's mouth opened faster.
“────!”
A language closer to dragon than human swept across the mountains.
An invisible wave sliced the air, manipulating reality to pulverize nearby trees.
Kwangkwang!
“Guh!”
Clay leaped aside reflexively, dodging the Dragon Word—but his clothes shredded.
Hiding behind a shattered trunk, he stuck out his tongue. Approaching her like this was impossible.
His first strike was a surprise on the horn, but now her eyes tracked only him. No more ambushes.
[Lucky.]
“Huh?”
[You're lucky.]
Gransesia said leisurely.
She was genuinely impressed by his luck—whether true fortune or miracle he wrought.
[The Eye of Simosa holds a powerful ability, as you said. It's one of my original powers.]
The princess approached the tree trunk, mouth opening.
Each time, Clay slid through the snow to evade, but it had limits. Wounds accumulated, his freshly healed body turning bloody again.
If this weren't a dense forest mountain but flat ground, he'd be a smear of gore by now.
[You wanted Divine Blood, right? It's not simple. To get it, you must become a "sub-deity."]
Saintess Gransesia Atel.
The reason she was called the strongest, greatest saintess in history was simple.
She reached an unprecedented realm no one else had.
[In the East, they call it the Deification Realm.]
Her divine body and Divine Blood stemmed from that.
As a cleric and monk, her blood became the world's supreme elixir.
[But you're skipping all that for just the Divine Blood. Know how absurd that is?]
No clue.
No way to know. And right now, no mind for Gransesia's words.
Desperately dodging attacks, half-listening—Gransesia chuckled at the sight.
[The relic's power is simple. I sealed part of it in ring form to see the outside.]
A world only those beyond human limits could see.
The power to grant that sight.
[My eyes, exactly.]
Light shimmered from the ring's red gem, spreading up Clay's hand.
Crimson divinity climbed his wrist, shoulder, neck, face—to his eyes.
“……!”
Thud!
A shock hammered his mind; he widened his eyes.
Vision shook; the world turned monochrome.
White and black crossed, shaking—then vibrant hues exploded everywhere.
Not mere "colors" of objects.
Transcending things, flowing grandly through the air—it was flows.
‘This is…….’
The flows touched all things, Clay and the princess included.
Now he understood. These were the flows of principles constituting the world.
[I said you're lucky.]
Gransesia's voice came again.
[Right?]
Amid her amused tone, Clay grinned too.
Body wrecked, muscles aching from overusing third-form footwork to dodge Dragon Words.
Yet he could smile.
“──.”
The princess's mouth opening looked like slow motion.
Mana flows twisted, carving a path through the monochrome space.
He instinctively knew: that was the Dragon Word.
‘I see it.’
That was enough.
“……!”
The princess's eyes widened. Her unleashed Dragon Word sliced empty air.
No different from before—just barely dodged by a hair. But instinctively, she knew.
This was deliberate, unlike before.
Clay grinned savagely at the princess, now tense.
‘If I can see it, a mindless monster's babble…….’
Nothing to fear.
Kwaaaang! Kwaang!
Dodging Dragon Words, he dashed across the mountains.
Circling her widely, gradually closing in.
Charging head-on at a Dragon Word user—even seeing it—his body couldn't keep up.
So Clay used the terrain.
High and low ridges, dense trees—he raced through the gaps.
“──!”
Her Dragon Words activated where her Dragon Eye confirmed. Without clear sight, accuracy plummeted.
Crack!
His overstrained leg joints creaked. Muscles stretched to snapping.
But surging adrenaline drowned the pain.
‘8 meters.’
Dodging the Dragon Word's hue, he rode the ridge.
Silver Star Sword mana enveloped him; silver blaze gathered at the blade's tip.
‘7 meters.’
Sword raised, he prepared the now-familiar form.
Her breathing grew ragged from repeated Dragon Words.
‘6 meters.’
Kwakwakwa!
Bursting through tree gaps, a Dragon Word grazed his ear.
Shattered wood fragments blocked ahead, but Clay leaped through.
“……!”
His face reflected in her golden eyes.
Her gaping mouth moved, targeting him precisely.
‘Same.’
Gransesia calculated: Dragon Word activation speed matched his sword reaching the horn.
‘They'll hit exactly simultaneously.’
Clay would touch the Dragon Word—and the horn.
A hastily made one, but at this range, it might kill him.
That cunning guy knew.
So he had another plan?
Realizing, Gransesia understood.
‘The final plausibility for Divine Blood.’
One "self-sacrifice for another."
Clay had ignored that last condition till now.
As if expecting it to come naturally someday.
‘Now?’
Clay charged, life be damned, to save the princess.
From outside, it looked like self-sacrifice to free her from the curse.
‘True enough. But this…….’
But Gransesia knew.
It wasn't just for Divine Blood.
Clay knew.
The moment the condition fulfilled—
—was now.
The perfect chance to fell the Dragon Calamity.
Kwaaaa!
Silver light plummeted from the sky, stabbing down.
On pristine snow, silver gleam reflected, blindingly bright.
“Eut!”
Blinded instinctively, the princess squeezed her eyes shut.
Dragon Words activated on sighted spots.
Unseen, they were mere "words."
[Plausibility fulfilled.]
[Divine Blood added to settings.]
Shaaaak!
Piercing the floating text, Clay's sword thrust.
Slicing the blinking instant.
Silvery meteor snapped the dragon's horn.