247. Wither (2)
247. Wither (2)
- 1 -
Kurrureung — !
Along with a thunderous roar that shook the garden, the silver aura enveloping the Prince's body burst forth explosively.
"Sangoyo Saya."
Silver dragon wings materialized behind his back, and a cold energy surged around him.
"Though it was merely twenty days, it feels as though we have been apart for two years. My painting."
In the garden overflowing with narcissus and lilies, the Prince's gaze was fixed solely on Saya.
His silver-dyed irises, imbued with dragon power, and his orange pupils gleamed with an eerie light.
"You can run no longer. Let us return."
His voice carried greater power than before.
If before, he possessed only the majesty of the imperial family, now he even possessed the power of a dragon.
Saya felt the same imposing presence she had once sensed from the Emperor or Crown Prince of the Han nation, and narrowed her eyes.
'They must be...'
Saya gained one realization, but she kept it to herself and focused on the Prince.
- Your Highness. ...
Saya faced him calmly.
Nothing flickered in her crimson fate-aligned eyes except the realization she had just had.
- No, Yi Jeong.
At Saya's correction, Prince Jeong furrowed his brow.
For he immediately guessed that this meant she was renouncing her loyalty to him.
- I can no longer do so.
- This is not a choice you are permitted to make. Serving one who has lost the pride of dragon blood and lacks even the minimum qualifications!
Seolhwa's voice interjected sharply.
The obsession and frenzy coiled in her blue eyes pierced Saya, but Saya glared back at Seolhwa, anger contained within a composed expression.
'At last!'
Seolhwa smiled.
Finally, Saya was looking at her with emotion. Differently from before.
- Let us return. Sangoyo. If we return, everything will be as it was...!
- As it was? Seolhwa. You speak of 'as it was'?
A somber smile played on Saya's lips.
- What do you mean by 'as it was'? Are you speaking of that time when you massacred my clan and tried to possess me upon their remains?
A frenzied delight spread across Seolhwa's face.
- So you knew! My existence... my heart...!
- Is it not nauseating?
Had she truly been able to ignore her for all those long years, knowing all those circumstances? The insanity of her, who realized that this indifference—in which even spiritual power and hatred could be felt—was Saya's 'feeling' toward her, only grew greater.
- Let us return... When we return, I will apologize for everything! I will truly serve you like a princess...!
- I now have a new Master.
Cutting off Seolhwa's words, Saya looked at Libertas and offered her a smile and a courteous bow.
There was not a shred of falsehood in her voice.
- Seolhwa...
Immediately after, Saya, her eyes brimming with anger, glared at Seolhwa.
- You will leave your tongue here before departing, the one that dared call my Master unqualified.
This time, Seolhwa's face truly twisted.
For she realized that Saya's anger was not directed at her, but at 'the one who insulted her Master.'
- Sangoyo...!
- Do not call me by that name. Seolhwa. There is no one here called by a name you made.
After hearing Saya's determined refusal, a chill began to rise around Seolhwa.
The power surging up with sounds of 'Kwajik, kwajik' meant she was forcibly pushing back against the barrier's suppression.
"How unfortunate. I did not call upon this power specifically to fight you."
The silver dragon coiled around the Prince as he stepped forward, pushing Seolhwa aside.
His gaze sharpened.
"If you will not return, then even by force..."
- Jeong.
Saya cut him off.
A certain power began to crackle and snap above her hair.
- I am no longer your painting.
A coldness utterly devoid of emotion. Not even anger was kindled, only thoroughly refined killing intent.
Along with those words, the killing intent emanating from Saya's body became golden lightning, illuminating the surroundings.
The Saya of this moment was not a painting, but light.
Kururung...!
- I am merely one of the five who serve the one who shall become eternal darkness.
Saya's voice resonated through the garden.
Golden wings unfurled behind her back as lightning blazed, and the ends of her hair began to dye gold.
Cheoneungcheongu.
One of the demon clans of the Western Continent that wielded the power of lightning.
Kkwarrurrung — !!
The golden lightning that signified her existence shot forth.
- 2 -
Krrrrr...
Meeting the gaze of the lizard glaring at her, Saya tensed her entire body.
The image of a small silver dragon flowing across his body was proof that attested to his power.
Every time her eyes met that dragon's, Saya felt a spine-chilling sensation.
That power alone was dangerous.
'But.'
She would not lose.
Kkwarrurrung — !!
Golden lightning tore through the sky and struck down.
The wind enveloping the silver dragon's body blocked it, but it could not evade the next strike carried on Saya's sword.
Kwang!!
Jeong's and Saya's mana clashed.
"I know your power. Saya."
Jeong's eyes gleamed coldly.
The power of the silver dragon coiled around his body, revealing a fierce momentum.
"The lightning of the Cheoneungcheongu is certainly powerful and fast. But that alone is insufficient."
Before his words even ended, the silver dragon's body coiled greatly and spewed forth the power of wind.
The silver trajectory cutting through the air flew toward Saya.
Swaaak!
The body of the sole survivor of the Cheoneungcheongu clan vanished from its spot.
When it reappeared, it was at Jeong's flank.
Pacheuchut — !
Saya imbued her sword with the light of lightning and swung it.
The swordsmanship initially seemed to flow elegantly. But it did not take long for it to gain speed.
Sseuaaak!
"Keuk...!"
Startled by the swordsmanship that burrowed through his mana scales, Jeong retreated two steps.
"How... the dragon's scales...!"
- I, too, am a dragon. Had you forgotten?
Saya's voice rang out coldly.
Shaaak!
Behind her, a sudden blast of snow and wind whipped up.
- I will reclaim you, no matter what...!
It was not a phenomenon caused by Saya, but Seolhwa's intervention.
Spiritual power, raised by piercing through even the barrier, coiled around the garden.
"Who is reclaiming whom, you say?"
However, her intervention ended there.
Dozens of hounds that leaped from the blackly risen power chewed and swallowed the ice and snow.
- Kuk...! Do not interfere...!
"You, the white Fox, should not interfere with former master and servant resolving their old bonds."
Libertas's gentle, yet resolute contempt echoed.
Ujeok! Kwadeudeuk!
The darkness blooming from her fingertips continuously spat out hounds, chewing and swallowing the surrounding ice that was filling the area, completely overwhelming Seolhwa.
"I have not permitted you to do so."
- Yo... You...!
Seolhwa tried to move somehow, but now that Libertas had personally stepped in, she could not control her body or mana.
She was now in a position where she could only watch the duel between Saya and Jeong.
- How can a dragon possessing a complete Cintamani be in this place!!
The Western Continent's term for Dungeon Lord.
The frenzy scattered from Seolhwa's eyes.
Her violently trembling eyes were even pitiful.
"Stay still. You are noisy."
Libertas waved her hand as if dealing with an annoying insect.
Her darkness sealed Seolhwa's mouth shut.
The Dungeon Lord looked down at her as if at something worthless, then refocused her gaze on her subordinate's decisive battle.
- 3 -
Kwang — !!
Meanwhile, the Prince was pushed back from his position by Saya's sword strike.
In response, the silver dragon's mouth gaped wide, and pure physical force erupted from it in the form of breath.
'He cannot fully control the dragon's power.'
Saya caught a minute disturbance in Jeong's movements.
The newly gained power was strong, but it seemed he had not yet made it entirely his own.
Even in decline, an ancient dragon was still an ancient dragon.
Generally, the older and more powerful the dragon, the harder its power was to digest.
- «Sohondanjang - Deungwollueum».
The ends of her hair, dyed gold. The parts originally yellow turned blue.
And the color of her mask also dyed the same color, and her swordsmanship changed.
The momentum of the golden lightning took on a flow, not destruction.
Kwarurrurr — !
Lightning that flowed like water and glanced off physical force.
Her form, moving softly as if dancing, was like a single painting.
Seokeok!
A wound appeared once again on the shield protecting Jeong.
The silver dragon's power tried to erase the crack, but Saya's sword strike was faster.
- «Jeokwonsimno - Yeolhwabyeokryeok».
The ends of her hair and the light in her eyes, dyed red like her pupils.
As if lightning was loaded with flames, her form, dyed in a crimson hue, vanished from the spot.
Seukaaak — !!
The trajectory of the sword shot forth drawing a straight line like lightning.
Kwang!!
"Do you think I will fall like this...!"
Jeong desperately drew out the silver dragon's power as much as he could.
But it was not a movement to seize victory, merely an attempt to endure.
That difference in posture easily widened the gap.
- This is the end.
The moment Saya's sword flashed and grazed the silver dragon's scales, even the last shred of composure vanished from Jeong's face.
The moment he first sensed his own defeat.
He came to understand the state of mind of those who had fallen to Saya's sword.
The form of Saya, spreading black wings, was no longer anyone's painting, but a single dragon.
- «Heomujeokmyeol - Myeonggyemuseong».
Saya's voice resounded, and the moment she opened her mouth again.
"「 」."
Prince Jeong felt all sounds grow distant.
- 4 -
Saya's voice, in an instant, erased all sound in the garden.
Her voice, clad in the 'Mask of Void,' was merely a beautiful sound to those of sufficient spiritual power, but to those without, it became the Cheoneungcheongu's assassination technique.
"Saya... what am I supposed to do if you knock out my toys too..."
That was why Shue was now voicing her dissatisfaction.
Before her, elite warriors bleeding from their ears lay collapsed.
"Keuk...!"
The usual Prince Jeong might have been able to endure this voice, but now he was powerless.
It was because he had been wounded by Saya while believing the silver dragon's power was invincible.
"Saya."
"Master."
When I approached, Saya immediately reverted her mask from 'void' to 'joy' and bowed her waist.
I placed my hand on her hair, which had returned to black.
At my touch, peace flickered across her face.
"Now, it is time to settle things. First... it would be the grudge."
The Prince had only been dealt with because he blocked our path, as a means to sever the old master-servant bond.
The place where Saya's direct grudge was directed was over here.
- ...!!
With her mouth sealed by darkness, the white Fox was dragged forward, her limbs held in the mouths of the hounds.
I did not miss the sparks flying in Saya's eyes as she looked down at her.
I grasped her wrist and offered words of comfort.
"As expected, you could not forget."
"No. Master."
However, she shook her head.
When I tilted my head at an answer different from what I thought, Saya opened her mouth again and confessed the cause of her rage.
"That wretch dared to insult you, Master. Will you permit me to punish her?"
"Do so."
The emotion itself was what I had felt, but the cause was entirely different.
I, on the contrary, did not hide the feeling of satisfaction rising in me.
When I spoke with a hint of laughter, she immediately drew her blade and approached Seolhwa.
Yuran approached her side.
"How timely, I think I can help. Saya."
"Ran."
"Who else would know a fox as well as I do? She is also my distant clansman. Would it not serve as practice for me as well?"
With a cruel glint in her alluring smiling eyes, Yuran pointed at Seolhwa's tails.
The white Fox had four tails.
"One by one. You just have to carve them meticulously. It will make her absolutely convulse."
"... Thank you."
After watching Saya nod and raise her sword, I turned my gaze to the Prince.
Behind me, I saw the face of Yi Jeong, pale as a sheet at the sound of something white being dyed red.
Daniel was beside him, treating him.
"Yi Jeong."
"Y-You are..."
"Indeed. It is time I let you know."
I pulled the Prince forward through the darkness and lifted his chin.
The garden was momentarily plunged into silence.
"Libertas."
Even after hearing my name, the Prince was puzzled, not knowing its meaning.
"Dungeon Lord. It is Libertas."
I lifted his chin a little higher and smiled.
"It is a name you should know."
The Prince's eyes were dyed with fear and horror.