Chapter 62
Chapter 62
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 62
Chapter Title: Galatin Awakens
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The armor Arel always wore was the heaviest kind there was.
I couldn't exactly say I'd stripped it off because it was too heavy.
Still, I'd recovered this much thanks to Red Hood.
By absorbing its A.I. and nanomachine, I'd gained at least a bit of power.
"Arel. If you're awake, walk on your own."
"...Yes."
Arel climbed down from my back.
At least she was wearing her undergarments—small mercies.
She looked dazed and stiff, clearly awkward about exposing so much skin. But there was more to her darkened expression than that.
"I'm sorry. It was my inexperience that let the true dragon get away."
Arel bowed her head.
Get away? She'd even passed out in humiliating fashion.
But that was only natural.
"Don't worry about it. With that armor on, the vibrations from the dragon's fear must have hit you even harder."
The waves of its fear aura had coursed through her armor, slamming into her whole body.
She'd taken it head-on and survived—that was miracle enough.
Plus, she'd never fought a true dragon before.
Arel kept her head down, full of remorse.
"Chin up. It wasn't your fault."
Strictly speaking, it was mine. I'd depleted all my energy on Winter's arrow. That created a gap in my control, and the true dragon slipped free.
Of course, Arel had no idea.
She seemed convinced her own shortcomings had led to the dangerous situation.
"Arel."
"Yes."
"I'm going to unseal your spirit weapon."
Arel froze at my words.
"Is that... possible?"
"Seems like it."
Catching the true dragon in my current state would be tough.
I'd recovered some energy, but I wasn't skilled enough yet to hit a fast-moving target.
Arel needed to pin it down if we were going to get a shot.
Besides, her sword was still sealed.
Once the seal was off, she could handle it.
If she could just stop its movements, I could take care of the rest.
I turned to the halted Arel.
"Give me your sword."
Even though I could have unsealed it anytime, I hadn't.
It was part of my deal with Grand Duke Persepho, but more than that, I wanted to gauge his true intentions.
Above all, I couldn't unseal it until I understood Arel's loyalties.
'At the very least, her desire to protect me seems genuine.'
I'd tested her several times.
She truly saw guarding me as her sacred duty.
Arel hesitated a moment before handing over her sword.
Holding it, I asked Zero.
'Zero. Can you release the seal?'
[It's more than possible with our current energy.]
[Lock released.]
[A.I. 'Galatin' activating.]
Brrrr!
The blade trembled as Galatin awoke.
A ripple passed through Arel's eyes as she watched.
"...Galatin."
She knew its name. And there was a hint of longing in her voice.
"You knew it?"
"I heard his name once, when I was little."
"When you were little?"
"My earliest memory."
So this wasn't a sword prepared by Grand Duke Persepho—it was one Arel had from the start?
That was unexpected.
Her very first memory, and she already had Galatin.
"I still remember it. So... it wasn't a dream."
In her childhood—her first memory—Arel was on the run.
Probably from slave traders.
Her memories were always of hunger and cold.
But she'd never let go of that one sword.
Yet the world was never kind to a young dark elf trying to survive.
She was dying.
In that moment, on the verge of closing her eyes forever, Arel heard Galatin's voice.
Talking with him gave her strength. She hunted beasts and filled her starving belly.
Galatin taught her how to swing a sword, how to kill.
But soon, his voice faded away.
Grand Duke Persepho called it sealed.
Even he dismissed it as a hallucination.
Sealed, so it couldn't speak. You must have misheard.
"He's... awake, Galatin."
Arel's voice trembled.
But she was watching me carefully.
After all, I'd been the one to awaken the sword.
I handed her Galatin without hesitation.
Arel hugged it tight, her body shaking.
"It wasn't a hallucination."
It was a family reunion. That's how it looked to me.
Arel embraced Galatin gently, lost in memories.
That voice, that warmth from back then.
I'd thought the sword came from Grand Duke Persepho. My mistake.
It had always been Arel's.
Unsealing it had been her lifelong wish.
Simple for me, but for her, an unreachable mystery.
The seal had never broken before.
Yet she'd never let go of Galatin.
Not even when she lost herself to berserker rage.
A sealed spirit weapon.
Just sturdy steel in that state—there were better blades out there.
'Could the seal have come undone on its own?'
But I had questions.
Spirit weapons are sealed. Even knowing the activation word does nothing without restarting the halted A.I.
Normally, it'd stay sealed forever.
Yet Arel knew Galatin's name. She'd truly communicated with it, and now that was proven.
[Impossible.]
[Review of halted A.I. 'Galatin' data shows no traces of activation post-shutdown.]
Impossible.
No traces at all.
But Arel had definitely connected with it.
Galatin glowed softly, as if it had always been her sword.
Unlike Caliburn, it was the quiet type.
Some transcendent concept beyond science—that's all I could think.
After hugging Galatin for a long while, Arel steadied her breath and looked at me.
There was a subtle warmth in her gaze.
And that wasn't all that had changed.
【Lv. 100】
Her level had risen.
Finalizing her contract with Galatin had changed her body too.
Her potential was already insane, and now she'd fully bonded with a spirit weapon.
"...Thank you. For awakening Galatin."
"No need for thanks. It was yours from the start, wasn't it?"
"Galatin isn't my possession."
"Then family, I suppose."
"Yes."
Arel spoke sincerely.
Together since her first memory—family.
Family didn't have to mean living beings, after all.
Now I understood the faint warmth in her eyes.
I'd revived what she thought was a dead family member. In a word, her life savior.
"Let me carry you."
"What's that out of nowhere?"
"We can't have the crown prince wandering the mountains on foot, can we?"
Ah.
She'd taken at face value what I'd said to hide my energy drain.
Believing it so readily—naive or what?
"And I'm faster in the forest."
Confidence laced Arel's words.
She was sure she wouldn't lose now.
Not wrong, either.
Mountain forests.
No race was faster than elves amid dense trees.
I sighed inwardly and climbed onto her back.
At least with her armor on, it hadn't felt so bad.
The crown prince piggybacking on a half-naked woman.
If anyone from the palace saw, I couldn't show my face again.
*
Without the full plate, Arel was a blur.
She sped through the mountains faster than a galloping carriage, carrying me effortlessly.
No matter how fast the true dragon was, it couldn't outpace Arel in the forest's embrace.
'It's wiping out every monster in sight.'
True dragon tracks littered the area, even without looking.
It killed and absorbed every living thing it saw.
Evolving from it all.
'The dragons' innate craving for evolution.'
An instinct of dragons themselves.
They yearned to be unique individuals.
To return to Eden and become gods, distinct from other dragons.
'Becoming a god grants uniqueness.'
The Numbers. The Twelve Gods.
Excluding the first god, they must have been dragons too.
But a obvious question arose: if dragons took on godly faces, wouldn't all dragons and gods bear the face of the original god, 'Alpha'?
Yet the Twelve Gods all had different faces.
In short, becoming a Number meant shedding their draconic form and being reborn anew.
As unique beings.
"It's not far now."
"Feels like it."
Arel, who'd caught up in a flash, sensed the true dragon and spoke.
I'd noticed too, so I slid slowly off her back.
Rumble! Roooar!
The true dragon was ravaging the mountain.
Its form was grotesque.
'The product of evolution, huh.'
Flesh clumsily slapped onto bones, mismatched hides.
Crude as hell. If this was evolution, better off without it.
The result of twisted desire.
"Last chance."
It hadn't spotted us yet, but if we missed again, it was over. It might sense the danger and flee far away.
Heading to human settlements would mean a massacre.
"Yes. I'll win for sure."
Arel gripped Galatin and shot toward the true dragon.
Crack!
Slash!
Galatin turned red, enveloping Arel's body.
Her power surged with the faint crimson glow.
In an instant, she slashed the true dragon's shoulder and began overwhelming it at blinding speed.
Rooooar!
Dragon fear. But Arel wouldn't fall for it twice.
She hurriedly shielded her ears with aura, avoiding a direct hit.
Last time, the armor had transmitted the vibrations through her whole body. Without it now, no issue.
'Well.'
Arel had awakened.
Her movements were far smoother.
Not just from ditching the armor.
Leveling up to 100—three digits—seemed the cause.
Surpassing 100.
Crossing the wall.
The gap between those over 100 and under was like heaven and earth.
Karbal, the First Lord, Croft.
Now Arel joined them.
'Might not need to step in.'
Screeeeech!
The true dragon shrieked.
*
Thud!
After about thirty minutes of combat, the true dragon finally hit the ground.
Its grotesquely evolved remnants scattered across the dirt.
"Good work."
"No, it was what I had to do."
Arel smiled.
'Hm?'
A smile?
Come to think of it, I'd never seen her smile before.
She straightened her expression as I stared.
I chuckled and eyed the true dragon.
Grrr.
It twitched like a beast.
'What's that?'
In the true dragon's heart—the first part it'd absorbed from another monster for evolution—a massive black core gleamed.
It hadn't been there before.
Zero spoke upon seeing it.
[Discovered 'Core of Evolution.']
[Absorbing it will upgrade Admin Authority to Level 3.]
[Level 3 unlocks the 'Top Secret' sector.]
Top Secret End