Chapter 311
Chapter 311
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 311
Chapter Title: Faded Promise (3)
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The sight of the ruined royal capital below made me sick to my stomach.
Smoke faintly rose from between the houses that had collapsed into heaps of ash.
The residual heat, palpable even from a distance, told me that not much time had passed since the Dragonian Kingdom was ruined.
‘Did they dispatch their army after hearing the news from the Beastkin Kingdom?’
On the map, the Demonfolk kingdom, Niflheim, was much closer to the Dragonian Kingdom than the Beastkin Kingdom, which was blocked by the Sky Mountains.
That’s why I had taken the gamble of crossing the Sky Mountains to reach the kingdom as quickly as possible.
“What is it? What’s the situation inside?”
Ha-eun approached Oh-jin as he landed, the duration of his Lightning Trace having run out.
Recalling the state of the Dragonian Kingdom he had seen from above, Oh-jin let out a heavy sigh.
“We’re too late.”
“…Too late?”
“The inside of the kingdom has already been completely overrun by Demonfolk and hordes of demonic beasts.”
Only diverse hordes of demonic beasts and the Demonfolk leading them roamed the ruined city.
There was no sign of the Dragonians anywhere.
“Are you saying the Demonfolk acted faster than us?”
“Probably.”
Oh-jin nodded with a grave expression.
He thought they’d saved a lot of time by crossing the Sky Mountains.
But it still wasn’t enough.
“No matter how strong the Demonfolk are, how could they have already…”
Isabella trailed off, unable to comprehend.
It had taken Oh-jin’s party just over ten days to cross the Sky Mountains.
They had reached the Dragonian Kingdom quickly, cutting a journey that would normally take over a month down to a third of the time.
And in just those ten days, the Dragonian Kingdom had fallen?
“There must be a reason. Either the Demonfolk were that strong, or conversely, the Dragonians were too weak.”
“What do we do now?”
The original plan was to root out the Demonfolk parasitizing the Dragonians, just like with the Khan Kingdom, and then join forces with them.
But since the Demonfolk had acted first, the plan had gone up in smoke.
“First, I’ll go up one more time and check the situation inside.”
There might still be some Dragonians alive.
Oh-jin used Lightning Trace again to shoot up into the air.
Beyond the towering city walls, he could see a city carved out of a massive mountain of rock.
The city of dragons, which must have once boasted a brilliant civilization, was now reduced to ashes, trampled under the feet of the Demonfolk.
‘Hound of Vega.’
A faint, invisible blue lightning spread out in wide ripples.
Countless pieces of information flooded in like a torrent.
A splitting headache came with the information, but there was no better skill than Hound of Vega for gathering as much information as possible in a short time.
“Ugh.”
An image of the kingdom’s interior formed in his mind.
An incomparable number of Demonfolk and demonic beasts, far more than in the Khan Kingdom, were roaming the city.
They seemed to be searching for any remaining Dragonians.
Among them was a group of Demonfolk raising their cups as if to celebrate their victory.
Then.
Something caught Oh-jin’s senses.
‘That’s…’
The center of the city.
He could see thousands of Dragonians gathered inside a massive circular structure reminiscent of the Colosseum.
The captured Dragonians, seemingly bound by something strong, were barely moving.
‘They’ve gathered the captured Dragonians in one place.’
Should he be glad they didn’t just kill them all indiscriminately?
After gazing down at the place where the Dragonians were held captive, Oh-jin descended to the rock wall where Ha-eun and Isabella were waiting.
“I’ve found where the Dragonians are being held.”
“Thankfully, it seems they haven’t killed them all.”
Isabella narrowed her eyes and looked up at the towering city walls.
“Are you planning to rescue the captured Dragonians?”
“I’d like to if we can, but…”
Oh-jin crossed his arms, lost in thought.
After a moment of contemplation, Oh-jin slowly shook his head.
“It seems a rescue will be difficult.”
The situation was different from the Khan Kingdom.
Back then, there were only five Demonfolk, and they had no demonic beast army.
Now, even at a glance, over a hundred Demonfolk and a demonic beast army numbering in the thousands were guarding the circular structure where the Dragonians were held.
Breaking through them head-on to rescue the captured Dragonians would be difficult, even if Oh-jin’s party was strong enough to take on a hundred each.
“So we’re just going to turn back without doing anything?”
Ha-eun asked, frowning in dissatisfaction.
Oh-jin nodded with a heavy expression.
It might be different if they had allies.
But with just the people here now, there was nothing they could do.
“Ugh. I feel kind of uneasy about this.”
She’d never even spoken to a Dragonian before.
Was it because she had grown quite close to the Beastkin, who had been in a similar situation?
Her heart felt as heavy as if a stone had been placed on her chest.
“Then let’s look around and see if any Dragonians managed to escape.”
Oh-jin didn’t want to retreat empty-handed either.
“Okay.”
“Yes, let’s check the surrounding area.”
And so, Oh-jin’s party began to circle the Dragonian Kingdom, searching for any groups of escaped Dragonians.
After searching for some time.
“Oh-jin, look over there.”
Ha-eun stopped dead in her tracks and pointed.
Once again, it was a blue aura visible only to her.
“The thing I saw near the kingdom is over here too.”
Of course, the number of auras was significantly smaller than what she had seen at the kingdom.
What mattered was that they had found a clue.
“This way.”
Ha-eun took the lead, guiding Oh-jin’s party.
She headed for a narrow path cutting through a labyrinth of canyons.
Oh-jin’s party made their way along the narrow path, barely ten meters wide.
“Grrrrr.”
Poppy let out an irritated growl, hunching its shoulders as if uncomfortable in the narrow passage.
They were about halfway through the canyon when it happened.
*Whoooosh!*
With a sharp sound of tearing air, a volley of arrows began to rain down on Oh-jin’s party.
But these weren’t arrows made of iron and wood.
Blue arrows made entirely of mana, from arrowhead to fletching, fell like a meteor shower in the night sky.
“Gather around me!”
Despite the sudden ambush, Oh-jin remained calm and drew Dantalion from his waist.
Swinging Dantalion, now in the form of a spear, like a windmill, the blue lightning gathered on it spread out like an umbrella.
*BOOM! K-BOOOOM!*
The mana arrows exploded violently upon contact with the blue lightning.
The shock of the explosions shook the ground, and the towering canyon walls began to crumble.
“Ghh!”
Hundreds of tons of rock debris rained down.
‘Charge.’
He drew upon the power of his Stigma, concentrating lightning at the tip of his spear.
Just before the debris crashed down on them.
He stomped heavily and raised his spear high.
*KRRRAAACK!*
Like a caged beast bursting free, the lightning condensed at the spear’s tip erupted upwards.
With an earth-shattering roar, the hundreds of tons of falling debris were shattered into small pieces and scattered in all directions.
A destructive power that far surpassed human limits.
Having turned hundreds of tons of rock into a pile of gravel in the blink of an eye, Oh-jin turned his spear toward the direction the arrows had come from, showing no signs of fatigue.
He was about to use his wire shooter to close the distance with the ones who had fired the mana arrows.
“I’ll take care of this.”
Before Oh-jin could act, Isabella stepped forward.
“Don’t kill them.”
“Yes, I know.”
She didn’t need to see them to know who was behind this sudden ambush.
Isabella smiled faintly and sliced her palm with a sharp fingernail.
*Drip, drip.*
Blood dripped from the gash in her palm.
“Flow.”
With a quiet incantation, the blood that had fallen to the ground began to multiply explosively.
Chains made of blood shot out from the spreading pool, flying toward the direction the mana arrows had come from.
“Gah!”
“Aaaargh!”
Screams echoed from the distance.
Soon, the attackers who had been hiding on the canyon rim were dragged before Oh-jin’s party, bound in chains.
The chained attackers were, as expected, Dragonians.
Just like the Beastkin.
The Dragonians’ appearance wasn’t all that different from humans.
The only differences were their vertically slit pupils, reminiscent of a reptile’s, and the scales covering parts of their necks and cheeks.
‘From their appearance, they look more like a mix of lizardmen and humans than dragons and humans.’
He had seen the group of captured Dragonians from afar earlier, but the distance had been too great. This was the first time he was seeing a Dragonian’s features up close.
“K-Kill us!”
“You filthy Demonfolk…!”
There were twenty Dragonians caught in the chains.
Helplessly captured by Isabella’s formidable power, the Dragonians glared at Oh-jin’s party with eyes full of hatred and rage.
“…Huh?”
“They’re… they’re not Demonfolk?”
The Dragonians, who had been glaring at Oh-jin’s party with murderous intent, soon realized they weren’t Demonfolk.
With bewildered expressions, the Dragonians looked at Poppy, who stood quietly behind Oh-jin.
‘Did they mistake us for Demonfolk because we’re with Poppy?’
Well.
It was only natural for them to mistake Oh-jin’s party for Demonfolk, since besides Cassia, only Demonfolk could command ferocious demonic beasts like minions.
“Why are humans here…?”
The Dragonians looked at Oh-jin’s party, unable to understand.
Unlike the Beastkin, who feared humans and called them ‘demons from beyond the veil,’ they didn’t seem to have any particular aversion to humans.
No, it was more than just a lack of aversion; they were looking at Oh-jin’s party with something akin to reverence.
“Heeh, so these are the Dragonians?”
Ha-eun, who had removed the eyepatch covering her left eye as if preparing for a larger battle, approached the captured Dragonians.
The Dragonians’ eyes widened as they looked at Ha-eun’s uncovered left eye.
“The… the Dragon’s Eye…?”
“A woman bearing the Dragon’s Eye shall come…”
“The… the prophecy! It’s just as Lord Kailus prophesied!”
The Dragonians exclaimed with expressions of shock and awe.
While Oh-jin’s party was bewildered by the unexpected reaction.
“A-Are you… the ‘Dragon Maiden’?”
one of the Dragonians asked Ha-eun cautiously.
“Eh?”
Ha-eun frowned as if to say, ‘What are you talking about?’
“I’m not a virgin.”
“……”
A heavy silence fell over the narrow canyon.