Chapter 33
I’m translating the chapter now and preserving the in-universe styling rules where they apply. The text here is mostly narration and dialogue, with no system windows or comments, so I’m shaping it into novel-style HTML paragraphs.CHAPTER_TITLE: Chapter 33
Among all players, and in fact among everyone whether they were players or not, the one who had seen the most dragons was undoubtedly Yoon Sang-hyuk. The number of dragons he had killed alone already numbered in the dozens.
Manuel Mateus, the master of Germany’s flagship guild, Dragon Slayers, had gotten lucky and taken down a single dragon, earning the epithet Dragon Slayer for it. But the true dragon slayer was Yoon Sang-hyuk.
And yet even he had never once seen a dragon as enormous as the colossal creature now flying toward them through the sky.
Even Emperor Admarion, the strongest dragon he had faced until now, would have looked like a hatchling by comparison to the dragon Zigritria had become, if one simply judged by size alone.
“Whoa. That’s huge. Really huge.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk muttered in admiration.
With the beat of Zigritria’s wings, the others were driven backward, inch by inch, all except Yoon Sang-hyuk, Valender von Graus, and Ibrahmut.
Zigritria was truly monstrous. The shadow cast by his body was enough to drape the entire area in darkness.
Croooooaaar!
Zigritria let out a thunderous roar.
The roar carried a powerful dragon fear, and everyone collapsed coughing up blood through nose, mouth, and ears. Even Ibrahmut staggered under it.
Yoon Sang-hyuk set a hand on his hip, tilted his head up, and shouted at Zigritria.
“Shut up!”
To everyone’s surprise, that short shout swallowed Zigritria’s dragon fear whole. Yoon Sang-hyuk’s voice and Zigritria’s dragon fear were both formless forces, and when those two invisible powers slammed into each other, the surrounding space seemed to fall into a vacuum for an instant.
The ones who had been struggling against the dragon fear swayed, dropped to the ground, and dragged in ragged breaths.
Zigritria’s crazed gaze pressed down on him. Yoon Sang-hyuk did not look away. The force in Yoon Sang-hyuk’s own eyes was no less unusual. They were the eyes of a hunter ready to devour the prey before him at any moment.
From the void where Zigritria hovered with his wings spread, darkness-soaked light surged upward.
“Well, well? First meeting, but it doesn’t really feel like the first, does it?”
Zigritria, already polymorphed into a human form, stared at Yoon Sang-hyuk in silence.
“You’re glad to see me too, right? Still, if you keep staring at me like that, I’m going to get embarrassed.”
“You really are an amusing one.”
Zigritria’s lips twisted.
His human form possessed looks that surpassed even an elf’s. He had an appearance capable of turning even a rotten smile into something beautiful.
“I really wanted to meet you.”
“Do you understand what meeting me means, and still chose this? Can you even begin to guess what remains at the end of that meeting?”
“You seem to want to say this ends in despair, but I don’t think it will at all.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk pulled a bottle of wine from his subspace and gave it a shake.
“Want a drink?”
“……”
Regardless of Zigritria’s answer, Yoon Sang-hyuk tossed the bottle anyway. Watching Zigritria catch it, Yoon Sang-hyuk smiled faintly.
“That’s expensive wine. I only had four bottles of it, you know.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk took out another bottle, pulled the cork, and raised it to his lips.
“Now then, since we’ve shared a drink, let’s get to the point. I didn’t come here to fight you. Of course, if the conversation doesn’t go the way I want, we might still end up fighting. But in principle, I hate violence. So let’s talk this out nicely.”
Behind him, someone gave a low snort of laughter. He didn’t need to turn around to know it was Ibrahmut. Yoon Sang-hyuk shrugged.
“Looks like even my allies don’t believe me. Right. I do want to fight you. I’m not planning to kill you, of course. I’ll only beat you about as much as you’ve welcomed me so far, so don’t get too tense. Though if this conversation goes peacefully, none of that will happen anyway. Personally, I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk gave a small nod.
“All right. Here’s the real point. You and the other two are binding the divine race imprisoned in the Gray Wasteland, aren’t you? I don’t know the details of your contract. Don’t care to, either. But I do know this much. Anyone would want to return to the place they were born and raised. Migratory birds... I’m not even sure there are migratory birds in the Demon Realm. Anyway, even speechless little creatures have the instinct to go back where they came from. Much less the divine race. I’d like to see them returned to their homeland.”
“A contract, then... As you say, that contract prevents them from returning to the Divine Realm. But it seems you haven’t looked at the other side of it. Among the beings of the Demon Realm, none bear any hostility toward them. Why do you think they’ve been able to live and breathe until now?”
“Because of your contracts? That’s what you want to say?”
It was not an unreasonable claim.
Who would dare lay a hand on those who had entered into contracts with magic dragons, beings even the Demon Kings could not treat carelessly?
But a statement not being wrong did not make it right.
“Why are you acting like that’s some great favor? Whether they live or die at the hands of others, why should you care? They might find a way back on their own, or they might be torn apart and die. What gives you the right to talk like you’re protecting them? Fine. Let’s make a contract of our own.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk smiled thinly.
“From now on, I’m going to beat you up. A lot. Then I’m going to put a leash around your neck. The world I came from is called Earth. It’s a little different from the human world you know. For the record, the reason I went to all this trouble to come meet you is because I want to go back to the world I came from. I imagine the divine race you contracted with wants the same thing, right? In the end, I’ll go back to Earth. And when I do, I’ll take you with me. Of course, I’ll put a leash around your neck.”
“How dare you...”
“Let’s drop the tired ‘how dare you’ routine. We’re past that.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk’s mouth was smiling, but his eyes were as cold as ice. He looked at Zigritria with those frozen eyes and went on.
“I’ve heard enough to know what kind of position you hold here. You said it yourself a moment ago, didn’t you? Because you made a contract, they were able to stay safe. I happen to have considerable influence on Earth. Presidents of every country, ah, no, kings and rulers here, right? None of people at that level would dare defy me. In other words, if they’re at my side, no one can touch them. I’ll even bring them good food and take them out for walks now and then, so let’s make a contract. Though I can’t promise your mind will still be intact when it’s time to stamp the document. If it disgusts you that much, hire a lawyer.”
At times, strange words slipped from Yoon Sang-hyuk’s mouth, but the meaning he was trying to convey came through clearly enough.
Goooooo...
Frenzied energy poured out from Zigritria.
“Do you even know who you’re standing before right now?”
“I do. And I told you not to use tired lines, didn’t I? You think I came all the way here not knowing who you are? I know you’re impressive. Honestly, if you weren’t impressive, I wouldn’t have bothered coming. To brag a little, I don’t waste time on small fry. So you can be proud of yourself.”
“You’re a man who doesn’t understand reason.”
“I do hear that sometimes.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk snickered, then went on without even turning his head.
“Back up.”
Valender von Graus and Ibrahmut stepped away.
“There. The stage is set. We’ve exchanged enough greetings to count as acquainted, so shouldn’t we get started? I’m getting pretty damn eager to put a leash around your neck.”
Zigritria smiled coldly and extended a hand. In it appeared a sword with a long, narrow blade. Unusually, the blade was radiant silver. The faint light it gave off carried an unmistakably strange power.
There was only one reason Yoon Sang-hyuk found Zigritria’s sword unusual. The blade was silver, the color of an ordinary sword one might see anywhere.
In the Demon Realm, silver weapons were not made. Silver and white were symbols of divinity. In fact, almost all the weapons carried by the paladins and priests of the temples were silver and white.
That was what made it strange.
“Nice sword.”
“It’s the sword used by a god of justice once called Hessein. Of course, Hessein was erased by my hand. It’s a decent weapon, so I’ve been using it. I even considered corrupting it, but I decided to leave it as it is. I didn’t want the memory of erasing Hessein to lose its color.”
“Impressive.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk drew his own weapon.
Not Ibrahmut’s Chain Sword, but the Song of Doom. Choosing it was only natural. Ibrahmut’s Chain Sword was well made, but it could not compare to a weapon into which a god had infused his own divinity. If the two collided with equal force, the one that would break was obviously Ibrahmut’s Chain Sword.
Judging only by the divinity of their original owners, the Song of Doom should have been far inferior to the weapon in Zigritria’s hand.
But the Song of Doom had been upgraded once already. It had become a weapon whose specs satisfied Yoon Sang-hyuk.
Slowly, Yoon Sang-hyuk lifted the sword.
The energies around them responded to his own and began to stir.
“Ready?”
A vicious force burst from Zigritria.
Behind Yoon Sang-hyuk, his comrades’ eyes were tight with tension. Valender von Graus clenched the hand holding his sword. The force radiating from Zigritria was so immense that even he could not easily bear it. If Yoon Sang-hyuk were to fall to Zigritria, he would rush out at once.
The tension ruled the space.
Yoon Sang-hyuk and Zigritria stood motionless, staring at each other. Each simply watched the other, searching for the slightest opening, trying to steal the other’s breath.
The suffocating tension broke for a completely different reason.
Yoon Sang-hyuk and Zigritria both turned their heads at the same time.
Where they looked, two men were standing. They had not been there a moment ago.
Men with red and black hair, respectively.
“Why are you here?”
Zigritria growled.
The bearing of the two men was no less formidable than Zigritria, the Magic Dragon of Despair.
Yoon Sang-hyuk looked at them and broke into a bright smile.
“Looks like I don’t have to go looking for you after all.”
The two men with red and black hair returned Yoon Sang-hyuk’s gaze with cold smiles.
They were Grandeerria, the Magic Dragon of Darkness, and Abalatron, the Magic Dragon of Death.