Chapter 430
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 430
Chapter Title: I'll Play Along
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Crack, craaaack!
Silver scales covering her wounds.
Two sharply protruding horns.
A tail sprouting from her hips.
The sight was less a transformation and more a metamorphosis.
Fantastic, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon.
And among it all, what stood out most was the pair of wings that had torn through the back of her top and shot upward.
Shwaaak!
Transparent like crystal.
Dazzlingly brilliant and pristine.
Yet without feathers or membranes.
Just a skeletal frame protruding like blades.
So sharp and precarious they looked less like wings and more like a thicket of ice thorns.
Not hideous, though.
If anything, the opposite.
A jewel-like brilliance paired with glass-like fragility, blending into a delicate beauty like a peerless sculpture.
"■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!!!"
The moment her lips parted.
A bizarre roar erupted.
Echoing as if stretching an instant into eternity, yet compressing a long song into a single burst.
At the same time, her vertically slit pupils filled with pure instinct.
A feral, impulsive beast's gaze, with no trace of reason.
An inevitable outcome.
She wasn't resonating with the Seven Dragon Society's psionics to unleash the Progenitor Return Style.
Instead, she'd forcibly dragonized by self-harm, stimulating her dragon's pure blood.
No way she could retain her sanity drawing out a dragon's power through such a hack.
Pzzt!
But the effect was undeniable.
Just moments ago, the black patterns had dominated half her body, from her left arm to her left cheek.
The Demon God's curse was swiftly pushed back by her vast psionics, dissolving into a wisp of black smoke.
Yet Ekaterina wasn't satisfied.
Baring her fangs with a displeased growl, as if even the thought of that filth touching her was revolting, she whipped her head around.
Reacting to the malevolent aura, perhaps.
Or even in her instinct-only state, remembering that the Demon God had cursed her.
After glaring at the writhing, swelling shadow.
She raised her razor-sharp wings.
Clenched her snow-white fist.
And the moment she moved.
Kwaaaaang!
The mountain-sized shadow tore apart in shreds.
"......She went and did it after all."
The white-haired youth had stepped back to avoid getting caught in her rampage.
Rimon watched the shadow shred like tissue paper with every flash of silver light, his expression complicated.
Of course, he was the Seven Dragon Society's arch-nemesis.
He'd fought them countless times over centuries, so he was familiar even with a dragonized princess.
Yet in this moment.
The reason Rimon found Ekaterina ripping the shadow apart so unfamiliar was simple.
Even to draw out dragon power, he'd never seen a princess deliberately self-harm before.
'She's truly out of her mind.'
Dragonization was a double-edged sword.
A last resort granting immense power but potentially shaving off lifespan.
Thus, it was rarely used unless life hung by a thread or the clan faced annihilation.
Yet no matter how dire the situation.
Instead of sharing the burden by resonating with the Seven Dragon Society's psionics, she'd forcibly dragonized via self-harm.
For Rimon, who'd encountered countless princesses over centuries...
No, precisely because of that, it was an insane act he'd never imagined.
All the more so since it wasn't even to protect her life or clan, but to save Moscow's citizens.
Kwaboom!
'At least it's working.'
Thanks to that madness, though.
As if all the previous evasion had been a lie.
Rimon narrowed his eyes, watching Ekaterina pulverize the shadow hundreds of times in an instant at invisible speeds.
Not fully revived, but toying with even the world's Demon God was utterly overwhelming.
A display worthy of a dragon's lineage.
But witnessing that one-sided beatdown, Rimon furrowed his brow.
'What the hell are you thinking, you crazy princess?'
The shadow was just the Demon God's shell.
No matter how much you shredded it, it only bought time, and without striking the godhood itself, you couldn't kill the Demon God.
Killing it might unleash a catastrophe anyway.
So what made Ekaterina charge in to slay the Demon God?
Incomprehensible.
Especially since forcibly dragonized, she lacked proper judgment.
Thus, as Rimon pondered whether to subdue the rampaging Ekaterina now and behead the Demon God.
Kwajijik!
The battle shifted.
The moment the shadow had shrunk enough.
White frost began creeping along the lightning-fast silver flash.
'What's that?'
As the frost domain expanded, temperatures plummeted sharply.
And seeing ice pillars erupt repeatedly along the silver trajectory, skewering the shadow, Rimon narrowed his eyes.
He'd realized Ekaterina's intent.
'No way, she plans to seal the Demon God?'
Rimon groaned.
Sealing a supreme god among supreme gods, the Demon God.
An absurd outrage.
But the most ridiculous part was that it was actually working.
Indeed, with each ice pillar, the shadow's movements slowed dramatically.
And with a Sword Master's super senses, he quickly grasped her not-trick trick.
'......Indeed, not sealing the Demon God, but freezing the entire surrounding time solid.'
Those ice pillars weren't mere cold manifestations.
The chill was just a byproduct.
The true essence slowed surrounding time to a crawl, then froze it outright, halting molecular motion.
A miraculous feat possible only because the Silver Dragon Clan wielded time manipulation.
And because their princess, with vast psionics, had dragonized.
'She can pull this off in a rampage?'
Thus, Rimon was all the more astonished.
If she'd used Progenitor Return Style, maybe.
But a forcibly dragonized princess gained free use of vast psionics at the cost of losing access to the Seventy-Two Dragon Styles.
Yet without styles, achieving such precise psionic control.
Absurd talent.
'Reckless folly.'
But Rimon hardened his face.
If her sealing succeeded, she could bind the Demon God for days.
Evacuate Moscow's citizens in that time, repelling it bloodlessly—the best outcome.
The problem: it was an insane gamble.
Could she truly seal the Demon God?
Would it revive first?
Even if sealed, could she buy time for full evacuation?
Weighing all possibilities, success odds were minuscule.
Doubly so considering Silver Dragon Clan traits.
His instincts screamed to behead the Demon God now.
'Better if I intervene now, but......'
Yet Rimon's hesitation stemmed from one thing.
Ekaterina attempting this folly.
Without reason now.
Normally, she'd mindlessly battle the Demon God or flee for survival.
Yet striving to seal it meant instinctively protecting Moscow's citizens.
Whether from possessiveness or madness.
A Silver Dragon Princess risking life for people—unbelievable.
And the reason was clear.
Unlike past Silver Dragon Princesses who wandered as raiders due to the Demonic Cult.
Ekaterina had ruled the Russian Khanate as a dictator her whole life.
Thus, her instincts viewed citizens as possessions.
'I see.'
Realizing that.
Rimon felt a strange déjà vu.
Experienced many times in his long life, yet always fresh.
The inevitable becoming questionable, everything alienating—he closed his eyes.
'Have times changed?'
By his own code, behead the Demon God now, casualties be damned.
But Ekaterina treating this nation as property stemmed from Rimon's long tolerance of Silver Dragon rule.
Due to the Sword Duchess's tyranny.
Tracing back, because he'd trained the Sword Duchess.
In short, Ekaterina risking life against the Demon God was Rimon's karma.
And bearing one's karma was a line Rimon had to uphold.
Two lines.
Two rights.
He didn't know which to choose.
He hadn't prioritized them, and life had no answers anyway.
So then......
Kwajik, kwajijik!
While Rimon pondered, Ekaterina kept erecting ice pillars, slowing the shadow further.
......Until, at some point, her lightning movements abruptly dulled.
Inevitable.
Time manipulation accelerating time hundreds-fold was the most mystical psionic, but consumed vast power.
Overuse depleted stamina swiftly.
Even a princess's near-infinite psionics would bottom out.
Outshining Gold Dragons briefly, but weaker than the weakest White Dragons in prolonged fights.
Thus, specialized purely for short bursts—not direct clashes, one-vs-many, or escapes.
That was the Silver Dragon Clan's fate.
Why their princess wasn't the strongest, why she'd fled even after drawing with the Sword Duchess.
Fail to end it instantly, and defeat was inevitable—their destiny.
And now.
That destiny shackled Ekaterina's ankle.
"Kyaaak!!"
Outraged at her fate.
Ekaterina roared fiercely, trying to summon more ice pillars.
But her depleted psionics trickled out like drought rain, failing to recover flow.
And as if waiting for this chance.
The suddenly reactivated shadow exploded outward.
Poised to swallow whole the ice pillars she'd embedded.
Shwaaak!
"......In the end, is making big brother suffer a little sister's destiny?"
A streak of light flashed.
Splitting the tidal shadow entirely.
Ekaterina froze briefly at sudden Rimon's intervention, so unexpected.
But consumed by rampaging dragon instinct, she thrust her blade-wings at him.
Thud!
Futile.
With psionics exhausted, her sluggish wings were easily dodged by Rimon.
He grabbed her swung hand next, sighing.
"For witnessing your resolve to stake your life, at least I'll play along until this insane gamble ends."
Unable to comprehend, instinct-only.
Toward the thrashing girl baring fangs like a cat at a dog, Rimon stepped close.
And as his fingers touched her chin tip, a question mark flickered in her slit pupils.
"So finish what you started properly, you crazy little sister."
Squeeze.
"......?!?!"
Over her soft lips.
Another pair overlapped.
Ekaterina's tail shot straight up.