Chapter 215: Immortality (2)
Chapter 215: Immortality (2)
"…As I thought."
The Dragon Kalua looked down at Caravan.
Caravan, who had seemed as though he would revive infinitely, was finally reaching his limit. His embers were fading at last. His physical body was still struggling to regenerate, but that power was nearing its end.
He had six, maybe seven seconds left at most.
"Your struggle ends here."
Kalua spread his wings, intending to take flight. He would soar far above.
Caravan had very little time left. Knowing that, there was no reason for Kalua to keep fighting him on the ground. If he simply circled the sky where the boy couldn't reach, Caravan would eventually pay the price for defying the natural order. Once those embers were completely extinguished, Kalua could return to the earth and finish him off. That was the way of a Watchman.
However.
"You…?"
One second passed.
With only five seconds remaining, Kalua felt something go wrong.
This is strange.
Caravan’s collapsing body was reconstructing itself.
Like a blacksmith repairing a broken sword, the shattered, ruined husk was regaining its original form. No—it wasn't the original form. It was a body far harder and more powerful than before. A dragon's eyes can pierce through the mortal realm, the spirit realm, and the spiritual world alike. In this moment, Kalua saw the grotesque, alien sight of 'Caravan.'
What on earth is that?
A body forged of True Steel. A Soul of Steel dwelling within it.
A solid existence stood there, looking as though not a single scratch would appear no matter what struck it. The moment he saw the transformed Caravan, Kalua’s heart thundered in his chest. Simultaneously, the dragon blood flowing through his veins began to scream. It told him to run.
But why?
It was the instinct beasts feel when they encounter their natural enemy. An instinct engraved in the blood.
The fear of an absolute predator remembered by his very genes. The cellular memories imprinted for survival shrieked at him. Get away. Get as far away from that being as possible.
As Kalua hesitated for a brief moment, a memory from the distant past flashed before his eyes—a memory of a forgotten era engraved in the lineage of the Great Dragons. Over the image of the beautiful blonde youth, the face of a lion-like man overlapped. Along with it came an indescribable dread.
Dragon Kalua.
In that instant, Kalua remembered the warning the Ancient Dragons had left behind.
You do not know the true terror of Caravan.
"No, I will not be swayed by the bygone past—"
And then.
"—not—"
Slice.
With a clean, sharp sound, Kalua’s body lurched. When he turned his head, one of his wings was gone. The proud wing that made a dragon the master of the sky had been severed and was falling toward the depths below. For a moment, Kalua failed to comprehend what had happened. As his balance crumbled and he looked forward again, Caravan was there.
A young man clad in full armor stood before him, so different from before that it was hard to believe he was the same person.
Ah.
Five seconds remaining.
It was an event that occurred just 0.3 seconds after that point.
* * *
I had reached a new realm.
A small realization, but the change brought about by that minor difference was anything but small. Not even when I first created my second heart, when I first forged my Path, or when I first obtained my wings had there been such a dramatic transformation.
I feel light.
It felt like I had shed a heavy skin. It felt as if everything composing my physical body had changed—as if my flesh, bone, and blood had all been replaced by steel. I felt like a human made of steel from head to toe. It felt like nothing could leave a scratch on me, no matter what I faced. I was a walking fortress.
I am hard.
It was the sensation of having a completely new body. It was different from the moment I first forged my Path and was granted the strength of a 'Superhuman.' The basic physical scale itself had completely changed. I had been reborn—not as a human, but as something superior.
「It is the privilege of Caravan.」
The dragon, struggling with a severed wing, swung its forepaw—the terrifying limb that had shattered my body with a single strike. But its claw was no longer a threat to me. I thrust my sword into the incoming strike.
With a loud clang, the dragon’s forepaw was deflected.
「The reconstruction of the body.」
There was no longer a difference in scale. No, a new scale had been established. Now I was the one above, and he was the one below.
「The armor forged by Caravan grants new power to the body itself. It turns everything from the exterior of the flesh to the intricate muscles, skin, tissue, and bone into True Steel.」
Shlick.
With a clean sound, the dragon’s forepaw flew into the air. A choked groan escaped its throat. Cutting through the dragon scales that had been so hard was now as simple as slicing through ingredients for a meal.
「Is that all?」
The dragon, tongue lolling out, glared with wide eyes. The Mystery of the elements he controlled no longer worked on me. With his powerful weapons sealed, he had only one choice left. If he was being overwhelmed by the difference in scale, he had to use the most powerful weapon a dragon possessed: the power of absolute destruction. The Breath.
The dragon opened its maw wide.
A breath imbued with various elements and the power of destruction swept over me. It was an attack I had barely endured earlier using the Legend of "Indomitable." But this time, I didn't even need to endure it.
With a crack, the armor protecting my body fractured. It didn't just crack; it shattered and scattered. However, the Breath could not harm my body inside the destroyed armor. Why?
「The heart possessed by Caravan, the Heart of Steel, heals the wounds of its master in an instant. A persistent life force. As long as a single breath remains, Caravan will survive. And Caravan’s armor inherits the characteristics of that heart exactly.」
The shattered armor was restored to its original state in less than a second. The scattering fragments clung back to my body as if they possessed a will of their own. Scratches, cracks—they all vanished instantly. The dragon’s pupils shook violently. To him, such a thing was impossible.
"—!"
The dragon desperately tried to take flight with its one remaining wing. Faced with an unexpected situation, he was trying to put distance between us.
I had no intention of letting him. I had to follow. To do that, I needed something to step on in the air.
The moment I thought that, the armor covering the soles of my feet detached and became platforms. Wings have no physical form, but 'armor' does. Since it was a physical manifestation of Steel Mana, I could naturally step on it and leap.
Because I could, I did.
Slice—.
I leaped through the air, stepping on the armor platforms. With that leap, a line was drawn through the sky, and the dragon lost even its last remaining wing.
The time elapsed until this point was 3.1 seconds.
"…!"
The dragon, having lost both wings, was no longer the master of the sky. Every living creature that ceases to be a master of the sky is bound by gravity. According to the natural order, the dragon fell from the sky toward the depths below.
But even if I left him be, the dragon would not die. Below us was the sea. A dragon would not die from being crushed by its own weight; despite their massive size, dragons are not heavy because their interiors are filled with Dragon Blood, the crystallization of Mystery.
So, I had to finish it.
"Whew."
I took a breath. My reconstructed body was different even in the amount of mana it could take in with a single breath. As my entire body was filled to the brim, the armor protecting the backs of my hands detached on its own. The fragments attached themselves to both sides of my blade, sweeping across the edge like a whetstone. With a sharp grinding sound, sparks flew, and my sword shone.
Demon Ore, the third steel.
The master of the sky, the dragon, falls. A wingless life, the human that is I, stands tall above him. It wasn't just our positions that were reversed; even strength and weakness had been inverted.
I had something to return to him. Holding the shining sword, I lunged after the falling beast, drawing a line in the air.
The sword swung in mid-air—the moment it gained sufficient speed, a small spark of lightning flickered from the tip. That minor spark soon became a bolt of lightning. Lightning erupted from the shining sword. The 'Lightning' forged by the old caretaker, Tom, through his obsession with dragons, was unleashed. Like a bolt striking from dark clouds amidst wind and rain, it poured down from the heights.
My body became a streak of light, enveloping the dragon. Jagged lines were drawn, and the dragon’s body, caught in the middle of those lines, was hacked into pieces. The severed body became black ash from the lightning that erupted like an explosion.
With a splash, the broken fragments of the dragon fell into the sea. The thunder followed soon after the sound of the seawater bursting.
K-boom.
…It’s over.
Yes, it was over. It ended with surprising simplicity.
"Young Master!"
The endless sea. Floating atop the water, I felt a massive power surging through my entire body as if it would explode. The dragon, the formidable foe that had pushed me to my limits, had been killed so easily. There wasn't even a sense of crisis. It was as easy as hunting a rabbit.
So this is a Sword Expert.
"Pfft," I couldn't help but burst into laughter.
The realm that had felt as high as the heavens—Swordmaster.
"Young Master! Young Master! Are you alr—"
Now, I was only one step away from it.
"…!"
And then, five seconds passed. My world flickered out.
* * *
The old caretaker, Tom.
The old man, who had now lost all his great power, pushed through the sea toward the boy. He didn't even have a sailboat. Tom dragged his old, broken body and swam desperately to save his friend floating in the middle of the ocean. His swimming was pathetic.
The old man had lived as a strongman his entire life. Thus, it felt awkward that his thin arms could not easily push through the current. The old body that panted after only a little swimming was unfamiliar. The dizziness that made his head spin was also something he wasn't used to. But he did not stop.
With his clumsy swimming, the old man finally reached his friend's side. He shook the boy, who was completely drained of strength, again and again. Wake up, please wake up.
"Get… a… grip, Young Master."
He had swallowed a lot of water. His mouth tasted of salt. His whole body felt pickled in seawater. Nevertheless, the old man did not care about his own body. Tom shook Arhan, who had collapsed, and soon felt relieved at the fact that he was breathing. Fortunately, it seemed he had only lost consciousness for a moment. Tom let out a long breath and looked around.
"…."
The dragon's corpse floated in the sea. The dragon's body had been sliced apart in an instant, as if someone were dicing a radish. Tom knew. Just now, Arhan had ascended to the realm of 「Sword Expert」. But the power Arhan had shown was somehow different from the conventional Sword Expert that Tom knew.
He was unnaturally strong.
A 「Sword Expert」 is not that powerful. What Arhan had just shown was at a level that defied the logic of the world. No matter how much of a Sword Expert one was, they couldn't move that fast, possess that much strength, or have such a hard physical body.
Furthermore, the sword Arhan swung. The Mystery of 'Thunder' that originally belonged to Tom was not that powerful either. It wasn't powerful enough to pierce through dragon scales and burn all the flesh inside. And what was that Mystery he showed at the very end? A Mystery that controlled armor in fragments. He had never heard of such a thing. Armor is just armor—defensive gear to protect the master.
If it is destroyed, one must meditate for at least a week to restore it. Since it is a concentration of mana, gathering that much mana again is a difficult task. But what about Arhan? He destroyed all common sense regarding the 「Sword Expert」 that Tom knew. The figure Arhan had shown was like a hero from an epic poem. A hero of iron and blood who kills a dragon with a single stroke, flies through the sky, and will never crumble no matter what enemy he faces….
"…?"
While he was lost in such thoughts, Tom heard a thunderous roar.
When he turned his head, the sky was collapsing. It was slowly crumbling, starting from the part where that dragon had broken through.
Oh no.
Was it the aftermath of the dragon's sudden intrusion? Ernestra, which was like a small world of its own, was collapsing. Tom hurriedly tried to swim while carrying Arhan on his back. But where could he flee? To that hole in the sky? Tom had no wings. All he could do was swim like a fish.
The sky collapsed in an instant. Even the vast sea surged and crumbled. The small island surged violently before being swallowed by the sea. Tom knew that he and Arhan would soon meet the same fate. Anticipating a terrible future, Tom tightly embraced the sleeping Arhan, protecting his friend from the encroaching collapse. And….
「Old man who has come to the boundary of the world.」
「Go to where you belong.」
The next moment, when he opened his eyes.
"…Eh?"
Tom, soaking wet, was in the all-too-familiar Caravan Estate.
With a dazed expression, Tom looked around. The residents of the Caravan Estate were looking at him with startled expressions. Tom brushed off their hands and searched for Arhan. He eventually collapsed from exhaustion, but even after barely recovering his strength and getting up, he searched for Arhan incessantly.
However, Arhan was nowhere to be found in the Caravan Estate. With not even a trace of Arhan left, Tom recalled the strange voice he had heard last in Ernestra.
Go to where you belong.
The sea had certainly said that. Then?
Is Young Master Arhan at the place where he belongs?
But it was strange. Was there any other place where Young Master Arhan belonged… besides the Caravan Estate?
* * *
"General, this human…."
"Yes, that's right."
An impregnable fortress. Amidst soggy mud and piles of stone, patrolling soldiers stood with their commander.
The Dwarf General, Dwight, grinned.
"The Descendant of Steel has arrived."
Arhan had been sent to the Dwarf Kingdom.
"Having perfected Immortality."