Chapter 133
Chapter 133
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 133
Chapter Title: The Wyverns Descend
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Thud. Thud.
A tunnel brimming with artificial craftsmanship.
An old man utterly devoid of any vitality shuffled slowly through it.
How much farther did the old man walk?
In the center of an impossibly vast plaza deep within the cave stood a hydra—a lesser dragonkin with nine heads—sprawled out.
Spotting the old man entering the plaza, the hydra opened its maws to unleash a deafening roar.
"Quiet down. Even I, who shows mercy to the things I've created, cannot abide the sight of a dog barking at its master."
Kraaa... Aaaah.
For some reason, upon hearing the old man's words, the hydra cut its cry short and meekly slunk into a corner.
"Tch, that damned snake-headed bastard. Doesn't even recognize its creator."
Hidden behind the hydra's massive body in the center of the plaza, another figure emerged from the opposite side—identical to the old man in every way—grumbling under his breath.
"Hoon, you bastard. What are you scheming?"
The old man who had come to the dungeon was none other than Genos's Baek.
"Scheming what, you fool?"
Hoon picked at his ear, grumbling irritably at Baek as if annoyed by the question.
"Don't play dumb. You sent those grave robbers my way, didn't you? Even handing over reagents and a Life Vessel to boot."
Baek stared at Hoon with a stony expression, pressing him relentlessly.
"Eh, those incompetent fools. They failed, of course. Well, that's hardly surprising."
Unlike how Hoon had asked Jerome's group to kill Baek as part of his own transcendence, Hoon felt no real threat even now that Baek had arrived.
In truth, Hoon knew full well that no matter how unhinged Baek had become, those young upstarts could never truly slay him.
That was why he hadn't handed over everything from his lifelong research. Of course, those fools probably thought they'd gotten a full forty percent of it.
...But this guy looks even more ragged than I expected.
If anything, Hoon was the one surprised upon assessing Baek's condition.
He hadn't anticipated Jerome's group forcing Baek to unleash a dummy spell.
"I gave them the Life Vessel for two reasons."
Hoon held up two fingers.
"Two reasons?"
"Baek, as you can see, I don't have much time left."
Hoon pointed to his translucent hand as he spoke to Baek.
"...You do look it."
"If I fade away like this, you'll lose your reason and become a mindless beast obsessed only with dragon research and slaughter. Before that happens..."
A fierce glint entered Hoon's hazy eyes.
"You must merge with me again, Baek. It's the only way you won't turn into a purposeless monster."
Genos's Hoon and Baek.
Though they had split from one body long ago and diverged in their thoughts over time, their ultimate goal remained unchanged.
Revenge against the Holy Empire—not mindless slaughter of the innocent.
They could not lose that direction.
"So you called me here to merge again? After dangling all that honey in front of those grave robbers?"
"Exactly."
"What a twisted way to summon me."
"Curse all you want—I'm you, and soon you'll be me, you fool."
Brushing off Baek's curses, Hoon continued.
"And the second reason I gave them the real Life Vessel... insurance, just in case. If our merger goes wrong, we need something to control it."
Remerging the already separated Hoon and Baek was uncharted territory.
Even 'they'—who had glimpsed worldly truths in life and reached exalted realms—had never trodden this path.
Neither Hoon nor Baek knew what they would become.
Perhaps an even greater monster.
In that case, they needed a failsafe.
Whether it would work was another matter.
"...Fine. I admit it."
Baek chuckled softly, spreading his arms and closing his eyes.
A sign he would accept Hoon's fading remnant.
"Good. Very good."
"Oh, right."
Baek suddenly asked Hoon another question.
"Why hand over the research results?"
Hoon and Baek's sub-spaces were linked. When Hoon pulled items from his, Baek would know.
If it was just to summon him, the Life Vessel and reagents would have sufficed. Handing over everything was inexplicable.
"Ah, that?"
As his form grew fainter, Hoon settled atop Baek's head and replied.
"I liked his expression."
"...His expression?"
"Yeah. I could feel his burning desire to screw over the Holy Empire. As strongly as ours."
'The more people to share this grand dream, the better.' Hoon laughed merrily.
The young man who had boldly asked how to destroy a chimera.
From him, Genos's Hoon had sensed a kindred spirit, so he'd freely shared his research.
It was all in his head anyway.
"That part, I approve of."
With those final words from Baek, the great mage's Hoon and Baek began to merge once more.
"Chwiik. Sorry. We're late."
A few days after slaying the dummy conjured by Genos's Baek, one morning...
Hatan's group emerged at the cliffside after traversing the lower path.
Hatan spoke nonchalantly, as if it were nothing, but every one of them was splattered in blood.
Their battered appearance proved the journey had been anything but easy.
Brontes's massive pauldrons—on his nearly 5-meter frame—bore deep tooth marks from some beast's bite, and the dire wolf Hatan had ridden had a crusted wound along its spine.
Considering Hatan's orcs were elite veterans of countless battles and the cyclopes ruled the northeastern Dragon Mountains, one could imagine the ferocity of the lesser dragonkin swarming from the northwest.
"Hatan, how the hell did you even reach the wyvern habitat back then?"
At this rate, if they'd approached with just orcs as Hatan had claimed, they'd have been annihilated before even encountering wyverns.
"Chwiik. It was bad then too, but not like this. If they'd been this numerous, I'd have retreated long ago."
...Genos, you mad bastard.
It seemed Genos's chimera research had caused the lesser dragonkin population to explode.
"You did well. Rest up first, then we'll figure out how to tackle that thing..."
I offered respite to those who'd reached us via the lower path.
"Chwiik. No."
Hatan shook his head.
"Chwiik. Not a moment passed on the way here without imagining this."
Kwak!
A chilling killing intent emanated from Hatan as he gripped his blood-smeared axe.
"I'll gouge out that one's remaining eye and serve it to the table of my subordinates who departed for Valhalla first. Chwiik!"
Had camaraderie formed during the shared battles on the lower path?
Brontes and Baukalark offered no objection to Hatan's words.
"...Fine. If that's your resolve."
One could not ignore the iron will of a noble warrior.
"Let's wipe them out quick and head home."
I slowly explained the cliff assault plan I'd devised over the past few days staring at it.
"First, take a look at this."
I unfurled the rough map of the abyss cliff I'd sketched in the interim.
Twin sheer walls loomed like an elliptical cylinder cleaved and fused by nature itself, with nest markings atop.
"A fortress carved by nature. Without wings, no normal assault is possible."
The cliff's height dwarfed even the cyclopes to childlike proportions—easily over 100 meters at a glance.
"Chwiik. We pondered it nonstop on the way, but no answers. What's your plan?"
"Exactly. No obvious method works against them."
There was good reason even Hatan—who'd unified most orcs and conquered much of the Dragon Mountains—hesitated on revenge.
Wyverns 10-20 meters long nested in thick, vast numbers, and the 100-meter height nullified orc throws, brave as they were.
Not that orc weapons would faze wyverns anyway.
Climbing was impossible too, with moss-choked fissures whipped by relentless winds.
And even if one summited against the gales, fighting while clinging to the face? They'd be wyvern snacks on display.
"So, we make them come down of their own accord."
"How?"
Rather than answer Brontes directly, I said something else.
"First off, they know we're coming."
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
Brontes, unconvinced, probed further.
"On our initial lower path scout, I sensed a wyvern's presence. It lingered even after we took the upper path."
I recalled our lower path encounters with hordes of lesser dragonkin.
"Hm, we didn't spot any wyverns en route here."
Brontes scratched his chin, puzzled. Baukalark pawed at him.
"Krur. Your bulk is visible everywhere."
The northwest teemed with sky-piercing trees, yet they couldn't fully hide cyclops girth.
Plus, their thunderous movements announced their presence.
"...I see. I hadn't considered that."
Life as a giant(?) had blinded Brontes to such details; he flushed.
"Anyway, better assume they know. Get ambushed from complacency, and you know how fatal that is."
Drip!
Hatan drooled blood from his mouth, lost in traumatic memories.
I watched him briefly before speaking.
The ploy I was about to unveil touched precisely on his trauma.
"This time, we'll turn their complacency against them."
I began explaining the strategy step by step.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Gula scowled at the unfamiliar thuds echoing through the abyss cliff.
"Kr... Wha... t..."
Since that old human touched his forehead days ago, Gula had felt his ability to recall human speech fading.
His mind fogged like mist, simplifying.
No—now even recognizing he could once think was a struggle.
Gula grew ever more instinct-driven, so the sounds from below grated fiercely.
"Kieeeek!"
Sensing Gula's displeasure, a wyvern returned from scouting and reported.
"Kr... rr... Use... less..."
The eastern giants near their nests were building something odd.
"Kieeeek!"
Another wyvern brought news.
The intruders were probing paths to the nests, inching closer.
No different from the orcs before.
The answer was clear.
The dumb giants built useless contraptions to assault the cliff, while the nest approaches repeated foolish orc tactics.
Just eat them as before.
"Kr... rr..."
The pre-human Gula might have sensed something off in their identical choices.
But with his fogged mind, deeper thought eluded him.
Punishing nest invaders was priority.
Smash the giants' oddity; shred and drain the approachers.
"Kraaaaaargh!!"
Whoosh!
At last, Gula unfurled wings vast enough to blanket the sky.
"Kieeeek!"
"Kieeeek!"
The other wyverns followed suit, wings spreading as they mobilized.
Taking to the skies, the wyverns split into three groups, heading different ways.
The eastern giants were no easy prey.
Gula veered toward them, while the other pairs targeted the nestbound pests.
Few wyverns remained at the nests, guarding eggs and young against mountain chill—not intruders.
Wingless foes couldn't assail this lofty perch.
Thus, soaring carefree through azure skies, the wyverns remained oblivious.
To the scant humans secretly scaling the sheer cliff.