Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: Chapter 28: Gremia (3)
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“Dragon Slayer!”
Jamie gazed at the sword in Beryl’s hand, which continued to scatter lightning ceaselessly.
“The sword that slew the Thunder Dragon and absorbed its power.”
Beryl smiled as he admired the blade’s elegant form.
Incredible lightning.
Even as he suppressed it with the power of wind, it still strained against the wind barrier, desperately trying to unleash its bolts.
“There’s a legend that it pierced the Thunder Dragon’s Dragon Heart.”
“The Dragon Heart...”
Not merely slain, but the very source of a dragon’s power—the heart—impaled by this blade.
Indeed. That explained the absurd lightning.
It had devoured that magic power, giving birth to such a ridiculous magic sword.
“But why is something like this here?”
“Someday it might come in handy, so I kept it stored away.”
It was Teberon who spoke.
The bear had turned his head slightly away from the sword, as if its brilliance pained his eyes.
“I don’t know the exact reason. I was merely its guardian.”
“Does Sir Onyx know why?”
“I told you. I have nothing more to say.”
A secret, then.
Jamie pulled a sullen expression for no particular reason.
What kind of grand secret is it that he won’t even speak of it?
Jamie cleared his throat needlessly and posed another question.
“Ahem. So, who’s the owner of that sword? Or can’t you tell me that much?”
“...That should be fine.”
Beryl spread his palm into empty air, summoning a scabbard.
“You know magic too?”
“The basics.”
How is sub-space magic basic?
Jamie was dumbfounded but held his tongue and watched.
Beryl slid Gram into the scabbard. The lightning ceased as if by magic.
“A scabbard that tames lightning. Dwarven make?”
“Who else?”
“Fair point.”
Beryl returned the Thunder Dragon Sword Gram and its scabbard to his sub-space. He turned to Jamie.
“Gram is a weapon of the Ran.”
“...Ran, you mean...”
“The very Ran you’re thinking of.”
If dragons reached their pinnacle through magic and breath, and high elves through magic and spirits, then the Ran had claimed theirs through innate martial might.
Their power rivaled even those two races.
If it’s the Ran, they have every qualification to forge that sword.
The Ran were a race of minuscule numbers, yet every one was a monster who had attained master class in strength.
Killing a dragon was no impossibility for them.
“Time to leave. Open the door.”
His objective fulfilled, Beryl requested of Teberon.
“I never imagined my 600-year mission would end like this.”
A wave of emptiness washed over him, but Teberon accepted it with joy.
At last, he could return to his longed-for homeland.
“Gremia’s mission complete, it will collapse now. Let’s go.”
There was no further reason for this relic to endure.
The moment Teberon prepared to unseal the exit—
Kiiing-!
A bizarre noise emanated from the pillar that had sealed the Thunder Dragon Sword Gram.
“What’s that?”
“What’s happening?!”
“I don’t know!”
The entire Gremia trembled.
Every circuit etched into the floor began glowing erratically.
“We need to get out! Hurry!”
Teberon bolted for the exit first, with Beryl close behind.
Jamie soared upward in pursuit.
Something ominous was afoot, but they had ample time to escape.
“Jamie! Don’t lag behind!”
Worried, Beryl kept glancing back as he shouted.
No need to fret.
The exit wasn’t far at all.
They’d be out in moments.
Jamie harbored not the slightest doubt that he’d make it.
That is... until someone appeared behind him.
“...”
Jamie halted mid-stride and turned.
“Jamie Welton!”
Beryl called out to the suddenly stopped boy.
But Jamie did not turn back.
He had no idea what had gotten into the child, but he was Sears Bell Welton’s son.
He couldn’t stand idly by and watch him get buried here.
Summoning the power of wind, he rushed to Jamie’s side with utmost speed. But it was too late.
Light erupted from the floor, engulfing Jamie entirely.
The ceiling began crumbling.
“Jaaaamie!!”
In that tragic scene, Beryl wailed Jamie’s name.
Jamie stood in a space where motes of light drifted like scattered particles.
Swept up by the pillar of light from the floor, he had been transported here.
He stared at the old man standing before him.
“Did you summon me?”
“Something like that.”
The old man, wearing a kindly smile, gently stroked his beard.
Jamie didn’t know who he was, but he had seen him before.
When wresting control of Gremia from Teberon, he had delved to its deepest layers for total dominance.
This old man had guarded that core as the final security measure.
“I thought you were just a projection.”
“A mere projection couldn’t have repelled your intrusion.”
“A thought-form implanted, then.”
“As you see.”
A thought-form enduring fully 600 years.
Hidden away undetected, even from Teberon himself.
Jamie couldn’t help but think the old man was relentlessly tenacious.
“So, who exactly are you? Part of that Frontier group as well?”
For Isis’s sake, he had sealed the Thunder Dragon Sword Gram in Gremia—for 600 long years.
Yet against expectation, the old man shook his head.
“My name is Armion. Not Frontier.”
The one calling himself ‘Armion’ flickered and reformed in bursts of static.
The old man muttered gravely.
“Hmm. As expected, time is short.”
“Why?”
“Gram was an exceptional power source, sustaining Gremia for 600 years. Now extracted, of course the clock is ticking.”
No wonder mana never drained when using Gremia’s functions.
He had been curious about its inner workings.
Gram’s furious lightning output could easily have powered it indefinitely.
“Even this thought-form drew on Gram’s aid. It won’t hold much longer.”
His voice carried regret, yet his expression beamed with a smile.
“A 9th-class mage in life?”
“Something like that.”
As suspected.
Humans had scaled those supreme heights even after Ganon.
“But I never made it public.”
“Why?”
“Because it let me accomplish nothing.”
“Accomplish nothing how?”
“Not enough time for that tale. Suffice to say, you’ll learn in time.”
The exact same words Beryl had used.
Armion pressed on.
“In any case, Isis and I were close, but I wasn’t Frontier. I merely honored her request.”
“Her request to safeguard Gram.”
“Precisely. But mark this: Gremia wasn’t built to house Gram.”
Gram had been incidental.
“It was prepared for the one I awaited.”
“...For someone?”
Jamie guessed the identity without difficulty.
“Me?”
“Indeed. You, cloaked in the guise of a young boy.”
Bright radiance poured from Armion’s eyes.
Jamie’s eyes narrowed.
What did he know of him to claim he had waited?
His intentions were inscrutable.
“Suspicious? Rightly so. I only ask that you understand there’s no time for explanations.”
“Why wait for me?”
“To be precise... I awaited one who wields black mana.”
He had used black mana inside Gremia, so he must know he was a black sorcerer.
Yet Armion had singled out the black mana he possessed.
Considering Vena had visited this place too, it wasn’t just any black sorcerer he awaited.
Armion’s lips curved upward.
“Mana bearing the power of God-Slaying—that is whom I awaited.”
Jamie’s eyes bulged as if to pop free.
Black mana, he could accept. But to discern the God-Slaying power as well? Unthinkable.
After Diablo Volpir’s era met its end, a new history took root, erasing it from all memory.
No one knew. No one should know.
Even Ganon knew only of Diablo Volpir’s existence, not the God-Slaying power.
Jamie had witnessed it solely through diary records chronicling his exploits.
Yet Armion knew of the God-Slaying power.
Jamie’s eyes flushed purple as potent killing intent surged forth.
“...How do you know?”
“A truly fearsome force. Untempered, and yet this potent.”
“Answer me. Time shortage as excuse, and I’ll obliterate you this instant.”
“A sensitive matter, naturally.”
Armion nodded in understanding.
He let his smile fade.
“Traces of Him linger in the world. I found not all, but in the search, I learned the ancient tongue.”
That explained the forgotten language inscribed along the path to Gremia.
But it wasn’t the priority now.
In a quavering voice, Jamie asked,
“...Traces of Diablo Volpir exist?”
“His name? Heh heh. I searched a lifetime without uncovering it. And here a mere boy knows more than I.”
“Enough nonsense! Do His traces exist?!”
“They do. Wasn’t Leviathan just above, safeguarding the demon egg and nourishing it? That too was His trace.”
“So that’s it. Others seek His traces as well. You found one and claimed the God-Slaying mana, no?”
“...”
“That’s not the point now. See? My arm’s already fading.”
Armion waggled his left arm, now half-transparent, with a grin.
His mind reeled in turmoil, but Jamie knew this wasn’t the moment for contemplation.
“...Fine, whatever. You waited for me?”
“At last, to the heart of it.”
“What ‘heart’?”
“It might amount to nothing. Perhaps mere selfish desire on my part.”
“Selfish desire?”
“Gremia was my contingency for that day.”
Armion raised a hand. Space expanded endlessly.
Jamie gaped at the spectacle.
“The space...!”
It shifted through countless forms.
A colossal aerial fortress, a sprawling mansion, an opulent castle, and finally a cannon of monstrous proportions!
The astonishment lay in their reality.
The fortress’s armaments could truly bombard. The mansion and castle offered fitting comfort and grandeur. The cannon wielded power to level mountains.
And these were mere samples.
“Gremia is a ‘Form Construction Artifact.’ An implement of infinite potential, molding to any shape and purpose by the wielder’s will!”
The massive cannon contracted at blinding speed, shrinking to fit in one hand.
The resizing was instantaneous.
Proof it responded to the user’s intent, just as Armion claimed.
Jamie’s mind blanked.
Even with sub-master privileges, he’d been oblivious to this function. He’d assumed it was simply an architectural artifact.
Teberon must have thought the same.
“To think it was an artifact this absurd...”
Even the pinnacle of magitech might barely produce such a marvel.
Jamie had no choice but to concede.
Gremia rivaled—or surpassed—his three divine artifacts.
Armion, his form half-dissolved, smiled.
“I bequeath it all to you.”
“...And what makes you trust me with it?”
Armion replied,
“You alone hold the potential to bring salvation to this world.”
Gremia morphed into an incomprehensible polyhedron beyond human perception and seeped into Jamie’s body.
Mana overflowed through his every limb. Vitality surged anew.
Even the depleted Orb of Life refilled as if by miracle.
Jamie yielded to the profound fullness, the first he’d felt since reincarnation.
“I beseech you. I achieved naught myself, but you... you can save this irrational world.”
With those words, Armion vanished.
Jamie closed his eyes as his awareness receded.
When Jamie came to—
“Jamie! Jamie!”
“...”
“Jamie! Are you all right?”
Beryl shook him, face etched with worry.
Far too vigorously.
...I’m gonna hurl.
Dizziness brought on a wave of nausea.