Chapter 176: A Flower Blooming in Winter (7)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 176: A Flower Blooming in Winter (7)
“CHAAAAARGE!”
A low, guttural war cry, unique to the dwarves, erupted.
From the underground bunkers, dwarves began to pour out like a flood tide.
They carried dwarven-forged torches, smeared with the oil of demonic beasts, that blazed to life. With a fierce heat reminiscent of flamethrowers, they barely managed to beat back the biting cold.
Divided into eight groups, they swarmed through the city, moving along the main roads and pouring back into their homes and forges.
“It seems Wolfram succeeded in persuading them.”
“Yes.”
Skadia, who had been glaring down with narrowed eyes, snorted dismissively.
“Hmph. I know not what you are plotting, but it is a meaningless struggle. The dwarves will become slaves once more and live under the management of a dragon.”
“Meaningless, you say. Are you being serious?”
“Surely you do not believe that swarm of insignificant insects can turn this situation around?”
“No?”
“Hm?”
Skadia reflexively questioned the unexpected reply.
“They can’t possibly turn it around. So you won’t interfere, will you?”
“Ha. I wondered what nonsense you were spouting, and as expected of a lowly creature, you worry about such trivial things. I shall not interfere.”
“Do you swear it?”
“Why should I, a dragon, deign to swear an oath to a mere human….”
“Oh? Why are you changing the subject? Don’t tell me a big man like you is going to go back on his word?”
The corner of Skadia’s eye twitched.
The creature was all talk, trembling with only his head poking out from behind Azyeth. Why in the world Azyeth showed such favor to him was a mystery.
It was a matter that even Skadia, who understood the principles of the world, could not comprehend.
“Hmph. If you so desire my word, then I shall grant you my magnanimity. I swear I will not interfere, no matter what you do.”
“You swore, you know.”
“Do not rejoice, you foolish creature. Once I have devoured all those dwarves, I will chew you up alive.”
And yet, Karami just grinned. Skadia gave a cool response and lowered his gaze.
The underground city of Doomheim.
The dwarves’ home, a place now overlaid with snow and ice.
“Hm?”
In a corner of Doomheim, a single point of light flickered.
It was a small flame.
A faint light trembled in the darkness.
Clang….
The first ring of a steel hammer gently shook the silence of Doomheim.
A second ember awoke.
The faint light grew a little stronger.
The sound of the hammer struck metal once more.
A short, resolute sound cut through the darkness.
A third ember flared to life.
Light and sound grew, chasing one another.
As the red glow from a forge painted the walls, the hammering echoed ever more fiercely.
A fourth, and then a fifth.
One by one, the blooming embers pushed back the darkness.
The lights connected, spreading like wildfire.
The sound of steel hammers grew deeper, more intense.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
Before he knew it, the whole of Doomheim was breathing to that rhythm.
It was no longer just the sound of iron.
It was the thrumming of the earth’s own heart.
When the last of the embers finally ignited, the winding dragon veins illuminated the underground city in a brilliant display.
Light and sound.
Fire and steel.
The song of the dwarves, a perfect harmony of all things, echoed through the caverns.
“What is this….”
If the sky had its stars, the underground had the fires of the dwarves.
The Forge Milky Way.
The heat and soul of the dwarves flowed through the dragon veins, pouring into the Heart of Magmora.
CLANG—!
CLANG—!
In the core chamber of the Heart of Magmora.
Thorvar struck the dying ember with his hammer.
Sparks flew in every direction.
The great forge roared, boiling with the collective fire of the dwarves.
Sweat poured from him like rain, and the heat was so intense it stole his breath, but Thorvar did not stop.
Thorvar, the Tuner of the Ember.
He was tuning the ember, just as he was meant to.
And beyond the shattered door.
“Whoa….”
Perka burned the sight into her memory.
The Meister, an object of admiration for all dwarves.
Flames blazed in his eyes.
Her heart pounded, resonating with the sound of the forge.
Perka’s dwarven DNA was reacting.
The ice covering Doomheim began to melt away.
“What foolishness is this!”
“Wow, you’re not really going to interfere after swearing an oath to me, are you?”
“Surely you did not think that I, a dragon, would keep an oath made to a mere human!”
I knew it, you son of a bitch.
Karami cursed inwardly.
“A dragon who’s lived for thousands of years, and you still have no shame. Right?”
“Correct.”
Skadia didn’t react to Karami’s cutting remark. For some reason, exchanging words with him stirred an uncontrollable irritation within the dragon.
He began preparing a spell to extinguish the ember that had just begun to breathe again.
Karami moved as well.
Further taunts would be useless.
His role here was finished.
It was time to pass the baton to Azyeth.
Azyeth rose from her spot.
She looked back, met Karami’s eyes, and held out her hand.
“Hand.”
“Pardon?”
“Hold… my hand.”
So that’s what she wanted.
It wasn’t a difficult request.
Karami placed his hand over hers.
Azyeth flinched at the sudden, intense warmth, but she didn’t pull away. She just stared at him, waiting, as if it still wasn’t enough.
Understanding her meaning, Karami let out a small, dry laugh.
“You’re a greedy slave. At this rate, I won’t know who the master is and who the slave is.”
He turned their hands and interlaced their fingers. They were clasped tightly, so as not to be easily separated.
“Is this better?”
“……Yes.”
“Go on, then.”
He released her hand.
Clutching the hand that still held his warmth, Azyeth launched herself lightly into the air.
*
Heat and cheers filled Doomheim.
Having swallowed the passion and soul of the dwarves, the Heart of Magmora burned hotter than ever before.
Absolute Zero was melting.
The chill was being subdued.
Skadia was rapidly losing power.
For him, the Heart of Magmora was a perfect counter.
“You wretched creatures. Still you refuse to give up!”
This was becoming dangerous.
He had to end this quickly.
Skadia threw his head back, his maw gaping wide.
The air spiraled into his mouth.
A fierce whirlwind coiled around his body as a deep blue radiance began to pour from his throat.
Skadia’s breath, which could cover the world in ice.
His third breath attack was preparing to descend upon Doomheim.
No matter how much power the Heart of Magmora had regained, it couldn’t block a direct assault.
Azyeth flew to intercept him, blocking his path.
“Do you resist me to the very end!”
“…Yes.”
“Fine. Then resist this! My full power!”
A light flashed as if from an explosion.
Skadia unleashed the cold he had compressed to its absolute limit.
The dragon’s breath shot in a straight line toward Azyeth.
Raising her sword, Azyeth pushed her mana to its maximum, erecting a barrier.
A chilling flash of light engulfed her.
KRRRRAAAAAACK!
“Ngh…!”
A violent, overlapping series of shattering sounds threatened to burst her eardrums. The ice barrier was being shaved away, cracking and breaking apart.
Azyeth, inside, was not unharmed. A cold far greater than the one she naturally exuded flowed in. Frost webbed across her skin.
The cold seeped inside, probing her mind and soul, trying to repeat the atrocity it had committed against her in the past.
To turn Azyeth into an emotionless doll.
Though Azyeth had a high resistance to cold, her opponent was Skadia, the master of the ice attribute. Winning a power struggle against him with ice was theoretically impossible.
“Why can you not understand my heart? Princess, you are different from them. If you mix with them, you too will become just another ordinary human. Is that the future you desire?”
“That… I don’t know.”
She had never thought of herself as beautiful.
She had never considered herself different from others.
She didn’t know what it meant to become an ordinary human.
She was aware that she was a fool.
She didn’t understand what he was saying.
She didn’t know what she herself was thinking.
She didn’t even know what emotions she felt.
But.
Azyeth looked down at her right hand.
A warmth that had not yet faded lingered in her cold palm.
His touch.
His warmth.
It was still there, in her hand.
She clenched her fist around that warmth.
“I don’t want to be apart.”
Now, she understood.
She understood why the people of Lake Fortress had mourned Darka’s death.
She didn’t want to be separated from him.
“I want to be with you.”
With the people of Lake Fortress.
With the dwarves of Doomheim.
She wanted to watch from the side as they laughed and talked.
And she wanted to be with him.
That feeling alone, no one could touch.
The one precious emotion Azyeth held, and the warmth she clutched, mixed and became one. It melted away the ice that was consuming her, leaving not a trace behind.
At that moment.
Crack.
Like a chick breaking out of its shell, the ice encasing Azyeth fractured and shattered.
Her chillingly blue eyes sparkled with the light of mana.
As azure mana erupted from her like a storm, Azyeth channeled it into her sword. She swung the ice sword in a wide, diagonal arc.
The slash cleaved through the dragon’s breath.
“What?!”
It wasn’t just Azyeth’s mana that had split the attack.
A faint, red haze shimmered around her. The Heart of Magmora, responding to her passion, had shared its heat.
“Strike the heart! Burn the soul! Forge the legend!”
The earth pulsed.
Azyeth’s own sluggish heart began to pound in time with it.
KAAANG!
As hammers struck anvils, sparks flew into the air.
Melted into those sparks were the sweat and passion of a people.
And it was all absorbed by Azyeth.
‘It’s hot….’
It was beyond warm. It was searing.
The dwarves were blacksmiths.
The role of a blacksmith was to forge weapons for heroes.
Azyeth herself had become a living weapon, growing stronger with every strike of the dwarves’ hammers.
She was no longer alone.
Countless people were with her now.
With this…
‘I can do it.’
Wings of ice formed on her back.
She sliced through the breath attack, flying through the gap she had created.
In an instant, she was before Skadia.
She angled her sword and slashed upward in a swift, clean motion.
It struck Skadia’s jaw.
THWACK!
“Kuhk!”
His mouth was forced shut, cutting off the breath attack.
She didn’t stop.
She pressed her assault.
With every flash of her sword, Skadia staggered.
As Azyeth grew stronger, Skadia grew weaker. Backed by the power of Magmora, Azyeth’s strength now surpassed the dragon’s.
On top of that, there was the prolonged battle.
The strategy of steadily chipping away at Skadia’s stamina was finally paying off. The goddess of victory was smiling upon Azyeth.
Skadia, momentarily flustered by her unexpected power, quickly regained his composure. After all, no matter how she rampaged, she wasn't inflicting any significant damage.
Besides, the sound of the hammering was already beginning to fade.
The dwarves were pouring not just their stamina, but their very spirit and passion into Azyeth. Even for dwarves, there was a limit to how long they could swing their hammers.
If he just hid his weakness and dragged out the fight, he would be the one to win in the end.
Skadia had no doubt of his victory.
Until Azyeth got behind him and aimed for the soft flesh beneath his wing.
Skadia frantically flapped his wings, creating a powerful gust of wind.
‘A coincidence…?’
The doubt flashed through his mind, but Azyeth persistently targeted that same spot. It was no coincidence.
Skadia panicked.
“How does the princess know of this…!”
It was exactly what he feared.
Azyeth was targeting Skadia’s weakness.
His reverse scale.
Though Azyeth had received Skadia’s favor, he had never told her the location of his reverse scale. Yet she was aiming for it with pinpoint accuracy.
Azyeth recalled Karami’s words from just before the battle.
—Listen carefully. Dragons are strong, but they’re a perverted species. They’re masochists, born with their weaknesses exposed on the outside of their bodies.
—It’s called a reverse scale. The dark-colored scale on Skadia’s back, right where the wing meets the body. That’s his reverse scale. Aim for it. He’ll love it so much he’ll die.
With her actions, Azyeth made her declaration.
With this sword, I will kill you.
At that moment, faced with the reality that he could die, Skadia felt fear for the first time in his life. An instant later, that fear was consumed by rage.
“How dare a wench who doesn’t know her place try to kill me!”
Skadia swiped with his claws, but his attack was deflected helplessly by Azyeth’s sword.
It was too late to retract his blessing.
The balance of power had already shifted.
This was the price for his endless arrogance, his carelessness.
‘I must retreat…!’
Skadia turned his back to flee.
It was a foolish decision, born of a terror he had never known. It was no different from begging his opponent to kill him.
And Azyeth would not miss such an opportunity.
Swoosh!
She accelerated, landing squarely on Skadia’s back.
Grabbing his massive wings, she forced them apart, revealing the single scale that shone a different color from the rest.
Skadia began to dive and weave violently.
He performed a series of perilous aerial maneuvers, trying to shake her off.
He spewed a mist of ice and shot frozen projectiles, but Azyeth held fast to his wings, unmoving.
“Stop this, Princess! It was I who gave you my blessing! I am like a parent to you!”
“……”
“Y-Yes! Do you not wish to go to your kingdom? I will release the king and queen. How about it? I will return everything—your memories, your emotions!”
It was pathetic, but he had to endure.
Just this once.
If he could just get through this one situation.
Skadia wracked his brain, but his ploys were useless.
Karami had long since taken every precaution to ensure she would not be swayed.
Azyeth gathered every last bit of her remaining strength. The azure mana of her own power overlaid the crimson energy of the forge. Two opposing forces, dwelling as one in her sword.
“Princess!”
Azyeth’s lips moved silently.
“Sleepy….”
“…What?”
“Want to sleep.”
She wanted to end this quickly and go to sleep.
In his arms.
Indifferently, Azyeth…
…plunged her sword into the reverse scale.
*
The dragon falls.
The beast that once threatened the world plummets to the earth.
The aftermath was felt instantly across the globe.
“Chief! The sky!”
At Lake Fortress.
The tribe members looked up.
The clouds that had perpetually covered the permafrost of Eisengar were scattering, and the blizzard was ceasing. The unnatural cold vanished.
The sky cleared.
Countless twinkling stars and a brilliant aurora showed off their light.
“Chief, looks like they really did it, huh?”
“……”
Jorn gazed silently at the sky.
He quietly recalled the fairy tale Darka had once told him.
Not only that, but across the land, cities and people who had been frozen by Skadia began to thaw.
In Doomheim, the dwarves stopped their hammering and watched the ice crystals disintegrate into the air.
Perka watched, as did the seven dwarfs.
Karami sat atop an ice bird, leisurely circling the sky. Having overcome another great trial, he was lost in his thoughts.
A shadow fell over him.
Like a snowflake drifting from the sky.
Azyeth landed.
Without a word, she naturally sat down, rested her head on Karami’s lap, and lay down.
She let out a small yawn and closed her eyes.
Before long, the quiet, rhythmic sound of her breathing filled the air.
Karami smiled wryly and stroked her hair.
The heat of Magmora was gone, but Azyeth was undeniably warm.