Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Infermer, the City Where the Dragon Awakens (3)
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*
-Thump, thump, thump...
The 귀화 within the dragon's skull pulsed slowly but steadily. Fernandez glared at the skull, gripping the control ritual tightly.
His eyes met the creature's. An instinctive fear of the unknowable existence wrapped around Fernandez, along with the overwhelming pressure from the vast difference in their ranks.
But unknowable? Fernandez had personally summoned one of the five great archdemons. Overwhelming rank? He had proven his life by breaking down the champions of the Holy Pantheon of Good Gods one by one.
To him—for the grand black mage who had always jammed a dagger into others' throats for survival—it was rather familiar.
[Are you the successor of King Dain?]
“...?”
Suddenly, a low voice echoed from beyond the inside of the skull. The dragon was confused. Its soul had been whittled away and decayed by the flow of thousands of years.
Slowly, flesh and scales began to adhere to its body, centered on the skull. It wasn't normal flesh and blood. Overwhelming mana was granting it the form most familiar to it.
[You carry a scent similar to King Dain. Are you his child? Or his son? Dain. What was that bastard's end?]
-Whoooosh.
Above Fernandez's head, the dragon's wing bones rose. Soon, muscles and flesh, followed by scales, began to weave through the gaps between the wing bones like spiderwebs, filling the empty spaces.
[Heh heh heh, that guy must have been happy for sure. I made him that way. Ah, Berdan, Berdan... I miss that child too. Do you have any news of him?]
-Kurrr rumble.
Flesh adhered to the dragon's forepaw. Massive, sturdy muscles climbed up the dragon's forearm.
-Kuung.
The dragon planted its forepaw on the ground. Thick dust momentarily engulfed Fernandez. Amid the dust, Fernandez stared silently ahead.
-Fwoosh.
A blue flame flickered before his eyes. Soon, the dust cleared—
And there was the dragon's eye.
The dragon looked down at Fernandez with sapphire eyes. The eyes shining from within the skull socket gleamed brilliantly even in the darkness.
[Why are you silent? Do you not know human speech? I am curious. The war? How did the war go? Ah, my throat is parched. My head throbs. I've slept too long. Too long. My children must still be waiting for me. They can't do without me.]
-Kwadududuk.
The dragon's lower body was still buried underground. The dragon slowly writhed, trying to pull its lower half from the ground. Boulder-like muscles writhed, its forepaw crushing and shattering the floor.
[I had a bad dream. A truly wicked nightmare. I dreamed that the Underground Entomber Cult bastards finally extended their claws to Dane—that young one's kingdom. I stepped in. Drove them all out. Yes. You young humans have always needed my help. Even in my dreams!]
The dragon let out a ridiculous heh heh, like wind. Fernandez was extracting information as best he could from the dragon's rambling words.
The dragon seemed to think its own death was a dream. And the 'Underground Entomber Cult' capable of killing the dragon...
The Necropolis Under Catacombs ruled by Mumto's six priests? Before the Under Catacombs were released as Pertus's 'Lion Secretary.'
It was a tale from the era of Knight King Dane, founder of the Dane Kingdom.
[Why no words at all? Little child. Human child. I am the guardian dragon of your kingdom, the last dragon surviving in this material world. I seek no worship, so why do you regard me with suspicion?]
The dragon tilted its head, gazing at Fernandez.
[My form must frighten you. Pitiful and regrettable, but you humans have always been that way. Heh heh.]
“Dragon. You are not merely asleep.”
Fernandez carefully opened his mouth. He prepared to pull the domination ritual at any moment, slowly meeting the dragon's eyes.
“The material world no longer desires dragons. Your tale is but a legend to scare children. Your eternal rest has been disturbed.”
Fernandez formed hand seals, wrapping the domination ritual around his arm. A thread-like mana connected him to the dragon.
“State your name.”
[What nonsense... Your rudeness exceeds bounds. Young human. I spare you only for your king's face...]
“State your name!”
Fernandez roughly manipulated the ritual. The dragon's pupils dilated sharply, its massive body staggering for a moment. So far, success. The dragon hadn't noticed the [Domination] upon it.
[What have you done to me! Who are you! Where is your king! How dare you do this to me...]
“Ancient specter. State your name!”
The divinity flowing through Fernandez's veins lent authority to his voice. After all, the dragon belonged to death.
-One might wonder if it would actually work.
Feizashi smirked, watching the dragon with keen interest. In his previous life, spectral summons generally fell to priests' such methods. What Fernandez was doing was close to a reenactment of the past.
Names hold power. A clichéd old legend, but it touched some truth. Oaths sworn on one's true name. Submission offering one's true name—they were backed by the soul's rank.
Thus, clergy hid their names on missions. Like how Fernandez and Kirhas called each other Angelo and Basila.
[Ancient specter! Such grievous words! I, for your kingdom... My head, my head throbs!]
At that moment, the dragon thrashed its head. Soon, it glared fiercely at the empty air and bellowed.
[And who are you! Who dares call me?! What in the world happened while I slept! You, that one, all of you! Utterly rude!]
-Kwajik!
The dragon flailed wildly to free its buried lower body. The dragon's eyes glared at the space beyond the ceiling. The dragon was no longer focused on Fernandez.
‘Someone else is here?’
-Shh.
Feizashi sharply glared in the direction the dragon was looking. He closed his eyes briefly, deep in thought. The dragon was looking east. If something was calling the dragon from that direction...
-Elfin Serpentking Gaimern. That guy's it.
‘He's calling the dragon? Meaning he knew of the dragon's existence?’
-Infermer is his territory. Of course he'd know what's buried underground. But in my previous life, I'd never heard of him wielding a dragon...
In his previous life, the Gaimern dynasty was among the weaker wandering tribes of the Elven Trident. If they had wielded a dragon, they wouldn't have fallen so easily.
Let alone losing the entire northeastern disaster zone to Franzrit?
‘Scrap the hypothesis that the dragon and Gaimern clashed.’
-Too early for that?
‘There are other pieces. Gaimern isn't one to bet his life on a doomed gamble. If he's calling the dragon, he must have confidence.’
During the Heavenly War, dragons roamed the earth. A king who lived from that era wouldn't underestimate a dragon's power. So there must be another reason Gaimern lost Infermer to Franzrit.
‘How about this?’
-Hm?
‘The Franzrit vampires used necromancers to wield the dragon against Gaimern.’
-Yeah.
‘Circumstantially, Gaimern knew and allowed it. Meaning he was confident he could revive and control the dragon.’
-Probably.
-Kwajijik!!
-Kurrr rumble.
Finally, the dragon's legs pulled free from the ground. The soles of its forepaws grotesquely writhed as massive, thick muscles settled into place. Dark red scales began densely growing atop them.
The dragon didn't seem to regard its flesh as 'resurrection' or 'summoning.' It thought it had simply been buried in the earth while asleep.
‘In my previous life, if Gaimern didn't see Franzrit's secret letter and thus failed to predict the internal traitor. If he was ambushed the moment he concentrated forces to wield the dragon? How's that speculation?’
-Plausible. So now he's guarding against both the traitor and the dragon?
‘We need to figure out what he wants from the dragon.’
Whatever King Gaimern's goal, it was likely not beneficial to humanity with high probability. Elves were exclusive about other races' affairs. Having disrupted the vampires' plan, it was time to disrupt the elves'.
While those two powers aimed blades at each other, sharing schemes and strategies. The piece neither anticipated.
The time of the Inquisitor bearing the domination ritual, securing the dragon!
‘Time for a gamble.’
-Well, that's the plan for today.
The dragon lowered its head, seemingly steadying its body's balance. Its two wings spread wide, preparing for flight.
Soon the dragon would take off. Fernandez needed to secure control before then. He swiftly leaped, landing atop the dragon's head as it gathered its wits.
[Aaah!! Insolent wretch! What is this!]
The dragon shook its head in panic at Fernandez's sudden assault. Fernandez raised his nearly shattering longsword and swiftly struck down.
-Kwachik!
The longsword painfully embedded between the dragon's scales. Even with divinity-boosted strength, piercing the dragon's scales, muscles, and bones was difficult. But this was enough.
He had no intent to drill through the dragon's head and kill it. Such a thing was impossible anyway. Gripping the sword hilt with one hand, Fernandez raised the other overhead, weaving hand seals.
Along the blade embedded in the dragon's head, the dragon's mana and Fernandez's mana intertwined. Strictly speaking, the dragon's flesh wasn't alive now—it lacked physical reality.
It was merely artificial flesh conjured by intricate rituals and magic. That meant there were still threads he could infiltrate.
Before completion, one couldn't recklessly touch that immense mana, but once fully stabilized, the magical structure was easier to breach.
Fernandez's eyes slowly closed. Without stopping his hands, he guided the dragon's mana to the bronze throne.
-Goooo...
A black halo rose behind his head. The magic was complete. By driving mana wedges into the delicately woven resurrection spell, Fernandez gradually fell into a trance.
‘How could they perform such perfect necromancy? It's beyond human knowledge...’
Fernandez pondered as he cast counter-rituals on the magical formulas forming the dragon's surface consciousness. Soon, his vision went dark.
*