Chapter 126
Chapter 126
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 126
Chapter Title: The Dragon Called Barthumkus
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My gaze was drawn irresistibly to the dragon known as Barthumkus, as if captivated. I simply couldn’t tear my eyes away.
Its scales writhed like maggots in a spiderweb, blackened with an unholy hue, while ribs that had torn through muscle and flesh unfurled from its back like wings.
Dragging its frost-encrusted innards, which gleamed white with rime, it shone with cursed, repulsive colors in its eyes—
“—Alakish?”
Had my eyes gone bad? What on earth had I just said? Shar’kas curled the corner of his mouth.
「Ah, yes. That was its name once. I gave it a new one befitting the king’s hound.」
Kasena, clutching her left chest with her right hand and gasping for breath, began to tremble violently.
“No, no way…….”
As if unable to accept this brutal reality, Kasena shook her head wildly and turned to me.
“That thing couldn’t possibly be Alakish. Right? Tell me it isn’t, Rain?”
Her desperate violet eyes pleaded for agreement, and meeting them made my stomach churn with nausea.
「Ha, hahaha, hahahahaha……」
It was laughter that mercilessly crushed Kasena’s impossible wish. A laugh infused with such malevolent aura it felt like it would burst my eardrums with blood.
「You lowly mongrels haven’t evolved a bit in a hundred angelic years. As if it couldn’t be my friend, couldn’t be your father…… Denying reality and weeping like that.」
“Shut up…….”
「Hm? Getting angry now? Why? It’s barely been half a year since you met.」
“Shut up, shut up, I said shut the hell up—!”
「Denying and refusing to face reality is just your pathetic human habit.」
Kasena’s face twisted in rage as she let out a scream of fury, slashing madly at the air.
Like a conductor leading an orchestra, light formed at her fingertips with each stroke, resonating mana to weave miraculous power.
Again and again and again…… Blazing fireballs shot out fiercely amid white smoke, scorching Shar’kas’s arms and charring his legs to lumps of coal.
It was the dragon-word flame she had learned from Alakish—the dying ember of that sad bond forged in this frigid empire over a long yet fleeting time.
But it was useless.
It was utterly, completely useless.
The burned limbs sprouted anew from the endless spiderwebs of the abyss weaving together. Even his signature loose dark blue robe was the same.
Shar’kas advanced straight forward, as if the attacks weren’t worth blocking or dodging. As the onslaught slowed, he tilted his head.
「Is that all?」
Was it helplessness? Despair?
Kasena’s hand, tracing runes in the air, trembled and fell limp as she collapsed weakly to her knees. Tears welled in her eyes, freezing instantly.
Recalling every moment with Alakish…… The warmth of that cold night when he sheltered them under his wing, the gentle voice teaching dragon words, the shy smile as he said he wanted to cook tasty food for his daughter.
「Inconceivable. How could the bloodline of that troublesome wench be so worthless?」
As Shar’kas extended his hand, the primordial spiders—Brukudum—surged forward from behind him in unison, shaking the ground.
“Frisvia, take the others and fall back to the barrier as per our contract.”
“Heh, what about you?”
“I need to buy that time.”
Rain placed a light hand on the shoulder of the weeping Kasena as he brushed past her. His face was strangely devoid of expression.
“Miss, this might be our last lesson, so I’ll teach you the most important one.”
Tingling faintly, the blue glowing liquid in the five glass vials at his waist shimmered.
They were mana potions he’d gotten from Kiran Wolf Blado.
As Pipi used its beak to uncork them, he dumped the half-frozen, ice-rimed liquid into his mouth.
“Third lesson: A mage never lets emotions sway them in battle.”
As the thick liquid melted into his body, it felt like cold needles piercing his esophagus.
It forcibly replenished depleted mana. It generated impossible amounts, making his magic core pulse vigorously.
By the time that process finished, Rain had already stripped off his left glove and unwound the bandages.
“Mental image construct.”
Like paint spreading on blank canvas, the boy’s mental image overlaid the world’s phase.
Five magic circles unfurled massively across the ground. North: Flow (流), East: Quantity (量), South: World (世), West: Honor (尊), Center: Alert (警).
The rune engraved in the central circle glowed, and around it, countless equations inscribed themselves, drawing geometric patterns.
“Flow-Quantity-World-Honor: Alert.”
Even Shar’kas, the pale lord, showed the most astonishment at this power that dominated phase, defying the laws of the world.
‘This power is surely Karenden’s……?’
Before the thought could fully form, an intense light poured forth, searing the retinas. The lead Brukudum burst into flames amid blinding flashes.
“Rune alteration. Wheel (綸), Scatter (散).”
The Flow (流) circle of the mental image realm glowed, and lightning from the sky unraveled into countless strands of flame—Wheel (綸)—then scattered (散).
Those fiery strands wrapped around the legs of the pursuing Brukudum like ropes, igniting ferociously.
Amid the scorching blaze that burned his skin, the ancients writhed in agony.
“Wheel, wheel, scatter, scatter.”
“Pipi, I’m fine—stick with Kasena. And help Barlzen.”
Pipi rubbed its beak affectionately against Rain’s cheek, then spread its wings and flew back.
“Captain, that was…….”
Everyone marveled at the display of immense power, but the greatest shock fell to Frisvia’s hardened subordinates.
“Heh, so the kid’s earlier stunt wasn’t luck?”
Mental image realm…… She didn’t know much about magic, but she knew what level one needed to reach to use it.
Not bad at all.
Was Alakish entrusting the dragon egg to this brat not just for personal reasons, but for his abilities too?
‘Rain, you planning to hold them off alone?’
Barlzen clenched his trembling fists, watching the ancients Shar’kas sent get engulfed in flames one after another.
“Save the awe for later—let’s move to a better spot, heh.”
One of Frisvia’s men hoisted the dazed, kneeling Kasena over his shoulder. She blinked.
“W-wait…… Where, where are you taking me?”
“You’re in the way. So you gotta move.”
“Move? I’m fighting with Rain too! Put me down, put me down!”
Frisvia paused, looking genuinely baffled, then let out a cold chuckle.
“Fight? Heh, fight how? All you can do is bawl like a baby. With dreams and hopes? Hahaha, no such miracles in this line of work.”
“Even so, I can’t just leave him alone……!”
“Right now, you’re not helping—you’re dead weight needing help. Stay here, and you’ll be a corpse or a bloodstain soon enough.”
Another pillar of fire erupted behind them, whipping up a fierce blast of heat that made Kasena’s fur cloak flap wildly.
“But that kid? He’s different.”
“……?”
“With skills like that, he’s gotta have something up his sleeve, right? Heh, head back to base and warm up by the fire.”
Frisvia spun around abruptly, grabbing the head of a lunging undead.
Steam hissed sharply from the device on his wrist, driving a steel spike that pulverized the skull into fragments.
Then the next, and the next……
His way of effortlessly dismantling even the ancients, finishing with a spike to the head, was the epitome of masterful technique.
“Wow…….”
Kasena bit her lip in helpless admiration of his combat prowess.
I, I……
The next instant, she wrenched free from the adventurer’s shoulder and hurled a fireball, incinerating an undead creeping up behind Frisvia.
“Warm by the fire? Here’s your fire!”
Frisvia grinned slyly at her spirited defiance.
“Heh heh heh, if you die like this, that black sheep lin stays mine forever? Maybe I should just let you die here.”
Meanwhile, Rain hurriedly caught his breath and felt a sharp, needle-like pain in his magic core.
Mana depletion already…… He pulled the second vial from his waist and uncorked it.
The backlash of forcibly fueling and activating it tore at his core like ripping flesh, soaking his back in cold sweat.
‘Protect, it’s about protecting.’
Back then, I should have fought like this. With Alakish……
With that thought, he crossed his hands desperately. The ancient spiders charging right up were engulfed in flames, reeking of burning flesh.
As the explosion rippled the air, he gulped down the third potion, breathless. Seven left……
「Impressive. Now I faintly understand.」
A pain like a direct blow to the brain hit, and suddenly Shar’kas’s voice came from the side.
「Why Her Majesty sought you immediately upon awakening, and why Karenden saved you with his last scraps of power.」
Shar’kas dipped his hand into the flames atop the smoke and fire devouring the Brukudum, his expression intrigued.
The blaze swallowed the small hand instantly, but spiderwebs sprouted from the stump, weaving a new one with mocking precision.
Was it the leisure of an ancient ruler? Or the terror etched deep in the genes of the subjugated, making every hair stand on end?
「You resemble Karenden quite a bit.」
“……?”
「I can tell from your eyes. You pretend to be calm, but that passionate nature, the way you wield power…… Like Karenden’s doppelganger?」
Here, a hundred angelic years ago, at this very distance, Karenden had clasped his hands and built similar power—his image overlaying the boy’s face.
「You’re an existence that shouldn’t be in this era. One that defies causality.」
Then he would be excised right here. Shar’kas jerked his chin back.
「You lot handle the rest. Don’t touch Emit-sa’s bloodline. There’s something I need to read from her soul’s memories.」
I swallowed hard, watching Alakish’s massive form leap high, gouging the earth.
‘Spiderwebs attached to the ribs…… Acting as wings?’
I knew it couldn’t fly, but it had leaping ability to match. There was no choice but to watch it block our retreat.
No, better to say there was no room to intervene.
The moment Alakish leaped, Shar’kas flung his sleeve and strode straight toward me.
「Let’s see just how capable you are.」