Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: Kies's Lingering Will
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‘I know this is a fight between the pinnacles. If I butt in, I won’t be any help—just a hindrance.’
Before the Dragon Slayer’s dragon bone spear could pierce Rain’s throat.
‘But just for a moment.’
He didn’t even have time to consider dropping the spear and pulling back.
‘If I could just create an opening, even for a second.’
That guy can do it.
As Miria retrieved the iron wire snapped by overwhelming brute force, she felt a strange certainty that he would.
It might not have been certainty so much as a desperate wish that it would be so.
“Finish it, Rain!”
At a time like this, maybe she should’ve said “please finish it” instead of “finish it.”
Even she herself didn’t realize this was the first time Miria had ever called Rain by name.
As if the gods were answering that prayer, a bolt of lightning stole all the light and color from the world, plunging into the dim earth.
“───!”
Rain’s eyes widened.
No, the red lightning struck the ground just a split second before. From the opposite sky, a golden bolt came crashing down.
The shockwave from the clash of transcendent powers rippled out massively across the area.
“Don’t underestimate me, half-dragon.”
What the──?
He had concentrated the power of five Fire Burial Pulses—thirty-five bolts of lightning—into a single strike, yet it had been nullified?
“If the flames are the authority of the crimson dragon, then lightning is the dominion of the golden dragon!”
And following that, a shockwave shattered the ground into gravel, scorching and warping it as it spread wide.
“When it comes to wielding lightning, I’m leagues ahead of you!”
In the epicenter of the shockwave, so fierce even the master struggled to keep his footing, the flame staff and lightning spear crossed endlessly, scattering sparks.
“I slew eleven golden dragons with these hands myself! And I absorbed their power fully!”
Through some technique, he spun the massive spear effortlessly in one hand, whipping up fierce gusts before slashing and thrusting repeatedly.
“I’m on a whole other level from that fake warrior bitch who repurposes dragon orb fragments!”
The immense wind pressure from the dragon bone spear made it hard to even keep his eyes open, let alone read the flow of attacks.
Kikikikikikiging!
And what was truly annoying was the Demon Slayer’s iron chains, slipping free of Doran and Valensidis’s control to lash out at them sporadically.
“Abbat!”
“Stay back!”
Dodging the chains left an opening, and in that instant, the Dragon Slayer drew a deep breath.
“I’ll show you something special: what true lightning really is.”
A straight line from head to toe, balance aligned perfectly along that axis.
Pure muscle power drawn from every organ synchronized for a single motion.
The preparatory motion seemed grand and exaggerated, and in the next moment, he slammed that overwhelming weight deep into the ground.
“Dragon Lightning Line Slash.”
Transcendent radiance erupted from the cracks spiderwebbing out from where the dragon bone spear struck.
‘No way…….’
Only then could he see it.
A sword heart manifested on the hand gripping the spear, overlaying illusionary blade upon the physical spear.
Synchronizing sword heart with the dragon bone spear?
‘That’s even possible?’
Before that shock could bleach his mind white, overwhelming electric light engulfed his entire vision.
‘I have to protect them.’
Lightning raged across the island like a barrage of slashes, devouring everything.
The light.
All creation.
Burning, melting, twisting, reducing it all to ashes.
‘Aki, Miria, Valensidis, and everyone.’
Everything would really be obliterated without a trace.
Hwaruk……
If he hadn’t deployed a barrier over the entire island, channeling every ounce of available power and mana.
……Hwararararuk.
As the massive flames that had spread to swallow the horizon, blocking hundreds of bolts, slowly receded, blood erupted from Rain’s mouth.
‘Mana overload…….’
The backlash from overusing transcendent power crashed over his body.
Did I block it?
Did I manage?
His consciousness blurred, limbs convulsing. A piercing ring echoed in his eardrums: biiiii.
“Impressive. Covering this whole island in flames and still clinging to life. As expected of the true dragon’s dragon orb master, huh?”
Was his hearing damaged? Everything felt eerily quiet.
“I take back what I said about being disappointed earlier. Thanks to you, I got to enjoy a real fight for the first time in ages. That’s what battle should be.”
Dozens of lightning bolts raining from above, sword ki dancing hundreds, thousands of times from the ground—a sure-kill technique……
He’d blocked the lightning, but not the slashing vortex.
His hazy vision caught the ground cracked and shifted everywhere, like it had been swept by an earthquake.
“I heard about you from Zernix.”
Whether from those slashes or the Demon Slayer……
“A hatchling in tow for your adventures, huh?”
He could see Valensidis and Doran sprawled in pools of blood. Doran was even missing a leg.
“And you treasure that hatchling more than your own life, they said.”
Far off, the Demon Slayer was dragging its chains toward them.
Did I fail?
Did I fail?
Seeing a pair of flames still dancing in the sky, it seemed Pipi and the Beast Slayer’s fight was ongoing.
“Fool. If it were me, I’d have swallowed that hatchling’s dragon orb before it even matured.”
Gasping ragged breaths that sounded ready to snap any second, Rain lifted his head. What reflected in his eyes……
Despair.
“Why parade around with something this precious when you can’t even protect it? Who’s it for?”
In his left hand, he gripped Miria’s throat; in his right, Aki’s head.
“Auuuugh!”
Even as a true dragon, she was still in spirit form.
‘Stop.’
Reacting to the empire’s greatest sword in his current dazed state was impossible, naturally.
‘Please stop.’
Even breathing was a struggle, so he mouthed words that formed no sound.
“You take me for an idiot? Stop because the enemy asks? Don’t worry—I’m not the type to take hostages and threaten with small fry.”
The Dragon Slayer slammed Miria to the ground, then pulled his arm back slightly to thrust at Aki’s heart.
‘No.’
In that despair, the world stretched out like it had sunk into an eternal mire.
It wasn’t amplified focus. Nor expanded thought horizons.
Just helplessly watching the situation of utmost despair unfold……
‘Don’t.’
Miria lifted her head, and Rain himself began to shout something. But he couldn’t hear his own voice.
What magic could he use?
What spell could block a foe moving like lightning?
‘Help us.’
In this moment, Lin would have cried out like that. With comrades always ready to answer.
But now……
In this era, three hundred years later……
Knowing it wouldn’t reach anyone, the instant he screamed it anyway, a miracle painted the air.
Pure azure.
Blindingly blue flashes gleamed three times from the horizon now shrouded in darkness.
He knew it, in his knowledge.
Where that light came from.
Three hundred years ago, whenever Lin was in peril, arrows from the White Bow Palace always flew in from somewhere.
“What is this……?”
The White Bow Palace, crafted from world tree branches—its arrows, woven from the bow’s mana, were famed for their wondrous clarity and beauty.
Trails of arrows dyed in the light of life……
Vines of life sprouted from where the arrow struck, wrapping the Dragon Slayer’s arm and sealing its movement.
‘Vines that bind the target: Life Lotus Vine.’
The next arrow embedded in Rain’s chest.
Was this a fatal wound?
No. The arrow melted slowly, spreading cool vitality through his body. He stared blankly, doubting this achingly familiar sensation.
‘No doubt about it—the unique power of the White Bow Palace.’
And its master……
‘Impossible.’
A mad thought.
That mute drunkard uncle had died in an era two hundred years apart.
‘Kies is dead.’
He knew it, knew it in his head, yet he couldn’t stop tears from streaming down his left eye.
In that instant, the world tree’s nourishment soaked his fatigue-drenched brain, and his consciousness exploded in pure blue.
The world flipped.
Reality vanished.
Instead, four moons and stars filled his view, a lake hanging upside down and swaying.
At the lake’s center rose a pure white world tree.
And standing before it……
[Long time no see.]
His eyes widened hugely.
Everything blurred with milky tears. A hot, fierce pulse throbbed from his heart.
[You’ve grown a lot.]
Hair swaying in the breeze, light green tinged with fresh verdant hues……
[Or did your body change?]
On a wooden plank crafted from world tree branches, crude and uneven letters spelled precise words. The one writing them was……
“……Kies.”
Squeezing his leaden chest, he barely managed the name when an impossible reply came.
[My vocabulary’s improved quite a bit, huh?]
He wanted to rush into those arms.
Back then, Kies would run first and ruffle his hair. But now, this time, after three hundred years.
Kies raised a hand, as if stopping him.
[You can’t come here. You mustn’t.]
This was the world of lingering thoughts.
The manifested spirit body was merely a handful of Kies’s residual念 left in the White Bow Palace.
“I see.”
It sank in all too easily, strangely so.
That he couldn’t cross this invisible wall, couldn’t grasp that rough, callused hand again.
So with a wry smile, he dropped his gaze.
“We can’t meet again.”
Kies smiled then—the smile he always wore for him. Fresh as spring buds. The smile he’d only seen in dreams.
[I didn’t leave a fragment of my soul in the White Bow Palace to bind you to the past.]
He stepped forward.
Beyond my hand groping the intangible wall, he overlaid his own.
[But to give you even a little strength to move toward the future.]
Because he’d promised to return.
Because he believed he’d return, someday, anytime.
[Lin.]
So he left part of himself here. Sired descendants, founded the bow school, took disciples. So hearts could connect.
[It’s too early for you to come here.]
So that one day, when you returned, this feeling could reach you.
Even if our bodies can’t walk together.
Our hearts, our spirits, could be with you. With you, who sacrificed your life that day to open a future for us all.
[Time to return to the future. To those waiting for you.]
With those words, cracks began to spread across the illusory dimension’s sky, the lake.
[Thanks to the gods who permitted this impossible reunion between you and me.]
The cracks spread to the world tree, fragments crumbling from the space here and there.
He could no longer hold Rain in this world divorced from reality.
He had mountains of stories he wanted to share, if they could meet again. Oceans of memories to reminisce.
“Yeah, Kies. I have to go to the future.”
That word “future” shockingly roused his hazy consciousness.
Because he’d promised Alakish.
This body he’d gained, this reunion with Kies in it—all because of that promise.
“You know, I made friends.”
So little time, so few words, one thin thread of feeling to convey.
“I went to school. And I even have a daughter. Without marrying. And get this—I met someone who looks just like Rista.”
So much more to say.
Not enough nights to tell it all.
“Kies, just a little longer. Can you wait a bit more?”
Until I finish all the stories I’ve held back, I want to sit here and talk.
“When this life’s journey ends…….”
But.
But.
The wall between us, named three hundred years, couldn’t be crossed.
“Back then, you all came to find me…….”
All I can do is speak of the future. Promise an uncertain future.
“This time, I’ll come find you…….”
Just like three hundred years ago, freezing his body with Juyeo Soge Daeban before death.
“I’ll definitely come meet you again…….”
As dimensional cracks grew, moisture glistened in Kies’s smiling eyes.
“So, Kies…….”
The instant the cracks engulfed the dimension, the invisible wall shattered.
And they touched.
The hands pressed against each other across the barrier, and that hand rested on his head. Like everyday moments three hundred years ago.
“……Can you wait for me just one more time?”
With those final words, Rain’s spirit in the illusory dimension scattered like heat haze.
And once more, overwhelming despair unfolded before him, named reality.
Quite some time had passed in the lingering thought dimension, but in reality, less than a second had ticked by.
“…….”
In that instant, a beam of black light pierced toward the Dragon Slayer.
It snatched Miria sprawled at his feet and Aki gripped in his grasp, arriving before Rain in a flash.
A first-rate swordsman’s footwork……
“Who are you? Let go!”
Miria, unaware of the situation, struggled in the grip.
“Rain, you know him?”
But Rain knew. He had to. Because of the face revealed beneath the visor the giant raised with a click.
“One year, huh, Rain.”
As Aki nestled into his arms, a shock like a blow to the head raced through his mind.
Iron plate armor cloaking his body, a double-headed axe on his back—all black iron.
A hideous scar starting at his forehead, trailing down his left eye to his jaw…… Rain had come to like that fierce face.
Amid heart-stopping pain, he called the name.
“Bart……?”
During his first adventurer days, these goofy guys had helped him immensely.
He owed them his life from nearly dying in that ant cave.
The one who’d vanished from his side after getting the call at Trident Point.
He could tell this guy was several times stronger than a year ago, just from the aura pouring off him.
But how, just how was this guy here before him now?
“Explanations later. This looks like a monster of an opponent—even with Rem covering us, no time to slack.”
Rem? Rem?
The one pinning down the Demon Slayer and Dragon Slayer with arrows right now was that Rem?
“What do you need us to do?”
He didn’t know why or how these guys were here. Maybe this was a dying hallucination.
But.
Real or illusion, one undeniable fact: these guys were on his side.
“Hold that guy off. Ten seconds should do it.”
Ten seconds.
In those ten seconds, sever Miria and the Demon Slayer’s link with Bell Quirius.
And recover enough mana and stamina to face the Dragon Slayer.
“No.”
Closing his visor and gripping his axe haft, Bart said.
“Fifteen seconds is fine.”
Did he know who he was saying he could hold off for fifteen seconds?
“Ten was already an insane ask.”
Still, somehow, he felt these guys could pull it off.
“You cocky archer……!”
That was when the Dragon Slayer tore free of the White Bow Palace roots binding him.
At the same instant, deadly voltage whipped and crackled around him.
Before he could yank the dragon bone spear from the ground, Bart filled his lungs with a long breath and kicked off the earth with full power.
“Leave it to us.”
The heart barrier still held.
Turning to the Demon Slayer ripping at the White Bow Palace vines, he ignited his vision red.
1001010101001010100101010010101010101111111001101110100111110111.
Seven-star pattern glowing in his pupils.
Eyes that pierced all things in this world as equations. The world they saw was binary code.
Now, begin the analysis.
The path to the future, handed off by friends.
* * *
As the dimension fully crumbled and the residual thought fragmented into particles, Kies tenderly stroked the empty air where Lin’s head had been.
‘Booze is great.’
It let him forget painful, agonizing pasts with sweet, bitter flavors.
‘But Lin, you……’
Kies smiled faintly, tears streaming from one eye.
On that distant day.
Recalling memories of laughing and chattering over trivial things in that brilliant era he could no longer return to.
‘You and your comrades alone……’
As even the residual thought’s body dispersed into fine particles, Kies replied to ‘Lin’s heart’ at the plank’s end, in ‘letters Lin taught him.’
[Made even me forget the booze.]