Dragon Heart and Dragon Egg
"Heh… heh heh… So this… is what Cheonwaecheon truly means…"
Thud.
Kim Min-hyeok, a massive hole torn through his abdomen, burst into laughter before toppling forward and collapsing for good.
"Cough."
With Kim Min-hyeok dead, Do-ha wiped the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Kim Min-hyeok had not been all empty bluster after all. His energy had been stronger than expected, forcing Do-ha to detonate both his internal energy and mana in a single explosive surge just to punch through it. As a result, the inside of his body was now a wreck.
Through this bastard, I've learned one thing at least.
Not every Awakened on Earth was a complete mess. Most of them had awakened in a single explosive flash rather than building their power step by step, so the majority had no real idea how to use their strength. But people like Kim Min-hyeok—Awakened who had properly honed and refined their power—did exist.
"Of course, when that kind of person turns out to be an enemy, it just becomes a pain."
Creak.
"Everything outside's cleaned up."
The door opened and Canteas walked in. He had already dealt with every remaining syndicate member in the Gwangmyeong branch. Being worked to the bone by Do-ha day after day had somehow pushed Canteas all the way up to the Fourth Circle.
"I felt that enormous surge of energy… so you forced your way through it, huh."
Canteas shook his head at the blood on Do-ha's lips. It had always been the same back in Belhart. Even against opponents stronger than himself, the Emperor would still insist on fighting.
"Hoo… I've settled down a bit. Let's look for the documents."
"What? Did you just circulate your energy while standing there?!"
Canteas, who had been watching quietly, jerked in shock. A moment ago, red vapor had drifted from Do-ha's mouth—the blood pooled at the site of his internal injuries, vaporized and expelled. That was something only possible while seated in full lotus position, circulating one's energy properly.
"Why are you so surprised?"
"…"
Seeing Do-ha treat it as nothing special left Canteas's mouth hanging open. Circulating energy was not something you could do while moving. Under normal circumstances, internal energy constantly cycled through the body's meridians—while eating, while bathing, even while sleeping. But when you performed a proper circulation session, new energy was added into that flowing current. Move your body in that state, and the pathways the energy traveled—the meridians themselves—would shake, constrict, and thrash violently. Attempting to move mid-circulation could inflict fatal internal injuries or, in the worst case, plunge you into qi deviation.
In simple terms, it was like cars racing down an eight-lane highway at a hundred kilometers an hour when the road suddenly began to buck left and right, up and down without warning.
So how the hell is that Emperor bastard circulating his energy while moving?
No one in the Central Plains Murim had ever reached that realm. Not the Sword Emperor, not the Saber Emperor, not even the Heavenly Demon, leader of the Demonic Cult.
"I thought after watching you for decades I'd figured out most of what there was to know… but I guess I was wrong."
"What nonsense are you spouting now."
Do-ha brushed Canteas's words aside and checked the contacts on Kim Min-hyeok's phone.
Hmm… even this guy's phone only has numbers for the Anyang and Siheung branches.
That meant even if he summoned Kim Min-hyeok's soul and wrung it for information, there would be nothing useful to gain.
"Ha… this is why cutting off the tail is so damn annoying."
"That's exactly what makes cell organizations so terrifying."
"We'll take everything worth taking from here and report it to the Association."
"At this rate the Association President is going to go bald because of you."
Canteas shook his head, thinking of the Association President. The man had already been drowning in work lately; Do-ha's sudden interventions had only made everything harder and more complicated. Granted, all the changes were for the better—but the problem was that they were all happening at once. If one matter could be finished before the next exploded, it might have been manageable. Instead everything detonated simultaneously, and the dark circles under the Association President's eyes were practically reaching his chin.
Thirty minutes later, Canteas finished packing everything of value into his subspace bag and lifted it.
"So where's the safe?"
They had torn the place apart, yet nothing resembling a safe had turned up. Do-ha had not found one either.
"Hmm… there's no hidden space in this building…"
Do-ha pursed his lips, then suddenly fixed his gaze on the large picture frame hanging on the wall.
"Hey, Canteas. Doesn't the wall look a little off if you look at it from the center?"
The wall near the entrance was a clean rectangle. The wall behind the desk where Kim Min-hyeok had sat was slightly different—almost as if the bottom left corner had sunk by about two centimeters.
"Something in the wall? Usually when people hide things inside a wall and pour concrete over them, it ends up crooked like that."
"I don't know. Even after taking down every frame and clearing out every drawer, there's nothing. It's just a wall."
"Feel the wall."
At Do-ha's words, Canteas began running his hands over the blank surface.
"Maybe they just messed up the construction?"
"If it were a construction error, the other walls would be uneven too."
But every other wall was a perfectly clean rectangle.
"Huh? This spot feels weird."
Canteas, still groping the wall, pointed to a place that gave off a faint sense of wrongness. Nothing was actually tangible, and the wall itself was not warped—yet something was definitely there.
"This feels like Veil magic."
Recognizing the familiar sensation, Canteas identified the spell.
"You mean the Eighth-Circle Veil?"
Mages normally used Illusion magic when they wanted to project phantoms. But Illusion magic was not limited to creating illusions; it was occasionally used to erase presence as well. And among those spells, the absolute pinnacle was Veil. Dragons had created Veil magic to protect their lairs. Over time, even the great archmages had begun to use it.
"If it's advanced enough that neither you nor I can sense it, and it doesn't change even when touched… it has to be Veil."
"True enough."
Even in their weakened states, Do-ha and Canteas would never fail to detect a presence-erasing spell under normal circumstances.
"Let's tear it open."
Do-ha stepped up to the wall and reached toward empty space.
"Well? Am I right?"
As Do-ha raised his hand, Canteas looked at him.
"Yeah. It's Veil."
Do-ha nodded and ripped the wall apart. To anyone else it would have looked like he was tearing into bare wall; in reality he was prying open a safe. Veil magic only erased presence. The safe itself came free without much difficulty.
Crack!
Clunk!
"What the hell is in here that needed Eighth-Circle magic to protect it…"
"…Hey… is this what I think it is…"
The moment they saw the contents of the safe, both Do-ha's and Canteas's faces hardened. It was not stuffed with cash or mana stones. Nor was it filled with gold or jewels. There were only two things: something rough and crude, and something smooth and polished. The problem was that neither of those two things had any business being here.
"A… Dragon Heart and… a Dragon Egg? Why are these here…"
Canteas stammered, too shocked to speak properly. At first he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but the mana waves rolling off the objects were unmistakably those of a Dragon Heart and a Dragon Egg.
"Do-ha… don't tell me New Age has a dragon?"
"We can't jump to conclusions yet."
A dragon might have Polymorphed and slipped in among humans. Or someone might have entered a Gate where dragons appeared, hunted one, and taken these as spoils.
Of course, either way, both of these are connected to New Age…
"What are you going to do?"
"What else? We're taking them."
"The second we walk out with these, they'll hunt us with everything they've got."
Until now they had only wiped out a few branches. A Dragon Heart and a Dragon Egg were an entirely different story. The moment word got out that they had taken them, New Age would track them down no matter what. Back when they were still strong, anyone who came after them could simply be killed. That was no longer the case. Do-ha was stuck at Peak and Fifth Circle; Canteas himself was only Fourth Circle.
"If a dragon hid these, then a dragon will be the one chasing us. If not, the boss of New Age will come himself."
"Canteas. We don't have a choice either way."
They had already torn the safe open; the Veil magic had already collapsed. Leave the items behind and someone else would claim them—whether that someone was the Association or another New Age operative.
"So if they're going to be taken, better that we take them."
"Ugh. Being around you means I never get a single peaceful day."
In the end Canteas shrugged. As Do-ha said, if they had never found the safe it would not have mattered. Now that they had opened it, they had no choice but to take the contents.
"Hurry up and pack them so we can go."
"Right."
At Canteas's words, Do-ha slipped the Dragon Heart and the Dragon Egg into the subspace bag.
"It's still warm. Bet it'd taste great fried like an egg."
"That lunatic Emperor has finally lost his mind for real."
Canteas shook his head at Do-ha's remark. The two of them were currently in Do-ha's room, carefully examining the Dragon Egg—when Do-ha suddenly came out with that insane comment.
"What kind of dragon do you think it is? The egg's red, so maybe a Red Dragon?"
"You can't tell from the pattern or color of the egg. You only know once it hatches."
Canteas, who had spent long years researching dragons in his attempt to create a true dragon, spoke with absolute certainty. Even if the shell was red, the hatchling that emerged could easily be a completely different color.
"This Dragon Heart… if only I could absorb it."
"No kidding. If you absorbed it, you'd get a lot closer to your old realm."
"You're not tempted?"
"I've still got my main body. My power didn't disappear."
Do-ha had lost his strength fighting the Demon God, but Canteas's true body still existed in Belhart. For now he was stuck here because dimensional travel was impossible, but once they returned he could simply transfer back into it. Besides, if anyone was going to absorb this Dragon Heart, it made far more sense for Do-ha to do it than for him.
"Hmm… how am I supposed to absorb this thing?"
Simply holding a Dragon Heart and circulating energy would not absorb it. Nor could it be melted down into a spiritual elixir. Certain enthusiasts liked to talk as if absorbing a Dragon Heart was easy; reality was nowhere near that simple.
"The safest method is transplantation…"
"The moment you transplant it, you become a Dragonman."
A Dragonman—or Draconian—a half-human, half-dragon hybrid. The problem was that transplantation completely rewrote the personality. Humanity faded, ferocity took over, and intelligence gradually vanished. The recipient gained magic and tremendous physical power, but those advantages became meaningless once the person turned into a beast. Dragonmen born as natural hybrids between dragons and humans remained fine; those created through transplantation suffered exactly those side effects.
"The second method is to convert this into pure mana and have you absorb it right beside it."
"That's the safest and most common method. The problem is there's no one who can convert a Dragon Heart into mana."
To return a Dragon Heart to its natural energy state required either a Seventh-Circle mage or higher—or an actual dragon.
"So for now there's nothing we can do."
"That's why people say a Dragon Heart you can't handle is no different from a rock."
"Hey, comparing it to a rock is going too far."
Canteas let out a hollow laugh at Do-ha's words. Only someone who had once been stronger than dragons themselves could say something like that. Anyone else would have done anything to obtain a Dragon Heart.
"Ugh, we'll deal with this later. Just stick it in the subspace vault for now."
"Got it."
Canteas picked up the Dragon Heart and the Dragon Egg and opened the vault in the corner of the room—a subspace vault they had bought at considerable expense a month earlier.
"Tonight let's take Grandfather out for dinner."
"Oh, eating out sounds good."
Do-ha and Canteas rose, collected Grandfather Baek Chul, and headed outside.
And inside the subspace vault—
Crack.
A fissure was spreading across the surface of the Dragon Egg.