The Hero's Challenge for True Transcendence! The Milk Dragon Who Even Permits Nipple Piercings for the Hero of Her Dreams (Atracia – Laha)
Day twelve, afternoon.
Yongsa paid a visit to the Hunter Association.
Not many days remained before they would leave this world behind.
"Thank you for the extraordinary hospitality you've shown us. I had hoped to be of some real help, but the right opportunity never came. Please accept this in its place."
"This is… a sword. Rough work, yet you can feel the craftsman's will in it. A fine blade."
"Try taking hold of it."
At Yongsa's words, the Association President laid his hand on the hilt.
A vast power lay fixed inside the steel like a sealed spell.
"Th-this is…"
"I poured my single strike into that blade. Swing it once from overhead and it will unleash the same force as if I myself had delivered the blow."
Yongsa left the remnant power of the Holy Sword with this world.
He had not handed over the Holy Sword itself. He had simply poured the power that still lingered within it into one of the better swords he carried and locked it in place with magic.
"I'll say my farewells early. I may not have time tomorrow, and on the fourteenth day we leave this world at once."
"Park Yeon-nim. Thank you—truly! You have given this world… far more than we could ever repay!"
The old man past seventy wept openly as he bowed low.
Yongsa had never liked this sort of atmosphere, so he fled back to the hotel almost as if escaping.
The mood among the party at the hotel was… not good.
Honestly, part of him wanted to run away for a while.
"…"
"Again today…"
"This won't do! I'll go drag Laha here myself!"
Day twelve, dinner.
Once again Laha was nowhere to be seen.
Sakaha shot up from her seat; Yongsa stopped her.
"Sakaha. Let's wait a little longer."
"…If that is your will."
She sat back down, still clearly unconvinced. Dinner began under that heavy, uncomfortable air.
This is all my fault.
His companions' faces looked grim.
Laha, absent from the table, was surely no better.
Every one of these problems belonged to Yongsa alone—no one else.
The Saintess. The strongest knight. The elven archmage. The last half-human, half-dragon. A goddess.
They had abandoned the worlds he had saved and followed him with nothing but absolute faith in a single man.
They were more than companions; they were lovers who had already confirmed their feelings for one another.
I thought we had plenty of time, that everything would work out…
He had meant to settle the relationships he had kept running from like a coward during this journey.
Yet before he could even begin, Sakaha had been violated in the very first world.
What happened to Sakaha… tears my heart apart. But she is at my side now, and we can overcome this wound. She is strong.
That was not the end of the problem.
In the death and resurrection that followed, he had realized the curse left by the Demon King still lived inside his body.
Through Yongsa's seed, the Demon King would be reborn.
It was both a curse and a prophecy.
He could not form a physical relationship with his companions while carrying such a thing.
He had slept with Sakaha only to comfort her after her trauma.
But the more fundamental reason it had been possible was that she was already in a state where she could not conceive again.
How could a woman who had already conceived become pregnant by another man's seed?
"Y-Yongsa-nim!"
"Hm? What is it?"
"Are you all right? Your face…"
"Ah. I'm fine… I'll be fine."
He was not fine.
He was tormented. His head swam; his thoughts felt thick and dull.
To cast off the Demon King's Curse he needed to empty his heart and challenge True Transcendence.
Yet the world's distractions kept clouding his mind and spirit.
Right after rescuing Sakaha, the moment he stepped into the domain of a Transcendent, instinct had told him another life had taken root inside her body.
I know it should be erased. For her, for me—perhaps even for that child—it would be easier, freer of suffering. But… but…
What Yongsa had sensed was only a cluster of cells that had not even implanted yet.
Could removing something that could not yet be called a fetus truly be called killing a life?
His head ached. Honestly, a little of him felt sick.
He was disgusted by the bandits who had violated Sakaha, and disgusted by his own weakness for being unable to wipe away their trace.
This catastrophe happened because I was lacking. All of it… is my responsibility.
So Yongsa chose to embrace that life.
He made love to Sakaha and pretended to plant his own seed, so that even when the child was born she could believe it was his.
It was madness. As a man it was spectacularly pathetic.
Worse, it was a deception against Sakaha herself.
Yongsa knew exactly how much of a fool, a weakling, and an unmanly coward he was being.
But. But. But.
He could not kill an innocent life.
Killing the rapists was no problem at all.
But killing a rapist's child—when that child was still a fetus in the womb—was that right?
Of course he knew Sakaha's own wishes mattered most in this situation.
Yet Yongsa was afraid.
Afraid of her choosing to kill the fetus, and afraid of her choosing to keep it.
I am… a cowardly, weak little coward.
He had faced countless crises while fighting the Demon King, but never before had his heart been ground down like this.
Immediately after beginning the dimensional journey home: a companion violated, pregnant by another man's seed, and now a curse that made it impossible to accept the love his companions begged him for.
He had been forced to coldly refuse the companions who pleaded for his love, and the one he wounded was now shut away in her room.
Where did it go wrong? At what point? Should I have stopped them when they said they would follow me?
His thoughts threatened to spiral into pure darkness.
"Yongsa-nim!"
Lily's sudden, clear voice cut through.
As party leader he could not show weakness. Yongsa lifted his head, face composed like a mask.
"No matter what hardship comes, you will always find the path, Yongsa-nim! Just as you always have!"
Lily looked at him with steadfast eyes.
The words came out of nowhere, yet what she wanted to convey struck him deep in the chest.
In her voice and gaze he felt boundless trust.
"Seobang-nim. This girl still does not know exactly what troubles you, but no matter what happens, we will love you. Even if we must wait until we become grandmothers. Heehee."
"Ah, Yongsa. Do not take every burden upon yourself alone. Are we not more than mere companions? There is not one frail woman among us who needs only your protection. Stop lashing yourself any further."
Unia and Sakaha.
Their words, too, reached him straight through the heart.
"Haha! Just because I've been shut in my room a few days, you're all making faces like that?"
"Laha!"
Even Laha had joined them at some point and added her voice.
"I'm disappointed and a little hurt, but that is all. We all believe in you, so hurry up and crush whatever is worrying you!"
"Ahh… thank you."
Their faith and love sank deep into his chest.
Yongsa steadied the heart that had been sliding toward despair.
If they kept traveling between dimensions, disasters like Sakaha's could happen again.
There was no way to prevent them completely in advance.
Stopping the dimensional travel would work, of course—but that would mean preparing for war against the god of whatever world they settled in.
It would be the same as becoming the Demon King of that world themselves.
I have to leave behind a fruit of love that will never waver.
What Yongsa needed to do was leave love in his companions' bodies and hearts.
Love. Mating. Procreation—things of that nature.
And to do that he had to resolve the Demon King's Curse as soon as possible.
The Demon King he thought he had slain had survived in the form of a curse and prophecy, clinging to Yongsa's body.
Fortunately, he already knew the way to deal with it.
True Transcendence…
In the wars of immortals, the more perfect immortal simply consumed the immature one.
The incomplete Transcendent Yongsa had been able to defeat the complete Transcendent Demon King only because Goddess Ribbon and the will of the world itself had aided him.
Not because Yongsa's immortality was superior.
By the same logic, the fallen Demon King had been able to leave a curse on him because Yongsa's immortality was still incomplete.
In other words, once Yongsa cast off that incompleteness and became a true Transcendent, every problem would be solved.
"Tonight I settle this. Trust me and wait."
Yongsa shared his resolve with his companions and left the table.
Day thirteen, early morning.
Yongsa set aside the distractions that had tormented his mind for so long and turned his gaze inward.
There were two paths by which he could achieve True Transcendence.
The first was to discard the heart that had been the very condition of his immortality.
He had already accumulated more than enough rank and power. If he simply erased that now-burdensome condition, he would take one long step closer to True Transcendence.
It was the easiest and fastest road.
Yet Yongsa could not bring himself to choose it.
If he discarded his heart, would the Yongsa of now and the Transcendent Yongsa still be the same person?
Would the companions he cherished cease to be precious to him?
That fear had made him hesitate—and now another path revealed itself.
It was the path of reinforcing his essence.
Yongsa's power sprang from the bonds he shared with his companions.
This was no mere spiritual strengthening; it was something like a cheat unique to him.
He would expand it through love and fix it in place with vows.
True immortality should have no conditions.
But to devour the curse the Demon King had left behind, he only needed to become stronger than the Demon King.
Considering the karma and stature Yongsa had already built, that level of elevation should be enough.
I begin.
Transcendence.
It was the act of rewriting one's own essence.
Yongsa's consciousness slipped free of the world's shell and touched the realm of essence.
Certain of success, he redefined himself within that realm.
The two keys to this transcendence were simple.
First: did Yongsa himself truly love his companions?
Second: did his companions truly love him?
He never doubted his success… and at the final moment he plummeted.
Why…?
The transcendence ritual had failed catastrophically.
Day thirteen, early morning.
At the very hour Yongsa challenged transcendence, Laha was joining her body with the Hero of her dreams.
—Churp. Suck-suck.
Today's Hero was different again.
With his cock buried deep inside her pussy he refused to move his hips at all.
Kiss. Kiss. Kiss.
He poured kisses into her so relentlessly she thought she might smother and die.
Was he trying to choke her not with his hands but with his mouth alone?
The thought crossed her mind as the endless kisses continued.
"Haa… haa… Hero, what wind is blowing through you today?"
Laha asked, sensing something different from the usual crude, filthy demands he forced upon her.
"Laha. Do you love me?"
His answer was a little abrupt.
"What kind of question is that? It's the same as asking someone who is already eating whether they want to eat."
"Puhaha! Wrong question, then. Let me put it this way. How much do you love me—the Hero of your dreams?"
How could this Hero distinguish dream from reality?
When the dreamer becomes aware of the dream it is called a lucid dream. It was not unheard of for a figure inside the dream to become aware as well.
Most people simply called that a nightmare.
"I do love you. Very much."
Laha answered between ragged breaths.
Nearly thirty minutes of focused kissing had left her brain starved of oxygen.
Her head felt hot and thick; thought itself had gone hazy and dreamy.
"I know you love me. Hmm… that still doesn't quite give me the measure of it."
The Hero pondered again at her reply.
Then his face lit with a clever, faintly wicked idea.
"Then tell me—do you prefer the Hero of your dreams, or the Hero of reality?"
"You fool. You're the Hero of the dream, yet you're jealous of the real one?"
In Laha's mind this was a dream.
She was the dream's master, and the Hero before her was simply the shape of the Hero she herself desired.
To think I wanted a perverted Hero like this… even now I can hardly believe it.
A Hero who made her lick his ass, drink his piss, and choked her while coming inside her.
And that same creature was now comparing himself to the real Hero.
"Obviously I prefer the real Hero more!"
Strong, kind, noble.
"But I might love the dream Hero a little bit more… puhaha!"
She mixed joke and truth and laughed.
Satisfied, the Hero smiled and pulled something from his belongings.
"Thank you. This is my gift. You'll accept it, won't you?"
"This is…? A bit small for a ring, isn't it?"
He held out two slender gold-colored loops.
Too small for rings, yet large enough to look gaudy as earrings.
"They go here."
The Hero pointed at Laha's stiffly erect nipples.
"…?"
"That's right. Nipple piercings."
"Uuuugh… fool, fool, fool! Hero! Do you truly think of this body as nothing more than a dairy cow to be milked?!"
Laha flared up in genuine indignation.
"Please. You promised to accept every one of my desires, remember?"
The Hero smiled lazily, the easy confidence of a master coaxing a slave rather than an equal lover.
Before that casual dominance Laha surrendered and offered up her enormous breasts.
"I already decided to love you once… so I will accept everything you are! I am curious just how far you intend to go!"
She spoke with her usual boldness.
But once the holes were punched through her flesh and the two rings—little more than handles—were threaded into place, her tone changed.
"Nngh!"
It was a cry utterly different from any lewd moan.
A little blood welled, yet her regenerative power, far superior to a human's, sealed the wounds almost at once.
"Are you all right?"
"Pain of this level is nothing."
At her answer the Hero gently rubbed her pierced nipples.
"Nnngh… ahh. Nngh!"
She reacted far more sensitively than usual.
While lightly teasing the tips, the Hero suddenly yanked the piercings at an unpredictable moment.
"Auuuugh!"
A scream that was half sexual pleasure and half pure pain tore from her throat.
Moments later she looked up at him with wet, submissive eyes.
"H-Hero… I am not used to this yet, so please… handle me gently."
This was Laha, who always showed a free-spirited, magnanimous front.
Watching her beg like any ordinary girl the moment the piercings were pulled, the Hero could no longer hold back his laughter.