Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 013
Chapter Title: Dragon Fear
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“Cough.”
Sein let out a groan.
“Almost... died there.”
If he hadn’t twisted his body at the moment of crashing into the ground.
If he hadn’t reinforced his flesh with aura.
“Ptoo.”
It would have been a devastating blow that turned him into pulp.
“......”
The ogre narrowed its eyes, as if it hadn’t expected Sein to survive either.
“Impressive.”
The ogre sincerely acknowledged Sein.
“What was that?”
Sein asked the ogre.
‘It was a power I never imagined.’
Sein was well aware of ironclad transformation.
From the mana and aura emanating from it, he had gauged the ogre—Boba’s—level.
That was why he had thought it was a sure countermeasure.
Creak.
At Boba’s throat.
The red crystal that had blocked Sein’s sword appeared and vanished.
“......? You don’t know about blessings?”
“Blessings?”
Boba let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.
“You’re a candidate, aren’t you? And your guardian didn’t even tell you about this?”
Boom!
Boba clapped his two fists together.
Then, the red crystals from before began to emerge bit by bit from his fists.
“If you hadn’t awakened your blessing in the first place, you wouldn’t even be a candidate. Who is your guardian to pull something like this?”
“Arin. Know her?”
At Sein’s words, Boba’s eyes widened.
“The Witch of Fate?”
“The Witch of Fate?”
“She chose you?”
The guy, who had calmed his excitement after his mother’s story, began to grow agitated again.
“You’re saying she chose you?”
“Guess she’s famous after all.”
“No way.”
Groooar!
“If that’s true...”
Boba’s energy intensified another level.
‘I thought I had seen it all, but now it’s the real deal.’
Sein could feel Boba’s surging mana reaching its limit.
“I’ll crush you.”
Bang!
Boba shot forward like a弹丸.
And his ferocious assault began.
Boom! Kwaang! Boom!
Even putting it kindly, Boba’s punching motions weren’t anything special.
Just raw, street-brawl movements reproduced as is.
Kwaang!
But the body executing them was Boba’s, and that changed everything.
The ground cratered, the air tore.
Kclang!
Boba, who deflected even aura-clad swords, was a true ogre.
Slash!
Even when the tip of Sein’s blade pierced Boba’s flesh, it was only a tiny bit.
Far too insufficient to halt Boba’s momentum or inflict a fatal wound.
In contrast.
Creeeak—!
If he only focused on blocking Boba’s attacks as his speed gradually increased.
Boom!
Sein was sent flying, tumbling across the ground.
A vast gap in power.
Even now, Boba’s ironclad transformation seemed to be growing stronger.
Amid the billowing smoke, Boba clapped his fists once more.
Boom!
A shockwave erupted, and as the smoke cleared.
Whirr.
He faced Sein spinning in midair.
Sein’s eyes, rotating like a top.
Slit.
They had narrowed like a lizard’s.
“......!”
Sensing something had changed, Boba’s fist flew toward Sein.
Kwaang!
Another explosion.
But this time was different—Sein wasn’t sent flying.
Still airborne, not yet touching the ground, Sein adjusted his stance and gripped his sword with both hands.
Crunch!
It was the moment when Boba’s supposedly unbreakable ironclad finally cracked.
The two Demorus locked eyes.
At that instant.
Thump!
Boba felt his heart sink.
As if he were prey standing before a predator.
“W-What...”
His body wouldn’t stop trembling, and his mana flow began to shatter.
This was an unavoidable limit of his kind.
Heh.
The primal fear inherent to dragons.
‘Dragon Fear.’
It was the power of the new privilege Sein had inherited.
The momentarily disrupted mana flow affected Boba’s entire body.
Cracks formed in his ironclad like a sturdy fortress wall.
Creak!
Sein’s sword began slicing down toward that fist.
Kwaang!
Boba thrust out his other fist in time, but it was futile.
Sein’s sword pierced through both fists.
“Gaaaaah!”
Boba screamed in agony.
As the instinctive fear faded amid the pain he felt.
Creak!
The ironclad hardened again, pushing back Sein’s sword.
“Die—! Sein Demorus—!”
If this was all Sein had, it would be over.
That’s what Boba thought as he tried to pour out all his mana.
“Huh......!”
But the sight before him shook the power welling up.
“How...?”
That was the only word Boba could utter.
Sein’s arms—and the sword fused with them.
“Ironclad is used like this, you idiot.”
Were clad in ironclad just like his own, exerting tremendous force.
In the next moment, Sein spun once more.
Slash!
Fist and torso.
Spurt!
It was the moment Sein finally planted his feet on the ground after cleaving through it all.
*
*
*
The thousands of lives Sein had lived while playing Sanctuary.
Yet this was the culmination of builds he had honed countless times to witness endings he had never seen.
That was precisely.
“Tough bastard. This ogre punk.”
The current Sein—Sein Demorus.
When Sanctuary was just a game, it had been hard to utilize lives he had passed by, but this changed world was different.
Here, as long as you had mana, you could wield what were called skills in the game as techniques.
The reason Sein had been confined to the rural backwater of Chichiron until now was the tutorial restriction.
Thump!
And his woefully insufficient mana.
He had tried the mana circulation methods taught by masters from past lives and used fragments from incoming mana stones, but his mana never grew.
That was probably one of the constraints under the name of tutorial.
But now, Sein.
Thump!
With the Dragon Heart, all those restrictions were lifted.
So it was only natural.
Shwaa!
Sein shook the blood from his sword.
Before him lay Boba, bisected, eyes wide in disbelief even in death.
“Still...”
Sein approached.
“You’re like a brother, huh.”
Feeling an odd kinship, Sein gently closed Boba’s staring eyes.
The prowess he had shown exceeded expectations.
The ones he had sensed and experienced coming from Chichiron to Borfeo.
He had been disappointed by the shabbiness of back-alley scum, but Boba was the real deal.
Especially.
‘The red crystals.’
The ones that blocked his sword aimed at the throat and emerged on the fists.
Just their presence had doubled his physical capabilities or more.
‘Crimson Ironclad.’
That skill was Crimson Ironclad, the pinnacle of ironclad transformation, also called red ironclad.
It was absurd.
Calling forth Crimson Ironclad power at the ironclad stage.
—Haven’t you heard about blessings?
And that was a story he needed to hear from now on.
“...Thank you.”
A voice came from behind Sein.
A neutral tone.
“Was he any good?”
“Could it be...”
Sein turned around.
Facing the hulking woman, he said.
“You’re this guy’s ogre mother?”
“...Did he call me an ogre?”
A voice without malice.
“But I’m not his mother.”
He knew.
He had heard that the mothers who bore Demorus blood were eliminated, save for a few exceptions.
Moreover, the aura emanating from the hulking woman before him now.
Gulp.
Was that of an overwhelmingly powerful foe beyond Sein’s current reach.
“I merely watched over him and taught him.”
Guardian.
She must be Boba’s guardian.
“I am Barbik.”
Sein could also tell.
Her armor was no ordinary thing.
The red crystals exposed over it.
‘Crimson Ironclad.’
Were proof of the pinnacle ironclad transformation’s influence.
She was the one who had taught Boba ironclad transformation.
“Too bad.”
Sein said it as if it were someone else’s affair.
“It couldn’t be helped. That’s the fate of Demorus blood.”
They conversed.
Yet Sein did not relax his guard.
‘How many times could I block her?’
He gauged Barbik repeatedly, pondering and questioning endlessly.
But the conclusion he reached just as endlessly.
Heh.
Was to run.
No—even escape was impossible against this powerhouse.
“Wanna have a go?”
“...Filthy-mouthed one.”
“What can you do? Grew up without a mom, and dad’s a seed-spreader.”
“No respect for Demorus even.”
The reason Sein could act this way was that Barbik harbored no hostility.
“Claim it.”
“......?”
“Claim the Demorus blood, idiot.”
A belated voice.
“Enjoy the show?”
Because he knew Arin was nearby.
“Claim the remnants of the blessing. Sein Demorus. It is your right as the victor.”
Arin spoke in a voice somehow different from usual.
Claim it.
Sein looked down at Boba’s corpse, now fully lifeless.
“The blood of Demorus flows with blessings.”
He awakened his mana, examining the corpse.
“Gather the remnants of that blessing to receive the perfected dark blessing.”
Only then did he see it.
“The path to becoming the hero who leads the Demorus.”
Something alien within Boba’s heart slowly emerging.
It was a small black stone.
“......”
As a blacksmith, alchemist, merchant, mage.
“...That’s a blessing?”
Sein had handled every material in Sanctuary across countless lives.
Even he had never seen this so-called blessing before.
Not from the past—a new thing.
That it was the blood of Demorus.
“Claim it.”
“......”
Sein slowly approached it.
The black fragment in his hand wriggled like a living thing, trying to burrow into his body.
“Do I really have to take this?”