Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 020
Chapter Title: Contract with the Destruction Dragon
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The extreme realism was reality, too.
But so was the lingering gamelike quality.
Was it a game?
Harboring that doubt, Sein reached a conclusion: this place was another reality.
If he didn't accept it that way, it could only be the delusion of a madman.
That realization sparked a new question.
‘If this world is real, then what about God?’
The being called a god.
What about Angel?
He had tried praying a few times.
‘He was once a saint, after all.’
He had thought those prayers would reach Angel, but no answer came.
‘So he really doesn’t exist.’
Not even a fragment of holy power could be felt anywhere in Chichiron.
But at this moment, Sein was certain.
‘Gods exist in this world.’
Angel.
“Once more….”
Sein rose to his feet.
He curled his lips into a smile.
His reverent demeanor was gone, replaced by his usual self.
“Choose me as your saint, Angel.”
Kwaaaaa—!
The light from the judgment seat began to pour out even more intensely.
“I apologize for turning the continent into this mess. Me.”
Cascading light.
Thump! Thump!
His halted heart began pounding fiercely.
The mana of the dragon heart slumbering within, along with the remnants called blessings.
Arin’s cheat, the demonic energy absorbed from the hellhound—everything.
Thump!
All of it clawed at his heart like it owned him.
And yet Sein smiled.
“So give me another chance.”
The light of the judgment seat.
That warm light halted the pain.
“…I don’t know if you’re really a god or what, but don’t you want this too?”
His own goal.
“You don’t want the world to stay like this.”
Because he was a god.
If he was a god.
He thought flowery words or fancy speech wouldn’t matter.
What mattered was sincerity.
‘To achieve what I want, I need the power of a saint.’
Only that power could embrace all the rampaging forces inside him.
“I’ll restore Sanctuary for you.”
A single sincere word.
Kwaaang—!
Falling light.
Sein’s world flashed entirely white.
“Ang…el?”
In that instant, Sein witnessed something unbelievable.
A cluster of white light, with something shining even brighter within.
Impossible to describe in human language, but it was clearly….
“Angel!”
A being worthy of being called a god.
Warm and comforting, yet providing a satisfaction nothing else could match.
However.
“……!”
The white world began to turn black.
[You….]
A voice.
“…What the!”
[To you….]
It resembled the system voice, unmistakably.
But the sensations and emotions it carried were utterly different.
[You have no qualifications.]
“What?”
Sein shouted, eyes bulging.
“You don’t want it?! Angel!”
A world doomed by his own hand.
A world once beautiful, now painted gray.
“Don’t you want to turn it back?!”
[You have no qualifications.]
The voice echoed again.
[You already….]
The countless lights poured into Sein’s eyes, nose, and mouth.
Hwaaaaak!
“Keheok!”
Sein opened his eyes to a world where the white had been overlaid entirely in black.
The place where he had first stood.
Atop the judgment seat of Arquer.
“Heok…. Heok….”
Sein spat out ragged breaths.
It was exactly where he had been standing moments ago.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
His heart raced madly.
The holy power that had invaded his body without permission stimulated his heart, rousing it.
And that meant.
“Kuaaaaaak!”
The immense pain was assaulting him once more.
*
*
*
Why?
How?
He had no room for such questions.
Just keeping himself from stabbing his own heart consumed all of Sein’s mental strength.
In fact.
Crack!
The rampant energy inside him had dwelled in the mithril longsword in his hand, splitting it apart.
If not for that.
“Kuhuk…. Kook!”
Sein might have truly stabbed his heart.
But perhaps because he had endured it once before.
Scrape.
Sein crawled.
Forcing his unmoving body to move.
Crunch.
Ignoring even the pain of his nails grinding and tearing as he clawed the floor.
“Again…. Kehk!”
Sein crawled, and crawled again.
“I have to… stop it again…!”
Stopping his heart.
That was the only thing he could do right now.
It filled his mind completely.
Cold sweat pooled around him; he didn’t know how many times he blacked out.
How much time had passed?
Every second felt like an eternity.
Scrape! Scraaaape!
Yet Sein did not stop advancing.
To sever the pain.
To survive.
“Angel…. You bastard…!”
This couldn’t be how he ended.
“I’ll kill you, no matter what…!”
Sein crawled and crawled.
Several more blackouts.
In his hazy vision, Sein somehow regained consciousness.
The pain remained the same.
“……!”
But everything around him started feeling vividly clear.
He had thought Arin’s preparations ended there.
The Empire, the demons, and finally the saint.
Those were all the trials to prove himself.
Shwaaaaa—!
But no.
It was an eye so massive and menacing it defied description.
He thought witnessing Angel was the peak of shock.
“F…fuck…. What… is this….”
What Sein saw now was destruction incarnate, gigantic and absolute.
A sensation like his soul melting away.
A primal fear transcending human instinct.
[A worm on the brink of death, huh.]
Its voice reverberated in his mind.
The voice was different, yet it sounded just like the system voice for some reason.
[To think the one you promised me is this pathetic worm.]
“Who… are you….”
[I am.]
Zzzzzit!
The massive eyeball opened and closed repeatedly, like a gate.
[Known as the Destruction Dragon.]
For a moment, Sein nearly forgot the pain in his heart.
“Destruction… Dragon?”
There was a mythical being in the Empire’s legends.
The only lifeform to defy Angel.
The progenitor and origin of all dragons.
The origin of the Empire itself.
“The Demon Dragon… Archibald… right?”
Demon Dragon Archibald.
[But you meet the qualifications.]
He felt the eyeball drawing slowly closer.
Sein stared straight at it, eyes wide.
Averting his gaze felt like he’d be swallowed whole.
[I’ll contract with you.]
“Who… are you to decide…!”
For some reason, the eyeball seemed to smile at Sein’s words.
[Do you want to keep suffering that excruciating pain?]
A mocking tone.
And for some reason, Sein felt a smile tugging at his own lips.
“Fuck….”
An utterly unreasonable contract.
However.
“…If that’s the case, why didn’t you say so sooner….”
He was the one who had wanted to stab his own heart.
“Contract… accepted.”
[Such a disloyal cur.]
His consciousness faded.
[Very well. I, Destruction Dragon Archibald, hereby contract with the reincarnator Kim Sein.]
“What…!”
But Sein couldn’t continue.
*
*
*
-Fucking disgusting sharing a class with a loser like you.
-Wanna eat lunch together…? Are you insane?
-Sorry.
Fuck.
If he could, he’d spew curses at them.
Memories he wanted to forget.
Things buried in a corner of his mind resurfaced.
-Do… .
Memories as painful as the agony in his heart.
“Sh…it….”
Veins bulging on his forehead, those were the first words from Sein as he opened his eyes.
“Looks like you’re finally coming to your senses.”
A sweet, warbling voice reached his ears.
Sein slowly turned his head.
His second utterance was.
“You crazy bitch.”
Another curse.
There sat a beautiful black-haired woman: Arin.
She lounged in a chair, reading a book.
This was the Cyclops’s hideout.
“What the hell did you do to me?”
Thud.
At Sein’s words, Arin closed her book and looked at him.
“What the hell was….”
His mind had blurred amid the horrific pain.
But some things were crystal clear.
-Accepted the contract, reincarnator, Kim Sein.
Destruction Dragon Archibald.
The primordial dragon, existing only in Sanctuary’s lore, had been there.
“Why was the Demon Dragon there?”
“So you did meet it.”
It was the first time.
Arin’s eyes wavered.
“You really contracted with a fragment of the Demon Dragon.”
“What?”
“I couldn’t guarantee it. I wasn’t even permitted to set foot there myself.”
Sein slowly sat up, leaning back against the bed.
“That place holds Segmore’s greatest secret. It’s a forbidden zone no one can approach unless the Empire faces annihilation-level peril.”
As expected.
“My father never went there, but he told me about it. All I could find was endless terror and despair.”
Arin spoke.
“But you met it.”
Destruction Dragon, Archibald.
“You really are the Destroyer.”
Arin had examined Sein’s unconscious body.
Sein’s flesh was covered in locks even she couldn’t easily see through, but she knew.
She had stopped his heart and found a way to bypass those locks.
“The Destroyer is described in imperial history as the most tremendous existence.”
Arin spoke as if telling an old tale.
“Wielding dragon mana, holy power….”
The final secret she hadn’t revealed.
“…and even demonic energy.”
The Destroyer wielded powers that could never unite, all alone.
He was truly invincible.
None blocked his path; even the Empire’s proud bloodlines knelt before him.
No competition held any meaning.
“Now that you know, will you treat me as your master?”
The shadow serving the imperial family, Segmore.
“The Empire fell. Segmore’s oath is broken. By your hand, no less.”
“You hit hard.”
“So I propose a deal.”
Arin’s obsidian eyes fixed on Sein.
“Let’s transact. You’ve already received the price.”
The price… .
“More than enough.”
If you’re not satisfied, you’re a fool.