Chapter 167
Chapter 167
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 167
Chapter Title: Ghosts of the Past, Ties of the Present (6)
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***
A human plummeting from above and a gleaming sword.
The dragon's reaction was immediate. It flapped its wings while swinging its foreclaw.
Rather than dodging the claw, Yeomyeong layered sword aura onto his blade.
Comet Sword, Wave Yang Art, and even the sword aura he'd seized from the Player.
!
The sword with three layers of aura sliced through the dragon's claw without a sound. And it didn't stop there, pressing onward toward the true target.
The dragon's heart.
Through Yeomyeong's descending view between Kahal Magdu's ribs, he saw a heart shining like a blue gem.
Just before Yeomyeong's sword aura reached the heart—
—Ha!
The dragon let out a laugh impossible to tell if it was rage or joy, detonating the mana in its heart.
The mana explosion that had repelled him earlier? No, this outburst was on another level entirely.
Whoooosh—!
The dragon's heart used itself as fuel, spewing forth eerie blue flames.
Not to repel, but flames imbued with the intent to incinerate Yeomyeong outright.
In an instant, his vision melted away. Right after the flames engulfed his face.
—I'll give you points for originality.
Kahal Magdu's flames consumed Yeomyeong. Thoughts of the Death Knight or launch codes had long vanished.
Kill, or be killed. Nothing else.
Yet Yeomyeong neither recoiled nor burned away.
He gripped the heart with psychokinesis, squeezing every ounce of mana from his body to endure the flames.
Even as his skin charred and sensation faded, even as his eyes melted and his vision went black, he paid it no mind.
Amid the searing agony, only the dragon's heart remained crystal clear.
Subconscious, conviction, and sword.
Yeomyeong swung the hand clutching his sword. The flames parted before his will...
And the blade reached the heart.
!!!
There was no sound. No cheers, not even a scream.
One inhale, one exhale.
The flames from the dragon's heart vanished, and Yeomyeong was pushed out between the ribs, beginning his fall.
Beyond his regenerated eyes, he saw Kahal Magdu's massive body plummeting to the ground.
'I... won.'
The moment he was certain of victory, a swiftly approaching red dragon's hand caught him.
He wanted to say "Nice catch," but his scorched lips and tongue wouldn't move. Yeomyeong simply leaned into the dragon's hand, slowly descending to the earth.
A moment later.
KABOOM...!
The skeletal dragon's collision with the ground shook heaven and earth. The sound of victory.
Amid the city's stunned silence at the shocking outcome, Orse Tabul lightly landed in the city.
He carefully set Yeomyeong down on the ground and said,
[Our—no, your victory, Cheon Yeomyeong.]
But Yeomyeong couldn't simply rejoice. Zombies still swarmed the city.
'The summoner is already down... why?'
At that moment, as if answering his question, Kahal Magdu coughed.
—Ha, hahaha! I lost. To an Earthling, I lost.
The skeletal dragon burst into laughter as it rose. Propping itself with its half-severed right hand looked precarious.
[Filthy corpse.]
Orse Tabul bared his teeth, weaving spells to prepare for battle, but Yeomyeong merely frowned slightly.
He'd realized why the thing was still alive.
Kahal Magdu had thrust its left hand between its ribs, clutching the split heart.
It wasn't proper first aid or anything. Just a simple stall, delaying death by a tiny margin.
The dragon raised its head, staring straight at Yeomyeong.
—Congratulations... on becoming a Dragon Slayer, Cheon Yeomyeong.
“...”
—Ironic, isn't it? The first Dragon Rider after the heroes—and a Dragon Slayer—is an Earthling.
Whether the skeletal dragon sneered or not, Yeomyeong drew his sword and approached.
Step.
Sword aura gathered on the blade once more.
Not quite the all-out strike that had cleaved the heart, but enough sword aura to finish off a dragon on death's door.
Seeing it, Kahal Magdu seemed to realize something and burst into laughter.
—Inhumanly pure mana... So that's it. The World Tree Crystal we've been seeking... it's already in your gut.
“...”
—Not guided by the stars... but chosen by the World Tree. Pasun, you damned bitch... Heh, fate...
Small flames flickered from the dragon's maw with each word, but Yeomyeong ignored them.
He sensed no hostility from the creature.
A moment later, Yeomyeong raised his sword right before its snout. He intended to sever both heart and left hand at once...
But Kahal Magdu withdrew its left hand from its chest first?
Resisting? No, not that. The dragon extended its heart-topped hand toward Yeomyeong.
—Eat it.
“...What?”
—From this moment, the great powers eyeing my heart and corpse will target you... No, never mind such politics.
Kahal Magdu lowered its head, meeting Yeomyeong's gaze.
Fading blue flames met golden eyes. Victor and vanquished, delight and bewilderment.
—A simple truth. Before Earth invaded this world, and after. Unchanging.
“...”
—The weak are devoured, the strong devour. The loser is stripped, the victor takes. Nothing more. So... eat.
Before Yeomyeong could reply, crunch! The dragon clenched its left hand.
The heart compressed, and the last mana sustaining Kahal Magdu vanished into it.
—Haha... Star Killer... As expected... Fate... must twist... to be fun...
Whether final words or laughter, the blue flames in the dragon's eye sockets flickered out.
Thud!
The soulless bones collapsed, and the gem in its hand rolled to the ground.
Tiny compared to the heart—baseball-sized—blue gem.
Yeomyeong picked up the gem at his feet and turned.
Orse Tabul's conflicted eyes, the halted zombies, and a limping crow beastkin approaching from the alley.
“...Corbus.”
The fierce battle with the Death Knight had left wounds everywhere on her body.
Her left leg was twisted completely backward, dangling, forcing her to use her magic staff as a true cane.
Anyway, spotting Yeomyeong before the skeletal dragon, she clacked her beak.
“Splendid work. Rotten disciple. I wanted to peck you when you vanished without a word... but you're alive, so that's fine.”
“...Yes, glad you're alive too, Corbus.”
Leaving the chuckling Corbus behind, Yeomyeong tucked the dragon heart into his bosom.
Then he turned toward where the Saintess had vanished.
More precisely, where Seti was fighting.
“Orse, a few more left... care to help finish them?”
[If that's what you wish.]
***
“Just don't run and fight a little?”
Seti ignored Ekaterina's voice from behind and rolled across the ground. And soon...
BOOM!!!
The spot she'd stood exploded. A blast stronger than an anti-tank rocket.
Shrapnel tore her clothes and pierced skin, but she'd barely escaped the radius.
Lifting her head after rolling, she saw the South Palace Lord scowling, aiming his golden staff at her.
“Tch, what the hell is this over one little girl...”
He seemed disgusted by the fight itself.
Fair enough. Two superhumans herding hundreds of zombies to hunt one young girl wasn't exactly honorable.
Honor aside, the job was the job.
A hostage for the launch codes—that necessity made the South Palace Lord fire another spell.
“Blaze of Hilaria—!”
Another repeating explosion spell.
Seti spat blood from her mouth and unleashed Flying Leg Art to evade.
Zombies charged her landing spot as if waiting.
'Damn.'
Seeing it mid-fall, Seti swung her hammer at the air.
Crack! Lightning burst from the hammerhead, twisting her trajectory in midair.
Mana surged wildly and organs twisted, but she barely landed on a building roof instead of the alley.
“Wow, your escapes are pro-level. But... how about we wrap this up?”
Seti flipped off Ekaterina's taunting plea.
Earth's gesture, famous even across dimensions.
The South Palace Lord's face twisted, but Ekaterina cackled.
“Just go easy already? Dragging this out means nothing.”
“...”
“You don't seriously think your boyfriend can beat Kahal Magdu, right? One lousy dragon changes nothing?”
As she said, in the city sky, the skeleton dragon and red dragon clashed.
A grand spectacle of spells and dragon breath colliding.
Anyone could see momentum tilting toward Kahal Magdu.
Seti neither panicked nor feared. She believed in Yeomyeong's victory more than anyone.
So she coolly gauged her remaining grenades and mana, mapping escape routes.
'Keep running like this... ten minutes? No, five.'
After five? Trusting her short-burst prowess, it'd be kill or be killed.
If captured as hostage...
'...Sacrifice a limb.'
Decision made, she leaped. Or tried to.
The instant her feet left the roof.
Bang!
A bullet from across the city blew Ekaterina's head off.
“Sniper?! Who?!”
The sudden ambush made the South Palace Lord erect a barrier and retreat.
Headless Ekaterina collapsed like a marionette with cut strings, then suddenly steadied, her headless body looking around.
'...Doesn't die even headless?'
What the hell is she? Seti swallowed a bitter laugh and checked the sniper's direction.
Nothing detectable—likely hundreds of meters out...
Enemy? Ally?
Didn't matter. Seize the chance.
Seti instantly pivoted, leaping at the lone Palace Lord.
Crimson Lightning Strike. Solely attack-maximized from Korea's vaunted Supreme Lightning Arts—a one-hit kill martial art.
'Take out the South Palace Lord in this opening.'
Electricity crackled on the hammerhead. Mana blazed like rainbow-cleaving lightning.
“Damn!”
As the South Palace Lord recoiled in alarm, another gunshot rang from afar.
Bang!
This one targeted his barrier.
The barrier shattered to dust blocking the shot. One that withstood anti-tank rockets, gone in a hit? No way...
“...Weapon Enhancement Blessing? Why is a priest?!”
The South Palace Lord hastily prepared another barrier, but Seti's hammer already loomed over his head.
The next instant—
BOOM—!
The hammer smashed living bone and flesh.
Not the South Palace Lord's—but Ekaterina's, headless and intervening.
The Palace Lord's body nearly shattered, but Ekaterina's block let him barely survive.
At the cost of her body becoming a puddle of blood.
***
The South Palace Lord was a veteran mage. Even rolling blood-soaked and pathetic on the ground, he could still chant spells.
“Damn it, light of Naras—!”
Flash!
A blinding spell veiling both sniper and Seti's vision.
Without looking back, the Palace Lord bolted toward the zombie horde.
He had no command authority over them, but at least they wouldn't attack him.
As he fled using zombies as shields—
Light erupted from the sky.
From a tiny human sword, too small to see at this distance.
The light sliced the skeleton dragon's arm, plunged between its chest ribs...
And a massive explosion bloomed within.
Brief silence.
As it stretched, Kahal Magdu began plummeting to earth.
Unbelievable sight. The Immortal Dragon defeated?
South America's nightmare, here?
“H-How...”
While the awestruck South Palace Lord stared at the falling dragon, a nearby zombie gaped and vomited dark red blood.
He recoiled at the sudden vomit. Regardless, the blood began coalescing midair.
Like wet clay, it clumped and wove, quickly forming a familiar human shape.
“...Ekaterina?”
Blood-to-flesh magic? What the hell kind of spell? As the Palace Lord swallowed his shock, the reborn Ekaterina shakily rose.
“Ow, that fucking hurt.”
She rummaged zombies' clothes, threw them on haphazardly, and glanced at Kahal Magdu's crash site.
“Huh? Immortal Dragon's dead? This wasn't our fate...”
“W-What do you mean?”
“Tch, what else? We lost. Time to retreat.”
“What? We can't! I've already paid the old rulers. Can't retreat now!”
The Palace Lord trembled, but Ekaterina scoffed.
“Kahal Magdu's death sealed our loss. Save your skin.”
“No, not yet! Launch codes... with those, we can still...!”
Launch codes?
Ekaterina eyed the quivering Palace Lord, pondered, then smirked as if remembering.
“Ah, right... that guy's fate lingers.”
“That guy? Who? Who's left?”
His eager question met disappointment.
“East Palace Lord, Bikop Juga Sibiri.”
***
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