Ep 123. Do You Think Yourself Invincible? (1)

  “Raizel…must you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “That.”

  Looking away in disgust, Karas pointed down at the bludgeoned mess Lavnore’s body had bee.

  Though, that did little to deter the steel dragon from tinuing to trample upon his dead body.

  “Rex. I’m just looking for that shard he had.”

  “…Aren’t you just taking your stress out on him?”

  “Wanna find out?”

  “…No thank you.”

  At the very least, Raizel actually k down at the professor’s questioning. Her hands waded through the bloody mess, plug out the white gem from the emperor’s remains.

  “There we go. Just gotta take it over.”

  “…”

  A wave of doubt washed over Karas.

  Approag the steel dragohely pced his hand over her back.

  Raizel instantly jumped a little in response, groaning in a lot more pain than what a geouch would normally incur. Now that the threat was gone, her wounds were beginning tister again – and she was betedly remembering the state her body was in.

  The professor shook his head, being Raizel over to his side.

  “You’re not going anywhere like that. With your body as is, you’ll soon exhaust yourself to death.”

  “…But lord’s still not here. I should-“

  “If she were here, she’d tell you to take care of yourself first.”

  “…”

  “And yoing to be of no help in your current state. If anything, you’d be a nuisao protect.”

  Raizel grit her teeth in frustration. The steel dragon shot a sharp gre towards the feathered figure as she poiowards the distant mountain range.

  “I’m not gonna sit here and wait. She should’ve been back way earlier.”

  “Who said anything about sitting here waiting? I was saying you reatment first.”

  “And who’s gonna do that? Yi’t even heal dragons properly. Your student tried, but she hardly helped.”

  “I do it.”

  “? You ? Since when?”

  “Sinow, actually.”

  “…”

  A certain somebody’s agonized screams were still eg within Karas as their aptitude in magic was stolen away.

  Though, the steel dragon remained oblivious of the iurmoil going on about within the feathered figure. Even as they argued, the searing pain on her back was growing worse by the sed; Raizel struggled to even keep her eyes open, her body desperate to pass out from exhaustion.

  With a surrendering sigh, the steel dragon sank to the ground.

  “…Fine. But make it quick.”

  Coarse thoughts of the dragonlord were keepitention held firm. Raizel’s body lightly shook as she struggled to prevent herself from speeding off.

  ‘…She’ll be okay.’

  “…”

  While Raizel brooded in silence, Karas pced a hah his .

  Admittedly, Raizel had every right to be worried – as they’d both learned by now, his most peculiar student had a knack fetting themselves into ridiculous situations. For all he knew, Serenis was out there with another Felicir.

  “Hm…”

  Following suit, the professor called forth the only free spirit in his possession.

  ‘Felicir.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Go find Serenis. It seems she’s off to the western mountains somewhere.’

  ‘I don’t recall this being a part of the agreement.’

  ‘It is now. Go before I lob you in with the rest like Lavnore.’

  ‘…Really? Are we stooping that low?’

  ‘In case you’ve fotten, I’m a monster. Stooping low would be my default.’

  ‘But what if I dissipate while I’m gone? Do you realize how much effort it takes to retain my being as a soul on my own?’

  ‘Then you better do your search quickly aurn, hm?’

  ‘…’

  As the pining spirit flew out and off into the distant skies, Karas returned his gaze to the heaving dragon to reassure her.

  “I’ve sent a familiar to look for her; ohey’re back, they’ll be able to point you in the right dire. I see to your wounds while they search.”

  “Did you? I didn’t see it.”

  “You’re just tired.”

  “…Huh.”

  Usually, a familiar would take the form of an artificial lifeform created through mana: they were visible to anyone’s naked eye.

  Today, not so much.

  Ign the youngling’s visible fusion, Karas briefly examined Raizel’s back where her burn wounds were most severe. Soon, the professor’s hands lightly glowed green as he went about rest the dragon’s body back to shape.

  And throughout the process, Raizel’s eyes remained shamefully glued to the ground.

  Even as her physical pains slowly melted away, the dragon’s expression worsened by the sed as Karas – of all people – teo her state. plicated feelings stormed within the youngling as she struggled to sit still.

  When she finally opened her mouth, the first thing that came out was a pint – or at least, it sounded like one.

  “…Why’re you even healing me? You could’ve just left me to go off and die.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “I killed your friend.”

  “Lavnore was not my friend.”

  “Not him. The…other one.”

  “…Oh. Well…”

  Karas briefly paused to pte on an answer. He hadn’t given it that much thought.

  But when the professor soon gave his answer, a soft grin was on his face.

  “I did something horrible, and I unished for it. I was taught to live up to the sequeny decisions. I’m merely doing as told.”

  “…Really? You just let it go like that?”

  “I . And, more importantly…if she were here, she’d heal you just the same.”

  “…”

  “And I was also told that when children misbehave, it’s usually an adult’s fault.”

  “…Wait, are you saying I’m a child?”

  “Ahem, excuse me while I focus for a moment. The sooner we finish here, the sooner you join with Serenis. I o see to Ilias as well.”

  “Hey, ahe damion!”

  ? ? ?

  A while earlier…

  “Hmph. How brave of you to trouble yourself ing here. Had you stayed with your kin, you may have lived a while longer.”

  “…”

  The assaint’s arm pressed against the dragonlord’s neck, pinnio a steep, rocky cliff.

  Serenis returned an ominous gre towards the man before her.

  His voice was unmistakably that of the wooden doll she’d entered before. But uhen, her assaint was no doll – he was a human being. There was no hood or trickery hiding his features.

  But, disappointingly, this man was not Akeia’s emperor. His dark skin and light clothing were in stark trast to the emperor’s armored, glowing self.

  “…Why do you eveo kill us?”

  When the assaiurned no ao the dragonlord’s question, Serenis ed her hand around the arm pinning her. She tightened her grip, her gre sharpening further as she tinued.

  “Your emperor killed us for his own ends, and I expected you to be no different. But your eyes tell a different tale.”

  What Serenis saw within the man’s eyes wasn’t greed she’d expect from Lavnore, nor looming superiority she’d expect from the likes of Felicir.

  She saw nothing in his eyes. As if he had no feelings whatsoever to even speak of.

  And finally, the assaint delivered their answer.

  “…This world was misdesigned. Your kind should never have sted to the current era.”

  A hazel sword was summoned into the man’s other hand, tip poiraight towards his pinned victim.

  “With the Reaper no longer present to uphold his absurd promise, this world will be corrected of its mistakes.”

  g!

  As his on struck the dragonlord, the assaint’s eyes wide the sight of his bde simply breaking off – as if it’d struto a heap of stone.

  And to his dismay, the dragonlord effortlessly lowered the arm pinning her in pce.

  ‘…?! How-‘

  Normally, one would expect a dragon’s physical strength to surpass that of a human’s. But this obvious truth hadn’t applied to him for turies – no liviy could overpower him in a test of strength.

  Until now, that is.

  But when the assaint finally took notice of the mana strengthening the dragonlord’s body, he had already been thrown into the air.

  ‘A dragon is using reinfort magic…? But that’s…‘

  ‘Something only a human would do. Or so you’d think.’

  Gazing into the air, Serenis stretched out her hand towards the assaint above. Glimmers of blue began to swirl around her palm, gathering into a luminous orb of light.

  And in respohe assaint summoned another hazel shield to hide behind.

  “…”

  At first g was an unremarkable choice of defense. But judging by its color, the shield was unmistakably an antimagic barrier made of Kedor’s shell.

  ‘…How tiring.’

  Although she and Kedor had rarely fought to begin with, the velklord’s magicelling shell had always been a hassle to deal with. If he were to pletely hide himself within his shell, there was little anyone could do about the colossal tortoise.

  But unfortunately, what the assaint was wielding was not a shell he could hide himself in; it ical shield, c only one side of his body.

  “He was far strohan you.”

  The blue orb within Serenis’ hand proceeded to split itself into a dozen pieces, each being a ray of light that were shot upwards. Each strand wove their own path in the air to separate from one another – before verging oarget at once.

  “…And he was far wiser than you.”

  A portion of them were blocked by the shield. Most circled it around the surface to strike from anle.

  “…!”

  Fireworks of magisued as the dragonlord’s spell exploded upoarget. A violent explosion ruptured the air, c the assaint in heaps of smoke as he crashed back down to the earth.

  But wheermath cleared, the assaint’s emotionless eyes were still fixed on the dragonlord, his body otherwise unharmed.

  “…You ot win here. Your end is iable, and your kind will perish.”

  “…”

  Serenis sloroached the fallen figure.

  Puzzled, she studied his empty gaze, searg for even the smallest hint of hatred. But no matter how hard she looked, the dragonlord couldn’t dis the source of her assaint’s pt towards her and her kin – or if there even was any.

  “Judging from your words, I’m quite vihat you are of divinity. No human could speak of the past era…but I still fail to see why you seek to kill us so. It doesn’t seem like you despise us.”

  “Hmph.”

  The assaint pushed against the ground, lifting himself back up.

  “You think it strahat I seek to eradicate your kind? On the trary, this is only natural – the Reaper and his band of traitors were the oddities among man. They defied divine will. Felicir’s reign was bound to end.”

  “…Divine will?...The First’s?”

  “…”

  Scoffing at the dragonlord’s reition, the man merely followed with another question.

  “Tell me, sinner. If you’ve lived to speak of the era before ours, then you too, would know. What has demonkind achieved iime?”

  “…What?”

  His broken shield dissipated from his hand, repced by a single sword.

  It was an old, rusted on, undeserving nition. The stain on its steel suggested it was her of a special make, nor well-cared for.

  It was old and tattered, just like its wielder.

  “In just one millennium, mankind has accrued a brilliant civilization upon this soil. Without demonkind’s influence pguing our world, we’ve ied, advanced, and endlessly improved upon ourselves. But what has your kind aplished in your millennia n?...Nothing. Yreatest achievements were mindless sughter, or achievements you merely stole from us.”

  “…”

  “It’s small wohe First deemed your kind unfit to remain.”

  When the assaint brandished his rusted sword, a blinding light enveloped the bde whole. The glowing tip was then poiowards the dragonlord before him.

  “Hence, we were blessed – chosen to carry out his divine will. The world was to be sed of demons, auro its rightful owhat was the justice the divine sought after.”

  Serenis bit her lips. Her expression grew increasingly furious as she reminisced on the events that had transpired between her and the First.

  “…Rightful owner?”

  There was nhtful owhere never was; not the First, nor demon, nor man. The world had always been what its inhabitants made it out to be, and no one possessed the authority to dictate its fate.

  It was not something someone could simply ‘decide’ who it beloo. Her brethren had given their lives to prove that point.

  Ahe First’s legacy was still deeply rooted within their world.

  “…What you preach is not justice. The First’s will was never any different from ours. The star was never his to own.”

  “And so every sinner would speak. Your kind refused to accept your own misgivings to the very end.”

  tless had spoken those exact same words to him.

  tless had fallen, and he’d emerged victorious every time – just as a hero would iale told.

  ‘To save our world. A world for, and of, mankind.’

  They were the ohat most closely resembled the First. Only mankiaihe intelligeo uand and utilize every aspect of this world.

  Then, in the First’s abse was only right that they would i his divine will and fe onward.

  “Repent. For I serve as the arbiter of all your sins.”

  The assaint raised his bde. As he took a siep forward, his image flickered out of view.

  And when his foot touched the ground once more, he stood inches away from the dragonlord, his glowing bde rapidly desding upon her.

  “My name is Hathelon.”

  Mankind’s first hero,

  And his final hope.

  Praybird