Book 10 Chapter 3
Episode 228
“What do you think is the meaning of magic’s existence?”
Before reaching the Sun City Bara, Valensidis had once asked Obin that.
“It, it should exist to help people.”
When Obin spoke just as he had learned from his mother, Valensidis let out a small laugh.
“My father, who was also my master, held similar thoughts. He said that magic must absolutely be used for the welfare of the people.”
Although magic has not yet spread throughout all aspects of public life, so not everyone can receive help.
If a day ever comes when magic enriches the lives of all people, then those people will also be able to access knowledge.
Then, the era where those who monopolize time and knowledge rule over others will end, and a truly egalitarian and happy era for all people will come.
“We focused our research on public welfare magic to create such a day. That displeased the Black Church. Because the Black Church did not want order to be established in the world.”
“……!”
“I killed my master to survive. And while discussing public welfare, I also killed countless innocent people. This is not a sin that can be washed away, nor a past that can be shaken off.”
Nevertheless, after being taken in by Tureina, even for himself, who walked in the midst of sin, there was one excuse.
This power of black magic, these cruel events, would surely demolish the firmly established society and create a new world…
He thought it had to be destroyed by force alone. Because the common understanding of rulers and the ruled had already solidified, but.
“It was in such a situation that I met you, Obin.”
“……?”
“Imagine this. What if rumors spread that a country that widely taught magic to its people was on the path to prosperity? Don’t you think that would spread positive inspiration to other nations?”
Valensidis, speaking thus, wore an innocent smile like an excited child, so Obin also smiled back.
“Perhaps I couldn’t die and continued to live to meet you, to entrust you with my master’s and my dreams.”
“……?”
“If someone asks you one day who your master is, do not speak my name. Even if I am in mortal danger, you must go your own way.”
Prioritize your survival no matter what happens. Because it is not I, but you, you alone, who can change this era.
“Promise me you will.”
* * *
As Obin’s flute began to play a melody, a blood-red color started to rise from the musical scores engraved on the tombstone.
“The plan must already be over, with Taeseongjin having disappeared…”
It was around that time that Valensidis regained control of his body above the neck from the restraints of the Absolute Domain.
“What else are you aiming for here…?”
Elamas, seemingly surprised by his mental fortitude, raised an eyebrow, but then a smile played on his lips as if to say, “How boring, but this works out well.”
“Vaztem. The worst primitive kingdom, said to have commanded hundreds of thousands of cannibalistic soldiers. That kingdom is sleeping beneath this Bara.”
“That’s a well-known fact…”
“Oh really? Then is it also a fact that you, Tureina’s toy, know that I have the power to awaken that kingdom?”
“What did you say?”
“With just the power of that mad kingdom, subjugating this entire continent would be no problem. The Southern Republic wouldn’t even be able to put up a decent resistance before collapsing.”
“Do you think the Papacy will stand by and watch that happen?”
“Hmph, you know better than that, don’t you? They’re already struggling just to protect the continent of Akrad.”
“……!”
“Once that kingdom awakens, it’ll start with Bara. The army of the dead will burst through the ground and utterly sweep away this hateful royal castle. After that, hmm, where shall we go next?”
The resurrection of a primitive kingdom?
No way, that can’t be possible… No, if it’s a pillar of the Black Church that could even manifest Black Spots, then this is nothing.
It’s impossible, normally it would be impossible.
“No, Obin! Don’t play any more…!”
“Hmph, it’s already too late.”
The haze of malevolent thoughts dancing in Elamas’s hand was growing as vast as a typhoon.
The ground trembled dully, by tens of thousands of screams rising from the deep underground.
From the cracks in the ground, eerie grudges swirled and surged like a storm. Creak, crackle, creak… the horrifying sound of bones locking together could be heard.
“Now, the primitive army is unleashed!”
And the next moment, skeletal arms shot up from somewhere in the palace garden.
Bodies of ancient monsters, not human skeletons of this world, surged forth, scattering mud.
One, one, and another.
“They’ll devour all those humans, who are worse than trash! Now there’s only one fate left: become a primitive yourself, or be eaten!”
Elamas let out a roar of laughter, and the spires of the palace shook violently, and windows began to shatter one after another.
As if the chaos hadn’t even begun, the tremors sweeping the earth were intensifying further.
The ground collapsed, and several guards who had been frozen in the Absolute Domain helplessly tumbled into the pit.
“H-heh, heh, heh, heh-hahahahaha! Excellent, now shall I get rid of this nuisance? So no unnecessary variables can be created.”
Though he thought it was over in a corner of his mind, Valensidis somehow moved.
He repeated a 1-star incantation spell 128 times to recover control of his body from the Absolute Domain.
Before Elamas could strike Obin with his sword, he first lunged forward, embracing Obin and Obira, and swung Kashasur.
‘First, I have to get out, out of the palace.’
Then there is an answer.
There might be an answer.
With just the power of that Cheonpasikjeok, there is definitely a way to regain control of this chaos.
“It’s no use.”
But no matter how he swung Kashasur with sweat-soaked hands, the dimension wouldn’t open. He couldn’t leap through space.
“What’s before you right now is a True Dragon. A mere third-rate black magician’s spells like yours are all sealed before this Absolute Domain.”
Spells are imitations of draconic language.
Controlling the spirits wandering in the atmosphere with one’s incantation.
But if a superior being to the spellcaster holds those spirits captive…
“Magic isn’t sealed then.”
The founder of magic is Karenden.
And Karenden is the creator of the dragon race.
“!”
Five layers of magic circles shattered from Valensidis’s grasp as he folded his fan.
Seong (珹), Sok (束), Yeol (烈), Jeong (靜), Gwe (怪).
A wave of darkness, refined beyond its limits in destructive power, poured down on Elamas, scattering fierce high-frequency waves.
“Don’t you get it? It’s a meaningless struggle!”
The True Dragon’s tail coiled around Elamas, completely shielding him from the wave.
He was not an opponent to whom the laws of power discussed by mortals applied.
Before despair could engulf his mind, Valensidis turned and began to run… with Obin and Obira tucked under each arm.
“You’re going to run away? Hmph, hehehehehe! In that state? How amusing! Yes, that animal-like appearance suits you trash perfectly!”
When the True Dragon roared, Valensidis instinctively knew that he would no longer be able to save his life.
“The mute prince won? Yes, he almost won! That pathetic fool! If only he hadn’t held onto that strange illusion of saving everyone!”
Overwhelming murderous intent, bearing a clear form, approached. Even though there was still such a distance, a heat that felt like it would melt his skin could be felt.
“If only he had given up on those foolish guards, he could have prevented things from turning out like this!”
The tidal wave of black flame (黑炎) that the True Dragon spewed from its wide-open maw surged forward, melting the palace’s spires, arches, and ground without a trace.
“Go, Obin!”
Valensidis, turning around, simultaneously stretched both arms forward and deployed a barrier.
“Find Rain Ludwig!”
He wasn’t planning an escape immediately after combat. He merely deployed a defensive barrier with all his power, thus buying a few seconds of time.
“He will definitely find a way, it’s too early to give up!”
The black flame engulfed the barrier.
Although he poured out all the magic he possessed, cracks spread across the barrier in an instant, as if mocking his efforts.
Even while deploying the barrier, it felt as if the heat was not halved.
The skin on his hands and face melted away, and the flesh beneath it, his muscles and fat, decomposed. A sharp, intense pain that made even holding onto his consciousness agony.
“Ah, ah, Ma-master, Master.”
Obin, with a face drenched in tears, tugged at Valensidis’s clothes.
In this place where the black flame’s tempest raged fiercely, their voices were unclear to each other.
In a world where it seemed as if sound had vanished, Valensidis was shouting wildly. Go, he meant go.
‘If you remain here now, what will become of my struggle?’
Even with death imminent, strangely, he felt no negative emotions like despair, frustration, or resentment.
Now.
Now, he simply.
Wished that at least this boy would live.
Wished that this foolish prince, who knew how to cry for people and, unable to abandon a single person, would even release a barrier, would survive.
‘Ah.’
At that moment, he realized that this feeling, now, was like his master’s heart, who had told him in the past to kill his master and prolong his own life.
Perhaps.
Really, perhaps.
He had worried if his master had not had lingering attachments to life. He had worried if his master had not resented him at the end.
- Take on a disciple. Then you will learn things you couldn’t learn from books.
Ah, yes, it’s truly so.
The regret that had been coldly frozen deep in his soul for over a decade felt as if it was melting away only now, at the end of his life.
All of this is thanks to you.
Now I can go in peace.
If there was one lingering regret, it was that he hadn’t been able to do anything master-like for his disciple as a master.
His demonic hand (魔手) finally vanished, and even his intact arm gradually… in the murderous heat…
Suddenly, there was light in the world.
A faint light brushed through the world that had been burning darkly with black flame. Like the sun shining its light on a dawn devoid of a single ray.
Was it only light? He felt a warm yet powerful vital heat caressing his entire body.
Hope (希望).
Tremor (戰慄).
Clear Radiance (淸影).
A light that could not be expressed in human language dyed his consciousness pure white.
His entire body trembled instinctively with awe for the absolute being.
At first, he thought Rain Ludwig had miraculously appeared. But it wasn’t. It was a girl, shorter in height, with her hair tied in two pigtails.
“Are you in much pain, Balslendish?”
Where and how did she appear, and my name is Valensidis.
His mouth didn’t move.
His body also didn’t move.
A single moment facing that absolute being felt eternally long, as if time itself had stopped. Even amidst the tempest, her voice was clearly audible.
“Now you can stop worrying entirely.”
As the sound and light of flames rising vividly in the darkness that dominated everything, as darkness cannot overcome light.
“Because Akhi has arrived.”
Valensidis barely understood what was happening now.
Akirea, who had been protecting the two from the power of the black flame with one hand outstretched, smiled brightly.
And at that moment, she maximized the transcendent power allowed to an absolute being. She gathered that power into her fist and punched out with all her might.
Fwoosh!
Red True Dragons were created to annihilate the evil of this world, and the flames they breathe possess the authority to incinerate wicked illusions, even their very concepts.
Valensidis had roughly grasped that knowledge through books and through Rain Ludwig’s power.
But this power now before his eyes, this beautiful flame that instantly negated the wave of black flame and blew it away in fiery scraps…
“Huh…?”
Elamas’s dazed voice, filled with bewilderment, was heard, but Valensidis couldn’t hear it.
- When I received help from Akhi’s mother in Harbadonia.
Someday.
Before he had crossed the continent.
Because Rain’s words, spoken while he stroked sleeping Akhi’s head amidst the crackling campfire, were coming to his mind.
- It felt as if I had seen light in the darkness.
He thought it would be good if a day came when other people also saw such light.
- A day will come when Akhi will also be like that. If someone can see such light from Akhi… I would truly be happy with just that.
Valensidis himself had not built a family-like relationship with this young dragon.
Perhaps it was because, even though they weren’t that close, he had been with her since the Red Mountains, watching her growth story unfold.
This feeling now, boiling hot in his eyes… childhood images were superimposed upon that elegant presence.
“What are you…?”
As the clash of black and red flames cleared his vision, Elamas recognized the appearance of the uninvited guest.
Looking at such an Elamas, and looking up at Shalesarum over Elamas’s shoulder, Akirea powerfully yet courteously made a bow with clasped hands.
This was a gesture of respect (敬意) offered to kin before the coming battle, a greeting to the kin’s physical body and to the daughter that kin had brought forth in their heart.
“Dur-Morris, Akhi has made her appearance!”
And the greeting ritual that her father, in her heart, performed when subjugating evil, a ritual that had left a deep impression on the young dragon’s mind.
A child resembles their parents.
On this day, Akirea, who had been a young dragon, for the first time illuminated the darkness of the world with her own flames. Exactly in the way she had seen and learned.
