Book 10 Chapter 8
Chapter 233
Don't give up, think.
Even if the day comes when you hit the wall of oblivion, do not despair, but look up. Seek the truth.
Dean Auntie had taught me that.
‘What am I lacking right now?’
What is the reason my inner world cannot reach Elamas's miracles? What is the reason I am so preoccupied with blocking?
- Your ‘realm of the soul’ seems to stem from inquiry (探究), but with something like that, you won't be able to defeat me even if you die and come back to life!
Does the inner world originate from the realm of the soul, that is, from what the soul desires?
Yes, in 『Towards Truth』, it said that the inner world barrier is a mirror reflecting the heart's earnest desires.
If so, does that mean I can change that inner world? Can I freely change the soul's mirror that forms the foundation of my soul?
‘A heartfelt desire? Desire? Prayer?’
Suddenly, the story Alakish told me in Harbadonia flashed through my mind.
- You are trying to control power too rationally. The power of gods or the power of dragon words is not like that. It is to wish, to pray, and to receive.
To wish, to pray, and to receive.
Come to think of it, when I was about to die 300 years ago, the last thing I thought of was a yearning for truth (眞理).
Did that become a prayer of the soul and reach the gods?
‘This is too abstract, I thought it, but I can't understand it.’
But at this moment, listening to Alakish's voice, I clearly realized something.
If the inner world barrier is located at the gateway to that ‘world of prayer’.
If it is about drawing out the prayer within the soul.
‘If so, then the other soul within my soul right now, that is, Alakish, must have a different inner world.’
Could the space that called me from the boundary between this world and the next, and gave me a soul, have been Alakish's inner world?
I have no choice but to try.
No, it is commanding me to do it.
Alakish's flame etched within my soul, and the light of the black yang scales hung around my neck.
“Inner World Alteration, Realm of Fiery Heavens.”
The number of hand seals to form is a whopping 11. It's only natural, as I have to manifest a dragon's soul, a dragon's inner world, using human runes.
Hwa (火: flame).
Chuk (築: building).
Myo (渺: vast).
Seong (晟: bright).
San (山: mountain).
Cheon (天: sky).
Ji (地: earth).
Yeong (映: jade-light).
Gyeong (鏡: mirror).
Jeon (展: unfolding).
Ru (壘: stacking).
As if repainting a different landscape with the brush of providence on the canvas of the world, the visible inner world itself transforms.
‘What?’
The ruins of the inner palace, reeking with a repulsive stench, slowly become buried and vanish.
‘What is this place?’
A world bathed in faint twilight, red forests swaying quietly in the breeze, and magnificent mountain ranges (山勢) exhaling a sacred breath.
‘Rewrote providence itself? With human power?’
Alakish's heartfelt desire was none other than homesickness (望鄕).
The sorrowful feelings accumulated in that heart over more than a thousand years rewrite even the realm of providence.
A true transcendental world, fundamentally different in class from the inner world of inquiry built by the young Archmage with 10 years of ardent desire.
“Elamas! Did you say you'd show me the true power of a dragon just now?”
“……!”
“I'll return those words to you as they are. Open your eyes wide and watch closely, the power of a true red dragon!”
It's impossible, this is a hallucination.
A human couldn't possibly have the power to not just interfere with providence itself, but to rewrite it.
“You trash who was so preoccupied with blocking my power!”
From the True Dragon's maw, which had violently pushed Miria away, a power that made heaven and earth tremble gathered once more.
“How dare you crawl up here!”
The moment you try to defend against the True Dragon's power, the primitives surrounding you will tear at your throat.
‘Their number alone is a whopping seven hundred.’
Sweeping them away with area-of-effect magic like before is impossible.
The ones now emerging from the ground, breaking through with heavy equipment, are ancient giants whose height alone exceeds 3 meters.
They are elite troops that cannot even be compared to the mere grunts you easily swept away until now.
‘The more time passes, the higher-ranked soldiers will crawl out from underground, and then victory will be mine.’
At that moment, Rain closed his eyes, then opened them.
At that instant, the world transformed as if it were a single mathematical problem.
Bel Querius's power, within the inner world he created, finally approached omnipotence (全能).
‘Until now, I could only interfere with special abilities.’
Even if everything in creation could be interpreted by mathematical equations, it was impossible to manipulate what was within the providence of the gods.
But in this world, this world fashioned by Alakish's inner image, he would soon be the ruler of providence.
The wave of black flames that had surged right before his eyes was enveloped by a sudden, swirling inferno, without any warning.
“That received the True Dragon's maximum power head-on…?!”
He could see everything, Rain's eyes were saying.
Where the flaws of that power lay, what needed to be broken, what kind of flame to counter it with.
As if simply solving and writing down a mathematical equation visible to his eyes with the correct formula.
‘This feeling of omnipotence.’
The fiercely clashing flames and black flames in the sky, the abyssal fire that had melted everything like lava, vanished into the flames.
‘This illogical feeling of omnipotence I felt when I first received power from Alakish, when I fought against Shar'Khas.’
Subsequently, a fierce whirlwind of flames surged along the stream of black flames, engulfing the True Dragon that had been spewing black flames.
‘All flames are under my control.’
Flames erupt where I want them, and fire whirls where my eyes reach. There is no formula whatsoever for the use of this irrational power.
Is this the power of prayer?
How can one reach such a realm? Now is not the time to be lost in such thoughts.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
“Hieeeeeeeeeeee!”
The primitives surging from all directions, merely by Rain's gaze, oxidized into charcoal in dazzling flames.
Hundreds of them, in an instant.
Elamas's eyes trembled.
‘It makes no sense.’
Did he calculate something?
Did he chant spells like witchcraft or miracles?
“What kind of dirty trick is this──!”
The primitive army, resonating with Elamas's fury, surged from the ground like a swarm of bees, but.
“──Bel Querius, Inner World Control!”
Kwarurururu, they crumbled into ashes within an absolute tempest of flames that raged without requiring any power warm-up.
‘Amazing…’
Witnessing that miracle, Miria involuntarily swallowed dry.
‘He's gaining an advantage against that Elamas, the pillar of the Black Church who commanded an endless army of undead?’
But the limits are clear.
It's only a slight advantage at best. Perhaps due to the unfamiliar power, his breathing became increasingly ragged, and his face was drenched in cold sweat.
On the other hand, Elamas's primitive army continues to surge from underground. The True Dragon also does not burn to death in the flames.
Amidst the runaway flames and rampaging black flames all around, what Rain had created was an opportunity.
It is time.
I must connect this time to victory with these hands.
“Aki, run!”
Shouting that to Aki, Miria instinctively reached out her hand towards Shirpen, which was lying far away on the ground.
Thump, a pulsation of light arose from Shirpen.
Shirpen, vigorously rising into the air, left a sacred afterimage as it flew into Miria's hand and was caught.
‘I can use the Space-Time Slash at most three times.’
I've already used it once, but in this state, it's uncertain if I can use it even one more time.
But endure.
Endure and use it.
The moment I grasped Shirpen, my body felt like it would shatter from the recoil, but with this one strike, I must cleave Shalesarum's heart. I must set her free.
“Shirpen, show me the way!”
The trajectory of light emitted by Shirpen sliced through space in a long line.
Visible only to Miria's eyes, this was the model answer for a slash, the trajectory of the slash that Miria had to cleave.
With her left hand, she gripped the Demon Sword to augment her physical abilities, and with her right hand, she clutched Shirpen and raised it towards the sky.
“Aki, charge!”
Aki leaped, leaving deep footprints on the ground.
He flew with all his might directly towards Elamas, who couldn't divert his gaze elsewhere due to his all-out battle with Rain.
He could have aimed for a surprise attack from behind or the flank, but why?
- Akirea, when the moment comes to defeat Elamas, do not hesitate.
I know it's a difficult request.
But when that moment comes, can you truly show that child this flame that I am now passing to you?
So that this flame can reach that child's heart, her soul.
‘This kid right now…’
Elamas's mouth twitched fiercely, having detected Aki's attack.
‘Is he underestimating me? Coming in head-on?’
Even if I have no talent for close combat, fending off something like this is child's play.
‘In fact, the opening is so wide that I could even aim for his heart in return!’
Elamas grasped the scythe that harvests life. He aimed it at Aki's heart, which had surged before him, and swung it, but──
“!”
──At that moment, the illusion superimposed on Aki's form was a red-haired man, a dragonkin (龍人) who had completely faded and vanished from memory.
A jumble of memories.
His movement was halted.
Even in Aki's eyes, who was about to strike Elamas with a fist ablaze with the flame of life, Shalesarum's illusion was superimposed.
The shadow of a day when Shalesarum and a young Elamas walked together, smiling, as if it were himself and Rain.
‘Uncle said not to hesitate…’
I can't do it.
I don't want to do this.
Hesitation in his heart, the flame of life rising from his fist, dwindled.
But then, Elamas, having escaped from the mire of lost memories, thrust his scythe forward with full force again.
And then, Miria's shout flew in.
“Aki!”
Did she know Aki wouldn't finish Elamas? Or did she already wish him not to lay hands on killing?
“Jump up!”
She couldn't read her own heart, but the trajectory of the Space-Time Slash that Shirpen had drawn included both the True Dragon and Elamas.
“Right now!”
The mirage of dimensions shimmered.
In the instant Aki kicked off the scythe that was aimed at his heart and leaped into the air, in the instant Elamas, unfamiliar with martial arts, lost his balance.
‘Even if I can't evade, if I can just protect the dragon's heart—!’
In the instant he sensed the threat and tried to slightly deflect the dragon's heart from the slash's trajectory.
“─I won't miss.”
At the very moment hundreds of layers of flame chains sprouted and firmly bound the True Dragon's body to the slash's trajectory.
“Slash (斬)─────!”
A crack spreading like a spiderweb across space-time, that crack suddenly shattered wide open, creating a rift.
The rift in providence, which opened for an instant, sucked in everything that was placed upon it.
Both the heart of the True Dragon that died 500 years ago, and the heart of Sa-sa who could not let go of her connection with that True Dragon even in death.
Chae-ae-ae-ae-ae-aeng!
When the shattered dimension healed its crack and refined providence once more.
Both the True Dragon's body and Elamas's body lay sprawling on the ground, obliquely severed.
And Rain, clutching his heart that felt like it would burst, knelt and repeatedly vomited blood.
‘The price for touching the realm of omnipotence…’
If he could have looked down at his own head right now, he would have seen the hair on the top of his head had turned white.
It was because he had to burn his lifespan as the price for using power not permitted to a human body.
The inner world, which had been superimposed upon providence, began to fade, and the ruined palace once again came into view.
As if endlessly worried about that, Setsunen, freed from the soul bond, hugged Rain.
“Ah, Aruu.”
Miria also let out a sharp groan, dropping Shirpen and collapsing. Had she not plunged the Demon Sword into the ground, she would have fallen headfirst.
‘Is it over?’
It has to be over.
Both Rain and I have surpassed our limits.
If, after all this, he were to revive again now…
“I… couldn't defeat you… but yes… I won't let you leave here alive…”
“……!”
“This is my last necromancy… Everything will explode… The explosion will sweep across this entire Bara…”
That thing is still alive after all that…?
Rain and Miria tried to get up in a hurry, but their bodies wouldn't obey.
Necromantic Explosion, I've seen that 300 years ago. Its scale and power, we cannot leave it as it is.
“Kyaat!”
Setsunen frantically crawled towards Elamas and bit his head hard with her fangs.
“You can't stop my power with something like that… Hehe, it will activate even if I die! You will die here with me…!”