The world seemed to slow down.
Helena’s expression, as she faltered unconsciously, became contemplative.
Whereas Esther’s face contorted, looking like a demon.
Their feelings were very different, but the end result was the same.
Killing intent.
Their hearts pounded with the urge to murder.
Was it the death of a loved one?
The death of somebody considered family?
The death of a colleague? The death of a promising knight of the kingdom? Why did the exact thought matter? In the end anger and hatred were all that remained.
However, Esther and Helena couldn’t move so easily.
Callius’ demise might’ve been sad, but they were knights of the kingdom and paladins of the Order.
They’d watched people close to them die countless times, and even if they were angry, they wouldn’t lose their reason.
‘It pierced the heart.’
‘He has no hope of survival.’
Then their best course of action was to protect the defenceless queen.
The imperial knights who’d followed after them were already running towards the queen.
Callius’ death was tragic, but unchangeable.
They, were knights.
A knight not only protected themselves, they were also duty-bound to protect their country.
It was only natural for them to protect the queen, who was Carpe itself.
“Esther!”
The knights of the empire began to move.
They’d also grasped the situation and rushed to put an end to Carpe.
“I know!”
Crunch!
As Esther took a strong step forward, a wave of terrifying tremors spread out.
Miraculously, the imperial knights crashed to a halt.
They flinched in unison, then looked at Esther with stiffened lips.
“Blue Moon.”
Esther’s sword flashed like blue moonlight.
Along with that eerie light emanating from her sword, her movements also changed unexpectedly. In a flash, she was among the enemy mass, then the next instant took her past them.
As if she’d attained a sudden and explosive increase in physical ability.
“Red Moon.”
As those muffled words escaped her lips, blood spurted from the knights’ bodies.
Splatter!
But Esther was crying.
Tears flowing on that ice-cold expressionless face, evoked a heartbreaking sense of sorrow.
Seeing the knights start to rush again, Esther clutched her sword one more time.
“White Moon.”
Thirty-four sword arcs were fired from Esther’s sword in an instant.
Pure white, curving like a crescent moon, thin as gossamer, sharp as a sword’s edge.
“As if a sword…! Kahak!?”
Those among imperial knights who’d underestimated her swordsmanship either lost the spear arm, or had a hole punched through their torso.
Wiping away the tears that didn’t seem to stop –
Esther manifested her last martial skill.
“Black Moon.”
Her sword, shining with a riot of colours that then mixed together to form a stygian blackness, emanated a ferocious energy.
That moment when the knights who’d tried to kill the queen were hesitating –
Esther was startled as her sensitive awareness caught Helena flinching.
“Hele…na?”
Helena was looking towards a place, with her eyes were wide open.
At that place –
Creeeeaaaakkkk.
Callius was holding tightly to the Light Dragon’s hand, as well as the hilt of the sword that’d stabbed into his chest.
His bloody lips were trembling with the sensation of approaching death, but he still enunciated his words perfectly.
“Venerate (敬人) of the Three Beliefs (??) –
“Discipline (規敎).”
That was then.
Swoooooshhhh!
From Callius’ heart, chains of silver light began to unfurl towards all directions.
They pierced the heavens and pierced the earth, and they also wrapped around Callius himself as well as the Light Dragon.
“!!”
“A sacred spell!”
Not only that, it was a true binding, the Three Beliefs Venerate!
It was a skill of the highest difficulty that only a master sacred artist like Sullivian herself could use.
No matter how mighty the Light Dragon was, it was completely helpless facing such a perfectly captured opportunity.
“Aah…”
Callius had a blade stuck inside his heart, and it wouldn’t have been unreasonable if he’d died instantly.
Nevertheless, he’d managed to invoke such a high-level sacred law. That was a level of mental resilience one couldn’t help but admire…!
‘Definitely, I will definitely make sure that your death is not in vain!’
Once again, Esther’s sword zealously pointed at the empire.
‘… It hurts.’
It felt like a soldering iron was pressing on his chest. Callius wanted to scream, but the energy to do so had long since disappeared.
The Light Dragon Sword was stuck into his chest.
How many seconds of consciousness did he have left?
Death loomed before him, with an air of inevitability, but Callius’ face didn’t show any hint of despair. Because, this was the situation he’d hoped for.
‘Everything so far is within the expected range.’
The Light Dragon Sword was a treasured sword with power beyond imagination.
As a high-level vision sword, it conferred upon its master regenerative abilities to quickly heal from any attack.
Such was the fabled healing power of the dragons.
So, Callius had carefully piled up chip damage on his enemy, and then unfurled the sanctuary of the Tyrant Sword to cast Moonfall.
The Light Dragon, bound inside the meteor that’d fallen from a great height, had suffered massive damage.
But it’d nevertheless rushed at Callius right afterwards, and stuck its sword into his chest.
And of course –
Callius had engineered this.
‘His loss of power made this possible.’
Else the Light Dragon could’ve achieved a much more fatal outcome.
And then there was the sacred spell.
Sullivian’s highest binding technique, the Venerate of the Three Beliefs – Discipline.
Although ‘veneration’ here was meant to invoke respecting people and being respected in turn, ‘discipline’ meant passing down dharma.
This was the highest level of sacred art, used to redeem those who were not human.
Because of this, the Light Dragon couldn’t easily pull out the sword from Callius’ chest anymore.
That was Callius’ intention.
The Light Dragon Sword.
A treasured sword created by killing the mad dragon that’d attacked Carpe.
Those who held it would either go crazy or be controlled by the dragon’s power, and start slaughtering humans.
The Founding King had been the only one who’d used it without issue, as he’d been the only one who’d known the secret of its proper use and how to avoid being controlled by its madness.
And Callius knew, too.
He was now the only person on the continent who knew how to wield the Light Dragon Sword properly.
That was why he’d gotten his hands on the reverse scale.
[Gluttony] and [Smelting Bones] were already working overtime, preparing his body to endure the dragon’s power.
His physique accepted the reverse scale with quiet efficiency, and made his mind and body stronger.
And finally, there was the Light Dragon Sword that was nestled against his heart.
There was nothing to be afraid of.
“Give me the sword…”
Hurk!
Callius spewed another mouthful of blood. The area under his eyes had already turned black, and blood was dribbling from his lips.
However, his eyes were shining brighter than ever.
How to use the Light Dragon Sword correctly?
He’d come up with a method, yes, but it sounded really ridiculous.
The Light Dragon Sword wasn’t supposed to be held in one’s hand.
‘It’s a sword that has to pierce your heart.’
That was why Callius had gone through so much preparation to weaken the Light Dragon.
He had to be very careful, because if an accident happened and he got stabbed somewhere else, it might really spell his death.
The Light Dragon, which had entered the scene running wild like a thunderbolt, had been faster and stronger than Callius.
It wasn’t easy to read the trajectories of its attacks. So its power had to be weakened first.
‘Or so I thought, but… ‘
This was nothing less than hell difficulty.
Honestly, was he being punished for something?
The pain was killing him, but rather than being angry, Callius was feeling nonplussed at the absurd sequence of events so far.
But he couldn’t stay like this forever.
It was no different from suicide if he stood still like this.
Anyway, just having the sword stuck inside his heart wasn’t enough.
Now he had to properly take ownership of it.
Only then could he escape from the shadow of death that towered over him.
Not only that, he’d even be able to obtain the Light Dragon Sword.
There was no time, and so –
Creeeeak.
Once again, Callius’ grip on the Light Dragon Sword tightened.
And simultaneously, his other hand took off his bracelet.
Whoooooooooosh!
Liberating all his stored divine power.
The divine power pulsated, and Callius’ body felt like it’d been set on fire as he began his struggle to steal the ownership of the Light Dragon Sword embedded into his heart.
“Grrrrrrrr!!”
The Light Dragon, imprisoned in the binding created by the sacred art, struggled, but couldn’t move its body easily.
It’d thought the enemy had been killed, but suddenly that cockroach did something strange and bound both its body and its sword at the same time.
Startled, the Light Dragon tried to escape, but the enemy grabbed him like he wanted them to perish together, laughing with maddened eyes.
It was feeling goosebumps all over its body.
However, at the same time, the Light Dragon could feel that the Light Dragon Sword had fallen into a strange state.
It was an instinctive realization.
The energy of the sword, pierced into the enemy’s heart, was beginning to be sucked into the madman’s body.
And from then on –
The tug-of-war between Callius and the Light Dragon begun.
But, sadly, the end of this battle had been wholly prepared for.
It was a victory for Callius.
A battle for dominance with the beast? There was no need for anything like that.
Because the Light Dragon Sword itself judged his body to be better than the one it’d corroded for a long time.
Clang, clangalangalang!!
The chains were smashed to smithereens.
The Light Dragon’s body almost seemed to fall apart, along with its powerful energy.
Blink.
The fallen Light Dragon looked at Callius with its vertical reptilian pupils.
“Grrr…!”
The sword embedded in Callius’ heart vanished, and through the gaps of his torn clothes, one could see his healed chest, engraved with patterns.
Like a tattoo in the shape of a dragon.
[You have become the new owner of the Light Dragon Sword – Balamuth.]
[You’ve absorbed Balamuth into your body with the correct method. All physical abilities are awakened and skills are enhanced.]
[Permanent increase in stats by embedding Balamuth into your heart.]
[Smelting Bones enhances the stat increase by 30%.]
[All wounds on the body are completely healed with the power of the Light Dragon.]
[You have experienced the domineering power of a dragon. You realize Dragonmight (??).]
[You have obtained the power of the Light Dragon. You are hated by all the dragons on the continent.]
Callius’ body, which had been dying just now, was suddenly brimming with vitality.
The reverse scale had increased his resistance to the Light Dragon’s influence, and added to the ruby ring he’d received from the queen, Callius was completely proof from the dragon’s madness.
In addition, his body now could fully use the power of the Light Dragon, and all his physical abilities had been permanently strengthened.
Not only that, there was also ‘awakening’. As the silver chains scattered, Callius’ aura surged and spread to every corner of the area.
Whoosh-!
The domineering force of the Light Dragon, in all its awe-inspiring majesty.
It’d been the original owner of that power.
The beast, deprived of its strength, howled in anger.
“Graaaaaahhh!!”
A shell, trapped in madness.
His Highness Chloe wailed like a child whose favourite toy had been taken away, and swung his claws.
Claaang-!!
“Hm. So because how long you’ve been under its influence, the Light Dragon’s power still remains, huh? Mixed with all that demonic energy.”
Despite the loss of the Light Dragon Sword, His Highness Chloe survived. Because he’d had the sword for a long time.
Dragon scales still covered his body, and the dragon’s power – even if it was only a remnant trace – also remained.
Chloe aimed at Callius’ neck with the same speed as before.
To regain his lost power once again.
Snikt!!
Sharp claws tried to dig into Callius’ neck.
Step.
However, it was only an afterimage.
“!”
Callius’ form vanished like a ghost. The prince started looking around in surprise, but smack! It was now his neck’s turn to be caught in a vice grip.
“Ugggh!”
With enormous power.
An unbelievable force that couldn’t conceivably come from a mere human gathered around his neck.
Creeeeeakkk, crunchhh!
“Grrrrr…!”
Prince Chloe couldn’t move.
Callius, by absorbing the Light Dragon into his body with the proper method, had achieved rapid growth in all his stats, and was currently in an awakened state.
His grey pupils were now slitted like a dragon, emanating a sense of great power.
Chloe didn’t dare break free.
It was a difference in power that he’d never felt before.
A feeling of fear lingered in Chloe’s reptilian pupils.
“This’ll work as a good test.”
Swish.
The Light Dragon Sword Balamuth appeared in Callius’ hands as he released the prince’s neck.
All the power boiling inside him, he concentrated on the sword.
And then, he swung it forward with a chant.
“Dragon Claw.”
Boom.
The prince was immediately blown away.
And alongside that –
Craaaaaaaaashhh!!
A great sound, as if that of an earthquake, spread all over the area.
Callius was finding it hard to regain his calm.
Was this the destructive power one could achieve with a sword!
After a tremor that felt like the earth itself might tilt –
At the place where Chloe had stood, there was a great scar as if a dragon had scratched it open with its claws.
Gulp.
An instinctive fear engulfed the prince’s whole body.
There was no time to think.
Chloe began to run away without looking back.
He was running on all fours like a beast, but his speed was incomparably fast.
But even so –
Step.
As if escape was a laughable notion, Callius’ form appeared in his path, slashing.
“Dragon Roar.”
Graaahaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
A howling roar burst out from the Light Dragon Sword, reminiscent of a dragon’s breath.
Editor’s Notes:
None for this chapter.