Episode 156
“Bahamut?”
Zeke was taken aback by the voice of Claudia speaking from within Siegfried. It wasn’t Claudia Luvern speaking, but Bahamut, the Ruler of the Sunset, using the language of dragons.
“I, Bahamut, hereby grant Siegfried a new name and forge a soul contract with him.”
A deep, resonant hum filled the air as Bahamut continued, holding Siegfried tightly.
“His new name shall be Terrakan. In accordance with the ancient covenant, our souls will be bound as one, sealed under the name of the great Elder Dragon.”
Bahamut’s voice boomed, urging Siegfried, “Answer me! Accept the contract!”
But Siegfried was on the brink of death, weakened by the power of the Holy Grail. Desperation tinged Bahamut’s voice as she cried out, “Hurry!”
Perhaps driven by her fervent wish, Siegfried managed a faint nod, teetering on the edge of life and death.
A powerful hum resonated as chains of soul emerged from both Bahamut and Siegfried, linking them together. Zeke, observing from within Siegfried’s consciousness, witnessed the entire scene unfold.
A message appeared before Zeke’s eyes:
[The ‘Dragon’s Contract’ is imprinted on your soul.]
[The power of the Draker lineage, ‘Warrior’s Blood,’ awakens.]
[Part of the ‘Radiant Light’ absorbed from the ‘Goblet of the Fairy King’ is activated.]
[The skill ‘Complete Recovery’ is granted through this power.]
[Awakened talents merge together.]
[A new class is formed through the fusion of rare talents.]
[You have acquired the unique class ‘Immortal.’]
Zeke realized his suspicions were correct. “Terrakan Draker was indeed the Immortal class.”
Zeke had gained the unique class of Immortal through the fusion of the Elder Dragon’s blessing, his healer talents, and the Draker lineage’s power. In contrast, Terrakan Draker’s Immortal class was forged through the power of the Fairy King contained within the Holy Grail and the contract with Bahamut.
The power of the Holy Grail finally took full effect, and Siegfried’s body was soon completely healed.
Siegfried opened his eyes, and Claudia looked at him with concern. “Are you… okay, Zeke?”
Siegfried slowly responded, “I’m… not dead, am I?”
“No, you’re not,” Claudia reassured him.
Siegfried sat up slowly, placing a hand over his heart. “What happened?”
Claudia’s expression darkened. “There’s something I haven’t told you.”
Siegfried, unfazed, replied, “That you’re a dragon?”
Claudia was taken aback. “How did you… Were you conscious during the contract?”
Siegfried chuckled. “You always talk about wanting to kill all humans and speak of events from centuries ago as if they happened yesterday. How could I not suspect?”
Claudia looked sheepish. “So you knew I was a dragon and still stayed with me?”
“I had my suspicions. Dragons have been gone for so long. I felt uneasy leaving you alone, like a child near water.”
“What? You dared to think such irreverent thoughts about a great race like mine?”
Claudia’s grumbling expression quickly turned serious again. “Zeke, or rather, Terrakan now. A contract with a dragon comes with a heavy price. It’s something to be considered very carefully…”
“I know how a dragon contract works. Our souls are bound, and as long as the contract lasts, you can’t return to being a dragon.”
Claudia nodded quietly, holding the broken emblem of the sun. “Dragons can no longer interfere in the physical world. But I couldn’t stand by knowing the future that awaits. I came here, transforming into a human, to change that future.”
“Destroying the relic to change fate, that’s what you meant.”
“Yes. The prophecy spoke of a human gaining immortal power and causing chaos.”
“You thought that by destroying the Holy Grail, which could grant immortality, the prophecy wouldn’t come to pass.”
“Exactly. I took the Holy Grail, which had been safely kept for centuries, and used it to save you from death.”
Siegfried gave a wry smile. “The one with immortal power. Do you think I’ll cause chaos?”
Claudia shook her head. “I don’t know. Prophecies are always uncertain.”
She looked at Siegfried, now Terrakan. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
She met his gaze, her eyes filled with uncertainty. “There’s a prophecy. A terrible future.”
Claudia’s voice trembled as she spoke. “The Demon King will rise again. I’ve seen that future. To stop it…”
Zeke listened intently to Claudia’s words from within Terrakan’s body. But then, everything started to blur, as if static was interfering with his vision.
“Damn it. Just a little more…!”
Unable to hear Claudia’s full message, Zeke’s borrowed view through Terrakan’s eyes faded to black. He felt a sudden pull, as if someone was yanking him back.
With a rush, he was propelled backward through the sea of memories.
“Ughhh!”
Zeke shot upward through the fragments of memories, breaking through the shimmering surface into light.
“Ah.”
When Zeke opened his eyes, he was back in the ark, holding the Holy Grail. He had returned to reality after witnessing the memories tied to Terrakan and Bahamut.
Through those past memories, Zeke learned things even the storytellers didn’t know.
“Claudia Luvern was Bahamut.”
Terrakan Draker’s lover and soul-bound partner. Yet, in another memory, Zeke had seen Terrakan Draker drive a sword into the cursed mad dragon Bahamut.
Zeke thought of Bahamut’s heart within him and looked at the sword made from her fangs.
“Did the cursed mad dragon leave her heart and fangs behind willingly?”
It seemed too coincidental that Zeke, like Terrakan Draker, had become an Immortal class and possessed Bahamut’s heart and fangs.
After a moment of contemplation, Zeke took out the watch left by his mother, Laura Agamemnon. His mother, who resembled Claudia Luvern, had the power of prophecy as an Irregular.
“Did Mother know I would become an Immortal and inherit Terrakan Draker’s legacy?”
Zeke, who had lived a miserable life before gaining a new one through the Elder Dragon’s artifact, shook his head as he put the watch away.
“There’s no point in overthinking it. Maybe I’ll find answers at the Temple of Chronos in Aten.”
Though he was reluctant to visit Aten, the domain of the Nirvana family, he felt he needed to go to uncover the truth.
Zeke stored the Holy Grail in his inventory and prepared to leave the ark. Just then, a message appeared before him.
[One viewable administrator record video available]
[Recorder: Terrakan Draker.]
Like in the temple of the Joins, a record video from Terrakan Draker remained. Zeke played the video.
A crystal in the control room glowed, projecting a large screen. On it appeared a man with ashen hair and a face covered in a thick beard—a middle-aged man with hollow eyes, devoid of any will to live.
Zeke recognized him immediately. “Terrakan Draker.”
He thought the man resembled his father, Arthur Draker, in some way. The man turned his gaze to the screen and began to speak.
“I am so very tired.”
This was a different Terrakan Draker from the one Zeke had seen in the Holy Grail’s memories. He seemed like a man whose life had ended, yet was forced to continue living.
He spoke slowly. “Her last request was to leave the Holy Grail here once everything was over. Yes… this is the end.”
In the video, Terrakan hung his head, staring blankly with unfocused eyes. Then, he slowly rose from his seat.
Terrakan leaned into the screen, and Zeke caught a glimpse of madness in his dark, abyss-like eyes.
Terrakan muttered to himself, looking into the distance. “If only I had that… Yes, with that, I could find her again. Beyond the Dark Sea, to that place…”
“The Dark Sea?”
Terrakan suddenly turned his head, staring intently at the video, as if he could see Zeke watching from across time.
Terrakan spoke to Zeke. “When you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you.”
His eyes slowly changed, turning into a golden hue. Terrakan whispered softly, “Perhaps I, too… have become a monster.”
Ping—
The video ended there.
Zeke recalled the changed eyes of the last Terracan Draker.
“Dragon’s eyes?”
Like Zeke’s own left eye, Terracan Draker also possessed the golden, luminous eyes of a dragon.
Zeke had developed his dragon’s eyes after receiving the title of Dragonkin, but he couldn’t fathom how Terracan had acquired his.
“Stare at a monster long enough, and you become one yourself.”
Zeke pondered Terracan Draker’s muttered words, recalling the mention of the “Dark Sea.”
“Wait a minute, the Dark Sea? Could it be that Terracan Draker went there?”
To the east of the Central Continent, across the Central Sea, lay the Eastern Empire. After the invasion war twenty years ago, contact had been severed for a time. Recently, however, exchanges had been increasing through the Dorta Republic and Nirvana’s Aten. Yet, to the people of the Central Continent, the Eastern Empire, ruled by the Sultan, remained a mysterious realm.
Even more enigmatic than the Eastern Empire was the Dark Sea, beyond the western ocean of the Central Continent. It was a place shrouded in mystery, a realm no one dared to approach.
Zeke had once heard of the Dark Sea from his former master, Nigel the Hermit of the Forest.
His master had warned him, “The Dark Sea is a place where anything can happen. Going there is sheer folly.”
While staying in the Forest of the Forgotten, it was the first time Zeke had heard his master speak so gravely about a place. Given that his master, a member of the High Table, spoke of it in such terms, Zeke had never even considered venturing there.
Yet, it seemed Terracan Draker had intended to cross the Dark Sea to resurrect Bahamut.
“What could possibly lie beyond the Dark Sea?”
In truth, Zeke wasn’t particularly concerned with what Terracan Draker had done in the Dark Sea. What mattered was whether it was relevant to him.
“Being tied to Terracan Draker since becoming his heir is unsettling, but I suppose I can just take what I need.”
Thanks to the title of “Terracan Draker’s Heir,” Zeke had inherited most of the Dragonslayer’s legacy. Deciding to think positively, he concluded he had gained all he could from this place and prepared to leave the ark.
Just then, a message appeared before Zeke’s eyes.
[The ark’s automatic portal is activating.]
[Forcibly transporting the heir to the designated coordinates.]
Zeke’s face twisted in disbelief.
“Forcibly transported? Wait, hold on—”
Before he could finish, the portal activated.
A deep hum filled the air as the massive crystal orb embedded in the ceiling of the control room began to glow, enveloping Zeke in a halo of light.
“Ugh!”
The control room was flooded with light.
When the light subsided, Zeke was nowhere to be seen.
A soft whooshing sound filled the air.
When Zeke opened his eyes, he found himself in a white, snowy landscape.
‘Where is this…?’
Jagged peaks stretched endlessly before him.
Zeke realized where he was.
“The Ice Mountains?”
Specifically, he was in the Valley of the Ice Dragon, the deepest part of the Ice Mountains.
Recognizing the valley, Zeke was taken aback.
‘Why here?’
This was the very place where Zeke had discovered the Elder Dragon’s relic, only to be hunted down and killed by the hounds.
A sudden blizzard began to howl.
The northern weather was notoriously unpredictable.
Amidst the swirling snow, Zeke scanned his surroundings and spotted something.
‘What is that?’
A banner emblazoned with the emblem of a giant wolf.
It was the symbol of the Northern Grand Duke.