Episode 212

“So, if he’s the King of Fallen Constellations, does that mean the warrior became the ‘Demon King’? The one who invaded Chronos?”

“The Demon King, huh…”

Tyr paused, contemplating before speaking.

“We couldn’t be sure if the being we fought was the legendary fallen god-slayer or something else entirely. In the end, it was the Great Sage who sealed the Demon King.”

“You mean the sage who was the mentor of Siemens Apollyon, the one who summoned the demon race?”

“Sounds like you heard that from Schatten on the 99th floor.”

“Yes, but I didn’t get all the details.”

Tyr set down his beer mug and gazed into the crackling fireplace. Slowly, he began to speak.

“Like Schatten, I’m here as a fixed-time spirit, not in my true form. After the war, Chronos suggested building a tower to train warriors for any unforeseen events, and I agreed.”

“Chronos proposed building this tower?”

“Yes. After the Hero King left and the demon invasion occurred, Chronos was always anxious. He feared the balance of this world, which he and Kaishir had created, might be disrupted.”

“Bahamut said the balance was broken because there were too many humans.”

Tyr looked slightly surprised at Sieg’s words.

“You’ve seen Bahamut?”

Sieg shook his head slowly.

“I haven’t met him directly, only read the records left behind.”

Tyr nodded in understanding.

“That makes sense. Bahamut always despised humans, so he would think that way. And to some extent, he was right.”

Tyr fell silent for a moment before continuing.

“Bahamut insisted that Siemens Apollyon had to be killed. But since Siemens had stolen a dragon’s heart and placed it within himself, killing him would also mean the death of his contracted dragon. Schatten, the King of Chronos, decided to imprison Siemens in the underground labyrinth of the clock tower instead of killing him. But the cunning Siemens Apollyon eventually escaped the labyrinth and allied with the orcs to summon the demon race using forbidden magic.”

Sieg understood why Reyes had said they paid the price for ignoring Bahamut’s warning.

“So that’s why Schatten Draker abdicated the throne to pursue Siemens.”

“Yes, he was the one who raised Siemens alongside the Hero King. He even recommended him as a disciple to the Great Sage. He felt responsible for Siemens’ actions.”

Sieg finally understood Schatten’s pursuit of Siemens after hearing Tyr’s explanation.

‘Not only was he the lord’s adopted son, but Siemens Apollyon, whom he cared for deeply, had fallen and brought the world to the brink of destruction. It makes sense.’

Sieg asked Tyr, “Did Siemens Apollyon eventually summon the Demon King?”

“It was worse than that. The Demon King descended directly into his body.”

“The Demon King descended? As far as I know, only a dragon’s body could withstand the Demon King’s power… Did he take all the dragon hearts?”

Tyr nodded.

“Yes, Siemens Apollyon not only took the dragon hearts but also transplanted a dragon’s body into himself using forbidden magic. Though human, he possessed power akin to a dragon—no, even greater—allowing him to host the Demon King within himself.”

Sieg realized something odd in Tyr’s words.

‘A human with a dragon’s body and heart… Could Siemens Apollyon be the origin of the Dragonkin?’

The only true Dragonkin Sieg had encountered was Hoshgar Nirvana. She had mentioned that the existence of Dragonkin was a loophole, created by dragons to spend more time with their contractors.

‘If the dragons saw that and devised a method to create Dragonkin by sharing their hearts with their contractors to bypass the laws of karma… it makes sense.’

Tyr continued speaking.

“The artifact you showed me earlier, made of adamantium, I recognized it because of the final battle with Siemens Apollyon, who had become the Demon King.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Great Sage had hidden the god-slaying stone until the very end, using it in the final battle to seal the Demon King at the cost of his own soul.”

Sieg had heard this story from Richmond before. The sage had sacrificed himself to seal the Demon King within the Book of the Dead.

He had heard about the Book of the Dead but not that the sage had used adamantium. Even Nirvana, who had told him about the Hero King Kaishir’s defeat to the Demon King, didn’t know what material the artifact was made of.

Sieg looked at the Elder Dragon’s relic with renewed interest.

‘To think it holds the power to kill a constellation.’

Then Sieg remembered the dagger left by the Dark Elf, Anexi.

He pulled out the dagger and showed it to Tyr.

“Tyr, is this dagger also made of adamantium?”

Tyr was taken aback when he saw the dagger Sieg produced.

“Where did you get this?”

“I found it in this tower. It belonged to Anexi, the greatest warrior of the Black River tribe, a Dark Elf.”

Tyr listened to Sieg’s explanation and sighed deeply.

“Anexi. I remember her. She was deceived by Siemens’ lies and died in vain, but she was a strong and beautiful warrior.”

She examined the dagger and nodded.

“This seems to be adamantium as well. But unlike the Elder Dragon’s relic, this dagger seems lifeless.”

“Lifeless?”

“Yes. It’s hard to explain, but… I don’t feel any ‘energy’ from this dagger.”

“Energy…”

Sieg suddenly had an idea.

‘What if I could see it with the Eye of the Spirit?’

He retrieved the Shambhala’s Third Eye from his inventory and asked Tyr, “Do you know what this is?”

Tyr looked at the necklace with curiosity.

“What is that?”

“It’s another artifact I found in the tower.”

“Huh, I didn’t know Chronos put such things in here. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Sieg asked for Tyr’s permission to test the necklace and put it around his neck.

Then he looked at the dagger and the Elder Dragon’s relic again.

As he activated the skill, a light emerged from Sieg’s forehead.

[The Third Eye, ‘Eye of the Spirit,’ is now open.]

Suddenly, things that were invisible to Sieg became visible.

Startled, he looked at Tyr and immediately realized she was a spirit without a physical form.

‘So this is the Eye of Truth.’

Sieg turned his gaze from Tyr to the Elder Dragon’s relic and Anexi’s dagger.

As Tyr had said, a faint energy swirled around the Elder Dragon’s relic like a mirage, but there was nothing around Anexi’s dagger.

‘Is that mirage the power to slay gods?’

Even without the god-slaying power, the dagger’s indestructible nature made it valuable enough.

Sieg closed the Eye of the Spirit.

Tyr, in her spirit form, seemed to instinctively sense the difference in energy between the dagger and the relic.

Tyr looked at Sieg and said, “You have quite the talents for someone who’s not a dragon’s contractor. The druids of the forest would have been impressed.”

Sieg felt it was time to reveal his true purpose for being there.

“Tyr, I have something to tell you.”

“What is it?”

Sieg took out the Holy Grail, a sacred relic, from his inventory.

Tyr’s eyebrows twitched at the sight of the Grail.

“Do you know what that cup is?”

“I know it as the Holy Grail, one of the sacred relics bestowed by the Fairy King.”

Tyr’s expression hardened.

She looked at Sieg and asked, “Sieg Draker, what is your purpose here?”

Sieg spoke in a calm voice.

“The shield you once possessed—is it one of the sacred relics of the Fairy King?”

Tyr was silent for a while before she slowly began to speak.

“A sacred relic… Sieg Draker, why are you seeking the sacred relics?”

Sieg pulled something from his pocket.

It was the Chronos Clock, a keepsake of Laura Agamemnon.

Tyr flinched at the sight of the Chronos Clock, as if she recognized it.

“You know what this is.”

Tyr nodded with a grim expression.

“The clock that holds Chronos’ power… He left it with Schatten when he departed from this world.”

Sieg explained to Tyr.

“Tyr, after your era, the era of the Hero King, there was another invasion by the Demon King’s army. We call it the Liberation War. Thanks to the sacrifice of Bahamut, the ruler of the Twilight, this world narrowly avoided destruction.”

“Bahamut sacrificed himself?”

Tyr clenched her teeth at Sieg’s words.

Sieg continued.

“The problem is that the prophecy of destruction isn’t over. Despite the sacrifices of the Great Sage and Bahamut, the Demon King awaits rebirth under the name ‘King in Yellow,’ and a group called ‘The Abyss’ is causing chaos by summoning demonic beings from the Book of the Dead.”

Tyr looked incredulous.

Sieg met her gaze and said, “To prevent the prophecy of destruction, we need all three sacred relics given to humans by the Fairy King. I’ve found the first relic, the Holy Grail, and I came here to find the second relic, which I believe is your shield.”

Tyr was silent, lost in confusion.

After a long pause, he spoke again.

“Why did you think my shield was a holy relic?”

“I pieced it together from various legends passed down through the ages. Sir Tyr, who received a shield from the Fairy King, was recorded as a knight of indomitable courage and immortal strength. Other heroes with the Holy Grail had similar legends, so I made an educated guess.”

Tyr’s expression grew complicated, but he nodded eventually.

“To be clear, I do possess a holy relic.”

Zeke silently celebrated at Tyr’s words.

‘The Hermit of Stories was right.’

Though he hadn’t known that the Trials of Strife were orchestrated by Chronos with the Elder Dragons and Dragon Lords, or that Tyr’s spirit was involved, it turned out the relic was indeed with the Tourn family.

Tyr looked at Zeke and said, “But what I have is not a shield.”

Zeke was taken aback. “If it’s not a shield… then the legend of the Immortal Shield is wrong too.”

Tyr tilted his head, puzzled. “I have no idea how that legend started. I’ve never fought with a shield.”

He slowly stood up and drew the sword hanging at his waist. During the earlier battle, Tyr hadn’t used the sword, so Zeke asked curiously, “Do you use a sword?”

Tyr shook his head. “I don’t use a sword. The relic isn’t the sword.”

Instead, she handed Zeke the scabbard, not the sword.

“Wait, are you saying the scabbard is the relic?”

Tyr nodded. “Yes. Strictly speaking, it’s the magic on the scabbard that’s the relic.”

“Magic?”

Tyr looked at the scabbard and replied slowly, “It’s a bit complicated to explain. Initially, the Fairy King gave humans a stone imbued with the power to communicate with him.”

“A stone to communicate with the Fairy King?”

“Yes. It was a special gift from the Fairy King, who cherished humans. But humans abused it, so the Fairy King eventually stopped responding to their calls.”

Zeke recalled the ‘Tear of the Fairy King’ he had received as a reward.

‘It was definitely an item to summon the Fairy King.’

Kaisir had been wary, saying the Fairy King’s intervention in the mortal realm was a sign of crisis.

‘Still, it’s good to have in an emergency.’

He decided to keep it as a last resort.

Tyr continued, “Though the stone no longer worked, the Fairy King’s power remained. The stone ended up with Kaisir, and the great sage transferred its power to the scabbard, allowing it to be used differently.”

“How so?”

“I’m not sure of the details, but the sage said it temporarily turns the scabbard’s owner into a being of the spirit realm, making all physical attacks ineffective.”

“All physical attacks ineffective?”

Zeke’s jaw dropped at Tyr’s explanation.