Camellia (4)
Rumble…
The dark clouds growled ominously.
The crimson sky of Daeryongjeon swirled around a central vortex, casting an eerie glow. The once vast landscape of the Great Inferno, stretching to the horizon, was slowly being overtaken by the encroaching storm clouds.
“The Sky of the Sealed Snow Mountain”
Boom!
The red vortex spewed turbulent winds, clashing with the dark clouds that unleashed lightning and fiery pillars in retaliation. As the clouds pushed from the west, they were met with resistance from the east. In the midst of this celestial battle, two figures, tiny as specks, collided with immense force.
CRASH!
The impact was anything but small. Shockwaves burst forth, scattering the red currents and dark clouds alike.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
With a deafening roar, the two figures separated, only to accelerate back towards each other, exchanging blows with relentless speed. Spears and swords, fists and feet, clashed hundreds of times in a matter of moments. Amidst the cacophony, the voice of the Dragon God pierced through.
[Red Spear, First Roar, Cheongrin! Is this truly your intention? I am a creation of your own making!]
Words were unnecessary. The spear thrust forward, cutting through the silence. The Dragon God parried with the flat of the sword, twisting the spear’s shaft to create a momentary stalemate, then kicked away to widen the distance.
Thwack!
[You are all my creators! What kind of parent abandons their child?]
The cry echoed across the distance once more. Balancing himself in the sky, Daellen chuckled.
A child who sells out their parents has quite the nerve. Whose child is that, anyway?
[…]
[…]
“I misspoke. I retract my last thought.”
The silence of the two dragons was more oppressive than expected. As Daellen corrected his thoughts, his eyes glowed red once more. It was the Red Spear.
[Child of all of us, you have become corrupted.]
[Corrupted? I merely fulfilled your desires. Wasn’t that my purpose?]
[That was precisely the problem. Perhaps it was a fate sealed from the beginning.]
A low sigh, tinged with regret.
In the face of the Dragon God’s fierce gaze, the Red Spear calmly twirled her spear. She continued.
[The evil gods who once ruled the Great Inferno were also born from the desires of mortals.]
[…]
[Though they may not have had a choice, their essence remains unchanged. Those evil gods eventually sought to consume the entire continent… Perhaps our failure to learn from their downfall is our own fault.]
The White Sword did not respond, merely gritting his teeth and swinging his sword. The light swing split a mountain peak, sending an avalanche cascading down. The Red Spear nodded, speaking again.
[You don’t wish to converse, do you?]
[…]
[Looking back, it was the same then. When I asked why you claimed dominion over the Great Inferno, you chose silence over reason. Like a stubborn young dragon… Yes, in that sense, you might truly be the child of all dragons.]
Children often resemble their parents. The Red Spear smiled bitterly.
[I will hear no more of a traitor’s nonsense.]
[…Indeed. Dragons are stubborn. You are truly a dragon’s child.]
The conversation ended. The Red Spear’s consciousness receded.
As Daellen surfaced to the forefront of his mind, he felt a warmth spreading through his body.
[…Daellen. From now on, my spear and flame are yours forever.]
The Red Spear’s soft voice resonated in his mind. Daellen nodded, rolling his shoulders.
The red spear in his right hand felt almost weightless. The two-meter-long weapon seemed like an extension of his own body.
Focusing his mind, he felt the fiery energy coursing through his veins. This was a sensation unlike any when the Red Spear had partially descended before.
Previously, when the Red Spear controlled his body, it felt like a puppet on strings. Now, the dragon’s power was entirely under his own will, a feeling of omnipotence.
Exhaling a heated breath, he inhaled slowly and exhaled again.
There was no time for reflection.
A flash of white light before him signaled the end of their verbal exchange, as the Dragon God, determined to conclude with a show of strength, swung a massive white sword, tearing through space to reach him.
Daellen instinctively raised his spear. The white sword and the crimson spear clashed in a cross.
BOOM!
The tremendous force traveled down the spear’s shaft. Faced with a wave of power that could move mountains, Daellen stood his ground.
“Ugh…”
He twisted his aching grip to deflect the blow, letting the impact slide over his shoulder as he stepped forward.
“The Sky of the Sealed Snow Mountain”
“Fist”
CRACK!
The final blow of the warrior and the storm mage erupted from his fist. At point-blank range, the thunderous strike hammered against the armor.
CRUNCH!
The armor buckled under the force of the punch. The strike glanced off.
Exhaling, Daellen didn’t stop. What was once a finishing move was now just part of his offensive.
Exhaling again.
If one strike couldn’t land a fatal blow, then he would build momentum with many.
He didn’t give the sword any room to swing, continuously closing in and unleashing a barrage of punches.
BAM! BAM! CRACK!
Thunderous blows capable of shattering mountain peaks erupted in succession. As the Dragon God retreated, Daellen pursued, stepping through the air to close the gap.
“Reverse Waterfall”
“Reversal”
As the Dragon God attempted to create distance with a spatial shift, Daellen disrupted the gravitational pull, causing disorientation.
“Thunderstorm of the Devoured Inferno”
“Sudden Rain”
“Piercing Green”
With each step, he unleashed hundreds of blue lightning bolts like rain, filling the gaps with emerald flashes to close the distance.
Rumble!
A kaleidoscope of colors clashed incessantly. The scene across the Snow Mountain’s expanse converged into a single point, forming a blade aimed at the Dragon God.
It was Daellen’s task to orchestrate it all. His mind, long dormant, now burned with activity, piecing together various powers like a puzzle to calculate the flow.
[You wretched insect…!]
The boy wasn’t just taking it. After forcibly creating distance by slamming the sword’s weight down, he exhaled a breath that swept everything before him.
Daellen was at the center of it. As the black breath surged towards him, he instinctively raised his arm.
[―――――!!]
The armor covering his arm unleashed the full power of Akasha.
CRACKLE!
The frost wind that had once frozen an entire kingdom in countless cycles clashed with the Dragon God’s breath, creating a dark blue storm.
Frozen flames rained down. The mix of heat and cold scraped sharply against his skin.
As the storm dissipated, a flash of white light loomed before him.
Determined not to lose the advantage, the Dragon God, having expelled all his breath, charged with his sword like a bolt of lightning.
CRASH!
Daellen raised his red spear to block the sword. The impact was slightly less forceful than before, but the struggle continued.
The Dragon God’s face was now close enough to touch. Staring into those reptilian eyes, Daellen smirked.
“Feeling a bit tired?”
[…]
In that moment of hesitation, he pushed the spear forward. The spear thrust inside the sword’s guard.
The boy stepped back, swirling his cloak to obscure Daellen’s vision. Just as the cloak’s myriad spells were about to rain down, Daellen’s roar disrupted the spell structure entirely.
[…First Roar!]
The cloak stiffened and was shredded by the red spear. The boy, unable to let his body be torn, widened the distance.
“Two-Colored Dragon”
Daellen pursued. The spear thrust again, its intricate trajectory slicing through the armor and clipping the edge of the helmet. A crimson dragon behind him bit into the greaves with its fiery maw.
The dance in the sky was tilting in one direction.
Above the battlefield where clouds scattered and the atmosphere distorted, the storm mage’s lightning and the dark clouds were tearing apart the sky of Daeryongjeon.
Of course, the peaks of the Snow Mountain were also being swept away by the battle’s aftermath. Daellen paid it no mind.
The destruction and collapse would surely leave a mark on the landscape, but that was a concern for later.
Now was the time to focus on a single incantation, a single strike.
“Step.”
In front of the battered dragon god, she stomped on the air, channeling all the momentum into the tip of her spear.
The dragon god raised its broad sword to block the thrust, but it was futile.
With a sickening crack, the spear shattered the sword’s surface, pierced through the breastplate, and lodged itself deep in the creature’s chest.
The boy coughed up a mouthful of black blood. With trembling lips, he spat out his words.
“Damn you, woman… You have no name. You’re just a forsaken dragon, a discarded spear!”
This bastard’s just trying to save his own skin, Dalen thought.
But he kept his thoughts to himself. The provocation, meant to be some sort of psychological warfare, was laughable. This conversation was never his to partake in.
Soon, one of Dalen’s eyes turned red. Sensing an opportunity, the dragon god shouted, spitting blood and saliva.
“Do you think finding a new master will change anything for a forsaken creature like you? You’re nothing but a discarded beast, then and now! Want to know the proof? Your old name was… Kahak!”
The red spear twisted the wound further. The dragon god’s words were choked off by a gush of blood.
Dalen raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t his doing.
“The old name is in the past. The past doesn’t matter.”
“Ugh! Cough!”
The dragon god tried to speak, but each time, the red spear churned its insides mercilessly.
Meanwhile, the icy aura from her left hand froze the dragon god’s wings and feet, sealing the very magic that could have been its salvation.
“I have been given a new name, and I will live by it.”
The voice of the spear was calm now. Dalen found himself recalling old memories.
Though many years had passed, their first encounter remained vivid.
A mighty dragon, not only abandoned by its master but also bound to the realm of mortals, seething with rage.
How could he forget the roar that echoed from the cliff, a cry of despair from a being too powerful to comprehend at the time?
“Let me tell you again. My name is Camellia.”
A soft laugh tickled his ears. Sparks began to fly from the spear embedded in the dragon god’s chest.
They say dragons are given identity and existence through their names.
The spear was right. The ancient dragon he first met in a dream was gone.
The nameless spear, abandoned by the dragon god, was dead. In her place stood a newly reborn true dragon.
“The cliff where the reborn dragon rests.”
The scene that held her had changed its name.
“A red flower blooming on a snow-covered slope.”
The desolate cliff had become a field of flowers, surviving thousands of winters.
“Camellia of a Thousand Blossoms.”
The sparks from the spear began to bloom into camellias, their thick buds bursting open with warmth.
Countless fiery petals slowly melted the sky above the dragon god and the battlefield.
It took half a day for the great hell and its master to melt away completely.
A long time for a battle fought in moments.
A brief conclusion compared to the span of millennia.