Jinryong (2)
Fwoosh!
Everything went black, then turned blindingly white.
The white mist enveloping my vision was steam pouring from my body.
My shattered eyeballs began to regenerate, and soon, the rest of my nerves started reconnecting, sending waves of excruciating pain through me.
“Cough!”
Blood trickled from my mouth. My heightened senses vividly relayed the state of my body.
My insides were half-mashed. My skin was frozen, torn, and turned inside out.
The cold of the valley pierced through the gaps in my flayed skin, chilling my raw flesh.
The muscles beneath were reassembling, as if being stitched back together after being torn apart.
Clap. Clap.
As my eardrums healed, I heard the sound of slow clapping.
[Well done, warrior. You protected your people. You may have lost a limb or two, but at least you managed to keep your pitiful body intact.]
The voice resonating in my ears was Cheongrin’s.
Was she unfazed by the recent colossal clash? Her voice was dripping with nonchalance.
She seemed more interested in something else than the recent blow.
[How intriguing. To catch the scent of an old friend from a guest after a hundred years.]
Crunch.
Light footsteps on the sandy ground.
Through the dissipating steam, I saw a woman in a wide robe.
[Has it been nearly a thousand years since the Dragon God summoned him? I was curious, having lost contact. How did you inherit his blood, even if just a fraction scooped from a vast river?]
”…Nonsense…”
[Oh. You can still speak in that state? You truly are his descendant. He, too, was a fiery spirit with a strong will.]
The woman smirked, a smile that could be either mocking or admiring.
Under normal circumstances, I would have hurled an axe or something at that infuriating face.
But now, I couldn’t.
The recent blow had essentially shattered my body, and the regenerative factor of the dragon’s blood was desperately trying to patch up the most critical parts of my crumbling form.
It was a delicate balance between sustaining life and healing.
Any movement could disrupt this precarious equilibrium.
For now, my priority was to buy time and focus on recovery.
The problem was how to stall for time with a body that couldn’t even twitch a finger.
My superhuman intelligence was racing through hundreds of scenarios, heating up my brain.
“Ha, living long enough does have its perks.”
Shuffle.
Someone brushed past me.
A straight back. A stride that didn’t rely on a staff.
Golden hair and beard leaving a shimmering trail.
With each step, a golden ripple spread out, captivating the eye.
Felber, who had walked about ten paces ahead through the steam, paused and glanced back with a smile.
“Rest for now. I’ll hold them off.”
The wizard’s gaze turned forward again.
Golden light streamed from his eyes.
[Oh. What trick do you have up your sleeve?]
In front of the intrigued dragon, he tapped the ground lightly with his staff held in both hands.
Rumble―
The concentric circles spreading from his feet distorted, and the golden hue began to illuminate the valley.
“Elle― Memento Elegus.”
He whispered the incantation.
Right after the spell, the elder wizard’s vision was filled with the grand memories of the dragon.
Cheongrin was delighted.
A body restored after a hundred years. A warrior and a wizard worthy of testing that body. And the familiar scent from the warrior.
It was the first true joy she had felt in ages, since the grueling battle with the detestable war god’s minion.
‘A hundred years, indeed.’
A day a hundred years ago.
Even now, the thought of that day made her shudder.
She hadn’t expected it.
No matter how seasoned the paladin was, she hadn’t imagined a mortal would dare to attack her directly.
But the god’s minion, who had invaded her land with his followers, had brazenly pointed his sword at her throat.
‘The left arm armor of the Dragon God, Tedera Riulak. Today will be your last day outside the dragon’s lair.’
’…Ha. Such courage for a mere mortal.’
Cheongrin had scoffed back then.
To brandish a sword at a true dragon, relying on a single god, was the height of arrogance.
But the thick white flames from his sword were intense enough to burn even her scales.
The power of his domain, which enveloped the area, had prevented her from retreating to her lair in surprise.
The heart pierced by the holy sword and the wings torn away were agonizingly painful.
After sustaining fatal injuries in that battle, Cheongrin had barely held onto her increasingly heavy body.
‘I thought it was the end.’
At most, she had five years left.
She thought she could live that long if she was lucky.
The curse from a thousand years ago and the recent grievous wounds inflicted by the paladin had thoroughly ravaged her body from within.
It was fine.
She had waited a hundred years for the day of revenge, but it didn’t have to be by her hand.
In case the opportunity never came to her, Cheongrin had been nurturing an egg with care for decades.
But fate is strange.
The moment she gave up and let go, a final chance came to her.
‘Cheongrin, grant me your power. In return, I offer the treasure of the paladins.’
The holy sword, brought by a paladin who betrayed the elder, changed everything.
It wasn’t smooth sailing.
To dismantle the object imbued with the detestable god’s power, she had to offer tens of thousands of monsters prepared for war to Enaxagus.
With the vitality and knowledge gained in return, dismantling the holy sword required painstaking effort, even for a true dragon like her.
But in the end, she restored her body.
She couldn’t do anything about the curse from a thousand years ago, but the injuries from the battle with the paladin were completely healed.
Her wings reattached.
Her heart restored.
The power of authority filling her body was something she hadn’t felt even a fortnight ago.
”…A fortnight.”
A murmur pierced through her stream of consciousness.
Cheongrin quickly regained her composure.
“A fortnight should be enough.”
[You…! What have you done!]
“Ha, a perceptive lizard, aren’t you?”
Felber chuckled softly, raising his staff.
The golden waves emanating from its tip were the same hue that had seeped into Cheongrin’s eyes moments ago.
“Usually, they don’t even realize their memories are being read. It’s the first time since I achieved the grand domain.”
Indeed, even with the curse of a transcendent being, a true dragon is a true dragon.
Not only did she instantly grasp the fully deployed grand domain, but she also expelled the wizard’s probing magic from her subconscious while he was reading her memories.
Such mastery of magic, impossible for mortals to imitate, was possible because a true dragon’s very existence is a mystery.
Considering she had only recently recovered from her shattered body, and might still have difficulty wielding her magic and body, it’s unimaginable what her original capabilities were.
“But unfortunately, it’s too late.”
However, even abilities far beyond the realm of mortals have exploitable gaps.
From retracing Cheongrin’s memories, it was clear she had only regained her current strength half a month ago.
Now that she had healed, she was a monster none present could contend with.
But if one were to face her as she was half a month ago, even Dalen, who was still recovering, could have a chance at victory.
Swoosh…
Wrinkled hands released the staff.
Fingers quickly formed seals without hesitation, reciting a long incantation softly.
Despite being released, the staff floated in mid-air, and the golden waves reversed, surging toward the dragon.
“Elle― Memento Casivolg.”
With the first incantation from Felber’s lips, the concentric waves distorted bizarrely.
The power of the grand domain, using Cheongrin’s very existence as its foundation, not only read her past but also reverted her to moments she had passed through.
The authority to revert everything that constitutes an existence to the past was beyond the grasp of even a grand wizard who had opened a grand domain.
But limiting it to the body, if one was prepared to risk their life, was entirely possible.
Boom―!
The golden light surged like a wave, engulfing Cheongrin’s body.
[Ugh…!]
Thud―!
Realizing the changes in her body, Cheongrin leapt high to escape the wave.
But the domain’s power had already begun to rewind her body’s time.
Simply escaping the wave of light didn’t mean she could shake off its effects.
Crack.
Her pale skin cracked.
Magic seeped out in the form of white breath.
Her delicate body wavered in the air, hundreds of meters high, as her wings tore.
The power to sustain her mystical body drained from her shattered heart.
[You, a mere mortal, how dare you tamper with the timeline…!]
Cheongrin’s voice, filled with bewilderment, echoed in the air.
The calm that had filled the air just moments ago vanished without a trace.
Her yellow eyes gleamed with a chilling magic, and her presence began to twist and expand in an uncanny way.
Then.
Rumble…
The valley trembled.
The stones beneath their feet quivered.
In the instant the small human form disappeared, a colossal shadow suddenly loomed over the canyon.
Rumble, rumble…
The air, now filled with a biting chill, surged in all directions, sweeping away the crystalline sand on the ground like a storm.
The dragon’s true form appeared without warning, so immense that it seemed to dominate the sky even from hundreds of meters above.
Its height surpassed that of a fortress wall, and its body stretched nearly a hundred meters long.
Two pairs of azure wings could easily overshadow the procession below, and its teeth, sharp as if carved from northern glaciers, were each larger than a grown man.
The sheer weight of its presence pressed down on the air.
Even the towering cliffs of the valley seemed to shiver like slender winter aspens in its presence.
“Cough! Gah…!”
Drawing on the full extent of his power, Felber barely managed to withstand the overwhelming force, catching a glimpse of her intentions.
‘I can’t go back now. I won’t repeat the same mistakes.’
A mix of past regrets and a murderous intent towards the intruder.
Born into an immortal body, what kind of grudges had a century of mortal life carved into her?
She knew that manifesting her true form and moving recklessly would only shorten her remaining lifespan.
Yet the grudge etched deep into her dragon bones drove her with an obsession that disregarded even her own life.
Even if it meant expending all her power here, she was determined to kill the intruder.
[――――!]
The dragon’s words echoed with full force.
The winds of magic roared.
Unlike lesser dragons, she drew a deep breath, and a blue-white energy flickered in her throat for just a moment.
An extreme cold, capable of freezing everything, was about to be unleashed upon the wizard and the ground he stood on.
Crack―!
A disc of light flew through the air.
Not like the usual sunlight-shattering discs, but one that emitted a dark crimson glow.
The swirling crimson grew larger, becoming a massive fireball that collided with the dragon’s breath.
Boom━━ Boom, boom, boom―!
The clash of two mystical forces.
An explosion far more intense than any previous encounter.
The remnants of the collision struck the cliffs and ground like a bombardment.
“Gah… Ugh.”
Felber, coughing up dark, dead blood, knelt and enveloped himself in a golden barrier, squeezing out the last of his strength.
The remnants of red and blue energy clashed against the barrier.
In the moment he had sensed death as the dragon prepared to unleash its breath, the scene before him was entirely unexpected.
Felber watched the fragments of power falling from the sky, then instinctively turned his head.
And he muttered unconsciously.
“Dale…?”
Behind him.
In the middle of the valley, several paces away.
There stood a warrior, arm outstretched.
A warrior he thought he knew well.
Taller than most by a head, with muscles like boulders that seemed more like armor.
But the dark crimson flames enveloping those muscles, and the aura emanating from his entire being, felt nothing like the person he once knew.
“You said you’d just hold them off, but you nearly killed them.”
The warrior spoke.
His voice, both spoken aloud and resonating in the air like a distant echo.
Recognizing the familiar tone of the warrior he knew, Felber managed a smile, despite his bleeding lips.
“I gave it my best shot. Is that a problem?”
“No. It doesn’t matter.”
The warrior smiled back.
His eyes, no longer black but slit and crimson, gleamed fiercely.
Surrounded by raging flames, he looked up at the true dragon struggling to stay aloft with its tattered wings and said,
“Experience points go to whoever lands the final blow, after all.”
His bared fangs were the smile of a predator.