Due to there being no way back, a loophole in the contract erged.
A result she herself had not anticipated until the prophecy was fulfilled.
Realizing that mont had finally co, Airi began to look down at the scene with a more troubled face than ever before.
‘Tashian, once it has started, the future cannot be changed.’
For dragons, contracts were absolute, and thus, whims would no longer be allowed.
Even if she believed she couldn’t annihilate humanity with her current power, she would still drive herself forward as humanity’s enemy to honor the binding promise.
“…Just a bit more.”
Knowing such a future would unfold, Airi could not co to terms with this situation calmly to the end.
Knowing the future, yet failing to intervene, innocent people were destined to die at her hands.
To reduce those sacrifices, her awakened companion would first see her as the enemy for attacking humanity’s army.
“Could there have been a bit more… a better future?”
There might have been even a single possibility to reduce the sacrifices and prevent her companion from grieving.
Despite attempts to find such a possibility, the crystal ball showed only a distortion without any clarity.
It was natural. No matter how much one wielded divine power, the one wielding it was rely a human being.
The power was feeble, so the beneficiaries of the prophecy had to be limited, and the future she pursued had to be built around him.
‘…Being so powerless, one must choose the best possible action at every mont.’
Since it was impossible to understand everything perfectly, hypothesizing ‘what ifs’ was sothing a fortune teller should never do.
Thus, Airi, enduring the sorrow he would feel, sought to envision an ideal future to co.
Starting with him fully accepting his power and stopping Tashian, he would beco a hero protecting humanity and truly transform into a savior…
“…Huh?”
A change occurred in the crystal ball while she was contemplating such a future.
The mont she saw the previously opaque future gradually becoming clear, Airi stopped her thoughts and quickly turned her gaze there.
Could her fervent wish have presented a new path?
Or was it the caprice of a transcendent… because Tashian had, unexpectedly, shown capriciousness now?
‘No, this isn’t that. This is…’
For whatever reason, a future that seed most probable under the current circumstances had been observed.
-Crackle, crackle.
Facing that, Airi’s face began to turn pale.
“Everyone, take up your arms.”
And then, amidst the heavy downpour.
Legion Commander Marcus, stepping forward as the heat gradually subsided, drew his sword and spoke in a heavy voice to the soldiers.
Unlike the soldiers, who were frozen by the sudden situation, he seed to understand and resolve himself to the current circumstances.
“Commander, but there’s soone over there…”
“It’s not a person! Can you still say that after what we’ve just seen?!”
What had happened just a few minutes ago.
Humanity’s army had been ravaged by the undead, and in the end, the White Knight, who couldn’t be stopped, had embraced the dragon’s power and grown into a colossal disaster.
And all of that had been burned away and extinguished by her breath.
Not only his brother who had risen as an undead, but also the army of the Red Knight that had belatedly noticed the situation and sward in.
“That’s a dragon. Moreover, a dragon that rampaged half a century ago with the intent to destroy humanity!!”
“Commander, please calm down. I don’t quite understand what you an…”
“What did we do when the White Knight accepted the heart of the dragon?”
And Marcus was the only one among those present who had lived for more than half a century.
He knew the history they were unaware of and had seen the true nature of the disaster that had raged at that ti with his own eyes.
“We could only helplessly watch him take action. Despite reinforcing the army to protect humanity, we could do nothing but watch against such an enemy!”
That being had torn through forgotten history and appeared.
How could they stand idly by when it stood before them, having shed even the dragon’s body, on equal footing?
“That woman, no, that monster in a woman’s guise, has even overwheld the one who made us feel so powerless!”
Jang Cleo from Britannia.
Though his actions could not be seen as for the sake of humanity, at this mont, Marcus could imdiately understand why he had been so obsessed with the idol of the past.
“So now we must kill her! If we don’t kill that woman now, when she’s weakened enough to shed her physical form, we won’t get another chance!”
Because the monster that had defeated their idol was still alive and breathing.
They believed they had to prevent the being that could effortlessly burn even the disaster that had driven them to despair from coming back to threaten humanity again.
“Will you just watch as that monster regains its strength and becos a threat to humanity again!?”
A madness not felt even when witnessing his brother’s fall.
But because of that, his sincerity was conveyed.
The soldiers, who had always believed in and followed their leader, finally grasped the weight of the situation and began to draw their weapons.
“Everyone, get in formation!!”
“Follow the Commander’s orders!”
Yes, though their judgnt was delayed, there was enough reason to be hostile, independent of his will.
It didn’t matter who the opponent was or why she stood before them; if she had the potential to handle a disaster that they couldn’t, and if such a being had co to them weakened from expending all her power, then it was right to deal with her while they could.
“Everyone, prepare for battle!!”
Thus, humanity’s army hastily gathered and ford their ranks.
They might not charge imdiately, but it would happen soon.
Feeling the gaze of the crowd directed at her from behind shields and hastily made barricades, Tashian smiled wryly in the rain, looking down at her hand.
‘Life is full of surprises. I thought there was no lower point, yet now, even those I’ve trampled like bugs are looking down on …’
She no longer had the strength to maintain her true form.
Even if she exhaled, she could only muster a scattershot of her body’s fragnts instead of a breath of fire.
So the upcoming fight would be a desperate struggle, lacking the overwhelming power of before. And if she survived this fight, her final opponent would be him.
The successor chosen by the avatar of the child who had set all this in motion, who she had chosen, and who had initiated this entire story.
‘To end as an evil dragon from a hero’s tale… Well, this is a fitting end for .’
Foreseeing this outco, a lighthearted smile, one she had never worn before, began to form on Tashian’s lips.
Yes, this would be the end.
Once this mont passed, she would finally be freed from the pain that had tornted her all this ti.
‘…You too.’
Despite the sense of liberation, Tashian felt her eyes welling up with warmth.
Sothing that the rain couldn’t cool was stoking the lingering embers of her emotions.
‘If I had given you my reverse scale that day… perhaps you could have beco such an entity.’
The image of the child who had painted the beginning of this entire story.
She, who couldn’t even properly distinguish the humans before her, felt that the one being she had wanted to rember clearly was tearing at her heart.
‘I resented you.’
She regretted raising a human.
She believed that all the confusion she felt, the trampling of humans, and the sudden whim that had extended her life were all caused by that child.
If she hadn’t been involved with humans, she too would have peacefully left the world like the other dragons.
She wouldn’t have had to think complicated thoughts or suffer in agony over her choice that day.
‘Because you were human, I thought humans made this way…’
But in truth, she knew.
She knew that all of it was rely an escape to avoid facing reality.
She had long realized that she had grown fond of the child who would be with her at the end of her life and that she had fled because she didn’t want to show her collapsing self to that child.
‘So I always thought that what I should feel towards you, a human, had to be resentnt.’
But how could the flow of ti be the sa for a human living a re hundred years and a dragon living ten thousand years?
By the ti she realized those feelings, it was already too late, and the life she continued as a living corpse felt even more painful.
More than the lifeti of a human, more than the ten thousand years she aimlessly spent in this world.
She felt that the fifty years she spent recalling the sins she had committed were becoming deeply ingrained in her heart.
‘I won’t accept it.’
She had had plenty of ti to think about it, as it felt so long.
Ti to decide what na should be attached to her feelings.
To realize that her final emotions were, in truth, the sa as those humans experienced.
‘I shouldn’t accept it. If I do, then I…’
Yet, the reason she had always avoided that answer was because the past could not be changed.
That realization had co too late to alter the fact that she had killed the child she had grown fond of, sothing she felt every single mont.
‘Acknowledging it would bring peace.’
To solidify that resolve, before she sent the child’s body down the river, she had extracted what could be called her soul and forged it into a weapon.
She was certain that if the grudge and mission continued after death, they would surely reach her.
If the child’s lingering feelings were passed on to her successor.
If that successor succeeded in reaching her without being crushed by the harshness of the world, she believed she could partially atone for her sins.
‘Is it good?’
‘Yes, yes. It’s delicious.’
As she thought of that successor, mories of a al they had shared began to gradually surface in her mind.
A mory so vivid it couldn’t be ignored, even by soone who usually looked down on humans.
A vision even clearer than that of the child she could no longer see.
‘You don’t have to force yourself to like it. It’s just sothing I made with what was available.’
‘No, I’m not just being polite. It reminds of the als my mother used to make, you know?’
What would he think of her now?
Knowing her true identity, understanding the intentions behind the weapon she had given him.
Could he still converse with her as he had on that day, even after seeing her current self, intent on annihilating humans?
‘…Mother?’
‘Yes, my mother from my original world. Thinking I might never see her again, your al feels even more special.’
‘……’
‘…Ahaha, was that comnt a bit out of line?’
‘No, not really.’
At least, they would never share a conversation like that again.
It should have been sothing to let pass, but why did it make her chest ache so much?
He was just soone she intended to use as a tool for her purpose.
Why did she prepare als for him every ti they t?
“…Just a bit more.”
That question now led to another question in that mont.
How were the emotions she felt for him, which she could not forget even with ti, different from those she felt for the child who had started all this?
“If I had been allowed just a bit more ti, could I have understood what I felt for you…?”
She had neither the ti nor the leisure to understand the difference.
Even if her mind denied it, her body, bound by the contract, continued to move forward.
Resentnt for the past, regret for the belated realization.
Knowing all this, she accepted that this fate was the path she had chosen and the ‘result of her karma’ that she had to accept.
-Thud!!!
Before she could take another step forward.
Unaware that her resolve might be brutally broken by soone’s malice.
“…Cough.“
Yes, the dragon who had lost her stature did not notice.
In this cruel world, the certainty of an individual’s desire being fulfilled was always futile.
-Drip-drop, plunk.
Tashian, having not realized this even after being struck by an attack from behind, turned her trembling head towards her rear.
The scene where even the rain cooling the heat gradually stopped.
Sothing had thrust a sword into her back, rising from the ground where the soil had lted into lava and solidified.
The one who had pierced her was holding her own reverse scale.
The sole weakness of a dragon.
-Thwack!!
As the sword that had precisely penetrated her reverse scale was withdrawn, her body that had been advancing towards humanity’s army futilely collapsed.
The humans, too, had not anticipated this sight.
Their carefully arranged battle lines beca aningless as their bodies stiffened, and shock spread across their faces as they watched the scene.
“Wh-what’s that? A survivor?”
“No, that’s… an undead!”
Indeed, what stood there was an undead.
Among the undead horde that had sward when the dragons fought, presud to have been annihilated, one had managed to maintain its form long enough to pierce the dragon’s reverse scale.
With enough magic to withstand the intense heat that could turn a body to ash and an obsession beyond comprehension, it had pursued its goal relentlessly.
“Mo… ther…”
Through the cracks in the shattered armor, white hair peeked out, matted with blood so rotten it appeared almost black.
But even that was slowly turning into fresh blood, reacting to the magic inherent in her, staining her hair red.
“All of this… for my mother.”
Strength was returning.
The undead’s source of power, its lingering attachnt, had surged uncontrollably upon encountering the being that triggered it
“Yes, I, for my mother… I had risen… for my mother…”
The Red Knight of War, Annabel Britannia.
A woman who disappeared during the fight for royal succession shortly after her birth, and after wandering through an era of war, returned to her holand.
Thus, she, having defined herself, began to smile upon encountering the entity that stirred her own lingering affections at this mont.
“Eh, hahaha.”
Yes, at that mont, Annabelle rembered another na she had once used.
Before returning to her holand as an adult, she had wandered the battlefields, abandoned by her mother, using this na.
“Finally…”
Reviews
All reviews (0)