Chapter. 15. Can a person who has seen the end of the world plant an apple tree? (29)
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The moment he finally faced the revealed dragon’s large body, the professor instinctively realized.
This is not a guy made to fight.
Think about it. Someone asked you, ‘If you were to fight a mixed martial artist, who would win?’ If asked, you might be able to imagine yourself fighting a professionally trained opponent and then give you your own answer.
‘Who will win in a fight with a tank?’ If you ask this question, you will be able to answer by imagining yourself being crushed into minced meat by a heavy steel track.
but.
‘Who would win in a fight with Neptune?’
This means that if you ask a question like this, you need to think about whether the question holds before answering.
It felt like meeting a dragon in person.
An absolute entity that cannot be resisted.
Calculating the odds against that thing is no different from punching a mountain range or kicking the ocean. It meant that if you rush in recklessly, you will only end up dying.
If this isn’t Dead End, there must be another way.
The answer came to mind at the moment when the seemingly flawless dragon stumbled.
The dragon was unable to control its body and was staggering around, even falling to its knees and shaking its head.
I thought it might be possible because Kauladi’s soul entered, but I quickly shook my head.
‘There is no such thing as a dragon that cannot control its own body. Even that Kauladi summoned was the Dragon Lord who ruled this entire great desert. ‘As long as he was not born but was called back to the world of the Second Coming, he cannot be imperfect.’
Is it possible that the vestibular system of a being that changes the world with a single word cannot function properly?
There was a problem somewhere in the dragon creation process.
A being related to the dragon encountered in this desert. And when I thought about the ingredients that went into Kauladi’s ritual, it was easy to figure out what the problem was.
‘The dragon siblings I stole. Aldar and Senika were also sacrifices that should have been part of that ritual.’
Piled up rotting corpses. I only saw it in passing, but it was so shocking that it remained vivid in my mind.
The descendants of the dragons whose bones were removed and marinated in medicine ranged in age and size from extremely old ones to those that had just rotted away.
There is no way all that much royal blood died under Kauladi, so it must have been collected out of necessity.
Physically speaking, no matter how much royal meat was collected, there was no way it could fill even the dragon’s paws, so it was collected as a symbolic element of witchcraft.
The number is too great to be considered just a symbol, and as the Rakshasha said, the royal blood moved from place to place following the strongest tribe in the desert, so the original owner of the corpses must have been quite a ruler. Since it was royal blood, a symbol of the desert ruler, the body would not have been easily given away.
Even though a considerable amount of effort, including bloodshed, was collected, it means that the effort, not the amount, was meaningful.
‘All the royal blood bodies that exist within Kauladi’s reach. That must have been an axis of witchcraft.’
At least from his perspective, ‘all the royal blood bodies were gathered together.’ He releases people everywhere within his sight and authority until he has the firm confidence that ‘there are no more royal bodies left in the desert.’ You should have heard that. After all, the most important thing in a magic trick is the image of the caster.
However, the hatchling siblings, not dead bodies but alive, disappeared there…
Kauladi’s magic was imbued with the awareness of ‘incompleteness’, and the result was that the unfinished ritual was completed because of so-and-so who broke through by destroying the military ships one by one. …
『Kuwoo Woo Woo-U-!!!
』
At this point it was clear what I needed to do.
Snap-
[Rakshasha! I’m listening! Their goal is the dragon siblings! This is the royal blood you serve! Somehow take them both and escape the battlefield!]
Dragon-Kauladi will try to complete the unfinished body. His final piece is on Nulak’s flagship, so he will go and retrieve it. The kidnapping of Wanghyeol may have been the reason why the Mute Army was all there.
Wow.
If the Rakshasha escapes with the two of us, I will have to bide my time here. This monster, which casts shadow over half the battlefield just by spreading its wings, would easily exceed the maximum speed of a military ship just by staggering around.
“If you were a real dragon, it would be suicide. “There is no wisdom, no thousand-year-old wisdom, and even an ignorant body can do it for half a penny.”
If that is a dragon, then this is a saint who has been recognized by the World Tree as a God Slayer. It sounds like you’re in the right weight class.
Snap-
[Professor. They… a snake-like mute kidnapped you two. I left that area for a while to protect the ottoman…]
As expected. Although it is not a good situation, it is good news that the trend was predicted in advance. It means that I caught up with the other person’s drawing, which was only blurry.
[Are they coming this way?]
[No, they are running in the opposite direction of the battlefield, away from the dragon. I’ll take care of the two of you, so you… do your thing.]
[…. What?]
No? By kidnapping the siblings, you’re distancing yourself from Kauladi? Mute?
[Rakshasha. Wait a
minute, Rakshasha!]
The connection with Rakshasha was lost, as if it had gone out of the range of the message magic that had been barely touching.
The flow of thoughts was also interrupted.
‘Aren’t Falcatus and Kauladi allies? Nigmi kidnapped the hatchling siblings, but instead of telling Kauladi, they ran away?’
Time for judgment is limited and most of it has already been used. The dragon, staggering in pain as if writhing in pain, was approaching.
Something felt stuck in my chest, as if it was stuck on a stone.
‘If he is a collaborator of Kauladi, what is Mute trying to achieve here?’
From that stumble, sinister speculation grows.
The unfinished dragon was already moving forward as if it was about to fall. The vibration alone is enough to cause the military ship to lose buoyancy and sink. The military ship that would serve as a stepping stone was disappearing, and its jaws approaching, shaking its head as if dizzy, was an irresistible temptation for the antagonist.
The dragon’s chin, where the scales look thinner than elsewhere. According to legend, this area was once known as a place where evil spirits were found. We have already passed the crossroads of choice a long time ago.
-Tuhwaaagh!
The professor’s legs, compressed as much as possible before his feet disappear, kick off the deck of the military ship and fly up.
Even though there is no choice, the body is already putting the plan into action, but the mind goes back to past judgments.
‘Their purpose. What does Mute ultimately aim for?’
‘What did you come to the desert to get?’
‘Why did you cooperate with Kauladi?’
‘No matter how much the ritual failed, can the dragon become so defenseless?’
As unanswerable questions swirled, the enemy’s large figure approached to the extent that the pattern of its scales was visible.
Dragons are enemies. Even if you stumble somewhere, getting rid of him is the right thing to do.
The guy has lost his temper and is running wild, and you may not get a chance to deal a fatal blow to him again.
A fleeting moment. The professor couldn’t shake off his anxiety until the moment when his right arm bloomed with a bright aura as if his blood was on fire, and with the speed of his leap, his stuck fist struck the dragon’s thin jaw.
Why? Why am I so anxious?
『Kwauuuuu-』
The dragon, struggling in unknown pain, collapses from the shock penetrating its brain. He strikes the top of the dragon’s head with blurry eyes, filling his empty arms with divinity.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Heavy hand taste. Along with the feeling that the blow that knocked down even the evil spirit’s evil spirit had been landed properly, I felt the presence of the dragon that had been squeezing my heart slowly fading away.
Crack.
The professor landed on the fallen dragon’s head and noticed that there were no signs of life from the limp dragon.
“…Dead? “Just at this level?”
Even if he did his best, the attack was enough to break several of the dragon’s scales. The dragon lost its life in an attack that was thought to be best at stopping the charge.
‘Something is wrong. ‘I got caught up in a picture someone drew!’
A chilling sensation filling my chest with the settling sand dust.
Yes, that feeling you get when you realize you’ve been ambushed. That feeling when you realize that the target in front of you was a decoy and face the cold muzzle of an enemy gun.
Sssssssssssssssssssssssssss-sssssssssssssssssssssssssssss0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 million million
headaches- ominousness was revealed in the form of a familiar sound.
That sound. The sound of Mute’s vehicle plowing through the sand.
puck.
The sound of a creature reaching the surface sticking its head out of the sand and the sound of something coughing.
and. The sound of something like hard dead skin walking on the dragon’s body.
Takkak. Taktaktaktaktak.
At the end of the sound, a hermit crab-like creature appeared on the dragon’s scales.
A head so small that you don’t even know it’s on awl-like legs. And a creature carrying something full of clear green liquid.
The professor, facing someone perched on what seemed to be a living means of transportation, felt like he knew who it was even though he had seen it for the first time.
“Falcatus.”
[This is the first time we meet face to face and say hello. Please forgive me for sitting down to see you. Unlike you, I have not yet overcome my natural instinct.]
A voice echoing in my mind. The guy was right. It is no exaggeration to say that he is the commander-in-chief of all Mutation Bloods, and he may be a more important target than the queen.
Mute Falcatus was created based on my information.
‘My arm is dead, but I can use my leg.’
In attacking the dragon, both arms were burned with aura and completely blown away with divinity, but both legs were still intact. Moreover, he is now kneeling down on the bridge of the dragon’s nose.
‘He said he couldn’t overcome his punishment. That figure, which leaves even its movements to other living creatures, means that it has been affected by the glass body, a characteristic that makes it extremely fragile!’
blow. No, the aftermath of a single blow alone would tear him to pieces. I don’t know how great the fighting power the entity carrying Falcatus had, but as someone who has experienced the glass body, I knew very well that moving at a high enough speed to avoid my current blow could be fatal to the Falcatus above it.
A golden opportunity. The moment when you secretly give strength to your kneeling leg.
[You seem to be intoxicated by the heat of battle, so I need to calm you down a bit.]
Cough.
I could hear the tunnel beetle behind me spewing out something more.
A mute covered in small, flexible green scales. A person trapped by Nigmi and the snakes that grow from her fingertips.
“Rakshasha!”
[Ha ha ha ha ha. You don’t need to worry too much. Let’s say it’s some kind of table. To have a conversation, don’t you need a place where two people can face each other calmly? So….]
Ouch!
“…Ugh huh!”
[I will kill this female if she moves even a speck of dust right now. From what I can tell, he is the person who will be your partner… So you are my stepmother? Hahahaha.]
The professor could only watch the Rakshasha being squeezed by the snakes wrapped in layers next to the joking Falcatus. The small cracking sound heard between the muffled moans is probably the sound of the shoulder joint moving apart.
[Hmm… I expected a more dramatic scene. Nigmi? Why don’t you let that bitch scream a little more? It doesn’t matter as long as you don’t die.]
“I didn’t kill you. What a toxic bitch. Look at this. This bitch has this many threads sewn into my leather? “This bitch rushed at me so stubbornly that I damaged my scales and missed the cursed lizards that were with me, and I was honestly embarrassed.”
[Ha ha ha ha ha. I just needed to reflect. Normally, if you catch a big fish, you have to give out some bait.]
“Well, it’s not really something to reflect on. “It’s just that my brother went to sleep covered in blood after going on a wild rampage and killing people, and I was just annoyed because I could only play with a human like this…”
Ouch! Creep, boom, boom!
“Ugh ugh ugh!”
….scapula. Mandible. Some of the tibia teeth
….clack!
You have to endure it, you have to endure it… Rakshasha is now completely suppressed by the enemy. The moment I lose my temper and go wild, the conversation goes to waste. A Rakshasha who has lost the value of his hostage dies.
The professor rolled his broken molar on his tongue, trying to concentrate on the sharp sensation. I wanted to somehow separate my thoughts from the tragedy in front of me.
“A hostage. They use quite humane means…”
[Simple, effective and safe. Especially against someone like you. You are the being I have explored the most since I was born. Shouldn’t we do this at least?]
“….”
Silence. Falcatus closed his eyes as if savoring the silence and continued speaking with a soft smile.
[There’s no need to explain what happened, right?]
“….Yangdong. Division. Disruption and… concentration.”
Threatening and dividing, blinding your eyes and reaching for your goal.
Where on earth did he learn this?
[Correct answer.]
Falcatus was happy. It really felt like I was talking to someone for the first time in a long time.
[As you know, there are quite a few things I have realized after several defeats. That you are someone who somehow finds a way. Neither the army nor the secret raid had any meaning. Even though we went to great lengths to prepare our most precious forces, Nunim and Vazyur, the result was horrendous injuries and devastating losses. This would truly be a disaster for our species.]
Tak tak tak tak
[So I decided to avoid you. Catastrophe should be avoided, not confronted, right?]
Grinning inside the green body fluid, Falcatus recalled each other’s knowledge one by one.
[Just as I came to the desert to avoid you in the empire, I wanted to avoid you in this battlefield as well. There’s something I want to do, but I felt like I would probably fail if you were there.]
“So… Has that half-poon prepared a dragon? He’s just going to pull me out?”
[The original plan was to secure the unfinished dragon’s body, but… after hearing that you had set foot in this desert, I just used it to make it a little more useful. I think a dragon would be enough to move you. Isn’t it the sense of crisis that moves you?]
Those who make plans must be meticulous, but they must also have a certain degree of improvisation.
Things don’t always go as planned, and you never know when and where a random opportunity might come along.
Falcatus is something I encountered by chance after flowing into the desert. I remembered an encounter that could be called a strange encounter.
[I put a lot of effort into not arousing your suspicions. You had to make your own choice, and there was a clear possibility of failure that you could call it a gamble. But you made your way towards Kauladi, and thanks to that… our brothers were able to access your weak spot.]
Nulak and Kauladi? Desert hegemony? Dragon?
I guess that was good.
Just as the opponent knew their queen, Falcatus also knew very well which king he had to capture to end the game.
[Well… you’re kind too. You care so much about the things you lack.]
It didn’t matter if I kidnapped anyone in the group, but to be on the safe side, I chose a slightly weaker and easier target.
The old wizard was eliminated in that respect. The old man, who was wielding a great spell, did not seem weak enough for Nigmi, who lacked fighting skills, to easily approach him.
Therefore, the elf stuck next to him is also eliminated. Since we were the group that had been together for the shortest amount of time, some were of low priority.
The female troll seemed to have a hard time as she immediately noticed the approach of Nigmi, who had completely assimilated into her surroundings, as if she had such a good sense of what seemed to be a dull subject, and the same was true for the human called Rakshasha.
Contrary to what I thought, the plan turned out to be twisted at the stage of kidnapping the group.
[It was fortunate that there was good bait with us.]
But on that boat were the hatchling siblings, beings whom the Rakshasha cherished like his own life.
Nigmi easily found the two hidden in the deep warehouse of the flagship and escaped. The Rakshasha, who heard the hatchling’s unique cry, ran out in pursuit of the kidnapper without anyone being able to stop him.
[Well, that’s what happened. I catch a small fish with bait, and with that small fish I catch a big fish called you. Isn’t it easy?]
….gulp.
Listening to the guy’s voice fluttering ceaselessly, the professor was constantly racking his brain to find even the slightest possibility.
‘I used enough divine power to crush the dragon’s head. It will come someday. ‘Must… must!’
I had to take my time. Fortunately, the enemy knows him well enough. The professor also had time to think about what kind of guy Falcatus was.
“Now that things have come to this point, I know everything without you saying anything… but there is one thing I don’t know at all.”
What you don’t know. The professor’s eyes did not miss the way the guy flinched involuntarily the moment those words were said.
‘You call me father. It shows a strong desire for recognition. ‘They have a tendency to compensate for their physical inferiority through mental superiority.’
The cause of the inferiority complex must have come from the difference between Falcatus and the other Nameds, who were born as glass bodies in the early days of their desperate race. The ‘great intellect’ that he had a habit of talking about in the past clearly showed Falcatus’ sense of inferiority and at the same time showed his competitive spirit towards me.
If I ask that guy a question about something I don’t know and something he knows. He’ll probably
give you as many answers as he likes, with a look on his face that makes him feel like he’s dying
.
[I don’t know… This is a question I can’t refuse. It’s a question. My father asked me a question… It was a moment when I once again felt the value of being alive. So what?]
“Why. Why are you so obsessed with me? “There are definitely people who are stronger than me and people who are wiser than me, right?”
[Aha… That’s the best question I’ve ever been asked…]
Tick. Tick.
While the professor was counting in his mind, Falcatus opened his mouth with a relieved look on his face, as if revealing a secret he had been holding back.
[Truth is terrible and knowledge is lonely. The knowledge of the truth that cannot be shared with anyone is truly…. Should I say that it is too sharp to keep in my heart, or should I say that I feel proud of that sharp pain.] ‘
Just a little more. Just a little more….’
The taboo quicksand that engulfed Kauladi’s oasis. It was so close that it could be seen from the ship’s watchtower in the distance, and as soon as it used its sacred power, it appeared at the feet.
At least it has the speed to travel a distance of several kilometers in an instant.
[By the way…. Even if I say it, no one can understand. Honestly, if you hadn’t asked, I might have died of a tantrum. [It was to the point where I started to resent why only I was allowed this knowledge.]
While the professor was looking for an opportunity, Falcatus’ thoughts, which had been muttering something incomprehensible, spoke in a secret whisper.
[How is life in the new world, professor?]
“…What?”
[under. under. Ha.]
[How did this answer your question?] The
astonished professor’s eyes met Falcatus’ transparent eyes. Falcatus, who was smiling, pointed downward with his finger.
Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
a sound with a sound as if a huge underground water is penetrating beneath the desert. A huge
quicksand
opened its mouth and everything around it began to flow into it in an instant.
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