Chapter 120

“Then… no matter what happens from this moment on, trust me until the very end.”

“What do you mean, ‘no matter what happens’…? Exactly what are you planning to do?”

“You’ll see. Just don’t try to interfere and don’t come any closer. Just watch quietly as if you aren’t even there.”

After pushing the three of them—and Leo—a good distance back, I eventually spat out an insult toward the Transcendent Dragons in a voice that wasn’t particularly loud, almost conversational.

“You’re all listening anyway, aren’t you? Stop buzzing around up there like flies and get down here, you pathetic salamanders.”

In an instant, the dragons that had been soaring leisurely in the far distance froze mid-air, as if pinned in place. It was a movement that suggested the laws of physics could go to hell.

Immediately following was a piercing, needle-like pressure. The Dragons’ Spiritual Pressure.

I let that pressure flow harmlessly through my Imagery and mocked them once more.

“Hilarious. Acting all big with your ‘Spiritual Pressure’ just because you’re Transcendent Dragons. Stop pretending to be grand with that measly mouse-tail pressure and come down here, you voyeuristic creeps.”

Right after that, the silhouettes of the creatures hanging on the horizon seemed to vanish in a blur, and then—

KWAAA-BOOOOOOM!!

A massive shockwave exploded right before my eyes.

The ground split in all directions as if an earthquake had struck, and trees tens of meters tall were scattered like matchsticks.

Behind me, I heard the sound of screaming and things breaking as people were blown back… but instead of reacting to that, I braced against the incoming shockwave and stared intently forward.

Before I knew it, five Transcendent Dragons, each nearly 100 meters long, had appeared right in front of me.

‘Teleport? No. A long-range Blink.’

The dragons looked down at me as if I were a bug, crushing the air with an even more intensified Spiritual Pressure.

In response, I flipped them the bird.

“What are you staring at? Eyes down, you punks. Before I split your skulls open.”

-…….

-…….

Eventually, the Red Dragon situated in the center spoke, his voice sounding more dumbfounded than angry.

-A human whose liver has grown outside his body. More importantly, how are you unscathed after taking our Divine Pressure head-on?

-A curious human. I feel like taking him and dissecting him…

-Forbidden thoughts. Do not forget the mission.

My ears were ringing, making it quite difficult to understand them. It was likely the unique language of dragons known as Draconic… then again, it was my fault for expecting human speech from a lizard’s snout.

Tsk, tsk. Barbaric reptiles, the lot of them.

“Ugh. You scrubs really try hard to act like you’re something special.”

At that, the eyes of the communicating Transcendent Dragons widened significantly.

-The human… understands Draconic? How?

Indeed. How was that possible? They called it a Northern Continent Language Pack, but somehow I could communicate with the West and even dragons. Isn’t the performance a bit too excessive?

“Tsk, tsk. Whatever. I’m sick of this trash game, so stop blocking the road and get lost, you lizard bastards.”

The Transcendent Dragons fell silent for a moment, seemingly taken aback by my verbal abuse.

I suppose after being stuck in this Demon Territory for 200 years, they saw a human, an elf, and a beastkin show up as a set and thought, ‘Newbies!’ and rushed over… but instead of trembling and begging, ‘Oh, Great Dragon Gods, spare us,’ this guy was mocking them as bottom-tier lizards. They must be experiencing some mental lag.

Finally, the Red Dragon spoke again.

-Insolent. To think a mere mortal dares to place himself on the same level as us, the Dragon Gods…

“Oh, really? So the issue isn’t my demands, but that I don’t even have the right to speak to you? I just have to prove my qualification then, right?”

-You are a pathetic, beyond-pathetic mortal. What ‘dragon-slaying’ trick could you possibly have to prove such a thing?

“A trick? How about something like this?”

I immediately swung Astraphe, tearing through space.

KRRRR-ACK!

-Hah? You tore through space by swinging a piece of metal devoid of any Mystery…?

“Huh? You ‘Self-Proclaimed Dragon Gods’ are surprised by something like this? The real thing is yet to come.”

After catching my breath for a second, I relied on pure intuition and lunged Astraphe into the torn space.

-Dimensional Slash.

The technique I had used once before against Disis.

Crossing from the 3rd dimension to a higher dimension, and back to the 3rd—a technique of extreme difficulty that I could barely manifest with my current abilities.

Thanks to steady practice since arriving in the Demon Territory, my success rate had risen to about fifty-fifty…

Thrust!

I felt a heavy thumping sensation through the hilt and let out a smirk.

“Looks like that one-in-two chance hit the mark this time.”

-KRAAAAAAAAUGH!!

And then… the Green Dragon on the far left fell backward with a world-shaking scream.

KWAAA-BOOOOOOM!

As the ground surged again from the impact—comparable to a 30-story apartment building collapsing all at once—the other Transcendent Dragons could only blink their eyes, not knowing what had happened.

-Wh… what did you do?

“What did I do? I just poked a hole in his heart.”

The Red Dragon, so flabbergasted he couldn’t even summon anger, asked:

-What…!? How did you pierce through over a hundred layers of Physical and Magic Barriers? What about the Psychokinetic Barrier? Scales harder than Orichalcum? Hide and muscle that no divine sword of the lower world could pierce? Just how!?

I casually picked my ear and answered.

“Well.”

At my answer, the dragons’ eyes turned red with fury.

I mean, why do they all react like that when I’m just telling them the truth? I just did it well.

Commoners truly are a hopeless lot.

“So? Is that enough proof? Can we talk now?”

-You… you @#$!#$…!!

“Ooh. Should a ‘Dragon God’ be using such vulgar insults? Anyway, my demand is the same as before. Don’t block our way and get out of my sight. It’d be even better if you cleaned up the monsters along the road while you’re at it.”

Their reaction was instantaneous.

One raised a forepaw to squash me flat.

Another stirred up psychokinesis so strong the air itself looked distorted.

One prepared a magic circle of enormous size, likely for some grand spell.

One flickered with white lightning from the horn on its forehead.

It was certain. If even one of those attacks so much as grazed me, I would definitely die.

But despite that, I didn’t get nervous. Because…

“Stop posing. You can’t kill me anyway, can you?”

-……!

-……!!

“Before you came here, you definitely heard a word from your Master not to kill me, didn’t you? Or are you hearing it right now?”

-You… you brat…!

“So just get lost. We already know how this ends, don’t we? Your Master wants us to reach the Sanctuary… though that sounds a bit funny, but anyway, the want us to reach the Sanctuary, and we want to get there too. Your role? Aren’t you just the hype-men meant to act cool and scare us a bit to set the mood? While observing how we react at the same time.”

-…….

“So stop being a pain and let’s skip all the useless middle steps. Or, you know, actually try to kill me.”

At that, the Yellow Dragon—one of the four remaining alongside Red, Blue, and Black—bared its teeth. It sucked in air with a massive whoosh, its chest swelling. Judging by the flames flickering in its maw, it was preparing a Breath attack, the kind I’d only ever heard of in legends.

I recall being told it’s a trump card they can only use three times a day.

-I admit it. We were indeed ordered by them to keep you alive. But that applies only to you. Not the others.

The beast turned its head away from me, looking toward the party behind me, who had turned pale as they watched the scene.

-I wonder what kind of reaction you will show if those girls die.

I let out a short, mocking laugh at its threat.

“Kill them.”

-…What?

“But if that actually happens, all of you die too.”

I raised Astraphe and thrust it with all my might into the rift that hadn’t yet closed.

-Space Slash.

Thrust.

The sensation was different from before—much firmer and more solid.

‘Uh… I was aiming for the heart again like last time, but I guess I whiffed. Damn it.’

Suddenly, however, the eyes of the dragon preparing the Breath bulged to their limit, and a spot on its neck began to swell and glow red.

And then—

KWAAA-BOOOOOOM!!!

The Breath it was preparing didn’t come out of its mouth; it exploded inside its throat. The dragon let out an agonized scream.

-KEAAAAAAAUGH!!

Oh, so the blade didn’t go into the heart, but into the throat. It looked like the torn muscles couldn’t withstand the pressure of the Breath and burst… talk about good luck.

See, this is why you should always live as a good person.

Unlike the Green Dragon, the Yellow Dragon didn’t die instantly. It clutched the hole in its neck, which was gushing blood, and its jaw twitched. The wound, which looked fatal, began to heal rapidly.

“Wow… what a cheat.”

But that seemed to be the limit. Once the healing finished, the Yellow Dragon slowly collapsed onto its side.

THUD.

Watching the creature, which could no longer move and was only huffing and puffing, I shrugged my shoulders as if I had planned it all along.

“Didn’t you say you were going to kill them? Why aren’t you doing it? Go ahead. Kill them. But in exchange, I will hunt you down until the day you die. Since you can’t lay a finger on me, you only have two choices: run away from me like pathetic cowards, or die by my hand.”

• …!

“If you can’t do it, stop bluffing and get lost.”

The Red Dragon ground its teeth so hard they sounded like they might shatter.

-Dammit…! Just what the hell are you!?

“Me? Well…? A genius, maybe?”

-…….

“Oh, right. That Breath looked pretty strong… before you leave, fire a few shots and clear a path for us to that Sanctuary over there.”

-……!!!

“If you don’t, I’ll bite my tongue and kill myself right here. You’ve seen enough to know, right? I’m a man of my word.”

Grind.

-…You are a madman, truly and utterly insane…!

One hour later.

We strolled toward the Sea God’s Sanctuary(?) along a wide, grand road cleared by the dragons, without facing interference from a single monster.

It was a distance that wouldn’t even take 20 minutes if we ran, but what was the rush?

“Um… Old man. I think I had a weird dream this morning… like, dragons showed up and were making a fuss, and then they got beat up by you and ran away?”

After finishing a slightly late meal and keeping their mouths tightly shut for nearly 30 minutes, the party began pouring out questions the moment Elizabeth broke the silence.

It made sense. Since the entire conversation had been in Draconic, from their perspective—unable to understand the details—the situation must have been pure “chaos and pandemonium.”

“No, Orabeoni! What on earth happened!? What kind of conversation did you have with the dragons that made them cry and even clear a path for us?!”

“More importantly, Orabeoni! How did you actually kill a Transcendent Dragon? Were you actually a Transcendent being all along?!”

“I… for now, I’ve recorded the video… but may I keep it for my personal collection? I believe it will be a historical record that remains for generations…”

I exercised my right to remain silent for all those questions. It was obvious that answering now would only add to the confusion.

“Later. I’ll explain later. For now, let’s just focus on arriving at the Sanctuary.”

“Ugh…”

“Hmph…”

“Booooo…”

And so, on the 51st day since arriving in the Demon Territory.

We finally reached our destination: the Sanctuary.

“…Shall we go in?”

“…We have to. That’s why we came here.”

The party looked up at the massive, spire-like castle rising beyond the clouds for a while. After looking at each other’s faces and swallowing hard, they cautiously pushed the door in front of them.

With a heavy rumble, the silver giant door opened without resistance.

Step, step.

And what met our eyes as we walked inside…

Was a hall so vast that only the word “immense” could describe it.

Wooooooooo…

And a large mirror that sent ripples through space, practically screaming, “I am a Gate.”

And…

“Welcome. To those who have visited the Sanctuary for the first time in hundreds of years.”

…Standing before it was a beautiful woman whose age was impossible to guess.