91

“…He really is mad.”

David could not keep his mouth shut as he watched Hamel’s actions.

Dragon’s blood, with a single intake, demanded one wager their life.

Like a deadly poison, eight or nine times out of ten it brought death.

Yet sometimes.

Very rarely, beings blessed by the gods consumed dragon’s blood and survived.

They were called dragonians.

But it was no blessing.

‘If anything, it’s a curse.’

David had always thought so.

Even if one barely survived, madness and pain would slowly consume the body.

To escape the pain, one had to continually ingest the dragon’s byproducts, which only worsened the madness.

In short, the fate of a dragonian was decided no matter what.

Most died from the pain because they couldn’t obtain the byproducts.

A very few went mad, greedily seeking the byproducts.

Therefore, dragonions in the records feared madness so much they rationed even a single dose of dragon’s blood over a long time.

But then…

‘What on earth is he thinking?’

David was simply astonished at Hamel gulping down the dragon’s blood.

Wasn’t that practically suicide?

And as expected, Hamel began to writhe in pain.

He looked like he could collapse to the ground and stop breathing at any moment.

Watching any longer felt utterly pointless.

“What a ridiculous ending.”

David clicked his tongue and murmured under his breath.

“Finish him, Karalxis.”

Hearing that, Karalxis lifted his head.

Then, stretching its neck, it unleashed its long-held breath without restraint.

─Kwaaaaaaaak

An intense cold that could freeze even a vast lake in an instant poured down from the sky.

As if intending to freeze everything on the surface.

─Huuuk

The breath Karalxis exhaled caused the snow covering the ground to rise all at once.

A blizzard had temporarily swept the mountain peak.

The breath’s range was enough to cover the entire summit and then some.

‘My foolish brother’s suffering will be over with this, then.’

All that remained was to throw the frozen, dead Hamel to Karalxis as food.

David, satisfied with the mercy he had shown, stroked Karalxis’s neck.

“Well done. Now, enough…”

Just as he was about to order it to descend.

─Huuuk

Suddenly, an overwhelming gust of wind swept by, strong enough to shake Karalxis’s body.

A rough wind rose from below and pushed Karalxis aside.

“What on earth…”

David frowned against the blinding whirlwind and looked downward.

The blizzard that had previously obscured his view was gone.

A clear, open mountain summit.

Karalxis’s breath had reshaped the terrain.

But there was one place unchanged from before.

“…?”

The spot where Ono had fallen.

As if guarding Ono, there stood a person David had never seen before.

A beautiful armor of black and ash-gray.

Sharp, ornate decorations covered him from head to toe.

The helmet he wore covered his entire face.

In one hand he held a greatsword larger than himself.

“What is that?”

David muttered without realizing it.

His voice trembled as if seized by fear.

He did not know why.

Only an urgent alarm sounded in his head, warning him not to approach.

“Karalxis. Fly higher!”

“Grrrrrr.”

But for some reason.

Karalxis did not obey.

Turning its head roughly, Karalxis stretched out its neck, roared, and gathered its breath.

“…Karalxis! Obey!”

“Grrr!”

Despite David’s alarm, Karalxis stood firm, gathered its breath, and unleashed it at the knight in an instant.

And in the next moment.

─Fwooosh

The knight before them lightly swung the sword he held.

Straight at the breath that had been hurled like a vicious blade.

How foolish an act.

David’s face hardened at the result of that act, which he would normally have mocked heartily.

─Shick

With a sharp slicing sound, the breath lost its form.

The knight’s sword had cleaved the air.

As if space itself were being torn, a faint blade-shaped disturbance shimmered in the air.

At the same time, blue flames rose from the knight’s body.

─Huuuk

As if exhaling rough breaths, flames flowed out from the armor.

Through the seams of the cuirass.

Through the visor of the helmet.

Through the gaps in the gauntlet gripping the sword.

Blue flames burst forth unceasingly, sending sparks scattering around.

“Ah.”

David opened his mouth briefly.

That small breath brought many realizations.

That the whirlwind which had blown away the earlier blizzard had been created solely by the force of the knight’s sword.

That the blue flames were the same innate ability he had once seen in his brother.

And…

And that the knight’s identity was Hamel, who had once again swallowed dragon’s blood.

─Flutter

Long silver hair spilling from beneath the helmet fluttered in the wind like a cloak.

Hamel gripped the sword with both hands and slowly raised it above his head.

Something was coming.

David instinctively realized it.

There was no more time to hesitate or calculate.

Everything had gone terribly, terribly wrong.

That Hamel was still alive after drinking dragon’s blood again.

That he had transformed into an unknown form.

All of it had been outside David’s calculations.

He cried out in fear.

“Karalxis! Astra Glacialis!”

Also called the frost that descends from the heavens.

A technique that had made Karalxis known as the lord of extreme cold.

Since it was still only the vessel of a dragon, it would be a severe strain on its body.

Nevertheless, David did not hesitate.

Because the presence of death lay thickly all around.

“Krarararak!”

In response, Karalxis roared fiercely.

From the moment it encountered Hamel, Karalxis had been greatly enraged.

As if irresistibly drawn to that being.

As if trying to devour one another.

Karalxis prepared its fatal strike with all its strength.

With a single beat of its wings, dozens of enormous ice spears formed in the air.

Solid and sharp, each one was more like a pillar than a spear, a lethal blow.

With repeated wingbeats, hundreds of spears densely patterned the sky.

Hamel, sword raised, simply watched it calmly.

And in that brief silence.

─Oooooooooh!

With Karalxis’s roar, countless ice meteors surged down.

Those spears, falling faster and deadlier than raindrops, aimed for only one thing.

The death of Hamel, sword in hand.

And Hamel, watching that, belatedly swung his sword.

At a speed neither fast nor slow.

Yet the sword was swung with perfect timing.

As he swung the blade wrapped in blue flame, Azure Flame traced an arc along the blade and flared up.

That was all.

─Phwoosh

Immediately the entire world was lit by blue fire.

The hundreds of incoming ice spears were engulfed by the blue flames and vanished like summer snow, like a mirage in the desert.

“…What on earth is this?”

It was then that David muttered vaguely.

“Krarararararak!”

Karalxis’s wings also ignited with blue flames.

David cried out urgently.

“…Karalxis! Regain your center!”

The command was futile.

Karalxis spiraled down like a kite with a broken string and fell to the ground.

Then.

─Thud!

A powerful impact struck David.

David could not withstand it and was thrown far back.

“Grrrgh!”

Had a bone been broken?

Pushing himself off the ground with a hand that would not support his weight, David barely raised his head.

In the distance.

A figure steadily closed the distance toward the fallen Karalxis.

David felt an intense sense of déjà vu from those wild, unhurried steps.

‘This is…’

Cold, piercing blue eyes visible beyond the visor.

They were vertically slit like Karalxis’s pupils.

Just like that time.

The day Hamel fought at Haidern’s mansion.

Hamel consumed by madness.

“Ah, damn it…”

David muttered in a low voice with exactly the same feeling as back then.

What stood before him was not Hamel.

It was another dragon wearing a human shell.

A monster of the Age of Gods.

“Krk─.”

Karalxis, struggling, raised its head.

Then, as if in desperation, it snapped at Hamel as he approached.

But Hamel simply walked on and struck the creature’s face.

Karalxis staggered violently and threw its head back.

And finally.

─Plunk

Hamel drove his sword into the spot where a scale had been ripped off earlier by the shadow lightning.

That was the end of it.

─Thud

Karalxis’s massive body fell limply to the ground.

The shining eyes slowly dimmed until they were empty and gray.

Once a dragon.

And the Karalxis, revived as that vessel, was now gone.

─Hoooooook

Its name and power.

Its presence and fame.

Even down to a single scale.

As if a sponge absorbing water, the dragon power contained in Karalxis’s body flowed into Hamel’s sword.

The Azure Flame that covered Hamel’s body flared even darker and bluer.

“Ha… aha… ahahahaha!”

David burst into hollow laughter at an outcome he had not anticipated at all.

What a sight.

Had he betrayed his family and the Mage Tower just to reach such an end?

It was futile and unfair.

He could not let it end like this.

Just as he thought that.

─Step step

Having finished his feast, Hamel slowly walked toward David.

No, it wasn’t Hamel.

It was a dragon.

Had he brought this about as well?

David looked at the being in a distraught state.

Is this how seeing a half-dragon in person would feel?

Aside from the half-dragons and “that” sleeping in the capital, this might be the closest thing to a dragon.

To those crow bastards, this would be an unexpected and deadly rival.

Everything seemed laughable.

Death was unavoidable.

There would be no concept of mercy with the monster before him.

As expected, Hamel closed the distance and raised his sword without hesitation.

As if he had never intended to talk.

“Kill him.”

It was the moment David was letting out a crooked smile and murmuring.

─Swish

Something bound Hamel’s arm and body.

Blue vines unsuited to the snowy mountain.

It was the ability Ono had used moments earlier.

Hamel tore the vines off like straw and slowly turned his head.

There stood Ono, swaying.

Ono wiped the blood from his face and shouted.

“You idiot. Snap out of it! I still have questions to ask him…”

─Crack

Ono could not finish his words.

For Hamel’s enormous sword, as if annoyed, had been driven into Ono’s abdomen.

“…Guhk!”

“What?”

Dark red blood spurted from Ono’s mouth.

David gaped at the unexpected sight.

Hamel turned to look at David without batting an eye.

There was not a flicker in those merciless blue eyes.

For some reason.

It was then that David’s body began to tremble slowly.

He would die.

Now.

Right here.

The emptiness and bravado that had filled his mind moments before turned instantly into fear.

─Click click click click

David’s teeth chattered violently.

“H, Hamel. My brother. Just wait a moment…”

Words spoken despite knowing their meaninglessness.

It was then.

Hamel paused and looked at him.

Could some pity be welling up?

As he looked into his eyes again with desperate hope.

“….”

Hamel’s eyes were smiling.

As if amused.

Only then did David abandon all hope.

For what lay before him was nothing but a cruel death.