novelraw Chapter 146
Chapter 146
Chapter 146
Tang Seogyeom! That name was mentioned from Teacher’s mouth. Along with the unbelievable statement that he had been his immediate disciple.
“Don’t tell me you even know that name… Then it seems it wasn’t a lie.”
The fact that Teacher had not only been Tang Seogyeom’s disciple—his own father—but even knew his true name rather than ‘Dant Ser Geiorn’. At this, Yuwon was even more shocked than when he had realized Teacher’s true identity was a dragon.
“You must have guessed to some extent too. That’s why you realized it the moment you saw the mural here. Do you think I taught you intuition for no reason?”
Only then did everything make sense. The power Teacher possessed—power even Yuwon could not gauge—and even how such a person had taken Yuwon in under the pretext of a debt owed to Aphahiel in the past.
“So that was it… That’s how it happened. But then… how on earth did your fates cross?”
At Yuwon’s question, Teacher drew a faint smile.
“It would take long to tell, but I’ll explain it briefly. It seems you’re not the type to enjoy old stories, after all. You would know, wouldn’t you. The name Bhalsar.”
“Hah, don’t tell me that person….”
The great magician Bhalsar. If the knights had General Geiorn, then the magicians had Bhalsar. The legendary great magician who had appeared one day without warning alongside General Geiorn, guarded the First Emperor’s side, and helped found the Empire.
“Yes. That was me.”
A dragon from legend existed, and the last dragon had learned martial arts from his father Tang Seogyeom—so this much was hardly surprising.
“So it really was… Now that ridiculous facility you created in the underground cavern beneath the library finally makes sense. If you’re a dragon blessed by mana, it wouldn’t be impossible.”
Yuwon recalled the underground cavern’s facility, boasting such perfect completion it was as though a piece of the continent’s ecosystem had been cleanly cut out and placed there. An arrangement Tang Seogyeom had prepared for a successor who would follow after him someday. And the very one who had helped him was standing right before Yuwon’s eyes.
“But just saying you were Bhalsar still doesn’t explain enough. How did the two of you even meet?”
“It probably doesn’t feel real because I look like this… I’m a dragon born of mana and blessed by the power of it. When Tang Seogyeom came to this world from another, I sensed an alien influx in the dimensions. I had lived through eons long before the story this mural speaks of, but it was the first time such a thing had happened, so I found it interesting and followed after him. At the start, it was a kind of amusement.”
“If your tail grows too long, it gets caught. Since you kept company with him enough for the name Bhalsar to be plainly recorded in the history books… You got caught in the end.”
Whether he had a lot to say, or whether he believed there was no need to hide it anymore, Teacher—no, Bhalsar—admitted it without a hint of discomfort.
“That’s right. When he first came here, he wasn’t much to look at, but he greedily drank in this world’s mana, and using this world’s knowledge called ‘martial arts’ as a foundation, he became an inhumanly extraordinary being in no time. I thought I could deceive him to the end, but when he became a decrepit old man, I was caught red-handed. Back then, he was… far too strong to be called human. Strong enough that I couldn’t fool him, you see.”
It seemed his memories with Tang Seogyeom had been quite pleasant for Bhalsar. As he recalled the past, Bhalsar smiled faintly.
“Well… then we can leave the unfinished old story for next time. If you don’t go back up soon, it seems you’ll have trouble cleaning up the aftermath.”
“The aftermath?”
“Ah, you didn’t know. Up above, it’s in an uproar. It seems the river is quite excited because its master appeared after several hundred years.”
Bhalsar spoke of what was happening upstream of the river after he had taken Yuwon in. Until the moment Yuwon had entered, the river had been as calm as a lie, so it was something Yuwon could not have known.
Then, with Yuwon before him, Bhalsar shifted his gaze to the mural on the ceiling. At that look, the round jewel embedded at the center of the sword Tang Seogyeom held aloft at the mural’s edge was torn free and sucked into the air, drawn onto Bhalsar’s palm.
“…So that’s it.”
“Yes. This is what you were looking for. Come and take it.”
“But what exactly is this? It feels like it contains some extraordinary power, but….”
It truly did. Yuwon’s intuition—no, the serpent that coiled and lived in the deepest part of Yuwon’s blackened heart, the Black Serpent—was thrashing as if it had delicious prey right before its eyes.
“It’s the source of power. Also the reason that creature, no more than a serpent, could become so strong. You’re finding it a little late—something you should have gotten after cutting it down—so it might be odd to call it my gift. In any case, that creature didn’t know how to handle it properly, so all it could do was slowly absorb power while staying near it… but you’ll be different. The river is proving that.”
Bhalsar’s long explanation was not the answer Yuwon wanted. Yuwon asked again.
“So what is it?”
“…Are you asking because you already know something?”
“A source of power. Something like this can’t have just appeared out of nowhere.”
“…Your instincts are sharp. It’s the corpse of a dragon that liked the river. It has no name, but since it came from inside it… shall we call it a Dragon Jade (龍玉)?”
A loneliness surfaced on Bhalsar’s face as he continued. As the last dragon, perhaps he had remained here and taken it upon himself to be his clan’s gravekeeper.
‘A dragon… He must have known Teacher too.’
“Something like this… Is it really okay for me to take it?”
“It’s better than it wandering around without a master and causing trouble. It’s time it found a use. Don’t feel burdened—take it. It’s not even that great an item anymore, since mana was absorbed by the monsters that lingered beside it for a long time. More than anything, the river—no, that one—wants you, doesn’t it?”
Bhalsar’s words erased the last trace of hesitation in Yuwon’s heart. Yuwon nodded once and accepted the Dragon Jade from Bhalsar.
“Alright. Then I won’t refuse.”
The Dragon Jade, a crystallized mass of condensed mana. The moment it touched Yuwon’s hand, it emitted a strange light and seeped into Yuwon’s body.
“Ugh…!”
A sudden influx of tremendous mana made Yuwon flinch in surprise for a moment. But there was nothing to be shocked about. The mana contained within the Dragon Jade was so clear and pure that it flowed into Yuwon naturally, without any rejection. Yuwon gently closed his eyes and calmly entrusted himself to that flow.
A natural motion, like rain gathering into a puddle, the puddle becoming a stream, and that stream heading toward a river and the sea. Yuwon’s Dantian became a great sea (大海), naturally embracing that current.
‘As expected of power gathered by a dragon. It’s this pure… If it’s like this, it’ll be easier than I thought to—.’
But things did not go as easily as Yuwon thought.
‘Tch, damn it! Of course. There’s no way it would be this easy!’
Unlike Bhalsar’s claim that it was nothing special, the Dragon Jade was indeed special. The torrent-like influx of mana made Yuwon’s Dantian tremble, swelling as though it would overflow and shatter.
‘The problem wasn’t anything else. The problem was the amount.’
Even if it was water so clean you could drink it at once, if that water was deep enough to drown a person, then it was a different story. After all, someone drowning couldn’t survive by drinking the water.
‘There has to be a way… I have to do something, anything….’
After that, Yuwon’s consciousness did not continue. When Yuwon was driven into a crisis from an unexpected direction, Yuwon’s sense of self shut off his consciousness as part of a defensive mechanism.
Thud
Yuwon, who had barely been standing on his two legs, crumpled right where he was.
He might have caught Yuwon as his legs gave out, but Bhalsar only watched him quietly.
“Even if he’s Seogyeom’s descendant, I thought it was strange for someone that young to be this strong… So who are you. You. Whoever you are, you hid in there well.”
Bhalsar muttered incomprehensible words toward Yuwon, who had already lost consciousness. And yet, from unconscious Yuwon, a chuckle could be heard.
“Heh heh, so I was found out.”
The language exchanged between the two—no, the two beings—was not human speech at all. Dragon Tongue, long vanished into ancient history. And not only Bhalsar; Dragon Tongue was spilling from Yuwon’s mouth as well.
“How amusing. To think there was still a dragon alive… I thought I had eaten them all….”
He borrowed Yuwon’s vocal cords, yet the voice was not Yuwon’s, spreading thickly throughout the temple. Now that it had been caught, there was no point hiding it. The being that had been tightly hidden within Yuwon’s black heart spread its ominous presence without restraint.
“Don’t tell me… y-you…! Why are you still…!”
Of the dragons that had naturally perished because this world’s mana had grown scarce, not even two-tenths were the truth. As far as Bhalsar knew, what had pressed the dragon clan to the brink of annihilation was a predator. The ‘Primordial Serpent’.
And yet that creature—supposed to have died by Geiorn’s hand—was standing right before Bhalsar’s eyes. Borrowing Yuwon’s body! With a foul smile at the corner of his lips, it opened its mouth.
“Ah… I know who you are.”
At the sticky, chilling voice—like a serpent sliding past one’s ear—Bhalsar felt fear for the second time in his life. This unbelievable scene unfolding before his eyes brought fear to the last survivor of the noble dragon clan.
“A creature I spared because there was nothing to eat….”
Yuwon smacked his lips as he stared straight through Bhalsar. No—something borrowing Yuwon’s body stared straight through Bhalsar.
“You’ve grown a lot, haven’t you?”
An eerie green light flashed at the corners of Yuwon’s eyes.
Realizing the identity of the thing that had taken over Yuwon’s body, Bhalsar glared at Yuwon with a terrifying gaze.
“You… just when… since when were you in there.”
At Bhalsar’s question, the serpent answered readily.
“From the moment Geiorn’s sword pierced my heart, I was with him.”
“Then why not Geiorn, but Yurion… Don’t tell me… even though your body turned to dust, you used such a filthy method—clinging to Geiorn’s descendant and existing as a lingering thought?”
The serpent’s answer came back sharp as an awl.
“Watch your words. You lizard brat. What would you lot born of mana know. You should be grateful that you have somewhere to return to. I am different from you. Do you think I, who was born by swallowing mana in the first place, would have a place to return to after death?”
This was something even Bhalsar was hearing for the first time. After death, everyone turned to earth and returned to the land, returning as mana—such was the law of the world. But for a dead life to be rejected by mana was impossible.
“Then… you were a being that couldn’t even die as you pleased…?”
“Yes. I am one who devours mana. As long as mana exists in this world, I cannot be extinguished.”
“Then… clinging to Yurion was….”
“Entirely against my will.”
The serpent’s answer delivered a fresh shock to Bhalsar. More than anyone, he knew a being like the Primordial Serpent would not lie like humans did.
‘Unless it simply refuses to answer what it doesn’t want to say… it isn’t a lie. Just how much does mana hate you….’
Bhalsar, too, had lived through ages far longer than recorded history. Pushing aside his shock, he continued calmly.
“As you know, Yurion is Geiorn’s descendant. Then why… why is it that you, who died by Geiorn’s hand—no… who lost your body—are helping Yurion?”
“Don’t you lizards, in your endless long lives, feel boredom and indulge in amusements? I, too, merely borrow this one’s body to escape boredom.”
“What…? You’re saying all of this is nothing but amusement? You expect me to believe that?”
“Believe it or not is up to you. But you should know this. A abyss that continues through eons—one where you cannot even be extinguished—is truly long and tedious enough that even I tremble in fear. But you, who wasn’t satisfied with playing at amusements beside that Geiorn bastard and now even smears your spit on Yurion, wouldn’t understand it even if I told you.”
“Then surely… it isn’t for revenge, or anything like that?”
The serpent’s answer that followed at once explained the unknown reason the descendants of Reqil—Yuwon’s maternal line—had died young.
“There weren’t just one or two descendants of Reqil who couldn’t endure my power, the authority of devouring, and died. Well, I didn’t particularly aim for it, but… that’s enough revenge, isn’t it. I’m simply… curious how far this one can go. Who knows—he might even overcome death, something even that inhuman Geiorn couldn’t.”
At the serpent’s answer, Bhalsar snorted.
“No matter if he’s Geiorn’s descendant, immortality for a human? Don’t be ridiculous.”
As if Bhalsar’s answer didn’t matter, the serpent shrugged. Of course, the shoulder shrugging was Yuwon’s shoulder.
“Well. You’ll find out whether it’s long or short once you compare it. In any case, don’t worry. I won’t let this one die. So stop worrying uselessly and just watch. Brat. If you don’t touch me first, I won’t have business with you either.”
The serpent never revealed that Yuwon, like Geiorn, was a being who had crossed over from another world. The serpent had no intention of telling that secret known only to him and Yuwon to some lizard like that.
‘No matter what, I can’t trust a crafty lizard. Don’t worry. Yurion—no… Tang Yuwon. Even if you lose consciousness for a while, you won’t die. As I have until now, I’ll protect you here.’
A dragon born blessed by mana, and its opposite—‘the Primordial Serpent’, a being born in the abyss at the beginning, swallowing mana. The Primordial Serpent and the last dragon engaged in a strange battle of nerves with Yuwon between them.
“We’re not glad to see each other, but let’s end the conversation here. Move. If you leave him like this, Yurion will die. You don’t want that either, do you.”
“And what can you do… I should just devour the mana—.”
“Enough. That would make taking the Dragon Jade meaningless. I will hold the mana in Yurion’s stead. If I do that, then as he has until now, that bastard will soon grow like a monster again and come reclaim the mana he left with me for a while.”
The Primordial Serpent spoke as though it were familiar with such a thing, as if it were not the first time. The Primordial Serpent—no, the Black Serpent—filled Yuwon’s vacancy again after a long time, for Yuwon who had lost consciousness.
It seemed the conversation was already over, but Bhalsar stopped the serpent one more time.
“Fine. Your words must carry weight as much as I do, so I’ll believe them. But why are you going that far…?”
“Didn’t I tell you earlier. It’s just amusement. It’s fun, isn’t it? He’s the descendant of Geiorn, who killed me even without my help. This one, Yurion, is even more of a genius than that Geiorn bastard. Aren’t you curious how far he can go, once he has my help?”
“…?”
At Bhalsar’s face full of doubt, the serpent sent him a smile.
“That’s enough. You just don’t interfere—just watch.”
The serpent swallowed words he did not particularly want Bhalsar to hear.
‘If nothing else, that much is certain. He’s not the sort to be satisfied with something like an emperor of a human-made empire. First, King of the River, and next, King of the Great Jungle. After that, probably… he’ll head for the imperial throne, the fate of you humans. Yes, and then what comes after? Show me that. Tang Yuwon.’
Then, within Yuwon’s body, the authority of devouring possessed by the Primordial Serpent manifested. Surging mana poured into a bottomless pit of an abyss whose depth could not be known.