Chapter 54
The colossal dragon.
A being born wicked, the root of strife in the world.
For a monster like that, prohibition was nothing less than ascetic torment.
After thousands of years of indulging in slaughter, being unable to destroy anything left it restless beyond words.
“You damned wretches.”
The dragon raged.
It seethed with resentment.
No matter how much fury boiled inside, it couldn’t unleash it by destroying.
And worst of all—
“My enemies… are already dead.”
Its blood boiled hotter.
That wrath turned wholly toward the Forest and Rock Tribes.
“Did you think I’d just sit idle? If I can’t kill you myself, I’ll make you kill each other. You’ll fight, you’ll torment one another forever.”
The dragon sowed conflict.
Through the polymorph spell, it became the High Elf Queen.
With brute force, it claimed the dwarves’ chieftain’s seat.
Two so-called leaders.
Volcanus and Serphin.
“People of the Rock Tribe! The elves hide the relics of our great Dmir! Does that sound just? Look! This is what happens when we lack strength! Raise your weapons! Reclaim what is rightfully ours!”
The Rock Tribe rose first.
Naïve spirits who only knew how to craft fell easily for the dragon’s words.
Their anger flared.
They cut off weapon supplies to the elves and armed themselves with powerful anti-elf artifacts.
The Forest Tribe responded in kind.
“People of the forest, prepare yourselves! The Rock Tribe is invading!”
Though she was the dragon in disguise, the High Elf Queen cried out.
“Those ingrates! How dare they betray us—the ones who bore the greatest burden sealing the wyrm? Are the minerals of the stone lands not enough to sate their greed? People of the forest, know this: there are no eternal allies. Raise your weapons! Show them who the true rulers of this world are!”
The hundred-year war ended.
The five-hundred-year war began.
And through it all—
The dragon searched for a way.
“This damned prohibition. I will break it.”
It tried spell after spell, ritual after ritual.
But Dmir’s words echoed:
—Unless another is offered in sacrifice, the prohibition will never lift. For all eternity.
The dragon fixated on those two words: *another being.*
“What kind of being?”
Who must it sacrifice?
Was it a bluff?
No, it was far more likely the condition of the ritual.
That was the nature of such sorceries: strange, intricate, bound by heavy costs.
And so the dragon obsessed.
For decades, for centuries, it sought that answer.
At last, it found it.
The clue lay in the black orb sealed in the altar.
[Orb of Prohibition]
[Offer an outsider as sacrifice.]
[The seal will be undone.]
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The curse slipped out of me before I realized.
An outsider.
Not someone of this land.
Not even of this dimension.
I understood instinctively.
“But I’ll find one.”
The dragon never gave up.
“I’ll find a way.”
Relentless.
It performed rituals to summon an outsider.
It fueled them with the endless war.
So the centuries dragged on.
Five hundred years.
—
Clap, clap, clap.
Serphin—no, the dragon—smiled as she applauded.
“You can’t imagine.”
Her lips stretched into a grin so wide it was grotesque.
“How long I’ve waited for this moment. How joyous this day is.”
A High Elf’s fair face twisted in that grin was nothing short of monstrous.
“…So it was true.”
Dagnard shook his head in disbelief.
“All the war… all the suffering… born of one creature’s deceit.”
“…”
His voice was hollow, his eyes dulled with resignation.
“To think the leaders of both tribes were the dragon itself. It’s a disgrace to our history. Or perhaps… it won’t even be history. Perhaps it ends here, with us.”
He muttered like a man facing an unscalable wall.
“Perhaps nothing will remain at all. We’re already as good as dead.”
He slumped down with a sigh.
“You don’t need to worry so much.”
“What are you saying? That’s a colossal dragon! It lured us here, and now it means to sacrifice us. Am I wrong?”
“Come now. Weren’t you the one calling me a wicked dragonkin earlier?”
“I half-doubted it then. Now I don’t.”
He gave a weak laugh.
Not one of joy.
“But still… I’m glad to have met you. Thanks to you, I know the truth. Ha… yes. Better to die knowing the truth than live forever ignorant.”
“You’re not dying.”
This was only the beginning.
“That dragon—if it could kill us, it would’ve already.”
“Hm?”
“You know as well as I do. The prohibition. It can’t.”
Oddly enough, I felt calmer now.
Up until this point, I’d been more anxious.
Why?
Because of the “unmeasurable” difficulty rating.
But the truth was, everything so far hadn’t matched that level.
At best, maybe A-rank.
But a dragon?
A colossal wyrm consuming the world itself?
‘This is the real quest.’
Fear comes from the unknown.
But once known, fear shrinks.
I stared hard at Serphin.
She met my gaze in silence.
And in her eyes—there was wonder.
“Ah… so the outsider truly exists. Do you know how thrilled I was when I first found you in Titan?”
“That’s just creepy.”
A shiver ran down my spine.
The thought that she’d chased me out as Volcanus only to welcome me back as Serphin—
What a deranged, two-faced monster.
“Don’t misunderstand. I bear no ill will toward you. The elves, the dwarves, they disgust me. But you? You I’m grateful for.”
“Grateful?”
“Yes. Because you’ll be my sacrifice.”
She covered her mouth and laughed.
A dainty gesture, revolting on the lips of a dragon.
Slowly, she raised her hand.
The air trembled as power surged into the altar.
Rumble…
The dragon’s seal shook. Dark blue energy pulsed through the runes etched into the floor.
“Damn it! The monster really means to sacrifice us! What do we do?”
Dagnard scrambled to his feet, panicked.
He’d just resigned himself to death minutes ago, and now he clung to life.
“Wait.”
“Wait? What could you possibly be relying on to stay so calm?”
What?
“Your ancestor.”
“…What?”
Roooar!
The dragon’s power flared, filling the air.
“Dmir was a wise dwarf.”
The very space trembled.
“Would he have mentioned ‘another being’ for no reason?”
“That’s…”
The altar glowed dark blue.
The ritual reeked of foul magic.
Energy seeped into the black orb.
“Be still, and become my sacrifice.”
Serphin’s lips curled higher.
But I wasn’t afraid.
Because I already knew.
[Orb of Prohibition]
[Briefly awakens the power of the dead.]
The orb wasn’t meant to offer me up.
It was meant to awaken the dead.
‘This is the system’s power.’
And here, the dead could only mean…
Fwoosh!
The orb lit up.
Mana built up over centuries poured forth like a flood.
[The souls sealed in the Orb of Prohibition awaken briefly.]
[Searching for corresponding vessels.]
Clatter, clatter!
Two skeletons rose in the air.
Bone Three and Bone Six.
‘Of course. I knew it’d be you.’
I smiled.
Just as I’d guessed.
Eldrin reborn as Bone Three.
Dmir reborn as Bone Six.
[Bone 3 temporarily awakens as Eldrin.]
[Bone 6 temporarily awakens as Dmir.] (T/N: Damn, I was about to rejoice lol. )
“What is this…?”
The dragon realized too late.
“You… who are you?”
The two stood before it.
“You bastards!”
Its High Elf face twisted grotesquely.
Murderous intent filled the chamber.
“Hahaha. Dragon, we meet again at last.”
Dmir laughed.
Eldrin nodded beside him.
“For five hundred years, all we could do was watch. Agonizing… but you’ve done well.”
“Indeed. Even an enemy like you is worth respect. To draw an outsider into this world… impressive.”
Two heroes, returned, speaking lightly as if they were sharing tea.
Veins bulged on the dragon’s brow.
“You dare…”
Whummm!
Power surged again.
“You dare defy me twice!”
The ground quaked like an earthquake.
“Bah, laughable. You can’t even crush a pebble anymore.”
Dmir chuckled, lifting the hammer from the altar.
“Oh-ho. Still here, are you?”
Eldrin calmly raised her bow.
“As sturdy as the day you gave it to me. Five hundred years, and not a crack.”
She glanced at me.
“So, you really are the outsider?”
The two ignored the dragon.
And indeed—
It blustered, but could do nothing.
“…”
Dagnard’s eyes darted, trying to make sense of it all.
“Greetings.”
I faced the two heroes, the absolute rulers of their age.
Whumm, whumm!
Dmir swung the hammer experimentally, then spoke.
“Introductions later. Let’s bind the lizard first.”
“I agree. It’s been hoarding energy for five centuries… makes sealing it easier.”
“How long can you hold it?”
“Perhaps a week. No longer.”
“That alone is remarkable.”
He nodded.
For a beast like that, even a week’s seal was luxury.
“Back then, even a minute would’ve been too much.”
“You cursed pests!”
The dragon turned to flee.
It couldn’t kill, so it chose escape.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Clang!
The dwarf slammed his hammer down.
A scroll shot out like a ball.
He caught it, ripped it open.
[Energy Barrier (A-rank) deployed.]
A wall of light cut off the dragon’s escape.
“Go on. Break it. Ah, but you can’t, can you?”
“What trickery is this!”
The dragon recoiled.
Once, it could have shattered such a barrier like a twig.
Now, even that was impossible.
“There’s nowhere to run.”
Swish, swish!
Eldrin’s arrows glowed with moonlight.
They flew, halting in the air around the dragon.
“At least for a week.”
“Graaahhh!”
The dragon’s roar shook the altar.
Eldrin met its fury with steady eyes.
“Five hundred years late… but let’s enjoy our reunion.”
Her words carried calm.
But her gaze burned with rage.
The rage of a mother against the beast that had tormented her children for centuries.