Chapter 218
‘Because I am the Queen.’
She raised her gaze.
Under the dark night sky, a Bone Dragon—massive like a mountain range—stood imposingly.
An insurmountable wall.
An impenetrable fortress.
Is this how a mayfly feels when it stands alone against a giant?
‘Useless worry.’
Queen Alicia laughed.
The next moment, she stomped the ground.
Whoom!
She leaped—and the spot she’d been standing on was obliterated.
KRAKOOM!
The Bone Dragon’s massive forepaw slammed into the ground.
An immense shockwave ripped through the earth.
A crater ten meters deep and twenty-five meters across formed in an instant.
Countless fragments spraying in every direction were just a bonus.
“…Hup!”
Hanging in midair, Queen Alicia swung her sword.
She split her sword shadow into dozens of strands, wrapping it around her entire body.
Hundreds of fragments screamed toward her at near-subsonic speed.
They collided with her sword energy.
Clang-clang-clang!
Sparks burst by the hundreds.
She punched through the shower of sparks and charged straight at the Bone Dragon.
“Tss-heup!”
She exhaled roughly.
At the same time, her Mana Heart roared.
And her sword changed.
Screeeech—!
The longsword in her hand screamed like a beast.
It bared hidden fangs and spat out a red flash.
Aura flared—nearly ten times wider than the blade itself.
The resulting Aura Sword was a full fifty centimeters wide.
Its length reached a staggering four meters.
Wielding that monstrous Aura Sword like an axe, she brought it down.
Aiming for the Bone Dragon’s forepaw wrist.
Crack!
Bone that hadn’t even been scratched until now.
But this time was different.
‘It worked!’
The Aura Sword dug about a centimeter into the bone.
From the shallow indentation, black magic gushed out like blood—surging and flowing.
‘It worked, even if just a little.’
A glint lit the Queen’s eyes.
This was different from before, when her attacks had done nothing.
Slight as it was, she had gouged the Bone Dragon’s surface.
What did that mean?
If she did a little better—
If she executed just a little more cleanly—
She could deal real damage.
‘I don’t ask for much. Just one leg. If I can break even that, the Royal Palace garrison can handle the rest. I can do it!’
Rooaaar!
Her Mana Heart roared even harder.
Her movements grew more ferocious, heavier.
Like a muscular beast.
Like a predator that snaps its prey’s neck in a single strike.
She drove her full strength into the ground.
THOOM!
Cracks spiderwebbed through every patch she stepped on.
Cobblestones shattered. Rock split.
Each step was powerful and fierce.
The repulsive force she kicked up—
It launched her body forward like a cannonball.
She poured that power into her Aura Sword.
“Hheup!”
KRAK!
Not an intricate technique—just a sure, solid blow.
She struck the Bone Dragon’s wrist again.
Struck, slashed, stabbed—again and again, harder each time.
BOOM!
Five charges.
Five consecutive blows detonated like bombardments.
Deeper scratches carved into the wrist bone that had seemed like an iron fortress.
Then the Bone Dragon shook its wrist.
“…!”
THUD!
As Queen Alicia prepared the next strike, the forepaw grazed her.
She was hurled thirty meters.
She barely regained her balance.
Landed.
“…Keuhuk!”
She gagged dryly.
It had only been a glancing hit.
And even then, she’d parried with her Aura Sword at the moment of impact, bleeding off part of the shock.
Yet one blow like that had nearly killed her.
‘How can this be.’
Her pupils shook violently.
Even now, her stomach churned, refusing to settle.
Her Mana Heart, battered by the impact, panted heavily.
Suddenly, resentment surged.
‘I trained so hard.’
Ever since the attempted regicide, she hadn’t had a single day of comfortable rest.
Every day, she pushed herself into extremes and trained.
Like someone possessed.
Harder than she ever had while becoming a Swordmaster.
And she had grown because of it.
She was confident she could easily subdue not only her past self, but even Sir Cherny, who had betrayed her.
That confidence had become conviction when she eradicated the remnants of the Black Wizard.
‘I thought it was enough now. But…’
There was a sky above the sky.
No—an insurmountable monster.
The Bone Dragon gazing down at her.
Looking up at it, Queen Alicia realized it with brutal clarity.
‘I cannot match it.’
She had believed she could at least do some damage.
That she could buy time until the Royal Palace garrison organized a response.
Because it was something only she—a Swordmaster—could do.
Therefore, she had to do it.
That she could do it.
That’s what she’d thought.
But—
‘Was even that a misconception?’
Grind.
She clenched her teeth.
She looked up at the Bone Dragon, charging toward her with its entire body.
Its maw yawned wide.
She raised her Aura Sword toward it.
And then—
WHOOM!
A storm of Mana shot in from somewhere in a straight line.
It struck the Bone Dragon squarely in the side of the face.
BOOM!
Its head snapped to the side.
Its charge slowed—just a little.
At that moment, a voice hit her ears.
“Speed over strength. Flanking over frontal assault. I dare offer my assistance, Your Majesty.”
“…!”
Only then did Queen Alicia see him.
Between clouds that parted around a half-revealed moon, a single figure crossed the sky.
He landed on the Bone Dragon’s spine.
Stabbed his sword down.
BOOM—!
A violent explosion followed.
Using the blast, he launched himself again.
In an instant, he dropped beside her.
With a quick, shallow bow, he spoke rapidly.
“My apologies, but—over there.”
“…!”
Javier Asrahan.
The silver-haired knight.
His eyes flicked to one side.
Queen Alicia reacted instantly.
She sprinted in the direction he indicated.
A heartbeat later, the Bone Dragon’s massive maw chewed through the space she’d just vacated.
Crunch!
“…”
She’d dodged.
From that moment on, her counterattack began.
And Javier joined it.
A combined assault by two Swordmasters—rare even in history.
“Your Majesty.”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
“May I say one thing.”
“Given the situation, drop all complex honorifics. Be concise.”
While narrowly weaving through the Bone Dragon’s relentless onslaught, Alicia commanded.
Running alongside her, Javier replied.
“Understood. Then, Your Majesty—rampage on the ground to your heart’s content.”
“And you?”
“I’ll handle disruption.”
“Disruption?”
“I’ll rob the attacks aimed at Your Majesty of their accuracy. I’ll be off, then.”
Whoosh.
Javier vanished with the sound of wind.
No—he was already far away.
A flash.
KRAKOOM!
Detonation struck the exact center of the Bone Dragon’s spine.
It didn’t crack bone.
But the Bone Dragon’s massive body shuddered, if only slightly.
That was enough.
Because the forepaw swinging down at Alicia wavered by a hair.
BOOM!
The blow that should have crushed her slammed into the ground instead.
‘Good. So that’s his plan.’
Having grasped Javier’s intent, a fierce light rose in the Queen’s eyes.
From then on, her enormous Aura Sword rampaged like a wild beast.
She moved aggressively between the Bone Dragon’s front and hind legs, carving scratch after scratch.
But the Bone Dragon couldn’t properly counterattack her.
Because of Javier.
WHOOM!
Unlike the Queen, who could only strike at close range with Aura, Javier had Detonation. Each time he thrust his sword, the force crossed dozens of meters.
Each blast stabbed into the gaps around the Bone Dragon’s joints.
Each time, the massive body staggered.
The reason was simple.
Whenever the Bone Dragon moved, weight concentrated at certain points.
Javier targeted only the most vulnerable joints in those exact moments.
When it swung a forepaw, he struck the opposite elbow and wrist.
When it stepped back, the knees and pelvis.
When it tried to correct its posture, the waist.
Every time, perfect timing.
Every time, the Bone Dragon lost its center of gravity and lurched.
And every time, it missed Queen Alicia—its intended target—by a hair’s breadth.
And the Queen—
She intensified her assault even further.
Charging in with peace of mind.
Roaring like a lion, she danced with her giant Aura Sword.
Meanwhile, her heart beat harder.
‘It’s working. I can do it.’
Hope pulsed through her.
A possibility—small, but real—opened up bit by bit.
The Bone Dragon she hadn’t dared face alone.
The monster so daunting she hadn’t known where to begin.
With Javier, it became possible to face it.
A minimum foothold in the fight had formed.
‘My blade is biting in.’
Not deep.
Even with everything she had, only a centimeter at a time.
But what if she landed a hundred such strikes on the same spot?
That crack would deepen.
‘One meter. That’s enough.’
Wrists and ankles that bore that tremendous weight.
If she carved a one-meter crack there, its own violent movements would widen it—and finally break it.
When hunting a giant beast, you start with the weight-bearing parts.
She believed the Bone Dragon would be no different.
So from the start, she stubbornly targeted only the forepaw wrist.
Slash, and slash again.
Stab, and stab again.
And now, she could glimpse a path to making that hope real.
‘Just a little more. Just a little!’
BOOM! Clang! KRAKOOM!
With Javier backing her—
Dodging the Bone Dragon’s onslaught by a hair—
Striking the same spot over and over, Alicia laughed fiercely.
With her laughter, hope swelled.
A faint premonition of victory flickered.
Until the Bone Dragon suddenly rose into the air.
WHOOM!
Majestic wings unfurled.
One powerful beat—
It happened just as she was about to land her hundredth strike.
So abruptly.
The Bone Dragon stomped once.
Flapped, and launched itself high into the sky.
With one leap and one wingbeat, it soared past three hundred meters.
Queen Alicia stared up in disbelief.
The Bone Dragon flew so freely—so easily—
At a height she couldn’t possibly reach.
Looking down at them leisurely.
“…Lies.”
Is this how an ant feels, losing its grip on an eagle’s ankle it had been desperately biting—now left flat on its back?
Maybe this was a nightmare.
‘How am I supposed to fight something like that?’
No—how was she supposed to stop it?
Queen Alicia stared up at the Bone Dragon in the sky.
And despair fell over her like an insurmountable wall.
♣
Yes. Despair. More of that. Feel it.
Just like I did.
The Bone Dragon spread its wings.
It rose into the night sky like a nightmare, looking down at Queen Alicia on the ground.
The Bone Dragon thought.
No—the soul inside it, the Black Wizard Targa, thought.
‘My expression must have looked like that when my head was cut off in the laboratory.’
Queen Alicia’s face as she stared up at him—
Helplessness.
Despair.
The look of someone staring at a disaster she could no longer handle with her own power.
Black Wizard Targa liked it.
That’s right. If I couldn’t even see that expression, how resentful would I have been?
He had been resentful.
All the way until the moment Queen Alicia killed him.
Until his severed head rolled, scorching, across the floor.
At that final moment, he abandoned his body.
He had no choice.
Because he refused to let it end there.
That was why he transferred his soul into the dragon skeleton stored deep within the laboratory.
A last resort.
A desperate struggle.
Truthfully, he hadn’t expected much.
Even generously, he’d put the chances below ten percent.
But it worked.
His soul transferred.
It settled inside the dragon skeleton.
And so he surrendered his human form.
From that moment on, a long wait began.
Time for his soul to take root inside the bones.
Months passed.
And today—
He opened his eyes, having obtained a new body.
But the result was far beyond what he’d imagined.
‘…I didn’t know it would show this level of power.’
So strong.
Perhaps a little short of a true Bone Dragon.
Maybe only a crude imitation.
Even so, he could toy with a Swordmaster Queen like an insect.
And this was with a body he’d only just started moving—one he still wasn’t fully used to.
‘Practice walking is over.’
Those monotonous forepaw swings end here.
From now on, I’ll play with you properly.
Black Wizard Targa laughed savagely.
He focused on the unfamiliar sensation of beating wings.
The more he did, the higher the Bone Dragon climbed.
Below, Queen Alicia stared up.
The grand garden.
The Royal Palace beyond it.
The cityscape of the capital, Magenta.
It all looked like a toy—like an insect city.
Or rather, it felt as if he had become omnipotent.
In a word—
I feel like a god.
It was exhilarating.
Like he could do anything he wanted.
He wanted to destroy everything that stood in his way.
Especially Queen Alicia.
‘How dare you cut off my head? This is the price. You’ll be unable to die or live as this entire capital burns and collapses, and you watch every tragedy unfold.’
The soul inside the Bone Dragon laughed cruelly.
He was now familiar with wingbeats.
Preparation for true slaughter was complete.
Now, it was time to enjoy it.
Time to destroy and kill everything in sight.
Hehahahaha!
He lowered his massive head.
Folded the wings that had stirred the air.
And began a steep dive.
No—he was just about to.
When an unexpected being dove toward him first.
“Ggoming!”
Screeeek!
‘…Huh?’
A white shape shot down like an arrow from beneath the night clouds.
Plump.
Modest wings.
A round head, and bright, intelligent eyes.
That was—
‘A sparrow?’
A sparrow larger than a person.
And yet, it wasn’t unfamiliar.
A report from long ago surfaced in his mind.
Right after the major operation in Namaran failed.
According to the after-action report from the agent planted there, someone had attacked the Black Wizards while riding a sparrow on the day the operation was carried out.
That person’s name was—
‘Lloyd Frontera?’
The moment Black Wizard Targa recalled it, Lloyd—diving with Ggoming—shouted and threw something at him.
“Take this for now!”
Whip!
Something flew toward him.
No—an animal.
An ordinary beaver.
Targa felt absurd.
‘…’
What is this?
In this situation?
Throwing a beaver?
What exactly is he trying to do?
And then—
Fwoomp!
…!
The beaver ballooned to an enormous size.
A full hundred meters.
Its massive belly fat jiggled as it swelled.
Without giving him time to react, it wrapped both arms around him.
“Bibeong—!”
Huh?
Bibeong captured the Bone Dragon in an instant.
A 3,000-ton hip-body-press from that chubby mythical beast—
Executed at an altitude of 2,500 meters.