Ch.120Draig Goch (4)

“Everyone, listen!”

Richard Folshen slammed his shield into the ground.

With a booming sound, the earth trembled. It wasn’t as powerful as when a dragon stepped on the ground, but the resonance was enough to make the subjugation party turn around.

Having drawn everyone’s attention, Richard stretched his hand forward. Pointing to their destination with his fingertip, he strained his neck and shouted.

“Clear the path.”

Orders on the battlefield were always simple and strong. Richard had executed countless operations as a former knight commander. His voice and gestures had the power to lead people.

“Clear the path for the new star to run!”

Najin stood right behind Richard.

His body was battered and covered in wounds. Though he looked precarious, the sword in his grip still shone brightly. Najin adjusted his stance as light trailed from his blade.

The Rank 100 adventurers saw this sight.

The knights saw this sight.

Only Najin’s attacks were effective against the Red Dragon. The boy held the only possibility of turning this situation around. Everyone knew this fact, having witnessed Najin making the Red Dragon bleed.

Thump, thump, thump!

No further instructions were needed.

All that remained was to prove it through action.

Richard began running at the front. With heavy steps, he charged toward the Red Dragon. Following behind him, Najin also began to move.

『————————!』

The Red Dragon had instinctively realized that Najin posed a danger to itself, that Najin’s sword energy was dangerous. It turned its head toward Najin, who had finally risen again and was charging toward it.

Ignoring whether the Rank 100 adventurers scratched its scales or not, the Red Dragon opened its maw wide and roared at Najin.

That radiance, the light gathered on that sword irritated it. A light like a nightmare engraved in its soul. The light possessed by the human who had dropped it underground and sealed it under stone pillars. Feeling both fear and rage, the Red Dragon exhaled the breath it had inhaled.

Breath.

A flash-like flame burst out in a radial pattern. At that moment, Richard, who had been running at the front, slammed his shield into the ground. Blue mana surged over the rare metal great shield that was over 2 meters in size.

He imagined an unyielding fortress wall. The moment his mental image enveloped the shield, Richard became a wall. Najin, hiding behind him, saw the flames failing to melt the shield and splitting to either side.

“It’s hot!”

Richard shouted loudly, laughing.

“But I can endure it!”

He pushed the great shield forward.

He began to advance, dragging it across the ground. Even as the edge of the shield melted and burns spread up his forearm, he pressed forward instead.

As if determined to keep his promise to clear the path.

After Richard had taken six steps, the flames subsided. Richard pointed at the landscape, distorted like a heat haze from the remaining heat. Before he could shout “Run,” Najin had already leaped past Richard and started running.

Najin ran, stepping on the scorching ground.

But the Red Dragon’s struggle didn’t end. As if saying “don’t come closer,” the Red Dragon rotated its body and swung its tail. The tail whipped around like a lash. Trying to move his body to avoid it, Najin realized that the same leap as before was impossible. His ankle was already at its limit.

Running was all he could do.

Jumping off the ground was impossible.

Should he face it head-on then? Najin couldn’t think of a way to deflect that tail. But that worry proved unnecessary.

Twang!

With the sound of a giant bowstring vibrating, a harpoon was fired. The mages belonging to the knights’ order transformed the ground. All of this slowed the approach of the dragon’s tail. Only by a little, but…

“Grizel!”

“Don’t need to tell me.”

“Now!”

That delay was meaningful. Three adventurers jumped up from the ground the mages had transformed. The three adventurers simultaneously swung their blades, charged with mana compressed to the limit, toward the dragon’s tail.

Slash!

Bashen Korte’s greatsword and Grizel Parament’s halberd struck the dragon’s tail. And Roseline Askarlo swung her blade, carrying the echo of their mana.

Keeeeeeeeeeeng!

With a thunderous sound, the dragon’s tail was pushed back for the first time. As the dragon stumbled, losing its balance, Najin gritted his teeth and increased his speed further. The path was open. A gap appeared. It was an opportunity that would never come again.

Najin sprinted toward the dragon’s maw.

2.

Najin had pointed to the dragon’s maw.

From the beginning, Najin’s destination was inside the wide-open maw of the dragon. It wasn’t a method that an ordinary person would think of. It was an even more unthinkable method if one knew the characteristics of dragons.

Because the inside of a dragon was an entirely different world.

Until its death, a dragon carries another world within its body, and the dragon’s mouth is the only passage to that world. And those who step into that world meet a miserable death.

Their flesh crumbles and their souls decompose.

The decomposed souls are absorbed by the dragon and become part of it.

That was a dragon’s meal and digestion. Those swallowed by a dragon become part of it and live forever. They continue an immortal life in agony, never finding peace.

‘But that’s not all.’

When he heard this story from Merlin.

Najin had asked one question. If there exists a world inside a dragon, isn’t it like a mental image? If so, wouldn’t there be a center to that mental image?

Merlin affirmed Najin’s speculation. With a sour expression, she had answered like this:

There exists a dragon’s source in the world inside a dragon, and if you destroy that source, the dragon dies. But it’s not a commonly used method, and in history, only one person has succeeded in this method, she said.

-There is someone who thought of the same method as you.

-An idiot called the Dragonslayer did it.

According to Merlin, the biggest idiot in the world. And according to public evaluation, the great hero who killed the most dragons and stood alongside Arthur.

-The First Sword Master, Siegfried.

The First Sword Master who established the Order of the Sword.

The tale of him jumping into the mouth of an evil dragon and smashing the dragon’s source has been on the lips of countless minstrels. The story has continued to this day, a thousand years after becoming a heroic tale.

So when Najin pointed to the dragon’s mouth. When Richard pointed to the dragon’s mouth and said to clear the path.

Those gathered there realized what Najin was trying to do. Even while laughing hollowly, calling it crazy and suicidal, they willingly opened the path for Najin. Though the probability was slim, if successful, it could completely overturn the situation.

Recreating the myth of Dragonslayer.

Among the many great heroes, the only Sword Master who followed Arthur and reached the same destination as Arthur. Najin intended to challenge the feat that he had achieved.

‘Originally, I would never have used this plan.’

But given the situation, there was no other way.

At this rate, he would die anyway. At the crossroads of life and death, Najin chose to challenge.

Najin glared at the Red Dragon. His eyes, which had been dyed red by the witch, had regained their original black color, and those eyes were looking at the radiance Najin had ignited. With a roar that seemed to tear his eardrums, the dragon rushed at Najin.

As if to swallow that light.

‘If you can swallow it.’

And Najin also rushed toward the dragon.

‘Go ahead and try to swallow me.’

Najin’s sword trailed light. The constellation wrapped around the sword stretched long, following Najin’s steps. His gaze was fixed on the dragon’s maw. Najin leaped without hesitation toward the abyss inside the wide-open maw.

Cutting through the Red Dragon’s tongue and scraping its teeth, Najin stepped onto the base of the dragon’s tongue. Najin took one more step toward the abyss beyond.

…Originally, a feat is something that can be achieved by one who turns their back on life and steps toward death.

At this moment, Najin achieved a feat.

He had always challenged strong opponents, overcome his own limits, sometimes withstood the flames of transcendents, and now, not content with making the completed dragon bleed, he gambled by jumping into the dragon’s mouth.

Of course, these are insufficient feats for each to become a star. Looking at each individually, they might not be feats. They might just be fragments of stars, but…

When they are bound together under the theme of ‘challenge’.

When small and large feats merge into one, it transforms into a feat worthy of heaven’s attention. Heaven acknowledges the feats of humans who overcome limits and challenge. A star rose in Najin’s stellar domain in the sky.

A new star was born.

A new star shone brightly in the night sky.

Despite obtaining the first star he had so desired, Najin didn’t realize it. He was just surprised by the sudden strength entering his dying body. Even that, he considered as a final struggle before exhaustion, and Najin threw himself toward the abyss.

Dealing with this lizard in front of him was the priority.

That thought alone filled Najin’s mind. And so, the moment he entered the abyss. A completely different world greeted Najin. What unfolded before his eyes was the Red Dragon’s mental image and world engulfed in flames.

“Merlin.”

And Najin called out.

“Is this place okay?”

-Do you need to ask that?

The reason Merlin allowed this insane plan.

It was because this place allowed Najin to use his greatest variable.

A place where he didn’t need to worry about anyone’s gaze. A place that could temporarily block starlight. A world completely isolated from the outside. Therefore, a place where Najin could reveal everything he possessed.

Merlin pointed to the source at the center of the Red Dragon’s world and shouted:

-Cut it down.

Instead of answering, Najin grasped the air.

Najin’s eyes turned platinum, and the constellation engraved on his wrist shone brilliantly. Neither the light nor the heat created by the flames filling the dragon’s world could compare to the starlight forming the shape of a sword in Najin’s hand.

The boy grasped the sword of stars.

Above Excalibur, the sword of stars, a platinum-colored sword energy that pierced through mysteries rose brilliantly.

And at that moment.

Among the thirteen stars engraved on Excalibur’s blade, the first star shone.

3.

Inside the Red Dragon.

At the center of that place filled with fierce fire was the dragon’s source and heart. The moment he pierces that, the Red Dragon will meet its death.

But Najin also realized.

Why piercing a dragon’s source in a dragon’s inner world is praised as a feat. Why only the great hero Siegfried succeeded in this method.

Sizzzzzzzzzzzzzzle!

His flesh was burning. Fire clung to his skin. Enormous pressure squeezed his body. This was a world solely for the Red Dragon, and naturally, it rejected outsiders.

The dragon’s digestion had begun.

He was burning up. The moisture in his body was evaporating. His soul screamed, unable to withstand the pressure. A completely different dimension of pain, one he had never felt before, engulfed him. His body, already pushed to the limit, writhed in pain.

Crunch.

Najin gritted his teeth and widened his eyes.

Blood flowed from his eyes. Even as the flowing blood evaporated, Najin tightly gripped Excalibur in his hand. Relying on Excalibur’s recovery power, Najin approached the dragon’s source.

If you can digest me.

If you can swallow me, go ahead and try.

Let’s see which is faster: you digesting me or me piercing your heart.

Stab!

With his eyes wide open, Najin plunged Excalibur into the dragon’s heart. Because he couldn’t put enough strength into it, he couldn’t sever the dragon’s heart in one strike. But Najin had no intention of stopping here.

If once isn’t enough, then ten times.

If ten times isn’t enough, then a hundred times.

The platinum-colored sword energy wrapped around Excalibur pushed back the flames and scattered light. And, as if responding to the will of the master it had chosen, the first star engraved on Excalibur’s blade shone.

By obtaining a star, the boy proved his qualification.

The first power released enveloped Excalibur.

* * *

The Master of Gray Tower, Nayuta, groaned.

Suddenly, the sky became entangled due to the witch’s constellation. The constellations were thrown into chaos, domains clashed with domains, and the sky became a mess.

“Cough, hack, cough…”

Having not stopped the spell that counted the stars, Nayuta had to cough up blood from looking at the witch’s constellation. Wiping the blood flowing from her eyes with a handkerchief and downing a potion, she caught her breath.

It’s a major event. A historic major event had occurred.

Recently, the sky was turned upside down when Excalibur was drawn, Arthur’s constellation and Merlin’s constellation were in turmoil, and now the witch’s constellation too? It felt like historic major events were never-ending.

‘Damn, I wasn’t in a position to criticize Siphria for slacking off…’

Was the position of the Master of Gray Tower not a cushy job? What’s with these historic major events occurring every few months? Groaning, she got up.

Regardless, work had to be done.

She had to observe the entangled sky again, and if there were any changes caused by the witch’s constellation, she had to report them without omission. This wasn’t an event that could be glossed over.

“…”

After staring at the stars for a while.

Nayuta suddenly tilted her head.

“What’s that?”

Her gaze was directed at a star hanging in a corner of the sky. Was that star always there? Is it a star pushed away by the turbulent constellations? No, I don’t think such a star existed…

She cast one spell after another for observation.

Enhancing her eyes with spells and analyzing the flow of the sky, she looked at the star again.

It was a new star.

A star that hadn’t existed before suddenly appeared. Sometimes new stars appear like this, but this star was strange. Nayuta felt a sense of discomfort.

A star that shines so brightly.

And, new starlight was gathering around that star.