Ch.135Undead King Elder Lich – 3

“How does it feel, child?”

“Um… it’s amazing?”

“Hehe. I’m glad you like it. Hold on tight so you don’t fall.”

A honey-sweet voice filled with affection flowed into my mind. The chairperson, who had inquired about my well-being with the gentlest tone imaginable, gradually increased speed.

Sitting firmly on the middle of the dragon’s back, feeling the rushing clouds and cold wind against my face, I was reminded anew of just how enormous Mahbat truly was.

The chairperson had personally declared that compared to Mahbat, her own size was nothing special. If that was the case, I wondered just how massive Mahbat must have been. Even from a distance, it was clear he was an absolutely monstrous creature.

I slowly stroked one of the scales near my thigh, each one larger than my palm. There was no particular reaction.

It made sense that stroking a single scale on a dragon the size of a house wouldn’t elicit a “What are you doing?!” response. If that weren’t the case, something would have felt off from the moment I climbed onto its back.

‘Am I the first human to ride on a dragon’s back?’

Logically speaking, dragons wouldn’t offer their backs to just anyone, and the chances of that someone being human were even slimmer. Even among dragons who sided with humans, Meligor was the first. And probably the last as well.

“Have you ever carried anyone else besides me?”

“My, are you jealous? How cute, child. Don’t worry. You’re essentially the first.”

“Essentially, you say?”

“I once tried to carry Eres. She was excited at first, but as soon as we rose into the sky, she cried and made a fuss about being scared, so we had to come right back down. You’re the first I’ve carried while actually flying through the sky like this.”

It felt inappropriate to respond carelessly to an old story, especially one involving a daughter she had raised like her own child who had met a tragic end. I simply replied with a brief “I see” and kept my mouth shut.

The chairperson had strangely misinterpreted the intention behind my question and was smiling to herself, but it was too late now to explain myself.

“How do you plan to find the Life Vessel?”

I asked, partly to change the subject. A remarkably cheerful voice flowed into my mind.

“What do you think a Life Vessel is?”

“Isn’t it the source of life for an Elder Lich? That’s why they can resurrect perfectly no matter how many times their body is destroyed, as long as the Life Vessel remains intact.”

“That’s right. You understand well. Since you used the expression ‘source of life,’ think a bit more. Don’t we dragons also have an organ that could be called a source of life?”

“…You couldn’t mean the Dragon Heart…”

“Correct. Since they are fundamentally the same concept, Dragon Hearts and Life Vessels instinctively view each other as competitors and try to devour one another. I plan to use that to our advantage.”

Dragon Hearts and Life Vessels being fundamentally the same concept—it was something I’d never considered. So that’s why Elder Liches participated in turning dragon corpses into undead. They were a kind of competitor.

“Is there any chance you might get devoured instead?”

“Hehe. That’s excessive worry. Just as dragons are superior to Elder Liches, Dragon Hearts are superior organs to Life Vessels. For me to be devoured, I’d have to literally rip out my heart and offer it up, so there’s no need to worry.”

“That’s a relief to hear.”

“I’m happy you’re concerned for me, child. Now I’m going to speed up a bit more, so hold on tight to something, alright?”

The passing scenery accelerated. The wind whipping around my body grew fiercer. Even the red-glowing clouds were rushing past at tremendous speed.

After some time, the sky turned blood-red. It was a signal that we were beginning to enter the heart of the demon realm. The chairperson’s voice echoed in my mind.

“I see more and more corpses looking up at the sky now.”

I carefully shifted my position to look down. Even with enhanced vision, everything on the ground appeared smaller than grains of millet.

They were so tiny and passing by so quickly that I could barely distinguish what was what.

“Is that a good sign?”

“Half and half, I’d say. It means they’ve noticed us, but also confirms we’re heading in the right direction. Ignore what’s on the ground. They can’t reach me anyway.”

Indeed, we were flying at a height where the imperial palace looked like a tiny dot, so it was fair to say that ordinary undead without magic had absolutely no means to strike us up here.

“So they’ll send out something else, won’t they?”

Right after her voice echoed, something dense appeared directly in front of us. I narrowed my eyes. Undead wyverns were flapping their rotting wings, approaching us.

They had sent out so many that they not only filled our front view but extended diagonally to both sides. Even at a rough estimate, there must have been well over a thousand.

“It seems we’ll have to fight at least once. What will you do, child? Will you handle it yourself? Or shall I take care of it? If we go a bit further, my breath will reach them. They won’t come close enough to avoid my breath, though it might take some time…”

“I’ll handle it. Please focus on flying. We need to reach him before he escapes with the Life Vessel.”

“Whatever you wish, child. I could grant even greater favors.”

“Alright. Then…”

“Could you wait a moment? It might be uncomfortable to use magic from behind my back. Come up to my head. You’ll have a better view from there.”

“What? There’s no need for that.”

I wasn’t planning to drag this out anyway. I’d be crazy to try and defeat all those wyverns one by one. I needed to end this with an area-of-effect annihilation spell.

“…Are you sure you don’t need to?”

The chairperson’s voice became desperate. It was strangely tugging at my conscience. Well, it was true that from behind, I’d have to estimate positions a bit due to the neck and wings.

I didn’t understand why she was insisting, but there was no harm in obliging. I used magic to pull myself up and landed between the chairperson’s horns.

“Ugh…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing at all. Hehe, to have my head trampled by you—it gives me a strange feeling, but my heart is racing.”

Trampled? Did she really need to use that expression? I repositioned my feet with a sour expression. Her body was so large that the empty space between her horns was more than enough to accommodate me.

As I touched one of her horns to move to an angle where my diagonal view wouldn’t be blocked, an urgent voice rang out.

“Child?!”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I did it without thinking. I just realized I shouldn’t touch the horns.”

I quickly apologized.

I had thought it would be fine since they were much larger than my height and seemed unaffected by the headwind, but apparently dragons weren’t much different from other horned species in fictional works.

I wondered what kind of setting Laura had created. I heard she wrote most of her settings on the spot since her novel focused primarily on entertainment—perhaps this was one of those.

“I-it’s fine. I’m sorry. I was just a bit startled. Now that I’m mentally prepared, you can touch them as much as you want. If it’s you, anything is…”

“Um… okay. I understand.”

From my position with a clear view of the spread-out wyverns, I secured my footing and prepared my magic. Mana rapidly flowed out of my body, and a large magic circle appeared in the air. Blue pigment mixed into the red sky.

I inserted my own formula into the completed spell system of this world. Thousands of existing magical formulas and my newly inserted formula interlocked like gears.

“Area Annihilation Magic: Eternal Karma – White Flame.”

A white sun rose in the red sky.

The wyverns closest to the sudden white light sublimated without leaving even a scrap of flesh. They accounted for about half of their numbers.

Naturally, the remaining half weren’t safe either. Those who barely avoided sublimation were engulfed in white flames, becoming their own kindling, and turned to ashes before they could even fall.

Even those at the very edge, who neither sublimated nor burned in the flames, suffered the same fate. They were bleached white by the mere heat radiating outward and fell endlessly toward the ground.

“Excellent, child.”

The chairperson crossed right above the white sun with a pleased smile.

“Both as the chairperson of the academy you attend and as your… guardian. I can’t help but praise such magic. Are you alright? No mana exhaustion?”

“Yes. I’m fine.”

I answered while shooting down the few survivors who had barely escaped the massacre from the very edge. They exploded without even making a sound.

If I were the type to suffer mana exhaustion from just one area annihilation spell, I wouldn’t have made it this far.

“That won’t be the end of it.”

“Indeed. I agree. Compared to their stored numbers, what we just saw barely qualifies as an advance party—eek!”

When I leaned back against her horn, the voice in my head suddenly rose in pitch. I pretended to brace against the wind and embraced the horn with my right arm.

“W-we don’t know when the next enemy might come! Why don’t you prepare for battle instead, child?”

“…”

“Child?!”

Was she genuinely sensitive, or was she embarrassed by the mere fact of having her horns touched? Seeing this reaction made me even more curious.

‘I wonder if she’d let me touch them when she’s in human form too?’

While I’m at it, I could ask what this all means.

We landed on the ground that was blazing with flames.

Originally, this land had been a swamp of rotting flesh, stench, and undead corpses, but after the chairperson spent hours pouring out her breath, it had transformed into a barren wasteland of a different kind.

“This should be sufficient. For now.”

The chairperson was still in dragon form. She said it was because she was embarrassed to show her polymorphing process.

There was also the practical reason that staying in dragon form would make retreat easier if something went wrong. Though hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that.

“I hope we can end this here.”

“That would be nice. The faster we finish, the fewer human casualties there will be.”

As the Elder Lich had said, he had unleashed undead along “all” borders between humans and demons, resulting in tremendous casualties at frontlines without the Hero, Sword Saint, or Durahan.

Even though those three were exceptional, they couldn’t defend all borders simultaneously. Even after they cleared one area and left, new undead would immediately appear, forcing them into a war of attrition.

Even the Sword Saint could do nothing but clear one area as quickly as possible and move on to the next with equal haste.

Magic barriers were useless. Somehow, the undead were being summoned from inside rather than outside the barriers, rendering them ineffective.

‘No wonder he’s a Legion Commander.’

This was the background behind the Emperor so readily permitting an agreement with a Demon Lord’s Army Legion Commander. In a situation where every single soldier was precious, such a force had voluntarily come to their aid.

“But where is the Life Vessel…?”

“It’s coming right there.”

“What?”

I turned my head. In the distance, I could see an undead army approaching, numerous enough to cover the horizon. Having seen this sight so many times, it wasn’t particularly surprising. What mattered was the figure at the front.

A beautiful woman who looked nothing like an undead—anyone would think she was a living demon—sat on a bone throne carried by undead, wearing only a cloak as she led an army of rotting corpses.