Ch.208207. Pattern

# 207. Pattern

The Dragon’s Head.

The symbolism of this name is extraordinary.

It represents the world’s strongest being, an absolute entity that should never be disturbed.

For this reason, most people never even thought of challenging it.

Except for him.

For a long time, he had been secretly plotting.

To bring the Dragon’s Head beneath him and take its place for himself.

Of course, this path was not easy.

It wasn’t merely “difficult”—it was an impossible task.

Yet he had made the impossible possible.

“Haa… Haa…”

He exhaled rough breaths.

Beneath him lay countless corpses.

The smell of blood from his subordinates and dragons permeated the air.

But the truly important thing wasn’t just that.

What really mattered was…

“Finally done… How does it feel to become my subordinate? Solomon?”

That he had achieved his desire.

With an arrogant smile, he stroked the head of the monster that had finally bowed to him.

“Do you know how much I sacrificed to witness this sight? Even now, haven’t my cherished subordinates perished?”

The executioners of the Babylonian Kingdom.

They were “comrades” he had cared for and nurtured in his own way.

And those comrades had departed from this world.

“Couldn’t you have just submitted after that first attack?”

Yet he didn’t seem to mind at all.

The joy of having Solomon become his subordinate outweighed the sorrow of his comrades’ deaths.

Besides, the more significant ones like Agareus were still alive, so he had reason to be elated.

“Fortunately, Your Majesty… we were able to complete the operation without major injuries…”

Indeed, Bael’s body was relatively intact.

Though he had wounds across his body and was low on magical power, that was the extent of it—there were no life-threatening injuries.

But the situation was different for his comrades.

Excluding those who had died, Amon and Agareus were in particularly critical condition.

Marbas was bandaging the two men, whose conditions were so severe they could die at any moment.

Looking at his struggling comrades, he spoke.

“How is everyone’s condition? Can you move?”

“That would be impossible, Your Majesty. Everyone’s condition is beyond just ‘not good.'”

Upon hearing Marbas’s words, he continued staring in the direction he had been watching, stomping his feet anxiously.

Agareus observed this behavior.

“What’s wrong?”

“We need to escape, right now.”

“What…?”

His urgent reaction.

Only then did they realize what situation they were in.

“Don’t tell me…? Those guys?”

“They’re coming this way, at an insane speed.”

“How many are there?”

“Not many, but still far more than us.”

He looked at the cursed dragon that still wouldn’t obey his commands.

“If only that thing would move properly…”

Even though he was a top-tier necromancer, the monster he was trying to control was also top-tier.

It would take considerable time to control it at will.

“This is the worst…”

He sighed deeply and approached Solomon again.

Then, as if having no choice, he reactivated the magic circle that had been drawn originally.

“Your Majesty…! Aren’t you already at your magical limit?!”

“Hey, Agareus.”

“Yes?”

“Bring that here.”

Agareus was quite startled by those words.

But he quickly regained his composure and began carrying out the order.

From a bag prepared by him—a bag enchanted with storage magic—he took out bottles filled with something.

Agareus brought these numerous bottles to him.

“A wise decision, Your Majesty.”

“Tch… To think I’d have to rely on such things… This battle is truly the worst…”

Bael, who had first used a staff, was now using potions—human items.

The original Bael would never have done this.

But the unbelievably grim situation had changed him.

“Well… if I want to live, I have to do even this.”

His pride must have been wounded.

But this was what the situation demanded.

For the sake of his comrades who had struggled so far, for his country, and for himself, he had to do this.

“Damn it!!”

He drank the potions Agareus had brought without discrimination.

-Gulp! Gulp!!-

He kept drinking frantically.

The magical power spreading from his mouth through his throat to his entire body was clearly not his own.

Yet that magic was absorbed into his body as if it had been his all along.

“It’s hot… Is it always like this?”

“Yes, that’s how it normally is.”

Magical power obtained at the cost of his pride.

Bael felt it throughout his body.

A much stronger stimulation than the comfortable feeling his original magic gave washed over him.

He exhaled roughly again.

“Not bad…”

***

The remnants of powerful magic that suddenly enveloped the Kainis Empire.

These remnants, evidence of Bael’s plot, set the once-quiet empire into motion.

“This is fucked, isn’t it?”

“You could say that.”

Even the Emperor acknowledged that a major crisis had occurred.

And because of that, they were moving as quickly as possible to reverse the situation.

“Couldn’t we have detected this somehow?”

“How could we possibly have known about this?”

It was something that should never have happened and couldn’t have happened.

They might have imagined it, but the probability of it actually happening was practically zero.

That’s what this situation was.

“That’s true… But you… you’re pretty fast?”

I was running at the same speed as the Emperor, Marco, and Amelia.

Of course, this probably wasn’t their top speed.

“I hope you’re not holding back because of me?”

“Does it look like we are?”

“I guess not.”

They all seemed to be struggling with their breathing.

Everyone was having a hard time.

Especially those two.

‘Must be tough.’

It would definitely be difficult.

Running at their maximum speed like this.

We moved ahead of the others.

Toward the place where he would be.

‘We’ve been running for about five hours?’

Only after running that long did our destination start to come into view.

The Emperor stopped when the ravine came into sight.

“Let’s walk from here.”

We needed to conserve energy and ensure safety.

We didn’t know what might be waiting for us here.

Marco, who also stopped like the Emperor, was apparently quite exhausted as he was breathing heavily and gripping his knees tightly.

“Lean on me instead of your knees. We need to move quickly.”

“Thank you…”

Hearing those words, Marco leaned on me.

I supported the exhausted Marco and followed behind the Emperor.

“But will just us be enough? Shouldn’t we have at least brought the Crown Princess?”

“Now that you mention it, maybe we should have…”

The Emperor regretted it now.

But it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

If we had brought her, we would have arrived even later, or someone would have been extremely exhausted.

“We’ll manage… right?”

“What do you think?”

“It shouldn’t be too bad. The enemy must be quite exhausted or might have been annihilated by Solomon.”

Claiming victory against Solomon… that would be truly absurd.

But it wasn’t entirely impossible.

The strongest of the Babylonian Kingdom are no less formidable than us.

I don’t know who they brought, but for something of this magnitude, they wouldn’t have come unprepared.

“What’s the possibility they defeated Solomon?”

“It exists, considering that magical power from earlier…”

They had clearly prepared meticulously.

Even for someone like Bael, that magical power was suspiciously vast.

“Wasn’t Bael’s magic originally not that powerful?”

“Right… Even if it was his unique skill, that level… doesn’t make sense?”

But that’s not what’s important right now.

The Emperor and I increased our pace.

Thinking about that possibility, we couldn’t just keep walking.

‘We’ve been walking for about 30 minutes?’

We finally reached the ravine.

However, this place looked quite different from the ravine I knew.

The ravine I knew was characterized by its impressive green natural landscape.

It definitely was…

“The situation seems pretty serious. Let’s run now.”

Green natural landscape? No… the ravine had turned to ashes.

The scene before us was so alien that I doubted whether this was the same lush place I remembered.

“….”

“The original appearance… is gone.”

Moreover, there should have been gatekeepers patrolling the area.

But now, even those gatekeepers were nowhere to be seen.

We ran.

Following the remnants of that magic as quickly as possible.

The deeper we went into the center of the ravine, the more intense the aura became.

And that aura reached its peak when a massive life form came into our view.

“No way…”

A body as massive as a mountain, with skin that looked too thick to be pierced by any blade.

And the enormous magical power emanating from that body confirmed its identity.

“Solomon…?”

As if answering my question, the life form turned toward our location.

Its appearance was exactly as I remembered.

Except for one thing…

“The pattern…”