Chapter 116: The Festival of Stars: Rebirth and Annihilation

Unlike me, who was shocked by the massive dragon head and the true nature of this mountain, the other three Dragonbloods acted as if they were familiar with this place.

They poured out the food and liquor they had brought and quietly bowed their heads before it.

I glanced around, wondering if I should follow suit, when a hazy and unstable figure began to emerge from the mouth of the large dragon head.

And at that moment, I understood.

Even though the shape before me wasn’t clearly defined, I realized this was the final lingering thought the dragon had left behind.

Could one even communicate with something like this—something that couldn’t even maintain its form after all these years?

Jeokmun, Cheongshim, and Jeokpung all bowed their heads as though they were used to this ghostly thought of the dragon.

“Oh, great progenitor of the Dragonblood lineage… Your descendants have come to ask for your aid.”

[Come closer…]

Still… perhaps a dragon is a dragon.

Contrary to my expectations, the hazy thought seemed to have retained its ego. The thought responded to Jeokmun’s words with a clear voice.

“Ah, yes…”

Jeokmun began walking slowly toward it in response to the voice, but apparently, the dragon’s thought wasn’t calling for him.

[Not you.]

“Then…?”

[That child over there… bring them here…]

It seemed the thought of the dragon was calling for me. I frowned and instinctively took a step back.

That so-called Kashpa’s lingering thought had once frozen nearly a thousand people with a single breath.

This dragon’s thought, now showing itself before me, might also be hiding some terrifying power.

“Ran. Come here.”

It was Jeokmun. He was gesturing for me to come forward.

“Can’t we just talk from here?”

“What are you saying… Have you not heard our ancestor’s voice?”

“No, I heard it…”

I frowned and placed my hand on the sword I had brought. A sense of foreboding crept up on me—no, it was certainty.

The dragon-like senses I’d honed were warning me.

[Come here… Come here… Come here…]

The voice repeated the same phrase over and over like a broken record.

The trembling mana gave it a grotesque tone.

“Ra-Ran! The ancestor is angry!”

Jeokmun shouted urgently.

Cheongshim, face pale, kept glancing back and forth between me and the dragon’s thought.

Only Jeokpung stepped back, keeping his distance from the dragon’s thought with a look of clear displeasure.

Then, the dragon’s thought, which had been wavering in the air, suddenly vanished.

Everyone blinked in surprise as it disappeared without a trace.

And then—

The mummified body of the former head of the family, who had been placed closest to the dragon’s head, slowly began to rise.

Crack-crack-creak!

“Wh-What in the world…!”

“Grandfather’s body…!”

Cheongshim and Jeokmun stared in shock at the moving mummy.

The mummy was draped in the blue robe symbolizing the Blue Dragon Clan.

With every movement, grayish scales crumbled and fell from the aged corpse.

Its dried-up body groaned with every forced motion, yet the mummy did not stop.

[Come here…]

“This is insane…”

I recoiled in horror and drew my sword.

The dragon’s thought hadn’t disappeared.

It had simply entered the mummy and was now controlling it.

The moment the mummy’s long, shriveled eyes lit up with a blue glow, a frigid chill began to spread in the air around it.

“Jeok Clan Head! Cheong Clan Head! When you entombed the former clan leaders here, were they all in this half-formed dragon state too?”

Jeokmun and Cheongshim exchanged hesitant glances at my question.

After a moment of contemplation, Jeokmun finally spoke.

“Hmm… their bodies only took on this form after being laid to rest here…”

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

[Come here…!]

I cursed and swung my sword at the mummy charging toward me.

The moment the wide arc of my blade ignited in crimson flames, the shriveled mummy was sliced cleanly in two.

“G-Grandfather…!”

Cheongshim screamed in despair, his face pale.

Even with its body split in half, the mummy of the previous Blue Dragon Clan leader kept writhing on the ground.

It crawled toward me using its remaining arm.

Watching this, I finally understood its intent.

This dragon’s thought wanted my body.

The dragon’s mana that filled the surroundings began to resonate with the mana within my own body, and vague memories started to pour in.

The memories carried by the mana revealed many things to me.

After the dragon’s death, an immeasurable time had passed.

There was no way a mere fragment of thought could have survived all those years.

And yet, the thought remained by the corpse’s side.

It watched the mountain rise with the passage of time.

Left behind to protect this land, the thought began to question its own existence.

Time continued to flow.

The thought, separated from the dragon’s mind, could no longer be called a dragon.

Time had worn down its spirit.

The thought eventually vowed to live for itself.

It wanted to return to that radiant form once more.

And so it built this shrine and began using the beastkin who had settled atop the dragon’s corpse.

It generously shared its knowledge with them—all to create a new body for itself.

That time… is now.

“Hmm…”

Jeokmun and Cheongshim still looked frozen in confusion, but Jeokpung clenched both fists and glared at the reanimated mummy.

He was quick to grasp the situation.

[Give me your body!!!]

As the revived Dragonblood mummy flapped its wings, the entire shrine was filled with scorching hot wind.

Instead of immediately cutting down the reanimated mummy, I swung my sword toward the others that looked like they were about to come back to life.

“Hyaaaah!”

With a loud roar, my blade unleashed searing flames, setting the brittle mummies ablaze.

Severed heads fell to the floor as the remaining bodies began to burn, spewing black smoke.

Jeokmun and Cheongshim screamed in horror.

“H-Haaaagh!”

“No!!!”

In that moment, the Dragonblood mummy—once gray—began absorbing the surrounding mana.

It was the one moved by the dragon’s thought.

Crack! Crack!

The absorbed mana breathed life into the Dragonblood mummy.

Its withered body began to swell, and color returned to its scales.

Its long tail whipped through the air, summoning a pillar of red flame.

As the bright red scales gleamed and the once-gray wings also ignited with red fire, they regained their original hue.

[KRRRAAAAAH!]

Even when this unknown Red Dragon Clan leader had been alive, they probably didn’t look like this.

It was clear the dragon’s thought had altered the body to suit its own needs after inhabiting it.

Fwoosh!

The thought-being vanished in an instant.

It had used mana to move at high speed—a level of physical enhancement that disregarded any strain on the body.

Crack—!

Of course, there was no way a body that had already died could withstand that power.

The moment the vanished thought-form reappeared behind me, scales cracked and crumbled off its body with a brittle sound.

Boom—!

I barely managed to block the thought-form’s strike with a hastily raised sword.

Red scales scattered off its body where the blade had connected.

In that instant, the thought itself began to creep toward me through the part of the body that had touched the blade.

An instinctive sense of revulsion surged up inside me. I recoiled in horror and shook it off.

Close combat was off the table…

Fwoooosh—!

At that moment, as if to fill the empty space, Jeokpung descended from the sky.

Wreathed in immense flames, the heat radiating from his entire body melted everything around him.

Perfect timing. While Jeokpung engaged the thought-form, I took the opportunity to widen the distance and began drawing mana.

There was no need to control the overwhelming heat of Kalvain’s mana.

Unlike when I had fought the Death Knight in the dungeon, I now possessed mana capable of withstanding Kalvain’s fire.

As the circle of my heart began to spin, Kashpa’s frost gathered toward my right hand and Kalvain’s flames toward my left.

Rumble—!

The entire mountain began to tremble from the surge of enormous mana.

The key to using magic lay in a clear image.

A hazy imagination born from a short incantation couldn’t compare to the vivid memories from pictures or video.

The inner world I had constructed of starlight began to spin rapidly.

As a single small star floated into existence, the faint figure of a young boy appeared, radiating a bright light.

At that moment, Jeokpung, who had been fighting the thought-form, was blown far backward. I didn’t let the opportunity slip away.

Magic born from the union of extreme frost and searing flame.

A spell so powerful it didn’t exist in this world, named the Grand Annihilation Spell.

“Hyat!”

As the two opposing mana’s merged into one, a massive storm erupted, and a colossal beam of light shot forward in a straight line.

KWAOOOOOH—!

I had no doubt about the spell’s power. It would annihilate everything it touched—even the lingering traces of thought no longer tied to a physical body.

That unwavering belief became the source of the spell’s strength.

As the beam of annihilation spread forward, devouring everything in its path, nothing remained before it.

A gaping hole had been punched through the shrine’s ceiling, and a massive wall had vanished.

The deep gouge in the mountain was the only sign something had once been there.

“Hah… Haha…”

Jeokpung’s breathless laugh echoed faintly behind me.

Jeokmun and Cheongshim stood dumbfounded, their expressions dazed, as if they had no idea what had just happened.

Naturally so. From their perspective, it must’ve looked like a little girl with the blood of dragons had just gone berserk, shattering the corpses of former clan leaders.

Still, the fact that they hadn’t tried to stop me meant they must’ve sensed something.

They’d chased me all the way here for the dragon scale enshrined in the temple—and this was the end result.

As I sighed, a mix of relief and disappointment, the ground began to shake.

RUMBLE—!

A dreadful certainty, like a vision of the future, flooded my entire body.

The moment I hastily drew in mana, the ground beneath me flipped upward, and the massive head of a dragon shot into the sky.

Only bones remained of the gaunt dragon, its upper body now exposed.

As a strange light flickered in its hollow eyes, its massive front leg came crashing down toward me from above.

In a flash, dozens of spells raced through my mind and vanished.

I had to find one—something that could protect me and activate instantly.

Time stretched into fragments. As if flipping through hundreds of photos, frame by frame, I stomped down hard on the ground beneath me.

Thud—!

Immediately, my mana circle spun at high speed, drawing forth starlight mana.

But I was too late. The moment the spell activated, I realized it.

[Abbreviated Inner World Manifestation]
[Of the Star—]

A massive shock shook my entire body.

The spell I’d been preparing shattered as the dragon’s front paw made contact, and its thought-form began to seep into me.

Swept away by the thought, my consciousness started to sink into the depths.

Silence fell, and all sensation faded from my body.

A small shard fallen from the soul of the dragon—its thought, which couldn’t even recall its own name—let out a thunderous roar.

The plan it had crafted over countless ages had finally succeeded.

It had reclaimed a dragon’s body, and would now begin restoring its once-glorious form.

The first thing the dragon’s thought recognized after entering the girl’s body was the space it now occupied.

A pitch-black void. It floated alone in that space, untethered.

The moment the dragon’s thought became self-aware, its body began to take shape.

Once vague, its form grew vast, wings unfurled wide, and a long tail swept through the darkness to assert its presence.

And yet, even having regained the brilliant form of its past, it found nothing.

Not even the original consciousness of the body it had seized.

As it hurled question after question toward itself, the dragon’s thought spotted a flicker of light in the dark.

The moment it recognized it, the light began to multiply—radiant brilliance streaming through the void like a mighty river.

It didn’t take long to realize that each of those sparkling lights contained an entire world of its own.

The shock was immense.

The scene was beyond comprehension, and the dragon’s thought could no longer continue thinking.

Soon it understood something.

It was small. So very small. In a space filled with brilliant stars, it was not even a speck of dust.

“I’m really glad.”

The girl’s voice rang out suddenly. The thought didn’t even have time to react.

It hadn’t sensed her approach—hadn’t noticed anything. Even now, seeing her with its own eyes, it could hardly believe it.

The dragon’s thought flared its wings, releasing a threatening aura.

But that pressure never reached the girl.

“Do you know this? To manifest your inner world externally, you have to first dominate the space with your own mana.”

The dragon’s thought couldn’t understand.

Worn down by ages, its mind could no longer form complex thoughts.

But it understood one thing for certain.

Entering this girl’s mind was a terrible mistake.

“But here, that’s not even necessary.”

As her voice faded, her small fingers formed a hand seal.

[Full Inner World Manifestation]
[Festival of the Stars]

Following the girl’s will, countless stars gathered.

Too many to take in with just the eyes, each world within them brimming with the power of gods.

On either side of the girl, who stood atop flowing starlight, the flames of annihilation that could burn the world, and frost that could freeze even time itself, took form.

She gestured toward the dragon’s thought. In this place, anything she wished was possible.

Two stars, responding to her will, overlapped and devoured the dragon’s thought in a massive explosion.

When I came to, the first thing I did was check my body. Arms and legs—intact.

The horn atop my head and the sharp fangs—still there.

Just in case, I checked my mana circle too. No problems there.

Carefully, I pulled aside the luxurious silk blanket draped over me.

Plop.

A plump tail covered in red scales slipped off the bed.