Draconic Language – 2

No matter how ragged it was, there was a world of difference between wearing something and wearing nothing. While I was momentarily flustered by the sudden strip show, I soon realized that there was something strange about the woman’s body.

There was nothing on that body.

First of all, her body itself was closer to female than male. Her chest had breasts the size of her head, properly attached, and her overall curves, including her pelvis and thighs, were also like that.

However, things that should naturally exist in a human did not exist.

Her shoulders were flat like iron plates, and her breasts, as large as her head, were just round lumps of flesh without nipples or areolas.

Her belly was also identical to her shoulders, and below it, even her navel had disappeared. The same was true even for the place where the fissure symbolizing femininity should have been.

It wasn’t like a human body at all, but rather a mannequin with breasts.

The woman, seemingly unfazed by her own body, opened her mouth calmly.

“My body…… hold it…….”

“……Hold it, you say? Where-“

“It’s fine…… I’ll do it myself…….”

The woman grabbed my hand firmly and pulled me towards her. Then, she pressed down on her chest with my hand, as if to make me grasp it. Her breast, pressed by my palm, flattened considerably to the side, changing its shape.

It felt less like touching a breast and more like touching a rubber ball the size of a breast. Both its appearance and texture were like that.

It’s nothing to be proud of, but I’d touched countless breasts before.

“Stay still…….”

Something hazy seemed to cover the woman, who had closed her eyes, and then a change occurred.

The soot and grime on her skin disappeared. Wounds drenched in blood were filled in, and bloodstains cleanly evaporated. It was a sight as if time had been rewound.

The woman, who had finished restoring her body in an instant, opened her eyes.

“You can let go now…….”

As soon as I let go, her breast, which had been pressed down by force, bounced back elastically, regaining its original shape. Looking at it now, it truly was a perfectly spherical breast, as if mass-produced in a factory.

The woman stood up straight. Since she was wearing nothing, her back was clearly visible. It was indeed similar to a mannequin. There was nothing that a normal person should have.

Clothes appeared and covered her body again. It was closer to something resembling clothes, crudely stitched together from fabric, but at least it could cover her exposure.

“The woman who came with you…… I need to help her…….”

The woman, who had turned back with an urgent voice, tilted her head, looking at me as I calmly stood up. Her expression showed that she couldn’t understand why I was so unconcerned.

“That woman…… aren’t you going to help her……?”

“No. I don’t think we need to help her.”

Because the sound of fighting had stopped being heard for some time now. The woman listened to my words, looked up at the sky, and then her eyes widened in disbelief.

Minerva was completely overwhelming the dragon.

Flame chains that had wrapped around the Human Scaled Dragon now coiled around the black dragon’s body. As the chains tightened, its flapping wings gradually weakened. That one couldn’t break the flame chains either.

The dragon thrashed wildly, desperately trying to break the chains, but they only tightened more firmly. The areas being coiled around gradually increased.

Soon, the flame chains’ grasp extended to its neck. The dragon, with its neck coiled, thrashed a few more times before finally, once its entire body was completely bound, it fell helplessly.

Thump! Earth and sand scattered around. Its body was so absurdly large that it was like rain made of dirt.

Minerva, who had sealed its mouth with chains, gently landed in front of it. The dragon, completely bound and subdued by the flame chains, writhed violently.

‘……Was Minerva that strong?’

I was slightly surprised internally.

Of course, by the lore, the Eternal Mage is indeed strong. But dragons, too, if you go by the lore, were formidable beings. To the extent that they were treated as natural disasters.

Even if the Human Scaled Dragon was caught off guard, as if struck by lightning while sleeping, and couldn’t properly react because it was in a daze, wasn’t *that* one just rampaging, trying to kill the woman?

To have suppressed a dragon that was rampaging just moments ago head-on, it made me see Minerva in a new light.

Minerva, who had lightly floated the staff she always carried in front of the dragon on the ground, walked towards the two of us.

“It’s finished, child.”

“You worked hard, Minerva-nim.”

“It was nothing, so you can keep your thanks.”

At first glance, it seemed like a polite remark, but considering her unruffled breathing and the overflowing composure she still possessed, it might have been genuine rather than mere politeness.

“Is this woman the dragon the child spoke of?”

Minerva’s silvery-white pupils turned towards the woman next to me.

“That’s right.”

“She looks more normal than I thought. But…… not below. It feels less like a human form and more like an imitation of a human.”

Minerva seemed to have instantly grasped the state of her lower body, which was covered by clothes. At our conversation, the woman’s eyes widened again.

“You…… you know me-“

The woman’s words could not continue. It was because the dragon had started to go wild. Yellow lightning leaked from its mouth, which was tightly bound by flame chains. Seeing that, Minerva approached the dragon.

Minerva lightly waved the staff she had suspended in the air. A restraint, shaped like a muzzle, was placed over the dragon’s mouth. Its mouth twitched again, but no lightning leaked out.

The woman next to me had a very stoic expression. Even though she was looking at a fellow dragon that had just tried to kill her, she showed surprisingly no change in expression.

In fact, considering she had that same expression even when she was on the verge of death, she might just be unable to properly express emotions.

The woman muttered softly.

“Helthra…… why are you doing this…….”

Helthra. That was the name of the Lightning Breath Dragon in the game.

Its full name was Helthra, the Drinker of Lightning, and since there was no possibility of two dragons having that name, it was indeed the dragon I knew.

‘It seems to be the right one, but why did its appearance change like that?’

The woman, who had been stoically staring at the dragon stuck in the ground and tightly bound for a while, suddenly seemed to recall something and slowly bowed her head towards us.

“My thanks are late…… Thank you for saving me…… If you hadn’t come…… I would probably have died…….”

“Why were you attacked? Was there a reason for it?”

“I don’t know either…… It suddenly came to me and said strange things…… and when I said I didn’t like it, it attacked me…… Its appearance also changed like that…….”

“Are you saying it wasn’t originally like that?”

Nod, nod. The woman nodded her head.

“Yes…… It originally had gray scales and gray eyes…… but now it’s strange…… It feels somehow evil…….”

‘As expected.’

That dragon’s appearance hadn’t changed due to a mod like other people’s. Its original appearance was the same as in the game, but it had changed due to some reason.

Even if I didn’t know what that reason was.

“It also said things I couldn’t understand…… like ‘break free from the false god’…… and ‘find salvation’…….”

“Ha.”

False god, salvation. As soon as I heard those keywords, a gasp involuntarily escaped me. My voice was quite loud, so Minerva, as well as the woman who had been deep in thought, turned to look at me.

“Child, what is it?”

“Just now…… why……?”

“I’ve seen someone in hell who said the exact same things that one just said.”

I clicked my tongue internally. I had a feeling something was amiss when their appearances were similar, but it was clear they were indeed connected to that guy.

“Really? No, the child wouldn’t lie, so it must be true.”

“Hell……?”

Leaving Minerva, whose trust in me was about to pierce the sky, and the woman, who was terrified by the word ‘hell,’ behind, I approached the dragon.

Between the tightly fixed muzzle, yellow lightning still swirled beneath its teeth.

“At least, this isn’t a story to be told here. So, you…… hmm, it’s awkward to keep calling you ‘you.’ What’s your name?”

“Pareunari…… You can call me Pareunari…….”

“I understand. Pareunari-ssi, is what you said earlier still valid? About killing this one.”

“That’s right…… It tried to kill me anyway…… and it’s impossible to communicate with it…… even if I let it live like this…… it’ll just repeat the same actions…….”

It was a surprisingly firm decision.

“And…… I’ve checked…… its soul is already corrupted…… putting an end to its life like this is helping it…….”

Its soul is corrupted, she said. I cautiously asked.

“You just said its soul was corrupted, but was it perhaps stained black and red?”

At those words, the woman who introduced herself as Pareunari looked startled.

“How…… did you know……?”

“Because another dragon’s soul was the exact same color.”

“Another dragon, you say…… Kekus……?”

“I didn’t know its name, but it was a dragon with white scales and human corpses plastered all over its body.”

“Yes…… that’s Kekus…… Seeing that you saw its soul…… you killed it, didn’t you?”

“Yes. If you’re upset about that or anything-“

Pareunari shook her head from side to side before I could even finish my sentence.

“That one…… liked to treat humans like toys…… so it has no right to complain even if it dies…… When you kill humans…… you should be prepared to die by human hands…….”

“In that case, I understand. Minerva-nim?”

“Understood, child.”

Minerva tilted her staff slightly. Just as she had done with the Human Scaled Dragon, the surrounding space slowly began to converge. The dragon twisted its body this way and that, but there was no escape.

Soon, a large hole was pierced through its chest.

The dragon’s body went limp. Its breathing was growing weaker. Before its breath completely ceased, I lifted the Wingless Nightmare and plunged it in.

Along with the sensation of my mind being sucked somewhere, just like last time, my eyes opened in a completely pitch-black space. I looked around. It wasn’t very difficult to find Helthra’s soul.

Because its condition was much more severe than the Human Scaled Dragon’s soul.

While the Human Scaled Dragon’s soul was still recognizable as originally blue, Helthra’s soul was so corrupted that I couldn’t even tell what its original color had been.

It was completely black, with something red sprouting like tiny blood vessels all over it. Its appearance felt even grotesque.

For a moment, I felt a sense of unease, wondering if I should absorb this, but before I could even finish my deliberation, Helthra’s soul seeped into my body.

I opened my eyes in the exact posture of having stabbed its face. Helthra had already stopped breathing. Minerva transferred its corpse to the magic tower, just like last time. She said she’d be very pleased to have two dragon corpses.

Finally, with only the three of us left, Pareunari looked around with a gloomy expression.

“I want to treat you as guests…… but everything’s burned away…… I have to rebuild it from scratch…….”

“Magic is-“

I inadvertently started to open my mouth, then quickly closed it again. Last time, the Draconic Language had burst out right after I absorbed the Human Scaled Dragon’s soul, so there was a possibility it would happen again.

Seeing that, Pareunari looked as if she wondered why I was acting that way, then nodded as if something clicked.

“If it’s because of the Draconic Language…… you can speak…… I’ll control it for you…… Is that why you came to find me……?”

“Yes. It’s because of the Draconic Language.”

“Since you helped me…… I naturally intended to help you…… but my situation is like this right now…… I’m sorry I can’t properly host you…….”

“You don’t have to be sorry. I didn’t come here to be hosted anyway, and since I’m in a position to receive teaching, I should be the one giving. But what about magic? Can’t you restore it with magic?”

“Magic…… it’s not omnipotent…… There are things it can’t do…… For example…… building a house…….”

Minerva used it for everything, though. Thinking that, I glanced at Minerva, and a beaming smile returned. It meant she could, of course.

Somehow, it felt like the relationship between the dragon and the human had been reversed.

“In that case, how about we move to another location?”

“Move……? Where……?”

Minerva, who had been observing the situation, suggested that. Pareunari wore an expression of genuine curiosity.

Minerva’s face bore her usual beaming smile.