Chapter 226
Translator: AkazaTL
Pr/Ed: Sol IX
***
Chapter 226. War (3)
“What is supposed to be different?”
I asked the question.
“If it were my father, he never would have gone out there.”
“…….”
“Even when everything collapsed because of his own karma, he wouldn’t return because he was too busy swinging that damned sword. No matter how desperately we cried out for him, he didn’t show up—only came back after everything burned down and nothing but ashes were left. If it were that man, he never would have made the choice you did.”
‘My father.’ Liam Karavan.
The Liam Karavan that Leon Karavan spoke of felt like a different person from the master I knew. My master sometimes showed a strange side, but he also had his easygoing moments, and he possessed human warmth. But the Liam that ‘Leon Karavan’ described as a father was different somewhere.
“Arhan Karavan, remember one thing.”
“…….”
“Flames do not break.”
Flames do not break—those were the last words I heard as my consciousness grew faint. Without taking his eyes off me, Leon Karavan asked another question.
“One last question. Why did you decide to meddle?”
“……Because that’s the natural thing to do. And.”
“And?”
“Steel Blood grows stronger the more it is struck.”
I meant it. I had only been able to reach the Golden Vault thanks to the help of the Dwarves. Without them, I wouldn’t have made it this far. So helping the Dwarves who had devoted themselves to me so they wouldn’t be wiped out was a matter of principle. Above all, if I turned my back on them, I wouldn’t be able to accept my own actions. And I simply couldn’t choose an “action I couldn’t accept.” Never.
Besides, Steel Blood grew stronger the more it was struck. I had only used it briefly, but 「Matchstick」 was far too powerful and overwhelming for me to fully handle in my current state. I needed to grow a little more to completely digest it. And Liam had said it: the Karavans always grew with hardship. Like steel, they became harder the more they were hammered.
I decided to follow that teaching.
Leon Karavan snorted at my answer.
“Steel Blood grows stronger the more it’s struck, huh. That’s the saying I hate the most.”
My consciousness blurred.
The last thing I heard was Leon Karavan’s voice. A voice filled with cold sarcasm and ridicule.
“Humans are not steel. Strike them, and they break.”
“…….”
“If you survive, never pass down that trash of a teaching to your descendants. This is the first and last lesson I give you as an ancestor…….”
A voice tinged with bitterness. And with that— I returned to the entrance of the Golden Vault.
The first thing I heard when I came back was screaming. Tormented, agonizing screams.
***
The Dwarf Grand General, Dwight.
A general who had devoted his entire life to protecting the Dwarf Kingdom. A Dwarf who reached an unprecedented level for his race, rising to Sword Expert—a hero. Even after becoming Grand General, Dwight never lived lazily. The proud Dwarves, and the fact that their kingdom beneath the Sky Mountains always had to fear ‘Dragons’. That fact had always displeased Dwight.
So he prepared thoroughly. Even after becoming a Sword Expert, he never neglected training. He taught his soldiers countless tactics, studied Dragons, and researched any method to confront them. Thus, Dwight resolved that if Dragons ever came again, he would stand tall and face them without fear.
The Dragons that had attacked not long ago. Their assault had been terrifying, but even without the Karavan, they would have repelled them somehow. Of course, through a grueling struggle, the Dwarf royal family might have been wiped out and the proud palace destroyed, but they would not have let the beasts escape alive. Dwight was certain of that. But.
“Aaaaaargh—!”
“Help, help us! Please—!”
How was he supposed to face that?
“Uh, uwaaah—!”
“Please, please! It’s too—too hot—”
How. How could such a ‘creature’ even exist?
“Ah.”
Dwight saw the Dragon flying in the sky. The moment he saw it, he sensed its identity. The Dragon written in the royal records. Among Dragons, those born with the “Great Bloodline,” each possessing a distinct soul-color. Dragons regarded as ‘special’ even among their own kind.
“Ahhh.”
Those with unique soul-colors were born with special authorities matching their hues. Dwight knew as soon as he saw it. A Red Dragon. Among all the elements, a Dragon beloved by ‘fire’.
“General, General!”
His aide came running from afar. In a panic.
“Run, you must run!”
“I cannot.”
“Please!”
Clang!
The aide swung a fist wrapped in a gauntlet. But the fist bounced off Dwight’s black-iron armor.
It would’ve been the same even if Dwight wore no armor. A Dwarf’s fist could never pierce a Sword Expert’s armor. Even so, the aide swung again and again. Eventually, he sobbed as he spoke.
“Please, please escape.”
“…….”
“You—you are the future of our Dwarves. Take His Highness and flee far away. Leave this hateful nation, this kingdom built beneath the Sky Mountains, and somehow open a future for our people. Carry our age forward so the lineage will not die out, please…….”
His desperate hands clutched at Dwight. Screech—metal scraped against armor as the gauntlet slid. In that unpleasant sound of metal on metal, sobs and screams mixed together.
Dwight felt his mind bleaching white. Far away, the soldiers he had trained roared. Whatever they roared, they fired the cannons mounted on the outer wall. Cannons Dwight had pushed himself to develop so they could kill Dragons if they ever returned. BOOOOM—a thunderous blast erupted as the cannon fired. But it dealt no damage to the Red Dragon. Flame and thunder were absorbed the moment they struck its body, only swelling its size further.
Up in the sky— Laughter echoed.
“Are you playing with me, you dwarves—!”
Whoosh.
A wave of flames swept across the outer wall, and the charred bodies of Dwarves stuck to the blackened stone. Behind the dead soldiers, more soldiers ran in.
There was no light of victory in their eyes. They simply fought. They had trained for this their entire lives, had lived to protect, and so they threw their lives away as naturally as breathing.
Ignoring their instinctive terror, they willingly marched toward death. Like moths to a flame.
“How can such pitiful creatures exist? It’s sad, truly sad! Why do you keep throwing your lives away? Instead of charging at me, at least try running away sobbing in fear. Wouldn’t that be more entertaining? Watching insects rush in like a swarm isn’t! It’s not entertaining at all—!”
To a Dragon, this war looked like nothing more than amusement. Even when the Dwarf soldiers stabbed their spears with tears in their eyes, the creature didn’t react. Whether they fired cannons, arrows, weapons built to fight Dragons, or ballista bolts, it did not matter. Ignoring their desperate struggle, the Red Dragon grabbed the fleeing Dwarves and devoured them one by one. Helpless women, the elderly, children—crunched into pieces.
“Please! Please, kill me instead—!”
“This way! Look here! You lizard—bastard—!”
The Red Dragon, who had been preying on the weak, soon spoke using another voice through its maw. Not its own overwhelming, majestic voice—but the voices of the women and children who had screamed while running away.
“Mom, save me! Son, come this way!”
A Dragon could pierce through all worlds. Thus, the Red Dragon shattered the fleeing Dwarves’ bodies and devoured their souls—souls that should have returned to the Spirit World—inside its stomach.
The voices of the Dwarves trapped in the Dragon’s belly echoed in torment. Soldiers could no longer endure the pathetic sight of beings denied peace even in death. But whether they endured or not changed nothing. No weapon could injure the Red Dragon. Even in this hopeless landscape, the Red Dragon still laughed, and laughed again.
“Ah, when that Warden wench told me to come to the Dwarf Kingdom instead of the Elves’ forest, I was full of resentment…… but this isn’t so bad after all. I very much like the looks on your faces, insects.”
The Red Dragon stretched its jaws wide. Inside its maw, Dwarves burned alive without dying, wriggling like shrimp in a whale’s mouth. Screaming and thrashing, one of them was wrapped up by the Dragon’s tongue. The Red Dragon spoke.
“This Dwarf—she’s the wife of one of your soldiers. Where are you? The husband of this Dwarf! I shall personally grant you mercy. Dance for me. Gouge out your comrade’s eyeballs and eat them in front of me, and I will return your wife. I’ll count to three. If you don’t come out, I’ll burn your wife to ash and let her wander in my belly for eternity.”
With that, the Red Dragon burst into roaring laughter. Then it began singing again, using the voices of Dwarf children. A traditional lullaby passed down among the Dwarves. A lively, cheerful tune—yet hearing it made the soldiers tremble from head to toe. Helplessness, despair, and rage.
As for Dwight? He could never endure it.
“General!”
When he regained his senses, Dwight was already charging with a massive war hammer in hand. The aide who had tried to stop him was swept away by flames poured down from the sky and burned to death.
The smell of burning flesh spread everywhere. Dwight shot upward, roaring, and swung his hammer. CLAAAANG!—the blow crashed against the Red Dragon’s body.
The Armor of a Sword Expert was a small world unto itself. Even a body of pure elemental essence could be struck.
The Red Dragon staggered violently, and in the next moment, its eyes snapped toward Dwight.
“Oh? There was such a Dwarf?”
The hammer Dwight swung exploded with a KA-CHING! Dwight wasn’t flustered. He immediately drew the sword at his waist to unleash his swordsmanship. But the moment he pulled it out, the blade had already melted into mush. Flame inflicted by sight alone—flame that melted everything—had devoured the blade. Still, it didn’t matter. If he had no sword, he would fight barehanded. If that failed, he would bite with his teeth. No matter what—“In the end, you can’t fly.”
A sudden burst of scorching heat erupted inside Dwight’s body. The next moment, flames wrapped around him, and his eyeballs sizzled. He felt his Armor being eaten away instantly. His eyes grew unbearably hot. Flame Authority. The overwhelming power that Dragon had possessed since birth crushed the sword Dwight had built with a lifetime of effort. The world seemed to speak.
“Stop struggling. It’s pathetic.”
Do not deny your inherent limits.
What was determined from the beginning— Do not try to change it.
You cannot. A Dwarf cannot.
“Oh.”
At that moment, behind the Red Dragon, a column of water surged upward. From within it emerged a Dragon whose entire body gleamed blue. Then the earth rose up, revealing another Dragon with a golden body.
“You’re finally here, my friends.”
It was not just one Red Dragon.
All Dragons possessing a soul-color had appeared. Seeing them, several Dwarf soldiers dropped their weapons. They sank to their knees and cried out the names of gods. Begging to be saved, begging desperately for deliverance. Dwight could not blame them. Flames constricted his own body, and even he wanted to pray to the heavens like them.
‘Ah.’
Why had the heavens abandoned them? Had all their effort and time been meaningless? They had built up so much their entire lives. Struggled so hard to stand against these creatures.
Was it truly something that could crumble in an instant?
‘If this was to be our fate, why did you create us at all?’
Resentment. Anger. Helplessness. Despair. Sorrow.
Every emotion surged and boiled.
‘If it was going to be like this, why…….’
Dwight clenched his teeth, sobbing.
Inside the black-iron helm— In the darkness of that armor, the Grand General of the Dwarves could no longer hold back his tears. His body grew hotter and hotter as death approached.
Drowning in unbearable helplessness, the middle-aged man wept, and soon—footsteps.
Slow, steady footsteps.
The footsteps grew nearer.
“Dwight.”
His vision blurred.
Beyond that fading sight— He saw the owner of the footsteps.
“Sorry I’m late.”
Dwight knew his name.
“Please wait just a bit longer.”
Arhan.
“I’ll prove again what I said before.”
The Master of Steel.
“That no matter how many winged lizards there are, none of them are a match for me. And.”
The one who would restore the lost glory of the Dwarf Kingdom.
“That the Dragons will now pay the price for forgetting Steel.”
The last descendant of the Karavan.
***
I witnessed a wretched scene. I witnessed miserable deaths.
There was nothing left to consider.
“A human in the Dwarf Kingdom—how amusing.”
I slowly closed my eyes.
“What talent do you have? Are you that ‘Karavan’? The human the old Dragons feared? Hm, for something like that, you’re terribly unimpressive. What were those pathetic ancient wyrms so afraid of? Now it’s proven—they feared nothing but a phantom!”
Leon Karavan’s sword. 「Matchstick」 was far too massive. So I still couldn’t fully digest it.
“Did you close your eyes in fear? Pathetic, truly pathetic. Fool—”
However,
“Color-game Dragons.”
It wasn’t that I hadn’t digested any of it.
“Red, blue, yellow…… quite the variety.”
A handful of 「Matchstick」 existed within me. I had not yet earned the right to wield it fully but there was a Mystery that allowed me to gain that right momentarily.
「The Light」. A power that burned the self to transcend limits.
“Are you ready to pay the price?”
I opened my eyes again.
When I did, the world I looked upon dimmed into brief darkness. A chill cold enough to freeze not just flesh but the soul washed over me. Within that cold, I saw Dragons shining in myriad colors.
At the same time.
“Winged lizards.”
I delivered the ultimatum that I had always given to unwelcome guests.
“For today, right here—you all die.”