Chapter 182 : Chapter 182
Chapter 182 - Blood Fire Dragon Kairos
I went down to the basement of the Dark Moon Grand Castle.
With the cooling device Sein in tow, I descended the stairs, down and further down.
The further I went, the more I felt the importance of the cooling device.
[You should have a tremendous resistance to fire. What is this heat?]
“It’s because of that resistance that I’m not burning to death.”
I used Skeleton Armor to wear Sein like armor.
Only after being doubly clad with my own body and the Undead Private Soldier’s ice magic did it become bearable.
“What's burning in the basement right now is the hellfire that the Marquis of the demon world is emitting with all his might.”
[You're saying you're going to heal the Magic Dragon in a place like this?]
“Considering the Magic Dragon was once called a Fire Dragon, this level of heat is probably just lukewarm.”
[…Lukewarm?]
Enad asked back for a moment. The heat I felt through my body was neither lukewarm nor sweltering.
I was barely holding back my skin from cooking with ice magic, and the Blue Flame Spirit even stepped up as a second layer of defense.
“It’s going to get hotter.”
[If you want to burn to death, leave me outside.]
“We’re one body, one soul. If we burn together, it won’t even be noticeable.”
[…….]
Enad sighed at the reality that he couldn't just smack me hard on the back of the head, as much as he wanted to.
The Magic Sword lamented, and its master, filled with anticipation, headed for the basement as the final outer wall opened.
Hwoooook─
My breath caught in my throat from the blast of hot air that blew from the opened wall.
If it hadn't been for the Blue Flame Spirit, a single breath would have burned my esophagus to my lungs.
“Young Master! You’re here!”
In the basement seething with purple hellfire, Butler Amon greeted me happily.
Having created an environment like his hometown for the first time in a long while, his face was full of life.
“How’s this? If you want it a little hotter, I can heat it up until tomorrow!”
“This is adequate. Good work.”
“Yep! Then is it time to insert the new vessel?”
“Yes.”
I took the Bloodstone from my bosom. Having been fully charged, it could now become the heart of anything.
Since my heart was perfectly fine, I planned to give it to a being whose wasn't.
“How does the Magic Dragon seem now?”
Perhaps because he was a Marquis of the demon world, the Butler, who belonged to the same demonic kin, saw the Magic Dragon's condition in more detail.
“He’s comfortable! No matter how much he changed into a Magic Dragon, he was a Fire Dragon before! He seems to like this environment very much!”
“That’s a relief. We can begin the procedure.”
I slowly stroked the Magic Dragon's head.
The Magic Dragon, lying quietly with its tail and body coiled, was covered in wounds and scars from torture.
Its internal vessel had long since collapsed and shattered, taking away any chance of recovery, but the dragon's body continued to grow.
“I know. Why you never left the mountain range.”
With its madness alleviated and the heat of the hellfire adding a sense of comfort, the dragon's mind appealed to its sole sympathizer.
It spoke of its past.
Of wounds that wouldn't heal and pain that squared with time.
The madness that began from the pain seeped into its head, and the Fire Dragon eventually became a Magic Dragon.
In the end, it fell under the control of its followers, but when they disappeared, the shackles also vanished at some point.
However, a sound mind cannot reside in a broken body. The Ash Mountains were too cold.
Even if the dragon's sublime spirit occasionally returned, the pain did not disappear.
“Every time you lost your mind and came back, all you saw was the meaningless slaughter you had committed. So you chose the mountain summit as your place to die, as your prison.”
It was better to imprison myself than to continue slaughtering while controlled by madness.
Because if it went to a warm place, hundreds, thousands would surely die in the process.
“Your choice back then was the right one. If it hadn't been, I wouldn't have been able to find you.”
Swaaaaaah─
A puff of hazy breath passed before me.
It was like a human's sigh, whether in the face of a great task or in a moment of relief.
I showed the Bloodstone to the Magic Dragon.
“This will become your new heart. As you know, the process of replacing a heart will not be comfortable. But afterwards─”
-It’s… okay….
A voice echoed in my head.
The voice, conveyed in a different way from Enad's, was that of a young man.
The Fire Dragon Kairos was as young as his voice suggested, in dragon years.
The dragon, one of the younger ones among the young dragons, had matured through pain.
Now it was time for it to find its true self.
“…I understand.”
I levitated the Bloodstone in the air.
The Magic Dragon naturally opened its mouth, creating a path for the Bloodstone to enter.
From then on, it was a battle of pure sensation.
Deudeudeudeuk─
Blood vessels sprouted from the heart.
Having entered the Dracul state, the Bloodstone, which had absorbed a vast amount of blood, felt even more distinct.
The sensation was so vivid it was as if it were right before my eyes, making the treatment bolder.
“Here I go.”
I clenched my fist.
As if on cue, the Bloodstone shot straight into the Dragon Heart.
As the Butler had said, it was a heart that had been broken and lost its function.
Nevertheless, it was a heart and a crucial organ. The same was true for a dragon.
──!!
The Magic Dragon's eyes flew open as it let out a raw cry.
The hellfire flickered as if it would be extinguished by the roar, and my dark purple hair fluttered.
But I did not stop.
“Just a little more.”
I pushed the Bloodstone embedded in the heart further in, pressing forward until it reached the center.
The roar grew louder and deeper, until my eardrums felt numb.
Still, I couldn't stop. If I stopped here, the remaining pain would only be amplified.
“Y-Young Master. Are you sure it's okay?”
“If I had used anesthesia, it would look like a normal surgery. Surgery without anesthesia always looks like torture.”
But no one in the world knew how to anesthetize a Magic Dragon.
I didn't either, and it wasn't the time for it.
“You must feel the pain radiating from your heart, Kairos. How long has it been since your dead heart sent a signal?”
The Magic Dragon's eyes looked as if they would close at any moment, but it never did.
Its will to live was not dead either.
The master, in response, continued to call its name and show it the way forward.
“Kairos. From now on, the Bloodstone will make your heart beat. In tune with that beat, accept the heat around you.”
Kugung─ Kugung─
A massive echo, like the drums of war, spread through the basement.
The ground beneath my feet trembled slightly from the dull vibration.
It was nothing other than the sound of the Fire Dragon's heart, the dragon's breath.
Every time its heart beat and it breathed, it respired with heat.
Until now, even when it breathed fire and soared through the sky, it had not felt alive.
“The scales! The scales are shedding!”
“It’s shedding its old skin.”
As the massive body wriggled slightly, something fell from the surface of its scales.
It was the scars covering the traces of torture, the rotten flesh, and the burnt scales.
Casting off the filth of the past, what remained were the scales of a Fire Dragon, forged by heat.
However, their color was clearly different from that of a normal Fire Dragon.
The scales of the Fire Dragon were so red they were almost black-red. It was a color known to all those close to me. The color of blood.
───!!
The Fire Dragon roared once again.
The cry, filled with joy instead of pain, echoed powerfully, causing more of the old skin to fall away.
At the same time, Kairos slowly uncoiled its body.
“Butler. We need to work together for a moment. We need to make the basement bigger.”
“By how much?”
“Twice its current size. You and I, half and half.”
“Got it! Let’s go!”
My and the Butler's hands gently waved through the air.
Sacrificing the other floors, we raised the ceiling even higher.
By extending the width of the room as well, we completed a basement where the Fire Dragon could stand up without issue.
As if in response to our efforts, Kairos slowly straightened its four bent legs and stood up completely.
The membrane-like old skin was now half gone, revealing its new color.
I was eager to see what came next.
“Butler. I need it hotter. I’ll help too.”
“Got it!”
The two of us, in sync once again, intensified the hellfire.
I also entered Blood Demonization and unleashed Bloodflame along with the Blue Flame Spirit.
Hellfire. Blue Flame. Bloodflame.
Three flames, similar yet different, all gathered with the single-minded purpose of raising the Fire Dragon and burned fiercely.
The effort finally paid off, and the old skin began to fall off at an increasing rate.
The Fire Dragon, too, did not stop breathing, taking in the heat and prioritizing regeneration.
Just as a hatchling constantly moves inside an egg, the Fire Dragon did not stop.
It struggled somehow to emerge from its old skin.
In the heat where even sweat vaporized into steam, everyone moved without rest.
Finally, the Fire Dragon raised its head and opened its maw wide.
Shwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah─
It inhaled all the heat that the Butler and I had prepared. It drank in the flames like air and gulped them down like water.
“It’s charging its energy. We can’t lower the firepower.”
“O-okay!”
Though the speed of its inhalation was hard to keep up with, the Butler did his best.
He continuously supplied hellfire so that the food source wouldn't run out.
As the Fire Dragon filled its belly, new scales sprouted to replace the empty spots.
In the midst of frantically raising the firepower, suddenly.
Kuuuuung─
The Fire Dragon stopped inhaling and exhaled a pungent smoke. A thick, burnt smell assailed my nose before disappearing.
And that wasn't the only thing that disappeared.
“You did it.”
-It’s thanks to you, Master.
The Fire Dragon, having overcome its madness, looked up once more. It lowered its body and half-spread its wings.
Understanding the signal, the Butler reached for the ceiling.
Kureureureureureurung─
Everything that had blocked the way above disappeared, revealing the dark sun of Eclipse.
As always, I grabbed the dragon's horns. At the same time, the ascent began.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaah─!!
With a single flap of its wings, we escaped Eclipse.
Leaving the range of Eclipse's yin energy, the sun regained its original color.
The ruby-red scales reflected the sunlight, making them incredibly dazzling.
Before my blood-red eyes, the same color as those scales, the system intervened.
[You have successfully completed the Quest 「Hold on to Your Sanity」.]
[The way you cleared the quest has changed the system's reward.]
[System calculating….]
[The reward has been changed.]
[Reward: Blood Fire Dragon Kairos]
Kairos, who went from Magic Dragon to Fire Dragon, and then became a Blood Fire Dragon after meeting me, sent his own voice.
-A new power gained with the heart my master gave me. I want to test it.
Perhaps because of the long years spent curled up, its voice was calm for a Fire Dragon.
Nevertheless, its belligerent nature remained.
-A power I've never felt before in my life is overflowing within my body.
[Does this big lizard also wield Bloodflame?]
-So this power is called Bloodflame.
[W-what. You can hear me again?]
In the same situation as with the Vampire Queen, Enad was flabbergasted, though not as much as the first time.
-You are the magic sword that stays by my master's side. It seems we'll be seeing each other for a long time, so I look forward to working with you.
[Hmph.]
The Magic Sword snorted and dismissed it. In contrast, Kairos found the reaction amusing and laughed.
For a Fire Dragon, that was remarkable patience and mercy.
‘Normally, it would have turned my limbs to ash one by one. If all Fire Dragons had this kind of personality, there would be no discord among dragons.’
Shaking my head, I stroked Kairos's horn.
“If we keep going this way, we’ll come to a place called the Pantheon. There are a lot of flying monsters around there, so shall we go clean up?”
-If my master wishes it.
The blood-red dragon flew towards the Pantheon.