Chapter 314 : Chapter 314
Chapter 314. The Blade Was Exceptionally Sharp
The griffin carried Radel high into the sky.
-Kieee!
Notification sounds rang incessantly in Radel’s ears.
Ding.
[The demonic energy of the Archdemon Leviathan is corrupting the user’s mind.]
[Status Effect Nullification is activated.]
[Status Effect Nullification is activated.]
The closer he drew to Leviathan, the denser the demonic energy became.
It was so virulent that an ordinary person would have lost all sense of self.
Fortunately, it could not affect Radel much thanks to Status Effect Nullification.
That did not mean he was unharmed.
He was only barely enduring thanks to Troll’s Heart.
‘…When it used Dragon Speech earlier, I thought it was over.’
He already had very little Magic Power to begin with.
Even the Second Prince of the Royal Mage Corps had collapsed.
Radel had no clever trick that could defy a dragon’s will.
Just as he was about to lose consciousness before the magic of an overwhelming being,
Leon intervened in the dragon’s Magic Power.
‘I lived because of Leon.’
From the start, Radel had believed Leon would somehow manage it.
That belief was not based solely on Leon’s Ability.
Leon had an obsessive persistence once he set his mind on something.
Having faced a dragon directly, he would analyze it thoroughly.
And Leon truly had done it.
Now it was Radel’s turn.
Radel looked down at the dragon from atop the griffin.
If the plan was to succeed, he had to stay focused.
-Why?!
Leviathan roared after failing to use Dragon Speech.
-How can a human…?!
Leviathan glared at the Ninth Prince who had defied him.
He could faintly sense Magic Power similar to a dragon’s.
With ‘Dragon’s Blessing,’ that was possible.
Even so, he was a true dragon, and that was a mere human.
There was no way a human could block Dragon Speech.
No matter how much the imperial bloodline was blessed by the Supreme Deity!
At that moment, a human riding a griffin appeared before Leviathan.
“That can happen. You are not a real dragon anyway, are you?”
It was the one with the same face as the Ninth Prince who had blocked him.
The only royal the Supreme Deity Order had officially endorsed.
The accursed Eighth Prince who had obstructed Kier, Leviathan’s faithful servant.
“Is that not right, Archdemon Leviathan?”
Radel met the dragon’s gaze directly and grinned.
‘What is this?’
Leviathan felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
It was his first proper face-to-face encounter with the Eighth Prince.
‘Unpleasant…’
And yet, the feeling was oddly familiar.
As if he had once suffered a severe humiliation at that man’s hands.
“I will tell you how you can become real.”
Radel waved something before Leviathan’s eyes.
Flash.
What the Eighth Prince showed was a Key of Seal.
The purple key that contained the remainder of Leviathan’s soul.
Since a soul that had once been whole had been torn apart, the sealed keys could naturally share awareness.
However, the Key of Seal in the Eighth Prince’s possession had been severed from the others.
-You…!
Kuuooo.
Dark energy erupted from Leviathan.
The instant he saw the Key of Seal, the fragments of his soul that had been disconnected until now rejoined.
Only then did he regain his complete memories.
What humiliation he had suffered at the hands of the Eighth Prince.
What disgrace his fragmented soul had endured while trapped in that man’s grasp.
Flames ignited in Leviathan’s eyes as he understood everything.
Radel spun the key lightly and asked,
“You need this, do you not?”
Leviathan’s breathing grew ragged.
The reason he had been forced into a half-baked descent as a great Archdemon was precisely because of the Key of Seal.
-You dare mock me. A half-witted prince mocking a great Archdemon like me!
“But without this, you are only half-complete anyway. That is why your Dragon Speech was sloppy, was it not?”
Radel sneered at Leviathan and tucked the Key of Seal back into his clothes.
“You cannot help being a fake.”
The fragment of the soul that had briefly been revealed vanished without a trace.
-Kraaah!
Leviathan howled in rage.
It felt as though his blood were flowing backward.
If only he had that.
If only he had that single fragment, he could be perfect.
But that wretch hid the key.
Worse still, he mocked and humiliated Leviathan.
A lowly human daring to ridicule a great Archdemon like him!
-I will tear you apart and kill you!
He unleashed killing intent toward Radel.
His voice was so sharp that it sent chills down the spine and cold sweat coursing through the body.
“Try it. If you can!”
Radel shouted as he rose upward with the griffin, evading Leviathan.
“They say real dragons can fly. I wonder if a half-baked one like you can manage!”
Flap!
The moment Radel finished speaking, the griffin deliberately beat its wings.
-Kieee!
The griffin’s mocking cry pierced Leviathan’s ears.
Even such a trifling creature was making a fool of him.
Leviathan’s eyes rolled back.
-I will not let you get away…!
He spread his wings wide to chase after Radel in the sky.
As Leviathan opened his wings, a violent gale swept through the area.
Whooooosh!
“Gah!”
“Grab onto something!”
The humans on the ground lost their footing from a single flap of his wings.
Boom!
The dragon’s massive body kicked off the ground and shot into the air, then rapidly pursued the griffin.
Rumble.
Confirming that Leviathan was chasing them, Radel asked the griffin,
“You can avoid being caught, right?”
-Kiek!
The griffin cried briefly.
It was a sound full of grievance, as if asking how it was supposed to outrun a legendary creature like that.
“If you run well, I will give you lots of meat.”
-Kieeeek!
The griffin’s cry changed the instant Radel promised meat as a reward.
That was enough.
Radel pressed himself closer to the griffin and shouted,
“Then let us go!”
The griffin responded by powerfully flapping its great wings.
Leviathan was fast, but the griffin skillfully shook him off.
Whoosh!
-Kieek!
Sensing the dragon’s presence, the griffin abruptly changed direction.
A massive pillar of flame grazed past them by a hair’s breadth.
KABOOM!
Leviathan was firing Dragon Breath with terrifying ferocity from behind.
Though he dodged, Radel inhaled the searing heat and burst into coughing.
“Cough!”
It felt as though his lungs were being scorched from within.
Ding.
[Trait, Troll’s Heart, is activated.]
[Warning! Intense pain is surging through the body!]
At this rate, he would be cooked from the inside.
“Let us dodge first.”
Radel hid himself and the griffin within the clouds.
Whooo.
Unlike the darkness-stained sky below, the clouds were filled with pale light.
Darkness below. Light above.
If not for the urgency of the situation, it would have been a beautiful sight.
KABOOM!
Before long, Leviathan’s breath pierced through the clouds from behind.
The griffin dove sharply downward.
“Gah!”
A dizzying dive that made it impossible to open his eyes.
Leviathan also folded his wings and plunged downward after them.
-Kieeeek!
The griffin let out a pained cry.
Perhaps it had been grazed by Dragon Breath; its speed was dropping.
Leviathan did not miss that opening.
He opened his jaws wide toward the black speck below.
Creak.
Radel, riding on the griffin’s back, sensed danger and looked up, but it was too late.
Leviathan’s sharp fangs lunged toward the griffin.
-Too late!
Crunch!
The dragon’s jaws swallowed the black speck whole.
At last, he had caught it.
Now he would chew its flesh and bones to reclaim the Key of Seal.
As Leviathan thrilled with joy, a suspicious wind sound reached his ears.
Whiiing!
At some point, a hippogriff had appeared behind the dragon, wings spread wide.
Riding it was Venus.
Approaching the dragon calmly, he said,
“…Now.”
Someone nodded in response.
It was Shartea, riding together with him on the hippogriff.
In her hand was neither a staff nor a sword, but a single kitchen knife.
A legendary metal said to never break.
Radel’s kitchen knife, forged from dwarven orichalcum.
Whoosh!
Shartea leapt onto the dragon’s wing and drove the kitchen knife down without hesitation.
She aimed for the wing joint.
Slash!
A blow imbued with ‘Power of the Colossus.’
Her Ability and the orichalcum combined to carve a deep wound into the dragon’s wing.
“An excellent blade.”
As the dragon’s tough hide was pierced, a faint smile crossed Shartea’s stoic face.
Whiiiiing!
The wind roared.
Sensing the scent of dragon’s blood within it, Alexius turned to his grandson.
“Theo, begin.”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
Arteo nodded.
“O earth.”
Sweat beaded on Arteo’s forehead.
It was magic he had never cast before.
If it went wrong, Shartea’s body might fail to endure the spell and be crushed.
He delicately adjusted his Magic Power and completed the chant.
“Pull her down.”
The moment the spell was completed, tremendous force was imposed upon Shartea.
It was gravity magic, a force dragging her toward the ground.
Feeling that Arteo’s spell had succeeded, Shartea gripped the knife handle firmly and slid her body downward without hesitation.
Rip-rip-rip!
The dragon’s wing tore apart with a deafening roar.
Leviathan swung his arm in fury, but Shartea had already passed the dragon and was falling below.
-Kraaah!
The pain of losing one wing.
Leviathan roared and opened his mouth.
Bang!
With practiced skill, Venus maneuvered the hippogriff and snatched Shartea out of the air.
“Puhah!”
At the same time, the soaked griffin and Radel were spat out from Leviathan’s mouth.
“Cough, just a little later and I would have been digested.”
-Kieeek!
The griffin, which had nearly died along with Radel, protested loudly.
-Kieeee!
“Ah, I know. Sorry for suddenly telling you to slow down.”
-Kiek!
“It was all part of the plan, you see?”
The griffin flapped its wings and moved beside the hippogriff, looking as though it wanted to drop Radel at any moment.
Shartea, her expression oddly refreshed, tossed the kitchen knife to Radel.
“Good use. The blade was exceptionally sharp.”
“Thank you.”
Thanks to Senior Shartea, they had escaped from Leviathan’s jaws.
Even with orichalcum, tearing a dragon’s wing with a single kitchen knife would have been impossible without her swordsmanship and Ability.
So far, everything had gone according to plan.
“…You did not forget the position, did you?”
Venus asked Radel.
Radel nodded.
“Of course, Senior.”
“…Good.”
Though Venus’s face remained expressionless, Radel could sense his complicated emotions.
The look in Senior Venus’s eyes, having to send off a dragon the moment he met one, seemed faintly wistful.
“Be careful until the very end. Even when a dragon dies, its Magic Power remains.”
Even then, Venus did not forget to offer advice.
“Yes. I will remember.”
Radel nodded and ascended with the griffin.
-Kraaah!
With one wing broken, Leviathan was plummeting toward the ground.
“A d-dragon…!”
“The dragon is falling!”
The sight was etched clearly into the eyes of everyone at the Academy.
-Kieee!
The griffin chased after the falling dragon, unwilling to let it escape.
“It is a griffin! The griffin is chasing it!”
“It is the Eighth Prince!”
Inette, who had been staring blankly at the sky, stiffened at the shouts.
“Is that… Radel?”
“It appears so.”
“…He is insane.”
Gusto and Inette ran without a word toward where the dragon was falling.