If That Is My Fate (2)
Suddenly, a sword shot out from thin air.
The greatest treasure among the Dwarves’ creations, the sword of swords—‘Gramdyr’.
It was the sword that had long vanished without a trace.
The Dwarves had repeatedly demanded Astion return Gramdyr if he wasn’t going to use it.
— If you’re not going to use it, give us back our treasure!
And now, after ten years, the sword had reappeared.
The sword swung through the air. At that moment, the approaching Hellfire was split in half.
Kwaaaaaaaang!
The two pieces of flame struck the curtain that shrouded the city and exploded.
Darvasca wore an expression of disbelief.
“A sword…?”
Astion was a mage. He had never seen him wield a sword during the last Great War.
Rumors said he was decent with his body, but seeing it in person today—he was indeed better than most Transcendents, despite being a mage.
But to cleave a 9th-Circle spell with a sword?
And that, when he had already lost the will to fight and was bleeding to death?
“Astion, what are you…?”
Just as Darvasca, stunned, tried to ask something—
Astion spoke words no one expected.
“I am not Astion.”
“What…?”
“Just remember me as the one who will kill you.”
Ghislain, now awakened once more, began to emit a terrifying killing intent.
Drrrrrrrr!
Astion had reached the 9th Circle.
With the power he had built by absorbing a Dragon Heart, no human on the continent could compare.
Soon, the virtual cores created by Ghislain amplified that immense mana.
Kwaaaaaaang!
A crimson storm burst forth around him.
The red light entwined around his sword shimmered as if it were a living creature.
Pang!
In that moment, a dazzling red flash flared.
Darvasca instinctively twisted his body in shock.
Faaash!
It was merely a red line that passed by.
Yet Darvasca’s chest had been deeply slashed, and blood spurted out.
“Guh…! You… how…?”
Darvasca couldn’t believe it.
Just moments ago, he had lost the will to fight and was on the verge of death!
But now, he was suddenly emanating overwhelming energy. His attack speed was so fast that even Darvasca, a dragon, could barely perceive it.
But there was no time to comprehend the situation. From the darkness, the red line flashed once again like lightning.
Pababababababak!
Darvasca drew up his mana in resistance. But all he managed to do was narrowly avoid a fatal wound, as dozens of cuts were carved into his body in an instant.
He couldn’t handle this. He had never imagined his opponent was this skilled with a sword.
But why had he hidden such skill until now?
In the midst of confusion, Darvasca soared high into the air. Facing him in a human body would mean death with a single mistake.
Kwaaaaaang!
He unleashed his mana in an explosion, sweeping away everything around him. As light and dust swirled like a storm, Darvasca reverted to his true form.
Kraaaaaaaaaaaa!
A thunderous roar shook the city.
A massive Blue Dragon turned its head and opened its jaws wide.
The red streak was approaching again. He had to seize control of this space and sweep it away in one blow.
Kwaaaaaaaa!
A powerful breath of lightning burst forth from his mouth. No matter how strong a human was, taking that head-on would mean certain death.
But then something astonishing happened.
Drrrrrrrrrr!
The red streak... was charging straight through that powerful breath.
Even seeing it with his own eyes, Darvasca couldn’t believe it.
How powerful must one be to slice through a dragon’s breath?
Crunch!
Before he could even fully process the thought, the approaching blade had already torn through his massive jaws.
“Gaaaaaaaagh!”
Darvasca thrashed his head and swung his forepaw wildly.
But Ghislain didn’t dodge. Instead, he counterattacked.
Pabababababak!
The red streak coiled up the dragon’s foreleg like a whirlwind. In an instant, Darvasca’s foreleg was stripped of scales and flesh, exposing bone.
“Graaaaaagh!”
Darvasca screamed in pain and stumbled backward.
Yet he still didn’t believe he would lose. He was a mighty dragon, after all.
Darvasca exuded intense mana and unleashed a spell.
Hundreds of magic circles filled the air around him, and spells of immense power burst forth.
Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwang!
A barrage of spells rained down on Ghislain.
Ghislain endured, dodging and deflecting the magic as he unleashed explosive energy.
Thud!
“Huff…”
As he landed on the ground, red smoke leaked from Ghislain’s mouth.
He lifted his head. Darvasca was already floating high in the sky.
With eyes burning with rage, Darvasca spoke.
“You’ve been hiding your strength all this time? For what purpose?”
If he had that kind of power, the war against the Demonic Abyss could have ended far more easily. Yet Astion had focused his efforts on protecting and supporting allies from the rear.
Ghislain didn’t respond. It was something the other wouldn’t understand anyway.
He himself hadn’t wished to awaken again.
And now, his body was beginning to show signs of strain. He needed to end this quickly.
‘Even the 9th Circle isn’t enough…’
Though Astion had reached the 9th Circle and could unleash explosive power using that mana, the force erupting from the five cores was simply too vast.
Astion’s body still couldn’t withstand it.
Moreover, it was a body that had already rejected Ghislain’s soul and had lost its balance. Once again, it was beginning to reject Ghislain’s soul, and was slowly breaking down.
This wasn’t Astion’s fault. To endure this level of power, one would need at least the body of a dragon.
Ghislain steadied his breath and glared at Darvasca.
‘Julien, Deneb.’
And the other mercenary friends as well.
Everyone was in danger. He had to turn that bastard into a chunk of meat and move immediately.
Crunch.
Ghislain clenched his teeth. Once again, power burst from his body like a storm, shaking the earth.
‘Elves, Dwarves, the Holy Empire.’
And... dragons.
At the thought of the traitors, intense rage surged from the depths of Ghislain’s heart.
Just like when Ferdium fell.
‘I’ll kill them all.’
Ghislain had seen everything within Astion’s consciousness.
Though he had been half-unconscious, only absorbing the information, it allowed him to grasp the situation the moment he awoke.
Even Ghislain hadn’t expected everyone to betray them. Astion had tried to prepare for the danger, but it wasn’t enough.
He needed to go rescue Deneb and escape.
Only then could he create the opportunity for revenge.
Drrrrrrrr!
Ghislain raised his sword. The blood-hued aura surrounding the blade surged violently, as if craving enemy blood.
Darvasca laughed thunderously from the sky.
“No matter how strong you are, it’ll be hard to face a dragon in the sky! What can someone who can’t even use magic properly possibly do?!”
Kwaaaaaaa!
Hundreds of magic circles once again bloomed high in the sky.
Even Ghislain wouldn’t be able to withstand continuous hits from spells imbued with Darvasca’s full power.
But Ghislain didn’t even blink as he spoke.
“Magic? I don’t need that crap.”
“Wahahahaha! Then burn to death like the crawling insect you are!”
“Dark.”
Ghislain softly called Dark’s name.
Fwaaaaaa!
Suddenly, an immense force began to gather above Darvasca’s head.
Startled, Darvasca looked up.
Before he knew it, a massive bird, made of blue energy and even larger than the dragon, had appeared and clutched Darvasca’s wing with its talons.
“W-what is this?!”
Dark sneered and said,
“I am the Apostle of Justice and the King of Spirits, you backstabbing lizard bastard.”
Kwaaaang!
As Dark unleashed his energy in an explosion, Darvasca was momentarily overwhelmed and began to plummet.
This was Ghislain’s mana, amplified to an extreme. Using that power, Dark’s surprise attack managed to pin even a dragon down for a brief moment.
Kuuuuuuung!
With a tremendous crash, Darvasca’s body slammed into the ground.
The earth shook violently, and dust shot up into the sky.
Darvasca snapped back to his senses and raised his head.
But the red streak was already approaching, cutting through the horizon.
Darvasca instinctively opened his jaws. At the same time, he hastily cast a spell.
Kwaaaaaaa!
A breath attack erupted from his mouth.
Unrefined by proper breath control and mana gathering, the breath wavered, threatening to scatter at any moment. Instead, the surrounding powerful spells compensated for it.
Every spell fired toward the oncoming red streak.
Surely nothing could break through this. Darvasca believed that.
But that belief didn’t last long.
Kwaaaaaaa!
The red streak charged through all of it.
The earth split open, and the air was torn apart.
The destructive power, the speed—it was all beyond belief. But what truly seized Darvasca’s gaze was something else.
A red-eyed human, approaching with murderous intent so intense it seemed tangible.
Looking at that human, Darvasca felt a foreign emotion for the first time in his life.
“I… feel fear? Of a mere human?”
Seeing the Adversary for the first time had been shocking too. But back then, he had only felt fierce hostility—never fear.
So why now, was he feeling the fear of death from nothing more than a human?
Kraaaaaaaa!
As if to reject that notion, Darvasca roared and charged forward.
He couldn’t allow himself to be consumed by this fear. If he did, he had a primal sense he would be torn apart instantly.
Fwaaash!
Ghislain’s sword pierced through everything and lunged toward Darvasca.
Darvasca didn’t evade. Instead, he focused all his mana into a single point and countered the strike.
Then the two full-power attacks collided head-on.
Kwaaaaaaaaang!
The sky split apart, and the earth warped.
Red and blue lights exploded, intertwining as a blinding flash engulfed the world.
Fwaaaaaa……
Moments later, the light that had devoured everything gradually faded, and the storm of dust settled.
“Khuhk…”
Darvasca looked down with disbelief in his eyes.
The insect-like human had driven his sword directly into his Dragon Heart.
The massive force that exploded from within shattered the Dragon Heart into pieces. He had lost his most vital source of life.
With a trembling voice, Darvasca asked,
“You… what are you…?”
Why had he hidden this power until now?
Why, with this power, had he allowed the Saintess to be taken?
Why had he suddenly transformed into an entirely different being?
It was just like…
“The form Lord spoke of ten years ago… Mad Mage Astion…”
“…”
Ghislain gave no reply. There was no reason to.
Not even worth the effort.
He simply yanked the sword embedded in the Dragon Heart out with a rough motion.
“Grkk…”
Darvasca coughed up foamy blood again and again, trying to recover. But a dragon with a shattered Dragon Heart couldn’t even hold up its massive body properly.
In the end, Darvasca glared at Ghislain with eyes full of resentment, staggered—
Thud!
—and collapsed heavily onto the ground.
In front of the massive corpse of the dragon, Ghislain gritted his teeth and bent over, grimacing.
“Ghk…”
The price of unleashing such power came as unbearable pain. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
But there was no time to rest. He had to move now and help his friends.
Dark, now in the form of a small bird again, asked nervously,
“Master! You killed this one, but there are still seven dragons left! What are you going to do?! You can’t keep fighting in that body!”
“…I have to rescue Deneb and escape.”
If he fought with the resolve to let his body break, he could kill another dragon or two. That was how powerful the force unleashed by his 9th-Circle mana was.
But seven dragons was too much. Especially with Arterion, who was stronger than the others.
Even if he just took Deneb and fled, they'd be caught. That would only repeat the same outcome as before.
“I need Lionel and the others.”
They were at least capable of taking on one dragon each. He planned to find them and take down the dragons they were fighting together.
That would leave five.
If he combined his current power with theirs, there was a sliver of hope to escape.
“Let’s go.”
Kwaaang!
Ghislain unleashed his power once more and moved in the direction where his friends were fighting.
‘Julien, just hold on a little longer.’
Right now, Julien was the most important.
As long as Julien held out somehow, they could regroup and block the dragons’ pursuit together.
Kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa!
A crimson trail cut through the sky, shooting forth at incredible speed.
* * *
Kwaaang!
Lionel was violently blown back by Grondal’s strike.
The place where the two were fighting had been completely devastated. The ground where Lionel stood was deeply gouged from the repeated knockbacks.
Thud.
Grondal planted his halberd into the ground and looked at Lionel.
“You’re clearly very worn out.”
Lionel was indeed exhausted from battling a dragon. On top of that, fighting Grondal left him steadily being pushed back.
The other Dwarves stood at a distance, merely watching. Grondal had strictly forbidden them from interfering.
It was his final gesture to send off an old comrade and a warrior’s pride.
After catching his breath, Lionel smiled and said:
"I'm not the only one who's tired, am I? You look a bit worn out yourself."
"……"
"At this rate, I could fight for days."
That was true. He was fatigued, but hadn't suffered any major wounds.
Besides, Lionel was called the Shield of the Saintess for good reason—he was a master of defense. If he set his mind to merely holding out, he could last for days.
Lionel looked at Grondal and sneered.
"Why don’t you tell the others to jump in too? You've already betrayed us—what use is there in clinging to warrior’s pride or conscience?"
Grondal's pride was clearly wounded. His lips twitched several times before he raised his halberd again.
"This time will be different. I’ll shatter your shield entirely. And if that still doesn’t work, I’ll abandon what little conscience I have left."
Grondal had made up his mind to ignore defense entirely and go all in on offense. He realized that fighting this way would never lead to a conclusion.
As he stepped forward, Grondal suddenly noticed something and froze.
'What is that?'
Kwaaaaaaaa!
A red flash blazed in the distance.
It wasn’t just light. It was a burning meteor, tearing through everything in its path as it came charging in.
Grondal instinctively blinked once.
And in that single blink, the red light had already arrived within striking distance.
Kwaaang!
The ground trembled as a crimson trail shot into the sky, then came crashing down like a lightning bolt.
Kwaaaaaaaaaang!
Grondal instinctively raised his halberd to block the red light bearing down on him.
A massive shock surged from his arms throughout his entire body. His feet sank into the earth as he slid backward.
The storm-like mana tore through the surroundings, warping everything around it.
Grondal looked at the figure pressing a sword against his halberd, and his eyes widened in surprise.
Ghislain had appeared before him, glaring with a savage grin.
"So, it’s you instead of a dragon. Fine, I don’t care. You’re one I have to kill anyway."
"You are…"
"You said you wanted to fight me seriously, didn’t you?"
"Don’t tell me… you…"
"I’ll show you. My true intent."
There was no need for more words.
For a traitor, only death was fitting.
Drrrrrrr!
Mana burst from the tip of Ghislain’s sword, ripping through the air. A murderous crimson aura swirled like a storm.
Fwaak!
Ghislain’s blade shot toward Grondal’s throat like lightning.
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