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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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His tongue darted out to swallow me, but I slashed at it repeatedly. A chunk of his tongue was severed, and it recoiled.
‘I can’t do much damage from here.’
I squeezed out through his lips, back into the fierce wind.
– You dare defile a god?!
Shakarim, enraged by my antics inside his mouth, roared.
He gathered mana and unleashed a barrage of magic.
He seemed to be regaining control of his mana, as human-sized blue fireballs chased me.
Dodging them wouldn’t be difficult under normal circumstances, but the strong wind made it harder to control my movements.
I jumped upwards, and the dragon’s massive body swept past me, creating a powerful gust.
I spun in the wind, and the fireballs, losing their target, floated harmlessly where I had been.
As the dragon’s head, neck, back, and waist passed beneath me, I channeled mana into my sword and extended it.
The strain made me dizzy, but the blade pierced his back. As the mana dissipated, the sword returned to its normal length, and I climbed onto his back.
He was so large he didn’t even realize I was there, still searching for me below.
I plunged the sword deep into his scales.
THUNK! KRAK!
“Wow, this sword is amazing!”
An ordinary sword would have shattered against his scales, but this one, though with some resistance, pierced through.
I decided to call it the Chain-Sword.
[T/N: All hail the Emperor!]
[E/D: for those of u who didn’t get that it’s a Warhammer 40k reference]
“Pesky insect!”
Feeling the pain, Shakarim realized I was on his back and gathered mana again.
‘Dragons must have it rough.’
They can’t even scratch their own backs.
BOOM!
“Whoa…!”
His massive tail slammed down beside me.
He’d swung his tail at his own back while gathering mana.
Thankfully, his aim was still off. Otherwise, I would have been crushed.
I swung the Chain-Sword at his tail. I figured he could still wreak havoc without it, and I’d sever it if I could.
But his tail was too thick. I only managed to leave a deep gash. Still, it caused Shakarim considerable pain, a sensation he’d forgotten after lying dormant for so long.
– Are you alright? Where are you?
Jane’s telepathic voice echoed in my mind.
I couldn’t respond, but she continued, frustrated.
– Can’t you use telepathy? We’re hiding behind his heel.
I glanced back and spotted the wyvern, a tiny speck in the sky.
Knowing our escape route was enough. Jane probably knew she couldn’t do much more and was maintaining her position.
– Insignificant insects daring to have a secret rendezvous in my presence!
Shakarim, intercepting our telepathic communication, roared. He stopped sweeping his tail and swung it at the wyvern.
– Waaaaah!
A telepathic scream.
The wyvern, though thrown off balance, managed to dodge by flying closer to Shakarim’s body, as I’d instructed.
Jane and the wyvern reached me, having traversed his tail, back, and now his shoulders.
“Not enough power! I have a plan, so circle around once!”
“W-what…? I can’t…!”
The wind made it hard to hear. The wyvern couldn’t get any closer.
“Circle around once!”
“Can’t hear…!”
“Open your ears, idiot! Circle around!”
“What?! Idiot…?!”
Finally understanding, Jane yelled back, annoyed, but steered the wyvern.
Meanwhile, I had work to do.
‘I can’t deal a decisive blow with my current strength.’
I could inflict pain, but not a fatal wound.
He needed to feel the threat of death to truly understand himself.
I moved towards his wings.
Fighting in the air was difficult, as expected. Shakarim’s magic and tail attacks resumed.
I couldn’t block or dodge effectively while keeping the sword embedded in his scales.
I had to take a few magic hits.
– Are you alright?!
Jane’s worried telepathic voice.
She’d seen me get hit.
– Priestess! You continue to defy me! You will regret that I shared my deepest secrets with you!
Shakarim’s voice intruded again.
I could almost hear Jane gulp nervously.
And then…
– Don’t make me laugh! You slumbered because you were disappointed after we fulfilled your every whim in the name of god! I wish I’d never known your secrets!
Jane’s outburst.
Normally, her telepathic message wouldn’t reach this far, but Shakarim’s interference seemed to have opened a two-way channel.
– The people of Raretot burned down their centuries-old village to build you a sanctuary! And you destroyed it with your breath because you didn’t like it!
Shakarim had been asleep for centuries, so this must have been a story from history books, even before Jane’s time.
She seemed to be a good student, reciting history.
– We all collected gold for you! We even reopened sealed mines infested with monsters, and countless dragon-kin died!
– And yet you were still greedy, claiming it wasn’t enough! Do you know how much blood was spilled for that gold you used as mere decoration?
Dragons were known for their greed. Gems, gold, luxurious trinkets. One of the driving forces in their long lives.
– You dare lecture me about a little bloodshed?! You know nothing of the countless enemies I’ve protected you from!
– I know! The Battle of Schultz! The Beleos Hills! The monster surge in the Salamander Sea! You saved us from the humans in the Great War, when the dragon-kin were almost wiped out!
– And knowing that…!
– Because I know! Because we know you protected us, we worshipped you as a god!
I channeled mana into the sword.
Shakarim, distracted by his argument with Jane, lost track of me, and the Chain-Sword extended.
– We served you, worshipped you, followed you, even though it was for your own satisfaction, not for our sake!
A cry filled with resentment.
The Dragon Priestess, the closest to the Dragon God, poured out her frustration and despair through the telepathic link.
– And for centuries! We waited for you, while you abandoned us because you were bored! Without proper traditions, systems, or rituals, all sorts of strange things emerged!
She was probably referring to the grotesque crossbreeding of drakes and wyverns, and the inefficient practice of building dragon-shaped structures.
– Enough!
I swung the Chain-Sword, slashing at the joint of his wing. It was thinner than other parts of his body, but still difficult to cut through.
I wrapped the Chain-Sword around the joint and launched myself into the air.
The Chain-Sword tightened under my weight.
Shakarim reacted, but it was too late.
Jane, tears streaming down her face, reached out to me as I dangled from the Chain-Sword.
– To hell with the Dragon God! We’ll live our own way! We don’t need a god like you anymore!
Mana flowed from Jane’s hand into the Chain-Sword, extending it further.
I climbed onto the wyvern.
I quickly fastened the safety straps and patted Jane’s back.
“Fly! Full speed!”
I turned and braced myself on the wyvern’s back. Now it was my turn.
“You’ve done well, but just one more time. Give it your all, just one last time.”
Jane’s magic flowed into the wyvern. It flew away from the dragon at its top speed.
The Chain-Sword, wrapped around Shakarim’s wing, tightened. The strain was immense, my arm felt like it would be ripped off, my hand about to explode.
The friction burned my palm.
Jane, holding the reins, cast a support spell on me and gripped the hilt of the sword with me.
“Are… you happy now?”
“You’re asking me that now?”
I forced a smile, knowing this might be my last chance.
“That’s a terrible attempt at comfort.”
Jane wiped her tears and smiled brightly.
“As you said, let’s bring this lizard back down to earth.”
She fastened more safety straps around my waist, even unbuckling her own and adding it to mine.
“Daniel!”
I was ripped from the wyvern’s back by the force, but dozens of safety straps still connected me to the wyvern, and the Chain-Sword linked me to Shakarim’s wing.
“Keep flying!”
My waist felt like it was splitting, my insides tearing.
The wyvern struggled, its wings beating furiously, almost stationary.
The tug-of-war continued…
Crack!
The sound of a giant tree splitting echoed through the sky, and the tension released.
“GRAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Shakarim’s roar shook the heavens.
One of his wings, severed, plummeted into the ocean, spraying blood.
He lost his balance and began to fall.
A god was falling.
“I thought it was an island.”
Shakarim floated on the surface of the ocean.
No, he wasn’t a god anymore. Just old man lizard Shakarim.
“Is he dead?”
“It would be disappointing if he died from this.”
Jane peeked over the side of the wyvern. It was exhausted, so she carefully landed on Shakarim’s back.
“Thank you. You did well.”
While Jane stroked the wyvern’s head, I walked towards Shakarim’s head and his eye.
My sword was still embedded there.
“He’ll wake up if I pull this out, right?”
It was best to leave it in for now. It would take a while for him to recover from the fall.
“What should we do? Wait?”
“It’ll be a while. Let’s rest the wyvern and return to the island. He can’t fly away without a wing.”
“Alright, so it’s over, to some extent.”
Jane sighed and sat down heavily. In the past, she would have scolded herself for being disrespectful, sitting on the Dragon God, but now she seemed indifferent.
“Haa… but when he wakes up… will he listen to us?”
“He will. He knows he can die now.”
I was about to sit down and rest when Jane patted the spot beside her, inviting me to join her.
“I’ll give you a massage. You deserve it after cutting off a dragon’s wing.”
“A massage?”
“Come on.”
I sat beside her. She started massaging my shoulders, her inexperience obvious.
Still, she was putting in effort.
“You’re so… firm!”
“Press harder.”
“I shouldn’t have offered!”
As Jane massaged me, I thought about Shakarim below.
He had carried the grand title of Dragon God, worshipped by the dragon-kin, but…
His death in the second iteration had been pathetic and humiliating.
Brought to his knees by Sharcal and Kurika, his wings torn, his forelegs severed, he had begged Rin for his life.
Rin, of course, had killed him to trigger my regression, but…
He’d deluded himself into believing his long life had diminished his desire to live, but it was the opposite.
Living so long meant his will to live was stronger than anyone’s.
I had reminded him that he could die.
And I had corrected his condescending perspective.
Cutting off his wing had been drastic, but it was necessary to prevent his escape.
‘Now we can have a proper conversation about the apocalypse.’
It had been a lot of effort just to get him to the negotiating table, but…
I felt like the end was finally in sight.
Eris had attempted to persuade Yggdrasil. If she succeeded, we would be almost ready to face the calamity.
“…”
“What are you thinking about?”
Jane rested her chin on my shoulder.
It felt strangely intimate, but we had just fought a life-or-death battle together, so perhaps it was camaraderie.
“Just… thinking about what we need to do next. It’s daunting to think that even after defeating the Dragon God, it’s not over.”
“And?”
“It feels like the end is truly near.”
“…”
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[Your Text Here]
It might be time for Eve to start punching 🥴