Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Crasias had existed since Kurayan’s beginning.

He had the form of a dragon, but no one in Kurayan thought of him as a dragon.

Not even other dragons.

Crasias’s epithet was the Greedy Dragon.

That was because he coveted and collected every miracle and supernatural ability that existed in Kurayan.

His gigantic body, stretching three kilometers, was itself an aggregate of supernatural abilities.

Though he existed at the pinnacle of the world called Kurayan, Crasias exerted no influence.

He merely observed, like a god.

In truth, even among the gods that had existed in Kurayan, none possessed power comparable to Crasias.

Under Crasias’s noninterference that was not quite noninterference, wars broke out every day within Kurayan.

Kurayan was a very different place from Earth.

Its civilization had developed similarly to Earth’s, but the method was entirely different.

Instead of science, Magic and all manner of supernatural abilities had caused human civilization to bloom.

Its members were also different from Earth’s.

Humans, nonhuman races such as elves and dwarves, and monsters all firmly occupied their own domains and maintained a balance.

Because the land was limited while far too many races existed, war never ceased.

If one side had held a clear advantage, perhaps the war would have ended early instead. But the forces of humans and nonhuman races were almost equal.

The war, stained with hatred and rage, continued for thousands of years before suddenly ending one day.

That was because the end had come to Kurayan.

The sudden end that arrived destroyed everything.

The land overturned, and the world was covered in lava.

Seas and rivers evaporated, the sky was covered in black ash, and the planet itself began to collapse.

No one knew the reason or the cause.

At the end that came suddenly one day, two-thirds of the nonhuman races and humans died.

The one the humans and nonhuman races, who had fallen into despair, thought of last was Crasias.

They pleaded with Crasias to save them.

Crasias said,

―The destruction of this world is inevitable. For the beings of this world to live, another world must pay the price. Are you still willing?

To that, the representatives of humanity and the nonhuman races answered,

“The desire to live is the fundamental desire of every living creature. How could that be called evil? We want to live. We want to live even if we must trample another world. If we can survive, we will do anything. Are you not Kurayan’s guardian deity? O great one, whose power exceeds even that of gods. Please watch over us with mercy. We are all no different from your children.”

At their pleading, Crasias pondered for a long time.

―Very well! I will see whether there is a world to which you can migrate.

Crasias used dimensional detection magic to find a place where Kurayan’s lifeforms could migrate.

Even at that moment, Kurayan was collapsing, and its destruction was not far away.

Because of that, Crasias had to hurry as well.

The place he finally found was Earth.

If more time had been given, he might have been able to find another planet where no living creatures existed, but unfortunately, there was no such leeway.

―The land I have found is already inhabited by billions of humans. If you wish to live there, you will inevitably have to kill them and take their land. Are you still willing?

At Crasias’s words, humans, nonhuman races, and even the other dragons said it did not matter.

No, there was one person who alone raised opposition.

It was Akaruk, one of humanity’s representatives.

“No. How could we seize another world just so we can live? I oppose this.”

Akaruk’s epithet was the Noble Knight.

Akaruk, who was a knight through and through from head to toe, could never accept migration to another world.

War among themselves could not be helped, but invading another world was a matter of an entirely different dimension.

He alone raised the banner of opposition and resisted with a single sword.

But one hand could not stop ten, and moreover, those gathered there were all people who had risen to the ranks of Kurayan’s strongest.

In the end, Akaruk was killed by them.

The one who turned the dead Akaruk into undead was the Gold Dragon Haieltun.

Haieltun turned Akaruk and all the subordinates who followed him into undead and made them Guardians.

It was preparation for after their migration to Earth.

Crasias exerted all his authority and opened a dimensional gate. Then he crossed over to Earth first.

It was possible because Crasias possessed power equal to an entire planet.

The first thing Crasias did after crossing over to Earth was to change the environment to resemble Kurayan’s, in other words, Terraforming.

It was work that was absolutely necessary for the lifeforms of Kurayan to settle successfully on Earth.

But this Terraforming caused a problem.

Crasias’s power was truly immense, and the Terraforming Magic seemed as if it would succeed. But at that moment, a tremendous backlash struck him.

It was as if the planet called Earth refused to become subordinate to Crasias and Kurayan.

Earth’s backlash brought about tremendous results.

It desertified the entirety of Earth and brought about Crasias’s death.

As Crasias vanished, all the authorities and supernatural abilities he had coveted until then spread across Earth.

It was thanks to that that Earth’s humans awakened.

In that way, this world became a desert, and Awakened began to appear.

“Wow! Fuck! Then Earth ended up like this because of those Kurayan bastards?”

Zeon’s face twisted after hearing the story.

He had never dreamed that such circumstances had been hidden behind Earth’s desertification.

Only now did he understand why Deioden shuddered whenever it came to nonhuman races.

If he had known the whole truth since a hundred years ago, he too would have been swallowed by rage like Deioden and killed nonhuman races whenever he saw them.

Deioden asked,

“If you were a Guardian, then the dragon must be somewhere not far from here.”

“That is right.”

“Heh-heh! So it is the Gold Dragon Haieltun.”

Deioden bared his white teeth and smiled.

Akaruk’s body trembled.

The madness Deioden emitted was so terrible that even Akaruk, who was undead, felt fear.

“Human!”

“Speak, noble knight.”

Deioden’s tone changed.

Deioden hated everything about Kurayan, but he could not do the same to Akaruk.

Akaruk was a true knight.

When everyone had decided to migrate to Earth in order to survive, only he had raised opposition.

He had fought alone to stop a wrong decision, and as the price, he had become undead.

Deioden could not treat a man who knew honor and justice carelessly.

Akaruk said,

“Dragons are strong.”

“I know.”

“You are strong now, but you cannot be a match for a dragon.”

“I know that too.”

Deioden answered calmly.

He had already hunted a dragon before.

He had not been alone.

He had been with hundreds of Awakened.

At the time, two-thirds of the Awakened who participated in the dragon hunt had died, and most of the survivors had become cripples.

The survivors who had been injured did not live long and soon followed those who had gone before them.

Only an extremely small number, including Deioden, survived intact.

Back then, he had felt in his bones just how strong dragons were.

A dragon was, in itself, the culmination of Magic.

It also possessed immense anti-magic power.

Because of that, the attacks of Magic Type Awakened did not work. Not only that, its scales, stronger than adamantium, even repelled the attacks of martial type Awakened.

If countless Awakened had not held the dragon back with physical assaults and suicide attacks, they would never have been able to kill it.

Even then, Deioden had possessed tremendous skill. But even he had felt despair before the overwhelming majesty of the dragon.

Moreover, the dragon hunted at that time had been the youngest and weakest among the dragons that had crossed over to Earth.

Even to kill such a dragon, most of the early Awakened had died. So there was no guessing how strong the Gold Dragon Haieltun might be.

Even so, Deioden did not despair.

For a hundred years, he had not rested for even a single day, wandering the desert and sharpening his strength.

His martial prowess now had grown beyond comparison to when he first hunted a dragon.

Akaruk handed Deioden his sword.

“Take my sword. It is a sword blessed by the gods. It will aid you.”

The sword Akaruk held out was covered in patterns whose meanings could not be understood.

They were the letters of the gods, engraved when it had received the gods’ blessing.

With Kurayan’s destruction, most of the gods had vanished, and the blessing dwelling in the sword had been greatly diluted. Even so, the remaining energy would surely be of help.

Deioden received Akaruk’s sword.

“I will use it well.”

“It was humans and nonhuman races who persuaded Crasias, but the ones who instigated them were the dragons. I only ask that you know that.”

“That does not erase the responsibility of Kurayan’s humans and nonhuman races.”

“I...... know.”

By now, Akaruk’s body had almost completely turned to powder, leaving only part of his upper body and his face.

Akaruk looked at the ashen sky and murmured,

“I wanted to see a blue sky before I died......”

CRUMBLE!

At that instant, even his face turned to powder and vanished completely.

That was when it happened.

The undead knights, who had been standing silently until now, stepped aside.

A path opened between the undead knights.

Neither Deioden nor Zeon could fail to understand what that meant.

“Let’s go!”

“Yes!”

The two walked along the path the undead knights had opened.

It was when they had reached about the middle.

Suddenly, the undead knights all raised their swords high into the sky.

It was their own ritual, mourning their lord Akaruk while at the same time blessing Deioden’s path ahead.

Zeon took in each of the undead knights’ faces one by one.

Until just moments ago, he had felt nothing but death energy from their faces, but now he felt as if a faint warmth was returning to them little by little.

Their appearance gave Zeon a strange feeling.

He felt as if he understood what a will that did not yield even to death meant.

It was when the two had almost passed through the undead knights.

CRUMBLE!

The undead knights began to crumble into dust while still holding their swords raised.

When Akaruk found rest, they too had been freed from the bondage of undeath.

It was not only the undead knights who scattered into dust.

As if unwilling to leave even a single trace, the enormous ancient castle that had stood in the middle of the desert also became dust and scattered.

In that way, the enormous ancient castle and the undead knights all disappeared behind them. But Deioden never looked back.

Nothing could make him look back.

Deioden walked while looking only ahead, and at the end of this road, a dragon existed.

The being he had searched and wandered for so long to find was not far away.

Vmmmm!

Deioden suddenly looked at Akaruk’s sword.

As if knowing its master’s death, the sword was weeping.

Crayon also released a sword cry.

After looking at the swords in both hands for a moment, Deioden overlapped the two swords into one. Then something astonishing happened.

CLACK!

Crayon and Akaruk’s sword separated into each of their parts.

Crayon’s blade and Akaruk’s blade fused into one. The blade, which had already held a reddish light, glowed red-hot like the sun.

The handles were the same.

The two handles fused into one and were reborn in a new form.

In that way, the two swords combined part by part and took on a new form.

At that instant, dazzling light burst from Deioden’s entire body.

At the powerful light that seemed as if it would blind him, Zeon closed his eyes for a moment.

Even though his eyelids covered his vision, his eyes swam, and he felt dizzy. Because of that, Zeon had to wait for the light to vanish.

Fortunately, the light disappeared before long.

Only then did Zeon carefully open his eyes.

“Wow!”

Zeon let out an exclamation without realizing it.

It was because of Crayon’s changed appearance after combining with Akaruk’s sword.

On Crayon’s gigantic blade, the characters that had been engraved on Akaruk’s sword were carved exactly as they had been.

Not only that, its overall form had changed into something far more oppressive.

Just facing Crayon made it feel as though his soul would be sliced away.

Deioden gripped Crayon’s handle tightly and murmured,

“My friend! It is not long now.”