Chapter 237: Chapter 260 - Stars in the Night Sky (2)
This is an illusion.
Because the Bastopol wall that I see now, I destroyed with my own hands just a few days ago.
However, the glow of the wall visible now is much brighter than reality.
"…Sword Master."
Someone's world painted over reality.
This world, drawn by a person firmly aware of their existence, becomes as real as you believe in it.
And there's only one being who can draw such a world. The only Master of the Sword, known as the pinnacle of swords.
"Give me a shield."
There, in the dueling arena, stood the knight who blocked my claws.
His name was Pablo of Arnstein, a man who chose duty over honor for the sake of a young man.
"So I can protect your potential."
Possibility is something beautiful, and young beings who can express it in their own world are precious.
Thus, the light of a single star in the night sky began to persist from the knight's shield, protecting that moment.
"Face me, Sarnus."
"…..Damn insects!"
A being that normally you wouldn't even dare look at.
But in Vlad's world, he was equal to him. Raising his shield, Sarnus, unable to bear it any longer, began to charge forward.
Boom! Crash!
A tremendous impact.
Pablo began to be pushed back by the force, which would have shattered his limbs if he had taken it in real life.
"Ugh!"
What he had just felt was the world of Sarnus, a being closer to perfection than any other.
However, the weight of Pablo carrying the duty he had sworn to was just a little heavier than Sarnus's world.
"…You have the right."
The same blonde hair and the same blue eyes.
And Pablo, standing on the same battlefield as before, saw Sarnus charging toward him and thought of the boy from that day.
"This battlefield is honorable enough."
Bang! Crash! Boom! Boom!
The shield that Pablo held shattered with a single blow from Sarnus's sword.
However, the shield he held was not a reality, but a world created by willpower.
If his will to hold the shield didn't break, that star in the night sky would forever belong to Pablo.
"…So that you can say your name!"
Amidst the fragments of the broken shield, Pablo pushed forward with his shoulder.
The knight, who normally focused on defense, created a single moment by throwing away his shield.
"Ugh!"
Sarnus's eyes widened as he saw Pablo charging toward him.
The cunning of a knight, enough to surprise even the oldest dragon.
However, Sarnus's astonishment wasn't because of Pablo, but the man charging from behind.
"Huuaap!"
The name of the knight charging behind Pablo, like a wall, was Vlad of Soara.
His aura, which Pablo had been concealing until now, brushed Sarnus's shoulder like lightning.
"…!"
Golden scales that couldn't manifest due to the unexpected nature of the attack.
Thus, a single stream of red blood rose from the wound carved into the deep blue night sky.
"Vlad! Damn you!"
A greedy dragon that craved the blood of others but refused to give up his own.
Enraged by the thread of blood, Sarnus turned his head, but Vlad had already disappeared.
"…What is that?"
What he saw instead was a young World Tree rising toward the sky.
Sarnus, now standing in the elven forest instead of the dueling arena of Deirmar, saw an elf with navy-blue hair in front of him, aiming a weapon at him.
"Our vitality began with the tears of our ancestors."
Baradis, with a shining five-pointed star in his left eye.
"So it's time to receive some of it back."
The elves had to abandon their burning forest after losing their mother World Tree.
Their rage, which had accumulated over generations, began to form at the tips of the arrows held by the elves of this era.
"Just a little."
Fwoosh!
By the time you heard it, it had already been shot, and by the time you saw it, it was already in front of you.
Baradis's arrow, as fast as the elves' resentment, was filled with spirits and headed straight for the oldest dragon.
"Ugh!"
Crack! Snap!
Just like the dragon's breath he had exhaled.
All red, blue, and dark green, it shone as it began to gnaw at Sarnus's sword.
"Vlad-!"
However, even in this feast of bright colors, Sarnus could clearly recognize the one color that was rushing toward him.
It was the blonde hair of the knight, shining just like his own.
"Haaah!"
Baradis's arrow was fired like an arrow but suddenly took the shape of a sword.
The person it was aimed at was Vlad, the guardian of the World Tree.
"Damn trickery…!"
A knight of the World Tree who stopped the most cunning dragon and drove away the evil beings.
The starlight of the spirits who remembered him was already forming at the tip of Vlad's sword.
"Does this seem like just a trick?"
Clang! Clang!
Both swords clashed violently, and Sarnus began to be pushed back.
Sarnus, a pure-blood dragon who would never be defeated in terms of physical strength, now had many spirits at Vlad's side, lending their small hands to him.
"You underestimated yourself, which is why you fell before this unfailing sword."
Swordsmanship that anticipates possibilities with unexpected moves and controls the battlefield with a vision that's always a step ahead.
The swordsmanship created by the honorable duelist was now being perfectly executed in Vlad's world.
"It's now!"
"What?"
Ting!
The spirits holding Sarnus, and Vlad, who was stopping him with his sword, heard a sharp sound from behind them.
"Finally, it's my turn."
A sound as if someone had snapped their fingers.
With that sound, what was once a forest transformed into a green meadow.
"As expected, you are the best dragon slayer, Vlad."
The star that now shone was a volcano erupting.
Rutiger's sword, capable of piercing even the toughest dragon, was suddenly unleashing a massive bolt of rage from the depths of his own world.
Rumble!
The ground trembled more violently as he raised his sword.
And seeing the red lava surging forth, Sarnus's eyes widened in shock.
"My name is Rutiger of Bayezid."
Where once lay the tracks of dragons that ravaged the North.
And at the end of those tracks, a multitude of northerners met their death.
"Rutiger Bayezid, claiming the blood of the North!"
A world where only knights who can deeply reflect upon themselves can leave their mark.
Red lava, seeming capable of devouring even a dragon, surged from the tip of Rutiger's sword.
"Sh*t!"
Sarnus, with wings he couldn't spread and feet that felt bound.
Before he realized it, Rutiger's blazing, fiery world was falling upon him like an inferno.
Crash!
The golden dragon was engulfed by the cascading lava, and the once-perfect golden scales began to crack.
Rutiger's world, sharper than any sword and hotter than any flame, slowly began to carve fissures into Sarnus's flawless gold.
"Aaaah!"
Was it from the heat that I can finally feel?
Sarnus, who had recklessly pushed Vlad ahead of him, had now entered another world.
"And now where am I?"
There was no World Tree, no volcano in this new place.
The world Vlad had drawn this time was a snowy northern field, covered in pure white snow.
"The place where the fastest dragon was killed."
The fastest dragon. The snowfield that killed Lindworm.
"A fitting place for your end, don't you think?"
"Vlad! You bastard!"
Sarnus gritted his teeth as he watched Vlad standing alone in the snowfield.
"You're the one responsible for all of this!"
Pablo of Arnstein, Rutiger of Bayezid, and even Baradis of Ausurin.
They were all exceptional knights, but none strong enough to face Sarnus.
"I'll put an end to this cursed world right now!"
Yet they were knights shaped like stars, shining as brightly as they wished in Vlad's world.
And in the night sky above the white snowy plain, another star shone.
"I'll kill you!"
A fierce snowstorm began to howl behind Sarnus as he charged toward Vlad.
A perfect advance, even faster than the swiftest dragon, Lindworm.
[…If you wait and watch, it'll be too late!]
Strong, fast, sharp, and immense.
The traits that were divided among the fallen remnants originally belonged to the most perfect dragon.
[Anticipate to counterattack!]
"…!"
The dragon charging at Vlad now was Sarnus, the closest to perfection in this era.
"Die!"
Filled with fury, Sarnus's world roared fiercely toward Vlad.
Boom!
"Raaaah!"
Fast, precise, at an impossible speed to dodge.
Vlad barely managed to predict the attack, but blocking it didn't mean he could strike back.
"Born a dragon and became a Swordmaster!"
Once you gain the upper hand, never let it go.
That should be the predator's attitude toward its prey.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Sarnus's overwhelming fury attacked Vlad relentlessly, pushing him back.
The bloody aura pouring from Sarnus's sword began to envelop and overheat the starlit blade Vlad wielded.
"I raised you among the scum just to see what would happen, and you dare try to catch me!"
More painful than a sharp sword and colder than the northern wind were the words Sarnus spat out at that moment.
"Who do you think you are to stand in the way of my perfection?!"
The start of my existence was mere curiosity.
The purpose of my life was to be devoured by another.
Thus, a child was born, and his father shouted at him to die quickly.
"I should never have sired you!"
"Argh…!"
"You're a failure!"
Sarnus's sword reached Vlad's neck, who had already been driven against a wall of pure white ice.
Vlad was cornered with nowhere left to escape.
The sword Sarnus held toward him seemed to say that both giving life and taking it were his rights.
"…Who do you think you are?"
A child born in a place where no one could see him.
Vlad, raised in a mire where you would sink if you stayed still, perhaps truly was a failure.
"You call me a failure."
Crunch-!
However, the boy standing in the alley was always looking up at the stars.
That star is the only guide for me, someone who is lost.
And the girl who also gazed at those stars was the only support that held him up.
"You have no idea who I am!"
A red thread began to unravel from Vlad's left hand, which he stretched out with all his strength.
The thread, which resembled a woman's hair, began to merge into a single form with the starlight shining from above.
"I promised I would definitely return!"
A ray of starlight illuminated the field of pure white snow.
That light was created from an old man's dream, purchased with a young girl's tears, and wielded as an unadorned sword by a boy's will.
"I will kill you here, and return to Soara!"
In his right hand, he held a sword of stars, and in his left, an unadorned sword.
Vlad's world, wielding both swords, grazed Sarnus's eyes, causing a pale blue tear to flow like a stream.
"Aaaah!"
Sarnus's scream echoed as the unadorned sword slashed him.
The place where the scream originated was from Sarnus's world, where he lost one of his eyes.
"Damn you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"
Boom!
Watching Sarnus in his frenzy, Vlad swiftly swung his sword bathed in starlight.
The path of the sword created a long line in the white snow, drawing the outline of another world.
"If you want to kill me, come here!"
The ancient dragon slowly crossed the line in response to Vlad's taunt.
But he didn't realize, blinded by his burning rage.
Roaaar!
With every step he took toward Vlad, he sank deeper and deeper into a world far more profound.
He was advancing into the deepest part of Vlad's world, the place where the starlight shone the brightest.
"Come here if you dare!"
This was a world where the meaning of existence could change with a single line.
A place where two lives, that could never be mixed, were divided by a border that ran across the city.
"Come here and see who I really am!"
This place was the smile of a rose.
A brothel filled with red.
And it was the home of a boy who had promised to return.
The starlight of Soara, shining under Vlad's night sky, was now guiding the ancient dragon.