CH 269.

Kim Seon-Hyeok didn’t know when the dragon got here or why she was here. The dragon never told him anything.

But at this moment, that trivial question didn’t matter.

The important thing was that the hundreds of thousands of demonic monsters surrounding him were currently frightened by the dragon, which was only an illusion, and because of that, the path to the Demon King was wide open.

“Thank you, dragon.”

Seon-Hyeok smiled as a sense of exaltation filled his chest.

Flap.

Although his faint voice was most likely covered by Goldrake’s galloping footsteps, the dragon spread her wings as if she had heard his soft thanks.

Kaaaaaaaa.

The dragon had only slightly moved her wings, but the demonic monsters screamed out as they ran away as if they were being smacked. Some of them even peed themselves as they ran away.

The dragon’s imposing aura was something that the world would never see again.

It didn’t matter that what appeared here was only an illusion, and not the real thing. Whether it was an illusion or not, the dragon’s imposing presence was enough to overwhelm the heavens and the earth, and in fact, the demonic monsters didn’t dare to raise their heads up properly.

Go.

He couldn’t tell whether the dragon was actually talking to him or not. 

Go and destroy your, and my, enemy.

But, Kim Seon-Hyeok felt as if the dragon was telling him to move forward.

At the appearance of a friend who was stronger than anyone else, Seon-Hyeok gripped his spear tightly in his hand, then tensed.

“Goldie!”

Seon-Hyeok’s voice was stronger than ever; Goldrake roared and raced forward. 

Crunch.

The monsters who had sat frozen in fear were instantly crushed by the powerful impact. Goldrake ran forward as he stomped through the blood and bodies of the monsters. 

It was like he was a tyrant standing on a carpet of blood and flesh.

“Park Sang-Jin!”

No one was able to stop his charge forward, but it finally came to an end when he was in front of the master of the hundreds of thousands of demons and of this cursed land, the Demon King. 

The Demon King was no longer the foreigner Park Sang-Jin that Kim Seon-Hyeok knew. 

He was a dark mist that greedily swallowed up his surroundings; the human Park Sang-Jin was nowhere to be seen.

Nevertheless, Kim Seon-Hyeok instantly knew that the black mist was the Demon King’s main body. 

He knew there was no one in the world besides the Demon King who could emit such evil and insidious demonic energy.

Chaos, hatred, and malice mixed together until they formed corruptive energy that was terribly greedy. He even devoured the monsters who could be called his own hands and feet.

Kim Seon-Hyeok, who had charged forward without stopping once, had to stop for a moment in front of this terrible form. 

Of course, he didn’t stop because he was scared. 

“You’ve been completely consumed.”

Park Sang-Jin, who had been swallowed up by Chaos and had become an unsubstantial mass, didn’t answer.

Shhh, shhhh.

He just flicked his black tongue and made threatening sounds. 

Who was it that had made Park Sang-Jin the Demon King like this?

Was it the Nordic nobles who had abused and exploited the foreigners or was it Park Sang-Jin himself who had been consumed by justified anger and lost himself?

It was impossible to know, and Seon-Hyeok didn’t need to know.

Right now, Park Sang-Jin, who was completely consumed by Chaos, was just an enemy that Kim Seon-Hyeok had to crush.

“Drakanade.”

There was no need for conversation. He pulled out his dragon form in an instant.

“Grrr.”

With a golden flash, the dragonian form appeared in the world again breathing out sulfuric breath. 

It was a much bigger body than before. Perhaps if it was the Goldrake of the past, he would not have been able to handle this titanic figure. But now, Goldrake had completely molted and didn’t show any signs of being burdened even with the five meters high giant on his back.

Crack.

Goldrake’s shape changed. The scales that were as rugged and unique as a rock formation became as sharp as spears, and all those sharp scales faced forward. 

The earth dragon had become more ferocious and aggressive than before.

“Ha…”

Marek, who had been watching all these changes from the sky, either let out a groan or an exclamation. 

Only after Kim Seon-Hyeok suddenly looked up into the sky did Marek realize that the dragon was there. When he had followed Seon-Hyeok’s gaze and looked up, his mouth dropped open as he saw the overwhelming image of the dragon. 

Marek knew what kind of being the dragon was because of the knowledge passed down from the previous Adjuster. But there was a big difference between knowing something and actually seeing it with his own eyes. 

And the legendary being he encountered was much more overwhelming than any other living being he had ever seen before. 

He finally understood why the Adjuster’s awareness insisted on excluding the dragon and her companion from this world. 

It wouldn’t be fair if a creature like that involved itself in the world.

If the dragon did, there would be nothing in this world that could stop her. 

No, actually, there was only one thing.

Chaos. It was the terrible evil that had corrupted countless dragons in the past and put them on the path of decline. 

Fortunately, Chaos was at the same location today. Although it was only a fragment and not the entire thing, the fact that the Demon King was an incarnation of Chaos didn’t change. 

The Apostle of Chaos and the Dragon’s Companion. In the past, these two entities had fought against each other for victory, and now, their representatives stood facing each other. 

There was no room for him to intervene.

What master of the sword. It is a trivial thing in front of true transcendents.

Marek mocked himself. 

But that didn’t mean he forgot what he had to do.

The dragons had lost their path to chaos and had declined. Marek had to help the companion and make sure he didn’t follow the same path.

Even though he was no longer an Adjuster and only a ghost of the past now, he at least knew that between the Demon King and the dragon’s companion, which one would be more harmful to the world. 

Marek gripped his iron sword and watched the two representatives face off. 

He tensed his whole body so that if he saw a gap, he could stab his sword through it.

Kim Seon-Hyeok was the first to attack.

Huuuuuuuu.

Sulfuric breath came pouring out in an instant, and headed towards the Demon King, burning everything in its path. 

The Demon King dealt with that fire so easily; he didn’t make a fuss. He just quietly spread his body made of black mist and swallowed the dragonian’s fiery breath. 

Although the Drakanade’s most powerful attack failed, Kim Seon-Hyeok wasn’t disappointed in the slightest. 

He still had many weapons. 

When the world talked about Drachen’s most powerful weapon, they talked about the Wyvern. They said that the spear and wind that rushed down from the sky, where no attack could reach him, were his greatest weapons. 

Kim Seon-Hyeok also thought the same.

With Redvern, he had been able to beat strong enemies he wouldn’t have been able to easily deal with.

But at this moment, he didn’t regret Redvern’s absence at all.

That’s because the combination of Goldrake, his earth dragon, and the Mother Tree was much more powerful than he had ever imagined. 

Even though his feet weren’t touching the earth, he could still feel the earth’s vitality seeping into him. After all, Goldrake was a dragon who could control the energy of the earth. 

However, Goldrake wasn’t just a dragon who could control the earth’s energy, he was a dragon that consumed that energy as his main food. 

Roar. 

As time passed, Goldrake grew. 

His body, which was big enough to resemble a small mountain, grew even bigger as the scales covering his body became even sharper. 

This was all thanks to a portion of the earth’s vitality that the Mother Tree spear was being consumed by Goldrake.

If it’s now...

When the black mist, which had become somewhat distorted by the Drakanade’s breath, started gathering again, Kim Seon-Hyeok grabbed his spear and began charging forward. 

The battle had begun.

***

The dragon didn’t intervene in the battle, instead, she just watched everything from the sky. Nevertheless, the Demon King Park Sang-Jin couldn’t help but be aware of the dragon.

Perhaps that was why, but the Demon King was being played by Kim Seon-Hyeok and Goldrake to the point that his presence was being overshadowed. 

Bang!

At Goldrake’s charge, the black mist that was the Demon King scattered. Once again, the Drakanade’s breath burnt the scattered demonic energy.

The Demon King’s size continued to decrease.

And yet, the fight didn't end easily.

Just as Kim Seon-Hyeok was receiving endless vitality from the Mother Tree, the Demon King was also pulling in demonic energy from the entire Western region.

It would be odd if the battle ended easily and quickly.

Seon-Hyeok continued to disperse the Demon King’s body and the Demon King continued to reconstruct his body. 

As that happened, Goldrake’s scales gradually lost their light. 

The aftereffect of continuously crashing into the Demon King was slowly seeping into his body. 

Just as Chaos had corrupted the dragons long ago, the Demon King was also corrupting Goldrake. 

However, the Demon King hadn’t completely obtained Chaos, and Goldrake wasn’t one to weaken just because the color of his scales changed a bit.

Considering how this was a battle of superior beings, it was too monotonous. However, the energies that were exchanged were formidable enough to completely change their surrounding terrain. 

There were massive craters as if hundreds of meteorites had fallen, and the monsters that were in the vicinity had become casualties of the battle and completely destroyed. 

Pitifully, the demons become the only victims of the fight between these superior beings.

Bang!

Goldrake dove into the middle of the black mist and started making a ruckus. His powerful teeth ripped through the demonic energy and scattered the main body of the mist.

And just like it had been repeated the past dozen times, the Demon King calmly restored his body.

Goldrake’s scales became slightly darker in color. 

A battle that didn’t end. A battle that didn’t seem like it would be ending anytime soon. This boring battle was remarkably similar to the fierce battle fought countless times by the dragons and Chaos in the past. 

But because the dragons who had first fought against Chaos had been destroyed, this was a secret that hadn’t been passed on to anyone.

However, there was someone here who knew better than anyone else about this horribly exhausting battle.

It was the dragon.

She couldn’t come forward to help her companion because the contract hadn’t been completely fulfilled and could only watch all of this as she felt unbearably angry.

Her anger reached its peak when the Demon King used a ruse he had already readied. 

During the battle that repeated without any change, the Demon King suddenly summoned a beast. However, the appearance of that demonic beast was somehow family.

“That subspecies!”

Seon-Hyeok, who had been engrossed in fighting while riding Goldrake, shouted as he gritted his teeth. 

There was one dragon subspecies that the fairy dragon had told him about that Seon-Hyeok hadn’t been able to tame. That subspecies had been too close to the Demon King’s base and Seon-Hyeok hadn’t been able to stop the dragon from being corrupted by the demonic energy. But now, that dragon had become a slave to the Demon King. 

The demonic dragon. 

The demonic dragon that had been killed in the East had reappeared. 

Kaaaaaaah!

The demonic dragon roared fiercely. Although the demonic dragon resembled Goldrake, the demonic dragon looked sinister and insidious due to its black scales and red eyes. 

And at that moment, all the demonic energy that had been scattered in the vicinity was sucked in by the demonic dragon. This included even the black mist that made up the Demon King’s body.