Chapter 336: Destroyed (2)
Translator: miraclerifle
Editor: Borderline Masochist
Cale could see other injuries on Eruhaben as well.
Eruhaben’s shirt was shabby after being damaged by the explosion.
He could see old scars on Eruhaben’s chest, back, and stomach, as well as around his body.
‘...A Dragon with old scars?’
This made Cale think about Choi Han and Witira, the future Whale Queen. They both had large and small scars throughout their bodies.
Even people considered to be some of the strongest in the world had scars on them.
There was a simple reason for it.
It was because they grew stronger.
Nobody can be strong from the beginning. They were bound to get scars as they developed and grew stronger.
It was similar to how Kim Rok Soo’s entire body had been covered in disgusting scars.
“Goldie! Mmph!”
Cale hugged the flailing Raon's head and covered his mouth.
“Haaaa, does that little kid really want to call me like that even in a time like this?”
Cale could see Eruhaben's shoulders moving as he sighed. Cale then casually asked the Dragon who no longer seemed to be angry.
“Eruhaben-nim, when did I become your child?”
“Goldie! I am not a child, I am the great and mighty Raon Mi, mmph!”
Cale fully covered Raon's mouth and picked up the now heavier chubby Dragon's body. Raon seemed to be eating a good portion of the apple pies he supposedly bought for Cale, as he was very heavy.
“...Aigoo, my poor life.”
The destructively beautiful Dragon turned around and looked toward Cale and the no longer invisible Raon before lamenting these troublemakers in his life. He then turned back again and stoically started to speak.
“Move away.”
Eruhaben was looking at the White Star with a stoic expression as he told Cale and Raon to step back. He was especially looking at the sword in the White Star's hand.
It was a Sword of Disasters infused with fire.
That was probably the true Dragon Catcher’s Sword of Disasters.
“It's been a while.”
It had been a while since he was caught off guard and beaten up. But he realized something as that happened.
No, he realized it the moment that the numerous light arrows he had shot out were easily blocked by the water wall.
‘I need to fight this guy.’
Ooooooooong-
A white gold light that was more beautiful than ever before started to surround Eruhaben. Enough mana to vibrate the air around him was shooting out from Eruhaben and spreading out.
It had been a while since he had been in a situation like this.
Eruhaben was using his full strength for the first time in a long time.
“Eruhaben, you are too arrogant. I am arrogant as well, but you seem to be even worse.”
The dead Dragon Olienne’s voice reverberated around his ears.
‘Is it your narcissism that is keeping you alive?”
Olienne had been right.
Eruhaben was an arrogant Dragon whose narcissism kept him going.
He was extremely arrogant as Dragons had been for generations.
However, Eruhaben himself thought that there was justification as to why he could be so arrogant.
‘Eruhaben, you said that they called you a natural fighter when you were younger?’
Although Eruhaben had quietly helped the Elves and the World Tree as well as some young Dragons safely finish their first growth phase here and there as he aged, he had originally been a fighter. That was what the Dragons had called him in the past.
However, the truth was that he was not a, ‘natural,’ fighter.
He had believed in the strength of his attribute as he worked hard and trained himself while others sneered and mocked his dust or powder attribute.
He just faced the other Dragons after training and developing that attribute.
Eruhaben sternly started to speak after still feeling the presences of Cale and Raon behind him.
“Move away.”
“Eruhaben-nim.”
He could hear Cale's voice. Eruhaben shook his head and responded back.
“I will do it.”
“Goldie gramps!”
He could hear Raon's voice.
First was Cale and then it was Raon. Eruhaben let out a sigh.
‘Why are there so many issues in my final years?’
However, Eruhaben could feel his blood boiling at the fact that he could fight at full power for the first time in a long time.
That was why he stepped forward as he commented back to Cale.
“Cale, you take good care of him.”
It was obvious who that, ‘him,’ was referring to.
Cale activated his silver shield again and stepped back. He then released the Sound of the Wind after feeling something under his feet.
“...Hey.”
“What?”
Cale landed on Mary’s White Bone Dragon before bluntly responding back to Hannah who was calling him. Hannah looked at Cale, who had an approximately 1m 20cm Dragon in his arms, before turning away.
She looked up at the sky.
Screeeech-
The black clouds were still there.
Hannah lowered her head and looked back at Cale.
“Do you think it’ll be okay?”
‘Will we be okay even with those black clouds and the White Star being here?’
Hannah could see Cale’s still stoic expression. Cale tightened his hold on the flailing Raon before responding back.
“What can we do about it if it isn’t okay?”
Cale's gaze moved past the black clouds to Eruhaben.
Cale had faced many not okay situations in the past. He always had the same thoughts during those situations.
If the situation was not okay...
“We just need to make it okay. We must make it okay.”
That’s all they needed to do.
No matter what it was, there had to be a chance to turn the situation around.
Cale looked past Eruhaben’s shoulder to see the White Star wiping away some blood from his mouth just as the ancient Dragon had done. His shoulders looked very tired.
“Is it because you are the oldest Dragon alive? You're quite strong.”
However, his expression was quite lively, contrary to his tired demeanor. He looked at the white gold dust gathering around Eruhaben as he continued to speak.
“I've been curious about it for a while.”
“Curious about what?”
Eruhaben stoically responded back.
He also motioned toward Cale with his eyes and Cale immediately sent the message down.
Tasha and the other Dark Elves immediately headed down and moved the rest of the people away from the Alchemists’ Bell Tower.
He also ordered Rosalyn to move the airship outside the range of the black clouds.
The ancient Dragon was going to buy them time to run.
This upcoming fight was something that could seriously injure those around them.
“Are we going too?”
Cale shook his head at Hannah's question.
“Not yet.”
Cale looked down below. He could see Choi Han and Mary, who was moving her black threads in order to gather Tower Master Bernard, no, the remaining black bones.
He could see Saint Jack and Sir Rex next to her as well. Cale motioned toward Sir Rex. Rex nodded his head in understanding.
They would run away as well. Either that or they would find a way to defend themselves.
Cale, Eruhaben, and even the White Star knew that that would be the case.
However, the White Star was still relaxed. It was as if he did not care about the people running away. He put his fire sword on his shoulder as he started to speak.
“What I have been curious about is...”
The White Star recalled something that had happened long ago.
It was something he had been curious about ever since the first time he was born.
“Dragons live for 1,000 years.”
The bright brown eyes focused on the shining Eruhaben.
“Dragons who are strong from the moment they are born live for 1,000 years. They get to live longer than any other lifeform in this world.”
The beings who were the strongest in the world and got to live the longest as well.
“Then how strong must they get during that time?”
However, the only things he could see were the dark clouds.
These clouds covered the Alchemists’ Bell Tower and the area around it. They were giving off odd cries.
‘An ancient power with the sky attribute.’
Cale could not imagine that properly.
- The sky. It is a power that looks down on everything. It is a damn power that thinks that everything exists beneath the sky. The power that cannot return to the world has reappeared.
Cale was able to tell how strong it was based on the Super Rock's comments. He could also hear the shouts of the Sky Eating Water.
- This time, I, no, we, can catch him! It might be possible this time!
Both despair and a small sense of hope could be heard in her voice.
- I can eat up the sky like my name now!
The Sky Eating Water continued to shout.
However, that voice stopped as soon as the Super Rock started to speak again.
- Run away.
This was the first time.
He had never heard such a scary and stern voice from the Super Rock before.
- Not yet.
Not yet.
You can’t do it right now.
- You are still weak. You need to grow stronger first.
Cale recalled what the White Star had said earlier.
‘Tsk tsk. Cale, you don't even know how to use ancient powers properly.’
He thought about that statement as well as the fact that the Super Rock was saying that he was weak.
‘Am I weak?
Haven’t I surprised everyone with how strong I am every time?
But that strength is from not using the ancient powers correctly?’
Cale then heard something that helped him process the complicated mess in his head.
- Do not sacrifice yourself.
It was the Super Rock’s stern voice.
- The people on your side are still not strong enough either.
Cale thought about his group.
Eruhaben, Raon, Choi Han, Mary. There were many others as well.
‘But they are not enough?’
The Super Rock continued to speak in a lower voice.
- Don’t turn away from them as I did and make them be sacrificed.
Do not let them be sacrificed.
That sentence made Cale subconsciously start to shout.
“Run!”
Choi Han, Mary, Jack, Hannah. Everybody around them looked toward him.
It was as the ancient Dragon and White Star were silently observing each other.
“Run away!”
Veins were popping out on Cale's neck as he shouted.
“...Cale?”
Eruhaben was the one who was most shocked by Cale's actions. This was different than the Cale he knew.
However, Eruhaben’s gaze quickly turned away from Cale and back to the front.
“Is it because he has a lot of ancient powers?”
The White Star continued while laughing.
“His senses are good.”
Ooooooong-
They heard a noise.
Eruhaben looked up toward the source of that noise. He could not believe it.
“...That-”
The sky was rumbling.
No, it was violently showing its presence.
Cale could see the White Star reaching his arm up toward the sky. The White Star was looking at the sky that was responding to him as he started to speak again.
“Bernard, my loyal subordinate.”
These black clouds had come from the Lich’s heart orb.
“I will destroy them with your power.”
The black clouds headed toward the White Star.
“We will abandon the Empire’s capital.”
The black clouds rumbled once the White Star said that.
Cale started to frown. The cheapskate Fire of Destruction who had been quiet chimed in.
- We cannot defeat the sky yet, but there is something we can do.
There was something Cale and the ancient powers could do right now.
“...Purification.”
- Purification is possible.
What would they purify?
It was blatantly visible in front of them.
The black clouds heading toward the White Star.
- You have many ways to purify things on your side.
Cale thought about the methods at his disposal. His eyes clouded over.
“Hannah.”
“Huh?”
Cale called out to Hannah who was blankly staring at the rumbling clouds in the sky.
“Can you destroy those clouds with this white sword?”
“...Clouds?”
Hannah blanked for a moment before thinking about Cale's bloodshot eyes and his shouts from earlier as she quickly responded back.
“I don't know. But it is telling me we need to destroy it.”
“Hand it over.”
“...Huh?”
Hannah blankly asked, but Cale immediately reached his hand out toward the white sword.
“You need it?”
“Yes, I do.”
Hannah hesitated for a moment before handing the white sword over to Cale after hearing that he needed it. She then tried to take her own sword out of its scabbard. She was planning on following behind him.
However, she would not be able to do that.
“Here.”
“Huh?”
Hannah’s eyes opened wide after seeing what Cale handed over.
Cale had put Raon in Hannah’s arms. He could not allow Raon to clash against the White Star. It could be dangerous.
“What the...? Human?”
“What the...?”
Cale floated up using the Sound of the Wind instead of responding to the confused Raon and Hannah. He then sternly told the two of them to run.
“Run away.”
He heard the Super Rock's sighing voice at that moment.
- I said don't sacrifice yourself.
Cale then felt a sturdy power surrounding his body.
The Super Rock was starting to protect him.
Crackle, crackle.
He had the white sword in his right hand and the Fire of Destruction in his left hand.
Eruhaben, who could see Cale, created a large white gold wind and charged toward the White Star.
- Cale, step back. I am enough for this, no, I will do it.
I will do it.
Cale knew the weight of those words.
The Super Rock had said that even Dragons were not enough to take on the sky attribute.
‘How can I leave him alone when I know that is the case?’
“You still need to live a lot longer, Eruhaben-nim.”
Cale gave a short response to the ancient Dragon before shooting up toward the black clouds.