Chapter 184

Chapter 184: The Dragon’s Betrothed

The Dragon’s Betrothed
Chapter 184. The Dragon’s Betrothed
Like any other dragon, Iorga was also famous for being cruel enough to be called cold-blooded.
Erica Iorga, the Master of the Blue Eyes Tower, also possessed such a disposition, but among the Dragon Spawns, she was the most understanding and resolved incidents with wisdom, earning great prestige.
That was why those who truly witnessed her magic were few.
The elves were experiencing that rare occasion at this very moment.
Five torrents of water swept the elves away like a river swollen by a midsummer downpour.
— Everyone, take cover!
— Protection Rune!
— Destroy their forms with Disruption Runes!
Hundreds of elites had gathered, but there was not a single elf present who could stop the Iorga Spawn leader who had lost her reason.
Even the sophisticated command system that operated through mental sharing left no opening to attack.
One wrong move and they would end up like pebbles on the riverbank; in this situation, defense was the only option.
— Amazing…
Rize, observing the scene, looked up with eyes full of awe.
— So this is the true capability of the one called the Wisdom of the Expedition that defeated the Demon King…
Ferda also looked at Erica, following Rize’s gaze.
— Ohohoho! What happened to that spirit from a moment ago?! Are you hiding like rats?!
— Try blocking this too!!
— It looks great! More! More!! Fight harder!! Wouldn’t it be fun if you collapsed already?!
“……Wisdom?”
No matter how he looked at it, her appearance was no different from that of a witch, and her current actions were wild madness itself.
“Even so, she hasn’t let go of reason until the end.”
Ferda knew the power that had pierced through the heads of monsters.
Even Erica, who could wield such lethal water currents, was adjusting her output to simply knock them unconscious.
— Let’s get moving.
— Y-yes?
— While she is running wild like this, we need to escape.
— Ah, yes!
Restraining herself until the end was also for the sake of the escape.
Rize gripped the straps of her bag tightly and took the lead, running forward.
— Stop the fugitives!
— That human tried to kill the Great Chief!
The priority seemed to be Ferda over Erica anyway.
The position of Valdrova’s betrothed was already secondary; the murderous aura directed at Ferda was fierce.
Ferda also counterattacked.
— Lightning.
Water and electricity are fundamentally compatible magics.
Even if it doesn’t strike directly, its influence travels along the wet ground.
— Ugh-geu-geuk!
— Geu-geu-geuk!
He sent a light current, electrocuting the archers and stopping their movements.
But stopping all those agile elves was difficult for Ferda as he was now.
“Rather than resisting with attacks, I should worry about my own safety first.”
Ferda changed strategy and chanted a different spell.
— Static Force.
Lightning-attribute protective magic.
Ferda’s hair floated toward the sky.
A sphere made of static electricity formed in his hand, and that sphere shot downward, repelling incoming arrows one by one.
It automatically repelled everything in all directions, but it was a defensive magic with a correspondingly high mana consumption.
— Call reinforcements!
As soldiers fell, as time dragged on, more and more soldiers filled the interior of this World Tree.
Just when blocking attacks was becoming difficult, they finally reached the stairs where the celestial carriage was located.
— This way!
When Rize placed her hand on the entrance, a corridor leading outside the World Tree was created.
— Regent-nim!
The wild Erica spoke.
— Are those pointy-eared things crawling from behind like cockroaches?!
— Is that so?
— I will hold them back, so you two get out first!
— ……Understood.
He decided to think it was just his imagination that she sounded less like she was going to block them and more like she was going to have a little more fun.
Rize took the lead and ran.
Everything seemed to proceed smoothly.
— If we just pass through this corridor and get out, uh…!
But things are not easily resolved.
A single elf blocked the path they had to take.
— ……Elder-nim.
The High Elf Elder who had been in command anticipated Rize’s route and was blocking it alone.
His face was beautifully distorted.
— You have finally committed a foolish act…
His finger, pointing at Rize, trembled.
— I should have known from the moment the Great Chief didn’t cast you out… In the end, you have become our calamity! Rootless thing!
Rize bit her lip, wounded by the Elder’s harsh words.
— Do you know what you are doing? It is betraying your people. Betraying your mother, betraying your people, betraying the other clans who trust in us! You are doing the same as a Dark Elf!
— No, it is not betrayal.
— Is it right to blindly carry out the Great Chief’s words?! Would you die if he told you to die?!
— That is…
Rize could not answer.
Seeing that, he snorted in disdain.
— That is why you can never be one of us.
Finishing those words, this time he turned his eyes toward Ferda.
— You are Regent Ferda, I presume?
— I have no memory of introducing myself to you.
— Hmph, fine, betrothed of Valdrova. I would prefer you not make this bigger than it already is.
He gestured with his chin toward Rize.
— Hand over that girl and the goods. Then I will allow you to leave here without anyone taking responsibility for what happened today.
— Re, Regent-nim…
Rize squeezed her eyes shut.
A face that seemed to say she wouldn’t hold a grudge against him, no matter the choice he made.
Ferda looked at Rize and spoke.
— Understood.
Rize’s eyes widened.
Betrayal filled her face; she hadn’t expected him to actually hand her over.
— I will hand her over.
Ferda grabbed Rize’s shoulder.
— Receive her well.
And he raised his opposite, empty hand.
His hand, stained with black, regained its original color as a magic circle formed.
The High Elf Elder, Cyprus, detested humans.
The mysterious power called magic should not be used by humans.
He thought that only long-lived races like elves, who live for long eras, should possess it.
In that sense, the man named Ferda was the most irritating human to Cyprus.
A human mage.
Moreover, the betrothed of a dragon.
It was unpleasant that a short-lived race that could not accumulate merits over long eras held a status unfitting for his station.
Such a person was causing an incident in elven territory and attempting to flee.
On top of that, what was read in Ferda’s eyes was hostility.
A challenge to authority that should not be shown to a High Elf Elder.
All the things that would have infuriated him, instead, calmed him.
Every action of Ferda was nothing more than ridiculous gestures to him.
The mana circulating in Ferda’s body was trivial compared to his own.
If he attacked, he could simply return it and show the difference in class.
And at that moment, the man before him did not deviate from Cyprus’s expectations.
He pretended to hand over Rize and pathetically used human magic.
— Lightning Spear.
Crackle!
Light flickered in Ferda’s hand.
“Trivial.”
The Great Chief skillfully drew a Protection Rune.
Judging by the scale of mana, it was magic that his own rune could sufficiently deflect.
That was what he thought.
The magic circle formed in Ferda’s right hand disappeared.
“A mistake?”
A common mistake that only a trivial, short-lived race would make.
But that thought did not arise.
Although the magic had disappeared, his eyes looked precisely at the target without any sign of nervousness.
Eyes like a lake of unknown depth into which one’s body falls.
He sees through the inside.
“A feint.”
The moment he understood the trick, Ferda immediately brought out his hidden move.
The hand that had pulled Rize’s body back now shot forward.
That hand held a staff he had never seen before, and light traced around that staff.
The magic circle condenses and manifests as magic.
Even if a magic circle formed, it was not a problem.
If a magic tool is used but the foundation is of low quality, the power of magic has limits.
It was a power that a Protection Rune could sufficiently block.
In reality, Cyprus’s calculation was exactly correct.
But from the moment he held that staff, the magic circle was not ordinary.
Although he was a High Elf unfamiliar with human magic, he could tell immediately.
It was a magic circle embedded not just with simple lines and dots, but with characters called runes.
Among them were several runes that Cyprus himself knew.
“The mana gathering in the magic circle… does not belong to that human.”
It was mana of a depth dimensionally different from what could be forged from something inside his body.
“If that is the case…”
Cyprus understood and frowned.
— It’s the Great Chief’s mana…
Inside the Mother’s Heart, threads flew through the sky.
Ferda had stolen those threads and waited for this moment.
One question resolved, leading to another.
No matter how good the mana was, where would there be a person who could wield magic of such high dimension?
It was an impossible task even for an elf, like a fish living on land.
“I must not be careless.”
Cyprus drew and layered Protection Runes to the maximum without letting his guard down.
He concentrated all protection solely on the magic that was about to unfold in front.
The yellowish barrier deepened in color, eventually becoming a shell of deep amber.
He was confident enough that, whatever came from inside that magic circle, he could sufficiently block it.
But Cyprus’s calculation failed again.
Crackle!
The sound of wind being sucked in and a small spark.
As the light began to flicker, the Elder could not hide his astonishment.
— Is that…?!
That light was not the blue from a moment ago, but a deep crimson.
The Elder had seen that light once before.
There was only one person who could wield lightning of that color.
A traitor who broke the Pure Blood Oath, arbitrarily loved a human, and passed down magic.
Months after that traitor was executed, a woman appeared before the World Tree.
She arrived dressed in black mourning clothes.
Small in stature and unpleasant to look at, but her black makeup smeared with tears looked like that of a vengeful spirit.
The girl full of hatred spoke like this.
— We swore to be together for life until the heavens part us, yet the heavens are so indifferent to a woman.
Carrying hatred and rage, the girl raised her hands toward the heavens.
— Since the heavens do not punish you, I will punish you directly.
It was a crimson lightning that defied the natural order.
The lightning reached toward the heavens and tore the World Tree apart.
— Storm’s Fury.
That lightning now flew toward the Elder’s chest.
The Elder twisted his body sharply.
Rumble!
The barrier made of dense Protection Runes shattered like thin glass.
Magic of a strength that could easily block even sixth-circle liberation magic was miserably destroyed.
— K-euk…?!
The Elder barely survived.
He felt his body empty out and throb with pain.
Looking toward that spot, only an open hole remained in his left arm that had turned away.
What was left for him was the pain of his torn-off arm.
— T-this…!
More painful than that was the humiliation of having been struck.
— A trivial, short-lived race…!
He spat anger like someone whose reverse scale had been touched, then cut himself off mid-sentence.
Ferda showed not the slightest opening and bound the Elven Elder’s body with shadows.
Ferda fundamentally prevented him from using magic.
If it were an ordinary human mage, covering the mouth and sealing hand gestures would suffice, but elves are different.
Ferda knew that method of suppression.
— Frenzy.
Injecting mental magic directly into the Elder’s head.
— Eueueuk!
A boiling blood qi and impulsiveness enveloped the Elder’s body.
Common people would relieve the agony by venting it, but High Elves did not dare to do so.
The minds of High Elves are connected as one.
Because they are connected as one, the contamination of an individual could contaminate everyone.
Elven society was cruel in that regard, and the Elder was no exception.
Thus, the Elder sat down immediately and focused his mind.
Unable to create magic to free himself from the frenzy state on his own, he controlled his emotions to the maximum to prevent contamination.
Cyprus broke into a cold sweat and glared at Ferda in fury.
“This brat… how does he even know this?”
The defect stemming from a single mind—not a single human had understood it.
The 19 years Ferda had lived were an absurdly short time.
Those who challenged the authority of the World Tree and researched it were humans whose lives were twice as long as his.
Not a single person had bewildered him so much with a single attack.
Ferda looked at Cyprus and asked.
— How does it feel to be struck by a foolish, short-lived race, Elder?
The Elder, full of venom, replied.
— Just because I lost does not mean you are not foolish.
— It seems there are also elves who waste their years.
— You foolish bastard…! You dare spout such nonsense without even knowing that becoming the betrothed of a dragon is the same as walking into its jaws!
Ferda snorted derisively.
— I already know that Valdrova had a first betrothed.
— I am not talking about the Red Dragon!
Ferda’s hand, about to dismiss him, paused.
— Who else tried to marry besides Valdrova?
That could not be possible.
Marriage is meant to fill defects that neither possesses.
The very existence of an immortal is perfect.
Therefore, they do not create partners, but simply reign over all things.
— Naturally, you humans wouldn’t know. Long ago, even the High Elves had a dragon betrothed.
He gestured with his chin toward the far end of the long hallway.
— It was Iorga, the master of the Tower Master who is running wild inside. Do you know what became of him?
Ferda did not ask.
Cyprus did not wait and answered.
— He ate his own betrothed.