Chapter 172: Am I Incredible or What?
3 days had passed since Viktor left the Royal Capital. In those 3 days, the Royal Capital had fallen into a kind of slumber—utterly quiet.
A Knight yanked at his reins, slapping his horse's back again and again.
The horse, stinging with every blow, had no choice but to gallop with all its might.
Churned dust billowed up beneath the hooves, and the figure streaking through the city like a shooting star finally shattered the silence that had settled over the Royal Capital for those past few days.
Arriving at the Imperial Palace, the Knight leapt down from his horse without pausing to secure the animal, and stumbled up the steps one after another, gasping for breath.
He lurched into the Grand Hall, his swaying body barely managing to stop itself from pitching forward.
He quickly adjusted his half-falling, half-standing posture and, right in front of all the assembled ministers, made no effort to conceal his state of complete panic.
"Your Majesty, an urgent report from the Extre Northern Ice Plains!"
The ministers, startled by the Knight's sudden arrival, looked at him with bewildernt and unease.
What had happened?
They watched as the Knight drew a couple of steadying breaths and swallowed hard.
The anxiety on the ministers' faces deepened further, and the Emperor, seated on his throne, gave the Knight a wave of his hand.
The Knight hastily dropped to one knee and began his explanation in a rush:
"While the Second Prince was conducting an investigation into the Demon incident in the Extre Northern Ice Plains, the army he led—was annihilated to the last man!"
"His Highness the Second Prince has sustained grievous injuries and is currently recuperating within the Delin Family's Territory."
"What!?"
The mont those words fell, every minister present drew a sharp breath.
The nobles who had been supporting the Second Prince's faction in particular erupted at once, descending into complete chaos.
They spoke over each other in a frantic uproar.
"Could it be... they encountered a Demon!?"
Listening to the ministers' speculation, the Emperor furrowed his brow slightly, the lines of his face seeming to deepen with gravity.
"The cause?"
The Knight instinctively swallowed, not daring to breathe too heavily as he continued:
"According to the report relayed by the Pallid Mage Society—"
"They encountered... a monster."
***
Vladimir stood on the snowfield, gripping his ice-frost battle axe with its biting cold, beneath a sky dark with heavy clouds.
His gaze was locked rigidly on the enormous Great Worm lurking within the churning cloud layer above.
Behind him stood over a thousand mbers of the Pallid Mage Society still capable of fighting.
Though even they had already sustained heavy wounds—many could only hold aloft shattered staffs and broken Mage-soldier instrunts.
The remaining Mages had all been dispersed.
They had been tasked with escorting those civilians unable to fight to safety.
Now, the monster's silhouette swayed slowly between the cloud layers.
Layer upon layer of hard black scales wrapped around its slender, serpentine body.
Thick stormclouds churned endlessly across the sky below, and surging gales tore open the earth.
Like an inverted grey ocean—and in the next instant, everything alive would be swallowed within.
The horrifying oppressive force, accompanied by enormous atmospheric pressure, bore down on every person present.
Vladimir was drenched in blood from head to toe, not a single part of his body left unscathed.
Even his eyes had grown blurred and unfocused, leaving him with no choice but to close one of them.
Even so, he stood unbroken before the serpentine creature—stubbornly glaring at that vast, restless body—like a statue holding up the heavens and earth.
The dragon writhing through the sky now made its move.
Wave after wave of powerful, violent air currents surged up continuously from the earth, pouring into the dark stormclouds.
The swirling currents expanded steadily, forming an enormous vortex that pressed slowly downward.
The dragon's pitch-black body began to flicker with white light, as though a layer of flowing white scales had appeared across it.
Its body gradually transford into a shooting star.
The vortex grew larger and larger. That endlessly swirling air carried the force to shred all things to pieces, gradually drawing out a pale, heavy gale that spun between heaven and earth.
The ground began to crack open without pause, and the suffocating atmospheric pressure filling the space grew heavier by the mont.
Rolling stormclouds seed as though in the next instant they would crush the entire world beneath them.
Vladimir simply raised his head, gripped his weapon tighter.
Aid at that cot-like enormous body, and spread his arms wide.
Like a hero who did not fear death.
***
Listening to the Knight's account, the many noble ministers couldn't stop trembling, as though they had felt that terrifying, desperate scene with their own bodies.
Vladimir—this legendary General of the Empire, whose na was familiar to many across the nation.
He was powerful. He was the strongest Ice-attribute Mage-soldier known to the Empire.
And yet, even such a powerhouse, when faced with that towering monster, had been ground down to this state.
Was this... sothing that could really happen?
The Knight then continued:
"However... there were no casualties—not a single mber of the Pallid Mage Society was lost."
Hearing that, they were struck with shock all over again, and broke into a clamor of discussion.
"How is that possible?"
"A monster like that—and no one was hard?"
"That's... that's not quite it either."
The Knight stamred in a flustered panic, unable to get words out for a long mont.
One of the nobles in the back lost patience and shouted urgently:
"Just say it already!"
The Knight closed his eyes, as though mustering all his courage, and then declared loudly:
"General Vladimir detected the monster's approach ahead of ti and relocated everyone within the Territory to seek shelter with the Delin Family."
"In the end, the General himself stayed behind... to buy ti."
When those words fell, the entire Grand Hall sank into a long silence, followed by nothing but wave after wave of sighs.
General Vladimir was among the most powerful individuals the Empire possessed.
Within the Empire, those who held the title of General were few in number.
Even Angus, the forr head of the Delin Family who had guarded the north, had never received such an honor.
Like His Majesty, he too was "a powerhouse of the previous era."
He had already reached the age of retirent, yet for the sake of the people of the Extre Northern Ice Plains, he was willing to sacrifice himself.
A hero.
That single word arose in the hearts of everyone present.
"I understand."
The Emperor's voice carried what seed like no emotion whatsoever.
Yet within his chest, there burned a consuming fire of fury capable of devouring everything.
His overwhelming aura surged instantly through every inch of the Grand Hall's space—as though in the next mont it would set everything ablaze.
All of a sudden, everyone saw it.
A red lion, manifesting and vanishing behind Aubrey.
It bared its enormous fangs, the ferocity in its eyes slowly overflowing.
The lion's powerful body gradually rose to its full height behind the throne, its gaze turning northward.
"Vladimir's sacrifice will not be without aning."
The sheer terror of that aura made the Knight feel as though he could barely breathe.
He could only force his head upward and say hurriedly:
"Your Majesty, please... please permit to speak plainly... the situation is not... as you imagine."
"To be precise, aside from the investigation army the Second Prince brought with him—there were in fact no casualties."
"The General—he also survived."
The mont that news broke, the entire Grand Hall erupted into a great commotion.
The Emperor's clenched fist suddenly relaxed, and he exhaled—that enormous oppressive force dissolving with his breath like smoke dispersing.
He lowered his head and fixed the Knight with a gaze of absolute coldness.
"Tell everything you know. All at once."
"Yes, sir!"
The Knight flinched, legs trembling, and began to speak in a torrent:
"At the ti, the situation had already reached a point of critical peril, and yet at the very last mont..."
"Duke Livi's daughter—Erika du Chloe—stepped forward."
***
Amid the endless howling wind, the Great Dragon seed as though in the next instant it would burst through the clouds and plunge toward the earth.
Vladimir spread his arms wide and closed his eyes.
He had long since made his peace with death.
But then, suddenly.....
The raging wind gradually stilled.
The sensation of utterly desperate crisis slowly receded.
Vladimir hadn't even registered the pain—in a daze, he almost thought he had already reached the afterlife.
Tentatively, he opened both eyes.
The devastation around him was still catastrophic—no different from monts before.
The Mages throughout the area still bore their wounds.
Yet without exception, every single one of them had widened their eyes and was slowly raising their heads, gazing toward what lay ahead.
They were not looking at him—Vladimir understood that clearly.
He too followed their line of sight with curiosity.
A golden-haired figure was standing on the edge of a snow cliff.
The wind around her seed to have converged entirely at her side, sweeping the white Mage's robe she wore into continuous motion, swirling ceaselessly within the whirlwind.
Before her, people finally saw the Great Dragon's true form clearly.
Its enormous body coiled through the sky, covered in a layer of scales as hard and dark as obsidian, trembling incessantly within the hurricane, producing a deep rumbling sound like stone grinding against stone.
The scales across its body would occasionally flash with flowing light that traveled along the gaps between scales across its entire form.
Its pupils were enormous—terrifying in scale, each eye alone as large as a person.
No one could understand how this creature flew.
It had no wings whatsoever, and yet the wind seed to cling to its body, carrying it aloft.
Yet faced with this creature, Erika showed not a trace of fear—instead staring at it stubbornly.
"I know you've been looking for ."
"That's... enough now, isn't it?"
The imnse Great Dragon floated in the air, its pair of dignified eyes locked fixedly on Erika.
There was no sense of terrifying crisis at all—compared to monts before, it had beco incomparably calm.
No one could understand why the ferocious Great Worm of monts ago had suddenly beco so docile.
Was it because of Erika? Because she had co?
Vladimir widened his eyes, speaking in a low voice beside her.
Terrified that his own voice would cause that enormous creature before them to move again.
"Alia."
"Didn't I tell you to take her away..."
A woman walked up beside Vladimir and removed the hood from her head.
"She insisted on coming back herself."
She still had 1 eye covered by her Eyepatch, a Lollipop tucked in her mouth—her identity unmistakable.
"So you just listened to her and brought her back?!"
Vladimir's voice was low, suppressing the fury in his heart.
If sothing had truly happened to that child—how would he ever face his old comrade?
"Hey, old man."
"I have no interest in listening to your lectures."
Alia glanced at him, clearly finding his expression intolerable.
"But if she were to run into danger..."
Vladimir hadn't finished speaking when Alia cut him off.
"I only look at results."
"Right now, you're still alive, and she saved you."
"That is the result."
She turned her gaze forward with perfect calm, watching Erika before her, and opened her mouth.
That golden-haired child said only a single sentence.
"Please... don't hurt them."
The Great Dragon's eyes seed to carry within them a certain intelligence, a few threads of light flowing through its pupils.
Suddenly, it raised its head and let out a long cry toward the overcast sky.
In an instant, the raging storm swept the earth, carrying swirling snowflakes in chaotic disarray.
As though intending to swallow everything in the world around it.
Amid that wind and snow, every person was forced to raise their hands to shield their eyes.
At last, the storm that had erupted in that instant gradually quieted.
Above in the sky, the heavy black stormclouds slowly dispersed as well.
The mont sight returned to them, everyone strained their eyes to look ahead.
Including Vladimir.
At the edge of the snow cliff—that terrifying creature, along with those boundless dark clouds, had vanished.
And along with it, it had taken that golden-haired girl.
They stared wide-eyed in disbelief.
Only Alia—stood with both hands tucked into her pockets, expression utterly serene, eyes closed, feeling the cold wind around her that had fallen still once more, and now shifted gently again.
"How remarkable."
"A remarkable wind, and..."
"A remarkable person."
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