<154. There Are No Bad Dragons in This World (26)>
The old elf was bewildered, a feeling he hadn't experienced in a long time.
'Asif?'
The unwelcome guest had just called Minjun "Asif-666."
As far as the elf knew, that was a term used for the most heinous criminals in the universe—those so dangerous that even a single dimension couldn't handle them, with no chance of rehabilitation. These criminals were directly subdued by the Committee and sentenced to labor reformation, not because they couldn't simply be executed, but because they were too skilled, too powerful to simply be disposed of.
In other words, they were extremely capable.
Lakefield's retinas burned with the image of Minjun, standing with his back to him. He thought of the skills he'd seen Minjun display. Did he know of any other dark sorcerer with abilities like his? Had he ever encountered a quarter-elf more powerful than this man?
But one thing didn't add up.
The most heinous criminal?
"Lakefield!"
Minjun's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, a sharp, piercing sound.
"Take Dongcheol and get inside the barrier. Now!"
"...?!"
"You can walk now! Hurry!"
Back in his active days, during an intelligence operation, Lakefield had been struck by a powerful curse. Though he narrowly avoided losing his legs, he had been left with severely limited mobility. Even the priests Minjun had arranged to treat him had unanimously agreed that recovery was impossible. His age and depleted life force meant that even divine magic had its limits.
The miracle had come recently—ever since Minjun had returned from a business trip to Germany. Slowly but surely, the stiffness in his legs began to ease. The change was so gradual that Lakefield himself had been slow to realize it.
It was something even a pontiff-level priest had declared impossible.
Despite still moving slowly, Lakefield was able to approach Dongcheol more steadily than before. The goblin, who had been assisting the elf with his mobility for over a year, was now slumped on the floor.
This time, it was the elf who supported the goblin. The old spirit mage propped up the half-mad goblin, who had been driven to the brink by something awakened in his blood, and they disappeared behind a bookshelf. Limping all the way.
"Pointless."
The uninvited guests did nothing to stop their movements. They simply watched Minjun with amusement.
After all, it was a futile resistance. That barrier was also within the space condensation field. There was no escape, and no calling for help.
"Asif-666. You are under arrest for conspiracy to evade extraterritorial taxes with the inhabitants of this dimension."
It was only then that Minjun realized who they were.
The Tax Collection Command.
"There was no prior notice."
Even after they revealed their identity, Minjun's tone was still sharp, which the alien didn't like.
How impudent.
"The urgency of the situation warranted skipping the notice."
"How can I trust that?"
The enforcer snorted disdainfully.
"Such bad manners in front of a Committee official? It seems you've forgotten something important after spending hundreds of years drifting through the outskirts without being summoned to headquarters."
At the same time, light gathered in the air, tracing out a string of symbols.
A warrant signed by a Carbite Councilor.
"You are the property of the Committee. In other words… like livestock."
The intruder genuinely believed this. Considering how they were treated, even calling them slaves felt too generous.
Livestock was more fitting.
"It doesn't matter whether you trust us or not. We're just moving livestock from one pen to another. Do you ask the livestock for their opinion every time you move them?"
Minjun didn't listen to the man's words. Instead, he read through the warrant etched in light.
And then, he was certain.
They didn't have solid evidence against him.
Yet they were still trying to take him to the core of the dimensional system… to the Committee's headquarters.
'Del's guess was only half right. They've grown wary because I've been rapidly accumulating talents. They must've skipped prior notice even to her. …They're more desperate than I expected.'
Before fully realizing the implications, Minjun had been vaguely hopeful.
If he could gather enough of the five million talents required for his retirement, the Committee would set him free.
Because that was the unbreakable promise.
'Keep a promise? From those traitors?'
The very thought was a delusional product of the suggestion implanted in his mind.
The Committee had no intention of letting him go.
'The 800,000 talents I've painstakingly collected have turned into a trap ensnaring me.'
It had never been a genuine path to freedom.
'If I let them take me, what will they do? They'll probably make up some ridiculous charges, interrogate me, and create evidence if they need to. As punishment, they might raise my retirement fund by several million talents or reinstate and strengthen the implanted suggestion. Or they might even erase my memory once more.'
Or perhaps they'd do all of the above.
"..."
Minjun realized the time had come.
'I can't go with them.'
Even after regaining his memories, he had lived with the chains around his neck, waiting for the right moment.
For the day when he would regain even clearer memories and even greater power.
He knew that if he made a move too soon, the Committee would mobilize all their resources to subdue him.
But now… now he could no longer wait, bound by such a servile existence.
No, in their eyes, he wasn't even a slave, but livestock.
The absurdity of it all made him laugh.
If they were from the Tax Collection Command, these aliens were likely Toads. The most active military organization of the Committee in modern times. It was the seat most favored by that species.
The thought of being called livestock by a Toad was an oddly bizarre sensation.
-Flash!
"H-hey. What are you…?"
The Toad's voice carried a hint of bewilderment for the first time.
"What are you doing?!"
A dark, heavy sword appeared in Minjun's hand.
=So it comes to this?=
The frying pan, now in the form of a sword, murmured.
'Yes, the time has come.'
The creator replied with a psychic wave.
"This mad criminal!"
Rumble!
On command, Kentius leaped into the air, roaring fiercely. With a flash of lightning, the tricolored dragon covered the sky, glaring down with eyes ablaze with battle fervor.
And then.
=Only in your dreams do we finally dream of you.=
A whispered prayer.
The priest, hiding in the basement of the shopping center, gathered his strength. He didn't come out, but instead prepared to support the two on the ground, sharpening all his senses.
"Capture him!"
The Toads shed their polymorphed forms, revealing their true selves. Floating above their shoulders were metal spheres, weapons they hadn't possessed even during the First War. Unable to incinerate the entire area like other units, they had chosen this anti-personnel sniper weapon instead. Minjun's expression soured as he saw them.
Not only had they stolen it, but they hadn't even stolen it properly.
-Pa-Pa-Pa!
As white beams of light poured out of their spheres, the battle began.
The air reeked of burning ozone. With his back to the shopping center, Minjun danced through the air. Heat and lasers whizzed past him.
The Toads didn't rely solely on Endelion's weaponry. They chanted continuously, trying to bind his movements. Perhaps because they had orders to capture him alive, there were no wide-area spells that would blow the entire place apart. Minjun decided he needed to end this fight while they were still underestimating him.
-Ziiing!
Crash!
The lasers sliced through space, severing the scales of the tricolored dragon like tofu. Blood splattered down, but.
-Swoosh!
A force from somewhere quickly healed his wounds. The Toads were taken aback.
"Holy power?!"
As they tried to locate the source of the attack.
Whoosh!
Minjun spewed a crimson flame from his mouth, blocking their line of sight. Blood flowed from a self-inflicted wound on his wrist, wrapping around his body like a living thing. His speed increased, and his sword flashed with a menacing aura. However, the blade struggled to penetrate the Toads' shields.
This isn't enough.
Minjun yearned for the shadowy creature. It was not an entity bound to the physical realm. Just as the elf couldn't summon spirits due to the space condensation, Minjun couldn't call upon that dark ghost either.
'Not enough.'
The scent of blood, not his own, filled his nostrils. It was the smell from the pool of blood created by Kentius.
His throat burned again. It was parched. But the thought of drinking that blood didn't appeal to him. What he desired was something far more aged… much richer.
Oh, he was thirsty.
"Capture them! It's just a young dragon and a single prisoner! What's taking so long?!"
The commander's voice cracked with urgency. But the resistance from the two was formidable. As dozens of laser beams crossed the space once more.
"Now!"
Minjun pulled out a silver frying pan from thin air. He then spread it out like a shield to block the rays in front of him.
Papat!
The rays were deflected.
The frying pan completely reflected the attack. Following the direction Minjun guided, the lasers poured out in a single direction.
A thunderous roar followed.
------!
In the blinding flash, three Toads instantly disintegrated.
The result was less than what Minjun had hoped for.
"Tsk!"
Among the surviving Toads was the commander. He had an expression of disbelief at what had just happened. The ground scorched by the reflected lasers melted miserably.
"Damn... insane!"
An attack that pierced Endelion's armor.
A tool capable of such a feat could only be a creation of another tentacled creature.
The Toads' gazes became sharper as they looked at the magical tool. Minjun realized that none of them would leave this place alive.
He clicked his tongue once again.
'I should have killed them all at once. Now that they've seen it, they'll be on guard.'
It was as expected. Instead of firing lasers in a straightforward trajectory as before, the enemies used clever spells to try to capture Minjun. Meanwhile, the lasers focused on Kentius. If Minjun hadn't intervened and Ymtus hadn't provided cover from behind, the dragon would have been cut into pieces by now.
'This won't do. I need to find a way...'
The sealed Shadow Monster was a significant blow.
As he muttered to himself, an overwhelming thirst threatened to cloud his mind again.
His throat was parched.
'Damn it, even at a time like this?!'
It was merely a psychological thirst.
Now was not the time to lose focus because of such sensations...
'No, wait.'
A thought suddenly crossed his mind. Dodging the Toads' attacks, he thought quickly.
'Is this really just psychological?'
The primordial species quenched their thirst with dragon's blood.
And within their chests flowed an unending spring of life.
'But I've been awake as a sinner for the past 800 years... until that battle with Changcheon a few months ago, I hadn't drunk a single drop of dragon's blood.'
He had assumed it was because his soul was housed in this body, the one given to sinners.
He thought that since it wasn't his real body, there was no issue with not drinking dragon blood.
He believed that the unique regenerative powers emerged simply because he had used this body for so long.
But...
'It's contradictory. Is that really a possible story?'
He raised a late doubt.
'Even without consuming what I'm supposed to, my regenerative power is maintained? And this ability manifests in a fake body?'
He asked himself again.
Is this thirst truly just psychological?
'Why would a craving that I didn't feel before suddenly dominate my mind?'
Could it be that his body was genuinely thirsty, now needing dragon blood?
'If I'm using more power, perhaps the dragon blood, which I didn't want before, is now necessary.'
If so...
What does that mean for this body?
Papat!
At that moment, a spell collided in mid-air, and the Toads were blown back. The commander was even more bewildered than Minjun. With this lineup, they could have easily taken down several ancient dragons, yet they were struggling.
"So persistent!"
As he gritted his teeth and charged again, Minjun calmly recalled his past memories.
The fates of sinners are usually similar. They die during missions, or their minds collapse after enduring for many years. He could tell from the replies of his comrades when he delivered news of Bradley's recent death. There were individual differences, and some, like Del, lost their minds within less than a century, but usually, the longer they endured, the deeper they were consumed by madness.
But as for Minjun?
'There's no sinner who's lasted longer than I have.'
Sinners consumed by madness consider the body imprisoning their soul to be a prison. A flesh cage.
But Minjun never considered his life as a sinner to be a prison, nor did he ever feel disgust, rejection, or hatred toward this body.
He had inflicted countless wounds on this body with his own hands, shedding blood, but that was in accordance with the principle of black magic, which required offering something precious, and was a truly 'self-sacrificial' act...
What is sacrificed cannot be worthless.
This body is not worthless to Minjun.
=...I see.=
The dark sword he was holding agreed with his thoughts.
Minjun realized that the thick psychological defense he had built around his creations had collapsed. It was similar to what happened when he absorbed the soul fragment known as 'Blade.'
=Perhaps.=
Reading his thoughts, Asif-1 made a suggestion to its creator.
Could it be possible?
"..."
The creator answered Asif-1.
It seems possible.
He didn't hesitate.
Thunk!
What followed was completely unexpected by everyone.
"That, crazy bastard?!"
The air froze.
Kentius looked at Minjun with a bewildered expression.
Ymtus, who was hiding, also screamed with a mental wave.
=Divine Avatar, I am right here...!=
Minjun quickly stopped him.
'No, don't do it!'
Ymtus retracted his divine power.
Minjun gripped the dagger-shaped Asif-1 tightly. And the blade was buried in his own nape.
It was the spot where the believers of Elahu-Pra inflicted a wound with a sacred relic for baptism.
It was also the wound that caused Ha Eunseong's death, where the dagger had pierced his soul.
And it was the same spot where Minjun had stabbed the orc to brainwash him.
"..."
Even after stabbing his own neck, Minjun's expression remained calm.
"Foolish bastard!"
Was he attempting suicide now?
The Toads laughed as if it were absurd. The livestock of the Committee were not even allowed the freedom to kill themselves. They were meant to be used endlessly until their minds crumbled to dust.
As their attacks poured in once more.
Minjun, with a strange glow in his eyes, pulled the knife from his neck.
Gurgle!
But what flowed out from the wound was not dark red liquid.
It wasn't the same substance that flowed endlessly from his kin, who slumbered in the world of dreams. It was not the most beautiful light in the universe, the holy radiance.
Instead, what flowed out was...
Slurp!
Gurgle, gurgle!
It was something as black as pitch.
Something dark and murky that contrasted sharply with the brilliant talent in Minjun's memories.
"…Huh?"
Seeing it spread like an abyss, the Toads recalled a certain entity.
"The Shadow Monster?!"
An impossible scenario. This space was thoroughly sealed. Summoning should have been impossible.
But such an event was unfolding.
It didn't take the distinct form of the Shadow Monster that Minjun usually summoned. It didn't coalesce into a specific shape, nor did it create massive pillars in place of arms.
It simply oozed out, engulfing the surroundings like a seeping night. It poured out endlessly.
"Ahh!"
It moved with astonishing speed. In an instant, the Toads and the dragon had already lost their sight. It appeared more like pure darkness than shadows. Not an area of relative darkness where light couldn't reach, but a complete existence in itself.
The darkness that engulfed Minjun's body overflowed, covering everything around him.
<154. There's No Such Thing as a Bad Dragon (26)> End.