The ocean stretched out, vast and unending.
As bursts of light exploded and various souls manifested, the Divine Beasts could not hide their bewilderment. These were souls that should have vanished long ago—warriors who had been slumbering within the pages of history, appearing now by transcending time itself. This was not a phenomenon that could be explained by the word ‘Mystery.’ It was a blatant defiance of the laws of nature. To the Divine Beasts, who were born of nature and lived under its blessing, this was something utterly alien. They could not bring themselves to move. They were afraid.
They feared that alien power.
They feared it because it looked as though it could snuff out their lives with ease.
【O-O Great Master of the Sky.】
Why?
Was the Caravan not still immature?
The Divine Beasts, who had come with the intent to trample and break a Caravan who had only just spread his wings, faltered at this unexpected turn of events. It was only natural. They hated the Caravan, but they feared them many times more. The boy standing upon the churning sea with a sword in hand—he was different from the man they remembered, yet he was also the same. That faint ‘commonality’ triggered an intense trauma within the Divine Beasts. A truly harrowing trauma.
【M-May we return? We—】
The Phoenix stammered.
The Phoenix, mid-telepathic plea, suddenly had its embers snuffed out with a pathetic pop before it crumbled into ash and vanished. It was the result of a gaze filled with a Dragon’s wrath. The flaming bird, a creature of the elements, met its death without the hope of resurrection. Watching the Phoenix vanish in an instant, the Kraken silently retreated beneath the waves.
As the Divine Beasts fled in terror, the Dragon looked down at the boy. Enveloped in light, the boy let out an unintelligible roar as he stood against the sea. He glared back at the Dragon. A creature that could not fly was daring to look up at the sky.
“A Caravan is a Caravan, it seems.”
The Divine Beasts who had accompanied him were all gone.
However, the momentum of the Dragon who remained did not diminish in the slightest. Dragons were, by nature, a race that fought alone. The most perfect and greatest of the seven races, a single Dragon was a disaster capable of standing against an entire nation. And the Dragon standing here was one who performed a great duty even among such ‘Dragons.’
“The Last Caravan.”
Beyond the Azure Sky.
The Watcher who guarded the Dragon Land spread across the summit of the Sky Mountain Range. After becoming disillusioned with the Ancient Dragons, he had abandoned his duty and entered the world, but his strength had not faded.
“I missed you back then.”
Kalua, the Watcher of the Dragon Land.
This Dragon remembered the Last Caravan. The sinner who had dared to set foot in the Dragon’s domain beyond the Azure Sky of the Sky Mountain Range and escaped alive without paying for his crimes.
“You won’t be able to run this time.”
Kalua’s eyes flashed.
He no longer had any intention of playing around. Diving headlong into the fray, Kalua intended to pour out every ounce of violence he had accumulated during his life as a Watcher. He sought to prove it: the fears of the old Dragons were wrong. The past does not repeat itself. A bloodline of Steel, worn thin by the passage of time, cannot repeat the tragedy of the distant past. Dragons no longer needed to be bound by the Pact of Steel. Never again.
“It is time for you to vanish, remnant of the past.”
Kalua watched the souls leaping up from the seawater. Each and every one of them harbored a shining sword. However, they would never reach him. The moment Kalua’s gaze landed on them, the elements began to writhe. Needle, who was leaping high, was snapped mid-air. A swordswoman lost her physical form and dissolved back into light. The Ronin who came flying on the wind from behind—the wind that enveloped his body soon obeyed the Dragon’s control rather than his own. With a wet thud, the wind became a blade and tore the Ronin’s body apart. Another sword returned to light.
“The era changes.”
A shining lantern is extinguished. The swarming army is destroyed by the flap of the Dragon’s wings, and another sword crumbles. The body of the roaring Orc Great Warrior was completely dismantled. An assassin hiding in the shadows? The moment their eyes met Kalua’s, they exploded. The moment he revealed his power without reservation, Kalua became living violence itself. A violence that could destroy anything.
“Do not defy the era, Forgotten Steel.”
Kalua looked at the boy.
Looking at the Last Caravan, the final remaining bloodline of Steel, Kalua chanted the sacred language of Dragons. Dragon Tongue. The absolute language, echoing briefly, was immediately accompanied by an absolute phenomenon. The boy’s body, which had been approaching through the waves, stopped. The last remaining soul of the Sword stopped as well.
But.
『Let us fly just one more time.』
The Dragon Land. A blue light resembling the Azure Sky erupted like an explosion, shattering Kalua’s Dragon Tongue. In that moment, for the first time, Kalua was shaken. A human—how?
『Let us try flying just one more time.』
Agitation always creates an opening.
In the moment Kalua faltered, the Last Caravan leaped, spreading his wings. But the distance was insufficient. The Dragon was high in the sky, and the boy was too low to leap that far in a single bound. The boy who could not fly could not reach the Master of the Sky all at once.
However.
“Soar.”
A soul of the sword.
The Old Adventurer willingly offered his back. The old man gave the boy an opportunity. With a sharp tap, the boy stepped off the old soul and leaped once more. This time, the distance was enough. The human who could not fly finally reached the Master of the Sky by using his comrades as stepping stones. A single streak of blue light soared from the ground to the very top of the heavens.
“Higher, even higher.”
The boy with the sword approached. Kalua spread his wings and tried to fly higher, but the Last Caravan was faster. The boy, who had flown like light, placed his fingertips on the sharp edge of his blade. He moved his hand as if brushing dust off the sword, as if stroking the blade. In the next moment, a divine light dwelled within the Caravan’s sword. Kalua felt it instinctively. It was Steel. Moreover, it was Steel capable of rending even the scales of a Great Dragon.
“How dare you—”
Kalua stared at the boy with wide eyes. Without losing sight of him, Kalua drew upon his authority as a Dragon. Soon, the elements filling the air around Kalua began to sing of rage. The power of a Dragon, which used nature as a weapon, began to boil. Kalua tried to scramble the elements that composed the boy’s body. He tried to make his blood boil, explode the air filling his lungs, and dismantle his flesh and bone.
But it did not go as he wished. Why?
‘What is this?’
He soon realized the reason.
Nature was refusing him.
There is only one case where this happens: when the opponent is a Dragon.
A Dragon’s authority does not apply to another Dragon. This is because all Dragons are masters of the elements, and all Dragons are loved by the elements. Therefore, the violence of nature cannot be applied to a fellow Dragon. But the Caravan was not a Dragon. Then why did nature hesitate to destroy the things that composed the Caravan’s body?
“You bastard.”
It didn’t take long to discover the truth.
Kalua detected a faint aura of a Dragon flowing from the Caravan. Inside the Caravan’s heart—the Heart of Steel—a fragment of a Dragon Heart was beating. If the Caravan died, that mysterious Dragon Heart would be destroyed along with him. That was why nature refused Kalua’s command. They loved all Dragons—especially a ‘Young Dragon.’
“How dare a bloodline of Steel… a Dragon Heart…!”
Now, Kalua’s rage was beyond description.
Amidst a beast-like roar, Demon Ore erupted from Arhan’s hand. A blade that could cut even the body of a descended Great Warrior. A power that cut through the uncuttable, the self-shining Steel sliced through the scales of the Great Dragon. Divine droplets of blood splattered, and Kalua, filled with boiling rage, looked at the boy floating right before his nose.
A single scale.
To the boy, it was a great achievement.
But a single scale.
To a Dragon, it was merely a small scratch.
The result of sacrificing countless souls and barely managing to approach and pour out everything was only this. Kalua reached out and seized the small boy’s body. With a sickening crunch, he felt the weak flesh and bone.
“Take it, then—my single scale.”
Kalua thought.
I was not wrong. A Caravan who has not yet grown could only manage to tear off a single Dragon scale even when staking everything. The great master of Steel that the Ancient Dragons feared so much no longer exists. The glory of Steel ended in the Age of War. It has crumbled away into vanished history.
Having proven that, Kalua could give away a single scale as many times as needed. Truly, as many as needed.
“For I shall take the end of the Caravan.”
Holding the boy, Kalua slowly wrenched his maw wide open. Within that open maw, countless elements began to boil. Breath. The most powerful violence a Dragon possessed. A violence that burned away not only the body but the soul itself. As the Dragon’s Breath gathered, the boy struggled incessantly. But he would not be able to escape. Dragons were the race with the most perfect bodies among all seven races. Their bodies, born to endure the harsh environment of the Sky Mountain Range and fly through the sky for a lifetime, could hold a single human for over a hundred years without trouble. Especially if it was the body of a swordsman who had only just managed to spread ‘wings.’
“Now, then…”
And then.
“It all ends—”
Starlight fell.
“…!”
The falling starlight shone not on Kalua, but on the boy. The starlight pouring down in broad daylight possessed a divinity that even Kalua did not dare to defy. Kalua’s eyes closed for a moment, and when he opened them again, the boy was gone. Kalua realized immediately whose doing this was.
“…Goddess of Stars.”
The Goddess’s power had saved the Caravan.
“Why… you?”
Kalua asked, looking up at the sky.
But no answer came.
That was the way of the gods. They would commit acts that changed the natural order as if it were nothing and then offer no explanation. But Kalua could not accept this particular incident. Not some other being, but one of the Seven Chief Gods and Nine Goddesses was helping a ‘Caravan’? The very beings who should hate the bloodline of Steel more than anyone else in the world?
“Just why…?”
No matter how much he asked, there was no answer.
A Dragon is the master of the sky.
But above that sky, there is an even higher heaven.
And the one who had interfered with Kalua’s work was one of the masters of that highest heaven. Exalted beings who could treat a Great Dragon as a mere lizard or a speck of dust.
“…”
Kalua spoke no more.
Left alone, the Dragon looked at the sea, which had become calm once again. He also saw the sun hanging on the horizon. No one gave him an answer. The Watcher, who had left the place he was meant to guard, simply stared intently beyond the horizon. There was no need for complex thoughts. It was better to think simply. Who was helping the Caravan and why, or what reasons were intertwined—none of that was important. Kalua’s essence was that of a Dragon. And a Watcher.
A Dragon has the duty to execute the bloodline of Steel.
And a Watcher has the duty to capture the intruder he let slip away long ago. With those two duties aligned, there was only one thing for Kalua to do: to pursue the Caravan who had escaped once again. And then, next time, to ensure he did not miss and to truly end his life. That would be enough.
“…Where have you gone, human who cannot fly?”
Yes.
That would be enough.
