Chapter 184
The Dragon’s Fiancé
Like most other dragons, Iorga was notorious for being so cruel that she was considered cold-blooded.
Erika Iorga, master of the Blue-Eyed Magic Tower, possessed the same disposition. Even so, among the dragon spawns, she was the most understanding and was highly respected for resolving incidents with wisdom.
That was why very few people had ever witnessed her magic firsthand.
The elves were now experiencing that rare sight.
Five torrents of water swept through them like a river swollen by a midsummer downpour.
“Everyone, take cover!”
“Rune of Protection!”
“Use interference runes to destroy their forms!”
Hundreds of elite warriors had gathered, but not one elf present was capable of stopping the head of the Iorga spawns after she had let go of the reins of reason.
Even their precise command system, coordinated through shared minds, could not create an opening to attack.
One wrong move would leave them like pebbles tumbling along a riverbed. Their only option was to defend.
“Amazing…”
Lize gazed upward, her eyes filled with awe.
“So this is the power of the one who was called the wisdom of the expedition that defeated the Demon King…”
Ferda followed Lize’s gaze and looked up at Erika.
“Ohohoho! What happened to all that spirit you showed earlier? Why are you hiding like a pack of rats?!”
“Try blocking this too!”
“What a wonderful sight! More! Struggle harder! It won’t be any fun if you collapse already!”
“Wisdom?”
“…”
No matter how he looked at her, her behavior was no different from a witch’s, and her actions were pure savagery.
‘Still, she hasn’t completely lost her reason.’
Ferda knew how powerful those water streams could be. He had seen them pierce straight through the heads of monsters.
Erika was capable of wielding water with lethal force, yet she was currently restraining herself so that her opponents would merely be knocked unconscious.
“We should move.”
“Y-Yes?”
“While she is causing a disturbance, we need to escape.”
“Ah, yes!”
Erika had finally lost her temper partly to create an opportunity for them to flee.
Lize gripped the strap of her bag tightly and ran ahead.
“Stop the escaped prisoners!”
“That human attempted to murder the Great Chieftain!”
Ferda was evidently a higher priority than Erika.
The elves’ murderous intent bore down on him so fiercely that his status as Valdrova’s fiancé had already become irrelevant.
Ferda retaliated.
“Lightning Bolt.”
Water and electricity were naturally compatible forms of magic.
Even without a direct hit, the current would travel across the wet ground.
“Urghghgh!”
“Gghghgh!”
He sent out a light current, electrocuting the archers and stopping them from moving.
However, in his current state, Ferda could not restrain every agile elf.
‘Rather than counterattacking, I should focus on protecting myself.’
Ferda changed his strategy and recited another spell.
“Static Force.”
It was a lightning-attribute defensive spell.
Ferda’s hair rose into the air.
A sphere formed from static electricity appeared in his hand. It automatically struck down and repelled every incoming arrow.
The spell pushed away everything approaching from any direction, but its mana consumption was correspondingly high.
“Call for reinforcements!”
As soldiers fell and time dragged on, more and more elves began filling the interior of the World Tree.
Just as the attacks were becoming too difficult to withstand, they finally reached the level where the sky carriages were kept.
“This way!”
When Lize placed her hand against the entrance, a corridor leading outside the World Tree appeared.
“Princeps Regent!”
Erika called out while continuing her rampage.
“Those pointy-eared bastards are crawling in from behind like cockroaches!”
“Is that so?”
“I’ll hold them off, so go on ahead!”
“…Understood.”
Rather than saying she would hold them back, it sounded as though she wanted to stay and enjoy herself a little longer.
Ferda decided it was merely his imagination.
Lize took the lead and ran.
Everything appeared to be proceeding smoothly.
“Once we pass through this corridor, we’ll be outside—Ugh…!”
But nothing ever went that easily.
A lone elf stood in the path they needed to take.
“…Elder.”
The High Elf elder who had been commanding the others had predicted Lize’s route and blocked the exit.
His face was twisted hideously.
“In the end, you went and did something utterly foolish…”
The finger he pointed at Lize trembled.
“I should have known from the moment the Great Chieftain refused to cast you out.”
Lize bit her lip, wounded by the elder’s cruel words.
“Do you understand what you are doing? You are betraying your own kind. You are betraying our mother, your brethren, and every other clan that depends upon us! What you are doing is no different from what a Dark Elf would do!”
“Th-This is not betrayal.”
“Do you truly believe blindly obeying the Great Chieftain is always right? If he told you to die, would you die?!”
“That…”
Lize could not answer.
Seeing that, the elder snorted contemptuously.
“That is precisely why you can never become one with us.”
After saying that, he turned his gaze toward Ferda.
“You are called Princeps Regent Ferda, are you not?”
“I do not recall introducing myself to you.”
“Hmph. Yes, Valdrova’s fiancé. I would prefer that you not make this matter any worse.”
He jerked his chin toward Lize.
“…In the end, you became a calamity to us after all, you rootless thing!”
“Hand over that child and the items she carries. If you do, no one will hold you responsible for what happened today, and we will allow you to leave.”
“P-Princeps Regent…”
Lize tightly closed her eyes.
Her expression suggested that she would not resent him regardless of what choice he made.
Ferda looked down at her and said,
“Understood.”
Lize’s eyes flew open.
Her face filled with betrayal, as though she had never imagined he would truly hand her over.
“I shall give her to you.”
Ferda seized Lize by the shoulder.
“Make sure you catch her.”
Then he raised his empty hand.
The black discoloration covering it faded back to its original color as a magic circle formed.
“…”
The High Elf elder, Cypress, despised humans.
He believed that humans should never be permitted to wield the mysterious power known as magic.
In his view, such power belonged only to long-lived races like the elves, who had endured through countless years.
In that sense, there was no human Cypress found more offensive than the man named Ferda.
A human mage.
And on top of that, he was a dragon’s fiancé.
Cypress disliked the fact that a short-lived race incapable of accumulating merit over long centuries had obtained a status far beyond its station.
And now such a man had caused an incident in elven territory and was attempting to flee.
Worse still, Cypress could read hostility in Ferda’s eyes.
It was a challenge to the authority that must never be defied before a High Elf elder.
Everything about Ferda that should have enraged him instead made Cypress calmer.
Every one of Ferda’s movements seemed laughably insignificant.
The mana circulating through Ferda’s body was pitiful compared to his own.
Even if Ferda attacked, Cypress believed he could simply reflect the spell back and demonstrate the difference in their standing.
And the man before him acted exactly as Cypress had expected.
Pretending to hand over Lize, he attempted to use his pathetic human magic.
“Lightning Spear.”
Crackle!
Light flickered in Ferda’s hand.
‘Pathetic.’
Cypress skillfully drew a Rune of Protection.
Judging by the amount of mana involved, the spell was weak enough for his rune to repel with ease.
That was what he thought.
Then the magic circle that had formed over Ferda’s right hand vanished.
‘A mistake?’
The sort of common blunder one would expect from an insignificant short-lived race.
Yet it did not seem that way.
Even after the spell disappeared, Ferda showed no sign of panic. His gaze remained fixed precisely on his target.
His eyes were like a bottomless lake into which one might fall.
Cypress saw through them.
‘A feint.’
The moment he realized it, Ferda revealed the move he had been concealing.
The hand that had pulled Lize backward now came forward.
It held a staff Cypress had never seen before, and light began forming around it.
A magic circle condensed and manifested into a spell.
Even then, the appearance of a magic circle should not have posed a problem.
No matter what magical tool one used, the power of the spell was ultimately limited by the skill of its wielder.
It was still something Cypress’s protective rune should have been able to block.
In fact, his calculations had been correct.
However, the magic circle changed the moment Ferda raised the staff.
Although Cypress was unfamiliar with human magic, he recognized it immediately.
It was not merely a formation composed of lines and points.
It was a magic circle engraved with written runes.
Several of them were runes Cypress himself knew.
‘The mana gathering in that circle… does not belong to that human.’
The depth of the power was on an entirely different level from anything that could have been produced by an object stored within Ferda’s body.
‘Then that means…’
Cypress frowned as soon as he understood.
“It is the Great Chieftain’s mana…”
Threads flew through the sky within the Heart of the Mother.
Ferda had drawn one of those threads to himself and waited for a moment like this.
One question was answered, only to give rise to another.
Even with mana of exceptional quality, who could possibly wield magic from such a high-dimensional domain?
It was as impossible as a fish living on land.
Even an elf could not accomplish such a thing.
‘I must not let my guard down.’
Cypress remained cautious and drew as many protective runes as possible, layering them over one another.
He concentrated every defense solely on the spell coming from the front.
A yellow barrier formed, darkened, and eventually became a thick amber shell.
Cypress was confident that it could block anything emerging from that magic circle.
Yet once again, his calculations were wrong.
Zzzzt.
A faint spark sounded alongside the noise of wind being sucked inward.
As the light began to flicker, the elder’s eyes widened in shock.
“That is…?!”
The light was not the blue he had seen moments ago.
It was deep crimson.
The elder had seen lightning of that color once before.
There was only one person capable of wielding it.
A traitor who had broken the vow of pure blood, formed an illicit bond with a human, and passed magic down to him.
Several months after that traitor had been executed, a young woman appeared before the World Tree.
She arrived dressed in black mourning robes.
Her small frame was unimpressive, but the black makeup smeared by tears made her resemble a terrifying vengeful spirit.
The hatred-filled girl had spoken.
—We swore to remain together until the heavens themselves tore us apart, yet the heavens are so merciless to a woman.
The girl, consumed by rage and hatred, raised one hand toward the sky.
—Since the heavens will not punish you, I shall punish you myself.
It was crimson lightning that defied the natural order.
The lightning surged into the sky and shattered the World Tree.
“Fury of the Storm.”
That same lightning now shot toward the elder’s chest.
The previously relaxed elder twisted his body violently.
Crack!
The barrier formed from dense protective runes shattered like thin glass.
A defense powerful enough to easily withstand a sixth-tier emission spell was destroyed in an instant.
“Ghh…?!”
The elder barely managed to preserve his life.
He felt an emptiness in his body, followed by throbbing pain.
When he looked down, there was nothing left of his left arm but a gaping wound where it had been blown away.
All that remained was the agony of losing the limb.
“You… you…!”
Even more painful than the injury was the humiliation of being struck.
“You worthless short-lived—!”
He spat out his fury as though someone had touched a dragon’s reverse scale, only to be abruptly silenced.
Ferda gave him no opening and bound the elder’s body with shadows.
He completely prevented Cypress from using magic.
Against an ordinary human mage, sealing the mouth and restraining the hands would have been enough.
Elves were different.
Ferda knew how they had to be subdued.
“Frenzy.”
He directly injected mind-affecting magic into the elder’s head.
“Ugh!”
Boiling aggression and violent impulses engulfed Cypress’s body.
An ordinary person might have relieved the torment by letting those emotions erupt.
A High Elf could not dare to do so.
The minds of the High Elves were connected as one.
Because they were linked, corruption in one individual could spread to all of them.
Elven society was merciless in that regard, and elders were no exception.
Cypress immediately sat down and focused his mind.
Unable to create a spell that would dispel the frenzy, he controlled his emotions as tightly as possible to prevent the corruption from spreading.
Cold sweat ran down his face as he glared at Ferda.
‘How does this brat know even that?’
The weakness born from their shared mind was something no human had ever discovered.
Ferda’s nineteen years of life were absurdly brief.
Those who had researched ways to challenge the authority of the World Tree had lived more than twice as long as he had.
Yet not one of them had ever shaken Cypress this badly with a single attack.
Ferda looked down at him and asked,
“How does it feel to be defeated by a foolish short-lived race, Elder?”
The venomous elder answered,
“Being defeated by you does not make you any less foolish.”
“It seems some elves also grow old without gaining wisdom.”
“You fool…! Do you not even understand that becoming a dragon’s fiancé is the same as placing yourself inside its jaws? And yet you dare speak such nonsense!”
Ferda scoffed as though the claim were ridiculous.
“I already know that Valdrova once had another fiancé.”
“I am not talking about the Red Dragon!”
Ferda’s hand, which had been about to dismiss him, stopped.
“Who else besides Valdrova tried to marry?”
It should have been impossible.
Marriage existed so that two people could compensate for the flaws the other lacked.
Immortal beings were perfect by their very existence.
That was why they did not take partners.
They simply reigned above all things.
“Of course you humans would not know. Long ago, even among the High Elves, there was someone known as a dragon’s fiancé.”
He jerked his chin toward the distant corridor.
“It was Iorga, the master of the Tower Master rampaging in there. Do you know what happened to her fiancé?”
Ferda did not ask.
Cypress answered without waiting.
“She devoured her own fiancé.”