Chapter 20

The 'Spear' emitted not human voices, but beastly growls—the groans of rage from weak humans due to their actions.

"Human, who gave you the nerve! How dare you send someone to modify my strongest body, and reduce me to this humiliating state! You even dare to curse me! I'm truly angry now!"

032: It's Sad

For the Dragon of Albion, it was always in its strongest state.

Even against the giants of the North.

Even against the sphinxes of Egypt.

Or perhaps, against various so-called divine beasts.

These beings, not of its kind, sometimes treated it kindly, and sometimes vaguely brushed it off.

Before the world had completely changed, the Dragon of Albion was constantly bothered by these weak beings, but being the strongest dragon, it paid them no mind.

As for the impending era belonging to humans, the weak.

It was the first to know and quickly accepted this reality. But because it was the strongest dragon, it felt obligated to let its weaker kin depart first, to prevent them from being attacked by others.

Having existed since the planet's birth, it possessed life information spanning nearly 4.6 billion years. Naturally, it knew when the moment of fantasy's complete disappearance would arrive. Considering itself the strongest, it planned to wait until all its kin had left before departing itself.

Because it was the strongest, it had to protect the weak.

The Dragon of Albion would never say such a thing, as it believed the weak must absolutely obey the strong, even in their opinions.

However, when it prepared to depart at the 'original' final moment, it discovered, for reasons unknown, that the end of fantasy had arrived four years early.

Stuck in a past era, it was left behind in this changed world.

Initially, the Dragon of Albion's thought was, "Ah, so that's how it is. But I'm the strongest, so this is no problem at all." Beyond this, it felt nothing else.

However, it was sad because it could no longer see its weaker kin.

But there were also some happy things: it encountered other weak creatures who, though not its kin, had also remained in this world.

But the disappearance of mystery caused these creatures, far weaker than the Dragon of Albion, to die off quickly, which made it sad.

Slowly, it realized it had become an "abandoned existence." Enraged, it roared at its fate.

It absolutely refused to die alone like this!

Thus, without despair or surrender, it thought that if it couldn't rely on mystery for transference, it would move physically.

Therefore, it used its vast body to burrow into the earth, still imbued with lingering mystery.

The Dragon of Albion did not remember what happened afterward.

Its memories were only fragments of color.

Black and red.

Everything around it seemed like a broken curse. Filthy black and red swirled together chaotically. It smelled a strong, fishy odor, but its memory was already blurred.

...It was itself vomiting, its throat choked with filth, unable to breathe smoothly.

Almost there, almost there, just a little more, push a little harder, and it could dig through—

The strongest dragon's mind had become utterly muddled.

So painful, so painful, so painful, so bitter, so painful, I want to vomit, I want to vomit, I feel so unwell, so painful, so painful, I want to vomit...

In its consciousness, time vanished, space collapsed, and only its relentless forward progress remained.

Everything was compressed to the point of a needle's tip, leaving only intense pain and suffering.

Approaching a state of convulsions, the Dragon of Albion forced down the urge to weep with its pride as the strongest.

How many times had it repeated the digging? It had lost count.

At that time, the Dragon of Albion desperately scattered its consciousness, firmly believing that its strongest self would eventually succeed.

Suddenly, the weight lessened.

The thing that had been suppressing it seemed to have moved due to some event and left. Although it hadn't completely vanished, the weight instantly became 20 grams. Too shocked, the Dragon of Albion's head detached from its body and continued its journey underground.

Before this, it hadn't even realized its head and body had separated, that its body had died.

"Ah..."

The Dragon of Albion murmured.

Its soul crawled, eventually reaching the 'other side.' Its soul had left its body, flown beyond the sea of death, becoming a shining brilliance at the world's extreme edge.

On the reverse side of reality, where all fantasy slumbered, there was almost nothing decent around. There was cosmic darkness, ultimate brilliance, and a vortex at the center of all things... but only it, a fantasy being, was present.

"How is this possible? Why, why is it just me here..."

To put it simply, this was a place that was nowhere, a world that was nowhere.

Freed from the concept of time, that place had no day or night, no sun or moon, only faint auroras illuminating the sky.

This world was unchanged. The vast ocean knew no waves, the sky no drifting clouds. Arriving in such a world, the strongest dragon felt a sense of loneliness that the sky was devoid of the moon and stars.

So the dragon could only close its eyes, but as soon as it closed them, its heart felt overwhelmingly lonely.

There must have been kin who arrived here, but it didn't know. And its kin, fearing its strongest self, dared not appear.

Albion had been waiting for a creature to find it, wishing that person would be someone it knew—

It spent every day in loneliness, praying thus.

Though it was every day, from its perspective, ten years or a hundred years made no difference. The strongest dragon's body was very slow to react to the passage of time. It didn't get hungry, didn't need to sleep, and just spent its days in a daze.

Just waiting, this punishment called hope, unbearable loneliness.

However—

"It's alright, you should be the one thanking me for coming this far."

This voice rang out. It wasn't an auditory hallucination, nor a visual illusion; it was truly present by its ear.

Despite expecting someone to come one day, Albion opened its eyes with disbelief. The being it saw made it pause.

When had its soul, or perhaps its consciousness, returned here?

While it was glad it would no longer be lonely, it was also confused as to when it could see eye-to-eye with a weak human. With this question, it scanned its current body and couldn't help but be furious that its head, left in the world, had become like this. During this time, it heard this weak human look down on the body of the strongest dragon, its own body—

"Human, who gave you the audacity! How dare you send someone to modify the strongest me, and reduce me to this humiliating state!"

This was the first time in its life that the Dragon of Albion had spoken such words.

"You dare insult me! I'm truly angry now!"

Annoyed Water Fairy Lancelot.jpg

033: Eternal Reverence()

When the weapon, refined from the head of the Dragon of Albion, possessed a consciousness seemingly from 'itself,' Novia's initial thought was to ignore it.

After all, refining someone else's head into a weapon that could be casually played with, especially a supremely arrogant dragon, Novia felt it would be troublesome to explain.

Moreover, a weapon having its own consciousness was not within his expectations. The Dragon of Albion's soul had gone to the reverse side, and the Clock Tower of later generations had freely developed its body without any reaction... why was it not working for him?

"You, are you a new consciousness born from its remains, like Divine Body Osiris?"

The purple-haired girl jumped down from Novia's back and looked indifferently at the object not far in front of her, crafted by her.

From the moment the voice sounded, this place had transformed into a supernatural space capable of flattening and distorting the viewer's vision. But in reality, it wasn't just the visual image that was distorted. Even when the Age of Gods was still present, most mages wouldn't have been able to dispel this distortion.

In other words, if an ordinary person saw it, their sense of balance would likely collapse instantly, and they wouldn't be able to stand. Besides that, it probably possessed a certain innate 'aura.' It wouldn't be strange even if an ordinary person lost themselves after a single glance.

In the distorted space, an object bound by her Aether Lines floated in the air—

It was a blue-black 'spear.'

Being able to control itself was also the reason Novia couldn't ignore the 'spear's' voice. But whether it was a new consciousness or the real one, he didn't intend to delve into it. And judging by its tone just now, combined with the personality of its left-hand manifestation, Fairy Lancelot, from his memories, it was likely that following the line of thought, 'I won't let you be lonely anymore,' it would be easy to talk to.

Therefore—

"Ah, you are the strongest dragon..." he said with a smile, "The Dragon of Albion, aren't you? It is my utmost honor to meet you today. Please forgive me for not being able to entertain you with the highest courtesy, and I apologize for presumptuously using your strongest body."

The silver-haired youth spoke without hesitation, his tone respectful and smooth, his expression equally so, with a reassuring gentleness.

"I never expected you to be able to manifest your will in the present world even after your fantasy disappeared, but it is only right, for you are the strongest dragon. I have admired you greatly since childhood, which is why I have followed your footsteps here with all my might, yet I failed to meet you. However, to prevent your remains from being defiled by evil maggots, I had no choice but to resort to this measure. Please allow me to express my apologies once more to the strongest you."

This inexplicably reminded the Dragon of Albion of those humans, those individuals among life forms with low survival capabilities called 'teachers.' They were like individuals who naturally provided knowledge to their weaker fellow humans, caring for their weaker kin. This person had indeed carried another weak human on his back just now...

After making this connection on his own, coupled with Novia's flattery, the Dragon of Albion's displeased mood improved slightly.

"Although I have not seen your truly star-shining visage today, I have heard your strongest words with my own ears. I wish to tell you here that I will forever hold unchanging reverence for the strongest you."

"Hmph, do you think the strongest me can't tell such flattery? I've heard the words of inferior beings like you countless times."

"My deepest apologies... As I don't interact much with people, I'm not eloquent and not quick-witted..." Novia raised his right hand to his chest, displaying an apologetic expression. "...But I will do my best from now on. I hope you, Albion, will look at this with a long-term perspective."

"You're quite eloquent,"

Shiyali murmured, her gaze sharpening slightly. She could clearly see that the consciousness on the 'spear' had been considerably appeased by Novia's words, at least no longer appearing as furious as before.

Her gaze shifted back and forth between the man and the object. Though she didn't know what it was, the purple-haired girl felt a vague sense of displeasure in her heart.

"Hmph, in this state, you weak human clearly want me to be a weapon you can wield at will. Do you think you can make me forgive you for modifying my body without permission just by acting like this?"

Albion said indifferently. It considered itself the strongest dragon. Let alone standing shoulder-to-shoulder with others, that was unnecessary. Moreover, this human clearly intended to use it as a master would. It was already a great kindness that it hadn't eaten him the moment it saw him.

"I don't know."

Novia shook his head very honestly and lowered his gaze.

"If I could persuade the strongest you to agree to the weak me's request, that would probably be very cool, but I can't say it because I don't possess such ability."

The weak human before it, from a certain perspective, was a life that any small action of his own during his lifetime could take away, could sever.

Weak beings were resources that existed solely for its future consumption and exploitation.

The Dragon of Albion did not deny having such thoughts, but it wasn't entirely so. Those weaklings who spent their mornings smiling at each other, arguing sometimes, and worrying about the present and future, were so fragile, so ephemeral.

In contrast, it possessed undeniable, the strongest power.

Therefore, it was only natural for these fragile weaklings to revere it—

Raising its head, the youth approached the 'spear' step by step.

"It is natural for weak beings to obey powerful beings, but I think it is very unfair to you, beautiful being, to be confined to the dark underground when you have the freedom of the sky. Because you are the undisputed strongest dragon, you should go to the boundary of land and sky, and gaze upon everything on the horizon."

"Hmph... Since you found my head, you must have seen the humiliating state I was in when I died, right?"

Even though this weak human's standing in its heart had long since risen countless levels without pause, the Dragon of Albion's tone remained incredibly indifferent, even giving the impression that it wouldn't be unexpected if it killed him in the next moment.

"As you said, the filth you spewed, and even the sorrow that the strongest should not display, I have indeed seen, but—"

His sincere gaze locked directly into the Dragon of Albion's eyes.

"No matter how ugly, no matter how dangerous, it will not change my reverence for you. More dazzling than anything that existed together in memory, the most beautiful existence I have witnessed on this planet. Even if my body dies and my soul decays, this reverence will not vanish. My eternal and unchanging reverence for your starlike beauty resides within my heart."

Novia extended his hand, causing the Dragon of Albion to freeze for a moment.

He continued speaking.

"I can do nothing for the strongest you, but could you allow a weakling like me to wander with you, to think with you, to worry with you, to be conflicted with you? Dragon of Albion, may I?" 034: The Strongest Dragon's Pride

"Dragon of Albion, may I?"

Even now, the Dragon of Albion still believed that this audacious human lifeform with low survivability looked no different from the weak creatures it had encountered before, purely based on appearance.

But why?

Despite finding no reason for confusion or bewilderment within its own heart, in this moment, it found itself flustered by this 'invitation from the weak.'

"...I am the strongest."

The Dragon of Albion suddenly blurted out.

"Precisely because I am the strongest dragon, it is normal for creatures to worship me. It might also be a very correct measure for creatures to fear me, because I can tear them apart at will... While I understand your feelings, I do not care for such roundabout words. To put it simply, if you anger me, I will literally tear your body apart..."

Novia wasn't too disappointed by the Dragon of Albion's refusal. He could tell that the dragon simply believed that accepting his suggestion would prevent it from maintaining its position as the strongest dragon with a clear conscience. Perhaps it felt that the strong should be aloof and should not easily associate too closely with those they perceived as weak. Such psychology was at play.

But fortunately, it was no longer the Age of Gods when it had kin. It was an era where it had experienced 'loneliness.' In other words, its emotional defenses were vulnerable. As long as he continued to spend time, perhaps he could break through.