The Fall

Something was wrong.

Rhode and Carter both had the same thought. The Wind Serpent Lord was proving incredibly troublesome. The Airship was rapidly descending, and they could already make out the forest not far away. But at this rate, the Airship would fall apart in midair before it ever reached the ground!

"Haah!"

Carter leaped forward. The twin swords in his hands flashed through the air, stabbing toward the Wind Serpent Lord's massive claws. But just as he was about to land his blow, the Wind Serpent Lord suddenly opened its mouth. Carter caught a whiff of its foul breath and, without even having time to think, rolled across the deck. He managed to evade its snapping jaws, but his attack had failed. As Carter got to his feet and tried to put some distance between them, the Wind Serpent Lord seemed to decide the little bug was too irritating and suddenly swung a claw at him. Carter hadn't expected it to let go of the Airship, and he was caught off guard. He instinctively raised his swords to block, but the blow sent him flying anyway. He skidded several meters across the deck before crashing into the mast and coming to a stop.

This couldn't go on.

Rhode furrowed his brow, then looked toward the anxious young woman standing not far behind him.

"Lize, I need your help!"

"Huh?"

"I'll draw its attention. When it attacks me, I need you to cast Shield of Protection on me!"

"Okay!"

At Rhode's words, Lize nodded without hesitation. She clasped her hands tightly, and a bright, gentle light appeared around her. Seeing this, Rhode said nothing more. He simply turned around, raised his sword, and thrust it forward.

Shatter Blade.

A brilliant, dazzling blade of light swept through the air once more and struck the Wind Serpent Lord hard. This time, Rhode hadn't deliberately concentrated the blades of light; he let them scatter and attack wherever they could. They were therefore weaker than before and failed to pierce the Wind Serpent Lord's scales. But the scattered strikes tore several vivid, bloody gashes in the thin membranes of its wings, making the Wind Serpent Lord cry out in pain and rage.

"SSS!!!"

The Wind Serpent Lord suddenly stopped. It whipped around, its two blood-red eyes burning with fury as it fixed its gaze on the young human on the deck. Then it opened its mouth again and lunged at Rhode.

The Wind Serpent Lord was undeniably fast. In the blink of an eye, Rhode saw its gaping, blood-red maw hanging over his head. His nerves tightened. This was an extremely risky choice. He had deliberately refrained from using Shadow Blink, moving at a relatively slow pace to bait the Wind Serpent Lord into attacking. It was dangerous, but when an enemy committed to an all-out attack, its weaknesses became more obvious—and that was the opportunity Rhode needed to seize!

The Wind Serpent Lord's gaping maw was right before him. In just a few seconds, it would swallow Rhode whole.

But it still failed to get what it wanted.

For just then, a faint, white-glowing, egg-shaped barrier appeared around Rhode, blocking the Wind Serpent Lord's fangs. The Wind Serpent Lord's attack faltered for an instant, and then it shattered the barrier completely. But it bit down on nothing.

The moment Shield of Protection enveloped him, Rhode had already activated Shadow Blink.

Like a shadowy wraith, he slipped past the Wind Serpent Lord's bite. Then he raised the pure white sword in his hand and slashed across its throat.

That was the Wind Serpent Lord's weakness, the most vulnerable spot on its entire body. But until now, it had always kept its neck tucked in, making it difficult to hit. This time, enraged by Rhode, the Wind Serpent Lord had unleashed its full attack. And because of that, it no longer had time to protect its most fatal weakness.

"—!!!"

A piercing wail rang out. The Wind Serpent Lord jerked its head up as though electrocuted, and filthy blood gushed from its throat, splattering across the entire deck. Then its body went limp and crashed heavily onto the deck, utterly lifeless.

Just then, Rhode saw a deep green expanse rapidly growing larger before his eyes.

"BOOM!!!"

Then the ship jolted violently. Rhode felt as if he had been thrown into the air. A moment later, his vision went black, and he lost consciousness.

When he woke again, the first thing he felt was the biting cold wind.

"Where am I...?"

He opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a beautiful night sky. Unlike an ordinary night, this one was exceptionally "bright." Gentle moonlight shone down, casting the shadows of every leaf onto the ground. In the sky, besides the countless stars, bands of light stretched across the heavens, joining together into a luminous ribbon that extended in every direction.

This was a defining feature of the Dragon Soul Continent. According to ancient legend, it had once been a chaotic, dangerous space. Then five dragons had come, using their bodies to create the sky, the earth, and all living things in a place that had previously held nothing at all. And to suppress the evil chaos, after creating the world with their bodies, the five dragons had also cast their souls into it, holding back the forces of chaos and protecting the world's order.

Each dragon's soul had its own distinct form. The sky above Rhode now, for example, represented the territory protected by the Dragon Soul of Light. Its defining trait was that even at night, light still shone. In contrast, the territory protected by the Dragon Soul of Darkness remained shrouded in darkness even during the day, with not a trace of light to be seen.

For this reason, the distribution of life across the continent was quite orderly.

In the territory guarded by the Dragon Soul of Light, all kinds of green plants grew in abundance. But in the lands of the Dragon Soul of Darkness, only glowing plants could be found. Naturally, this also affected where the various races of the continent lived. Humans mostly gathered under the protection of the Dragon Soul of Light, followed by elves and angels. Meanwhile, the undead, vampires, and nightmares—as well as other dark races—naturally became residents of the Kingdom of Darkness.

There were no gods on this continent. If anything, the five dragons who had created the world were the ones people worshipped. The same was true of those who bore the Dragon Souls.

Every soul had a core, even the souls of the dragons who had created the world. The core of each dragon's soul would dwell within a person, who could use its power to regulate how the Dragon Soul protected the continent. To put it simply, if chaos was a virus and Dragon Soul Power was a firewall, then the person who held the soul core was like a CPU. As long as the CPU kept running, the firewall wouldn't fail, and it could keep all the forces of chaos out of the world. Those who held these soul cores were regarded as inheritors of the dragons' souls.

But none of this meant anything to Rhode right now.

Rhode slowly got to his feet. Waves of intense pain swept through his body, especially the wound on the left side of his chest, which seemed to have gotten worse. Before, he could at least manage to move his left hand, but now he couldn't move it at all. Even twitching a finger felt like his entire arm was submerged in flames.

Strangely, this reassured Rhode. If he could feel pain, then his arm was still there. If he couldn't feel anything at all, that would be a much bigger problem.

He looked up. In the bright moonlight, the first thing he saw was the Airship's wreckage. The towering trees all around them showed that they were in the forest. That made it clear what had happened. Although Rhode had killed the Wind Serpent Lord, the already fragile Airship had been unable to withstand the violent impact as it came down and had broken apart.

The forest was utterly silent. He couldn't even hear insects chirping. Rhode looked around and saw blood and bodies scattered everywhere, some belonging to Wind Serpents, others to humans. Not far from him, a small figure lay motionless.

"Lize!"

Rhode hurried to the girl's side and crouched down to examine her. Fortunately, although she looked pale and her hands were clenched, her breathing was steady. When Rhode called her name, it wasn't long before she opened her eyes.

"I... What...?"

Lize opened her eyes in a daze and stared at the man before her. It took her a moment to come to her senses. It seemed she had taken quite a bad fall, too.

"Am I still alive?"

"Yes."

Seeing Lize answer him, Rhode finally relaxed. The girl slowly got to her feet. She shook her head and bit her lip, still not fully recovered. But there was something more important for her to do right now.

"What about everyone else? The captain? How are they?"

"..."

Rhode didn't answer, but Lize didn't need him to. By then, she had already seen the scene around them. Her already pale little face stiffened.

"How could this be... Krite! Shale! Captain!"

The girl rushed to the mercenaries' bodies and desperately called out their names, but no one answered. Still, Lize didn't give up. She crouched down and carefully examined each mercenary. After confirming that one was dead, she didn't break down in tears. She gritted her teeth and ran to the next.

But the girl's efforts brought her no comfort.

There was nothing she could do for those bodies, already cold and stiff. Lize kept going, but when she saw Carter, her legs gave way, and she sank to the ground.

The mercenary captain who had been so full of confidence before was now just another cold corpse. Half his body was wedged between the gaps in the deck, and a broken wooden beam had pierced his abdomen.

"C-Captain..."

At the sight, Lize sat frozen on the damp grass. The last spark of hope had gone out in her eyes, replaced by confusion and grief. At last, she lowered her head. She didn't speak, but the soft sobs carried by the night wind still reached Rhode's ears.

Rhode could only stand silently behind the trembling, golden-haired girl. He couldn't find a single word to say. During the battle, with their lives on the line, he hadn't had time to think about any of this. But now that it was over, the sight of bodies scattered all around him left him feeling conflicted. It wasn't as if he had never seen corpses before, but those had only been images simulated in a game. In the game, the dead could be revived with magic or run back to their bodies as spirits. But this wasn't a game. The dead didn't come back to life, and they couldn't run back to their bodies.

Dead was dead.

At that moment, Rhode was reminded of that night seven years ago. All he could do was watch, powerless—death had passed right by him, and he hadn't even been able to stop it.

Just as he was about to say something to comfort the girl, a faint cry for help suddenly reached his ears.

"Hey... Is anyone there? Help..."