Chapter 37 - To the Utmost Limit

After Minos drove his sword into the ground, an energy so hideous it made Minjun grimace began to seep out. Soon the scenery around him started to change. The pitch-black void beyond the boundary became a blood-soaked field strewn with broken swords and corpses, while the dark red energy rising from the firmly planted sword slowly took the shape of soldiers.

'I've seen them somewhere before.' The swords, the armor, even the horses they rode and their saddles—he had seen them all in the magic inscribed on the wall.

The dark red smoke had formed countless soldiers, yet instead of dissipating, it only grew thicker with time. It began taking shapes other than soldiers, forming monsters such as wyverns. Before long, swarms of wyverns too numerous to count crowded across the sky.

Minjun's eyes wavered at the unbelievable sight. If all of them attacked him, he could only die here. As though reading his mind, Minos reassured him. 「Don't worry. You won't die or be hurt.」

"What on earth... do you want from me?" Was this punishment for those who had invaded his tomb and disturbed his rest? But if that were his purpose, the others should have been brought here along with Minjun.

The emperor, Minos, shook his head. 「Didn't I tell you? I want to see someone use full-fledged dragon speech in a human body.」 This wasn't punishment. With no other motive, he simply wanted to see someone else use the full-fledged dragon speech he himself never could. Though his way of going about it was terribly wrong.

"I understand what you're saying, but why go this far...!" To suddenly imprison someone and tell him he could never leave until he used dragon speech—and what were all these soldiers and wyverns supposed to be? But Minos gave no answer to Minjun's protest. All that came at him were the soldiers' vicious sword strikes.

Minjun swiftly dodged their blades and swept his sword in a long horizontal slash. A dozen or so soldiers fell, coughing blood. But they turned back into dark red smoke, took the shape of soldiers again, and charged at him.

'Damn it.' Just like the Sword Wraiths when he had first entered the dungeon, the soldiers would rise again and point their swords at him no matter how many he cut down. The same would be true of the wyverns filling the sky and blasting him with their breath. "This is insane."

Individually, the soldiers weren't much of a threat, but their numbers were absurd, and above all, no matter how often he cut them down, they never stayed down. And then there were the wyverns. As he was now, Minjun had no way to dodge or block every attack they rained down from above. "Urgh!" He tried to evade them, but a great deal of their breath struck him head-on.

If they had been real wyverns, he would have been gravely wounded at the very least, even with the artifacts he wore. With worse luck, he might have died on the spot. But just as Minos had said, Minjun didn't die—or even retain a scratch. Deep gashes closed at once, and severed limbs promptly grew back. The pain, however, was vividly real. For the first time in his life, he writhed under the terrible agony of what felt like burning, of flesh tearing and being cut away.

"What am I supposed to do?" Minjun shouted, irritation in his voice. No matter how many times he killed the monsters, they would rise like zombies and come at him again. He would be left to endure that awful, body-shattering pain for what felt like an eternity. 'I can't let that happen.' Whatever Minos's reason for imprisoning him here, he would escape this horrible place.

As countless soldiers turned their swords on him again, Minjun leaped high and avoided their blades. It didn't matter whether he killed a thousand soldiers or ten thousand. He only needed to shatter this space with dragon speech, as Minos had said, and get out. Which meant there was no need to waste his strength on the hordes attacking him.

Ignoring the enemy assault, Minjun began pulling every artifact he had out of his pocket dimension. "You're not the only one with numbers on your side." He used the artifacts to hold the soldiers and wyverns at bay one after another. Killing them was pointless; he only had to keep them from interfering.

Then, to prepare in earnest to use dragon speech, Minjun removed the suppressor Rokan had put on him. Rokan had warned him to keep it on at all times except when absolutely necessary, lest his own power overwhelm him. But this was exactly such a time. He hadn't worn it long enough for much power to accumulate, yet to use dragon speech, he needed even the tiniest bit of mana stored within it.

Once he had made every preparation, Minjun poured his will into an attempt at dragon speech. ["Shatter."] Let this repulsive space that had dared try to imprison him forever break apart without a trace. He shouted with more force of will than ever before. Yet nothing changed.

Instead, several wyverns seized the opening, squeezed past the defensive formations Minjun had deployed with his artifacts, and crushed him. "Gah!" If it had been real, every bone in his body would have broken and every organ ruptured—a fatal injury. But what stood before him was only an illusion, and Minjun knew he would not die. A groan escaped him through the pain that seemed to twist his whole body, but he poured his will into another shout. ["Shatter!"] Once again, nothing happened.

As though mocking his efforts, the soldiers poured through the gap the wyverns had opened. Minjun fought back with his sword, but there were far too many for him to handle alone. Infantrymen knocked him down, and cavalrymen rode their horses over his fallen body, trampling him. "Aaaagh!" His body might have been intact, but he felt every bit of the pain. It was so terrible he feared he might pass out from shock.

His whole body contorting in agony, Minjun forced himself up and took hold of his sword again. He looked unharmed, but the pain was so severe that even standing was a struggle, let alone holding a sword. 'I never expected to succeed on the first try.' Using dragon speech couldn't possibly be that easy.

The same thing happened several more times. He failed to use dragon speech; the soldiers and wyverns attacked while he was vulnerable; then he writhed in pain from their blows. His body bore no wounds, but the pain accumulated. His consciousness began to grow faint. For a moment, he was almost tempted to let himself black out. Each time, though, he gripped his sword hilt and refused to fall. Gritting his teeth, he again tried to bring forth dragon speech with all the force of his will. ["Shatter!!!"]

One thing had changed about his approach: each time he attempted dragon speech, he now struck the sword Minos had planted in the ground. Everything had started after Minos drove it in. If he could pull it out, break it, or do anything to it at all, perhaps something would happen. As if possessed, Minjun struck it again and again while attempting dragon speech. The sword in his hand was worthy of being called a fine blade, but Emperor Minos's sword was also a Dragon Bone Sword. Firmly embedded in the ground, it would not break. Instead, every blow sent a jarring vibration through Minjun's head.

Then, at some point, he noticed a faint aurora-colored glow from Minos's sword whenever he struck it. 'That...' It felt familiar. Hadn't his own sword given off that same dazzling aurora-colored light when he fought the villains in the gate? Strictly speaking, though, the two glows weren't exactly alike. Minos's was striking enough, but it was decidedly less brilliant than the colors that had risen from the tip of Minjun's sword then. The light was dimmer, and the colors were varied too.

As the aurora-like light began to radiate from Minos's sword, Minjun felt something strange. The pain hadn't faded. But the alien energy filling this space began to flow into his body, and soon he felt tremendous power surging through him. It was a strange feeling. Power coursed through his entire body—stronger and more abundant than when he had subdued the villains at the gate.

Perhaps this was... 'Power connected to dragons?' Until now, he had only heard people speak of dragon power; he had never had any sense of what it actually meant. Now he felt he might have a vague understanding. Even through the pain came a rush of exhilaration, boundless confidence that he could do anything he willed, and heightened senses he had never experienced in his life, senses no human could know.

'Maybe, if I'm like this now...' Could the miracle of using dragon speech actually happen? His eyes rolling back from the unbearable pain, Minjun kept hold of his sword and shouted desperately. ["Shatter into pieces without a trace!"]

How many times had he shouted it? By now, his throat was painfully hoarse, his voice so cracked that even he couldn't bear to hear it. But—'I'm almost there.' Outwardly, this world hadn't stirred at all, yet Minjun knew it instinctively. Just a little more, the tiniest bit more, and he would surely be able to use dragon speech properly.

Summoning every last ounce of strength, Minjun gathered all the dragon power within him and brought his sword down on Minos's. ["Shatter into pieces without a trace!!!"] For an instant, the entire space shook violently and began to fill with aurora-colored light. Then cracks slowly appeared in the cloudless blue sky.