Chapter 194 - Golden Lighthouse (2)

To some, they were people to be protected, but to others, they were merely something to harvest.

Looking at the dwarves bobbing on the sea, Barbosa's sailors were grinning from ear to ear.

To those who did not see people as people, the dwarves wandering with nowhere to go were nothing more than glittering gold coins.

"Aren't those all dwarves!"

"Ha ha! This place is a gold mine!"

But perhaps they were too excited by the unexpected harvest.

They failed to notice the single ship slowly breaking away from the group.

No, even if they had noticed, they likely would not have cared much.

Because the ship now approaching them was far too small and shabby to look threatening.

"... What the hell?"

At that moment, a single glittering light began to shine toward the excited sailors.

Though it was midday, that light shone brightly, and though it was small, it had enough brilliance to be mistaken for a lighthouse standing in a harbor.

That sparkling light was drawing closer and closer.

Riding on the tiny ship they had ignored because it looked so unimpressive.

The ship cutting across the sea was charging straight toward them.

* * *

"Aaaaaah!"

"Too! It's too fast!"

"The squid, the squid have gone mad!"

It felt as if they were riding on a silver tray.

The sea should have been blue, but the surface the Zemina was now treading was filled entirely with silver.

Even Barbosa's ships far in the distance looked clearly bewildered by the light created by the glowing swarm of squid.

"Grrrrgh!"

It was a speed that made even veteran sailors grit their teeth.

The swollen sails were already flapping as if they would tear, and the headwind striking them had grown so fierce it was hard to breathe.

"Everyone, hold on tight!"

The Zemina's advance looked as if she were sliding across ice, but unlike her outward appearance, the impact the sailors had to endure was violent.

The vibrations were enough to rattle even elves with their excellent sense of balance, and Joseph's face had already turned deathly pale.

BOOM! BANG! BANG!

"Attack from the enemy ships! Cannonballs!"

Black dots began to fly from Barbosa's ships, which had belatedly noticed them.

At the ominous blasts coming from afar, Haven's two eyes gleamed sharply beneath the brim of his captain's hat.

"Huuup!"

CREAK! GRRRAAANK!

An ominous sound came from the helm as he forced it around.

It was the scream of the Zemina, unable to withstand her own speed.

BOOM! BOOM! SPLASH!

With all his strength put into steering, Barbosa's cannonballs narrowly missed.

Even Varadis, who never lost his composure, ended up gulping as he watched the cannonballs fall right beside them.

"Ha! Ha ha!"

Everyone aboard the ship was turning pale, but only Haven was smiling broadly.

When was the last time I ran on my own two legs?

Memories from a time he could no longer even remember seemed to awaken slowly along with the wind blowing as if it would tear him apart.

"All hands! Brace for impact!"

CREEEAK! CREEEEEEAK!

Ominous creaks filled every part of the Zemina.

It was the scream of the Zemina, exhausted, broken, and entrusted with a mission far too great for her ability.

But Haven believed that she, the lady of the red rose, would surely see it through to the very end.

"We're going to hit!"

"Aaaaaah!"

The wind blown by mystery and the waves raised by spirits finally launched the Zemina like a cannonball.

At the sudden acceleration, even Barbosa's sailors could only stare blankly.

CRASH! CRRRUNCH!

With a thunderous sound as if they might burst apart, the two ships collided and began to lurch violently.

Small but sturdy, the lady finally punched a great hole through the invader's side.

"Everyone, jump in!"

"Aaaaaah!"

"I'm not dead! I'm still not dead!"

From the sinking Zemina, the sailors began leaping forward.

Across the bridge formed by the ram hanging at the very front.

The steep forward tilt was adding force to their charge.

["What did I tell you to do for a first strike?"]

And from atop the collapsing crow's nest, there was a gaze watching their charge.

It was the gaze of a man cloaked all over in the traces of the falling Zemina.

"... Make it flashy!"

The ram had reached the gun deck, but the tilted Zemina's crow's nest was collapsing toward the enemy deck.

From that place slowly falling apart, a single glittering golden thing dropped down.

At the same time, a sword strike swung wide.

The path of that sword was aimed precisely at the enemy captain gripping the helm.

"You crazy bastard!"

The eyes of the captain looking up filled with a mass of light.

The two men, drawn close through their meeting gazes, finally passed each other by.

Because there was only one path drawn by the sword, and only one person could stand upon it.

SPURT!

Beneath blood split vertically apart, the captain was slowly crumpling.

The moment they brushed past was fleeting, and the light that touched him was a brilliant gold.

"... I am Vlad of Soara."

The mast of the Zemina, finally collapsed, came crashing down onto the deck with a thunderous clatter.

But Vlad did not send a look of pity toward her as she fell apart.

"I will hear no excuses from you bastards who invaded the North."

What he had to take with him was not her shabby form, but only her name.

From Vlad, who had wrapped himself in the flag of the red rose, a chilling aura began to flow.

* * *

There were five enemy ships in all.

Seeing the Zemina lodged in their flagship, the bewildered remaining ships hurriedly began to approach.

"Hup!"

With a heavy swing of the axe, another sailor lost his head.

The dark-skinned man hiding in the shadows was not something one could detect even while watching.

"Haven!"

"... Don't mind me, and do what you have to do!"

Otar shouted when he saw Haven bleeding from his left leg, but they had no time now.

"It has to be now! Everyone, take your positions!"

Enemies and sailors were mixed together in chaos below the cramped gun deck.

The elves and Jager were fighting well, but even they would not be able to stop cannon fire coming from afar.

"Gunners ready! Light the fuses!"

Haven was rolling weakly on the floor after even losing his cane, but he was still gripping his captain's hat tightly.

He had lost his ship, but the captain's duty was not yet over, and Haven was someone who somehow had to make a path for his passengers.

"Fire!"

"Fire the cannons!"

"The captain says fire!"

Endless repetitions rang out amid the chaotic screams.

The sailors of the Zemina, having seized the enemy cannons, began shouting with all their might toward the approaching ships.

BOOM! BOOM-BOOM! BOOM!

They had come close, and because of that, it was a distance they could not evade.

Acrid smoke filled the air over fragments spraying everywhere.

The enemy ships, which had never imagined the gun deck would be seized so quickly, helplessly exposed their sides.

"Don't stop! Keep firing!"

From now on, only quick hands would be able to save them.

From the ships that had realized the flagship had been taken, gunports slowly began to open.

The gleaming muzzles of cannons were aiming at the sailors from both sides.

"Emergency surfacing!"

At that moment, one of the enemy ships that had finished taking aim began to lurch violently.

Because something like a sunfish that had burst up from beneath the sea had ruthlessly shoved it upward.

BOOM! BOOM-BOOM! BOOM!

The enemy cannonballs, having lost their angle, began to shoot futilely into the sky.

Along with Haven's order ringing out at the same time, fire began to belch from the gun deck.

One cannonball flying, one person's scream.

Bodies torn to shreds were falling into the sea below.

-...

Bubbles were rising over the slowly sinking corpses.

They were bubbles emerging from the darkness deep in the sea, where not a single point of light had reached.

Those murky bubbles, holding someone's breath, were now reaching their hands toward the golden lighthouse shining above the surface.

Though the color they bore was different, it was something like an echo from a very old memory.

* * *

"We cannot move forward because of the chains!"

"Go around."

"Impossible! There are reefs everywhere!"

Barbosa scratched his head as if troubled by the reports he was hearing.

It seemed this must have been the reason they had resisted so desperately despite being no match for him.

"... Well, aren't they bold."

Barbosa laughed incredulously as he looked at the ship visible right before him.

A ship that had strange waterwheels attached and had endlessly lured them here.

Though its current appearance had grown wretched from the cannonballs, Nidavellir's flagship had ultimately succeeded in completing its mission.

"They say there is no iron plating under the ships."

"Now that is welcome news."

Blood flowed down his forehead, where a splinter had pierced him.

But Olmukar merely smiled as if pleased by the report he had heard.

"Tell the submarines. Punch holes in the bottoms of those ships."

"Understood."

They were submarines made for work, not for combat, but precisely because of that, punching holes in the bottoms of ships would be easier.

After all, they were submarines originally made to mine ore from beneath the sea.

THUD! THUD!

"Your Grace! Under the ship just now!"

"Oh dear. At this point, I don't think anything would surprise me."

The sailors trembled anxiously at the ominous sounds coming from under the ship, but Golden Duke Barbosa merely shrugged.

Ships that moved on their own without wind, and strange sunfish coming and going beneath the sea.

On top of that, chains stubbornly tied between the reefs.

Barbosa had grown fed up with the preparations the dwarves had made in their struggle to survive.

"They say nothing is tougher than a dwarf's beard... But no matter how I look at it, those bastards are insane."

But Barbosa's obsession with gold was closer to madness.

In his body, cold gold coins flowed instead of red blood, and each of the dwarves' valiant efforts looked to him only like glittering gold coins.

"Oh dear, Count. What can I do, now that things have turned out like this? I truly regret it."

Acknowledging that he had no proper choice, Barbosa decided to use one of the contingencies he had brought along.

It was originally something he had prepared for the Dragonblood Duke, but in the current situation, it could not be helped.

"... I pray a curse falls upon you and the Barbosa Family."

"Is that the last will left by the final Salvaraz?"

A middle-aged man bound tightly with rope was glaring at him with murderous eyes, but Golden Duke Barbosa only looked at the dagger he had drawn as if it meant nothing to him.

Any beaten dog was bound to bark like the man before him now, and Barbosa was also someone who had heard countless empty threats like that.

"Words like that don't really move me anymore. Not anymore."

"Ghk!"

With a familiar gesture, Barbosa lightly slit the man's throat.

From the tip of the dagger he held, the drops of blood carried by the last Salvaraz dripped down.

RUMBLE!

Each time Count Salvaraz's eyes lost their light, a violent vibration began to ring out from the chest beside him.

It was a chest that had been tightly sealed until now with silver chains.

"... It's starting to thrash about, just as I heard."

But the chains that had seemed eternal were now rapidly rusting.

Because they had lost the pact that would be carried through blood, they could no longer uphold the noble oath.

From the distant past until now, the bloodline of the South that had been guarding the pact was finally severed by a rogue pirate.

Following the ominous rumble of the chest, the shadow beneath the sea was growing deeper.

That shadow belonged to the being that had followed the dragon's fragment all the way from the South.

* * *

There was an old man standing at the edge of the cliff on Lemnos Island, looking out over the sea.

Those who could not fight had taken shelter, and all the warriors who could fight had gone to the battlefield, leaving the island empty, but Rukhta had decided to guard this forge.

Because even if he was a worthless old man, he still had a duty to uphold until the end.

"What in the world is that..."

Though Rukhta had remained behind with such firm resolve, the sight he was now seeing was one he could hardly accept.

The sea was crying.

Because a being too great to bear was rising from beneath it.

At that tremendous roar, the ships of Nidavellir were swaying dangerously.

Like pitiful leaves that might capsize at any moment.

"... Good heavens."

A completely hoarse voice slipped from Rukhta's mouth.

Because an enormous sight was unfolding before his eyes, one he could not possibly believe even while seeing it with his own eyes.

Even for him, who had lived for a long time, it was a sight too much to endure.

GRAAAAAAAAH!

There was a dragon lifting its head as it tore through the sea.

It was a being so enormous its outstretched head seemed to touch the sky.

At the sound of its roar, even the sky covered itself with clouds.

"The greatest... dragon."

The greatest dragon.

Leviathan.

Among the traces of the perfect dragon, the greatest being was now revealing itself in the waters off Lemnos Island.

The sword was crying out.

Above the roaring sea, as if it would tear the sky apart.

Leviathan's form, rising high enough to touch the clouds, was something impossible to take in without looking up in awe.

The sudden appearance of the dragon was so enormous that everyone on the battlefield forgot even to breathe.

"... My God."

Had the most perfect dragon of old been like this?

It was immense because it was ancient, and wondrous because it was immense.

Looking at Leviathan's eyes shining between the dark clouds, Olmukar unconsciously squeezed his eyes shut.

BOOM!

But at this moment, when even the waves held their breath, there was a sharp noise breaking the silence alone.

It was a sound made by a single cannonball, yet it drew the attention of every being present.

"The enemy, the enemy flagship has fired a cannonball!"

"...!"

It was a cannonball tinged with an ominous red light.

With the darkened sky as its backdrop, the flying cannonball looked like a meteor shower falling from the heavens, but the meteor shower Barbosa had fired was a false star that would grant only one person's wish.

"... And the bait is sent."

Watching the red trajectory slowly lean toward Lemnos Island, Golden Duke Barbosa smiled deeply.

To catch rough prey, one had to exhaust it that much first.

It was a shame to send out the fragment, but if it was that dragon visible over there, it would be able to smash the dwarves' defensive line to pieces.

GRAAAAAAAAAH!

Indeed, as he intended, Leviathan's eyes began to glow crimson as it watched the dragon fragment flying toward Lemnos Island.

Because a perfection it craved not from desire or longing, but from instinct, had just brushed past it.

"Now let's leave the rest to Mr. Dragon."

That massive body might tear the island itself to shreds, but even so, that was fine.

Golden coins were still things that shone even when broken.

He would simply have to pick up the pieces after that dragon shattered them.

"Barbo-sa!"

Olmukar's roar, filled with fury, rang out over the surging waves.

Because, seeing Leviathan's gaze glow red, he had realized what Barbosa had just done.

SHWAAAAA!

But regardless of his rage, there was not the slightest hesitation in Leviathan's movements.

Each time that snake-like body writhed, the sea, unable to contain its enormity, began to scream.

"All ships! Prepare to fire! Turn its gaze away from the island!"

And that scream was aimed entirely at Lemnos Island, the dwarves' nest.

Seeing their island placed precariously before the greatest being, the dwarves of Nidavellir ended up gritting their teeth.

* * *

The sea split apart, and scorching heat surged up from within it.

Within the rough currents created by that heat, which had nowhere to go, there was a single sunfish swaying dangerously.

"Why is this thing shaking so much!"

"Aah! Aaaaaah!"

Vulcanus's submarine was heading back toward Lemnos Island after safely sending off the dwarf refugees.

Inside it, Vlad and his companions, who were seated there, were greatly startled by the submarine as it shook violently.

"Vulcanus! What is happening?"

"... The volcanoes have begun to run wild."

Vulcanus's suppressed voice could be heard amid the ceaseless creaking of the pedals.

He tried not to show it, but his voice was filled with anxiety that inevitably leaked through.

"Volcanoes? Where are there mountains here?"

"There are mountains under the sea too. Far more ferocious ones than the things on land."

At the mention of mountains under the sea, Nibelun's ears pricked, but he could not bring himself to raise his head.

Because Vulcanus's submarine was now caught in the rough current and being tossed about.

The shaking was violent enough to bring back the seasickness he had thought he had grown used to on the Zemina.

"I do not know why the volcanoes are suddenly doing this either."

THUMP!

At Vulcanus's words that even he did not know, Vlad quietly leaned the back of his head against the wall.

Because he had sensed a remnant of perfection that he could now distinguish by the beating of his heart alone.

'... It's a dragon.'

Vulcanus said he did not know, but Vlad could tell from whom this situation had originated.

Because the remnants of a fallen dragon, starving for perfection, had always appeared along with someone's scream.

"Captain. Over here."

"What is it?"

At the urgent call of his subordinate, Vulcanus quickly brought his eye to the periscope.

Then the sea above came into view, and it was the very image of devastation.

"... All the squid are dead."

The surface of the sea was filled with squid that had died white, unable to endure the heat of the boiling sea.

They were the corpses of the squid that had pushed the Zemina until now and had been following the submarine.

THUMP!

The squid, having lost their way in the thrashing of the enormous being, were panicking, not knowing what to do.

The squid, which had to live in the cold sea, tried to avoid the volcanoes that kept erupting, but their world was already in the midst of collapsing miserably.

-...

The spirits of the sea were once again being trampled beneath a vast world.

Watching those fragile movements, a silver wave began to rise from the depths of the sea.

WOOOOOOO.

There was a being that had been blocking the scorching heat with its own body for the spirits until now.

Seeing the dying spirits, an ancient old one began to cry out in soundless fury.

GRRRK! GRRRRRK!

And at the same time, Vlad's sword began to vibrate.

Vlad's sword, resonating with the fury cried out by the ancient old one, began to shake violently.

It was a sword that had not known what it wanted to become, but at this moment, it was a sword that wanted to do something, anything.

* * *

"... No! No!"

Each savagely raised scale wrapped around the island.

The cries spat out by Lemnos Island, trapped between the body tightening roughly around it, filled the air.

"No!"

The old dwarf was wailing as he watched the island collapse in ruin.

Seeing the last remaining world of the dwarves crumble before his eyes, Rukhta shed thick drops of tears.

BOOM! BOOM!

Urgent sounds of cannon fire could be heard from the distant sea.

Nidavellir's ships were ceaselessly firing cannons at the dragon trying to climb onto their island, but to Leviathan before the dragon fragment, they were less than the buzz of mosquitoes.

GRRRRRR!

At the dragon's roar, savagely demanding that they hand it over at once, the mountaintop of Lemnos Island finally burst apart.

The hot lava flowing from there was the blood shed by the island, and the bitter tears shed by the dwarves.

"Leave us alone, you bastards! Just leave us alone!"

Facing the ceaselessly blowing storm, the old man, now exhausted, fell to his knees.

Seeing the beings that endlessly tried to force them to kneel no matter how hard they tried to stand, Rukhta lost even the strength to resist any longer.

GRAAAAAAAH!

Yes.

I am here.

Take me at once.

You who possess me will draw even closer to perfection.

Such was the greatest dragon's laugh as it looked down at that old man.

More precisely, as it looked at the dragon fragment embedded in the cliff beside him, pulsing red.

The greatest dragon already knew well.

That it was always easier, sweeter, and more luscious to take another's possibility than one's own.

-...!

But at that moment, Leviathan turned its head at the cold sensation wrapping around it from beneath the sea.

The silver sea had somehow grown brightly illuminated.

Above it, enormous tentacles rose slowly toward Leviathan.

"... What is that, what is that this time?"

Barbosa, who had been smiling broadly at Leviathan's advance, opened his mouth wide at the enormous squid that had suddenly appeared.

"Is that a dragon too?"

"No!"

Tentacles soaring high into the sky were looking down at the greatest dragon.

A glittering silver spectacle lit the suckers attached to the tentacles along with the seawater falling down.

"That is the Kraken!"

At someone's scream-like shout, the tentacles raised high began to descend.

Toward the greatest dragon, toward the being trying to take another's possibility.

-GRAAAAAAAH!

-...!

CRAAAAACK!

A tremendous sound human ears could not possibly contain.

At the enormous sound, as if the air itself were splitting, everyone on the sea clutched their ears.

As if startled by that sound, even the sea began to spit out great waves, violently shaking the floating ships.

"What the hell is going on!"

After the greatest dragon, now even the greatest spirit of the sea.

At a sight that seemed like something out of myth, humans and dwarves alike could do nothing but helplessly cling to the railings.

-GROOOOOOOOH!

And now, Leviathan, at the end of the humans' gazes, had a being that concerned it more than even the Kraken binding it.

It was the young dragon charging toward the red, beating fragment.

["It is a fragment of the most perfect dragon! You must not hand that over!"]

"Kh..."

There was a golden light charging toward the dragon fragment while forcibly holding down his pounding heart.

It was Vlad, scattering the trace of the young World Tree from his vibrating sword.

"Damn it! It's too far!"

After confirming the dragon fragment barely embedded in the middle of the cliff, Vlad finally raised his head and met the enormous gazes looking down at him.

Leviathan and the Kraken.

Though words did not pass between them, Vlad felt as if he knew what their eyes were shouting, and he put his body onto the rock leading down the cliff.

-GRAAAAAAAH!

-...!

The dragon was shouting not to do it, and the Kraken was shouting for him to hurry.

Even the reverberation of the sounds they cried out was enough to crumble the stones he held in his hands, but Vlad did not stop his steps toward the fragment.

FWAAAAASH!

The white sand beach of Lemnos Island was swept away helplessly by the waves created by the gigantic beings.

Under the red volcanic ash rising into the air, Vlad laboriously climbed down the cliff and finally saw the dragon fragment glowing red.

THUMP!

Take hold of me at once, young dragon.

If you possess me, you can become perfect.

I am a fragment of the most perfect dragon.

"... I am a knight, aren't I, Quijano?"

["Yes."]

Vlad hesitated for a moment before the red light tempting him, but with the voice coming from within, he was able to remind himself once again of who he was.

["No matter what anyone says, you are your own master."]

Not by another's possibility, but by my own possibility.

The right path is narrow and deep, yet the spirit of a knight who chooses that path is always noble.

Above the collapsing sea, Vlad confirmed who was the master of himself, then reached out and grasped the beating fragment.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

Following the spreading heartbeat, an ominous red color began to wrap around Vlad's body.

At that strange sensation, Vlad felt his mind grow dazed, but even so, the voice ringing in his head held Vlad fast.

["Vlad Aureo. The most radiant knight I have ever met."]

A possibility was something that could become anything.

Even a fragment of the most perfect dragon could become not a dragon, but a sword in the hands of one who wished for it.

The sword was crying out.

The sword that held starlight, yet was grasped by a dragon, was crying out.

Because now it knew what it had to become.