Dragon Poor

Kim Seon-Hyeok shook the blood off his hands. Lying flat in front of him was a colossal monster with a cracked skull, dead.

“Now, ten.”

That was the number of Transcendentals that had been destroyed by his hand. Even so, there were still many Transcendentals left in the world. 

“Tsk, why are the Transcendentals so weak.”

He wasn’t speaking empty words. Forget reaching the same level as the Hero in his heyday, the Transcendentals wasn’t even at the same level as the Demon King Park Sang-Jin. Drawing upon his powers as the War Dragon was enough.  

Ssssssah

At that moment, a large stain seemed to be appearing underneath the dead Transcendent’s body. The darkness was something that could only be seen in the depths of a gloomy cave and it rose up like a heat haze and swallowed the Transcendental’s corpse.

“It’s not that they’re weak. It’s that you’re strong.”

A beat later, he heard a thin voice. It was Han Jin-Hee, the Companion of Thanatos, the Lord of the Underworld.

Kim Seon-Hyeok seemed to have noticed her presence from the beginning because he didn’t bother turning his head. He simply responded indifferently as he watched the scene of the Reaper eating, who was going against the promised rest for the dead, and devouring the dead.

“With this, the promised number is filled, so…”

“The deal has been made.”

Smiling like a cat that ate the canary, Han Jin-Hee stretched out her hand. Black energy seemed to gather on her white palm, but soon, the energy came together to form an orb the size of an adult’s fist. 

Ssssk.

The fully-formed orb suddenly let out a scream.

Kyaaaaaaaaaaa.

At first, it sounded like a resentful cry from a single soul, but then, it also sounded like a mournful cry, begging to be saved.

“Why can’t you moderate yourself.”

Either way, Kim Seon-Hyeok frowned as if it wasn’t pleasant to hear. 

“Isn’t it fun? Doesn’t matter whether it’s a Transcendental or whatever. When they die, they’re not that different from a human. The only difference is that this one is tastier and more nutritious.”

He chose to shut his mouth instead of answering her. Perhaps it would be different if he didn’t know the specifications of the marble from the beginning, but as long as he knew that the orb contained the soul of the Transcendental that he had destroyed, he had no intentions of agreeing with her. 

He couldn’t agree with her when he had heard from Edda and knew what would happen to the soul eaten by the Reaper. 

Losing even the promised chance of rest, the soul would suffer until all of its power was completely consumed until eventually, it crumbled and returned to nothing. That was the only death allowed to the slaves of the underworld. 

It was a harsh future. Kim Seon-Hyeok shook his head quietly and shook off his idle thoughts. It would be ridiculous to be sympathizing with the Transcendentals’ plight now.

Right now, the important thing was to make sure that no one would dare touch him or his family in the future. 

The ten Transcendentals who had been destroyed by his own hand were the example. 

“To have mercy on the weak is the noblesse oblige of the strong, but that is not permitted to you yet.”

“Stay alive. Even if you must roll through the mud, you will survive and finally, come to me. Only then will your mercy be truly worthwhile and not the product of arrogance and ignorance.”

“Only when they will not dare pull out their spear or sword simply because you exist will you achieve the peace you seek.”

In the past, Edda had said that once he reached completion, no one would dare step against him. 

And now, he had reached, and gone beyond, the level of strength she had talked about before. Nevertheless, his enemies still bared their teeth at him, and his beloved wife and child had been harmed.

It wasn’t because he lacked power. The problem was his attitude. 

No more tolerance or mercy. This awkward coexistence ends yesterday. 

He was ready and willing to become a tyrant for the peace and health of his family and for the peace of the Empire. 

Throwing the souls of the Transcendentals’ to the Lord of the Underworld was only the beginning. 

[It seems like the Fairy Dragon has finally found the Heaven-Defying Seeker of Tao’s hidden origin.]

Just in time, Edda informed him that the Fairy Dragon had succeeded in locating Akrich’s hideout. 

Kim Seon-Hyeok smiled broadly. It was a terribly cold smile. 

“Summon Dragon.”

An equally cold voice came out of his mouth.

***

“Those damned bastards!”

Before her soul could even adjust to the new body, Ji Sang-Hee encountered another proxy. This time it wasn’t one, but two. 

But as long as her origin was intact, she could be revived again and again. This ‘crisis’ was nothing to her. She just found the Transcendentals, who came all the way to this remote mountain to bother her, annoying. 

“Nothing will change even if you do this!”

Shouting savagely, she instantly sent out her cursed magic. The proxies, who had believed in their numerical advantage and become sloppy, had to retreat in surprise at that insidious energy. 

“Hmph! You’re nothing special…”

Growing self-confident at the sight of the brainless assailants, she sneered at them. But she couldn’t stay relaxed for long.

Shudder.

For some reason, a sudden chill came over her. Startled, she looked around as she searched for the presence of another assailant. 

“Hm.”

But she couldn’t feel any signs of there being someone nearby who could make her have goosebumps. It was strange.

Throb.

Before she could figure out the cause of her unknown chill, she felt a sudden pain.

It felt like her heart was being squeezed, and not in the metaphorical sense.

It truly felt like someone had grabbed her heart and was squeezing as if to make it burst. 

“Huh?”

The proxies who had to suddenly retreat because of her unexpectedly stronger curse took notice and cautiously approached her. 

“What the hell? It’s not a show?”

“Did she have a chronic illness?”

The proxies’ eyes brightened when they saw she was unresponsive even when they got closer.

“D, don’t come…”

In intense pain, Ji Sang-Hee managed to spit it out. However, there was no way the bloodthirsty proxies would listen to her.

Crunch. 

Swords filled with blue and red energies, respectively, pierced through her chest.

“Geugh.”

Even the moan that she uttered at that moment wasn’t caused by the swords but from the pain in her heart.

“Ughh…”

She had gone through death and rebirth multiple times. But something was strange.

Ji Sang-Hee felt this when her new body woke up for the first time. 

A room where the light was blocked so that her eyesight would not be damaged, an enclosed space where her hearing would not be exposed to excessive stimulation - it was an environment created solely for her to adapt to her new body. 

But she didn’t feel any of that. 

It felt like her eyes were burning from the intense light that could be felt through her eyelids and her ears seemed to be going deaf from the sound of someone’s voice coming from not far away. The cold air and hard ground were so unfamiliar. 

“Cronel?”

Mangling the pronunciation, she called out for Akrich in bewilderment. 

Smack.

But instead of the awaited response from Akrich, a terrible pain greeted her.

“Ack!”

She clutched her stomach and gagged as she screamed. Something fishy rose up from inside her, and in an instant, the corners of her mouth grew wet. 

Then, another blunt shock followed. This time, she couldn’t even scream. Her mouth opened and all she could do was tremble. 

“Ugh…”

How much time passed? Perhaps it was because of the intense stimulation, but her body woke up much faster than usual.

“W, Who are you?”

Even she thought it was a stupid question, but when she saw the shadows through her blurred vision, she couldn’t help but ask. 

“Who am I?”

The moment she heard the unfamiliar man’s voice, Ji Sang-Hee trembled as if she was thrown into a frozen lake. 

It didn’t hold hostility as the other proxies who shouted in a bloodthirsty voice did. He merely asked in a calm tone. 

Nevertheless, she still felt an extreme fear that she never felt before.

“W, who the hell are you…”

As if she went back to before she had fully woken up as a proxy, back to a time when she had no power, she trembled in fear. 

She couldn’t even think of the curse spell that would spill out as long as she moved her lips slightly. 

Woosh. 

At that moment, cool energy spread throughout her body. It felt like every cell in her body was waking up. At the same time, her blurry vision and muted ears were restored.

The first thing that caught her eyes after she recovered was the man looking down at her.

“Ah…”

There wasn’t a single bit of emotion on his frighteningly expressionless face. But the moment their eyes met, she wished she was blinded again.

That’s how terrifying the man’s cold eyes were.

“Who…”

At her barely uttered word, emotions appeared on the man’s face for the first time.

“I am the husband of the woman you touched.”

Just by meeting his eyes, it felt like her entire body was being burnt by his raging anger.

“I am the father of the child who was on the brink of death because of you.”

In front of that hot hatred and anger, Ji Sang-Hee quivered like a fist struck by a harpoon.

“C, Cro…”

She reflexively called out Akrich’s name, but it was in vain. 

“By Cronel, do you mean this?”

A golden skull was held in the man’s hand. It was Akrich’s skull that she had been desperately looking for. 

“Ah…”

However, the eye sockets that would be deep but insidious only seemed hollow. It was like looking at a real skull.

“I was just going to leave it alone, but it seems like it kept thinking of other things, so I put it to sleep for now.”

Seeing the man tossing Cronel’s skull around as if he was juggling, Ji Sang-Hee stared as if she lost her spirit. 

She wouldn’t have been so surprised if Cronel had been destroyed instead. 

But the man hadn’t destroyed Cronel. He had literally silenced the skull. She couldn’t understand at all what happened in the short time before she woke up that he was able to turn the powerful Akrich into nothing more than a skull rolling around in a tomb.

“What do you what…”

At first, she was terrified of him and stuttered her words, but later on, her face quickly began to brighten. She finally figured out what the man wanted. 

“Immediately put Cronel back to normal, and let me go too. Otherwise, the curse upon your wife and child will never be lifted… ack!”

She thought she held the sword and puffed up, elated, when she suddenly screamed out in pain as it felt like her stomach was being ripped apart.

“Cr, Cronel and I are the only ones who can break the curse…”

She gritted her teeth and shouted, but it only fueled the man’s anger.

“I can personally lift the curse.”

“Try it if you can…”

She shouted in desperation when she closed her mouth.

“H, how?”

Her eyes widened until they seemed like they would rip. 

“I think it’s called the Life Vessel? I can’t understand why you would give such a grand name to an ugly piece of meat.”

Who knew when she arrived, but a small dragon flapped wings resembling that of butterflies, and in its mouth, was a beating heart.

“I’ll release the curse! No, I’ll do it right now!”

The dagger she thought she had aimed at her opponent returned and was about to pierce her own heart. Even if it was now, she had to throw away the dagger she was holding and beg the man for forgiveness.

“I, I lifted it! There’s no more curse now! So please, that life vessel, not, at least my life.”

The man responded coldly to her words.

“You always go and do something, looking for death, and then you ask to be saved. You guys are all the same.”

“From the start, I had no intention of hurting your child and wife. I just wanted to scare…”

She desperately made excuses. If she could calm the man’s anger, then forget her pride. 

“Fine. I’ll hold myself back from taking your life.”

Did the excuse work? At the man’s words, Ji Sang-Hee prostrated on the floor and thanked him again and again.

But it seemed like it was too early for her to be relieved. She did not know there was more suffering in the world than death.

“Han Jin-Hee.”

A woman suddenly appeared like a ghost at his soft call.

“Y, you’re…”

The woman was a person that even Ji Sang-Hee knew very well. The woman was a Transcendental belonging to the same Anti-Dragon Alliance as herself. But because they couldn’t read her intentions very well, they hadn’t told her about the two prong-attack. Ji Sang-Hee couldn’t understand how she was here all of a sudden.

“Her energy’s stronger than expected. With this kind of energy, it’s a bit regretful to kill her just like that. How about changing your mind? If you give this to me, I’ll give you something bigger…”

“Stop talking nonsense and do as you promised.”

The woman turned her head and pouted as she grumbled at the man’s rebuke. When the woman’s turned head met Ji Sang-Hee’s gaze, Ji Sang-Hee froze.

Ji Sang-Hee finally remembered who the woman’s Companion was after seeing the unfathomable black eyes of the woman.

The death that Akrich Cronel had desperately wanted to avoid had another name - Thanatos, the Lord of the Underworld. And that was the name of the woman’s Companion.

“Don’t resent me. I am doing merely what I am asked.”

“W, wait. What are you going to do to me…”