Dragon Poor

The appearance of the dragon race was like a natural disaster.

With a strong earthquake, the Gold Dragon appeared and devoured the Transcendentals and their Companions in an instant. Not one of those dragged into the rift was able to revive and show themselves again.

“W, what is this…”

Those who were lucky enough not to be swept away as the earth collapsed looked down into the rift. However, nothing was visible. They could only see abyss-like darkness.

Kyaaaaaa.

“Help me!”

The roars and screaming resounded like echos and the escapees, who had momentarily stopped walking, exchanged glances before throwing themselves over the rift. 

They only flew halfway past the rift when a sudden mist of water engulfed them. 

Just before they were completely hidden by the mist, a shadow of something long and huge appeared in the mist, and then disappeared. 

That image was the last the people left behind saw of the escapees. 

“Ah…”

Dazed half out of their minds, the remaining Beings stared at the mist and the rift.

Beyond the mist and darkness, the escapees’ energies were rapidly declining. An unknown something was hunting the Transcendentals and their Companions from inside it.

It was a sight that was completely unbelievable and was beyond belief. The proxies turned their heads as if they were having a nightmare and couldn’t bear to watch it until the end. 

But that wasn’t a good choice.

Kah!

When they turned their heads, they saw a bizarre creature, one that wasn’t a human or a dragon, rampaging. Its appearance was terribly aggressive.

Flare flare.

The mighty Transcendentals were surrounded by flames and their bodies burnt up. The Companion’s bodies were beaten into a shapeless form by an angry fist. Blood and flesh splattered and scattered everywhere as ash flew down from all around them. 

It was different from the natural disaster surrounding the outer edges of the Great Temple. The battle of the dragonian was much more primitive and violent than the natural disasters.

“Kahhhhhhh!”

With the dragonian’s fierce roar, the Transcendentals’ hazy consciousness, which had been lost in a nightmare, was instantly thrown back into reality. And the reality they were facing was several times worse than their nightmare.

“Ugh…”

A man let out a groan as he retreated, then he collapsed onto the ground. It was an off-putting appearance that didn’t match the mighty power he possessed. 

But no one could look at him and laugh at him for being ridiculous. The other Beings’ states weren’t much different from the man. The only difference was whether they were standing on their own two feet or not. 

The only thing dominating the proxies at this moment was indisputable fear. 

It was different from the despair felt by the precariousness of a war situation, and it was also different from the frustration felt by a power gap. It was an intrinsic and deep-rooted fear; the very moment where they realized deep down to their very bones that they were like prey in front of the highest predator - the Dragon. 

And right now, the Transcendentals who had led them until now could not be of any help. 

The Transcendentals couldn’t move a single step as they froze under the gaze of the Dragon who was looking down at them from high above in the sky with arrogant eyes. 

[Remember. Remember the reason why you were able to continue your existence until now.]

The moment they heard the Dragon’s low voice, the truth, which had been lost in the lake of oblivion and through the passing of time, rose to the surface.

[Remember who tore that powerful Darkness into small pieces.]

It was a memory of a clan that shredded and tore apart the powerful Darkness that they never dared to resist. 

[Remember who the real master ruling the world in the past was.]

It was a memory of the ruler who reigned before the war against the great evil.

And all of that reminded them of the gap between species that were imprinted onto the souls of the Transcendentals.

[Kneel. Kneel if you remember the past.]

As soon as her words finished, the Transcendentals all fell to their knees and bowed their heads.

***

When the fog cleared and the rift was filled, only the Gold Dragon and the Blue Dragon appeared. Seeing how not a single Dragons’ scale had been disturbed, it was clear how one-sided the battle had been as well as the insurmountable gap between species.

It was the epitome of an overwhelming difference in power. In fact, it wasn’t even the Dragons but the Contractor who was unilaterally slaughtering more than a dozen proxies and equally as many Transcendentals.

His strength was several times stronger than what the Transcendentals had expected.

“The Dragon Lord hasn’t even come forward.”

The terrifying thing was, the mighty Dragon hadn’t moved from her place once from beginning to end.

“Good thing we didn’t come here to fight with them.”

When the Central Adjuster breathed a sigh of relief, the other Adjusters nodded their heads together as if they had planned it. Every single one of them was showing awe and fear on their faces. 

Julian was the only one with an expression of pure wonder.

“You truly suit the phrase ‘return of the king,’ sir ”

Seeing the Transcendentals kneeling towards the Dragon clan and adopting a posture of submissiveness, Julian exclaimed slightly in admiration.

“It is not the time to be so admiring.”

“But the situation wouldn’t change just because I admired him a bit, would it?”

She wasn’t wrong. Whatever the Adjusters thought, the fact that the Dragons had already completely returned did not change.

“Let us slowly make our way over.”

The Central Adjuster slightly clicked his tongue and led the others towards the center of the Great Temple.

***

“Dragon Lord. Dragons. Contractor.”

The Adjusters appeared without a sound, but Kim Seon-Hyeok and the Dragons showed no signs of surprise. It was as if they had known about the Adjusters’ existence from the beginning. 

However, the aura around them was as if they were facing an enemy.

“We didn’t come here with bad intentions, so there is nothing to be wary of.”

The Central Adjuster stepped forward and informed the Dragons they had no hostility, but the Dragons’ fighting spirits did not abate. 

Only Kim Seon-Hyeok gave Julian a welcoming glance.

Nod. 

Julian bowed her head at his appearance. Considering how it had been a while since their last reunion, the greeting was too rough and brusque but Kim Seon-Hyeok didn’t care.

Instead, he gave her a smile filled with feelings of affection and trust in her. Perhaps he was reminiscing about the days when she was his squire. 

How have you been? Thank you for what you did in the Capital.

Just in case it wasn’t conveyed properly, he moved his lips slightly several times. His appearance wasn’t any different from the Lord that Julian remembered.

Julian looked nostalgic as she shook her head.

Since she hadn’t been able to save the Empress and Crown Prince from the curse, she couldn’t accept the thanks.

Still, thank you. 

He thanked her again. This time, she couldn’t refuse it either and had to give him a slight bow of her head. 

Only then did it look like the burden on him lifted a bit. However, the softened expression was only temporary.

He twitched his lips with a hardened face. Julian also nodded at his words with a hard expression. 

“Since it doesn’t seem like you like us very much, we’ll keep it simple.”

While they were exchanging a silently mouthed conversation, the Central Adjuster got straight to the point. 

“So in short, the world will accept the Dragons’ return?”

“That’s exactly it.”

The corner of Kim Seon-Hyeok’s lips twisted at the Adjuster’s words.

“What are you going to do if I don’t accept it?”

When Kim Seon-Hyeok’s response was closer to mockery than provocation, the Adjuster’s face hardened.

“All this time, you’ve been preventing us from returning. But now that you can’t do anything more about it, you’re going to allow us to come back like you’re doing us a favor?”

The only reason Edda had been able to cross the border and return to this world was because of their hard work. It wasn’t because the will of the world had helped.

Rather than helping, the will of the world had caused Marek to try and make him become the next Adjuster to prevent the Dragons from returning. So for the Adjusters to be here, acting patronizing, was preposterous. 

“Don’t allow it. Even with your permission, we are already here.”

Kim Seon-Hyeok’s attitude of daring the Adjusters to kick them out if they could, was unrelenting. Neither Edda nor the other Dragons didn’t stop his harsh words in the slightest bit. 

“This isn’t something to take so easily…”

The Adjuster frowned as he spoke, but Seon-Hyeok showed no hesitation.

“The one thinking about this too casually is that will of the world you obey.”

His gaze quickly passed over the proxies who were staring at them with bewildered faces. The proxies trembled from that flat gaze wandering over them. Nowhere in their appearance did they show the extraordinary qualities of a Transcendental’s proxy. 

“I’ve been thinking that it was a bit strange for a while now.”

Seeing them like that, Kim Seon-Hyeok continued to speak.

“Me and the Dragon had to do our best to barely get through the Storm of Time and Space. Even as powerful as the dragons are, it wasn’t easy to overcome the boundaries of the world.”

“What the hell are you trying to say?”

“So how did they cross that terrible boundary?”

Crossing the borders of the world was never an easy thing to do. Even the powerful Dragon Lord had to save her strength for a long time in order to overcome the Storm of Time and Space. And even the borders of the Demon Realm that had arisen in the past were only broken down after the Dragon Lord and countless superhumans had worked together. 

For him, it was absolutely impossible to understand how those incompetent Transcendentals and their proxies had crossed such a powerful barrier. 

“Just as the Clown deliberately released the Fragments of Chaos, didn’t the will of the world also purposefully release them as well?”

The Adjuster parted his lips to say something, but Kim Seon-Hyeok was faster.

“You, the Adjusters, call yourselves the balancing weights.”

They were the scale weights scattered across the East, West, North, and South to maintain the balance of the world. If there was something that even they couldn’t balance, then what decision would the world make in order to maintain the balance of the scale that it created?

“By adding new weights called the Transcendentals, Isn’t this the world’s attempt to balance the tilted scales again?”

If not that, there was no other way to explain the existence of so many Transcendental Beings who had suddenly come to the world as if they had been printed out of a factory.

“In the end, the world just gave up after trying everything. 

“What a ridiculous leap of logic.”

Kim Seon-Hyeok stared at the Adjuster with a hard expression.

It didn’t seem like the Adjuster was lying. But Kim Seon-Hyeok didn’t think his thoughts were wrong. 

“Whether it’s the Transcendentals or the will of the world, to me, they’re all the same.”

In the end, Transcendental will or whatever, it was no different than a human who moved according to its needs. It was just that its need was a bit more grandiose. 

“How arrogant and narrow-minded. Do not judge the great will that sustains this world through the eyes of a petty human being.”

“Even a petty man knows how the world works.”

Kim Seon-Hyeok responded coldly to the Adjuster’s words.

“Eat when hungry. Sleep when sleepy. Smile when happy.”

The list did not match his cold expression, but he was serious. 

“And when angry, express it.”

As soon as he finished talking, a strong wind began blowing around him.

It was the power of the storm that the Dragon Lord, who hadn’t stepped forward even during the battle against the Transcendentals, had called forth.

“The game only ends when you catch the boss and not the small fry.”

As long as there was a world that was wary of and ostracized the Dragons, a second and third Akrich would always appear. In the end, if he wanted peace, then he had no choice but to crush the enemy so that they would never dare to confront him. 

Even if it was the grand will that supported this world, that didn’t change. 

“Storm around as much as you want.”

The rage of the Dragon Clan, who had been exiled for over a thousand years even after saving the world and sacrificing themselves to the point of extinction, was with him. 

“We are only part of the great will that encompasses the world. Even if you kill us, nothing would change!”

“But the target isn’t you?”

Kim Seon-Hyeok shook his head at the almost shrieked protest.

“Do you know why I called everyone here?”

The territory of the former Holy Kingdom had been devastated in the war against Chaos. Although many years had passed, it was still a barren land where no grass ever grew.

“Because here, I don’t have to worry about destroying anything.”

“What on earth do you…”

“From here to there.”

Before the Adjuster could finish speaking, Kim Seon-Hyeok stretched out his finger and pointed to the West.

“If I destroy roughly a quarter of the continent, then even that incredible scale will become meaningless.”