Episode 169
Asil opened both of her tightly closed eyes.
She remembered running toward her Mom after discovering her, but she could not remember what happened after that.
It felt like something had exploded nearby, and it felt like her body had floated into the air.
Then, she snapped out of it at the feeling of something warm flowing down her cheek and wiped it with the back of her hand.
When she did, red blood came off.
“Huaaaaang!”
A startled Asil let out a scream.
Other than her whole body aching from rolling on the ground, she didn’t seem to be hurt, so what was this blood!
“Are you alright, Asil?”
Through the thumping sounds of something breaking, Arcian’s voice could be heard.
Asil reflexively looked toward the direction of the voice and was startled once again.
D-Dad is bleeding!
The blood Asil had wiped from her cheek belonged to none other than Arcian.
He had created a space on the ground to put Asil in and was blocking the space with his body so the snake’s attacks could not reach her.
Looking around, Brianna and Snowa, who were in their original forms, were also in the space.
Snowa was clutching his head from the impact of rolling, while Brianna had regained consciousness before Asil and was chirping hard toward Arcian.
“Hey! Get out of there quickly!”
“If I come out… the children will get hurt.”
Whether the snake was continuing to pour attacks from outside, Arcian’s voice came out intermittently.
Occasionally, he choked and spat out blood.
An even more flustered Brianna shouted.
“I’ll block it, so come out!”
“With that tiny body…?”
“It doesn’t matter since I’m blocking with magic anyway! Then at least return to your original form!”
“I want to do that too… but the attacks won’t stop, so I can’t go back.”
A brief moment of time was needed to release the humanization, but the problem was that the snake was not giving him that gap at all.
Arcian vomited a clot of blood once more.
He had blocked it out of urgency for now, but as expected, there seemed to be a limit to blocking the snake’s attacks with improvised magic.
If only he had time to reconstruct the magic, even for a moment….
Unable to watch any longer, Brianna pushed him with her whole body.
“Get out! I said get out!”
“You take the kids, ugh, and find a place to hide.”
“I can’t go leaving only you like this!”
“This stupid bird-brain….”
“Fine, I’m a bird-brain! So move out of the way quickly! You can just return to your original form while I block it!”
“With your mana, it’s impossible. This is only possible for a genius dragon like me….”
Cough, Arcian spat out dark blood.
A horrified Brianna gasped.
“Arcian!”
“…I really don’t think I can hold on anymore.”
Arcian, who muttered lowly, let out a deep breath and looked at Brianna with deeply sunken eyes.
“There’s a ring in my right pocket. I was going to put it on your hand and ask to live together after this job was over….”
“Don’t set up a death flag!”
“…It seems it won’t work out.”
“Don’t say such strange things!”
“Even if I’m gone, your first husband is me. If you look at another guy and call him your first, I’ll become a ghost and find you.”
“Hey!!!”
“My first love is you, and my last love is you, too. I wanted to spend only good times ahead… but it seems impossible. I’m sorry, and I sincerely love you. Brianna.”
Having said that much, Arcian squeezed his eyes shut.
And no matter how much Brianna body-slammed him, he did not open his eyes.
Brianna, who had become covered in tears at some point, shrieked.
“Hey! I love you too!!!!”
“Found it!”
Right then, Asil, who had been rummaging through her pockets diligently until now, shouted while pulling something out.
It was one earring made of a basilisk tooth, which she had received from Edenber earlier.
In her urgency, Asil swung the earring with her whole fist.
“Dad, this!”
“Urgh!”
Arcian, who was waiting for the end of his life in a cool manner, let out a groan after being hit in the stomach.
At the same time, he felt an immense heat from his back.
As the defensive shield was not easily pierced, it seemed the snake was gathering its strength in one place to fire.
Is this the end of my life. He thought such things unconsciously.
Asil’s voice explaining about the basilisk earring and Brianna’s voice snapping at him to open his eyes echoed in his head as if heard from far away.
“Sshaaaaaa!”
He felt the snake firing its condensed mana at a single point. The destination was, of course, his own body.
Arcian shouted his final testament.
“I love you, Brianna!”
Bang!
The sound of the mana mass and the magic defensive shield colliding was heard.
Imagining the pain that would soon come, Arcian grit his teeth.
However, no matter how long he waited, he felt no pain.
No, his back was fine, but his head hurt as if someone were tearing it out.
He opened his closed eyes.
And he discovered that Brianna the parrot was pulling his hair without mercy.
A greatly bewildered Arcian asked.
“Are you dead too?”
“I’m not dead, you idiot!”
“Dad, you didn’t listen to me!”
Asil, who had become grumpy just like the furious Brianna, pushed him sullenly.
“It’s an earring made from the tooth of the snake’s mom. It blocks the enemy’s attack for a while!”
“Release the humanization quickly, you idiot!”
the parrot’s sharp claws scratched him mercilessly.
Arcian, who was so taken aback that he remained frozen, only regained his senses and deactivated his humanization after hearing the sound of the basilisk’s shield breaking.
Then, he saw Snowa mouthing words silently.
‘I. Love. You.’
Snowa even clapped his front paws together without any soul. It meant he was cheering in his own way.
Only then did Arcian, realizing his monumental history of embarrassment, freeze like a broken clock.
It was the moment he earned the right to
be teased for a lifetime.
The situation improved significantly once Arcian returned to his original form.
Although he was injured, Arcian’s magic was immense.
Even though it shook with a thud every time it was attacked by the snake, the shield did not crack like it did when he was humanized.
An incident occurred where the surroundings gasped collectively at the appearance of the giant dragon, but Asil, Brianna, and Snowa succeeded in escaping outside safely.
“Asil!”
As soon as Asil came out, Edenber ran over and hugged her tightly.
He was covered in wounds from running here and there to distract the snake, which was focusing its attacks on Arcian.
Edenber held her in a hug for a long time and then released Asil after feeling a strength pulling at his clothes.
“Are you okay? Any injuries?”
“None. I survived thanks to the earring Edenber gave me, thank you!”
“What a relief.”
I don’t know how much my heart withered when the snake focused its fire on where Asil was.
Edenber hugged Asil tightly once more and then let go.
Right then, a messenger from the Imperial Family arrived.
“It is His Majesty’s order to slay the snake by any means necessary.”
Fortunately, the capture order was also lifted.
The Pope, who had fled in a hurry, was also fuming, telling them to execute the snake immediately, so there was no one left to stop them by citing orders.
“Is that dragon an enemy too?”
A knight of Monlepe, who was looking at Arcian with wary eyes, asked.
To this, Edenber shook his head.
“No, he is on our side.”
“All civilians have completed their evacuation.”
Following Dylan’s report, the knights of Starafit, Sunrise, and Skya also reported that the evacuation of the areas their respective families were in charge of was finished.
“Sorry for being late! That old geezer Pope… no, His Holiness wouldn’t give me the key to the holy relic storage, so I was late because I had to take it secretly!”
There, Selena, armed with all sorts of holy relics, arrived leading the direct Holy Knights.
All preparations were complete.
While Fear in the sky roared, and Rune, Eter, and Sol on the ground finished their battle preparations, the knights of each house, the Imperial Knights, and the Holy Knights lined up in an orderly fashion.
Facing the snake, Edenber shouted on behalf of everyone.
“Exterminate the snake!”
“Waaaaa—!”
Everyone at the scene rushed toward the snake.
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