It was far too enormous to be called a living creature.
Yet at the same time it was horribly crude.
A body formed solely of bone felt incomplete; its wing and leg bones were nothing more than ruins—traces like the skeleton of a shattered castle.
Even so, it was… a dragon.
“…”
Chepesh stared up at that shape as if spellbound.
A pupil burned blue and looked down at him.
A transcendent gaze, as if surveying a lowly beast.
Since becoming that lord’s apostle, had he ever received such a look?
─a tingling
A chill crawled over his skin.
An intimidation he’d never known before.
For a collapsing form, its presence was astonishing.
Chepesh suddenly clenched his fist.
‘…I was not wrong.’
This is it.
If he could make this power his own.
If he could make it a servant of his lord.
Then nothing in this world could stop them.
Even if it were a god.
But that is…
“That is a tale for much later.”
Chepesh chuckled and slammed his staff against the ground with a thud.
This place was the domain of Lord Marvas, whom he served.
He certainly wasn’t going to lose to some Dragonian, inferior even to a half-dragon.
“It’s troublesome, but now that it’s come to this, there’s no choice.”
Chepesh grinned.
He dropped his staff onto the floor with a clack.
The staff slid and was drawn into the shadow.
In the next moment, the surrounding darkness rushed at Chepesh’s body and covered him completely.
The shadows billowed around him like black flames.
Chepesh’s form, mixed in red and black, began to change.
The ornate suit vanished, muscles sharpening beneath the shadow.
His arms and legs thinned and lengthened, and from both hands huge scythes sprouted—larger than his body.
Eyes and ears receded from his face, leaving only a mouth without lips.
A maw lined with sharp fangs opened.
“I will face you in the true form of an apostle.”
─Crack
As he spoke, Chepesh’s divine form dissolved.
Only a thin dust scattered where he had stood.
─Rassth
The next sound came from beside the dragon’s head.
A place that looked like a shoulder blade cracked open with a snap.
It was so huge that fissures spread, but the dragon couldn’t react.
No—wherever he moved, it was impossible to track with the eye.
Chepesh’s motions were light and swift like the wind.
The dragon opened its maw toward the shoulder where Chepesh had landed.
─Crack
But it bit nothing but empty air.
Chepesh, who had seemed to be bitten, flowed like liquid and reappeared near the dragon’s leg.
His body had become freely fluid, slipping away from blows.
─Rassth rassth
Again Chepesh’s scythes sliced through the dragon’s bones.
Brittle fragments cascaded down helplessly.
The dragon twisted to crush him, but it was futile.
Chepesh slid out of range and watched quietly.
“Is that all you’ve got?”
This made his transformation into an apostle feel almost wasted.
The dragon was sluggish and no real threat.
‘It was all just for show, then.’
He felt like laughing bitterly.
“Be a good sacrifice for Diabolos.”
The apostle started running again.
He darted along the dragon’s ribcage and began sprinting across its body.
─Rassth rassth rassth
The sprint did not stop.
Chepesh ran like wind, leaping across the dragon as if traversing a mountain, swinging his arms—now great scythes—tearing and slicing bone.
‘Where is it.’
Where did you hide it?
There was only one thing Chepesh sought.
The dragon’s weak point and source of power.
The Dragon Heart.
Whether Dragonian or half-dragon, it was no different from a true dragon.
From the start, that had been Chepesh’s target.
Even if it was only a Dragonian, obtaining a Dragon Heart in decent condition would bring Diabolos a huge step closer to becoming a true dragon.
As he ran, Chepesh suddenly halted.
He had searched almost everywhere.
The remaining place was…
─Grrrrr
Only the dragon’s head, belatedly following the path he’d cut, remained.
“Ha. You hid it there from the beginning?”
He couldn’t believe it had openly revealed its weakness.
Chepesh felt absurd and relaxed his posture.
Just as he thought, ‘Now I can end this tedious game of tag,’ at that moment…
─Sluush
“…?”
A blue flame fluttered above his head.
Chepesh blinked and looked up.
What he saw before his eyes was…
─Whoosh
A sky burning blue.
No.
To be precise, it was his own domain shaped like the sky.
“…What is this?!”
Chepesh looked around in confusion.
It wasn’t just the sky.
The trees too.
Grass and soil as well.
Blue flames had spread to every surface and blazed fiercely.
Clouds and streams burned like paintings set alight.
‘Burning a domain?’
Impossible.
The opponent wasn’t even a full dragon, and moreover…
Was certainly not a deity.
A domain is the power of divinity.
A mere Dragonian could not possibly break that…
“…Ah.”
Something flashed through his mind.
There is.
One possible hypothesis.
That blue flame.
Azure Flame.
“…So you were hiding there.”
Chepesh clenched his teeth and lifted his head.
A bluely glowing light looked down upon him.
And in the open maw, condensed blue flames emitted a chilling glow.
After a brief startle, Chepesh slowly curled the corner of his mouth and muttered.
“For something so slow, who are you… huh?”
His legs felt heavy.
He nearly fell.
Chepesh finally looked down at his body.
─Drip
The shadow that had covered him was melting away.
Before long, half his body was almost fully revealed, taking on a human shape.
“…Ah.”
It was the moment Chepesh raised his head with a blank murmur.
A flashing light covered the world.
A single blue streak cut across the domain as if announcing the world’s end.
A space filled only with quiet silence.
Hamel slowly opened his eyes.
“This place…”
Was this what a night sky without moon or stars looked like?
In an abyss like the deep sea, Hamel began to walk slowly.
What he had been doing.
Why he was walking alone in such a place.
He couldn’t remember.
Only…
A desperate feeling remained, as if he had to do something.
So Hamel walked.
Without knowing destination or direction.
How long had he walked like that?
He didn’t know.
He sometimes fell into unconsciousness while walking, and at other times remained lucid for days.
In fact, the phrase ‘days and nights’ was an abstract notion here.
This place had no morning or evening.
Even the passage of time was hard to sense.
He didn’t know how long he had been walking.
One thing was clear: he’d walked for a very long time.
─Suddenly still
Hamel abruptly stopped.
‘How much farther must I go?’
No—was there even a destination to begin with?
What was he walking for?
A sudden sense of doubt washed over him.
The steps he’d taken countless times now felt unbearably heavy.
The doubt turned into despair.
Despair led to lethargy.
Hamel couldn’t take another step.
‘What does any of this mean?’
No guarantee that effort would be rewarded.
He was on an uncertain path with no clear right answer.
His feet sank deeper into the darkness beneath him.
It was like a quagmire he couldn’t escape.
Yet somehow it felt a little comforting.
Because it meant he wouldn’t suffer anymore.
It was then, as Hamel slumped and sank into the mire…
─A glint
A small light flickered at the edge of Hamel’s vision.
It was a blue flame.
“…Ah.”
Hamel couldn’t help but exclaim.
He reached out toward the blue flame.
Then the quagmire grabbed his foot.
It hindered him.
Hamel finally felt the mire tightening around him.
He felt suffocated and stifled.
Was this supposed to be comfortable?
Ridiculous.
Not comfortable at all.
Though walking tens of thousands of steps had been grueling, at least he hadn’t felt this miserable.
“Be gone.”
Hamel murmured coldly and kicked the mire that constricted him in one motion.
And the moment he stepped forward, reaching for the flame…
─Whoom
The darkness lifted.
At the same time, all his memories flooded back into his head.
Here.
The destination he was supposed to reach.
He knew instinctively.
That he had wandered searching for this place.
And that he had already arrived.
He had simply been slow to realize it.
He only needed to take one more step.
“Ha.”
Hamel let out an involuntary hollow laugh.
Then he looked around.
Beneath a sky full of moon and stars.
Someone stood there.
It might have been a person.
Or perhaps a vast mountain.
“It took you long.”
“Is that so?”
Hamel answered as if unsure.
Perhaps the other’s tone found this amusing.
The presence let out a small laugh.
Then it continued calmly.
“It would not have been an easy path. Nine times out of ten, those who walk it fall into doubt along the way.”
“I was the same.”
“But you took the final step. That is your strength.”
“…”
The path Hamel walked, in small measure, was a hardship.
Seen broadly, it was like a life.
To achieve a goal, a person must step into an uncertain future.
Simply trusting themselves.
Relying on small markers along the way.
Then the presence hardened its voice and spoke.
“It was, however, dangerous.”
“I thought I could endure it.”
Hamel tilted his head slightly.
Out of embarrassment.
Between him and Chepesh lay a vast gulf—human and apostle.
A great gap that could not be bridged by ordinary means.
Chepesh’s actual strength or rank didn’t matter.
Within the ‘domain’ summoned after making a sacrifice, Chepesh flaunted his power as the apostle of an ancient god.
A fight that, by any logic, could never be won.
Thus Hamel took a perilous move.
He withdrew the demonic energy that had suppressed the madness and accepted it.
He believed that if his will remained firm, as had happened many times before, he would not lose himself this time either.
But that was arrogance.
A dragon’s mania was far more dangerous and willful than he had imagined.
Hamel watched his body swell amid the pain of bones twisting and tearing.
His form, wrapped in gigantic bones and blue flames, began to move on its own.
A familiar shape and aura.
It was…
‘Karaksis.’
The evil dragon David had once tried to resurrect.
Hamel sensed fragments of that half-dragon’s presence within the madness.
At the same time he realized his judgment had been wrong.
The madness would consume him and reduce all he had achieved to ashes.
He could not allow that to happen.
He had to wrest it back with his own hands.
That was why Hamel silently endured this arduous path.
The presence gazed steadily at Hamel.
“Still, you managed to overcome the trial. You broke free from the madness and reclaimed control.”
“…”
He knew.
After walking for a long time, he had come to understand.
Madness was, how to put it.
It was another aspect of the dragon, akin to a primal desire.
Thus, giving demonic energy could suppress it.
After consuming demonic energy, it was satisfied.
But this time was different.
There wasn’t enough demonic energy to throw, and from the start such carrots had clear limits.
Above all, this madness differed from before.
Because Karaksis’s power had not been fully dissolved.
Therefore, he had to wrest control from that madness.
A makeshift method—close to forcibly suppressing it with sheer will.
Then, astonishingly, the madness calmed to an almost unbelievable degree.
It seemed diminished, like an adolescent boy, perhaps.
Perhaps obtaining a Dragon Heart would finally soothe the madness because becoming a full dragon would bring maturity.
But what Hamel wanted to know was not the method to overcome madness.
Hamel asked calmly.
“Who are you?”
“…”
The presence looked down at Hamel for a moment.
A vast being enveloped him.
But he did not feel fear.
Rather, it felt familiar and friendly.
That was to be expected.
This place was, after all, Hamel’s inner world.
Because the one before him had long dwelt within Hamel’s heart.
It paused for a moment as if hesitating.
But then it slowly opened its mouth and answered.
“I am you.”
“…”
Hamel closed his mouth tightly for a moment.
He hadn’t wanted such koan-like talk.
So as he was about to ask more specifically…
“And at the same time, I was once both human and dragon.”
“…!”
“Now I am also a being revered as a god.”
Hamel held his breath.
It was absurd, but a name came to mind.
And surprisingly, that name flowed from the other’s mouth.
“Ehuurshika.”
“…”
“People call me Ehuurshika.”
