The arrived gateway.
The shattered temple.
Amid the dragon’s roar echoing, Mayor Airon recalled the fact that the gateway had truly withstood a thousand years without collapsing.
In reality, to him, the gateway was nothing short of immortal.
But now, it had fallen.
Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t have been strange for anyone to be horrified or even go into denial, but he was a guardian and a mayor.
Recalling the guards and citizens who trusted and followed him, he gritted his teeth.
The nobility of the empire must truly fulfill their duties.
Born as the third son of a baron, the man who had ascended to the position of guardian quickly hardened his expression.
The face of a warrior came to mind.
“Mayor! Mayor! What is…!”
“Silence!”
As the guards rushed out in commotion and froze at the sight of the gateway embedded deep within the temple, the mayor waved his hand and spoke.
At the disciplined gesture, when the guards turned their gaze to the mayor, he issued orders with a resolute voice.
“Go gather the soldiers near the gateway and bring them here! And hire every mercenary in the city regardless! I don’t care about race, immigration status, or past crimes!”
As the guard’s eyes widened in greed, the mayor pulled out a heavy pouch from his robes and threw it.
The guard barely caught the heavy pouch which sagged in his hands. It was filled with gold coins.
“It’s my fortune. Use it all to bring them here and secure supplies! Whatever remains if you return alive is yours!”
“Yes, sir!”
As greed mingled with duty in the guard’s eyes, the mayor patted his shoulder. The departing guard carried an appropriate mix of greed and obligation.
The remaining guards watched the mayor with faintly greedy eyes. Despite this, the mayor swiftly extended his hand.
“What are you doing?! Clear away the debris! Use the cleared rubble to block the entrance!”
“Yes, sir!”
“To Breck and Lieutenant Grime! You two, remove the ballistae from the walls!”
“Understood!”
“You there! Take this ring!”
“Yes? Uh, yes?”
“Tell the recruitment officer at the barracks that I sent you! Inform him it’s an emergency and that I ordered everyone to be brought here!”
“Ah, understood!”
The swiftly moving guards. Amidst them, the captain of the guard appeared, and the mayor greeted him coldly, his eyes fixed on the direction from which the gateway had come.
The captain looked at his master with concern, and the master replied silently.
“Mayor, is this really alright?”
“Then what do you suggest we do? Can’t you see the gateway?”
There lay the gateway, deeply embedded in the temple’s foundation. Without mechanical assistance, it was a structure impossible to open.
“A thousand years! For a full millennium, this gateway guarded Surethort! And now, it has fallen in one blow! Look at these dents! Do you understand the implications?”
As the captain’s expression grew serious, the mayor growled.
“A high priest!”
No one dared to contradict this statement. The captain nodded seriously, and the mayor reiterated his orders to the guards.
“We lack debris! We can’t build enough!”
“Then destroy the temple! All acts of destruction against the temple are pardoned under my name!”
“But, is that really permissible?”
“The lives of our citizens and the safety of the city are more important than the temple! Do you not know which holds greater value?”
With a single command, the guards sprang into action, demolishing the temple. As the collapsed building debris piled up rapidly, the mayor turned sharply to the captain.
“Go fetch my armor, weapon, and shield.”
“Understood.”
As the captain moved away briskly and then began running, the mayor turned his head with a disinterested expression.
Lecham looked at him with an unexpected expression, and the mayor met his gaze with a sneer.
“Weren’t you retired?”
Lecham’s pointed question. Mayor Airon responded with self-deprecating humor.
“Do you truly believe guardians and watchers can ever retire?”
Indeed, they were appendages of the empire, swords of the empire.
Especially the sharp sword of the empire, which chuckled bitterly while gazing at the direction the gateway had come from.
From that direction, dragons were gathering.
The sound of a bronze sword being drawn.
The Sword of Surveillance.
Possessing absurdly high durability, it was a famous blade that had served Lecham since he first became a watcher.
He gripped the sword with both hands, took his stance, and the dragons roared upon seeing him.
*
―Oh oh oh oh oh!
Aslan woke up inside the overturned carriage.
Blood flowed from the bump on his head, and the ringing in his ears intertwined with roaring sounds, shaking his mind.
A situation where understanding was nearly impossible. Most of the group inside the overturned carriage were in similar conditions.
“Grh… Huff!”
The only exception was Angie.
As Angie tore away the bottom of the overturned carriage, allowing oxygen to rush in, Aslan’s consciousness cleared sharply.
“Ugh, my neck…”
“Are you all okay?!”
“What in the world is happening?!”
Holding his neck and groaning, Ereta, rushing toward the group alongside Tiamat and Harrod, saw Aslan trying to recall his last memory as he wobbled out of the carriage.
Outside the carriage, chaos reigned.
Dragons of various sizes and types ran madly somewhere.
Their stomping shook the ground, and thick dust clouds rose.
Aslan inhaled the dusty air and turned his head.
The gateway had been torn apart. Though unclear where it had been thrown, just before this, he thought he’d seen something like a shockwave.
Though he wasn’t entirely sure what it was.
The situation was chaotic, and nothing was certain. However, the task at hand was simple.
To understand what was happening and act accordingly.
Aslan tried to guess while rolling his eyes.
The direction the dragons were heading towards had a temple.
The gateway had been torn apart.
The dragons were all charging towards the temple together.
Killing every human they encountered along the way.
Whatever the purpose might be, Aslan thought whoever destroyed this gateway wanted to send the dragons to that temple.
There wasn’t much information available, but the task ahead became clear.
Aslan turned his head to look at the group.
“Is everyone alright?”
“My cervical vertebrae broke, but I’m fine. It healed.”
“…I’m fine thanks to Ereta’s protection.”
Ereta and Lumel answered in turn. Since Tiamat and Harrod hadn’t boarded the carriage, they were fine, and Phey was safe for the same reason as Ereta.
The only real concern was Richard.
“I survived by colliding with the old woman at the last moment.”
“Yeah, this guy collided and made me feel bad.”
“The old woman always goes too far with me.”
Judging by their reactions, they seemed fine.
Angie was tougher than the carriage, so there was no need to worry, and although Aslan had hit his head, he was only slightly dizzy with no health issues.
Thus, the course of action was clear: head to the temple the dragons were heading towards and stop whatever was being planned.
When he said that, Angie asked curiously,
“Stop? Stop what exactly?”
In response to her question, Aslan, while stepping over crushed human corpses, stated firmly,
“We need to stop them from harming people.”
The group didn’t object to this statement.
“Then… It’s quite far to the temple. How do you plan to get there?”
Angie’s inquiry prompted Aslan to merely turn his head and look at a certain Elven Girl.
Their eyes met. The emotionless blue-green eyes of the elven girl met Aslan’s teal eyes, and Phey drew the longsword at her waist.
“Sure, fine. Leave it to Phey.”
The elf girl, bouncing as if understanding from just a glance, leapt.
A fierce spin. As her speed reached its peak, the air naturally became her foothold.
With a thunderous sound of sprinting and disappearing like a red lightning bolt, the girl headed straight for the temple.
Angie watched the retreating figure of the girl with her eyes and stretched, taking a stance akin to preparing to run.
“Then I’ll follow too. I’ll hold them off until you catch up, so hurry!”
In that stance, she turned her back to Aslan, unaware that her protruding rear was highlighted.
Before Aslan could react, she dashed off.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, KWAANG!
With each step, she accelerated, breaking the ground beneath her as she soared through the air. Pushing off from abandoned buildings, the crumbling structures groaned and sank.
It was a stunning sight in a different way from Phey’s.
“Really growing fast, aren’t you…”
Regardless of Harrod’s muttered comment, the rest of the group immediately started advancing.
On the way, they encountered dragons.
Grrrrr, CHAK!
Aslan swung Tiayalmisof’s beast, severing the neck of an approaching dragon.
Ereta followed, slicing the ankle of another dragon.
Lumel pierced the neck of the tilting dragon, and Richard kicked it to finish it off as it fell.
For every severed neck, a dragon died, allowing the group to advance faster than expected.
Of course, part of the reason was that the dragons largely ignored the group, focusing instead on moving forward.
Richard leaped and struck the head of a dragon, which Tiamat then finished off with arrows.
Although Harrod was not fully capable, he diligently used Collector’s Shield to protect Tiamat from flying debris.
Even keeping up with the group was impressive. At the forefront of this formation, Aslan, swinging the beast with both hands, reflected on something.
The reaction of fate he had felt just before the carriage flipped and the gateway broke.
That sensation still lingered, making his spine alternately cold and hot.
Aslan couldn’t figure out what exactly was causing his fate to react.
Above all, the gateway itself wasn’t easy to break.
Hadn’t it guarded the city for a thousand years? It was practically ancient imperial technology.
If there were dragons capable of destroying such a thing, they would’ve been exterminated long ago.
‘Could it really be that the dragons broke it?’
Recurring intuition. The fiery crisis detection of fate.
Among all other reactions, a vague sense of unease was delivered by his sixth sense, leaving Aslan no time to delve deeply into contemplation.
He simply trusted his vague intuition, cutting down the dragon charging at him, and continued toward the temple.
It didn’t take long for that urgency to be justified.
The group eventually reached the temple.
The temple being attacked by hordes of dragons.
The debris pile prepared was already breached, leaving only traces behind, and the defensive lines were stacked with wounded or dead soldiers.
Amidst this chaos, Aslan saw Angie grabbing a dragon’s tail and flinging it away and Phey darting around, piercing the heads and hearts of dragons.
Between these actions, Lecham relentlessly swung his sword, and an old Green clad in white armor wielded his sword and shield, commanding the soldiers to repel the dragons.
Behind these soldiers, ordinary people trembled in fear.
Seeing this, Aslan approached the defensive line.
KIEEEEK!
As if to block Aslan’s approach, a small dragon charged at him.
Aslan observed the dragon’s trajectory and calculated the time it would take to reach him.
A mere two seconds. Enough time to move a few steps. Aslan twisted his foot and sidestepped.
Simultaneously, he raised the beast held in both hands, aligning it with the trajectory.
The cutting wasn’t due to Aslan’s arm strength but the dragon’s momentum.
The serrated edge precisely entered the gaping mouth and split the dragon in half.
The weight pushing the blade through the falling flesh. Aslan utilized this weight and center of gravity inversely.
This allowed him to take a few more steps.
The basics of swordsmanship are footwork.
Footwork means correctly placing your feet.
Aslan moved faithfully according to the basics.
Changing direction and shifting the center of gravity differently.
SCHHHHH!
Swung.
The dragon’s severed neck rolled, and Aslan continuously moved between charging dragons.
As if dancing alone against the massive dragons, gracefully and fluidly.
The only thing trailing behind was the indigo blade.
SWISH, CRACK, SCHHHHH!
When the sprawled dragons were sufficiently cut, sliced, and severed, the defensive line gained a brief moment of respite.
Lecham spotted Aslan amidst the commotion within the defensive line and hurriedly shouted.
“Clear a path! Reinforcements have arrived!”
Though insufficient in number to be called reinforcements, the imperial soldiers didn’t dare argue with the words of a Watcher.
“The path is open! Everyone, come inside!”
They hastily opened the way, and the group, busy shooting, beating, cutting, and stabbing dragons, followed Aslan’s call and headed toward the defensive line.
And as Richard, Tiayalmisof, Harrod, Ereta, and Lumel entered,
it was Aslan’s turn last.
GO O O O O O O O O!
Suddenly, a profound roar that stirred the heart echoed.
Turning his head toward the roar, Aslan saw something flying in from the direction where the gateway had broken.
Two colossal dragons.
Despite seemingly unable to fly, they approached with strange wings attached.
When Aslan noticed this, the two flying dragons diverged in opposite directions.
Like aimed arrows being fired, they glided with their wings spread.
Their targets were different.
One aimed for the ordinary people inside the defensive line.
The other targeted an empty space on one side of the defensive line.
At that moment, Aslan’s priority was already determined.
“Summon Thunder.”
RUMBLE!
Spinning his feet and soaring upward, Aslan twisted his body mid-air and shouted.
“Phey!”
Without responding, Phey moved instantly. She jumped, spun, stopped her spin, and stepped on the air.
From the air to the air, as if stepping on invisible walls, she powerfully propelled herself.
Stopping her spin mid-air, the girl placed Aslan’s foot on her longsword.
“Go.”
With a short word, Phey pushed Aslan.
Aslan stepped on Phey’s longsword and leaped toward the dragon diving toward the people, muttering.
“Grasp.”
What followed was an impossible counterattack. The beast Aslan threw ascended as if firmly stepping on solid ground, leaving a steel-blue trail.
CRACKKKKKKK!
The metallic scales shattered and scattered, splitting the dragon.
The blood flowing from the giant dragon’s side soaked the ground, and its massive body slid and fell.
GROOOOONG, and following that dragon, the other dragon diving vertically toward the empty space roared.
GO O O O O O O!
“HYYYYYAAAH!”
As Angie swung Victory, strangely cutting through the feather-covered wing, the dragon crashed and tumbled.
KRURRRRR!
Breaking a long groove into the temple’s floor, the dragon reached its target.
Its massive jaws opened wide, grabbing the stone coffin placed right in the middle of the empty space.
“No! Stop it!”
Upon seeing this, Lecham shouted.
“Everyone, fire!”
An old Green clad in full armor shouted this and rushed out.
The place where the mayor was heading. There was the dragon and a certain stone coffin.
The instant Aslan saw the stone coffin,
‘What is this?’
Aslan’s fate reacted violently, as if burning.
The direction his fate pulled toward had a dragon.
A dragon that was currently biting and chewing the entire stone coffin.
The stone coffin crumbled and scattered, and the dragon’s mouth bled as if pierced by the hard metal.
Despite the apparent pain, the dragon frantically chewed the stone coffin.
As the blood flowing beneath stained the floor, the temple’s engraved patterns soaked in blood turned red.
Above the blood-soaked patterns of law and order, the dragon’s scales fragmented finely.
With a creaking sound, as the dragon continued to chew the stone coffin, something fell from its mouth.
It was a head.
A silver-haired head, roughly and unevenly cut, resembling a human.
Yet, it was the head of a non-human, rolling on the ground and emitting a metallic sound.
Over it, fragments of the dragon’s scales fell.
Filling the void, the dragon’s scales regenerated, as if refined, turning pure white.
That eerily pristine white resembled the Seobseong hanging at Aslan’s waist.
Suddenly, Aslan remembered that during the festival, Lecham had mentioned the display of a deity’s remains.
“Damn it.”
CRUNCH!
As Aslan muttered, the dragon’s foot stepped on the deity’s head.
As the head crumbled completely, devoid of contents, and stuck limply to the sole of the foot,
KA-GA-GA-GANG!
Every weapon that struck the dragon’s scales was deflected.
The maces, arrows, and javelins that were hurled all had broken tips.
At the moment the soldiers froze with blank expressions upon seeing this,
GO O O O O O O O O!
At the center of the defensive line, the dragon clad in white iron roared.
