novelzi Chapter 224 : Chapter 224
Chapter 224 : Chapter 224
Translator: AkazaTL Pr/Ed: Sol IX
***
The other Karavan ancestors.
The souls residing in the Golden Vault looked at me.
They saw something else as well.
They saw the unwavering will that refused to bend even before Leon Karavan—the strongest Karavan after the First Steel, the one who inherited the thickest “Blood of Steel.”
“…Can that child really do it?”
Someone said that. Everyone silently agreed.
I had swallowed Leon Karavan’s blade without hesitation. And Leon Karavan’s blade, 「Matchstick」, despite its plain name, held an immense soul.
The downfall of a brilliant genius with talent unprecedented in history.
The tragic life of a boy who never once saw the light, overshadowed by his father’s shadow.
A horrifying loneliness and sorrow, hatred and doubt unresolved even after centuries.
His sword—Leon Karavan’s sword—was one of the most difficult blades to digest among all the Karavan swords inside the Golden Vault.
Could a child digest such a thing?
No one could predict it. But they knew one thing with certainty.
If that child truly digested Leon Karavan’s sword— if he fully absorbed the overwhelming soul sealed inside—that child would become one of the strongest beings of this age.
***
The dragons rising from the Sky Mountains.
The citizens of the Sky Empire, who had marveled at the appearance of the mythical beings, met them again not long after. Remembering the previous uproar, citizens poured out into the streets. Reporters shrieked at another scoop, and people dragged family and friends out, swearing to watch properly this time.
Young lovers held hands and whispered sweetly, saying perhaps the dragons were blessing their love. Fathers and mothers laughed as they told their children old legends. The elderly smiled, pleased with such entertainment in the twilight of life. Children dreamed—one wanted to ride a dragon someday, another shouted he wanted to fly like one, and a girl’s eyes sparkled as she said they looked like guardian spirits from fairy tales.
Legends and myths. Old tales and ballads of bards.
Romance, love, and peace.
The citizens of the Sky Empire simply enjoyed the wondrous sight in the comfort of their peaceful lives.
So they realized too late.
“Huh?”
The dragons flying above drew closer. A massive shadow swallowed the sun. Only then, in the darkness, did the citizens notice strangers riding on the dragons’ backs.
Foreigners from the Eastern Continent.
Even then, they sensed no danger. Because every soldier of the Conquest Army of the Great Land riding atop the dragons was smiling like jesters in a parade.
“Visitors!”
A child shouted that in an excited voice. And,
“Coming on dragons—so amazi—ack.”
The child’s innocent voice never finished. With a thud, the child who had been jumping in excitement was skewered by a spear that flew from afar. With a crack, the spear embedded itself in the ground.
The boy hung limply on the shaft, no longer smiling. His face frozen in shock, tears welling—then his breath stopped.
Silence consumed the street.
A thunderous boom shattered it.
THUD—the dragons landed.
The moment they touched the ground, shrill, maddened laughter burst out—like demons singing. Then drdrdrdr—the sound of galloping hooves.
The Conquest Army charged forward, still laughing in delight.
Even then, the citizens hadn’t fully grasped the reality. Crunch—necks snapped under the hooves of charging horses. Spears swung like toys silenced the screams of those collapsing.
“Wha—? Ah. Ahh…?”
The situation was unreal—far too unreal. People panicked, unable to even run, and a thousand citizens of that street died in that instant.
The Conquest Army erupted into bright, gleeful laughter as they looked upon the corpses piled high. Heads of tear-streaked victims were hung on their spear tips. Not only heads—ears, eyes, fingers, feet, hands were taken as trophies and hung everywhere.
Trophies, and warnings. Symbols of the cruelty of the Great Land— the tradition that earned them the name “Demons Who Run the Plains.”
“U—uaaahhh—!”
DANG—!
A bell rang. The Bell of the Sky.
The alarm calling the Sky Legion, the shield of the Sky Empire. For the first time in a century, the emergency bells rang throughout the city. But the call didn’t travel. Sound traveled through air. And the dragons controlled the air.
Their wingbeats trapped the sound like echoes inside a sealed dome.
Dang, dang, dang— the bells tolled endlessly like a demon’s chime.
As the city burned, a man on a black horse appeared among the Conquest Army.
The master of demons, the war-god descending upon earth.
He raised his sword.
“Warriors of the Plains—!”
“Oh Sun—! Eternal, undying Sun—!”
“We—! Have risen into the heavens!”
A booming voice resounded.
Bathed in crimson blood, the Conquest Army achieved what they never had before— setting foot inside the strongest empire’s territory.
The Descendant of Khan trembled with indescribable joy. And that joy must not stop.
“Ride! Ride until death! Drench your bodies in the blood of your enemies! Then I myself shall take you to the infinite plains!”
At those words, the Conquest Army exploded into a frenzied charge. Hooves thundered.
The Descendant of Khan looked up at the sky and invoked his authority— not as a Swordmaster, but as the Great Warrior blessed by the “Ever-sleepless Father,” one of the Seven Lords.
「Berserk」.
Now, every soldier under his command could fight for ten days without eating or drinking.
Lost stamina and injuries healed with every life they took.
Death meant nothing. Even as they died, blood-crazed soldiers would swing their blades and take one more enemy with them.
“O Sky—! I have come!”
The Descendant of Khan roared.
“To teach those rotting in peace what war is!”
Warp Gates opened all around him. From within the circular gates emerged the armed Arcane Corps of the Machine Empire.
They gagged at the massacre unfolding. Even as allies bound by a pact, the slaughter was unbearable.
But it reassured them.
“…Yes. This is what we needed.”
The remnants of the fallen Machine Empire.
The master of the defeated army. Master Joseph spoke.
“To face the Sky… we need at least this much.”
With this level of fury, they could challenge the Sky Empire. Even if they lost, they would strike a fatal wound.
After the war? A being like the Descendant of Khan, who caused such upheaval, could not escape the duty of an Ascendant.
He would ascend and return to the side of his deity, the Ever-sleepless Father. Then the Arcane Corps could choose any ruined land and plant their flag— founding a new nation.
Master Joseph swung his hand broadly.
“Open the gates. Let these demons burn the world even more.”
Waaaa—!
A roar rose.
He watched them march. He felt pity— but what of it? As long as his family, his nation, his people survived, nothing else mattered.
Let strangers—non-allies—die.
There was no reason to waste emotion on them.
“O Sky—! The Descendant of Khan—! Is here—!”
***
Ian Cherville looked at the sky.
A dim sky, as if rain were coming.
“A vortex sweeps the world.”
Everything was proceeding smoothly. Dragon Charlotte had successfully unleashed the Conquest Army of the Great Land, and those dragons could not carry were pouring in through the Arcane Corps’ Warp Gates.
The alliance of the Arcane Corps, the Great Land, and dragons— a nightmarish combination.
Even the strongest empire would shake. If they were destroyed, even better. But,
“At best, it will only shake them.”
The mighty Velma Empire… they were not called the “Sky Empire” for nothing. Even stagnated by a century of peace, they were still the strongest force on the continent.
The alliance could not topple them. Only shake them. But,
“That is enough.”
Ian Cherville had planned precisely for that.
The new Iron Kingdom, built by swallowing the Six Free Cities and the Machine Empire remnants, was powerful. But even with the new kingdom, the young dragons, and the Prince's Executioner Carlos… they could not defeat the untouched Sky Empire.
To topple it, a small crack was needed. And the war-mad butcher would play that role perfectly.
To stop him, the Sky Empire would have to use their greatest shield. And once they expended their greatest shield… they would never stop Ian Cherville.
Their new world order would crumble. A new order would rise under the name “Cherville.” And that order would birth a new world, a new era— a perfect world ruled by a perfect sovereign.
“Carlos.”
“Yes.”
“Prepare yourself. The time has come.”
Ian Cherville did not underestimate the Sky Empire. So he had more than one plan prepared to create cracks in them. He would use anything he could. Even if the world burned to ashes— as long as he reached the highest place.
Yes.
“We go to the Northern Continent.”
As long as he could rise above.
“We will destroy White’s Winter Fortress, slaughter the demons, and release the monsters trapped in the Northern Continent.”
“A great wave will come.”
“Yes. The greatest Monster Wave in history.”
Ian Cherville thought: The strong survive.
“And if the dragons move correctly—”
The one who stands at the end is the chosen one.
According to that unchanging truth— after a fierce battle, he would possess everything.
Because—“The oldest elves—the High Elves—will eventually join the war.”
Because he was the chosen one.
“The kings of the previous era will all disappear.”
He who had earned the right to possess the world— the chosen one.
“And in the new age, only one king will exist. Me—Ian Cherville.”