Chapter 390: Dragon Emperor (3)

If the dragon emperor had truly been helplessly overtaken, then his body and soul from past and future would have fused to exist solely as Tesranach, in which case, soul-calling wouldn't work.

But if he had escaped? Then as a wandering spirit, the dragon emperor's soul would respond to Karnak's call. Everyone stared at the altar with anticipation. Nothing happened. The air didn't grow colder, nor did the shadows deepen.

"Did it fail?"

As murmurs of doubt spread, Karnak smiled in satisfaction. "This was worth the attempt."

He had expected nothing to happen. Even if the dragon emperor had managed to flee his own body, that state couldn't last long. If he couldn't possess another vessel, like Dios had done, he would either become a wandering spirit or fade into the beyond. He would have to possess something quickly.

But the dragon emperor is a dragon, Karnak thought.

While it wasn't impossible for him to possess a human or an elf, the disconnect between body and soul would be too great, and the side effects too severe. He wouldn't have taken that risk unless absolutely necessary.

He must've either stolen the body of another living dragon or turned himself into an undead using a dragon corpse.

It was only natural that nothing had happened. If he wasn't in a soul state, there was no way the soul-calling ritual could reach him.

But in this particular instance, the way the spell failed was different than usual. Since one soul existed in two places at once, the rejection from the ritual had come back in an abnormal form.

By using the spatial distortion caused by this paradox, Karnak attempted a kind of triangulation to roughly determine the target's location. That had been his true purpose in performing the soul-calling ritual.

"This was a technique I'd developed for future Leven, but I'm only now getting to use it."

Back then, he had eliminated future Leven before even completing the spell. And since then, no opportunity had arisen to put it to use. This method couldn't track the location of just any possessed soul.

It only worked when both the present and future souls existed simultaneously, like in the cases of Leven or Dios. But future Diogres had been easy to track from the beginning, since he'd led the Black God's army. There had been no need to use it on him.

Well then, let's see what we find.

Karnak brought his hands together and focused his mind to sense the dragon emperor's soul. He felt it. A tremendous presence, vast enough to swallow the world.

"One in the imperial capital." Naturally, it was Tesranach's soul, and thus Grateria's as well. "And another one in the east."

He sensed a soul's flame, faint enough to flicker out at any moment, yet unmistakably present.

"Knew it!" Varos let out a cheer. "If even Master Dios made it out safely, there's no way the dragon emperor went down that easily!"

Karnak, too, looked pleased. "That's true. Even someone like Dios made it."

A nearby boy with tousled black-blue hair gave them a strange look. "Hey? You two serious right now?"

Ignoring him, Karnak pushed his focus further. Judging by the situation, the dragon emperor's vessel was likely in Dragon Land. It was a reasonable assumption, since it would house the most number of dragons and draconic corpses.

So Karnak extended his senses as far as he could. Suddenly, something snagged. "Huh?"

Karnak's eyes widened. The vessel was closer than expected. So close, in fact, that it wouldn't take even two full days to reach it from this village. "It's nearby? Why the hell is it nearby?"

***

The moment they identified the location, Karnak's group immediately began preparing to move. There was no need to wait until morning. After all, everyone involved was strong enough that the twilight posed no obstacle.

They had a former Monarch of Death, a former death knight lord, a former archmage, martial king candidates, and even a supposed avatar of a goddess. Why worry about traveling in the dark?

Everyone except the four elders, who were busy managing the Twilight Cult, left the village together. The reason they were all going? Even if it was only a soul, the opponent was still the dragon emperor.

One of Grateria's powers as dragon emperor was the Dragon Eye of Insight. It was an ability that allowed him to see straight through to a person's true essence. "If he takes one look at me, I doubt I'll be hearing anything nice."

There was a decent chance that the dragon emperor would exclaim, "How can such a monstrous being even exist!" and immediately try to banish him.

That had, in fact, been his exact reaction in Karnak's previous life. "He said there was no point in speaking with filth like us and immediately blasted us with his breath."

Serati questioned, "Us?"

"Varos included."

"Oh. Lovely."

Still, Serati looked slightly unconvinced. Lord Karnak doesn't seem that bad now...

But she didn't voice her thoughts. It didn't hurt to be cautious, after all. Instead, she pointed out something else. "Isn't the dragon emperor powerless now anyway? Tesranach took his body."

"Even so, if he possessed another dragon, he should at least be able to use that dragon's abilities."

Not that they expected Karnak to lose. But if they wanted to subdue him without harm, overwhelming force was their best option.

And most importantly, "It's not like anyone else here has anything better to do, right?"

"Can't argue with that."

The location pinpointed by Karnak's triangulation ritual was somewhere between the imperial capital, Thea Krahan, and Zident Village.

So the party found themselves heading back in the direction of the capital. The region near the capital had become a no-man's-land. Everywhere they passed was in ruins, scorched and desolate.

As they moved past a burned-out village, Dios and Drel clicked their tongues.

"This is awful."

"No kidding."

Tesranach had already descended, which meant the Black God's Cult no longer had any reason to keep slaughtering priests of the goddesses.

And yet, the Black God's forces continued to spread across the continent. They were gathering the scattered fragments of the Shadow of Doom once again.

Karnak commented, "There's clearly a reason they need to gather the Shadow of Doom. The problem is, we don't know what it is."

Since they had set out late in the afternoon, the sun had quickly dipped below the horizon. But Karnak's group didn't stop. They passed through ruined villages, crossed forests, and pressed deep into the mountains.

They were heading into a secluded and rugged area where not even animal trails could be seen, let alone paths made by men. Leven clicked his tongue as he looked up at the cliff ahead. "Anyone else would've had a hard time getting through here."

Then, he stepped onto the cliff and leapt upward. A vertical wall nearly twenty meters high, and he scaled it as if walking across flat ground. It was a feat truly befitting a silver knight, but no one seemed impressed.

After all, everyone here who used aura had already reached the level of silver knight. Varos, Lapicel, and Drel all ascended the cliff with ease.\ There was only one exception: a female swordsman who was still at the blue-tier. But as it turned out, she had even less trouble.

With a short shout, the red-haired beauty bounded over the cliff. Bounded made it sound gentle, but in truth, she had performed a standing jump that cleared twenty meters straight up.

It was a feat of sheer physical absurdity.

Leven shook his head. "No matter how many times I see it, I just can't get used to it."

Finally, the former Monarch of Death and former archmage ascended using floating discs beneath their feet. Milia simply rode atop Dios's disc. She could easily fly on her own if she transformed into her angelic form, but that was not something to use lightly.

The party continued pressing through the mountain terrain with ease. Cliffs and woods were no more troublesome than tripping over a rock on the roadside.

Leven clicked his tongue again, recalling the days before he had awakened his aura, back when he was just a relic hunter. "Being strong really does have its perks."

Even before, such rough terrain wasn't impossible, but now they passed through it effortlessly. "Would things get even easier the stronger we get?"

Serati laughed in reply. "At that point, wouldn't we just bulldoze a path through the mountain?"

She had meant it as a joke, but Dios responded seriously. "Actually, we get a lot of requests to do just that. It's one of the Tower of Dawn's main sources of income."

"Really?" Leven tilted his head in curiosity. Well, it did make sense. Using an archmage's destructive power for construction was probably the most civil way to apply it. It was far better than killing people or burning villages.

"But I don't think I've ever heard of a mage working in civil engineering."

"Because if word got out, it wouldn't be good for our image."

Magic was supposed to be mysterious and transcendent.

"If a wise man, having reached the pinnacle of arcane knowledge, ends up being used like an excavator... would people still revere mages?"

Lapicel asked, baffled. "They'd witness a miracle like carving through a mountain with magic... and they'd laugh at that?"

If a mountain were split open before their very eyes, and someone still dismissed it as glorified construction equipment, could they even be called human?

Dios answered their question. "To those who see it in person, it is mystical and transcendent."

But people who only heard about it secondhand saw things differently.

—An archmage pierced a mountain with magic!

That sparked this kind of awe.

—My heavens, is the archmage a god?

But what if someone phrased it like this?

—An archmage tunneled through a mountain using magic!

Then the response would be closer to something like this.

—What's the rate per meter?

Dios's sarcasm deepened. "That's about how it is. Don't put too much stock in humanity's imagination."

***

After continuing to climb, the party finally saw a massive cave before them. According to Karnak's triangulation ritual, this was the place.

Judging its scale, Drel remarked, "Certainly looks like a place a dragon might live."

The entrance was about five meters tall. It was perhaps too tight for an adult dragon, but more than enough for a sub-adult to pass through. That was, of course, judging by size alone.

"Still, the idea of dragons inhabiting a place like this feels a bit... odd."

No matter how rugged the terrain, they were still not far from the imperial capital. If a dragon had made its lair this close to the city, there was no way the imperial guard would have let it be. Even if extermination was out of the question, they should have at least been aware of its presence.

Karnak flicked his finger. "We'll know once we check."

Varos and Karnak led the way, with Serati and Milia following behind. Drel, Dios, Lapicel, and Leven remained outside just in case. If anyone were to get trapped inside, someone had to be on standby to pull them out.

"Alright, let's head in."

The cave interior was unremarkable. There was no particular danger, no traps to speak of. It was simply a place that could've easily housed wild animals.

But then, once they took a few steps deeper inside, a flash of brilliant white frost burst toward the group. There was no mistaking it. It was a dragon's breath. Varos quickly spread his aura and blocked the blast.

A silver veil clashed with the freezing breath, scattering it in all directions. Frost instantly coated the cave walls.

Karnak frowned. "What the hell? That was the weakest breath I've ever seen."

For something meant to be a dragon's breath, it was lacking in every way. At most, it might be able to scare off a bear.

From deep within the cave came a heavy voice, steeped in solemnity, as though it could make all things bow. "So it is as I thought. Are you Karnak of Zestrad?"

The voice's owner stepped forth from the shadows. It was a small, snow-white hatchling, no bigger than a puppy, flapping its flimsy wings as it walked forward.

Serati's eyes went wide. "Floke...?"