Chapter 1236: 223. Wrath (IX)

The city remained as it had always been, crowded with people and extraordinarily lively. From time to time, terrifying demonic beasts would attack, but they were all easily repelled.

The little girl’s illness did not even cause the slightest ripple in this prosperous city. People continued living normally along their own paths. Only that fiery-red figure began leaving the city more and more frequently, seemingly searching for something.

She settled the little girl in her own home, forbidding her from going outside and forbidding anyone from visiting her. All the isolation measures were arranged very well.

—It was still wrong.

Muen looked at the door, which was merely tightly shut, and sighed inwardly.

Judging by his current experience, this could not stop Pollution.

“Big... Big Sister Dragon...”

Miss Dragon returned once again, but the little girl’s “condition” had not improved in the slightest. Yesterday, she had amputated one of the girl’s completely mutated arms. Today, she was attempting to use alchemy to create a new limb for her.

“Believe me...”

She tightly held the little girl’s hand. “I will cure you.”

“Mm!”

The little girl nodded vigorously. Half of her face had already rotted beyond recognition, while the other half still revealed a sweet smile.

“I believe in Big Sister Dragon...”

“Hold on a little longer.”

Miss Dragon let out a breath of relief. With slightly trembling hands, she took out the alchemical instruments she had prepared and was just about to begin this round of attempts, but when she turned around... she discovered that many figures had somehow appeared in front of her, blocking her path.

“Big Sister Dragon, I think I’m sick...” A young woman held her forehead. Her head repeatedly split open and closed as she spoke dejectedly.

“Me too. I’m so itchy...” A woman scratched all over her body, causing large amounts of flesh and blood to continuously fall from her.

“Big Sister Dragon, am I going to die?” A boy with a large hole in his chest asked nervously. His heart had also just poked its head out from inside and looked equally nervous...

“...”

Miss Dragon’s hands trembled, accidentally knocking the instrument onto the floor.

“Big Sister Dragon?”

“It’s all right.”

Miss Dragon brought her trembling body under control, turned around, and gently covered the eyes of the little girl lying on the bed. Her tone gradually became calm and reassuring.

“I will save all of you... I will definitely save all of you.”

She spoke to everyone.

“Definitely.”

...

More and more people began to be eroded by this “strange illness,” and it even alarmed the highest-ranking figures in the city... Yet even when the strongest group of experts in the city took action, they still could not stop the “strange illness” from spreading.

Muen could tell that, at this point in time, they still understood almost nothing about so-called “Pollution.”

As for Miss Dragon... she traveled beyond the city more and more frequently and began forcibly isolating large numbers of those who had been polluted. She finally realized something and started using restrictions to seal off the mediums of transmission.

“Wait for me... I will definitely save all of you...”

She became lonely once again. She even used violence to suppress some of the people who voiced their dissatisfaction. The periods she spent away from the city grew longer and longer, and sometimes, when she returned, her entire body was covered in wounds.

But the situation still did not change in the slightest.

Pollution continued to run rampant, and more and more people began to realize... that it was not simply an illness.

Fear spread throughout the city.

“Give up on saving everyone.”

Muen finally could not bear to watch any longer and could not help speaking. “Your method was wrong from the very beginning. You should have dealt directly with the source. You can no longer stop the Pollution from spreading...”

“Give up? No, I will never give up... I have already lost my family once. I cannot... lose them again...”

“Everything you are doing is useless. Pollution has no solution. You would be better off reducing the losses as early as possible. Blindly trying to save everyone will only result in no one being saved.”

“I refuse to believe that anything in this world has no solution. I will definitely find one!”

“That is impossible.”

Muen, who already knew the outcome, murmured softly, “Something like that... cannot be done.”

“How will I know it cannot be done without trying?”

Miss Dragon suddenly turned her head. Her golden dragon pupils shone coldly and brilliantly, like those of a savage beast.

She was furious, unimaginably furious. That fury was enough to ignite everything... Yet her words were as weak as a plea.

“How will I know... without trying?”

“...”

Muen was suddenly startled, because that answer... was so familiar.

Not long ago, he seemed to have said the exact same thing... to her.

“So that’s how it is...”

Muen laughed self-deprecatingly.

“So... that’s how it was...”

...

...

“How will I know... without trying?”

Miss Dragon murmured those words as she walked alone through every polluted household.

Fewer and fewer people trusted her. Some began calling her a bringer of disaster, a demon, an ominous creature.

She silently endured it all and merely quickened her pace, going without sleep or rest.

The scene became increasingly familiar, gradually overlapping with everything Muen had witnessed in New Tars not long ago.

This dragon... had changed a great deal over the past eight hundred years, yet fundamentally, she had not changed at all.

In the end, she brought back a mass of sacred flesh filled with Holy Light. The tremendous life force it emitted nearly made Muen believe that she had scraped a piece directly from the Life Goddess.

She attempted to use it to remove the Pollution and save everyone in the city.

...

“Good morning, Big Sister Dragon!”

The next day, the lively little girl greeted her enthusiastically. People once again came and went along the streets, and the entire city seemed to have returned to its former prosperity.

Miss Dragon’s efforts seemed to have truly worked. The city became incomparably beautiful once again, and every person’s face overflowed with smiles.

But... tears silently flowed from her eyes.

“Huh? Big Sister Dragon? Why are you crying?”

“Crying? Why would I cry? I am the strongest dragon in this world. I would never cry.” Miss Dragon turned around and walked away.

“Is that so?”

The little girl still did not understand, so she turned her head toward Muen beside her. “Big Brother, what’s wrong with Big Sister Dragon?”

“She... has been hurt,” Muen answered softly as he watched Miss Dragon’s gradually receding figure.

“Hurt?”

The little girl tilted the half of her small head that remained in confusion. “Big Sister Dragon is already the strongest dragon in the world. How could she be hurt again?”

“...”

It was precisely because she was the strongest dragon in the world that she could be hurt so deeply at this moment...

...

That day, to celebrate the city’s rebirth from the threat of disease, a grand celebration that had not been held for a long time was held once again.

That day, all her friends gathered together once more, and the cries of “Big Sister Dragon” nearly drowned the entire square.

That day, Miss Dragon once again displayed her overwhelming might at the height of the banquet and drank everyone under the table.

That day, the moon shone brightly among sparse stars, beautiful enough to make one’s heart tremble.

“That was the final method.”

She hugged her knees. Her fiery-red hair hung loosely around her, dull and lifeless. Even her golden pupils seemed as though they might go out at any moment, while bronze-colored sediment rose within them.

“Mm,” Muen answered softly.

“I cannot think of any other method.”

“Mm.”

“Two days from now will be this city’s customary hunting day. At that time, many people will leave the city.”

“Mm.”

“Even if I forcibly stop them, I cannot imprison them for the rest of their lives.”

“Mm.”

“I have to make a choice.”

“Mm.”

“I truly made a mistake.”

“...It was not your fault.” Muen finally spoke a complete sentence, even though he knew... he could not comfort her.

“I should have been more decisive back then...”

Miss Dragon stared at a certain place and murmured in pain, “I... I will never make such a mistake again.”

She raised the wine and drank heavily once more... Gulp, gulp... Then she shattered every wine cup and wine jar.

“Why... is it that only humans can become drunk from alcohol? It is so unfair.”

“...”

That was probably because alcohol could only dispel small sorrows, while the pain Miss Dragon faced was far, far too great. Muen looked at the reflection of that blurred face in the cup and thought silently.

“I want to dance one more time. Will you watch me?” Miss Dragon asked.

“Mm.”

Muen answered seriously. The little girl beside him and everyone else also raised their hands high.

“I want to watch! I want to watch! We all want to watch! Big Sister Dragon’s dancing is the most beautiful!”

“Thank you.”

Miss Dragon lowered her eyes, seemingly unwilling to look at those familiar faces any longer.

She slowly stood up, and the terrifying aura she had suppressed for so long gradually began to rise.

“Big Sister Dragon! What are you trying to do?”

Of course, not everyone could be brought down by a little alcohol. Someone seemed to sense something and stood in front of Miss Dragon.

“I am going to... kill people,” she answered truthfully.

“Kill... people?” The person was shocked. “Why?”

“Because... all of you are annoying.”

“Huh?”

“You are troublesome and weak. You do not understand gratitude, and you are always using your own thoughts to speculate about mine.”

Her tone gradually turned cold. An unimaginable wrath began brewing within her illuminated golden pupils.

“Humans truly are an extremely detestable species.”

“What are you talking about, Hamreign? We were the ones who saved you before!”

“That was merely part of my conspiracy to destroy all of you... Get out of my way.”

The dragon’s pressure swept outward like a tsunami. Her fiery-red hair moved despite the absence of wind, setting the night ablaze. Layer after layer of her thorn-covered dress fell around her, warning all living beings to stay away.

She lightly raised one fair foot and ascended into the sky.

“Big Sister Dragon...” someone called gently.

Her delicate body trembled, but she did not turn around. She merely raised both hands and lightly brushed them across her face...

A vast mist covered the face that had already been blurred.

Boom!

Scarlet lightning pierced through the heavens. She flew into the sky, transformed into her dragon body, and began that incomparably beautiful dance.

The earth was her stage, the sky was her backdrop, and the gradually gathering rainbow light of destruction was the final, breathtaking glance she cast toward this city as her body danced...

A glance filled with incomparable reluctance to part.

It was so beautiful...

Beautiful enough to suffocate.

Even though his eyes were nearly scorched through by that radiance, Muen stared with them wide open, refusing to look away.

Then destruction descended.

...

...

Dark clouds covered the sky, and torrential rain poured down.

Muen stood at the edge of an enormous crater. Before him was the bottomless remnant left behind by the destruction. Behind him... was nearly half of the city, which had already been reduced to ruins.

“Evil dragon, surrender your life!”

In the sky, the few remaining powerful figures of the city continued their desperate resistance. Their hearts burned with immense fury over the destruction of their homeland. Faced with the culprit before them, this despicable traitor, they unleashed unimaginable power.

But one after another, they still fell beneath an even more terrifying wrath.

The corpses fell from the sky and were then completely reduced to ash. Even at the moment of their deaths, they did not understand why that despicable and evil dragon... carried such immense wrath within her.

Tap.

The fiery-red figure landed among the city’s ruins.

All creation fell silent.

All beauty had ceased to exist. Nothing remained but scorched earth.

“So this is why you are always angry,” Muen said softly as he came to her side.

“...”

The golden pupils in which the wrath had yet to disperse passed directly over Muen and swept across the surroundings, seemingly searching cautiously for any possible survivors so that she could destroy them.

As for Muen’s words, she gave no answer.

Of course she would not answer.

Because Muen had never appeared in Tars at this point in time, nor had he ever been beside her at this point in her life.

Everything before him had already happened a very, very long time ago. Even Muen could not change the slightest thing across the full eight-hundred-year gulf of time.

Just as the Love God had said, he had never taken part in her pain, and he had no way to heal that pain.

He could only...

Muen crouched down and began digging through the ruins with his bare hands.

Broken stones, scorched earth, shattered walls and wreckage... Muen continued digging like this, without stopping, for a very, very long time.

The fiery-red figure had already left. Only occasional howls could be heard coming from the sky.

Muen continued digging.

Digging and digging, digging and digging...

Until...

He dug out a corpse.

The fiery-red hair was like a maple forest in October, but at this moment it had been stained gray-black by countless specks of dust, without the slightest trace of beauty remaining. The black dress was wrinkled and bunched together, making the body appear even more slender. The exposed hands and feet were still as fair as ever, but that whiteness was merely the pure pallor left after all color had drained from them.

Miss Dragon.

This was Miss Dragon’s corpse.

It was the version of herself that, after she brought destruction down, had been buried here along with everything else.

“Lady Andri was right. You really did leave yourself behind here.”

Muen lowered his head and carefully gazed at that face.

The face was still blurred, but Muen could feel the intense sadness appearing upon it.

Yes.

Sadness.

Everyone in the world knew that the calamity, the Dragon of Death and Doom, the strongest creature beneath the sky... truly loved becoming angry, and no one was willing to approach her casually.

But who knew that all her fury actually came from sorrow that penetrated to the bone?

Andri. Priscilla. Clarence...

Miss Dragon.

In truth, all of them were the same. Only the most extreme sorrow could evolve into the most extreme wrath.

And so, who could possibly have imagined it?

The source of all the wrath belonging to the strongest dragon in the world...

Was her hatred of her own powerlessness.

Her powerlessness to change anything.

[Do you understand now? What can you possibly do?]

The ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) little girl appeared, half of her face hideous and vicious.

[Even that dragon—the calamity, the Dragon of Death and Doom, the strongest creature in this world—could not accomplish it. She could not rewrite the outcome. What can you possibly do, Muen Campbell? Give up. This is a dead end, a dead end that even you cannot reverse!]

“No. You are wrong, Love God. I never came here to rewrite anything.”

Muen shook his head.

“What I can do has been very simple from beginning to end.”

[What?]

“That is... to keep her from crying and keep her from being sad.”

Muen placed the small, bloodstained pinwheel back into Miss Dragon’s hand. Then he embraced her tightly, feeling the coldness that continued flowing down her cheeks.

“Miss Dragon, I have already found a way to save them. So... please take me to find the you who exists now.”

Miss Dragon opened her eyes.

And the entire world began to shake.