Ori of the Dragon Chain - 206-Chapter 8 Section 40

The parlor of Francilt’s mansion was silent, as if time had stopped.
Victor and the others looked surprised, and Vitora smiled meaningfully as if she had finally arrived.
Then Victor’s face, which had been looking surprised, suddenly turned grim.
Iris Dina stepped forward, brushing aside the indignant gaze of her own father.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’m very sorry for the sudden interruption to the meeting, but we would like to join our sisters here.

‘This is a restricted area. Mena, take them outside right now.”

She was furious, but she didn’t raise her voice, which was quite impressive.
However, the low, stifled voice was filled with a grimness and indignation that seemed to resonate deep in his stomach.

‘Isn’t that good? They were originally involved. And those determined eyes. I like them very much.’

The vampire princess stopped Viktor and the others with an amused smile.
Her gaze was no longer on Viktor, but on the two girls who had interrupted the meeting.
Perhaps due to Vitora’s magic, the flames of the fireplace in the parlor have already been extinguished, and the temperature has become as cold as outside.

‘Hmm, I probably don’t need to ask this now, but let me ask you something. Why did you come here?

‘Because of the new contract between Lord Vitora and my family.

‘I see, you’ve been listening carefully. I understand what that means.

‘Wait!I didn’t approve it!

Victor’s mask, which he was desperately wearing, came off.

‘Yeah, I like your resolve, but I’m afraid you’re less important now that she’s here.’

Victor’s rage was so intense that it seemed to blow away the freezing cold. However, even with his anger, the vampire princess was smiling thinly and passing it off like a willow.
Her gaze was fixed on Iris Dina and Somia. But they were both aware that Vitora’s gaze was looking through them at another human being.

‘And you are aware of this, my daughter?

‘Yes, you’re not looking at us either. He’s the only one who sees us.’

‘Yes. My main interest is in that dragon slayer. I honestly don’t care about anything else.’

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‘…… So you knew he was the Dragonslayer.’

‘Yeah, your political enemy, …… what was it?Well, his female second-in-command, a woman named Mekuria, taught me using a messenger.

‘And what did she ask you to do in return?

‘Nothing. Nothing. I just heard that Nozomu Bountis is the Dragon Slayer and that he surrendered my best subject.

The vampire princess easily revealed the existence of the information that was passed on to her.
When Vitora glanced at Lugato, the old butler bowed deeply as if to affirm the Lord’s words.

‘Dragon-slayer. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do this, but I’m sure I’ll be able to do it.

I’m not sure if this is a good idea or not, but it’s a good idea. I’m not sure what to do, but I’m going to do it.

‘No… I can’t help but become agitated when I think of Nozomu Bountis. It’s been hundreds of years since I’ve been this unable to control my feelings.

Vitora monologues with deep emotion. Her white skin, reminiscent of that of a dead man, is stained with the color of ecstatic vermilion, and her empty eyes sway as if she were a girl who had fallen in love for the first time.

‘No, this is my first time. A ‘real’ dragon-slayer, as the legend goes. It’s impossible not to get your hopes up. ……’

‘Agh!

The next moment, there was a fierce gust of magic. The furnishings in the parlor were blown away, and the powerful wind scraped away the wallpaper.
The peeling wallpaper quickly froze and broke apart, scattering like powdered snow.

‘Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do this on purpose. This is normal for me. It seems you’ve been thinking about him too much and the shackles have come off.

Vitora says she’s sorry, but she doesn’t try to hold back her power.
No, she doesn’t want to hold it back anymore. When Iris Dina and the others came here, there was already no need to do so.

‘I was born with a power that is incomparably more powerful than all the vampires of the past. Just by being alive, I can affect my surroundings in a disorderly manner. Do you see the snow falling outside even now?That’s because of my power.

An overwhelming presence. Even from Iris Dina’s point of view, Vitora’s intimidating presence was incomparable to that of the dragon tribe’s Sonne and Azel.
The magic of the frigid cold. However, Iris Dina sensed the presence of another power in the storm that was not magic.

‘This isn’t just magic power …….’

‘Ah, the power you call the source element. As my late father used to say. You’re an ancestor.’

‘It’s like …….’

‘A monster, right?Hmmm ……’

Vitora’s red mouth twisted as if to split open, she laughed evilly.

A crimson crescent moon carved into her doll-like face. Her appearance was frightening enough to scare me, but beautiful enough to make me unable to take my eyes off her.

‘Now then, shall we begin?

‘Mena, get them out of here!

Just as Vitora was about to step towards Iris Dina, Victor leapt forward and ran towards the Princess of Death.
As he did so, Mena moved as well.
However, even in the face of the actions of the father and attendant who were thinking of his daughter, Vitora did not even look at him.

‘Lugato.

‘Yes’.

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He quickly draws a formation with the delicacy of running water and activates his magic. He restrains Victor and Mena and makes them crawl on the spot.

‘Guh!

‘Now you’re out of the way. So let’s begin.

Finally, Vitora stood in front of Iris Dina and Somia.
The vampire princess once again looked into the eyes of her sacrificial daughter, and her mouth twisted further as she raised it in amusement.

‘Hmm, interesting. There is no fear or indignation in front of me now. Even my own people feel no small amount of awe and fear. ……’

‘Because I have decided. How I live, how I use my life.

‘Ho……’

Even in the face of her true nature, Iris Dina remained resolute.
Even though she must have been so terrified that her legs could have collapsed, the voice that came out of her mouth was surprisingly clear.

‘After all, I can’t bend my way of life. If I bend it, I will not be me. That would probably be harder for me than dying.

Iris Dina’s hand scooped up a strand of her own hair, which had turned white. It was the bond between her and the man she thought she was.
A gentle, relieved smile appeared on her lips, unthinkable in this tense situation.
Vitora’s eyes widened at the sudden and unexpected expression on her face, and for a moment she forgot herself.
Despite Vitora’s agitation, Iris Dina continued her monologue.

‘There was a way to escape. But I decided not to run. Then, whatever happens from now on, I will accept it.

‘……, good. Then there’s nothing to say.

While inwardly marveling at the human girl who took away his consciousness, even if only for a moment, Vitora plunged his fangs into her neck as his impulses urged him.

A space with nothing but white-colored light. In a strange place where he could not tell where he was going and where he was going, Nozomu let out a confused cry.

‘This is ……’.

‘Nice to meet you, right? Nozomu Bountis.’

At the sudden sound of the voice, Nozomu turned his eyes in the direction of the voice. What was there was a shining diadem.
The light-embracing diadem eventually increases in intensity, forming a large sphere of light that eventually begins to change into the shape of a person.
When the light subsides, there is a beautiful man standing there.

‘You are …….’

‘Mikhail. I’m Tiamat’s former partner that you took in. My daughter-in-law has been a great help to you.

Prince of the White Dragon. Mikhail introduced himself to Nozomu in a soft tone with a resolute bearing befitting such a name.

‘I know it’s a little late, but I wanted to talk to you. You have her in your body, and you yourself have the fire of vengeance, but you have taken a different path than we did.

Mikhail. The white dragon from Tiamat’s memories. The one she hates the most.
Although it was Nozomu’s own wish to talk to him, when he actually met him, Nozomu felt an indescribable feeling well up in his chest.

‘Story: ……’

‘You wanted to know about her, about Tet, about her powers, didn’t you?

‘Yes. …… How can I control Tiamat’s power,’ he said.

‘…… First of all, no matter how much the fairy girl is willing to help you, it will be nearly impossible for you to use Tet’s power as spirit magic like we do. It might be possible if you spend a lot of time on it, but the assumption is that you don’t have it in you.

In response to Nozomu’s request, Mikhail made a pause to think, and then suddenly declared, ‘The possibility of you being able to use spirit magic is absolutely zero.

‘Therefore, you have no choice but to use the Tet’s power as it is, as your own. You must use the power of Tet as it is, in its pure form, tainted with the cries and hatred of the evil that destroys everything, the spirit of destruction.

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At the same time, it is also due to the efforts of a fairy girl.

‘So, you need to control her power yourself.

At Mikhail’s pronouncement, Nozomu takes a deep breath.
Sheena’s embarrassed smile comes back to his mind. And Iris Dina’s smile as she danced happily.
I looked down at my hands and saw the hair ornament I had prepared for Iris Dina and the mithril bell I had left as a spare.
It was a slightly pretentious ornament, with artificial purple crowea flowers, a white ribbon, and a promised bell. A renewed determination welled up in Nozomu’s chest.

‘So, why does Tiamat see you as enemies? You and Tiamat were friends, weren’t you?

‘Yes, we were, indeed. But our country was destroyed. The reason is, …… in a nutshell, we all crossed our buttons.’

And so Mikael continues his story.
‘Al-Harant did indeed flourish, an ideal land where man, beast and spirit were in harmony.

‘But it also became a great threat to others. But at the same time, it became a great threat to others, because there were other human nations besides the one we created.

Mikhail continued. The people of Alharanto also became intoxicated with the power they had acquired.

‘But they were in harmony with spirits and beasts, weren’t they?How can you be so conscious?’

‘In the beginning, we really were in harmony. We shared each other’s consciousness, we respected each other. But it was only a harmony within Alharant.

Aside from the powerful spirits of dragons and fairy tales, ordinary spirits are often weak-willed and easily tainted.
They are not in harmony with spirits and beasts. The humans’ disdain for them turned into contempt, and the beasts and spirits who were in harmony with them gradually became sympathetic to them.
And before they knew it, they had come to believe that their own values were absolute.

‘Within their own small communities, man, beast, and spirit have made the world smaller. Dependent on each other’s existence, drunk on power, they came to believe that their values were absolute.
Nozom gulps as Michael speaks with a wry smile, as if he is a sinner’s confessor.

‘I guess perfect harmony was impossible from the beginning. Rather, what we created was chaos. ……’

Michael meditates and continues to speak, gazing up at the unknown overhead.
As time went on, the fires that smoldered grew, and more and more people in Al Harant began to have hard-line views.

‘And in the face of children running amok, we, too, became divided. There were those who believed that humans should not be interfered with any further, and our unity was gradually torn apart. And the four dragons, except for me and Tet, decided to destroy Al Harant.

‘You’ve abandoned the people you helped?

‘Yeah, some of the hard-liners have clearly come to harm us dragons. Some of them had powers that even dragons couldn’t ignore. Even so, Alharant was still a country that was able to maintain harmony through our power. ……’

If you recall Tiamat’s memories, Alharant was originally a land influenced by multiple dragon veins. It was built on a land where the power of dragons calmed the raging nature. If their help disappears, Alharant will once again become a land of plagues.
In other words, the other dragons, with the exception of Mikael and Tiamat, thought that they should take care of themselves while they were still able to kill their own people.
From the humans’ point of view, it was definitely a story that would make them furious.

‘It’s arrogance: ……’

‘Yes, arrogance. Still, they are the Dragon People. They are the pinnacle of the spirits that carry the logic of this world. Therefore, they couldn’t leave an existence that could cause excessive distortion of the world. Alharant had already harbored that much potential for distortion.

So the dragons other than Tiamat decided to destroy their own country.

‘But Tet was the only one who didn’t give up. While the others who had helped him found Alharanto had abandoned their countries, there was still time, there was still time to hold on. That’s what I kept telling myself.

In Nozomu’s mind, he recalled scenes from Tiamat’s past.
She was desperately trying to help the helpless people who had been struck down by the unreasonable disaster.
The words of ‘thank you’ from the people she saved.
I wonder how much those words helped her.
Because of Iris Dina, Sheena and the others, Nozomu could understand Tiamat’s feelings, as he had been able to recover from his own devastation.

‘I was so bonded by her heartbreaking cry that I decided to help Tet to the limit. For Tet, who had been ostracized by his own people, Arhalant was his identity.

Nozomu couldn’t help but bite down on his teeth at the sympathy he felt for Tiamat and the tightening feeling in his chest.

‘And then the incident happened.

‘The incident?

‘One of our people tried to stop the Tet by force. And he died.’

He died. At these words, Nozomu’s eyes widened.
To Nozomu’s surprise, Mikhail’s story continued.

‘When he died, his source material was captured by the Tet that triggered …… and she began to run amok. The rampant power killed the others who tried to stop her, and Tet ended up taking in even more alien and excessive power.

Those who tried to stop it died, and the source grew more powerful. It was the worst kind of domino fall.

‘We dragons are pure beings. By nature, we can’t inherit the power of a dragon that controls the source of different attributes. But Tet was special. She could take in elements different from her own and make them her own. That must have been her innate talent.

However, no matter how good she was, the amount of foreign power she took in was eating away at her body and mind.
Uncontrollable power and a cracking spirit. Because Nozomu had also taken in the power of the alien dragon, he could understand the feeling of his body and mind being torn apart by its power.

‘Even so, I managed to keep my ego intact just in time. I shattered that last chain.

Mikhail’s face twisted with more regret than ever.

‘At the time, I went to the land of dragons and humans for final negotiations. And when I came back, I saw Tet, who had taken the souls of my friends and run amok, destroying most of the country we held most dear.

In other words, she had, against her will, laid hands on the very people she had wanted to protect.

‘She told me. She said she didn’t mean to kill me. I didn’t believe her, so I said, ‘Traitor. She said I was a traitor. ……’

The rest of the story is as legend has it.

Tiamat’s reason was completely overwhelmed by anger, and his hatred was directed at the dragons who had denied him, the humans who had betrayed him, and the world itself.
With all his power, he destroyed Al Hallant, destroyed all the human nations that had been in conflict with him, and even turned on the dragon race.
Mikhail took the blame and became the keystone of the seal, sealing her away from Alharant, which had been destroyed by Tiamat.
When Mikhail finished speaking, an indescribable silence fell between the two of them.

‘Well, that’s it for the story of our past.

Nozomu was momentarily taken aback by Mikael’s abrupt change of subject, but he shook his head and changed his mind.
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‘There are two ways to control her power that you have taken in. One is to control it with your own unique abilities. But we don’t know when this will be possible. Besides, it looks like there’s a lot of trouble out there right now.

”Huh!

Mikhail waves his hand, and a circular mirror-like object appears behind him.
The mirror shows Sheena with a blank expression, surrounded by guards, and Iris Dina convulsing after being bitten on the neck by Vitora.
What the h**l is going on here?
As if sensing the upset, confusion, and frustration that was rising, Michael continued to speak.

‘The old fairy child saw your existence as a danger and tried to separate her great-grandson from you. He forcibly sealed his great-grandson’s heart.

Sheena’s doll-like expression remained unchanged even as she pulled away from her grandfather, whose heart she had sealed.
In the mirror that floated in the air, Mimulu rushed up to her, grabbed her shoulders and called out desperately, but the girl at the heart of the matter was staring into the void with empty eyes.

‘The gray-haired girl has decided to sacrifice herself so as not to worry you. Martyred by the noble but fragile faith in her heart.

Iris Dina, whose blood had been pumped into her by Vitora, fell to her knees and began to tremble as she held her shoulders.
From the fang marks on her neck, streaks like black veins emerged on her pure white skin.

‘They are both those who have formed a strong bond with you. Just like me and Tet once were.’

One by one, Mikhail revealed the secrets that Irisdina and Sheena had been trying so hard to hide from him.
The facts that were being thrown at him like a tidal wave were stirring Nozomu’s thoughts like a whirlpool.

‘The ceremony the fairy girl performed on you was essentially their marriage ceremony. It is a ritual that connects souls at a deeper level, a bond that will last until death do us part. And for you, she gave up the power to make her own dreams come true.

The Blood Covenant. The most sacred ritual of the elves, and the one that should have been a marriage ceremony.
It was a form of the elf girl’s feelings for him and her wish to help him.

‘The white-haired girl decided to separate you, who are essentially irrelevant, from the bad relationship. Believing that it was the best she could do for you now.

It was a thought that the noble girl could not compromise. Her own strength, which he admired and adored.
At the same time, it was also the image of her suppressing her other thoughts.

”Huh!

Nozomu’s thoughts, thrown into a whirlpool of confusion, quickly turned to anger. He was angry at himself for not knowing, or even noticing, what was going on.

Michael looked at Nozomu enviously as he bit his lip and stifled the urge to scream.
For him, even such anger was something he had stopped feeling a long time ago.
He had become nothing more than a keystone to seal Tiamat in this white space where nothing could be felt.

‘Now, I will teach you how to control the other Tet power that you truly desire. It’s a way to kill me here and take me in.

‘……What?

‘Now I am the key to sealing the Tet. If you kill me and bring me in, it will be easier to control her power. I’m sure that’s why your father handed me over to you.

He’s still a dragon, even if his form has changed. Therefore, if you kill him, the inheritance and usurpation of power and memories will be no problem.
Michael’s words, tinged with resignation, cooled Nozomu’s boiling head at once.
As Nozomu was confused, Michael spread his hands and looked down at Nozomu with eyes that had given up on everything.

‘Come on, crush me. Then you’ll be able to control her power. And you will be able to help them.’

Before he knew it, Nozomu had his favorite sword in his hand.
The blade that had cut a path that had been closed to him and his enemies. The dull glow of the blade was asking Nozomu a question.
He turned his gaze to Mikael and looked down again at the blade in his hand.
He then meditated, exhaled, and called out to Mikhail.

‘I want you to show me the way …… back to Arkazam.

‘You’re not going to crush me?’

‘Sure, I’m dying to do something about this power. I’ve been wanting it for a long time. But I didn’t take up the sword to kill, nor did I take up the power to avenge.

Once again, Nozomu reflects on his path.
He wanted to support Lisa’s dream, but his best friend kicked him out and he spent his days in disgrace.
He spent his days escaping and escaping, unable to change anything, and yet he never left this city.
I met and parted with my mentor, met and was supported by Iris Dina and others, and somehow was able to stand up.
Because I had been supported and encouraged by someone, I was able to stand up even when I was broken.
That’s why, Nozomu thinks.

‘I can’t get my dream by killing you here. That’s what I think.’

‘I see. ……’

He slowly put the sword back in its sheath. Seeing Nozomu, Mikhail smiled a gentle smile, different from the resigned smile he had just shown.

‘Thank you, for telling me about Tiamat.

‘Thank you, too. Thank you for listening to me. I’ve kept my mouth shut, but I’m sure I wanted to tell someone. ……’

‘Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. There was a time when I was thinking like that too.

The stagnation that sinks and accumulates in the depths of your heart as you keep silent. Everyone has times when they want to let it out.
I suppose it’s the same for dragons and people alike.
Nozomu smiled at the unexpectedly human spirit.

‘To return, break this mirror. It connects this space we’re in to the outside world, so if you break it, you’ll be able to open the way to the place of reflection, albeit temporarily.’

‘I see. ……’

Following Mikhail’s words, Nozomu stands in front of the mirror.

‘Well then, ……’

‘Good luck, I wish you luck.’

Nozomu puts his hand on the hilt of his sword, closes his eyes, and repeats a deep breath. He then closes his eyes and takes a series of deep breaths, relaxing his body to the utmost limit.
As I exhaled and relaxed, my mind became clearer and clearer.
As my past thoughts disappeared, I was left with three scenes from the past.
Lisa, who made a promise in her home village, Iris Dina, who broke down in tears at the death of her sister, and Sheena, who was devastated in the face of the avenging magical beast.
And at the base of it all, there was a certain feeling.

‘Oh, I see. ……. It’s like Dr. Henri said, it was there all along.

That was the first feeling he had.
It was only by looking at the facts of the past and overcoming the present that he had been able to find a guide to his request.
There were no more worries.

‘Let’s go ……’.

He cut the carp’s mouth and drew his sword.
As he shattered the mirror in front of him, Nozomu threw himself into the vanishing fragments.