[You must have told me to leave.]
The enormous Elder Dragon spoke without even opening its eyes.
[Did you really think you could invade my territory without permission and remain unharmed?]
In that moment, a tremendous pressure pressed down on my shoulders.
Thud.
I knelt down as if I had crumbled without realizing it. I tried to get up immediately, but my body wouldn’t budge.
I understood for sure. This was a natural disaster. It was an unreasonable existence that couldn’t be avoided just by being prepared; all I could do was hope to not encounter it.
Feeling as if a knife was at my throat, I quickly racked my brain.
The first thought that came to mind was surprisingly that Yustelein might have a gentle personality. The fact that I was standing here facing him instead of being dropped before arriving here suggested he didn’t intend to kill me.
“I take it your test of qualifications is in response to my lack of answers.”
At least in the moment he spoke, it wasn’t the worst situation. I quickly answered his question, determined to hold on before his interest in me waned.
“I misunderstood your silence as a positive response. Please forgive me.”
[Hmph.]
While I couldn’t move my body, my eyes still worked.
I gazed at the closed eyes of Yustelein, trying my best to straighten my back.
Even though it was a mere action, sounds crackled in my spine. My thigh muscles pulled tight as if they would burst, and my neck was stiff. The Elder Dragon’s immense aura was violence itself.
At that moment, the Elder Dragon’s eyelids slowly opened. Golden eyes that seemed to pierce through the principles of existence stared at me.
[It seems the fourth spirit of darkness is slightly more courteous than the stray dog that visited before.]
Of course, it was only natural; Yustelein already knew who I was.
That stray dog he mentioned was likely a jab at Ophelia, who had dared to challenge him.
I lowered my eyes as if to claim I had no intention of causing a ruckus. After about a minute of breath-stealing silence, a conditional consent finally fell.
[Very well. Welcoming a visitor after two thousand years is a form of entertainment. Why have you come here looking so wretched?]
“I seek the power and wisdom of a great being. I believe this is the only place to respond to the threat that has come to the surface.”
[Calling it a threat from the surface is somewhat misleading. What the spirit of light aims for is only humanity. Even if all humans fall into its grasp, other life forms will still thrive.]
I shuddered at the unexpected information.
It was somewhat expected that an omniscient observer might be keeping an eye on the emergence of Luminous, but the fact that he intended to dominate all humanity was a worst-case scenario I had only presumed but not confirmed.
However, since Yustelein proclaimed it, it must be an undeniable fact.
[I am an observer and a bystander. As long as the order of the surface is not unjustly disrupted, I will not intervene, and the fates of each race are left entirely to the principles. Yet you would have me intervene in the surface’s power struggles and take the side of night?]
“That’s exactly right.”
Thud, with the pressure intensifying, my already-kneeling posture collapsed, and I fell to the ground.
I would die. The solidified rage brushed through my mind as I experienced death more than a hundred times.
[Know your place. Which safety dares to ask me to disrupt the balance of the surface?]
“I am not suggesting that I disrupt the balance. Rather, is it not the act of denying my help that disrupts it?”
[You dare—!]
“You surely remember the first vampire who came two thousand years ago.”
As I coughed up blood from my painfully compressed throat, I spoke with difficulty.
He couldn’t honestly say he didn’t remember. Just a bit earlier, it was Yustelein who first mentioned Ophelia.
“The one who first killed the original vampire and disturbed the order of the surface was none other than the great being.”
[Hah, you would now reprimand me for handling the stray dog that first revealed its fangs?]
“How bold it is to direct a frank remark, but yes.”
Clenching my jaw, I pushed my arms against the ground.
My entire body screamed as if fighting against thousands of times the gravity.
Crack, feeling the bones in my ribs break and misalign. Ignored it and rose to my feet.
I had expended a fair bit of energy on my way up, but it wasn’t enough to keep me from dying with just this. I managed to return to a sitting position, not avoiding the gaze of the imposing great dragon.
I wasn’t doing this out of mere bravado.
From our brief conversation, it seemed Yustelein had a tendency to obsess over balance and order.
I didn’t know the exact reason yet. Whether he saw it as his duty or if he was merely enjoying my continued survival while not killing me was still ambiguous.
Regardless, I decided to tread that path. After all, I had come this far with nothing to lose, so I would take any worthwhile option.
“The great being granted permission for the first vampire to set foot here.”
I emphasized the word “permission” as I asked.
I had heard a few times from Martini and Jeil about the first progenitor, Ophelia. Therefore, I could roughly imagine how powerful she had been.
Ophelia was undoubtedly much stronger than I was now. But could I confidently say she could match the great dragon before me? Absolutely not.
“The great being could have subdued the first vampire without killing her. Or, if he desired, he could have denied her entry from the beginning. Is that not so?”
I didn’t know if the rumor about Ophelia having landed a blow on Yustelein was true or false. But one thing was certain; if that rumor were true, Yustelein had either allowed it or had been caught off-guard.
There was a level of unimaginable disparity.
If Ophelia had even a chance of reaching Yustelein’s toes through sheer combat, the vampire forces from two thousand years ago would not have crumbled right before the unification of the continent; they would have crumbled after completing the unification.
[…Indeed. That is true. I found interest in the first living being to reach this place, and I allowed them to stand before me.]
The golden eyes that had been staring at me blinked once, and surprisingly refreshing words returned.
[I wouldn’t have thought a creature from the surface would reveal its fangs at me. However, oh spirit of darkness, answer me. Why should this body, which shows murderous intent towards me, be spared?]
Well, what’s wrong with that?
The arrogance of one entitled to be arrogant carries its own persuasiveness. In fact, calling it an act of arrogance to kill someone trying to kill you seems a bit off. Just as a human would swiftly squash a mosquito sitting on their arm, from Yustelein’s perspective, killing a vampire wouldn’t change a thing.
Except for one thing; the constraint the great being had imposed upon himself.
“There is none.”
[Then.]
“The fact that the great being mentioned not intervening in the order and balance of the surface can be easily bent is the answer.”
Intrigue sparkled in Yustelein’s golden eyes.
At that moment, I thought this exchange might have been within the anticipated range for the dragon and was merely a form of amusement.
But as long as I could get what I wanted, it didn’t matter whether the cause was whimsy or entertainment.
What mattered was will and results. If I could accomplish what I had set my mind to, I could even be a puppet on a stage.
[I have never taken the order and balance of the surface lightly. Watching over the model garden spread across the surface is my only amusement; how could I ruin my own garden?]
“…Then the great being should have sent the first vampire back alive. It is undoubtedly a fact she committed an irredeemable rudeness towards the great being, but at that time, she was the most powerful being on the surface.”
If Yustelein had not permitted Ophelia’s ascent from the beginning, she would not have died.
Yet Ophelia died at Yustelein’s hands, leading to the downfall of the vampires who lost their king.
Of course, one couldn’t assert that if Ophelia had survived, she would have quietly returned to her king’s position.
But that too was uncertain. After all, it was a possibility erased by Yustelein.
However, one thing was clear; whatever Ophelia did, if she had just lived, no one would have dared to think of touching the vampires.
“In other words, the great being has already indirectly influenced the downfall of the vampires. If the first vampire had survived, her existence alone would have kept the vampire force intact.”
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