Some died.
Some fled.
Some were paralyzed with fear and sank to the ground.
Just now, another soldier was killed.
Crushed under the gigantic Drake’s enormous foot.
When it lifted its foot, the form that had been human was squashed and stuck, slimy and gory underfoot.
Seeing this, someone was terrified again.
I didn’t belong to any of those groups.
“Watch your tail in the back! Don’t go near the hind legs!”
When panicked, they tried to aim for the Drake’s rear.
Because there was no courage to stand before such an imposing monster.
But the back is just as dangerous as the front.
The gigantic Drake’s tail is agile and solid.
Just the pressure from swinging it makes people stagger.
If you stagger, you’ll be trampled or kicked to death.
“If you can’t fight up close, just throw your spear at your knees and get out! Don’t block the movement!”
In the urgency, I ended up talking informally.
A few soldiers threw their spears and fled.
They may not have been javelins, but they flew with decent force.
The Drake swung its head, batting the spears away.
In that moment, I dashed between its front legs.
With all my might, I attacked its leg.
It’s so heavy that I had to hit it, not slice it.
Like chopping wood.
-Squish!
My sword nicked the hard scale.
This is the best I can do.
Even though I used sword energy, I can’t cut through.
‘If it were the moon’s eye, I might be able to.’
I pulled out my sword and dashed out from under its body.
The front paw brushed perilously close over my head.
I rolled away from it and jabbed my sword back into the gaps in the scales.
Still meaningless.
‘I can’t win like this. We’re all going to die.’
It has a durability fitting its abnormally large physique.
Even though it’s an average steel sword, the scales are so tough that not even sword energy can cut through them.
‘Then….’
I quickly made a decision.
The risk is high, but I have no choice.
I need the cooperation of those who survived.
As I crawled out, I shouted loudly.
“Everyone, draw its attention from the front!”
“Do you have a good idea?!”
“It’s not good, but I have a plan!”
“I’ll try it!”
And then I shouted with all my strength towards the castle walls.
“Wizard-! Just one big shot-! I’ll signal later, so wait-!”
Just a moment of hesitation from the Drake would be enough.
Whether the wizard understood, they traced a circle above their head.
In front of the Drake were my comrades.
I immediately dashed to the rear.
‘The front legs are relatively free to use, but the back legs aren’t.’
The hind legs are slightly shorter than the front.
Which means they’re lower.
‘The tail does complement the weakness of the hind legs. But there’s a very small space between the tail and hind legs. A quadrant where the tail can’t reach.’
I leaped with all my strength from that quadrant towards the hind legs.
Just right at the bent knee.
My body soared to thigh level.
“Huff…!”
I gripped my sword tightly with both hands and stabbed between the scales.
It was more like wedging it in than piercing flesh.
I held onto the sword firmly.
With my remaining hand, I pulled out a dagger from my pouch.
A dagger shaped like a sharp spike for fighting armored opponents.
Just what I needed.
-Thunk!
I jabbed the spike-like dagger between the scales.
It wouldn’t be deep and wouldn’t hurt the Drake much, but that’s enough for me right now.
Holding onto the dagger, I pulled out the sword I had lodged and slung it onto my back.
That’s how I climbed up the Drake.
Using the dagger to anchor myself, I stepped on the scales and steadily ascended.
My body swayed wildly as I moved around.
With this weight, I felt like I could spring off even with a slight movement.
Moreover, the scales are extremely hard and sharp.
Every shift tore through my gloves and palms.
Blood was running.
‘Hang in there…!’
Still, I gritted my teeth and climbed.
I barely made it to its back.
The ground ahead was somewhat flat.
I could run.
The flat head of the Drake was visible.
“Wizard-! Now-!”
Stones began to gather on the castle wall above.
Soon they formed a large boulder.
The finished boulder struck the Drake’s face.
-Thud!
But the Drake didn’t even flinch.
It merely halted as if irritated and shook its head.
That was enough.
‘Now’s my chance!’
I quickly rose from my crouched body and dashed.
My target was between its eyes.
Where its forehead would be.
Running across the thorny scales, I readjusted my grip on the sword.
“Ha!”
A short leap.
Then I landed on the Drake’s forehead, jamming my sword into one eye.
-Thunk!
Unlike the solid scales, it went in smoothly.
As red blood spurted out, the Drake let out a horrendous scream.
A chilling screeching cry.
It tossed its head around wildly.
“Ugh….”
But I held the sword with both hands and gripped it tight.
It felt like my arms were going to be ripped off.
The force of the 4m tall monster made my organs sway back and forth.
My brain was rattling, making me dizzy.
‘Endure…!’
I didn’t let go of the sword.
Due to its size, this thing isn’t very resilient.
It would tire out soon.
Then it’d be easier for me….
In that moment.
My body dropped suddenly.
The Drake had slammed its head into the ground.
“Ugh-!”
The sword slipped out.
The only consolation was that I was still gripping the sword tightly.
But my body was flying through the air.
I was launched upwards from the recoil.
The Drake’s ferocious eyes looked up at me.
Black eyes. Ivory vertical pupils.
It opened its jaws wide.
Hundreds of teeth like saw blades protruded.
The deep throat visible within was pitch black.
Was it flying too high?
Time seemed to slow down.
‘Ah.’
In the vast space where everything looked low and wide, I had a premonition.
That this might be the end.
‘Still, I have to do everything I can.’
I wasn’t going to just neatly fit into its throat.
I pulled another dagger from my pouch.
A faint reddish color.
A dagger that induces a stupor when stabbed in the heart.
It awakens after a certain time.
The stupor from this dagger is special.
While in a stupor, one cannot die.
It’s a sort of invincibility.
But the moment one awakens, one is defenseless, which is often used to kill.
Or to feign death.
‘Using this, my chances of dying are even higher. If I can’t get out before I wake up, I’ll be digested or suffocated to death.’
Still, it’s just how I am; I have to do everything I can.
In a desperate situation, there’s no time for fleeting thoughts.
Even so, the face that comes to mind is that of a woman.
Memories of her growing from child to adult come flooding back.
I plummeted.
‘If I’m going to die fighting, wouldn’t it be better to do it by your side?’
I let out a hollow laugh at that moment.
I didn’t realize I was this foolish.
Well, I suppose it makes sense.
From the moment I fled without changing my name, I was pretty much doomed.
Just before I was about to plunge into the Drake’s jaws, I thought I saw two gleaming gold coins from the city direction.
‘Am I seeing hallucinations now? What a variety!’
Darkness closed in.
I stabbed the sword into the black throat.
The moment the hot blood surged, its jaws slammed shut.
Everything went dark, and I was pulled inside by some force.
I had been swallowed.
Right before that, I stabbed the dagger into my heart.
Consciousness faded away.
*
Eliya entered Jericho.
Teleporting past the wall.
There didn’t seem to be any enemies.
Unlike the battlefield she had fought, it was an incredibly peaceful place.
She had planned to take a quick look around when a name caught her attention.
“Judas is here!”
That name echoed from the south gate.
She snapped her head around reflexively.
What she found was a distinct outline.
In a landscape where everything lost its edge and flowed like ink, and shadows merged into one.
Standing completely alone was a man.
She couldn’t help but see him.
As if he were a person from another world, he stood alone in vibrant color.
Bright golden eyes.
And his voice.
“Have you all heard the talk?”
Unique in color, a voice that clearly conveyed meaning directly to her mind.
Eliya stared at him, spellbound.
He stepped out with a serious expression.
In the distance, a gigantic lizard could be seen.
The Gigantic Drake.
A dangerous monster.
The man named Judas seemed to intend to fight that enemy.
He couldn’t possibly win.
Why was she looking at him?
Just then, the man’s sword glowed ivory.
Eliya took in all the subsequent actions with her eyes.
The man climbing the Drake.
Even if he was going to die, he struggled to resist.
‘…Ah.’
The moon hung in the sky.
The golden eyes shining brightly just before being swallowed.
The man, like a burning flame, soothed with a cold aura.
My anemone.
“Judas….”
The name rolled off her tongue, burning hot.
It felt like her tongue might disappear.
The moon’s eye in her hand.
The red blanket she wrapped herself in obsessively.
The cat doll she searched for as a habit.
The master of her nightmares.
Another self, trapped in a cage that she had once killed.
The blood that flowed to the anemone returned to herself.
-Thump!
Her heart raced strongly.
Forgotten emotions and memories resurfaced.
With that realization, the Drake swallowed Judas.
What happened next was simply instinct.
In an instant, the scenery changed.
She teleported right in front of the Drake.
She threw the moon’s eye.
There was no need to throw it herself.
The golden flame grasped the sword, and it was accurately aimed.
The moon’s eye, filled with her magical power, was a light mixed of ivory and gold.
The sharply flying sword precisely pierced the Drake’s forehead and penetrated its brain.
Another teleport.
Below the Drake’s body.
She raised four pillars from the earth and supported its weight, then sliced it from neck to tail with flames.
The scales, harder than steel, split apart like paper, spilling blood and organs.
And amidst it all.
“…Ah.”
Eliya noticed a man.
He fell, just like that, with blood all around him.
“Judas….”
She staggered closer to him.
The fallen Judas had his eyes closed.
Could it be he was dead?
She leaned her head against his chest.
Oh so slowly, carefully.
She temporarily forgot that their bodies shouldn’t touch.
A moment’s wait stretched into eternity.
No sound could be heard.
A silence like the void of the universe.
His heart wasn’t beating.
“Judas…?”
She called his name in a trembling voice.
No answer.
“Y, Judas…? Judas?!”
Eliya’s chin trembled.
Even after stroking his face and shaking his body, he didn’t open his eyes; he didn’t breathe.
He felt like a corpse.
Not like one.
If you don’t breathe and your heart doesn’t beat, that’s a corpse.
Eliya wanted to deny that.
“Judas, Judas…. I’m here… I….”
Suddenly, it felt strange.
Just because I’m here, does that mean he should wake up?
Who am I to him?
Ironically, it’s because I’m here that Judas shouldn’t wake up.
I surely had tried to kill him….
“Ugh-!”
She inhaled sharply and hurriedly pulled away from him.
In her hazy mind, she realized she had been in contact with him.
She was a person who shouldn’t touch him.
What came next was a strange sense of discomfort.
Even as his body darkened, a slight coolness flowed into her.
But just now, there had been no feeling at all.
Confused thoughts found something odd about Judas’ body.
The dagger lodged in his chest.
A thing she hadn’t noticed in her daze.
She hadn’t seen it closely, but Judas had no such thing in his chest before being swallowed by the Drake.
That meant the dagger must have been stabbed after he was swallowed.
‘How… could this happen….’
The moment the dagger precisely pierced his heart.
From the shape, it seemed Judas had stabbed himself.
‘…….’
Reaching the conclusion wasn’t difficult.
She had told him to die, and he had done just that.
One contradiction arose.
If it was to be like this, there was no reason to leave a decoy body in Bethany.
However, Eliya’s mind was too jumbled to figure that out.
What she gained, buried in self-blame, was a very simple ending.
Judas died because of her.
The reason she had chased him away with cruel words was simple.
She had judged that she couldn’t persuade him with just the truth.
If the emotions Eliya realized were true, then Judas’ feelings would be just as valid, and given his personality, he would surely want to stay by her side even if it meant dying.
But Eliya couldn’t trust herself, so she tore at his heart and exiled him.
She was complacent.
She should have thought more deeply.
If what she predicted about his feelings were true, then there was no way he would have been in a sound mind to hear her words.
She should have assumed he was suffering as much, no, more than she was.
In the end, he died.
It must have been his intention to face the powerful foe, the Gigantic Drake, from the beginning.
“J, Judas…. No…. P, please wake up…. I’m sorry, I….”
Her heart ached.
It beat painfully against her ribs as if it had not beaten for a long time.
If the cause of suicide were herself, then it was akin to murder.
She had killed Judas.
“Please wake up…. Please…. Oh, what do I do, what do I do….”
What if she had taken a different approach? Would the outcome have been different?
If so, wouldn’t it have at least meant he wouldn’t die?
She didn’t know.
If staying together led to death and leaving led to death, what choice should she have made in that moment?
It was too late to think about it now.
It always is.
It’s easy to reflect and critique after facing the results.
That’s why humans may always be creatures of regret.
Even knowing it’s pointless.
Eliya pulled him closer, burying her face against his chest.
As if trying to get closer to his heart.
But only her own heart was beating.
“Ah, aah…. Ugh….”
Tears flowed incessantly.
It gushed forth as if rebelling against the years she didn’t even remember crying.
She had survived because of that flowing, but he had died because of her.
“Ugh…! Ugh…! Judas…! Ughhh!”
With blood-soaked Judas slipping out of the Drake’s body, he looked like a newborn.
And embracing the fallen knight whom she had met as a corpse, Eliya cried bitterly.
“Uwaaaah-!”
She cried like a baby.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.
