"A dragon, supposed to be the world's harmonizer..."
Sterin deeply furrowed his brow as he observed the raging flames and toxic fumes engulfing the entire Great Forest.
"How could you stoop to such petty tactics!"
"It's precisely for that harmonization."
The dragon casually waved its hand while gazing at the Great Forest engulfed in flames.
"Matirus!"
Sterin shouted the dragon's name, filled with rage.
"Don't utter my name with that worthless mouth of yours. Since you ignored our warnings, even High Elves are nothing but vermin now."
Matirus brushed off its hands with a gaze as if it were looking at actual insects. (E/N: Gender for Matirus is not clear, so 'it' will be preferably used for now until appearance is clearer.)
"Why on earth are you going to such extremes!"
Sterin glared at Matirus with fierce eyes.
"Stop clinging to that facade of harmonization and speak honestly!"
"Raon Zieghart."
Matirus dragged out Raon's name from its mouth.
"From the moment you accepted Zieghart, the enemy of dragons, into Sepia, it meant you had no intention of listening to us. So I had no choice but to do this."
It shook its head, claiming that the elves had started this fight.
"Raon only brought my grandchild's relic! That child had no influence on my decision!"
Sterin slammed his hand down, telling it not to spout nonsense.
"...Reasons don't matter anymore. The Zieghart clan must disappear for the sake of this continent."
Matirus hastily changed the subject. Sterin's forehead throbbed with a thick vein as he watched Matirus casually dismiss anything unfavorable to itself.
"Harmonizer? Guardian? It was all bullshit after all."
Sterin gritted his teeth as he looked at the burning Great Forest.
"Just as Raon said, you're nothing but a filthy swindler."
He quoted Raon's words as he lifted the bow slung across his back.
"In the end, you've been tainted by human filth."
Matirus nodded as if it had expected this. It looked like a fanatic follower of a cult religion.
"Your choice was wrong."
Sterin narrowed his eyes as he nocked an arrow to his bowstring.
"Because Raon Zieghart, whom you fear, won't stand idly by."
"It's not fear, merely disgust. And you are quite mistaken."
Matirus sneered and shook its head.
"What?"
"I'm not the only ancient dragon who came here."
It spread its hands, declaring that Sepia would be erased from the world today.
"Do you think I'll stand by and watch that happen!"
A blue light, seemingly imbued with his conviction, flickered over the arrow Sterin held.
"Can you do it with that old body of yours?"
Matirus smirked as it conjured a golden radiance above its palm.
"What's old and sick isn't my body, but your souls!"
Sterin drew back his bowstring, exuding an unwavering will to never back down. The arrow whistled through the air.
* * *
Raon rose from his bed with his eyes closed. He had tried to get some sleep after finishing his sparring session with Sterin, but he sensed an ominous mana approaching Sepia.
-To sense such a distant presence even while sleeping...
Wrath let out a long yawn and smacked his lips.
-I guess we can safely say you've reached transcendence now.
'Seems I wasn't mistaken after all.'
Raon let out a short sigh as he looked out the window.
'It's not just one or two of them. They're monsters, but different from the usual ones.'
Most were monsters, but they possessed stronger auras than those typically found in the wild. There seemed to be several at the Master level as well. Raon picked up the Heavenly Drive and Rimmer's sword that he had leaned against the wall and went outside the lodging. The elves seemed to be enjoying a leisurely dawn, apparently not yet sensing the presence from outside.
"Huh? Division Leader. I heard you were training all night, so why are you out already?"
Dorian, who was rubbing his eyes while eating a snack, tilted his head in confusion.
"You must be tired from training with the Guardian. It would be better if you rested more."
Erian, who was preparing for his shift change, nodded in agreement that it would be better to sleep more.
"The enemy is coming."
Raon frowned as he tucked the Heavenly Drive and Rimmer's Leaf Sword into his waist.
"What? An enemy...?"
Erian's eyes widened in disbelief.
"A large army of monsters is moving through the Great Forest. They're advancing at an incredible speed. It seems they've appeared through spatial movement."
"No, if that were the case, the Guardians would have sent word..."
"I think they've already been taken out. I can't sense the presence of any elves outside."
Raon bit his lip. He tried to sense the elves among the monsters, but couldn't feel their presence anywhere. It seemed the enemy had first dealt with the hidden Guardians after mapping out the area.
"Raon is right!"
Siyana came running to Raon, wrapped in her
"The spirits told me the forest is collapsing!"
Her lips trembled as she reported that the number of monsters kept increasing.
"T-That's..."
As Erian's eyes widened in shock, flames and lightning began to erupt throughout the Great Forest. These were special monsters capable of using magic.
"Get ready. We don't have much time."
Raon gripped his sword hilt as he watched the Great Forest being consumed by flames.
"Understood!"
Perhaps because he had experienced similar situations before, Erian erased the panic from his face and rushed towards the Guardians' quarters.
"I-I'll go call the Light Wind division!"
Dorian nodded vigorously and returned to the lodgings where the Light Wind division was sleeping.
"W-Will we be okay?"
Siyana's eyes trembled within her blanket, clearly worried.
"We'll be fine."
Raon nodded calmly to reassure Siyana.
"The Guardian will also... Ah."
He was about to speak about Sterin but closed his mouth.
'Is he fighting outside, rather than in Sepia?'
Sterin's presence, which should have been in Sepia, was felt in the northern part of the Great Forest. His aura was fluctuating violently, as if he was fighting with all his might against someone.
"G-Grandfather is..."
Siyana's hands trembled on her blanket, seemingly sensing that Sterin was fighting from the shockwaves reaching them.
"He'll be fine. He's still going strong."
Despite his calm words, worry flooded in. After all, Sterin must be exhausted from their all-night sparring session.
'I have to defend this place.'
Even if Sterin had been drawn outside, Sepia's defenses were not to be underestimated. There would surely be attacks other than monsters, so he had to stay here to protect the elves.
"Haa..."
As Siyana let out a worried sigh, the Light Wind division and Guardians gathered at the center of the village.
"Division Leader. What's the situation?"
Burren furrowed his brow as he looked at the sky filled with black smoke.
"Monsters? Really?"
Martha wrinkled her nose, wondering where in the Great Forest these monsters had suddenly appeared from.
"Ugh..."
Runaan, unusually displaying anger, seemed upset at being woken from a sound sleep.
"As you can see, it's a monster attack. But these aren't ordinary ones. They're moving in formation like a trained army."
The monsters approaching Sepia weren't moving with the disorganized patterns of wild beasts, but systematically destroying the forest as if under someone's command. They couldn't just push forward with brute force as usual, as that might leave openings for attacks. They needed to decide on a direction to move.
"First team to the south, second team to the west, third team to the east. Don't let a single monster set foot in this village."
"Yes, sir!"
The Light Wind division swordsmen roared so fiercely in response to Raon's orders that it seemed to blow away the flames.
"My body was feeling stiff anyway, so this works out well."
Martha licked her lips, saying this would be a good warm-up before breakfast.
"Don't be so casual about it. It could be dangerous."
Burren warned the swordsmen to be cautious, simultaneously raising their tension and confidence.
"Ugh..."
While expressing her anger at not being able to sleep, Runaan raised a wall of cold energy to block the heat approaching Sepia.
"Then what will you do, Division Leader? Surely you're not going to send us out while you rest here..."
"Shut up and move!"
Martha smacked Krein's mouth and followed the Guardians moving south.
"We're moving out too!"
"Follow me..."
Burren and Runaan also followed, seemingly intending to split up after heading south where the most monsters were gathering.
"I have an ominous feeling..."
Siyana bit her finger and trembled.
"Nothing bad will happen."
Raon shook his head as he grasped Siyana's blanket-covered shoulders.
"I'll stop them all."
* * *
A horde of Black Orcs charged alongside armored Ogres. These wild monsters, which would normally be fighting each other, were now united in their assault.
"Just as the Division Leader said."
Martha snorted as she rotated her wrist holding the sword.
"These aren't ordinary creatures."
The Black Orcs and Ogres here were larger than those they had seen before, and possessed stronger fighting spirit. Not only were they in formation, but their individual combat prowess was far beyond that of wild monsters.
"Not that it matters to me though! First team, charge!"
At Martha's cry, the first team of swordsmen formed up behind her in a blade-like formation. It was the charging form of the Small Light Wind Formation.
With a thunderous roar, Martha's slash, empowered by the Small Light Wind Formation, reduced the charging Black Orcs to bloody masses.
"This won't even be enough to digest, will it?"
As Martha snorted, preparing to face the Ogre approaching from the left, a crimson fireball descended upon her head.
"Kieeee!"
It was the magic of a Black Orc Magician hidden behind the group.
"Kyaaaa!"
The Black Orc Magician tried to detonate the fireball above Martha's head, but his incantation was cut short. With a swift slash, Runaan's frost blade, appearing out of nowhere, severed the Black Orc Magician's neck.
"I didn't need your help, you know?"
Martha frowned as she looked at Runaan.
"Besides, you're supposed to be in the west!"
She waved her hand dismissively, telling him to disappear quickly.
"Miss Rakshasa can't even be honest."
Runaan clicked her tongue and shook her head.
"Save the jokes for later and focus on the battle now."
Burren sliced through an Ogre in Martha's stead and lightly shook his chin.
"Hey, why is everyone stealing my prey!"
Martha gritted her teeth in frustration.
"Huh..."
Erian let out a sigh as he watched the scene.
"I guess Raon isn't the only special one?"
He shook his head, seemingly surprised at the level of martial prowess displayed by the young Light Wind division.
"We need to split up now. Stay focu-"
Just as Burren was about to give a final piece of advice while moving westward, the ashen clouds covering the sky parted. A massive Black Dragon, large enough to cover the Great Forest, emerged. With a deafening roar, pitch-black toxic energy gathered in the Black Dragon's maw and began pouring down towards Sepia like a waterfall.
It was the Black Dragon's ultimate weapon, the Deadly Poison Breath. The air distorted from the potent toxicity of the breath, and the trees and vegetation that made up Sepia began to wither and die. The rumbling continued.
The Deadly Poison Breath had an incredibly wide range, falling even on the heads of the Light Wind division and Guardians who had already left Sepia.
"Insane..."
"H-How do we stop that!"
"It's over..."
As the Light Wind division and elves were falling into despair at the sight of the dragon's breath, which seemed nothing short of a natural disaster, a golden flame erupted from the center of Sepia. With a thunderous roar, a single sword strike split the sky. Raon rose into the heavens with a red slash that incinerated the deadly poison.
* * *
Sensing the refined movements of the monsters, Raon concluded that the enemy must be one of two possibilities.
'Dragons or Eden.'
The Guardians raised by dragons to protect their lairs were stronger than ordinary monsters and moved with military-like precision. Eden also possessed the power to control monsters, so they could certainly create a situation like this.
'But this time, it feels like dragons.'
They had seen a dragon upon entering the Great Forest, and Erian had been reluctant to discuss it. Given the current situation, it was clear there was an issue between Sepia and the dragons.
"Lady Siyana. By any chance, before, did the dragons..."
Just as Raon was about to ask Siyana about the dragons, he sensed a terrifying concentration of mana gathering in the sky behind the dark clouds.
'Dragon!'
It was the typical phenomenon of a dragon concentrating mana to unleash its breath. Without hesitation, Raon plunged the Heavenly Drive and Rimmer's sword into the ground of Sepia. Sword Domain - Divine-Demonic Harmony. Since the dragon's aura was not below him, he opened the Sword Domain from the start and struck the earth. The swords pierced the ground with a sharp sound.
As he rose into the sky wielding the divine and demonic swords forged from the sun and moon, he saw the Black Dragon spewing its Deadly Poison Breath, melting the clouds. Though smaller than the Gold Dragon they had seen upon arriving, it was undoubtedly an ancient dragon.
-All of it! Swing your sword with the intention of erasing every bit of the spreading poison!
Wrath advised that this was the only way to counter the toxic energy.
'Got it!'
Raon thrust himself into the Deadly Poison Breath spreading like a peacock's tail, invoking the extreme Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation. Raon Zieghart Style Swordsmanship.
Seventh Form: Void Slash.
The red-hot blade of the divine sword sliced through the space where the poison was spreading. With a searing sound, the Deadly Poison Breath that was about to engulf Sepia and the Great Forest began to be sucked into the crack of the rift.
'Ugh!'
Even as he pushed the Deadly Poison Breath into the split space, the pressure bearing down on him didn't diminish. The overwhelming force of the breath felt like it was crushing his shoulders and tearing his flesh. It truly lived up to its reputation as a dragon's ultimate weapon.
But if he stopped his sword here, the remaining toxin would kill all the elves and Light Wind division swordsmen. He had to stop it at all costs.
With a piercing sound, Raon gritted his teeth and swung the divine sword along the distant horizon. The Deadly Poison Breath was ultimately unable to fall on Sepia, instead being sucked into the rift and disappearing into the flames.
[W-What is this...]
The Black Dragon's massive maw trembled, seemingly unable to comprehend how a single human's sword had nullified its Deadly Poison Breath.
'Wrath. I'm taking back what I said yesterday.'
A blue-tinted rage settled over Raon's crimson eyes.
'I'll let you have that roast dragon you wanted.'
-The toxin will season the liver, so it should be nice and savory!