Chapter 133
Knox had just brought his hand to the hilt of his sword and was on the verge of charging forward.
I hurriedly grabbed Knox’s arm and stopped him.
“Knox! Talk to me for a moment. The children’s lives are at stake.”
“Indeed. That’s more like it, my niece. What use would a so‑called hero who saves the world be, if they were to treat the lives of children as something trivial?”
Ellarion’s hand moved to the third child. The children, paralyzed with terror, could not move an inch and were tossed this way and that by Ellarion’s gestures.
At the sight, the mages of Snowd were unable to hide their shock. Some of them even hurled coarse curses at Ellarion.
“You damn bastard! You acted like the apostle of a benevolent and holy god—was all of that a lie?”
“I thought it was strange when you asked us to gather children without magic, but we did as you wished, and from the start you planned to use them as hostages! Have you ever seen someone so cowardly and vicious?”
Because they had spent a long time with Ellarion, the sense of betrayal the Snowd mages felt seemed immense.
But with the children held hostage, they could not recklessly attack Ellarion and instead had no choice but to tremble with rage, forcibly swallowing it down.
The situation was far from good.
‘Even if I’ve regained my draconic power… Ellarion is also a powerful dragon.’
I was born of the bloodline of the great dragon Valamir, but half of me is human.
Ellarion, on the other hand, is a pure‑blooded dragon, though he has lost a significant portion of his strength from using creation magic.
‘If I’m going to defeat him, the most important thing is to prevent him from regaining his power.’
That was also something I had learned when I caught a brief glimpse of the future.
That hourglass he was hiding in his bosom—I must not let him complete it.
Each time a child collapsed, golden particles shimmered and flowed out; they were likely the child’s life force.
But it seemed that the children’s life force alone was not enough to fill the entire hourglass. That must be why he was telling me to return to the Empire, beating around the bush and buying time.
“So, what will you do?”
Ellarion asked me for an answer, his face filled with a relaxed expression.
“Just—just a moment. Please give me some time. This isn’t something I can decide on my own.”
With a confused look, I called Knox and the knights of the Rupellen Order together.
It was time to devise a strategy to neutralize Ellarion.
On the surface, Ellarion wore a relaxed smile, but in truth, his heart was extremely impatient.
There were now only about ten children left behind him. He had quickly drained the life force of the first two as an example, but touching any more children than that would be troublesome.
After all, the more hostages one had, the better.
‘What in the world is Director Melina doing?’
Melina needed to hurry and seize the capital of the Astria Empire, take people’s lives, and send their life force here.
Life force was extremely delicate and difficult to handle. That was why he had created things like contract quills and dream quills, siphoning it away little by little.
The purity of life force taken gradually without the person even realizing it was far higher than life force forcibly stolen by killing someone outright.
If Giana had not appeared—if the situation had not become this urgent—
He could have gathered well‑refined life force through the Pen‑Sing Factory’s quill series and filled the hourglass.
Of course, that had now become nothing more than a futile dream.
“…All right. I’ll negotiate with you.”
Giana, who had been speaking with the Grand Duke of Rupellen for quite some time, slowly approached Ellarion. Then, glaring at him with an indignant expression, she spoke.
“We will take the knight order and leave this place. So release the children.”
“As expected of Brother Valamir’s daughter. A wise decision.”
Because of that soft‑hearted decision, my brother lost both his life and his kingdom.
Just like her father, his daughter was equally indecisive.
Ellarion let out a sinister chuckle inwardly and gestured for Giana to hurry and leave.
When the Grand Duke of Rupellen motioned to the knights, they began to slowly retreat.
“Give the children back!”
One of the Snowd mages shouted harshly at Ellarion.
But Ellarion had no intention of doing so. He planned to keep the children as hostages until the hourglass was completely filled.
Keeping a wary eye on the Snowd mages who glared at him as if they wanted to kill him, he took one step back at a time.
That was when it happened.
“You let your guard down.”
At some point, Giana was already right in front of him.
Startled, Ellarion quickly raised his hand to harvest the life force of the third child.
But the child was nowhere to be seen.
“…?”
The child who had been at his side just moments ago was now standing beside Giana.
The same was true for the other children. Every single child Ellarion had been holding hostage was now behind Giana.
‘What is going on…?’
As Ellarion hesitated, unable to hide his confusion—
Giana’s form blurred, then in an instant split into multiple figures. It was clone magic, one of a dragon’s specialties.
Twenty GianAs charged at him simultaneously. Some clones laughed shrilly as they struck him, while others spat at him with expressions full of contempt.
Giana was everywhere. Faces identical to her father Valamir’s circled around him, spinning and dancing.
“Y‑you insolent wench…!”
Ellarion, who had been forcibly suppressing his anger, finally exploded.
He cast aside the elegant and noble mask he had worn until now and, with a face full of madness and rage, lunged fiercely at Giana’s clones.
A clone struck by his attack burst with a pop in midair, laughing gleefully. The surroundings filled with Giana’s laughter, explosions, and smoke.
Ellarion focused all his attention on desperately erasing those disgusting faces.
“I found your very existence irritating from the start! I thought I’d finally dealt with Valamir—and now a daughter who looks just like him? Ha!”
Each time he grit his teeth and violently swung his arms, a clone disappeared, until at last only a single Giana remained.
As if she had not expected the clones to be dealt with so quickly, Giana staggered backward, unable to hide her flustered expression, filling Ellarion’s vision.
‘So that was the real body.’
You really shouldn’t pull such crude tricks against a dragon.
Ellarion lunged at the last remaining Giana without hesitation.
Just as his hand was about to grab her by the hair—
Someone thrust a hand straight into Ellarion’s bosom and snatched the hourglass he had carefully concealed.
“…!”
Ellarion flinched and hurriedly clutched his chest, but it was already too late.
The Giana who had looked flustered just moments ago snapped her fingers with a smile as if to say he had taken the bait. The concealment magic slowly unraveled, revealing the figure of the Grand Duke of Rupellen.
In his hand was the hourglass he had just taken from Ellarion.
Ellarion bared his teeth at the Grand Duke of Rupellen, his eyes bloodshot.
“Hand it over at once!”
“If I were planning to return it nicely, I wouldn’t have gone through such a complicated scheme in the first place, would I?”
The Grand Duke of Rupellen smiled cruelly and clenched the hourglass with fierce strength.
Fine cracks began to form across it.
Crack.
At last, the hourglass shattered into pieces in the Grand Duke’s hand. The golden life force that had filled it spilled out and scattered into the air.
In that instant, everything Ellarion had painstakingly worked toward over a long period of time vanished into nothing.
“You—you…!”
At the sight, Ellarion’s eyes turned a vivid red, narrowing like a snake’s.
His flowing silver hair stiffened and transformed into sharp spikes.
His skin became covered in blue scales, and enormous wings burst forth from his back.
Finally transforming into the form of a gigantic dragon, Ellarion let out a roar filled with rage and madness.
“I will make sure that not a single one of you leaves this land alive!”
