201. The Scaled Empress, Sadarkelisa (2)
A crack runs through the frozen time. Red thorns tear through the sky, spreading like spiderwebs, and soon the cracks begin to descend everywhere in sight.
Fernandez watched the crumbling barrier with his fading vision. The stopped time, the burning earth, all of it was Sadarkelisa’s ‘dream.’ The barrier that had manifested her dream was slowly collapsing.
[You, mortal!!]
Sadarkelisa’s scream, scattering into pieces as she soared into the sky, shook the earth. As if glass were shattering, the cracks fragmented, and time began to flow again.
The wind blew. Screams and roars began to echo once more. Fernandez quickly turned his back. Against the backdrop of the burning Yggdrasil, he resisted the heat scorching his back, his exhausted body, and the hellish magic coursing through his veins…
“Your, Your Excellency? What is this?!”
“Shh. Kirhas.”
-Swish.
Fernandez slowly embraced Kirhas. He had to protect her as much as possible from the heat and magic surging behind them. She, unaware of what was happening, panted in his arms.
“Your Excellency, my goodness! Your, your wounds! Your arm?!”
“Any trouble breathing?”
“I’m fine! I’m fine, but…”
“I’m fine too.”
[Is that so?]
Botan, from Fernandez’s waist, chuckled softly. He briefly assessed Fernandez’s condition and marveled.
[Such dense magic. How can you maintain your sanity?]
“I’ve done it before.”
Unlike others who had to modify their souls to survive on the earth corrupted by hellish magic in their past lives, Fernandez, who clung to spiritual purity, had to consider a different way of survival.
Filtering hellish magic, completely neutralizing its effects was impossible, but he had reached a masterful level in minimizing the side effects accumulating in his body.
As a result, Fernandez could maintain his sanity amidst Sadarkelisa’s magic. His body was dying moment by moment, but for him, sanity was more important than the flesh.
“Fernandez!!”
A sharp voice echoed from beyond the sky. Up there, a crimson dragon was flying through the sky. It was Abel. She spotted Fernandez and immediately swooped down.
“Are you alright?”
“We’re all exhausted, Abel.”
“…Right. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise.”
-Boom!
Abel’s massive body landed beside him, shaking the earth. She looked down at Fernandez and Kirhas with a troubled gaze. Soon, she turned her head to look at Yggdrasil. Beneath the flaming roots of Yggdrasil, a massive presence was rising.
“She’s coming. Is there any hope?”
“Clutching onto hope is foolish. Neither I, nor you, nor this world has much time left.”
“Right. Let’s not cling to hope, but resist despair.”
-Flutter.
Abel spread her wings wide, shielding Kirhas and Fernandez. The wind blowing through the flames collided with her wings, scattering sparks. Abel calmly faced the lightning strikes, gazing at the base of the World Tree.
-Crack!
A small crack ran across the ground. First claws, then thick arms. Soon, a massive body tore through the earth, crushing and shattering the trunk of Yggdrasil.
-Crack, crash!!
A giant serpent, a winged serpent, coiled around Yggdrasil, revealing its head. The World Tree, more like a city wall than a building, was hidden beneath the serpent’s body, its boundaries blurred by the flames.
Amidst it all, two glowing eyes burned like embers.
-Crash!
The earth began to crumble, and twisted beings started crawling out. With her appearance, the ground lost its life and began to collapse. Flames, cracks, and screams echoed everywhere in sight.
In the distance, the legions of Jotun and Helheim, trapped among demons, screamed. Fernandez slowly stepped out from under Abel’s wing. Pushing him back slightly, Abel whispered.
“Do you have a plan?”
“Take me to its head.”
“Alright. I’ll lead. You follow.”
Abel grinned and looked straight ahead. Sadarkelisa, coiled around Yggdrasil, silently gazed down at her and this world.
“Sadarkelisa!!”
Abel shouted at the top of her lungs. The dragon’s roar pierced through the flames blocking her path.
“Do you remember me?!”
[Ah, of course. Abelesas. Sadarkelisa’s former sister.]
-Crash.
The massive branches of Yggdrasil crumbled, revealing the writhing body of the serpent. Sadarkelisa slowly raised her head and whispered.
[Have you come to offer your soul to Sadarkelisa?]
“Nonsense! I’ve returned to stop you, the deeds you’ve done, and the deeds you will do!”
[Stop Sadarkelisa? Stop ‘me’?]
The hissing grew louder. Even the noise of the battlefield surrounding Yggdrasil seemed drowned out by it. The serpent laughed, shaking off madness, and slowly rose.
-Crash!
The massive branches crumbled, and the serpent’s body writhed above them. Sadarkelisa raised her head high, gazing down at the crumbling earth. She glared at Abel with burning eyes and shouted.
[‘I’ am Sadarkelisa. The end of all creation, the doom of thousands of worlds, the fate of the gods! The storm of destruction, ruin, and bitter cold, and the sun of drought! No one can stop me! Even the great gods of the heavens hide in the shadows, fearing me!]
“Quite the speech.”
Fernandez clicked his tongue. Hearing it, Sadarkelisa’s eyes flickered as she glared down at him.
[Sadarkelisa’s name is Ragnarok! Your twilight has come!]
-Crash!
The earth trembled and shattered around her. The dimensional rift intensified, and the boundaries between Muspel, the hell she ruled, and Asgard began to collapse.
Fernandez lifted Kirhas onto Abel’s back and leaped onto Abel’s body. At the same time, black chains appeared from Abel’s neck, wrapping around his wrist.
“What’s this?”
“Doesn’t it bring back memories?”
“Haha!”
Magic began to resonate between Abel and Fernandez. The Chains of Control. The bond she had directly allowed burned more intensely than when they first cast this spell. The time they spent together, perhaps memories that could be called nostalgia, flowed through the spell entwined around his wrist.
The dragon’s soul, the divine spirits and magic of the elf gods that formed her body, and the divinity Fernandez himself held pulsed more fully than ever. Fernandez, brushing the scales on Abel’s neck, murmured.
“Right. It brings back memories.”
“The words we said then too?”
Now, between Fernandez and Abel, a single thought conveyed information faster and more accurately than a hundred words. Abel was reminiscing about the moment she first met Fernandez in her realm of imagination.
* * *
‘Let me tell you why this era is called the ‘Age of Humans.”
* * *
What is a human? Fernandez, at some point…
He got deeper into the argument than ever before. What is a human, after all? Abel is a dragon, and he himself is no longer a body that can be called an ordinary person. Even Kirhas, now clad in divinity—can they still be called human?
What was his past life like? Could the dark mage Faijashi, who obsessed over spiritual purity more than anyone else, be considered more human than the human heroes who modified their souls to protect civilization?
“You’re wrong, Vaitas.”
Did he send you back because you were the only human? No, that’s not it. He shouldn’t have done that. Even if there was no one better than you, that arrogant god shouldn’t have been obsessed with human purity.
The purity of the soul, the purity of the flesh—those are secondary issues. Fernandez smiled as he stroked Abel’s strong neck, soaring into the sky.
“Alright. I understand.”
Let’s show them the age of humans. The dragon who said that was more human than anyone else. And so was he. Fernandez gripped the sword hilt and thought. The sword of King Dain, ‘Compassion.’ That might be the strongest measure of what makes humans human.
‘My son.’
For a moment, Fernandez thought of his son, whose face was now fading from memory. The wind wildly tossed his hair. In the moment when his soul and body were slowly disintegrating amidst the surging magic, he felt his son’s pain and fear more acutely than ever before.
‘Now I understand why you were so afraid.’
Self-loathing for being resurrected as an undead? The fear and madness his son felt weren’t because of that. It must have been the fear of losing his humanity. His son, Aria, was the last shred of conscience Faijashi held onto, the last bit of humanity that allowed him to exist as himself.
The moment he lost that last piece, Faijashi could no longer be classified as human. And vice versa.
‘The flesh is just a shell.’
If one can maintain compassion and humanity, the state of the body and soul cannot be the criteria for defining a human.
-Whirr.
“Abel.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Distract the serpent’s gaze.”
Fernandez stroked Abel’s neck once more, then leaped off her back, still gripping the sword hilt.
* * *
Abel, aware of Fernandez’s thoughts through the mental connection of the Control Chains, did not stop him. She watched him fall and quietly laughed to herself.
“Your Excellency, Your Excellency!”
Kirhas screamed as she watched Fernandez plummet. Abel whispered to her as if to soothe her.
“Calm down, Kirhas.”
“You…! Turn the direction now! Your Excellency is falling down there!”
The ground below, even if it were intact, would not spare a human body falling from such a height. Moreover, the ground had turned into hell, with cracks leading to Muspelheim scattered everywhere.
If he fell down there, he would never survive. Kirhas thought this as she anxiously gazed at the ground, where black smoke rose from the thick flames.
“He has his path, and we have ours.”
“My path is… huh…?”
Kirhas, who had been growling and shouting, suddenly stopped. In the crimson-stained sky, a thin, thread-like blue light appeared.
The realm of instinct and intuition, screaming towards ‘victory.’ A light visible only to her.
“What do you see?”
As if reading her mind, Abel spoke. Kirhas swallowed hard and looked towards the front, where the flames burned the fiercest. The rough wind made it hard to keep her eyes open, but…
Right ahead… in the center of Yggdrasil, where Sadarkelisa roared. From that place, where reason screamed to flee, slowly, faintly, but brilliantly… the path to victory was burning.
“Where should we go?”
“To the lower right. A bit more… lower. Yes, that direction now.”
“Good.”
Abel grinned and opened her mouth. A rough flame spewed from her mouth, stretching towards the direction Kirhas pointed.
-Kwaaaaah!
Her magic already contained divinity. The breath imbued with the power of the Elf Goddess obliterated Sadarkelisa’s magic, creating a momentary magical vacuum around them. Through the flames, Sadarkelisa’s figure became clear.
Beating her wings towards that direction, Abel felt her life force rapidly depleting within her. It would be the same for Fernandez, who had just fallen to the ground.
Even if this were her last flight, it would be fine. Even so.
“Sadarkelisa!!”
[Pathetic insects. Weak and incompetent, yet greedy beyond their station, acting as if they will live forever, yet unable to endure even a fleeting moment. Moths scorching their wings in the flames…]
Amidst the flames, burning anger and madness could be felt. Soon, a massive arm pierced through the flames, reaching towards Abel. Abel swiftly dodged, scratching the scaled arm, and flew up again.
[Humans. Mortals! Disgusting, squirming creatures, constantly whining. Hypocrites, pretending to be evil, deceiving themselves, yet unaware of their own ugliness. For the sake of those you claim to love, dare you oppose Sadarkelisa?]
“No, no. Sadarkelisa. No…”
-Snap!
The serpent’s claws slashed through the air again. Abel dodged Sadarkelisa’s attack and shouted.
“Even if they are frail, weak, and small. Unlike you and us, their time flows. Unlike us immortals, fixed in the same time, stars, jewels, and gold may shine. But the most beautiful treasure I see is the flame that burns itself in a single moment!”
[Disgusting! You merely pity and sympathize with them. Hypocrisy, Sadarkelisa finds your hypocrisy disgusting!]
They needed to buy time. Abelesas calmly evaded Sadarkelisa’s attacks as she flew through the sky. Her attacks were unpredictable, appearing suddenly amidst the flames, but Kirhas always noticed first and signaled Abelesas.
Abel dodged Sadarkelisa’s arm once more and shouted.
“Do you think it’s wrong to desire beyond one’s station? For thousands of years, all we could do was add a few more scales! How can the desire to surpass what one has be condemned? Look at their progress, their advancement. The strength of mortals, short-lived species… how could I not be fascinated by their light?”
Now, her words were more of a plea than persuasion. Abel shouted, resisting the life force depleting within her.
“Fernandez. How could I not be fascinated by you?”
To the man who burns his soul and body for a single purpose. Not for his own glory, but to undo his regrets. A man who, despite being more cynical about humanity than anyone, has sacrificed his own happiness and peace to sustain civilization.
What dragon could not be fascinated by such a life’s light?
Abel said this and paused in mid-air, spewing flames. This might be her last breath. There was no more life force left.
“Abel!”
She shook off Kirhas, quickly grabbed her, and threw her onto the nearest branch of Yggdrasil. Then, she began to plummet towards the ground.
Hoping that the brief time she bought would help him. She felt her scales peeling off, her body slowly shrinking. Abel, now in human form, fell straight towards the ground.
“From now on, I will lead.”
-Thud.
As she fell near the pillar of Yggdrasil, a hand grabbed her arm. A rough, scarred hand. In her fading vision, Abel smiled softly.
“I will follow.”
Facing her, Fernandez also smiled.
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