Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 144

It was truly a race that generated pollution beyond imagination.

Moreover, they had long since achieved their initial goals.

As he intended, the population of the four major races that dominated the continent had been reduced to less than half.

But conversely, the green elves had exploded in numbers.

Now, the only problem left for the Spirit King was dealing with the explosively increased green elf population.

However, even that concern seemed easily resolved.

He wouldn’t even have to step in; the dragons before him would take care of them.

Naiad wore a bitter smile.

“Hmm, now that I hear it, that’s true. I also thought that part wasn’t a very wise choice… Very well. Then I shall withdraw. I’ll leave the disposal of the green elves to you, the dragon race.”

With those words, Naiad returned to the spirit realm, against Green’s will.

Green was taken aback and called out to Naiad.

“Naiad! Naiad! Where are you going, Naiad!”

Green couldn’t believe the Spirit King’s sudden betrayal.

She was able to come this far all thanks to Naiad.

Green continued to call out Naiad’s name like a child who had lost their parents.

Seeing this, Rekrashion spoke to her with a mocking tone.

“Foolish being, do you even realize you’ve been played in the palm of the Spirit King’s hand your entire life?”

“W-What are you talking about?”

“The birth of green elves like you, and the unfortunate life you’ve led, are all part of the Spirit King’s schemes. You were just a tool for murder, used to reduce the explosively increasing number of the four major races.”

“N-No way…”

She denied the reality of Rekrashion’s words – that her cursed birth and unfortunate life were all schemes of the Spirit King.

It was something she couldn’t possibly accept.

Because Naiad was a savior to her.

“That’s impossible! Naiad would never do that!”

“Still don’t understand? Naiad abandoned your race and left. He handed your disposal over to us. To still defend him is truly foolish. That’s why you’re being used and abandoned by Naiad.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! What do you dragons know? Naiad is my benefactor! He’s just temporarily deceived by your schemes! Phoenix will help me! Phoenix, help me!”

“It’s no use.”

As Rekrashion said, no matter how much she called out to the Fire Spirit King Phoenix, Phoenix did not appear.

“Phoenix! Phoenix! Ariel! Answer me! Answer me!”

As Rekrashion said, the Spirit Kings had no intention of appearing.

“Phoenix… Please answer me, please…”

“No matter how much you call, it’s useless. They are not beings that a half-elf like you can even dare to make a contract with in the first place.”

She also knew the meaning of his words well.

She, too, had wondered more than once about the Spirit Kings’ intentions in making a contract with her.

“I-Is that true? Is that so? Naiad?”

Green’s eyes shook violently.

Naiad, who extended a helping hand to her when she was in despair, and opened the path of revenge.

To Green, Naiad was the most grateful being in the world and the only one she could rely on.

Naiad’s betrayal was more cruel to her than any other betrayal.

Green instantly became like a blank slate, staring blankly somewhere with unfocused eyes.

“P-Please tell me it’s a lie, please…”

“Your unfortunate life is pitiful, but there is no mercy in the wrath of us dragons.”

Rekrashion breathed towards the green elves on the ground without a moment’s hesitation.

Then, the other dragons followed his lead and began to breathe towards the green elves.

The battlefield instantly became a scene of utter chaos.

50. At the End of Life and Death

Jikyeon quietly opened her eyes and looked ahead.

A night sky full of countless stars.

But it wasn’t the night sky on the ground that she had always seen.

The place where she opened her eyes now was the place she remembered last: space.

But strangely, she wasn’t suffocating or cold.

After a while, Jikyeon realized that she was dead.

‘Am I dead?’

Looking around, she could see her body torn to pieces, frozen in ultra-low temperature, and flying around.

As expected, her body, which had gathered the power of all the dragons to destroy the battleship, couldn’t possibly be intact.

‘Feels really awful.’

She felt disgusted looking at her corpse.

And she stared at her corpse and pondered.

‘I’ve never seriously thought about death while living until now… so this is what death is.’

To a dragon who lives for ten thousand years, the word death isn’t something that really touches their skin.

But even they could not avoid death.

She wanted to see her friend’s face one last time.

‘Will Kang Chan be safe?’

It was just a vague expectation, but she soon shook her head.

Until her memory ended, she had protected Kang Chan with a shield, but even after she died, the shield would not have protected Kang Chan.

Jikyeon put her regretful heart aside and had to leave for the place that was calling her.

At that moment, something familiar came into her sight.

‘T-That is?’

It was the steel giant called Red Rabbit that Kang Chan was riding.

Kang Chan’s Red Rabbit, which she thought would have been destroyed beyond recognition, was drifting through space with only its arms and legs missing, but its torso was almost intact.

Jikyeon couldn’t hide her surprise and moved towards the Red Rabbit with all her might.

Because she had hope that she could see her friend’s face for the last time before leaving for a distant place.

Soon, Jikyeon’s soul arrived at the Red Rabbit and passed through the shoulder armor and entered the cockpit.

There, Kang Chan, whom she had been so eager to see, was lying down.

Moreover, he was even alive.

Although faint, Kang Chan was definitely breathing.

Just barely, his body was collapsing.

His once handsome appearance was nowhere to be found, with only a few strands of hair left, and his face was a mess of deep wrinkles and protruding blood vessels.

But it was definitely Kang Chan. Jikyeon thanked God just for being able to see him alive.

‘You were alive, you son of a…’

But soon Jikyeon noticed something strange.

Because the soul of Kang Chan that she saw was deeply submerged in darkness.

His soul was asleep.

Having exhausted all of his soul’s power, he had finally fallen asleep.

It was on a different level from being tired and falling asleep.

Because once the soul falls asleep, it is unknown whether it will take 1 year or 100 years to wake up.

That meant that Kang Chan had become a vegetable [someone in a coma].

If Kang Chan continued to sleep in a place like this, he would surely face death like her.

He had to wake him up right away.

‘Hey! Wake up! You can’t fall asleep in a place like this! Wake up! Wake up!’

Jikyeon’s soul called out to Kang Chan’s soul, which was submerged in darkness, but his sleeping soul did not wake up.

‘Wake up, you idiot!’

Kang Chan didn’t wake up no matter how much she called.

Jikyeon had no choice but to throw herself into the darkness where Kang Chan’s soul was submerged.

And she grabbed Kang Chan in that darkness and pulled him out.

‘You son of a…! Please open your eyes! Open your eyes!’

But Kang Chan’s soul didn’t even think about moving.

Hidden in the darkness, his soul felt so heavy and cold to her.

Still, Jikyeon didn’t give up until the end.

Because she couldn’t just stand by and watch her friend die in vain.

‘Okay! Let’s see if you win or I win!’

Even as a soul, her temper was still the same.

Jikyeon’s soul wrapped around Kang Chan’s soul and struggled, and as if her heart was conveyed, Kang Chan’s soul began to move little by little.

‘Oh, it’s working! Just a little bit! Yes, just a little bit more!’

With Jikyeon’s help, Kang Chan’s soul gradually moved from the darkness towards the light.

Soon, when Kang Chan’s soul escaped the darkness and reached the bright place, Jikyeon’s soul was pushed out of Kang Chan’s body as if it were bouncing.

The soul of Kang Chan, the owner of the body, had opened his eyes.

Jikyeon’s exhausted soul finally sighed.

‘Phew, it’s done! He’s come to his senses!’

As Kang Chan’s soul returned to its place, Jikyeon now waited for him to wake up.

Because she wanted to see her friend’s face one last time after he came to his senses.

However, unlike her wish, Kang Chan did not wake up immediately.

No matter how long she waited, he just kept sleeping.

As Jikyeon was pressed for time, she wanted to wake him up even by hitting him, but it was impossible for her, who only had spiritual parts left.

As she was struggling, a strange change began to occur in Kang Chan’s sleeping body.

Crack! Crack! Squeak!

‘W-What is it?’

Suddenly, a terrible sound like bones breaking continued, and Kang Chan’s body began to heat up.

The second body change had begun.

It meant that he had truly reached the realm of Sword Emperor [the highest level a swordsman can achieve].

Kang Chan, an Earthling, had achieved an unprecedented realm that no one in the history of the Arkandor continent had ever achieved.

The reason why his soul fell into a deep abyss was because he was not ready to accept the mental shock that came from the stage of moving from Sword Master to Sword Emperor.

But because Jikyeon pulled out his soul that was in shock, his body was now transforming into a Sword Emperor, and only Jikyeon, who didn’t know that fact at all, was restless.

‘What’s wrong? What did I do wrong?’

Jikyeon was flustered by the accelerating strange phenomenon and racked her brain to find a solution.

But no matter how hard she racked her brain, there was no gain.

It was because it was a bizarre phenomenon that even she, the most ancient-class dragon who was said to be the oldest and wisest in the world, was experiencing for the first time.

Even while she was so flustered, Kang Chan’s body change continued without stopping.

As before, wastes accumulated in his body were pushed out of his skin.

However, since there were not many toxins accumulated in his body after becoming a Sword Master, it did not smell as bad as before.

After pushing out the waste, the few remaining hairs and eyebrows on Kang Chan’s body burned and disappeared. Teeth fell out and everything began to grow anew.

Kang Chan’s appearance was itself a marvel even to Jikyeon.

It was as if a new life was being born.

After completing the reconstruction of his body, Kang Chan soon began to absorb the light of the sun.

Space where you can get more powerful solar power than on the ground.

The infinite solar energy spread in such space turned into mana [spiritual energy] and began to fill Kang Chan’s dantian [energy center].

The amount of mana was an enormous amount that could not be compared to the past.

Kang Chan slowly opened his eyes.

“W-Where is this?”

Kang Chan tilted his head, looking at the familiar scenery unfolding before his eyes.

“How am I alive?”

Kang Chan couldn’t understand.

He should have died.

Even Kang Chan, who had crossed the threshold of countless deaths, could never believe this time.

Because the memory of just before death was still vivid.

‘…….’

Tears suddenly flowed down his cheeks, making an expression that he couldn’t believe.

“What, these tears?”

The tears did not stop and continued to flow.

He didn’t know why he was crying.

The only thing he could know was that it was not tears of joy flowing from the relief of surviving.

A sudden surge of sadness.

It felt like he had lost something precious.

Kang Chan didn’t know why he felt this emotion, but the Zaid computer’s warning soon awakened his mind.

-The remaining amount of oxygen is 15 minutes. Please return quickly.

Kang Chan quickly wiped away his tears and checked Zaid’s condition. But the situation was desperate.

Because the Red Rabbit, which had lost its flight, was unable to move in space.

Flight through magic was also impossible without Jikyeon.

There was only one way.

He had to abandon the Red Rabbit and escape with the emergency escape pod.

Kang Chan’s decision didn’t take long.

Because that was the only way to return to Neo Earth.