The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 215

215

Rem and Bart hurriedly returned to the Lanoa Grand Bridge, inadvertently swallowing hard.

“Bart, this is…….”

“Yeah, it’s the smell of burning people.”

They couldn’t know the exact situation because the Red Witches had blocked passage to the Grand Bridge, but they could clearly smell the acrid scent of burning human flesh and see black smoke rising.

“Did Rein do this?”

“No, there’s no way that guy would burn this many people. The problem is, what the hell is that plague…….”

Serwaybon, the White Sky Bow, cried out loudly once from Rem’s back.

The direction of that light pointed southeast, toward the Solond Kingdom.

Rem pointed in that direction and asked, as if confirming.

“So, Rein’s already gone that way?”

Woong.

Serwaybon seemed to nod.

“Are you kidding me? How could he get there already?”

Woong woong woong woong woooong.

Serwaybon started to glow so brightly it was blinding, as if getting irritated!

“Sorry! Stop it! Just kidding! I was just kidding!”

It wasn’t pleasant to cause a commotion in a place where everyone was already on edge, so Rem quickly grabbed a few merchants and asked.

“Hey, which road do I need to take to get to Solond?”

After four attempts, he was able to find a merchant fluent in the common tongue, but the answer was the same as the previous three.

“Solond, you say? Why would you want to go there? It’s not a country anymore.”

“Not a country anymore?”

“Don’t you know? Most of the land is turning into a plague zone. The Southern Republic’s Witch Association has completely blocked passage. They say they’re burning anyone who comes out of there, no matter who it is.”

The plague.

Yeah, what kind of plague is it?

The atmosphere turned eerie, and Rem and Bart couldn’t help but exchange strange glances.

‘The Republic is a country where witches who perform healing magic are stationed at the forefront.’

‘Therefore, they always had more advanced medicine than the Empire…….’

‘Those witches decided to incinerate even civilians, so how dangerous is the situation?’

Bart shrugged his Dragon Bone Spear on his back, loosening up his joints.

“We need to join up quickly. He might have already engaged the enemy.”

* * *

“A daughter, you say? Do you have a daughter?”

Valensidice, who knew at least a little about Aki’s background, asked in surprise.

「Her name is Elamas. You should know her.」

Elamas?

A silence of disbelief briefly dominated this unidentified basement.

Miria put her hand to her forehead to organize her thoughts.

‘Elamas, that’s definitely the name of the Black Church’s second pillar, right?’

‘Dragon Slayer, if she reigns over that monster, how much stronger is she?’

But she was a Dragon? Then it’s not that I don’t understand.

Shalesarum corrected their assumptions, as if reading the emotions in their eyes.

「Not a daughter born of flesh, but a daughter born of the heart.」

“Not a blood relative?”

「Not all True Dragons succeed in creating an avatar, so my sister’s blood relative here is truly the culmination of a great miracle.」

How could an indescribable sense of loneliness give birth to such longing, and did even the gods pity the sister and allow this gift?

“Elamas’s spiritual pillar was a True Dragon, I can’t believe it. Do you know what position Elamas is in now?”

While such questions and answers were exchanged, Rein and Pipi were unusually silent.

Their bodies were deeply wounded, and they were repeating shallow breaths, but what brought silence to their mouths was not physical pain but something in their minds.

One was because a fragment of Alakish’s soul resonated with that flame and was crying, and the other was…….

‘Rista?’

That name, that face, that smile that had been buried in the era of 300 years ago, repeatedly came to mind and took over his head.

‘When I saw it with Bell Curios [a magical artifact or ability], there were no hallucinations or illusions there. It was real.’

Yeah, it’s natural that she wouldn’t recognize me because my face is different.

But she didn’t recognize Pipi.

No, she recognized her for a moment. She grabbed her head painfully as if her memory was being controlled.

‘Then it’s real.’

But how is that possible?

Karenden said. All my companions ascended to the sky without being bound to the earth.

But Rista, who had the most noble and beautiful heart among the Dragon Slayer party members, was left on this earth?

How?

Why did this happen?

If he could, he wanted to scream until all the energy in his body was exhausted; his heart was so frustrated.

「It is all Shalesarum’s fault. I did not understand her heart when I left that child.」

“What do you mean?”

「Unfortunately, I do not have time to explain my story with that child in your language. Neither to this remnant of Shalesarum, nor to the descendant of Ligwind.」

In the rapidly changing situation, he had forgotten. Valensidice, startled, checked Ovin’s condition.

His body was as hot as a ball of fire.

He had clearly cast a spell, and even the caster was dead and the song was cut off, so why couldn’t he wake up?

「The dark magic used by Elamas and her subordinates gnaws at the weak parts of humanity and takes the soul. Submerging the body in the abyss.」

Miria raised her eyebrows.

“Neigalas?”

Valensidice immediately retorted as if scolding.

“It is the true name of the Lizard Lord. Do not utter it carelessly with human lips. The abyss will spread.”

“Then we need to solve it quickly. Taking the soul, doesn’t that mean he’s going to die?”

And perhaps, that dark magic is the dark magic that is turning Solond into a land of plague right now.

And the moment it is activated on a wide area, the entire country, or even the entire continent, will be ruined.

Roughly summarizing the fragmentary information I got during the interrogation, it seems that the preparations are almost complete…….

「If this body were intact, I would have immediately removed the dark magic, but now I am only a remnant.」

“Then what should we do?”

「Therefore, to remove that child’s dream, someone else must enter that dream. He cannot come out of his happy memories, so we must awaken him to the truth.」

To enter someone else’s dream?

It was an idea that only a transcendent being like a True Dragon could come up with.

While Valensidice and Miria were looking at each other, hesitating, Rein, who had been silent until now, spoke.

“You go in, Valensidice.”

“……?”

“When I was trapped in a dream, my teacher said: ‘Is this really the place you should return to?'”

That one word allowed me to immediately escape from the dream.

Those words of my teacher, who guides me on the right path whether I am alive or dead, lead me to the future.

And there is a similar situation here.

“You are that guy’s teacher. It’s natural for a teacher to take care of their student……?”

Valensidice bit her lip.

A teacher.

Can I really be a teacher? Do I have the right to be? With this hand that killed my teacher to survive…….

“You had a teacher too, didn’t you?”

It was the day of the magic volleyball match, wasn’t it?

When I conveyed the headmaster’s mindset, this guy made a face as if he felt déjà vu and asked for the headmaster’s name.

Maybe this guy had a teacher who gave him the same heart. It could be Toureina, or someone else.

“Raising a disciple is also an extension of studying; not only will your knowledge grow, but your heart will too.”

“Your heart grows? How is that possible?”

“You will know the heart of the teacher.”

Suddenly, unexpectedly, again, the warm smile of Headmaster Atlante, as if illuminating the soul, made him laugh even in pain.

– Rin, try this.

Was it because of that smile?

Or was it because of those words?

In Valensidice’s head, the laughter of the teacher he ‘killed’ came to mind for the first time in a long time.

“…….”

Valensidice didn’t answer but instead went and sat at Ovin’s bedside.

‘Yeah…….’

Shalesarum watched the situation and was able to have one conviction.

‘Sister, I understand why you chose that human as the protector of your blood relative.’

I do not know what sad circumstances prevented Alakish from coming, and only her blood relative came with her protector…….

「It is decided. After putting you into the dream of Ligwind’s descendant, this Shalesarum will guide my sister’s blood relative.」

“About……?”

「This Shalesarum’s memories, power, abilities…… and even how to fight as a dragon.」

If it were normal, or perhaps if it were Aki in her childhood, she might have asked Rein’s opinion at this moment.

But Aki clenched her fist with her own will and shone her eyes.

Was it because she realized her shortcomings at the Lanoa Grand Bridge?

「It will not take long in human time. I will burn this last soul to create a space of eternity. Now, let’s begin.」

* * *

“Priest, please, please, I beg you. Please, just this child…….”

Solond Kingdom border, Palsas region.

In the middle of the plague zone that even the kingdom’s soldiers were reluctant to enter, Elamas entered without any hesitation.

Elamas was a hero and a representative of God in the collapsing kingdom.

“There is nothing to fear. God will take care of your pain.”

Many people brought plague patients to her.

Those whose hands or feet had been transformed into primitive forms, children who had already become primitives due to the Manghon disease and were chained up…….

When Elamas raised her arms and offered a benediction, the plague was instantly purified, and people shed tears and bowed their heads.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Every time Elamas performed a miracle, her status rose even higher, and the royal family’s position gradually deteriorated.

Since foolish humans could not know that it was not a miracle but simply retracting the dark magic she had spread.

If Elamas had been a simple fairy priest, there might have been those who doubted… but she was a Dragon Priest.

“Um…….”

The child who had returned to human form from a primitive state wanted to express his gratitude, so he tugged at her clothes.

Then, he involuntarily stepped back, wetting himself, due to the sudden surge of intense murderous intent.

Why? Why? The priest was just smiling at him.

“Yes, listen to your parents from now on.”

The truth was that Elamas could not hide the momentary murderous intent that arose from her primal displeasure.

‘How dare this dirty human brat touch my body?’

And in response to that rage, the unrealistic being standing behind her like a huge mountain roared fiercely, shaking the ground.

“And give your thanks not to me, but to this one.”

The transcendent being that accompanies Elamas wherever she goes, the reason why she is called the Dragon Priest.

Scales that shimmered as if carving flames, a huge body that even felt sublime majesty, and wings as beautiful as flames.

Its identity is one of the five flames that received life from the Great Fire, Bel’dakidun…….

The second flame that took care of her younger siblings after the eldest daughter Alakish disappeared, and the flame that had been forgotten by humans 500 years ago.

Once, humanity praised that dragon as the ‘Great Shalesarum’.