MTDIK 05

Chapter 5

“Truly Beautiful.”

“Understood.”

Ruri no longer tried to stop Ferda, who was being stubborn. She had expected him to refuse after her firm warnings, but she instead chose to follow Ferda’s decision without any resistance.

After Ferda finished his meal, Ruri took the lead and walked ahead. The place she headed for was an open garden clearing.

“I’ll need to put my hands on you for a moment.”

The same Ruri who was so reluctant to even touch him now said she would grab Ferda.

“Go ahead.”

“Then…”

Ruri grabbed onto Ferda’s clothes. In that instant, the blazing sunlight disappeared. Something had obscured Ferda’s view.

It was a massive pair of wings.

A pair of wings had sprouted from Ruri’s back. Her wings flapped powerfully toward the ground, and they took off just like that.

Thwump—!

The sensation of gravity vanished, and the resistance of the air tormented Ferda. It wouldn’t have been surprising if he’d vomited up the breakfast he had just eaten. Ferda swallowed hard, pushing through the pressure and turbulence.

The dizziness and discomfort only lasted a moment.

“We’ve arrived.”

At Ruri’s words, Ferda opened his eyes. The place they had flown to was none other than the peak of a mountain.

‘From how it felt, it took barely three seconds. Did we really reach the summit in that time?’

It wasn’t teleportation magic. Pure speed had achieved this. If that was the case, then her speed was unmatched even among Dragon Spawns.

‘No, maybe she’s even the fastest among dragons themselves.’

As Ferda became lost in thought, staring intently at Ruri,

“You’re looking at the wrong thing. I’m not what you should be focusing on,” she said.

“What?”

“Look down below.”

“Ah, right.”

Ferda turned his head and looked down. From the peak of the solitary mountain, he gazed toward the east.

There stretched a vast plain that had lost all color.

‘The Land of Corruption.’

A region completely contaminated when the Demon King died. Something was writhing in that land.

‘Demonic beasts.’

Intruders to the continent who had continuously appeared since the birth of the Demon King. No one knew where they came from or how they were created, not even when Ferda defeated Valdrova. The only known fact was that their purpose was the same as the Demon King’s 150 years ago.

‘A land where only death remains.’

Their goal was to take over and destroy all living things. And what Ferda was seeing now were demonic beasts advancing from the east.

‘As expected of the east, the demonic beasts here are massive.’

They were unbelievably huge. Crawling out of the corrupted land, their size seemed almost hideous. Just rolling their bodies over would be enough to crush fortresses. This was a catastrophe of a scale humans couldn’t possibly handle.

Amidst the dull, despair-filled hues, there was a single vivid red flame flickering.

No, upon closer inspection, it wasn’t a flame.

‘Red Dragon, Valdrova.’

The one destined to be Ferda’s fiancée was fighting there.

Valdrova’s body was large, like any other dragon. But compared to the demonic beast she faced, she was only half its size. Despite the difference in size, Valdrova was no pushover.

BOOM!

Valdrova and the demonic beast’s bodies collided. The gap in size was significant, but Valdrova didn’t yield an inch. Instead, the air trembled violently. The shockwave swept through the forest and reached even the high mountain where Ferda stood.

“Ugh…”

Ferda’s body froze stiff. For an ordinary person, it might’ve seemed like simple fear, but the reason was clear. The dragon’s mana was mixed into the shockwave and pierced through his skin.

‘Dragon Fear…’

The level of intimidation was incomparable to when Ruri had emitted Dragon Fear. Even knowing it wasn’t directed at him, it felt like Valdrova’s gaze was piercing straight into him.

‘So this is the Red Dragon.’

A level of powerlessness he had never felt even as an Archmage swept over his body.

Valdrova’s battle continued.

Crunch! Crack!

A force of nature and the ruler of fire. The battle of the Crimson Tyrant was overwhelming. With her sharp claws, she tore through the thick hide of the beast. With her long snout and fangs, she severed its veins and tendons. Her movements were so swift and precise that the flailing beast seemed sluggish by comparison. Ruthlessly targeting its blind spots, she left no opening for her opponent.

Power, speed, and innate combat instincts.

Screeeeech!

The demonic beast, its tendons all severed, could no longer resist and collapsed. Left alone, it would surely die.

But Valdrova’s violence did not stop there.

Rip—! Tear—!

Her claws pierced the beast’s stomach and tore it open wide. Even from afar, Ferda could clearly see its purple blood and green innards spilling out. At the same time, Valdrova’s stomach began to swell. From beneath her pale white belly, an intense red light flared brightly.

‘Fire Breath.’

Fwoooosh!

A fire breath more powerful than the flames of hell burned the beast from the inside.

Screeeeeeech!

The demonic beast let out a pained scream. But even that cry didn’t last long. From every hole in the beast’s body, Valdrova’s crimson flames burst out violently. Its form turned to ash and smoke, leaving nothing but the Crimson Tyrant standing upon the cursed land.

ROOOAAAARRR!

Valdrova’s roar echoed thunderously, shaking everything in its wake.

“Gah!”

Ferda could no longer hold himself up and collapsed on the spot.

‘So this… is the power of Dragon Roar?’

The oppressive force of a dragon that he had never been able to feel as an Archmage. His hands and feet trembled uncontrollably, and his teeth chattered. Ferda had been completely incapacitated.

“This is the true form of the one who is to be your mate,” Ruri said, crouching beside him and looking down at him. “The blood of a Red Dragon carries a ferocious killing intent—what you humans call the essence of an evil dragon. This isn’t a matter of personality; it’s their very nature.”

Ruri emphasized the word nature.

Ferda knew why she put it that way.

‘Nature is unchangeable.’

An evil dragon would always remain an evil dragon. Her killing intent couldn’t be removed, and there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t eventually reach Ferda.

“To live without destroying is impossible for a Red Dragon. If you stay by her side, you’ll have to be prepared to have your fragile self crushed every single day.”

Ruri’s expressionless gaze seemed to ask: Do you now realize how shallow your decision was?

Even from afar, her piercing stare burned into his mind like it was happening right in front of him. It was inescapable and undeniable.

‘And yet, I’m not afraid.’

Though her eyes filled his thoughts, so did Valdrova’s emotions. What she had seen and felt helped him understand all her actions so far.

‘She’s doing this for the sake of the world.’

Hiding her true nature out of love for this world, she hunts demonic beasts herself to protect what she loves.

‘She is an evil dragon.’

But at the same time, she is a knight with a noble heart, the guardian dragon of the continent. An ascetic, striving endlessly toward an ideal she could never truly reach.

“Truly…”

And so, the feeling of fear transformed into awe.

“Magnificent.”

Ferda’s eyes gleamed.

He was smiling.

Ruri hated humans. As someone with dragon blood coursing through her veins, it was only natural to feel such emotions. But her master, Valdrova, loved the beings below her.

‘And she was hurt because of it.’

After the incident where the third prince was assassinated, Ruri’s disgust for humans had deepened far beyond that of other Dragon Spawns. Precisely because she despised them more than anyone, she understood the vast gap between humans and dragons better than anyone else, and she also knew exactly what she hated about them.

So she already knew what would happen if an ordinary human directly witnessed the form of a Red Dragon.

‘He brought this upon himself.’

Ferda had insisted he wanted to see it. Ruri had warned him plenty and even tried to stop him. Of course, she had flown him there intending to take him away before the fight ended, but she still thought she had done her part to deter him.

Up until that point, everything had gone according to Ruri’s expectations. As Ferda watched the scene unfold, he simply stared at it, dumbfounded. His body trembled uncontrollably under the overwhelming Dragon Fear.

‘Typical reaction.’

That expression of his would soon turn into terror, and before long, he would berate himself for his foolishness and beg to be spared.

‘By then, my master will understand too.’

She’ll realize that humans and dragons can never truly be one.

Everything seemed to be unfolding exactly as Ruri had predicted—except it wasn’t.

“Truly… magnificent,” Ferda muttered, completely out of the blue.

Ruri turned her head in disbelief, wondering if she had misheard him. And as she did, she became even more stunned.

‘He’s… smiling?’

It didn’t make any sense. How could he smile after seeing something so brutal and horrifying? Shouldn’t he be terrified, realizing that he too could meet such a fleeting, fragile fate?

‘No way…’

At that moment, it felt as though a bolt of lightning had struck Ruri’s mind, giving her sudden clarity. Why this man could remain composed even as Valdrova’s fiancé. Why he could smile in this situation.

‘If it’s that, then it all makes sense.’

‘This crazy masochist.’

Ruri’s disgust toward Ferda deepened even further in that moment.

That day, Ferda lay completely immobilized in bed. He had endured both Dragon Fear and Dragon Roar. For a normal human, it would have been enough to drive them insane.

On the contrary, Ferda’s mind remained intact, but his body was in tatters.

‘Can I really not move?’

Just to test, he tried wiggling his fingers. Instead, only his toes twitched. When he tried blinking, his thumb flinched. When he pursed his lips, his nostrils flared.

‘Yeah, this isn’t happening.’

The fact that he could even think clearly was a miracle in itself. The best thing to do now was to stay still and let his thoughts wander.

‘Looks like I’ve wasted an entire day.’

‘Why did I even want to see that in the first place?’

The reason Ferda had wanted to see that battle… Perhaps it was because he had a hunch that it might give him an answer.

‘So, was my hunch correct?’

That was something he needed to figure out now.

Ferda decided to revisit everything he had witnessed in his mind. He went back to the moment he had arrived at the mountain peak. The smell of the air, the temperature against his skin, the feel of the uneven gravel beneath his feet—He recalled it all vividly.

In the world of his recreated imagination, he lowered his gaze and replayed the fight he had watched.

It wasn’t the battle of a notorious evil dragon.

‘It was the noble combat of a crimson knight.’

She, who was soon to become Ferda’s partner, had shown him something truly remarkable.

At that moment, Ferda felt a stirring deep within his core.

‘This is…’

He knew this sensation all too well. It was the same kind of upheaval he had felt when he was exiled from the Rosnova family.

‘A Red Circle is forming.’

The Red Circle—a phenomenon born from emotional upheaval. Ferda, who had been striving to create a Blue Circle, should naturally have rejected this.

‘Interesting.’

But Ferda didn’t. He could tell that this Red Circle was different.

‘This feeling doesn’t stem from anger or a thirst for revenge.’

It wasn’t the same emotions that had driven him before. This time, it was something else entirely—a feeling just as powerful as rage or vengeance.

‘It came from watching Valdrova fight.’

Even now, thinking of Valdrova caused the circuit to solidify further. Perhaps this was why he had felt the need to witness her battle.

‘If that’s the case…’

Then maybe this was the answer he had been searching for.

Ferda no longer hesitated. He focused on his feelings toward Valdrova. The awe he had felt and her majestic figure. He took those vague emotions and shaped them into words, organizing and amplifying them.

The mana circuit within him swirled violently. The chaotic vortex spun faster and faster, threatening to consume Ferda like a stormy sea. But Ferda was no stranger to such turmoil; he was a man who had once reached the rank of Archmage through a Red Circle.

He carefully controlled the turbulent vortex created by his emotions. He gathered the wild energy, compressed it, and shaped it.

And finally, he drew a perfect circle.

‘A Circle.’

As the surge of enlightenment and euphoria washed over him, Ferda confirmed the source of these emotions once again.

‘It wasn’t born from hatred or vengeance.’

That meant the future wouldn’t repeat itself. There would be no same mistakes.

‘It’s done.’

Ferda felt a wave of joy at that realization. His nostrils flared with excitement.