Chapter 219 — 용아병단(龍牙兵團)
Chapter 219
Dragonfang Legion
Elric huffed and grumbled for a good while before letting out a long sigh.
“Haaa…! You could’ve just said you don’t trust my magic yet, you know.”
His face fell into a sulk.
In truth, he’d noticed the hidden meaning in the letter Usdon left almost at once.
His grandfather had put it that way because he didn’t want his only grandson getting hurt.
“Still, I got through ‘Winter’ just fine, and he’s worried I can’t handle anything else?”
Even with only Winter under his belt, Elric had already grown strong enough to stand against a Demon King.
So he’d been confident he could claim the other seasons as well. Apparently, that wasn’t how it looked to Usdon.
If not that…
“Maybe what comes after is just that much harder.”
He swallowed a dry gulp.
Anyway.
There was clearly a reason his grandfather had sealed his memories.
And there had to be a reason the seal still hadn’t lifted, even after handling the letter he’d left.
“Do I need to meet some other condition?”
Or else—
“Maybe he’s telling me not to split my focus chasing other seasons, to get out of here first, and then devote myself to taking down the Grigori.”
One thing was certain: solve the assignment in front of him, and the path would open.
Elric tucked the parchment away, gathered his thoughts, and slowly turned the book’s first page.
The Progenitor’s magic—restored by following the stars’ augury and sealed by a contract with the God of the Azure Firmament.
The first entry among them:
“The Art of the Dragonfang.”
“The Art… of the Dragonfang?”
Elric’s eyes went round.
What on earth was this?
“By the time this booklet is in your hands, you’ll have met, or be about to meet, the guardian dragon of the Borpur clan.
But as far as I know, there isn’t a single dragon-related spell left—not in our house, not among all mankind.
You’re bound to make quite a few mistakes handling your dragon blood. So I’m leaving you a method to manage it.
‘The Art of the Dragonfang’ is a way to raise soldiers fashioned from pieces of a dragon’s own body…”
The Art of the Dragonfang split cleanly into two parts.
One was a method for bringing unruly dragon blood—prone to acting on its own—under control.
The other was how, on that foundation, to reforge oneself into a warrior as indomitable as the dragon-tooth soldiers of old.
Elric had received vague knowledge from the guardian dragon, sure—but that was all written from a dragon’s point of view.
It would take him a long time to make it usable.
Somehow, though, Usdon had acquired, learned, and decoded these lost magics.
As expected of the hero who led them to victory in the Great Demon War.
Elric could only click his tongue at the sheer breadth of the man’s knowledge.
More than anything—
“This would help not just me, but the Star Host as a whole.”
Right then, Elric grasped the value of the Art of the Dragonfang.
Per the guardian dragon’s last will, he meant to distribute its flesh among the soldiers and forge its scales into arms and armor.
If he applied the Art of the Dragonfang well, he could raise the Star Host’s prowess in one go.
“With something like this, even Franz and the Kuranshivil forces I barely managed to absorb might be brought wholly to my side.”
No matter how disgruntled they were, wave a sweeter carrot and they’d cross the line.
Of course, some might still betray him—he’d have to pick his people.
Elric plopped down on the spot with the book and sank into a reading trance.
He needed to use this in the field soon. At least the fundamentals had to be in his head.
How long had it been?
“Your grandfather.”
Elric, deep in the text, glanced up when Mephisto spoke up out of nowhere.
“…?”
“What kind of man was he?”
“Why bring that up now?”
“Because it makes no sense.”
“Hm?”
Elric tilted his head, wondering what he was getting at.
Mephisto wasn’t joking.
His face was serious—too serious.
“To restore a knowledge system of this scope, and then reinterpret it to this level, is not something just anyone can do. Even if that Otto Han fellow returned, he wouldn’t manage it.”
“…”
“What is he, this man?”
A strange feeling welled up in Elric.
He was once again reminded of how great his grandfather truly was.
Being acknowledged by the Great Demon King was impressive enough—but to be spoken of on par with Otto Han, hailed as the House’s Progenitor?
No—Mephisto’s hint that he might be greater still lodged deep in his chest.
“To think such a man existed in this era. Truly remarkable, your grandfather.”
There was genuine admiration in Mephisto’s voice.
“I’d like to meet him myself.”
His lips curled.
“A man of this caliber could walk shoulder to shoulder with the king. I find myself very curious where his knowledge ends—and his power.”
Between his parted lips, his fangs gleamed darkly.
Mephisto’s competitive fire was showing.
The same look he’d had when he’d heard about the Golden Lion.
“Mephi.”
“What? Are you moved that the king acknowledges your grandfather? No need. The king has ever been generous in awarding proper worth and praise to the excellent—even enemies—”
“Could you be quiet so I can study?”
“…You really are impossible to find endearing, even if I try!”
“What would I even do with a man finding me endearing? I politely decline.”
“Hmph! Confident you can accept a woman’s affection then? You lifelong single!”
“…I told you I’m not.”
“Never even held a girl’s hand!”
“I have, you know.”
“When you were a toddler doesn’t count.”
“…Says the one who’s been sniveling over getting dumped for more than a thousand years.”
“Even if that’s not what happened!”
Elric and Mephisto bickered for a good while, as usual.
Then Elric realized this was chewing up his time for real, so he hurriedly finished the section he’d been on and flipped to the next chapter.
Even if he couldn’t use them immediately, he wanted at least to check what kinds of spells the booklet contained.
The second was—
“Heaven-and-Earth Obliteration Charge.”
“…?”
What was with this mouthful of a name?
From the name alone, he couldn’t guess what it did.
“A spell that condenses pure mana and detonates it in one stroke. It should help you in an emergency…”
Elric’s expression turned intrigued.
An explosive spell?
He knew a fair few in that category himself.
But if it was one the Progenitor had used, he couldn’t help but be drawn in.
How powerful was it?
With a thrum of anticipation, he read on.
And then—
“…”
His brow slowly furrowed.
As if he’d run smack into a roadblock he hadn’t even imagined.
When he reached the end of the Heaven-and-Earth Obliteration Charge entry—
“This…”
Elric lifted his head from the page, his face gone rigid.
“It requires… a demonic sigil?”
…
It wasn’t just the Art of the Dragonfang.
“Thunderwall Force.”
“Wargod’s Blessing.”
Thunderwall Force rained clusters of lightning from the sky to sweep away enemies on the ground.
Wargod’s Blessing was a crowd-control spell that bolstered not just the caster in melee, but all comrades fighting alongside.
At a glance, they were all spells that would be a huge boon to Elric.
“I can’t use them right now.”
There was a catch.
All three of the others, excluding the Art of the Dragonfang, required specific conditions to cast.
“It figures the Dragonfang Art needs dragon blood—but why the others…?”
He felt stifled.
If it were a matter of lacking mana, or not yet understanding the structure, he could accept that.
But not being able to cast them because he lacked demonic sigils?
How did that make sense?
“The Heaven-and-Earth Obliteration Charge needs a sigil that can amplify demonic energy. Thunderwall Force requires a high-grade lightning-aspected sigil… And Wargod’s Blessing needs several buff-type sigils combined?”
He wanted to see if only these were like that, to check other spells.
But the booklet contained just these four.
“I can just barely make the Heaven-and-Earth Obliteration Charge work with the Sigil of Renown and the Sigil of the Malefic Star. But the others…”
He was bewildered on several fronts.
Spells the Progenitor himself had devised and used—and their basic prerequisite was sigils? Wasn’t that odd?
“No. Maybe not. After all, even Otto Han’s magic and authorities needed the Winter-series sigils completed before I could use them.”
The idea crept in that absorbing demonic sigils to use magic wasn’t just a shortcut for growth.
As he’d once suspected, perhaps the Progenitor and the demonkind had been more tightly bound than he’d thought.
Much more tightly…
“More to the point, where do I get the sigils for these?”
Spells that could only be cast by combining sigils.
He couldn’t just leave such excellent spells unused.
Elric began seriously working through how to handle the required combinations.
While crunching the formulae, he retraced the demonkind’s genealogies he’d once read in the House archives.
Which sigils had to be paired with which to complete Thunderwall Force and Wargod’s Blessing?
After a long while, he came to these conclusions:
– Thunderwall Force: lightning-aspect line + Sigil of Gravitation.
– Wargod’s Blessing: Dragon Fear + elemental conversion line + melee branch + Sigil of Contagion.
Thunderwall Force could be used if he had a lightning-aspected spell paired with a sigil that handled gravity.
“Compress lightning to the limit and then release it—you’d get a tremendous blast. And if I can control it cleanly, I can drop it exactly where I want.”
Wargod’s Blessing was a touch trickier.
He could substitute Dragon Fear for the morale-boosting sigil, but there weren’t many sigils that could convert that into a positive effect on allies and then spread it wide.
“And I can only house so many sigils at once. I’ll have to be clever.”
Up to now he’d had little greed for sigils, breaking most down into demonic energy for Hyul’s thought-form or feeding them to restore Mephisto’s power.
From here on, he’d need to pay more attention.
Even so—
He wasn’t overly worried.
Whether by Usdon’s design or coincidence, a way to make use of the Progenitor’s spells was coming into view.
“The Demon Kings. If I take down the Grigori’s Demon Kings, I should be able to complete the other two as well.”
Just like mixing the Sigil of Renown and the Sigil of the Malefic Star he’d taken from Leda had enabled the Heaven-and-Earth Obliteration Charge.
It seemed…
He’d just found another reason to hunt the remaining Demon Kings more aggressively.
The Mage Who Devoured Talents