Dragonslayer’s Class Regression Chapter 156

Chapter 156

‘Bahamut?’

Zeke, who was listening to Claudia’s words from inside Siegfried’s body, was startled.

She was now speaking in dragon language not as Claudia Lubern but as Bahamut, the Ruler of Twilight.

“I, Bahamut, shall give Siegfried a new name and make a soul contract with him.”

WOOOONG!

Bahamut held onto Siegfried and continued speaking.

“His new name shall be Terakan. According to the ancient covenant, our souls will be connected as one, and this shall be bound in the name of the great Elder Dragon.”

Bahamut shouted at Siegfried.

“Answer now! Say you accept the contract!”

However, Siegfried was nearly dead due to the power of the Holy Grail.

Bahamut shouted urgently.

“Hurry!”

Perhaps due to her strong desire, Siegfried barely managed to nod his head before death.

WOOOONG!

Soul chains emerged from Bahamut and Siegfried’s hearts and connected with each other.

Zeke, who was in Siegfried’s consciousness, could see this scene clearly.

At that moment, messages appeared before Zeke’s eyes.

[The ‘Dragon Contract’ is engraved on the user’s soul.]

[The Draker bloodline power ‘Warrior’s Blood’ awakens.]

[Part of the ‘Brilliant Light’ power absorbed from the ‘Fairy King’s Cup Containing Brilliant Light’ is activated.]

[The skill ‘Complete Recovery’ is granted through the power.]

[Awakened talents combine with each other.]

[A new class is formed through the combination of rare talents.]

[Unique class ‘Immortal’ is acquired.]

Looking at the messages that appeared, Zeke realized his prediction was correct.

‘So Terakan Draker was indeed the Immortal class.’

Zeke acquired the unique Immortal class through the combination of the Great dragon’s blessing, healer class talent, and Draker bloodline power.

And unlike him, in Terakan Draker’s case, the fairy king’s power contained in the Holy Grail and Bahamut’s contract worked together to create the Immortal class.

WOOOONG!

As the power of the Holy Grail finally worked properly, Siegfried’s body was completely restored in no time.

Siegfried opened his eyes.

Claudia looked at him and said.

“A-Are you okay? Sigrfried?”

Siegfried looked at Claudia and slowly opened his mouth.

“I’m not…… dead?”

“Yeah. You’re not dead.”

Siegfried slowly raised his body.

After fully rising, he placed his hand on his heart and said.

“What happened?”

At Siegfried’s words, Claudia’s expression darkened.

“Actually, there’s something I haven’t told you.”

Looking at her serious face, Siegfried spoke in a casual voice.

“You mean that you’re a dragon?”

Claudia was startled at this.

“H-How did you…? Were you conscious during the contract?”

At those words, Siegfried smirked.

“You’re always saying you want to kill all humans and that they’re disgusting, plus you talk about things from hundreds of years ago like they happened yesterday. How could I not be suspicious?”

At Siegfried’s words, Claudia made an embarrassed expression.

“S-So you knew I was a dragon and still stayed with me?”

“I had my doubts. Dragons have long since disappeared. It felt like leaving an ignorant child by the water’s edge, so I was somewhat worried.”

“What? You had such disrespectful thoughts about me, a noble race?”

Claudia’s expression, which had been grumbling, suddenly darkened again.

“Zeke, no. Now it’s Terakan. A contract with a dragon actually comes with enormous consequences. So it should be decided very carefully…”

“I know how dragon contracts work. That our souls are bound as one through the contract. And that you can’t return to being a dragon while the contract continues.”

At Siegfried’s words, Claudia quietly nodded and held up the broken Sun’s Veil as she spoke.

“Dragon-kind can no longer intervene in the material world. But because I knew the fate that would come in the future, I couldn’t just stay still. So to change that future, I placed a restriction on myself, transformed into a human, and came down here.”

“So that’s what you meant about changing fate by destroying the holy relics.”

“Right. The prophecy said that a human who gained immortal power would bring chaos to the world.”

“You thought that by destroying the Holy Grail that could grant immortal power, the prophecy itself wouldn’t come to be.”

“Yes. So I took the Holy Grail that had been safely stored in the Ark for hundreds of years, and ultimately used that Holy Grail to save you from death.”

At those words, Siegfried gave a bitter smile.

“The one who gained immortal power. Do you think I’ll bring chaos to the world?”

Claudia shook her head.

“I don’t know. Prophecies are always uncertain.”

She looked at Siegfried and said.

“Terakan. I have something to tell you.”

She faced Siegfried, who would now be called Terakan, and spoke.

“There was a prophecy. A prophecy about a terrible future.”

Claudia’s eyes wavered.

She slowly opened her mouth.

“The Demon King will be resurrected. I saw that future. To prevent that…”

Zeke listened carefully to Claudia’s words while inside Terakan.

At that moment.

BZZZZT!

The view through Terakan’s eyes gradually blurred as if filled with noise.

‘Damn. Just a little more…!’

Without properly hearing Claudia’s words, Zeke’s borrowed view through Terakan turned completely black.

Then he felt as if someone was forcefully pulling his body.

WHOOSH!

He traveled backwards through the sea of memories at incredible speed.

“UNGHHHH!”

Passing through countless memory fragments, Zeke rapidly rose toward the shining surface.

Then his vision was filled with light once again.

* * *

“Ah.”

When he opened his eyes, Zeke was in the ark holding the Holy Grail.

He had returned to reality after looking into Terakan and Bahamut’s memories tied to the Holy Grail.

Through the past memories, Zeke learned things even the Hermit of the Story didn’t know.

“To think Claudia Lubern was Bahamut.”

She was Terakan Draker’s lover and soul-bound contract partner.

But in another past memory, Zeke clearly saw Terakan Draker plunge his sword into the cursed light dragon Bahamut.

Thinking of Bahamut’s heart inside his own body, Zeke looked at the sword made from his fang.

“So the cursed light dragon left behind his heart and fangs before dying.”

It seemed unlikely to be mere coincidence that Zeke himself was the same Immortal class as Terakan Draker and possessed the heart and fangs of Bahamut, who was his contract dragon.

After thinking for a moment, Zeke took out the watch left by his mother, Laura Agamemnon.

Her mother, who resembled Claudia Lubern, had prophetic abilities as an Irregular.

‘Did mother know I would become an Immortal class and inherit Terakan Draker’s legacy?’

Zeke, who had lived a miserable life but gained a new one after returning through an Elder Dragon relic he obtained by chance.

He shook his head as he put away the watch.

“Thinking about it won’t give me answers. I might learn something if I go to Chronos’ temple in Athens and receive the authority.”

Although he was reluctant to go to Athens since it was Nirvana family territory, it seemed he needed to visit once to solve these questions.

Zeke stored the Holy Grail in his inventory and was about to leave the ark.

But then a message window appeared before his eyes.

[1 viewable administrator record video]

[Recorder: Terakan Draker.]

Like at the temple of the Bird tribe, there was a recording left by Terakan Draker.

Zeke played the video.

A crystal in the control room lit up and displayed a huge screen.

Someone appeared on the screen.

A middle-aged man with ash-gray hair and a thick beard.

The man with sunken eyes seemed completely devoid of any will to live.

Zeke recognized who he was immediately.

‘Terakan Draker.’

Zeke felt that the Terakan Draker on screen somehow resembled his father, Arthur Draker.

Soon the man turned his gaze to the screen and opened his mouth.

「I am already too tired.」

He seemed completely different from the Terakan Draker seen in the Holy Grail’s memories.

Like someone forcefully continuing a life that had already ended, Terakan Draker seemed tired of living itself.

He slowly opened his mouth.

「Her last request was to leave the Holy Grail here when everything was over. Yes… this is the end.」

Terakan in the video hung his head low and stared blankly with unfocused eyes.

Then at some point he slowly rose from his seat.

At the same time, Terakan thrust his face toward the screen.

In the video, Zeke could glimpse traces of madness flashing in Terakan’s eyes that were dark as an abyss.

Terakan muttered something while looking into the distance.

「If only I had that… Yes. If I only had that I could find her again. If I cross the Dark Sea and go there…」

‘Dark Sea?’

The muttering Terakan suddenly turned his head and stared intently at the video.

It was as if Terakan was looking across time at Zeke who was watching this video.

Terakan spoke toward Zeke.

「When you gaze long into an abyss, you eventually become a monster yourself.」

Then his pupils gradually changed.

Terakan, with golden pupils, slowly murmured.

「Perhaps I too… have become a monster…」

PING!

The video ended there.

Zeke recalled Terakan Draker’s changed eyes at the end.

“Dragon eyes?”

Just like Zeke’s left eye, Terakan Draker also had golden dragon pupils that shone.

While Zeke’s dragon eyes manifested after receiving the title of Dragon being, he had no idea how it happened in Terakan’s case.

“Gazing long at monsters until becoming a monster oneself.”

As Zeke pondered Terakan Draker’s muttered words, he recalled his mention of the ‘Dark Sea’.

“Wait, Dark Sea? Could it be that Terakan Draker went there?”

If you cross the Central Sea east from the Central Continent, you reach the Eastern Empire.

After the invasion war by the Eastern Empire 20 years ago, exchanges were cut off for a while.

Recently, exchanges have been increasing through Republic of Dorta and Nirvana’s Athens.

However, the Eastern Empire ruled by the Sultan was still an unknown world to the people of the Central Continent.

Beyond the Eastern Empire, there was the Dark Sea across the western sea of the Central Continent that was even less known.

This place was beyond an unknown world – it was virtually an area where no one could approach.

Zeke had heard about the Dark Sea from his previous life’s master, Nigel the Forest Hermit.

And the master had told Zeke this:

‘The Dark Sea is literally a place where you don’t know what will happen. Going there is nothing but reckless.’

While staying in the Forest of the Forgotten, it was the first time Zeke heard his master speak in such a way.

Since it was the Dark Sea that made even his master, a member of the High Table, speak like that, Zeke had never even thought about going there.

However, it seemed that Terakan Draker was trying to go ‘somewhere’ across the Dark Sea to revive Bahamut.

“What could possibly be beyond the Dark Sea?”

Actually, from Zeke’s perspective, what Terakan Draker did in the Dark Sea wasn’t very important.

What mattered was whether it was important to Zeke himself.

‘It’s a bit concerning that I keep getting involved with Terakan Draker since becoming the heir. But I guess I can just take what I need.’

In any case, thanks to the title ‘Terakan Draker’s Heir’, he inherited most of the Dragon Slayer’s legacy.

Zeke decided to think positively and was about to leave the ark, judging that he had obtained everything he could get here.

But then another message appeared before Zeke’s eyes.

[The ark’s automatic setting portal is operating.]

[Forcibly moving the heir to the set coordinates.]

Zeke made a dumbfounded expression at the message.

“Forced movement? W-wait…”

Before Zeke could finish speaking, the portal activated.

WOOOONG!

The giant crystal sphere attached to the bridge’s ceiling emitted light and Zeke’s body was enveloped in light.

“URRRGH!”

The bridge was filled with light.

When the light subsided, Zeke’s figure had disappeared from the bridge.

* * *

Whoooong!

When Zeke opened his eyes, what he saw was a white snowfield.

‘This is…?’

Blade-like sharp peaks stretched endlessly.

Zeke realized where this was.

“The Ice Mountains?”

It was the Ice Dragon’s Valley, the deepest part of the Ice Mountains.

Zeke was surprised to recognize the Ice Dragon’s Valley.

‘Why here?’

This was none other than the place where Zeke had discovered the Elder Dragon’s relic and was killed while being chased by the hounds.

WHEEEING!

Suddenly a snowstorm began.

The northern weather was always unpredictable.

While looking around in the flying snow, Zeke discovered something.

‘That?’

A flag with the emblem of a giant wolf.

It was the symbol of the Northern Grand Duke.