164 Part 1
Return of the 8th Class Mage 164 Heartless (2)
“You had done a lot, and your drive is impressive, which shows that you’re my son. Is this why they say blood is thicker than water?”
The purple sealing orb disappeared, and Fran Page’s actual form, which had been sealed there for a long time, fluidly came down to the ground. His hair, the same color as Ian’s, blew in the wind.
“However, this situation is disappointing. I had not hidden anything as your father to my only son. I had shown you everything I had and gave you all of my knowledge and power. I had given you everything.”
Ian heard those despicable words again from Fran Page’s mouth, ‘father’ and ‘son.’ He hated those words more than anything else.
“How can you do this to your father by blood? Will you go against filial piety and stand on the lizards’ side? I cannot acknowledge that.”
Father, parents, and filial piety. Words that touched Ian’s soft spots came out again, and he reached his limits and growled in a low voice.
“I warned you not to say the words father and son.”
“I had tried to make you happy, but what’s the use now?”
“…That’s true.”
They now faced each other as enemies, and there was no need for Fran to accommodate Ian anymore. Ian had to agree and spoke on.
“It doesn’t matter anymore.”
However, Ian’s response did not stop there, as the ‘Thousand Mouths’ that could manifest the power of language which Ian had used thousands of years ago appeared above his head.
“This is the end.”
Ian was poised to fight, and a breathless tension followed within Ian, all the dragons, and Fran Page with his body.
“Ian, I’ll give you your last chance.”
Fran spoke in a quiet voice.
“It’s not too late. Come over here now. Protect your world by taking my hand.”
His voice sounded desperate, which Ian could not decide whether it was sincere or a pretense. However, Ian was certain that Fran’s tone was created, as Fran was used to and specialized in hiding emotions or exaggerating them. Ian spoke in a firm voice.
“My world is not protected as long as you exist.”
The thousand mouths began preparing to speak, and the dragons finished their battle formation. The situation could explode at any moment.
[You have a lot to speak, humans!]
A familiar dragon broke into the conversation, and it was the young Herpi Dotos, the gatekeeper. Since Ian had beaten the dragon once, he rushed into the fight trying to redeem his honor.
[Stop! Herpi!]
While Reseesee Radenju shouted quickly, it was impossible to stop Herpi Dotos since he had already gone too far.
“That tendency to be volatile…”
Fran reached out with his hand speaking in a sneering voice as Herpi Dotos came flying in a large curve. His left palm was spread out towards Herpi Dotos’s head.
“You still are the same.”
Herpi Dotos’s claw sharpened like blades as he flew at Fran with agility unexpected from his heavy frame. Since magic and his breath would not work, the dragon seemed to have decided using his overwhelming physical conditions. It actually could have worked.
(Let me destroy.)
However, with that one sentence, a shock wave that shook the axis swallowed Herpi Dotos as it left Fran Page’s palm.
“Hmm.”
Fran had already finished off a dragon right at the beginning, but his expression was not bright. Actually, Fran furrowed his brow like he was annoyed. The reason was simple.
“Since when have you become so close to those lizards that you would protect them with your own body?”
Herpi Dotos’s body would have been ripped apart, but he was still alive because someone had absorbed the shock wave beforehand.
“Ian.”
Fran called that someone’s name and the one who had saved Herpi Dotos was not Reseesee Radenju nor Atar Haka, but the hastily made ally, Ian Page.
“It’s not that we’re close.”
Some of the thousand mouths Ian called transported, and others activated the shields to block the shock wave successfully. The scale of the barrier looked like a ‘waste,’ let alone a success. While Fran’s shock wave had been astounding, the shields seemed excessive.
“I had told them that the sacrifice would be little, and no sacrifice would be even better. Things might have gone wrong from the beginning.”
[……]
“Be careful, small lizard.”
Herpi Dotos swallowed silence at Ian’s words. While he would have shown his anger at being insulted as a small lizard, but he found it difficult to respond in any way now.
‘In that short moment…’
The dragon could not help it, and it was not because Ian had saved him. Fran Page was the problem.
‘My, my claws…’
Ian had protected Herpi Dotos from the shock wave almost perfectly. That was true.
‘My wing…?’
Some of Herpi Dotos’s claws were broken, and his left wing was ripped. There were unidentified wounds on Herpi Dotos’s body without the dragon realizing what had happened.
[Ugh….!]
The wounds were not only broken claws and ripped wings, but small and big cuts were all over his body. They must have been made with only a sliver over the shock wave, where the echoes had touched.