Chapter 1181
"E-excuse me?"
Envy’s eyes stretched wide, her face a mask of pure shock as if the words reaching her ears were physically impossible.
"What kind of garbage logic is this! Explain why I should be the one to answer for this!"
She struck the air with a violent downward motion, her gesture demanding he cease his ridiculous claims. Her composure was so thoroughly rattled that her leaking power caused the surrounding void of the black universe to fracture with a resonant, metallic snap.
"Regardless of how formidable the Dragon Lord might be, he lacks the inherent capacity to craft an absolute spell capable of wiping every human off the face of the continent by himself. That ritual only neared its peak because you provided the necessary assistance. Therefore, the debt is yours to pay."
Raon inclined his head slightly, his expression suggesting he was merely pointing out the most elementary of facts.
"Furthermore, in the final moments, he used the dragon tongue to sentence me to my grave, fueling that divine decree with your specific energy. If it weren't for His divine intervention, I would be nothing more than a memory right now."
A dark shadow crossed his features as he recalled the moment the Dragon Lord had invoked the absolute authority of the dragon language to end his life.
"As you are well aware, I am the vessel He has meticulously cultivated over an immense span of time."
Raon pressed a palm to his sternum, drawing in a long, deliberate breath.
"He has spent ages tempering this frame so it would never shatter, waiting for the precise moment He would inhabit it. Currently, He is beyond livid that his masterpiece was nearly broken by a common yellow lizard."
He pressed his lips into a thin, hard line, making it appear as though Wrath’s fury was a volatile force trapped just behind his teeth.
-This King is truly seething!
Wrath let out a huff of freezing white vapor, looking genuinely incensed.
-However, my rage isn't pointed at a bottom-feeder like Envy! It’s aimed squarely at you, Raon Zieghart!
He lunged forward, grabbing Raon’s collar and shaking the young man’s body up and down with frantic energy.
-Exactly how much longer do you plan on pimping out This King’s reputation! You’ve already climbed past the peak of transcendence, so why are you still clinging to this tactic!
Wrath ground his molars together, seemingly baffled by Raon's persistent shamelessness.
'It’s efficient, isn’t it?'
Raon gave a subtle, mental shrug.
'It’s obvious that Envy holds a deeper terror of you than she does for the other monarchs. It would be foolish not to capitalize on that fear.'
Among the demon kings, with the exceptions of Lust and Greed, most viewed Wrath with significant trepidation. It was an admission that they were physically outclassed by him, a hierarchy Raon intended to squeeze for every bit of leverage it was worth.
-D-damn it all! How did I end up shackled to a person like this!
Wrath let out a frustrated wail, tugging at his own cheeks in despair, realizing his name would be dragged through the mud for the foreseeable future.
-Envy! Don't fall for his lies! Deploy whatever hidden cards you have and burn everything to the ground!
He gestured frantically toward Envy, urging her to unleash her full might, though she remained completely oblivious to his spectral presence.
"Envy."
Raon maintained his gaze on the female monarch, his hand reaching out to dismissively pat the head of the vibrating Wrath.
"I am barely holding Him back from exploding right this second."
He channeled the simmering resentment within his own spirit, projecting an aura that signaled to Envy that Wrath was indeed standing right there.
"Gah!"
Envy bit down on her lip, her fingers tangling nervously in her radiant emerald locks.
"He is not without mercy. He won't demand the impossible from you."
Raon shifted his tone, offering a tempting incentive after the harsh threat, his chin lifting expectantly.
"But, if you choose to flee from this place, He has sworn to hunt you across every corner of existence to settle today's score. Even before that, He promised to hunt down every proxy and vessel you’ve hidden across the world and turn them into decorative ice sculptures."
His voice turned predatory and cold, perfectly mimicking the lethal gravity one would expect from Wrath.
"You absolute lunatic..."
Envy's fists shook as she glared at Raon. She appeared to be fighting back a wave of indignation, held in check only by the terrifying thought of Wrath looming behind the boy.
-Wait... what?
Wrath blinked, his anger momentarily replaced by confusion.
-How in the world did you know that Envy had set up proxies and backup bodies on the mortal plane?
'You mentioned it yourself just a moment ago. You told her to use what she’s prepared to destroy everything.'
-That was just a general statement! This King only guessed she was holding something back!
He scowled, his mind spinning as he tried to figure out how Raon had made such a leap.
'Envy isn't a front-line brawler; she prefers the slow crawl of influence and manipulation. You can see that pattern from what happened with Mustan and now this mess with the Dragon Lord. Once you mentioned "preparations," the existence of hidden vessels became a certainty.'
Raon allowed a tiny smirk to surface, playing it off as a lucky deduction.
-Curse it, I can't believe a blind guess like that actually landed...
Wrath let out a weary sigh, reading the confirmation in the way Envy’s face had twisted into a grimace of defeat.
-Truly, this wretched brat's intellect is far more terrifying than his blade!
He gnashed his teeth, deciding that Raon was a person who was simply impossible to genuinely like.
"Curse you, Wrath! You miserable, unlucky bastard! You're nothing but a blockheaded gorilla!"
Envy screamed the demon king's name instead of Raon's, punctuating her outburst with a heavy stomp. Her fury was so potent that the very fabric of the dimension shuddered and warped under her heel.
"..."
Raon stood his ground, arms folded, appearing entirely unbothered despite the cold sweat prickling his skin at such a raw display of power.
"Phew..."
Envy exhaled a long, shaky breath, seemingly venting some of her tension, and regained her posture.
"Fine. I will comply..."
She gave a reluctant nod, conceding the point as she retreated a few steps.
-...
Wrath watched her in stunned silence.
-Wait, you’re the one acting like a psychopath, so why am I the one being insulted...
His sapphire eyes shimmered with a hint of moisture, looking deeply offended by the unfairness of it all.
'I'll treat you to something delicious later.'
Raon offered a comforting pat to Wrath’s back before turning his attention back to the fallen Dragon Lord.
"Envy, was it?"
He stared down into the Dragon Lord’s trembling pupils, a cynical smile touching his lips.
"How does a dragon find it in himself to feel envy toward a mere human?"
He tilted his head, demanding to know the exact moment the Dragon Lord began to harbor such jealousy toward Glenn.
[...]
The Dragon Lord remained silent, his mouth clamped shut as if the truth was too humiliating to voice.
"Speak up. Why bother hiding it now when your secrets are already out in the open?"
Raon emphasized his point by contemptuously nudging the Dragon Lord’s head with his boot.
"Did it burn that much to be surpassed by Glenn Zieghart? Did it kill you to realize dragons are no longer the undisputed masters of this world?"
He vibrated his Soul Sword, sending a ripple through the Dragon Lord’s very essence to force a confession.
[Argh!]
The Dragon Lord hissed in pain as the Soul Sword bit into his spirit, his face contorting. Yet, he still tried to maintain his silence.
"You should be embarrassed. Your power was a birthright, handed to you by blood. Glenn Zieghart carved his strength out of nothing through sheer will. If you’re going to be jealous..."
[That's not it!]
The Dragon Lord roared, his voice thick with indignation.
[I didn't envy Glenn Zieghart because of his combat skills!]
He shook his head violently, denying that his grudge was based on a simple gap in power.
"Then what was it?"
Raon lowered his hand, granting him the space to explain.
[It was his gaze.]
"His gaze?"
Confused by the answer, Raon cocked his head to the side.
[Those eyes of Glenn Zieghart. They were the eyes of a true sovereign, someone who perceives the truth of the world and holds everything beneath him. He looked down on me. He looked down on the King of Dragons!]
The Dragon Lord ground his teeth together, the memory of Glenn’s perceived arrogance clearly stinging his pride.
[That is a look meant only for me to give when I look at humans, who are nothing more than vermin. How could a lowly human dare to view me with such eyes!]
His breathing became ragged with rage, explaining that he couldn't stand being treated with the same indifference he usually reserved for humanity.
[As the Lord of Dragons, I...]
"Ah, I see..."
Raon cut him off, a sharp, mocking grin spreading across his face.
"You spent your life treating humans like bugs, but the second a human treated you with that same lack of regard, you lost your mind? You felt this pathetic envy and decided to invent a spell to commit genocide."
The sheer absurdity of the motive forced a dry laugh—or perhaps a sigh—from his throat.
[Do not mock me! You haven't felt what I felt...]
"I've felt it every single day of my life."
Raon’s fist blurred as he punched the Dragon Lord’s protruding eyeball.
[Aaaaagh!]
The Dragon Lord shrieked as his eye burst under the impact, his massive frame convulsing.
"I have spent my entire existence being looked down upon, mocked, and treated like an insignificant insect."
Raon scowled, reaching up to brush his blood-matted hair away from his forehead.
"The difference is, I used my own hands to change those gazes. I never entertained the thought of murdering everyone because my feelings were hurt."
He shook his head, drawing a clear line between himself and the creature before him.
"Glenn Zieghart is no different. He endured countless hardships and climbed to his position through his own blood and sweat. No one else would be so pathetic as to borrow a stranger's power to wipe out the world just because they felt slighted."
He snorted, deciding the Dragon Lord wasn't even fit to be a common mediator, let alone a king.
"Besides, your claim that Glenn looked down on you is likely a delusion. He isn't that sort of man."
Raon blinked, momentarily visualizing the hidden warmth that Glenn often showed him these days.
[Y-you don't understand! The way he looked at me...]
"You never actually sat down and spoke with him, did you? You just spun a narrative in your own head and drowned in a victim complex."
There was no way Glenn would have shown such blatant disrespect to the dragon race without a valid reason. There had to be more to the story.
[L-Lord...]
[To think our leader harbored envy for a human...]
[He must be stripped of his title immediately! Think of how many of our kin perished for such a petty reason!]
[I can't believe my own ears.]
[That isn't the pride of a dragon; it's the weakness of a human!]
[Let's withdraw. There is no honor left in this fight.]
[A new Lord... we will have to settle that later.]
The dragons who had arrived to defend their leader seemed to deflate, their spirits broken. Their shoulders slumped and their massive wings folded in shame.
"Lord..."
Bartius’s eyes flashed with a predatory, animalistic light, his disgust for his own kin evident.
"The true lunatic was right in front of us the whole time."
The Red Dragon Valasiur let out a dry, mirthless chuckle as he shifted back into his human form.
"I can't fathom why anyone would ever feel sorry for him now."
The Blue Dragon Sirtiren shook her head in disbelief.
"Sympathy? I’d rather dissolve him with acid right here!"
The Black Dragon Dariauran gnashed his teeth, his murderous intent toward his former leader palpable.
"Regardless, it's a relief that the truth has come to light."
The White Dragon Bursiarabi stroked his chin, looking glad that the conflict had reached a conclusion of sorts.
[Ugh, I, I...]
"That’s enough about your jealousy. We have more pressing matters."
Raon didn't want to waste another second now that the Dragon Lord’s alliance with the Archangel had been explained.
"You have Derus Robert’s location, don't you?"
Raon wiped the blood from his palms and stared down at the lizard.
[I-I don't know.]
The Dragon Lord stammered, his eye beginning to knit back together through magical regeneration.
[He is always the one to reach out to me. I have no way of finding him.]
He wheezed, claiming he hadn't heard from Derus in ages.
"I see you're still choosing to be difficult."
Raon lowered his hand toward the creature with a calm, dangerous air.
"As long as my Soul Sword is wedged in your spirit, every lie you tell will vibrate like a bell."
He could sense the deception immediately; the Soul Sword acted as a perfect lie detector, reacting to the slightest tremor of dishonesty in the Dragon Lord's soul.
[Urgh...]
The Dragon Lord’s jaw worked nervously, clearly not having expected his soul to be read so easily.
"Moreover, I don't believe for a second that someone as calculating as you would blindly follow Derus Robert without keeping tabs on him."
Raon reached out with a cold sneer.
"Fine. I'm in no rush. Let's see how much pain you can take..."
[B-Borvorn!]
The Dragon Lord’s lips parted in a frantic shout, the name escaping him in a rush.
[The northern territory known as Borvorn! I tracked his signal there! Every time he contacted me, I secretly traced the source, and it always led back to that place!]
He gasped for air, confirming that Derus Robert was definitely hiding in Borvorn.
"Borvorn?"
Raon's brows knitted together in a deep frown.
'Isn't that right next to Zieghart territory?'
Borvorn was a desolate, snowy region to the northeast, sharing a border with his family's lands. It seemed improbable that a man as paranoid as Derus Robert would set up shop so close to his enemies.
'But he isn't lying.'
The Dragon Lord’s soul remained steady. The information was genuine.
'I'll have to investigate this.'
He would need to be incredibly careful. If Derus truly was in Borvorn, this was a chance to strike while he was off-guard. He needed to prepare a thorough plan before moving.
"Bartius."
Raon gave a short nod and beckoned the dragon over.
"He’s all yours now."
Now that he had squeezed the information he needed, it was time to turn the former leader over to the dragons who had joined his side.
"Haaa..."
Bartius stepped forward, his teeth bared in a mix of excitement and rage.
"Raon Zieghart. I believe you and I will have much to discuss once this is over."
He narrowed his eyes, looking between Raon and the figure of Envy standing behind him. As a mediator, he clearly had questions about the strange parley that had just occurred.
"I understand. I'll provide an explanation later."
Raon gave a steady nod. Seeing Bartius prioritize his duties even in the heat of the moment convinced Raon that he would make a fine Lord.
-That one has the makings of a true dragon, not just a oversized lizard.
Wrath nodded as well, offering a rare moment of approval for Bartius.
"Now then..."
Raon turned back toward Envy, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Hmm..."
Envy was scowling, her beautiful face pinched with discomfort.
"The terms are simple. First, you will join the struggle against the Archangel. And second..."
Raon pivoted and pointed a finger toward Burren, who was currently staring in confusion.
"You will pass your Authority of Envy to that man."
Burren had been defined by his envy for Raon since they were children. Because those feelings were still a core part of his history, he was the best candidate to synchronize with Envy’s specific power.
"I can accept the war, but..."
Envy tilted her head as she scrutinized Burren.
"Why should I give my power to him? He barely has a drop of envy left in his heart. If you want a real candidate..."
She shifted her gaze to Martha, who was standing beside Burren, and slowly licked her lips.
"That woman over there is far more interesting."
