Limited Extra Time - Chapter 132

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

—— Page 1 ——

‘Damn it!’

Now was not the time for experiments.

I should have tested on something else, not myself, as she had said.

I had been greedy, wanting more stable results and a greater variety of outcomes.

I never imagined that greed would spiral into this catastrophe, arriving so abruptly and without warning.

Endless despair engulfed me. My fingertips trembled violently, growing cold and numb.

I had been hurrying downstairs to find Winston when I spotted a figure emerging from the room and stopped dead in my tracks.

“…Periel? Tsk, you said you were fine now, yet you’ve wrapped yourself up entirely in bandages.”

Millaiyen exhaled a low sigh and approached Periel with movements still stiff and uncomfortable.

Given the severity of his condition, even the potions I had administered seemed not to have fully healed him.

—— Page 2 ——

“Where is Carina Leopold? She must understand the situation, yes? I imagine she’s been worried…”

“…”

Millaiyen stepped closer to Periel, who offered no response.

My focus wouldn’t sharpen. Whether it was my vision still clouded or merely lingering aftereffects, I blinked repeatedly and pressed my palms against my eye sockets.

“What are you… holding in your arms…?”

“…Carina Leopold is…”

At the voice that seemed to scrape from the depths of his throat, my face went rigid.

I shifted my weight, my legs aching as my entire body creaked with pain that shot down my spine in sharp, throbbing waves.

Yet Millaiyen’s pace only quickened.

“…Millaiyen, Carina Leopold is dying.”

“…What kind of nonsense are you spouting now? Without rhyme or reason?”

Millaiyen rushed forward and snatched Carina Leopold from Periel Kalos’s arms.

The moment I held her, my face darkened with dread. I didn’t need to look closely to understand. I knew exactly who this was.

“She performed a miracle. Something vast and incomprehensible.”

Periel Kalos’s voice trembled at the end of his words.

Its true nature remained utterly unknowable. It was something I had never witnessed before, and no records I had ever studied offered any clue.

Yet the figure had undoubtedly vanished.

My teeth bared savagely. Yet the body cradling Carina Leopold remained perfectly still, careful not to move abruptly.

“Why? Why would she do this!”

“Because you were more precious to her than her own life.”

“I recovered quickly from the potion she gave me. What are you

—— Page 3 ——

even talking about…!”

She said she couldn’t think of a way to stop you. This must have been her solution! You…

Periel Kalos clenched his fists tightly.

You wretch, you’ll venture into the forest again for her sake!

Periel Kalos cried out in frustration.

Understanding her words was not difficult. The only desire I had ever possessed in my entire life was to be first—

The emotion she had awakened to was directed toward Millaiyen.

To Carina Leopold, Millaiyen was the object of her obsession and the only place she could lean on. She cherished him more than she cherished herself.

Just as Millaiyen treasured her above all else in the world.

I knew that neither Carina Leopold nor Millaiyen bore any guilt.

I understood that they simply desired and loved each other too much, and yet I could not bear it.

Watching from the sidelines was agonizing, and my heart ached.

The precious bonds I so rarely encountered seemed desperate not to shatter against each other. It was I who wanted to weep.

I…!

The moment Periel Kalos took a step forward, the earth trembled violently, and a colossal roar shook the Pestellio Territory with a deafening resonance.

It was a violent tremor, as though something were being forcibly torn from the very bedrock beneath them.

Millaiyen hastily pulled her into his embrace. Periel Kalos contorted his face and placed his hand upon the sword at his waist.

…What is this killing intent? Is there a Magical Beast this massive?

A chill ran involuntarily down my spine.

Never before had I felt such a bone-chilling killing intent. From the Capital to the north—

—— Page 4 ——

—I had not sensed such a presence from any Magical Beast I encountered along the way, nor from Herta.

“Millaiyen, are you all right?”

Periel Kalos turned his head to inquire after Millaiyen’s well-being. Millaiyen’s body was rigid and tense.

His pupils were dilated wide, and his hand had already drawn his sword.

“Millaiyen…?”

“This is… not a Magical Beast. Even Herta, the leader, never emanated such a presence.”

I could not shake the sensation of being prey before an apex predator.

In all my years of existence, I had never experienced such a feeling. There had been no need to.

Before any Magical Beast or human, I had always been the predator, the strong one, the supreme ruler.

Death loomed mere inches away.

Holding my breath, I carefully stepped toward the outside.

* * *

The colossal luminescence that had escaped the canvas ascended high into the heavens.

Without hesitation or wandering, it began to move with deliberate slowness.

The radiant mass swept across the crimson sky, brushing lightly past the apex of the forest’s tallest tree

before coming to an abrupt halt at the End of Winter.

A colossal cliff existed in that peculiar location between mountain ranges.

The luminous mass circled the cliff once before surging rapidly toward it.

The radiant mass dispersed and began seeping into crevices throughout the cliff face. Soon it vanished completely between the stone cracks.

Even after the luminescence disappeared, the forest remained silent.

—— Page 5 ——

The End of Winter and the Winter Mountain Range had always been the domain of beasts and Magical Beasts, with nothing else existing there.

Crack—rumble, rumble.

Crack—rumble, rumble.

The mountain range twisted violently, beginning to spill forth heaps of stone.

Stones and dust cascaded down to the ground in a torrential shower.

The silence that had once blanketed the Forbidden Forest was now consumed by strange, otherworldly sounds, and the sensitive creatures inhabiting it began scurrying frantically from The Cliff, tumbling downward.

Birds fluttered and soared high into the sky with frantic wingbeats, while rodents scurried swiftly into hollow tree trunks to hide.

Repeatedly, The Cliff began to twist and contort.

Like a body long frozen attempting to move slowly, it writhed back and forth.

From a distance, the movement was so pronounced that one might have sworn The Cliff itself was alive.

Stones accumulated and hardened over eons began to crumble and fall away, revealing something copper-hued and murky seeping through the cracks. The Cliff suddenly rose higher, as if a beast awakening from a long slumber were stretching.

Something murky and bronze-colored peeked through the cracks. The Cliff rose abruptly, as if a beast that had been in a long slumber were stretching itself awake.

Thump. Thump.

Thump. Thump.

Every time The Cliff grew higher bit by bit, the Forbidden Forest trembled.

Sharp claws dug into the ground, and the bronze-colored dull scales brightened as they caught the light. The remnants of The Cliff that had been enveloping its entire body slowly fell to the ground.

It was like a minor avalanche. Boulders fell relentlessly, the earth rumbled, and dust swirled in all directions, obscuring the view in a hazy veil.

With a pattering sound, falling stones rapidly accumulated at the feet of the bizarre creature.

-Aaah….

The voice was low and rough, like metal being scraped.

It was unmistakably human speech, yet both the pronunciation and the vocalization were peculiar.

—— Page 6 ——

Above all, the voice emanated not from a human, but from a non-human entity.

Thud-thud-thud.

The dirt and debris that had covered my entire body finally fell away completely.

I opened my eyes. Golden irises rolled about, sweeping across my surroundings.

My colossal body towered and sprawled to nearly half the height and breadth of the Winter Mountain Range, every inch of it covered in bronze scales.

Deep gray talons and an elongated neck commanded attention.

-I thought my life had ended… yet here I am. How peculiar.

The dragon extended my neck, gently sweeping through the forest while muttering to myself.

The scorching breath I exhaled sent the forest leaves into violent upheaval as though a tempest had been unleashed. My body, rigid from prolonged stillness, felt stiff and cumbersome.

Yet vitality surged through me abundantly.

The ancient dragon Ajidahaka felt my heart thundering powerfully to life and smiled with satisfaction.

Blood beginning to flow through withered veins announced the dawn of a new existence.

Muscles stirred back into motion, and the breath that had grown cold and desiccated gradually kindled with warmth once more.

My expression grew complex. A single thought echoing through my mind kept disrupting this pleasant new beginning.

Since I could not fathom this thought, it surely must be the will of whoever had brought me back to life.

-Not bad at all.

I channeled power into the wings attached to my back.

As I gradually infused magical energy into those rigid appendages, hardened like ancient timber from long disuse, the wings unfurled in an instant.

-So I must slaughter the Magical Beasts in this forest. A cruel master indeed. To demand I kill creatures as dear to me as my own children.

Tsk, tsk. I clicked my tongue in disapproval, though

—— Page 7 ——

I did not voice any objection to it.

—But it’s time I reclaimed what’s mine.

Just once.

Ajidahaka clicked his tongue in regret—just that single moment of longing—and drew a deep breath all the way into the depths of his lungs, his voice dropping to a low murmur.

He tilted his head toward the heavens and unleashed a tremendous roar.

The earth trembled, and the sound was so vast and menacing that every soul throughout the Pestellio Dukedom could

hear it.

When Ajidahaka’s roar—long or short as it was—finally ceased, his razor-sharp fangs gleamed in the light.

Following the trail of Magical Beasts and creatures scattering in all directions in their flight, Ajidahaka set his feet in motion.

The slaughter had begun.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————