Limited Extra Time - Chapter 134

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“By pouring her soul into me, the master is dying. At most, she has three days left.”

“…If I kill you, can Carina Leopold be saved?”

At Millaiyen’s bloodthirsty voice, Ajidahaka burst into laughter, his sharp teeth gleaming like daggers.

How admirable. To charge forward knowing death awaits, all for the sake of saving your beloved woman.

“Kekeke, it’s amusing, but to be blunt—it’s impossible.”

“Why…?”

“The master saved me. The price has already been paid, the deed already done. Just as you cannot grasp time that has flowed away, you cannot undo what has been.”

Ajidahaka answered the question with solemn silence.

“Those blessed by the God of Art rarely meet a good end.”

Tsk, tsk. Ajidahaka shook his head.

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The God of Art and his ilk were typically twisted in temperament. For the sake of creating superior art, they would sometimes manufacture misfortune for those they had blessed.

“The God of Art…?”

“Those beings have warped minds. They believe that masterpieces are born only from endless suffering and solitude. They bestow upon their chosen ones both blessing and eternal loneliness simultaneously.”

In response to Periel’s question, Ajidahaka shook his massive head from side to side as he explained.

Gods often had some flaw or weakness, and the god of the arts was no exception.

It was for this reason that Ajidahaka, after ten thousand years of living as a dragon, chose to sleep eternally in this land rather than ascend to godhood.

Before the world came into being, he was born in this place and witnessed the world’s creation with his own eyes.

“All for such a trivial reason…?”

Millaiyen’s eyes widened sharply.

He clenched his teeth and balled his fists. Carina Leopold had lived her entire life in solitude. Even within a perfectly intact family, she had been cast aside, with nowhere to stand.

—Do not be so angry. Even so, there have been artists who ended their lives perfectly well.

Ajidahaka’s voice descended gently.

—Even those blessed by the God of Art have existed—those who learned love and how to wield their power beneath kind parents, and became renowned artists far and wide.

—Is that truly so?

Periel Kalos asked back as though he could not believe it.

Ajidahaka nodded with satisfaction at Periel’s interest. Since thousands of years ago, this land had been so abundant with miracle-working artists that they were underfoot.

As time passed, perhaps their numbers had diminished considerably.

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—It was because their parents’ will was strong. They loved their children enough to pour everything into them.

Ajidahaka paused for a beat, then opened his mouth once more.

—Such children learned to wield their power amidst happiness, and lived until they grew old and died.

—Wait, is that possible? In any records I know of, there is no mention of a Creator surviving.

At Periel’s bewildered rebuttal, Ajidahaka burst into laughter. He seemed so delighted that he even stomped the ground a few times with his front legs.

Every time he moved, dirt and dust fell in showers. His scales, dull in color, did not glimmer beautifully.

They were like a blade dulled and discolored by ages, rusted through.

The earth trembled at the great dragon’s movement, and the vast laughter caused

the air to vibrate as trees cracked and splintered with a sharp sound.

At that expression and voice, so full of amusement, Periel’s expression became peculiar.

—Why would there be any need to record them? They simply grew like ordinary children and died like ordinary humans, nothing more.

At Ajidahaka’s words, Periel’s eyes widened.

Everything had been altered by their parents. Within the blessing they received lay a

poison—an element that could render a child somewhat unsettling and somewhat invisible to the world.

But that was all it could do. Gods are not omniscient. In contrast, human potential was boundless.

Their growth and possibility were things no other living creature—not even gods themselves—had ever possessed.

It was a curse entirely within their power to overcome. If they failed to overcome it, that spoke only to the nature of their parents.

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Either they were the type who refused to look back at what had fallen from favor, or they simply had little interest in their children.

A child who never received love when it was needed could not bear solitude, so they immolated themselves entirely upon art—the only thing that understood them.

But conversely, a child showered with love had no need to confine their life solely to art.

They possessed the confidence and courage their parents had given them, so even after countless wounds, they could have formed friendships.

will be.

Among the many who turned away from the curse of solitude, they could have found someone who, like their parents, saw their true self and loved them for it.

And even if they failed along the way, what of it?

The child always had a vast embrace to run to and weep within.

And so, as they grew into adulthood, they would no longer flounder in the grip of solitude.

So long as their parents remained steadfast in their place,

the child could never lose their way. This was what Ajidahaka had witnessed in humans all this time.

Beings who could walk again if they merely had a signpost, even when they stumbled or lost their path—who could rise again even after failure and despair.

‘Can such a trivial thing truly cure Art’s Curse?’

Periel Kalos’s face drained of all color.

I had believed it an incurable affliction, yet if one considered symbiosis instead—

there appeared to be another method after all. However, that method was far from perfect.

‘Unstable and uncertain.’

Far from ideal. So those abandoned by their parents must simply perish? Was there truly no other path?

Or must they surrender their limbs and seal their only lifeline?

-…Is there truly no other way to save Haron?

Millaiyen Pestellio spoke while locking eyes with Ajidahaka—

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their gazes intertwined.

Ajidahaka’s eyes narrowed slyly. He leaned forward sharply, bringing his face inches from Millaiyen’s.

-Haron?

-When one slays Magical Beasts, stones like this emerge. Do you happen to know anything of them?

Periel Kalos swiftly produced what he had been carrying and displayed it.

Ajidahaka’s eyes widened. He scraped beneath his chin with his raised claws, and accumulated dust cascaded down.

-Dragons are said to be beings on the verge of becoming gods. Did you know that?

-…I have heard such legends before.

-A dragon’s lifespan is known to span roughly ten thousand years, and after enduring such an eternity, one is granted the opportunity to ascend to godhood. Then this shell is shed, and only the spirit departs This Land.

-….

It was truly an abrupt and sudden revelation.

I couldn’t possibly follow. Millaiyen sheathed his sword and took Carina from Periel, pressing a kiss to her forehead as he cradled her in his arms.

‘…So cold.’

Despite the sun beating down mercilessly, her body remained frigid and unresponsive. He pulled her closer, holding her tighter against his chest.

The person I wished to keep in my arms kept trying to slip away from my side.

That terrified me. The fear that she, held within my embrace, might vanish from my side in an instant.

Her breath, shallow as though it might extinguish at any moment—her heartbeat—her pallid, bloodless face devoid of all color—nothing about this sat right with me.

This desperate situation was utterly horrifying. It was a fear of loss that Millaiyen had never experienced in all his life.

The ground beneath my feet crumbled, and I felt myself plummeting into an abyss—

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into an endless chasm.

-A dragon’s body has the opposite affinity with divinity. Over countless ages, we accumulate mana to forge a Dragon Heart.

-A Dragon Heart?

-The dragon’s heart, the source of mana. The fragments that fell from it into this world become those stones you possess.

Millaiyen’s pupils dilated sharply.

In the same moment he handed Carina to Periel, he drew his blade and charged straight at Ajidahaka.

At the same time as he rose, he drew his sword and rushed straight at Ajidahaka.

Ajidahaka’s brow furrowed at the ferocity of the assault.

“Millaiyen! What are you doing!”

“If I kill this creature and extract what lies within, that should do it, shouldn’t it?”

“How do you intend to slay a dragon?!”

“By any means necessary.”

Millaiyen’s blade rushed forward in a torrent of steel.

Ajidahaka raised a foreleg and effortlessly deflected the attack with his claws.

The disparity in size was overwhelming. His scales and hide were impenetrable, and the blade could not find purchase.

—Calm yourself, human. Even if you were to place my heart within your fragile form, your weak body could not withstand it. You would crumble to dust and vanish entirely.

Millaiyen, who had launched himself skyward from the ground,

halted before his blade could even touch Ajidahaka.

Gritting his teeth, he reversed the blade’s trajectory and descended once more, using the dragon’s leg as a pathway back to solid ground.

Millaiyen’s sword clattered against the earth with a metallic ring.

“Then what… what am I supposed to do?”

Millaiyen raised his hand and bit his lip hard.

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Blood seeped from his lips, clenched in frustration, yet he felt no pain—only burying his face in his hands.

—However, the remnants of a dragon’s heart… that stone you call Harun… it might just be potent enough to work within a fragile human body.

At Ajidahaka’s words, Millaiyen lifted his head. Periel’s eyes, wide with shock, met the dragon’s golden gaze.

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