Trash of the Count’s Family - Chapter 254

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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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Chapter 54. Devour

Crash!
Shield and spear collided.

“Ugh…”

I clutched my abdomen.

Nausea washed over me.
My insides felt as though they might turn inside out.

It was different from the sensation I occasionally felt when using my heart’s vitality.
Like fragile glassware weakened beyond repair, threatening to shatter at any moment, it tormented me relentlessly.

“Damn it.”

Crimson blood.
Droplets traced down from the corner of my mouth, falling beneath my jaw.
The blood soaking into the grass burned a vivid scarlet.

It was different from the dark, lifeless blood I usually shed.
The metallic scent of blood began to spread toward the lake that mirrored my gray eyes.

Twitch, twitch.

This time, Vicross saw it clearly.
The Black Dragon’s front paw was moving. Trembling slightly, it shifted bit by bit, vivid enough to capture in his gaze.

The young Black Dragon’s heart pounded faster and faster at the metallic scent of blood.

Thump, thump.

The scent of Kale Heniatus’s blood was unmistakable.

Raon wanted to open his eyes and face reality. But the young dragon was seeing a different world.

The moment the growth period began, the Young Dragon had to move within a dream.
Or rather, face a trial that mimicked a dream. Instinctively, Raon understood that overcoming this ordeal was necessary to fight, yet enduring it proved agonizing.

Raon examined his own body.
Short front legs and a compact frame, along with diminutive wings.
All of them were covered in wounds.

Despite fighting without rest, within this trial he could neither wield mana nor cast magic. A dragon unable to use magic and without his first transformation was hopelessly weak.

Raon gazed down at his feet.
The sight that greeted him the moment this dream trial began. The young dragon saw the beings grasping at his ankles.

Kale Heniatus, On and Hong, the Golden Dragon grandfather, Choi Han, Rosalind, Ron, Rak, Merry, Vicross, and countless others.
So many beings clung to Raon’s ankles.
Raon had to fight while bearing the weight of these beings.

As I lifted my head, a dragon appeared in the sky.
A colossal dragon incomparable to my diminutive self.
While ordinary adult dragons reached lengths of twenty meters, this massive dragon stretched to thirty.

The dragon’s scales were black, and its eyes gleamed with a deep blue-green hue.

Raon understood instinctively.

That dragon is me.

My adult self.
A dragon with nothing grasping at its ankles, soaring freely through the heavens alone.

I must fight that dragon and emerge victorious.

My draconic instinct whispered that this was the only path to escape the trial. Following that conviction, Raon had to battle the colossal black dragon.

Yet I could not overcome it in the slightest.
Against an adult dragon, I was pathetically weak.

Even knowing this, Raon could not surrender.
Sounds from reality reached my ears, and scents filled my nostrils.

“Damn it!”

Beyond the trial, outside the dream, I heard the voice of our weak human.
That voice he always uttered whenever frustrated and irritated. Raon lowered his head. It was not the words of the entity grasping at his ankles within this trial, but the voice of our human in reality.

The human had only three days, he said.
This scent of blood—it was our human’s scent.

I had to save him.

Raon took flight once more. The entities grasping at his ankles made it difficult—no, very difficult—to soar, yet he did not cease his wing beats.

Because he did not truly despise the entities holding him down.
Raon charged once again toward the colossal Black Dragon looming above him.
Raon felt no fear. He only dreaded arriving too late to reality.

And the one who faced the reality Raon so desperately yearned for found curses flowing endlessly from his lips.

“Ugh, damn it all!”

Kale Heniatus’s expression twisted grotesquely as he spewed blood and profanities. His stomach churned violently, threatening to turn inside out.
The endless crimson blood he continued to expel threatened to drive him mad.

Crash!

The gray spear and silver shield collided once more.
Despite the tremendous roar, the silver shield remained utterly unscathed, without the slightest tremor.

The problem was that the gray spear targeting Kale remained equally intact.

Whoosh—crack.
Immediately after striking the shield, the spear’s form momentarily collapsed, only to swiftly reconstitute into a colossal lance that thrust toward Kale anew.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The silver shield and gray spear continued to collide as if devouring one another.
Kale wiped the blood from his lips and glared at the gray spear.

My body’s vessel had reached its limit.
The turbulence within me now was incomparable to the nausea I’d felt earlier when using Wind’s Sound merely for travel.

Because of this, I couldn’t fully unleash the unbreakable shield and the formidable Jjangdol.

‘But he always lost to Meokbo and stubborn Jjangdol.’

Destructive Fire had said as much, yet the circumstances to fully wield that power simply hadn’t materialized.
However, my eyes remained calm, observing the spear crafted from the lake and water.

‘Once.’

In my current state, I could use the formidable Jjangdol’s power only once while maintaining the shield.

Once.
I repeated that number to myself as I blocked the water spear hurtling toward me with my shield once more.

Kwaaaang!

The deafening roar shook the surroundings again. The ancient dragon Erhafen furrowed his brow at the sight.

Judging Water.
True to its name, it was a cold and merciless force.
An indescribable power emanated from the water spear—a power that seemed ready to behead a criminal on the spot, to execute judgment directly.

‘How strange.’

It truly was strange.
All the Ancient Powers Erhafen knew were somewhat lacking to serve as a main force.

Yet some of the Ancient Powers possessed by that unfortunate Kale Heniatus displayed strength exceeding even the main forces of considerable masters.

“…This is troublesome.”

Erhafen’s brow deepened in a frown.
He could sense Kale Heniatus’s wavering interior. His vessel was on the verge of shattering.

Ancient Power—that arrogant force said to resemble divinity itself.
To overcome it, Kale Heniatus’s current state was far from optimal.

Could I win?
Is it possible in this condition?

Even the Ancient Dragon found it difficult to judge.
But there was one thing he knew.

“The orthodox approach won’t work.”

In that moment, Erhafen’s pupils dilated.

Uuuuuu—
The lake trembled once more.

The Ancient Dragon rubbed his arm.
Chills ran down his spine.
In that moment, Erhafen heard Kale’s voice.

“This is insane. I’m losing my mind, absolutely losing it! Damn it!”

I couldn’t help but let those words spill out.

Splash—

Something rising from the depths of the lake.
Chains made of water, shackles were rising up.

As if to bind a prisoner’s limbs, the chains surged up from beneath the lake. Water spears and chains alike. I contorted my face.

And I felt frustrated.

Silent.
Those noisy Ancient Power Owners had gone silent.
Now that I thought about it, whenever a situation arose to obtain an Ancient Power, the other Ancient Power Owners would fall silent.

Splash, splash—

Multiple chains surged upward. They clung to the water spears with clanking sounds. As if to bind my limbs, they targeted me along with the spears.

“Damn it. So this is the Judging Water, huh? It’s doing something strange.”

It was when Kale Heniatus inadvertently voiced his frustration.

-It’s not me.

A woman’s voice echoed in his mind.
A crystalline voice that resonated as though reverberating through a cave filled his consciousness.

Judging Water.
There was no mistaking that voice.
Whenever he overcame a trial, the voice of an Ancient Power Owner would always reach him.

-It’s not me, I’m telling you it’s not!

“Ugh.”

Kale clutched at his ears. The calm voice that had been resonating in his mind suddenly grew louder and more violent.

Whoooosh, crackle!
Simultaneously, chains and spears tangled together, swelling his form to grotesque proportions. The surface of the lake began churning with turbulent passion.

-This power isn’t mine! This isn’t me! I am not a judge!

Not a judge?
Kale’s eyes shifted as he gripped his head.

-I am, I am!
-I am! I!

The Ancient Power Owner continued to repeat only those words, and Kale’s head throbbed from that voice. So without thinking, he blurted out.

“Then what are you?”

If you’re not Judging Water, then who are you?
Everyone calls you Judging Water.

That was the moment.
A small voice reached him.

-I am… one without freedom.

Screeeech— screech—
At the strange sound, Kale Heniatus lifted his head.
A spear tangled in chains aimed its colossal form at him. The power radiating from it stole the breath from anyone who witnessed it.
Upon sensing that power, the ancient dragon spoke the words that came to mind simultaneously.

“…Bound by a god.”

-Bound.

The voice of the Ancient Power Owner echoed within Kale’s mind.
She had been shackled by a god and by people alike, bound in chains named duty and responsibility. She was forced to languish beneath the yoke the world had forged, not the form she was born to possess.

Shackled the moment she was born, and when the god discovered her, the god bestowed upon her a name. Then the people revered her.

-I want to break free.

She fled to the Eastern Continent, to the corners of the world, fleeing again and again in pursuit of freedom. Yet she had already forgotten her true self.

-Release me.

But she wished to find her complete self once more.
She yearned to wield freely, even just once, that power which the god cherished yet had no choice but to bind.

-The god gave me the name Judging Water. But I had a name of my own making, a name I created myself.

A name born from her own will. She wished to use it.

-By nature, Ancient Powers name themselves. I lost that opportunity. I wish to gain the chance to create my own name anew.

And she had met the one who could grant her that chance.

She sensed the power of those who had once helped her flee to the Eastern Continent long ago.
They had created resignation letters, kindled flames to draw attention, and stood as shields against the White Sages.
They had also carried her on the wind and, finally, made her as strong as their own stone power. Among them was a kind soul who had comforted her and become her confidant.

In the end, people who had sacrificed for the world.
Their scent lingered.
It came from this person.

-I am not the judge.

The grey lake rippled.

Water is a substance that flows from above to below.
By the laws of the world, water must flow downward without exception. In the end, that was the natural order.

But she was a being that transcended the world’s laws.
That is why the divine cherished her even as they bound her in chains, and she had to endure the constraints of mankind.

Only after the Ancient Power Owner fled the shackles and came to the Eastern Continent, only when left alone in true freedom, could she finally speak the name she had forged for herself.

-I am water that flows against the current.

Against the current.
One who swims upstream.
In Kale’s mind, her voice grew fainter and fainter. As if echoing from some distant cave, the sound faded, yet remained perfectly clear.

Her final words.

-I am water that devours the sky.

The first name she had forged for herself, casting aside Judging Water.

Water that devours the sky.

Screeeee—screee!
Kale lifted his head.
As her voice vanished, chains bound the tip of the spear toward Kale.

“…A trace of the divine.”

Erhafen’s voice rang out, but no one could hear it.

The water had swallowed the sound.

Splooooosh—

A massive gray spear shot toward Kale Heniatus.
Simultaneously, chains extended forth, rushing to bind his limbs.

“…This won’t do.”

This won’t work. That absolutely won’t work.
Erhafen sensed traces of divinity and a power that rejected nature emanating from both the chains and the spear.
Kale Heniatus could not withstand that.

“Kale Heniatus!”

Erhafen ultimately rushed toward Kale Heniatus, scattering platinum-hued mana.
But Erhafen could not stand beside Kale Heniatus.

A sharp crackling sound.

Kale Heniatus smiled as he gazed upon the spear and chains hurtling toward him.

Water flowing against the current, then.
A name I quite favor.
Better than Judging Water.

Kale Heniatus could not hear the voices of the Ancient Power Owners. Yet he felt the ancient powers revealing their presence throughout his body.
Kale Heniatus looked directly at the spear and spoke.

“Then I shall flow against the current as well.”

Kale Heniatus’s body shot forward.
Wind’s Sound became his feet.

Kale Heniatus glanced back at his companions with a slight smile. He saw expressions of bewilderment.

His feet left the ground. As if targeting the sky where water could not flow, he advanced to a place where his feet could not tread. The result immediately echoed in his ears.

A sharp whooshing sound—

A lake with gray eyes.
Kale Heniatus dove into those waters.

He was certain of it.

The water could not touch me.

Kale Heniatus submerged himself deliberately into the lake.

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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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