Episode 106. Dipel (8)

“You don’t want to eat, my dear. You can’t force yourself to eat something like that.”

On a rainy night, the forest in the white mist was dreamy and unrealistic.

Now the smell of blood began to grow thicker than the smell of earth on the floor.

In that nightmarish place, Ginner stared blankly at Professor Dana slowly emerging from across Rane’s shoulder.

‘… Is that a hawk?’

A falcon giving off a strange atmosphere was perched on her shoulder covered with waterproof magic.

At that time, Jiner, who had forgotten the pain for a while, was looking up at the two of them who did not get wet even in this rain.

“You, that… . Are you the woman wearing the white dress?”

Rane didn’t even look down at her left arm, which was pierced by Dana’s light.

Instead, unnaturally, like a doll moving, she raised her head, which she had lowered to feed Jinner blood.

“Dana, right?”

Dana narrowed her eyes in front of her eyes that wavered restlessly in curiosity.

‘As expected, he’s not an opponent worth fighting for.’

After organizing her thoughts for a moment, she said to the collapsed Jiner.

“Ginner, I’ll send you back the way you saw it. Isn’t the situation over there right now too relaxed? If Professor Ian is defeated, there may be unbearable chaos in this place.”

“… .”

“Now trust your colleagues and protect Professor Ian. You know best that the Wardens are formidable.”

“… All right.”

When Dana prayed for good luck, Jiner immediately blocked the pierced abdomen and moved on as she had intended.

The red harpoon that remained in his empty seat gradually dried up like a root that had been pulled out and then disappeared. Rane, who watched the whole situation, told her.

“Sister, are you not human?”

“Are you my sister? I heard all about how you were locked up somewhere for 200 years ago.”

“lol… . You think I don’t know? This feeling, smell… . Are you like your father? Sister, you are a dragon!”

“… .”

Dana was relieved that there were no allies around.

‘It was the son of Kegar that my father was talking about. I didn’t think he would reveal his identity to the test subject.’

Even the ancestors of vampires, who ran rampant like beasts, did not reveal their tyrannical nature to dragons.

This is because the instinctive fear imprinted in their genes urges them to flee rather than attack.

‘I’m sure it’s the same with Diepeln… . Hmm, it’s hard to catch a vampire if he decides to run away at night.’

After approaching Rahne pretending to be a human, Dana’s plan, which was thinking of defeating her and clearing the fog, seemed to go completely wrong.

“I’m already looking forward to it… !”

Contrary to expectations, however, Rane was eerily delighted with the fact that she had met a dragon other than Kegar.

“I couldn’t suck my father’s blood… . Still, since it’s the same dragon, it must taste similar to your sister’s blood, right? Until now, I’ve been debating thousands of times whether or not to ask if I could bite my dad’s neck just once!”

“… You, you turned really well.”

“Guys, it’s a change of strategy! Let’s aim for this sister first!”

Rahne looked back and gestured toward the mist, and the three Vampire Dipeluns appeared from hiding.

However, even with the opponent’s core power right in front of her, Dana folded her hands with a calm expression.

“If you know who I am and still attack me, what? I’m fine. hey! All three of you, just go for it.”

Unlike Rane, who had already started drawing a red magic circle with the blood stored in her body, the Dipellins who stood behind her with a slightly shrunken look on their faces responded to Dana’s provocation.

“Do you think we can’t do anything in front of the dragon like the failures?”

“Oh yeah? Is that cool?”

“… .”

“By the way… . It would be nice to learn today that sometimes the answer is to follow your instincts.”

Dana rummaged through the pockets of her research uniform to prepare for battle, recalling a conversation she had with Ian during a strategy meeting.

‘If you compare the current situation to chess, Professor Dana is like a queen. He is the strongest and has a wide range of movement, but he cannot control every situation alone… . It might be a bit difficult.’

‘Besides, nothing has been revealed about the most important Dipeln.’

‘To deal with an enemy in a situation where information is unclear, you will need to be able to respond to various variables. then… . Professor, I think you will have to move independently in this battle.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Hide in the high ground and keep an eye on the war situation, and give your strength to the place where you feel that firepower is needed right away.’

The detached unit had already suffered one after another, and the main unit was engaged in close combat with the advancing Dipels hiding in the fog.

Even if you hastily intervene to stop a single Dipelin or the mindless Dipelin, you won’t be able to prevent the enemy’s core force from inflicting massive damage to your allies in the meantime.

Dana looked down at the forest from the top of the caldera’s nest, waiting for the moment when Rane and Dipeln’s party gathered in one place.

‘I have to sweep it all at once.’

Before Kegar intervened, he had to cut as much power as possible.

The blood shed by the Dipelins turned into a red magic circle and disturbed Dana’s eyes.

Confident of victory, she took out a secret weapon from the pocket of her research uniform.

* * *

‘Tonight, all variables blocking my plans will disappear.’

Even with his eyes closed, Kegar could vividly feel the situation in the forest swallowed up by the storm he had driven.

In front of the now empty Dipeln camp, he reaffirmed that the raid was proceeding as expected.

“It’s holding out longer than expected, but… . The results will not change.”

Rane’s fog eventually completely covered the forest, and the enemy’s main force continued to fight against the Dipels.

“A sorceress is dragging around a guardian spirit level commander. I wondered how they controlled the Wardens… . There must have been something to believe in.”

Had it not been for the spirit attached to Ian, Ian would have faced his inevitable death within the time Kegar expected.

Of course, even so, the blood magic that vampire dippels instinctively use and the strength of the Rang tribe are not negligible. There would be limits to the Commander’s ability to block it alone, though.

“It’s only a matter of time before the Wardens are wiped out… .”

In the end, even they cannot demonstrate their unique agility in the fog of Rane.

Although Fang bled profusely, he seemed to be getting used to the equally slow Wardens’ attacks.

“Has Dana also been targeting Rane? How long can you hold out against the Dipellen four while maintaining Polymorph? . It will be worth seeing.”

As for how much magic Dana could wield, the same dragon, Kegar, knew very well the limits.

Unless she releases her polymorph and reveals herself, she won’t be able to easily deal with the Dipeln four.

‘It’s a good opportunity to measure the combat abilities of the Dipellen.’

In particular, Kegar, who wanted to see how their leader, Rane, would respond, floated the current battle situation in front of his eyes.

“Wait, that… !”

However, in front of the screen that illuminated the dark laboratory in white, he froze as it was.

It was because the clan’s familiar at the top of the mountain was staring at the Dipellins from her shoulder.

“Caldera… ? Why is he with Dana?”

Let the humans name it, Caldera.

And Protium, the longest-lived dragon among the dragons listed in the Tower of Truth.

It was natural for Laplace to show interest in him, who had the most powerful magical power among dragons.

At first, he persuaded him to give him eternal life before he died.

I thought it would be an easy negotiation because there was an individual who refused to die and lived longer than the set lifespan, but… . In the end, Laplace could not break his stubbornness to value principles above all else.

‘I even threatened that if I didn’t help Laplace, I would be destroyed… .’

Caldera only snorted.

‘Are you going to kill me? Me who can’t last for a hundred years and will perish on its own? do whatever you want. instead… . Some of my companions will have to go with me.’

His lifespan is short, but even if he fights with the highest rank, the damage to the members of the organization is great, but nothing comes back.

Realizing this, Laplace gave up Caldera’s recruitment and monitored his movements.

Because he, obsessed with objectivity to the point of being mechanical, did not interfere with Laplace’s research or help their hostile forces… .

Kegar had been working on mana reduction theory right in front of his lair, but he hadn’t noticed any movement.

“Dana, what the hell have you done… !”

His confusion grew as the battle screen became brighter.

Contrary to what he thought… . Dana was overwhelming the Dipellins.

* * *

A cascade of light flowed around Dana.

Bibles strewn all around her as she stood in the middle of an iridescent flash tearing through the fog.

“Flea.”

As Dana chanted, words referring to flames in the scriptures glowed red, and the flames that burned the fallen evaporated the Dipellins’ blood magic.

Caldera, who watched it from the sky, admired it inwardly.

‘Ferrum… . Although I thought that it was not an individual to be taken lightly just because it had a low rank.’

Although he lived a short life, his magic power was on the small side among his own kind… .

She had a history of developing high-level polymorphs that fooled the eyes of Kegar and Caldera, who were much higher in rank than she was.

‘Dragon is a race that discovers unknown facts, not those who create something new.’

Their research is limited to observing phenomena.

In the case of dragons developing new magic, it was close to a by-product of making tools necessary for the search for truth.

As observers of the world, even though they have accumulated an amount of knowledge that is incomparable to other races, they have not been able to actively utilize it.

‘Ferrum is obviously creating something of his own.’

Looking down at the burnt, scalding diepelns, Rahne gnashed her teeth.

“What is this… ? How did the dragon, Elma’s light-”

“This is pure light science. It’s like your father’s research.”

It was the field that she told Professor Ian to study together in the first tower train.

Since it is possible to study only when one is proficient in both biblical deciphering and light science, it was also a field with very few researchers.

Dana smiled at Rane, who was confused because she had never heard of such a thing.

“There are two kinds of light in the world. The visible light emitted by the stars and the blessings of Elma, the creator god.”

The two, who have seemingly the same nature, have always been identified, but… . Dana found that the components that make up these are different.

A few more years after that… . Dana has been researching to link the blessings of Elma, which are contained in the words of the Bible, with light source magic.

The fruit of that has manifested itself here again.

“Does priests heal their wounds when they bask in the light? Elma’s light has the property of turning abnormal things back to normal.”

“Kuh… !”

“Come on, head to head. Let’s calm down.”