Chapter 135: Hatch (1)

The Summer Queen, who was being blocked by Cheonghwado. Red Dragon, who was trying to chase after Sword God. Bow God, who was trying to escape,

In the middle of that mess.

The Foreign Legion felt like they were in real danger.

The Summer Queen's unfocused rage was hurting everyone. A dragon that wasn't in its right mind was fear inducing.

Except for a few mercenaries who wanted to stay until the very end to get the reward, most of them had already left the battlefield.

Among them were Phante and Edora.

***

"Hyungnim, is it really ok to do this?"

Phante scratched his face looking at the battlefield far away.

He came because Yeon-woo said they should leave.

But he felt uncomfortable just leaving like this.

Although he liked to run around without caring about the consequences, he knew that a contract was important.

And in these cases, the 'binding proclamation' always followed.

Binding proclamation. It was a magic contract that made the one who didn't follow through with the conditions suffer greatly.

Fortunately, Yeon-woo wasn't tied to the binding proclamation. The information he had brought them was incredible, and also because they felt uncomfortable with the fact that Phante and Edora were the Martial King's children.

So with that, there was only a light binding between them. However, this could be a problem if the other party chose to press charges.

But Yeon-woo shook his head as if saying they shouldn't worry.

"No. We won't have to worry that far. Red Dragon will be grateful that you guys left it at this."

Phante's eyes became bigger.

"What's that mean?"

"The One-horned tribe didn't appear at this attack."

"Hm?"

Phante tilted his head like he still didn't understand.

But Yeon-woo no longer answered, like he was annoyed, and silently climbed down the hill.

Edora sighed and gave a further explanation.

"During this attack. Why do you think our tribe didn't show up?"

"Because the portal suddenly appea.....Mm? But now that I think about it, they should've been contacted by now?"

Phante tilted his head like something was strange.

As far as he knew, his tribe liked situations like this.

They went crazy for the chance to make a chaotic area even more chaotic.

Especially the Martial King.

Also, even though there was quite a distance between Cheonghwado's base and Kuram, if a teleport scroll was used, they could request for support right away.

But the One-horned tribe didn't show up even until the end. Even during this revolution occurring in Cheonghwado.

"I'm not sure, but Father probably thinks there's no point in the alliance and canceled it. And Red Dragon could've sent one of their people to the tribe too."

Phante's eyebrow twitched.

"To not interfere?"

"Not sure about the specifics. But they probably wouldn't have said it that directly. Because Red Dragon can't take out tribe too lightly. Wouldn't they have said something like 'Please change your judgement according to how the situation pans out,' or something like that? Since once Father's pride is touched, it ends up in ruins."

"Ah. I guess that could've happened."

Even after Red Dragon controlled all of Kuram, as much as they didn't touch the tribe, that was how much they cared about them.

The lofty Red Dragon.

Since they were taking careful steps with the tribe. They could have influenced the outcome of this battle.

No, Edora was absolutely sure they did.

"So Red Dragon will be glad that we left on our own accord. Since they don't have to care anymore. No, to be exact, since they don't have to care about the tribe."

The war with Cheonghwado was now close to being over. Since they would need to take some time to recuperat, they probably wanted to avoid the tribe.

And Bahal, who had been in charge of them, died.

Edora kept those words at the tip of her tongue but didn't speak them.

Also.

It was clear to her eyes. That the panicked Summer Queen's Dragon Heart was critically sparkling, like it was going to break any second.

"Ugh, politics. It's so so hard. Why is it so complicated? They should all just live simply. Whew."

Phante rubbed the side of his eyes like he was getting a migraine.

Edora grinned looking at her brother.

"You don't have to make it so complicated. Since in the end, politics is just made up of one thing. If you become king. You only have to follow that."

"Mm? What's that?"

Phante curiously looked at his little sister.

Edora firmly nodded her head. Her eyes were following Yeon-woo, who was already far along down the hill.

"Power."

Even her voice carried strength.

"You can do anything if you have power. Anything."

***

Yeon-woo and the siblings didn't stray from the path and headed straight back to Kuram. The One-horned tribe was already getting ready to leave.

"Oh. You're back, son? Daughter?"

The Martial King carelessly raised his hand looking at Phante and Edora. The other tribe members greeted them and began to move busily again.

Yeon-woo, who was blankly standing behind them, asked with his head tilted.

"You're not accepting my greeting?"

The Martial King crossed his arms and snorted.

"Nope. Why would I need greetings from a guy that lives however he wants? Did you come back after making a good mess?"

Yeon-woo indifferently nodded his head.

"Yes. Thanks to you."

The Martial King looked Yeon-woo up and down with an unsatisfied gaze. He met Yeon-woo's eyes and smirked.

"Hm? Did you stuff yourself with something good again? How come you always return so differently than when you left? Your physique seems to have changed too. You even smell different."

Phante had a face that looked as if it was asking 'again?' and Edora nodded her head seeing Yeon-woo with her Insight.

Yeon-woo inwardly clicked his tongue.

He had hid it as well as he could this time as well. He covered his dragon scales, and tried to tone down his draconic attribute.

But the Martial King's perceptive gaze didn't miss anything, like always.

"I'll explain to you later."

"Sure, whatever. But if you have something good, you should share, and not hog it all to yourself."

Yeon-woo scratched his face with his thumb. His expression couldn't be seen past his mask, but the Martial King's scolding felt strange to him.

To be honest, Yeon-woo felt a bit embarrassed standing in front of the Martial King like nothing had happened.

Before he left the tribe. The scolding he received from the Martial King was still clear in his head.

It was just a little, no a lot, cringy.

But it wasn't a bad feeling.

Like when he met Henova and Phoenix for the same time. It was a feeling like he had somewhere to come back to. The word 'home' fit best.

The Martial King waved his hand for them to leave like he wouldn't rebuke them any longer.

As Yeon-woo was about to leave.

"But."

He paused and turned towards where the Martial King was.

"What you were doing. Did it end well?"

Yeon-woo silently stood there for a second. The question the Martial King had asked him was somehow strange. It felt like he was asking about something other than avenging the Phoenix.

And so. Yeon-woo bowed his head.

"Thanks to you."

"Really? Then that's good."

The Martial King no longer asked any questions and focused on what he was doing.

Yeon-woo stared at the Martial King for a moment and quietly left.

***

The One-horned tribe headed back to outside of the Tower.

Yeon-woo was able to listen to what happened following behind them.

The first one was that like he and Edora had suspected, Red Dragon and Cheonghwado's parties had both come to the 11th floor.

The reason was also as he suspected.

Red Dragon came to ask the tribe if they could reconsider joining the battle if the gap between the wins and losses were big, because Red Dragon was going to attack Cheonghwado.

Cheonghwado came to continue with the alliance, and pleaded for help considering the relationship between Martial King and the Sword God and Spear God.

And apparently, the Martial King just said one word to them.

Nope.

He judged that Cheonghwado had lost the qualification to stand side by side next to the One-horned tribe in the war, and he had only helped them because the Spear God had pledged to give up his horn.

The reason he canceled the alliance was because he didn't see the need to continue supporting Cheonghwado, who kept on losing.

In addition, the Sword God was indeed his disciple, but it had been long since they cut ties, and he didn't have the reason or loyalty to help Spear God, because he was no longer a member of the tribe.

Yeon-woo shook his head hearing about the Martial King's response.

Rather than being amazed at his rejection, he only felt that he was cold.

And seeing his ability to separate work and personal life, Yeon-woo saw a new side to the Martial King.

He thought this might be the reason for the One-horned tribe's newfound success.

And he also continued to have thoughts.

He might be receiving the grace of the Martial King right now, but no one knew what would happen once their relationship was completely ruined.

Thinking back to how he almost cut ties with the Martial King, he realized he was quite lucky. And that the Martial King had cut him a lot of slack.

Also.

'I can't expect any more of that slack anymore.'

The Martial King was someone who was able to kick Yeon-woo to the curb without hesitation if he posed a threat to the tribe.

And the second was the chase after Cheonghwado and Red Dragon.

The escape of Spear God and Sword God was successful. But because they had been gravely injured, Red Dragon created different teams to chase after them.

And some high rankers in the attacking forces were targeting after the 'island' that Cheonghwado's headquarters were.

'It's because of the stone. They must want to look in every nook and cranny of Cheonghwado for it. Although they won't find anything.'

It was clear that for a while, Red Dragon would waste time looking for the stone.

Meanwhile. The Spear God and Sword God completely disappeared. It was like they weren't in the Tower anymore.

The same went for the Cheonghwado players who barely kept their lives after the battle.

They spread out individually.

Some of them dreamed about raising up a revolution for Cheonghwado, but it was quickly smashed by Red Dragon. Now, even saying the word Cheonghwado was strictly forbidden.

And so. Most of them spread out to other clans. The most loyal ones decided to wait for the Martial Gods' return. But Red Dragon didn't let them hide themselves. They followed after to ask about the location of the two Martial Gods, and if they didn't know, they were immediately killed.

The genocide of the survivors was being continued.

In the end. There was only one thing they wanted.

Cheonghwado completely fell.

With the sudden collapse of one of the Eight Clans, cracks started to appear all over the Tower.

Other large clans extended their hand to take Cheonghwado's authority. A lot of medium clans spread their wings apart to become the next Cheonghwado.

The confrontation between Red Dragon and Cheonghwado caused great confusion.

Also,.

Yeon-woo looked at the changing world within the Tower and once again prepared for what he needed to do.

'There's a lot. I have to get used to the Dragon Body again. And I have to organize the authorities of the dragon that I got.'

One thing he had definitely learned after fighting Bahal was that he still had a long way to go.

The potential of the Dragon Body was unknown. Because he didn't fully understand how to use it yet. He needed to fix that, and get used to using the authorities. He needed to quickly learn everything.

Other than that, there were still a lot.

His egg that hadn't hatched yet. The quest of the Abyss Turtle. Questioning Leonte and Bahal. Investigation about both of them. Training his Eight Extreme Fists.

And he needed to start climbing the floors again.

They were all difficult tasks.

So Yeon-woo prioritized them in the guest room of the One-horned tribe.

And an order was created.

'First, waking up the egg.'

But he needed the Seed of the Moon from the One-horned tribe to wake it up. And that was gone now after he rejected the Martial King's quest.

Of course, there was still a way.

'Blessing of the Four Legendary Beasts.'

Yeon-woo spread his hands out.

Flare-

Above his hands were Holy Fire, Void, Abyss, and White Earth. The four different energies freely mixed together.

It was a substance created from the Beasts' powers.

With this. As he had tried the first time. Wouldn't it be enough to completely wake up egg up?