Hermit Wizard

Dragon’s Name (9)

“… Father, where is Father? Why can’t I feel anything?”

I didn’t know if the man had a completely mental body like Parvache or if it was a fragment of the mind left by the ascetic. If it were the latter, it would be quite weird.

An ancient ascetic was created by a Truth-Seeker using fragments of the body. Once again, a mental body created by fragments’ remained. Was that a fragment of a fragment?

“I don’t feel connected to him at all. Even after being abandoned and buried, I could sense a connection with Father, and then I fell asleep, but now… I can’t feel anything!”

He shook his head.

“I feel like I’ve been sleeping for a very long time. Why did I wake up all of a sudden now?”

It was said that the last memories were about to be buried in the ground, which meant that modern ascetics have never awakened him ever since. If so…

At that time, I was also curious. Why did he just wake up now?

Did he wake up because of me?

“Tell me, Father… is he dead?”

That seemed to be close to the confirmation after the situation had already been identified. He couldn’t feel the connection to the Truth-Seeker, who was the source of his existence. Even if I lied, it was unlikely that it would work, so I quietly nodded. The man’s eyes shook.

“Yes, I see.”

A moment of silence…

I told Parvache, ‘No matter how much I look at it, it doesn’t seem to be normal…’

The man opened his mouth before the will that would be sent out so that only Parvache could hear was completed. As if he had made up his mind, a sound with determined strength resonated.

“Then I…”

His eyes glowed eerily.

“If Father died, I have no choice but to continue to keep it. I have no choice but to follow the orders of the primordial, which is the priority.”

Why did it end up there? I gave a signal to my chest. Again, one move came back as an answer.

“I can see why I opened my eyes at this point. To carry on his great will.”

The chaos would pierce me.

“It was because Ensi entered this nest.”

-Hiss…

The atmosphere was ringing. The texture of the air began to change. The man muttered as he swept at his chest full of tattoos.

“Since Ensi appeared before me, I have no choice but to carry out my mission.”

The surrounding atmosphere dried rapidly. A tiny drop of water clumped in front of the man’s brow. The formed moisture crystals reflected the light of magical lighting and shone like a diamond.

That wasn’t magical. It was a telekinetic power. Moisture in the atmosphere was moved and aggregated in molecular units with the force of the will.

The mental body created a physical phenomenon. It wouldn’t be harmful to himself, but it couldn’t be affected by a material being like me. I conveyed my intention to my chest.

‘Let’s finish it at once.’

The man whispered in the air and continued his words.

“So, I will kill you here. For the mission that I embraced from the moment I was born. And I will bury you here with my soul.”

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I answered profoundly and also changed my tone.

“Should you do that? Is there a point in being loyal? He’s already dead, and he even abandoned you when he was alive.”

I kept my senses sharp while saying it. The man’s will was invading the space.

“Even Father, who abandoned me, is the origin of my existence. I still adore him.”

The cool tentacles were wrapped around my arms, and then it flowed down my sleeves.

“Hmm… why?”

I replied sarcastically, “That’s a typical affection deficit symptom, an act of obsessing with the parents who abandoned them, trying to get recognition. I heard that children with many wounds when they were young grew up and craved unsatisfied affection like you. That’s not what I made up. An authority on infant psychology development, a professor named Shin Kyung-ja…”

I tried talking to distract him, but he didn’t even pretend he heard me.

“Come on, beat him up.”

Physical attacks through magic wouldn’t work for that opponent, but there was no time to build a magnificent magic circle that could affect mental bodies. There was only one way… I had to hit him at once.

The man was ready to shake his power.

“I am here to carry on the will!”

I gathered my Mana and muttered inside.

‘You’re out of your place!’

-Pshh!

The wind made by the man exploded. He fired water drop bullets with a strong force.

-Ping!

Yet, with a sharp noise, it bounced off the shield I spread.

“No!”

The man’s expression was distorted. The water bullets I blocked reorientated in a large semicircle orbit. They flew after me like a guided missile, but I was already reaching out for him. I shouted inside, ‘Go!’ and a bronze tentacle came out of my sleeve!

“Eaaaaarrrghhhhh!”

Dozens of tentacles stretched out of the sleeves and pierced the man’s mental body without mercy. His body became like a dummy on which an inexperienced surgical intern practiced suturing.

-Phssswoong!

In the meantime, the water bullets rushed back to me as if they were desperately focused.

-Ping! Piping!

They were blocked by the shield I made several times and bounced off. As time went by, the bullets were getting bigger. It kept collecting and coagulating moisture from the underground. The surface was a dry zone, but there seemed to be moisture underground.

“The Blue Flower of Reinaforce!”

He screamed a spell, reaching out the right hand where the tentacles weren’t held.

-Boosh!

Flowing through my hand was a blue flame that overlapped and burned. It was shaped like a flower that surrounded dozens of tongues in a circle. It was the shape of the tongue where each petal moved smoothly.

-Tziing!

The tongue made of flames evaporated by swallowing the water bullets at once.

=Aaaaaaaaaaaaahh!=

I could hear the mental scream that the man shouted. It seemed that he was so driven to the wall that he could no longer use the trick of vibrating the air with telekinetic power.

-Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle…

The body of the guy, which occupied my left chest, kept flinching in excitement. It was very excited.

Dozens of tentacles weren’t only holding and tearing the prey but also chewing and swallowing it. Each tentacle terminal ate away the mental body. Like earthworms that swallowed humus to make a hole and dug a burrow, the tentacles penetrated the man’s mental body and dug again as they ate it.

I watched the progress carefully.

A blue rope-like tentacle pierced the man’s right eye, then came out through the left temple again. It then tied his chest around, crushed his chest, and then gnawed the position corresponding to the tailbone and penetrated again. The tentacles that went in pierced the man’s navel again.

That was the only movement of one tentacle that was transmitted through my senses. In that way, there were dozens of other tentacles that violated the man’s mental body.

=Uuuugh… eaaaarrggghhhh…=

Even the mental body felt the pain. It was a different level of pain from the physical pain. It felt like I was destroying the source I couldn’t imagine myself.

=I… I…=

‘Ah, that guy, he’s full of motivation. I completely made him a rag.’

My detection magic couldn’t even find the existence of the man in the first place. I couldn’t even guess what state he was in now. So, I asked Parvache, ‘Can I let him die out?’

I asked myself. Was there any reason not to do that? Maybe he knew some useful information about the Dragon?

However, I was concerned about the fact that his memory seemed to be incomplete. Furthermore…

Parvache shook his head.

[Somehow, it seems that he was not a complete mental body from the beginning.]

‘Ah, I knew it.’

[He barely opened his eyes while the concentration of the mental body was weakened. On the outside, he looks like a single entity, but he may be not. Perhaps he was created by gathering the crumbs of many ancient ascetic minds. Like a sand tower.]

I nodded.

[If you left him as he is, he will lose cohesion and disappear. Very soon.]

The memory is incomplete, and he will disappear even if I leave him anyway.

So… it would be better to fill that guy’s stomach.

I conveyed my intentions, and the tentacles started eating happily.

There was a scene where the man’s figure became smaller and smaller. The shape was gradually fading and being eaten by tentacles. After all, it didn’t contain bones and organs like a real human being but mimicked only the appearance.

=Ah… I…=

Fragments of ascetics served the Dragon for a long time. The mental body, presumed to be the remnant of the collective consciousness, reached its final moment.

Even if it was a being created by gathering the fragments altogether, one soul became the core. What kind of person was he? In what kind of soul did it appear in front of me after all these years?

=Yeah… it ends like this.=

He stopped struggling as if he resigned for his fate. It was a sudden change of attitude, as if when he tried to kill me. Maybe he expected that result from the beginning. Still, was it a kind of suicidal act to attack me?

He threw his gaze blankly, and he looked at the bundles of blue tentacles that were tying up, piercing, and eating him away while floating in the air.

=… It’s strange. You’re not unfamiliar.=

The tentacles didn’t have a mouth, and they couldn’t answer his words. Hence, it was only clear that they recognized his will. As they learned from me, they lifted a strand of tentacles and made a hook-like shape. It was a question mark and a way to communicate with me.

Whether he understood the tentacle’s question or not, the man continued his will.

=Ah, that’s right. You are like me, but very young. Like a baby.=

They seemed to be interested in his will. The tentacles stopped moving. They might’ve stopped eating, but the speed of the man disappearing has slowed.

=Fragments of a Truth-Seeker that I do not know. You are derived from a Truth-Seeker other than Father, but you’re growing out in an Ensi’s hands… in human hands. What harmony is this? Has a new Truth-Seeker come down to this world after Father died? Ensi, are you the ascetic of the Truth-Seeker who dominates this era?=

I didn’t answer. He silently closed his eyes.

=Anyway, this era is not mine. It doesn’t make sense to be curious.=

He then raised his hand and touched the tentacles.

=It’s weird. Why are you so familiar?=

Yes, that tentacle was also a creature made out of the Truth-Seeker’s fragments. Was that why he felt the closeness?

However, listening to the thought that followed, he wasn’t just talking about that thing.

=It’s not just because of the way you were made… Ah, that’s right.=

As if he realized something, he spread his bold will.

=This is Father’s memory. No, does the instinct of the species exist deeper than the memory? It’s Father’s instinct that hasn’t disappeared even after he evolved twice.=

He had a faint smile on his lips.

=I don’t know why, but I guess your race was closely related to Father’s. Familiarity and gladness engraved in his instincts are directed at you.=

Perhaps it didn’t understand the man’s will. It lifted four more tentacles and made a question mark for each. The left and right directions were wrong for one. It said it couldn’t understand at all.

=Yes… is this also decided? I have lived by killing Ensi all my life, and in the end, I disappear at Ensi’s will. And the blade that destroys me is the flesh of the race that has been in contact with Father. You’re even like me, a Truth-Seeker’s fragment.=

A calm feeling of relief lingered on his face.

=Yes, it is today. Here in this place.=

Although the center of his palm was pierced, he gently touched the tentacles that pierced his forehead.

=Yes, it will be meaningful as it is. It’s an incomplete piece, but a little power remains. It is a power that would have been distracted if the mental body disappeared after the loss of cohesion so that I can pass it on to you.=

He then made a decision-making sound.

=Eat me, Child.=

Due to the man’s warm will, it seemed to be confused for a moment.

My chest was wriggling and moving because its tentacles swung outside. Its body that was stuck to the bare skin near my heart came out through my nape.

Silver pupils without eyelids stared at me, and its eyes looked like it was asking me what to do.

Ah, that guy was worried about it. In the meantime, it only resisted and fled from the predator’s point of view. No one encouraged it to eat themselves like that.

I smiled gently and said to the guy.

“What are you doing? Eat him up. I’m busy.”

The body of the fragments and tentacles made by the Truth-Seeker of Silver Forest looked at me without any reaction. It then slipped itself on top of me, returned to its original position, and resumed eating through the tentacle terminal.

The speed at which the man’s mental body faded increased. He then said, just before I finally became unaware of it.

=Ascetic who serves the Truth-Seeker of this era. I want your master to achieve what Father couldn’t do. I wish you good luck in helping you fulfill his wishes.=

He blessed my master, who didn’t exist, without knowing what my purpose was. I would stop his Father from being resurrected. I would reject him from returning to that world.

=May the new Earth’s Truth-Seeker succeed. I wish you to survive until the last moment of your journey.=

His figure was no longer visible to me. I felt the tentacles around my wrist were bit plumper. The mental body, which became completely invisible, sent the last word.

=May your master… walk on the road my Father, the ‘Black Hermit,’ couldn’t walk…=

The fragments of the mind left by the ancient ascetics were extinguished after spewing the true name of Earth’s Truth-Seeker, the Dragon, ‘The Black Hermit’