readsfreenovel Chapter 122 Surrender or Die - S01 E05
Chapter 122 Surrender or Die - S01 E05
The Eastern woman's face was contorted with rage. She bared her sharp teeth like a primal beast, and her originally deep voice suddenly boomed out in a deafeningly high-pitched tone, like a dragon roaring in anger.
"...But you could have become a god who reigns supreme over all, why did you condescend to those pathetic souls!?"
Unable to comprehend your actions, He asked you this question in a trembling voice, filled with fear and confusion.
It was probably because the demeanor of the ■■■ was so terrifying that even He, who came from a place of exile, was afraid.
But upon hearing Him ask such a question, the Dragon Girl revealed a strange yet relieved smile.
Do you know how dragons originated in my country?
"Because I am now a dragon, because I come from the faith of every person."
"So now I am also the pain of everyone's existence, and also the hope of everyone in desperate situations. I come from every person, every small and lowly soul in your words."
"What a pity, I'm going to disappoint you—tell me, how could I possibly hurt the children who built me?"
You gaze at Him.
A tear of sorrow rolled down the corner of the dragon girl's eye.
But when humans are mentioned, ■■■'s voice is angry, but his expression is calm.
"After having my name taken away, after becoming a dragon, after seeing everything as a believer... I am no longer just Ji Xinglan."
"Don't you know?"
You asked Him in a voice tinged with a hint of a smile.
"This power was given to me by you and the power that locked me in hell!"
"After gaining the power of a dragon and seeing a world that only dragons can see, I was forced to take on the responsibilities of a dragon."
“I have people who need protection, and I will also be here waiting for my compatriots who may have lost their way.”
“These… billions of humans.”
The dragon girl let out a deep sigh. She tilted her head slightly, and her long, uneven hair, burned by the flames, danced wildly in the air as the flames swirled.
"I shouldn't have said these words."
"But in this world... as long as there is one person who trusts me, I will keep fighting and fighting."
"Dragons originated from humankind. Dragons are neither good nor bad; they are simply the embodiment of human desires."
Although she became a dragon due to various mysteries, she was endowed with divinity by a strange, mysterious, and ancient power.
But her soul was still human; because of that divinity, because of everything she had experienced in the human world, she saw more of herself and never stopped shedding tears.
Humans are such creatures, and when humans possess divinity, the suffering of the human world is magnified infinitely in her heart... Moreover, she is now in the cradle of suffering—hell.
But she always rises to the challenge.
Living is always harder than dying; there's so much injustice, so much pain, so many difficulties...
But that's just the kind of person she is. As long as there are people waiting for her, she will break through all the darkness without hesitation, even if it means burning herself out.
Life is always like this. Life is bitter, but there are also many things you like. You want to go home. You have been desperate and sad, but wanting to go home is both your despair and your hope.
People from the Porcelain Country don't believe in fate. As long as you don't end up getting hurt, you'll keep pursuing it.
And you are the dragon of the Porcelain Kingdom.
After becoming a creation of faith in your hometown, you have never felt so deeply connected to your hometown, and you have never wanted to go home so much.
You might even occasionally wonder if this unforgettable longing is one of your punishments after you go to hell.
Although you cannot return to your homeland now, since you have come to this unfamiliar land for unknown reasons, does this mean that your innocent compatriots who should have returned home are also stranded here alone?
Just the thought of it makes your heart tremble with pain, like a mother weeping as she sees her beloved child suffer.
—The power that made you a dragon shaped you with your family and your people. You gained immense power and all the people's hopes and dreams.
That longing is like the rolling mountains and vast ocean of your homeland; it gives you unparalleled strength, but it also instills in you an unwavering desire to return home...
But you, too, are willing to suppress it with another wish—
Whenever possible, you will provide a warm haven for your compatriots who might get lost in foreign lands.
When you find a way to leave hell, you will take those who want to leave with you, and then seal off all possibilities that your fellow human beings might end up here.
As the dragon of the Porcelain Kingdom, you will become the protector and sanctuary of your compatriots... As long as you are still here, you will never again let any innocent compatriots suffer the pain of homesickness and such torment due to accidents!
Your wish is so grand, but if you don't even have the courage to defeat Him and the ability to protect the princess of hell, how can you become the sword that cuts through all misfortune?
"If you think you can manipulate me with empty words that haven't been tested yet, and urge me to fall into the abyss, then you are sorely mistaken."
"What do you think I'm using to suppress you?!"
Your nearly burned limbs warned you like cracked pottery, but you still managed to press Him down onto the calm water with all your might.
Blood and fire mingled on the water's surface, then enveloped you and Him within the heart of flame.
At this moment, she is an incomparable dragon.
"You must not be mistaken. I want to go home because I am the dragon of the Porcelain Kingdom."
"But at this moment, even if it costs me my life, I will fight you, also because I am the dragon of the Porcelain Kingdom!"
"I wonder if you, who were born from the Western hell, can understand a saying from the Porcelain Country: 'Kill one as a shield, killing two is not a loss'?"
You gripped His neck tightly, glaring at Him.
The white flames illuminated your beautiful face, and deep red blood kept gushing from the cracks in your limbs, like the weak and delicate roots of some scarlet plant that covered the entire soil.
Because of the unbridled flames, fragments of the dragon girl's skin peeled away bit by bit along the spiderweb-like cracks in the wildly exploding flames, finally revealing her charred, blackened muscles.
But she tightened her fingers as if she felt no pain, her eyes widening in a frenzied, suicidal rage.
A fire also burned in her golden eyes, and that fire was as astonishingly bright as the blazing sun on her chest.
"...Madman! You're a madman!"
"Do you think anyone will think you're so great by doing this?!"
"This is hell! No one will see your sacrifices, and no one... Ughhhhhh!!!"
Having been burned beyond resistance by the Dragon Girl's fire, He now seemed to have only the strength to scream in agony.
Under the tutelage of ■■■, or rather, under Ji Xinglan, whom He despised, He no longer possessed the same harsh and disdainful demeanor He displayed towards humanity.
But perhaps He is now more like a drowning dog, its tail tucked between its legs, scared by its owner with a knife.
"I've wanted to say this for a long time: I'll curse your whole family! Are your nine generations of relatives wholesale?! Since you knew I was crazy, you shouldn't have messed with me in the first place!!"
In response to His words, you, enraged yet laughing, increased the force of your subordinates' blows.
With your roar and desperate howl, the already blindingly bright fire seemed to burn even more fiercely!
"If you really have any sincerity, you should coax me, persuade me, and tell me what kind of help you can provide, instead of slandering my friends and business partners like a bastard!"
"Since I've been suppressing you since I went to hell, I can continue to suppress you! Don't forget who the host of your power is! You opportunistic bastard!!"
You suddenly leaned close to Him, as if to unleash your endless anger, and shouted at Him.
"You've survived until now not because you're strong, but because I, your father, never intended to die with you!"
"Don't overestimate yourself, you're useless!!"
"You're clearly just a parasite that can only exist by attaching yourself to my soul, yet you dare to speak so arrogantly and criticize your host!?"
"If I want, you can vanish into thin air at any time, just like the insect beneath my feet! Do you understand?! Do you understand?!"
The moment you shouted those words, the water beneath your feet suddenly receded in fear; creamy golden sand emerged from beneath your feet like an exposed riverbed.
You and He both know that you are not afraid of perishing together with Him. Although you have grand ambitions, you will never tolerate any unstable factor that could derail your plans.
You are not afraid of death, but He is.
If He doesn't compromise, you also have the courage to truly die with Him.
—And the moment the fire in your heart bursts forth, everything is already destined.
Although you need the help of others to stay awake, there are still many things you can do.
So much anger towards injustice and suffering.
So much determination to save others.
So much love for everyone around him...
All will be settled at this very moment.
"Submit, or die."
"select."
"..."
Your cold words fell.
He didn't answer your question, but seeing that He had turned into a black energy ball and still looked terrified, you, who had clearly chosen him, showed no expression.
When He is not of the same mind as you, His consciousness is clear and independent. This leads Him to always try to take over your consciousness.
But if He submits and is ultimately consumed by your fire, He will no longer be able to constantly try to occupy your consciousness.
Although the pollution He has inflicted on you has not lessened, and you still need Shirley to help you purify the pollution brought to you by the second soul... this is still better than Him polluting you and constantly trying to take over your body.
Ji Xinglan's fire still burned fiercely.
The pristine white life was the echo of her anger. It engulfed her soaking despair, overriding all hesitation and indecision.
Because you were determined to die, your body was burned beyond recognition by your own fire; your muscles had completely dissolved, and several empty skin segments hung suspended from your limbs like hollows.
The cracks in your body and the missing half of your head make you look like a clay figurine that has been mostly smashed by a craftsman.
Your burnt, uneven hair flew in the wind, drawing several different semicircles in the air.
Your once flowing, dark hair now resembles a tattered piece of cloth, making you look miserable and wretched.
"...Ha...Now, go back to where you belong and slumber."
You stare at the energy body shimmering with a faint black light lying on the beach, and mutter to yourself.
A faint smile, tinged with weariness and bitterness, involuntarily appeared on the Dragon Girl's face.
The fire within you still burns, as brilliant as a shooting star falling into the sand.
Your soul and life are burning, and the intense pain has made you more lucid than ever before.
You've been looking for an opportunity to confront it, and you know you'll meet it someday.
You want to avoid seeing it as much as possible because you want to avoid bad things happening.
But that doesn’t mean you’re afraid to confront it.
Death is painful, but unfortunately, the thing you feared least in your life was death.
"Heh... There can only be one of us in control, right?
You said this in a very soft voice, and then stretched out your broken hand.
You used your own fire to completely suppress the last remaining glimmer of His light, and then completely swallowed Him into your mouth.
Although it was just a tiny, bead-like energy, once it slid down your esophagus into your stomach, you were immediately overwhelmed by an incredibly powerful force.
"Cough, haa!"
"Hoo...whoosh..."
You chose to suppress it by force, but in the end you still accepted that it had completely merged with you more deeply. You clutched your abdomen in pain and collapsed on the beach where you had just surfaced.
Your limbs, which were already almost completely destroyed, finally shattered the moment you tried to curl up.
Having lost your support, you pitifully collapsed to the ground, now only your main torso and one eye remain.
...But fortunately, after you could no longer support yourself and rolled around on the beach twice, you were still able to see other scenes.
You silently gaze at the gray sky with your single eye, feeling the pain of His power completely merging with Ji Xinglan's fire.
But by now you've gotten used to this feeling, and the pain has only made you numb.
Because you chose to stop running away and instead accept His power, chose to accept your fear, and chose to accept that sea and the cold glacier, you have now truly become a "dragon".
After you forced Him to merge with you, He became so powerful that His faith almost materialized and filled your broken body. But He remained in your chest like orderly soldiers, in your burning heart.
Before you threatened Him with your death to force Him to compromise and submit, you were a dragon, yet you constantly worried about what you feared. But now, you only need to protect everything you need to protect, without fear.
Now you truly possess the power that aligns with divinity.
—Your conversation with Him will ultimately end in a grand rebirth.
To be honest, you're not a phoenix.
But no matter how many times, no matter how painful, no matter how desperate, you will be reborn from your own fire.
You burn quietly, yet you are a fire that is always ready to rage against injustice.
But He wasn't wrong before. You did sometimes think about just dying and ending it all. After all, your life was already over, and you died at sea. It was only by chance and unknown reasons that you came to this hell.
But you also have reasons to live on, things you want to see results for, and scenery you want to see.
As a human being, you still have things you want to eat, and you want to experience what love feels like.
You want to take care of some people, wait for some people, and also wait for your hometown to call to you in the long course of your life.
As a dragon, perhaps it represents the belief in fighting against all injustice and the laws of nature, perhaps it represents the resentment of others and the roar against the injustice of fate, or perhaps it represents a protective umbrella with its own convictions.
You will do what you want to do, and you will do what you should do.
Human courage is the star of the mortal world, and the dragon is the creation of human courage.
Don't like you? Then let's fight. But you know, no matter who the opponent is, you will never back down, and you will never lose.
"Wow..."
"Wow..."
"Wow..."
It is the sound of the ocean tide rising and falling.
...Because you chose to force yourself to overcome your fear with anger, the Land of Exile finally returned to its original state...
Yeah.
As you listen carefully, a sense of weariness and helplessness suddenly arises in your heart, as if you have no choice but to meet an old friend that you have been avoiding all along.
"...Oh, the sea, it's been so long."
"Are my remains well inside you?"
……
Unfortunately, all that answers you is the sound of the ocean breathing.
"..."
After you make peace with the sea, even the sound of its waves that once killed you becomes gentle.
You couldn't help but laugh twice while stuck in the sand, and you tried to say the names of your family members.
Your gentle and talkative mother, your father who cooks wonderfully, your clingy younger brother who has a particularly sharp tongue...
In the land of exile, you are free; you can pronounce your own name and theirs.
But the words you wanted to say were swallowed back down.
"what."
You let out a short, light breath, as if mocking yourself.
'Damn it, you've stirred up your painful memories of being down and out again.'
After a long silence, you muttered this curse in your heart before falling into an almost eternal silence.