Future Knight

Chapter 144

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It was truly a race that produced pollution beyond imagination.

Moreover, they had long since achieved their initial goal.

As he intended, the number of the four great races dominating the continent had reduced to less than half.

But in contrast, the population of the Green Elves had exploded.

Now, the problem left for the Spirit King was to deal with the rapidly increasing Green Elves.

However, even that problem seemed likely to be easily solved.

The Dragons before him would handle them without him needing to step in.

Naiad gave a sinister smile.

“Hmm, now that you mention it, it does seem that way. I too thought that wasn’t a very wise choice… Fine. Then I’ll step back. I leave the disposition of the Green Elves to you Dragons.”

With those words, Naiad returned to the Spirit World, against Green’s wishes.

Green, in a panic, searched for Naiad.

“Naiad! Naiad! Where are you going, Naiad!”

Green couldn’t believe the Spirit King’s sudden betrayal.

It was all thanks to Naiad that she had made it this far.

Green continued to call out Naiad’s name like a child who had lost her parents.

Watching this, Rekracion spoke to her in a mocking tone.

“Foolish being, do you know? The fact that you have been playing in the palms of the Spirit Kings your whole life…”

“W-what do you mean?”

“The birth of you Green Elves, and the miserable life you lived, it was all a scheme by the Spirit Kings. You were just a tool to reduce the explosively increasing numbers of the four great races.”

“L-lies…”

Green denied the reality of Rekracion’s words, that her cursed birth and miserable life were all part of the Spirit Kings’ scheme.

It was too hard for her to accept.

Naiad had been her savior.

“That’s nonsense! Naiad would never do that!”

“You still don’t understand? Naiad has abandoned your race and left. He dumped the disposal of your race on us. And you still defend him? Truly foolish. That’s why you were used and abandoned by Naiad.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! What do you Dragons know? Naiad is my benefactor! He’s just temporarily fallen for your scheme, but Phoenix will help me! Phoenix, help me!”

“It’s useless.”

As Rekracion said, no matter how much she called for the Fire Spirit King Phoenix, Phoenix did not appear.

“Phoenix! Phoenix! Ariel! Answer me! Answer me!”

As Rekracion said, the Spirit Kings had no intention of appearing.

“Phoenix… Please answer me, please…”

“No matter how much you call, it’s useless. They are beings that a half-elf like you can never hope to make a contract with.”

She understood the meaning of his words well.

She, too, had wondered more than once why the Spirit Kings had made a contract with her.

“Is it true? Is that really the case? Naiad?”

Green’s eyes shook violently.

Naiad, who reached out to her in her despair and opened the path of revenge.

Naiad was the most grateful and dependable being in the world to Green.

Naiad’s betrayal was more harsh than any other betrayal to her.

Green instantly became like a fool, staring blankly somewhere with unfocused eyes.

“Tell me it’s a lie, please…”

“I pity your wretched life, but we Dragons have no mercy in our wrath.”

Without a hint of hesitation, Rekracion breathed fire toward the Green Elves on the ground.

Then, the other Dragons followed suit, breathing fire towards the Green Elves.

The battlefield instantly turned into a pandemonium.

—

### 50. At the End of Life and Death

—

Zikyon quietly opened her eyes and looked ahead.

A night sky full of countless stars.

But it wasn’t the night sky of the Earth she always saw.

Where she opened her eyes was the last place she remembered, space.

Strangely, she didn’t feel suffocated or cold.

After a moment, Zikyon realized she was dead.

‘Am I dead?’

Looking around, she saw her body torn to pieces, frozen in extreme cold, floating.

There was no way her body could be intact after destroying the warship with the combined power of all the Dragons.

‘This feels disgusting.’

Looking at her own corpse, she felt disgusted.

And as she gazed at her body, she fell deep into thought.

### Future Knight Chapter 144

—

‘I’ve never seriously thought about death while living until now… So this is what death is like.’

To a dragon that lived for ten thousand years, the word ‘death’ did not really resonate.

However, even they could not avoid death.

She wanted to see her friend’s face one last time.

‘Is Kang Chan safe?’

It was just a vague hope, but she soon shook her head.

She had protected Kang Chan with her shield until the end of her memory, but after she died, the shield wouldn’t have continued to protect him.

Zikyon had to leave behind her regrets and go to where she was being called.

At that moment, something familiar caught her sight.

‘Is that…?’

It was none other than the steel giant known as Red Rabbit that Kang Chan had been riding.

She had thought it would be destroyed beyond recognition, but except for the missing limbs, the torso of Kang Chan’s Red Rabbit was almost intact, drifting through space.

Unable to hide her surprise, Zikyon moved toward Red Rabbit with all her might.

Before leaving for the distant place, she had hope that she could see her friend’s face one last time.

Finally arriving at Red Rabbit, Zikyon’s spirit passed through its shoulder and entered the cockpit.

There lay Kang Chan, whom she had so desperately wanted to see.

Moreover, he was still alive.

Though weak, Kang Chan was certainly breathing.

Just as he had been when his body was collapsing and dying.

The handsome appearance was gone, with only a few strands of hair remaining, and his face was a mess of deep wrinkles and bulging veins.

But he was definitely Kang Chan. Zikyon thanked the gods just for being able to see him alive.

‘You’re alive, you rascal…’

But soon, Zikyon noticed something strange.

The soul of Kang Chan she saw was deeply submerged in darkness.

His soul was asleep.

Having exhausted even his soul’s power, he had finally fallen asleep.

It was different from the physical body falling asleep.

When a soul sleeps, it could take a year or a hundred years to wake up.

This meant Kang Chan had become comatose.

If Kang Chan continued to sleep here, he would surely meet the same fate as her.

She had to wake him up immediately.

‘Hey! Wake up! You can’t sleep here! Wake up! Wake up!’

Zikyon’s spirit called out to Kang Chan’s soul submerged in darkness, but his sleeping soul showed no signs of waking up.

‘Wake up, you fool!’

No matter how much she called, Kang Chan did not wake up.

Zikyon had no choice but to throw herself into the darkness where Kang Chan’s soul was submerged.

In that darkness, she grabbed and pulled Kang Chan.

‘You idiot! Please open your eyes! Open your eyes!’

But Kang Chan’s soul showed no signs of moving.

His soul, submerged in darkness, felt unbearably heavy and cold to her.

Yet Zikyon did not give up until the end.

She couldn’t just watch her friend die in vain.

‘Fine! Let’s see who wins, you or me!’

Even in spirit form, her stubbornness remained unchanged.

Zikyon’s spirit enveloped Kang Chan’s soul and struggled, and perhaps her feelings were conveyed as Kang Chan’s soul began to move slightly.

‘Oh, it’s working! Just a little more! Yes, just a bit more!’

With Zikyon’s help, Kang Chan’s soul slowly moved toward the bright place from the darkness.

Finally, when Kang Chan’s soul reached the bright place and escaped the darkness, Zikyon’s spirit was pushed out of Kang Chan’s body as if repelled.

The soul of Kang Chan, the owner of the body, had opened his eyes.

Exhausted, Zikyon’s spirit finally let out a sigh of relief.

‘Phew, it’s done! He’s regained consciousness!’

With Kang Chan’s soul back in place, Zikyon now only had to wait for him to wake up.

She wanted to see her friend regain consciousness one last time.

However, contrary to her wish, Kang Chan did not wake up immediately.

No matter how long she waited, he remained asleep.

With time pressing, Zikyon wanted to wake him up by force, but in her spiritual form, it was impossible.

As she struggled in vain, a strange change began to occur in Kang Chan’s sleeping body.

Crack! Crack! Snap!

‘W-what is this?’

Suddenly, a terrible sound like bones being crushed continued, and Kang Chan’s body began to heat up.

The second body change was beginning.

### Future Knight Chapter 144

—

This meant that he had truly reached the level of Sword Emperor.

Kang Chan, an Earthling, had achieved an unprecedented feat in the history of the Arkandor Continent.

His soul had fallen into a deep abyss because he wasn’t prepared to accept the psychological shock of transitioning from Sword Master to Sword Emperor.

However, with Zikyon pulling his soul out of shock, his body was now transforming into that of a Sword Emperor, leaving only Zikyon, who was unaware of this fact, in a state of anxious confusion.

‘What went wrong? What did I do wrong?’

As the bizarre phenomena accelerated, Zikyon panicked and racked her brain for a solution.

No matter how hard she thought, she could come up with nothing.

Even she, an Ancient-grade Dragon known for being the oldest and wisest, had never encountered such a strange phenomenon before.

While Zikyon was in such a state of panic, Kang Chan’s body change continued unabated.

Impurities accumulated in his body were pushed out through his skin, as before.

However, since he had become a Sword Master, the toxins in his body weren’t as many, so there wasn’t the same foul stench as before.

The few remaining hairs and eyebrows on Kang Chan’s body burned away. His teeth fell out, and everything began to regenerate anew.

To Zikyon, Kang Chan’s transformation was nothing short of miraculous.

It was as if a new life was being born.

Once the reconstruction of his body was complete, Kang Chan began to absorb sunlight.

In space, he could harness the sun’s power more strongly than on Earth.

The infinite solar energy spread throughout the universe was converted into mana, filling Kang Chan’s danjeon.

The amount of mana was so vast it couldn’t be compared to before.

Kang Chan slowly opened his eyes.

“W-where am I?”

Kang Chan tilted his head, looking at the familiar scenery unfolding before him.

“How am I still alive?”

He couldn’t understand it.

He should have been dead.

Even for someone who had crossed the threshold of death countless times, this event was beyond belief.

The memories of the moments before his death were still vivid.

‘…….’

With a look of disbelief, tears suddenly streamed down his cheeks.

“What’s with these tears?”

The tears continued to flow without stopping.

He didn’t know why he was crying.

All he knew was that these were not tears of joy from the relief of surviving.

A sudden wave of sadness hit him.

It felt like he had lost something precious.

Although Kang Chan didn’t know why he felt this way, the warning from the Zaid computer soon brought him back to his senses.

– Oxygen levels are sufficient for 15 minutes. Please return quickly.

Kang Chan hurriedly wiped away his tears and checked the status of Zaid. However, the situation was hopeless.

Red Rabbit, having lost its flight capabilities, was immobilized in space.

Flight through magic was impossible without Zikyon.

There was only one option.

He had to abandon Red Rabbit and escape using the emergency pod.

Kang Chan made his decision quickly.

There was no other way to return to Neo Earth.