A Dragonslayer’s Peerless Regression

Chapter 107

"Haaa!"

In front of the Aura Blade, even the strongest shield or armor was meaningless.

Sieg threw the shield he was holding at Antonio, who charged at him.

Squeak!

Antonio sliced Sieg's shield in half.

But in the next moment, Sieg, who had been right in front of Antonio, disappeared.

'Where is he...?'

Before he could finish the thought, Sieg struck Antonio's helmet with his sword.

Bang!

As Sieg had struck with a regular sword instead of an Aura Blade, Antonio wasn't killed, but the impact knocked him unconscious.

Seeing Sieg defeat three champions in succession, Morgan's mouth gaped wide.

He never imagined that the knights he had sent would lose.

"Unbelievable..."

Removing his helmet, Sieg called out to Morgan in the viewing stands.

"It seems the match is decided."

Morgan's face flushed red. He clenched his jaw and stood from his seat. He glared at Sieg and said,

"Sir Sieg... You are involving yourself excessively in matters you need not intervene in."

"Indeed. If left alone, the Avian Ghetto would surely find their way to live in peace on their own."

Sieg's words implied not to engage with the Avian Ghetto unnecessarily, stirring up disputes.

With a scowl, Morgan left the border headquarters without properly greeting Princess Melissa.

Melissa hurried down from the stands to Sieg.

"Sir Sieg! Goodness! I can't believe you defeated all of the Imperial knights!"

"It was just luck."

Melissa knew very well that Sieg had overwhelmed the Imperial knights with overwhelming skill, not luck.

With the Empire's troops defeated and forced to retreat empty-handed after their provocative insult, the side of Alencia felt as though a heavy burden had been lifted.

Sieg spoke to Melissa.

"The Empire's garrison won't just back down. They'll find some excuse to interfere with the Avian Ghetto."

"I can't understand why the Empire is so fixated on that area, especially their hindrance in curing the Crimson Blossom Disease."

"Princess, there is something I must show you."

Sieg decided to immediately inform Princess Melissa and led her to where the body of a strange figure was kept.

In the mortuary located under the headquarters, Liam and Felix were guarding the peculiar being's corpse.

Sieg showed it to Melissa and explained the events near the Avian Ghetto.

"You mean you found traces of disappeared carriages and strange figures near the ghetto?"

"Yes. Except for that one, the other figures' bodies melted and were in a state of decomposition."

"My goodness. What on earth is happening in the ghetto?"

Melissa frowned as she examined the body of the strange figure. Then, she noticed something.

"Sir Sieg. This figure... it shows signs of having had the Crimson Blossom Disease."

At Melissa's words, Sieg examined where she pointed.

"Are you speaking of the mark left by the flowering fever on the face?"

"Yes, that's right. When the Crimson Blossom Disease progresses to the late stage, the flowering fever gets severe, and even if cured, leaves marks on the face. But for this person, the marks are extremely severe."

Upon listening to Melissa, Sieg realized that the tell-tale signs of the flowering fever were not only on the face but marked the entire body.

"A patient with the Crimson Blossom Disease turned into a strange figure."

Something flashed in Sieg's mind.

'The plague that occurred in Mycenae...'

He remembered hearing that those infected by a plague similar to the Crimson Blossom Disease had turned into zombies.

They were like zombies but different, those dead but alive figures.

Sieg felt that those figures he had heard of might somehow be similar to this peculiar being.

'The Crimson Blossom Disease, demonic energy, the strange figure, mysterious zombies... could they all be connected? Furthermore, Abel has come to this place...'

It felt like piecing together a puzzle with missing pieces. Sieg felt the need to investigate these peculiar beings further.

"Felix, Liam. You two stay here and protect the princess."

"Where are you going, master?"

"I'm going to further investigate the Avian Ghetto."

He intended to find out if the Empire truly planned to excavate a dungeon in the Avian Ghetto.

Melissa looked at Sieg and said,

"Sir Sieg, are you sure you'll be okay alone?"

"I am merely planning a simple reconnaissance. Please don't worry too much."

While Sieg was indeed curious about the Empire's intentions, his main goal was to figure out what Abel planned to do here.

It was certain that something was at work, given that he had rushed here immediately after canceling matters of the guardian knights.

Once night fell, Sieg donned his Meteoric Iron Armor, covered his face, and headed to the Avian Ghetto area once more.

Despite being the Avian region, their actual residential area was further inside, so there were no actual Avian people visible.

'The invisible realm of the Avian race.'

Caught in territorial disputes of the great nations, the Avian race were the only ones suffering losses.

The Avian race were gentle by nature, loving the natural world, but having been oppressed by humans for a long time, militant tribes had emerged among them.

They fought back against human knights using their tough beaks, innate powers, and their ability to control animals and monsters.

The reason the Avian Ghetto was created was that the powerful Avian warriors had become too much to handle, prompting the humans to draw borders and make treaties to keep each other's territories intact.

However, after several centuries, humans were attempting to encroach upon their lands once again.

As Sieg thought about this and that, he moved past the cave where the strange figure appeared and delved further into the canyon.

Towering red sandstone walls lined the place like a formidable fortress.

Using his Dragon Eyes ability, Sieg scanned the surroundings, attempting to find traces of a dungeon.

'Hmm, there's nothing here.'

If the Empire had indeed discovered an ancient dungeon, there should be traces of the Imperial hounds.

Sieg calmly surveyed the area once more.

In his search, he discovered a narrow path leading further into the canyon.

Using Dragon Eyes, he found traces of a person entering that path.

'Is it this way?'

Without Dragon Eyes, it was a path he would have easily overlooked.

Sieg activated the map and proceeded down the path into the canyon.

Luckily, the path itself wasn't complex.

Passing through the narrow path, a massive expanse of sandstone wall appeared before him.

Thanks to Dragon Eyes, Sieg, able to discern objects even in darkness, discovered statues engraved into the sandstone wall.

'Goodness. What is this?'

Carved into the canyon's walls were dozens of giant faces of Avian warriors, seemingly created by ancient Avian artisans.

Sieg was astounded by their scale.

Nowhere even in the Empire or Central Continent had he seen statues of such magnitude.

'They say the ancient Avians had a civilization as vast as a nation. It wasn't a lie.'

Sieg had been accepting knowledge of the era of the Chronos Kingdom through recorded images left by Kaiser.

Kaiser's records contained quite a few stories about ancient species that were now all but forgotten.

Kaiser, in particular, had described the Avians as a race with immense power, mentioning that they had greatly aided in the formation of the Chronos Kingdom.

If one were to tell Kaiser that the Avian race were now living without their own territory in a protective zone, he would never believe it.

With conflicted feelings, Sieg passed by the enormous statues etched into the wall and began looking for an entrance leading inside.

As expected, the stone wall was carved to form a gigantic entrance, resembling a temple made by the ancient Avian race.

Exercising caution, Sieg used his invisibility skill to hide his presence and entered.

'What's that smell?'

As soon as he stepped inside, a foul stench struck his nostrils.

The smell was as severe as that of the decomposing strange figures.

Sieg held his breath and ventured further into the dungeon.

Then it happened.

Roar!

Two strange figures emerged from the inside.

Sieg concealed himself and observed the figures.

They looked nearly identical in appearance and attire to the strange figure he had seen earlier.

'It confirms the hypothesis that the Empire is creating these strange figures.'

The Empire had been conducting human experiments at a secret laboratory in the south.

They were likely conducting experiments to turn humans infected with the Crimson Blossom Disease into strange figures, intending to test their power near the Avian Ghetto.

'If those figures became weapons of war, they'd be terrifying.'

One thing that puzzled him was that when the continental war broke out, Sieg had never seen such figures on the battlefield from the future he knew.

However, it could be that the experiments failed, or the figures were deployed in unobtrusive fields of battle, so it wasn't something he could conclude easily.

Sieg bypassed the strange figures and pushed further inside.

Then a message appeared before Sieg's eyes.

『You have detected a being corrupted by demonic energy.』

'Corrupted by demonic energy? Does it mean a demonic beast?'

Slowly, Sieg began to move towards the direction indicated by the system.

Yet, what stood at the designated spot was neither a demonic beast nor a strange figure.

A knight clad entirely in black armor stood guarding the door.

'A knight corrupted by demonic energy?'

It reminded Sieg of Cain, with whom he had fought in the southern dungeon.

He too was corrupted by demonic energy, neither fully human nor fully beast, and was different from the strange figures, appearing quite human externally.

'Should I call it a fiend?'

Peering into the being with his Dragon Eyes, Sieg analyzed the fiend wearing black armor.

From the outside, he couldn't detect many differences from a regular knight.

But looking through his Dragon Eyes, he noticed something distinctly different.

'The heart? It looks like something is attached to the heart.'

It appeared as though tree roots had encased the heart, and it certainly didn't resemble any normal human organ.

'Could it be that they enhanced their bodies with dark magic?'

Once, such forbidden arts had had a brief vogue, but in current times, they had practically disappeared.

Given the risks involved versus the modest gain afforded by it, there was no compelling reason to use forbidden arts.

Sieg attempted to see into the room guarded by the fiend using his Dragon Eyes.

But even his Dragon Eyes couldn't penetrate the room.

'I need to find out what's in there...'

Since the door was guarded by a fiend, he needed to find another route.

He opened up his map and sought a detour, proceeding in that direction.

The inner dungeon was designed with multiple branching paths, creating a maze-like complexity.

Were it not for the map, Sieg surely would have gotten lost.

Studying the map closely, Sieg found stairs leading underground.

'Good. There should be something on this path.'

If he could find evidence related to Abel or the Empire, it would grant him another ace up his sleeve, following the evidence in the Republic of Dortha.

Sieg carefully descended the stairs further into the dungeon.

Despite being slashed from stone, the stairway retained its solidity even after a long time had passed.

Upon reaching the underground portion of the dungeon, a myriad of labyrinthine paths spread out before Sieg.

'This is the most complex dungeon layout I've ever seen.'

Looking to the sides, Sieg noticed that the walls were lined with carvings, seemingly created in ancient times by the Avian race.

They weren't just simple drawings but connected stories in the form of records.

'To think they carved out the murals individually on such solid walls.'

It was an insight into the tremendous power the ancient Avian race must have wielded.

Sieg examined the murals on the walls.

While he couldn't grasp the entire context, they appeared to be related to a large-scale war.

'War, huh? Was there a significant war prior to Bahamut?'

As Sieg scanned the murals, he noticed something strange.

Not just the Avians and humans, but all kinds of races were depicted uniting their forces for war.

'Who were they fighting against?'

Sieg examined the walls to discover who these soldiers were fighting against.

After much searching, Sieg finally identified the entity they were battling.

To his surprise, this numerous army was contending against a single individual.

It was a mysterious being floating mid-air, wearing a robe, looking down at the allied forces.

'What on earth is this?'

It didn't align with any history that Sieg knew.

Even among the Chronos era records viewed in Kaiser stories, there was no mention of such a tale.

As he was observing the murals, Sieg addressed the system.

'System, can you record these images from the walls?'

『Checking available features in response to the administrator's request.』

『Using the skills Dragon Eyes and Wide-Range Buff, scanning and saving the contents is possible.』

『A new folder can be created to store the data in the acquired security library.』

'Then save the content.'

『Please specify a name for the folder.』

'Folder name? Whatever. Just go with something.'

『Saving the content in a new folder named 'Whatever'.』

Instantly, a light flickered from Sieg's left eye and swept across the murals.

Surprisingly, as his gaze traveled over the murals, the content was stored as is.

『Save complete. The stored contents can be checked in the security library whenever desired.』

Sieg studied the recorded content displayed before him and nodded in satisfaction.

'I'll need to figure out what it all means in due time.'

Just then.

Roar!

At the sound, Sieg turned around to see three strange figures advancing towards him.