Chapter 255 – Eat Up (2)

Chhhhhhhhhhhh-

Cale's body started to sink to the bottom of the lake.

It was difficult to see clearly as if the inside of the lake was filled with fog. ( (PR: Is that possible even? If so, it sounds cool. Probably was more referring to the water being murky or cloudy, but we will leave it as is.) )
Only the red blood dripping out of Cale's mouth followed the flow of water and added color to the lake.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Cale's body started to shake.
The lake was rumbling.

It was rumbling in rhythm, as if it was someone's heartbeat.

Cale's head was shaking with the rumbling as the voice that had disappeared came back.

– I was born a slave.

The voice echoed throughout the lake.

The Water of Judgment.
No, the voice of the Sky Eating Water returned.

– I don't know who my parents are since the only thing I remember are the chains around my ankles. But one day, a god came to find me. My first memory was about the chains around my ankle. A god came to visit the woman who had heard thousands of times that her roots were that of a slave.

– He told me I had talents before he freed me from slavery. He told me that I had talents that could be used for the world. That was how the god destroyed my first chains.

– However, he placed a new chain on me instead. The name of that chain was called the, 'Water of Judgment.' This second chain was not on my ankles, but on my heart.

– People revered me for having the attention of a god and trusted that I would take care of their problems. However, there were some people who wanted to use me instead, and they were the ones that put chains back on my ankles.

It was the moment a third chain was about to be placed on her.

– I ran away.

It was the only time in her life that she was happy.
She was out of breath running away, however, she was happy.

– I met some people who were willing to help me and ran away to the Eastern continent, however, I ran away alone.

The people who had helped her escape had chosen to place chains over their own ankles and remain on the Western continent.
They said that they had something to do.

All of them had said that they had something to do and remained in that land to fight.
That was how she had run away.
That was how she had become free.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The inside of the lake started to rumble faster. At the same time, Cale's body started to shake intensely as if he had been caught in a current.

And inside that fog-like lake.

Shaaaaaaa- Shaaaaaaaa-

Something was cutting through the fog and approaching Cale.

Claaaaang-

They were the chains.
The half-transparent chains made out of water shot up from the bottom of the lake and rushed toward Cale at a fast speed.
He heard her voice at that moment. She sounded as if she was laughing.

– But I didn't know how to live a free life. I had never lived like that before. I was free, but I didn't know how to live a free life.

The rumbling inside the lake became stronger. The chains were not affected by the rumbling as they continued to approach Cale.

Chhhhhhhhhhhh-

The chains that arrived quickly started to tie Cale's limbs down as he tried to regain his bearings.

Cale started to frown.

Clang, claaaang.

The chains tied up Cale's limbs and started to pull him down to the bottom of the lake.
They were pulling him to the bottom, as if they wanted to never let him leave again.

The lake shook violently at that moment.

Boom-

Cale let out a breath.

"Ugh!"

The chains shook a bit. The lake started to move even more violently. Cale's body was shaking, while the firm chains finally started to shake wildly as well.

Boom. Boom.

The rumbling became even stronger.
In the end, even the chains ended up being swept up by the current.

– Run away.

The woman's voice filled Cale's mind.
Her voice started to sound far away as if she headed back into the deep part of a cave. He could hear her faint voice.

– I cannot rule over these chains.

It was at that moment.
Cale started to smile.

The reason he was able to last this long in the water started to reveal itself.

Ooooooong-

A blue light started to come out of his neck.
It was a pure blue color that could not be seen in this fog-like lake.
It was the item that was allowing Cale to be the freest inside the water.

The Dominating Water.

Cale started to use the small amount of water that he had left.
A blue light started to surround his body.

Even if it was only a small amount, its nature was that of domination.

Crackle, crackle, crackle.

The chains that had tied up his limbs started to break apart. Cale gently brushed the rest of the chains away from his body.

– …Is that a power of domination?

Cale tilted his neck to stretch as the woman spoke in his mind.
His pupils were not as cloudy as the fog inside the lake.

His pupils that had a purpose were clear.

'Why would I run away?'

Cale would not run from a battle that he could win.
His body quickly headed toward the bottom of the lake.

He was not sinking because of the chains nor any other foreign powers.
Cale's goal was at the bottom.

His body continued to sink to the deepest part of the lake.

There was no way for the others outside the lake to know about this.
This was especially the case for Beacrox, who could not detect anything in this needle-like area.

However, he could see that the water spear suddenly stopped moving and that the chains suddenly sank into the lake. The chains looked as if they were moving in order to look for Cale.

Shhhhhhh-

The chains were moving while making those eerie noises. Beacrox's feet were twitching as if they were ready to run toward the lake.

However, he did not move. He recalled Cale's face as he jumped into the lake.

Cale was smiling when he jumped in. His face showed no signs of fear, as if he was telling them not to worry about him.

The Cale that Beacrox knew would not do something that didn't have a chance of success as he always calmly assessed the situation.
There must be a reason for such a person to jump into the lake.

'I guess I need to wait.'

It was the moment he was thinking that he just needed to wait.
Beacrox wondered if he may have thought wrong after seeing the expression on Eruhaben's face.

"…Eruhaben-nim?"

Eruhaben did not say anything.
He just continued to frown while looking at the lake.

It could not be helped.

Cale Henituse had jumped into the lake as if he had a plan.
Knowing the usual Cale, he should not be worried at all. However, something was odd.

'I can't feel him.'

He could not feel Cale Henituse's aura from the moment he jumped into the lake.
That aura that was full of nature could not be felt at all.

His aura had disappeared instantly, as if it had been cut off from this world.

There was an existence that realized this even faster than Eruhaben.

Thump. Thump.

The Black Dragon's heart was going wild.
The young Dragon who was the most sensitive to Cale's existence and aura, so Raon instantly realized that it had suddenly disappeared.

Raon could hear a lot of noises. That was why he had a decent idea about what was going on. The intelligent Dragon suspected that Cale had either jumped into the lake or that something in the lake was preventing him from feeling Cale's aura.

However, Cale's absence was felt too clearly felt by the young Dragon.
He could not feel Cale's aura at all.

Thump. Thump.

Eruhaben was there, as well as Beacrox. That is why he knew that nothing major would happen to Cale.
This was something he knew for sure.

However, the look in Raon's eyes started to change.

"Little kid, don't worry about Cale."

Eruhaben's voice from outside the dream reached Raon's ears. However, Raon Miru was not satisfied with such words.

1 minute, 2 minutes.
Time continued to pass, but he could not feel the human's aura at all.
This was the first time something like this had happened.
He had never experienced Cale being absent.

Raon Miru raised his head.
The trial ground inside of his dreams.
The large Dragon was still looking down at him.

Raon was thinking that he needed to defeat that Dragon in order to wake up from this dream.

He needed to get out.
He needed to get out of this trial as quickly as possible.
What should he do when he was up against such a strong individual?

The young Dragon who was flapping his wings even with all of the people hanging onto his ankles ignored his injuries as he thought about how he could defeat a stronger opponent.
In the past, the Black Dragon had worried about what to do when he met a strong enemy like another Dragon.

It was at that moment.
The Black Dragon's pupils became cloudy.

He recalled a conversation he had with Cale at some point in the Super Rock Villa. It was when he was hiding under the blankets in disappointment after not being able to enter his first growth phase, wondering about what to do if he ever met another Dragon and had to fight it.

'…What if I meet a Dragon with a terrible personality?'

Cale had responded like this to his concern.

'I thought you were smart.'
'I am smart...! No. I can't even grow-'

Cale had given him a very simple answer.

'Just run away.'
'…What?'
'Just run away if you meet a terrible Dragon.'

Escape.
Cale had told him to run away if he met a stronger opponent without any hesitation. He continued on to tell him the reason.

'Staying alive is being great and mighty.'

Raon.
The Black Dragon raised his head and looked at the large Dragon once again.
He had been thinking that he needed to defeat that Black Dragon in order to overcome this trial.

'You survived the cave.'

However, Cale, his human's words filled Raon's mind at that moment.

'Staying alive. That is being strong.'

Raon could finally see clearly.

Instead of the large Dragon flying over his head, he could see the sky that was even bigger than that Dragon.
The sky was so vast that even the large Dragon could not fill it up.
It was even higher than the 30-meter-long Dragon.

'Over there.'

It was not his instincts as a Dragon, but the experiences that he had had until now that were telling Raon what to do. The experiences and memories he had made with Cale were showing him a new path.

Fighting and defeating that Dragon was not the only way to get out of the trial.

He just needed to change things up.
He just needed to get out of this trial ground.

Raon started to smile. If someone was to see this smile, then they would say it was similar to Cale's smile.
The young Dragon started to flap his wings again.

He had heard that a Dragon's growth was a fight against himself.
However, Raon had realized something else.

There was no need to fight against himself.
The issue was this battlefield that made him have to fight against himself.
Many paths became visible once his goal had changed.

There was only one path heading toward that strong Dragon.
However, there were many ways to reach the sky that was even higher than that Dragon.

His path would be the one that he chooses to walk.

The corners of the young Dragon's lips continued to go up.
A Dragon that had grown up alone would not have had anyone to tell them about something like this. Dragons were selfish and violent creatures that were always on the alert and thus preferred to be alone.

However, Raon had learned a lot of things from others.

It was not important to win.

The Black Dragon finally found the method that he liked the most.

'Let's run.
That is not cheating.
The important thing is for everyone to survive.'

Raon Miru.
The Black Dragon suddenly started to become happy.

'I can see my path.
That Black Dragon is only covering a portion of the sky.'

He was looking beyond the sky.

'That's where I need to go.'

Raon started to fly.
He then pushed the people off of his ankles.

"These are all fake."

That Dragon and the people holding onto his ankles were all fake.
This battlefield was fake.
The real things were elsewhere.

Reality.
Walking the path that he had learned. That path was the true reality.

He could see the connections he had made waiting for him at the end of that path.

'I will save them.'

Raon started to fly.

'I cannot feel our weak human's aura. I need to hurry.'

He didn't care about his growth phase. He was already strong.

If not, then he just needed to do as his human had told him to do.

'Run away and then come back to strike them in the back. Survive and come back stronger in order to hit them when they least expect it. Then you will win.'

That's all he needed to do.
Raon continued to fly past the large Dragon and past the sky into reality that was beyond it. He gave it his all in order to fly up there. It was hard to do so, but Raon did not stop.

And his flying caused some changes to happen.
The mana that he could not use in his dream started to surround Raon's body. Raon had recovered his strength that the trial had sealed away from him.

However, Raon Miru did not know about this as he simply continued to fly up, focusing his gaze skyward and nowhere else.

* * *

Somewhere else at the same time.
The person who had been heading down for what seemed like an eternity finally arrived at his destination.

Cale could see the bottom of the lake.
He lifted his head up.

Shaaaaaaa- Shaaaaaaaa-
The chains moved through the fog-like water in order to reach him. The chains continued to attack him even though the Dominating Water was giving off its aura of domination.

They seemed as if they would stop only if they succeeded in chaining up Cale's limbs.
They acted as if Cale was a sinner that needed to be judged.
They were only aiming for Cale.

– Run away!

The voice was louder than last time.

– Your aura of domination is getting weaker.

Cale's Dominating Water was decreasing, just as she had mentioned.

– So run away!

The lake rumbled again and changed the directions of the chains.
However, Cale did not run away.

'Why does she keep telling me to run?'

Cale chuckled and stepped on the ground at the bottom of the lake.
He was surrounded by water.
It was so foggy that he couldn't properly see in front of him. The water was making his body sway, while he could still hear the chains cutting through the water in an attempt to reach him.

However, the bottom of the lake was still the ground.

Cale's insides were still churning.
He did not want to experience having his insides churn like this ever again.

That was why he made up his mind when he saw the lake.

'Let's flip the inside first.'

Cale stomped on the ground at the bottom of the lake.

Boom-

A loud noise that was incomparable to the other noises until now shook the inside of the lake.

One chance.
Cale could only use the Super Rock's power once.

Cale used that one chance right now.

Ooooooo-

The bottom of the lake.
Large stone spears started to appear at the bottom of the lake.

Cale did not get into fights that he would lose.
This was a fight that he was going to win.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]