The Heart of the Ark
"Terra!"
The moment I spotted him, I called out urgently.
Still in his polymorph form, I see.
But then—
"...! Goldy, don't—!"
Don't what?
"Fire! Deploy the suppression chains!"
Clatter-clatter-clatter—
"Wha—?!"
In that instant, a bundle of chains came flying at me. They seemed designed to automatically bind their target, wrapping around my body and cinching tight.
Squeeze—
Thud—
"Goldy!!"
The chains wound around me so thoroughly I had to stop for a second.
However.
"We've got her! Everyone, prepare to restrain her!"
"Man... for real."
Thud—
I shook them off with a casual shrug, and the chains fell away like limp noodles.
"Wh-what..."
The guys around me went slack-jawed in real time.
"How the hell...?!"
"Ah, so these wrap by suppressing mana, huh."
Probably some illegal piece of gear. The binding force itself would've half-twisted a normal person's joints. But sorry... my mana isn't like ordinary mana. Even if it had worked, I would've shaken free just as easily. They really thought they could catch me with this junk?
Grip—
I seized the chains, yanked them loose, and smirked.
And then.
Thud—
"So this is how you use them?"
I hurled them at the guys standing there.
Crunch—
"Goldy!"
Once the room had more or less settled, I tore the chains off Terra's body. The blood that had been caked all over me hardened into gold and flaked away in a glittering shower. Then I looked at his right horn.
"..."
"Goldy? Wha—?!"
Pull—
Something swelled up in my chest, and I pulled him into a hug. This was exactly why I preferred not to take on subordinates... The other dragons used to scold me for getting attached too easily. Maybe it was the last scraps of my human feelings. Or maybe... this too was a Gold Dragon's instinct.
"I'm sorry, Terra."
"Y-yes?! Why are you apologizing to me...?"
"I sent you on a pointless errand. As for the horn, I'll take responsibility... damn it, I can't even promise I can reattach it cleanly..."
The cut was ragged and uneven—they'd torn it off by force. If it had been a clean slice, reattaching it would have been so much easier.
"I-I'm fine. I got this wound helping you, so it's an honorable—"
"Don't talk nonsense. If this had been something a horn could solve, I never would've let you go."
"That's..."
And Terra still needed to get stronger. He'd failed to stop the shadows and lost a horn over it—he'd been in a situation where he could have died. Even a dragon couldn't rest easy on Earth if its rank was too low.
"...Ansusa."
"Yes, Goldy."
"Explain the situation."
"Yes. First, Nehet's betrayal and the Demon King of the Ark's assault..."
I asked while snapping Ansusa's chains free, her voice far more subdued than Terra's. Opposite Terra, who was missing his right horn, Ansusa's left horn was gone.
...That self-proclaimed Demon King. Did he have a horn fetish or something? Why break every horn he saw...?
"...Goldy."
Tap—
"Ha. You really never get tired of this."
A shadow rose behind me. But unlike the swarm that had been throwing sheer numbers at us until now, only a single figure took shape.
"You little lizard... do you even know where you are..."
He looked thoroughly pissed. I stepped Terra back behind me and answered.
"Don't you dare play the victim."
"You came here to kill me in the first place, didn't you?"
"I wasn't planning on killing you originally."
Crack-crack—
"Now I want to."
"...Damn it. My mistake was treating you like you were on the same level as that hatchling."
"...? Did you just call me a hatchling?"
Thoom—
I dropped into a four-legged stance, both forepaws planted on the ground. From the side it might have looked ridiculous, but anyone who'd been on the receiving end would know—using all four limbs meant that much more speed.
BOOM!—
Seeing that, he slammed his foot into the floor and poured power into his greatsword. The ground split open as a pitch-black aura condensed around the blade—the kind of presence that could cleave an ordinary giant golem in half. So this was how far he could push shadows, enough to climb to S-class. Definitely a solid ability.
But still.
CRASH!—
"Ghk—"
No matter how hard he compressed those shadows, he was nowhere near fast enough to keep up with me.
Slash!—
Before he could even unleash the power he'd gathered, his head went flying. Of course he immediately tried to re-form, so I planted a hand on the floor and skidded long and low, then launched myself high, spun once for momentum—
CRACK!—
—and came down square on top of him, snapping both arms. Then I filled my mouth with fire.
FWOOSH!—
I spat it straight into him. Every time he tried to reassemble, the flames hit and scattered him again. After a few rounds of that, he must have realized it wasn't working—his form vanished entirely.
Shiiing—
A sudden blade-cry rang out behind me. I twisted and thrust out a hand.
Thud—
"You son of a—"
BOOM!—
In the blink of an eye, the shadow was smashed back into the floor. I could see its color growing paler by the second. His limit was coming.
Whoosh!—
I scooped him up and flung him into the air. Then I gathered a little power into my right claw and swept it upward.
KRAAAASH!—
A massive claw-mark gouged the wall, and the shadow was carved into three pieces.
Thud—
"This is S-class? The bar is seriously low."
Sure, he was strong by human standards. He had that broken skill of clones. But someone who leaned on clones and his own strength alone to pick a fight with me was S-class? A candidate for National-Level hunter, even? I was going to have to reassess humanity's standards—especially after watching them waste their trump cards on capture tools and chains.
Grit—
"Kh... damn it, damn it!"
The Slayer's half-transparent shadow screamed, as if the whole world had wronged him. He charged me one more time with the greatsword leading, but—
Smack!—
—a single flick of my finger was enough to scatter his head.
"Because of one damn lizard!"
"You started the provocations. A mere human dares cut a dragon's horn? You don't even know what that means."
He still held the greatsword, but he was clearly spent—he couldn't even rush me anymore, just flapping his mouth. No surprise, after handling that enormous volume of shadows earlier.
"I'll kill you as painfully as I can."
There was no point in fighting here any longer.
Thud—
I grabbed the shadow by the head.
And then.
Golden Paradise
"What is this—argh?!"
His body began turning to gold. Not just the shadow—the main body hidden inside would be taking the full effect as well. This power was a Gold Dragon's shackle, one that bound the soul itself.
"The more you covet, the tighter it will squeeze. When your flesh dies caged in gold, your soul will be left unable even to reincarnate."
A shackle that turned even the soul into gold. If a person simply never felt greed, they'd be fine—but when had a human ever managed that? Every human I'd ever used this ability on had become a golden soul, bound to me forever.
"Aaaagh—"
Crack!—
I stomped the shadow's head into scattered pieces and shot Ansusa a look.
"Where's his real body?"
"I don't know either. It's tucked away somewhere deep."
"I think I know."
Terra approached me carefully then.
"When my horn was torn off... I felt a connected presence, just a little."
"...Where?"
"I'll guide you."
As Terra led us toward one wall of the room, Ansusa asked carefully about Nehet.
"...What happened to Nehet?"
She probably assumed I'd already killed her.
"I didn't kill her. Figured I'd squeeze some information out of her later."
"I see."
"Her arms and legs are useless now, though. I left the tail just in case."
For reference, a succubus channels her magic through the tail with precision. Cutting the tail off was as good as saying she could never use her succubus abilities again.
Thud—
"Here."
The place Terra guided us to looked like an ordinary wall.
"...It's just a wall. There's something here too?"
"This whole section is probably similar to when you first entered, Goldy."
"It seems to be the same kind of ability that hides the Ark itself."
Shockwave
BOOM!—
I struck the wall, and just like before it dissolved away. Beyond it, a deep stairwell came into view.
"Looks like the location hasn't shifted yet. Maybe it changes every time the Ark's entrance moves."
Listening to Ansusa, I headed down the stairs. My Courage was starting to run dry. The only reason I'd been able to use skills without spending money this whole time was thanks to Courage. I wanted to catch this bastard, thrash him properly, and fix Terra's horn already. But the stairs plunged so deep I couldn't see the bottom, and I clicked my tongue.
"Calls himself a Demon King and he's this much of a coward? What is this?"
"There may be something down there he desperately wants to hide."
"This isn't working. Everyone hang on tight."
At this rate we'd never finish before the day was out. I grabbed both of them by the arm.
Acceleration
"Mweeeh?!"
Terra let out a hilariously wrong kind of shriek as we rocketed down the stairs, and another steel door came into view. I tore it off without ceremony and stepped inside.
Beep—
Beep—
"What the hell is this."
Complex machinery lined every wall. And in the center of it all—
"Urgh!"
—a scrawny-looking man lay inside something that looked like a giant heart, one of his arms already transformed completely into gold under the effect of the Golden Paradise I had placed on him.