Dragon God (2)

That bank of storm cloud had to be sitting a hundred and fifty kilometers above the ground, and yet to the eye it loomed nearly twice the size of the actual moon.

…That's the Dragon King. That bastard?!!

"You son of a—mmph!"

"Boss!! You can't!!!!"

I'd been about to scream piece of shit in a fit when Darky clapped a hand over my mouth.

"Mmph—hrgh—mmph!!"

Darky, what the hell are you doing?! Don't cover my mouth!! Don't pin my arms!! I'm going to fire a Mana Cannon at that bastard!!

Darky was shifting like a straitjacket, trying to bind me. I spun up Physical Reinforcement and strained to break free, and he pulled a crying face, mouth flapping furiously.

"Waaaaah! You really can't!! That one's a god!! You and Lady Franc are both gonna die!! Please, please calm down!!"

Ah… th-this…!

The mention of Franc dying too slammed the brakes on me with a clunk. I stood there glaring at the full moon, both hands clenched around the Mana Cannon and shaking, when a voice that felt amused rang out from every direction once more.

How am I supposed to believe that?! No—so you're admitting Baekcheong, that bastard, did this?! God damn it! Darky, you—let go of me right now!

"Mmph mmph mmph—graaah!!"

"Waaah!"

I shook my head hard and blew out with everything I had. Under the pressure Darky's body swelled like a balloon, then slid down past my chin. Before my mouth could be covered again, I seized a Mana Cannon in each hand and roared.

"This flood was that bastard's doing, wasn't it?! Right?!! You admit it?! Huh?! Admit it?!! That piece of shit tried to kill me the moment he first laid eyes on me, and now he's at it again…! If that psycho's gonna die, he should just die—why does he keep pulling this bullshit?!!!"

I screamed it, choked with rage, and once again a voice laced with laughter poured down from the sky along with the rain.

What?!

What do you mean, as you've heard? Heard from who?! What did they tell you?! You just say your piece and blow off every question I ask!!

"That snake bastard's your subordinate too, isn't he?!! Why are you—mmph mmph?!!"

"Maaasteeer!! Waaaaah!"

I was about to take it out on Darky for covering my mouth again when I noticed the sea of rain had drawn right up close. I dismissed the Mana Cannons from both hands, grabbed Giant Franc's nipple, and used Space Leaping back into the air.

This time I meant to climb as high as I could, to see the Dragon God with my own two eyes—when a profoundly ill-omened, mystical voice suddenly barred the way.

The voice had changed, as if it were wringing my very soul, and in the same instant my body lurched to a stop and I went tumbling through empty air!

The sensation of falling in midair startled me so badly my heart dropped. I flailed, then realized, aghast, that only my body was caught in the air and not falling, and I searched for Giant Franc.

She hung limp in the empty air beneath me as well. I let out a sigh of relief.

Rain still beat against me and Giant Franc, but every drop that missed us poured straight down toward the sea of rain. I reached out and pressed at the empty air, and something like an invisible floor met my palm. Raindrops kept falling anyway—striking the back of my hand, or else slipping right past beside it. I groped along the invisible wall this way and that. Like my Space Wall, it seemed to let ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠everything but me pass through.

The only difference, maybe, was that it was holding my body up in midair.

Some force I couldn't name left me feeling as if my anger issues had just been cured. I swallowed, lifted my head, and the faint full moon veiled in storm cloud somehow seemed to be smiling.

Then the mystique vanished, and a voice thick with oppression and weight rang out once more.

So what?

I glared up at the Dragon God's eye, vast as the full moon, my face full of discontent, and tried to scrape Darky off my mouth. The little bastard squirmed and refused to come loose. I smacked his body, slap after slap, and dumped TP into him without restraint, and he began to twitch and spasm, soft and quivering.

"Euh-hee-hik?! N-nooo!!"

No, what! I hauled the body—gone all jelly—down off my face, looked at the Dragon God's eye with a sour glare, and was about to open my mouth when the Dragon God beat me to it.

…I meant to ignore that and say my piece, but this wasn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠something I could let slide. If he means a fated bond, is he talking about Franc?

"What do you mean, power that strays from the natural order?"

I grabbed the squirming Darky in my fist and asked it back, shrinking under that soul-crushing voice, and an answer came.

"That? The Mana Bullet and the Mana Cannon? If I promise not to use those… you'll fix Franc?"

Ah, for fuck's sake. Don't just ask me questions—answer mine too!!

…Was Franc's condition not improving, but actually getting worse? I'd been scanning Giant Franc's body the whole time with Spatial Perception, and there hadn't been anything wrong.

I felt like my guts were going to burst, but I forced the rage down and lowered my gaze. Checking on Franc came before my anger.

I looked at her limp body, then decided to ask just one thing, even if I had to pester him. That bastard only ever said his own piece. Ask too many questions and I'd just end up setting him off.

"Before that, can I ask just one thing? Just one."

Amusement spread across the full moon again. I took that for permission and opened my mouth.

"Franc had her essence contained in the Soul Stone, right? And then zombified Franc's corpse ate the Soul Stone and came back?"

Ugh, damn it… You and Myrddin went to the same school, didn't you?

Anyway, it sounded dangerous. I clenched Darky's body—squirming, trying to slip out of my hand—in a tight grip and said:

"So I just can't use the Mana Cannon and the Mana Bullet in this world. That it?"

"I'll promise. I absolutely won't use them from now on, so fix Franc."

Mana Bullet was weaker than Mana Bullet mk2 anyway. No reason to use it.

Suspicion reared its head over why this Dragon God was being so kind. I was watching those glass-marble eyes, veiled in storm cloud, with uneasy eyes, when the oppressive voice shifted back to the mystical tone from before.

Grave it? What's grave it? From the context, it seemed to mean don't forget—remember it. But was he threatening me right now?

And then the full moon vanished all at once! What?! You're not even going to fix her—where did you go?!

"Guh?!"

And then Giant Franc and I began to fall again.

"Th-this isn't a scam, is it?"

She still hadn't come to, hanging limp and dropping headfirst, and seeing that only made the anxiety worse.

No. He's got a grandiose title like Dragon God. He wouldn't pull a con…

"Fuck it all!!"

First things first, I Space Leapt onto the falling Giant Franc and snatched her nipple—and I felt Darky, locked stiff around my neck, tremble.

"U-uuu."

I'd taken a mental pressure from the Dragon God that I couldn't ignore, and I was unbelievably exhausted. I hadn't felt anything like this from Langue Dran, the Supergiant Turtle…

"I really need a place to rest…"

And the moment I said place, one thing flashed through my mind.

"Ah. I should've asked the Dragon God where those blue bastards are, too."

God damn it, Dragon God! Just running his mouth! That Dragon God bastard is seriously pissing me off!!

Graaaah!! Baekcheong, that bastard, and the Dragon God, that bastard—they're the exact same!!

The thought had struck in a flash, and rage toward the Dragon God surged up far harder than any regret.

A long, hollow howl of wind rolled over us. The typhoon must have been drawing closer; the wind and rain grew fiercer still.

That storm—no, that typhoon… that hurricane! He could've erased that on his way out, but he just left! While he was at it telling me things, he could've said where Baekcheong was, and what the hell this situation even was!

"Hah. Hahh."

I kept hovering on Space Leaps, shaking with rage, and everything in the world pissed me off. Nothing ever goes as I please!!

I poured out every curse I knew and every curse I didn't, chewing on that Dragon God bastard, and I got incredibly tired. Even hovering like this was exhausting. I genuinely wanted to lie down and rest.

Suddenly I recalled that strange sensation from when I'd been jerked to a stop in midair. I didn't know about the rest of it, but the feeling had been so much like a Space Wall that my heart had fluttered. Giant Franc had been caught in the empty air too.

If I combined this with the sensation of casting a Space Wall, couldn't I make one that could tell friend from foe? Maybe I could even set Giant Franc down on a Blue Space Wall and rest.

To test it, I used Space Leaping, and from within the sea of rain I tried to cast a Space Wall while calling that feeling back.

A deep rumble rolled through the water. An amber Space Wall appeared as before and sucked the water up like mad. Watching a whirlpool form as a massive volume of it poured into the amber wall, I grumbled.

"Why are you the one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that showed up."

I fiddled with Darky, sprawled tiredly atop my head and watching what I was doing, thought for a moment about what I'd done wrong, and tried again. Another amber Space Wall popped out and drank the sea of rain.

Raindrops hammered my ears. I shook them off irritably, then muttered as I dragged Giant Franc up into the sky with Space Leaping.

"What am I supposed to do? The Space Wall has definitely changed somehow, so do I need to figure that out first?"

I'd been throwing a fit in a short span and my blood pressure was up; the back of my skull throbbed and felt heavy. This kind of sensation was the most irritating of all…

I sighed, wondering if there was any way to shut the feeling out, and cast a Space Wall without thinking—and a Blue Space Wall materialized smack in the middle of the sea of rain.

"Huh?"

"Ah?"

The Blue Space Wall dammed the current and set a great whirlpool dancing in formation. I let out a cheer.

"Oh! So that's how it was!"

Earlier, resting on the mountain peak, I'd cast an umbrella-shaped Space Wall while thinking I have to block the rain. A Blue Space Wall had formed and blocked it.

Same thing now. When I put the will to block into the casting, a Blue Space Wall appeared and only dammed the water's path. It didn't break anything down.

This was it! Exempting allies from the Space Wall's effect, inside a set range!

"Got it! I got it!"

All this time I'd just spread Space Walls and waited for them to change. I hadn't precisely pictured how to change them—and the key had been picturing the exact effect. All that wasted flailing until now was enough to make a man sigh.

Ready to Space Leap straight back up the moment anything went wrong, I cast a wide Blue Space Wall in the air and carefully set Franc down on it. Her body dropped onto it with a heavy thud.

The Blue Space Wall seemed to have cost vastly more than the amber one, but I cheered at having made a place to rest, at least.

"It worked! Yes!!"

"Congrats, congrats, Boss!"

In the joy of finally succeeding, I clenched a fist and was taking Darky's congratulations when I saw rainwater sliding along the Blue Space Wall and felt something off.

"Huh…? If this worked the way I thought, only Franc should be able to lie on the Space Wall, and everything else should disintegrate."

"The rain's slidin' along it toooo…"

"…Ah, whatever."

What mattered was that I had a place to rest! I quickly shaped the Space Wall into a one-room shelter and blocked the wind and rain from blowing in.

While I was at it, I made one mesh window in each wall so a little air could pass, and in doing so I learned something. Unlike the amber Space Wall, which couldn't change form once cast, the Blue Space Wall—even after it was made—could have its shape altered however I liked, within a limited portion.

Make a round sphere of amber Space Wall in midair, for instance, and it wouldn't move, and couldn't be moved, until I erased or destroyed it. With a Blue Space Wall, aside from the sphere's center—its axis—I could change it to some degree. Even if I started with a sphere, I could turn it into a rectangular box, a star, whatever I wanted.

Thanks to that, I could easily raise a blue rectangular box of a house in midair without wasting Phase Power. Size the one-room to Giant Franc's body, though, and the room became staggeringly huge—and my TP dropped by a staggering amount at the same time.

"Still, where else am I going to rest easy with wind and rain raging like this!"

I watched the wind and rain lashing beyond the translucent blue wall, then climbed up onto the chest of Giant Franc, who lay there soaked through.

From the moment the Dragon God had appeared until he left, she hadn't changed much. She lay with her eyes closed, breathing in an even rhythm.

The more I looked, the more I worried I'd been scammed.

"Why isn't she waking up yet… Did that petty Dragon God actually scam me? And she's still a giant, same as before."

"Waaaaah! Master! Please don't say such things!!"

My suspicious streak flared and I was about to chew out the Dragon King when Darky, hanging around my neck, startled and started slapping me.

…This guy hadn't used that weird way of talking in front of the Dragon God. The moment the Dragon God vanished he went back to normal, and the second I tried to badmouth the Dragon God his speech snapped proper again. Scary enough that he switched registers without even thinking?

I caught both of the arms he was hitting me with and lifted them, and he dangled, legs flailing.

"Far as I can see, nothing's changed at all! And he said he'd fix her."

"Uu! That's not it! For sure, after Lady Franc fought Baekcheong I could faintly feel something off, but after the Dragon God came and went, that weird feeling disappeared, yessir!"

"Something off?"

"I mean… it felt like two that were one, and one that was two, yessir."

What was that supposed to mean.

"Anyway, you're saying that something off disappeared when the Lord of the Great Sea came and went? For real?"

"For real!"

Then the world around us blazed white, and an enormous peal of thunder burst. Lightning must have struck nearby. The thunder was big enough to shake my whole body.

The feeling of a feeling was that the Lord of the Great Sea had dropped it as if to say, you dare suspect me?

I gazed for a moment at the rain pouring beyond the translucent blue wall and the absurdly gigantic hurricane, then set Darky down and recalled what the Lord of the Great Sea had said.

He'd said my Mana Cannon was more than enough to bring down order and the axis of the world, hadn't he?

"If Franc isn't fixed, then he broke the promise first. So I'll have to turn the Phase World into a complete wasteland with Mana Bullets and Mana Cannons."

I was pondering where to turn into a wasteland when Darky's face crumpled, as if he'd realized I meant it.

"And while he was here, it would've been nice if he'd calmed the typhoon. Or told me where Baekcheong is. Or where those blue ones are, before he left. Not a Dragon God. A cheapskate god."

"Uuu. Maaasteeer."

Darky fussed that I mustn't, and I chewed the irritating Dragon God out inside and out while I raised the spot where Giant Franc lay like a bed, shaped a pillow so her neck would sit easy, and propped her head.

Her sleek bald scalp came into view, and a deep sigh escaped me. All that pretty platinum blonde, gone… How long before her hair grew long again.

I looked at the bald head with pity, sat at the peak of Giant Franc's chest, and waited for her to come to.

If the Lord of the Great Sea had really fixed her, she'd wake before long.

Using her body heat, a deerskin for a blanket, I leaned my back against a pink nipple and waited two hours. The rain tapping the Space Wall roof was like a lullaby, and I was nodding off when a sensation of pitching up and down snapped my eyes wide.

A long, deep breath.

"Franc?!"

It broke the even flow of her breathing. Her great breasts heaved, and I, sitting atop them, rocked up and down as if caught in rough waves.

Giant Franc, moving like someone slowly waking, languidly lifted her eyelids and looked up at the translucent blue ceiling with dazed, unfocused eyes.

My heart pounded. Both clenched fists grew damp with sweat.

Focus returned to the hazy pupils. She blinked a couple of times, and unlike the eyes of the Giant Franc who had possessed no reason, a sharpness began to settle in them!

"Franc! Franc?! Are you awake?!!"

"Lady Franc!"

The tense moment passed, and from lips that had only ever let out scream-like breathing, words—actual language—flowed!

"Haaa… Seoha?"

"Waaaaah! Franc came to! She came to!!"

"Lady Fraaan~!!"

I hugged Darky, who'd been sitting between my legs, and jumped up and down, then ran down her chest. Hearing Franc's voice call my name, my throat closed up and my eyes stung. I thought I might cry.

I swallowed the lump down, hurriedly cast a Space Wall, and leapt up in front of her face—and her azure eyes turned toward me and flew wide with surprise.

"Seoha? Why have you become so small?"

With a body that huge, her voice was no joke either. Loud enough to drown out even the rain, it boomed and echoed through the Space Wall studio, a space of well over three thousand square feet.

"I didn't get smaller."

She looked flustered at the sight of me, then—as if she hadn't heard what I'd said—looked down at her own body and touched her head, flinched, and shot upright.

"Eek?! M-my hair!?"

Not a single strand remained of the pubic hair that had grown ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in so modestly. Her bare sex, smooth as a child's, lay fully exposed. She flushed, pressed her thighs together, covered her breasts with her arms, and tilted her head with a bewildered look.

"H-how did this happen? My body will not change."

She seemed to have tried to change her form the way she could when she'd been a semi-spirit, and when her body wouldn't obey, she looked down at herself in puzzlement. I sniffled, swallowed, and spoke a little louder.

"Of course it won't. You've come back to life now, Franc. You're not a semi-spirit anymore."

"…I beg your pardon?!"

She startled at the news that she'd come back to life, then hunched her shoulders as if something had returned to her.

"Ah! That's right! My corpse was wandering about, and the Soul Stone… my body… aaah?!"

"Calm down."

I laid out everything that had happened, slowly, so the confused Franc wouldn't be shocked—and so I could calm down too—and her expression shifted moment by moment.

At first, at the story of how she'd rampaged trying to attack me, she nearly cried. As I kept going she forced the tears back, nodding along as she listened.

"S-so my corpse became a ghoul and wandered about, stole my Soul Stone and swallowed it, and after that you stopped my body from rampaging and fighting, dodged it, and calmed it down? And after that, one thing led to another, and we moved to catch the Imugi, and we subdued the Imugi, but in its death throes before it died… aaah."

When the story came of crossing the clifftop and meeting the Rogue Imugi, and of the two of us being badly hurt fighting that thing, Franc's face went thick with anger. Then she looked pained at the fact that she hadn't been in her right mind, and when she heard that I'd met the Dragon God and, through a deal, had the rift between her body and soul repaired, she was deeply disheartened and drooped.

"I am sorry… I came along hoping to be of help, and yet I have only been a hindrance…"

"No. You were still you, Franc. Even as a giant, you liked me. And the Rogue Imugi was Transcendent-grade. I never could have beaten it alone."

"But because of that, your techniques were sealed, were they not…"

"It's fine. Mana Bullet and Mana Cannon were just simple explosions anyway, and the range was so wide they were hard to use. In exchange for not using them, you were completely cured, so I'm satisfied."

Even now, meeting that warm gaze again and hearing that soft voice, I felt like I was going to burst into tears, and I was barely holding it in.

"How's your body? Does anything hurt?"

I said it standing on the Space Wall, looking her up and down, and Franc gave a tearful laugh, felt over herself, and said nothing was wrong. Then she shifted her gaze to Darky, sitting between my legs, and opened her mouth gently.

"Thank you for protecting Seoha."

"Hehe. That was just what I was supposed to do, yessir!"

She looked at Darky—grinning and scrubbing his own cheeks furiously—with a smile, then wore a slightly displeased expression and spoke.

"But a being such as the Dragon King is truly petty. Seoha's Mana Bullet and Mana Cannon are power without peer in this world, and he exchanged them for nothing more than treating me."

"Eek?"

"See, Franc thought so too. I wasn't the only one who thought he was stingy and petty."

"Maaaster!"

Calling him Dragon God kept rubbing me the wrong way, so Lord of the Great Sea it was. Annoyed at Darky yapping in the Lord of the Great Sea's defense, I grabbed him and covered his mouth.

I injected a little TP at a time into the body squirming and wriggling to escape my hand, and he twitched and spasmed along with it.

…Truthfully, I had my doubts whether restoring the disorder between soul and flesh was something that could be dismissed as merely.

Ever since the mystical power called Phase Power had come into the world, what people could do had nearly reached the realm of fantasy, but anything concerning the soul was still unknown territory.

Still, I agreed he was petty, so I chimed in with Franc and tore into the Lord of the Great Sea with enthusiasm. Darky, even while taking the TP and trembling all over with pleasure, thrashed so violently that I quietly let go.

He shook his head, crawled over, clung to my leg, and looked up at us tearfully.

"Uuu. You mustn't say things like that. You really mustn't."

I couldn't understand him trembling, terrified, after hearing the two of us criticize the Lord of the Great Sea. Darky himself was a Highest-Rank Variant, and yet he looked that scared. Was the Lord of the Great Sea that frightening?

Thinking about it, given the form he had shown and the phenomena he had wrought, it made sense to be afraid.

At the sight of Darky clinging to my leg, scared out of his wits, Franc gave a slightly bitter smile and spoke.

"In any case, to think twenty-one days have already passed since we entered the Phase World. I worry for Hwayeon and Yeongeun. They must surely be waiting, hearts aching."

"I'm worried about that too, but… with Baekcheong still out there, I'm reluctant to go back like this. And if a Franc who's eighty meters tall shows up in reality, there'll be a bit of an uproar."

Well, an uproar was something I could stamp out with the weight of my name, but… in the middle of that, the thought that Franc's naked body might get photographed surged up as a rejection that was no joke.

Imagining nude photos of Franc circulating on the internet, I felt sick with the rage boiling in my gut.

"I—what?! I am eighty meters tall?! So you had not grown smaller?!"

Why would I have gotten smaller?

"You didn't hear what I said earlier. I didn't get smaller. You got bigger, Franc. You've grown a good several dozen meters past when you were High-Tier. A giantess, through and through."

"…! A g-giantess… a bald giant…"

Franc, who had worn a dizzy look, clutched her face in both hands and let out a sigh that sounded like a sob.