Chapter 124: Scattered
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 124: Scattered
Shells and bullets were fired, and a thunderous tremor began to shake the inside of the cave where the demon dragon was sealed.
Stirred by the thunderous assault, the demon dragon slowly began to open its eyes.
—...It has been a long time, humans.
Opening its eyes, the demon dragon saw the firearms and cannons and realized a considerable amount of time had passed.
In the era when it last lived and breathed, such mechanical devices did not exist.
At the same time, it understood why humanity had awakened it. Trusting in the power of those thunder-making weapons, they had arrogantly plucked the whiskers of a sleeping dragon.
—How amusing.
But it was merely amusing.
The demon dragon scoffed at the bullets bouncing off its scales and the shells exploding upon them as it slowly rose.
The divine power that had sealed its body had long since been swept away by the rain of bullets; there was nothing left to stop it from moving.
—Have you forgotten my legend?
A legendary being that appears only in the Holy Scripture.
The Demon Dragon.
A divine monster created to kill humans.
Its magic: immunity to all things made by human hands.
Chains forged by human hands, civilizations built by human minds—none of it could affect the demon dragon.
—Or did you think you could break this law?
Wuuuuung…
The demon dragon slowly pushed itself up. As its colossal body rose, an earthquake-like vibration began to shake the cave.
Rising amidst a tremor so great it was difficult to even stand on two feet, the demon dragon ignored the bullets firing at it and took flight.
A colossal body, a sturdy physique, and flight thanks to the wings on its back.
These were privileges granted to the dragonkin, independent of magic.
“The dragon is escaping!”
“Don’t let it get away!”
As the Imperial soldiers continued to fire, the demon dragon, now soaring in the skies above the Holy Nation, began to survey the land below.
Indeed, it seemed much prosperity had occurred while it slept.
—This will be rewarding to destroy.
It was a killer of humans.
The more humans there were to kill, the more rewarding it felt.
For the very meaning and purpose of the demon dragon's existence was to kill humans.
—...Hm?
As the demon dragon gazed down at the city with a look of pity, it felt a sharp sting on its scales and glanced over.
An Imperial soldier was clinging to its scales, trying to tear one off.
According to its magic, a human born from human hands should not have been able to harm it at all, but...
—This is no human.
Whip— The demon dragon swung its tail, grabbing the Imperial soldier to see what kind of being had been clinging to its scales.
It looked like a human, but it lacked the unique life force of one. The moment it narrowed its eyes and tightened its tail, the Imperial soldier, unable to withstand the pressure, burst—pwoof—and reverted into a doll.
Seeing this, the demon dragon let out a smirk.
—A doll? A familiar.
And in this world, there was only one kind of being that could use dolls as familiars.
Witches.
Beings who could twist the laws of the world.
—Witches, joining hands with humans?
It had to be. A witch's familiar wielding weapons made by humans. Was that not a combination impossible to imagine unless humans and witches had joined forces?
Witches were a considerable threat even to a demon dragon. Since ancient times, they were considered the adversaries of humanity. Dragons, demons, monsters, and witches, were they not?
The demon dragon had no intention of idly watching the witches.
—I have no choice. I must gather my own allies.
To deal with the witches who would likely interfere with its human hunt, the demon dragon flew toward the place where its old adversaries were sealed.
The Imperial army that had been chasing the dragon could only stare blankly up at the sky, like a dog that had been chasing a chicken.
After the Imperial army lost the demon dragon, an executive from the Church and the Chancellor immediately began to hound them.
“What are you going to do! What in the world are you going to do!”
The Bishop shouted at the Commander, jumping up and down. He was a picture of agitation, but the Commander could also sense a thrill in his demeanor.
The Bishop, stomping his feet and hopping about, and next to him, the Chancellor with a sly smile on his face. Looking at the two of them, the Commander opened his mouth, his head aching.
“...From the kingdom's perspective, isn't this actually a good thing? We don't know where the unsealed black dragon has disappeared to.”
“How can you say that!? That demon dragon is a being from the Holy Scripture! As if recklessly unsealing such a perilous creature wasn't enough, you're now saying it's a gain for the kingdom because you don't know where it went!?”
Letting the Bishop's squawking go in one ear and out the other, the Commander carefully began to speak.
“In any case, if that black dragon has disappeared somewhere on this earth, isn't it more likely to appear in our Empire's territory, which is much larger than this small kingdom?”
“What nonsense! It could feel vengeful toward our kingdom and invade us!”
“If it does reappear in the kingdom, we will take care of it for certain. And, of course, we won't ask for any compensation.”
“Compensation? Did you say compensation? First, you should compensate the people of the kingdom who are trembling in fear because of what you've done...!”
The Bishop and the Commander argued heatedly all day. In the end, however, the Commander left without offering any compensation—and the kingdom was left to tremble in terror.
The demon dragon—called Satan in the myths, the Adversary of God, the Beast of Ruin—had been released from its seal, and now they faced a situation where they didn't even know where it had gone.
The clerics of the Church could only pray that, just as that wicked Imperial commander had said, the dragon would go breathe fire on the vast lands of the Empire.
“...Nngh.”
Beatrice, who had been dozing off during a nap, realized one of her dolls had been destroyed and sat up, rubbing her eyes.
Normally, she would only have known that the connection was severed, but after her awakening—thanks to her magic reaching a higher level—she could even tell where her doll was and what had happened to it.
She was organically connected even to dolls at an unimaginable distance.
‘An arrow through the head... killed by a ricocheting bullet... and this one...’
While checking the causes of death for her dolls, Beatrice noticed one that had been destroyed in a peculiar way.
Destroyed by tons of pressure from all sides. It wasn't crushed under a building or a structure like several other dolls; that it was destroyed like this all by itself was hard to believe.
Immediately checking that doll's records, Beatrice saw the black dragon meeting her gaze and flinched.
“...What is this?”
As one of the younger witches, she had never seen a monster of such a size.
A being incomparably larger and possessing more powerful magic than the unidentified monster she had seen before.
“It's dangerous.”
She instinctively knew that this dragon was a threat to their lives, and therefore, that Yohan's life could be in danger.
She immediately leaped out of bed and searched the hotel for Yohan. Before long, she found him resting in his room and jumped right onto his stomach, calling his name.
“Yohan—!”
“Ugh!? ...Beatrice, what is it?”
“Something terrible has happened, right now...”
The moment she was about to tell him what she had seen through her doll—about the demon dragon born in the kingdom—an immense amount of magic power surged outside the hotel.
Magic so intense it made the witches, who had each been enjoying their own amusements, rush to gather in one place. The witches, who had gathered first in Yohan's room, peeked out the window.
“...What is that?”
“That's—”
Outside the window, a turtle large enough to cover the entire sky was flying. No, she wondered if it was even right to call that a turtle.
A turtle monster of such a colossal size it looked like it could swallow the sun itself. The monster stretched its neck out, slowly opened its mouth, and began to gather magic within it.
—WUUUUUUUUUNG—!
Feeling the surging magic, Margaret immediately reached her hand toward Yohan and used her magic.
Just as the teleportation magic activated, a beam of magic shot down from the turtle's mouth.
“Yohan—!”
Yohan squeezed his eyes shut as he heard the magic and mana enveloping him, and the screams of the witches.
After the magic beam had swept through one of the Empire's cities, the turtle monster, realizing its task was done, flew back the way it came.
“Master!”
Yohan woke up with a shout, realizing he was alone on a beach.
He cautiously looked around, but not a single one of the witches who had been with him was in sight.
“You're awake.”
No, there was one. One witch was by his side.
Regina, the Witch of Records.
Only she, with whom he wasn't particularly close, stood beside him.