The Hatchling (3)
Ku-gug-gug-gug!
The door to Basement Floor 6 opened.
Huh?
Floor 6 was a domed chamber.
At its very center sat a holographic mana orb that projected video feeds, and half of the dome was shrouded by a mana membrane that rippled like a curtain, concealing the view behind it.
"Good heavens. James. That's a real dragon."
Sophie cried out, pointing at the holographic image.
On the screen floated a hatchling no bigger than a forearm, lying motionless as if dead inside the liquid of a test tube.
"Those Tiamut bastards have truly lost their minds. How do they expect to bear the wrath of the dragons?"
Ivan and Sophie shuddered. Even they showed clear fear of the dragons.
"The hatchling must be on Floor 7, so let's head straight down."
Floor 6, it seemed, existed solely as an observation post for the hatchling below. Aside from the video feed and the curtain-like mana membrane screening half the dome, nothing else of note was visible.
Not a single Tiamut Ascender was even stationed here.
Everyone assumed they would be able to descend to Floor 7 without difficulty.
But that was the exact moment it happened.
Ziiiiing!
The curtain-shaped mana membrane dissolved, revealing the structure and the Ascenders that had been hidden behind it.
"You…!"
Ivan's eyes bulged as he spotted the man at the very front.
"We meet again."
The pitch-black-skinned Seven Celestial.
João.
"Were you waiting for us?"
"Do I look like I have that kind of time to spare?"
João curled the corner of his mouth and went on. "I came running the moment I heard you vermin had attacked this place. And James."
João's eyes turned vicious, like those of a viper.
"I'll take your actions right now to mean that Ascension has chosen to make an enemy of Tiamut."
"Hmm. Wouldn't this count as my own personal endeavor? As you can see, Ascension here consists of just Sophie and me."
"Spare me the word games. Tiamut will demand a clear accounting from Ascension for this."
"Suit yourself."
Even in the face of João's hardline threats, James answered with a look of complete composure.
João's expression twisted into something even uglier.
"So you've truly made up your mind. Fine. Let's see just how long you can keep up that relaxed act."
Snap!
João snapped his fingers.
Ku-gug-gug-gug!
Protective walls of orichalcum surged up from the floor.
Ziiiiing!
At the same time, countless magic circles lit up, layering barrier upon barrier into a multilayered shield.
In an instant, his forces had completed a defensive line that looked immensely solid.
"João, sir. From here on, I will take command."
The Toad-faced Executive—the creature who had arrived alongside João—stepped forward.
And he was not alone. The ranks of Tiamut Ascenders lined up behind him assumed battle stances as well.
There are so many of them. How did they all appear at once?
Even at a glance, their numbers were in the hundreds.
— They must have come through the Warp Gate beside the entrance that leads down to Floor 7.
At Aleon's words, I looked toward the Floor 7 entrance—and there it was: an artifact shaped like a portal, shimmering with blue light.
Warp Gates were extraordinarily rare and expensive artifacts.
The fact that they had installed one in a place like this said everything about how dearly Tiamut treasured the hatchling on Floor 7.
"Do not underestimate them. I will assist from the side as well."
João drew out an enormous bow.
The tension of imminent combat hung thick in the air, a hair's breadth from eruption.
"He's made up his mind."
"I didn't think he'd bring Whispers of Ruin."
What João held was one of the Mythic-grade weapons.
Among all the Seven Celestials, only two possessed Mythic-grade armaments. It was another reason João could run wild like an unstoppable tyrant.
BOOM!!
The battle began with João's attack.
The shield enveloping them could fire outward while remaining sealed from the outside. A volley of fire arrows, laden with a colossal mass of mana, came surging toward us like beams of light.
"Celestin!"
Whiiiiish!!
At Sophie's cry, Celestin—the supreme wind spirit—erected a barrier of wind.
KWAAAAAANG!!
When João's arrows struck it, the wind barrier shuddered as though an earthquake had struck. It did not look like it would hold for long.
"Commence attack!"
Shuuuung.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!!
It wasn't just João—long-range attacks from the battle-hungry Ascenders came pouring down on us.
"I'll hold the front."
James stepped forward before the wind barrier, his golden hair whipping about him.
And then he drew a sword of pure white.
Not Mythic-grade, but among the very finest of Legendary weapons—the sword called Lightbringer.
Ziiiiing!
Lightbringer scattered white light as it traced countless arcs through the air.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWABANG!!
James's swordsmanship was a marvel to behold—blade trajectories that refused to let a single attack breach that space. Even João's arrows could not surpass James's strikes.
"This isn't good."
"At this rate, the Second Tower's restriction will begin before long."
"The restriction is one thing, but before that… hmm."
I understood exactly what they feared.
— The Demonic Dragon Blood is beginning to boil.
Just as Aleon said, the veins on James's body were growing more pronounced, rising to the surface little by little.
If this went on, the Demonic Dragon Blood would consume his sanity and send him into a maddened frenzy.
That can't be allowed to happen.
I realized that this was the moment I needed to step forward.
"Let me handle this."
At my words, everyone's eyes lit up.
Was it just me, or did it feel like they'd been waiting for me to say that?
Had they been too proud to ask for help first?
Well, whatever.
I immediately drew Sage's Aura up to its full height.
"Freezing Orb."
KWAAAAAAA!!
A sphere of absolute cold, scattering a blizzard of frost, shot forward.
Crack-crack-crack!
Every attack that had been flying toward us froze solid in midair.
"H-he's insane!"
Shouts of disbelief rang out from the Tiamut side. That was how overwhelming Freezing Orb's cold was—powerful enough to leave the enemy reeling.
"It can't pierce the shield anyway!"
The moment the Toad-faced Executive spoke, Freezing Orb crashed into their defensive barrier.
KWAGAGAGA!
The glacial chill swallowed their protective shields whole. In an instant, the barriers froze over.
But the shields did not shatter.
"See? He won't be able to pull off an attack like that again. Resume the assault!"
The Toad-faced Executive apparently assumed that the Freezing Orb I had just used was some kind of ultimate technique—that I could never use it again.
Was that so?
This time…
I'll shatter that shield in a single blow.
Spirit Amplification.
Spirit +100 for 10 seconds.
My mind soared. A maddening surge of confidence flooded through me—a certainty that I could do anything.
Freezing Orb.
I conjured Freezing Orb once more, riding that overflowing confidence.
KWAAAAA!
An immense wave of cold erupted, so vast it felt as though the entirety of Basement Floor 6 was freezing over.
KWAAAAAANG!!
Freezing Orb crashed into the barrier once again.
This time, the sound of the explosion was on an entirely different dimension from before.
Crack—KWAGAGAGAGA!
The layered shields all detonated at once.
Not only that—even the orichalcum structures behind them froze over in solid blocks.
"There's nothing to fear! Orichalcum is highly resistant to cold—!"
The Toad-faced Executive screamed desperately, trying to rally morale.
"That's right! He must be exhausted too. Press the attack!!"
João growled as well, drawing his bowstring taut. As long as the orichalcum walls remained standing, they believed the situation favored them.
But—
I had never intended for Freezing Orb to smash through both the shield and the orichalcum walls in the first place.
As long as the shields are gone…
Astral Arrow could pass straight through orichalcum.
The effect of Spirit Amplification hadn't worn off yet.
Without hesitation, I made the gesture of drawing back a bowstring.
"Oh!"
James and the others, catching on to which spell I was about to use, let out cries of admiration. They had seen with their own eyes earlier that Astral Arrow could pass through structures to strike its target.
Ziing.
Starlight gathered into my hand.
Thum.
KWAAAAA!!
Bolstered by Spirit Amplification, it had grown to twice its former size.
A trail of starlight that dyed the whole of Floor 6 bright etched itself through the air and flew straight toward the Tiamut forces.
And then—
"What—?!"
"I-it went through the wall!"
"Impossible…!"
FLASH—!
KWAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!
Astral Arrow detonated right in front of João, who had been standing at the very front.
"GRAAAAAAH!!"
"GAAAAGH!"
"UURGH!"
Horrific screams pierced through the storm of starlight.
"We did it!"
"They've been neutralized!"
Ivan and Sophie shouted with voices full of elation.
"Kgh… kuh."
When the storm of starlight faded, João stood revealed, utterly wrecked.
His face and his entire body were painted in blood.
"J-just you wait."
Spitting out those words, João tore a scroll he had pulled from his coat.
He intended to flee.
"Dispel!"
I hastily cast Dispel, but—
Dispel can only nullify magic of 5-Star tier or below.
The scroll João had torn was, at minimum, a 6-Star-grade item.
I had come within a hair's breadth of achieving the staggering feat of taking down a member of the Seven Celestials—but alas, João slipped through my fingers.
Still, once word spread that I had driven João to retreat, it would become a massive issue all over again, throwing everything into an uproar.
And it wasn't as if the engagement yielded nothing at all.
"Ghh… gaaah."
The Toad-faced Executive rolled on the ground, half dead.
He had been standing right beside João when the shockwave of Astral Arrow caught him square on. With the power amplified so enormously by Spirit Amplification, merely being caught in the blast had left him half-conscious—a broken, pulpy mess.
Not on João's level, perhaps, but the Toad-faced Executive had looked to be a mid-level executive of Tiamut in his own right.
And I had taken him down.
"Impressive. The whole area was devastated in one shot. How on earth did you do it? The power seems to have increased beyond all reason compared to before."
Ivan turned to me and asked.
Hmm. What should I say?
After a moment's thought, the perfect answer came to me.
"That would be…"
"That would be?"
"A trade secret."
"Heh heh. A trade secret, is it?"
Ivan burst out laughing at my answer, clearly amused. Apparently satisfied with treating it as some secret technique, he didn't press any further.
Instead, he pointed at the structures littered around us.
"These orichalcum chunks would fetch a decent price if we haul them out, no?"
"We should absolutely collect them before we go."
I answered Ivan promptly. My eyes had already been wandering over the orichalcum chunks anyway.
"Sure. You take all of it."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. You're the MVP of this battle, aren't you? Wouldn't you say so?"
When Ivan turned to Sophie and James, they both agreed with him.
Nice.
I silently cheered inside.
How much would all of this sell for?
I decided I would sell off a portion to secure some cash, and have the rest crafted into custom-fitted armor.
"Shall we head down, then?"
We descended straight to Floor 7.
Just as we'd expected, the hatchling was trapped inside the enormous test tube at the center of the floor.
"Don't tell me… it's not dead, is it?"
Ivan said, his brow furrowing.
Even at a glance, the hatchling looked utterly lifeless. Its golden scales, which should have shimmered beautifully, had lost their luster and given off a dull, yellowed, dead glow.
"It is alive. Its breathing is faint, but it's there. However…"
Sophie trailed off, and we all understood what she was trying to say.
She means it could die soon if we leave it like this.
In fact, my eyes—possessing the highest Mana Control among us—could see it clearly: a faint, steady stream of mana was leaking out from inside the hatchling's body.
— To be precise, its existential force is coming apart.
Ellaon added the explanation.
Its existential force is scattering?
— Yes. It is a life form that simply cannot exist at the tier of Dragon Floor 3. To contain a dragon's tier, even a hatchling would need to be at least on Floor 7.
I let out a quiet sigh at his words.
A hatchling was, from the very start, a being that could never have been born on Floor 3.
Is there no way to save it?
— Its existential force must be bound through a covenant.
A covenant?
— Yes. Rarely, dragons do enter into contracts with others. For example, if you were to form a covenant with the dragon, the hatchling's existential force would be granted legitimacy—anchored upon the foundation of your own.
The words were complicated, but the meaning was simple: to save that hatchling, a covenant had to be forged.
"Are we really just going to stand here and watch?"
Ivan spoke, frustration thick in his voice as he gazed at the dying hatchling.
James bit his lip and shook his head. He didn't know either.
That was when I stepped forward before them all.
"I have a way."
"…!"
"What?"
Everyone's eyes went wide. Ivan's lips fluttered wordlessly for a moment before he shut his mouth again. Then—
"If you've got a way, any way at all, then hurry up and do it."
He stepped aside to make room for me.
— Kuk kuk. That big oaf—after witnessing your impossible exploits so many times, it seems that if you told him you could brew beans from a soybean brick, he'd believe you outright.
I smirked faintly at Ellaon's remark and stepped up before the test tube.
Then the voice I'd heard earlier came again.
[H…help… me……]
The voice was weaker than before. I could feel it in my bones that the life force of the hatchling before me was running out.
The means to save that hatchling.
The covenant.
It was not something just anyone could perform. A skill that formed the very foundation of the covenant was required.
Putting off my perk skill choice was the best decision I ever made.
Marvelling at my own foresight, I summoned the Leaves of Yggdrasil to choose my perk skill.
Ziiiiiiiiiing!!
The fantastically beautiful leaves of Yggdrasil, visible to my eyes alone.
Among that countless sea of leaves—
I reached out toward the one engraved with the sigil I needed now.
KWAAAAAAAA!!
The leaf beneath my hand burst into golden particles that came pouring down over me.