Heaven Opens, the Sea Inverts
The sky split open and the sea overturned.
Shhhhaaaa—
Fierce rain hammered the roof of the small cabin. Inside, Jonon Est, who had been waiting, glanced sideways at Rachel beside him.
“Mmm…”
The imperial princess was fast asleep. Soon Jonon’s gaze drifted to his left arm.
“……”
Azure energy rippled across the limb bearing the Azure Dragon’s Holy Scar. It felt as though the power might overflow at any moment.
Finally, his eyes turned toward the window. Black clouds endlessly vomited rain.
He is fighting somewhere not far from here.
The Dragon had not given any explicit command, yet Jonon instinctively understood. Through the connection between his Holy Scar and the Dragon. And through the emotion of war that flowed along that link.
Right now, the Azure Dragon was battling something.
…Is it truly right for me to remain here on standby?
It had been the Dragon’s order. On the day the sea convulses, do not come to the cliff. The words of the savior. The words of a god. So Jonon had obeyed.
Yet watching himself stand idle in the rain felt unbearably stifling.
The one who saved me is fighting… and I am supposed to stay still like this…?
He agonized without end. The conclusion that finally emerged lifted his body from the floor.
“I must help. Whatever I can do.”
Jonon rose, grasped the Tsunami Sword that had been leaning against the wall, and headed for the door.
“……”
“Phew…”
He took one last look at the sleeping princess. Rachel was still lost in a deep dream, playing in her own world. After checking on her several times, Jonon carefully opened the door and vanished into the downpour.
. . .
“……Phewuuu?”
Exactly three seconds later, Rachel’s eyes fluttered open. Still pretending to snore, she cracked one eye and scanned the cabin. Then she casually pushed aside the blanket Jonon had draped over her and stood up.
She slipped into the rain gear she always wore when it stormed, opened the door, and stepped outside.
Rain poured down as if the heavens themselves had been pierced. Occasional thunder would have been enough to terrify any ordinary child, yet Rachel showed no fear.
“This way? Ah, over here!”
She hopped along as though the weather were perfectly comfortable, leaving the cabin behind. The direction she chose was exactly the same as Jonon’s. Far from looking frightened, her face was filled with pure delight.
“Here… oh, mud! Thank you! Heehee.”
Thus Rachel began trailing after Jonon. Strangely, the cloak wrapped around her remained completely dry, not a single drop of water touching it.
****
“Hoo… hoo…”
The violent rain slowed even a Sword Master like Jonon to a crawl.
This is no ordinary rain. It must be a special phenomenon touched by his power.
It was rain, yet not rain. That was the best way to see it. One should not try to understand the power of a god; one could only submit and adapt. So Jonon moved forward slowly.
Thanks to the Holy Scar, I don’t even feel cold.
His body, blessed by the power of water, offset many of the disadvantages that ordinary rain would have posed. Though his vision was blurred by the countless droplets into something like thick fog, he followed the flow of water along the ground and the shape of the forest, gradually making his way toward the cliff.
It took him twice as long as usual to reach the cliff. When he finally arrived, he could do nothing more than stare.
-!!!!
The sea was filled with crimson light. In its center stood a solitary azure radiance. At a glance it was one against many—an overwhelmingly unfavorable fight—yet the scene unfolding in real time told the opposite story.
“……That is a dragon.”
It was a battle that could only be described as overwhelming. The sea shattered, the wind tore apart, rain and clouds were sliced away and vanished. All of it was caused by the clash between the Dragon and the colossal whale.
When the giant whale charged, the Dragon used its signature long body to glide across the sea and surface multiple times, smoothly evading the rush. Not content to simply dodge, it extended several claws and began slaughtering the countless marine creatures swarming toward it.
In an instant the area was dyed red with blood, yet the moment the Dragon passed through again, the water became transparent as if nothing had happened.
And that was only a fraction of the conflict that could be called war.
He intends to eliminate the small fry first.
The whale was enormous and immensely powerful. Each flick of its tail sent up mountainous sprays of water. In a contest of pure physical strength, the whale held the advantage.
But what the Dragon possessed was not mere brute force.
“The rain… is moving.”
The rain that poured endlessly from the sky was both the Dragon’s weapon and another battlefield. And with those tiny droplets, the Dragon began to forge something.
“……Tsunami Sword?”
From this distance he could not make out the exact shape, but the overall form was unmistakably similar to the blade he himself carried. Indeed—the Dragon had created Tsunami Swords out of rain. Dozens. Hundreds.
A sword existed to kill. Now the rain had become a weapon.
And those blades turned toward the crimson horde. The rain that had been nothing more than background suddenly transformed into countless swords and poured down upon the red creatures that filled the surroundings. It looked exactly like a god delivering heavenly punishment.
Among the two empires that divided Arteria, the guardian deity of the Zenol Empire was known as the God of War. But Jonon was certain that title was wrong.
If that being was not war itself, then what was? If the sword that slew endless enemies in a single stroke was not the true sword, then what was?
Jonon, who had come to aid a god, quietly lowered his blade and simply watched the spectacle. Of course he remained ready to step in at any moment, but for now something far more important held him in place.
I must burn this sight into my eyes.
In order to face the Justron holy knights, he had hastily created a sword style modeled after the Dragon’s movements. The Dragon Sword Art. At first it had been nothing more than an improvised style optimized for the Tsunami Sword, but that was no longer the case.
He had to remember every single motion. His new goal was to study them thoroughly and perfect the Dragon Sword Art.
The sea that holds the enemies cannot fully become his power, but the sky is different.
That was why the Dragon moved freely between sky and sea, annihilating his foes.
-!!!
As the claws and rain-forged swords continued slaughtering its minions, the whale let out a roar of pure fury. At the same time, the crimson energy flowing from its eyes gathered at the tip of its horn. With a deafening explosion, the entire area was engulfed in red light.
The next instant, the enemies soaked in that crimson energy began roaring one by one, thrashing violently. As if the energy were nourishment, their strength and speed had increased dramatically.
The whale no longer played a game of cat and mouse. It began generating tsunamis with its massive body and emitting powerful shockwaves, accumulating indirect damage on the Dragon. Whenever the Dragon’s speed faltered, the empowered minions swarmed in, stabbing and biting at its scales.
I have to help!
The moment the tide turned against them, Jonon stood and raised his sword. But the distance to the battlefield was too great; he could not use the technique he had employed against the holy knights.
In that case… concentrate all the power into a single point.
Azure energy surged from his left arm and poured into the Tsunami Sword. Jonon aimed the blade’s tip at the whale, closed his eyes, and began channeling his mind along with the sword.
A core fueled by blue energy spun fiercely, compressing the power accumulated in the Tsunami Sword.
Add rotation. And elasticity.
Kiiiiing—!
What rose in Jonon’s mind as he kept his eyes shut was the Dragon’s form from only moments ago. The Dragon that had soared high enough to pierce the clouds, coiling its body before slamming down on the enemy below with a sonic boom.
The energy gathered at the sword’s tip naturally took the shape of a dragon’s head. From there, the body of an azure dragon formed along the blade. And then came the thrust.
Kwa-kwa-kwa—!!
With a light stab, a shockwave erupted from the sword tip and a blue streak of energy shot forward. It flew and flew until it struck the whale’s eye—the very eye that had been opening its maw toward the Dragon.
-!!!
The whale screamed in sudden pain from the surprise attack. At the same time, the Dragon seemed to notice Jonon’s presence and turned its head toward the cliff.
I told you not to come.
For some reason, Jonon felt as if he had heard those words. Yet the Dragon only gazed at him briefly, as though acknowledging the help, before turning its attention back to the whale.
By then, more than half the enemies had already been slain by the swords that still hovered in the air. Only about thirty percent of the minions and the whale itself remained.
The Dragon seemed to have made a decision. It quietly lifted its body and rose into the sky. Using the rain as stepping stones, it climbed higher and higher until it stopped in midair and closed its eyes.
Its body naturally coiled. The whale, still bellowing in agony, glared at the Dragon and roared with rage. But the Dragon remained utterly still, as if it could neither hear nor see anything.
Jonon, covered in mud and rain from the earlier shockwave, stared blankly at the sight—until he sensed a change.
“……The rain has stopped.”
The downpour that had been raging only moments ago had ceased. The raindrops had literally frozen in midair. As though time itself had stopped while they were falling, every droplet hung motionless.
The same was true of the sea. The violent waves, churned into a frenzy by the storm clouds, suddenly fell completely still.
The quiet, abrupt transformation sent a chill down Jonon’s spine.
-!!!
The whale felt it too. The battlefield that had been theirs only seconds ago had transformed in an instant, and a mixture of panic and fury burst from its jaws.
Even so, the Dragon kept its eyes closed.
“……Huh?”
The next change was on an entirely different scale from the halted rain and waves.
The sea began to part.
And at the center of the massive storm clouds, the sky began to open.
The seawater that had reached all the way to the abyss gradually drained away, revealing the hidden depths. The sky, dark enough to be mistaken for night, slowly unveiled the sun.
In other words, the heavens were opening and the sea was inverting.
It was a sight both beautiful and sacred, the kind that could only appear in myth.