Be Mine, Oppa
"Oppa..."
[■■■■——!!!]
Struck dead-on by the platinum breath, the Outer God's eye flushed a furious red and began shrieking in words no one could understand.
The cry was so vast the entire region shook as if in the grip of an earthquake.
It did not stop there. Writhing in agony, the thing went berserk, spraying violet lightning in every direction.
KRA-KOOM! KWAANG!
Thousands—tens of thousands—of thunderbolts hammered down onto the snowfield.
A literal carpet-bombing.
Any single bolt that so much as grazed a man would have left nothing but bone dust, yet I did not even blink.
Was I unafraid of this insane spectacle? No. I simply had no reason to blink.
Every bolt raining toward my head was shattering against a transparent barrier and disintegrating in mid-air.
"……."
And inside that shield, a small silhouette descended from the sky amid a blaze of light and settled lightly before me as I lay dying on the ground.
Platinum hair drifting on the wind.
The face of a young girl.
Yet the aura pouring from that tiny back was vast enough to overwhelm even the eyeball monster floating above the clouds.
Never thought I'd meet the White Dragon Empress Serapagnia again like this…
She slowly turned and looked down at me.
Her golden slit pupils swept over me once.
"Hmm."
She bent elegantly at the waist, took my blood-soaked chin between her fingers, and lifted my face.
A touch both cold and soft.
As if she were inspecting goods at a market, she turned my face this way and that, then sniffed.
"Looks… well, passable enough. And this sense of exaltation I feel from your mana… You are KJH… correct?"
"…."
Serapagnia's eyes glittered with greed.
The look of someone who had finally seized a delicious prey—or a treasure she had hunted for a very long time.
She seemed ready to swallow me whole that very second.
Overwhelming terror and relief tangled together; all I could do was stare blankly up at her.
Then, after examining my face and mana for a good while, Serapagnia suddenly tilted her head.
"But… something is odd."
Her gaze flicked toward the tightly shut igloo, then returned to me.
"Where did you leave that multi-personality lunatic Kyra, and why are you facing this lowly god alone?"
The moment I heard that question—
Ping— something inside my head snapped.
Whether it was the release of tension or the explosion of resentment, I could not say.
My jaw trembling, I finally poured out the bitterness I had been holding back.
"I don't know… I really don't know!"
"……."
"She was fine this morning—ate properly, trained me properly—then suddenly said the personalities needed a meeting, went into her room, and never came back! The sky turned black, that eyeball monster popped out, I was coughing blood and about to die, and she still didn't come out!"
My voice cracked and broke.
"I was alone… khh-ugh, all alone fighting that insane monster—do you know how terrified I was… damn it…."
Tears welled up.
Without the slightest sense of shame I dumped my complaints like a child.
Three years of loneliness, the bitterness of being an extra, and the sheer terror of death all burst out at once.
Serapagnia listened in silence, eyes narrowing as if deep in thought, then finally nodded.
"Ahh… so that is why."
She seemed to have an idea.
Probably the causal restrictions Kyra had mentioned, or some special authority of that Outer God.
"I understand."
She looked at me again and gave a soft snort of laughter.
Then she raised that small hand and gently stroked my head, sticky with blood and sweat.
"You have suffered."
"…Pardon?"
"But it is all right now. I am here."
The touch was so gentle and tender it was hard to believe it belonged to the Dragon Lord.
Like a master soothing a terrified puppy.
And yet… after stroking my hair for a while, her expression suddenly changed in a flash.
As if she had made some grave decision, she opened her eyes with solemn resolve, corners of her mouth quivering as they curled upward.
And then—
"U-u… O… Oppa."
"…Yes?"
I doubted my ears.
What did she just say?
Oppa?
Ignoring KJH's flustered reaction, Serapagnia activated the ultimate technique she had learned from Caldrania.
She gazed into my eyes with a misty look and deliberately lisped as much as she could.
"Serapagnia will punish that thing for you, so be mine, Oppa. Okay?"
"……."
Holy… shit, what the hell did I just hear?
People say that when something too shocking happens, the mind simply freezes.
Apparently that was not wrong.
It felt as if time itself had stopped around us.
Lightning still crashed overhead, the Outer God still screamed, the world still seemed to be ending—
and yet I had gone completely rigid, as if petrified by magic, at Serapagnia's outrageous declaration.
…The Dragon Lord… just called me Oppa… and told me to be hers…
The cognitive dissonance was melting my brain.
Was this a dream? Or a dying hallucination?
Meanwhile Serapagnia, looking at my frozen face and apparently deciding Oh, it worked, gave me a satisfied yet awkward wink.
"Wait for me. This lady… no, Sera will smash it to pieces in the most splendid fashion."
Leaving behind a shy little smile, she spun around.
At the same instant, platinum mana erupted from her small body like an explosion.
"You dare lay a hand on my man without this lady's permission?"
[My… man? What are you talking about?]
Having barely withstood the Dragon Breath, the Outer God widened its enormous eye and stared at Serapagnia.
[More importantly, how did you break free of the world's—]
KWA-AAAAANG—!!!
Before it could finish, the mana Serapagnia unleashed split the sky cleanly in two.
To be precise: one half was the Outer God's black-red blood light and violet lightning.
The other half was the sacred platinum flame pouring from Serapagnia.
The collision of those two titanic forces sliced the heavens neatly down the middle.
[Grrraaagh!!]
"Ha! Is that all? For an invader, you hold out rather well!"
On the surface it looked like an even contest.
The divinity blazing from the Outer God's crimson pupil canceled Serapagnia's breath, while the lightning cascading around its iris hammered against her platinum barrier.
KWAGAGAGANG!!
The aftershocks alone collapsed mountain peaks and boiled frozen lakes into nothing.
In the middle of that catastrophe I flattened myself against the ground and watched the surreal scene unfold.
So this… is a battle between transcendents.
A monster I could not even scratch while throwing every spell I had with my life on the line—
Serapagnia was toying with it as if twisting a child's wrist.
The Outer God, however, seemed to read the situation differently.
When the transcendent failed to completely nullify its attacks and was pushed back a fraction, it grew cocky and raised its voice.
[Keh-keh-keh… Just as I thought! I do not know how a transcendent escaped its shackles, but you are clearly not using even half your power!! Guardian of this world! Your arrogance will be your death!]
Woooooom—!
Its pupil dilated to the absolute limit.
At the same time every scrap of black-violet mana scattered across the snowfield began swirling and being sucked into that eye.
A final strike that poured its very rank into the blow.
The ultimate technique every Outer God unleashed when it was about to die—this one was about to fire it as well.
Oh shit, that level is at least Manifestation-class…
[Hear me clearly! I am the Watcher of the Abyss, the one who returns every beginning to its end!]
It proudly roared its true name and title.
[I am the All-Knowing Eye that mocks all creation!!]
KWA-AAAAA—!!!
A jet-black ray of darkness blasted from its pupil.
An absolute energy wave of pure void that swallowed even light.
It surged forward with overwhelming force, ready to devour even Serapagnia's platinum radiance.
Anyone could see it was a moment of absolute crisis.
But—
"Ah, is that so?"
The girl floating in the sky covered her mouth as if suppressing a yawn and answered indifferently.
"You are noisy. It grates on the ears."
She slowly, elegantly raised the index finger of her right hand.
At its tip a tiny yet blindingly bright white sphere of light condensed.
The unique authority of the Dragon Lord—more precisely, of the White Dragon Empress Serapagnia.
The power of Nothingness that denies creation and erases existence itself.
Absolute Erasure
The power of Nothingness that denies creation and deletes existence itself.
Whoa… shit, never thought I'd actually see that with my own eyes.
"Begone."
She flicked her finger lightly.
Paaat.
There was no roar.
No explosion.
Only a silence so complete it felt as if the sound of the world itself had been deleted for an instant.
And the next moment—
[■■……?]
The jet-black ray that had been about to engulf us,
the enormous crimson eye that had blanketed the sky,
even the purple fragments it had been scattering—everything was wiped clean, as if an eraser had simply rubbed them away.
All that remained was a clear night sky and the quietly twinkling stars.
The All-Knowing Eye that mocks all creation?
For such a grand name, the thing vanished without even leaving a final word; its very existence had been erased.
A battle that ended so easily it almost felt empty.
"……."
My jaw dropped so wide I nearly dislocated it.
An absurdly overwhelming conclusion.
So this was the power of the strongest being in the world.
Ssss…
Serapagnia, still floating in the air, slowly descended to the ground.
Her platinum hair swayed; the sacred light that had wrapped her body gradually faded.
She landed lightly right in front of me.
Then she looked at me—and suddenly began to stagger.
"Uh… uhh?"
Her feet tangled.
Or at least that was the story her body language was selling.
Sway.
As if in slow motion, she collapsed quite naturally into my arms.
"Hah… hahk!"
I caught her on pure reflex.
A small, light body.
Yet remembering the monstrous power she had just displayed made my arms tremble.
"A-are you all right, White Dragon Empress?"
When I carefully asked, the Serapagnia nestled in my arms lifted her head with a little shiver.
She looked up at me with moist eyes, breathing hard.
"Uuu… Oppa…."
"…Yes?"
"Serapagnia might have overdone it a little… uugh, there's no strength left in my body at all…."
"……."
"Ah, no! I mean… it feels like there's none…."
She hastily trailed off and pressed a hand to her forehead.
"Aing, I'm so dizzy. The world is spinning… I think I'm gonna faint… Kyaak."
Then she let her head drop and buried her face against my chest.
Playing dead.
No—playing unconscious.
It was the most transparent, over-the-top acting anyone could possibly imagine.
…Is this for real? What the hell happened in those three weeks?
And more importantly: the person who just deleted an Outer God with a single finger is now collapsing from anemia?
Plus, what was that "kyaak" supposed to be? Is she filming an anime?
Unable to move or let go, I simply froze while holding the Dragon Lord who was wriggling (busy getting comfortable) in my arms.
If I had not heard the igloo door open belatedly and someone finally grasping the situation come charging out, I might have stayed like that until morning.
"…Oh my, Erevan—wait… you fucking crazy lizard bitch!!!"
A familiar voice full of pure rage.
It was Kyra.