Once a Guardian Dragon
Once, to the dragon who had been a guardian—and before I knew it, I had come to love Sirmiia herself. Yeah. Isn't that enough? What more do I need? Maybe it is. If this was a feeling I was going to abandon without even trying, it would have been better not to feel it at all. But I can't do that. My affection has grown too large to hide or erase. So... I'll just be honest with my emotions. I'll admit that I like Sirmiia. Even if this love will never be returned, I don't think I can give her up.
BOOM. Angelica burst out from the rubble of the collapsed building. Her appearance was so wretched it could hardly be called presentable. Her skin was covered in countless cuts and gashes from the debris, blood dripped steadily from the hole in her stomach, her solar plexus was caved in from the hero's fist, and her left eye had ruptured with a fragment of the building still embedded in it.
"Uweeeck..."
Thud. She spat out a mouthful of vomit mixed with dark red blood, as if her internal organs had been completely shredded.
"Why didn't you use protective magic?"
"Haa... You've changed your way of speaking, Hero."
"Well. I figured there was no need to keep imitating Captain Julius."
"Cough... It's much better than that idiotic tone from earlier."
"Thanks. But you're not going to change yours?"
"This has always been my natural way of speaking."
"It wasn't... Well, if you want to keep using it, I won't stop you. So why didn't you use protective magic?"
"I used up all my rings trying to block that beam of light you fired from the warehouse."
She removed the three rings from her fingers and tossed them to the ground as she spoke.
"If I'd known it would come to this, I would've made more rings and magic stones. What a shame."
"I guess you can't store mana in them?"
"I tried a few times, but unfortunately it didn't work."
These rings and magic stones had been nothing more than toys she had crafted out of boredom back when she was still a hatchling. Even Angelica herself had never imagined she would end up relying on them now.
"You should've made more while you could."
The hero ran his finger along the blade of his sword.
"They were made from my own scales, so there was a limit to the quantity. And it hurt too much—I couldn't extract more than eight."
"I see."
Three magic stones had somehow appeared in Angelica's hand.
"Still going? If you give up now, I might let you keep your life. Though I'll have to cut off all your limbs."
She crushed one of the magic stones in her grip.
"No thank you. I'll politely decline that kindness."
Divine Punishment (Frozen Arrow)
Thousands of ice arrows rained down from the sky.
"Then I guess I'll have to die."
Iron Wall Shield (Solid Shield)
Five shields materialized above the hero's head. Hundreds of ice arrows shattered against them.
Acceleration
The hero closed the distance to Angelica in an instant. Only three meters remained between them. He raised his sword.
Angelica calmly crushed another magic stone in her hand.
Blizzard (Snow Storm)
A sudden snowstorm whipped through the city.
Jeolma Seongsin Style, First Form: Demon-Slaying Single Thread
Whoosh.
'Ah.'
He missed her by a hair's breadth. The holy sword only sliced through the space where she had been.
"You're causing quite the commotion."
Of course, that was rich coming from the hero who had already blown away dozens of buildings.
'I can't see anything.'
The storm was too fierce to locate Angelica. I spread out my senses. Nothing registered.
"Every single snowflake is made of mana. So that's how she's creating the confusion?"
As expected of a dragon. Her total mana reserves were absurd. Well, I could do the same if I learned how. If she hadn't fled, she had to still be nearby.
Jeolma Seongsin Style, Eighth Form: Demon-Slaying Radiant Chain Slash
A slash of light carved through everything within a ten-meter radius.
Shhhk.
Found her.
Acceleration
I accelerated straight toward the spot where blood had been scattered. Pushing through the storm, I found the dragon, just as expected. She was kneeling on one knee, a deep wound carved into her right thigh.
Jeolma Seongsin Style, Fourth Form: Holy Divine Prison
A massive bolt of lightning formed from divine power struck Angelica's body.
CRACKLE.
"Haaah..."
Angelica gasped and dropped fully to her knees.
'It's over.'
Burns covered her entire body. On top of that, the bleeding from her stomach, leg, and eye was severe. She would probably die even if left alone. So I might as well ask what I'd been wondering about. Whether she'd answer was another matter.
I approached Angelica, who was hanging her head.
"Dragon. Before I kill you, can I ask one thing?"
"Haa... haa... Do as you... please."
Her complexion was deathly pale.
"Why did you hit Sirmiia? You like her a lot, don't you?"
During our travels, Angelica had always been gentle with Sirmiia. Even the saintess who traveled with us could confirm that. A woman who showed no emotion toward others had treated Sirmiia with such obvious care that anyone could see it. So why had she assaulted her? Had her attitude toward Sirmiia been nothing but an act all along? That was what I wanted to know.
"Pfft."
The dragon sneered at me. Covered head to toe in blood, who was she to mock anyone?
"Why are you laughing?"
"Because it's funny... You claim to love Sirmiia, yet you don't even understand something so basic. Cough."
What was she talking about? The way she spoke made it sound as if striking Sirmiia was an expression of her love. Emboldened by my dumbfounded expression, Angelica began to ramble with growing excitement, blood still spilling from her mouth.
"Listen carefully, Hero. There is only one reason I discipline Sirmiia. Because I love her."
I hadn't misheard. The dragon was spouting complete nonsense.
"I love Sirmiia, so I cherish her deeply. I discipline her because I want her to value herself. And Sirmiia herself understands that."
"You hit her... because you love her?"
"No. It wasn't hitting. It was another form of affection, for her sake."
I wondered if she was insane. It took real talent to spout such nonsense with such originality.
"Why does love require violence?"
"Correcting her mistakes through affection is an unavoidable necessity."
The more I listened, the colder the hero's mind grew.
"Everyone makes mistakes. And that's something they have to fix themselves. No one else should use violence to force them to change. Does she look like a toy to you? Something you can tinker with whenever you find a defect?"
"No. She can't fix herself. She can't do anything on her own. That's the kind of child Sirmiia is. She needs help with everything, from one to ten. It seems you understand her even less than I thought."
She smiled faintly as she spoke.
"So you think hitting Sirmiia right now is justified?"
"No. I told you, it wasn't hitting. You really don't understand, do you?"
Angelica let out an exasperated sigh.
"Stop spouting bullshit! Dragon. You're deluding yourself. What you're doing isn't affection. It's just violence and intimidation."
Couldn't you see Sirmiia's crying face? Couldn't you see how much she was hurting every time you struck her?
"How can you talk about loving Sirmiia so calmly? Are all dragons like you? You're the one who's the child here. A mentally immature brat. That's exactly what you look like, Dragon."
"Cough... Quite the insulting remark, delivered without hesitation. Do you truly believe that spewing such primitive insults makes you look like someone who genuinely cares for and worries about Sirmiia? You're wrong, Hero. You're the one making unnecessary meddling. You're the one who's hopelessly foolish. Cough..."
She continued coughing up blood as she spoke.
"Haa... haa. If you're going to kill me, just do it already. I can't reason with you."
Now who exactly couldn't reason with whom?
"Fine. Just die."
I swung the holy sword toward her neck.
Snicker.
"Caught you."
Transcendent Magic: Frozen World (Absolute Zero)
CRACK.
The hero froze mid-swing. No—the entire world had frozen. The surrounding space was completely encased in cold ice, creating an almost mystical scene.
"Ah... Finally, you've come close enough. I nearly died for real."
One of the magic stones Angelica hadn't used earlier had shattered in her hand.
"I was so nervous, wondering if even this would be blocked."
Compared to the cathedral, the abnormal destructive power and sudden increase in physical ability made her certain that freezing him at point-blank range—within one meter—was the surest method. If she'd been any farther away, he would have had time to respond somehow.
"Using True Name Release all of a sudden... Was that Dragon Saint Aura you were cloaked in?"
Angelica wasn't an ancient dragon, but she had still lived for over seven hundred years. She had encountered at least ten heroes in her lifetime. She already knew most of the techniques used by past heroes. Of course, without mana, knowing them hadn't allowed her to counter them.
'But what was that swordsmanship he used here?'
She had never seen such swordsmanship in her entire life. At Notre Dame Cathedral, the hero had wielded an irregular, formless blade. But here it was different. Destructive, yet clearly possessing form. She had never heard of any other hero using such techniques either. Had this hero learned a separate style? He had spent three years as an adventurer after leaving the Adelan Empire, so it was entirely possible he had encountered some fortuitous opportunity.
'Well. None of that matters anymore.'
The hero was frozen. The transcendent spell Frozen World was the complete opposite of her greatest defensive spell, Impenetrable Shield. If the latter was her ultimate defense, then Frozen World was her ultimate offense—a spell that froze everything within a hundred-meter radius except herself. In this space, she was the ruler. The ice formed from her mana would never melt unless she willed it. It was the very essence of her mana, the core of every spell and incantation she used. That was why Frozen World was a magic she hadn't used in two hundred years.
Drip.
'Huh?'