Shade
Palamus spoke as though the very question was absurd. “Of course I know you’re human. The issue is that I came to see a spirit, yet there is none here.”
Dalo nearly groaned. How could a dragon be this thick-headed? It felt like trying to swallow several dry sweet potatoes with no water to wash them down. The urge to shout at the arrogant lizard burned in his throat, but he forced it down. The other party was a dragon, after all. Swallowing his boiling anger, Dalo did his best to reason with him.
“If you truly wish to see one, you can form a contract through a medium for summoning.”
Drawing from his own past experience of contracting with a spirit under unusual circumstances, Dalo carefully explained the correct solution. Contracting directly with a Spirit King had been an extraordinary stroke of luck, as he had mentioned before, but lower spirits could be contracted with far more easily.
Yet Palamus shook his head. “I cannot explain the details to a mere human like yourself, but anything less than a Spirit King is meaningless.”
“I have no idea what you mean.”
A contract was a sacred ritual. Even a dragon could not ignore the rules established by the Spirit Goddess Spia. To summon a spirit merely to ask questions, let alone demand the time of a Spirit King, was practically an insult.
“I was captivated by their power to live eternally. It is more than worthy of research.”
Palamus, obsessed with immortality, had begun his research from that moment. He had not yet touched homunculi or black magic; he was still purely seeking ways to overcome the limits of life. Spirits were one such avenue.
Spirits were born and extinguished by Spia. Unless she chose to end them, they were effectively eternal. There were mountains of questions he wanted to ask, not only about the four current Spirit Kings but about the very nature of their existence.
Palamus glared at him, clearly demanding a solution. But no matter how important the research, Dalo had nothing to offer.
“Unfortunately, I have no spirits I can show you.”
With those words, Dalo turned to leave. He had no particular destination in mind, but his feet carried him instinctively toward De Meca in the Seiros Kingdom, the place most familiar to him.
“Where do you think you’re going? To ignore a great dragon and simply walk away… it seems you have yet to learn fear.”
Irritation finally coloring his voice, Palamus released his Fear. The aura could not transcend racial limits; any being lesser than a dragon would be paralyzed by terror, unable to move a muscle. Yet Dalo rejected that very concept and kept walking.
“Oh? Protected by a spirit, are we? A barrier has formed around your body, deflecting my Fear.”
Having discovered something new, Palamus followed after Dalo and seized him by the shoulder. Dalo, deciding the dragon was being unreasonably clingy, whirled around and snapped.
“What do you want?! I still have to hide this fragment! I have to figure out what to do with this cup! I’m already behind on potion production! Why do you keep getting in my way?!”
Dalo had reached his limit. Exhausted beyond reason and no longer able to see straight, he found that a dragon—one that couldn’t even instill fear in him—held no terror. What was a mere lizard to him now? Perhaps this was exactly why Elion had chosen him as her contractor. Even Dalo himself hadn’t known he possessed such courage.
Of course, to Palamus, a human’s outburst meant nothing. His attention had already shifted to the fragment clutched in Dalo’s hand.
“That fragment. It contains a spirit, does it not? Then why are you hiding it?”
“Because Elion asked me to.”
Thinking of how upset Elion would be caused his own mood to plummet. He tried to shake off the melancholy and turn away when Palamus spoke again.
“If the goal is to hide it, why not give it to me?”
“Excuse me?”
Dalo, who had been struggling to think of a safe place, was momentarily tempted. But he couldn’t bring himself to trust the lizard before him, so he demanded an explanation.
“This object is incredibly dangerous. If it falls into the wrong hands, it could destroy the world.”
It might not be quite that severe, but the implications from what the Spirit Kings had told him carried a similar weight.
“You disregard dragons far too easily because you are special among humans. I am what your kind calls the strongest living being.”
Even as he spoke, Palamus kept questioning whether his pride would allow such self-praise. Still, if he wanted the research material, he needed to imprint the power of a dragon upon this human. Dragons rarely boasted of their own achievements; such things were usually recorded by lesser races.
“My lair has never permitted a single intrusion. Should anyone manage to enter, they would face the full wrath of a dragon. Even a human contracted with a Spirit King—do you believe you could withstand that?”
Dalo saw the logic in Palamus’s words. The dragon seemed strangely desperate, and clearly desired the fragment of cold, but reality remained reality. No matter how suspicious the being before him appeared, he could not deny that a dragon was the strongest existence.
I endured the Fear, but if he so much as lifts a finger, I’ll die.
Considering that, leaving it with the dragon seemed the safest option. Reflecting on the attitude he had shown so far, Dalo spoke with renewed humility.
“Very well. But if I or Elion come asking for its return, you must give it back.”
Palamus smiled and nodded. “I swear it without fail.”
With that assurance, Dalo handed over the cold fragment of frost he had been clutching in his right hand.
“I can’t give you the cup. The two must remain separate to hold meaning.”
The cup entrusted to him by Elion would need to stay with him or be placed in the care of an extremely closed-off group. He was considering the Queen of Elven Terra, who served the Spirit Goddess Spia, or the hidden sanctuary where the spirit trees dwelled in the reliable Palpon region.
“That object also carries an extraordinary power that tempts even me, but if you insist, this body shall withdraw.”
Dalo couldn’t help but laugh at the words. Are all the dragons in the world this arrogant? He felt a little sorry for any dragons he might meet in the future, but he doubted he could look at them favorably.
With that thought, Dalo nodded and continued on his way.
Bagan and Elizabeth stood facing Frost. Ice fragments floated in the air, trembling as though ready to hurl themselves forward at any moment. Elizabeth addressed the Spirit King with proper respect. To elves, spirits—and especially Spirit Kings—were beings worthy of reverence.
“Spirit King of Cold, why are you so enraged!”
The question also carried her grief over having Elestra reverse-summoned.
(How can I not be angry when there are those who dare invade my domain!)
Frost had always shown extreme aversion to any trespass upon his territory. It seemed there was some history behind that sensitivity.
Bagan decided to tell Frost the truth. There was something the Spirit King had overlooked.
“Strictly speaking, this is Pangea. It is not your domain. If Spia were to learn of this… it would become very troublesome.”
This was the human realm, not Harmonia, the land of spirits. Even a Spirit King had no right to act as he pleased here.
Frost flinched. No matter how unstable his mind had become, the mention of Spia made him hesitate. Yet he quickly regained his composure and roared.
(Nonsense! Enough with your sophistry! The Icicle Tree stands perfectly intact! Are you trying to mock me?!)
From Frost’s perspective, any land containing the Icicle Tree was naturally his domain. It was an understandable misunderstanding, yet one that left no room for easy correction. The Icicle Tree was essentially an extension of Frost himself. His logic was simple: since I am here, this is my land. Any actual landowner would have been furious at such reasoning.
“Bagan, it doesn’t look like we can talk him down.”
“We still can’t fight him recklessly. A Spirit King’s power is immense. Perhaps on the level of a dragon.”
Bagan’s comparison referred only to the Four Great Spirit Kings and dragons other than Palamus. A special spirit might possess even greater strength.
“Frost, why do you protect that tree so desperately? What exactly happened here?”
Bagan’s earnest plea seemed to touch something in Frost’s heart.
(I don’t even want to think about it! If you do not leave this place immediately, I will execute you where you stand! Begone!)
Even so, Frost continued to reject them. The memory stirred by Bagan’s words made him mutter to himself.
(I will never forgive you… Shade!)
Shade?
As Bagan wondered, Sally answered him.
(The Shadow Spirit King. It seems connected to him somehow. Kihi!)
Shade…
In the game, there had definitely been a storyline involving a battle against Shade. It was an important branch of the main quest, so he remembered it clearly.
That’s right. He was the contracted spirit of the demon Jude.
Demons were humanity’s common enemy—beings who had been lured by devils and granted immense power. Among them, Jude had been a human who contracted with the Shadow Spirit King before becoming a demon for unknown reasons. He had once been considered the most difficult demon to face.
Having organized his thoughts, Bagan used Jude and Shade to capture Frost’s attention.
“Shade! The Shadow Spirit King! He’s the type who hides a vicious heart behind a smiling face. Did he do the same to you?!”
There was a reason for describing Shade that way. A vicious heart behind a smiling face. What better words could describe the shadow lurking behind light? As the description suggested, Shade could not be called an absolutely good spirit. Since his contractor had become a demon steeped in evil, Shade himself had come to represent evil.
At Bagan’s detailed explanation of Shade, Frost’s icy heart finally thawed enough to allow them an audience.
(You know that madman! What is your connection to him?! Don’t tell me you’re also after the Icicle Tree!)
“He touched the Icicle Tree. That’s why you’ve become like this.”
(That bastard violated the laws governing interference between spirits! He cut down everything that was mine!)
“I know he’s a terrible guy too! I won’t touch that tree, so can you tell us more?”
(Ridiculous!)
“Snap out of it! We’re not your enemies! Your enemy is Shade!”
Yet even Bagan’s plea failed to calm Frost’s rage. The Spirit King drew back his greatsword once more.
(Any who invade my domain are enemies.)
Bagan shouted desperately.
“You’ve already broken Spia’s rules beyond repair! If you attack us now, you’ll be destroyed before you can even have your revenge!”
The greatsword froze in mid-air.
“There we go. That’s what you should have done from the start.”
At long last, the conversation they had been waiting for had begun.