Chapter 431
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 431
Chapter Title: Entrance, Here I Am.
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Twitch!
Whether from exhaustion due to psionic depletion...
Or because it had all happened so abruptly...
The silver-haired girl had her lips stolen in a defenseless state, a sight that belied her title as the swiftest of the Seven Dragon Society.
Yekaterina reflexively tried to shove him away.
From her wings to her tail and claws, she thrashed like a rampaging dragon itself.
It was a desperate struggle infused with the superhuman strength gained from her dragon transformation—one that could shatter boulders and crumple steel.
Whoosh!
But Rimon didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow.
Whether her sharp wings grazed his cheek.
Her tail struck his side.
Or her claws dug into his arm.
He simply wrapped his arm around her slender waist to keep her from escaping, delving even deeper into the kiss.
As Yekaterina grew furious at Rimon's attitude, her struggles about to intensify...
They suddenly stopped.
Yekaterina's eyes widened.
The ecstatic stimulation from the saliva flowing through their joined lips touching her tongue...
And the purest, clearest dragon psionics naturally seeping into her body had stripped away her resistance.
Gulp.
What surged in its place was thirst.
Her psionic-depleted body welcomed the dragon psionics like rain in a drought.
With only instinct left, Yekaterina followed her craving for more, pressing her lips to Rimon's of her own accord.
Slurp.
Like a beast encountering unfamiliar prey.
Wary yet gently.
Their lips overlapped.
But such caution didn't last.
The more dragon psionics she absorbed through their joined lips, the deeper her thirst grew.
Her actions grew bolder with it.
Lick, suck, slurp.
Grazing his lips.
Sucking lightly.
Then entwining her tongue herself.
After a brief moment like that.
She had her arms around his neck, her tail coiled tightly from his legs to his waist, clinging to Rimon madly.
The overwhelming flow of dragon psionics.
And the intense pleasure and satisfaction from their tongues tangling, from swallowing his saliva.
It made the proud, savage dragon descendant forget everything and devour him mindlessly.
Splash!
What ended the kiss that seemed eternal was a wave of shadows.
As if to swallow the two intruders at once.
Rimon slashed the surging shadows with a single stroke, while Yekaterina whipped her tail to bat away the fragments.
In that interval, Rimon unwrapped his arm from her waist and pulled his lips away slightly.
"That's enough."
"...?"
"Why the face of a cat that had its food bowl stolen? This should be plenty to finish sealing now."
She blinked, face blank as to why he'd suddenly pulled away.
Then, belatedly grasping the meaning of "that's enough," Yekaterina didn't retreat—instead pressing even closer.
"Karr..."
Wings gently scratching his back.
Tail tickling his legs.
Damp eyes flushed with heat.
Red lips exhaling sticky breaths.
Anyone could see it was coquetry.
Like a kitten mewling for milk from its owner...
No, more like a female cat in heat—seductive, needy, lascivious.
But Rimon scoffed at the coquetry, jabbing her elbow with his thumb to unwrap her arms from his neck.
"I don't have time to play with you right now, so if you want to fool around, finish what you started first."
He grabbed the nape of Yekaterina, who tried to wrap her arms around him again, lifting her up.
Holding her out toward the shadows.
Whispering into her ear.
"If you successfully seal the Demon God, I'll think about giving you a reward."
"...!"
No promise of reward.
Just clearly conveying that whining more meant no soup for her.
But Yekaterina wasn't disappointed.
Seemingly understanding "reward," her eyes gleamed as she shot forward like lightning.
To resume the interrupted seal.
Kududuk, kuududuk!
To block Yekaterina, who began producing ice pillars in rapid silver flashes again, the shadows thrashed violently.
But it was futile.
Like when she'd first dragon-transformed...
No, even faster now, Yekaterina was impossible to catch.
Slash!
Above all, Rimon's presence—intervening with sword swings whenever they neared her—made even tantrums impossible for the shadows.
Sliced repeatedly by sword light.
Pierced one after another by silver flashes.
Finally, having lost most of its mountain-like body, the moment the shadows were fully encased inside and out by ice pillars...
Yekaterina halted her flashing dash and leaped back.
Spreading her wings wide.
The girl straightened her back.
The moment she opened her lips.
"Kyaaaaaaaah!!!"
Crack!
Silver radiance burst from her crystal-clear wings, illuminating everything.
The rapidly swelling ice pillars intertwined like a net, slowing the shadows' movements several times more than before.
The time wedges Yekaterina had scattered until now.
Hundreds of psionic clumps resonated, warping the entire area's time.
One second to over ten.
One minute to dozens.
One hour to hundreds.
Like a dam blocking the river of time.
As the clustering ice pillars grew, time's flow twisted further, up to thousands or tens of thousands of times.
Finally, all ice pillars connected, fully encasing the shadows, time's distortion reaching its peak...
Kuudududuk!
—The world stopped.
With the iceberg formed by the fused pillars as the boundary, everything inside halted.
The sluggishly writhing shadows.
Molecular motion and light waves.
The space frozen solid like a specimen was truly a time seal.
A prison even gods couldn't escape.
"Haa, haa..."
Yekaterina panted heavily.
She'd squeezed out dragon psionics to the dregs again to complete the seal.
Even the Seven Dragon Society's princess had depleted her psionics twice to barely achieve it—a near-miraculous feat.
Yet despite her exhaustion, Yekaterina wore a bright expression.
And ran to Rimon.
"...Good work."
As if saying she'd done her best, so where's her reward.
Yekaterina clung again, tail wagging furiously.
Rimon patted her head, speaking lowly.
"I didn't think you'd pull it off. Well done."
Even with his psionic supplement, it was an achievement worth admiration.
Rimon praised briefly.
Then muttered.
"Makes it all the more regrettable."
"...?"
While tilting her head at Rimon's strangely bitter expression.
Yekaterina suddenly perked her tail.
And whipped around.
She'd sensed it.
The dark pillar stretching from the iceberg to the sky.
Pulsing like veins, shaking the time prison.
"Kyau?"
Incredulous that the seal she'd labored over was crumbling already.
To the dazed Yekaterina, Rimon said.
"It's not a failure. You did seal the Demon God."
"..."
"The Demon God is just twisting providence to pull forward the timing of the seal's release."
Simple logic.
Just as Yekaterina had halted and imprisoned its time.
The Demon God accelerated time, shortening what should have lasted a day or two.
'Was it impossible after all.'
Gods touching world's providence could thus work miracles as easily as breathing.
Of course, limited by divinity.
The god of commerce couldn't summon rain.
The god of war couldn't call bountiful harvests.
Unless a terrible mismatch like the god of time, Yekaterina's seal would hold against most high divinities.
But her opponent was the Demon God.
That false god that horrified even the Immortal Alliance's deities wasn't comparable to mere high divinities.
Thanks to potent time-manipulating psionics, the seal held for now.
But it was temporary.
Clear as day it'd break in minutes at most.
'In the end, no choice but to take the hit.'
Knowing that.
Rimon calmly made his choice.
He'd given her a chance out of respect for her resolve, but no more hesitation.
Even if innocent blood spilled, this was the only way to stop the greater catastrophe the Demon God would bring.
Like when he'd drawn his sword against the Sword Empress he could no longer stop.
To protect the world, he'd cut down anyone.
Thus becoming humanity's guardian, the man now raised his sword with a cold face to become a butcher.
No, he tried to.
[Hold on a sec, here.]
Weeeeng.
Along with the curt telepathy burrowing into his mind, a familiar sound echoed from somewhere—if not for that.
'...This?'
Where the sound came from.
Thanks to Sword Master super-senses, Rimon quickly realized and looked up.
The sky blackened around the dark pillar.
Beyond it, a flying object approached fast, headlights on.
'SDW X-21?'
As Rimon narrowed his eyes at the top-tier VTOL from Bahamut Industries he'd used coming to Ruskan...
The SDW's hatch opened.
One silhouette dropped straight down.
Thud!
Too high a drop.
Even spreading her fluttering clothes like a parachute to slow her fall, she cratered the ground.
The petite white-haired girl stared at Rimon with her usual blank face and declared confidently.
"Here comes my entrance."
"...Cool hero entrance, but doesn't landing on your knees hurt?"
"It does hurt, honestly. Holding back tears."
"Then why do a superhero landing?"
"Heroes in movies always enter like this. They don't feel pain. No idea why it only hurts for me."
"Please separate fiction from reality."
He'd steeled himself.
But her entrance shattered all solemnity.
Giving him a headache instead, Rimon pressed his temple at the white-haired girl.
"So, what's brought you here, foolish princess?"
"To help Ri, of course."
"...You know what the situation is?"
"Yes. Demon God revived. Seal failed. Kill it or not, problem either way."
As expected of the world's top prophet.
Despite just arriving, Aynsha rattled off the situation perfectly, leaving Rimon even more dumbfounded.
"Knowing that, how do you plan to help?"
"It's fine. Trust me. Preparations are complete."
What preparations?
As Rimon was about to ask, his expression turned odd.
He sensed another familiar presence from the still-hovering SDW X-21.
Someone who shouldn't be here, yet unmistakable— the moment Rimon wore a 'no way' face.
"[AlTea, Algos (Oh time, oh providence).]"
Rumble!
A languid voice resounded.
The seal's shaking subsided.
Instead, the dark pillar invading the time prison began to writhe.
Not absolute like a god.
Not touching providence.
But the power to deceive providence.
Depending on cost and user's skill, surpassing even divine miracles.
Thus dominating an era in distant past—this ability manifested, fueled by the SDW X-21's trove of rare offerings.
"[Ha Fei, viIl RoWa, SArum Antat (Rest now, hide and sleep, take brief respite).]"
⟨ Time Deception ⟩
Fwaah!
The echoing incantation peaked, vast magical energy exploding forth.
The dark pillar reaching the sky wrapped in white frost.
All commotion ceased.
Left were just two.
The iceberg trapping the shadows and the frost pillar piercing the sky.
The Demon God's shadow now truly frozen solid, unable to shake the seal. As Rimon wore a complex expression.
From the belatedly landed SDW X-21 emerged who he expected.
"Calling me out of the blue for something this absurd. Even as your slave, isn't this too much?"
Show some respect to your elders.
The dark red curly-haired witch protested languidly while eyeing the iceberg with interest.
Peep, tweet! Tweet!
Atop her shoulder, a bluebird flapped in protest, demanding its fire-attribute item back.
"Hero arrives, all problems solved. So I'm the hero. Proof I'm Ri's best bride match, complete."
And the blank-faced girl puffing her flat chest, flashing a V-sign.
Facing the trio utterly lacking tension, all Rimon could do was blink alongside the Yekaterina in his arms.