Chapter 4: Plans for the Future
“Sora is terribly sorry for her behavior last night, Dragon King!”
The first thing the next morning, Sora bowed on the kitchen floor before Rio, who had been in the middle of preparing breakfast.
“Th-There there, Sora, it’s okay. Please raise your head. You haven’t done anything to apologize for, so you shouldn’t go kneeling in front of others so easily.”
Sora had fallen asleep crying last night, so the conversation had been placed on hold. She seemed to be apologizing about that, so Rio reassured her not to worry.
“N-No, Sora shouldn’t have behaved so disgracefully before the Dragon King...!” Sora stuttered, blushing up to her ears.
“You didn’t do anything disgraceful, though?” Rio objected, startled by her choice of words. He had no idea what she was referring to.
“But Sora wailed incessantly before asking to sleep with the Dragon King! Sora was a terrible person who took advantage of the Dragon King’s kindness!”
Sora’s gaze was fixed on the floor, willing it to open up and swallow her whole.
“You just asked to sleep in the same room! In different beds!” Rio corrected in a fluster. “Please choose your words carefully... You could cause misunderstandings like that.”
He didn’t want to imagine what would have happened if Latifa and the others had been here. Thankfully, no one was in the house other than Aishia.
“For now, please stand up. Here,” Rio said, offering Sora a hand.
“...” Sora stubbornly refused to look up.
“Breakfast will be ready soon.”
“S-Sora can go without breakfast!” Sora said, insisting on punishing herself.
“But I made your share already...”
“Huh? R-Really?”
“It’d be such a waste if you didn’t eat it...” Rio added gently, like he was talking to a small child.
“B-But Sora needs to be punished...”
Sora’s heart wavered. She was hungry. She wanted breakfast. It had been a thousand years since her last breakfast with the Dragon King. And it was his homemade cooking! There was nothing more she could ask for. But did she really deserve to receive such a reward? No, she did not. Yet she couldn’t trouble the Dragon King either. And so...
“I-Is it okay for Sora to eat breakfast too? Together with the Dragon King...” she asked nervously, finally settling on her answer.
“I never said you couldn’t. Let’s forget about yesterday and enjoy the food. Come on.”
“O-Okay!”
This time, Sora accepted Rio’s hand and stood up.
“Can you wake Aishia up for me? We can all eat together.”
“Understood!” Sora replied with a salute, then rushed out of the kitchen.
She’s so energetic for the morning.
Rio chuckled as he watched her leave.
◇ ◇ ◇
“That was so tasty...”
After breakfast, Sora sat back in her seat in satisfaction. She had praised Rio’s cooking the entire meal, so it was evident just how much she enjoyed it.
Neither Aishia nor Rio was the chatty type while eating. They had told Sora to eat as much as she wanted, then focused on their own food for most of breakfast.
“Are you full now?”
“Yes! Breakfast with the Dragon King after one thousand years was delicious! And it was homemade!”
In fact, it had been a thousand years since Sora last ate with anyone at all. That was something Rio realized after the events of last night.
“I see... I’m glad to hear that.”
“You’re really good at cooking, Dragon King!”
“Thank you. Are you any good at cooking, Sora?”
“S-Sora is good at grilling!”
Sora was an honest child. The way her voice cracked implied she clearly wasn’t as good as she claimed.
“Erm, what do you normally eat?”
“Meat!”
“Do you get enough nutrition from just eating meat? What about vegetables?”
Sora averted her gaze awkwardly. “S-Sora can’t get sick, so...”
“Does the immortality of disciples include immunity from disease?” Rio asked with a sigh.
“The degree of a disciple’s immortality depends on their transcendent master. The Dragon King gave Sora an especially strong immortal body,” Sora said proudly.
“Did the Dragon King make you eat nothing but meat a thousand years ago?”
“H-He did say Sora should eat more vegetables...”
“In that case, you should eat your vegetables properly. Oh, but you did eat the vegetables for breakfast fine.” Rio looked at her empty plate.
“That’s because the Dragon King’s cooking was delicious! Especially the yellow vegetable—it was sweet like candy!”
“That was the boiled pumpkin. Have you ever had it before?”
“No, it was Sora’s first time seeing a vegetable like that!”
Sora must have had a really unbalanced diet if she had never seen a pumpkin before. That, or pumpkins weren’t harvested outside of the Strahl region and the spirit folk village.
“I see. If you liked it, I’ll make it again sometime.”
When he saw how innocent Sora looked, Rio was unable to scold her too harshly. Instead, he quietly promised himself he would focus on making a more balanced diet for Sora in the future.
“Thank you very much!” Sora grinned.
“Right. Now that we’re done eating, let’s talk about the future. But before that, I’d like to ask a few more questions about the past. Is that okay?” Rio said, looking between Aishia and Sora.
“Yup.”
“Of course!”
The two replied at the same time.
“There was something the Wise God Lina wanted to accomplish,” Rio began. “That’s why she made the Dragon King’s soul reincarnate into my body. She then reincarnated her own soul into Miharu. Do I have things right so far, Aishia?”
“Yup.”
“What was it that she wanted to accomplish? One of our goals for the near future will be to determine that.”
“W-Wait a moment!” Sora interrupted, clearly startled.
“Yes...?” Rio replied. He seemed to have no idea why Sora reacted so strongly.
“That woman... Lina reincarnated as well?!”
“Yes, according to Aishia. She’s reincarnated into a girl called Ayase Miharu.”
“Then why can’t you ask her directly?” Sora wondered.
Of course, it wasn’t that simple.
“Well, it would be easy if that were possible. Like me, Miharu has no memories of being a transcendent one.”
“Oh no... How dare she live a carefree life while dragging the Dragon King into such a mess!” Sora growled.
“It’s not her fault—those were the rules the god created.”
Those who were considered residents of this world would lose their memories if they left for another world, be it through reincarnation or otherwise. However, those who came to this world from outside would retain their memories. That was what Aishia had explained last night.
“But she’s the one that dragged you into this terrible mess! That Ayase Miharu has to know something!” Sora whined unhappily.
“What do you think, Aishia?”
“I’m not sure... Miharu doesn’t have any memories right now. And she cannot become a transcendent one anymore.”
“Why is that?”
“Only those with divinity can use transcendent powers without consequence. However, the only people with divinity are the transcendent ones. And Lina’s divinity was passed onto me, not Miharu.”
“And that means...”
“Lina lost her divinity and reincarnated into a regular human. That’s why Miharu cannot regain her transcendent powers like you. She’s just a normal girl with a little more magic essence than others. It’ll be hard for her to accomplish anything.”
“If you’ve inherited Lina’s divinity, does that mean you can use Lina’s transcendent powers, Aishia?”
“The powers itself are carved into the transcendent one’s soul. Lina’s soul is within Miharu, so there’s no way for me to use it.”
“In that case, will Miharu be able to use transcendent powers if you return Lina’s divinity to her?”
“It might be possible... But I don’t know how to do that.”
“And there’s no way Miharu would know without her memories, right?”
What they needed right now was to organize all the facts. At present, the one with the least information was Rio. He had received a general summary of things yesterday, but he wanted to ask for more details today.
“But even if I could return Lina’s divinity to Miharu, there’s no way for her to use the transcendent powers without any risks.”
“Can’t you just assimilate with her? She can make a spirit bond with you.”
“She can’t—the spirit bond can only be done with one person. She’d need to find another spirit to bond with, but I don’t know anything about the sorcery required to make a bond. Miharu would need to recall her memories to make a bond.”
“I see... But why did Lina transfer her divinity to you in the first place? I reincarnated with the Dragon King’s divinity, so I could use the Dragon King’s transcendent powers, right?”
“She probably wanted to reduce the burden of using your powers. Divinity reduces the burden of using transcendent powers, but that burden is still great even when reduced. By assimilating with me, you can receive twice the benefits of divinity.”
“So if I hadn’t assimilated with you, I wouldn’t have died, but the aftermath of using the transcendent powers would have been even worse?”
“That is correct.”
“So it’d be natural to assume Lina wanted the Dragon King to use his powers.”
“That seems to be the case.”
“I see... But that raises a new question,” Rio pondered, placing a hand under his chin.
“What is it?”
“Did Lina expect something to happen in this era, one thousand years after the Divine War ended? She reincarnated the Dragon King for a reason, right? And with the full intention of having him use his powers.”
There was normally no way for one to know what would happen one thousand years in the future. Even if she had a reason for her prediction, a thousand years was just too long of a time to be reasonable.
“Lina had the power to see the future. It was her transcendent power as the Wise God Lina. She used it to find out what would happen in a thousand years.”
However, it seemed that the Wise God Lina had the power to overturn Rio’s sense of reason.
“The power to see into the future...by a thousand years? That’s incredible,” Rio said with a strained smile. He thought he had seen it all by now—and he was proved wrong.
“Whatever Lina saw with her powers wasn’t transferred to me with her memories. I can’t recall anything about it.”
“I see... There’s no way of knowing what memories were copied or not.”
“Honestly! That woman is plain trouble!”
Rio and Sora both expressed contrasting reactions to Aishia, with Rio tilting his head in thought while Sora raged across from him.
“I’m sorry,” Aishia apologized. “The Dragon King was weakened beyond treatment by the point Lina was copying her memories to me. She couldn’t spend enough time on the process.”
“We’ve learned a lot just from the portion that she managed to copy, so it’s fine. We were also able to meet Sora thanks to that. Right?”
“W-Well, Sora can commend her for that much,” Sora muttered shyly.
“I wonder if Lina knew everything... Did she know that the Dragon King would become Amakawa Haruto then, Rio? Did she know what kind of life I would live, and what future I would arrive at? Has everything gone exactly as she planned?”
Rio smiled gently at Sora.
The former Dragon King and Wise God had reincarnated into childhood friends Amakawa Haruto and Ayase Miharu, then Haruto had gone on to reincarnate again in this world as Rio while Miharu was dragged into a hero summoning.
Their reunion in this world had been quite the dramatic scene, but it begged the question of how much Lina had foreseen with her powers. Did she know what kind of life they would have after reincarnating? Could she intervene with fate and manipulate it to her liking? That was the thought that occurred to Rio.
“That’s why Sora doesn’t like her. From the Divine War up until this point, it feels like she got the Dragon King involved while knowing what would happen,” Sora muttered, pouting unhappily.
“The actions of a single person can cause the future to branch infinitely. That was how Lina used her powers to intervene with fate and change the future multiple times,” Aishia said, backing Rio’s question. “However, it isn’t that easy to change the future. The future holds an infinite number of possibilities. Trying to learn every possibility is too much of a burden for the brain—even when that brain belongs to a Wise God. That’s why the future Lina used her powers to read was always limited to the most probable future at that point in time. The future is capable of changing, but there are some futures that can’t be changed no matter what. There are also some futures that can only be changed for the worse.”
She spoke as though she was denying Rio’s question.
“What does that mean?” Sora asked impatiently.
“Designating the reincarnation destination should have been possible. Reincarnating into Amakawa Haruto and Ayase Miharu was something Lina intentionally chose. Haruto’s reincarnation into Rio was also calculated. However...”
Aishia paused, staring closely at Rio.
“Just because Lina purposefully moved the Dragon King’s soul from Haruto to Rio doesn’t mean that the Dragon King can control you. Whether it was as Amakawa Haruto or as Rio, you have always been the one in control of your decisions. There’s also the possibility that our current present isn’t the future that Lina foresaw.”
“Right... That makes sense. There’s nothing to say that everything was inevitable. I guess it isn’t good to get too wrapped up in the unknown future.”
“You might learn something if the Dragon King or Lina’s memories return...” Sora added with a vexed look.
“Yeah, maybe. That would be the fastest way of gaining information, if it was possible.”
Both Rio and Miharu had lost their memories of being transcendent ones. Their memories had been wiped when they first left this world for another dimension. At present, their only hint was Aishia, who retained her memories despite leaving for the other dimension together with the Dragon King.
“Do you still have no idea how you regained your memories of a thousand years ago, Aishia?”
“Nope...”
“In that case, we have no choice but to search for a means of regaining our memories ourselves. Do you have any ideas, Sora? Are there any places where Lina may have left a hint?” Rio asked Sora. Perhaps there’d be some clues left behind in her past bases. It was the first idea that had come to mind.
“The Seven Wise Gods all had bases for their research. Lina was banished by the other Wise Gods, so she conducted her research from a house she carried around with space sorcery like this. She continued researching from there even when she was moving around with the Dragon King.”
“A portable base, hmm. That’ll be hard to find... There’s no way of finding something stored using space sorcery.”
Even if it was set down somewhere and left behind, it would have been hidden with extremely advanced sorcery. Searching the continent for a base like that would be like searching for a small gem in the desert.
“The final battle of the Divine War took place on the west end of Strahl. Perhaps if you searched around there...”
“Being able to narrow it down to a certain region is extremely helpful. Thank you. Let’s pay a visit to the countries there sometime in the near future.”
“Okay!” Sora replied enthusiastically, pleased that Rio had praised her.
“Then let’s organize our goals for the future. First, we want to know what Lina wanted the Dragon King to accomplish with his reincarnation. In order to find that out, we’re going to look for any clues Lina may have left behind. If there are any other events from a thousand years ago that neither of you know about, we’ll investigate that too. Can you think of anything?”
“What will you do about Lina’s reincarnation, Ayase Miharu?” Sora asked.
“There’s no point in talking to her when she doesn’t have Lina’s memories. She isn’t a transcendent one either, so she’s forgotten about me and Aishia. I don’t want to risk any rules activating by carelessly approaching her, so let’s leave her alone for now. I’d like to continue keeping an eye on her in case there are any changes, though...”
Even if he didn’t use his transcendent powers, he wasn’t allowed to support the interest of any individual or group. Transcendent ones had to act in the interests of everyone. Breaking that rule would erase his memories.
If Rio joined up with Miharu and the others now, the world could perceive him as a transcendent one acting in their interest—and if that happened, he would lose his memories of them. While the chance of this happening from a single interaction was low, Rio didn’t want to risk it at this stage.
“In that case, do you want Sora to investigate that? It’s the duty of a disciple to interact with the common people on behalf of the transcendent one.”
“Hmm... Let’s wait and see a bit longer first, okay?” Rio said weakly, his eyes darting about nervously.
It’s not that I don’t trust Sora, but...
If Sora was to make formal contact with Miharu, she’d have to go through the process of getting permission from the Galarc Kingdom. Avoiding that meant making contact secretly, and Rio still didn’t know how capable she was of acting stealthily.
Even if she could slip through the kingdom’s security without a hitch, it was possible that Miharu and the others would find her suspicious. She needed to have the ability to gain their trust and communicate with them harmoniously. Since they had just met each other, Rio still had no idea what kind of abilities Sora had.
“I might ask you to do so one day, so please wait until then.”
Sora nodded eagerly. “Got it!”
“Do you have anything to add, Aishia?”
“The disciples of the other transcendent ones might know something too.”
“Oh, that’s right. Disciples become immortal, so they should still be alive, right? Do you know of any other disciples, Sora?” Rio asked.
“Unfortunately, Sora doesn’t know where they are...”
“Have you ever met them before?”
“Sora’s met a disciple of an upper high rank spirit, and a disciple of Lina’s before.”
“What kind of person is Lina’s disciple?”
“One is a homunculus sorcerer, and the other two are golems.”
“A homunculus...and two golems?” Rio was taken aback by the unexpected answer.
“Both were created as a result of the Seven Wise Gods’ research. The homunculus was an unworldly being created by taking the good parts of every other species. Becoming a disciple of the Wise God Lina gave them the trait of incredible intelligence. So they served as Lina’s assistant.”
“What about the golems?”
“They’re magic artifacts that specialized in offensive combat. They had artificial personalities implanted into them.”
“If they’ve got personalities, does that mean they can communicate?”
“Hmm. They can’t move without a supply of magic essence, and they’re only capable of following orders. The homunculus would be better to communicate with. But they all went to the final battle with Lina, so there’s no guarantee they made it out alive.”
“Can disciples die even after they become immortal...?”
“Yes. They’re immortal, not invincible. A fatal blow will kill us, and relieving us of our roles as disciples will kill us by returning our natural lifespan to us.”
“What kind of disciples did the upper high rank spirits have, then?”
“They were all high rank humanoid spirits. Including the ones Sora didn’t meet.”
“It was probably easier to obey their own kind, I guess. So that means we’ll have to look for humanoid spirits too.”
As a fellow spirit, Aishia would be able to detect their presences even if they were materialized, and Sora seemed capable of detecting spirit presences too. Humanoid spirits were extremely rare, but it was a better shot than searching for clues Lina may or may not have left behind.
“However, all the disciples went to the Divine War with their upper high rank masters. It’s possible they were defeated along with them.”
“I see, that does sound plausible...”
If they went to the Divine War with the upper high rank spirits, they probably attempted to save their masters when they were sealed. There had been no news of them for the past thousand years, so it was most likely they were all defeated as well.
“Want to ask Dryas?” Aishia suggested.
The only other humanoid spirit they knew was Dryas. She wasn’t a humanoid spirit during the era of the Divine War, but she could have an idea of where to find others.
“Good idea. Dryas would have lost her memories of us since she isn’t a disciple, but we can attempt to make contact sometime.”
“Yeah.”
Even if she had lost her memories, the village where she was located was basically a holy land for spirits. Aishia would probably be welcomed without an issue, although she would need to wear a mask. It was also something Sora might be able to do.
“Next is whether to release the spirit bond seal between the heroes and upper high rank spirits, if we can figure out how. What do you think, Aishia?”
“If we release the seal, they may seek revenge on Miharu. As long as that danger can be prevented, I think it’s better to release them.”
“Right. I agree.”
First and foremost, the upper high rank spirits were victims. They were deceived by the Six Wise Gods and forcefully integrated into the hero-summoning system. As long as there was no risk of violence, it was only right to release them.
“However, the spirit bond system is extremely complex. Releasing the seal would require the intelligence of one of the Seven Wise Gods. It’d be impossible for us.”
“In that case, we can search for a means of releasing the seal along with our search for Lina’s aim. We can also come up with a way to clear up the misunderstanding regarding Lina while we do that.”
“I agree with that.”
“From the sound of the conversation... Do you two know where the upper high rank spirits are already?” Sora asked, looking between Rio and Aishia curiously.
“Right, you still don’t know about that—yes, we do. They’ve been sealed in an assimilated form with the heroes... Do you know what heroes are, Sora?”
“Heroes...?”
Apparently she didn’t. Sora had been protecting the Yagumo region at the request of the Dragon King, so she was estranged from the events that had happened in Strahl.
“To put it simply, the Six Wise Gods sealed the upper high rank spirits in the hero-summoning system in order to use their powers. Those who are chosen as heroes are assimilated with the spirits and become capable of bringing out their powers.”
“Oh...”
“The upper high rank spirits resent the Six Wise Gods for sealing them. They believe Lina was in on the scheme to seal them and resent her too. The heroes are unaware that they’ve been assimilated with upper high rank spirits, and the seal protects them from most of the danger—but if the seal weakens, the heroes are in danger of being possessed by the spirits.”
“Th-That sounds like a problem...”
“We were actually fighting a hero that had been taken over by an upper high rank spirit just yesterday, right before I summoned you.”
“What?!”
“Honestly, it wasn’t a fight I could have won. If Aishia hadn’t regained her memories and helped me use the Dragon King’s transcendent powers, we would have lost.”
“At least you won in the end!”
“It was during that fight that we realized the upper high rank spirits could tell that Miharu is Lina. They also saw me as the Dragon King, but they didn’t seem to notice that we were both reincarnated.”
“The upper high rank spirits have special eyes that allow them to see a person’s soul. It works like how a regular spirit can detect spiritual presences, except they can gain even more information from it,” Sora explained.
In that case, there was no way they would mistake the soul of a fellow transcendent one that had governed the world with them for so long.
“Is that the transcendent power of the upper high rank spirits?”
“No. They were the ultimate spiritual beings; their eyes were more of a trait of being a transcendent one. Just like how the Seven Wise Gods had incredible intelligence.”
“So the Seven Wise Gods were actually wise.”
“Well, they were called the Wise Gods for a reason. The Dragon King wasn’t able to understand all of Lina’s research either. Then they had their transcendent powers on top of that...”
Sora snorted grumpily. She didn’t seem to have a favorable impression of the Seven Wise Gods for dragging the Dragon King into the war.
“Ha ha... Did the Dragon King have some kind of trait as well?”
“The Dragon King’s trait was the ultimate physical body!” Sora replied, eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.
“Dragons do give the image of being extremely strong.”
“Do you remember how Sora showed you her dragonkin form yesterday? When the Dragon King materializes his dragon body, he gains the strongest armor in the world. In that form, he becomes capable of deflecting all spirit arts and magic.”
According to Sora, their physical humanoid forms were their main bodies, but they also had a dragon spirit body that they could materialize to become dragonkins. That applied to both the Dragon King and his disciple Sora. However...
“That’s impressive... But I’m a human now, so I don’t have a dragon spirit form, right?” Rio asked nervously.
“Indeed... Sora can’t sense any spirit presence at all from the Dragon King...”
“Neither can I,” Aishia added.
If Aishia couldn’t sense anything from Rio at this distance, then it was almost certain that he didn’t have a spirit form.
“That was the proof of the Dragon King’s connection with Sora, as the only two dragonkins in this world...” It seemed like Sora was in a greater state of shock than Rio. She hung her head sadly.
“W-Well, there’s no knowing what will happen in the future, and we’ll make lots of memories from here on! Come to think of it, what did you say the transcendent powers of the upper high rank spirits were?” Rio asked, distracting Sora by changing the topic.
“The powers of the spirits are...”
“S-Sora can explain!”
With her role in danger of being stolen by Aishia, Sora snapped back to her senses.
“Thank you, Sora. Could you explain it to me?”
“Yes! The transcendent power the upper high rank spirits have is to ignore the laws of nature in order to create nature. God gave them that power in order to protect the balance between mankind and nature,” Sora answered.
“The power...to create nature?” Rio couldn’t quite process her words.
“Yup! Spirit arts create phenomena based on the caster’s imagination. The power of the upper high rank spirits does something similar, but at a greater scale—they’re able to instantly shape the natural world according to their imagination. Each one is limited to a single specialty element, though.”
“So that’s what we saw in the fight yesterday...”
The details Sora provided helped Rio finally understand the tremendous power of the upper high rank spirit he saw yesterday. He recalled the image of the ground splitting apart and rising like a tsunami that flipped the earth.
“The Dragon King once said that the six upper high rank spirits could recreate the world if they used their powers all together.”
“And if they use their powers for destruction, they can cause natural disasters like the earth spirit that possessed Erica yesterday,” Aishia added.
“Right. If mankind ever neglects nature, it is the duty of the upper high rank spirits to create natural disasters and punish them. That was what the Dragon King told Sora.”
“I see... Thank you, I get it now.”
“Not at all! Sora can also explain the powers of the Seven Wise Gods if you wish!”
“Wasn’t the power of the Seven Wise Gods to see the future?” Rio asked, tilting his head in confusion.
“Yes, but that’s just Lina’s power. The other six had different powers.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. They were really secretive about it, so neither the Dragon King nor Lina knew how their powers worked in detail.”
It seemed that the Seven Wise Gods each had a unique transcendent power.
“In that case, can you tell me what you know?”
“Of course! If Sora recalls correctly... There’s duplication, component analysis, manipulation of fate... Umm...and...err... Lina’s future sight...and...”
Sora had started her list with confidence, but started trailing off towards the middle and began to panic. She had either forgotten the rest, or she never had a clear memory to begin with.
“Did you forget?” Rio guessed. He had specifically asked for the powers of the Six Wise Gods, yet she had given him the answer for Lina, who should have been excluded. It was clear she had forgotten.
“I-It’s all Lina’s fault! She used really difficult words one after another!”
“It’s all right, it’s been a thousand years since then, so it’s only natural to forget. Do you remember anything, Aishia?”
“I’m sorry, I only know about Lina’s power.”
“Hee hee hee. It’s Sora’s win!” Sora said, then let out a sigh of relief.
“All I know is that the Seven Wise Gods have extreme intelligence, and when their minds are combined with their powers, they can do pretty much anything. They have the knowledge and ability to find whatever they want to know.”
“R-Right. The god gave them their powers to lead mankind. The Seven Wise Gods were meant to become figures of worship, symbols for mankind to believe in,” Sora added, not wanting to lose to Aishia.
“So the role of the upper high rank spirits was to maintain the balance between nature and mankind, and the role of the Seven Wise Gods was to become a symbol of faith for mankind. And god gave them all tremendous powers for those roles...” Rio summarized. He was starting to get a good idea of what a transcendent one really was.
“Don’t be silly! The Dragon King’s power is WAY more impressive than any of the other transcendent powers!”
“Then can you tell me about the Dragon King’s power as well? My understanding is that it releases a light that erases the target...”
He had obtained the power in the midst of battle—along with a vague understanding of how to use it—but he still hadn’t received a proper explanation of what kind of power it was.
“The power that the Dragon King possesses is annihilation. It was bestowed upon him for the purpose of eliminating any threats to the world, in order to protect the world,” Sora said proudly.
I erased the calamity that the earth spirit created in the battle yesterday. It is indeed a fearsome power. But I have no idea what I erased and what I didn’t, even though I was the one who used the power. What if I accidentally erase everything?
Rio stared at his hands as a chill went down his spine. This power was dangerous—that was what his instincts were telling him.
“Honestly, the Dragon King is the strongest! There’s no one out there who can face the Dragon King in a head-on fight!” Sora’s words were filled with passion.
“You really think so? It sounds like the other transcendent ones were rather dangerous as well.”
“It’s true! If the transcendent ones were to use their powers on each other, the Dragon King’s annihilation would always come out on top!”
Rio paused for a brief moment. “I see...”
What was bothering him was the fact he still didn’t know how to use the power well, and the fact that not every fight was held head-to-head. Surprise attacks were always a possibility, and he would be helpless against something that couldn’t be annihilated.
Lina had made the Dragon King reincarnate into the present, but was it possible for someone more powerful to appear in the future? Would Rio be able to protect the ones he loved if that happened, or would he be stopped by the rules the god created? All those fears weighed down on him, and it showed on his face.
“Is something the matter, Dragon King?” Sora asked worriedly.
“No, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about how I have to use this power to protect you as well, Sora,” Rio replied, smiling at Sora gently.
“You don’t need to worry about that! As the Dragon King’s disciple, Sora is very strong!”
Sora puffed her chest up proudly, chuckling to herself.
“Is that so? I mean, I’m sure that must be true, but...”
A disciple was almost certainly strong, but Sora looked no different from a small child. The clumsiness she occasionally showed only enhanced that impression further, so Rio couldn’t help but have some doubts.
“S-Sora is strong! Much stronger than Aishia over there!” Sora insisted, pointing a finger at Aishia.
“Stronger than Aishia... I’d like to see that strength in person someday, then.”
Rio knew just how strong Aishia was, and she wouldn’t lose in a fight so easily. But he had a feeling that arguing here would only cause trouble, so he decided to set the matter aside for another day.
“U-Understood!”
But that wasn’t conveyed clearly.
“Sora will demonstrate her true ability!” She puffed up her soft cheeks in a pout, ready to defend her pride.
◇ ◇ ◇
A bit over ten minutes later, the group had moved to an uninhabited wasteland tens of kilometers away from the capital of Duke Gregory’s territory. Their goal was to hold a mock battle between Sora and Aishia.
When Aishia materialized to fight, her spirit presence was revealed to the surroundings. The same happened to Sora when she materialized her dragon body. They considered using masks to hide their presence, but they didn’t want to risk the precious masks breaking for a friendly match.
That’s why they had decided to travel far away from the city to avoid detection. It was still relatively nearby, so they could return in a matter of minutes if needed.
Right now, Sora and Aishia were standing at a distance of ten meters from each other. Rio stood between them as the umpire.
“Umm... There’s a chance that Aishia’s considered a transcendent one after assimilating with me. Will using her powers in a match like this cause any problems?” Rio asked. He still seemed rather hesitant about the idea.
“Sora is the Dragon King’s disciple! Matches without any interests at stake aren’t a problem!”
“Got it... There’s no need to go all out, so don’t take it too far. That’s all.”
Pressured by Sora’s enthusiasm, Rio finally readied himself. He needed to know Sora’s abilities sooner or later anyway. Aishia seemed to feel the same, since she had agreed to Sora’s challenge and brought Rio here.
Sora, who clearly saw Aishia as a rival, was pumped up for the match. “Hee hee hee. This is the perfect opportunity. Let’s make it clear which one of us is more worthy of being the Dragon King’s right-hand man!”
Rio picked up a small stone from the ground, then explained the rules. “Okay. I’m going to throw this stone, and the match will begin when it hits the ground. Please refrain from using any attacks that could cause major damage to the surroundings. And you must stop when I tell you to. Is that clear?”
“Clear as day!”
“Yup.”
After seeing them nod, Rio threw the stone upwards. “All right, go.”
At the exact moment the stone landed, Sora moved.
“Haaah!”
She’s fast.
Rio’s eyes widened. Sora charged straight at Aishia the moment the stone fell, but...
“...”
Aishia leaped backwards without a twitch of the brow, evading her easily. As soon as she did that, dragon wings sprouted from Sora’s back.
“You won’t get away!”
Sora flew after Aishia. Her speed was even faster after growing wings, allowing her to close in on Aishia’s retreat midair.
There, the two engaged in combat. However, it wasn’t exactly a close-combat match.
After all, the two were extremely fast. They could fly around freely. They could fly from one place to the next without pause, and could cover a distance of a hundred meters in the blink of an eye—meaning a distance of two or three hundred meters was barely any distance at all. They never stopped in a single place for very long, so their fight spanned a huge area.
The two started to move with right-angle turns that would be too much of a burden for a regular human body to pull off, even after physical enhancement. Their movements were impossible for an ordinary person to follow.
Thus, the fierce exchange of midair blows continued for some time.
“Wow...”
Rio was shocked. By now, he had seen enough to know that Sora had plenty of strength. If there was one thing he was yet to see, then it’d be how Sora dealt with an opponent that cast multiple spirit arts from a long distance. Of course, with her mobility, nothing was actually long distance...
Just then, Aishia froze in the air. Copying her movements, Sora came to a stop ten meters away.
“Tch. You just won’t stay still,” Sora muttered in annoyance.
“You’re fast too.”
Pleased by Aishia’s compliment, Sora attempted to praise her in return. “H-Hmph! You’re just a little better than Sora thought.”
“Haruto should know how strong you are by now,” Aishia said, looking down at Rio, who was watching them from the ground.
“Hmph... Sora’s much stronger than this.”
“I think Haruto wants to know how well you can defend against essence attacks in your dragonkin form,” Aishia said, casting dozens of magic essence bullets around her. She was basically telling her to take her attack as a demonstration for Rio.
“Oh, is that what this is...”
Sora glanced down at Rio as well. Indeed, she had only been flying around with her wings out in high-speed hand-to-hand combat until now. She was yet to show her dragon form’s essence-repelling ability. She didn’t like the way she was being asked to do it, but...
“Very well.” Sora accepted Aishia’s proposal.
“However! Sora has no intention of letting you hit her with any old attack. If you want to see Sora’s defenses, you’ll have to stop her close-combat attempts and hit her first. Since Sora will be using her dragonkin form, she will subdue you without using long-ranged attacks!” Sora declared, pointing her finger at Aishia sternly. At the same time, horns grew out of her head and a tail sprouted from her rear; her arms also transformed into dragon arms.
“Then I’ll run away from your close-ranged attacks while attacking from afar. If you can get close enough to touch me, it will be your victory.”
“You’re on!”
Thus, they settled on the rules for their match.
“Okay. Ready?”
“Whenever you are!”
The match resumed. Aishia silently fired a barrage of light bullets at Sora while she flew backwards.
“Too slow!” Sora made use of her small frame to weave through the barrage cleanly. She began her pursuit of Aishia, who was already casting a second round to block Sora’s approach.
I see... It was a completely different scene from the pure close combat exchange earlier, and Rio could guess what they were aiming for.
In short, it was a game of tag. Sora was the one chasing, and Aishia was the one fleeing. Aishia was attacking with long ranged spirit arts, while Sora limited herself to close-ranged attacks. He figured they had decided those rules when the battle paused just now. Aishia continuously fired her barrage of light bullets directly at Sora.
“Using the same attack over and over will have no effect on Sora!”
Sora darted in a zigzag pattern between the bullets while charging straight for Aishia. The rain of bullets failed to make any impact on her.
However, Aishia hadn’t been casting her bullet barrage for no reason. Just as Sora’s eyes grew used to the sight of the bullets, Aishia started manipulating the trajectory of the shots.
“Wha?!”
The bullets that had only moved in straight lines until now suddenly started making unexpected twists and turns towards Sora.
“Guh!” Even Sora couldn’t help but react late. But her reflexes were fast enough to allow her body to twist in a barrel roll that forcefully allowed her to avoid the shots.
“H-Hmph! You’re still too slow!” Sora boasted smugly, despite the clear panic on her face. “Did you think Sora could—?!”
Her boasting was interrupted midsentence by an even greater surprise. The bullets that should have shot past her doubled back like a boomerang, surrounding her from every direction. Each bullet was locked onto her like they were tracking her every movement.
I-Is she manually controlling every one of these bullets?!
Sora came to the realization that Aishia’s spirit art technique was far better than she had imagined. And that meant it would be a real challenge to evade this...
“Argh! Take that!” Sora started releasing magic essence to enhance her physical body even more. She then stopped moving forward and started spinning on the spot with her wings spread, deflecting the shots with the momentum of her spin.
If she’s choosing this method of blocking the attacks, does that mean she isn’t able to neutralize the kinetic energy of the essence bullets? Rio looked up at Sora with widened eyes and analyzed her movements.
“Y-You’ve done it now, Aishia.”
“You okay?”
“Of course!”
“Want to keep going?”
“Yes! Listen up. From here on, it’s a head-to-head contest! Sora’s going to crush you with all she’s got, so no more sneaky tricks!”
“Can I use elemental arts?”
“If you want. Sora can take on every element there is!”
“Then...” Aishia summoned giant orbs that were several meters in diameter—five were lightning, five were water, and five were fire.
Does she have no particular element she specializes in? Guess she’s not the humanoid spirit created by Lina for nothing. Sora reevaluated Aishia’s abilities with a sharp look.
“Go on, attack Sora all you want!” she urged loudly, pointing a finger at Aishia. She seemed extremely confident in herself.
“Okay.” Aishia fired one of the water orbs at Sora. The orb, which was over ten times the size of the light bullets from earlier, shot at Sora at a supersonic speed, but...
“Hmph!”
Sora didn’t budge from her position, swinging her dragonkin right arm that was wrapped with magic essence. The resulting shock wave burst the water orb into a spray of harmless droplets.
That’s quite an impressive amount of power. Sora smiled down at the sight of Rio’s surprise, then turned back to taunt Aishia. “Keep the attacks coming! Sora will demonstrate exactly what powers the Dragon King bestowed upon her!”
In response, Aishia began firing one orb after another. “Here goes!”
Sora shot forward like an arrow released from a bowstring pulled all the way back, accelerating towards the elemental attacks herself.
The swing of her dragonkin arm at that speed was like the embodiment of absurdity. Whether the orb was water, fire, or lightning, her sharp claws tore them apart equally.
Elemental orbs cast in advance were no match for Sora—this was what Aishia realized immediately. She needed a more powerful attack to strike Sora down in one go. However, such an attack would potentially reduce a regular human body to dust.
“...”
Aishia hesitated. But she had no time to think. Figuring Sora was strong enough to survive, she held out her hand and readied her essence.
“That’s the last one over here!”
Sora noticed that Aishia was preparing another attack just as she was slashing down the last orb and called out to her. “Now, come!”
Aishia fired an extra-large essence cannon at Sora to stop her approach. The beam of light was thick enough to swallow Sora entirely.
“Haaah!” Sora stuck her right arm out as she flew straight at the cannon fire. Just as she was about to make contact with the beam, she sank into it like tofu and pierced through it.
“Seriously...?” Rio mumbled in spite of himself.
“Now, it’s over with this!” Sora quashed every attack smoothly and reached Aishia. But just as she was about to touch her body, Aishia rapidly retreated.
“Wha?!” Sora yelped in shock. She believed she had won, so this came to her as a surprise. She quickly snapped back to her senses and chased after Aishia. “H-Hey! Don’t run! Aishia! It was Sora’s victory just now!”
“This wasn’t in the rules.”
Sora couldn’t argue against that. “Grr. L-Listen up! Sora would have caught you easily if she could use long-ranged attacks, and she still hasn’t shown you her full dragonkin form!” she argued out of frustration.
“I still have my assimilated form with Haruto too,” Aishia said, slowing down to reply.
“H-Hey, that’s unfair! Actually, that’s been bothering Sora this entire time—why do you call the Dragon King by the name Haruto?! The way you make it sound like you’re special to him makes Sora so envio— No, it’s just so disrespectful!” Sora started wailing.
Rio stared up at the two of them with an amused smile. Well, I guess this means we have another reliable ally.
He rose into the sky to inform them of their tie.
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