Slayers - Volume 17 - Chapter 4

4: En Route to the Border, the Sights that Await Us...

Okay, a while back, I’d fought a high-ranking demon named Hellmaster Fibrizo. During said fight, I’d lost control of a spell, which resulted in me temporarily merging with chaos itself. And by “chaos itself,” I of course mean the source of all existence, the golden Lord of Nightmares. In the end, it had returned whence it came and I’d returned to my senses, but...

Yeah, the prophecy Galdorba spoke of? Basically suited me to a T. The phrasing itself seemed highly subject to interpretation, but I couldn’t really argue it didn’t apply to me. It would’ve been easy enough to play dumb and say “dunno what you’re talking about,” but I doubted these robed guys would fall for that bit.

I’d put it together by now that Galdorba and his friends were a totally different faction from our Luzilte pursuers. I still didn’t know who they were working for, mind you. But I did know they’d taken some so-called prophecy as gospel truth, and now they had a mind to kill me in the interest of peace, justice, and all that jazz.

They’d first attacked us in that city overnight—but they’d underestimated us and we’d lived to tell the tale. Then, after learning that the Kingdom of Luzilte was also after us, they’d apparently gotten the idea to use that against us. I guess they figured that all would be well if the knights ended up taking us out. But after following us for a while, they saw their Plan A going up in flames thanks to a single dancing golem. They must have lost patience and joined the fray then.

But even with all that in mind, they were being way too reckless!

“I’ve hit a nerve, have I?” Galdorba said after some silence. He’d seemed to be gauging my reaction.

“Nissy Lina? Raise havoc?” Ran asked, her eyes carefully fixed on our opponent.

I would have liked to deny that part, but... “Given that I’ve got both the knights of Luzilte and these mysterious robed guys after me... I’d say I’ve been there, done that, wouldn’t you?” From a certain point of view, I’d already fulfilled the prophecy. “Although, to be fair, I’d say you guys started it, and I’m just fighting back. If you’d leave me alone—or even help me get back home—we could resolve this all peacefully.”

“Laughable,” Galdorba scoffed in response to my proposal. “A prophecy cannot be denied. I suppose given the destruction you’ve already wrought, the prophecy has technically come true—but can we truly be certain that this is the end of it? Can you guarantee you’ll raise no further havoc? No. If we let you go now and the chaos spreads, it will be too late. In the interest of caution, it’s most logical to eliminate you now.”

“Personally, I feel like making mountains out of prophecy molehills is the real source of havoc here.”

“One way or another, the destruction will cease once you’re dead.”

“Enough, Galdorba,” Regenell spoke up, sounding like he’d lost his temper. Too bad. I’d really been hoping to stretch things out a little longer. “No amount of talking will change what we have to do here.”

“He has a point,” agreed their female companion. She walked over to Galdorba and removed her robe and mask, revealing herself to be a twentysomething woman with long black hair and symmetrical—too symmetrical—features that made her look more like a living doll than a human being. “The nonsense can wait until after we’ve fulfilled our purpose.”

“You dare call the prophecy nonsense?! What arrogance, Nelfic!” Galdorba blustered.

“I’m not calling the prophecy nonsense,” the woman, Nelfic, said as she turned toward me. “What’s nonsense is conversing with the person we’re here to kill!” Then, with a howl, she began barreling toward me!

“Right!” Regenell likewise began advancing.

Gourry and Ran stepped in front of me, and I whipped up an incantation lickety-split. I pointed a finger to heaven and whispered the words of power. A ball of light appeared at my fingertip... then burst!

What I’d conjured was a Lighting spell. It was designed to provide illumination in the dark, but with a few quick alterations—that is, zeroing out its duration in exchange for maximum brightness—I had myself a handy-dandy blinding spell! Gourry and Ran were currently standing with their backs to me, but our approaching opponents were practically staring right at it when it went off.

“Geh!”

“Ack!”

Right on cue, Nelfic and Regenell both reeled back!

This trick worked best at night. It could really blind someone whose eyes had adjusted to the dark, but against the midday sun, it was more of a momentary dazzling. Good thing that was all we needed! The instant our opponents flinched, Gourry went after Regenell, and Ran after Nelfic!

The flash momentarily stopped Nelfic in her tracks, allowing Ran to run right up to her and thrust out her staff. Womp! It struck Nelfic square in the center of her chest!

“Guh!” Nelfic, who hadn’t so much as yelped when Gourry hit her in the same spot with his hilt, now let out a cry and stumbled a few steps back. Perhaps Ran’s was no ordinary strike. She might have used her wind magic to add a little extra oomph to the blow.

“You! What is that staff?!” the woman screamed. Judging from how shaken she seemed, that one must’ve really hurt.

“Nyee hee hee!” Ran grinned at the question and twirled her staff around as she replied, “It came from the heart of a tree that’s feasted on magic a thousand and five hundred years, and it lives as part of that tree! It’s known as...”

Huh, that reminded me of something. Our own world had once been host to a large tree that grew by feeding on miasma, and which had produced a sword from its heart. Swords and staffs were different, of course, but was Ran’s weapon something functionally similar?

She raised the staff in her right hand high over her head and proclaimed for all to hear: “The Cool Stick!”

“That’s a terrible name!” Nelfic’s gut reaction was surprisingly in tune with my own.

At least give it a badass name or something!

“Don’t make fun of the Cool Stick!” Ran howled as she darted forward.

“I’m not mocking your weapon! It’s your taste I take issue with!” Nelfic cried—and I have to say I agreed with her on this one.

After that, Nelfic broke into a run as well. Ran thrust out with her staff again, but Nelfic dodged it this time. At least at first. Ran channeled her extended thrust into a follow-up sweep. And instead of Nelfic dodging, a set of black claws appeared from under her red robe to deflect the staff! Was it a clawed gauntlet of some kind? That must have been what had repelled Gourry earlier.

Before it could get tangled up in the claws, Ran withdrew the staff (I really don’t want to call it a stick; it was a proper staff, if a roughly hewn one), then struck, swiped, and thrust in rapid succession. She was probably using the wind that wreathed her to enhance her speed and power, but it was astonishing to see her move like that while using a spell capable of wrecking you with one wrong move. Nelfic managed to avoid the attacks somehow or other, but she was steadily being pushed back until...

“Graaah!” Nelfic howled, and at her summons, a ball of light appeared behind Ran!

Attacking from her blind spot?! Or is she ignoring Ran to target me now?!

Before I could discern the answer... Crash! Almost as if she could see behind her, Ran unceremoniously lashed out with her staff and smashed through the ball of light!

Nelfic ignored this and took a step forward. Her claws met Ran’s staff with a clang... and then her long black hair hardened, transforming into giant claws that streaked at Ran from both sides!

There’s no way she can dodge that! Or so it seemed for a second. But...

Whump! Ran didn’t even bother trying. She simply stepped in toward Nelfic with a blow at her head, forcing Nelfic to bend backward.

Regenell, transformed into a cyclops, was tall enough to peek into the second-story windows of a house. The height differential between him and Gourry was like that of an adult and a toddler. To Regenell, it probably only looked like something began flying toward him in his moment of blindness. He defensively flung his arm out, but...

“Dodge, Regenell!” Galdorba shouted.

Regenell seemed to pick up on the urgency in Galdorba’s tone, because...

“What?!” he shouted—and then leaped upward with power unimaginable for a cyclops. At the apex of his jump, he morphed into a great four-winged bird, transforming leap into flight! I’d never seen a creature like it. Perhaps it was something indigenous to the outer lands. It wielded its four wings in impressive formation to remain hovering in place in the air.

“Wh-What was that?” Regenell asked. He’d done as he was told without hesitation, but he didn’t seem to understand the reason for the warning.

I was pretty sure I did, though—underestimating Gourry and swinging wildly was a good way to get yourself cut in half. Galdorba had only tangled with Gourry briefly before, but that was apparently enough to teach him that the big lug wasn’t to be taken lightly.

Tch! Spoilsport!

Nevertheless, I chanted and released my next spell! “Fireball!”

The bead of light I conjured made a beeline for the airborne Regenell. It would burst into flames on contact, but...

“You’ll never hit me!” Regenell, apparently now fully recovered from the blinding I’d inflicted, let out a snort and dodged the Fireball with ease.

Too bad for him I’d expected that. See, I figured he might transform and retreat while airborne, so I’d made sure this was no ordinary Fireball. I’d cooked up one of my signature variations. The minute the bead of light left Regenell’s field of vision, I had the spell change course.

“Behind you!” Galdorba called in warning. Too bad for him I’d anticipated that too.

“Break!” I snapped my fingers.

Cra-bwoosh! The light burst near Regenell as he moved to dodge, scattering fire all around him. See, my handiwork on the spell didn’t just let me control its movement; I could also trigger it on cue!

“Agh!” Regenell cried out—not in a chant but in pain. Turning himself into a bird hadn’t been the wisest choice. As the flames spread along his very flammable feathers, he plummeted to the earth. “Graaah!” Right before impact, he took the form of a giant spider, which just barely allowed him to regain his equilibrium and touch down lightly.

Gourry wasn’t about to give him a chance to recover. But before the big lug could strike... countless flaming spears appeared in the sky!

What the... How are there that many of them?!

“Celestial Flare...” Galdorba’s voice echoed over the battlefield, “Descend.”

Heeding his call, pillars of fire began to rain down. Did the spell target everyone but him?! Was he going to take his allies out right along with us?!

Per Galdorba’s command—Cracracrash!—the flames descended. Heat filled the surrounding air as leaves, branches, grass, and earth all burned. Gourry aborted his charge to focus on dodging. Ran and Nelfic kept up their fight, but thankfully neither of them were hit.

As for Regenell... “Graaah!” With a cry, he now transformed into a giant beetle! The flames struck his back, but they didn’t do much to harm his hulking carapace. The individual blasts of fire weren’t terribly hot, although the rain of flame scorched the air, singeing our skin and making it difficult to breathe.

With Regenell literally under fire, was this my chance? I kept dodging, enduring the pain in my lungs as I began to chant!

Thou who art darker than twilight

Thou who art redder than lifeblood...

“The Dark Lord’s spell?!” Galdorba gasped.

I had no idea how he’d heard me from that distance—but yep! I was currently calling on the power of Dark Lord Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu, which was capable of blowing up even a dragon! The spell hit everything within a certain range indiscriminately, but as long as I used it the right way, it was A-okay. My target at the moment was Regenell’s beetle form!

...Shall face destruction unconstrained

Grant me power, and unleash thine!

I clapped my hands together and, catching my signal, Gourry leaped back and out of the fray.

“Dragon Slave!”

In response to my words of power, red light coalesced around Regenell... Then a circle of white light appeared atop it! The red light was my spell, but what in the world was that white circle?!

Cra-boooosh! The ensuing explosion shook the very air and all of the surrounding trees. This bad boy could blast away a small castle. Even in the inner lands, a kingdom with a single sorcerer who knew how to cast it was not to be trifled with.

Now, I’d been hesitant to whip it out in the outer lands thus far, but things had gotten serious enough that I couldn’t afford to be conservative. My thought was that the explosion centered on Regenell should take out Galdorba behind him too, but...

“Grr... rrrr...” Mixed in with the reverberations after the explosion came a low... low growl. “Graaah!”

Finally appearing out of the thin smoke was the writhing, howling Regenell.

He endured it?! Or... did he block it?!

“Regenell? Galdorba?!” Nelfic shouted after getting some distance from Ran.

“I suppose it’s only natural... that I can’t fully block the Dark Lord’s spell...” Galdorba groaned. He was obviously in pain, but I couldn’t yet see him through the smoke. “We’ll have to... retreat for now...”

“Yeah, not much choice...” Regenell replied.

“Got it!” Nelfic followed suit, disappearing into the swirling cloud.

I didn’t want to let them get away! I was about to chant another spell, but... All of a sudden, Regenell’s shadowy form, previously visible within the smoke, disappeared. Then—Whoosh!—kicking up a powerful wind and cutting through the cloud came a spreading pair of giant wings!

Wait, that’s—

With each wingbeat stirring up more wind, the great creature took to the sky!

“A dragon?!” the knight commander exclaimed in shock.

He was right... It was a pitch-black dragon! I’d seen my share of dragons, and this one was definitely on the larger side. Two of the red-robed figures grabbed its legs, and before I could chant a spell...

“Graaaaaaah!” It let out a howl and took off, flying toward the horizon with unthinkable speed. That roar had probably been a spell chant, using magic to increase its velocity.

Ah, they got away after all... Our battle with the robed figures was over—for now.

I turned back to face the knight commander and said, “Might as well ask... Any idea what those guys in robes might be?”

He was silent in response. Did he really not know? Or did he just not want to tell us?

“Understood. We’ll be going, then,” I followed up, turning to leave as the knights behind us just stood and watched.

This probably goes without saying, but the world’s a big place. You might not get a chance to appreciate just how big if you put down roots in one spot, but if you ever go traveling, you get a sense of it.

Sometimes walking, sometimes taking a wagon, the three of us kept heading north.

By the time we arrived in the city of Toltas, it had been about ten days since our fight with the knights and the robed guys in the village of Renihorn. We hadn’t seen any signs of ambush from the robed figures, nor any signs of pursuit by the knights since. I felt pretty optimistic about saying we’d shaken the knights, but that was too much to hope for from the robes.

As we walked one of Toltas’s roads, I gazed up at the blue sky, lost in thought.

“Lina?” called Gourry, who was on my right.

“Hmm?”

“What are you thinking about?”

Guess the guy saw right through me. “Say, Gourry.” I gave him a small smile. “If... If we ever get back home safe...”

“Yeah?”

“I was thinking about how we could best spite Norst.”

“That’s what you were staring into the distance about?!”

Well, duh! I had no idea to what degree Norst had planned this, but he’d really put us through the wringer here... My rage wouldn’t be sated until I gave him what for!

“I’d love to say ‘blast his ass,’ but, y’know... Didn’t he say he’d lay off humanity for a while so long as we looked the other way the next time we crossed paths? I’m worried that if I come calling, he’d say, ‘Lina Inverse broke our deal, so now I guess I can do whatever I like to humans.’ So I think we’d better keep our end of the bargain. How about, if we happen to pass each other on the road, I just whisper in his ear, ‘I haven’t forgotten.’”

“Scary!” Gourry responded.

I nodded thoughtfully in response. “So you think that’d do the trick?”

“Norst?” Ran asked from my left.

“Ah, the guy who brought me and Gourry here.”

“And you want revenge?”

“Hmm... less revenge and more some playful menace,” I said, scratching my head. Just then...

There was suddenly nervous murmuring behind us. We all stopped and turned around. The crowd was splitting in two, as if avoiding something.

At the center of the commotion was a man with silver hair. His gaze was shrewd. His clothing was loose-fitting. He wore a scarf over his nose and ears, even though it wasn’t particularly cold out today. He unceremoniously raised his right hand, then pulled down his scarf...

I could hear screams from the passersby around us, for where the man’s mouth should be was a huge, twisted maw.

“I’ve never been good at mimicking humans,” he hissed.

That voice... The silver-haired man sucked in a breath. Not good!

“Run!” I shouted and ran for a side road. Gourry and Ran were right behind me. Everyone else on the street began fleeing too, realizing what was about to happen.

Crackapoppoppop! The thunder breath that shot from his mouth coursed through the city street. Several bystanders, hit by the lightning, collapsed helplessly. Flagstones sparked, fruit stands exploded, and wooden walls burned. It was by pure luck that the three of us were able to avoid a direct hit by leaping behind a building with an iron door. If it hadn’t absorbed the lightning, it likely would’ve mowed us down.

But we didn’t stick around after that. We kept running.

“Did he just breathe something?!” Gourry screamed.

“Oh, just dragon breath!” I shouted back. I’d had an inkling already, and that last move just proved it. The people in red robes weren’t humans—they were dragons.

Their unthinkable casting speed. Their ability to mix flight and other spells. That alone proved they weren’t human. And last time, when they’d retreated... Regenell hadn’t taken the guise of a dragon; he’d reverted to his true form. Their powers to fly and use breath attacks were also natural inborn abilities rather than spells. They’d been wary of my Dragon Slave, too, which had to be why they’d appeared in the city where I couldn’t use it. On top of that, they’d proven they didn’t care much about harming human bystanders.

There was panic on the main drag, and I could hear the screams and shouts of people rushing back and forth around us. I assumed our current attacker was Galdorba based on his voice. But I also assumed his pals were around too.

“Um, um... Are you saying that that was a dragon, not a person?!” Ran asked.

“I think so! We’ve got to get them away from the city!” In a densely populated area, I couldn’t use any particularly flashy spells, let alone a Dragon Slave. Of course, I couldn’t be sure our robed friends were going to allow us a change of venue.

I passed through an alley onto a backstreet. The panic on the main thoroughfare had reached this far, and there were people running all around in confusion. Amidst the chaos, I could feel someone watching me. I turned around and saw a woman with black hair wearing loose-fitting clothing.

Nelfic?!

The moment our eyes met, she charged me! Her white hands swelled and blackened, becoming terrifying talons. Each time she raked her hands through the air, they spat out multiple black projectiles that came flying straight at us. Gourry swiftly drew his sword and Ran swung her staff to scatter them. Meanwhile, the projectiles that hit the townspeople brought more screams and terror to the streets.

I caught a glimpse of a few projectiles as they hit the ground. They were small, black, and metallic. Scales?!

I began chanting a spell to repel Nelfic’s charge. Ran and Gourry also readied themselves, and just then, a shadow grew from Nelfic’s left shoulder. No, not a shadow! It was a giant black wing! When the wing touched a nearby house, it effortlessly smashed through the wall and brought down the roof, casting rubble every which way. Naturally, that included in our direction.

Ugh! What an annoying method of attack!

“Break through!” Ran shouted in a strange voice, running forward instead of dodging the debris.

Okay! Got it! Heeding her plan, I began charging forward as well. Gourry did the same. Ran swung her staff to knock away the falling rubble, though obviously her staff wasn’t doing all of the work. Anything she couldn’t personally bat away was blown off course by the wind that wreathed her.

It appeared Nelfic hadn’t expected us to come after her, because her false face showed its first sign of true shock now.

Then I released the spell I’d chanted! “Howl Freeze!” This baby unleashed a powerful blizzard, and icy gales weren’t exactly easy to dodge. It wasn’t fatal by any means, but cold like that would easily slow you down.

“Gweh!” Nelfic howled as she took the hit. Had she been in dragon form, it would’ve felt like nothing more than a cool breeze. But it was pretty effective against her at human size!

As she recoiled, Gourry ran up and—

“Tch!” Nelfic leaped up and out of sword range with the help of the great wing she’d sprouted to cave in the building earlier.

Darn it! She’d done the same thing earlier. She was really on her guard against Gourry. Once she was airborne, Nelfic unfurled a second wing. The first shrank down to match its size, and both began flapping to keep her in the air. She then sucked in air...

Dragon breath from above?! Not good!

Just then... “This way!” someone called.

I looked toward the voice and saw a face peeking out of the door of a nearby building. Captain Morgan from Palbathos?! What was he doing here? No, I didn’t have time to wonder about that! The three of us quickly leaped inside, the door shut behind us, and...

Roarrrr! Then came the howling of a tornado.

We ran through the house—rather, what appeared to be a restaurant. Fire gave chase, burning through the fissure in the wall sliced open by Nelfic’s wing and through the windows. The four of us, including Captain Morgan, fled out of the opposite door onto the main avenue. And then the flame...

Roarrrr! It erupted through the door, windows, and alleys! It was a close call, but we’d all made it through safely.

Except Galdorba’s out on the main avenue, isn’t he?! I swiftly looked around, and in the middle of all the panic on the street, I saw a child crying. Perhaps from the tear of lightning from before, there was destruction and smoke rising all around. People were crying, screaming, wailing...

But there was no sign of Galdorba now. He must’ve moved in pursuit of us.

The crowd was still running around in confused chaos. Old people were crouched on the side of the road. A girl of about seven or eight crying across the street locked eyes with me. “Help me, miss!” she pleaded as she looked over, her arms stretched wide. And I...

“Gimme a breeeeeak!” Wham! I promptly spun around and unleashed a kick to her face with all the force I could muster.

“Gbweh?!” The girl let out a strange cry as she smashed into a nearby wall!

“What?!” Morgan shouted, aghast, but I didn’t take my eyes off the girl.

The girl immediately sat up and howled, “You! What are you doing?!”

I glared at her coldly in response. “You’re a bad actor, Regenell!”

Yup, that was the name of the game. The girl in front of me was no innocent victim amidst all the turmoil. It was Regenell, who’d taken the form of a human child in hopes of pulling the wool over my eyes. If he’d been a better actor, he might have gotten away with it too. But his disguise notwithstanding, he’d ignored closer adults to run straight toward me—not to mention he was brimming with hostility. I’d been deceived by a high-ranking demon in child form before, so he was gonna have to get up way earlier in the morning than that to fool me.

“Damn youuu!” Regenell howled as he transformed into a green dragon about the size of a horse. And then... “Huh?”

“Regenell,” I said, gazing at him. “You really should’ve listened to your friends, dude. Too bad it’s too late now.”

With a clink, Gourry—who was standing right next to Regenell—sheathed his sword.

As he realized what had happened and tried to struggle, all too late, Regenell’s body tilted to the side and collapsed to the ground.

The moment he’d perceived that an enemy was upon us, Gourry had adroitly moved to slice through the dragon mid-transformation. Maybe if, instead of cursing, Regenell had retreated straight for the sky like when he’d transformed from cyclops to giant bird on Galdorba’s advice, he could have dodged it, but...

There was no light left in the fallen dragon’s eyes.

Only Nelfic and Galdorba remained. That said, we couldn’t afford to hang around all day. I began walking in the opposite direction from where we’d left Nelfic earlier. My companions followed suit. Gourry, Ran, and Captain Morgan—

“Wait, Captain Morgan, what are you doing here?!”

“What do you think?” he replied. “I was ordered by my kingdom to track you down, Mistress Lina.”

Aha... Stopping to think about it, that did make sense. Captain Morgan had met us personally, after all.

Ignoring the fact that I’d stopped in my tracks, he said, “And when I finally caught up to you... this was the situation. It didn’t exactly seem appropriate to apprehend you. I’ve received reports of the damage they’ve caused to the Knights of the Silver Spear, but to think this is the Neosfeed in the flesh...”

I quickly resumed walking. “Neosfeed?”

“A group that worships Flare Dragon Ceifeed. We’ve only ever heard about them in rumors ourselves. They’re distinct from the church of Ceifeed you find in cities here and there. It’s fine enough that they venerate Ceifeed and advocate for defeating demons, but...” We cut down a side road onto a different street. Things were pretty chaotic here too, but there was no obvious damage to the area. “Their group consists of only nonhuman species like dragons and elves.”

“Dragons and elves?!” I found myself shouting. I was surprised but, reasonably speaking, it only made sense that elves and dragons worshiped the same god we did.

Captain Morgan nodded. “They call themselves ‘Neosfeed,’ the religion of the true Flare Dragon Ceifeed. Since we humans aren’t really strong enough to oppose demons, and we produce large amounts of negative emotions, they scorn us as mere demon fodder. So they refuse to let us join them and consider us disposable in the pursuit of their goals, or so I hear.”

“Huh?!”

“It’s said that long ago, when a greater demon appeared in Maricida, they came to slay it, but they happily burned the city and its army in the process.”

“What?!”

That explained why Regenell had seemed to take such glee in attacking the knights during our fight near Renihorn Village. And they were concerned about a prophecy that I was dangerous? That was... seriously messed up, if I’m being honest.

But if Captain Morgan was aware of these Neosfeed guys, surely the knight commander had been as well. Granted, he’d been under no obligation to share intel with wanted fugitives...

“So, how many of them are there in total?” I asked.

“I don’t know. As I said, we’ve only heard rumors.”

“And those guys just have free rein out here?”

“It’s not as if they’re actively trying to kill humans. They just don’t care about collateral damage. And we don’t know where their home base is, how many of them there are, or—”

“Raaaaaaaagh!” A howl from the main avenue interrupted the captain. Was something happening there?

“What now?” he asked.

“We’ll just have to handle it,” I replied instantly.

Naturally, Toltas had its own garrison or something like it. When we returned to the main avenue, the city guard was engaged with Galdorba and Nelfic.

That said, it wasn’t really much of a battle... The garrison shot volleys of arrows from a distance, and Nelfic fried them with her fire breath, leaving nothing more than burned-up sticks to fall to the ground. She spread her black wings and crushed houses, and when the flying rubble made the guards flinch, she closed in on them with her claws or her hair turned to blades. Some managed to block these attacks with their armor and fight back with their swords, but no slash could penetrate her torso before she retaliated with her claws and hair.

Though she appeared human right now, she was a dragon. Even her bare skin was likely as tough as scale hide. Piercing it with any average skill or weapon would be nigh impossible. The black claws, the freely moving black hair, and the dragon wings folded on her back made Nelfic look like a true she-devil.

Meanwhile, Galdorba was throwing out spells here and there to mow through the surrounding garrison. When he’d first removed his hood and mask, he’d had the semblance of a silver-haired man with a torn-open mouth, but it seemed he no longer felt compelled to keep up the act. He’d taken on a sort of weredragon form, with a bestial face covered in silver scales and two horns protruding backward from it.

I suspected the reason they weren’t reverting to their full dragon forms was because they were wary of my Dragon Slave. Obviously I wasn’t gonna throw that around in town, but if I could do it above town—for instance, if a massive enemy took to the skies—I would consider it a viable option. And they were clearly intent on denying me that opportunity.

Even if the garrison couldn’t defeat Nelfic or Galdorba, as long as they could just lure one of them away, that would make things easier. Sadly, however, based on what I could see, most of the guards were already dead or in hiding. No one was fighting back—so I ran out with a chant on my lips! I was aiming for the closer of the two dragons, Nelfic!

“She’s here!” she cried when she saw me, her voice teeming with hatred. Hearing this, Galdorba looked over.

Gourry, Ran, and I dashed across the ruined flagstones toward Nelfic. She showed a moment’s hesitation, then began chanting something.

Ignoring her, I finished my spell! “Dynast Breath!”

At almost the same time... “Graaaah!” Nelfic and Galdorba both howled!

I’d used a spell that would encase a target in magical ice, then shatter that ice. It easily had enough power to break a brass demon-level opponent. Granted, the last time I’d used it was to take care of a weird fish!

Krik! Nelfic’s body audibly froze over. When it did... two layers of white circle surrounded her!

That light again!

My magical ice burst into thousands of frosty flakes. The trapped opponent shattered along with it... or that was the idea. However, after the ice dispersed in pieces, Nelfic remained standing there, completely unharmed!

Aha... The circles were a defensive spell that Nelfic and Galdorba had cast simultaneously, probably the same one that had mitigated my last Dragon Slave. The reason Nelfic had hesitated for a moment when she’d realized I was casting a spell just now was probably because she was unsure if she should press her attack or pause to defend.

“Damn you all!” she howled. “You killed Regenell!”

“If you aren’t prepared for the consequences, don’t go picking fights!” I clapped back.

Nelfic readied herself to meet the charging Gourry and Ran. And then... a tremble ran through her body.

“Nelfic?!” Galdorba cried from nearby.

Unable to comprehend what had just happened, Nelfic, pinned to the ground, let out a small and bloody cough.

“Such acrobatics are best left to the young people, in my opinion...” Captain Morgan said, removing the Blast Sword he’d used to impale Nelfic.

The whole thing was pretty simple once you knew the trick. We’d used the fact that the dragons were on guard for Gourry against them. Gourry had traded swords with Captain Morgan, and while we kept the dragons distracted, Captain Morgan had climbed to the roof of the nearby house and leaped down to deal the fatal blow. I’d originally thought he might say no, but perhaps realizing there was no other choice under the circumstances, he’d agreed to the plan. Normal swords and normal skills couldn’t pierce Nelfic’s hide, but the Blast Sword, whose sharpness increased in proportion to the magic around it, certainly could!

Time to keep up this momentum and finish off Galdorba!

I began my next chant! Captain Morgan swapped swords back with Gourry as the enemy moved toward him.

“Foolish humaaan!” Galdorba took in a deep breath, and—Crackapoppoppoppop!—he unleashed his lightning breath.

Perhaps expecting this, Captain Morgan unceremoniously threw his sword, drawing the lightning to it.

Gourry closed in from the left, Ran from the right. But Galdorba didn’t back down. Why? Because I came charging in from the front a second later! I was the one he wanted, so if I charged in as bait, he’d have to consider whether he wanted to retreat or take his chances.

Galdorba roared, summoning up a tornado.

“Geh!” The powerful wind became a wall that kept Gourry at bay.

Ran, however, pressed her charge! The wind around her was canceling out Galdorba’s tornado—and she rode its flow to close the distance!

Crackle! Light flashed in Galdorba’s open mouth!

Thunder breath?! He was aiming at me! Maybe it wasn’t as powerful when he conjured it so quickly, but it was still lightning, and I was still flesh and blood.

That moment felt like an eternity. I could see the ball of lightning in Galdorba’s maw grow and grow and...

“Hup!” Ran said casually, and suddenly, raining into my vision were countless small... arrowheads?!

The metal projectiles sailed through the air, sucked in by the electricity, straight for Galdorba! At some point, Ran had collected the fallen arrowheads from the ground, and she’d now tossed them.

Whether the electricity was hurting him as well, or if he was just shocked by the gesture, Galdorba stopped in place for a moment... And that’s when I dove in! He sliced at me with his claws to intercept my charge, but I’d already finished casting my spell. I pressed both my palms to his chest, and just as his claws struck out at me...

“Blast Wave!”

Crash! A blow that could even pierce a castle wall pulverized the silver weredragon.

“Well done, all,” Captain Morgan said with the manner of our superior officer as he walked over to the scene.

“You weren’t bad yourself,” I replied. “I mean, we weren’t counting on you that much, but you did a good job. I was worried you’d get too scared to jump down when it mattered.”

“I certainly was scared. I haven’t jumped down from a roof since I was a child,” he replied with an easy smile.

It occurred to me, perhaps too late to matter... was this dude better than I’d given him credit for? Thinking back, during the whole “Dark Lord of the North” hunt, I had thought it odd that the kingdom sent some guy from the local guard. But if he was one of the most skilled fighters in the country, that would explain it. It also explained why his request to bring two wanderers like us in on the fight had been so readily granted.

Still, if my hunch was right... I should’ve put him to better use and spared myself the risky headlong charge straight into danger.

Whether he’d guessed what I was thinking or not, he turned a playful gaze my way. “I’m surprised that you trusted me that much, though. I could’ve just run off with that magical sword of yours. Or taken the chance to strike you unawares, carrying out my orders and getting on the good side of Neosfeed at the same time.”

“You wouldn’t,” I said, waving my hand dismissively. “I mean, you saved us before, right?” If he’d wanted us dead, he could’ve just kept the door locked when Nelfic was breathing fire at us.

“True,” he said, looking over the wrecked cityscape. “On an emotional level, I couldn’t simply let these hooligans remain at large...”

Wpsh! Suddenly, I heard the sound of beating wings. We looked around in confusion and saw Nelfic gone from where she’d been lying. Using her draconic magic to accelerate, she flew away unsteadily.

“She survived?!” I had to admit, girl had good instincts. If she’d tried to take a potshot at us, I would’ve picked up on her hostile intent and realized she was still alive.

“So their vital areas are different from those of a human...” Morgan whispered, watching the flapping pair of wings disappear into the distance. Given her speed, there was no way we’d catch up.

So she got away... I felt like this could spell trouble for us in the future.

“Well then,” Captain Morgan said, turning his gaze to the far north. “Head that way for five days more and you’ll reach the border. Beyond is the Duchy of Belheid, though I’m afraid I still haven’t heard anything about a country that borders a desert. I’ll return to the capital, say I was attacked by a group believed to be Neosfeed in Toltas, and that you and your companions were killed in the conflict.”

I appreciated the help, of course, but... “Why?”

“Ah, I’m just lazy. Oh, right... I also owe you for your help in beating the Dark Lord of the North.”

“Roger that. Well...” I almost said “see you,” but I had to stop myself. We were unlikely to ever meet again, after all. “Take care.”

And so the three of us and Captain Morgan went our separate ways. It goes without saying that the world is a big place. It’s big... but maybe it also goes without saying that it isn’t infinite.

“Mmm...” We stood in the cool shade of a tree on a tall hill. Ran stretched. “The weather’s nice.”

It was a leisurely afternoon. I sat down in the grass next to her and lazily replied, “It sure is.”

We were overlooking a line of fencing along green hills that almost looked like it belonged to a farm.

“We finally made it,” Gourry, sitting beside me, said in a meaningful voice, gazing in the same direction.

“We sure did,” I whispered as well. This half-hearted fence was actually the border between the Kingdom of Luzilte and the Duchy of Belheid.

Now... despite how calmly we were talking, I was planning on using my Levitation spell to get us over said border come nightfall! We weren’t up on this hill for a picnic, but rather to scout out border security. We saw the occasional soldiers from both countries patrolling their respective sides of the fence, but they were pretty few and far between. Thanks to that, we were feeling pretty chill about the whole operation.

Besides, it was important to take time to relax like this. When I really stopped to think about it, our future was extremely uncertain. Just because we crossed the border didn’t necessarily mean those Neosfeed guys would give up on us. I doubted human territoriality meant anything to them.

It’d be one thing if their “organization” turned out to be five dudes... but I wasn’t banking on that. And once Nelfic told the rest of the group about our abilities and how we’d killed two of their friends, they were likely to come better prepared next time. I’d also lost my magic-amplifying talismans before this far-flung journey, so my spell repertoire was smaller than before.

Now, if I could master spells that borrowed the power of the Dragon Lords, usable here in the outer lands, that’d be a different story. But there was no telling if that would be as easy as substituting a few lines from one chant with another. There was a lot that went into spellcasting, from understanding the incantation itself to control of one’s own magic flow to individual affinities. Ran had taught me the words of the wind spell she’d used, but I hadn’t gotten it to activate once in all my tries so far. There was a lot more for me to study and play around with.

Of course, I wanted to learn, partly to satisfy my curiosity and partly to help combat the Neosfeed guys—a two-birds-with-one-stone kind of situation.

“So, Ran, what will you do after we cross the border?” I asked as the question occurred to me.

“Do about what?”

“Well, you know. If you stick with us, you’ll keep getting caught up in various fine messes.”

“True...” Only moving her eyes, Ran watched a butterfly flitting around nearby. “If I don’t like it, I’ll say goodbye. But I’ll stick with you until then.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure. If I’m not being a third wheel with you two.”

“Huh?!” Where had that come from? Gourry was spaced out and didn’t seem to have heard it, but... “That aside, Ran, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” I quickly changed the subject. “About that staff of yours...”

“The Cool Stick?”

“Yeah, that. You think you could give it a better name?”

“Huh? The Cool Stick is a great name. It just makes you think... ‘Wow, cool!’ Right?”

“Sure... Still, I mean, nothing against the taste of your kinsmen, but wouldn’t you want, you know, a more dignified name for it?”

“Hmm...” She thought a while longer. “Oh! The tree it came from has a distinguished name! We could call it that!”

“A distinguished name?”

“Yah! There’s an old legend back where I came from about the heroes Democain and Lamocael, who lived a super-duper long time. The tree’s also been alive for ages, so we named it after them, to basically mean ‘the really long-lived tree’!” She grinned.

“Oh? That sounds promising. So what’s the name?”

“The Mocamoca tree!”

“Why?!” I found myself shouting.

“Well, from De-moca-in and La-moca-el...”

“Why did you choose those parts?!”

If it really was a relative of the sacred tree Flagoon from the inner realm... and its real name really was the Mocamoca Tree... that was kind of disappointing in a lot of ways.

“Okay! We’ll use the tree’s name and call it the Mocamoca Stick! How’s that, Nissy Lina?” Ran nodded enthusiastically, seeming extremely excited about the idea.

“Wait, Ran, calm down. Can you think it over a little more?” I tried to stop her before she got too set on the idea, but...

“Why? It’s the Mocamoca Stick! Where I come from, everyone would think that’s super cool! Rostir Gou thinks it sounds cool too, I bet!”

Why would you put the question to someone who wasn’t even listening? At least, I thought he wasn’t, but Gourry, who perhaps had just so happened to tune in for a bit, smiled uncomfortably and said, “It’s not bad, but I’d have named it the Elder Rod or the Ancient Staff or something myself.”

Wow, those were actually cool! Or maybe anything sounded better than... Mocamoca Stick.

Ran puffed out her chest and grinned. “See? Rostir Gou thinks it’s okay too!”

“I just want to know why you chose those parts of the names!” I shouted.

We still didn’t have any clues about how to get home, and we had a long journey ahead of us.

But... I had a feeling the longer journey was going to be getting me and Ran to agree on what was cool.