The Dragon King Made a Challenge

There were five continents on Mizgarz as well as some islands. People named the five biggest masses of land “The Five Large Continents.” Each of those five continents had its own ruler who spent their time glaring across the water at the others, barely holding together balance.

Those who ruled the northwestern continent were the nobles of the night, vampires. At their top stood the Vampire Princess Benetnasch. The devilfolk occupied the northeastern continent with their leader, the Devil King. The central continent was home to the most fearsome monsters in the world, with the Lion King Leon at the top, maintaining the rule of survival of the fittest.

To say that those who lived on the southwestern continent had a leader would be misleading. The Fairy Princess Pollux lived there, yet in no way did she rule anyone. The power she wielded as the opposite force to the devilfolk couldn’t be ignored, though, and even the Lion King or the Devil King couldn’t easily lay their hands on her domain.

Then there was the southeastern continent... This was where the dragons, hailed as the strongest species, lived along with their royalty, the Dragon King Ladon. There was a problem in the southeast that no other continent had to deal with. The Crown Empire, which represented humanity’s largest country and thus largest piece of land, was in the middle of a battle for survival against the dragons.

In the past, the dragons and humanity had coexisted based on mutual agreement...or rather, they simply didn’t bother each other, but the Dragon King Ladon had broken that balance. He was born with even more power than those said to be the strongest species and believed that dragons were the ones most deserving of ruling the world as the strongest, so he set out to eradicate humanity.

In response, the Crown Empire desperately tried to resist, but the difference between people and dragons was clear. Even a dragon child could be matched up against a country’s entire military force, and the outcome would still be up in the air. Against a mature dragon, people stood no chance. This was no bluff; it was common sense and showed just how cruel and merciless the law of strength that controlled Mizgarz was.

Even passing level 100 was rare for members of humanity, so passing level 200 or 300 made one able to defeat entire countries by oneself, and the average level of a dragon was over 400. Their numbers were few, but some dragons were even over level 600 or 700. If they felt like it, they could turn all of Mizgarz into scorched earth within a couple of days. Among them, the Dragon King reigned the strongest at level 1000. With him, it was no longer a question of winning or losing. He had ten heads, and each had enough power to equal ten dragons, which was why he was said to have “a hundred heads.” It was almost like ten level 1000 dragons had merged into one. Simply meeting the Dragon King meant death.

However, even in front of such monsters the Crown Empire was still holding on and resisting. In the past, the Crown Empire has built four fortresses in four different directions some distance away from the capital in order to intercept the dragons. Three out of those four had fallen and only the western fortress was left. The lines of battle had now reached the capital of the empire, and every day the dragons invaded with more vigor and ferocity.

It could actually be said that the Crown Empire had done exceedingly well to hold on for so long. Even if they were the world’s largest country, scholars all over the world had predicted that they wouldn’t last a night against the dragon’s strength. Yet it had already been two months since the fortresses fell...and the country was still standing.

What was the reason for that? Their national power? Well, they certainly had some power. It was true that they could fight and shelter their citizens because of their plentiful stores.

Was it the quality of their soldiers? That was also true. The Crown Empire’s soldiers were very well-trained down to the last man, and the army was comprised of strong veterans.

Was it their excellent tactics? This also couldn’t be ignored. Captain Alphecca and one of his subordinates, the mage Meridiana, both used their wealth of experience gained over long years of battle to always come up with the best answers in order to defend the western fortress.

However, even combined, those answers would only result in the dragons easily crushing the Crown Empire. Even so, the dragons couldn’t. Why was that?

There was but one answer. Because there was a monster that could even repel dragons.

“Transmute: Winter of Swords!”

A woman’s voice reverberated through a wasteland currently serving as the front line of the war with the dragons. At the same time, countless giant swords burst out of the ground, skewering wyverns and lifting them up into the air one after the other. The one who watched over and controlled so many swords was a single heaven-winged woman who was currently floating in the air. Her large black wings were spread wide. Lufas crossed her arms as she declared, “Shoot straight through them!”

As soon as she’d spoken, a storm of swords brewed, skewering even more dragons in droves. A dragon’s scales were definitely not brittle or soft. They could deflect swords, spears, and even cannons without a scratch. This natural defense was a dragon’s pride. Their scales could withstand the heat of magma, wouldn’t burn when exposed to lightning, and could even withstand high-pressure water strong enough to cut diamond. The fact that they were being pierced through as if they were paper was like a bad joke.

“Aqua Tornado!”

Next, a man’s voice rang out. Mana condensed in the air and turned into water before swirling and becoming a waterspout. The waterspout stuck itself into the head of a nearby dragon and only came back out the other end after wreaking merry havoc inside the thing’s body. The user of such excessive magic, Megrez, turned his spell onto another dragon, but it was struck from the side by the dwarf blacksmith Mizar and was sent flying.

On top of that, Alioth leapt into the storm of swords that Lufas had whipped up, easily scoring a kill and continuing on to leap around freely, cutting apart dragons.

While watching her reliable friends’ exploits out of the corner of her eye, Lufas snapped her fingers and gathered the mana that was the source of the dragons’ power to her fingertip. Eventually, it came to form a shining golden apple, which Lufas wasted no time biting into.

“We did it, everyone! The dragons have been decimated! All that’s left are several wyverns!”

“Lufas and the others have grizzly strength. They’re almost too reliabear.”

Seeing the four adventurers’ exploits, the empire soldiers Phecda and Dubhe heaped praise on them. Lufas and the others’ fight was truly one of mighty warriors; each member of Lufas’s party could take on thousands. The imposing figures—as they destroyed dragons of all things—were now the hope of the entire empire.

But Lufas herself wasn’t happy. In fact, everyone around her could tell she seemed unsatisfied. She was seeing the bodies of several soldiers that were lost to the battle. Lufas was unmistakably a hero. No one else could fight like her. However...

Even she couldn’t keep the losses at zero.

＊　　　　＊

“That can’t be! What are you thinking, my liege?!”

Alphecca’s shout echoed off the walls of the throne room.

After finishing the battle with the dragons, Lufas and the others had been invited to have an audience with the king, who was supposed to praise them for their hard work. This had been happening almost every day for the past few days, so by now all the soldiers knew that maintaining the battle lines without Lufas and the others was impossible. That was why everyone was convinced that they would be seeing the same boring scene they’d been witnessing for the past two months. But that day, what Lufas and the others received wasn’t praise.

“It is as you heard, Alphecca. We will be handing Lufas, Alioth, Megrez, and Mizar over to the Dragon King.”

“Wh-Why...?! If you do that, our country will be destroyed!”

The four people who comprised Lufas’s party were now a necessary defense for the Crown Empire. Without them, the Empire would be trampled over in an instant. War was about numbers, but that was only true as long as the individual’s strength was limited to what would be sensible for humanity. As soon as a person stepped outside of that, this theory no longer applied. No matter how many tens of thousands of level 100 humans you gathered, they wouldn’t hold a candle to a single dragon. Opposing someone who completely outclassed you wasn’t about numbers. What was needed was someone else who also transcended common sense.

“We have been contacted by the Dragon King. Our losses in this war have gotten too high...” Emperor Borealis, the Crown Empire ruler, continued, coldhearted. “Continuing to lose our beloved brethren like this would be a loss to both of us, so he has said that he will stop his invasion. However, Lufas Maphaahl and her friends have killed too many dragons. They will not be satisfied until Lufas and the others are dead... We’ve been told to hand them over.”

“A-And...” Alphecca trailed off. “You’re just going to accept that?! That cannot happen! There’s no guarantee the Dragon King will honor his promise!”

This was a trap. There was no need for Alphecca to put it into words. Everyone knew it was a trap. The Dragon King was the one who had attacked them in the first place, thinking that the current arrangement was too passive. It was impossible to believe that he would change his tune now. This was undoubtedly a plot to dispose of Lufas, who’d been a thorn in the Dragon King’s side.

Borealis simply shook his head, seeming tired. “It is as you say, Alphecca. But there is also no guarantee that he will break his promise either.”

“W-Well, yes, but... You should know of his cruelty and brutality as well, my liege! Even if he were to honor his promise and withdraw here, he will simply come back! That’s just how the Dragon King is!”

“You might be right, but... We’re already exhausted from fighting. Our forces, which used to be in the tens of thousands, now are only a measly ten thousand. All our captured monsters have also been decimated... Our people have suffered untold losses. Even if we continued to fight, we would only be drawing out our destruction.”

The war with the dragons had caused many losses on both sides, but in terms of pure numbers, humanity had suffered much more. No matter how strong Lufas and her party were, just four people were not enough to protect everything. If the enemy were to split up, Lufas and the others would have no way of protecting everything at once, and their allies would be killed while they were still running to save them.

Of course, Lufas and her party didn’t simply take that lying down. While using Megrez’s barriers and Mizar’s alchemy to their fullest to defend as wide an area as possible, Lufas and Alioth would run like the wind across the battlefield to destroy the enemy faster than they could destroy the country. But even with all that, they couldn’t completely prevent casualties, though it was possible to lessen them.

If Lufas and the others wanted to prevent casualties entirely, they’d need to obtain strength that far outstripped the dragons. As long as they didn’t break through the barrier and reach the world beyond level 1000, they would never be able to achieve such a miracle. In other words, it was completely impossible.

“W-We need their power so that doesn’t happen!”

“Think about it, Alphecca. It’s true that humanity might be able to win with their power. But...” The emperor hesitated. “Does that victory have a place in our country? Do our people need victory? You see, I thought about it... I thought about it and despaired. The scene of victory I imagined... It was one where only those four survived, and everything else had been turned into a barren wasteland. This country, its prosperity, its people... All of it was gone. Only four victors survived. It was a sad scene with everyone dead...”

Alphecca couldn’t deny Borealis’s vision of the future because his imagination told him the same thing. It was true. If things continued, they might be able to win as long as those four were around, but surviving such an ordeal was also something only those four people were strong enough to do. For weak people like Alphecca and everyone else, their numbers would dwindle during the fight until, eventually, none of them were left.

“You understand, don’t you? The Crown Empire wouldn’t be the victor. It would just be four adventurers.” Borealis paused. “I want to protect my people even if it makes me a traitor who sold out the heroes.”

“B-But...to even consider giving the enemy the people who fought so hard for our country... That would be...!”

“It is all my decision and my sense of self-defense. If we ever come to see a peaceful time again, then put my head on the chopping block as the villain of the era who sold out the heroes. I won’t ask you to understand... Feel free to insult this foolish king who recklessly went off on his own.”

Borealis knew full well how shameful and foolish what he was about to do was. He’d probably worried about it greatly. His face, which used to be full of vigor and majesty, now simply looked like that of an exhausted old man. Even with all that effort, he couldn’t see another answer. The only two choices available to him were a victory with no one left or a miserable defeat from trading in the heroes. He had chosen the option that had a higher chance of saving his people, even if it was only by a minuscule amount, despite the possibility of it being a trap set by the Dragon King...

“Restrain them.”

Under Borealis’s orders, the knights that were stationed to the sides of the throne room all drew their weapons and surrounded Lufas and her party. Alphecca, Dubhe, and Phecda tried to protect them, but they were outnumbered.

“Hey, you bastards! Are you really okay with this?! What happened to your pride as knights?!”

“You’ve gotten this bear pawsatively riled up now! You idiots bearly pass as human!”

“Calm down, Dubhe! Your tic’s going wild!” warned Phecda.

Dubhe agreed, settling for a roar.

After hearing their words, the knight’s faces twisted as they gritted their teeth. “Shut up! Stop talking!”

“No, I’m going to keep going! You all should be ashamed of yourselves!”

“Of course we are! But pride won’t protect the people... I hate my own weakness! There’s nothing more shameful than the miserable feeling of having to capture the heroes we owe so much!”

“The price of betrayal must be repaid with our lives... Eventually, we must take our own lives and go to Valhalla.”

The soldiers’ faces were all twisted in anguish down to the last man. There were even those who were biting their lips. They were desperate, already at their limits.

Only four heroes could not protect an entire empire. If things kept going as they had been, the soldiers would lose the country, people, and family they should have been protecting for a single word: victory. In order to avoid that, they only had one choice. They had to place all their hope on the small chance that the Dragon King would actually keep his word. They had to sell out the heroes they owed a debt to and cling to the mercy of the detested Dragon King... They knew that such a wretched method was the only way they could protect their country.

While that topic was still swirling around the room, Lufas met Megrez’s gaze and laughed. “Megrez.”

“Yeah... It’s time. Of all things, the chance came from the enemy himself.”

Lufas and the others were about to be betrayed by the country they had protected and be given to the enemy, but they showed no signs of panicking. In fact, it seemed as if they’d been waiting for this to happen.

The corners of Lufas’s mouth tilted into a smile right in front of the knights, who seemed confused at the situation, as she boldly walked right past them. The knights managed to react and tried to grab Lufas, but the next moment they were forced to the ground as if by some invisible, insurmountable pressure. It was the unique skill that all heaven-folk had, Pressure. In front of Lufas, no weakling was even allowed to move.

Just like that, Lufas composedly approached the throne and looked down at the emperor, who was still sitting. “You sure have fallen. I’d heard that Emperor Borealis was filled with vigor and drive and was himself an accomplished Grappler. But you seem more like a withered tree as you are now.”

“Do you disdain me?”

“No... You must have your own worries. A ruler’s worries and pain are not something I’m equipped to understand. But if you’re going to sell us out to the Dragon King anyway, Emperor, you could have at least been a little clever about it.”

Lufas’s expression wasn’t the angry or grief-stricken look of someone who’d just been betrayed. This was because she understood that the decision was something Borealis had made after much worry and lament, that it was a decision he had been forced to come to while at the end of his rope. However, Lufas still wasn’t so kind as to allow herself to just be presented to the Dragon King and killed without resisting.

“I will allow myself to be offered to the Dragon King as a sacrifice as you so wish. I won’t resist. But... I have no intention of giving you my life for free.” Lufas proceeded to whisper her plan into the emperor’s ear.

＊　　　　＊

The wasteland seemed to go on forever. A large number of dragons stood there, positioned as if they were under the leadership of a single dragon. Though, single wouldn’t exactly be correct. There were ten dragon heads, so it would be more accurate to say that it was ten dragons in one body, as the Dragon King Ladon had one body but ten heads. He rocked his body, which was three times bigger than the other dragons’ bodies, and looked towards the horizon.

“Hey, First Head. D’you really think the humans’ll actually send out the sacrifices?”

“Of course they will, Eighth Head. They are weak and unsightly. Humans will sell out however many of their comrades they must for even the smallest chance to live.”

Ladon was holding a conversation with himself. Having ten heads meant having ten brains, so each head had its own ego and personality. That was why he was both ten dragons and one dragon at the same time. The Dragon King Ladon was both an individual and a swarm.

“I’m so excited... I love this so much... Like when those humans come and offer up the sacrifices with those bitter, sorry faces... You love that stuff too, right, Seventh Head?”

“I see you have taste, Second Head. I suggested this plan exactly because I wanted to see that. Humans have so many emotions and expressions. It makes them that much more fun as toys.”

The fifth head butted into the seventh and second heads’ tasteless conversation. “Neither of you get it, do you? The best thing is the moment they are betrayed. That’s when they wail things like ‘That’s not what you told me,’ or, ‘That wasn’t the deal,’ or, ‘Damn you, you tricked me!’ And when it comes to crying and screaming humans...!” The fifth head started imitating humans with a pathetic voice.

The other heads all laughed seeing that impression, cheering on the fifth head and saying that it was spot-on.

“The best is when the sacrifice ends up being the fiancée or lover of the person who had to bring them here. Then we get to eat her in front of the idiot who came spouting some nonsense like ‘I want to at least be together until the end.’ That’s when the idiot starts crying and attempting to fight us.”

“Humans are trash, but they’re so fun to play with, aren’t they? And they’re so numerous, so the fun just never ends.”

The third and fourth heads seemed to get along well as they talked. Their proximity seemed to have had them mesh well. Even their bad tastes matched.

The tenth head spoke up, chiding the others. “Hey now, all of you. Enjoying ourselves is fine, but don’t lose sight of our goal.”

“We know. The point is to hurry up and unite this continent so we can take the fight to other places, right? The closest continent would be the central continent...the Lion King Leon’s place.”

“Hmph. It makes me laugh that he calls himself the strongest monster while forgetting about us. As if some huge cat could win against us,” the ninth and sixth heads replied to the tenth.

Ladon had but one goal: to make the world his and to reign over everything from above. In order to do that, he had to first deal with the Lion King, the Vampire Princess, the Devil King, and the Fairy Princess. He didn’t have time to waste with this single continent, and he should have been able to overrun a weak race like humans in a moment. But Lufas and the others had prevented that, so Ladon had sent a message to Borealis with the purpose of eliminating said party.

“Oh, they’re here. They’re here! That’s them, right?” the third head called out, delighted.

The other heads all faced the same direction. Ahead of them, they saw a cart with four adventurers on it, as well as four knights driving the cart. Eventually, the cart stopped in front of Ladon, and one of the knights raised his voice.

“Oh Dragon King Ladon! We have brought the adventurers as promised!”

“I see. You’ve done well to capture them, weak as you are. Did they not resist?”

“We mixed sleeping medication into their food! Now, we’ve fulfilled our end of the promise. It is time to fulfill yours.”

At the knight’s words, Ladon’s heads looked at each other and all at once, they started laughing.

“What’s so funny!”

“He he he... Good work. Well done, small one. We’re done with you.”

“Go back and tell your emperor that we’ll be taking down your puny country in a bit.”

“What?! That wasn’t the deal!”

“Iiiidiot! Did you really think we’d honor a promise with a human?!”

Ladon had no intention of honoring his deal from the start. He just wanted to get rid of Lufas and her party. His goal was to control the entire continent and erase all those annoying humans in the first place. He never had any intention of allowing humans to live.

“This will be your reward for bringing them here. You get to see the death of your precious heroes.”

The third head grinned widely as he brought his face closer to the cart and swallowed the four adventurers. Then the head chewed, making an elaborate show of crushing meat and bones alike before swallowing. The head looked down to see the knight’s face drenched in despair, but something was off. None of the knights seemed affected by the show. In fact, they were smiling.

“Fool,” one of the knights muttered.

That was when all the knights stripped off their armor in unison, revealing the four people who should have been eaten: Lufas, Alioth, Megrez, and Mizar.

“Ha ha ha!” Mizar laughed heartily. “It was a great success! They took it hook, line, and sinker!”

“I was the one who used magic to make dead bodies look like us, though,” Megrez said, making sure to remind everyone of his contribution.

What the third head had eaten wasn’t Lufas and her party but wyvern corpses. Megrez had disguised the corpses with magic to make them look like Lufas and the others.

“Y-Yooouuu... Damn you. How dare you fool us!”

“You cowards!”

“Have you tried looking in a mirror?”

Ladon was incensed at Lufas and the others’ trick, but Lufas herself simply turned their indignation right back at them. She didn’t want to be told that by the one who just showed they had no intention of honoring a promise.

Drawing her favored sword, Lufas walked in front of Ladon fearlessly. “I’ll leave the small fry around us to you three. That one is mine.”

“You sure? Even you should find it difficult to take him on alone...”

“No problem. Thanks to fighting so many dragons here, I’ve gotten stronger myself. As I am now, I won’t fall short of even this Dragon King,” Lufas declared, sounding full of confidence as she spread her wings.

When she’d first arrived on this continent, she wasn’t even level 600, but now Lufas’s level was at 1000, which was the limit in Mizgarz. Lufas’s unique ability to make golden apples allowed her to take in mana far more efficiently than normal, and she’d been fighting consecutively with the strongest species, dragons. As a result, she became strong enough to match the Dragon King.

However, her opponent was also a monster at level 1000, so Lufas couldn’t let her guard down.

“You seriously plan to win against me by yourself? You, a mere human?!”

“Of course I plan to win. That’s why I’m here.”

“You impudent thing.”

Lufas laughed fearlessly while several of Ladon’s heads unleashed their breath attack.

Each of Ladon’s heads had a different attribute, and they could move independently as well. It was basically like being exposed to attacks from ten different dragons at the same time, and the density of the attacks could probably be said to be higher than the Vampire Princess or the Lion King.

The breath attacks that had been unleashed gouged the earth, traveling past the horizon, but Lufas wasn’t there. She’d already taken to the air and was now making a sweep with her whip sword. The sword extended like a snake and the blade wrapped around Ladon’s third head.

“How’s this!”

Just like that, Lufas pulled on her sword, returning the blade to its original size. Of course, the third head that had been trapped inside it had been taken off, separated from the body at the base of the neck. But just being severed wouldn’t stop the head.

“DAMN YOOOUUUUU!” The third head, which had been separated from its body, roared in hatred before unleashing another breath.

A dragon’s vitality could not be underestimated. The third head wouldn’t die just from being separated from its body. In fact, Ladon’s regeneration had already started, and he was trying to grow a new head from the stump.

Lufas avoided the breath and flew flush to the ground, grabbing the severed head and neck and throwing it at its original body. However, Ladon didn’t even hesitate to crush what used to be a part of his body underfoot. What used to be his third head didn’t even have time to let out its death throes before its life was extinguished.

“Hey now, have you ever tried hesitating a little? You know that used to be a part of you, right?”

“Absurd! We only believe in ourselves. As soon as it was separated, it was no longer part of us!”

“That’s how it is. Third Head let its guard down too much in front of a mere human... The rest of us won’t be doing that,” Ladon said.

This time, all ten heads, including the one that had just regenerated, all used their breaths at the same time. The breaths clashed in front of Ladon, mixing together and changing into a giant ball of light. Lufas felt impending death in that ball, making her spine grow cold, so she ascended quickly.

Right afterward, a destructive ball of light touched down that seemed to erase everything in its path, even space itself, leaving behind nothing but a crater in the earth radiating out from the point of its impact. Other dragons had the misfortune of getting caught up in this merciless attack. None of them could maintain their original forms, and any part that came into contact with the breath disappeared as if it’d never existed in the first place.

Lufas watched the destruction silently before muttering, “What power...”

Seeing that scene gave Lufas the chills, and she broke out in a cold sweat. But she didn’t have the time to be taken aback forever.

Ladon had already lifted his faces up towards her and was attempting to launch his next attack. This time, every head unleashed its breath separately. They all missed Lufas but still managed to box her in. It wasn’t a simple miss, of course. The breath attack continued, slowly creeping closer to the center and constricting Lufas’s options of escape.

A breath cage. I see! My surroundings are... No, there’s no gap big enough for me. What about above...? It looks like this attack keeps going into the stratosphere... Lufas had been completely enclosed, and she realized she had no place to escape to in any direction. However, she wasn’t the type to let this cow her. As soon as Lufas realized she didn’t have an escape route, she rapidly descended towards Ladon.

Ladon moved as if he’d been waiting for her to do exactly that. He clashed his breaths together in front of Lufas, creating the same destructive light as before.

In response, Lufas stuck out her sword and flew straight into the light. One of the Swordmaster’s skills, “Armored Assault,” was a skill to harden the Swordmaster’s own body as they advanced with an attack. When the skill was activated, the user’s defense rose. Skilled users would take any attack without even flinching. Swordmasters were very poor in terms of ranged attacks, so it was one of their treasured skills that allowed them to forcefully close the distance with any enemy.

Lufas pierced through empty space and broke through the dragon’s destructive light before coming to stab her sword into Ladon himself. Added to that, she spun on the spot and swiped her sword, taking off several heads at the same time.

From there, she seamlessly started a multi-hit skill, “Quick Raid.” Lufas carved into Ladon’s body.

Ladon’s remaining heads bit at Lufas. Not one to lose, she kicked the head that had managed to bite her and forced her way out of his jaws.

She was silent for a moment. “As expected. He’s tough.”

Though Lufas’s fearless smile never faded, she’d taken more damage than she’d ever had before. Even though she’d managed to forge her way through the destructive light, the price of taking a direct hit was high. Part of her equipment was ruined, with her cloak being completely destroyed. She hadn’t had her left arm completely torn off, but it wouldn’t stop bleeding, and it didn’t seem like she’d be able to move it anytime soon.

When was the last time I had a battle this hard...? I don’t remember any time like this, even all the way back to when I was still weak and had just become an adventurer.

“Damn you... DAMNYOUDAMNYOUDAMNYOUUUUU!”

“You puny human! How dare a mere human with wings do this!”

“This is the first time I’ve ever felt such insult... I’ll never forgive you!”

Ladon was also covered in wounds. He’d lost half his heads, and the Dragon King’s body had been carved into like a slab of ham. Lufas could tell he was enraged with the amount of pain and humiliation he was feeling. Seeing Ladon like that, Lufas’s smile only widened.

The title King of Dragons isn’t just for show. This monster in front of me is truly a strong challenger, but that’s exactly why I can reassess my own strength. Lufas was truly happy about that.

“I have half my arms, and you have half your heads... I guess we’re evenly damaged. Now let’s continue, Dragon King. You couldn’t possibly want to stop fighting, could you?”

“I’ll kill you! Kill! KIIILL!”

Once again, Lufas and Ladon clashed, and the whole world shook.

＊　　　　＊

“Is... Is it over...?” Phecda muttered from his position in front of the gates to the Crown Empire’s capital.

Next to Phecda were Dubhe, Alphecca, and Emperor Borealis. They, who had been unable to participate in the fight against the Dragon King and had thus been left behind, were all waiting for the return of Lufas and her party in front of the capital’s gates.

They all held their breath as they watched the horizon. The loud clangs and roars of battle that had been happening so often before had stopped. Phecda gulped. If Lufas and her party had lost, Ladon would surely be attacking them very soon with his dragons in tow. If that happened, they felt they had the duty of at least dying here first as the ones who had sent Lufas and her party off.

Eventually, they spotted something coming from the horizon. What they saw was a dragon. It was no ordinary dragon; this one was absurdly large. Everyone waiting in front of the gates had their hearts drowned in despair... But then they noticed something was off.

Is it just me or is that giant dragon...not walking straight? It’s like it’s not actually walking but being dragged...

“A-Ahhh... H-Hey! Heyy! Look, Dubhe! Am I dreaming...? Ha ha ha! I can bearly believe it!”

“Calm down, Phecda. That’s my tic you’re stealing. If you do that, I’m going to lose my individuality and just become a regular bear.”

“Maybe I should add ‘alphecca’ as a tic from now on too. Man they did alpheccably well! It’s a superb alphecca day... No, never mind. It’s just hard to say.”

What Phecda and the others were seeing was Lufas dragging along a dead Ladon. Next to her were Alioth, Mizar, and Megrez, all safe and sound. The sunset lit them up from behind wonderfully as if it were celebrating them.

A Citizen Speaks

Mjolnir was hit with aftereffects from the fight between Lufas Maphaahl and Benetnasch. Of course, this concerned ordinary citizens as well. There were earthquakes and aftershocks with the intensity of typhoons, as well as tornadoes and good old shockwaves. Even though they had never been directly attacked or dealt any direct damage, the people had seen something straight out of an apocalypse. It was only natural that people started to panic, thinking just that.

The military police asked around, investigating what was going on, and as a result, they ran into a certain vampire. This vampire had just happened to have been on guard at the highest point in Mjolnir that day. This vampire, Laggart (age 560), had seen Lufas Maphaahl and Benetnasch fighting. This was what he had to say:

You’re talking about that day? Yes, of course I remember. I mean, there’s no way I could forget it. Even an unimportant vampire like me’s heard of the monstrous strength of the Black-Winged Conqueror and the Vampire Princess... Oh man, they aren’t just monsters.

What is it called...? A phenomenon...? An event...? Hmm... It’s hard to describe, but it’s like they’re no longer even in the same dimension of just “fighting,” you know?

That day, I was on guard in the clock tower, Mjolnir’s tallest building. And you see, to tell you the truth, there’s a really nice mansion near the castle, and no one knows what it’s even used for. No one. I mean, no one was living in it or using it as, like, a vacation home, but for some reason, it was still made out of Mizar steel. It was so uselessly tough. Well, among us guards, we thought it was supposed to be like a shelter if monsters attacked or something. Turns out we were wrong, though. But that’s only to be expected, right? I mean, what normal person would expect people to fight in there?

So anyway, I was just watching the mansion as usual, without any real purpose in mind, you know?

Laggart paused.

I mean it. There was basically no reason to be looking that way. It just happened to be in a really noticeable place... Anyway, I just happened to be staring off into space in that direction.

Huh? “What about your job?” Oh, well... Yeah, uh... I wasn’t really skipping, you know? It was just a little diversion.

Anyway, as I was watching it, the wall was sent flying all of a sudden. The next thing I knew, a stone fist came falling down to the ground a little ways away from Mjolnir.

As I was saying, vampires have pretty good eyes, right? So when I squinted and looked, I could see a black-winged girl and the Vampire Princess talking about something. I couldn’t see them move at all, but judging from the situation, I could somehow tell that they were fighting inside the mansion. And that fight had moved outside.

As for the fight itself... Sorry. To be honest, I couldn’t see it at all. As a vampire, I’m pretty confident in my kinetic vision myself, though. I was just barely able to surmise that something was moving at unbelievably high speeds.

Do you get what I mean by that? It’s the difference between being able to “tell,” and being able to “kind of guess.” My eyes couldn’t even follow the afterimages, and that’s from watching from that far away. If I was closer, I wouldn’t have been able to understand what was going on at all.

Moving on, explosions and lights and all kinds of stuff just kept happening one after the other... Well, they were probably using magic.

Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.

Anyway, seeing a fight between two high-leveled people just looks like that from a normal person’s perspective. That... The world at level 1000 isn’t a place that people should be allowed to enter. I’m serious.

With that, the normal person, who was lauded for being level 65 and had gotten a glimpse into the other side of the world, laughed dryly.

After that, the military police realized that what they were doing had no meaning, so they stopped their investigation efforts immediately. Investigations like this were for fights between people or monsters. There was no point in investigating a fight between two natural disasters.