#108 A Pumpkin Rolled In (3)
[Kwaaaaaaaargh—!]
The dragon’s roar rang out once again from deep within the mountain range.
At the sound, laced with spiritual pressure that oppressed beings of lower rank, Harley and Heinz frowned.
Of course, it did not have much effect on them, but the resonance still grated on them, stirring at their instincts. ‘Was there a dragon nesting somewhere around here?’ This was the vast northern mountain range to begin with, so it would not have been strange for a dragon or two to be holed up here…
But that was not what mattered right now. ‘A being on the level of a dragon has been devoured by madness to this extent?’ Because the roars they had been hearing for a while now were anything but normal.
Just as Entracio, after becoming an undead Bone Dragon, had filled his voice with the aura of death, this creature was exuding the aura of madness. ‘It’s clear this isn’t a normal situation.’ Monsters were said to be easily affected by madness, but dragons were beings that ought to be considered intelligent races rather than monsters.
And among all the races of Auterica, they were creatures possessing the highest intellect and ability…
Crunch! Crunch!
Even as Harley diligently chewed and swallowed magic stones, his mind was working rapidly, analyzing the situation. ‘In any case. That rare thing called a dragon was here, and now its condition isn’t good either?’ Their numbers had already been small to begin with, and after the two incidents involving the Immortal Kings, they had dwindled even further, to the point where they were now practically an endangered species.
The Immortal King, who sought to cover the continent in death, was a threatening enemy even to dragons, and naturally, they had joined forces with the Continental Alliance to fight against the immortal army.
And the first Immortal King had focused on thoroughly hunting down the dragons first, as they would become the greatest obstacle to his conquest of the continent.
Even if it meant being pushed back on other fronts, he had made reducing their population his top priority.
Thanks to that, the Continental Alliance had been able not only to maintain the front lines but also to defeat the Immortal King, but the damage suffered by the dragons had grown beyond recovery.
The second Immortal King born in that situation was practically the final nail in the coffin, and after that, dragons became nearly impossible to see on the Ion Continent.
Even if there were any, he had assumed they would only be found in the eastern regions, far from where the war had taken place. ‘Considering their nature, they shouldn’t be the sort to fall so easily.’ With so many sacrifices having occurred, why was Entracio the only undead dragon inherited by Hans now? ‘Because of their lofty pride, if they seemed likely to be captured by the Immortal King, it was common for them to self-destruct without leaving even a single bone behind. And even if a corpse was obtained, their rejection response was so severe that turning them into undead was far from easy.’
This was vivid information about the parties involved, obtained through the knowledge of the previous generation inherited by Hans.
Moreover, even if one somehow managed to resurrect one as undead, the other dragons who discovered it would charge in with all their might and destroy it at any cost.
They could be called a stubborn race that would not tolerate even the corruption of their own kin, let alone themselves. ‘It was incredibly lucky that Entracio ended up in Hans’s hands at all.’
And yet such a dragon had been devoured by madness—madness that had been widely scattered across the entire continent and was not even particularly effective on humans?
He still could not make sense of it, but…
“To be honest, it hardly matters how it happened.”
“Kahahaha! A dragon! What kind of windfall is this?”
Heinz raised the corners of his mouth with a cold expression, and Harley, having devoured all the magic stones, sprang to his feet and burst into laughter.
Yes, the details could be confirmed in person.
“I wonder what dragon meat tastes like!”
An excited Harley sprinted at full speed toward the place where he sensed the creature’s presence.
Perhaps because he had just filled himself to bursting with energy, his steps were exceedingly light.
“If it’s dragon blood, I should be able to drink it once the madness is removed. It’ll make a fine tonic.”
Watching Harley’s back, Heinz lightly straightened his tailcoat, then vanished from where he stood.
Naturally, his destination was also the source of the roar.
The place where the dragon was.
***
—It hurts, it’s painful, why am I in this state, yes, let’s kill them!
—It’s because of him. Him? Who was that? Useless humans, foolish elves, stinking dwarves! And… and there was someone else, wasn’t there?
—I’m injured, so I must recover. To recover, I need to eat well. So let’s eat. Let’s eat plenty!
[Kuooooooo—!]
At the noise loudly ringing inside his head, the Red Dragon, Heratos, let out a roar in a dazed state.
Then, as if intoxicated by something, he felt good again.
As his mood improved, a desire welled up within him to savor this feeling even more.
For some reason, the body condition that should have required him to spend a long time recuperating had recovered rapidly, and now he felt he could go outside as much as he pleased. ‘Good. Very good. I recovered faster than expected. As expected, this body is great!’
Heratos was a dragon who had suffered severe injuries in the war against the second Immortal King three hundred years ago.
Unlike during the time of the first, when he had been too young to participate, the battle he personally experienced had been easier than he had expected.
The people of the continent, and of course the dragons as well, were not fools, and through various preparations, they had responded more efficiently than before. It was only natural.
Even so, the entire western region had fallen and one empire had perished, but compared to the first time, they had done remarkably well.
…It would have been even better if he had not grown drunk on his own achievements and let his guard down. ‘But where is this… Ah! This is the place I made. But why did I make it?’
In the end, Heratos had fallen into a trap while fighting the immortal army and suffered grievous wounds in the process.
Just surviving a great war where countless powerful beings had died helplessly was fortunate enough, but the injuries he sustained were far too serious to be dismissed as mere bad luck.
Deep wounds had opened all over his massive body, and through them, the aura of death containing the abyss had seeped in.
No recovery magic, no sacred art could work against the curse of certain death, and as Heratos stood only before death…
One final stroke of fortune came to him.
The Immortal King, the very source of the curse gnawing away at his body, was subjugated by the suicide squad at just the right time.
Because of that, he too, who had been rushing toward death with every passing moment, was able to snatch his life back from the brink. But his condition remained critical all the same, so for the sake of recovery, he used the most reliable method. ‘Ah—? What was I thinking about? Right. I was trying to leave this place. I’m hungry, so I should eat my fill for the first time in ages.’
He settled in one corner of the northern mountain range, which crawled with monsters, installed all manner of barriers for safety, and prepared for hibernation.
A dragon’s hibernation continued for hundreds of years, and during that time, the growth and recovery of the body were activated to the extreme. There was no better method than this.
Installing all those barriers with an injured body had been truly hellish, but by using all sorts of magic tools he had treasured until then, and even his own blood as a medium, he managed to complete them in the end.
However, after that final stroke of fortune, misfortune came for him—
He had also installed barriers that gathered surrounding energy to amplify his recovery to the utmost, and that lured in monsters to absorb their life force.
How could he have known?
That the abyss would open again, spreading “madness” throughout the world, and that the bodies of the monsters swarming his territory would become filled with it.
Of course, the barriers were equipped with defenses against all sorts of abnormal situations, but there was no way they would contain measures against the madness of the abyss.
And so, as he lay in hibernation defenselessly, madness continued to accumulate inside his body, until at last it completely contaminated his mind.
[Kwaaaaaaaargh—!]
Flap—! Flap—!
Heratos emerged from the nest he had made and beat his wings roughly.
His body had already recovered cleanly.
Not only had he hibernated for quite a long time, but the amount of madness accumulated in his body was by no means small. ‘Ahhh—this refreshing air. But it’s a little lacking. I think it would be better with a bit of the smell of blood mixed in. The smell of burning would be good too.’
His thoughts, completely consumed by madness, leapt through all sorts of absurd associations without him realizing it, arriving at a ridiculous conclusion. ‘…Yes. I think there was a human city nearby. I can just fire a breath at it!’
Then he would be able to enjoy the smell of burning and the sound of screams all at once while dining.
And if he chewed the prey raw, he would also be able to savor the scent of blood.
As a dragon, Heratos could live simply by absorbing mana and had no need to eat anything, but that fact was already far from his mind.
Consumed by madness, he did not even glance at the monsters scattered around his territory and measured the distance to a place where many humans were likely to be. ‘Then, let’s go… hm?’
At that moment.
He sensed a presence that stimulated his perception.
A being approaching at high speed with a tremendous racket, emitting explosive vitality from its entire body. ‘…Human? No, is that really human? And there was one more. I almost missed it. Is this one a vampire?’
Drip—
As he recognized them, drool flowed from his enormous mouth.
His two eyes had already turned crimson, with not a shred of reason to be felt in them, but Heratos sensed nothing strange about his own condition.
He was merely…
‘Shall I eat those first as an appetizer…?’
…controlled by the appetite that suddenly surged within him.
“Kahahaha! It really is a living dragon! Wow, this is my first time seeing one!”
“It’s been completely devoured by madness. We can’t expect reason from it. The key will be how it’s been strengthened.”
The pseudo-human and the vampire, who reached Heratos in an instant, calmly observed him and each gave their own assessment, but he gave no reaction at all.
He had not the slightest interest in whatever the ingredients were babbling about. ‘Should I eat that juicy-looking one first? It looks like life force will burst out with every bite, so it should be delicious. The vampire looks like it’ll be quite a delicacy too.’
He pondered for only a moment.
Then, at some point, a flash of light sparked in his mind. ‘Huh? Why am I doing this?’
His outstanding mind had detected a sense of incongruity in his own actions.
And his madness-stained brain once again began to think logically.
Why was he simply staring at them?
As a result—
[Kwaaaargh—!]
He opened his mouth wide and launched himself at them. ‘Yes! I can just eat them both at once!’
There had been no need to think about it in the first place!
He was planning to have his proper meal in the human city, so for now he could simply swallow them in one bite and be on his way.
And so Heratos, with his newly strengthened physical abilities, bit into the space where they had been in the blink of an eye…
“Huuup—!”
Whoosh—
Kwaaaang—!
Already in battle stance, Harley lightly dodged away and struck the enormous head upward with a hand swollen grotesquely large.
[Grrrrrk—?]
Heratos was bewildered by the sudden impact for only a moment, before a pitch-black figure silently landed on the bridge of his nose.
“Pardon me.”
Shiiik—
Slash!
The sharp streams of blood shot from both of his hands instantly cut across the enormous eyes.
Heratos covered his eyes with tremendous reaction speed, but how could Heinz’s attack be blocked by such thin leather?
His eyelids were sliced open, and blood spurted from both eyes in an instant.
[Kraaaaaaagh—!]
Was it pain, or was it rage?
Together with the rough roar of the dragon, who squeezed shut his bleeding eyes, immense mana exploded around him, releasing a shockwave that distorted the surrounding space.
Heinz, who had briefly retreated from that attack, moved to charge at the creature again but paused.
“…It’s already recovered.”
Heratos had opened his blazing red eyes before he knew it, and they were perfectly intact, without a single trace of injury. ‘I did feel the attack go in a bit shallow because of the eyelids.’
The creature’s reaction speed and the durability of its hide were also beyond imagination.
On top of that, considering that outrageous recovery ability and the destructive power exerted by its overwhelmingly massive body…
“Kahahah! This is going to be tough with just the two of us, isn’t it?”
Of course, Heinz and Harley would not be defeated by it.
Their physical specs were not to be underestimated, and from the look of it, that dragon seemed to have undergone a sharp increase in physical ability due to madness, while its magical ability had instead regressed.
On top of that, unbefitting the fame of a dragon, it showed no signs of intelligence whatsoever, behaving like nothing more than a giant lizard faithful to its instincts. ‘But if a lizard that big has regeneration like that… beating on it all day won’t do any good.’
They would be trapped in a truly endless, infinite loop. ‘No, unlike us, who have limits to the energy we possess, dragons can absorb surrounding energy to recover.’
In the end, there would be no outcome but for them to retreat.
Their compatibility was not very good when it came to dealing with a lizard of that enormous size.
If they possessed overwhelming power, they could ignore even that, but…
The true-blood vampire Heinz II and the barbarian great warrior Harley had not yet reached that level. ‘Then, it can’t be helped.’
If they could not do it, what else was there to do?
They had no choice but to bring someone on that level.
And then—
Darkness gathered instantly at a single point in the air.
Gooooooo—
The darkness, which swallowed all light as though a hole had opened in the sky, finally vanished only after summoning one being there.
At the same time…
Despite the sun shining clearly overhead, the brightness of the world dropped in an instant, as if a filter had been placed over it.
[Khuhuhut— A dragon stained with madness. This looks like it will make fine material!]
The calamity that had driven the dragons to the brink of extinction…
…descended upon that place.