“We can’t go any farther than this.”
It was Eos who said it.
“I can’t move directly beyond the border.”
“You can, but you won’t.”
“Well, as you know.”
After confirming that the direction Freya had pointed in was the Holy Kingdom, they had immediately called Eos and arrived at its border region.
However, Eos explained that moving directly inside the Holy Kingdom of Hiberunia could lead to an international dispute, so it was impossible.
On top of that, Eos’s spatial movement skill seemed to have more stringent conditions than expected; for distances beyond the Empire, several preparations were apparently required.
After all, even if the possibility was low, the slightest mistake could tear one’s body apart or fling one into some strange space. That was the nature of spatial movement—nothing but dangerous.
“Fine. We should go safely. Thank you, Eos.”
“Yes. Then, good luck.”
As if he had finished everything he needed to do, Eos used his ability again and returned without even looking back.
The way he left without the slightest attachment or hesitation was truly Eos-like.
And so, three people remained. Hio, Airaitz, and Freya.
“Hmm… Coming out together like this makes it feel like we’re on a trip. It’s nice. So this is why people go traveling?”
『This isn’t a trip! We’re moving with an incredibly important mission!』
“When you shorten that, it’s called a trip, little one.”
『Uuu. I know it’s not. ( `-´ )』
Leaving the two of them to chatter away, as if they had somehow grown close without his noticing, Hio’s gaze was fixed on the distance.
“Anyway, since I’ll be traveling all lovey-dovey with Hio, you, little brat, can…….”
Only then did Airaitz seem to sense something as well, and looked in the same direction as Hio.
An aura that the previous Airaitz would not have been able to feel.
But the newly acquired elven body, with its keen senses, had detected the vast mana far away.
“That is…….”
An unbearably blatant presence.
It was faint because of the distance, and precisely for that reason, she could not even begin to imagine how powerful it truly was.
And Freya’s gesture drove the point home.
『That way! It’s close compared to before!』
The direction her little finger pointed matched exactly with the direction Hio was looking.
“It looks like something has happened, and in a big way, Hio.”
With a faint, smiling curve to her eyes, Airaitz drifted lightly to Hio’s side.
“We should hurry over and resolve it, shouldn’t we? This body seems much more agile than before, so if you and I move quickly…….”
“Airaitz, can that body turn into a ghost?”
“Hm? A ghost?”
“Of course it can’t, right?”
“…No? I think I can? I don’t know what you mean, but I’ll try.”
Airaitz began straining as she attempted to become a ghost, despite not even knowing what he meant.
Leaving her be, Hio summoned the Phantom Steed.
「Skill - ‘Summon Phantom Steed’ has been activated.」
「Trait - ‘Etherealization’ has been activated.」
The situation seemed urgent, after all.
He did not know how it felt to the others, but Hio could not help sensing it more clearly.
How overwhelming the swirling mana was.
How enormous that condensed force truly was.
“Ugh… Telling me to turn into a ghost… Your tastes are rather peculiar……. Or should we try it while moving slowly together?”
“I’ll go on ahead, so bring Freya and run after me.”
“…Huh?”
“Sorry, the situation seems serious. Don’t torment Freya, and Freya, you follow this big sister properly too, all right?”
『Yes!! Don’t worry and hurry ahead! Please… take care of it!』
“Okay.”
The moment Hio mounted it, the Phantom Steed began running without the slightest delay.
“No… wait?”
Airaitz tried to say something, but in that brief moment, Hio was already far away.
“You two hold hands and come along nicely!”
“…….”
Before she knew it, he had become a single dot and vanished.
“Ha.”
Airaitz let out a hollow laugh as she stared in the direction Hio had disappeared.
From his perspective, it might have been unavoidable, but from Airaitz’s perspective, it was quite dispiriting.
However, she was not someone who would be wounded by something so minor.
“I suppose I’ll have to learn how to become a ghost.”
Instead, her competitive spirit flared up.
“Then he won’t be able to run away like today, will he?”
Whether that was competitive spirit… or something else, she did not know, but in any case, it burned.
And a small figure crept up beside Airaitz.
Not content with merely approaching, it quietly took Airaitz’s hand.
“…What are you doing?”
『Let’s go! =͟͟͞͞(๑•̀ㅁ•́ฅ✧.』
“Me, with you? Why? I’d be far faster alone.”
『Because Mister Hio told us to hold hands and come together, didn’t he?』
“…How troublesome.”
With Hio gone, Airaitz openly crumpled her expression, yet bent her knees and lowered her stance.
“Get on my back. How long would it take if I held hands with someone with legs as short as yours?”
『Yes! Big sister! ٩(˙ ˆ ˙ )۶』
“…Hmph, who’s your big sister?”
And so, Airaitz and Freya.
No, one undead revived through necromancy and one small fragment of a dragon began diligently moving in pursuit of Hio.
It was the hour when even the crimson sky was slowly falling asleep.
* * *
— Regarda.
When he closed his eyes, it was still vivid.
A gentle voice that put his heart at ease.
A voice that had taught him how to see the world and how to face it.
Ariel had been Regarda’s parent.
— Regarda.
Though more time had passed, the voice was unchanged.
A gentle voice, yet one filled with strength.
Answers to every question, never once wrong.
That was why she had been Regarda’s excellent teacher.
— Regarda.
After he became an adult, he had to carry on his mission.
The absolute being who governed wind and nature. Ariel, the green dragon.
He was of a clan that served dragons.
And even within that clan, he had been chosen as the most honored one.
However, even when he had fully grown, he had not understood.
Protect Ariel?
Because he prided himself on knowing her better than anyone, he understood it even less.
Protect her from what? She was already complete, a supreme lifeform.
And so Ariel had been Regarda’s one and only dear friend.
A friend from whom there was much to learn.
The only existence with whom he and she could understand each other best.
That was what a dragon and a dragon’s knight were.
She had been his parent, his teacher, and his only dear friend.
Yet perhaps he had taken the mission given to him far too lightly. He had not even had time to properly grasp what had happened.
Truly, in a single instant, dragons had gone extinct. Overnight.
The only reason Ariel had even been able to entrust hope to the future was because Regarda had been by her side.
A miracle that should never have occurred, given the solitary nature of dragons.
And so Regarda had continued to carry out his mission until now, a thousand years later.
Endlessly blaming himself for not having done his utmost back then.
He had endured those long years, swearing that he would at least keep their final promise.
The contents of the promise were nothing special.
It was a promise that, at any other time, they would have laughed off.
A truly insignificant promise.
That such a promise.
— When you open your eyes again, I will greet you with a smile, Ariel.
— You… need not try so hard.
— No, we will definitely meet. I promise.
Would be this difficult to keep.
That it would fall apart like this just when he thought he was nearly there.
So, Ariel.
“Remember me.”
With those enigmatic eyes, as before, and that gentle voice.
“Look at me, and call my name.”
That wish of Regarda’s—
Kwaaaaang!
—collapsed once more before the wind Ariel shot forth.
— Kraaaaah!
A voice neither enigmatic nor gentle.
A roar closer to a scream than a voice.
The eyes of a predator meant only for destruction.
Kwaaaang!
Regarda blocked that ferocious movement with a single spear.
Bright yellow aura stretched out in streams, sealing away the dragon’s tail strikes, movements, and wingbeats.
“Did I not learn all of this from you?”
Even if she was a supreme lifeform, without intellect—
Movements that pushed forward blindly, with only instinct remaining, would not work on Regarda.
Kwaaaaang!
A dragon: the progenitor of magic, possessing mana near infinite and governing it as magic.
Yet now that her intellect had vanished, what remained was only a massive body, hard scales, and the occasional lump of mana spat out as breath.
The green dragon roared as if Regarda before her were an annoyance, pouring out attacks that made one’s flesh tremble without end.
Yellow aura struck back against those attacks.
Kwaang!
Kwaaaang!
Kwaaaaang!
The impact of the dragon’s massive body colliding with the small spear shook the earth and rattled the buildings.
The tough scales and swift tail were met with compressed aura, or other skills remaining in this body.
Fwaaaa— The breath of wind she spewed out was completely offset by his own will-formed energy that covered the sky.
In an instant, dozens of clashes occurred.
Amid the continuous peal of thunderous explosions, Regarda intuitively realized it.
A dragon with only instinct remaining was not as strong as he had thought.
If it was his spear imbued with will, it could pierce those scales, so hard and beautiful.
Because he sensed that, Regarda called out all the more desperately.
“…Ariel, please remember me.”
Because he was the knight who protected the dragon.
Because that was his mission, and the dragon was his parent, his teacher, and his only dear friend.
The promise that he would stand before Ariel when they met again, smiling, had to be kept no matter what.
And so.
“Please…….”
He could never kill the dragon.
* * *
Kwaaaaang!
Was such martial prowess truly possible for a human?
That dragon, so enormous it could be compared to a castle.
Scales impervious to arrows, spears, and catapults alike, and even a destructive breath.
The one facing it held nothing but a single spear gripped in his hand.
And yet he was not pushed back by so much as an inch.
He blocked the dragon’s breath with a yellow spectacle that covered the sky.
And he faced its destructive, enormous onslaught with swift movements and a straight spear.
Sitting collapsed on the ground and staring up at it, Irina’s expression grew thick with bewilderment and doubt.
Because there were so many things she simply could not understand.
Why did the dragon want to destroy the Order so badly?
Who was that man facing it, and how was he so strong?
And… what was it that made him so sorrowful?
Both him and the dragon.
Kwaaaang!
Of course, it was an intuition without basis.
It merely looked that way to Irina’s eyes.
As if to prove that—
“Th-the Apostle of God has descended!”
“The Goddess has sent down an Apostle!”
“Ahh, thank goodness. Thank goodness…….”
“O Rifyue… thank you.”
Voices of relief came from outside.
Some sat collapsed, others knelt, each looking up at the sky.
“It’s the Dragon Knight… The Dragon Knight has appeared.”
“A knight facing the evil dragon!”
“That fits perfectly! The Dragon Knight!”
“The Dragon Knight!”
“May the Dragon Knight quickly defeat that evil dragon…….”
Hearing those cries, Irina lifted her head again and looked at the person who had begun to be called the Dragon Knight.
And once again, she felt doubt.
Was it not too different from the words of those filled with joy and hope?
The man’s distorted expression looked somehow desperate.
And the dragon’s movements as it faced him seemed somehow agonized.
Kwaaaaaang!
The clash between the two rang out mournfully.
“Dragon Knight! Dragon Knight!”
The Dragon Knight was, in truth, one who protected the dragon.
There was no one here, at least, who knew that.
* * *
— Tsk, tsk. You really are cold-hearted, my friend.
At Purnel’s words, Hio cast a shield spell before his eyes and replied lightly.
“I can’t help it. Only ghostly bodies can ride the Phantom Steed.”
— Even so, couldn’t you speak a little more warmly to a woman who says she likes you? Come now, even half of what you think inside…….
“Enough nonsense. We need to focus.”
Riding the Phantom Steed, he was swiftly heading toward the place where that enormous presence could be felt.
Though there was still quite some distance left, the tremendous impacts were becoming clearer and clearer.
They were being produced by the collision of powerful mana and another powerful force.
— A dragon indeed. But I sense no sign of it using magic.
“It must have completely lost its reason.”
— Then is Regarda the one opposing the dragon?
“Probably…….”
— …Tsk. This has become difficult.
“Yeah. Let’s brace ourselves.”
The sky was already dark.
Riding the Phantom Steed, the lone light within it, Hio crossed the sky and murmured softly.
“If it comes down to it, we’ll have to kill the dragon.”