Maybe it had hidden somewhere else, but I couldn’t tear the whole, fairly wide lab apart to find out.
All I could do was hope it had slipped past my eyes and fled on its own.
I hurried to my feet and stepped out the door.
“Ugh, kh—”
I covered my mouth with my arm and backed away. As expected, smoke was billowing up the stairs from below.
Even if I held my breath and ran, there was no way I could punch through the first floor now that the fire had taken it.
Of the hellish choices, the one I took this time was up.
I hadn’t climbed many floors before I reached the very top of the tower. I threw the door open and drew in what clean oxygen I could.
And the instant I opened the door, what hit my eyes made me grind my teeth.
“Ha... ha— you sons of bitches. You really came prepared.”
The circular rooftop was packed tight with dragon-capturing crossbows. They were like the fangs of a predator holding its maw wide in threat.
I went straight to the outer wall and seized one of the mounted crossbows in a hard grip. Then I looked out toward distant Varen.
Varen was still not lucid, loosing fire like he meant to reduce the world to cinders.
I was higher than the conifers by a lot now; maybe he could hear my voice. Clutching that thin hope, I climbed up onto a crossbow.
“Varen! Varen Dravergh!! Calm down and listen to me!! Ceryl Aylos is right here!!!”
Whether it was my voice that reached him, or the desperation behind it—
The pillar of blazing red fire shut as Varen closed his jaws and turned this way. We were a long way apart, but I had the illusion our eyes met.
“Ceryl, where... ngh, my head....”
He’d just said his head hurt a little while ago. Looked like the drug.
His voice was steeped in pain, but he was snatching moments of clarity.
Maybe the dose hadn’t finished taking hold. Or maybe, befitting a monster with the strongest will, he was resisting the brainwashing spell.
Either way, the fact that I could talk to him was a chance. I drew another deep breath and loaded a lion’s roar.
“Calm down and use Humanization! Then get to somewhere safe!”
“Ceryl... I have to... go to Ceryl... danger....”
“I’m safe, so don’t come! It’s dangerous for you here!”
Calling it safe was bullshit. I had no idea how I was going to punch through the smoke creeping up the stairs.
Even if I got out of the tower, could I survive that sea of fire, could I make it to where Varen was—everything was an unknown.
Even so, saying I was in danger seemed to provoke him, so I forced my voice to stay steady.
Varen, not in his right mind, was honest about his condition.
“Haa... hard... my head... hurts... ugh... Ceryl....”
“Varen, you have to hold it together! You can’t lose to a human’s magic!!”
“Ceryl... Ceryl, hold me... hold... me....”
Like always when he hurt, the far-off dragon mumbled that he wanted to be held.
This wasn’t the time, but tears surged up. The inferno at my feet vanished from my sight.
All I saw was the dragon staggering, wrapped in hot flames. It made me want to fly to him and gather him into my arms right now.
“Okay, I’ll hold you. I’ll hold you tight! So pull yourself together and get somewhere safe! I’ll come find you!”
The dragon, unable to steady his long neck, lifted his head slowly. The red-flickering eyes were unfocused.
Varen blinked his heavy lids several times. Regaining focus, he lurched, moving his legs.
“I... have to... go to Ceryl....”
After repeating the same words over and over, Varen slowly began to beat his wings.
When he spread what he’d folded wide, I finally saw his condition clearly. His left wing had a gaping hole, and nets were fouled around his whole body.
A picture from the first time I’d met him in the basement overlapped in my head. Shackled in thick chains, unable to move.
“No, don’t come to me! Go somewhere safe!”
“Wait... wait... Ceryl....”
His wings, like sails on a great ship, worked up and down. The rough wind only whipped the flames around him higher.
In the hottest part of the blaze, the golden dragon forced his body aloft. It looked like he was being born from fire.
There was no time to feel awe at the grandeur. I had to bare my teeth and bellow again.
“I said no! Don’t come here! Don’t come, Varen!”
Skimming low, Varen came for the tower without a shred of hesitation. No—he was flying for me.
He shoved through the forest he’d burned, closing fast.
And ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) as if they’d been waiting, the rooftop crossbows began to move. No one was manning them; they hunted as if on automatic.
“No! Aaah, stop!”
I seized one crossbow that had sighted down the golden dragon exactly. I threw my whole body into wrenching its aim aside, but it didn’t budge so much as a fingertip.
I couldn’t move a magic weapon with my strength. To stop Varen, I grabbed the tower wall again and leaned my upper body long out into the open.
“Don’t come, please! There are crossbows up here! You can’t come!!”
“Ceryl... Ceryl... Aylos....”
But a monster’s blind homing instinct doesn’t yield to words. Varen only repeated my name.
The dragon was charging right into the trap Jed had laid with such care. Even though he had to know it was a trap.
And a normal human could do nothing in front of that.
I hadn’t noticed, but tears were dripping from both eyes. My palms, trying to twist the crossbow, were full of wooden splinters and blood.
Charred conifers crashed with the sound of destruction, and the screams of monsters who hadn’t escaped the forest filled the air.
But I felt no pain, and I heard nothing.
“Ceryl... I’ll... I’ll come... Ceryl....”
“Ugh—please... Varen, don’t....”
Only Varen’s voice rang through my head.
The moment the target came into range, dozens of crossbows fired as if on cue. Bolts as thick as logs all at once drove for the dragon.
“Ngh....”
Varen screwed his brow hard and twisted his wings. He somehow dodged a few coming head-on, but he couldn’t avoid the ones that curved in.
Bang! Kwham-wham-wham!
When the thick bolts struck his torso, they went off like bombs. They didn’t pierce his hide, but the physical shock transmitted whole.
Varen, hit by five explosive bolts in a row along the right side of his trunk, let out a pained groan and dropped altitude fast.
The target vanished in an instant, but the crossbows didn’t lose him. Like modern ballistic missiles, they traced free trajectories and chased him to the end.
“Aaagh! No, Varen! Run, please!!”
I screamed in despair, but Varen didn’t break.
He shot an irritable glare at the crossbows fixed to the tower. He opened his jaws wide to pour the same attack back, then shut them without breathing fire.
And in that instant I understood. I was in the middle of the enemy position he meant to destroy.
Because of me—again. Because he was afraid I would be hurt.
Varen Dravergh, who could burn the world, was buckling under the attack of a paltry human.
“Ha... what do I— what do I do... what can I do....”
I had no room left to puzzle out a proper method. I spun and yanked the rooftop door open.
“Ghh...!”
The moment I opened it, rough flames blasted out. I flinched back on reflex, and embers scorched my clothes.
I steadied my breathing for a second and opened my eyes again. And once more I stood at a fork.
If the dragon’s fire licked down the stairs, this weak human body would go up in an instant.
But if I at least disappeared from sight, Varen would be able to smash the crossbows.
I didn’t want to die. Suicide wasn’t a word in my life in the last world or in this one.
So why was it that, even if it meant braving death, I felt I had to protect the dragon?
Decision made, I clenched my fist tight. And just as I was about to throw myself into the blaze—
Kugugugung, THUD—
“Aaagh!!!”
A tremendous detonation boomed and the whole tower shuddered. My legs buckled uselessly and I went down.
It sounded like setting off a bunch of time bombs at once. Of course the only thing in my head was whether Varen was all right.
On all fours, I crawled and grabbed the tower’s outer wall again to haul myself up.
I tried to locate him, but the dragon who’d been skimming low had vanished.
“Ha... Varen? Where are you?”
“Ngh... Ceryl....”
At the familiar voice I snapped back to myself and looked down.
The golden dragon—who knew how many blasts he’d taken—was smeared with black scorch marks. In a wretched state, he was barely clinging to the tower.
Varen had come a tier closer from the far forest. Thanks to that I could look straight into his face. It had been a solid half-day since Jed kidnapped me and tore us apart.
The flash of relief lasted only a moment; a different dread came first.
Every time Varen blinked, the color of his eyes flipped. The ominous red and the clear blue appeared by turns.
Human brainwashing magic and a Dravergh’s powerful will. Their vicious struggle for position inside him was visible through his eyes.
Keeping my gaze fixed on Varen, I fumbled a hand into my pocket. I had no measures at all for a distance of at least ten meters.
For now I palmed the syringe I’d brought from Theo’s lab.
“Varen, are you okay? I told you not to come!”
“I... missed you.”
The thin, broken voice stopped my mouth.
“......”
“I missed you, Ceryl....”
Ah.
A short breath slipped from me.
Maybe what was steering Varen wasn’t human magic, and it wasn’t a Dravergh’s will either.
“Ceryl... Ceryl... Aylos....”
