Volume 2, Chapter 30: Inheritance of the Dragon’s Will
Words are a voice
A voice rings out
It asks to drive the response in here
When Fafner left the forest which had become a clearing and entered the grassy field, he saw the white mechanical dragon and a boy and girl fighting as if dancing. fr(e)ewebnovel.com
Those steel footsteps tore at the earth’s crust and that giant body whipped up the wind. Sounds of metal clashing rang out. As those figures moved in the moonlight, Fafner’s 1st-Gear comrades and the UCAT members watched on from a distance.
Everyone was standing petrified without speaking a word.
Fafner trembled at the pain in his back, but continued walking forward through the active wind and opened his mouth.
“Why!” He stared directly at the white mechanical dragon. “Lord Hagen! You been avoiding battle, so why?”
Intense pain ran through his back. Fafner fell to his knees as it felt like his spine was being squeezed.
And a figure stood up next to him.
He looked up to find a familiar face.
It was a black half-dragon just like him. This figure also had no wings on his back.
“Father…”
“It looks I made it in time. My son Fafner, look at Lord Hagen.”
Fafner did so.
He watched that white dragon run at high speed, twist his body around, blast dirt into the air, and roar.
A low voice spoke from above his head as he kneeled down.
“That is what you wanted, Fafner. That is what you have been waiting for.”
Hagen’s heart moved within Fafnir Custom.
The deviation from before had disappeared. He knew why: he was beginning to disappear.
With the excess gone, he had been sharpened to the extreme.
He felt the wind on his skin and smelled the scent of the grass.
He felt the dirt between his toes and his claws throwing small stones as he moved. freew(e)bnovel.com
All of his body’s movements were perfectly synced with the machine.
The adjustments from before had paid off. His will fit perfectly into the machine and there was no waste.
He moved.
He extended his claws and pursued the boy. He expanded his armor panels and defended against the girl’s attacks.
The boy targeted his neck. The two reactors were located there. He likely wanted the Concept Core in the weaponry reactor in front, but the only way to do that was to take his life.
On the other hand, the girl targeted his vision devices, legs, and joints. However, these attacks were not on the level of the earlier one that had intercepted a blast from his main cannon.
I see, thought Hagen. So you still do not fully know your role in this battle. But you can only find that answer from there, girl.
Hagen laughed.
“Ha.”
The voice escaped. It had been a long, long time since he laughed like that. He did not think he had ever used his full voice since taking on this body. He had not felt this happy in a long, long time. He was fighting so that everyone could laugh once this was over.
He wanted to win.
As he looked around in amusement, he saw everyone there. They had all come with him.
And now he was fighting where they could not follow. This was something he had to do. Only someone close to the royal family who had been given the greatest attack power in 1st-Gear could do this.
Hagen remembered.
King Wotan had been timid but kind. Hagen’s younger brother Regin had been quick to lecture people but had done it for their sake. Hagen had loved how Princess Gutrune was dauntless yet often suffered for it. And that world had existed alongside all of them.
He may have lost everything, but he knew all of that was true.
“!”
Hagen took in his full range of vision.
He saw the field, the forest, the mountains, the sky, the clouds, and the moon in the center of the heavens.
…Yes.
Once this battle ended, he would have to leave this space.
…It has been so long.
Before him were enemies who could choose to be wrong in the right way and right in a mistaken way.
This enemy moved. The boy held up the large sword and leaped to Hagen’s left. The girl fired a scythe of light toward Hagen’s right leg.
It struck. The ground below his right leg crumbled and his posture was thrown off.
His body tilted to the right and the left of his throat and his left side were exposed to his enemy.
The boy came in to take advantage of this opening, but that was a mistake. Fafnir Custom had a cannon installed within. This cannon had shot through the swordsman girl named Mikoku when the information broker Hajji had brought her to that abandoned schoolyard.
Hagen expanded that cannon, wondering if he could win with this.
He fired.
He did not target his enemy; he targeted the holy sword Gram the enemy held.
“!”
He fired three times at close range.
The shockwaves produced a white umbrella of steam and the splitting of the air blew the boy away. He ended up directly in front of Fafnir Custom. That position allowed Hagen to politely let loose his maximum firepower.
Fafnir Custom’s vision devices checked on the results of his attack. The holy sword Gram in his enemy’s hand had lost its light. The metal plate that words should have appeared on was silent. Gram’s voice rang out.
“Four seconds until recovery! Throw me away and run!”
…That long? I only need one second.
Hagen operated Fafnir Custom. He opened his mouth and braced himself with his four legs.
His enemy had almost let go of Gram during the impact and he turned toward the girl behind him.
This is the end, thought Hagen.
With enjoyment in his heart, he fired his main cannon with a single thought.
…I want to win.
Sayama gathered strength in his body which was trembling from the earlier impact. He could feel the earth below his feet, so his left arm came next.
Gram was there. The two meter sword was currently silent.
But, thought Sayama. I must finish this using this weapon. That is only polite.
“…!”
He gathered strength in his trembling left arm.
Immediately afterwards, he felt intense pain. Blood flowed from the bandage on that arm as if bursting out. He could distinctly feel his muscles and tendons.
But he did not care. Pain was real. The pain throbbing throughout his body showed him his body existed.
His senses had returned.
His sense of touch, hearing, and vision returned and he focused on what lay before his eyes. Fafnir Custom had opened his mouth.
Light could be seen in the muzzle visible deep in his throat.
There was no way Sayama could avoid this.
And so Sayama did not choose what to do. He simply desired victory.
Just as he tried to move forward, someone nestled up next to him as if propping him up.
It was Shinjou.
“Leave the things you can’t do to me,” she said.
And as she spoke, she moved her hand. In an instant, she took the blood flowing from his left arm onto her fingers and wrote something on Gram’s metal plate.
She wrote “holy sword”.
At the same time, the main cannon fired. Sayama swung the holy sword Gram toward that light that had actual mass.
“…!”
He used all of his strength. That which he desired was here.
He smiled. He smiled from the bottom of his heart. And as he did, his left arm felt a light impact.
“!?”
Sayama looked down at Georgius on his left hand. The plus sign medallion on its black surface was emitting a white light.
As if in response, Gram let out a roar. Green light ran across the blade’s surface.
“What is that gauntlet!?” asked Gram.
“I do not know! But it is the power I have inherited!!”
Sayama swung down the holy sword Gram.
The metal blade sliced apart the dragon’s attack. He heard the surging sound of light being sliced and scattered. And at the front, Sayama forcibly twisted the sword upwards, moved it around behind him, and moved further forward.
The distance grew to almost nothing in an instant.
He charged toward Fafnir Custom’s throat.
He swung a diagonal strike similar to a horizontal swing. It was a single blow.
Gram was wrapped in light. At the peak of its arc, it would sever the weaponry reactor in the throat. At the end of its arc, it would target the operation reactor at the base of the neck. That was Sayama’s style of fighting. He would completely neutralize his enemy.
But a strike came from behind to stop him.
It was an attack of light.
Just as Gram arrived at Fafnir Custom’s throat and he felt it break the metal of the armor and the outer core of the weaponry reactor, a thin beam of light came from behind and passed right by him.
That beam pierced and blew away Fafnir Custom’s front right leg.
With a clear noise, Fafnir Custom crumbled to the ground. It looked like he was lying down or bowing down.
The dragon’s movement sealed off Gram’s trajectory. As he fell to the ground, the components within his neck distorted and bit into Gram.
The holy sword’s cutting action was hindered by the mechanical parts that pressed together like praying hands.
Sayama perceived this resistance in the form of a metallic noise, but he continued swinging Gram.
“————”
He swung his arm, continued forward, and made his way out on the other side of Fafnir Custom’s throat.
He looked at his hand. The bloody Georgius on his left hand was not holding anything.
He understood.
He had robbed the mechanical dragon of its power, but the dragon’s throat had stolen the holy sword Gram from his hand.
And that resolution was the conclusion.
Sayama looked behind him.
In the moonlight, Fafnir Custom was getting back to his feet.
However, with his front right leg gone, he could no longer move enough for combat.
Fafnir Custom slowly looked up into the sky and bent his body upwards.
The stolen sword was indeed sticking out of his throat.
The white of his armor and the black of the sword created a silhouette in the moonlight and cast a shadow.
In the darkness he himself created, the mechanical dragon looked up at the moon with his red eyes.
Fafnir Custom’s mouth opened. His throat had been pierced, but he opened his fang-filled maw as if to devour the moon.
It was not a bestial cry that escaped through those metal fangs. Instead, he called for someone.
“Boy.” That quiet voice continued to ask the question in the dragon’s heart. “Was 1st-Gear a formidable enemy?”
Sayama regulated his breathing and clenched his lowered left fist. He squeezed his own blood and opened his mouth.
“Is there any other kind?”
As he answered, Sayama watched the silhouette of the dragon in the moonlight.
He waited for the dragon’s reply.
However, he received no response.
He heard a song carried by the wind. A 1st-Gear girl sang the song. One line reached his ears.
“Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh.”
Suddenly, Shinjou approached from his left side. She treaded softly on the grass and said “Hey.”
Sayama could tell her voice was trembling. The hand she wrapped around his left arm was trembling as well. And so he wrapped his arm around her waist to check on her.
He embraced Shinjou’s slender body and drew her in closer, but he kept his eyes raised. He continued watching the silhouette of the mechanical dragon in the moon.
There was no longer any light in the mechanical dragon’s eyes.
Two girls sighed while atop tree branches in the forest.
The short one, Shino, sang the song she heard coming from the field.
The one sitting on the higher branch, Mikoku, smiled bitterly.
“And with that, the Leviathan Road has begun.”
She jumped down. She easily landed after the four meter drop. She waited for Shino to finish singing and then held her arm upwards. Shino did not hesitate to jump down into Mikoku’s chest.
“You have gotten heavier,” said Mikoku as Shino glanced at her from the side and moved away.
Shino tilted her head slightly and then looked behind her.
“Shall we leave now, Tatsumi-san?”
In response, a woman appeared from the darkness of the forest.
She was tall. Mikoku was tall as well, but this woman was even taller. Her long hair swayed as it flowed backwards and she wore a brown sweater and a long white tight skirt. On her feet were…
“I am not sure you should be wearing sandals, Tatsumi.”
“I managed to get this close without being noticed, didn’t I?”
The woman named Tatsumi looked at the two girls with drooping eyes and a smile with no hint of sarcasm.
“So how was it?”
“Not bad. Shinjou can act now and Izumo and his partner should be useful enough. Sayama… Sayama Mikoto obtained Georgius.”
As Mikoku spoke, she turned her back on the field. The speed with which she turned caused Shino’s shoulders to jump a bit, but Tatsumi took Shino’s hand to stop her from trembling.
“Let’s go home. This concept space is growing thin. Everything will arrive at its conclusion and this place will return to normal. But Mikoku, how was Georgius? Even we have almost no information on that concept weapon.”
“I do not know. I saw a bit of a strange power, but…”
“But?”
“Georgius is the Latin name of St. George who slayed a dragon. But that was thought to be a fictional story, so his sainthood was revoked in the 15th century.” Mikoku gave a bitter smile and spoke as she walked through the darkness of the forest. “A false saint. That is an appropriate name for a concept weapon of Low-Gear.”
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