Ch.103Black Dragon and Explosive Dragon – 4

“Drop it? A dragon?”

“That’s right. We can’t fly, can we?”

“…How?”

“Just cut off one wing.”

“Is that possible?”

The words “That’s the method you used in the original story” didn’t leave my mouth. After all, the original Brunhild stepped on light, leaped into the sky, and tore not just one wing but both of them completely apart.

And at that time, the power released by the holy sword temporarily split the sky in two, or so they say.

“You’ll see.”

Despite how irresponsible it sounded, Brunhild nodded with an expression that seemed to say, “If it’s you, you’ll manage somehow.” The relationship we’d built up until now seemed to be working in my favor.

“Here it comes.”

After waiting for who knows how long, the silhouette of something enormous began to appear in the distance. Even at a glance, it was clear that it was absurdly large.

“…It’s really huge.”

“Yeah. Beyond what I imagined.”

I’d heard from Priscilla and Elisier that it was comparable to a decent-sized castle, but seeing it in person was beyond imagination. I wondered if my entire height would even match the size of one of its teeth.

“Assuming you’ll cut its wings, Mira, what can I help with?”

“There will probably be some strange black energy emanating from that thing. Focus on clearing those with your holy sword. Attack the main body if you can. It feels different from magical energy, so it should be easy to distinguish.”

“Got it! Leave it to me!”

Brunhild nodded vigorously.

“But I think you should stay away for now. I don’t want you getting caught up in this.”

“Stay away? Where to?”

“Over there.”

I pointed to a high cliff far in the distance.

“…That far away?”

“I’ll cut its wings and come get you, so save your strength until then. If I’m right, it’ll still be pretty intense even with its wings cut off.”

Brunhild looked dumbfounded for a moment, but after seeing the dragon approaching, she quickly turned and disappeared. After confirming she was far enough away, I drew up my mana.

I don’t need the mana breathing technique. This doesn’t require thousands of spells being replenished in real-time. Just one spell is enough.

Just the spell considered taboo in that other world.

I placed my left foot forward to shift my weight, pulled my right shoulder back, and formed a hand gesture as if gripping something. As a magic circle appeared in my hand, mana from my entire body was frantically sucked into it.

The shape of a javelin began to form in my gripped hand. The surrounding air instantly boiled. The heat distorted my vision, and hot wind rushed under my clothes.

Soon, the javelin took on the perfect form of flame.

—Hissss…

The nearby terrain twisted. The ground, unable to withstand the heat, temporarily melted and solidified, becoming glossy like ceramic. The burning air created an updraft.

I shifted my weight to my right foot positioned behind me. Crack! The ceramic-like ground shattered like styrofoam, unable to withstand the pressure. Cracks spread from my right foot.

The spear sucked in the air. Flames blazed on its surface, wind circulated inside, the tip was covered with earth, and water swirled around it.

The essence of all elemental magic resided in this single spear. While continuously healing my right hand as it was being ground away from the impact, I extended my left arm forward.

As I pulled my extended left arm forward, I simultaneously shifted my weight to my left leg that I had stepped forward with. My right leg floated slightly upward, and the ground near my left leg split, causing the nearby earth to rise.

My right shoulder and left foot aligned vertically. Rumble! The ground collapsed entirely, unable to withstand the stepping force. And I felt all the bones in my legs shatter.

Ignoring my fragmenting body, I moved my shoulder and thrust my right arm with all my might. My right arm swung, launching the spear in my hand.

—KWAAAAAAANG!!!!!!

Light split the sky.

Brunhild anxiously looked down at Mira’s distant figure. The dragon was approaching moment by moment, but Mira remained motionless.

What could she possibly be planning that required sending her so far away? Not knowing the details, Brunhild could only wait anxiously.

“…Huh?”

Suddenly, she witnessed something unbelievable. A heat haze seemed to rise over the wasteland, and flames began to boil up around Mira.

There was no time to be surprised. The boiling flames heated the surrounding air endlessly. Even from this distance, a faint heat could be felt.

Brunhild instinctively gripped her holy sword and exerted its power. Responding to its owner’s will, the holy sword raised a hemispherical barrier of light. The stinging sensation on her skin subsided.

“What, what is that?”

All Brunhild could see was a spear made of flame, water, and earth forming in Mira’s hand, and Mira taking a javelin-throwing stance. After that, the raging flames made it impossible to see anything.

“Ugh?!”

A hot wind swept through. She hastily reinforced the holy sword’s barrier. At the same time, she was astonished.

If such heat could be felt from a distance where Mira appeared no larger than a fingernail, what kind of hell was unfolding at the center? She didn’t even want to imagine.

Even the dragon in the sky seemed unable to ignore the sight. The mottled black dragon that had been flying straight toward the hero twisted its neck and let out a massive roar.

—KUOOOOOOOOO!

A breath was expelled from its widely opened maw. The attack, recorded as an object of fear even in history books, struck down toward the ground, threatening to melt everything.

Almost simultaneously, a flash of light shot up from the ground toward the sky.

—!!!!!!

As the flash was buried in the breath, an indescribable roar echoed. Brunhild instinctively thrust her holy sword into the ground and supported herself with all her might.

The aftermath alone brought a tremendous heat wave. Even with the support of the holy sword, she had to grit her teeth and tense her body to withstand it. Without that, she would surely have been swept away.

“Ugh, uuuuugh…!”

Despite groaning from the impact, Brunhild clearly saw a single light piercing through the raging storm. Even the dragon’s breath couldn’t melt that flash.

The light flew, shattering everything it touched, and hit the dragon’s left wing joint.

—KRAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

With a tearing sound, the area connecting the left wing to the back was completely ripped off. Having lost one wing, the dragon twisted its body, flared up, and crashed beyond the mountain range.

The flash didn’t stop after piercing the dragon’s wing. It continued to soar and disappeared beyond the sky.

Dawn broke.

A ball of light, temporarily brighter than the morning sun, descended from the sky, illuminating heaven and earth. The whole world was bathed in light.

“…”

Brunhild stared blankly at the dreamlike scene. She couldn’t believe that such power originated from a single human.

“…! Mira! Mira!”

When the light finally faded, Brunhild, finally coming to her senses, hurriedly descended from the cliff and ran toward where Mira had been.

“Ugh! It’s hot…!”

Hot air greeted Brunhild as she reached the ground. Even protected by the holy sword’s power, she hesitated to continue forward.

The dragon’s breath that hadn’t been pierced by the spear had swept across the ground, and combined with the aftermath of the light burst, the entire wasteland had become a hell on earth.

But she couldn’t retreat. Brunhild gritted her teeth, raised her holy sword, pointed it forward, and advanced. As if responding to Brunhild’s determination, a bright light burst from the holy sword, illuminating the path ahead.

Her skin heated up and healed repeatedly. It was the result of her natural healing ability being maximized by the holy sword’s power, but it still couldn’t completely prevent injuries, and the reddened areas gradually increased.

“Just, just a little… just a little more…!”

After repeating “just a little more” countless times, Brunhild finally found Mira. She painfully moved toward the lonely figure standing in the distance.

“Mira! Mi… ugh?!”

Brunhild, who had approached to within about twenty steps and reached out her hand, hastily withdrew her arm. In that brief moment, her fingertips seemed to have been burned.

She was dumbfounded. Just from touching the nearby air? Then what about Mira inside?

“What… why are you here? I’m pretty sure I told you to save your strength until I came to get you…”

Hearing her call, Mira slowly opened his mouth. But his voice was severely cracked, as if his throat had been burned.

“Mira, you… you…”

Brunhild couldn’t help but be shocked by Mira’s appearance.

His right side seemed to have evaporated, reducing his body to about 2/3 of its original size, and the right side of his face was missing beside the nose. His right arm and shoulder were in the same condition.

Only his right leg remained, barely standing with the bones exposed.

The remaining left side wasn’t in good shape either. His eyes seemed to have melted, with blood flowing from the hollow eye sockets, and critically, his skin was completely burned.

“How… what happened?”

Seeing his entire body repeatedly melting and regenerating in real-time, Brunhild asked, half crying.

“It was a bit too much magic for a human to use. It’ll regenerate soon, so don’t worry.”

“How can I not worry! How can you say that looking like that?!”

Brunhild, who had inadvertently shouted, closed her mouth, realizing her mistake.

“Let’s, let’s get out of here first. If we leave, you’ll recover faster—”

“I can’t leave.”

Two remaining fingers pointed to his leg. She saw a leg with all flesh burned away, leaving only bones. In that state, the joints would dislocate the moment he tried to move.

Tears welled up in Brunhild’s eyes as she saw this.

“It’ll only take about a minute at most, so please wait a little. Not much longer.”

Despite his entire body being burned like that, Mira’s voice was infinitely calm, apart from being cracked. Though she knew it was a foolish question, she couldn’t help but ask.

“…Doesn’t it hurt?”

“I’m used to it, so it’s fine.”

‘What? How?’

How could anyone get used to such pain? Pain is normal. Feeling pain is normal.

The transparent liquid that had gathered in her eyes finally turned to dew, flowed out, and evaporated.

‘That’s not right. Such a thing.’

Brunhild couldn’t bring herself to say those words out loud.

“Phew…”

I exhaled deeply. With the heat gone, it was a bit more bearable. After all, having your airways and lungs completely burned and then regenerated with each breath isn’t exactly a pleasant feeling, to put it mildly.

I can just endure it, that’s all.

‘Is it my imagination? It seems more powerful than before.’

Since this was the first time using this forbidden magic with this body, it felt like I couldn’t control the power well. I wondered if it had always been this powerful.

In truth, the reason it’s called forbidden magic isn’t that grand. It’s simply because it’s impossible for a human body to withstand the recoil.

With top-tier recovery magic, you can regenerate the body as much as needed, but too many people ended up as vegetables after their minds died from repeating collapse and regeneration for several minutes.

Rather than having 10 people use the magic and 9 die, it’s better to keep all 10 alive and have them use slightly lower-tier magic. To prevent talented individuals from dying recklessly, they banned it.

‘But the mana consumption was too high for ordinary people anyway.’

Even nobles who considered magic their birthright had to train for over 10 years on average to use such spells. For commoners unrelated to such things, it was practically impossible.

“Let’s go. We need to catch that dragon.”

“…”

After finally repairing my clothes, I turned to look at Brunhild. She was standing in place, staring at me blankly.

“Brunhild?”

“Uh, ah? Yes?”

“What are you doing? I said let’s go.”

“Um… yes. We should go. I’m coming.”

She seemed a bit off.

‘Well, after seeing something like that up close…’

It’s only natural to be shocked after watching someone melt and regenerate hundreds of times right before your eyes. This is why I said I’d come get her later.

Still, I didn’t want to scold her since she came looking for me out of concern. I was just thinking about suggesting we rest a bit here before continuing, when—

“…What’s that now?”

Black clouds were gathering in the sky where Mahrvat had crashed.