Ch.894This Time, It’s Another Temporary Alliance!

White Dragon Amitamir.

The beast howled like a giant fetus beginning its first wail after eight hundred years, spewing infinite hostility toward Elpinel and the gods of humanity.

A roar that felt like physical pressure. The terrible noise reverberated through the air, shaking the walls of the cavern.

“Ugh, what a voice.”

I could tell just by looking.

This dragon. Even if it wasn’t originally an evil dragon, it was clearly going to be harmful to humanity now.

A dragon that had come to hate the gods of humanity because of Heaven’s Wall wouldn’t show any goodwill toward humans.

Far from goodwill, it wouldn’t be surprising if it flew over imperial cities and incinerated every human in sight.

So it was an evil dragon. What else would you call it? Any dragon harmful to humanity is an evil dragon.

【 Krrrrrr…. 】

Anyway, after it bellowed at the top of its lungs for quite some time…

【 …So, what are you? 】

As if finally calming down, it lowered its head and looked in our direction.

If it had blue eyes, it might have received the affection of someone who had a suspicious fondness for eccentricity, but unfortunately, its eyes were yellow. Like an eagle’s beak.

【 This smell, this sensation…. Truly bizarre creatures. 】

A glaring gaze. Interest and hostility mixed in its reptilian, glistening eyes.

【 I see. One is a crude synthetic creation made with magic. The other is… the incarnation of an ill-starred fate that disrupts the world, a Heavenly Killing Star? Both of you are unbearably unpleasant guests. 】

Hostility poured out as it finished speaking.

“Kuk…!”

Persiella raised her broken sword with obvious tension on her face, and I too reflexively took a defensive stance, gripping Durandal’s hilt tightly.

【 Moreover, there are even traces of the hateful human gods mixed in. This disgusting divine smell. Unpleasant and more unpleasant. Beyond words…! 】

It roared once more.

【 You, agent of the human gods and ill star of the world. Open your ears and listen! I, Amitamir, swear that I will devour you completely without leaving a single bone fragment, to appease my grudge of eight hundred years! 】

Its eyes were filled with explicit displeasure, hostility, and boundless murderous intent, like a boy who had made eye contact with a hunchback crawling out from under the blankets.

“Ha…. This is really like a dog.”

I straightened my back, exhaling a curse mixed with a sigh of helplessness.

“They say dragons tame their violent nature… tame my ass. From the way it talks, it’s violence incarnate. Lying bastard.”

I lamented my luck at facing a half-crazed evil dragon while completely exhausted and with all my armor gone.

【 Eight hundred years of humiliation. I have already lost patience, forgiveness, mercy, and tolerance. That is your karma! 】

The white dragon spread its wings wide and wailed.

—-

Amitamir, who had declared it would kill me, approached me very slowly despite the fierce intensity contained in its words.

As if saying I might as well put on a show before I die anyway.

It was an attitude so arrogant it made my blood boil, but thanks to that, I had a chance to talk with the half-lizard lady standing blankly beside me.

“Hey, hey. Heavenly Demon Caller. Can you hear me?”

Persiella turned her head sharply and glared at me.

“Crazy wench, still calling me by that insulting name…!”

So she can hear me.

With an expression that suggested she’d lost about thirty percent of her sanity, I wondered if she’d completely shut her ears.

“Never mind that, listen to me. About our current situation… shouldn’t we put our old grudges behind us and join forces? We’re both exhausted.”

I casually dismissed Persiella’s complaint and suggested we fight together.

A temporary alliance, so to speak.

It wasn’t something I should be saying when I had been hell-bent on tearing her apart just moments ago, but I couldn’t see any other way to survive with our bodies intact.

“Ha, ridiculous. Why should I do that? You’re the very cause of my current state.”

Persiella snorted and refused. It was an absurd response.

True to her half-lizard head, was her intelligence also only halfway between human and lizard?

Why should she do it? Does she really need to ask?

“Then shall we amicably become that bastard’s midnight snack?”

What a great idea. If both the Heavenly Demon and the Heavenly Demon Caller die here, they might as well call this pit the Heavenly Demon Tomb.

“Do you think it will spare you? Didn’t you hear it call you an ‘unpleasant synthetic creation’?”

“…Kuk.”

Persiella bit her lip. Even she couldn’t refute that.

If she continued to be hostile toward me here, she’d just end up as a meal for that Amitamir or whatever it was called.

Oh, come to think of it, what did “synthetic creation” mean? It sounds quite different from “mixed blood.”

Since a normal hybrid couldn’t be born between a human and a dragonborn, was she forcibly combined somehow? Through magic or some other means?

“Think about it. The only way to survive here is to form a temporary alliance. It’s not the time to worry about petty grudges.”

“Temporary, alliance… Your glib tongue is truly admirable. But what should I trust about you?”

Persiella muttered as if spitting the words out. Though her words sounded like a refusal, the very expression “what should I trust” was evidence she was already halfway convinced.

The problem was that while she thought my words were right, she couldn’t easily trust me, so she was asking me to provide a reason to suppress her distrust.

If she had no intention of following my words, she would have just refused and ended it.

“What to trust? Trust my survival instinct. If I don’t form a temporary alliance with you, I don’t have confidence in surviving against that monster either. Who would betray in such a situation?”

So I provided her with a reason.

Even if I formed an alliance and then betrayed her, it wouldn’t benefit me but would only throw away my own path to survival.

“…Hmph. Fine. Just this once, I’ll let myself be swayed by that oily tongue of yours.”

See?

Although Persiella snorted as if quite displeased, she accepted our temporary alliance with a voice tinged with a hint of relief.

It was truly fortunate.

This opened a path to survival.

【 Have you finished your final conversation? Then there’s no need to wait any longer. Come, show me, Amitamir, your desperate struggle. 】

Amitamir, who had been slowly walking toward us, raised the corners of its mouth to reveal its teeth as it addressed us.

【 Please delight me with your futile, weak, worthless resistance. Until your tiny bodies crumble to dust under the weight of eight hundred years of anger and grudge, the karma of your species! 】

The mad dragon’s howl violently shook the entire cavern.

Crystals attached to the walls cracked and shattered with screams, and the dust pushed by the sound pressure spread like a dark gray wave.

“…Talking big. Lizard bastard.”

I turned my head, spat out a mixture of blood and dust, and lightly rotated the wrist holding Durandal.

With blue eyes burning like ghost fire, filled with fighting spirit and murderous intent, streaming out in threads.

“…That word, can’t you drop it? Isn’t it an insulting expression for me too?”

Persiella clicked her tongue and took position beside me. Drawing in the surrounding mana to overlay an ice blade on her broken sword.

“If it bothers you, remove the handle attached to your head first. That’s your aspiration anyway, isn’t it?”

“……”

I made her shut up with a smirk, then kicked off the ground and shot forward like a comet, spewing Karma Fire behind me.

【 KRARARARAA―! Yes, your spirit is excellent! I commend you. It reminds me of my enemies from eight hundred years ago! 】

Amitamir opened its maw wide and roared, charging toward me.

Overwhelming size. Sickening heaviness. It was like a snow-covered winter mountain with wings approaching.

“Kuk… Yes, good! This is perfect! If I slay this beast and devour its flesh, I too will earn the right to transform into a dragon and ascend to the sky!”

Persiella also created an ice wing beside her remaining one and fluttered them, launching herself in an arc toward Amitamir’s flank.

A human and a dragonborn.

Two powerful beings who had been seeking each other’s lives now formed a temporary alliance and cooperated against a third powerful enemy that had appeared like an opportunist.

It was a scene reminiscent of an old heroic tale or a fairy tale.

But,

Haven’t I said it before?

Don’t join hands with someone you can’t trust.

– Kwaooooooo!

The moment Persiella’s giant ice spear formed at the tip of her sword plunged into Amitamir’s flank, I flipped my body and sharply changed direction.

Toward the beam of light in the distance above, visible as a small dot.

Pouring out Karma of Murder and mana to maximize the output of Karma Fire.

– Kwaaaaaaaa!

A weight settled on my shoulders. Hair plastered against my back. The surrounding scenery plummeting rapidly beneath my feet.

– Kwaduk!

With my sudden ascent, Amitamir’s maw, which had been aiming for me, bit futilely into empty air.

“Wait, where are you going now?!”

Persiella, who had embedded her blade in Amitamir’s scales, looked up at me with a face full of confusion.

“Don’t tell me it was a lie?! You said temporary alliance, but were you just mocking me?!”

Mocking? How could that be?

I’m just faithfully acting according to our temporarily formed alliance!

“It is a temporary alliance! You fight the beast head-on, I fight while escaping. A perfect cooperative relationship!”

I gave Persiella a sincere explanation with a bright smile.

This is the Haschal-style temporary alliance.

“You, garbage woman…!”

The dragonborn’s delicate face contorted like a demon’s.