Goaaaaaaaatu!
When we got into its sight, the demonic dragon raised a cry.
We might be its first visitors ever.
The demonic dragon gazes over here with belligerent eyes.
Then it flew up, and rotated in the air.
When it built up its maki and cried, two smaller dragons were summoned.
"Did it call its family? I"ll leave them to you."
To my words, Adrigori and Jeko silently raise their weapons.
The demonic dragon looks here, and releases firebreath from its mouth.
Adrigori and Jeko flew to the sides, avoided it, and they both began to fight with its family members respectively.
I hold out my hand, and receive the breath.
Sanctuary
My omnipotent barrier activates, and repels the breath.
The demonic dragon sharply nosedived, and swings its arm at me.
I receive it, and grab the demonic dragon.
"Gaaaaaa!"
The demonic dragon roars.
However, it can"t get away from me.
"Deeeeeei!"
Like that, I threw it.
When the demonic dragon gets back into its stance, it tries to fly again.
Then, Adrigori and Jeko slash at it.
Their enemies don"t seem to have been that big of a deal.
They cut off both legs of the demonic dragon.
Restraints and all, its legs fall.
"Gyaaaaaaa!"
The demonic dragon released a cry of agony.
The demonic dragon that fly up looks down on us from above.
While it was watching us, its legs seem to have regenerated.
"It has a considerably high regeneration speed."
Adrigori states composedly.
"Its family members were small fries. We can beat it without any problems."
Jeko is the same as him.
However, that leeway disappeared in the next moment.
"What!? Its ki is expanding."
Ki flowed powerfully from the demonic dragon.
"The restraints huh. They must have kept its power to below half."
Adrigori picks up the restraints.
A mysterious tool made through magic science.
It was round, and glowing a bluish white color.
The demonic dragon stored up power.
"It"s coming."
Without my needing to warn them, Adrigori and Jeko entered a defensive stance with all their power.
The power of darkness emanates from the demonic dragon.
Shadow Explosion.
As expected, it uses the same magic as demons.
Gooooooooootu!
A huge explosion of the dark attribute occurs, and Jeko was showily blown away.
Blood is spilling from his whole body.
On the other hand, Adrigori was fine.
"It"s these restraints! Even though it was taken off, its effect of weakening the opponent"s power is still there. Jeko, take it."
Adrigori threw one of the restraints to Jeko.
"I won"t thank you."
"Fuun."
When Adrigori made that sound from his nose, he took the other restraint and looked to me.
"I don"t need it."
Sanctuary
I canceled my omnipotent barrier.
The first magic was blocked by my barrier, but I"ll purposely take the second one.
"A,Ashtal-sama, what are you doing!?"
Adrigori fell into a panic.
Why are you panicking?
While we had that exchange, the second magic activated.
Gooooooooootu!
I raise my guard and accept it.
My clothes tore, and I was hurt here and there.
It broke through my guard of jaki.
"You"re not bad!"
I gladly look above me.
The demonic dragon tried to release its third magic explosion.
I won"t let it.
I kick off the floor and jump.
"Evil Blade."
When I cast my magic, I sword made of an evil aura appeared in my right hand.
It *zubazubatu* slices through the demonic dragon"s wings.
The demonic dragon began to fall down.
"Uooo!"
Adrigori and Jeko slashed at the falling demonic dragon.
"Gaaaaaaaa!"
The demonic dragon writhes in pain.
Falling from the sky, I stab it with my Evil Blade.
Like that, I went on and cut it into pieces.
The demonic dragon is still breathing, but it has already stopped moving.
"Fuu."
I look at the demonic dragon.
It seems to be gradual, but it"s begun regenerating.
It has considerable vitality.
If we could talk to it, I"d like to ask it about a bunch of things.
However, I can"t feel any intelligence from the demonic dragon.
I couldn"t believe it"d be able to speak.
Do I have no choice but to deal the finishing blow?
When I thought that, the old man and Serena came around.
"The demonic dragon species. It seems to be quite a powerful existence."
The old man must"ve concluded that based on our clothes.
Serena too.
When I was looking at Serena, the demonic dragon mustered its strength, and tried to get up.
"Gaaaaaatu!"
Then, it releases firebreath at Serena.
"That"s dangerous."
The old man formed a barrier and repelled it.
The eyes of the demonic dragon become bloodshot, and it faces us with enough hatred to make you think it could kill you with just its gaze.
I don"t know whether that last attack exhausted all its power or not, but the demonic dragon stopped moving.
Just to be safe, I dealt it a finishing blow.
"It held an extraordinary hatred for humans. It seemed to be even more intense than that of demons."
Adrigori a.n.a.lyzes.
"It also used the same magic as demons. Well, the power was on a whole different level though."
However I think about it, it can"t be unrelated to demons.
It should be okay to call that demonic dragon"s ki as maki.
"I guess we should go on then."
In order to investigate this, I proposed that.
We registered at the 20th floor, and got onto the elevator.
There weren"t any enemies on the 21st floor.
There were various rooms, SF computers, monitors, and other things like that.
However, we couldn"t move them.
We could activate them, but then a pa.s.sword was needed, and we couldn"t go any further.
"This isn"t working."
The old man seems to have given up as well.
I give up, and move on.
"Wha!? This is!"
I raise a surprised voice, and everyone gathered.
Beyond that, there was a wide s.p.a.ce, and within it were countless large water tanks.
They were all systematically arranged, and were connected by thick wires.
Inside one of the tanks was a dragon.
Probably, it"s a demonic dragon.
"That"s ridiculous……the demonic dragon in this tank is alive."
Adrigori approached the tank, and examined it.
It didn"t seem to be conscious, but it occasionally moved slightly.
There was no doubt that it was still alive.
"This tank must have a life support function. It doesn"t seem to just be for preserving corpses."
I state my conjecture.
"The problem is, what is this?"
The old man is absorbed in thought.
"Is it a subst.i.tute for a prison?"
Jeko answered while looking around.
"The Crystal Tower has been running for a few thousand years. It might be using these guys as sources of energy. This pipe would be the path for that energy."
These guys are the power supply.
It"s only natural to think so.
"Is that possible?"
To my words, Adrigori tilts his head, as if he couldn"t understand.
"If it"s the ancient Ulugu Empire, it"d be possible."
The magic science of the ancient Ulugu Empire.
It"s a technology that far surpa.s.ses our imagination.
"If that"s the case, we can understand why the demonic dragon showed so much hostility towards humans."
The old man looks at Serena.
Serena"s face went a little pale.
Is it the fear of having come all the way to this place?
Is she shocked by the actions of the past humanity.
"Ah, that wouldn"t be so strange if was treated like this."
I nod.
Who laid a hand on the other first?
Did the conflict happen because the humans captured the dragon and treat it that way?
Or, did the dragon attack humans, and they did this as a countermeasure?
For now, we don"t know.
I wonder if that answer is ahead of us?
We headed for the 22nd floor.
The 22nd floor. Adrigori, Jeko and I proceed even deeper.
Since it would be more dangerous after this, the old man and Serena decided to wait at the elevator.
I confirm the figure of an enemy.
After, I look to Adrigori and Jeko.
The two of them nod silently.
Apparently it was unanimous.
We turned back to where the old man was.
"How was it? Were there no enemies this time too?"
"No, time is time. I thought it"d be fine to end here for today."
The old man is suspicious of my answer.
"Yeah, in terms of time, going another 4 floors would be sort of reckless."
"Yeah yeah yeah yeah, that"s right."
Adrigori and Jeko agree with me.
"I see….."
The old man was discerning, and instantly saw through us.
"So the enemy was a humanoid woman."
Silently, we all averted our eyes from the old man.
I don"t know what that was, but it looked like a human woman.
We decided to go again another time.