Chapter 27: Something Important
「That…That"s a cursed item!! Do you have to go that far just to kill Elle!? 」
「*grins sinisterly* Of course! Elle was destined to die in order to become the holy sword! Her fate was decided a hundred years ago! 」
Elle was desperately trying to remove the necklace, but it seemed like the necklace was firmly attached to her neck. Elle pressed her chest and crouched. She was breathing badly.
「d.a.m.n you Dragon Mother!! 」
Mash tried his hardest to move his numb body. However, he couldn"t even move an inch from his position on the ground. The medicine was still affecting us, as I was still unable to move as well.
The black light covered a part of Elle"s cursed necklace.
「Se…Seiya…!! You have to do something quickly…!! 」
I was enormously impatient. Time was crucial on this moment.
「Hey, Dragon Mother. You don"t belong to the devil"s army. Therefore, I will warn you only once. 」
This was a desperate situation and, yet, Seiya spoke coolly like he usual does.
「Break that necklace"s curse. And release us from the Dragon Village. That"s it.」
「You"re a very interesting hero. That"s what you wanted to warn me about? I wonder if you noticed that it"s me who has the advantage now… 」
She started to laugh noisily.
「I refuse!! The Holy Sword Ceremony is absolute!! I am the owner of that spell!! You have to kill me first if you want to break that countdown curse!! 」
「Is that so. Then, I won"t hold back anymore…Here I go. 」
The Dragon Killer started to s.h.i.+ne a brighter red. I knew it when I saw the blade covered on flames. This was the magic sword activation…
「…Phoenix Drive! 」
This was Seiya"s specialty that brought Chaos Makina to dust. Still, I tried to shout at Seiya who was going to attack the Dragon Mother with Phoenix Drive.
「Wa…Wait!! The Dragon Mother is unaffected by…fire… 」
The hero jumped and flew on her direction. He wielded the sword engulfed in flames and he slashed her huge body. The Dragon Mother was supposed to be resistant to fire. Yet, there was signs of smoke everywhere because her scales started to burn.
「How…How can be possible…! 」
His attack was effective because the place where he slashed was swollen red. Maybe it will be possible to defeat her before the countdown is over. Meanwhile, the Dragon Mother groaned painfully.
After the attack from Phoenix Drive, I activated my clairvoyance ability once again. I wanted to confirm if the strength of the Dragon Mother increased or decreased.
HP 341577 / 563290
Great!! Her Health Points* was cut in a half on a blink of an eye!! We still have some time left!! We can save Elle!!
Seiya"s overwhelming offensive power motivated me. But for some reason, the Dragon Mother was showing an admiration expression just like mine.
「Amazing!! That was amazing, hero!! It"s great to have a serious-looking bearer!! It will be possible for this hero to successfully defeat the Demon King once he gains the Egzation!!」
She is still saying that!! She"s persistent!! But what happened!? Her Health Points* were dramatically reduced and, yet, she"s looking amused!?
「…You are strong. Even so…you won"t be able to save that child. 」
Unexpectedly, the body of the Dragon Mother changed colors. The ocher-colored scales that covered her body became more transparent and golden. All of her scales became just like sharp objects.
「"Ultimate Wall" activated!! From now on, your attacks will be useless against me!! Ultimate Wall is the ultimate hardening technique!! This defense power is absolutely invincible!!」
「Ul…Ultimate hardening technique…!? 」
In the meantime, the black light on Elle"s necklace kept spreading. Elle was in distress.
Seiya pointed the Dragon Killer on the Dragon Mother"s direction.
「That wall…I"ll show you that I can break through that wall. 」
That"s right!! She"s not invincible!! Seiya broke through Dark Fires impenetrable defense mechanism not long ago!! I"m sure he"ll be able to do it again!!
Following that heat confrontation, the reliable cautious hero took a sachet from his pocket.
「Seiya? What"s that? 」
「I bought this "seed of agility" from the tool shop a while ago. 」
「I see!! That will speed up your attacks!! 」
Seiya took the seeds from the sachet and threw them on his mouth all at once.
「Eh…All of them…? 」
Seiya was chewing all of the seeds. His mouth was fully bloated.
Oh G.o.d!! I thought he looked so cool after saying great words like "I"ll show you that I can break through that wall", but now, why was he starting to resemble an hamster instead!?
「…What"s wrong? 」
Seiya no longer looked like a hamster when he turned at me. Apparently, he chew the seeds extremely fast and he swallowed them in one gulp.
「Let"s see if I increased my agility… 」
Seiya disappeared on the moment he professed those words. After searching for him with my eyes, I finally noticed where he was. Before I knew it, Seiya was standing beside Mash a little far away from me.
It looked like he used teleportation!! So, this was the result of eating countless of seeds at the same time like a hamster…!!
Seiya took a black sheath from one of Mash"s bags and removed its contents. He took from inside the sheath a sword with a red blade just like the one he was grabbing on one of his hands.
「Dragon Killer!? You had another one!? 」
「It"s a spare. It would be a problem if the only sword I had were to break apart. However, spares can be functional on times like these as well. 」
Seiya held his two Dragon Killers on both his hands. At that point, he lowered his waist and looked directly at the gigantic golden dragon.
「Double-mode "Eternal Sword"…! 」
Whoa!! Besides the insanely increase in agility, he is trying to combine Adenela"s "gunshot sword" on his dual-wielding Dragon Killer!? I"m sure we"ll make it on time…!!
「*grins* Are you ready? Then, come on. 」
「Here I go. 」
Seiya jumped instantly towards the Dragon Mother and immediately started to strike continually without stopping! He hit the Dragon Mother at an astonis.h.i.+ng speed! I could only grasp the shadow of his silhouette as he was appearing and disappearing instantaneously! The sword sounds that combined with his incredible speed sounded extraordinary on my ears!
The Dragon Mother hardened body was shaken by the impact of the attacks on her abdomen.
「A…Amazing!! You can do it…Yes, you can do it!! 」
It seemed like the effect from the numbness medicine was wearing off. I could stand up in excitement and joy. I approached a suffering Elle and embraced her on my shoulders.
「It will be fine, Elle!! Because Seiya will kill her soon enough!! 」
「Ye…Ye…Yes… 」
I wondered if Seiya"s strong sword technique managed to cause damage on the Dragon Mother.
I used my clairvoyance ability to see the change on the Dragon Mother"s physical strength. However, as soon as I saw her stats, I doubted my eyes…
HP 340881 / 563290
「It…It can"t be!! Her HP looks almost unchanged…!? How is this possible…!! 」
If my memory was correct, her Health Points* have decreased less than 1000!
「*prideful voice* I told you! Ultimate Wall is the ultimate hardening technique! This skill doesn"t have any weakness! Its strong attributes makes it the perfect defense skill to neutralize any magic or physical attacks! 」
The Dragon Mother grinned and distorted her mouth.
「By the way, the hero"s single attacks were categorized only by the numerical range of 1 or 3 of the total damage he caused. 」
「It can"t be!! His single attacks only decreased your HP by 1 or 3 points!? 」
「No, no, you should be proud. Normally, after the Ultimate Wall is activated, the damage should be zero no matter how much you attack. That hero, with both Dragon Killers on his hands, was able to give me some damage, even if it was insignificant in the end. 」
The black light on Elle"s necklace consumed more than a half by now.
The Dragon Mother opened her wide mouth and spoke with a very loud voice.
「One more minute to go before Elle dies! You cannot defeat me unless you attack me faster! That"s right…you"ll need to strike me with two thousand attacks per second! *victorious laugh* Give up! That girl can"t be saved! Hero, let"s stop this useless battle! 」
However, Seiya didn"t listen at all. He kept striking the Dragon Mother with both his swords.
The hardening skin neutralized his attacks. No real damage was inflicted whatsoever. We could describe his efforts as "useless resistance".
「…Mister Seiya…It"s okay…to…stop. 」
「Elle!? 」
Elle was suffering from the power of the curse. Yet, she gathered her last strength to speak at Seiya who continued to attack helplessly.
「Thank you…for trying to help me…I"m truly happy…but…it"s okay to stop…that"s enough…」
The Dragon Mother distorted her face and grinned at sad-looking but courageous Elle.
「It seems that Elle finally gave up. 」
The black light was approaching the remaining piece of the necklace. I was feeling frustrated with myself while I firmly embraced Elle on my arms.
…We really can"t save her? Was it impossible for Seiya? Is her destiny to become Egzation really unavoidable? Do we need that sword in order to save the S-rank difficulty world Geabrande?
「Come on, Elle!! Die and become the Egzation!! 」
The Dragon Mother"s voice was full of pride and pleasure. However, in a second her voice changed dramatically.
「What… 」
I noticed a certain anomaly on the Dragon Mother"s body. At the same time…
「It was your idea. 」
Seiya spoke directly to the Dragon Mother.
「…Ah? What are you talking about? 」
「Look behind you. 」
The Dragon Mother moved her neck with difficulty because of her hardening condition. When she looked behind her back…
「What!? 」
She screamed grotesquely.
…I didn"t notice any significant change at first. Nonetheless, I finally realized her dangerously position. Even though the Ultimate Wall neutralized any offensive strikes, the continuous attacks from both Dragon Killers made an impact on her body. It meant that the Dragon Mother was pushed by the continuous attacks and she was approaching the edge of the abyss.
「You are about three to four meters from falling. Really…How can you call yourself "cautious"? You didn"t notice your position until you reached the edge of the hole. 」
After speaking, Seiya stroke the Dragon Mother violently.
「St…Stop!! Don"t attack!! 」
Yet, Seiya didn"t lose his grip on his swords. I shouted at the Dragon Mother.
「Break the curse that"s killing Elle; quickly!! If you fall into the magic chart your body will be subject to a powerful force strong enough to turn a person into a sword; no matter how much struggle, you won"t be able to avoid the consequences for being the wrong vessel!! 」
*Dragon Mother looks furious*
The Dragon Mother was approaching the abyss without a way out. On that moment, she glanced at Elle with terrifying eyes.
「Why are you doing this!? I don"t understand!! Why are you going this far just to protect that child!? She doesn"t have any fighting nor magical abilities!! She"s just a vessel to become the Egzation!! She"s a waste unless she turns into the sword!! If you bring her along with you, she"ll be only hindrance to all of you because she"s useless!! 」
「…She"s not a waste. 」
In his usual voice, Seiya declared the following.
「She carries my important luggage. 」
「Mister Seiya…!! 」
Soon, Elle"s eyes were overflowing with tears. Elle touched her small face and cried.
No, he should have said "my important comrade" instead…But, Seiya! I can"t believe you said "luggage"! I am a little angry with you!
「Dragon Mother!! Break that curse right now!! Or you"ll fall into the abyss!! 」
「Ok..Okay, I understand!! I fixed it!! I already fixed it!! Then stop the attacks!!」
Seiya stopped attacking the Dragon Mother with his swords just before she fell on the abyss.
But, on that moment…The Dragon Mother laughed wickedly!
「You idiots!! What I fixed was my Ultimate Wall!! I can move freely now!! We can"t allow a sinner to kill the Mother of all dragons, even if the aggressor is a hero!! You will feel the pain for cornering me before!! Take this!! Dragon Breath!! 」
She widely opened her mouth and flames were about to erupt. Yet, Seiya was holding his sword with an offensive stance.
「…Double Wind Blade! 」
Seiya created a vacuum wave between his two swords. Before the Dragon Mother could spit the flames from her mouth, Seiya attacked at an overwhelming speed, engraving an x-cross laceration on her abdomen! On that moment, the Dragon Mother collapsed and finally fell into the abyss!
Even so, the Dragon Mother laughed triumphantly.
「I have wings!! I can fix my Ultimate Wall while I fly!! I won"t fall into the bottom!! 」
In an instant, she was on the verge of falling. One of the Dragon Mother wings was painfully tattered. I noticed there was a hole big enough that you could see the scenery from the other side of her wing.
「It can"t be!! What happened to my wings!? 」
The Dragon Mother opened her excruciating eyes and shouted agonizingly as she noticed that her wings could no longer make her fly.
「Why!? *screams repeatedly* 」
The Dragon Mother last roaring words echoed through the Dragon Valley, her death roars were heard everywhere in the Dragon Village.
Eventually, her screaming voice faded away. However, I didn"t hear any loud falling sound even after her huge body fell into the bottom of the abyss.
「It"s impossible…! Don"t tell me that the Dragon Mother is still alive…? 」
Does that mean that the curse was not broken!? Then, Elle will…!!
The black light was covering Elle"s entire necklace.
「E…Elle!! 」
The effects from the numbness medicine finally went away. Mash rushed on Elle"s direction. However…
I heard a snapping sound and the cursed necklace broke apart from Elle"s neck, falling to the ground.
「Ah… 」
I looked at Elle with a sigh of relief.
「Thank goodness…! The Dragon Mother really fell to the bottom…! The curse was broken…」
Mash held Elle on his arms as he spoke the same way as I did.
「Thank goodness!! Thank goodness, Elle!! 」
「Mash, wait! Stop it! It"s embarra.s.sing! 」
This situation reminded me of the Dark Fires battle. Elle jumped into Mash"s arms when he woke up and she cried endlessly. But their roles were switched this time. I looked closely at them…
*feels rea.s.sured*
I finally felt relieved. I gazed at Seiya who put his swords back in the sheaths.
「Hey, Seiya. Can I ask you one thing? How did you torn the Dragon Mother"s wings?」
Seiya spoke with a troublesome expression.
「Before she activated the Ultimate Wall. While her whole body was. .h.i.t by Phoenix Drive, I managed to heavily damage her wings. 」
「Before the Ultimate Wall…? But, Isn"t that strange? Because during that time, you didn"t know that she had that kind of skill, am I right? Why did you attack her wings in advance?」
「It was easy to guess that the enemy would escape or use a defense mechanism after giving a three-minute countdown to Elle. Besides that, I saw her stats through my ability and she had a skill named "Ultimate Wall". I immediately thought that she would use that skill to make sure the three minutes were finished. To tell you the truth, it would"ve been wiser to defeat her before activating such skill. But the HP was so high that it was impossible to beat her in a short amount of time…I thought that if she was in a worrying situation without being able to use the Ultimate Wall, she"ll probably try to escape. That"s why I first aimed at her wings. 」
「Were you thinking on pus.h.i.+ng the Dragon Mother into the abyss right from the beginning? Just how careful are you? 」
「Well, there was a miscalculation on my part though. When the Ultimate Wall was activated, it didn"t look like the wall that I imagined. I had imagined that the wall would be like a "Nurikabe**". 」
「You didn"t know what a Slime was. But you do know what a Nurikabe** is huh…」
「Well, I know what a Nurikabe** is though. More importantly… 」
Seiya turned his cold eyes to the abyss.
「That Dragon Mother. She wasn"t careful enough like me. If she activated the Ultimate Wall early on, her wings would be safe and she would be able to escape. If I were she, I would activate the Ultimate Wall in the middle of the banquet party. 」
「 But if she started to harden during the banquet party it would be too obvious…」
At that time, I was reluctant to let my guard down because of the dragon men.
「 Our Dragon Mother fell into the abyss…!! 」
「 How could do…!! 」
「 You d.a.m.n people…!! You won"t get away from this…!! 」
The dragon people surrounded us with murderous eyes. Most of them had weapons on their hands ready to attack us.
The situation didn"t change that much after the Dragon Mother was gone. The dragon people changed their eye color as they approached us. Elle ran behind Mash"s back and he drew his sword at them.
I also hid behind Seiya"s back. Suddenly, a s.h.i.+ning sword came out from the abyss and went towards the sky.
「 Wha…What"s that…? 」
The dragons were speechless as they witnessed a red and black mottled sword pa.s.sing through a tunnel of light that stretched from the bottom of the valley right up to the sky.
That was…!! The Dragon Mother became a sword with the power of the magical enchantment chart in the bottom of the abyss…!!
As expected, Seiya pulled his hand and grabbed the sword floating in the sky.
「Alright. I got the Egzation. 」
After a moment of silence…All of the dragon people gathered in the valley started to cry aloud.
「No! That"s not the Egzation!! 」
Of course that"s not the holy sword!! What the h.e.l.l was Seiya thinking about!?
While I was perplexed at Seiya"s actions, the dragon people were getting angrier at all of us.
「That sword is a regular sword!! 」
「It doesn"t s.h.i.+ne G.o.dly like the legendary sword!! 」
「That"s true!! We need to kill Elle!! 」
「Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill!! 」
Their madness was getting uncontrollable. Nevertheless…
「Shut up…Human Lizards. 」
The huge turmoil suddenly became quieter after they heard the voice from the hero who slaughtered the Dragon Mother.
「You said that the Egzation needed the life, blood and flesh of a woman who had the Dragon Tribe"s blood. The Dragon Mother"s life became part of this sword. Then, that means… 」
Seiya approached Elle and grabbed her right arm.
「It hurts… 」
Elle yelled for a brief moment. A small amount of blood was flowing from Elle"s arm.
「Master? What are you doing? 」
「Ask Lista to fix you up later. 」
Seiya picked a piece of meat from Elle"s arm with his finger and placed it on the blade of the colored sword.
「I"ll combine Elle"s flesh and blood on this sword. 」
Seiya activated his synthesis skill. Unexpectedly, the sword started to emit a dazzling light and s.h.i.+ned brightly.
The dragon people started to rejoice.
「That G.o.dly light…!! 」
「There"s no mistake…!! That is…!! 」
「Egzation…!! That"s Egzation…!! 」
Seiya nodded his head proudly as he put the holy sword Egzation on his sheath. The dragon people surrounded Seiya on that moment as he spoke to them.
「It ended up great. You fulfilled your mission as dragons and I got the sword to defeat the Demon King. This is a win-win situation. 」
One of the dragon men said in remorse.
「But the Dragon Mother pa.s.sed away… 」
「Her life will be used for a greater good in order to save the world. She said that countless of times before she died. 」
「Well, that"s true. 」
「Yes, she said. Then, what"s your problem? 」
「No, the problem is…Well, there is no problem. 」
「There are no problems at all. It"s a win-win for both of us. 」
「Win-win you say…I guess you"re right… 」
「It"s a completely win-win. With this, the Holy Sword Ceremony is over. 」
I hoped all of this commotion would finally end. Suddenly, the dragons surrounding us stopped moving abruptly as if something were about to happen.
*tremendous sound*
A big sound shook throughout the Dragon Valley! All of the dragon people, including myself, were trembling in fear!
After beating his hand heavily and drawing attention to himself, Seiya spoke loudly to everyone in the surroundings.
「Okay, dismissed!!!! 」
The dragon people started to walk away and left the Dragon Valley as if they were small children scolded by their teacher.
*The original translation is: Physical Strength, but HP means Health Points so we decided to use that instead.
**The nurikabe is a yokai (spirit/monster) from the j.a.panese folklore. It takes form as an invisible wall that blocks the path of travelers as they"re walking at night.
—————–
Thank you to the Patrons for the continued support!