Chapter 19: Gaelion
Gaelion was not a normal dragon.
Unlike the normal Knight Dragons that humans usually tamed to ride, he was one of the oldest dragons that existed in this land, with his age nearly reaching the one hundred milestone. When the Dragon Emperor of the world perished from his defeat under the hand of the Queen of the Filolials, his Dragon Emperor Core shattered, and one of its fragments found him as its worthy owner. From that day onward, Gaelion was marked as one of the Dragon Emperor Candidates of the land, with the mission to unite every fragment of the Core to become the new Dragon Emperor.
However, unlike the other dragons who possessed the Core fragments, Gaelion did not care about that "mission".
In his life, he had gone through countless battles, and more enemies had fallen under his claws and fangs than he cared to remember. Only the most powerful beings in this land, such as the previous Dragon Emperor or the Queen of the Filolials, could have a chance to defeat him. However, the older he got, the more meaningless that power became to him.
Being stronger means having more enemies, and he had experienced in the most painful way possible what that actually means. In the past, he had had a family; a loving wife and a daughter. At that time, he had still been a bloodthirsty megalomaniac obsessed with achieving the ultimate power, to become the strongest being in the land. And in a battle like that to decide who the strongest was, the bastard who had suffered a humiliating defeat under his hand had decided to be a sore loser and murdered his family out of spite. Dragons could marry any species; his wife was actually not a dragon, but a young and beautiful demi-human who wasn't scared away by his appearance, but instead had given him care and love when he was injured in a deadly battle. And a demi-human, no matter how strong they might be, was no match for a dragon. Even though the son of a bitch also paid for what he had done, even a mighty being like Gaelion couldn't bring back the dead.
After that, he suddenly realized that he was tired and sick of all the bloody killing he had done. He didn't want to continue fighting anymore. That was why he proclaimed himself the weakest of the Dragon Emperors, and retreated to this land to hide himself away from the brutal battles of the Dragons to claim the Dragon Emperor Core fragments for themselves. He didn't have any other purposes in life… until he met her.
He still remembered that day clearly, as if everything had just happened the day before.
A pair of demi-humans were running through the forest.
They had been running like this for hours. But no matter how tired they were, they didn't dare to stop. There's no way they could stop; if their legs stopped moving for just one minute, those evil people would surely catch up, and something worse than death would fall on their heads for sure.
There's no way they could let their precious daughter fall into the hands of that supposedly holy sanctuary again… No, not after they managed to escape from the bound of those blasted slave crests…
In the mother's arms, a child no more than seven years old whispered in a trembling voice.
"Mommy… I'm cold…"
The woman patted the little girl's head, her legs still didn't slow down a little bit. "J-just hold on, darling. Only a little bit more…"
Just a few more hours of running, and they're going to be in the country of Zeltoble. They would be safe there…
Suddenly the mother tripped on something. She fell face-first to the ground, and the kid flew out of her embrace and collapsed onto the cold surface of the mountain with a "thud". She screamed out in pain, and immediately, from afar, a voice rose.
"There they are! I heard the scream! Over there!"
The father suddenly stopped dead on his track. Looking at his wife, he said in a grim voice. "Nadia. You take Wyndia and go ahead."
The mother's eyes widened when she realized what her husband was trying to do. "No, I can't let you do that! Let me…!"
But the grim look on the demi-human man stopped the last words from leaving her mouth. She understood that if he didn't do that, all of them were going to die here, for sure. If that happened… no one would be able to take care of little Wyndia anymore.
A sacrifice must be made…
Swallowing the pain and despair rising in her throat, she gripped her daughter tightly and turned around, continuing her run. From behind, she could hear the yell of her brave husband when he ran in the opposite direction, pulling the pursuers away from her route, even if it was just for a short moment.
"Mommy… why doesn't Daddy go with us?" she heard Wyndia asking, but she didn't have any heart to answer her. She just kept running and running; tears ran down her cheeks, which were luckily hidden by the heavy rain pouring down their heads.
The trail opened to a clearing in front of a cave. Maybe if they hid there, the pursuers wouldn't be able to find them…
Suddenly the poor woman's back felt a piercing pain. She gasped out and stumbled forward; a stray arrow from the pursuers had managed to find its intended target. But at that moment, a surge of energy suddenly emerged from the mother; she immediately recovered, and lifting Wyndia up again, she dashed into the dark cave.
Gently putting her daughter down, she finally let herself collapse next to the wall of the cave. Breathes were starting to leave her lungs; she knew she wouldn't last much longer. Next to her, the little girl was crying; even though she didn't understand much, she still knew that something bad was going to happen.
"I'm sorry… Wyndia, darling…" she whispered to the now quietly sobbing little girl. She grabbed her shoulder and pulled her into a hug. "It seemed… Mommy wouldn't be able… to go with you… anymore…"
"M… mommy…"
She silenced her with a kiss on the forehead. "Stay strong… and remember… Mommy… will always… love you…"
Then there was nothing else. The dark cave returned to its eerie silence; the only sound left was the voice of the little girl crying her heart out on top of her mother's corpse.
"In there! I can hear the little brat crying!"
Wyndia's eyes widened. The bad people were coming, and there's no escape for her now…
Suddenly a feeling of chill crawled into her spine from behind her. The little girl turned back, and a voice rose from deep inside the cave.
"Who dares to interrupt my sleep?"
And since that day, he had found his reason to live. He had been dedicating everything he had to protecting and raising the little girl into a proper person. Since then, a lot of slavers had come to try to take her away from him, but he didn't have anything to fear; those fodders were nothing against his power. Every time they dared to step foot near this place, he would send them away easily without having to spend much effort. Every time, he tried to hold back as much as he could, however. He wanted to give those humans a warning that no matter how many they sent, they would never take the girl back into their grip again.
However…
For the first time in his long life, the mighty dragon Gaelion felt fear looking at the group of adventurers who were walking toward him at the moment. Namely, the white-haired, tanned one standing in the middle of the group.
That man was unlike any other adventurers he had ever faced in the past. Just a glance at him was more than enough for the dragon to realize an incredible power inside him. The only people he had ever known holding that kind of power were… the previous Cardinal Heroes of the Legendary Weapons. He had only met them once in his life, but he could never forget the overwhelming power their weapons possessed. And he was sensing that massive power again… from the sword strapped on the man's back. This man… was definitely one of the new Cardinal Heroes. The Hero of the Sword.
Suddenly a surge of feelings exploded from inside his body. All of his senses went haywire at once, and were replaced by an unquenchable fire of anger, caution and fear.
There's no doubt. Those humans had resorted to throwing everything they had at him. They wanted to end his life for good just to get back the person they considered their goods to sell. And with the legendary Sword Hero here, he's going to be killed. For real this time.
No. Even with the Sword Hero as his opponent, he's not going to let them get their satisfaction that easily.
EMIYA's eyes widened. "Watch out!" he yelled and pushed Yuki, who was standing right next to him out of the way when a blast of fire suddenly shot out of the dragon's maw towards him without even a hint of warning. The blast missed him by a hair's breadth and exploded a few meters behind him, and the Sword Hero winced when he saw the row of trees behind him turning into piles of ash by the massive explosion.
So… you're not going to talk without a fight, huh…
"Everyone, get ready!" he yelled, drawing the Legendary Sword from its sheath on his back. "This dragon is not like any enemies we fought before!"
Those words were unnecessary, though. The team had already realized how dangerous the dragon they were fighting was and scattered right before the first attack could reach them. They immediately took their battle stances, ready to retaliate.
Farrie was the first one who opened combat. "All Dritte Boost!" she yelled and slammed the pole of her staff on the ground. The orb at the tip of the staff glowed brightly, and the team felt themselves stronger and faster thanks to the powerful support spell.
Farrie had gone a long way since the day they met each other for the first time, and now she could cast that powerful spell without chanting the longass incantation in the book. An incantation, after all, was just a way for the spellcaster to put their mind into a state suitable for controlling the magic in their body. If the caster mastered the magic to a certain level, he or she would be able to put themselves into the magical mindset much easier, to the point it would be possible for them to cast the spell by just declaring its name, or even better, thinking about it and doing the required hand gestures. Not only would that reduce casting time significantly, it also gave them a slight advantage during battle, as the enemies wouldn't know what kind of magic they were going to cast.
Upon receiving the buffs, Welt immediately unleashed a volley of arrows, all aiming at the seemingly weakest point of the dragon, its eyes. The class-up into the Agent class had improved his archery to a completely new level by giving him the passive skill Hawkeye, a skill that any living archer would kill to possess. That skill not only improved the range of his vision, but also allowed him to increase his ability to look for the weak points of the enemies he was facing. That, together with EMIYA's special method of archery training, had made him one of the deadliest archers ever, whose skill in archery might even rival, if not exceed, the Bow Hero himself.
However, even though the shots might be deadly accurate and might harm the soft parts of the dragon, their power was not enough to penetrate the creature's hide. Therefore, when the arrows almost reached the dragon's eyes, the creature only did a very simple action and snapped its eyes shut. The wooden arrows only bounced off the skin of the dragon's eyes harmlessly.
"Heh."
But Welt never intended for those arrows to hit. In a battle, losing vision for even a single second could result in death. And that was the very same thing the archer was looking for. In just that very same second, EMIYA closed the distance between himself and the dragon; his sword drew a perfect arc in the air, aiming for the right wing of the creature. If he could disable its greatest weapon before it could take off from the ground, the fight would be much fairer…!
And in that split second, the Sword Hero felt that everything was going to go wrong.
He didn't have the incredible instinct Artoria possessed, but his battle experience, accumulated from countless battlefields, was more than enough to scream at him to stop his attack when a voice rose from the dragon itself. It was not simply a growl of rage, but what sounded like… a magic spell.
"All Anti-Dritte Boost."
Immediately, to everyone's horror, the buffs Farrie had put on them were violently dispelled by a gust of wind coming from the dragon. Their bodies suddenly felt like lead, and EMIYA, in the middle of moving at a very high speed, stumbled forward… right into the tail of the dragon, which was whipping toward him.
Oh shi…!
EMIYA could only put their swords in front of him right before the huge appendage smashed him in the chest and launched him away like a sack of rice. The ex-Guardian winced when he felt pain suddenly spiking in his chest; even with the incredible protection of the Champion's Garb, that blow must have broken at least two of his ribs. It felt as if Herakles had just smashed him in the ribcage with his stone sword without holding back anything.
Farrie had told him that countering magic was incredibly taxing and inefficient, and even the most skilled magic users in this world didn't usually utilize that kind of tactic when fighting against other magic users. And yet, that dragon completely nullified the powerful support magic Farrie cast with just one single incantation.
Just how powerful was this dragon?!
But he didn't have the time to rest. Right after tossing him away, the dragon proceeded to lunge toward the team with vengeance. He brandished his claws, obviously intending to skewer them on those deadly appendages. And his target was… Yuki, whose feet were frozen in place with fear and horror.
"Oh no you don't!" Tersia roared. Brandishing her sword, she activated the skill she had received upon having the class-up, the signature skill of the Guardian class, Cover. In a blink of an eye, she was pulled towards Yuki with a magical force, and she stood firm in front of the kitsune, holding her sword in front of her like a shield right before the limb full of razor-sharp claws of the dragon collided with the surface of the blade.
Her arms immediately felt numb to the shoulders. She had trained her arms vigorously in order to be able to wield her great sword properly and effectively, but this kind of impact was like nothing she had ever felt before. It was just like she had just been hit by a meteor. Usually, after blocking the hit, she would retaliate immediately with the skill Counter, which converted half the damage she would have received into attack power to deliver a devastating counterblow to the enemy. But now she couldn't even move her arms, and as such, she could only stand there like a sitting duck when the dragon delivered a brutal backhand to her face.
Tersia crashed on the ground next to EMIYA. The defensive power of her gear obviously couldn't compare to his Champion's Garb, and even with the boost of defensive power from her class-up, she was still only a seventeen-year-old girl. She screamed in pain; her right arm was broken and was now hanging at a painfully weird angle.
Not wasting even a second to think, EMIYA leapt onto his feet; the Legendary Sword changed into the form of Ascalon, the holy sword of Saint Georgios.
[Name: Ascalon – Quality: Epic – Base Power: 30]
[Defense +150. Magic Defense +150. Physical Damage Reduction: large. Magical Damage Reduction: large. Mental Interference Immunity: medium. Hate Reaction.]
[Unique Ability: Dragon Slayer.]
[Proficiency: 25%]
[Unlocked at Level 55 - UNLOCKED]
Different from other swords, Ascalon, The Blessed Sword By Which One is Protected, was well-known in history not as a sword which could destroy things really well, but as an invincible sword which would protect its wielder from all the harms threatening him. If anything, this sword was an even better shield than some of the best shields known to humankind, even though it was still a sword. Saint Georgios could reverse the protection of the sword into destructive power and turn it into The Blessed Sword By Which Force is Slain, a sword with the power to destroy even the most powerful dragons, but that ability was only available to him since he was the true owner of the sword. Even though its power was reduced to merely a sword with powerful defensive power in this world, its defensive capability was still so massive even the strongest shield Naofumi had in his possession right now couldn't even compare. EMIYA was sure that as long as he still wielded it in his hand, that dragon would not be able to kill him.
With a roar, he locked his blade with the claws of the dragon. Even though it didn't have a very high attack power, the unique ability of this sword was a great boon against this enemy; it caused all of his attacks with the sword to become effective when fighting a dragon. With a downward slash, he chopped off a finger claw of the incoming limb, making the dragon roar in pain and surprise. Flapping his large wings frantically, the dragon flung himself backward; where did that man get for himself a dragon-slaying weapon!?
The backtracking of the dragon also blew EMIYA back a few steps, but doing a backflip in the air, he immediately regained balance on the ground on his feet. Gripping Ascalon with both hands, he hefted the sword over his shoulders and focused his magical energy for a skill. Bright red flame started covering the blade of the dragon-slaying sword.
"Dawn Lion!" he roared, and swung the sword in a horizontal slash. This skill was a skill he received from the lion head he got as loot after defeating the chimera in the earlier Wave. A lion-shaped wave of fire burst out of the blade and flew toward the dragon with the speed of a missile. The dragon roared and put his hands forward, blocking the attack in midair, but the force coming from the skill was so terrifying it pushed him backward on his feet. How in the world a burst of fire was able to completely defy all kinds of laws of physics to do that, and how the dragon could stop it with his hands, were unfathomable to the ex-Guardian, though, but at this time, he would just have to accept it. The skill exploded, drowning the dragon in a humongous ball of flame.
That attack was not that fast, EMIYA's eyes narrowed. He could have moved away to avoid that attack, but instead, he decided to take it head-on, without moving from that place. Could it be… he's trying to protect something in the cave behind him?
The dragon let out an earth-shattering roar and blew away the fire covering him. His eyes gleamed dangerously; he couldn't afford to hold back anymore…!
While EMIYA was busy fending off the dragon, Farrie rushed to her friend on the ground. She winced upon seeing the condition of her friend's arm. Hastily, she straightened the bones, which earned her a cry of pain from the sword maiden, and cast a healing spell. The arm was fixed in an instant, but she knew it would be dangerous if things continued like this. Even the most powerful healers couldn't keep up if the people they're supposed to heal suffered from damages greater than they could handle.
Then she heard a voice. A low, deep growl came from the dragon, in a magical language that even though not of humankind, she could still understand because of a long time studying magic. It was… a chant.
"I call upon the powers of the Fire and the Wind to come to me and take form…"
Oh no…!
Completely ignoring the dangers that she might get into, she placed Tersia on the ground and jumped forward when the Sword Hero was once again flung back by a hit from the dragon. She stabbed the pole of her staff to the ground, held it with both of her hands and yelled to her teammates. "Everyone! Brace yourself! As the source of your power, I command you, decipher the law of nature and create the strongest wall to protect my comrades! Dritte Castle Wall!"
"…Dragon Veins, listen to my command and vanquish the enemies before me! Infernal Eruption!"
The humongous barricade made of five barriers of light appeared in front of the team when the air around the dragon was sucked into a sphere in front of the dragon's maw and heated up to tremendous temperature, forming a white ball of plasmarized oxygen and hydrogen which looked like it could detonate at any moment. And with an earth-shaking roar, a scorching white beam of energy shot out from the dragon and struck the barricade right at its center.
A colossal explosion. The mere sound of it seemed to blow everything apart; the whole clearing was drowned in white, searing fire. Farrie's barriers could barely protect them from the direct damage coming from the explosion, but it couldn't keep them completely safe against the splash damage; Welt screamed when fire licked the exposed skin on his arms and thighs; even with the boosts from his recent class-up, having your skin burned by thousand-of-degrees-hot flames was still something no one would want to experience. Tersia obviously felt the fire rippling on her skin, too, but she still didn't let go of Yuki; she used her body to hide the smallest member of the team from the danger, not caring a bit about herself.
"Almost… there…" Farrie groaned out. Her whole body was also in excruciating pain, both from the fire and the immense drainage of MP, but she adamantly refused to let go; even if she had to sacrifice this life, she's still going to keep her comrades safe…!
Finally, after an agonizingly long moment, the fire died down. And at the same time, the barriers shattered into dust of light with a horrible noise, as if thousands of mirrors had just been smashed to the ground at the same time. Farrie weakly turned her head towards her teammates.
"Are… you all… okay…?"
EMIYA immediately realized what was happening. He took a step forward and caught the girl before her body could hit the ground. She had exhausted her body completely from forcing herself to the limit to stop the attack of the dragon, to the point she couldn't keep herself conscious anymore.
"No…!"
"Farrie! Farrie! Wake up!" Tersia desperately cried out while frantically shaking her friend, but it was useless; the girl's body just lay lifelessly in her hands, there's no sign that she was still alive besides the weak breaths coming out of her nose, which couldn't even be seen if not paying close attention.
Yuki stared at what was happening in front of her in horror. To protect her… Tersia-nee-chan had gotten hurt, not once, but twice. Farrie-nee-chan was the person she loved the most in Team EMIYA besides her Papa of course, because she had always been really nice and doting to her. And now… she was lying there, dead… because she tried to protect her and everyone…
No matter how powerful as a monster she was, Yuki was still a kid at heart. And an innocent child like her was going to see a person really close to her dying, right in front of her… and because of her.
And something inside the little kitsune snapped.
On the other side of the battlefield, the dragon also looked winded. That attack was the strongest one he had in his arsenal, with enough power to level a town; how did a little girl manage to STOP it, just like that?!
And that attack wasn't something he could fire haphazardly; it utilized the Way of the Dragon Vein, which took the magical energy from his surroundings to deliver a powerful attack with power equal to that of a natural disaster. However, this particular attack was a combination of two different elements of the Dragon Vein, which were Fire and Wind; while the Wind element was abundant in a forest like this, it was nowhere near a place where he could utilize the Fire element effectively. With this attack alone, he had exhausted half of the Fire energy of this place, and it would take a while before enough energy was replenished; he could only fire something like that once more.
He needed to finish this quickly, or else…
He rose to his feet, and the humans tensed up; they didn't have the white mage who raised the barrier from before, and another blast would totally finish them off…
Suddenly the temperature of the whole clearing dropped at least twenty degrees. Everyone could feel the freezing wind crawling through their bodies, up their spines and covering their inner organs in a chill. That cold wave came from Yuki, who was now looking down on the ground, her body trembling like crazy. In fear? In rage? Or both?
Then magical energy exploded from the mikon's body as she transformed into her beast form. The energy burst was so intense it threw everyone off their feet, and shook the trees in the forest so wildly that leaves and branches rained down on the ground, covering it in brown and green. And EMIYA was startled when he saw the mikon's eyes. Instead of the innocent royal blue color he usually saw, right now… they're blood red without irises.
No…!
Even the dragon was completely taken aback by the sudden outburst coming from the little kitsune. What the hell is that girl…?!
The giant mikon let out a bone-chilling howl. Then, with a speed EMIYA never thought she could move at, she leapt at the dragon like a tornado and sank her fangs into the neck of the creature. The dragon let out a roar of shock and surprise from the sudden attack, but the attack itself wasn't that powerful; the fangs of the young mikon couldn't get very deep through the hide on his neck. He struggled wildly, and the mikon was tossed away. She bounced on the ground twice, but regained her balance almost immediately and launched herself at the dragon again, biting and clawing and scratching at the enemy furiously.
The two monsters soon engaged in a brutal, no-holds-barred brawl on the ground. Time after time, the dragon tried to shrug the mikon off himself, but no matter how many times he tossed her away, she would immediately bounce back and continue her relentless assault. Wounds started appearing all over her body, and her white coat of fur was turning red with blood, but the mikon seemed to have lost all senses of pain and fear; in her mind right now, there was only a wild, feral rage, and in her eyes existed only the enemy dragon. The dragon had also taken a lot of damage, but if this continued, Yuki would be the one who died before the dragon could be taken down.
While the two creatures were busy brawling on the ground, EMIYA raised Farrie up from the ground. He pulled a small bottle of smelling salt out of the Legendary Sword's inventory and put the mouth near the girl's nose. Immediately, the girl started coughing lightly, and the ex-Guardian took that chance to pour the content of another bottle into her mouth. It was a bottle of recovery potion which could replenish MP he bought from Castle Town's apothecary before they departed. Not much, but he was sure it was enough to bring her back to consciousness. And just as he thought, upon receiving the potion, the priestess groaned and slowly opened her eyes.
"How are you feeling?" EMIYA asked in concern when the girl finally woke up. She gave him a weak smile.
"Like having ten days of training stuffed into a few minutes, sensei. My whole body hurts like hell, but I'm not going to die that easily."
Then she saw what Yuki was doing against the dragon. Her smile immediately turned into a gasp of horror. "Wh… what is she doing?!"
"When you lost consciousness, it seemed she snapped and started attacking the dragon, just like that," the Sword Hero answered. "Right now she's fighting solely with her feral instinct of a monster, but she's not going to hold on for much longer."
It didn't take a genius to see that EMIYA was completely correct. No matter how much of a mutated monster she might be, Yuki was only a child. And her enemy was obviously a hundreds-of-year-old dragon who had been through a lot of fights. With an enemy like that, even if you were stronger in terms of power, there's still no way for you to win if you just rushed in headfirst with nothing in your head but fury.
Farrie pushed herself up from the ground. She gritted her teeth in pain. "I have to… stop her…!"
"You can't!" Tersia protested. She grabbed her friend's shoulders tightly, trying to push her back down. "You've just woken up from exhaustion; there's no way you can…!"
"No, she's right."
Tersia turned toward her teacher in horror. "Sensei…!"
"Right now Yuki is in grave danger, and if we want to save her, we need to snap her out of her rage," EMIYA answered her with a grim face. "But if we want to do it, we need to take care of that dragon first. I'm sorry to push you like this, Farrie, but we really need your power if we want to have a chance. But we cannot rush in recklessly; we need to wait for an opportunity."
Farrie nodded. Tersia still didn't look that convinced, but in the end, she still nodded and grabbed her sword, albeit not without a huff.
Welt's sudden yell tore the silence apart. "Guys!"
Everyone turned towards the direction of the battle, and saw something that sent dread into their stomachs.
It seemed that the dragon had finally gotten enough. With an earth-shaking roar, he threw Yuki away and stretched his large wings, taking off into the air. At this height, the mikon wouldn't be able to come after him anymore, not with her tattered body. Energy started gathering around him, just like before; if he fired that plasma beam again, there's no way they would be able to avoid being obliterated.
A growl pulled them back from their stupor. Yuki had stood up, and still not paying attention to any of them, she shot a glare at the dragon and the attack he was forming in the air. Then, a humongous amount of ice-cold magical energy exploded from the mikon's body and started gathering in front of her maw.
EMIYA's eyes widened. If what was going to happen were what he thought it might be…
"Take cover!" he yelled and pulled everyone down to the ground when the jet of freezing white energy blasted out from Yuki's maw just as the beam of fiery white energy erupted from the dragon's. The two blasts made of pure energy met in midair – and something which violated every single law of thermodynamics EMIYA knew in his life happened. Usually, a collision between a very hot material and a very cold one would just result in the material itself being destroyed from a sudden change in molecular movement, but since this was two beams made of pure energy (how was that even possible anyway?) colliding with each other, it somehow caused an earth-shattering explosion and covered the whole area with a thick cloud of steam instead. The two beams struggled against each other, but it seemed Yuki was the one at a disadvantage; the collision point was now starting to move toward her…
"Take… my last bits… of energy, Yuki-chan! Defeat… that dragon! Dritte Might!"
Farrie raised her staff, and with the last bit of her energy, the powerful support magic spell was cast on the raging Yuki. Immediately, the blast coming from the mikon tripled in intensity, and slowly, very slowly, the connection point started moving backward, toward the dragon, whose eyes were now widened in shock.
Suddenly he felt pain in his left wing. He glanced at the appendage, and saw that the underside of the wing had just been pierced… by an arrow shot by Welt. The archer had taken advantage of the beam struggle between the two creatures and did that, not intending to deal any permanent damage… but to distract him from maintaining the technique.
The Way of the Dragon Vein was indeed incredibly powerful. However, it comes with two deadly drawbacks. First of all, since the magic of this school utilized nature energy, the more power from the environment it burned through, the weaker it would become. Therefore, this kind of magic, in an environment not compatible with the spell the wielder wanted to cast, would only be suitable to use as a finishing move, when the user was sure that he could finish off his opponent in a single blow. If he let the opponent drag the spell into a struggle, just like what was happening right now, the one utilizing the Way of the Dragon Vein would put himself in a very big disadvantage.
And second… nature energy is disgustingly difficult to control. No human could use this type of magic without a special blessing from a Dragon Emperor candidate, and even with the blessing, mastering the Way of the Dragon Vein required years of training. Even Dragon Emperor candidates must maintain constant focus when casting a spell like that if they didn't want the spell to explode on their faces, or fizzle away without any effect.
And it was exactly what was happening. With a hole on his left wing, the dragon couldn't keep his balance in the air anymore. He tilted to the left and started falling from the sky, and at the same time, his Infernal Eruption fizzled into nothing. Without anything holding it back, Yuki's beam of freezing energy struck the dragon with full force. He roared in pain and collapsed to the ground, and the Sword Hero didn't let that opportunity slip away from his hand. He dashed toward the dragon, the Legendary Sword in his hands glowed brightly in the shape of a sword unlike any sword he had used before. This sword was short, with a gilded octagonal pommel and a grip made of wood and bound in golden wire, but the strangest thing about the sword was that it had a square tip instead of a pointed one like normal swords people usually saw.
"Let the holy light judge your honor!" he roared and swung the sword in a downward slash. "Sword of Judgment… CURTANA!"
[Name: Curtana – Quality: Epic – Base Power: 100]
[Speed +20. Attack +10. Magical Damage Increase: large.]
[Unique Ability: Judgment.]
[Proficiency: 7%]
[Unlocked at Level 55 - UNLOCKED]
So this is it… I'm sorry, my daughter… I cannot protect you anymore…
The holy blade delivered a grandeur cut across the dragon's exposed chest, and the whole clearing was covered in a blinding light. The dragon fell to the ground with a noise that shook the clearing, and he lay there, motionless and defeated. EMIYA sighed and lowered his hand; was that the end?
"Sensei! Look out!"
He snapped his head toward the direction of Welt's voice, and saw Yuki leaping toward him, her fangs bared and dripping with saliva. Having lost her prey, it was natural that she would turn her target to the one who stole it from her. There's no way he could move away in time…
He gritted his teeth. If he needed to take her down…
Then suddenly, Tersia appeared in front of him, standing in the way between EMIYA and Yuki, who was rampaging toward the man like a rabid hound. She gritted her teeth when the giant mikon bit into the blade of her sword, but she didn't budge an inch. Putting more strength into her arms, she yelled.
"Yuki! Stop that! Why are you doing this? Calm down!"
The rabid fox didn't seem to hear her; she snarled in anger and reached out her front leg, trying to scratch at her. But the sword maiden didn't budge; she raised her sword to block the attacks coming at her and yelled.
"Do not let yourself be consumed by your rage, Yuki! You are not like this! I know you're still in there! I know you're angry about us getting hurt, but you don't want to hurt others, do you? If you continue being like this, you are going to hurt other people, including us, or even sensei himself! So stop it, Yuki!"
She didn't know what made her say those words, or if it had any effect or not, but Yuki's claws stopped in midair right before they could poke her eyes out of their sockets. The mikon froze in place, her blood-red eyes stared at the girl in front of her, but now with a mixture of annoyance and confusion instead of just pure anger and ferocity.
Then a pair of arms wrapped around her furry neck. Farrie's gentle voice whispered into her ears.
"Yuki-chan, calm down, please? It's over, everything's alright. You don't have to force yourself anymore."
"Nee… -chan…"
Tears rolled out of Yuki's eyes upon hearing those words. The red light faded away from the kitsune's eyes, returning their innocent royal blue color. Yuki's body went slack in Farrie's arms and gradually faded back into her human form, which the priestess gently caught in her hands. She rubbed the little head of the kitsune affectionately with a smile and gave her a kiss on the forehead, just like a mother putting her child to sleep, when the little girl fell into her blissful slumber from exhaustion in her arms.
"There, there. It's okay. Just have a big rest, dear. You did a really good job."
And with that, the short, but brutal battle came to an end. Tersia dropped her sword to the ground and sat down, breathing heavily. She had thought that they were all going to die here, but somehow, they prevailed. Not without any damage, though; she winced when the red burn marks on her skin throbbed painfully when exposed to the cool air.
Farrie sat down next to her. "Here you go. Does it hurt?" she asked, offering her friend a box of ointment. Tersia received it with gratitude, and rubbed a bit of the ointment on her burn marks. The pain soothed immediately.
"Are you two all right?" Welt asked in concern when he arrived at where the two girls were sitting. Upon receiving the nods of confirmation, he sighed in relief. "Thank goodness… I'm sorry for not being able to do anything…"
"Don't say that. You did a great job, Welt-kun," Farrie smiled at him. "Had it not been for your arrow, Yuki wouldn't have been able to beat that dragon. If anything, you did way more than us when it comes to fighting that dragon, you know."
"Yeah," Tersia agreed. "The only thing I could do back then was got whacked around like a sack of rice by that dragon. You obviously did way more than me at least. Although, I have to say it's this little sister of ours who did the most, isn't it?"
She said those words while stroking Yuki's white hair with a smile. The kitsune moaned gently, but didn't wake up; that battle had taken everything she had in her body. Seeing the little girl sleeping so blissfully, without having to care about anything like that, made them feel so happy and, at the same time, relieved.
And looking at her, a surge of determination rose in the hearts of all three teenagers. She was their little sister, and it was their duty as older siblings to protect her. They're not going to let her be in a position where she needed to rampage around like before again.
EMIYA stood over the dragon, who was now lying motionlessly on the ground. He could still see his chest rise and fall, which meant he wasn't dead. The dragon's yellow eyes with slitted irises were staring straight into his face, but not with an expression of hatred or anger, but rather, that of a defeated surrender.
"I lost," he said in a mournful voice. "You really are strong, Sword Hero; you and your party. You are the strongest human fighters I have ever faced in my life. Being killed under the hand of someone like you is an honor. Do it."
EMIYA's eyes narrowed. "You know me?"
The dragon sighed sadly. "I have lived in this world far too long already. I've met other Cardinal Heroes, and even someone wielding the Legendary Sword, just like you. And I know when I am outmatched. Please… finish your job and put me out of my misery. The only thing I want to ask of you… is that after I die, please take care of the little one for me. She's innocent… do not let her… fall into the hands of those slavers again."
Then the dragon closed his eyes, ready to accept his fate. EMIYA didn't say anything for a few seconds. And finally, he raised his hand.
"As the source of your power, I, the Sword Hero, command you, decipher the law of nature and bring life to the being in front of me. Erste Heal."
The dragon's eyes snapped open. What…?!
To his surprise and shock, a wave of healing energy washed through his body and started fixing the damage he had suffered during the battle. The dragon was so shocked that even after he was completely healed, he was still unable to move away from where he was lying. He just stared at the Hero in red, who had just healed him, dumbfounded, completely forgetting that the man in front of him had just nearly taken his life.
Finally, after a few minutes staring, the only word he could utter was a single "Why?"
EMIYA answered him by raising his Legendary Sword, which was still in the form of the sword Curtana, which he had used to strike the dragon down earlier. "Because of this. This sword convinced me that you might not be the one who I need to kill after all."
Curtana, the Sword of Mercy, the legendary sword which used to belong to Sir Tristan, and after that was passed down with the name Cortain to Ogier the Dane of the Twelve Paladins of Charlemagne, was one of the rare Noble Phantasms that still existed until the present day. It had long been passed down by various royal dynasties of England and the United Kingdom as one of the Crown Jewels of England, a collection of royal ceremonial objects symbolizing the British monarchy. However, not many people knew that before getting its tip squared off and becoming a sword representing Mercy, it used to be a powerful holy blade of Justice which had the power to cut down evil. The eviler the target's heart is, the more powerful the sword becomes, but if the enemy had a righteous heart and fought for an honorable reason, the sword would refuse to strike them down.
And by dealing the finishing blow with Curtana, EMIYA had confirmed it. This dragon was not an evil being which terrorized Mirso Village and destroyed things mindlessly like the village leader had lied to him about. Why that man did that was unknown, but there's something the Sword Hero could confirm, which was that there was definitely something happening here behind his back.
The dragon rose to his feet. Farrie let out a terrified squeak and hid behind Tersia, who instinctively raised her sword to defend, even though she knew for sure it wouldn't do anything much against her opponent. Welt immediately moved forward and tried to hide Yuki, who was still unconscious, behind him. All of them glared at the dragon with eyes full of fear and caution.
A burst of fire suddenly exploded from the dragon. It swept through the clearing, forcing the humans to cover their faces hastily with their arms, but strangely, there was no heat coming from it. The flame covered the dragon's body, rose all the way to the sky, and when it died down…
There was no sign of the scary giant black dragon anymore. Instead, standing where the dragon used to be was a middle-aged man. He was tall, about EMIYA's height or a little bit shorter, with long, silvery hair tied back in a long ponytail behind him. His stern face full of wrinkles of old age sported an impressive moustache and a goatee with the same silver color as his hair, and on top of his head, there was a crooked black horn on each side, the same shape as in his dragon form. And for some reason, he was wearing a tuxedo made of something similar to dragonhide and a pair of round glasses.
The man bowed deeply in front of EMIYA and his team. Then he said, in a deep voice which they realized belonged to the dragon they had just fought.
"Sword Hero and companions. I sincerely apologize for not thinking of talking things out before attacking. Had I thought about that, we might have not had to fight this meaningless battle. My name is Gaelion, and I humbly thank you for sparing my life."
Let's just say the disciples of Team EMIYA were all more than shocked by this development. Welt's eyes were as wide as two dinner plates.
"Whoa! Is that really the dragon we have just fought?!"
Tersia also marveled in awe while lowering her sword. "So he's the same as Yuki…"
"He's so polite…" Farrie nodded. "How can someone like that be as evil as the village told us?"
Despite that seemingly humble apology, EMIYA still didn't feel safe enough to resheathe his sword. "Before I accept your apology, there's something I have to know first," he said, his eyes didn't leave the dragon in human form for a second. "Why does the village want you dead that much? What did you do to them?"
Gaelion straightened his back again. His golden, slitted eyes gazed straight into EMIYA's eyes. "I would gladly explain everything to you. But I'm afraid this is not a place we can talk about that. Let us move inside."
Gaelion's cave was surprisingly different from what EMIYA imagined about a dragon's lair. From his personal experience, a dragon's lair was, most of the time, dark, gloomy and reeked of killing intent. However… this cave was bright and warm, and the interior was separated into different rooms and decorated with what he usually saw in a normal human's household. There was even a set of table and chairs crafted crudely out of stone in the room they were standing in, which EMIYA imagined would be a living room. If there's anything to say, the ex-Guardian would say that it's more of a normal country house than a lair of a monster.
As if reading his thought, the dragon said. "It didn't use to be like this. I don't have any treasure to protect like other dragons, so there was no need for anything too complicated. Since I lost my family during the war of the dragons, I didn't have anything to care about anymore. I only made it like this a few years ago… and the reason was her."
From a room at the corner, a girl ran out and enveloped the dragon in a big, hearty hug. "Papa! You're back!"
Gaelion laughed and lifted the girl up. "Good girl, little Wyndia, good girl. You must have been really scared in here, didn't you?"
EMIYA stared at the girl. This girl was, no doubt, a demi-human. But strangely, she didn't look anything like a dragon at all. She was about fourteen years old, a little bit younger than Raphtalia right now, but the ex-Guardian noticed that it seemed to be her natural age, not because of the boosted growth coming from leveling up like the tanuki girl, because even though she didn't look that strong physically, he could feel an aura of maturity coming from her, even though she was shorter than anyone in his team. She had short, brown hair which covered her cheeks, a pair of bright, amber-colored eyes and… dog ears on top of her head.
"She's not a dragon," the ex-Guardian pointed out. Gaelion chuckled, and rubbed the girl's head.
"No, she isn't. She is a demi-human I adopted seven years ago. At that time, she was running away together with her real parents from a band of slavers. Her parents were killed during the run, and she was left near the entrance of my cave. So I took her in… and yeah, she has been my daughter since then."
He waved his hand towards the walls of the cave. "Everything I did here was for her sake. I have lived in this world for more than a hundred years; I know how different you are from us monsters. This is the best I could to ensure that she wouldn't grow up like a savage monster… like me," he said with a hint of regret in his voice.
"So… she's the reason why the village wants you dead? To get her back from your hand?"
The dragon nodded. "Indeed so. They have been trying to get her back from me for years, but they never succeeded."
"Papa," the girl named Wyndia glared at EMIYA and his team with a look full of suspicion. "Who are these people? Are they here to kidnap me again?"
Gaelion smiled and sat down on the stone chair, still holding the girl in his arms. "No worries, little one. They are good people. They are not here to hurt us."
The girl still glared at EMIYA with caution and distrust.
"Do you think there's something weird about this, sensei?"
EMIYA looked at Tersia, who had just voiced her concern. "What do you think?"
"To those slavers, this girl is just goods that they want to sell, isn't she?" said the sword maiden while scratching her chin. "It doesn't make sense that they would keep coming back for something they already lost for years. They could have replaced her with someone else easily. So why do they want to get her back so badly?"
Tersia's question struck on point, and EMIYA nodded. That was also what he was wondering. "There must be something special about this girl, isn't there?"
The dragon grimaced. "There is. Wyndia has the ability to understand animals and monsters. From what I know, that is a rare ability even for demi-humans; maybe that's why they were so persistent. And she also has an incredible affinity for magic; you know the Way of the Dragon Vein that I demonstrated in our battle before? She mastered it in a week after learning it from me."
Farrie gasped. "No way. There's no way that can be right. There's no human who can do something like that!"
Gaelion nodded. "Yes, you're completely right. Normal humans, demi or not, even with the blessing of a Dragon Emperor, wouldn't even dream of using that branch of magic without years of training. All my life, the only person who managed such a feat is no one else but your predecessor, the previous Sword Hero. And yet, this little girl actually managed to do it."
"What is the Way of the Dragon Vein?" Welt asked curiously, but instead of Gaelion, Farrie was the one who answered.
"It is a powerful brand of magic that utilizes nature energy. Instead of using the magical energy of the caster like the magic we usually use, it instead uses the elemental magical energy from the environment, and the power of spells from this brand of magic far exceeds that of even the most powerful Ritual Magic that we normal humans can use. The only way a human being could use that kind of magic is by getting blessed by a powerful dragon known as the Dragon Emperor, and in history, the previous Sword Hero was known as one of the most skilled practitioners of this brand of magic. I heard that the Miko Priestess of Q'Ten Lo is also someone chosen by their Dragon Emperor to inherit the Way of the Dragon Vein, but that's just a rumor, I don't know how much of that was the truth; there isn't a lot of information about that country after all..."
The members of Team EMIYA didn't have to think a lot to understand. If she really was that powerful, anyone who possessed her might as well be one of the most powerful beings in the world. Countries who knew about her would do anything to get her in their hands. A weapon of mass destruction, in the form of a fourteen-year-old child.
"Before I saved her from the hands of those slavers, she had already been enslaved by someone," the old dragon looked down at the ground. "Breaking that slave crest they put on her was nothing that difficult, but it hurt her so much she had fallen into a deep trauma for two years straight. That master had gone so far as to set up the slave crest to kill her if someone tries to break it with normal methods. If she fell back into the hand of that master again…"
Those words acted like a trigger. Wyndia immediately went into a panic and buried her face into Gaelion's shoulder, crying hysterically. "No!" she yelled between tears. "Don't make me go back there! I don't want to! Papa, please don't let them take me!"
Everyone in Team EMIYA grimaced at the girl's reaction. They had thought Raphtalia's case was bad enough, but her case was still nothing compared to that of the dog girl standing in front of them.
"Sword Hero. Can you bring Wyndia with you on your journey from now on?"
Everyone was completely taken aback by the sudden proposal of the dragon. Wyndia looked at him, her eyes were full of tears.
"Papa… you don't want me anymore?!"
Gaelion stroke her head. "No, no, of course not, my child. But listen to me. Those bad people are going to send more and more people to kill me to get you back. Mr. Sword Hero here is actually someone they sent for my life. And he nearly killed me…" hearing that, Wyndia's face contorted into an expression full of anger. She snapped her head toward EMIYA, trying to open her mouth to say something, but Gaelion continued before she could say anything, "…but he spared my life when he knew that he was tricked. But not every Hero is like him. If they send someone like him here again, I know for sure that I'm not going to be able to protect you anymore."
He finished by hugging her into his chest. Wyndia silently cried into his dragonhide vest, her arms squeezed around his body, not wanting to let go, as if he would disappear from her life forever if she loosened her embrace just a little bit.
"No… no! I'm not going to let you go!"
"My child, that's for your best," Gaelion stroke her head with a solemn face. His eyes locked straight into hers. "And you are not a dragon; you are reaching your age, and you must return to the human world. I love you, but I cannot provide you with everything you need; you understand that, don't you? It's better for you to travel with someone of your kind than just stay with me here all your life. Besides, it's not like we're never going to see each other again, I promise you that."
Then he looked at EMIYA. "How about that, Sword Hero? Can you please fulfill the selfish request of this old dragon?"
Said Sword Hero looked at him in annoyance. "No. No matter how I look at this, this is your problem, not mine. Besides, that is so irresponsible of you. This girl has been with you for half of her life. And now you're throwing her at me, just like that? Do you know how much that will affect her?"
The dragon looked at him with eyes full of sadness, but he didn't say anything else. And EMIYA understood. Those eyes were those of a desperate father who wanted to do the best for his child, but was too weak and useless to actually do anything good for her. He also knew what the dragon said was true; Motoyasu might not be a threat, but if somehow the Church or the kingdom managed to trick Itsuki or Naofumi into killing Gaelion, or worse, if the King himself, as the Hero of the Staff, decided to come here to finish the job himself, there's no way to tell what might happen. Finally, he sighed.
"I'm not the one who can decide this. The choice belongs to the girl herself. If she doesn't want it, there's no way I can accept anyway."
The dragon looked at the girl sitting on his lap. "What do you think, my child?"
Wyndia left her place on Gaelion's lap. She looked at EMIYA from head to toe with inquisitive eyes, which unnerved EMIYA in a strangely familiar way. It felt as if Rin had found a way to reincarnate into this girl to haunt him, even in this world.
"Are you really the Sword Hero?" she asked in a curious voice which somehow managed to send a chill into his spine and annoy him at the same time. He said coldly.
"That's what people call me these days, yes. So what? It's not like there's anything good about that stupid job, anyway."
What surprised him was that the little girl started fuming upon hearing those words.
"Being the Sword Hero is not stupid!" she yelled at him. "My mommy said the Sword Hero is a heroic person who fights for honor and will use all of his strength to defeat evil. There's no way he can be stupid!"
Something in her voice pissed the ex-Guardian off. "You know what, princess?" he said dryly. "I don't care shit about honor or pride. To me, those things are only worth being fed to the dogs. Protecting this world is the job I got shoved into without any say in it, so yeah, think about it how you want to, but it IS stupid. Anyone who says that the job of a hero is supposed to be honorable is just a little brat who doesn't understand anything about the world at all."
Aaaaaand I managed to piss her off, EMIYA thought when he saw the girl's face turning murderous at his words.
"Um, Wyndia-chan…" Farrie raised her voice, trying to calm the little girl down. "Sensei was chosen by the Legendary Sword itself, so he really is the Sword Hero…"
"Shut up!" the priestess recoiled when the dog girl snapped at her. "Papa, say something! Tell me that this… this thug isn't the Sword Hero!"
Gaelion facepalmed and looked at EMIYA apologetically. "I'm really sorry about this, Sword Hero. To her, the Sword Hero of legend has always been the person she admires since she was a little child. And, well…"
Wyndia stared at her father in disbelief. Then, slowly, she turned toward EMIYA. She looked him up and down again and bit her lips, as if wanted to say something, but deathly feared that if she actually said it out loud, there would be no turning back for her.
All of her dreams about the strong, heroic, handsome and honorable Sword Hero of legend were shattering into millions of tiny pieces, right in front of her eyes.
Finally, she said coldly.
"I will never accept you to be the Sword Hero. There's no way someone like you can be the honorable Sword Hero of legend. But Papa trusts you…"
Her whole body was trembling, probably in rage, but she refused to look at EMIYA. Her hands curled up into fists, and she choked out.
"…so fine! From now on I'm going to travel with you! I'm going to prove that you're nothing but a fluke! And if you really are, I will make you a proper Sword Hero worthy of the legend!"
EMIYA couldn't refrain from rolling his eyes from the cliché scenario he was seeing. What the hell is this, a drama movie?
"Yay!" Farrie and Tersia exclaimed happily at the same time and engulfed Wyndia in a hug, making the dog girl squirm in annoyance. "We have another little sister!"
"Get off me!"
While the children were arguing, Gaelion stood up from his seat. He walked toward EMIYA, and in a sudden motion, he reached up to his left horn and broke it with a dry "crack".
"Sword Hero, I want you to have this," he said, and put the newly broken horn in EMIYA's hand. "This horn was infused deeply with my magical energy. If there's a time in the future when you need my help, just blow into the horn, and I will be there to assist you. This is the best thing I can do to help you right now."
"What are you going to do now?" asked the Sword Hero in curiosity. The dragon sighed and looked upward.
"Who knows? Retreating to a deep place in the mountains where no human could find me there, or traveling around this land again to regain my sense of a fighter? But for any reason, I have a feeling that we are going to see each other again, soon enough."
EMIYA nodded. He knew that his work was done, and there's nothing else for him to do before leaving, he turned around once again, and he looked a long moment into Gaelion's face.
"Tell me one last thing," he said. "What is going on with this world?"
It seemed Gaelion also understood the hidden meaning inside his words. He looked at the Sword Hero, and answered him with one single word.
"Evil."
[Gaelion's Wrath: unlocking condition met]
[Name: Gaelion's Wrath – Quality: Epic – Base Power: 150x2]
[Attack + 50. Physical Defense + 50. Speed + 50. Additional 500% damage against Human-type enemies. Increases power of Way of the Dragon Vein magic.]
[Skill unlocked: Synch Blade Plus (0/500), Spellblade: Fire (0/500), Spellblade: Wind (0/500)]
[Unique Skill: Berserk (0/1000).]
[Unique Ability: Blessing of the Dragon Emperor.]
[Proficiency: 0%]
[Unlocked under specific conditions - UNLOCKED]
Team EMIYA left the mountain on a trail at the back of Gaelion's lair.
After what happened, they didn't want to return to that accursed village another time. Not only did they trick them into doing their dirty work, they nearly made them kill an innocent being who did nothing but protect another innocent being from the fate of slavery.
"Why?"
That sudden question came from Farrie, whose face was full of pain. But EMIYA knew it wasn't physical pain, but rather, a pain in her heart.
"Why do people need to do this?" she asked in a voice filled with sadness. "Aren't the Waves terrible enough for our world already? Why do people need to go around antagonizing each other like this?"
Her question was lost in awkward silence. Farrie was always a person with a really big heart. And naïve, too. Naturally, she would be horrified at the concept of people abusing others for fun and profit. But even she knew that it was just a rhetorical question; no one could give a proper answer for something like that. Tersia squeezed her friend's hand, but she couldn't find any word to console the priestess.
Walking next to them, Wyndia let out a snort. Even though she didn't say anything, EMIYA could imagine what she was thinking in her head. Humans were the reason why she ended up in Gaelion's hand, and were also the reason why she had to leave him. Whatever she was thinking was definitely not anything nice about humankind. It's really hard to criticize her for that.
Conflicts originated from human's vices. Greed, pride, anger, vengeance, jealousy, and many other things that they could use as an excuse. Even during a crisis, there would still be people who used that very same crisis to reap benefits for themselves, the lives of others be damned. That was something EMIYA understood more than anyone else; the reason why no one could put an end to wars was exactly because people like that existed. After all, wars were just something made up by those very same people to fulfill their desires, which were as big as mountains.
However, the hope for humanity lay exactly in the fact that even though those people existed, they were not the ones representing all of humankind. That was why EMIYA still chose to fight for this world, even though he had already seen all those bad things happen; he believed that there would always be someone who stood up for the right thing, someone who actually cared about this world and would do what they could for the sake of the world itself, not for anyone's greedy desires.
He chuckled lightly. If there were anything he didn't like about his days in Chaldea, it would be that it had somehow regressed him back to the idealistic, hopeful fool he used to be in the past. That girl… she really knew how to put hope back into the hearts of the people who had lost theirs.
Farrie stared into the sky. On the horizon, the sun was rising. The sky was painted the bright, golden light of dawn. She squeezed her hand around her staff; her face was full of determination. At that moment, the girl found the goal of her life.
"I'm going to change this world," she declared with a voice full of resolution. "I am going to become stronger, and when I become the next Pope, I will make this world a better place where everyone can live in harmony, no matter whether they were humans, demi-humans, beastmen or monsters."
Unknown to them, someone was watching them from the top of a tree nearby.
"His Excellency needs to know about this…"
Finally, the hardest chapter for me to write ever since I started this story was finished.
Somebody might think that Gaelion was too powerful for a boss monster who got killed by Ren early in the story. And that was exactly what I felt was wrong with the movement pace of the original story. A Dragon Emperor such as Gaelion, who was smart enough to take in a stray demi-human girl and raise her until she reached her canon age, and who, as a mindless corpse, managed to cause Naofumi and his party a lot of difficulties, got killed by Ren, a 16-year-old kid who didn't have any real battle experience except for spamming skills until the enemy was dead. THAT. DOESN'T. MAKE. ANY. SENSE. AT. ALL. Therefore, in my story, I decided to make Gaelion what I think he should have been, a formidable opponent even for EMIYA himself. And he's going to be a valuable ally of EMIYA and co.; the horn he gave him would play a very important role in the future.
And for anyone who was wondering, the fact that dragons can marry any species wasn't something I made up myself. If anyone pays attention to the Spear Hero spinoff, it was Wyndia herself who said that when the team moved to subdue the Zombie Dragon. And I decided not to include her dragon sister in this story for different reasons, so yeah, if anyone was expecting EMIYA to have a dragon to ride, I'm sorry to disappoint you. And I noticed that in canon Wyndia's age was never actually stated. Some fics I read considered her age as about 8 or 9, but considering how she looked in canon materials, before being bought by Naofumi and leveled up, she already looked about 14 years old, so in this story I'm going with that.
And yeah, I know that the Curtana of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom is just a reproduction of the real one, but hey, this is a story related to Nasuverse, and you know, in real life Excalibur cannot shoot beams. So yeah.
Until next time.