I needed to make my stance clear before this child gets the wrong idea.
"But… you're also treating that person who smells a bit like a dragon. I thought that, maybe, you were going to raise another dragon slayer…" Wendy said slowly.
I had no desire to waste my time dealing with such accusations when I was busy dealing with the other brat in the— wait.
"Explain what you mean. What's that about his smell?" I suspected something was fishy earlier, but I thought I was mistaken.
"H-his smell. It's like a forge. but also a little like yours too… like my mom's."
"Isn't it suspicious that you would not just sound and smell just like Grandeeney, but also be taking care of a man who smells like a dragon?" Her feline companion decided to speak up for the first time.
"Haa, I have nothing to hide, so I'll tell you what you want to know." I responded back, exasperated. "I'm a human, through and through. I don't know where any dragons are, nor do I have anything to do with them."
The girl looked downwards, grabbing the hem of her dress in dejection.
"However… I have spoken to the Sky Dragon before, years ago." At my words, a glimmer of hope seemed to come back to her eyes.
"Now, where were those notes I've written down?" As I began to rummage through various books and papers, I continued talking to the girl.
"Anyways… I haven't met this Grandeeney directly, but she has spoken to me with magic... Ah, there it is." I reached out to her with a stack of papers in my hand.
"And she told me to pass to you these magic spells, 'Milky Way' and 'Shattering Light: Sky Drill.' These are the secret dragon slaying techniques she left to you." The girl took the papers and looked over them thoughtfully.
'With this, I should now be able to get my answer.'
"Now that we've established that I'm not your mother," I pointed at my patient on the bed.
"Can you come here and show where the dragon smell on this man's body comes from?
"No problem!" sniff "The smell is mostly coming from…" sniff sniff
She looked ridiculous as she proceeded to start smelling the injured stranger all over.
"Aha! It's mostly coming from here." The child pointed at the boy's waist by their hip.
"As I thought. That's why the lacrima felt so different, yet familiar." I started speaking slowly, having come to my conclusion.
"The boy has a dragon lacrima imbued into him. He's an artificial Dragon Slayer."
.
.
.
The next three days were mostly uneventful, even if they were a bit annoying. The child had come back as per the job request, and we continued treating the unknown Dragon Slayer.
'Healing magic truly is a wonder.' I thought to myself.
Their injured brat's heartbeat had been approaching regular levels, and their breathing had evened out compared to when I was performing the initial treatment. The artificial skin normally would cover the open wounds and allow the layers underneath to heal over time without infections, but the wounds had almost already filled back up.
All of this had happened much sooner than expected. Probably a combination of a Dragon Slayer's toughness and the younger brat's healing. It was possible that they would wake up any time now and could begin eating and drinking. I could fit the set of eyes I've been making to replace their old ones too.
I mainly just replaced the bandages every now and then and cleaned up after they urinated and defecated. The healing process was going smoothly, but the task of cleaning up after their bodily functions was a big source of annoyance.
"If they don't wake up soon, I might just put some tubes in them to save me the trouble. They could probably handle that procedure by now." I grumbled to myself.
That reminds me; I could see the other source of my annoyance through my window. She had taken the open area outside my house as a sort of training ground, practicing the two spells I had given her.
'What did she take me for? A babysitter?' I bemoaned.
There was a perfectly good clearing where I found the injured brat, which the girl could use for her training instead. It wasn't even that far away!
"Shattering light: Sky Drill!"
The younger Dragon Slayer shouted out loud for all in the forest to hear, taking a wide stance and forming a barrier of wind before moving her arms and causing the barrier to contract and–
Crash
Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz
"Gah! I'm sorry, Miss Bees! I didn't know your home was there! I promise I won't do it again!"
If she could just get over her confidence issues, I feel like she would be a wizard feared and respected by many. Currently, however, I could only feel a headache coming.
"Hey! Would it kill you humans if you stopped destroying things all the time?! Why can't any of you just sit still and read a book or something?!" I shouted angrily out of my window.
I was about to head outside and give that brat a lesson—at least, until I heard the sound of rustling behind me.
POV: ?
A deep soreness enveloped my body as I struggled opening my eyes to see… nothing.
Well, I could see indistinct shapes with patches of darker and brighter areas, but nothing clear.
I also can't feel much, as if I were paralyzed like when I fought an Astalos for the first time.
'Am I dead now?' Honestly, just what was I expecting by trying to fight against Fatalis on my own at the end there? I guess it's the guild's problem to deal with now, though.
The squad managed to stall for enough time in the end, and I even managed to take the Black Dragon's eye with me. Can't be disappointed with results like those.
'However, fighting Fatalis by ourselves like that wasn't even part of the job description.' I complained to myself.
Sure, we were the hired muscle to protect everyone as they surveyed the battleground, but we were supposed to have had enough time for the main forces to catch up to lay siege to the Black Dragon within the castle.
Only then were we going to all fight the monster toge–
"Hey you. You're finally awake." It was as I was grumbling to myself that I heard a voice from somewhere in the darkness.
'A goddess?! I guess I really am dead.'
Also, I wasn't expecting the goddess to carry me into the afterlife to sound like a grumpy old woman.
"You've put me through a lot of work these past few days. Whatever happened to you, I don't know how much of you I would have been able to save had I not gotten help." The voice of the goddess continues.
'Damn. I caused trouble for multiple gods then.'
"Mn… ugh…" I tried to apologize, but I couldn't get any words out. Probably because I don't seem to have a body anymore.
"Why are you trying to speak, Brat?! Just lay there and let me do the talking!" I guess I've made the unknown deity angry.
"I don't know what happened to do that much damage to a Dragon Slayer like you, but once I get you fully healed up, you're going to tell me everything. I don't want innocent people dying if who or whatever you fought made its way into the nearby city without anybody knowing."
Good to hear that they know of my past exploits, but did they not know about the return of Fatalis? Strange.
"You've recovered a good amount now. All that's left should be a general weakness and the lack of sight. I've been working on a replacement for your eyes, but the other will take more time to overcome." The goddess assured me, now revealing a softer tone of voice.
"...T… Th–" I try my best to thank the goddess.
"I said to shut up! This is one reason I hate humans; you lot are always so impatient! I'll try to get your new eyes ready by the time you wake up next, so it's time for you to rest!"
'She really was a goddess,' I thought as I felt a wave of sleepiness overcome me.
.
.
.
The next time I woke up, I noticed that the goddess kept her word. I opened my eyes and, above me, I could see a ceiling, where brown bark walls had risen up high into the ceiling and had been hollowed out. It looked to be the inside of a tree.
"New eyes work like a charm, I assume?" The goddess had loomed over my right side now, allowing me to get a look at her.
It was an elderly looking woman, like I imagined. She had pink hair that she tied into a bun on the back using two large pins with crescent moons on their ends. Her eyes were red, like her cloak, which had what looked like either horns or teeth decorating its large collar.
"He's really awake now? Um… Nice to meet you, mister. I'm Wendy, a Dragon Slayer like you!"
Another voice caught my attention, then a blue-haired figure popped up next to the old goddess. It was a petite girl, with long blue hair reaching down past her back. She wore a dress with horizontal zigzag stripes going across it, along with a bow near the chest.
The end of her introduction caught my interest, however. What looked like a child that was no more than 13 was claiming to have slain a dragon. She would either have to be a hunter prodigy like none other or another goddess.
"You have Wendy here to thank for keeping you alive through the treatment. Without her magic, you probably would have kicked the bucket soon after I took your armor off you." The goddess elaborated a bit on the other girl's presence.
'Wait, I didn't die? And magic?' Her words only brought me more confusion. How could I have not died after what happened to me?
She said it was thanks to magic that I still lived. How could that be? I was sure magic didn't exist. At least, it was common belief that magic was just something made up for stories told to young children.
'Then again, Fatalis was only thought to be a myth not too long ago. Could it be that magic was real and there were a handful of magic users not known to the wider world?' My heart began rapidly beating as I started processing what she said.
'And about the Black Dragon, how could they have found me yet not know about Fatalis? Could it be that the guild failed to kill it and the monster escaped, dropping me somewhere far away as it recuperated?' I think the godde— the older woman noticed my shock as she spoke up.
"Wendy, steady him!"
"Yes ma'am. Heal!" The girl nodded and brought her hands forth, which began to glow with light and somehow calmed my breathing.
"The use of magic is commonplace among this land, whether from wizards using their spells or non-wizards using magic items powered by lacrima. Now, from your reaction, I can gather some things." The woman started to explain.
"It seems that you are not so familiar with magic, if at all, given how shocked you are about it." The old woman continued. "My theory is that you came from a place where magic runs scarce."
"But, Miss Porlyusica, is there even a place like that around here?" The blue-haired girl spoke up, seemingly as confused as I was.
"No. The closest possibility is Hargeon Town, considering only about a tenth of the people there can use magic, but that is still quite a ways away from this forest where I found him. Plus, magic still permeates that place well enough to allow wizards to still be well known there. Therefore, it is my belief that he was magically transported to the forest from his home." The old woman, who I now know is called Porlyusica, answered.
"How could that be possible though? It doesn't make any sense for that to just happen." A third girl joined in, which I saw was a white-furred cat.
"It is possible because, you see, it happened to me many years ago. I came from another world called Edolas, and I believe he comes from there as well." Porlyusica proceeded to make an outrageous statement.
"What do you mean by that, Miss Porlyusica?" Wendy asked. It seems that statement has intrigued both of us now.
"The world I come from, Edolas, had no wizards who could use magic. We could only use the magic power in crystals found within living creatures, the lacrima, to imbue items with magic abilities." She began to explain.
"Long ago, I found myself suddenly whisked away to this world, Earthland, and I believe the same to have happened to him. Even those many years ago, magic was drying up, so I believe that, by now, magic power must have nearly run out and not many know about it." That would explain the reason none of us hunters know about this magic.
"I had a certain red-haired brat take some samples of his armor to her most trusted smith to see if I could get a clue to what region he came from. Though they couldn't find an exact match for its materials, they could identify that it had been made of a combination of ore and monster parts."
"Judging from the shock from seeing magic and the equipment made of unknown monster parts, he couldn't have been from around Fiore. And yet, he suddenly appeared in this forest. The main thing to come to mind was that he came from Edolas, either from the army or one of the guilds." Porlyusica finished her explanation. "With that out of the way, would you mind fetching him some water, Wendy?"
"Sure thing, Miss Porlyusica." Wendy said, before exiting and leaving the two of us alone.
Porlyusica went silent after that, allowing me to contemplate everything she said.
These "lacrima" she spoke of had to be either the gems we carve from monsters to make our stronger equipment with better skills or the feystones also found from monsters, which become the decorations we slot into our equipment to add extra skills to them.
Were all of us hunters unknowingly using magic through our equipment? Was one of the main reasons for us outlawing monster poaching to prevent these lacrima from running out with the extinction of monster species?
Either way, it seems like she knows about hunters and the guild. Furthermore, the young girl had also demonstrated her mysterious healing magic. That means that I've truly found myself in another world, one where people have access to the abilities of monsters on their own.
'So the child truly is capable of slaying dragons, it seems. If even a child can kill dragons, the top magic users have to be on another level entirely…' I thought to myself.
'... then I want to be up there someday.' There's enough danger in this world for this girl to take up the strength needed to kill a dragon, so I have a reason to continue fighting.
Fatalis may still be out there somewhere, and I can help the people of this world, one smile at a time. Just like I promised.
"I'm back. Here, drink this, mister." Wendy's words brought me out of my thoughts as she poured a cup of water.
Porlyusica lifted my torso, and Wendy slowly tipped the cold liquid into my mouth. I indulged myself, drinking until I emptied all the water she brought, soothing my throat in just the right way and quenching a deep thirst I didn't notice I had. Drinking water had honestly never felt so refreshing.
"Now that you've had something to drink, hopefully you can answer some questions I have." Porlyusica added on. "First, what is your name? And second, what were you doing that got you so injured?"
"My name… is Ast… and I was… fighting Fatalis… a dragon." My words came out slow, yet easier compared to before.
"What were you thinking, taking on a dragon by yourself?!" The old woman yelled at me furiously. "An entire wizard guild would have difficulty taking on just one of them!"
"Was in a squad… of four people… Had to stall… needed the guild… to arrive before… it killed all of… the others." I admit it was dumb, but I wanted her to understand that I had to do it.
"Even if you didn't fight it alone, you're telling me you fought a dragon with just four people?! Even with your Dragon Slayer magic, that was still a foolish decision." She didn't get any less angry, it seemed. However—
"Dragon Slayer… magic?" I was confused. What did she mean by that?
"You don't know? There is a dragon lacrima embedded into your hip. I thought you did that to make yourself a Dragon Slayer. Someone with the abilities of a dragon." Is that what Wendy meant when she said we were both Dragon Slayers? But I didn't have anything implanted in me. The only thing I had on my hip was my pouch with my potions and—
"Fatalis' eye. It was embedded… into me?" What Fatalis did to me at the end of our fight must have caused the eye to fuse into my body. So that equates to me having this Dragon Slayer magic?
"Its eye, you say? But that doesn't make sense. The amount of magic there surely points to it being a dragon lacrima, and they're usually made from the heart, where the magic is strongest. Just what kind of dragon was this Fatalis then?" Porlyusica questioned.
"The Black Dragon… of Destiny… Fatalis… According to myths… it destroyed a kingdom… in a single night… centuries ago."
"That title… And that myth—it can't be. What did this Fatalis look like?" It seemed like she recognized Fatalis' legend, but did they call it something different back in her youth? She didn't recognize the name.
"It was covered… in dark black scales… Its underbelly… was pale… And it had four horns… facing backwards… on its head." I couldn't recall the specifics, but I remembered the basic appearance.
"The description matches too." She spoke, slowly, as if in horror.
"It's really back. Acnologia, the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse."
– End of Chapter –
(Sep 25, 2024) Author's notes:
So… this chapter should have come out about a week and a half ago. However, my internet decided to start going down every afternoon when I would normally write.
The internet started working normally a few days ago so I whipped up the rest of this chapter as fast as I could.
Honestly, writing dialogue is harder than I thought. Rewrote multiple parts of this when I could but I couldn't get it to feel just right and decided to simply go with what I thought was good enough rather than be stuck for another week.
In any case, Wendy started learning her secret arts early! That should hopefully spice things up when she gets the courage to start fighting.
Also, they think our now-named MC, Ast, is an artificial Dragon Slayer from Edolas, while he thinks Porlyusica is from the Monster Hunter world and got transferred over like him. Misunderstandings inbound!
And finally, there's the superficial similarities between Fatalis and Acnologia that's the reason for the title of this fic. This surely won't complicate things in the future.
Hopefully, my writing will improve as I continue doing this.
Signed,
Guy who doesn't like Spectrum Internet.