Isagi couldn't tell whether the anomaly in the [Dragon Valley] had appeared because he himself was on the [Great Wall], or because of the [Soul Teardrop].
In theory.
Teardrop Big Bro was an existence made purely of magic power, and all it did was use that magic power to mimic his own abilities and spells—but there was no way it could copy his skills as well.
It made no sense.
Still, this thing was magic from the ancient age, and he couldn't puzzle it out himself.
Isagi had originally been thinking that, if the Soul Teardrop wouldn't trigger his skills, maybe he could send it down into the deep levels to support Ryuu-senpai and the others in their subjugation of the Corrupted Spirit.
But now it seemed that was completely out of the question.
Lost in thought, he had already sent the Soul Teardrop into the [Dragon Valley] for the twenty-ninth time.
That guardian, the [Dragon God's Right Hand · Mad Dragon Delmos], was truly a very powerful boss. Isagi had fought it over and over through remote control of the Soul Teardrop, yet he still had no way to win.
This thing was strong. Really strong.
And what's more.
It wasn't the kind of strong that showed up in raw numbers.
By his own gut sense, this special Great Dragon boss was probably Lv. 8 at most.
A lot of the time it couldn't even one-shot the Soul Teardrop, and he could deal it plenty of damage in return—yet he simply couldn't beat it.
Was it a matter of execution?
Isagi reviewed the fight in his head, always feeling something was a little off.
And it was right in the middle of these thoughts that the Soul Teardrop he'd just sent out arrived once again before that enormous tornado, and then, calm and unhurried, walked straight inside.
Let's try again.
To Isagi it hardly mattered—the Soul Teardrop cost nothing but his own mental power. He could attempt a run, rest, and slowly recover, no different from a perpetual-motion machine.
"Time to get serious!"
He'd lost count of how many times he'd said that line already.
From the two goddesses' point of view, Isagi sat up quite seriously, staring at the scene relayed remotely from the Eye Crystal before him, and then looked toward the "Great Dragon" not far off.
The wounds from a moment ago had already healed.
Just like a Dungeon boss, the instant it "left combat" it seemed to reset to full health, so there was no whittling it down over time.
Fine. That was normal mechanics too.
Isagi loosened up his body a little, his mind full of memories from the earlier battles, and at the same time began to remotely take over "control" of the Soul Teardrop.
Like his own avatar—one thought was all it took, and now he was there in the flesh, standing amid this sky-wide storm of yellow sand and desolate gales.
Beneath an overcast sky.
Yellow sand churned in every direction, the great winds visibly lifting the dust and spiraling it ever upward.
The ground underfoot was barren too, almost nothing on it at all—this place had become a "land of death" in the truest sense, without a single thing that could be called living or growing.
Nothing but the Monster before him.
Its frame was colossal, a body like a mountain range, ferocious and violent, still shaped like the "Great Dragon" he pictured in his mind.
A serpent's tail, an ox's body, a huge lizard head, and dreadful long horns.
Beneath its pitch-black scales, a blood-red hue seeped through, like magma that might erupt at any moment.
It had lost one arm.
Which left only the scarred, savage talons of its right hand, gripping an equally ancient and enormous stone spear. Archaic runes clung to it, and amid the faint flicker of violet lightning, Isagi could feel it in his very bones—the weight of the Soul Teardrop itself was "rising."
So [Heavy].
Even the earth beneath his feet was pressed into small dents and hollows.
The Mad Dragon reared upright, like some towering divine general, and looked coldly down at him now with those slender golden eyes.
"…"
Huff.
No words.
After the deep breath he'd grown used to taking, Isagi and the boss before him moved almost at the same instant.
First, the opening move was always "slam the floor"!
In the Mad Dragon's intact right hand, that massive stone spear blazed with ten-thousand-foot arcs of lightning and came crashing down onto the ground. Then came the dense, teeming lightning-snakes, pouring out in a swarm, nearly covering the entire surface.
Isagi leaped up.
His Character Card had long since been switched to "Land of Reeds." He flung out a grappling hook, rapidly reeling himself toward the Great Dragon's immense body, and activated the "Tomoe Lightning" skill, drawing all of that surging sheet of thunder into the [Moonlight Greatsword] in his hand.
And so.
Boundless, savage violet lightning coiled around the cold, luminous blade, and then—"Lightning Repayment"!
The thunder slammed back into the Great Dragon's body, even making it stagger, nearly losing its footing.
Right on the heels of that, using the momentum of the grappling hook, Isagi planted a foot on its high shoulder, sprang up again, and brought his sword down from above—leaving a wound on the Great Dragon's face deep enough to show bone, golden blood spraying out.
Perfect!
After the Soul Teardrop had died more than twenty times, Isagi had finally worked out this most perfect opening!
But he still couldn't let his guard down.
Because what came next, immediately, was—
"ROAAAR!!!"
The deafening roar made you want to clap your hands over your ears on reflex!
Under that immense pressure.
Isagi couldn't move at all. Even controlling from a distance a Soul Teardrop that was plainly made of magic power, he could still feel his whole body trembling in time with the Great Dragon's bellow.
Because of his earlier movement, his body was now fully airborne, and could do nothing but plummet straight down.
And then he could only watch, helpless.
The Great Dragon raised its ancient long spear once more.
Thunder gathered.
All that filled his vision was that arrogant head, and the lightning about to rain down across the whole sky!
In this most critical instant.
Isagi, who had planned for this long ago, knew he had only "a sliver" of a chance next.
In the split second before his body hit the ground.
The "trembling" abnormal status caused by the Great Dragon's roar wore off, and so the grappling hook in his left hand fired again, hauling his body back upward, swift, straight toward that descending giant spear and its thunder.
The instant the lightning converged.
He unleashed that most ancient "technique" once more—
[Tomoe Lightning].
This was the only way to do it. Isagi had tested it many, many times, and the most perfect, the best way to deal with this Mad Dragon's lightning power—the kind laced with a "gravity" attribute—was to use Tomoe Lightning and Lightning Repayment.
It was also an extremely dangerous "expert-level maneuver."
One slip—if he failed to catch that heaven-falling thunder with his weapon in that instant—and he'd have no choice but to summon the Soul Teardrop all over again and go at it once more.
And so.
The sky-wide thunder converged almost entirely into his hand.
That sudden, unbearably heavy force very nearly crushed his body—
Isagi wasn't sure whether, if this weren't the Soul Teardrop but his own real body, his two hands would be snapped clean off by that sky-toppling power of thunder.
But he figured.
Even if that did happen, the [Wolf's Devouring Feast] would forcibly wrench his broken hands back into place and let him keep fighting.
"Kh—hsss—"
His hands had already begun to ache.
Isagi chose not to slam this rolling thunder into the Great Dragon before him, because he couldn't do that.
This was the very payoff of testing again and again—he'd walked down nearly every wrong path there was.
If he flung this raging thunder back at the Great Dragon right now, it would simply open its huge maw and swallow it down into its belly, and then the crimson flame-glow beneath those pitch-black dragon scales would turn into the deep violet of thunder.
The next second.
The Great Dragon's body would swell up like a giant thunder-ball stretched to bursting, and then let loose an AOE explosion that engulfed the entire field.
So far, Isagi had yet to find any way to survive that AOE.
He figured it was probably some kind of "instakill mechanic"?
And extending the logic further!—all magic attacks had a chance of being gulped down into this thing's belly and stored up, until, past a certain threshold, it would simply blow itself up.
It didn't eat every spell, either. Sometimes it swallowed them, sometimes it didn't.
Which was really infuriating!
Isagi felt there had to be some mechanic behind it, but for now he hadn't found it. So.
Right now, all Isagi could do was slam the rolling thunder in his hand down at the Great Dragon's feet—that was the optimal solution for now!
"!!!"
The tremor pierced heaven and earth, so violent that even the young goddesses far away atop the [Great Wall] could feel it.
Fortunately, both of them were fully used to it by now.
At this moment they only watched, rapt, together with Isagi, at the battle footage relayed back through the Eye Crystal.
No more at ease than the boy.
After all, a battle like this was a rare sight even for goddesses.
Aphrodite had even clenched her small fists, that impossibly alluring, gorgeous face all seriousness, as if her mind had already begun to sketch out a stirring drama on its own from the fight before her!
It seemed this [Goddess of Beauty] had finally come to understand a dramatic theme other than "love."
Hot blood, and battle!
Nnh!!
The thunder crashed down at the Great Dragon's feet, driving the earth into a crater several meters deep in an instant!
And precisely because of that.
The Great Dragon lost its footing, roaring as it once again fell into a "stagger."
And this time, the weapon in Isagi's hand had long since been switched to the pitch-black longblade that had accompanied him all along—the [Blade of Myriad Bones]. He activated its skill and cut down along that briefly flashing "[Death Lines]."
"!!!"
To the Great Dragon, this tiny longblade wasn't even worth a toothpick—yet in that moment it carved a monstrous, ghastly wound across its body.
Golden blood cascaded down like a waterfall, amid the Great Dragon's furious roar.
But Isagi had already pulled away in a flash, his whole body flung backward by the grappling hook's line, opening distance from the Great Dragon—and so this bellow no longer affected him much at all.
Whew—
The first round was, more or less, over.
The battle he'd rehearsed several times over had now completed "one part" of itself—but what came next, an even more grueling fight that allowed not the slightest mistake, was still waiting for him.
Isagi had never actually expected to defeat this Great Dragon boss guarding the [Dragon Valley] right here.
It was fine if he couldn't. Then he'd just come again next time.
But—maybe he could?
He didn't dwell on any of that, only did to perfection the things he was capable of doing, and Isagi's mind sank once again into that state of "clear emptiness."
It was as if the world no longer existed at all—only himself, the weapon in his hand, and the dragon before his eyes.
Its every move was etched deep into his mind, and facing its coming attacks he didn't even need to think—his body would move on its own.
And so—
Eat, sleep, rest, chat with the goddesses, then keep sending out the Soul Teardrop to challenge that Great Dragon guarding the [Dragon Valley].
Isagi did all of this with remarkable composure.
Until—
on the forty-something-th attempt, he succeeded, and struck this thing down.
First thing, Isagi gathered up the Magic Stone it dropped, along with that enormous "Mad Dragon Heart," and the fragments of the ancient giant spear.
"…"
These were extremely rare materials!
They were the most important things for crafting a new weapon—how could he possibly leave them lying there!
After that.
Only then did he go on controlling Teardrop Big Bro, preparing to head into the [Dragon Valley] and get a look at what lay inside.
Never in a hundred guesses had he thought he'd actually take this thing down in the end—Isagi and the two young goddesses all let out a long breath of relief.
And it was right at this moment.
That Lady Asfi delivered the latest news from the city—
When he saw the blue-haired woman use her Flying Boots to come all the way to him and the goddesses.
Isagi knew.
Ryuu-senpai and the others had succeeded in their subjugation of the Corrupted Spirit.
And that was indeed the case.
Though the "god" who for some reason had appeared in the deep levels counted as something of an accident, in the end the Corrupted Spirit never got its hands on "Ailiya," and so it never obtained its complete power.
After the Jewel Fetus, which had a "god" for its core, was found and destroyed, everyone then joined forces to subjugate the Corrupted Spirit's main body.
The process went fairly smoothly.
Of course.
The main credit went to the rise in everyone's levels over this stretch of time.
Not only had Finn and the others of the Loki Familia all reached Lv. 7, but so had Freya's officers, along with Ryuu-senpai, Lefiya, and Tiona—and most important of all, Ottar, who had already reached Lv. 8.
Up on this soaring city wall, Lady Asfi recounted the course of the battle, gently and in full.
By now, the subjugation force had returned from the deep levels to the city, and so the Guild had told him he could come back too.
"All right, then."
Isagi figured he'd take one look at the [Dragon Valley] and then head back—he and the goddesses were, of course, still curious about exactly what the situation was inside.
In fact, if it hadn't been for the relatively urgent circumstances, Isagi had even wondered whether he should control the Soul Teardrop and give the [Dragon Valley] a proper exploring before leaving.
Although the battle against the Corrupted Spirit had gone smoothly, in the end there'd still been a bit of an "accident."
And that was—
Ais had obtained the Corrupted Spirit's power.
Putting it that way seemed a little inaccurate, but it was true—in that battle, the Corrupted Spirit had, at the very last, thrown all caution aside to make contact with the golden-haired girl.
And so.
Some kind of change had come over Ais.
The "Black Wind" appeared, and then the girl sank into a long, deep sleep.
What on earth was going on?
Even the gods couldn't explain it clearly—and if that was so, then all he could do was hurry back and see for himself…
____
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