"You retreat first. I'm going to take a look at the source of this magic beast tide."
Nanoda lifted her head toward the sky.
There, above the clouds, was something even she could not ignore.
The reason those magic beasts, with all their bestial instincts, were migrating in such vast numbers lay in that stretch of sky overhead.
Schlacht and Draht followed Nanoda's gaze upward.
A beat late, both demons shuddered as one.
Their instincts were screaming at them: flee, get away from here, now!
"What in the world is that…"
"I'm off first."
Seeing Draht break into a run, Schlacht had no choice but to hobble after him, limping. "Hey! Draht!" He knew this was already far beyond anything he could handle.
"I'm really not that good at Flight Magic…"
Once she'd confirmed her subordinates had withdrawn safely, Nanoda condensed her Mana and shot toward the heights.
Was it curiosity? Or unease? Nanoda spared a glance toward Gaderia, then fixed all her attention on that greater height hidden behind the clouds.
Like a rocket lifting off, she reached in an instant the middle sky from which she could look down over Gaderia and everything around it.
With a soft plop, Nanoda passed calmly through the first white cloud, a few tiny droplets clinging to her drifting strands of hair.
But as she kept climbing higher, the pressure mounted, and breathing grew steadily harder. Not that it troubled Nanoda much—a member of the Demon Race far outstripped ordinary Humans in constitution, and she was a Great Demon of the Mythical Era besides.
Still not visible. It was higher yet.
Breaking through several more layers of cloud in succession, Nanoda gradually slowed her pace.
The air currents beating against her face turned sharp and cold.
The clouds overhead, once white, had taken on a grey-black cast, as though brewing a storm—or the shadow of some colossal thing veiled from sight.
Nanoda could clearly sense that the Mana all around had shifted too, its density noticeably risen.
"What is that, exactly? A creature?"
Within her Mana Perception she'd scanned a presence of Mana as vast as a large town.
With her senses amplified by Mana, a heartbeat like the steady pounding of drums reached her ears—slow, and powerful.
Just a little farther.
Her broad black robe billowed ceaselessly in the gale as Nanoda stretched out a pale hand and parted the last veil of rain-mist stained a blackish green.
With a swish, her vision cleared. Suspended in midair, she was struck breathless by the sight before her.
Just as she'd suspected, beneath the boundless blue curtain of sky there truly was a colossal thing. Its body was large enough to blot out the sunlight across dozens, even hundreds of square kilometers—to call it a monster would be no exaggeration.
Having only just cleared the clouds, Nanoda could see nothing but the creature's underbelly: a grey-black plated abdomen, hard and smooth as diamond. And yet "plated abdomen" hardly did it justice—it looked as though it had endured ages beyond measure, grown over with rust-colored yellow patches and blue-green moss.
Gazing up from below, Nanoda amounted to no more than a tiny speck upon it.
The "monster" seemed asleep just then, drifting motionless in the air. From either side of its body spread wings like fossils, fanning ever so faintly.
Flying along the creature's belly, Nanoda tried to find its head, and at the same time she wondered: with her Severance Magic, could she cut through this "monster's" body?
After flying a good while, she saw an enormous Y-shaped, three-clawed talon, a thick and lengthy neck, and only then a few angular contours.
"A dragon."
Nanoda had never in her life seen a dragon this large. Compared to the Red Mirror Dragons of the past, this one could crush a whole village of Red Mirror Dragons flat just by sitting down.
It was absurd, as if a creature out of legend had appeared before her eyes without warning.
A mountain range of Mana flying through the sky.
Its spine was that mountain range, overgrown with flowers, grasses, and trees found nowhere on land—mysterious, rare, and of every color—as though it carried a rainbow bridge upon its back, dazzling in its splendor.
And more than that, Nanoda could feel the presence of a barrier upon it.
"Wait. Sky? Mountain range? A Skyvein Dragon?"
All at once Nanoda recalled a legend passed among the people of the world.
There was said to be a dragon species vast as an island, its life nearly eternal, that spent its whole existence flying at heights the very limit of human Flight Magic could never reach. A Skyvein Dragon lived out its entire life in the sky!
The vegetation on this "monster's" back—unseen, unheard of—confirmed the traits of a Skyvein Dragon.
Still, this mountain-range dragon really was a touch too enormous.
"I do wish Yuna could see this. She'd love it. She might even want to break through this barrier and take a walk on the Skyvein Dragon's back."
Of course, if this Skyvein Dragon were truly provoked, it would likely be a kingdom-ending catastrophe. Nanoda added that thought to herself.
Craack.
Just as Nanoda was studying the dragon's head, two seams split open on either side of it, several chunks of rubble falling away, and the great dragon opened its grey, vertical-slitted eyes!
Nanoda watched warily as the Skyvein Dragon "awoke."
According to the records, the Skyvein Dragon was one of the few gentle-natured beings among the dragon species.
The great dragon looked at the impossibly tiny Nanoda, blinking slowly, and as it did, no small amount of stone debris drifted down from its head.
"I never expected the last one I'd meet would be a member of the Demon Race."
The great dragon did not open its vast, moss-sealed maw. Instead, a gentle female voice spoke directly into Nanoda's mind.
It was an ancient, obscure tongue, yet Nanoda could understand its meaning.
"The fabled dragon-speech? No—is it magic?"
Nanoda did her best to soften her cool tone into something calm.
"A little trick I've used since long ago." "So that's it. You're the one who drew me here."
Long ago? How long ago? This was without doubt magic already lost to the present age.
What astonished Nanoda even more was that this Skyvein Dragon could not only communicate—it possessed an intelligence beyond imagining.
"Just how long have you lived?"
"Mm… about the same age as you, perhaps?"
Both were beings that had survived from the Mythical Era to the present day. The moment Nanoda saw the Mana clad about this Skyvein Dragon—enough to overwhelm the very sight of her—she'd already guessed as much. Now it was confirmed.
"So old things and old things are drawn to one another, are they."
First it had been Serie, and now this legendary Skyvein Dragon.
Nanoda felt a certain helplessness. Had she paid it no mind, this Skyvein Dragon coming to the skies above Gaderia—there was no telling what effect it might bring.
"Why come looking for me?"
"I only wished, at the end, to meet a 'companion' of the same era, and to leave a few things behind. I'd thought it would be one of the Elven Race—I never imagined a member of the Demon Race would come."
The Skyvein Dragon blinked, betraying its surprise, and then its words took a turn.
"I am going to die."
"?"
It came back to Nanoda all at once: the moment a Skyvein Dragon touched the ground was the moment of its death.
The reason the magic beasts were fleeing their own territories was that the Skyvein Dragon was about to descend. A body so vast—it was an impact enough to reshape an entire stretch of land.
____
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