Dragon's Bloodline

"Th-that is…"

Before Carla's eyes, Ria's form was transforming.

A Black Dragon—the existence she had once risked her life to fight.

But the body before her now was far more massive than back then. Its full length rivaled even a god's; it was incomparable to a mature dragon.

"It's a kaiju battle…"

Serge muttered, as if his soul had left his body. But no, this was on a scale beyond even that.

Existences resembling massive mountain ranges were intertwining their colossal bodies. Each strike held enough power to destroy an entire city.

"Whoa, you guys, stay close to me, alright? I'll protect you for now."

Following Ohma's words, Carla and Serge moved to her side. If any of those attacks hit them, a human body would surely be blown apart.

Looking toward the demon side, Terrew was there. Carla hadn't even sensed her move.

"Good grief, things have taken quite a turn."

In place of Terrew, something was floating next to Ohma.

Jet-black hair with Dragon Eyes. A visage strikingly similar to Ria's.

Dark Dragon Valis was there.

There was no need to ask why she was here. Next to Terrew was a light-blue-haired dragon, Lanna.

Even for the Divine Dragons who wielded overwhelming power, this battle was not something they could ignore.

"That one should already be an existence of this world. Why is she so attached to her original world?"

Valis shook her head, unable to comprehend.

Honestly, even Serge, a fellow reincarnator, couldn't fully understand either.

This world had magic. With his cheat-like powers, he had even risen to the status of nobility.

In his past life, he was just an ordinary student, yet now he was in a position to hold discussions with this world's leaders. You could say his dreams had come true.

But Ria was different.

From what he'd heard before, although it was a somewhat unusual profession, she had chosen her own path and lived the life she wanted.

Naturally, she would hesitate to destroy the world that raised her.

Incidentally, according to what he'd heard from Labyrinth, she had been a school-refusing girl in her previous life. Thanks to that, she still kept herself shut away in a labyrinth even now.

When he explained this, Valis let out a gentle sigh.

"It might be kinder to erase her memories."

But would that really be the right thing to do?

Ria's actions were clearly influenced by her past life. Without that, even with her Gift, she likely wouldn't have reached this situation.

It was even doubtful whether she would have grown enough to obtain the power as Valis's successor.

"How about saving that conversation for later?"

Ohma redirected Valis's attention to the scene before them.

The battle was about to reach its conclusion.

The battle between god and dragon was tremendous.

Heaven and earth shook, lightning rained down, and magma surged up from beneath the former Imperial Capital. The wind became a tempest, scraping away the surface of the earth.

The devastation was so extreme that Valis and Lanna had erected a barrier, but even that was occasionally pierced, causing explosions far off on the horizon.

The god's magic was mostly deflected by the dragon's scales; not even a meteor shower could penetrate that defense.

Meanwhile, the dragon's power was equally ineffective against the god. Even its breath of darkness, capable of destroying all things, was blocked by light and could not reach its target.

In the end, it became a physical brawl.

The god's fists, feet, and headbutts struck the dragon's body.

The dragon, in turn, pierced the god's body with its claws, tail, and above all, its fangs.

Witnessing this battle straight out of mythology, Carla felt an impulse welling up from within herself.

Bearing the blood of both dragon and god, Carla felt as though she could see how this battle would end.

Once, the dragons had destroyed the gods.

And now, what fought before her were a dragon and a god.

Ria would win.

In the midst of battle, Ria's consciousness had grown hazy.

She felt neither pain nor emotion, fighting purely on instinct.

With her claws, with her tail, with her fangs.

Breathing at point-blank range to expose the God's flesh, then sinking her fangs into it.

Though it regenerated, she was definitely wounding it.

Meanwhile, the God's power could not pierce the Dragon's scales.

"Perish."

With Ars's declaration, a blade of nothingness sliced through the dragon's body.

One wing was torn apart, but even so, the dragon's assault did not stop.

Even when a spear of nothingness pierced its body, the dragon lived.

Even when its heart was pierced, the dragon lived.

"How am I supposed to beat something like this…"

At the very center of the God's body, Ars was holding his head in despair.

When he had fought alongside Carla, Guinevere, and the others against the Dragon in Manesh, they had broken through the Dragon's defenses with magic, and Carla's sword had pierced its heart to deliver the finishing blow.

That had been a mature dragon. He'd seen them a thousand years ago too, so there was no mistaking it.

But this thing before him possessed power and a physical form far beyond any mature dragon.

Could it be a Divine Dragon? No, surely not. The power of Valis that he had witnessed a thousand years ago was even greater.

Ars did have one final trump card. But it was not something to be used here and now.

"I surrender, I surrender, it's my loss!"

The god's arm tapped the dragon, but its attacks did not cease.

Its breath broke through the magical barrier, and its fangs were driven toward the god's throat.

No—just as they were about to be driven in.

A dragon even larger than the black dragon by another two sizes had restrained its movements.

Dark Dragon Valis.

Her arms seized Ria's neck and wings, pulling her away from Ars.

Ria continued to struggle wildly, and three more dragons piled on top of her.

Four Divine Dragons.

The Four Divine Dragons—beings that had not manifested even during the Millennium.

Bodies so massive they dwarfed even the greatest mountains held Ria's body down.

Even transformed into a dragon, Ria still tried to struggle, but Valis was draining her magical power.

Losing her magical power, the dragon's body dissipated, and all that remained was Ria in tattered armor, collapsed as if embracing Gallach.

 

*

 

When she opened her eyes, there was an angel.

"Have you woken up, Ria?"

No, it was a face she knew well.

She realized she was being given a lap pillow by Carla.

"What… happened…"

Even as she spoke, her memories were returning. Memories dominated by killing intent and the urge to fight came flooding back, making her feel terribly ill.

When she pressed her hand to her forehead, it was damp with sweat. Carla wiped that sweat away with a handkerchief.

"Did I… lose?"

Her memories of the end were unclear. But she felt as though the battle had reached a stalemate.

"No, you won."

When she turned her face toward the voice, she saw Ars sitting on the ground.

"I… won?"

"That's right. I surrendered. But since you wouldn't stop attacking even then, the Divine Dragons stepped in to stop you."

What was that about?

As the conclusion to a duel, wasn't that rather anticlimactic?

"Where are Valis and the others?"

"Over here."

When Ria turned to look, the Four Divine Dragons stood alongside the witnesses.

"So, what will you do with your rights as the victor? If you tell me to hand over my life, I'll be taking my leave though."

Ars spoke jokingly as he stood up. For a loser, his attitude was remarkably composed.

"I had intended this to be a fight with my life on the line, though…"

Ria staggered as she stood up as well. Out of habit, she reached for her waist, only to realize her katana wasn't there.

"Where's Kotetsu?"

She could sense Gallach's presence. It was inside her.

But Kotetsu was gone. The katana she had wielded like an extension of her own hand was missing.

"I managed to recover it, but…"

What Serge presented was her beloved blade, snapped in two at the middle.

Seeing Ria on the verge of tears, Ars extended his hand.

"Let me borrow it. I'll fix it for you."

"You can fix it?"

It was odd to begin with that he would offer to repair the weapon of an opponent he hadn't reconciled with, but as a weapon, Kotetsu posed no threat to Ars.

"Restore."

With magic originally meant for use on human bodies, Kotetsu regained its original form.

"If you live for a thousand years, you learn to use magic like this too."

To Ria, who was watching curiously, Ars offered Kotetsu handle-first.

It was a distance at which she could cut him down in an instant if she wished. Within that brief moment of tension, Ria created a sheath from her remaining magical power and sheathed Kotetsu.

Ars let out an exaggeratedly relieved sigh, and Ria fixed him with a half-lidded glare.

"What are you playing at?"

"Nothing in particular… I just thought I might as well fix it while I was at it."

Ars shrugged. But unusually, he was looking at her with a serious expression.

Now that she thought about it, he had always given the impression of wearing a faint smile.

"So, what do you want to do?"

"What do I want to do?"

"Your rights as the victor. Will you start a human-demon war, or… trigger the Great Collapse? Either way, the Divine Dragons won't side with you or me. That has been confirmed."

Honestly, Ria hadn't thought she could win. He was the hero from a thousand years ago and the current Demon King. She had believed his power was on an entirely different level from hers.

Even now that she had won, it didn't feel real.

No, perhaps it didn't feel real for a different reason.

She remembered becoming a Dragon. But could she really call that her own power?

It was neither swordsmanship nor martial arts—it was the power of the Gift she had been given when she was born into this world. While it was Ria's power, she didn't feel it was connected to who she had been in her previous life.

"What should I do…"

Watching Ria cross her arms in contemplation, Ars shook his head again in exasperation.

"You haven't decided, and yet you wanted to have a duel?"

"Nee-chan basically doesn't think ahead…"

Ria didn't object to Serge's rude remark. Under normal circumstances she might have, but this time it was true that she hadn't thought ahead.

She had believed that fighting would bring clarity. At the very least, if she died, she wouldn't have to agonize anymore.

"Well, there aren't many options. Either cooperate with me and fight against Earth, or oppose me and start a human-demon war… There's also the option of siding with Earth, but I don't recommend it."

Ars laid out the choices she had considered many times. In the end, she had chosen to destroy Earth.

"If you fight to protect Earth against this world, you will also be fighting against us."

Valis spoke quietly, but it was a death sentence. Even if Ria sided with Earth out of self-satisfaction, the outcome was obvious.

"Besides, the world called Earth was already on the verge of destruction to begin with."

That was new information.

"This is the first I'm hearing of this…"

"Did I not mention it? From the beginning, Earth has become a world where souls with strong wills can no longer reincarnate, yet humans overflow there. The fact that those who reincarnate or are summoned come from nearly the same era is as natural as ripe fruit falling from a tree."

What was that supposed to mean?

Did that mean the outcome would be the same even if she did nothing?

She had thought it strange that reincarnators from the twenty-first century were the only ones coming, given the difference in the flow of time, but she had never pursued the matter.

"If you had told me that from the start…"

"I thought someone else had told you."

Valis said matter-of-factly, while Ars and the other Divine Dragons nodded in agreement.

"This is news to me too…"

Serge muttered.

"Well, whether the twenty-first century will barely make it through or not is uncertain."

According to Ars's explanation, for over two thousand years, Earth—the thick trunk of that world—had been approaching its limits for human habitation.

The explosive population growth seemed to be the ultimate cause. She did recall seeing educational programs mention how the population had surged over the past century.

As a result, the environment called Earth could no longer sustain all of humanity.

"Earth did have phenomena similar to The Millennium—wars that reduced the population—but they were never on a scale that affected the whole world."

"But there should have been leads on solving the energy and food problems."

Nuclear power and methane hydrates could replace crude oil, and food production could be increased through genetic modification.

"But Earth will still perish. Its branches will extend no further."

Valis declared coldly.

Even if Ria pressed her on how she could know such a thing, the answer would likely be "because I know."

"That's why accepting immigrants from Earth is actually an act of compassion. While mechanical civilization hasn't developed much here, magic can compensate for a considerable portion of that."

"Then there was only one option from the very beginning…"

Ria sighed.

There was no choice but to destroy Earth.

"Ah, actually, if you use your power, there is one other method."

Ars held up a finger as he made his suggestion—a terrible one. Everything this man proposed was fundamentally terrible.

"Become a Dragon, go to Earth, and use your power to reduce the population. If you bring it down to about one billion, you might buy some time."

He even suggested that the best approach would be to turn China and India into uninhabited wastelands. Certainly, those regions had the largest populations, but…

"You could also consider America in terms of resource consumption, but if that country disappeared, it would upset the global power balance… Ah, actually, that might trigger wars and reduce the population anyway… No, leaving Russia intact would probably lead to disaster."

"If you resolve Earth's problems over there, we can migrate the demons to other continents in this world to maintain balance. It's not impossible to separate the connected worlds either."

Following up on Valis's words, Ars held up his finger again.

"That sounds good. Earth's population would still decrease, but they wouldn't lose their homeland. This world wouldn't have to go through a human-demon war. I'm the one saying it, but isn't that the best option?"

This man truly took lives too lightly. He made judgments based on numbers alone.

Was that the fate of a Demon King?

"I'll… fight against Earth."

Ria whispered in a small voice.

"And we'll accept the immigrants. Let Earth perish."

As Ria's voice grew stronger toward the end, Ars made a pitiful face.

"Why would you choose that? My plan is so much easier."

"From our perspective, destroying Earth would be preferable. It would extend this world's lifespan dramatically."

Valis said that, but of course that wasn't why Ria had made her decision.

"If we accept them as immigrants, we'll have to take responsibility for the people of Earth here too. Just reducing numbers is irresponsible."

Even Ria thought her reasoning was absurd, but Ars nodded in resignation.

"I can't sympathize, but I can understand. As a ruler, I wouldn't want to deal with something so troublesome, though. Well, I'll follow the victor's words."

The blood within Ria spoke to her.

Protect this world. That is your destiny.

The blood of the Dragon—the existence meant to protect this world—tried to bind Ria.

"Truly… what a terrible thing…"

A mass slaughter that would make Stalin and Mao Zedong pale. With this choice, Ria's name would likely be etched into history for as long as humanity existed.

Well, at least she wasn't killing her own people, so perhaps that was one small mercy.

In any case, this story would have no happy ending. It would surely be passed down eternally as a tragedy.

"Ria."

The one supporting her shoulders was none other than Carla.

Even without words, Carla would stay by her side. No matter what Ria did, Carla would protect her back.

"You know, you're free to give up on me."

"That is the one thing that will never happen."

To Carla's smile, Ria could only offer a bitter one in return.