Dragon-san Wants a Friend

Volume 4 Chapter 37: Dragon-san Gets a Glimpse of the Truth

While we walk, Ten was talking non-stop.

「You see, the ‘seal’ that I produce can only stay in effect for about a few hundreds of years. And if I don’t renew the seal, Towa would be eaten away by ‘Eclipse’. And since the moment I lost my physical body, I also lost my means of interacting with the world on my own. I was truly desperate. After all, I am a dragon, one of the most powerful beings in the entire world. So I was wandering if there was something I could do to protect the people for more than just a few hundreds of years.」

Ten, who was clenching her fists all this time, finally relaxed a little bit.

「But, you see, it’s just as my children are saying. If I needed a physical form, I could just hijack one of the Shrine Maiden’s bodies. Now, you may probably wonder what exactly is a Head Shrine Maiden? They are basically my spare bodies for when the time comes for me to seal away the ‘Eclipse’ and renew the seal.」

At that time, Ten looked as though she was filled with remorse and grief, but soon enough she went back to her usual resolve of steel kind of look.

「Some of my children here aren’t compatible with me, and some of them happen to have low aptitude for magic. But even so, they can still serve the purpose of re-sealing the ‘Eclipse’ just fine. It is by their noble sacrifice that I’ve been able to protect this land up until now. In the first place, that technique of demons and humans making covenants, it was also my idea.」

「Still, there is no way that having a dragon spirit inside of your body won’t have any bad side effects.」

I also understand that it was the same kind of technique that Mikoto was using.

After fusing herself with Kyle, the Thunder Demon, she fell to the ground, exhausted, even though she herself didn’t use that much magic to begin with.

Small wonder, since in fact she was using the kind of magic that greatly exceeded her own capacity. Pretty much everyone would be exhausted after something like that.

No matter how compatible you may be, what else could happen when you use up all of the magic that circulates through your body?

「Yeah. That’s about right.」

Ten nodded her head while also frowning her brow just a little bit.

「Truly. These girls are way too good for their own good. And they are all but aware of their role once they come here to Taisha. Still, they say they all want to stay here and see this through. However, not many of them are left. It pains me greatly. I don’t want to end up being all alone.」

Even though there was a smile on her face, she was shedding tears.

Look at all that pain and regret.

That is why I was able to understand. Ten was only accepting that method of action because there was no other solution at hand.

「About Makkocchi. I would do anything for her, just to see her happy. That all that was to it. That is why I asked her to travel to the Western Continent. So that I could do my job properly.」

Ten took a deep breath and stared at me, as though she was trying to penetrate me.

「That is why I cannot simply disappear. Not until Towa is completely safe from the ‘Eclipse’s’ threat. Otherwise, it would be nothing more but to tarnish the memory of those who gave their lives to stop it.」

Her will and determination was so strong that even I was able to feel it.

She tried her hardest to change something, suffered because of it, cried in helplessness, by still she was adamant on going forward to achieve her goal.

All for the sake of protecting her beloved Towa.

She was a very strong person, but her struggle was very sad at the same time.

But it also meant that for the sake of achieving her goals she didn’t intend to hold back.

As if she knew what I was thinking, Ten spoke up again:

「Now, the most important part: what exactly is ‘Eclipse’? To make a long story short, we can say that it is not something of this world.」

It was a very simple, but a t he same time very clear answer.

For a while, the only thing I could do was to stare at Ten in disbelief.

She, on the other hand, looked as though she completely understood my reaction.

「Unbelievable, isn’t it? Even though we dragons are something that far exceeds the concept of being off this world.」

「I get it, but,」

Dragons are creature that are created as something existing in this world, but also being outside of its frames.

So we are aware of the things that are not available to normal creatures of this world, while I am also aware of the existence of other worlds, since I originally come from one such.

This is the kind of knowledge that only someone who’s been reincarnated like me could know.

However, it was a very strange thing indeed when someone else was there to confirm it.

The other reason was because of the general knowledge about the world that only us dragons have.

「Even though ‘Eclipse’ may not originate from this world, due to the world correction theory, once manifested here it shall adapt itself as magical power of this world...... Which should make it disappear. But in reality, something quite the opposite is happening and it erodes the surrounding reality instead. What an irony.」

It seems that this world was still in the making, that is why the correction force was stronger here than anywhere else.

It was the kind of force that adapted anything otherworldly to the state where it could be recognized by its new reality as something natural.

Maybe that is the reason why my sould was changed into that of a dragon upon my reincarnation.

Besides, there was something else that I wanted to know about ‘Eclipse’.

「So where all that negativity tha oozes out of the ‘Eclipse’ is coming from?」

All of those horrid emotions, I didn’t wanted to think that they were also coming from different worlds.

I think that there was something more to it. Something much more sinister than that.

To that, Ten had a really surprised face.

「Feelings? What feelings? What are you talking about? Negativity?」

「What do you mean, ‘what feelings’? Feelings like pain and grief and all of that.」

Or loneliness.

For a moment out there, Ten looks really puzzled, and then she just looks at me, with her golden eyes shining brightly.

「...... That reminds, me, I never even asked you what your dragon name is. Could you tell me? 」

Now that I think about it, I really didn’t even formally introduced myself to her.

「It’s ‘Lava Enesceram Nocturnus Figura’.」

As I had nothing against telling her that, once she heard my name, Ten’s mouth raised in a mysterious smile.

「Night and Lava...... Ahh, now I see. That bastard. So we finally meet!」

The expression on her face was that on a pure exhilaration, as if she wasn’t able to contain herself anymore.

I have to admit, seeing her like that was something of a new experience to me.

「I see! Yup. It’s a real pleasure. For me, but also for them.」

It seems that Ten had no intention of explaining to me what exactly did she meant by that.

「Say, Ten? Whatever was that supposed to mean?」

When I tried to ask her that, Ten just looked at me again.

It was the most serious stare that she gave me to date.

「Say, Lava? Do you want to save the world?」

When she suddenly asked me a question like that, I initially thought she was joking, but the look in her eyes was telling an entirely different story.

While I was wondering what to answer her, Ten smiled at me.

「You don’t have to answer me right away. It’s not like you’re going anywhere. So let us talk and then you can talk me your answer.」

Suddenly, I could feel that the concentration of magic power around Ten was raising.

「Let’s get started, then! First of all, let’s see how strong your magical power really is! At the same time, I would like to see just how resistant you are to ‘Eclipse’s’ influence! If you want to save the world, you need to be as strong as me, and maybe even stronger!」

「Hey, aren’t you a little bit too aggressive!?」

Ten said a lot of incomprehensible things, and then her body was coated with bright light.

What turned up next, was a beautiful and uniquely shaped dragon that descended from the heavens, brimming with magical power.

However, it was a completely different kind of dragon from me or Vaas-senpai.

Its body was quite long and resembled that of a snake, with bunches of fur the same color as its hair growing in various places of its body.

Its head resembled that of a crocodile, with a pair of intricate horns growing out of it, giving it a really noble look.

The dragon looked down onto me and its golden eyes shined with joy.

「Fufufu. You are on my turf here. Because of that, I can easily take my old form! Come on now, Lava! Play with your Senpai for a bit!」

When she was saying it like that, I didn’t really had much of a choice here!

So I turned around and started running away from the laughing dragon, looking for some kind of exit somewhere, anywhere!

Let me tell you this for now! I’m no match for her right now!

That is why I pulled out my wings while still being in my human form, trying the best that I could to escape from her.

I could feel my whole body becoming scared.

It was even filling up my heart, making me even more scared than ever before.

Looking behind me, I can see the altar in the middle of the area glowing and shaking, surrounded by the seven glowing tori gates. With each passing second, the gates were emitting more and more magical energy, and the altar was shaking even more.

Once the tori gates reached the critical point of magic emission, the altar broke apart.

At that moment, a gust of white fog started to ooze out from the cracks.

As I flew even higher, I could see the fog convert in one place, whirling and swirling, forming some kind of shape.

It was as if the ‘Eclipse’ was trying to take a humanoid shape.

However, the scale of that creature was even bigger than everything else that I have seen so far, and what was even more frustrating was the fact that this shape was starting to look exactly like the green dragon that was flying around.

Finally, the long, white fog dragon notices me with its white, foggy eyes.

「......––––!! ––––......!!」

I was wondering how it was going to roar at me with a body made out of fog like that, but then the white fog started to ooze out of its mouth.

「「Wooooooaaaaaahhhhhh!?!?」」

I folded my wings and flew downwards, and when I saw the green dragon catching up to me, I protested with all my might.

「What the fuck!? Why the fuck would you even create such a thing!? And why the fuck is it chasing me like that!?」

「It’s a misunderstanding! One big misunderstanding! It’s nothing like that. The only thing I can do is to loosen the seal just a little bit, not force the ‘Eclipse’ to take any kind of shape in particular! Did you really think I was the one who created that!?」

Certainly, I felt as though Ten was screaming something at the same time I did just a moment ago, but it was really hard to believe that something she herself created would attack us just like that. Ten was also getting closer to me with each passing second.

I felt nauseous for some reason, and then both Ten and I simultaneously dodged to the sides.

In the meantime, a huge wave of magic passed right through the space where we were at just a moment ago.

The white dragon then lands on the one side of the altar, reducing it to ashes.

It seems that it needed to settle down for a bit after staying in the air for a prolonged period of time.

Seeing that made my face turn pale.

「Then why the hell does it look exactly like you, huh!? And did that dragon used a freaking magic just now!?」

「Um, ummm, this is......」

Said Ten with her golden eyes going all over the place.

「To tell you the truth, when I sealed the ‘Eclipse’ off, it managed to absorb some of my power. I thought that this thing might have disappeared long ago, but since that space is mostly devoid of the flow of time, it must have survived in there. Maybe it managed to assimilate with my power and made it its own.」

She continued speaking, and I could see cold sweat running along her green, draconic face.

「And since I thought it would be dead, I basically threw it out of my memory. So maybe it is able to use magic because of my power still being inside of it? And maybe it got activated all at once because I woke it up so suddenly?」

That sounded pretty plausible. After all, dragons are the strongest entities in the entire world.

We have our automatic interception mode and we could use magic in that mode, so maybe it truly was just that in the working here.

But that would also mean that it was acting completely autonomous from the rest of ‘Eclipse’.

「So basically it’s all your goddamn faaaaaaauuuuuulllllltttttt!!!!!!!!!」

「I’m soooo sooooooooorrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!」

While I kept on screaming with the white fog dragon shooting magic at as in the background, Ten began to apologize with tears filling her eyes.