The voice coming from the 'spear' was not human, but a beast-like growl born from the anger of a weak human's actions.
"Human, who gave you the nerve?! You dared send someone to alter the body of the strongest, reducing me to such a humiliating state! And you dare insult me! I am truly angry now!"
It Was Very Sad
To the Dragon of Albion, it had always been in its strongest state.
Even compared to the Norse Giants.
Even compared to Egypt's Sphinxes.
Or all manner of so-called divine beasts.
These things that were not its kind were sometimes friendly toward it, and at other times gave it vague, perfunctory responses.
Before the world had completely changed, the Dragon of Albion had always been surrounded by these weak creatures. But because it was the strongest dragon, it had never cared.
As for the coming age that belonged to humanity, that weak race—
It had been among the first to learn of it and quickly accepted reality. Yet because it was the strongest dragon, it had the duty to let its weaker kin leave first, preventing them from being attacked by other things.
Having existed since the planet's birth, it possessed nearly 4.6 billion years of life data. Naturally, it had long known when fantasy would completely vanish. Calling itself the strongest, it had planned to leave only after all its kin had departed at the final moment.
Because it was the strongest, it had to protect the weak.
Albion would never say such words aloud, because it believed the weak had to obey the strong absolutely—even in their opinions.
However, when it prepared to leave at the 'original' final moment, it discovered that, for some unknown reason, the end of fantasy had come four years early.
A being of the old era, it had been left behind in this already transformed world.
At first, the Dragon of Albion's thoughts were merely along the lines of, Ah, so that's how it is. But I'm the strongest, so this is completely fine. It had felt nothing else.
It was only that it could no longer see its weak kin, and that made it very sad.
Still, there were also small things to be happy about, because it encountered other weak creatures that had remained in this world, though they were not its kin.
But the disappearance of Mystery caused those creatures, far weaker than Albion, to die quickly. That made it very sad.
Gradually, it realized that it had become "a being abandoned all alone." Enraged, it roared at its own fate.
It absolutely did not want to die alone like this!
So, without despairing or giving up, it thought that since it could not move through Mystery, it would move physically instead.
Thus, it used its enormous body to dive into the underground depths where Mystery still remained.
The Dragon of Albion did not remember what happened afterward.
Only scattered colors remained in its memories.
Black and red.
Everything around it was like a broken curse. Filthy black and red mixed together, churning chaotically. It could smell a heavy stench of blood, but its memories had already grown hazy.
...So it was vomiting. Filth clogged its throat, and it could not even breathe smoothly.
Almost there, almost there. Just a little more. If it tried a little harder, it could dig through—
The strongest dragon's mind had become terribly muddled.
It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts so bitter it hurts I want to vomit I want to vomit this is awful it hurts it hurts it hurts I want to vomit...
In its awareness, time vanished and space collapsed. Only itself, constantly moving forward, remained.
Everything had been compressed to the point of a needle, leaving only intense pain and suffering.
Nearly convulsing, the Dragon of Albion forced itself to suppress the urge to weep bitterly with the pride of the strongest.
How many times had it repeated the digging? It truly could not count.
Back then, the Dragon of Albion desperately scattered its consciousness, firmly believing that its strongest self would eventually succeed.
Suddenly, the weight became lighter.
The thing that had constantly pressed down on it seemed to have left due to something happening. It had not vanished entirely, but in that instant, the weight became twenty grams. So startled was Albion that its head had already broken away from its body and continued onward through the underground.
Before that, it had not even realized that its head and body had separated, or that its body had already died.
"Ah..."
The Dragon of Albion murmured.
Its soul crawled onward, eventually reaching the 'Reverse Side.' Its soul left its flesh, crossed beyond the Sea of Death, and became a radiance shining at the world's outermost reaches.
On the reverse side of reality, where all fantasy slumbered, there was almost nothing proper around it. There was cosmic darkness, ultimate radiance, and whirlpools like the center of all things... but it was the only Phantasmal Species.
"How could this be? Why is there... why am I the only one..."
Simply put, this was a place that belonged nowhere, a world that belonged nowhere.
Freed from the concept of time, that place had no morning or night, no sun or moon. Only faint auroras illuminated the sky.
This world did not change. The vast ocean knew nothing of waves, and the sky knew nothing of drifting clouds. Having arrived in such a world, the Strongest Dragon found it somewhat lonely that the sky held neither moon nor stars.
So the dragon could only close its eyes. Yet whenever it did, its heart became incomparably lonely.
There should have been kin who had come here. It simply did not know of them, and they feared its strongest self too much to show themselves.
Albion kept waiting for some creature to find it. It hoped that person would be someone it knew—
Praying thus, it spent every day in loneliness.
Though it was called every day, from its perspective, ten years and a hundred years were no different. The strongest dragon's body reacted very slowly to the passage of time. It did not hunger, nor did it need sleep. It merely spent its days in a daze.
It simply waited, enduring the unbearable loneliness that was the punishment called hope.
But—
"It's all right. You managed to do this much. I should be the one thanking you."
When that voice sounded, it was neither an auditory hallucination nor an illusion. It truly existed beside its ear.
Though it had expected someone to come one day, Albion opened its eyes with disbelief. The being it saw made its expression soften.
When had its soul—or perhaps its consciousness—returned here?
Though delighted that it no longer had to be lonely, it was also puzzled as to when it had become capable of meeting a weak human's gaze at eye level. As it examined its current body with that question in mind, it could not help becoming furiously enraged upon seeing what had become of the head it had left behind in the world. During this time, it also heard this weak human disdain the body of the strongest dragon—its own body—
"Human, who gave you the nerve?! You dared send someone to alter the body of the strongest, reducing me to such a humiliating state!"
This was the first time in its life that the Dragon of Albion had said such words.
"And you dare insult me! I am truly angry now!"
Annoyed water fairy.jpg
Unchanging Reverence ()
When Novia realized that the weapon forged from the Dragon of Albion's head possessed consciousness seemingly belonging to the 'original owner,' his first thought was to pretend he had not heard it.
After all, forging someone else's head into a weapon one could casually wield was difficult enough to explain—and it was the head of an exceedingly proud dragon at that. Novia felt this would be troublesome to explain.
Moreover, a weapon possessing its own consciousness was not within his expectations. The Dragon of Albion's soul had clearly gone to the Reverse Side, and the future Clock Tower had casually developed its body without any reaction... so why was it not all right when it came to him?
"You... are you a new consciousness born from its remains, like Divine Body Osiris?"
The purple-haired girl jumped down from Novia's back and impassively looked toward the object she had created some distance ahead.
From the instant the voice sounded, this place had transformed into an abnormal space capable of flattening and warping the viewer's field of vision. Yet in truth, it was not merely the visual image that had been distorted. Even when the Age of Gods still existed, most magi likely could not have dispelled this distortion.
In other words, if an ordinary person saw it, their sense of balance would probably collapse in an instant, leaving them unable even to stand. Furthermore, it likely possessed some innate 'aura' of its own. Even if an ordinary person lost themselves after one glance, there would be nothing surprising about that.
Within the distorted space floated an object bound by her Aether Lines—
It was a blue-black 'spear.'
Its ability to manipulate itself was also why Novia could not ignore the 'spear's' voice. Yet whether it was a new consciousness or the true original owner, he did not intend to investigate further. Judging from its earlier tone, combined with the personality of Fairy Lancelot, the incarnation of its left hand in its memories, it would probably be easy to talk to if he followed the line of thought that it would "never be lonely or alone again."
Therefore—
"Ah, so you are the strongest dragon..." he said with a smile. "Lord Dragon of Albion, it is an immense honor to meet you today. Please forgive me for being unable to receive you with the highest courtesy, and forgive me for using your strongest body without permission."
The silver-haired youth spoke without hesitation. His tone was respectful and calm, as was his expression, carrying a reassuring gentleness.
"I never expected that you could still manifest your will in the present world after fantasy vanished. But of course you can, because you are the strongest dragon. I have admired you greatly since childhood, and that is why I did everything in my power to follow in your footsteps to this place. Yet I failed to meet you. In order to prevent your remains from being defiled by evil maggots, I had no choice but to take this measure. Please allow me to once again offer my apologies to you, the strongest."
For some reason, this reminded the Dragon of Albion of those humans. Among those lifeforms with poor individual survival abilities were individuals called "teachers." They naturally imparted knowledge to even weaker human kin, caring for their weak kind. This person had indeed been carrying another weak human just now...
After making that connection on its own, and with Novia's flattery added in, the Dragon of Albion's displeasure eased somewhat.
"Though I have not seen your true countenance, which shines brighter than the stars, I have heard your strongest words with my own ears. Here, I wish to tell you that I shall forever hold unchanging reverence for you, the strongest."
"Hmph. Do you think the strongest me cannot see through such flattery? I have heard the words of weak creatures like you, with your poor abilities, countless times already."
"My deepest apologies... I do not interact much with others, so I am not good with words, nor am I clever enough..." Novia raised his right hand to his chest, wearing an apologetic expression. "...But from now on, I will give it my all. I hope you, Albion, will judge me with a long-term perspective."
"What a smooth talker."
Shiyali muttered, her gaze sharpening slightly. Naturally, she could tell that the consciousness within this 'spear' had been put in a much better mood by Novia's words. At the very least, it was no longer as furious as it had initially been.
Her gaze moved back and forth between the person and the object. Though she did not know why, the purple-haired girl felt inexplicably displeased.
"Hmph. Looking at you, weak human, you clearly want to use me as a weapon to command as you please. Do you think behaving like this means I will forgive you for the crime of altering my body without permission?"
Albion spoke coldly. It was the strongest dragon. Setting aside standing shoulder to shoulder with others, that was wholly unnecessary. Moreover, this human clearly wished to use it like some kind of master. The fact that it had not immediately eaten him was already a tremendous act of mercy.
"I don't know."
Novia shook his head with complete honesty and lowered his gaze.
"If I could persuade you, the strongest, to grant the request of weak little me, that would probably be very impressive. But I cannot say it, because I do not possess that kind of ability."
The weak human before it was, from one perspective, a life that any small movement from its living self could have taken or torn apart.
Weak creatures were all resources that existed for it to consume and exploit in the future.
The Dragon of Albion did not deny having such thoughts, but that was not all there was to it. The weak ones who sometimes greeted each other with smiles, sometimes argued, and sometimes worried over the present and future as they spent their mornings together were so fragile and illusory.
In contrast, it possessed obvious, supreme strength.
Then it was only natural for those fragile weaklings to revere it—
Raising his head, the youth approached the 'spear' step by step.
"It is only natural that weak creatures obey strong creatures. But though there is a free sky, you could only remain in the dark underground. I think that is terribly unfair to one as beautiful as you. Because you are the unquestionable strongest dragon, you ought to go to the boundary between land and sky and gaze upon all that lies beyond the horizon."
"Hmph... Since you found my head, then surely you witnessed the humiliating state I was in when I died."
Though this weak human's evaluation in its heart had risen by an unknown number of levels and showed no sign of stopping, the Dragon of Albion's tone remained incomparably cold. It even gave the impression that it would not be surprising if it killed him the next instant.
"As you said, I truly saw the filth you vomited, as well as the grief that the strongest should not have displayed. But—"
His sincere gaze poured directly into the Dragon of Albion's eyes.
"No matter how ugly, no matter how dangerous, it will not change my reverence for you. You are more dazzling than anything that existed in my memories, the most beautiful being this planet has witnessed. Even if my body dies and my heart decays, this reverence will not disappear. My eternal, unchanging reverence for your star-shining beauty resides within my heart."
Novia extended his hand, causing the Dragon of Albion to freeze for a moment.
He continued.
"I cannot do anything for you, the strongest, but could you allow weak little me to be lost with you, think with you, worry with you, agonize with you, and struggle with you? Dragon of Albion, may I?"
The Strongest Dragon's Pride
"Dragon of Albion, may I?"
Even now, the Dragon of Albion still believed that this brazen human lifeform with poor survival abilities looked no different from the weak creatures it had seen before, at least in appearance.
But why?
At this moment, although it could find no reason for confusion or bewilderment within itself, it felt at a loss because of this "invitation from a weakling."
"...I am the strongest."
The Dragon of Albion suddenly said this.
"Precisely because I am the strongest dragon, it is normal for creatures to worship me. It may also be an entirely correct measure for creatures to fear me, because I can tear them apart whenever I wish... I understand your feelings, but that kind of roundabout way of speaking is not to my liking. Simply put, if you make me angry, I really will tear your body apart directly..."
Novia was not particularly disappointed by the Dragon of Albion's rejection. He could see that this dragon simply believed that accepting his proposal would make it impossible to comfortably regard itself as the strongest dragon. It likely believed that the strong should stand high above others and should not casually associate too much with those they saw as weak. Such a mindset was at work.
Fortunately, however, this was no longer the Age of Gods when it had kin. It was an age after it had experienced "loneliness." In other words, its psychological defenses were at their weakest. As long as he continued spending time on it, he might be able to break through.
Before you continue