Chapter 69

Rino was visibly confused. “Why does she hate demons if she is one?” She just couldn’t wrap her head around someone plotting to annihilate demons as their kin. Rino had been raised with love by her own race. That didn’t mean there weren’t others who had been hurt by their own people, causing them to wish for their destruction. “…Could we see the answer?” asked Shinichi. “Yes.” The boy sighed, guessing it would be a dismal one. The Red Dragon went further back in time to locate the first scene of her tragic tale. The eastern side of the supercontinent contained the world’s largest lake. Young Elen and her parents paddled across the water in an old-fashioned boat. She didn’t look excited by the excursion. In fact, her face showed pure terror. “Mommy, let’s go home!” Elen clung to her mother’s arm, eyes locked on something in the lake. Under them were fish larger than killer whales, tearing each other apart in red water. “We’re going to die!” “Don’t worry, Elen. You’ll get used to them.” “Your mother is right. You’re going to be stronger than those monsters.” The parents tried to comfort their terrified daughter. Their eyes were dark and clouded, like the water in a marsh. This lake was home to monsters; it was known as a restricted zone. Far below, in the depths of the lake, slumbered one of the five Proxies, the Blue Dragon. Its saturated magic waves morphed all living creatures in the lake into monsters. They couldn’t sink their teeth through the steel hull of the boat since they were just organisms, after all. The pilot swatted oncoming monsters with the steel bow, sometimes directing the crew to use cannons or water mines. They came to a stop in the middle of the lake, above the slumbering Blue Dragon. This was as close to one as they could get. The Red Proxy was deep within the mountains. The White Dragon across a deadly desert. This was the best location for humans to expose themselves to magic waves. Strange things started happening to Elen’s body after half a day. “Ah! Agh!” She felt hot, like her entire body was on fire. She thought her head and chest would split in two. “I’m going to die… Mommy! Daddy!” Elen desperately cried out. Her parents gave her water and liquid food, smiling the entire time. “It’s all right. This is a necessary part of your evolution.” “No pain, no gain. It means you’re going to be blessed by great power.” They were whispering things that were beyond her. Elen suffered through the fever and pain. After a few days, she was noticeably thinner and exhausted, but her condition had stabilized slightly. Her father carried her in his arms to a large open area below the decks. There were children who had been transformed like her. “Wow, I’m a tiger! Roar!” “Oh look, Kyle. You’re a weretiger now. Very cool.” “Mommy, I have wings now!” “A harpy. You’ve achieved your dreams of becoming a pilot and flying through the sky.” The parents of the mutated children showered them with praise. Elen trembled in fear looking at this unholy gathering. “What are they…?” Elen couldn’t understand why they would be happy in their beastly bodies, only because she had never been abused by the magic users. “We didn’t want you to go through what we did, Elen.” “We didn’t want them to look down on you just because you can’t use magic.” Heartbroken, her parents remembered their own pasts. They had been born without magic, which instantly labeled them as “inept.” Born to poor parents, they never had a way to climb the social ladder. All they had known was living under the heavy boots of magic users, ground to bits. “I’d get a ninety on a test after hours of studying, while a magic user would use Speed Learning to whiz through the information in minutes and score a hundred. Don’t you think that’s unfair?” “I struggled to graduate college only to work for a high school dropout. Wouldn’t you hate to bossed around by a magic user?” “I remember when this old wench stole my boyfriend using Shape Change. I was so heartbroken; I couldn’t sleep for days.” “I wanted to murder the rich magic user who got between me and my girlfriend.” Thirty years of this treatment. They’d forgotten they were in front of their daughter as they cursed them out. All the parents on the boat had been beaten down in the same way. That was why they wanted to put their children on the side of the abusers. They were giving them the gift of magic—failing to ask for consent…and consider the risks. ““All right, Elen. Let’s get revenge when you’re a demon, too!”” Her parents’ faces had morphed, transformed by saturated magic. Their skin peeled into crackling scales. Their eyes bulged out of their heads. Their tongues had split down the middle. They were turning into snake people. It was like their dark envy had seeped out. Everything about them was wretched and ugly. “N-nooooo—!” A bloodcurdling scream welled up from her soul. There was one thing her parents hadn’t known. Even though Elen was their child, she herself had been blessed with hidden potential to become a magic user. The ugly ducklings had given birth to a swan, who was now transforming from the magic waves of the Blue Dragon. “Get awaaaaay—!” She couldn’t bear the idea of becoming an ugly mutant. She didn’t want to become anything like her pathetic parents. As those thoughts filled her mind, the magic inside her awakened. Lightning Vortex. A storm of white lightning incinerated the wretched beasts, granting her wish. When she processed the situation, everything was charred black. She was the only living thing there. “Mommy…Daddy…” Elen trembled at this unintentional devastation, then burst into laughter. “Ah-ha-ha-ha! Their fault for making me do that! They got what they deserved!” She couldn’t tell if she was trying to shake off the guilt of committing parricide or if this was her true nature. Either way, Elen almost choked from laughter before noticing the pain in her chest. “What…is this…?” Under her nails, she found blue scales glittering against her skin like sapphires. If the ashen parents were still alive, they would have rejoiced, saying she was a chosen child of the Blue Dragon. But that wasn’t how Elen saw it. Her parents had marked her with proof that she was a wretched demon, the final curse of the snake people. “No! Noooo—!” Elen scratched at her chest, tearing off her bloody nails, but it made no difference to the permanent curse on her body. Elen had slaughtered the entire crew without knowing they had been instructed by the rebel group of demons to find potential fighters. She used her new magic to take to the sky, leaving behind the Blue Dragon’s lake and returning to civilization, where she was taken in by an orphanage and matured as a magic user. “Elen, you make us so proud,” said the head of the orphanage. Upon request, she had been given her own room and anything she needed to further her studies. A powerful magic user was a national treasure that could influence the future of the country. Elen knew they were showing favoritism for their own self-interests, but it worked to her advantage. After all, her real parents had only loved her for their own gain. Unconditional love was foreign to her. But that didn’t mean she wanted love any less. During the summer of her second year of high school, Elen confessed her love to her math teacher. “I love you.” “Y-yeah, me too…” Her candor caused the plain teacher to blush. This might have been the beginning of the happiest time in Elen’s life, even though they had to keep it secret. “Look at my body.” Elen thought her heart was going to burst from her chest. Her teacher had invited her to his room a few months after their relationship started. She’d removed her clothing. “You’re so beautiful, Elen.” He couldn’t hide his excitement, staring at her naked body. He reached out to her. Elen smiled a little at his reaction. “Dispel.” She removed the spell that concealed those markings on her chest from the day she’d killed her parents. The illusion melted away. Her supple skin hardened into blue dragon scales. Her teacher went stiff, yanking his hand back. “Ah! …Elen! Are you a demon?!” He was scared of her violent species. But it started to dawn on him: She’d always had magic far beyond a normal human. Elen didn’t let him see the sadness creeping into her heart. All the men she’d loved reacted this way: the boy in her class in elementary school, the older student in middle school, and now him. “Kiss me.” Elen leaned toward her teacher, bringing her scaly chest instead of her lips near his face. If only he could love her for her detestable scales. Then she might be able to live as a normal girl, resolving the resentment that she felt for becoming a demon. “T-teachers shouldn’t be involved with students, I think!” He turned his face away, pushing Elen away by her shoulders. “…You’re just like the others.” Like the two boys, he was rejecting her once he knew what she really was. “Good-bye.” And just like she had in the past, she bid him farewell before bringing punishment down on the traitor. “Return to atomic dust. Disintegrate.” “W-wai—” Without time to try and explain himself, her teacher was engulfed by magical light. The bonds between atoms began to unlink, decomposing his body into white dust. Elen used Telekinesis to clean it up, dump it in the toilet, and flush it away. There was no physical evidence of his murder; Elen was very careful. She erased every last trace of him. “Uninstall.” The spell altered the neurons in her brain, eliminating all her sweet thoughts about him and their happy memories. In her mind, he was nothing more than her teacher. Even if the police questioned their relationship, she’d pass Liar Detector with flying colors. That was how she’d always done it. She’d erased every uncomfortable memory of murdering her boyfriends and parents. But even with her blank slate, she could never forget the blue scales on her chest, reminding her that an ugly demon could never be loved. “Destroy it.” Destroy the nasty demons, their dragon creator, a world where no one loved her. “I will wipe everything out.” Even if she expunged every painful memory, she couldn’t delete the hatred that festered in her heart. She might get rid of the memories every time she was rejected and hurt, but the hatred still festered in her heart even if she’d forgotten the reason. At some point, she had stopped wishing it would go away and had started to imagine destroying it herself. Her wish came true. It wasn’t from her curses—but the calamity, the asteroid crashing into the planet. Everyone in the cave was silent when they learned about her heartbreaking start in life. Rino was the only one crying. “Poor Elen… Treated horribly by her mommy and daddy and crushes…” “I can sympathize a little.” Shinichi stroked her hair with a grave expression. “But that doesn’t make it all right to kill people.” One could argue that her parents got what they deserved since they turned her into a demon without her consent, but the other children by the lake hadn’t done anything wrong. Even the men who rejected her didn’t deserve to die. “Demon culture permits murdering the weak to assert dominance.” He didn’t say it was a bad thing. It was impossible to judge a culture by his own standards. However, as an active participant of society, it was wrong to infringe on the rights of others, whether by stealing from them, violating them, or killing them. Elen seemed to murder her partners because she knew she wouldn’t be found out. “She hates who she is except when she can use it to her advantage. Can’t have your cake and eat it, too.” “A prime example of a psychopath,” said Sanctina. “You’re one to talk,” Shinichi shot back, annoyed. Meanwhile, Arian’s expression went dark as she touched the scales on her neck. “…But I can understand how she feels.” The scales on her neck proved she was abnormal. She was thinking about her childhood. When people caught a glimpse of them, they had recoiled, pelting her with rocks. These memories were always in the corner of her mind. “If I didn’t have my mom’s support…if I hadn’t met Shinichi…I might have turned out like her…” The only thing stopping her from becoming a monster was friends. They accepted her for her, keeping her from becoming violent with rage. However, Elen’s parents and boyfriends had turned their backs on her, leaving her with no support system. Arian shuddered, trying to imagine her pain and loneliness. “Oh no… I can’t bring myself to hate Elen!” Arian had an obligation to defeat this enemy—and found herself unable to raise her sword against her. Shinichi gripped her shoulders. “No need to make yourself despise her. I didn’t destroy the heroes out of hatred.” The church and its heroes had their own sense of justice. It just happened to be contrary to Shinichi’s belief that demons should be protected. That had initiated their fight. “Now we know why Elazonia hates the demons. But we need to take her down because we don’t want her to destroy them. And that’s enough of a reason.” “…Yeah.” Arian tried to accept his logic even though she wasn’t entirely convinced. Regina watched them with a sympathetic look. “As a woman, I feel a certain amount of sympathy for Elen. She might not have become so bitter if she’d met a man who liked her for her scales.” “She’s got rotten luck with men.” If only she’d met a kinky pervert who loved to see her squirm in embarrassment over her scales! “She should have taken a page out of the Demon King’s book and summoned someone from another world who could love her,” said Shinichi in frustration. “Wouldn’t that summon you?” Regina clapped like she’d had a stroke of genius. “How about you use your skills to seduce her?” “I’m not some honeypot!” ““……”” Shinichi could deny it, but it wouldn’t scrub off the glares on Arian’s and Celes’s faces. He turned away. Rino gently tugged on his sleeve. “Shinichi, can’t we become friends with Elen?” “……” He thought about that for a moment before shaking his head. “It might work if we were dealing with Elen, but this is Elazonia we’re talking about.” These detailed memories of her past cemented his answer. There were no doubts that Elen had become the Goddess, but there was one difference that set them apart. “I don’t know how to explain it… Elazonia seemed colder. I didn’t feel any life from her…” If Elen was as passionate as fire, Elazonia was contemptuous as ice. Though they shared a common goal, their emotional responses were worlds apart. “When did that change?” Humans reinvented themselves beyond recognition from childhood to adulthood to retirement. It wasn’t all that strange to think Elen the human would become Goddess Elazonia over the thousands of years since the ancient civilization. Even so, Shinichi had questions. “Why did she become Elazonia?” “Understood.” The Red Dragon turned to the memories at the end of the ancient civilization to unearth the final piece of the puzzle: how a human becomes a god. An asteroid was going to collide with the planet and leave it in smithereens. It wasn’t like humanity waited around for doomsday after the astronomers discovered this. There were plans around the world to destroy the meteor before collision or change its trajectory. In the end, they had reached a point of despair. “So there’s no way a rocket can get close to the asteroid?” asked the professor of the Magicology Department. Everyone nodded. “If we select the best mages from the world and obtain the purest magic conductors available, we might be able to break away from gravity and get to the asteroid. The problem is they wouldn’t have any magic left to destroy it.” “So it is impossible. If only we’d focused on space technology…” He knew it was pointless to regret this now. There was one simple reason they couldn’t make a spaceship, even when they could bring back the dead. Magic users were powerless in space. To be precise, casting spells was possible. However, there was no mana in the air to regenerate magic. From living testimony of mages in space, they knew there was less mana in higher altitudes, like oxygen. Basically, mana only existed within the atmosphere—not in space. In other words, it was generated by the planet. Without air, mages had no value. “If only we could make a rocket with pure science to break away from the gravitational pull…” Then, they could reserve their magic stores. They could close in on the asteroid and use Tunnel to prepare for Nuclear Blast, which would demolish it into little chunks. In a society ruled by magic users, it was near impossible to get approval for a budget on something that didn’t involve magic, including space exploration. Some researchers tried to get funding by pretending they were experimenting with a new type of missile, but all requests were denied, seeing these proposed weapons could be shot down by a homing missile. That was why they hadn’t even researched rocket engines. “Our dependence on magic came back to haunt us…” It was almost ironic that they were going to be physically crushed by an asteroid as they struggled to make use of their earthbound weapon—magic. “Dammit! Why can’t you give humanity a little more time, God?!” Even though the professor didn’t believe in a higher power, he found himself angry at God. Though magicology was intended to increase the utility of mages, it had advanced some scientific discoveries as well. In another fifty years, they could probably invent a spaceship or find another way to live through the asteroid’s impact. He hung his head in despair when another staff member suddenly burst into the room. “We’ve got a problem. Magic-wave victims are apparently flocking toward the hole made by the Black Dragon!” “What?! Do they think they’ll be safe underground?” That was foolish! Created by the Black Proxy during the incident with the Republic of Sentel, the cavity occupied the middle of the supercontinent, tunneling deep enough to fit four times the height of the world’s tallest mountain. They might be able to survive through the initial impact and consequent natural disasters, but the collision would kick up dust to block out the sun, causing an extended winter. This would lead to food shortages…and ultimately their death. “I would rather get crushed by the asteroid than descend into a man-eat-man world…” The professor felt sorry for their stupidity. The staff member held out a single piece of paper. “Actually, there’s someone leading the magic-wave victims. This is her…” “A woman with blue hair? I’ve never seen her before… Wh-what’s this?!” He took a hard look at the numbers next to the photo. Blood drained from his face. “Her magic waves are immeasurable?! And they exceed one million units?!” These wave currents served as a good indicator for the strength of individual magic. The average mage scored one hundred. Elen from the Magicology Department could get to one thousand. Not even she could reach ten thousand units, though she stood at the pinnacle of human capacity. Only five beings on this planet tested at immeasurable amounts. “Is she the Blue Dragon…?” “There have been reports that the Proxy has disappeared from its lake.” The professor couldn’t believe his ears. It was difficult to categorize the Proxies of the Planet as living organisms, since they were closer to magic-producing furnaces. It seemed they were shaped like dragons, and though it was unclear if this was their true form, it was hard to believe they could take the shape of a puny human. His jaw didn’t drop because the Blue Dragon had taken this form. He couldn’t believe she was trying to save them. “I thought the Proxies didn’t meddle with human affairs…?” According to the White Dragon at least. Until this moment, none of the Proxies had attempted to do anything—even when thousands of humans were incinerated from lava or murdered in war, even when the ecosystem suffered from land development and pollution. The only exception was the Black Dragon, who had tunneled into the ground during the incident with the Republic of Sentel. There was a joke that the five dragons would only move if aliens came to destroy the planet. It was near impossible to believe one of them was trying to save magic-wave victims. “Will the collision be so bad that even the Proxies felt the need to do something? Or is this unrelated to the planet’s wishes?” It didn’t seem all too impossible. The White Dragon had revealed their purpose to the arch-mage. The Black Dragon had dug a hole for sound sleep. These actions seemed unrelated to the planet’s wishes. It seemed they could call on their own desires. There was a distinct possibility the Blue Dragon was merciful, trying to save humanity from extinction out of the kindness of her heart. “I don’t think it could be that simple… But it’s worth hedging our bets.” The professor started to give his staff member orders. “Tell the emperor. Ask him to notify the people that they may have a chance of surviving the collision—if they follow this woman who we believe to be the Blue Proxy.” “But she’s leading a group of magic-wave victims. I’m not sure the average person will want to get close out of fear for their life…” “That may be true. But they need to make an informed decision. It doesn’t need to be an imperial order. I just want the civilians to have the option.” The staff member expressed his disapproval, but the professor managed to persuade him to change his mind. A one-in-a-million chance was better than none. One more survivor was better than none. “Not everyone will be able to evacuate to the shelter,” added the professor. “…True.” They looked grave. As soon as they came to the conclusion that nothing would stop the collision, they had rushed to construct an underground shelter with other mages—for the top 1 percent of the world’s population. Even now, the 99 percent were protesting in the streets. They weren’t going to wait for the asteroid to turn the city into hell. “Pathetic. Even if we can survive the natural disasters, there’s no guarantee we’ll live out the long winter…” “But we all want to live longer—even if it means one more second. That’s what makes us human.” The staff member averted his eyes in guilt as one of the few who had the right to use the shelter. “That’s exactly why I want people to know about hope…in the form of the Blue Proxy.” “Understood.” He rushed from the room to act on the professor’s orders. That decision would result in large swaths of normal people fleeing underground, forming a civilization that would later be called the demon world. Bathed in the magic waves of the Blue Dragon—the sun of the demon world—they would turn into demons. But they would survive. Some of the mages with elf ears would accompany them in this descent. Their exposure to magic would darken their skin. They would be called dark elves. At the time, the future was unknown. The professor was trying to do everything in his power against the clock. Someone else rushed into the room. A bespectacled girl named Fey. “P-professor! Have you seen Elen?” “Not for a few days. What could she be doing at a time like this?!” he shouted, pounding the desk in frustration. She hesitantly held out a thick file of papers. “Th-this just came in the mail, addressed to me from Elen. It’s a design…” “Of what?” He imagined she was still trying to convince him to make a weapon to destroy the demons. As he flipped through the file, he realized it contained the exact opposite. “An artificial hibernation chamber?!” This was the thread of hope that would let them see the future. This would help them sleep through the long winter. “Save memories into a specialized magic conductor. Freeze the body. Bring it back with Resurrection. Rewrite the information in their brains…” It detailed a forbidden use of magicology. It treated human personality like data. The average citizen would have a hard time with this. However, it meant artificial hibernation was no longer a theoretical implausibility. “I-it could go wrong in so many ways… There could be hiccups with reinstallation and sustainability of the devices…but…” “But there’s no other way. It’s worth the risk.” The professor nodded. “We’ll only be able to prepare a few hundred units, since we need to finish constructing the shelter. But we have to do everything in our power to help humanity survive!” “Y-yes sir!” He had grabbed at the single thread of hope dangling in front of him. The professor rushed to the research labs to make use of this gift from Elen and Fey. It was the day before the calamity. Humanity was killing their remaining time—from struggling to find a way to survive to giving into despair. A certain genius magicologist was settling into a small underground shelter for herself. “This won’t be enough to eliminate them.” If a simple asteroid was enough to kill the dragons and demons, Elen would have been able to do it by herself. “I will survive and eradicate them.” Because they were repulsive. There was no one left to check her simple obsession. Elen climbed into her one-person chamber to ride out the long winter. She’d added a device onto her chamber—which wasn’t included in the design she’d given Fey—that ensured her mind would make it to the future even if the hibernation failed and her body rotted away. That was why she faced no uncertainty. She fell into a long slumber with the earthquakes from the collision as her lullaby. It felt only like a moment, but thousands of years had passed. “Gah…! Koff-koff!” Elen woke up violently, choking from the intense pain coming from her internal organs. Her frozen body had thawed, bringing her back to life. Her mind had been installed in one fluid process. She was satisfied by the success of her invention. She climbed out of the chamber, exiting the underground shelter using Tunnel. “It’s blinding…” The sky was as blue and the sun was as bright as they were in her memories. However, a bird’s eye view of the scene revealed nothing else was the same. The tall concrete buildings with steel frames were gone, replaced by unspoiled forests stretching to the horizon. “Did humanity not survive?” Her fear proved unfounded. She located some human settlements, though they’d regressed from the technology that she’d known in her lifetime. The houses were simple and wooden. The roads remained bare and unpaved. Farmers toiled the fields in place of machines. Children ran around in simple hemp clothing and kicked stones for fun. “I can’t believe we’ve gone back to our old ways…” She observed with Telescope, keeping her distance to prevent them from noticing her. She was struck by grief that she couldn’t put into words. Nothing from their studies in magicology had been passed down to the future. “As long as humanity wasn’t destroyed…” Only 1 percent of the world population had taken refuge in the underground shelter. A smaller percentage must have survived the impact. It was a miracle that a few hundred thousand people had been able to live through the long winter. Elen started to get emotional, but she stopped herself, turning away from civilization and returning to her underground shelter. It wasn’t because she was too shy to say hi. Something far darker reared its ugly head. “This is my chance.” Elen was the only one who possessed knowledge of advanced technology in a world that had returned to the Middle Ages. It would be simple to manipulate that into making the people worship her as their savior…or their god. “This is my chance to be God.” Cracking open the inspection port on the artificial hibernation chamber, Elen checked the equipment prepared as her backup plan. She stood at the summit of magical potential in humans, which meant she marked their limits. After all, there was a physical maximum of magic storage in flesh. Push past the limit, and anyone would be ripped apart from the inside out. If she wanted more power, she’d need to change her body into a more compatible form. However, this alteration would necessitate abandoning her human appearance, growing into a giant, and sprouting scales or fur. In other words, she had to become a complete demon. “I will not become one of them.” She picked at the blue scales on her chest, scratching the source of her disgust, which had stayed with her for thousands of years. With her natural gifts, she had the potential to become a full-fledged dragon, and bare her teeth at the five Proxies, but she knew she would rather die than look one in its eyes. After all, they were at the core of her lifelong torment. That was why she chose another path, one where she would die and become a “god.” “A little maintenance, and this should be good as new.” Elen smiled in delight when she discovered the device was only slightly damaged. It was a tool she developed as a byproduct of her experiments on saving memories to magic conductors. It would let her die and exist forever. She called it a spirit converter, a machine to create an artificial ghost. It was known that residual magic from the mages who had lost their lives to an untimely death turned into ghosts. Elen had made an important discovery when she had looked into this transformation: Ghosts had no limit to their magic stores. Humans were trapped in flesh prisons that had a cap. Anything above it was released from the body. However, ghosts were just lumps of magic, meaning they could store an infinite amount. In other words, if she couldn’t touch the five dragons with her human hand, she’d surpass their power as a ghost. “If I become a god, I can destroy the demons and the dragons.” A dark smile stretched across her face as she began to repair the spirit converter. There was one reason she’d held off using this method to achieve her dreams: Ghosts couldn’t generate their own magic. No body meant no production systems. That meant they were weak forms with finite life spans. They were nothing compared with the mages of her time. But Elen was a genius. That meant she was one step ahead. She just needed someone to provide magic to her. Then her ghost self would grow strong forever, reaching the heights of a god. “It’s done…” The spirit converter started up, and Elen stroked it like it were her hideous progeny. In the pre-asteroid world, no one would have been weird enough to worship her in ghost form. But things were different now. They didn’t have newspapers, radio, or TV. The ignorant masses were in constant danger of disease, injury, and famine. They were looking for a savior. Elen had just the magic and knowledge to save these little lambs. They would start to worship her and devote their lives to spreading her word. Her followers would pray to her, forming the image of a Goddess in their mind, which would cause them to emit magic waves toward their object of worship. In other words, she would use the magic from her followers to grow infinitely to become God. “Good-bye, pitiful Elen.” She picked at the scales on her chest one last time, bidding her flesh farewell. The idea of parting from her body and becoming a ghost gave her no fear. Instead, she trembled from joy. Good riddance to her parents’ black hair, to her unloved face and body, to the stupid dragon scales that wouldn’t come off. She was going to reinvent herself—into a beautiful form that everyone would love and worship. “Let’s go with golden hair… We’ll say I’m the Goddess of Light.” With the ideal image of herself in her mind, she lay in the artificial hibernation chamber and turned on the spirit converter. Pain jolted through her as her magic and memories were stripped from her body, but she was high from adrenaline. She was no longer Elen, the ugly loner. Her consciousness and magic slipped out of her body, floating into the night sky. It landed at a small village, descending on a young man sleeping in one of the crude wooden houses. When he woke in surprise, the ghost offered a smile and her name. “I am Elazonia, the Goddess of Light. I have awakened and descended to save my lost children.” This was the moment Elen had died, giving birth to a ghost made of her resentment for demons. This was the moment that Goddess Elazonia was born. Over three hundred years, her teachings spread through the continent. Shinichi let out a big sigh after watching it sped up. Their trip down memory lane came to an end. “She was killed. By herself.” “I can understand why she wants to get rid of her body…” Arian sympathized, casting her eyes down as she touched the red scales on her neck. If she had been born without them, she wouldn’t have been mistreated as a half dragon and would have lived happily with other people. She’d dreamed of it often. Her heart could have changed for better or for worse if she abandoned her body now. “Maybe I would have become like her…tormenting demons and killing with no mercy…” “Maybe.” Shinichi gave her shoulder a gentle pat as she shivered imagining it. Weaknesses and strengths were two sides of the same coin. Too much confidence spelled arrogance. Just enough cowardice afforded caution. Arian had suffered from an inferiority complex, which had kept her powers in check. To Elen, her blue scales were the source of all resentment…and her last ties to her humanity. “I feel better now.” Shinichi stretched his limbs, smirking. “Pitiful Elen is dead, leaving us with Elazonia, an uncooperative ghost. Now I don’t have to feel bad about sending her to the afterlife.” “But…” Rino looked like she wasn’t convinced. Elazonia was different from the legion in the Elven Tomb. She still possessed the mind and memories of Elen. Wasn’t it too early to give up on talking this out? Rino must have known her wishes weren’t realistic, because she was silent. Shinichi placed his hand on her shoulder. “Like I said, I don’t think we can reason with Elazonia. Do you still want to try making up with her?” “…Yes.” “All right. We can try.” “Okay!” Her face split into a huge grin. She’d believed he was completely opposed to the idea. Regina watched, sending Shinichi a telepathic message in confidence. “Don’t tell me you’re actually considering being amicable with that woman.” She couldn’t save her rage for a later time, even if this was the request of her beloved daughter. That was the woman who’d captured her husband! Shinichi returned her stern glare with feigned ignorance. “Who knows? Let’s just say I found what I was looking for.” “…I see.” She knew what he was implying. Her eyes crinkled in a smile. He flashed a grin in return. He felt no fear toward Elazonia anymore. They say a monster keeps its true nature hidden. Seems the same could be said for gods. Humans feared the unknown. That was because they couldn’t guess what their opponent was thinking and what they were capable of doing. In other words, they didn’t know if they could be killed. Without a way to resist, their only option was to tremble in fear. Hence why unknown monsters were a particularly frightening breed. But now…they could understand Elazonia in digestible terms: a ghost, a mass of magic, a former human who had given up her corporeal body. “First, we need to talk to the captain. We need to cut off any chance of her retreat. Then, we need to fill in Vermeita. And then Clarissa and her friends…” “I see he’s afflicted with his usual malady.” Celes sighed with a smile as she watched Shinichi mutter to himself. His expression meant he’d already seen their path to victory. He was practically radiating joy when he realized he could accomplish his goal. Meanwhile, Arian stepped close to the Red Dragon, looking nervous. “Dad. I wanted to thank you. And—” She wanted to ask about her mother, but right as she tried to broach the topic, the Red Dragon lifted one of his gigantic fingers. “Dad?” A warm glow started to spread from his fingertip. The light engulfed her right hand, lifting off the symbol of the Goddess and leaving no trace. “What…?” Arian looked up at him in awe that the Goddess’s curse had been lifted. The Red Dragon cast another spell. “Dimension Sword.” A blade sharp enough to cut through space sliced off his talon. It morphed in midair, transforming into a sword with a single red line, resembling a blood vessel, running down the middle. The sword fit in Arian’s hand like it belonged there. “Dad…” She’d wanted to fight Goddess Elazonia for Shinichi’s sake, and he had given her the greatest gift in the world. Tears of gratitude welled up in her eyes. She still wanted to talk with her father—to get to know where he’d met her mother and how he’d grown to love her. As she opened her mouth, light enveloped her body. Her vision distorted, making her dizzy. It was a familiar sensation, the feeling of a Teleport spell. The Red Dragon was sending them off somewhere, signaling that he was done talking with them. “Dad!” Arian screamed, not wanting to leave just yet, but he closed his heavy eyelids. As her consciousness started to fade, she heard her father’s clumsy words in her mind—and hers alone. “Request. Joy.” Be happy. Those were his last words. She realized they were standing in front of the Demon King’s castle. “Dad…” She hugged her sword, sobbing. Shinichi pulled her into a gentle hug. “I imagine it’s embarrassing for a father to recount memories of his wife with his daughter. Don’t blame him.” As a fellow man, he tried to give her some context. Arian nodded. “It’s okay. I understand.” Though they didn’t talk much, she got the gist of his feelings. He’d told her about Elazonia’s true nature, removed her symbol as a hero, and given her a weapon from his own body. He was supporting his beloved daughter down her own path. “Let’s do this, Shinichi.” She wiped the tears from her eyes and gripped the dragon sword. “Let’s destroy the Goddess Elazonia and save the world!” The look in her eyes made her seem like a real hero. He chuckled. “Not quite.” “Hmm?” “Let’s save the Demon King and destroy the Goddess’s world.” “Yeah!” So what if there was no justice? They were going to do it to create their new domain. Arian nodded eagerly and squeezed Shinichi’s hand.