At first glance, the dragon appeared to be carved out of pearl. However, upon closer look, one could see how deformed it was. Its body was indeed that of an earth dragon, but it had hind legs like that of a bird and a curly tail which was unique to basilisks. Its front legs, which were connected to its wings, were like that of a wyvern. It was a patchwork creature made up of different parts, and even from a distance the adventurers could see the black-red remains of corpses in its claws—the dead Imperials who had foolishly awakened the beast.
They were bearing witness to the very incarnation of a creature of myth. It glared down emotionlessly at the people surrounding it. Those eyes should have revealed something. It was a living creature, and thus capable of feeling, at least in theory—but in that gaze was nothing but an endless void.
Without thinking, Alec looked down at his lover. But though tension and worry were etched into her face, in the calm of her eyes was the strong light of determination.
“It’s okay,” her gaze told him. “I’m not that person anymore.”
Alec had worried. The dragon’s eyes had been so eerily similar to Shiori’s in the past that he feared she might sympathize with it if she had to use her search magic again. Shiori assured him this would not be the case.
“I’ll be fine,” she said, smiling. “I’m no longer empty.”
Shiori, ever perceptive, had noticed at a glance the worry in Alec’s face.
“I was an abyss,” she continued. “But you fulfill me, Alec. Even now, even right this instant, you fill what’s missing. I know we haven’t even known each other for a year yet, but I am bursting with you. You need not worry.”
“I see,” said Alec, grinning as he gripped his sword and stared down the distant dragon. “If you’re going to say something that cute, then we really do need to finish this thing off and get home ASAP.”
Shiori knew he was hinting at the pleasures of the evening, and she blushed. Rurii stared up at him, exasperated: “You just said that. Here? Now? In these circumstances?” Violid to Alec’s right, snorted: “Lots of fire in you, huh?”
Alec chuckled.
It’s just like always. No different. I will not falter. This is just like always.
Yes, he thought. I just need to fight like I always do.
The carriages came to a stop at the mounds that had been built upon a small hill that was the battlefield’s first line of defense. The mounds would of course prove useless if the dragon was intent on breaking through them, but they were built with earth magic and worked like ramparts. Raised just outside of the dragon’s expected range of attack, they were likely to withstand shock waves from magical attacks, and were at least better than nothing at all.
“We’ve been waiting!” said the commander of the advance squadron, who kept his intro short and dove straight into a status report. “Here’s what we’re looking at: The target is attempting to head northeast, to the plains. Our mages and archers are engaging with it at present in an attempt to slow it down and keep it from moving. In terms of attacks, the target will charge, but it also uses magic: ice, fire, and wind have been confirmed. It’s also magic resistant. It’s still unclear whether it has any physical weak points or magical weaknesses.”
“Can it fly?”
“That’s still unconfirmed, but those front legs are just like a wyvern’s. We’ve seen it take a stance as though it might attempt flight, but only once.”
“Got it. But you said it’s magic resistant? And you’ve tried fire, right?”
“Of course. We blasted the target with everything we had, and from every angle. It didn’t even flinch. The best our fire magic does is slow the thing down.”
The dragon was every bit as strong as one would expect of a monster of legend. It wasn’t just the beast’s body that accumulated magical energy, but also the scales that covered its body, which gave it a very high magical resistance. Knowing this, and even with the dragon as large as it was, the adventurers had to prepare themselves for a close-quarters battle where they could focus on physical attacks. Still, if the dragon was elemental, then it had to have a magical weakness, and this could be used to tire it out and weaken it. In the case of this ice dragon, however, fire magic had proven ineffective. This knowledge made the air around the adventurers and knights heavier still.
“Are we certain that the dragon is an ice-type?” asked Zack.
“To be blunt, no. It feels like an ice-type, but we can’t say for certain.”
“The heck?”
Such a vague reply was not common for the knight corps, and Zack frowned.
“We tried getting a feel for it with search magic, but for some reason there’s a mix of elements inside of it,” explained the knight. “Half of the mages who tried to discern the target’s elemental state fell unconscious. We didn’t push it after that. You’ll feel it when you move in; that presence is as terrifying as they come, and it crushes you mentally. Some knights were hit with it directly and they couldn’t go on. It also expels magical energy that blasts your mind even harder, so you have to be careful when you get too close.”
“A mix of elements?!” exclaimed Zack.
Ordinarily, living creatures had a single elemental affinity. Even when creatures of differing elemental affinities mated, the offspring inherited only one of those affinities. So was this dragon capable of holding within it several? Zack dropped into thought, and then his gaze fell upon Shiori.
“Shiori,” he said. “Can you look into it?”
Worry was etched into his brow, even though he was the one who’d called upon her. Several knights had collapsed upon trying to examine the dragon; he was unsure whether it was right to leave the job to one with such low levels of magical energy. But in the face of his concern, Shiori nodded.
“I’ll give it a shot,” she said.
She closed her eyes, focused, and let strings of magical energy stretch out from her person. The knights who had been watching nearby with some curiosity let out awed gasps. They could feel her delicate flow of magic, and the control with which she wielded it; not a single drop of magical energy went to waste.
“I feel a strong sense of ice magic from the dragon as a whole,” she said, “but the front legs...the wings... One is wind, the other fire. I think the hind legs are earth. At its center is something different from ice, a feeling like a terribly deep pit of darkness. A strong sense of rejection, denial; I can’t search it any further or I’ll break. I’m sorry, brother.”
Shiori had come in touch with the toxicity of the dragon’s presence and had grown slightly pale as a result. She bit her lip, perhaps with some frustration, but the knights could not hide how surprised they were at her incredible accuracy.
“She’s even better than we’d heard,” whispered one.
“No, you did great,” said Zack. “It’s a real help that you could discern so much from so far away.”
Shiori’s brow remained furrowed. Something still itched at her.
“What is it? Is there something else?” asked Zack.
“Where the magical affinities change...” Shiori said hesitantly. “I’m not sure exactly what to call it, but I felt something like a border, like a line drawn between parts of its body. It struck me as unnatural to feel such a thing in a living creature. It’s like when you stitch together different materials; the point where they meet and change stands out.”
“What could it mean?”
The knights were perplexed as they tried to discern whether Shiori’s intelligence could be put to use.
“You said the front legs and the hind legs, right?” said one knight, speaking up. “We’ve had reports that those parts of the dragon’s body are a slightly different color than its torso. We thought it was just the pattern on the dragon’s hide, but perhaps it actually means something.”
Everybody looked over at the dragon. Its neck was bent, its tail swinging as the knights looked to keep it under control from afar. None had been injured thus far, but the battle was a fierce one. And as the dragon moved, it did so with a noticeable awkwardness in its legs. Ellen discussed something with Nils, then broke the silence.
“Permission for us to speak, please,” she said.
All eyes fell upon the two adventurers, both healers, their expressions tense.
“Let me start by saying that this is only speculation,” said Nils. “We haven’t seen the dragon up close, and the procedure we’re about to discuss isn’t yet allowed in Storydia. Still, it’s possible that those sections of the dragon are the result of transplants. In the case of animals and magical beasts, tissue is used from the same or a similar species. Apparently, when the tissue donor has a different elemental affinity, that same affinity remains even after the transplant. In other words, this allows the receiver of the transplant to acquire multiple elemental affinities.”
“When animals and magical beasts of two different affinities breed, this sort of thing never happens,” added Ellen. “The offspring always inherit only one of the two possible affinities. If that dragon is an amalgamate magical beast produced from crossbreeding, it should still only have a single affinity.”
“I understand the logic,” said the commanding knight, “but you’re saying that thing’s got transplanted limbs?”
“Is that even possible with a creature so big?” asked another. “Even the surgery would be a headache, let alone finding big enough donors.”
Even then, Nils and Ellen refused to rule out the possibility.
“It’s not impossible in the case that the surgery is done while the subject is young,” said Nils. “After hatching, dragons are known to remain about the size of a large dog for a few years. It’s not outside of the realm of possibility.”
“Given that the dragon contains multiple elemental affinities,” added Ellen, “it’s less an amalgamate magical beast and more a patchwork of creatures.”