Now that Lardon had calmed down, I decided it was time to head back out. Well, I guess she was calm from the start, but anyway...
“I shall withdraw here,” Lardon said suddenly.
“You’re not going back out there?”
“We’ve accomplished our goal. There is no point in facing her again.”
“Oh, all right.”
Lardon chuckled. “Actually, there is one more thing I quite like about you.”
I turned to her, wide-eyed. “Huh? What is it, all of a sudden?”
I wasn’t sure what she was praising me for. If this were about magic, it would’ve made sense—actually, I would’ve welcomed that with open arms, anytime, anywhere. But since it wasn’t...then what was this about?
“You never ask us to get along.”
After a quick smile, Lardon faded away and returned inside me.
I scratched my cheek with an awkward laugh. Let’s just leave it at that...
I stepped out of Another World just as my clone and Dyphon did. Dyphon was clinging onto my clone with a look of pure bliss. When she spotted me, she let go. Her smile never once left her face.
Well, somebody’s in a good mood... I wonder what happened.
“I’m undoing the spell now,” I told her.
Dyphon nodded. “Sure!”
Covenant Summoning had adapted all of the original version’s helpful features, including the one that transferred all of my clone’s memories back to me once the spell was undone. The events that transpired inside my clone’s Another World were relayed to me through this.
“Wow, Dyphon. Impressive.”
Dyphon hopped in joy. “Hee hee! My darling praised me again!”
“Moving on...” I swept my gaze over my surroundings.
Now that we’d spent some time in Another World, the world outside had settled down significantly. Though the scars of Lardon and Dyphon’s battle remained fresh on the land, dust and smoke no longer filled the air, and the winds felt calm and stable. The particles produced by the dragons’ clash had all fallen to the ground, reflecting the sunlight and creating a beautiful, shimmering scenery.
I’d better start with gathering them all up.
After a bit of thought, I cast the wind magic spell Cyclone. It whipped up a whirlwind, which I then sent on a lap around the vicinity to gather up all the particles. Once I undid the spell, I had in front of me a pile of sparkling particles about as tall as a person.
“This is quite a lot,” I remarked.
“Is this enough for you?” asked Dyphon.
“Should be.”
“Great. Let me know if you ever need more.”
My lips curled into an awkward smile. “Sure.”
Basically, she was saying that she’d gladly try to kill either of the other dragons again. After that bloodcurdling battle, I knew better than ever that she meant it too. It seemed I had to use these very carefully, and not just because they were a precious material.
“Next up... I need to meld it into one piece. Can’t really use it like this.”
“How?”
“Hmm... Well, since it’s a lot like iron sand... Salamander! Gnome!”
A flame and earth spirit appeared. Despite their adorable outward appearances, they held mastery over their respective elements. I grabbed a fistful of the particles and held it out to them.
“Gnome, wrap this in earth. Salamander, heat it up.”
The spirits heeded my orders. The Gnome wrapped the sand-like particles in my hand into a round mold and made it float in the air, which the Salamander smoothly slithered into. The air warped around the mold as it warmed, and after a while, its surface turned red-hot.
“It really is impressive...” I muttered.
Dyphon’s eyebrow arched in intrigue. “Huh? What is?”
“When you do this the normal way, like when making charcoal, heat would end up escaping through the gaps—both the one you have to make to heat it up and other unintended spots too.”
“So, this lack of holes is great, huh?”
“Yeah. A bit of heat leaking out is no big deal when making charcoal, but some things need more heat. An airtight mold like this is impressive, if you ask me.”
“Well, you thought of this, darling. So you’re impressive!” Dyphon crowed. “A lot of idiots out there would only ever think of using spirits in combat.”
“Indeed. The idea would never even come to most.”
“Really?”
If both Dyphon and Lardon said so, then it had to be true...but I still found it strange. Using two spirits in tandem wasn’t some huge eureka moment for me. Of course, I never would’ve thought of it before I’d reincarnated as Liam, since I couldn’t use magic back then... But now that I could, and summon a bunch of spirits to boot, why wouldn’t the idea come to me?
Anyway, the Salamander eventually emerged from the ball of earth...but with a rather perplexed expression on its face.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
It couldn’t answer, but it seemed to be trying to tell me something.
“Did something happen? Hmm... Gnome, open up the mold.”
The Gnome did as it was told and unfurled the mold. The particles came fluttering out exactly as I’d put them in earlier.
“What...? Nothing changed?”
I watched with a narrowed gaze as the particles piled up over the ground. The spirits should have heated them up at an extremely high temperature, yet there they were, completely unaltered.
For good measure, I took out a sheet of paper from my item box and dropped it over the pile. Just because it didn’t look any different didn’t mean it wasn’t hot—I’d learned that lesson way before becoming Liam, when I’d burned myself on an iron pot. Sure enough, the paper instantly caught fire and turned to ashes.
So it’s scorching hot. It just hasn’t changed forms...
“Wow... This thing’s crazy.”
“Well, it’s exactly what you ordered,” Dyphon pointed out. “Something that won’t break under any type of power.”
“Oh... Right.” I sighed.
Come to think of it, that was what I wanted. In fact, that was the whole point of getting Lardon and Dyphon’s help. I wanted something that wouldn’t break even as all the monsters in the city attacked it one after the other. If a single Salamander’s heat had successfully warped it, then this material would be useless to me.
Guess I’ll have to come up with another way to meld it together...
While I was thinking of one, I noticed the Salamander and Gnome looking terribly glum. “Oh... Thanks, you two. And don’t be sad. You helped me realize how tough this stuff is,” I told them as I released the spell.
Now, it was time for Plan B. I already had something in mind.
I shut my eyes, took a deep breath, and chanted, “Covenant Summoning: Liam—threefold!”
With a flash of magical light, three more of me appeared before my eyes.