Chapter Five: Gathering the Power of the Raph Species
It was the next day. I decided to practice magic with Raphtalia. She had only been using skills and techniques in our recent battles, and so her magic was falling behind. Raph-chan had various advantages over her in regard to magic already, so she needed some comprehensive training. She was doing all sorts of things to help treat Keel, but I was hoping to up her game when it came to combat. If she could weave in some illusions among her attacks, that would really confuse the enemy. Even if the enemy had some resistance, it would work if she could excel at it.
“Here I come,” Raphtalia said.
“I’m ready,” I replied.
“As the source of your power, we implore you! Let the true way be revealed once more . . .” Raphtalia started to incant some magic. It was the Way of the Dragon Vein, and I started the reverse analysis.
“My time to shine!” said the Demon Dragon in my head, performing the analysis and completing the nullification formula. The magic this time was a failure for Raphtalia. It wouldn’t be this easy to nullify her magic if she was using Liberation class; she was clearly stuck at Drifa.
With the help of the Demon Dragon, Raphtalia had at least learned to use the Way of the Dragon Vein, but she was struggling to actually complete the magic.
“Stop right there,” I said.
“Okay . . .” Raphtalia said forlornly.
“You can use the Way of the Dragon Vein, at least a little, so why isn’t this going well?” I asked.
“I’m so sorry,” Raphtalia replied. She was looking down at the ground, clearly taking it hard.
“No need to worry. Why don’t we try practicing some of the magic from Kizuna’s world?” I suggested.
“You can do that, Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia asked.
“Yeah . . . a little bit. Not any of that music stuff though,” I said. Itsuki knew more about that side of things. Filo could trigger it by singing, but I didn’t understand how that worked either. “You can use the magic the Demon Dragon used, right?” That was magic that involved requesting power from subordinates and then using their strength as magic. The basic structure was close to the Way of the Dragon Vein. It was magic that allowed access to be established to those you trusted and have them cooperate with you from anywhere. It was probably a lot like making a deal with the devil. The copy of the Demon Dragon that infested my own mind had tried to explain the whole thing to me, and I did recall some of it. However, I couldn’t trigger it myself unless I was using the mirror. We needed to work on that.
“Yes, I can use it,” Raphtalia said. This was suited to her, I could tell. The more collaborators one had, the shorter incanting would be, and the more powerful the resulting magic. It was like a fusion of the best parts from cooperative magic and the Way of the Dragon Vein. In Kizuna’s world it was magic that had been sealed away long ago; using it seemed likely to give us a big boost in battle. But it could only be used by those with weapons affiliated with Kizuna’s world and who had also been given the protection of the Demon Dragon.
“Who should I borrow power from? I know you, Mr. Naofumi, and the others will cooperate, but will that be enough?” Raphtalia asked.
“I could lend you mine, sure, but I think your attack power would actually decrease,” I said, conflicted. Raphtalia used illusion magic, meaning we weren’t completely incompatible, but it would also remove any leeway for me to cast magic myself. She wouldn’t get much of a boost just from me either.
“Raph!” said Raph-chan, dashing over to me as I discussed the problem with Raphtalia.
“Good idea. Why don’t we have Raph-chan and the other cuties help out?” I suggested.
“Hold on! Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia didn’t sound as keen as I was on that idea. Raph-chan had originated from Raphtalia’s own hair. That meant she was likely a great source of magic for Raphtalia. The source of their magic was the same. They might be able to unleash power equivalent to cooperation magic.
“The four heavenly kings of the Demon Dragon were—from one perspective—created from the accumulation of magic provided by those loyal to the Demon Dragon,” I said.
“I remember your comments about Demon King Raph-chan, Mr. Naofumi. But in this case, wouldn’t that make me the Demon Queen?” Raphtalia queried.
“Demon Queen Raphtalia, huh?” I mused. That was fine too. Some people called me the Shield Demon King.
“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia objected.
“No need to worry,” I told her. “If you can gather the power from the Raph species, you’ll have a much easier time in battle. Right?”
“I’ll give it a try. The Demon Dragon taught me all the basics. I’d rather not use them, but very well,” Raphtalia finally conceded. We proceeded swiftly to have Raphtalia try and borrow some power from the Raph species and incant some magic. “I’m ready. Raph-chan, please lend me a hand.”
“Raph!” said Raph-chan brightly.
“I’ll bring in the Raph species from the village! Raph species, come on!” I shouted. Then I explained the situation to the Raph species who were present in the stables. They all voiced their enthusiastic cooperation.
“Okay then . . . here goes,” Raphtalia said, still with some trepidation. She started to focus, lifting her arms and incanting magic. She was wearing her miko priestess outfit, so it was almost like watching Glass dancing. The Demon Dragon magic could use an application of the Way of the Dragon Vein, so the incanting part was easy. All you needed were the basics, and then the Demon Dragon’s protection did the rest. Those you were borrowing the power from were required, but the composition of the magic itself was just cooperation magic. Raphtalia had those here that she could borrow from, so I was sure this was going to work. Pretty sure.
“My universal collaborators! Respond to my call and materialize your magic power!” Raphtalia incanted. The Raph species voiced their agreement again and started to provide power in accordance with Raphtalia’s request. Raphtalia slumped forward at once, almost toppling over.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes . . . just . . . not sure what . . .” Raphtalia stammered. Raph-chan suddenly turned into a ball of light, flew up above Raphtalia, and then became a shimmering ceremonial coat and settled around Raphtalia’s shoulders. At the same time, a brilliantly glowing tail appeared on Raphtalia. “Oh my . . .” Raphtalia said, looking at the coat and her big shining tail. Then she slashed her hand to the side. Some yin-yang-shaped beads appeared, rotated around, and then three of them fired off. Raphtalia narrowed her eyes and took out her katana, obviously keen to continue the experiment.
“Five Practices Destiny Field Expansion,” she said. The magic circle used to launch any of the Heavenly Emperor techniques appeared smoothly at Raphtalia’s feet.
“Eight Trigrams . . .” Raphtalia adopted the pose for a big attack, which had always taken her a while to unleash in the past. Then she swung her katana. “Blade of Destiny!” A pretty deadly-looking arc sliced out to the side of her.
“This isn’t exactly how the Demon Dragon used it,” I commented. “The point is to incant some magic, right? Why are you using techniques?”
“Ah! You’re right. I feel a lot of power flowing into me . . . I’m not even sure how I’m launching the magic,” Raphtalia admitted. That sounded fine to me. She could use magic without having to incant! I pinched the glowing coat she was wearing between my fingers to check it out. Upon further inspection, it was a hoodie, not a coat—and the hood had a design like Raph-chan’s face. I spread the hood out and put it over Raphtalia’s head.