Chapter 35

* * * From the resulting hole in the floor, between Aoba’s legs, rose a cackling face. “Eek!” Terrified, she automatically opened her legs. “V-Veltol?!” The man who had fallen into the grinder was there. “Apologies for the delay, Aoba!” He crushed the floor with his bare hands and crept up, all moist and filthy. Instead of his uniform, he was wearing black armor. Tears spilled from Aoba’s eyes at the sight of him. Veltol smirked and declared, “This is my escape route! As a result of my investigation, I got a grasp on the structure of the sewage, its connection to the correction chambers, and the officers’ routes and schedules. Then I proposed this little act to Gram and fell into the grinder so that I could reach you in the chambers and…” Aoba automatically jumped into his arms. “I…I—I th-thought you were d-dead!” Aoba held him tight as tears rolled down her cheeks and hiccups rushed through her throat. Veltol did not resist her embrace as he listened to her. “Takahashi didn’t tell you? No need to worry. I am immortal. I do not die.” “I—I heard you were immortal… B-but even so! How couldn’t I be worried?!” “Perhaps that was too dreadful to show to you. I apologize for the lack of consideration. And by the way, I am quite filthy. You will be, too, at this rate.” “N-no! Y-you’re not filthy… You’re not filthy!” Veltol let slip an awkward smile, but it went unseen. Aoba cried for a while, and once she calmed down, Veltol said, “I suppose it is late, but still I must point it out. You have the right to make a decision. Whether to stay here or not. That said, I ask of you: Come with me.” “Yes.” Aoba nodded. “I’ll go. I have to go.” There was no hesitation in her eyes. “I have this wish to see the outside, but more than anything, I’ve had this impulse telling me to go down. And this goes back. I think from even before I was born.” Only solid determination—a strong sense of self. “I don’t remember this Sihlwald you mentioned, but I think I know about them.” “It could be the influence of the memories of whoever became the model for your soul.” Veltol held Aoba in his arms and went down through the sewage. It was just warm enough not to freeze over. Takahashi and Gram were already waiting there. Veltol had taken them out of their chambers, just like he did Aoba. The sewage was one that existed in Alnaeth before the island got separated from the outside world; it was plain rock. “Velly, you stink.” “You really reek.” Both of them pinched their noses. “You two are very fragrant yourselves…” He had gone through the sewers ground to pieces, so the filth clung to his entire body. “Laugh all you like. But do not claim that I would refuse to get down in the dirt to save my friends and subjects.” “Aw, sorry, dude. I think what you did is super awesome.” “…” Aoba noticed Gram’s eyes waver at Veltol’s remark. She didn’t know well what the deal was between the two, but she was sure the feelings between them were something special. Gram closed his eyes and shook his head before putting his hands on his hips and letting slip a soft smile. Takahashi also wore a frisky grin. “You sure had me there for a second, guys. You should’ve told me it was part of the plan!” she said. “The fewer people know about this sort of thing, the more effective they are. I apologize,” Veltol replied. “Still, grinding yourself to dust? I know you’re immortal, but still. I commend your guts,” Gram said. “Heh. You put on a pretty good act, by the way.” “…It was only half pretend.” “Ha! You are free to think so, but I’ll let you know now, Gram. Upon the dawn of my nation, I shall have a special seat reserved for you.” “That’s…interesting?” Gram chuckled. “I apologize, too, Aoba. I imagine that must’ve shocked you.” “O-oh, no! Not at all.” So it was all an act, despite how gruesome it was. Aoba felt relieved to see peace returning between them. “By the way, you can use magic here, Velly? You got out your armor,” Takahashi noted. “It does seem like aether is denser here down below. We should assume there’s a barrier on the whole island creating a ‘flow’ so that it gathers in one place. It’s still sparser than outside, but this should be enough for anything other than ultimate magic.” Gram cleaned everyone with the Create Water spell—which he did chant, since he had no Familia—before they went forward through the sewers. “How…did you do that?” Aoba asked, raising her hands and twisting her body to look at her clean clothes. “Huh? Magic… Oh, right. You’ve never seen magic. I used to be an adventurer, so I’m pretty good at this.” “Can I do magic, too?” “I don’t know if you can learn immediately, but I can teach you how to do this.” “And there’s also the Familia! Although they took ours.” Takahashi rubbed the cover on her nape. “Aoba, do not waste your time with that man, and allow me to teach you magic. I am far more skilled than he could be.” “You nasty…” Gram shook his fists. Aoba smiled. “Hee-hee. I’ll accept both your offers.” “First, let us go over our objectives one more time.” Everyone turned to look at Veltol. “My objective is to find the Black Dragon, Sihlwald. Gram’s objective is to obtain evidence of the illegal drugs so FEMU can force an investigation… Which I could also use for my negotiations with them once I’ve taken control of this place.” “Ehh, we’ll see…” “And finally, the goal is to take the Progenitor down and make this island my nation and base to take over the world.” “You know where Sihlwald is?” Gram asked. “Indeed. Forq.” As he said that, a window of black light popped up on the palm of his hand. The window had a sinister, intricate design and was full of letters Aoba could not read. “I had a stab at visualizing Sihlwald’s coordinates according to the unsealed Dark Peers Records. Look, this line shows this dimension’s coordinates.” “Yyyeaaahhh, I can’t read shit without my Familia,” Takahashi said. “Can’t you make it into a map or anything that anyone else could understand?” Gram asked Veltol. “Hmmph… This is something that should be impossible for you to see in the first place, and yet you ask for more…” Veltol sighed and closed the window. “The coordinates are nearby. We could make a map with the same magic Gram used before, but it’d be for worse if any detectors caught it.” “By the by, I never asked. What’s Sihlwald like?” Takahashi said. “You met ’em, Grammy?” “Mmm, I don’t really know, either.” “Whaa? No way!” “I’ve seen the Black Dragon from afar, but we’ve never interacted directly. Sihlwald was the biggest dragon I’d ever seen; anything else I know is hearsay,” Gram added. “Between the age of the gods and the age of giants and heroes was the age of the dragons, and Sihlwald was one of the elder dragons who built it. The oldest dragon and oldest immortal.” “The age of the gods, the age of the dragons, the age of giants and heroes, and the age of humankind, was it?” Those were the four periods of Alnaethian history. The age of humankind was merely a blip compared to the rest, even including after the Fantasion. Aoba listened intently with eyes shining bright. “What was the age of the dragons like?” she asked. “That…would be a better question for Veltol,” Gram said. “Surely you can explain just fine,” Veltol told him. “Okay.” Gram cleared his throat bashfully. “The age of the dragons is the time when five powerful dragons—direct descendants of the Founding Dragon—vied for power.” He raised his fingers one by one. “Rathbent the Colossus, the Green Dragon; Pearlia the Healer, the White Dragon; Shivah the Mad Reminiscer, the Blue Dragon; Wilmnil the Thunder Catcher, the Red Dragon; and Sihlwald the Darkness Devourer, the Black Dragon. These five and their kin and believers fought in the Five Dragon War. The champion devoured the other four and thus became immortal. That is the Black Dragon, Sihlwald.” Gram continued. “After that, Sihlwald literally became the strongest creature on the planet. So the gods made a proposal: ‘We shall allow you to rule the surface, albeit for a fixed period of time.’ To which Sihlwald responded, ‘The age of the dragons shall end once my first scale falls.’ The gods thought it wouldn’t be long before this happened, and they accepted the deal.” “Hey, I know this one! ‘By the time it takes for a dragon’s scales to fall’!” Takahashi cut in. Gram nodded. “Right. That’s the origin of that Alnaethian saying; it means ‘a very long time.’ Indeed, it took two thousand years for Sihlwald’s first scale to fall. The gods could only stand back and watch as the sly dragon ruled over the surface. Then the age of the dragons ended, and with a long winter arrived a wicked outsider god and their followers, the giants—thus, the age of giants and heroes. Then came the age of humankind.” “That sounds very grand…,” Aoba said. “And why’s such an epic dragon working for Velly?” Takahashi asked. “That I don’t know. Any comments, Veltol?” “Nothing lacking in your explanation. As for why she became my subject…” Veltol paused before saying: “That would be because she is my older sister.” Plain and simple. “Dang, so she’s your big sis,” Takahashi said. “You had a sister, huh? And it’s Sihlwald…,” Gram said. “…” “…” They shut their mouths immediately. The two of them were frozen in silent thought. Aoba simply looked at their reaction with curiosity, while Veltol kept walking as though nothing had happened. Then Takahashi and Gram screeched in unison: ““Your sisterrrr?!”” Aoba jumped, with eyes wide open at their shouting. “Velly! You had a sister?! You never mentioned it!” “I’d never heard of it, either… Really…?” Gram managed to say. “A sister… His sister…” “Naturally. You never asked.” “Hmm? But wait,” said Gram. “From what I saw, Sihlwald was just a dragon.” “She is my sister, but we are not related by blood. As you say, she is a real, authentic dragon.” “Oh, well, that changes everything. So she’s just a sister in name only, then?” Takahashi asked. Veltol nodded. “Sihlwald was the first I got to join me after becoming immortal. There were no Six Dark Peers back then.” He sounded nostalgic. “After the end of the age of the dragons, she became immortal yet weaker than in her prime, so she went into retirement. When I asked her to join me, we made a vow: for me to obey three of her requests. Her first request was for me to take her in as my older sister.” Takahashi raised an eyebrow. “Why your older sister, though?” “I have no idea. Perhaps she had something in mind, perhaps not. I have never managed to understand her.” “Uh-huh. So, what’re the other two requests?” “She’s only used two of them. The second one was for her not to participate in the Immortal War’s final battle. She can still make one more request, and I am worried she might ask for something odd…” “I see. So that’s why she wasn’t there…,” Gram said. “We could have won had she been there… But I had it all planned with her absence in mind. I asked her to join me not so much to have her fighting on my side but to avoid having to fight her as an enemy.” “She made you call her sister, but then she up and disappears when you most need her. I’ve never met a dragon before, but that’s pretty insane.” “I would say there are few dragons as human as she is, but it still stands that she is a dragon, in the end. Everything is but a game for her. I doubt we could ever see eye to eye. As I said just now, I’ve never understood her. As they say, a dragon might become familiar but never domesticated. One cannot measure them by our standards. Which is why I can never tell how things might go, depending on her whim. That said, she is still my valued subject and sister. Dragon or humanlike, doesn’t matter. I owe her much, and I have been through a lot… Perhaps more than equivalent, for her, but it is thus to be a brother.” Veltol gazed into the distance, as though into the past. Takahashi turned to look at Aoba’s face. “What’s wrong?” Aoba walked beside her, head down, fidgeting with her fingers. “I—I know what a sister is, by concept…but I don’t know what it’s like.” Being a homunculus, she was raised as an individual, disconnected from the concept of family. Takahashi grabbed her hands and held them tight as she looked into her eyes. “I’ll be your sister, then!” She beamed. “I’m also an only child and always wanted a little sister!” “Really? Having you as a sister would make me very…happy…Takahashi.” “Hee-hee. You can just call me ‘Sis’ now!” “Hee-hee. That would be lovely.” Takahashi pulled Aoba’s hand and walked ahead. Watching her back, slightly taller than hers, Aoba truly felt like she’d found a sister in her. The outer rim of the lowest stratum, south Yokohama. Going farther down from the sewers under the Yokohama lower stratum, they reached zero altitude land. “Here it is.” No pursuers came; they arrived so easily, it was underwhelming, in a way. Gram felt something was off about this. Was Veltol’s escape plan really that perfect? Or…? No, just focus right now. Gram shook away his suspicions. Before them was a giant metallic double door. A wall, actually, at that point. It was more than twenty meters tall; clearly, it wasn’t meant to be opened frequently. Its iron construction contrasted with the old Goar stone structure of the sewers. There was an old console on the wall, and above it was a placard with Japanese text in the Mincho typeface: “‘Remote Shrine…,’” Gram muttered, reading the placard aloud. He turned to his side and found Veltol touching the giant door sealed under multiple locks. “The aether up ahead is strong,” Veltol noted. “You can tell?” “Not because of any leakage: It’s airtight. That said, there is a particular pressure here. It feels like touching a carbonated drink bottle that’s been left alone and swollen.” Gram found the analogy hard to understand; he sharpened his senses to try to feel it, to no avail. Veltol’s aether sensitivity was truly admirable. “Akihabara’s underground treasury had a similar seal to it. I doubt it is as tough to break that it necessitates a mythic armament of legend like that one, though. This isn’t so much a door to divide two rooms, but an entrance to an isolated barrier… Something akin to a cage… That must be why the aether is so strong. In any case, the quirks of this technic…” “I suppose we can’t just break it… The whole building would collapse. Takahashi, can you do anything over there?” Gram turned to look at the console. “Mmm, not when I don’t have my Familia to connect to it directly.” “…Hmm? Directly…?” Veltol pondered for a few seconds. “Takahashi.” “Whassup?” “If I remember correctly, the cable you used to hack into the guard at the port is a pseudonerve made of aether, right?” “Huh? Yeah.” “Hmm… We shall give it a try.” Veltol used a short chant to bring forth the Dark Sword Vernal forged from his soul and switched it to its second form, the blade of light, Vernal Diel. “That’s so pretty,” Aoba said, eyes shining bright at the sight of the Dark Sword’s silver gleam. “Yes, it is. You have good taste.” Veltol smirked. “Wh-what’re you doing?” Takahashi said. “My sword in this state is made of pure aether. I will try to define it as a vehicle not unlike the pseudonerve so as to directly intervene with the seal’s technic. The seal in Akihabara was preposterous with its requirement of three mythic armaments of legend, but I think this should be enough for this one.” “I see… Using an aether blade like what’s used to connect to the Familia and magiprostheses… That is theoretically possible,” Gram said, impressed. Veltol stabbed the light blade into the door. “Yes, this should work.” A ray of light ran across the giant iron door of the remote shrine. A quake that shook the entire city followed. The locks on the door spun and opened with a loud clang. The seal was undone. “That’s amazing, Veltol! You opened such a giant door!” Aoba exclaimed. “Bwah-ha-ha-ha! Yes, Aoba! Extol my name! The technic was very simple! A little overwrite was all it took! This is aether hacking… Or rather, a primitive simulation of it. In any case, my abilities continue to grow!” Veltol’s magical know-how made good use of the pure aether blade, Vernal Diel’s power to understand how to function with the flow of mana of what it touched—Sage Eyes. This would not have been possible on Earth, where locks were mechanical. The security weak point was found in all magic methods, as being based on the use of aether meant they could be tampered with. Takahashi looked glum as the heavy door opened noisily. “Is something wrong?” Gram asked her. She flashed a self-deprecating smile. “No, it’s just… I’m useless without my Familia, huh…?” She was always so cheerful, but now Gram was beginning to think maybe she was just as naive as one would expect from someone her age. “Sorry,” she said. “I know it’s not the time to grumble.” “Don’t worry. And besides, you can be sure Veltol finds you reliable.” “You think?” “I do.” A stinging cold gust blew from the other side of the door. “Whoa?! What…is this…?” Takahashi shivered. They could see their breath. “Ah…” “Are you all right?” Veltol propped Aoba’s shoulder up as she stumbled, pale in the face. “Th-thank you… I got dizzy outta nowhere…” “It must be aether sickness. A common affliction among people not acclimated to aether-dense areas. And that is one strong current.” There was the precedent of Earthoids getting nauseated and throwing up due to the sudden surge of aether after the Fantasion, as Earth was light on it when Alnaeth’s came rushing in. “There was barely any up there, so your body needs to get used to it,” Gram said sympathetically. “Sorry… I’m okay now.” “You shouldn’t force yourself. Would you rather wait outside?” Veltol objected to Gram’s suggestion. “That won’t do. We shall take her inside.” “But it’ll hurt her if she goes in there.” “It’s likely that they have noticed our undertaking after the quake. She would be in greater danger if left behind.” “Well… Yeah, but…” “I-I’m okay… Let’s go.” Takahashi ran up to her and grabbed her hand. Gram decided to respect her decision and didn’t object further. The four of them entered the remote shrine, and the door closed just as noisily. It was a big, empty space. Most of it was filled with water, on top of a mystical mood all around. “Interesting. This does seem like a shrine,” Gram muttered. He shivered, but not due to the cold. The denseness of the aether reminded him of the Demon Castle, where he fought five centuries ago. Simply being reminded of the Demon Lord’s second form sent shivers down his spine. He barely managed to win through a chain of miracles—not because of his strength alone. Gram looked around to take his mind off the memory. There was some footing surrounding the walls and at the center, but the rest was deep water. There, in the middle of the circular foothold, lay a dragon. “Sister…” Beyond Veltol’s gaze was a girl.