CHAPTER 2
REPORTS AND COUNTERMEASURES
“Velzard’s made her move?” Feldway asked.
Vega, who had been staring at the screen with a pallid expression, nodded. “Ugh. The demon lord Milim, that bastard Zeranus…they’re both more fearsome than I ever imagined. Look at all that power. It’d take someone like Velzard to actually laugh at them. I couldn’t hold a candle to her…”
Witnessing the fight between Milim and Zeranus made even Vega feel humble by comparison. No matter how confident he usually was, he could at least understand the power differences involved.
“Quit whining. I have my own feelings, you know, about our longtime enemies the insectors finally tasting defeat.”
That was Zarario, who had just been called in.
Milim’s forces were victorious against a vicious enemy that had been a thorn in their side for far too long. Even better, despite the extensive damage, there were no deaths among Milim’s followers. Maybe it was just a matter of failing to find the right strategy or the right conditions, but it was Zarario’s fault for not being up to the challenge. Milim was superior to him, and that was that—it was not an excuse, but the truth. It was little wonder Zarario was less than amused about all that.
“So what are you gonna do about this, Feldway?” he asked.
By “this,” he meant Velzard. She seemed to have some kind of scheme underway, but Feldway didn’t dwell on that further. To Zarario, it seemed like a very fast-changing situation, one pretty derailed from their original plan, and he believed it was time for a course correction or two.
Someone else present was just as outraged.
“That’s the thing! If you hadn’t interfered with me, I would’ve defeated our divine enemy!” Jahil shouted. “You better explain what’s going on with that—right now!”
Upon returning to the Celestial Palace, Feldway ordered Mai to provide a visual of the ground situation. He then ordered Zarario to bring back Jahil, who was over with Luminus’s force providing a diversion. Jahil’s behavior, however, went well beyond diversionary tactics. Zarario was right to stop him, but it didn’t exactly please Jahil much. Jahil didn’t bother hiding that, snipping at Feldway and asking for answers.
“Heh. Quit being in such a hurry,” chided Feldway. “It’s not like you could’ve taken down the demon lord Luminus anyway.”
“What?” snapped Jahil. “Are you mocking me?”
“No, I’m not. I just want to proceed with caution. Look, now that Daggrull is in our ranks, the balance of power’s shifted vastly in our favor. We’ve also got Fenn of the Three Stellar Leaders, remember. With all that, Luminus couldn’t be in a more precarious position.”
This was Feldway’s attempt at appeasing Jahil. It didn’t work.
“Yes, I’ll admit to Fenn’s strength. But Luminus killed my father, the great demigod, who I must avenge with my own two hands!”
Jahil’s mood was the result of a grudge making his anger boil over. Taking over Footman might’ve had an effect—that was unclear—but either way, his heart was seething with a rage like a hurricane. That was why he was so violently dismissive of Luminus. Being denied the chance to take a swipe at her set him off so much, even he thought it a bit odd.
But the next moment:
“Won’t you listen to me?” Feldway said quietly.
It didn’t sound all that intimidating; in fact, he was speaking with a perfectly normal tone. But with the aura that reigned supreme in the room, everybody—even Deeno—was on the edge of their seats.
“N-no, um… I’m sorry.”
Regaining his composure, Jahil immediately apologized. A wise decision on his part.
“Feldway,” Zarario said, “bear in mind that your aura is like poison to those not accustomed to it. You are in your true form now, nothing at all like you used to be.”
He, too, was smart to step up and defend Jahil—and with that, the situation was resolved.
So they were back where they started.
Feldway had narrowed his objectives down to three strategic goals:
Steal the ultimate skill Sariel, Lord of Hope, from the Hero Chronoa.
Eliminate the Hero Masayuki, a potential danger to their plans, and strip him of the ultimate skill Uriel, Lord of Vows.
Last and most important: capture the draconic factors of Veldora.
Now he thought it was time to reconsider these goals.
The first question to tackle was the gathering of these skills. After inheriting Michael’s powers, Feldway was able to detect and perceive angelic-type ultimate skills…but the collection of those angelic skills was Michael’s personal mission, not Feldway’s. As Michael himself was a conscious will housed inside a skill, he felt he could reach an all-powerful state by consolidating all the other skills into a single whole. This, the theory went, would allow him to become an omniscient, omnipotent Creator.
Although this logic seemed to make sense on the surface, Feldway was skeptical. For one, Veldanava was neither omniscient nor omnipotent. He himself said he had renounced those abilities, and there was no room to doubt those words.
How wonderful it would be, Feldway thought, if that weren’t true! If it were, he wouldn’t have lost his power and gotten killed by mere humans. Of course, it was Veldanava himself who gave humans their desires. The subsequent cause-and-effect relationships led to his doom, in a way—a self-inflicted wound.
Thanks to that, Feldway had no doubt Veldanava was a less-than-all-powerful being. As a result, he didn’t see much point in collecting the angelic skills he was still missing. Besides, even if he could find them all, it’d mean nothing if he didn’t have the right receptacles for them.
Feldway and Michael had planned to manifest Veldanava by using the best possible body in the lineage of the “first Hero” as a vessel. That plan was a total failure—Michael was defeated, and that body was gone. Those facts were set in stone, and that suggested to Feldway that targeting Masayuki was no longer such a high priority.
Emperor Masayuki, eh? I hate having to lose to him, but victory or defeat is all about the luck of the moment anyway. It’s not worth losing sight of the bigger picture.
That was Feldway’s decision. If Zarario and the others targeted Masayuki—who bore the power of Ludora, the true Hero, in his hands—they’d quickly find themselves in over their heads. Velgrynd was still around, too. Any half-hearted effort would be met with swift vengeance. The only choice was for Feldway or Velzard to aim for Masayuki, or to ask Zeranus for the favor—but as Feldway saw it, they didn’t have that much to gain from a victory anyway.
Now Feldway was quickly narrowing down his goals. If he was going to leave Masayuki alone, that suggested there was little point to defeating Chronoa, his fellow Hero. They might kill her before everything was through, but they didn’t need to go out of their way to do it now. There was no need to assign valuable forces to the job when they could just wait for her to come at them instead.
Now I wonder if all hope has been lost after all…
Feldway’s thoughts began to come together as he tried to shake off those fears.
“So? What’s our plan?” Jahil impatiently piped up at just the right moment.
“All we will go after are Veldora’s factors. But we need to act so nobody knows who we’re really aiming for.”
With that declaration, Feldway proposed a new strategy…and then, once everyone left, he began muttering to himself: “Now then, will Velzard achieve her goals for me?”
That True Dragon held the key to victory in this battle. Feldway thought so, at least.
“Her love is the real thing, I know. And if it is, the final outcome is beyond doubt…”
He smiled coldly at the thought of her beauty, thoroughly convinced of this eventuality.
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