“Miss Arles, just step back! I’ll get that side too!”
“A-Are you sure you’ll be okay?!”
“Yeah, leave it to me! I’ll pull it right out of the ground. Now! Hurry!”
Carefully, Arles stepped back little by little.
The fangs closed in around Inglis, and as they did, she reached out her other hand to hold both sides back alone. “Keep going. The dragon’s coming out!”
“Of course!” Following Inglis’s instructions, Arles jumped back from between the jaws of the dragon. “But how will you...?!”
“Like this!” Inglis pulled with all her might! “Haaaah!” Still grasping a fang on either side, Inglis squarely planted her feet as if she were about to jump high. She could tell she was pulling something huge out of the ground, yet somehow it felt lighter than she’d expected.
Arles gasped. “Y-You’re pulling it out by force?!”
“Something’s coming!” Rafinha said, as she and her teacher squinted to keep the scattering debris and dust from their eyes.
Inglis turned to get a good look at the dragon that had appeared—and finally she understood why it had felt so light. “There’s no flesh! Just moving bones!”
This wasn’t a dragon; it was a dragon’s skeleton. Yet it was moving and trying to clamp its jaw down on Inglis. The dragon skeleton twisted away from Inglis, then fell low to the ground and raised its head like a snake ready to strike.
“Oooooooo!”
Although it was unclear where it was coming from, a terrifying moan reverberated.
“Wh-What?! Dragons can keep moving even when they’re just bones?!” Rafinha gasped.
“Or maybe it was always like this?!” Arles pondered.
“No, the dragon that’s supposed to be here is Aulglora. It was known as the gold dragon, and it’s supposed to have golden scales,” Inglis explained.
But what had emerged from the ground was nothing but bones. Where had Aulglora gone? A dragon only of bones like this one wouldn’t yield any meat to begin with. Inglis didn’t know what had happened, but if this was truly Aulglora, it was an alarming situation.
“Who are you?! Are you the ancient dragon Aulglora?!” she asked.
“Indeed... I...am...the ancient dra...dra-dragonnnn...” The reply was choppy and unsteady, but a reply all the same.
Arles drew in a sharp breath. “I heard a voice—it must be the ancient dragon!” Arles, who was also wearing a priestess’s outfit, could hear it as well.
“So they really can keep moving even as just bones...” Rafinha said.
“No, it’s not like that, Rani. Even dragons can’t survive like this. I think Aulglora died and was turned into an undying.”
Along with the ancient dragon’s powerful dragon lore, Inglis also sensed the presence of an undying. The corpse of an ancient dragon, turned into an undying—“corpse dragon” sounded like an appropriate name for it.
“An undying... Yes, Inglis, I can sense it too!” Arles agreed. So she could also sense the undying. Inglis remembered that Eris, another hieral menace, had also been able to sense them when a group of undying had attacked Leone’s home in Ahlemin.
“Aulglora, what happened to you? Why are you in such a state?” Inglis asked.
“Oaaghhhh! Unforgivable! Unforgiiiiiivable!” Aulglora’s maw snapped toward Inglis, accompanied by a terrible roar.
“Haaah!” Wrapping herself in Aether Shell, Inglis directly took the attack. Her foe may have been lighter than she expected, but it was still incredibly powerful. All else aside, she wanted Aulglora to be her respected opponent, but that was not possible right now.
“Please, calm yourself, Aulglora! You’re not my enemy! I don’t want to kill you!” she yelled while holding Aulglora back.
“Oaaghhhh! Gaaaaaaaaah!” Aulglora seemed to be in an extremely agitated state, unable to speak clearly.
Inglis wondered whether it was feasible to wait for it to calm down. She called out to Rafinha and Arles, “I’ll keep it under control. It seems pretty worked up!”
The two nodded and got in position to observe the situation.
“Undying are the things that attacked us at Leone’s house, right?” Rafinha asked. “Liselotte said they attacked her too!”
“Yeah. Those are undying,” Inglis replied.
“And the giant that destroyed Illuminas was an undying made from mana extract, wasn’t it...”
“I think so. General Maxwell used an Artifact that does that kind of thing.”
“So maybe the skeletal dragon is also his fault!”
“Not necessarily, but we should probably save thinking about that for later.”
Had this happened naturally, with the sealed-away dragon’s life fading away but its hatred and resentment only becoming stronger, or had some powerful magic turned the dragon’s corpse into an undying, causing it to go out of control and forcing it to be sealed away? Or was Rafinha right, and this was the work of Maxwell? Considering the undying attacks that Leone and Liselotte had experienced, it certainly wasn’t impossible that Maxwell, with his ambitions of invading Karelia, was behind this as well.
But in any case, they had a more immediate problem here.
“By the way, Chris, what do we do?! This dragon doesn’t have any meat!”
“Hmm. What do we do?”
“So it’s useless... We can’t help Ross...” Arles’s heart dropped.
“B-But, even if there’s no meat, maybe we can take the bones back and make a broth! That might help a little! Right, Chris?” Rafinha asked.
“Maybe!” Inglis replied. “But there’s something else I’d like to try first!”
“Goahhhhh! Unforgivable! Unforgivable, unforgiiiiiivable!” Aulglora didn’t seem to have calmed down at all.
“Something to try? The dragon doesn’t seem like it’s any calmer, but...”
“Yeah. It’ll work even like this, so I’ll give it a shot!” Inglis was waiting for Aulglora to calm down, but that wasn’t all. As she touched it up close, she was searching for its dragon lore. Coming in contact with its wavelength and qualities, she had come up with a rough idea of what it was like. Aether was extremely hard to control, but dragon lore was softer, more flexible, more responsive. It might even be easier to control than mana. Even the dragon lore bestowed upon Inglis by Fufailbane could be manipulated to match that of Aulglora.
And now, she poured that into Aulglora.
“O Aulglora, receive this offering! Dragon Lore!”
“Oaaghhhh?!” The dragon’s bones received Inglis’s dragon lore and began to shine.
“It’s glowing?!” Rafinha gasped.
“What’s going on?!” Arles asked.
“I offered it some of my dragon lore!” Inglis replied. This was an attempt to stimulate Aulglora’s power as a dragon. Her dragon lore traced the form of a dragon’s body as it manifested in order to interact with the material world. By pouring it into Aulglora, she hoped it would prompt the dragon toward some sort of image of its lost flesh.
“The light’s forming into the shape of a dragon!”
It was as Rafinha observed. The shine surrounding Aulglora’s bones spread and took on a golden color as it formed into the shape of a large dragon. It probably formed the rough contours of Aulglora’s original form.
“So you’re trying to get it to regain its original form?!” Arles asked.
“Yes, Miss Arles. I hope it goes smoothly, but...”
Dragon lore had provided an image of what Aulglora had once been. If Inglis could give that image substance, the ancient dragon would be reincarnated.
“Rwooooooogh!”
But the pressure from Aulglora’s jaws only increased, trying to stop her. Her stance remained steady, but the ground itself gave way as she was forced back. “Ooh! Well, that definitely perked it up!” she happily announced.
“Chris!”
“Inglis!”
“It’s fine. I think I can— Ah?!” Inglis gasped as the golden dragon lore surrounding Aulglora’s bones dissipated. The force pushing her down felt lighter, like it had before. “So my dragon lore dissipated... The power couldn’t take root because it lacked the physical body needed to anchor itself...”
So maybe it was time to just move on. As Rafinha had said, at the very least they could return with the bones, prepare them so they could be consumed in some fashion, and see what it did for Rochefort. But just as Inglis was about to give up, voices rang out from above.
“Everyone! Are you okay?!” Myce shouted.
Leone couldn’t believe her eyes. “It’s just...bones?! The ancient dragon is a skeleton?!”
“Leone!” Inglis replied.
“Myce!” Rafinha called out.
Leone and Myce had caught up with them. Their Flygear Port had come into sight—along with the mechanical dragon following behind.
“It’s an undying, Myce!” Rafinha warned. “Like the thing which destroyed Illuminas!”
“What’s going on?! Was it always like this, or...?!” Myce frowned in concentration. Perhaps he, like Rafinha, suspected it was the work of Maxwell.
“But we can’t get any dragon meat from that. What do we do?!” Leone asked.
“That’s right. I’m about out of... Hmm?!” Inglis noticed something strange as she spoke. Something about the mechanical dragon behind the Flygear Port. Its body had begun to glow the same golden color as Aulglora just had. “The mechanical dragon’s glowing?! What’s going on, Myce?”
“I-I don’t know! I have no idea!”
Groooohhhnnnn!
The mechanical dragon roared as its body twisted. Now that Inglis thought of it, she didn’t think she’d ever heard them speak before. As it roared, covered in a golden light, the mechanical dragon overtook the Flygear Port and tried to approach Aulglora’s bones.
“I-I can’t control it!” Myce, panicked, gestured as if trying to inscribe something with his hands.
The mechanical dragon clung to the corpse dragon as if trying to overlap it from above, but its body was a mere fraction of the size of Aulglora’s skeleton. It was almost like a child climbing onto an adult’s back.
“W-We’re getting out of here! We don’t want to get in your way!” Myce continued to hurriedly give orders to the mechanical dragon, but it didn’t seem to want to follow them. Instead, it turned its gaze toward Inglis, as if it wanted to say something.
“No, Myce, let it be!” Inglis stopped Myce.
“Huh? But—”
“I think it’s trying to merge with Aulglora and help regenerate its body! That dragon must have once been one of Aulglora’s guardians!”
Mechanical dragons were weapons which incorporated Highlander engineering, just like Flygears and Flygear Ports, but they were built upon living dragons. This behavior appeared to be the will of the dragon taking over. The dragon was trying to save Aulglora, who had given it life. This must have been a result of some strong stimulus it had felt when it approached Aulglora. The mechanical dragon, too, was emitting powerful dragon lore, which seemed very similar to that from Aulglora itself. The two sources of this energy seemed to resonate and blend together.
“The mechanical dragon’s becoming part of the ancient dragon?!” Myce gasped.
“So it seems. I don’t know if it’ll work, but can we let it try?! I’ll help out too!”
Earlier, Inglis had used her dragon lore to generate the outline of Aulglora’s physical body, but it could not materialize anchored to nothing. However, if there was some kind of substitute, perhaps it would work. And if the new host originated from the same dragon, it would be the perfect substance with which to reincarnate Aulglora.
“O-Okay. You’ve got this, Inglis!” Myce’s hands stopped moving, and he released his magical control over the mechanical dragon.
Inglis looked to Leone, standing next to Myce on the Flygear Port’s deck. “Leone! Leone, can you help out too?!”
“Of course! What do you need?!”
“Hmm. Stretch out your sword so that it’s touching me, Aulglora’s skeleton, and the mechanical dragon! That should do it!”
“Got it!” Leone nodded, and pointed the tip of her greatsword down toward Inglis, who was still holding Aulglora back. “Extend!”
She lengthened the blade using the power of the Artifact’s Gift. It slid past the arm of Myce’s mechanical dragon and Aulglora’s rib cage, then the top of Inglis’s shoulder, before plunging into the ground, its flat coming to rest atop Inglis’s collarbone. “Like this?!”
“Yeah! Hold it there for a little while, then when I give the signal, fire as many phantasms as you can into Aulglora!”
“Okay, understood!”
Inglis, still holding Aulglora back, closed her eyes for a moment and carefully inspected the flows of dragon lore. She herself, the ancient dragon Aulglora, the mechanical dragon, and Leone’s artifact, and the dragon lore they each possessed, were connected through the blade of the dark greatsword. Dragon lore was a highly flexible power, and as each of these sources blended together, they fused into a greater whole.
“Now! Leone!” Inglis said.
“Okay! Gooooooo!”
“Me too! Dragon Lore!”
The golden glow again formed into the image of what Aulglora had once been, and began to absorb everything within it, including the phantasms Leone launched and the mechanical dragon which clasped onto the bones. The mechanical dragon in particular could not maintain its form and transformed into a shower of golden sparkles. The light took form, expanding to cover Aulglora’s exposed bones.
“Oh! It’s dazzling!” Inglis heard Leone say. It was certainly bright enough that she couldn’t keep her eyes open. For a moment, Aulglora disappeared from even Inglis’s vision.
Gwoooooooooohnnn!
The dragon’s majestic roar echoed. Inglis could hear the sound of, even feel the rumble of, its heavy stomps. They fell with a weight beyond what the mere bones from before could produce. Meaning...
“It worked...?!”
Inglis opened her eyes and saw a gigantic dragon before her. Not merely bones as before, but a gigantic dragon with golden scales. “Is this the ancient dragon Aulglora?!”
“Inglis, did it work?!” Leone asked.
“Yeah. I think so. But it’s not quite what I expected!” Her eyes gleamed, and her mouth grinned in delight. That’s right. It isn’t what I expected. It isn’t just a golden dragon—its body is studded with hard mechanical bits, and its wings are not flesh but steel. Several huge cannons have appeared at its shoulders, arms, and waist. “It’s not just an ancient dragon! It might even be a mechanical ancient dragon like Fufailbane now!”
The Papal League’s Archlord Evel had created a mechanical ancient dragon by subsuming the consciousness of the ancient dragon Fufailbane. Its power was beyond even that of an ancient dragon—it was the strongest dragon Inglis currently knew of. Fufailbane had mentioned the existence of wyrms, even more powerful than ancient dragons, but she had never seen one with her own eyes. That mechanical ancient dragon had left before she had the chance to fight it, so this was a perfect opportunity.
“So does this mean that rather than the mechanical dragon offering its body up to the ancient dragon, it absorbed the ancient dragon and gained strength?!” Arles asked, and given the circumstances Inglis thought her theory made sense.
“But it seems like it won’t accept my control!” Myce again gestured as if inscribing something, trying to give orders to the mechanical ancient dragon, but it had no effect.
But on the other hand, it also no longer seemed to be so enraged that it could not be spoken with.
“I-It’s not moving, is it?” Leone pointed out, anxious.
“Yeah, I wonder why... Is it broken?” Rafinha asked.
They both tilted their heads in confusion, unaware of what was about to come next.
Ksshhaahh!
As the dragon roared, a massive foreleg swung down toward Inglis.
“Oooh?!” Inglis laughed as she prepared herself. She wouldn’t attack a foe who had made no hostile moves, but if it was attacking her, that was another story. Naturally, she didn’t try to run away and instead stared the attack down—she really, really wanted to experience the pure, majestic might of a mechanical ancient dragon.
Yet it never struck her. It stopped upraised, hanging in midair.
Inglis, wordless, eyed the dragon. Why had it stopped? Its sharp claws, each the size of a tremendous greatsword, gleamed in the sun. She wanted the dragon to bring its limb smashing down as hard as it could. That was what she was waiting for. But it hung there for a moment, then another, still motionless. It was as if, while Aulglora wanted to attack her, the mechanical dragon’s will was holding it back.
“Do your best! You’re almost there!” Inglis called out to the mechanical ancient dragon.
“That’s right! The mechanical dragon must be trying to calm the ancient dragon! Please do your best!” Arles called out.
“That’s right! Our mechanical dragon is trying hard!” Myce agreed.
“Mr. Mechanical Dragon! Listen to Myce!” Rafinha added.
“Yes! Do your best!” Leone said.
Inglis was quiet. She had hoped the corpse dragon Aulglora, overcome by rage, would attack her. Arles, a far more earnest person, had made quite the opposite wish. Words were intransigent creatures indeed. She of course couldn’t reject that at this point; all she could do was wait and see what happened.
But that wouldn’t stop Inglis from cheering on its aggression.
Whoom!
The gigantic leg swung down toward her.
“All right!” she shouted.
“‘All right’?!”
Amid her friends’ doubting cries, Inglis blocked the dragon head-on. It had become even more powerful; she’d even describe its force as refreshing. It was the ground under her feet that gave way to that might, and a crater formed around her as she sank.
She laughed again. “I see, so that’s a mechanical ancient dragon’s power... It’s wonderful!” She would be crushed like a bug if she let her guard down—which was perfect.
“Wait, Chris!” Rafinha interjected. “You’re having weird thoughts again, aren’t you?!”
“Umm... Now, now—don’t worry about that. Of course, if it attacks me, I’m going to have to defend myself, right?”
“I mean, yes, but...!”
“I understand how the mechanical dragon feels too. I’ll try to hold it back, so you all keep your distance and look for an opening to cut off its tail!”
It was not an ancient dragon but a mechanical one, but its tail was still flesh. Inglis theorized they could still treat Rochefort with it. Grabbing the tail was a vital part of the operation.
“Got it, Inglis!” Leone said. “Let’s go with that plan, Rafinha!”
“Okay, but this conversation isn’t over yet! Don’t get yourself hurt, Chris!” Rafinha said.
Inglis felt glad that, no matter what else her cousin had to say, she was still worried for her. “Yeah, got it, Rani!”
Vrrrrrm...
With a low rumble, the cannons built into the mechanical ancient dragon’s body fixed their sights on Inglis. A glow that had only just become visible was beginning to emerge from their barrels on the dragon’s shoulders, both sides of its torso, and the left foreleg; that made five at once. The right foreleg, which had swatted at her, had no line of fire, but it kept up its immense pressure, keeping her from moving. Even with Aether Shell active, while she hadn’t been crushed, she couldn’t easily push back either; it was a stalemate. The dragon wanted to pin her down and blast her with a barrage. Its attack was merciless; it must have truly wanted her dead.
“That’s great!” Inglis’s eyes gleamed as she smiled. “But I have tricks up my sleeve too!”
Dragon ice armor materialized around Inglis. Both her hands held back the mechanical dragon’s right arm from stomping down on her. Her dragon ice armor and icebrand, combinations of dragon lore and magic that she now referred to as “dragon magic,” originally required certain motions to manifest. That had been the only way she had been able to control the flow of dragon lore and layer mana over it. But now, with time having passed since she had first invented them and having gotten used to using them in combat, she no longer needed those motions. Her control over dragon lore was improving. It was a subtle difference, but even a subtle difference meant a lot at times like these.
“Haaaah!”
Her augmented strength from the armor let her push the mechanical ancient dragon’s arm back. But at the same moment, a barrage of massive blasts of light had shot forth from its five cannons. Its overwhelming golden glow overtook all else within view, and she gasped.
“Chris?!”
“Inglis!”
She could hear Rafinha and Arles calling to her from behind. Given her position, if she jumped to the side or used divine feat to evade, they would take the brunt of the barrage.
Not like I wanted to dodge anyway!
“Okay, then!” She leaned back, whipped her arms behind her, and did a series of cartwheels backward to gain a little bit of distance. But the initial gap had not been much at all compared to the speed of the blast of light bearing down on her, so even a little bit was enough. After a few rotations, she landed and plunged both palms forward.
Aether Strike!
Blammmmm!
The mechanical ancient dragon’s cannonade and the Aether Strike collided, pressing against each other. They stayed locked in place momentarily before the Aether Strike steadily fell back little by little.
“So this is what it’s like when an ancient dragon’s breath is mechanically enhanced... It’s got such a wonderful potency to it!”
She could sense that the already-powerful dragon lore, within the barrage of golden light, was being compressed to an absurd degree. Its density must’ve been the result of augmentation from the mechanical parts. Inglis had been training peacefully at the knights’ academy recently, so it was the first time in a long time she’d felt anything like this. She couldn’t help but smile, even though it threatened to push her back more and more.
Just then, the sixth cannon, on the dragon’s right foreleg, lit up and added to the pressure. Just holding back the barrage for a moment, to allow Rafinha and Arles to retreat, was enough. Inglis could now turn her attention to evasion.
As if she’d do such a thing.
“I’m not done yet!”
I want to smash straight into this! She charged straight forward to where the forces collided. As she did, she changed the wavelength of her aether so that it would repel her previous Aether Strike, then punched it as hard as she could from behind. This was another application of Aether Reflector: not to control the trajectory of the blast, but to add momentum from behind and push it forward.
With that added power, the Aether Strike began to push into the barrage as if to split it. Inglis drew closer and closer to the mechanical ancient dragon. She was fine with continuing on with the Aether Strike until it landed, or—if it looked like it would be blocked—she could change the wavelength of her aether and detonate it with a punch with Aether Breaker.
“So, what’s your move?!”
Inglis couldn’t tell if the dragon had heard her, but it definitely had something to say too.
“Ksshhaahh!”
As its maw opened to roar, yet another cannon was revealed in its depths.
“Ooh...!”
There was yet another hidden cannon. Its addition would make things even more intense. Inglis prepared in gleeful anticipation, but the dragon never followed through. Instead, it ceased fire and soared high into the sky.
“Grrr...”
Even if the dragon didn’t have any duty to stay there testing its strength against hers, it still irritated her to be baited in and then blown off. She wanted to have some fun, and it’s not like the mechanical ancient dragon was being pressed yet either. As if reflecting her emotions, the Aether Strike, its target lost, gouged a furrow in the ground as it blasted into the distance.
“If that’s how you want it!” Then I’ll do what I have to do without wasting my energy! She leaped forward as hard as she could, chasing the Aether Strike. In an instant, she caught up to it and again adjusted the wavelength of her aether as she punched at it. “Haaaah!”
Blammmmm!
The Aether Strike roared as it changed trajectory, but its new target wasn’t the flying mechanical ancient dragon. It was the road leading to Venefic, a narrow defile between two mountain passes. Her battle with the ancient dragon had collapsed it, preventing military use for a long time and thus making an invasion impossible—but not yet enough for that long time to be months or years.
Arles gasped as she watched the battle. “The light’s going toward the path to Venefic?!”
The next moment, Inglis was there behind her. She had used divine feat to cover the distance—a short one, but speed was of the essence. “Miss Arles.”
“Eek! I-Inglis?!” Arles was shocked by the sudden whisper in her ear.
“I’m sorry, but I’m in a hurry! Could you transform, please?”
“Y-Yes, of course!”
As their hands met, light exploded around them and a high-pitched noise sounded. Within, Arles transformed into a large, beautiful golden shield.
“Excellent!” Hieral menaces really were great. Inglis could clearly feel her aether being amplified and returned to her. With a nod, she immediately disappeared again. And then...
Wham!
A blow echoed in all directions as one of the mountains that had sealed Aulglora went flying into the sky, blown away as if chasing after the dragon.
“Huh?! Wh-What’s going on?!” Myce asked.
Rafinha gasped. “Chris?!”
“She’s gone?!” Leone exclaimed.
Everyone had looked to the source of the noise, but Inglis had already disappeared. All that remained was the stump of a peak, its top missing, and rings of light which spread like ripples on water.
Wham! Wham!
Two more blows echoed out. The peaks were blown away, and while Inglis was gone, ripples of light remained. Inglis’s divine feat was a movement technique that instantly rewrote her position in the world. In terms of speed, it was faster than sound. If you turned your eyes to follow the noise, you would see nothing.
Slam!
With one final thunderous crescendo, Rafinha and the others were able to see Inglis just after she had smashed the peak away with Arles’s golden shield.
They could see her because she had finished. The four peaks she had struck with the shield flew, overtaking the Aether Strike Inglis had changed the direction of. They stacked up like a gigantic stone wall on the road to Venefic. Stacked a little too neatly, perhaps; they seemed quite man-made. And there were gaps between them large enough for people to pass through.
And that was where the Aether Strike came in.
Rrrrumble!
The sound of the peaks crumbling to rubble echoed far and wide. The trail of destruction appeared not unnatural, and the finely crushed rock fragments sealed the gaps through which people could fit. The road had been completely destroyed by some tremendous force, and made impassable.
“Ah, it looks like because the ancient dragon went on a rampage, the road to Venefic got blocked. What a terrible accident.” Inglis sighed theatrically.
“Ha ha ha... Y-Yeah, what a pity,” Rafinha agreed.
“Y-Yeah, you can’t do much about an accident. Mm-hmm...an accident,” Leone said.
“I guess you could say Inglis was just caught up in it, right?” Myce asked.
The three laughed wryly.
“And, now that that’s done with...” Inglis turned her eyes to the mechanical ancient dragon in the sky. While she was blocking the road, it hadn’t done anything in particular. But that had only taken her a moment, so perhaps it just hadn’t had a chance yet. “Now, let’s continue!” As she called out to the dragon, she loosened her grip on the shield that was Arles.
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