「We have to restrain the Demon King before it fully awakens.」
——The day before the operation.
Alice-san explained the plan to us.
First, I would accelerate the team’s time with my magic.
At the same time, Karen would deactivate the delayed causality barrier.
As soon as the transformed mutants start moving again, Mother and Chocola would handle them.
And then, next—
「The Demon King will be unable to move for one or two seconds due to the eighteen-hundred-year time lag. Let’s assume we have just one second of leeway. We’ll use that second to extend the delay to five seconds. Ji Liz-san… it’s your power we need.」
Ji Liz looked uncertain.
「Can I really do it? In theory, maybe. But the Demon King… my great-great-grandfather who turned into that… can he even be considered a dragon anymore?」
But Alice-san declared with certainty.
「…It pains me to say this, but the Demon King definitely has dragon essence—a dragon’s soul. I can say that with conviction after feeling that magic directly. Even if its form has deteriorated beyond recognition, even if its attributes have become an incomprehensible mess… at its core, it’s Ji Dia. It was Ji Dia’s.」
Recalling her old friend and his son, she bit her lip, clenching her fist tightly. Then, after a brief downward glance, she lifted her face.
She looked straight at Ji Liz.
「That’s why it will work. Give it everything you have… 『Dragon’s Roar』.」
※※※
And now.
At my signal, Ji Liz—descendant of Ji Dia, a member of the Fafnir Clan—took a deep breath.
Then, he opened his mouth.
「O——OOoooOOOOOOOOOOoooOOOOOOOOOO————!!!」
A thundering roar shook District Zero.
It was the primal scream of a dragon, imbued with magic power.
Said to carry not just a thousand miles, but ten thousand—over walls, across mountain ranges, through the sky—resonating across the entire continent.
「OOoooOOOOOOOoooOO, OOOOOOOOAAAAAaaaa————!!!」
Yes, a chant.
Though a scream, it carried a strange melody. It pierced the ears yet felt oddly soothing. Deep enough to make one flinch, yet so delicate it invited surrender.
『Dragon’s Roar』——an ancient magic exclusive to the dragon race, which uses wind-element magic to project one’s magical power through sound.
Its primary purpose is to check on the safety of family members.
Anyone who hears the roar of a blood relative responds almost instinctively. There’s no time to think; even if they are asleep, they will wake and reply immediately. This is a behavior ingrained in the dragon’s genes.
For dragons, who live exceptionally long lives, it is not uncommon for parents and children to go hundreds of years without seeing each other once they leave the nest. Sometimes, they don’t even know where their kin live. Because of this, the custom of answering a roar eventually became an instinctual habit. From the sound’s wavelength, dragons can pinpoint the caller’s location, as well as determine their health and even lifespan.
——And hearing it for ourselves—
That roar, though thunderous, carried an immense gentleness that struck our hearts. Goosebumps rose in awe, and our chests swelled with emotion. Yet—
No, because of that—
The Demon King—a former dragon, now moments away from resuming its rampage after a second-long gap caused by eighteen centuries of time lag—
halted in response to Ji Liz’s roar.
To be precise, it wasn’t frozen in place. It was trying to answer. The call from a distant descendant—its great-great-grandchild—triggered its instincts. It wanted to say, I am here. I am still alive.
But it could not.
The creature’s head, twisted beyond a dragon, could no longer produce a voice. It lacked vocal cords in its throat, had no tongue in its grotesque mouthparts, and its chaotic, corrupted attributes prevented it from weaving magic. It could not channel its magic into wind and sound.
Yet its instincts—the dragon habits still lingering in its body—tried to roar back.
「……」
My chest tightened. The pitiful way it froze with its head lifted skyward was heartbreaking.
For Ji Liz, its kin, it must have been even more painful.
「Bark… barkkk!」
Chocola barked with fervor as he fought off the mutants. Moved by the sound, even if he didn’t understand the complexity of the situation. He was always sensitive to the emotions of others.
「……O, OOOOOOOO! OOOOOOOOOOOO!!!」
Behind me, my friend’s voice shook even harder, his cries growing more sorrowful and resolute. This was no longer a call to check on his blood kin’s safety. It was a desperate plea, a way to let his ancient ancestor before him know that his descendants were here, alive, by his side.
Ji Liz’s roar proclaimed: Your kin is here, right beside you. Your will lives on in us. So please, at the very least—find peace…
「……Sui-kun! Toshiya, Kaoruko!!」
Alice-san’s command came out choked with tears.
Gritting my teeth, I rushed forward, following Alice-san as she charged ahead.
How long would the Demon King remain paralyzed in response to Ji Liz’s roar? No one knew. Alice-san estimated five seconds, but it could be more or less. That’s why we had to execute the next move—the final push.
This was the most critical part of Alice-san’s plan.
To defeat the Demon King without fighting.
In other words, to end everything before the enemy could fully awaken.
「——Bereft of shelter, lamenting fate」
A chant began to echo.
I knew that incantation well, though it wasn’t coming from me.
「Sever the ties, pierce the core」
Behind Alice-san, beside Color-san, stood a small figure with two pairs of shimmering wings—the fairy king with the appearance of a young boy.
Once, he was a human who had transmigrated to this world—a Japanese named Higuchi Toshiya. Among his companions, he had been the most skilled in dark-element magic. Even after transforming into a fairy through forbidden magic, his affinity remained unchanged.
「Five, seven, five. Bend and return, crushed, soaked. Sing as night deepens, the moon fades, and between here and there, stagnate and wither…」
Because I had taught him the spell structure, and with Color-san supplying magic power, he could now invoke a spell as complex as causality delay.
From his outstretched hand, a glittering powder, like luminescent scales, scattered into the air.
Unlike the black chains I manifest, these glimmers reflected Four Seasons-san’s own mental imagery through magic.
The moment the powder reached the Demon King’s body, the fairy king cried out.
「Sui-kun, I’ll borrow your magic… 『Shinkou Teitai (Retreat into the Deep Night)!』」
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