Editing Leviathan:Volume 5 Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 6===

"That took a lot of work but it's finally settled down at last..."

Hal muttered and picked up Solomon's ring.

The headache and exhaustion had passed and he was finally able to move at will. This was thanks to the Rune of the Twin Katana dispelling the ring's power.

Hal stared at the ring for a while&mdash;Then placed it on his right index finger again.

"Haruga-kun!?" "Haruomi!" "Senpai!?"

The three witches watching from the side&mdash;Orihime, Asya and Hazumi&mdash;all jumped in fright at the same time.

One could hardly blame them. After all, this ring was the culprit of the commotion just now. However, there was no denying that it was extremely useful as a tool. Sure enough, one would not want to waste it.

...Intending to deprive Hal of his mind and runes, the ring released magical power again.

The headache returned. However, since it was the second time, Hal was almost accustomed to the pain. Compared to the first time, it was easy to endure. More importantly&mdash;

Hal focused his mind on the palm of his right hand, instantly causing a cross-shaped seal to surface.

Empowered to banish evil and uphold justice, simply stated, it was the Rune of the Twin Katana with divine powers of exorcism. Shining with splendor in Hal's hand, it suppressed Solomon's curse.

"Juujouji was right. I'm similar in level to my predecessor, so I shouldn't lose that easily. Now, I've gotten a good feel for his ability."

"Even so, that was way too reckless..." Asya murmured with an expression of exasperation.

Hal shrugged and said, "I would never act recklessly without benefits. But this time, the outcome counts as okay."

Despite having put on Solomon's ring, he could not sense the hearts of "serpents" this time.

After all, he still had not mastered the ring's usage. It would be asking for too much at the current stage. Nevertheless, there were already parts that he could control according to his wishes...

Hal closed his eyes and imagined the Crimson Queen.

The image gradually appeared under his eyelids. It was the viewpoint from the queen's current perspective.

&mdash;The sky over Central Park in Manhattan.

&mdash;The intense aerial battle in progress against Red Hannibal.

&mdash;The golden ring serving as the queen's weapon, used like a frisbee to execute thrown attacks. Hannibal swung his dragonslaying spear in response to brush it away. The ring returned to the queen's hand again.

&mdash;Soon after, the Crimson Queen raised the golden ring to the sky.

&mdash;The ring began to emit an extremely unpleasant and dissonant noise, "nyyyaaaarrrllaaaaaathooooooottt……@@×●□◎△＋＝*￥！"

&mdash;Affected by this bizarre noise, Hannibal lost substantial speed.

&mdash;This was a technique of assured annihilation intrinsic to the Rune of the Ring. Nine runes of Ruruk Soun appeared in front of the ring held by the queen, signifying "I play the sound of the star of aggravation to disorient sentient minds."

&mdash;The red dragon king roared with excitement and delight, "Petty tricks!" The enemy's ferocity and annoying obstacles only served to heighten his amusement.

"Although your fight is all heated up, it's time for me to take back the queen..."

Closing his eyes, Hal muttered.

Immediately, a new development unfolded in the battle shown under his eyelids.

&mdash;The golden ring used as a weapon by the Crimson Queen suddenly vanished.

&mdash;Replacing it was a crimson bow that appeared in the queen's left hand along with an arrow of light in her right. She drew the bowstring and shot. At the same time as the shot, a new arrow appeared. The Crimson Queen kept firing in succession.

&mdash;The arrival of the bow and arrows caused Hannibal to go "Oh?" and narrow his eyes, deploying imperishable protection. The countless incoming arrows were all blocked by the pearly barrier.

"Judging from the situation, things should be fine for now..." Hal said softly and opened his eyes. He had wrested control of the queen back again just now.

"I plan on heading over to participate in the final showdown. Asya and Juujouji, why don't you take a break here?"

The intense battle so far had depleted Asya's pseudo-divinity and injured her heart.

Likewise, Orihime was unable to use pseudo-divinity anymore. Added to that was the fact that she had been quite reckless to perform a technique of assured annihilation requiring elite skills to control, thus utterly exhausting her mind and body. She was in no state for further fighting.

After hearing Hal's request, the childhood friend sighed.

"I got it... I'll listen to you this once to avoid getting in your way. However, I have a completely unrelated question."

"What is it?"

"Why were you and Orihime-san hugging together just now, Haruomi...?"

"!?"

Hal was rendered speechless by Asya's piercing question.

Speaking of which, his embrace with Orihime just now had apparently been witnessed. After unleashing the sun-shooting divine bow, Asya and Hazumi had asked the helicopter pilot to land on Manhattan Bridge, taking them to meet up with Hal directly. Thanks to them taking such action, the final scene of "Asya coming to the rescue!" was made possible.

Fortunately, the kissing scene was not witnessed&mdash;Hal panicked greatly inside.

Ahem. Orihime coughed lightly and said with a cheerful expression, "Asya-san, just now, Haruga-kun was transmitting magical power to help compensate for my inadequacies, which was why we had to press our bodies tightly together."

"R-Really?"

"Perhaps it looked like a bizarre act, but that would be a misunderstanding. We were simply carrying out an essential step for the sake of accomplishing the mission. I hope you won't misinterpret in a certain way, please."

Asya could only answer "I see" and nod after Orihime replied fluently.

Despite her doubts, she had no evidence to pursue the matter&mdash;That was the feeling. On the other hand, Hazumi was as pure as an angel and nodded honestly.

"Wow... Even that sort of thing is possible, Senpai!?"

"Yeah, I guess."

Hal refrained from speaking as much as possible and nodded.

He secretly made eye contact with Orihime. Having pulled through a crisis, the Japanese girl nodded to him with an accomplice's eyes. Without speaking, her expression and gaze seemed to read "it would be problematic if a romance within the team were to come to light, so we must maintain confidentiality..."

Finding Orihime's response reliable and feeling slightly guilty at the same time, Hal changed the subject.

"So that's that. It's time for me to&mdash;"

"Leave it to me, Senpai. Please, Minadzuki, lend your power to us!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Hazumi sang a song of summoning.

The emerald serpentine dragon leviathan&mdash;Minadzuki&mdash;materialized overhead.

This was their third attack wave they had kept in reserve until now. Although a bit uncertain on the aspect of combat strength, this was the final vassal whom Hal was able to entrust the power of dragonbane.

"Because I am your assistant, Senpai... Please allow me to follow you to the very end!"

Hazumi suppressed her unease at the impending battle against a dragon king and declared firmly.


Hinokagutsuchi's appearance as a dragon king in the past&mdash;The Crimson Queen.

By obtaining her heartmetal, Hal had taken a step further and claimed the queen's physical body. But so far, all he had been able to do was use it in a time-limited manner.

The bottleneck was the output of Hal's heart, i.e. heartmetal.

Hal's heart was unable to generate the massive magical power necessary for driving and sustaining a dragon king-class body. Reaching that level would probably be essential for conquering the Road to Kingship as Sophocles had said.

Expanding one's territory across the Earth and the universe, erecting numerous Monoliths that were akin to devices for generating magical power, extracting magical power from the ground like taxation&mdash;

If he were to follow this sequence, he would probably ascend to the dragon king throne like Princess Yukikaze or Hannibal.

But currently, the Crimson Queen under Hal's control still carried magical power rivaling Hannibal's despite her inability to match the strongest dragon king in direct combat.

All this was thanks to Solomon's ring and the Rune of the Ring.

Not too long ago, this instrument of magic control had absorbed the magical power of seventy-two serpent souls.

Together with the ring's own magical power and that produced by Hal's heart&mdash;Combining all these sources together, Hal just managed to cobble together enough power to match a dragon king-class enemy.

Hence, the Crimson Queen's physical body did not crumble like in previous battles.

"Although I'm still not sure how much this ring can do..."

While muttering, Hal silently spoke to his avatar.

''Please. Continue to draw Hannibal's attention like this.''

The Crimson Queen was currently looking down at Old Manhattan's skyscrapers from an altitude of seven hundred meters while engaging Red Hannibal in an aerial battle.

The two dragons were flying at almost the same height with roughly a kilometer separating them.

As one would expect, the one to attack first was the queen, equipped with long-range weaponry. Using the crimson bow, she fired consecutively, sending out arrows of light nonstop to produce a hail of projectiles. Even without using a technique of assured annihilation, this wave of attacks already matched the firepower of Akuro-Ou's full burst earlier.

Furthermore, this was a concentrated attack with Hannibal as the sole target.

In terms of damage potential alone, the queen's consecutive shots were probably more powerful.

"S-So amazing, Senpai!"

"I can't believe there's such a big gap between a dragon king and our leviathans huh..."

Hal observed the queen's archery skills while conversing quietly with Hazumi.

The two of them were currently at the Rockefeller Center in the heart of Old Manhattan, on the roof observation deck of the GE Building. The top floor of this seventy-story building used to be called the "Top of the Rock" due to its excellent and expansive view of New York's night scenery.

The two of them had been transported here by riding on Minadzuki's palm.

Although they were two kilometers away from the aerial battle, due to using Vision Amplification magic, they were able to clearly see the two dragons fighting intensely.

...The Crimson Queen kept using her prided archery to fire in rapid succession.

Conversely, Hannibal used a technique of assured annihilation. The runic arrangement of "O spear of mine, gather the northern star's power to advance with ferocity" appeared in front of him, blocking all of the incoming arrows.

Wielding the spear, the dragon king advanced forward slowly in this manner.

However, the queen also took countermeasures&mdash;the trajectory of the arrows curved.

All the arrows fired head on were blocked. However, the Crimson Queen proceeded to fire arrows along a curved trajectory to skillfully evade the runes of Ruruk Soun blocking in front. Arrows pierced into Hannibal's gigantic body one after another.

Like boomerangs, the numerous arrows turned back from behind despite missing the target.

These arrows attacked Hannibal's back, head and lower body.

The red dragon king defended using imperishable protection and yelled, "O shining spear of the northern star, offer to me a thousand spears!"

Then he released his weapon&mdash;the dragonslaying spear. The spear's shaft was pitch-black and was comparable in length to the dragon king's body that exceeded twenty meters.

Suddenly, a thousand spears completely identical to this weapon appeared in the surroundings.

In addition to being held in the hand for thrusting, spears could also be thrown as projectile weapons. Naturally, precise sniping like a bow and arrow was impossible, but if one were to deploy an infantry battalion to launch spears at the enemy all at once, there would be no need for aiming.

Hannibal's technique of assured annihilation replicated this type of attack.

Out of the one thousand spears in total, dozens flew at the Crimson Queen first. Naturally, the Crimson Queen deployed imperishable protection to defend but something unexpected happened.

Normally speaking, imperishable protection would be able to block enemy attacks and deflect them.

One would expect a similar result this time, but among the dozens of spears, a few pierced the protection guarding the queen!

"What!?"

Just as Hal was taken aback by surprise, another few dozen spears flew over.

Although the majority of this wave of spears were deflected, a few stabbed into the protection again. Then dozens of spears flew in again, leaving a few stuck in the barrier&mdash;This outcome repeated ten-odd times.

Over fifty spears were stabbed into the pearly shield defending the Crimson Queen.

Then Hal realized something. The queen's movements had turned rather sluggish, making the earlier nimble flying ability seem like a lie. Even when he silently commanded "fly" in his mind, the queen did not move.

There were dozens of dragonslaying spears stabbed into the imperishable protection.

Their combined weight was hindering the queen's flight.

"Come to think of it, the ancient Romans used a similar tactic..."

Killing was not the only purpose in the tactic of throwing spears.

Confronted with thrown spears, with sufficient luck, one could block using a shield. However, embedding a heavy spear into a shield would make it difficult to carry, rendering it unusable. Hence, the throwing of spears was also a method of weakening the enemy's combat strength.

"I remember the Chinese were the ones who listed the spear as the king of weapons... Uh&mdash;Gahhhhhh!"

"Senpai!?"

The damage inflicted upon imperishable protection resulted in a backlash against Hal's heart.

Stabbed by dozens of spears, there was quite a large burden of course. Seeing Hal groan in pain, Hazumi rushed to his side.

Ignoring Hal and Hazumi, the airborne Hannibal prepared to deliver a critical blow.

With a line of spears ready around him, he summoned a new dragonslaying spear to his hand.

"Well then... Tyrannos of the Bow, although I have enjoyed myself beyond expectation, it is time to liberate you."

The spear Hannibal had summoned this time was almost twice his height.

The red dragon king lifted this extra large spear to point forward horizontally, sending it flying straight at the immobilized queen. In addition, the runes of "O spear of mine, gather the northern star's power to advance with ferocity" were deployed in front to provide maximum thrust!

"I-I guess I have to risk everything on one gamble... Shirasaka, please summon Minadzuki!"

"Yes, Senpai. I am ready any time!"

"Huh?"

When Hal made his request while enduring his pain, Hazumi inexplicably came to his left side.

The adorable junior student was leaning her delicate body intimately against Haruga Haruomi&mdash;leaning herself against the male transfer student who was her senior.

"Sh-Shirasaka, what are you doing!?"

"? Because it was like this between you and Nee-sama just now... This will allow me to receive magical power from within you, right?"

"!?"

"If there are additional essential conditions, I am willing to do it, whatever it takes. I wish wholeheartedly to assist you, Senpai. Please make your request, no matter what!"

Indeed, that was how Orihime had explained to Hazumi and Asya earlier.

On further thought, they definitely needed powerful offense for the situation at hand. Although it was perfectly logical for the responsible junior to think "I need to do that too&mdash;" but to subject an angelic girl to such treatment would be truly...

Hal was hesitating this late in the game, but there was no time left!

"Sorry, Shirasaka. I'll kneel or do anything you want afterwards, but lend me your strength!"

While saying these words, Hal reached out with his right hand&mdash;and grabbed Hazumi's breast.

"Ehhhhh!?"

The innocent junior student was rendered speechless in alarm and surprise. Doing what he did as usual, Hal poured massive magical power into her heart.

"S-Senpai... Mm, mmmmmmmmmm&mdash;Senpai!"

Inexplicably alluring moans escaped Hazumi's lips as she looked tearfully at Hal.

Her breast, tracing out beautiful curves despite not being huge, was soft and just the right size to fit in one's palm. It must have been quite a shock for the innocent junior. However, apologies would have to wait until later.

"Shirasaka&mdash;Give orders to Minadzuki. Use the sun-shooting divine bow!"

"Y-Yes. S...Senpai, I-I am feeling very strange&mdash;Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!"

Hazumi hugged Hal tightly as though suppressing a scream.

It looked like she was enduring a violent impact that made it difficult for her to even remain standing. The obedient junior student emitted an unexpected cry, her mind seemingly at it limit.

At the same time, the crystal ball held in Minadzuki's right hand released extremely powerful white lightning.

The size of these lightning bolts rivaled Minadzuki herself, who had a body length of ten-odd meters. Furthermore, a total of eight lightning bolts were shot out at once.

The powerful lightning tore through the darkness of the night, soaring though the sky.

After blowing away Hannibal's barrier&mdash;the thousand spears&mdash;

The impact from the eight bolts of lightning finally halted Hannibal's advance. The paralysis caused by electrocution was apparently preventing him from moving his body freely.

"Nuu! Stop struggling in vain, Tyrannos!"

Once the lightning strikes were over, Hannibal sluggishly turned his body's direction.

He glared diagonally at Minadzuki below and slowly swung his right arm. It looked like he was planning to throw his dragonslaying spear at her emerald serpentine body.

The sluggishness was probably an aftereffect of the electrical attack. This was the crucial moment if one were going to decide the match.

"Queen, use the Rune of the Twin Katana!"
[[image:Leviathan 05 266.jpg|thumb]]

Responding to Hal's shout, the crimson bow and the arrow of light disappeared from the queen's arms.

Manifesting to take their place was a pair of divine swords, one large and one small. The Crimson Queen brandished the twin swords magnificently and cut down all the dozens of spears embedded on her imperishable protection like shackles.

Having regained her freedom, the queen charged at Hannibal.

Targeting the strongest dragon king who was restrained by Minadzuki's lightning strikes, if one of the two swords could take this opportunity to stab into the dragon's vital heartmetal&mdash;

However, Hannibal turned to intercept the queen boldly.

"Hahahahaha! I actually like you very much for struggling on the brink of death. Easy victories are too boring!"

The dragon king roared with laughter at this critical juncture while spewing blazing flames from his mouth.

A scorching blue-white conflagration. Even though it was neither magic nor a technique of assured annihilation, it was supernatural fire that had incinerated numerous human cities. Furthermore, these were explosive flames coming from within dragon king Hannibal's body.

Wielding the twin swords with the intent to execute slashing attacks, the Crimson Queen was engulfed by the flames completely.

For a minute or two, incinerated by blue-white flames&mdash;

"Wahhhhhhhh!"

"Senpai!? Please, Minadzuki, hurry and rescue Senpai and the queen!"

Due to the heat, Hal screamed as though his heart was being burned. Hazumi panicked and pleaded sorrowfully with her partner. However, it was too late.

Scorched by Hannibal's conflagration, the Crimson Queen finally crashed down.

The crimson body was scorched black all over. In human terms, it would be severe burns all over the body. No more strength remaining to continue the fight, Hal could sense that. All he could manage now was to de-materialize the queen before suffering a fatal blow.

The owner of the flames that had cremated the queen laughed proudly and casually spread his wings.

Next&mdash;In that very moment...

Supposed to have no remaining strength, the queen moved her left arm swiftly, throwing one of her twin swords.

It was the kodachi out of the pair. The sword shot out like an arrow, stabbing its blade into Hannibal's chest, right on top of the heartmetal&mdash;analogous to the location of the human heart.

"Wh...at?"

Hannibal looked in shock at the kodachi buried in his chest.

He never expected the queen to have the strength to strike back on the verge of death&mdash;He seemed surprised from the bottom of his heart. As a seasoned veteran of a dragon king, he should not be this careless. In truth, even Hal, the one controlling the queen, had thought that it was over.

"Was it Minadzuki...?"

Surprised, Hal muttered.

He suddenly noticed that seven runes of Ruruk Soun had manifested behind the winged serpentine dragon leviathan. They signified "healing hand."

Hal remembered it was during the battle against Princess Yukikaze when Genbu-Ou had used this healing magic&mdash;

In front of the surprised Hal and Hazumi, Hannibal began to crash down after the Crimson Queen.

As one would expect, the heartmetal was a dragon's most important organ and greatest vulnerability. It looked like even a dragon king could not overturn this fact&mdash;
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