Editing Leviathan:Volume 8 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 6===

The Moon's distance from the Earth was 1.283 light seconds.

In other words, it only took around 1.3 seconds at light speed to reach the lunar world thirty-seven thousand kilometers away. Only after becoming a spirit-only being did Hal finally know this.

"So I can move at light speed in this state, huh..."

He was deeply impressed.

Hal's mind was currently hovering at an altitude of 400 kilometers.

The same height as the International Space Station's orbit. Looking down, one could see the blue Pacific Ocean and the islands of Japan, as well as the eastern part of the Eurasian landmass.

"Impressive as ever, this secret technique invented by a dragon king. My capabilities are so great that ordinary ghosts and astral bodies can't compare at all."

On further thought, Hal currently possessed a complete heartmetal.

This was his greatest difference from the ghost Hinokagutsuchi.

"It's not surprising for my abilities to be better than her, who had lost her heartmetal..."

Using the same principle as how witches performed spirit body separation, he flew up in the sky.

He arrived in space in less than a second. Speaking of which, someone once said that "thoughts" were actually electrical currents in the brain.

In that case, the speed of thoughts, i.e. electrical currents, ought to be quite close to light speed.

"That being said, I currently don't even have a brain."

Hal grumbled while thanking Hazumi and Luna in his heart.

Backed into a corner, he had finally recovered his energy and magical power thanks to those two girls' help. He did not know how he could thank them enough.

"Also Asya&mdash;"

He needed to thank her too. His childhood friend was still fighting alone.

Facing a true dragon king, she and Rushalka remained resolute. Right now, they happened to have restrained the princess and landed in Tokyo.

Judging by this situation, she should be able to hold out a bit longer.

He must make preparations for a minimum counterattack durign this time and hurry over to support Asya.

"Juujouji&mdash;"

Hal sent a magic eye to the Moon to check out the situation there.

From several hundred meters above, he looked down at the Plato crater. The magic symbol in the form of an infinity sign in the center of the crater was glowing golden.

The girl he loved was standing at the center of that glow.

Akuro-Ou, the white fox-wolf with a body length of ten-odd meters, was waiting by her side. As well as newborn life&mdash;

'Haruga-kun, you finally came.'

"Juujouji."

Orihime's thoughts were sent from the Moon.

In a short amount of time, Juujouji Orihime had obtained what witches would consider valuable experience. Just now, she had used the rune connection to sense Hal's position and transmit her thoughts to Earth.

'I was really worried if you were truly gone this time.'

"I'm sorry. My body ended up falling completely apart."

'Evidently... You're capable of anything, and I don't know whether I should be relieved or worried about that.'

"Hahahaha."

Incredibly, simply receiving thoughts from the girl he loved made Hal feel as though his heart had been filled.

The key to recovering dragon kings and Tyrannoi who had strayed too far from human was probably this kind of fulfillment. Hal sincerely hoped he could turn back into a normal human as soon as possible.

However, he had to go save Asya first, and settle the match with Princess Yukikaze too.

Orihime had already prepared his trump card for him.

"Say, you really did it spectacularly."

Using the blessing obtained from the Rune of the Mother Dragon, Orihime had created a gigantic beast&mdash;

Still a dragon. Its body was a size bigger than Akuro-Ou, shining golden all over, gold with a faint tint of red.

A special radiance akin to the sun's own light.

However, this gold dragon's exterior was quite familiar to Hal. Except for the difference in color, it looked identical to the Crimson Queen.

'I based it on you and Kagutsuchi-san. Last time, didn't you two help me to create Akuro-Ou? I was wondering whether I could accomplish the same by borrowing help from the Rune of the Mother Dragon.'

"So you tried it."

'Yes. And in Sentai shows on Sunday mornings, whenever combining robots get destroyed, a new model always appears to turn crisis into opportunity.'

Orihime's thoughts were clearly filled with joy.

'We can use times like these for an upgrade event!'

"Those who enjoy hero stories tend to have pure and simple thoughts, it's nice. Thanks to you, I can do a return match straight away. But&mdash;"

Hal transmitted his thoughts from low Earth orbit to the Moon thirty thousand kilometers away.

Feeling that the other side was right in front of him, he grumbled emotionally.

"I totally have no idea how to beat Princess Yukikaze..."

'What does it matter?'

"Huh?"

'Sometimes you will come up with a plan halfway through, right? The more desperate you are, the more you'll rack your brain, which should allow you to devise tactics that you never thought of before.'

"That sounds very much like twisted logic, but it seems to make sense."

Haruga Haruomi was most likely the type that tended to over think.

Thorough preparations had brought him earlier successes, but he knew a long time ago that petty tricks were completely useless against Princess Yukikaze, a real dragon king.

Wing it. Take the plunge. Leave it to fate. Things will work out somehow.

Hal commanded himself to abandon the small-minded concept of "take responsibility for your own actions" and forced himself to emulate a man of grandeur.

He looked down at the blue planet that occupied his entire field of view.

When looking at the Earth from the Moon, the scale felt like "a blue ball far away" but Hal's current position was only four hundred<!--text says forty, but that's inconsistent with previous text--> thousand meters from the Earth, that ''near''.

The planet that nurtured life was astoundingly large.

Confronted with a view that would change even an astronaut's outlook on life, Hal thought to himself.

''Given how huge the Earth is, I suppose a more destructive battle wouldn't be a problem, right?''

"I will follow your spirit and take the simple and obvious path. Lend me your power."

Hal used summoning magic while speaking.

This was a spell that elite dragons used to summon Raptors.

Next to Hal's spiritual form, a large number of glowing particles of light appeared, then materialized into the girl he missed very much.

"I waited so long for you, Haruga-kun!"

"Juujouji!"

Dressed in a school uniform, completely incongruent with the environment of space, Juujouji Orihime was smiling.
[[image:Leviathan 08 214.jpg|thumb]]

Undoubtedly the happiest smile in the whole world. Responding to Hal's summon, she had teleported here from the Moon.

Kuohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Akuro-Ou, the nine-tailed leviathan that had been born by Hal's hand, also materialized.

Furthermore, the white fox-wolf performed a deft somersault as soon as she appeared. Graceful and agile.

The gold dragon that had been born for the sake of this decisive battle also appeared&mdash;

"What should we call this child?"

"No time to ponder, let's just call her the Imitation. The Golden Imitation. She is my avatar, so this kind of knock-off name is a pretty good match."

The dragon created for Hal alone.

However, though the giant golden body looked quite sacred, the Imitation had no vitality in her eyes.

There was no soul in her body. Deciding it was time to let his golden avatar awaken, Hal materialized the Queen's heartmetal he had obtained from Minadzuki earlier.

The red metallic orb was sucked into the Imitiation's chest, merging with her.

The Imitation's hollow eyes began to glow while the entire body started releasing red magical power.