Editing Leviathan:Volume 8 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 1===

Hal was standing in the middle of the space.

The abyss of the macrocosm lay in all directions around him. Entering Hal's view was not complete darkness but an ever-changing canopy of night, decorated by the glow of countless celestial objects.

"The secret archives of Ruruk Soun... The grimoire passed down generations of dragonkind."

He called out to the endless seas of stars.

...Actually, this was not the real cosmos. At this moment, Hal's body was meditating in a certain tower in the moon ruins.

This was an imagined world that he had entered through meditation.

Through a vision, Hal was reading the secret archives of Ruruk Soun&mdash;a grimoire that recorded dragonkind's mystic wisdom&mdash;which had become part of his consciousness.

In the past, his formidable rival Pavel Galad had also activated the secret archives of Ruruk Soun during battle.

The silver dragon had used it to practice back when he had yet to grow accustomed to the dragonslaying sword. Hence, this cosmos could be manipulated according to Haruga Haruomi's thoughts...

"Show me a more complete view, which will make it easier for me to find the treasure I want. Zooming out is fine."

The macrocosm suddenly shrank.

Countless stars gathered around Hal in succession. Ten-odd seconds later, a huge number of spiral galaxies appeared in front of Hal. This also included the solar system where Earthlings lived.

An intricate miniature model of the universe containing countless galaxies.

If one had to use mundane objects for an analogy, this magnificent entity was roughly the size of a classroom blackboard.

Hal focused his eyes. In the secret archives of Ruruk Soun, doing so would allow him to see fine details on a microscopic level.

He was trying to find the seventy-two celestial bodies that Hinokagutsuchi had told him about.

They included stars, planets and satellites.

Some had been discovered by humans while others remained unknown to this day.

After finding seventy-two celestial bodies scattered all over the universe and summoning them all at once...

"O stars constituting mystic power and knowledge, gather in my hand."

Dozens of stars, scattered all over the place, traversed tens of thousands of light years to gather in Hal's right hand, lining up neatly to form a circle. There were exactly seventy-two of them.

"This is a bit too many..."

Hal released magical power and compressed them.

The seventy-two stars were reduced to forty-two, which then turned into runes completely.

This was the moment when forty-two runes of Ruruk Soun&mdash;magical symbols very familiar to Hal nowadays&mdash;were born. By summoning this arrangement, he should be able to invoke a certain spell.

"Assuming Hinokagutsuchi didn't trick me." Hal sighed.

This secret technique was apparently invented by the self-styled devil, which meant that he would not know how to use it if he left it to the magic gun as usual.

The only way to learn this spell was for her to instruct him on the arrangement of runes.

"Anyway, this is my last lifeline..."

Hal muttered to himself and blinked.

The moment he opened his eyes, the cosmic abyss and mini-galaxies vanished. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor inside a room in the moon ruins used as a bedroom.

Phew. Just as Hal exhaled deeply and stood up...

Kyuaaaa&mdash;ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

"Rushalka?"

He heard a familiar voice.

Asya's partner, Blue Rushalka was flying towards him.

With her head extended towards Hal's window on the top floor, she kept flapping her wings, hovering midair like a hummingbird.

Rushalka was a wyvern with a body length of ten-odd meters.

Apart from the fact that she lacked forelimbs, she was quite similar to elite dragons in form and appearance.

The flapping of her wings alone was noisy enough. With every flap of her wing, Rushalka blew strong wind against Hal's face.

"What a racket..."

"I called her."

"What, so you're here too, Asya?"

Hearing his childhood friend's voice, Hal turned to face the source.

This window was over ten meters above ground. Nevertheless, Asya was outside the window.

She was hovering in the air&mdash;no, flying in the air.

Next to the gigantic face of the blue wyvern hovering in the air, Asya was flying in the sky.

"This is the Flight spell you learned yesterday, right? You've already mastered it completely."

"That's not all. Watch."

"A magic wand!?"

Unfazed by the sight of his childhood friend flying, Hal reacted with surprise this time.

A silver chain was wrapped around Asya's slender body with an arrowhead on one end serving as a counterweight.

The silver chain was like a living snake, clanging as it moved.

The counterweight on the chain's tip rubbed itself affectionately against Asya's face, like a snake playing with a snake charmer.

"You mastered the magic wand in just one day. You made that chain, right?"

"Yes. After all, I heard you explain what you did before."

"Amazing. You are very smart, or should I say, a genius."

It was only after Asya ended up in the same situation as him that Hal finally got a poignant sense of her natural talent.

However, the genius master-class witch, who used to be Europe's most powerful Shootdown Ace, frowned and said the following extremely coldly, "Learning synthesis magic on this level sooner isn't going to help much in tomorrow's battle."

"No no no. Just having a wand makes controlling magical power much easier."

"What's important is whether it has practical use in combat. I wouldn't be worried if it's just an ordinary elite dragon, but our opponent is Princess Yukikaze. Oh well, to me it's just consolation at this point."

"What are you so pessimistic?"

"Not really. Even though it's consolation, something is better than nothing. Because fighting dragons without any consolation would be way too difficult."

"Hahahaha."

Words of a brave and seasoned warrior, impressive as ever.

Before acquiring a dragonslaying rune, his childhood friend had fought armies of Raptors all over the world, as well as the occasional elite dragon. Precisely because of that, she was able to say this kind of thing so calmly.

"Putting that aside, Haruomi, Rushalka and I will go there again."

"Again? Didn't Juujouji just finish investigating the Rune of the Mother Dragon?"

"Yes, but that rune is a more important trump card than a magic wand. I want perfect preparations, and that includes checking one last time."

Asya not only had natural talent but also devoted herself to training and effort, never succumbing to pride and complacency.

The prudence exhibited by someone like her, fully worthy of the genius label, deeply impressed Hal.

Just then...

Clang clang clang!

Asya picked up her silver chain and swung it swiftly.

This small movement summoned the runes of Teleport on top of Rushalka's head. The blue wyvern and her partner instantly vanished.

Apparently, she had gone to look at the Plato crater, just as she had said she would.

"So she even learned that spell, huh...?"

He definitely could not match Asya in talent for magic. Hal was reminded of this fact again.

His childhood friend the genius witch, the Rune of the Mother Dragon, Juujouji and Akuro-Ou who had awakened the power of the Sun&mdash;and ''that'' particular arrangement as well.

Perhaps there really was a way to deal with Princess Yukikaze...?

"I hope so."

Hal hoped sincerely. There was less than twenty-four hours remaining until the duel with the princess was set to begin.

"Anyway, I have to continue with my preparations."

He was pretty much done with all the preparing that could be done indoors. Hal exited the stone tower through the window.